I wrote this almost exactly a year ago. I decided to edit it to reflect this year's schedule, and repost it since I am feeling overwhelmed again.
Is it just me, or are there other people who would like to step off of the crazy carousel ride that we seem so eager to get onto at first? I will say that my children do not join every club, team, or sport that comes down the pike. But there are 5 of them, so any little thing that they do is magnified 5-fold. So here is what a typical week looks like at our house:
Sunday- Church. Always 5- 10 minutes late. I hate to be late especially to church. It seems irreverent.
Monday-
6:30 am Get Jesse going
7am Kiss Jesse goodbye kiss Sebastian goodbye
Read- preferably my Bible, though admittedly not often enough
7:30 Shower, dress, drink coffee
8 am Get Caleb, Libby, and Abby going
8:45 Kiss Caleb, Libby, and Abby goodbye get Jonah going drink coffee
9 am Pick Jesse up from the midle school. He goes in for a 1st period PE class.
9:15 am Talk to Andreena. This is a standing Mon. morning phone date.
9:30- 3 pm Clean house. This whole day is devoted to sort, wash, dry, fold laundry. When
the kids get home they must put it away.
Drink coffee
3:30-4 Snack
4-5 pm Homework
5-6 pm Make dinner
6-6:10 Devour dinner
6:10- 7 Clean the kitchen
7-8 pm Baths and reading
8-8:30 Prayers, kisses, much stalling
8:30-11pm I hide in my office and blog or I watch a movie
11ish Drop into bed exhausted.
Tuesday-
Much the same until 8:45 am
8:45 am Load Jonah up, pick up Jesse, and go to Mops until about noon.
12:30 Lunch and get Jesse going on his lessons
3:30 See above
5:40 Take Jesse to catch the shuttle for youth group.
6:15 Take the younger kids to AWANA
7pm- 8:00 Catch up on any office work I have missed or any remaining house work.
8:00 Pick Jesse up from the shuttle and then pick up the other kids from AWANA
8:45 Return with wired kids
8:50-9:00 Eat a piece of fruit or some crackers and get your butts in bed! Oh yeah, I love you. Wednesday-
Same thing as Monday except school starts an hour and twenty minutes late every
Wednesday so I skip the kiss Sebastian goodbye thing.
Thursday-
Same as Monday am routine until 8:45
8:45 Take JoJo to daycare. Jesse goes to his "school" day. He is on campus with the other
HS kids registered with the district. Work until the kids come home from school.
2:00 Pick up Jesse, keep working until 3:30
4:30 Dress the girls for ballet.
5:00 Pick Up Jonah.
5:30 Drop the girls off at ballet, go home, fix dinner.
6:30 Pick girls up, go home, eat.
Friday-
Same morning. Some time during the day I go grocery shopping.
I also strip and remake the beds (This is the only time during the week that I make
my kid's beds. The rest of the week it is up to them- or not. I don't care.)
wash, dry fold, put away bedding.
Same evening. Sometimes we go out on Fri night to play and stay up until really late.
This is also the day the video games come out and they get to stay out until Sun
night- absolutely no video games before church.
Saturday-
Do the "BIG" clean. AKA all the kids' junk gets put away by the kids so that I can
clean easier on Mon. Then play all day. No schedule.
I feel like we are extremely busy all the time. I will admit, though, that unless I am in my office I am not very productive. Aside from all the time I spend chasing Jonah around making him clean things like all the soap he has pumped into the sink, or all the paper he has pulled out of my shredder bin, or all the cards he has spread all over the living room, or all the crayons that he has... I know I spend a lot of time puttering. Not really getting anything done- but busy none the less.
Does any one have a large family and tips for me- especially about how to change my time so that it is more productive and I can be more prepared for when the buzz of kids is all around me? Please let me know.
8 comments:
Thanks for stopping by today!
You certainly do seem busy - but having five kids will do that for you! I only have two kids and there is still a lot of noise and mess. One thing we do is that we do not let them watch tv or do something else they really want to do until they have picked up all the toys off the living room floor.
LOL at your times - eat dinner between 6 adn 6.10. Then spend 50 minutes clearing up. I hear you on this one!
I think we live parallel lives...we have the same video game rule, too. Makes it easy-no questions asked during the week, and no video games on Sunday til after Church!
When you write it all down like that, it can be overwhelming can't it?
When do you get to nap?
I just have the two girls...but I feel like I am always running. And then when you add something like car trouble into the picture...things can nose dive really quickly.
We also do the electronics ban. They come out on Friday after school and are there until they go to bed on Sunday. And what's really cool is that they are not completely mesmerized by them the entire weekend.
You just made me tired. Wait, I was already tired. Darn you.
Kidding. Kind of. Maybe.
Thanks for stopping by (and commenting!) on my BATW day!
Good luck with that schedule thing. Man!
Dude .. I wrote a lot in this comment box .. I hit publish .. then I left.
Only to comment on another post, and realize that blogger had kicked me off and wanted me to sign in. Which I didn't do for the comment over here.
So now it's gone, gone, gone.
As is my memory of what I said.
I think it went something like:
Mom's of lot's of kids rock.
You have a lot on your plate.
I'm impressed by how well you've scheduled everything.
I have seven sibs, and your bringing me back to my childhood ;o)
And lastly, I have no tips. Since I only have two babies, and manage to forget most of what I schedule.
Which kind of renders this comment useless, hm? ;o)
Gina...you are organized and you do have it all together...you just laid out your week for us and made me ready for a nap. Having said that, I only have two and I feel this way. I just feel like I am never ahead of the curve. If I let laundry go or if I don't clean the house, it just makes things twice as bad when I do have to do it. I have decided that I just need to be more disciplined with my daily life...as if I were going to a job. That is the ony way I am going to be able to stay on task and get anything done. Give yourself a break, too...You are doing a fabulous job with your kids.
Post a Comment