Morning Routine

This past week was spent trying to get back into the daily routine. Having Steve and the kids home, Christmas, doing fun things was all great but now everyone is back to work and school.

My concentration has been on re-establishing my morning routine. My morning routine consists of:

Making the bed
Shower
Devotional time
Swish/Swipe bathrooms
Unload dishwasher
Reload dishwasher (if dishes were left from the previous night-has been happening way
too much!)
Get laundry going ( I do two loads a day)
Help Emily get dressed
Some dinner prep if needed
Go over to-do list
Do a 2 minute Hot Spot cleanup (per FlyLady)
Oh yeah, I eat breakfast somewhere in there!

If I can finish all that by 10:00 AM, I'm doing pretty well. That sets the tone for the rest of the day. Then I can get to the detailed cleaning items. I wish I could have most of it done prior to that, but it seems like the earlier I get up, Emily wakes up just as early. Plus, I have to make sure that laziness doesn't creep in. I can easily get distracted with the computer, a book, the newspaper, just about anything. It pretty much is a constant thinking on my part to say "yes" to the Lord's will for me - doing my duties. I recently ran across a quote from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. It said:

The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God,
secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.

Holly Pierlot talks about that idea in her book, A Mother's Rule of Life. That's why I really like her book and would recommend it to anyone who's looking for meaning in doing their daily duties.

I think I got off on a tangent. Back to what I had been saying, I can get easily distracted from what I should be doing. So, for me, trying to get my morning routine down pat does a long way in getting much more done throughout the day!

Emily has been learning to be my helper. She helps me unload the dishwasher, load and unload the washing machine/dryer, and helps make the beds. I hope to train her better than I did with Kathryn and Ryan in doing chores.

This is planning to be a busy weekend. I'm taking Ryan to go shopping for a birthday present for a little friend of his. Tomorrow is the birthday party. He also has a baseball tryout tomorrow. I don't know why 6 year olds have to try out but that's the way it's done in this league. Also, Kathryn and Ryan's school is participating in a basketball tournament so everyone has been encouraged to attend and show school spirit. We like to show spirit so we'll be going.

If I have time (hahaha), I have some movies that I rented that I'd like to watch. One is St. Rita. I rented this from the church library and it looks good. I don't know about St. Rita, so it will be nice to see what's she's all about. My other movie is Eight Below. I must have heard something good about it at one time because I had it on my Netflix queue forever. Now that I'm reading the description about it, I don't know if I'll make it through the movie! It says that some Antarctic scientists have to leave their sled dogs behind amid a cruel winter to fend for themselves. I have a feeling I'll be crying and feeling so sad for these dogs! We'll see if I can watch it.

Well, for someone who doesn't have much time, I'd better end this post and get going!

Making Your Home a Haven - Day 3

I wasn't able to join in yesterday's challenge, but I will try again today. Obviously it can be a little difficult to do what you intend when you have a little one at home and some unexpected things occur.

Schedule:

Refresh my spirit.
Morning routine
To do list
1) 15 minutes decluttering master bedroom
2) Organize DVD's that are all over the house. Place them back where they go.
3) Order some Christmas gifts on-line
Dinner prep in AM
Spend 15 minutes cleaning laundry room.
Catch up on laundry.

So, that's the plan.

Making Your Home a Haven Challenge

Yeesh!! My house is a mess right now. So it's the perfect time to join in Crystal's Making Your Home a Haven Challenge. She has listed some areas to concentrate on and will focus on something different each day. You can find out more information about it here at her site, Biblical Womanhood.

First, we need to refresh our spirits in the morning. I will do my Daily Offering and the Scripture readings for the day.

Next is establishing your morning routine. My five things are:

1. Make the bed.

2. Swish and swipe the bathrooms.

3. Shine the kitchen sink, which means do the dishes that were sitting there since last night. YUCK!

4. Load of laundry.

5. Review menu for the day.

Next is the assignment for the day. I'm supposed to survey what the entryway looks like and take some time to spruce it up.

So, here I go. Time to get started!

Summer Academic Aspirations

I've been thinking about what I want to do with the kids during the summer to keep them fresh academic wise. Of course I want them to enjoy their summer vacation, but I also want them to be a little prepared for when September (or August in our case) rolls around. Here are my tentative plans:

Kathryn (entering 4th grade) - Work in Summer Bridge Activities. This book covers reading, writing, math and language skills. Write 6 book reports. Write a journal entry everyday.

Ryan (entering Kindergarten) - Practice letter and number writing. Practice reading with beginning readers.

Emily (barely turning 3 this coming Thursday) - Letter and number recognition. Simple shapes and basic colors.

I hope I can accomplish this. I also need to think about an overall schedule so that this can happen. I haven't been good about this in the past but I really want to try. If I can overcome my desire to want to do what I want instead of what I should do, then it will happen.