My Home Management Schedule

This post is an effort to keep from eating the ice cream in the fridge. Why am I always so tempted to eat that stuff in the afternoon when Ben is gone? I hate my life.

Okay, so I'm going to write about my Home Management Schedule ... at least what I think it will be and what it has been for the past ... um, week. If you are a new mom and are struggling with juggling children, housework and feeling like you are a complete failure I would highly recommend this book it was such an encouragement to me and gave me some useful tools to help me organize my housewifery. (I kind of like that word).

I am an ADD housecleaner. Let's just call it that. Either my whole house is clean or it's a wreck. Or Ben will come home to about a dozen half-done chores. He would kind of poke fun at me for it for the first few years of marriage. I like to give the excuse that I'm a creative person and if there is a box I WILL automatically paint outside of it. The only problem is that if I stay in this mode I am being completely inefficient. I will be in the middle of folding the laundry and look over and see that I need to put the dishes in the sink into the dishwasher. In my ADD state of mind I will walk over and finish the dishes, then probably wipe the counter and then go back to doing the laundry. Am I crazy or what?!

So I am learning to focus.

This is not always possible when sometimes you have to drop everything in order to go get a baby who has just awoken or when a two year old is doing something he shouldn't. These interruptions make me want to give up all together and say, why try? But that is dramatic. And childish. Things might take me longer but it doesn't mean I can't at least try.

So the goal is focused intensity.

This is my Home Management Schedule ... I am currently trying. This week worked pretty well.

Monday: Office Day (do grocery lists, clip coupons, plan meals, work on emails, set up the week's schedule)
Tuesday: Town Day (run errands, go to the grocery store, coupons are already clipped and list is already made so I just have to review the list and walk out the door with two small children)
Wednesday: Kitchen Day (do big kitchen chores like clean out the fridge, wipe the cabinets, also do food prep such as cooking chicken for freezer or prepping veggie burgers, or making pesto for a later dinner)
Thursday: Laundry Day (do laundry. all. stinking. day). ::sidebar here:: I don't really like saving the laundry, so I will do a load or two on Office Day and another load or two on Kitchen Day just so I don't feel like I'm drowning in laundry.
Friday: Cleaning Day (vacuum, sweep, clean windows, etc)
Saturday: Rest Day (have fun with family!)
Sunday: Serve At Church Day/Worship Day (Sunday as a day of rest is often a joke to me, so I like to think that it is just a day to intensely worship God, gather with other believers and serve).

Other things we will be doing this fall:
Tuesdays we will meet with a mom group at church from11-1. I'm planning on doing grocery shopping as soon as Aria and Levi are up maybe about 7:30 or 8, she will go down for a nap around 9 or 9:30 and then when she wakes up (fingers crossed) at 10:30 we will head out the door for the group.
Wednesdays I'm going to teach a piano lesson around noon.
Thursday mornings I will go to a friend's house for breakfast with some other moms.

I'm praying this all works out. It works in my head but I wonder if we will burn out from exhaustion or if it will be too much or not enough. I would really like to bring in a little extra income for the family with a few more lessons, but I think if I were to try to fit them in it would have to be Monday or Friday.

I feel like I am always trying to find the line between too busy and not doing enough.

Holy Spirit, please show me the way. Help me to see what is healthy for my family.