Organization Week, Day 1

Well we started out with a bang yesterday. Coop spent Sunday night with some of his cousins, so that left me with only the younger two, and they aren't nearly as chatty. Sweet A plays well by herself, so except for having slight colds that made them a little fussy, they were not much trouble.

I sat down with a cup of coffee and a stack of post-it-notes and got to work around 8:30am to tackle The Family Schedule. On one hand, we don't really need an exact daily schedule. We have no strict demands on us, no deadlines, no 180 school days to record. But I'm finding more and more that there are so many good things I want to fit into my weeks, and not just the fun projects like sewing and crafting. I want to have consistent blanket training with Baby T, one-on-one time with each of the kids, fun preschool with Coop, get all my housework done before WH comes home, and on top of that try to save money on groceries and eat as fresh and organic as I can (just to name a few). Oh, and I'm still exclusively nursing Baby T (maybe I'll blog about that another time, maybe not) so that is consuming a chunk of time as well. If we have a schedule or a general idea of how our days should go, we work better and if we derail at 11am at least we know what we didn't get accomplished that day. I'm thinking of this year as our trial year before school starts. Anyway, I highly recommend the following book. It's been around for a while and many people already know about it and know much more than I do on the subject of home organization.

It is not the end all of organization books, but it is a very practical approach to organizing your life, and it's not just for homeschoolers. I've come up with many of these schedules for other families and my own when I was helping homeschool my siblings. There is no perfect solution to the fact that there is a lot of work to be squeezed into one day. You can not plan for interruptions, needs, ministry crises, etc., but I think there is benefit for having something as your aim. Organization does seem to help me accomplish my work with more joy. If I know that later on in the week I will get to the vacuuming, or the fun sewing, or the toy organization, than I don't worry about not getting to it today.

Her book is full of helpful hints, but here's the premise: Write down a list of everything you want to accomplish in a day/week/month. Write each activity on a seperate post-it-note, and then include how much time you think that activity will take. I did the same thing for each activity I wanted to do with the children, each chore I wanted them to learn, etc. Then I listed 30 minute time slots down the side of several pieces of paper, from the time I wanted to wake up until I went to bed, like so:


I also made a separate list of things I'd like to do during naptime and my free time at night so I could make a little space for each of those things.


When it was all arranged I typed it onto a spreadsheet and put it on the refrigerator. I admit I was surprised to find how much time it would take me just to do all the "main" things like feed people and clean up, and get the regular housework accomplished. I know that will get better as the children are more helpful, but right now, I'm really the only one producing (at home) during the day. Someone once said that children create work until they are about 8 yrs. old, they are neutral from 8-12 yrs., and they are actually producingl from 12 yrs. on. I am hopeful because I feel like Coop is already somewhat helpful, although he certainly creates more work than he accomplishes (as it should be). :)

Making the schedule took several hours, and I'm sure once we are fully implementing it we will find things we need to change. For instance, I realized this morning that I have no time to do my hair or make-up. That's fine for the days we stay here, but those other days we'll have to squeeze it in. Baby T will get older and drop a nap and that will also change the way our days look. But life is always changing, and there is no "master schedule" so if we can find something that is helpful for a season, great. Flexibility seems to be the key. I'm working on it.

Speaking of flexibility, Organization Week, Day 2 has been derailed by the Common Cold. I am now one of its captives and if I am released any time soon perhaps I will file some papers and organize my recipes.