Creating a New Schedule
Creating a New Daily Schedule
So a few weeks ago I spent a few days working on my schedule. Some of you may have seen my Instagram post about my “planning day that turned into a planning week.” Over the last few months we had fallen into a pretty laid back routine around our house and I was feeling like it was time to take things more seriously.
After having suffered an intense burn out, I very much needed a slower pace, more rest, less stress, and more fun. And that was okay. Because that’s what I needed to heal my mind, body, and soul.
By the end of August, as we began our 17th year of homeschooling, I knew in my heart I was ready to have more structure in our day. But I also knew it was important that I allow down time in our day so that I didn’t go right back into the same pit I had just crawled from.
Having margin in your life – a place to breathe, relax, renew, just do whatever you feel like doing is so important! A couple of years ago I began setting boundaries and allowing myself to tell people “no” when they asked me to do something or wanted me to volunteer for a project. It’s not that I never say yes – it’s just that I am much more aware now of my calling – my purpose – what God has for me to do. I don’t feel like I need to have my hand in every church ministry, every project, every event. I understand my priorities.
[Tweet “Having margin in your life – a place to breathe and be – is so important!”]
I’m saying yes to what’s most important: my home and my family.
In the past I would schedule our days out in 15 minute increments. Maybe some of you are uber-organized and super time managers. Me? I need space to just be. That’s really my personality. I’m a creative, go with the flow type of girl.
But I do like routine. In fact, I crave routine. When every day or week is unpredictable and different, I get stressed and feel overwhelmed. I need the rhythm of routine. Hence why I sat down recently and redid my schedule.
[Tweet “I’m saying yes to what’s most important: my home and my family. “]
You’ll notice in the picture above that there are a number of blank spaces. That means if I feel like it I can take a nap. Or do the laundry. Or wash dishes. Or play a game with my kids. Or write a blog post. I can do whatever I want. After all, this is my life. I might as well enjoy it!
And guess what? If we get off “schedule” and supper ends up being an hour late… it’s really not the end of the world. Life will go on. I will be okay.
You’ll also notice that I used the same “This is My Life” Planner that I’ve been using all year. I had already filled out the page for My Daily Schedule so I just went and printed out a new copy of the “My Daily Schedule” page, cut out the schedule part and pasted it over the original. I’ll be printing out my 2015 This is My Life Planner in a few weeks, so this was an easy way to get me through until the end of the year.
[Tweet “”This is My Life” Planner is the ULTIMATE planner for busy moms! I know you’ll love it!”]
I printed out a second copy of My Daily Schedule and laminated it. I posted the laminated copy in my kitchen “Command Center” along with the kids schedules and chore charts. I’ll be sharing about my Command Center soon, so stay tuned!
My Daily {Monday – Friday} Schedule
So, I’m sharing my current schedule/ routine with you. It’s different from the routine I used when my children were still very young – which, by the way, worked really well for me.
I did not include everything I do every day in this schedule. I did that on purpose. You see, I wanted a guideline to follow. I am master of my schedule – the schedule is not the master of me. Here’s my schedule:
5:00 am – Wake Up. Prayer Time
6:00 am – Shower. Get Dressed. Wake Kids. Cook Breakfast.
7:00 am – Eat Breakfast. Family Worship at Table.
8:00 am – Dishes. Laura {11 yo} washes breakfast dishes. Morning Chores.
9:00 am – 11:59 am – School Time. Nature Study. Laura practices violin.
12:00 pm – Eat Lunch. Hannah {13 yo} does the lunch dishes.
1:00 pm – School time until completed. Put away school supplies.
4:00 pm – Supper preparations. Afternoon Chores.
5:00 pm – Eat Supper. Sarah {20 yo} and Emily {18 yo} do the supper dishes.
6:00 pm – Family Worship. Free time.
8:30 pm – Straighten House.
9:00 pm – Bedtime for Kids.
10:00 pm – Bedtime for Mom.
A Week in My Reality
Pretty simple right? Okay, so here’s what a week looks like in our house.
On Sundays we are typically home all day. This is the one day of the week that we sleep in until maybe 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning – if we feel like it. Sometimes I don’t feel like it. But if we need extra sleep, now’s the time to get it! I then cook breakfast/ brunch in the middle of the morning. We typically only eat two meals on Sunday – brunch around 10:00 am and an early supper around 4:00 pm. If the kids are hungry before bed they can have fruit or popcorn. Sundays are also the day we frequently have family over for dinner or cook-out. We routinely have 15 or more family members over to eat.
Sunday is usually my planning day for the week. I plan my menu, make notes of things I need to do during the week, etc. I use my copy of “This is My Life” Planner {available in the bookstore} and I can’t tell you how much that helps me out during the week! In fact, those weeks when I didn’t find time to plan my menu… well, as much as I like to cook {and eat} often I end up frantically trying to come up with something at the last minute which is no fun!
On Mondays we are gone all day. I either pack our lunch boxes on Sunday evening or get up early on Monday and get them packed before we leave. We usually leave by 8:45 am and drive 2 1/2 hours to Knoxville so that my daughter Hannah can ice skate. If I have some shopping I need to get done, we’ll get up extra early and try to leave by 6:00 or 7:00 so I have a couple of hours to shop before she needs to be at the ice rink at 12:00 pm. I then coach her and she practices her heart out for 5 hours almost non-stop.
We bring our school books with us and Hannah does a couple of lessons during her breaks here and there and Laura will do her school work for the day. Sometimes Laura brings her violin and Emily will bring her art and her guitar.
At 5:45 she has her Stroking class until 6:30 when her Freestyle class starts. At 7:00 pm she has her private lesson. Usually by 8:00 pm we are loading the car to drive the 2 1/2 hours back home and go straight to bed.
Tuesdays are busy, too. We get up and start off with our regular schedule {see above} but Laura immediately begins practicing her violin and voice after breakfast. We take Sarah out to the college here in town at 8:45 and Emily goes to piano and guitar lessons at 9:15. Laura goes to violin and voice lessons at 10:15 and gets picked up at 11:15. Sarah gets picked up at 12:00 pm. On Tuesdays, if I need to stop at Wal-Mart or another store in town, I usually do that when I pick up Sarah.
While Laura is at music lessons, Hannah catches up on her lessons from Monday. And then after lunch we do Tuesdays lessons.
Depending on the week, and whatever else is going on, that’s when we go get a load of hay for the horses and take out their feed for the week. Tuesday evenings at 6:30 pm we have youth meetings at the church.
Wednesdays. I love Wednesdays because I’m usually home all day and we follow our routine better. Sarah goes to classes every morning, but most of the time, as long as my husband is in town, he’s the one that takes her and picks her up. So, I still get to stay home. Everyone has their “morning chore” assignments and “afternoon chore” assignments. You can find my daily chores and weekly chores in the weekly planning section of “This is My Life” Planners.
We do have prayer meeting at church on Wednesday evenings, so we are gone for an hour or two for that. My husband is a district pastor and church does keep up quite busy! We often have seminars, evangelism meetings, etc. that I need to attend in the evenings – sometimes for several days in a row.
Thursdays and Fridays are the same as Wednesdays. I’m generally home – unless I need to go out and take care of the horses, have vet appointments for the cats, dogs, or horses, dentist or orthodontist appointments which do come up every month {or other things}.
These are the days when I really work on A Virtuous Woman. Well, honestly, I work on A Virtuous Woman off and on most days, but Mondays I can only pop in and Tuesdays can be difficult. Running A Virtuous Woman is a full time job and I work roughly 40 hours a week.
For those of you who are bloggers – you know how much work running a successful blog is! I have to be organized about my time, tasks, and my writing. Since I’m not able to sit down and write everyday of the week – and I try to post new articles 5 to 6 times a week – I have to do my writing done over one or two days during the week and schedule out my posts to be published when I want them published. And there are weeks when I’m only able to get out 3 new posts – like this week.
Honestly, there are weeks when I’m not able to get in enough writing time and I have to really work to catch up. There are a lot of nights when I am up really late into the night working on posts, creating images, or answering emails.
Friday afternoons we work to catch up on any housework that wasn’t done during the week in preparation for Sabbath.
Saturday is our Sabbath. We wake up, get ready for church, and head out the door. We have potluck every week and we’re usually gone until late afternoon or into the evening. If we are home earlier on Sabbath, we’ll usually take a walk or go for a hike or play a Bible game. Saturday nights we’ll come home and play games or watch a movie after Sabbath is over.
Enjoy the Journey
I’ve learned to enjoy the journey of life. I don’t need to fill every moment with busy-ness. I take time to enjoy my kids more, enjoy my home more, enjoy my life more and not worry about things that don’t really matter in the long run.
[Tweet “It’s good to take time throughout the year and evaluate where you are at emotionally, physically, and spiritually. “]
It’s good to take time throughout the year and evaluate where you are at emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Take time to determine where you are going, where you want to be, who you want to be and what you can do to make positive changes so you are headed in the “life direction” you want to be heading.
It’s okay to decide that your current schedule no longer works or makes you happy and create a new one! If you need more margin in you life – room to breathe and be – work that into your schedule like I did. I’m so much happier. I’ve been set free!
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