it's time

I've been thinking a lot about time management lately. As a teacher, my days were planned out weeks ahead of time. My time and my classroom were so well organized, I look at my life now and I think what happened to that? While I am so blessed to be home with my kids every day and am amazingly thankful that I have the desire and the ability to do that, I many times feel like my days are just a blur of nothing. I feel so busy, like my days are crammed full... but crammed full of nothing. How can I feel so overwhelmed and yet so bored and restless so often at the same time? It's been on my mind a lot that I'm probably not being the best steward of the time that the Lord's given me with my kids and making our family a home.

I came across this quote the other day that really hit home.
"We say we waste time, but that is impossible. What we really mean is we waste ourselves."
-Alice Bloch

So I just thought I'd share a little progress going on around here. Maybe it's the change of seasons, maybe it's the start of school, maybe it's getting settled in and feeling at home here... but whatever it is, I'm pretty happy with the way things are working around here lately.

I've been sticking to a new schedule...

• Mondays are kind of recovering from the weekend (some people spend Saturdays cleaning... we tend to let things go all weekend. Our house can be absolutely spotless on Friday evening and then look like a tornado hit by Sunday night.); general picking up plus vacuuming and dusting.
• Tuesdays don't really have an assignment yet, as we have dance class in the AM and preschool in the PM.
• Wednesdays are laundry day. Including all the bed sheets.
• Thursdays are Project days where the kids and I spend the morning doing, baking, making or creating something fun together.
• Fridays are another general pick-up day, making sure we start off the weekend with a tidy house, along with more vacuuming as well as mopping the kitchen floor.

Jobs like cleaning the bathrooms and washing windows and stuff will happen as needed on one of the cleaning days.

Everyday things like making beds and the kids keeping their rooms (and playroom) neat and clothes put away, as well as me and my dishes, are happening on a more regular basis and we're getting into good habits of keeping up on that. I've been making a point of cleaning up the kitchen while the kids eat lunch and things like that.

For many of you, you may think, um, duh... that's just common sense, isn't that the way you keep house? But for me, no. I'm the type of person who makes a mess and walks away. After the effort of making a meal or doing a project or finding clothes that make up the right outfit... I don't want to deal with the mess. I'd rather get on with what I want to do next, and attack the mess later. When I have to. I'm the type of person who doesn't just clean up the kitchen after lunch. I do the dishes when there is no more room in the sink or on the counter. I do laundry when I'm out of clean underwear. I vacuum when I would be embarrassed to have someone see my carpet. I mop the floor when I'm sticking to it.

The last few weeks though, I've been making a point of being on top of things. The kitchen is more often than not, really clean. I've even been Swiffer Wet-Jetting the floor pretty much every day (thanks Sawyer) and vacuuming twice a week (yes, mostly because Sawyer's messes require it). I've been keeping up on laundry and even had it all washed, dried, folded and put away within 24 hours! That's unheard of for me. The house has been mostly picked up, with the kids' playroom even being cleaned every evening before bed. And in between all that, I've spent the last few weeks doing some serious Fall Cleaning like washing the windows inside and out (tracks and casings too) and vacuuming down the corners and baseboards and behind furniture and such. Again, not normal housekeeping for me. And like I've said before, the meal planning and preparation the last few months has really helped with this feeling of organization as well.

So. I'm feeling more intentional on the house front, which results in a little more calm around here I think. For me at least. There's not the overwhelming feeling hanging over my head that there's always something needing to be done. I kind of like it.

So tell me, how do things work at your house? How do you manage your time? Do you have a routine, or do things just happen when they need to? For those of you that are at home during the day, do you have a "schedule" you keep or do you just make up the days as they come? With kids, do you manage to keep your house clean all the time? Do you care?

Other Thoughts for Thursday:
Heather
Nic
Jess
Jenny
Michelle