Mourning Routines

I wanted to talk this morning about morning routines.  I think a lot of women overlook the importance of a morning routine, I know I did for many years.  I also believe that a lot of women believe that a morning routine would help them but have no idea what one should look like or how to set one up.  I know I tried many different systems over the years including fly lady and others but none seem to fit my family. There is no one perfect routine that will fit every woman and every family, so what I want to do is to show you the steps I took to figure out what mine looked like.

1. I looked at what I was currently doing in the morning and what I wanted my mornings to look like.  When I first started this I found I was sleeping in and not getting out of bed until 8 or so, when the boys were in public school I wake up take them to school and climb right back into bed.  When I did get out of bed I always felt guilty and like I was wasting my day.

So what I saw was that I wanted to get up earlier in the day, I wanted to read my Bible and pray before the boys or JD woke up.  I also wanted to have coffee ready and either the news of music playing softly when JD and the boys woke up.  I love to have some sort of praise music playing in my house most of the day I once heard a Pastor speak on Psalms 22:3 "O' Thou that inhabits the praises of Israel."   He talked about how we have been grafted into the nation of Israel, into God's chosen people and that he inhabits our praise.  One of the things that struck me was the idea of surrounding your self with praise music because people tend to sing a long with whatever music is playing and I loved the idea of His Presence in my home all day. ( Sorry for the rabbit trail.)

2. Once you have seen the things that you want changed write them down and talk to your husband and children about them (you're more likely stick with it if someone else knows). For me it meant setting my alarm for 6 and getting out of bed no matter how tired I was.  I wouldn't even turn on the computer but instead would hit the coffee button wash my face, brush my teeth, get a cup of coffee and go sit on the couch with my Bible, a pen  and a notebook.

3. Start small don't worry about making every change right away and don't worry if you mess it up one day because God's mercy are new every morning ( one of my life verses because boy do I need it).

4. After doing this for a week step back and look at it.  Is it working?  What things do you need to change? What things do you want to add?. 

5. Do as much as you can before you go to bed.  If I wake up in the morning to a cluttered house with dishes in the sink and floors that need swept, I tend to start feeling overwhelmed and have a harder time getting things accomplished that day. So my morning routine actually starts the night before.

 

These are the 5 things that I find most important to my routine, now I know that I did not line out my routine for you but I am going to do that below, as with everything else I do in life it is a bit unconventional and doesn't line up with what most organizing experts say but it works for me.

Before bed: prepare coffee, tidy house ( make sure kitchen, bathroom and living room are tidy, make sure table is cleared off), set Bible, pen, notebook and any Bible study I am doing on table.

6:00; Wake up, start coffee, wash face, brush teeth talk to God and start music.

7:00 Make sure boys are waking up, help with breakfast, check email's. I also will quite often start a load of laundry here.

8:00 Breakfast is done the boys and I set at the table and go over our family verse, do a short Bible study and pray together.  We also talk about the day ( any appointments,school projects or plans).

8:30 Start school I help them as much as I can with Titus needing more help then the others.

9:00 I exercise and then take a shower and get dressed.

Now all times are approximate but I don't get dressed right away.  I don't like exercising first thing in the morning and don't like to shower and get dressed before I exercise.

  

Remember there are no wrong routines, just ones that work for you!

Kids Home school notebook

I had said I would post a little about the boys notebook.

So here is the cover for the Notebook.

Here is their responsibility chart.  

They have to have everything initialed every day before they can earn screen time.

This is their daily lesson log.

Here they record for me each day what we have worked on in school.

Next are their reading logs.  They write down what they are reading and how long they have read for.

These next two sheets are how we keep track of how much time they are spending on T.V.  

For every hour that they read they earn one hour of screen time.  We also allow them to earn screen time for chores, helping out, being kind etc... When we want to add time we can use the second sheet to write down how much time they have earned and how they earned it.  We also use it to track if they have lost time.  When they want to redeem time they bring their notebooks to us and we write it down in the columns for them.

Household Notebook

Ok here's thee rough draft of my notebook for 2011.  I will try to narrate as I go along feel free to ask any questions.  I will also try to give links to blogs or other websites whose materials I used when creating my notebook.  I also have a notebook for each of my boys and will try to get that up later.

Here is the front cover.  
I like things to be functional and pretty.

I bought the basic lay out for my notebook from fruit of her hands.  I love this blog she has some great ideas on lot's of different things.

This is the first page inside of the folder.

Inside of that are some Bible studies I enjoy.

Which I can share if you would like. I also have Proverbs 31 printed out and placed there and my prayer journal.

Next is my personal goals.

Just some thing I use every year to set goals for myself in the next year.  Again, I will share these if someone is interested. These include spiritual goals, health goals, family goals financial goals and any thing else that I have as a goal.  I very strongly believe that if you don't have a vision for your life then you have nothing to work towards.

Next is schedule

In this I have my Daily schedule

I can share a little more about what's on it if someone wants it. It is broken out into morning and early afternoon and then late afternoon and evening.  This helps me to know when things should be done by.

After this I list cleaning and the things that happen daily,weekly,monthly

As you can see I have it broken into days Monday-Saturday. Then each day lists the specific things that need to be done on that day.  I also include 20 minutes of working on a project of some kind.

I also list projects that I want to get done.

Next is the chore list, so that you know what needs to be done daily, weekly and monthly.  It also is a great for helping the boys know what the room should look like when it's clean.  This way IO don't have to remind them what it looks like every day but they know I just expect these things done when this is your room for the week.

Next I have menu Planning

I try to plan from Saturday to Saturday making sure to look at the sales that come out then planning the next weeks menus based upon what's on sale.

Then I list emergency number.

This includes Dr's numbers, relatives, our fire escape plan,poison control.

Basically I try to include anything that could possible be needed here.

Next is important numbers.

These include all insurance numbers, numbers for all electric,water and gas companies.  I also include health insurance numbers.

Then Financial

In here is a calendar of when Bills are do.  I also have a folder for receipts and one for the current bill.

Next Projects,  This could be anything from pictures of swing projects to detailed list of things I want to get done

Then I have a gift giving section.  If someone mentions something they would like I tend to write it down so I don't forget.  No picture for this one but it looks like the ones above but says gift giving.

 Then it's my calendar where I write down all of my appointments and such.  I also keep track of sports practices and game dates.

The last one is my home school section.  It grows throughout the year.  Right now all that is in it is the next weeks overview for each boy.

It allows me a quick look at what they are doing each day and whether or not they have a live lesson and at what time.  

You can follow my life here.

http://coloradoblessed.blogspot.com/

Groups I belong to

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BiblicallySubmissivehousewives/

Looking Back

The last 2 years have been very difficult on out family.  We have had some very high ups and some very very low lows.  Yet, as I've spent the last week looking back over them I can't help but to have seen some tremendous growth.  I'm more sure of who I am now then I have ever been in the past.  I no longer feel then need to fit someone else's vision for my life.  Truth be told my life doesn't even fit my vision for my life! It's not quite there yet but my life is on it's way to fitting God's vision for my life.  And that has made all the difference.  If you would have told me 5 years ago that I was going to be a stay at home mom who was home schooling, learning to sew and knit and was perfectly content, I would have laughed at you.  It's true though, I am happy with what I am doing.  I am working hard at finding ways to help us live frugal so that I can continue in this.

I know what kind of family I want to have.  I know how important my children are to me and that raising them is my number 1 goal in life for right now.  I know that I want to be actively involved in the raising of them, I want to raise up godly young men who know how to be responsible and take care of their families, that know how to love theirs wives and children but above all of that my goal is to raise up men who know how to, love, worship and serve God.

The past 2 years have also taught me a lot about studying God's word and seeing what it has to say for myself.  I never thought I would be one of those Pentecostal women who believed in dresses only and not cutting your hair or wearing jewelry but again here I am!  Happy and more free then I have ever been before. I have learned that being a Christian is not about rules or judging but about a personal relationship (something I had never understood before) .  It's not about how I am feeling but about worshiping anyways!  It's not about how other people see me but about how the one who created me sees me!

I am looking forward to 2011 knowing that with the Lord on my side though it may not always be easy it will always be fruitful!

Home Making

I have spent the last couple of days working on my Home Making journal.  The first thing I did was wrote down the days of the week and then placed into it our items that our schedule on the same day at the same time every week.  Then I took and added in a day of the week for me to do certain things, below is what my final draft looks like.  I made sure to include our home school schedule.

Monday

• Mom- Office Day

• Trey Live Lesson English 12-1
• Trey Live Lesson Science 9
• Tarran Live Lesson Physical Science 1-2

Tuesday

• Trey Social Studies 1
• Tarran Live Lesson Algebra 10
• Titus Live Lesson 9
• Mom- Errand Day

Wednesday

• Church
• Trey Live Lesson Math 11-12
• Trey Live Lesson Homeroom 2-3
• Tarran Live Lesson English 10-11
• Tarran Live Lesson Physical Science 12:05-12:55

Thursday

• Trey Live Lesson Math 11-12
• Tarran Live Lesson U.S. History 11-12
• Titus Live Lesson 9
• Mom-Deep clean Day

Friday

Saturday

• Clutter busting Day

Sunday

• Family Day

I hope to use this in the future with my daily schedule.

The next thing I did was to write down the things that I do everyday automatically i.e. brushing teeth, washing face, making dinner, laundry.  Then I made a list of the things that I want to make automatic in my schedule i.e. dusting, mopping,sweeping.  The last thing I did was to break them into morning, mid-day and before bed/evening.  I am hoping that tomorrow I can start fleshing out my daily routine and schedule.  

Home schooling

I never thought I would be "that" mom, you know the one.  The one who monitors what her kids eat, what they read, who their friends are, what kind of music they listen to or what they watch on T.V.  Keep an eye on yes but closely monitor NO!!!!

Yet here I am being "that" mom, I slowly began to find that I cared greatly about what they watch who their friends are and all those other things.  I didn't like the things I began to see in t5hem or the behaviors they were having.  I began to spend a lot of time in prayer over me boys and one of the first things God showed me was that I was allowing these things into their lives.  Boy, was that convicting, I began to feel like I was failing them, so I threw myself a little pity party and then I got over it.  I started to pay attention to what kind of music they were listening to, what they were watching  and who they were spending their time with.  As I began to curtail it a bit I began to realize that the number one area I had very little say or control in was school.  I started looking at the curriculum and talking to the teachers.  I quickly realized that most of the teachers didn't seem concerned about my thoughts on what they were teaching my boys.

So this year I am homeschooling IU have become "that" mom.