Routines...

Morning Routines, Afternoon Routines, Evening/Before Bed Routines. My life revolves around routines. Without them my life/home would be a shambles. And on top of all of MY routines, I have to worry about getting my kids and DH to follow routines. The kids are in for a rude awakening!

My two youngest, ages 9 and 7, need a routine more than anyone. They already have a bedtime routine that they follow, although the 9 yo bucks it more than the 7 yo. As a matter of fact, the bedtime routine has become so ingrained in the youngest that when she went to spend a couple of nights at her great-grandmother's house last weekend, she made it a point to tell her that she had to take a bath after supper and be in bed by 8pm! Sure enough, she got her bath, crawled into bed, read a book for about 20 minutes, and went to sleep! My 9 yo would have stayed up as long as she possibly could. LOL But by being in bed on time that first night, my youngest was well rested and ready to climb a mountain the next day, which she did with one of DH's cousins. She had a blast!

Anyway, I've learned that the girls haven't been getting their homework turned in. So today the girls came home to pencils sharpened and laying on the coffee table along with erasers and paper. They are doing their homework as we speak. Once they are done, the work will get put back in their bags and the bags will be put up for in the morning. I'm tired of the rush in the morning to find bags and shoes. Each of the younger ones have little plastic boxes that have their names on them that their shoes and bags can sit in next to the front door. That is where they will go. And it will be checked before bed to make sure they are where they are supposed to be before they go to bed each night.

My morning routine consists of getting dressed first thing, picking up the living room each morning as the girls are getting ready for school (they tend to leave things in here as they run out the door in the mornings!), and starting a load of laundry. I also go ahead and pull out whatever is going to be for dinner that night if it needs to thaw. Once all that is done, I can sit at the computer and play for a little while. Usually until about lunchtime, unless there is something that I need to really work on in the house.

My afternoon routine depends on if DH is home or not. If he's at work, I might fix me a hot dog for lunch (something quick with no clean up!), if I haven't swapped the laundry to the dryer yet, I do that. If I have already swapped the laundry, I fold/hang everything and get it put away. I also get ready for the girls to get home: snacks, homework space, etc. If DH is home, I will wind up cooking something for him for lunch. And then I have that cleanup.

We eat dinner at 6 pm just about every night. It's a rare night that we eat any later. Wednesday nights we may eat a little earlier because of church events. I'm usually in the kitchen by 5 pm to get started on dinner. Unless it's something that doesn't take very long...I might wait til 5:30.

The before bed routine starts as soon as dinner is over. The kitchen gets cleaned up (usually!), clothes are laid out for the next day, showers/baths taken.

Those are my routines. This is what saves my sanity. In between routines is when I try to get cleaning done. It depends on what zone we are in as to what I'm doing. This week is the kitchen, and that's the room of mine that needs the most work anyway. So it's a good thing. For more on zones check out http://www.flylady.net/. She's great!

Well, I need to get back to the kitchen. It's almost done. I really want it done before I go to bed tonight so that I can suprise DH when he comes home in the morning!