A New Leaf.
After a week of illness, the kids have all recovered. My nerves are shot, but I've managed to remain fever free. Since I spent all week in the house, I had plenty of time to ponder and google- a dangerous combination!
I decided that we were going to try a new plan. It is not a schedule. Schedules are for people who can tell you all their friends' names in alphabetical order. Schedules tell you where your every minute needs to be for you to function within your day. This is simply a plan. Plans are for people who need to be allowed to fly to LA in the middle of October just for the fun of it. (Blogpost to follow!)
I created the plan in the hopes of making each day run more smoothly allowing joy to be the guiding force in our home. Again, the opposite of chaos, in my brain, is joy. Not order. I want a plan that allows the joy in our hearts to rule the day. I want a plan that allows the eternally unimportant to be unimportant. For instance, I'm not having another conversation at 6:00 in the morning about the location of lime green socks. I'm just not. Those conversations steal time from the important things like really solid hugs between calm souls walking out of the house in the morning. I'm also not pointing to a piece of paper to declare that we are running 5 minutes behind schedule with the implication that all is lost.
This is just a plan.
So, wanna hear it?
It's really simple.
I made a sack-lunch menu and a 30-minute activity list.
Are you excited??
The kids have 5 things to complete in 30 minutes twice a day. And they are not tough things: make bed, shower, brush teeth, backpacks by door, read, make lunch, etc.
The first set of 5 has to be completed before school. The second list is required to be done by 7:25. That's it, folks. Pretty simple, huh?
As for the lunch menu, I sat down with the kids and determined their favorite lunches and snacks. I then prepackaged all their snacks. That's it. Now they know what they are having and how much to take. And, they know if they don't want what's on the list, they can a pb&j sandwich. How easy peasy lemon squeezy is that?
And you know the best part?
After I explained it all to them, I got a hug. That's the important part!
I decided that we were going to try a new plan. It is not a schedule. Schedules are for people who can tell you all their friends' names in alphabetical order. Schedules tell you where your every minute needs to be for you to function within your day. This is simply a plan. Plans are for people who need to be allowed to fly to LA in the middle of October just for the fun of it. (Blogpost to follow!)
I created the plan in the hopes of making each day run more smoothly allowing joy to be the guiding force in our home. Again, the opposite of chaos, in my brain, is joy. Not order. I want a plan that allows the joy in our hearts to rule the day. I want a plan that allows the eternally unimportant to be unimportant. For instance, I'm not having another conversation at 6:00 in the morning about the location of lime green socks. I'm just not. Those conversations steal time from the important things like really solid hugs between calm souls walking out of the house in the morning. I'm also not pointing to a piece of paper to declare that we are running 5 minutes behind schedule with the implication that all is lost.
This is just a plan.
So, wanna hear it?
It's really simple.
I made a sack-lunch menu and a 30-minute activity list.
Are you excited??
The kids have 5 things to complete in 30 minutes twice a day. And they are not tough things: make bed, shower, brush teeth, backpacks by door, read, make lunch, etc.
The first set of 5 has to be completed before school. The second list is required to be done by 7:25. That's it, folks. Pretty simple, huh?
As for the lunch menu, I sat down with the kids and determined their favorite lunches and snacks. I then prepackaged all their snacks. That's it. Now they know what they are having and how much to take. And, they know if they don't want what's on the list, they can a pb&j sandwich. How easy peasy lemon squeezy is that?
And you know the best part?
After I explained it all to them, I got a hug. That's the important part!
Comments
I think our list is easy, too, but they like to make it take much longer.
Ours includes fold laundry, sort laundry, take out trashes, straighten room (which should be done the night before), put away clean dishes, set the table, pour waters (split between 6 children). Goal is 7:30 :)