Day # 39 The rather late "Spring Clean"

Typically on a Thursday, we try to do something thoughtful for someone else. Earlier in the week though, we all sat down together and wrote out Thank you notes to my brother for the fridge, and my sister for delivering it. We also wrote notes to my parents for our trip to St. George earlier this year. (I am hoping thank you notes are a "better late than never" type thing) I really need to improve on how quickly I get those sent out. We did them earlier in the week though, so we could hand deliver them when we were up for the family BBQ. That meant our regular Thursday schedule was free for a little tweaking.

I woke up not feeling very well and didn't have much energy to do what needed to be done for the day. So, I plopped myself in the living room and asked the kids to bring me all of our craft drawers, my scrapbooking drawers, my fabric bin, and our 2 large file bins. I spent the better part of the day consolidating supplies, throwing out things, and organizing every bin, tote, and drawer. It felt great to actually accomplish something on a day when I would have preferred to just stay in bed. 2 trash bags later, and all that was left to take care of was a giant stack of papers to shred. I was dreading having to sit and shred all of it in our little shredder that can handle 2 pages at a time...then it occurred to me that this was just the kind of project little fellas would love to help out with! I put them right to work and before I knew it, the papers were shredded! I may be a little late to the Spring cleaning party, but at least now when I want to be crafty, I know where all my stuff is! :) The kiddos looked pretty cute shredding paper, they lined up and each took turns putting the next paper in...yay for team work!

Who knew shredding paper could lead to almost 2 hours of fun??? ;)

Getting Organized...

I don't know about you, but I am all about the visual aids. Perhaps it became a part of me after all those years of serving in the Primary organization in my church. Children, like myself, thrive on visual learning. So, around our house there are lists and schedules posted everywhere. Don't misinterpret the presence of such things as an indication that they are strictly followed by everyone, each day. They aren't. However, having them gives me a better sense of order around the house and keeps reminds me what everyone needs to be doing, and when.
For summer though, changes needed to be made to the schedule to better accommodate us all being home together all day. In the past we have always had a "theme" of sorts for each day of the week. This summer is similar, but for some reason I like it more. To keep organized, I typed up my goals, daily theme plan, and other pertinent ideas in a word document and saved all the links I would need for recipes and ideas on that master document, and saved it to my desktop. I also printed out a hard copy and a copy of the daily schedule to hang on the wall.
Not that I have anyone but myself following this blog, but just in case, here are our Theme Days:
* Make it Monday (a craft project)
* Time to read Tuesday (trip to Library, story time with Mom, monthly book reports, or write/illustrate your own book
* What's cookin' Wednesday (try a new recipe together)
* Be Thoughtful Thursday (service project, write a letter to someone, scouting service hours, etc)
* Field trip/Friendship Friday (go on a field trip or plan and outdoor activity and invite some friends over)

                                  I used our white board to display what is coming up each week.
Here is our Daily Schedule too:

Daily Schedule:

8:00 am – wake up and eat breakfast

8:30- breakfast clean up

8:30-11:00- outside time: animal care and free play

11:00-12:30- STOP and give me 30 (piano, reading & math rotations)

12:30- Lunch

1:00- clean up lunch

1:00-1:30- chore charts

1:30-3:00- Days of the week activity

3:00-4:00- Siesta (quiet activity IN rooms)

4:00-5:30- Free time and dinner prep

5:30-Dinner and clean up

6:00-7:30- Free time

7:30- Family scripture study (or FHE on Mondays) & family prayer

8:00- 8:10- Many hands make light work house spiff

8:10-8:30- Bedtime routines

8:30-9:00- Reading in beds

9:00-LIGHTS OUT!

There you have it! Nothing earth shattering, but to me its just the right balance between free time and responsibility. We'll see how it goes!