Saturday, September 27, 2008

Doctor appointment recks my routine...

Today my two oldest kiddos and I had dentist appointments. I am so thankful for my amazing sister-in-law Brigett (who lives across the street from us) who babysat my four little ones so we could go.

Anyway, I know going to the dentist is important. I mean no one wants all their teeth to fall out, but it sure does a number on the flow of my daily routine with my kids. Even though we were only gone about two hours total it just messed up our entire flow. I am sure this is probably because our routine is still very new to us all. We haven't even been homeschooling for a year. But how do I adjust for doctor appointments and still somehow maintain our routine versus what happens now which is our hole day was totally less effective and productive?

I know there needs to be a balance of some type and I know I am kind of off balance right now. I've been avoiding the mail, the phone, and other tasks that are part of running a home because its interfering with my home school flow. I know I am such a weirdo, and I admit I probably am because avoiding necessary tasks required to run a home (like get the mail and pay the bills) is retarded. I don't ignore tasks like cleaning my house or keeping things organized however, because number one they are important to me and number two I simply can't exist or even think clearly in an environment if its dirty or disorganized. Don't get me wrong my house is far from perfect, but I try my hardest (which requires tons of energy when you have 6 energetic kids home 24/7) to keep everything in fairly good order.

I think part of the solution to my problem is to have a default schedule that everyone knows by heart and knows that we stick to it almost no matter what. I also think it might be helpful if I picked one day a week or month or something that was set aside as a errand/Dr. appointment day and I know ahead of time that any non-ongoing outings that need to take place out of the home take place on that day. Would that work?

One thing is for sure I am needing to work and focus my energy on organizing my family's time. Lately I've been trying to tackle the chore of organizing my family's things. I am almost done with those projects and ready to enter organizational maintenance mode. As I am writing this I am realizing that now its time to transition from organizing things to organizing time. I know it will change my life and my stress level if I can figure out how to get our 'time' organized better.

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