A New Schedule

The ladies in our Care Group have been working through a book written by a woman in our church who has this crazy-busy life - five kids going every direction under the sun, a busy husband, her own busy self so hey, why not throw writing a book in there. We meet once a month, which gives us time to put each chapter into practice before we meet to discuss it. This book works through the principles for and the practice of being a "worker at home" (Titus 2:5). It's not just "here's how to organize your life when you have a family to keep track of and a house to keep and ministry activities" - though she includes that - it also covers why we do these things- what does Scripture say that applies to organizing our time, working in our home, teaching these skills to our children, etc.

I couldn't tell if I made them all laugh or confirmed that I am, in fact, a total nutcase when we met last week. Over the next month, we will be setting up our Home Management Schedule -- basically a schedule for housework. Anyone who knows me well knows I've been feeling massively overwhelmed with the housework for about a year now. Things went to pot when I was pregnant with Harrison and so very sick I could barely function. Then he was born and it hasn't gotten much better. So, I'm looking over some of the sample home management schedules Kim gave us and I see that some of these schedules have "change bed linens" every other week rather than weekly. What?! People don't change their sheets every week?! Really?! I don't have to change my kids sheets every. single. Monday.?! Really?! Are you serious? I think Kim almost fell out of her chair and everyone else was ready to have me committed. "You change your sheets every week? Good grief, no wonder you feel overwhelmed! Give the kids a bath at night before they go to bed and the sheets don't need to be changed once a week. You can easily do it every other week." Sweet freedom!!!!! (I failed to mention to them that I not only washed the sheets every week but I...um...ironed the pillow cases and flat sheet, too)

Another thing that creates issues for me in housework - I'm OCD, I see the entire house and can't break it down to do it little-by-little (however, I can do that for my girls when I'm helping them clean their own room). I want to clean the whole house in one day - like my mom did when I was a kid. Well, I have have four little bitty kids. Getting one room clean in one day is practically unheard of around here. Kim's system has forced me to break it down -- room by room, little by little. Just what I needed. The girls and I went into each room with our clipboard and form - what do we need to do in this room to clean it and how often do I want to do those things. I mean, light fixtures don't have to be cleaned every week and hey...sheets don't even have to be changed every week!! So, I now have a schedule - things I do daily, things I do weekly, things I do monthly and things that are "seasonal." Of my weekly jobs, I have them scheduled throughout the week so I'm not doing them all on Monday and then nothing else through the week. My monthly jobs are broken up by week (and some of them are done twice a month - like changing the girls' sheets). My seasonal jobs are divided by month - some of them are done more than once a year (actually, most of them are done more than once a year).

When I can figure out how to get my schedule posted, I'll share it. :)