The Plan

Ok, so I am not an adhering-to-a-schedule person. I can do it, but I don't like how it makes me feel. I get to feeling like I am the servant of the schedule rather than the master of it. I get to feeling like I don't have freedom and control in my life. I know it sounds weird, but I am one of those wing it and it works type of people. At least, the majority of the time it works.

But, I know that that mentality last year is what made things feel difficult and overwhelming. And I always felt behind, don't like that. Sooooo, we have to have a schedule whether I like it or not. However I've been able to create one that allows a lot of free time so that it doesn't seem rigid.

The only thing is, it requires me to get up early in the morning, and I've been struggling with that this week. I know the main reason it has been is struggle is I can't seem to get in bed early enough. But I am trying. I just need to lean more on the help of the Holy Spirit and listen to Him when He tells me to go to bed.

So this is the plan for our days:

5:30am Wake up time for me, while I'm waking up I shall have a caffeinated beverage and some prayer time
              on M/W/F I will do my workout DVDs, the other days Bible reading
6:30am make lunches and breakfast, unload dishwasher
7:00 make sure everyone is up, help my oldest( Leiah) get dressed and ready
        breakfast time
7:30 other girls get dressed and ready, make beds and do their morning chores
        Me-take a shower if needed, dressed, tidy bedroom, start laundry, start crockpot if needed (on Mon and Wed usually
8:30 We start school with Bible reading
9:00 Prek with 4 year old, 7 and 9 year olds do language arts-phonics book, spelling book, copywork, handwriting, reading
9:30 Math time
10:30 or earlier- break and snack (I can switch laundry then)
10:45ish History or Geography (history 3 days, G 1 day)
11:15ish Mon-Literature Unit study; T-science, Th-art study, Fri-music/composer study
12:00 lunch-preparing and eating
          clean things up, do any chores necessary
1:30 Piano lessons-M,T,Th,Fri
2:00 Rest/free time, on Tuesday this will be craft time
      **Monday I pick up my daughter from school around 2:45 and head to dance classes until 5pm
3:30 have a tea time snack and read aloud time***except on Monday and Thursday because of dance at 4:15
The rest of the day is just maintaining the house, clearing the kitchen so it's easy to clean up after dinner, making dinner and pursuing interests.
8:00 Get girls ready for bed and in bed at 8:30, older two can read until 9pm then lights out
My goal is to be actually asleep by 10:30 each night, or before

So, that is the plan. On Wednesdays we use that as a 'free' day- library, shopping, extra cooking if possible and lots of time to play. And once I get going with my food cultures that will probably be the day I work with those. I chose to do all dance classes in the afternoons to keep the evenings free because we are the kind of people that prefer to not have to go anywhere after dinner. It's more work for me, but if I can prepare ahead of time with dinner cooked and things cleaned up, it's not a big deal.

After our cleaning up this week, I hope to take a few pictures of our stuff set up and post them. You can't see it right now because boxes are in the way!