A Request! And "schedules"

I finally have a request! It's been months. A request to show you the schedule I mentioned in the day before yesterday's post.

I like to think of it as someone else's schedule - to me it's just a "back up plan" because I am horrified at the thought of having a scheduled life.

That being said, we followed it pretty well yesterday, with excellent results!

Here is what I have written down on a scrap of paper:

7-8 a.m. - get dressed, make beds, empty dishwasher, put away breakfast dishes, coffee/tea, partially clean bathroom

8:00 - breakfast

8:30 - brush hair/teeth, clean kitchen, put in laundry

9:00 - outside every day (field trip, outing, play in yard, etc.)

11:30 - home, cook lunch/play

12-12:30 - dishes, dry laundry

1-4 - next outside time ("while I'm cleaning, you go outside.") And other homeschooler stuff.

5:00 - dinner

6-?? - chaos.

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Now that I look at this, I realize I hardly followed it at all - but what a comfort it is to have around, like an old, senile grandma sitting around in a rocking chair. Or something.

The only reason I was willing to consider a schedule of any kind is because I finally met someone who seems enough like me that I can look at her and say, "if *she* can do this, I can do this, too, and NOT turn into a robot." Yes, it's true - the rest of you all who have schedules remind me of robots.

Anyway, really I just made sure to get my kids outside yesterday as early as possible, and I said to the one who likes to wear his p.j.s all day long, "You've gotta get your clothes on before breakfast today!" Then I said, "You've gotta comb your hair before you go to the vet!" (That was their errand after playing around outside.)

I don't follow any of the other things, either, now that I think about it.

I did put some laundry in yesterday, though, and I felt like Somebody Organized. And I also even cleaned the bathroom sink before bed. Now that's really something.

This is all a great example of how having a schedule can be useful even if you don't use it. I just knew it was there, and so I had support. I also told my husband about it and he was mildly intrigued. I said before I left to go write at the coffee shop, "If you can't figure out what to do, just look at the schedule, and see if it looks good."

Next on my list of Life Goals is to make a pictoral chart with the kids, with all these things on it (modified slightly for our family. For example, we'll have to put "Call Bubbie" after breakfast time, and also add some time for Ottar to be squished daily under a couch cushion - something he requires to keep him from pushing the Learning Tower down the basement steps again.)