My Daily Routine and The Snake I Found

Mornings are important to me. Now that I have a routine going, it goes something like this.

* 8am Family wake up time

(fill in time for relaxing. Eating breakfast, Bible reading and prayer, writing a blog, checking email, snuggling with kids, making important phone calls)


* 10am is chore time for everyone and getting dressed for the day.

* 10:30am Homeschooling begans

* 12pm Break for lunch

* 12:30 Resume homeschooling

* 1pm Ashley's naptime

* 3pm Break for snacktime

* 3:30pm Resume homeschooling

* 5pm Prepare dinner

* 5:30pm Homeschooling stops and family chore time begans

* 6pm Dinner

* 7pm Family bible reading

* 7:30pm Kids brush teeth and get on pajamas

* 8pm Prayer time with daddy, kids personal bible reading, and bedtime

I'm serious that I follow this schedule every single day and rarely deviate from it. Accept of course for Sundays when we attend service twice in that day and Wednesday nights. So it's important that the morning starts off right because it can throw part of the day off for me and then I'm like "Oh man. I'm all outta sorts." (Yeah, I still say "like" a lot like a teen) This morning I started off really tired. So, so, so tired that it was hard to drag my 8 month pregnant body out of bed. I remember the quote my pastor said the other night "Make good habits and become a slave to them" so I went to look for my bible so I could start off the morning in the scriptures and prayer. I can't find my bible and I remember that it was in the van from the night before where I left it. My husband was gone at work with the van. Then I go to make my coffee and I can't because machine isn't working. Sniff. "Okay! What's going on around here?" I finally just go grab my pillow and lay on the couch for a bit while the kids talked around me. When my husband comes home around 9:30am, I go and jump in the shower without saying a word. Hey, I knew a shower would be soothing so I grabbed one while I could. :) That put a smile back on my face and so I finally came back out into the living room to rejoin everyone. The only thing is, I hate starting my schedule late. It's fine if I do all that stuff before 10:30am when I'm supposed to begin the day. I think I started around 11-11:30am which isn't too bad. It's just that I've found such comfort in a routine that now I love sticking to it. I love having the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner times. My kids love the routine too. Believe me when I say I was NEVER a routine person! I'm extremely spontaneous. But you know, it just wasn't working for me anymore with my size family that is growing. It just seemed to create chaos. You know that quote I said earlier about making good habits? This is one I'm happy I made because it makes life in the day just more peaceful. Well, my peaceful is not having chaos and kids fighting. To you that might mean a bath, candle, and a book. Whatever works.

*Little Ashley above just loves the snake costume and asks me to put it on her everyday! I had to catch it on video how she was chasing Ivy around. Don't ask me why Ivy doesn't have a shirt on. I do dress her everyday. She kept trying on her brothers clothes all that day so her clothes were continually changing. In that video she is wearing Kyle's church pants with no top. You know, it's cute now, but this is gonna have to stop eventually. The no shirt thing. :)