Having said that, these children are given to me as a blessing and as such, they are filled with needs that cause me to grow in my own walk of faith. It has taken such great strides for me to seek out, much less develop how to make a schedule that would work for us. What a blessing it has been to use Managers of Their Homes. I recommend the program to anyone and everyone I come in contact with. It has been a life saver for me....a creative person who has a natural bent toward going with the flow. The Lord sure knew what He was doing when he gave me these children. You see, I had the capacity inside me all along, but I was rebelling in defiance of it for such a long time. My children needed me though. The mother in me said, "It is time to do those needful things." with a sigh and a prayer. In 2005 while we were living in a campground I was given the program to look over. After giving it back to my friend, I decided I needed to get the program to help me have it at my fingertips. I am finding now that it has been such a blessing for me.
I use MS Excel to form our daily schedule.
I usually start with writing everything down that we have to accomplish in a day. From that point, I plug in the important stuff like meal times, family times, Bible Study times, then fill in school times and prep time for meals, clean up, chores, time for sewing, time for showers, piano practice and so forth. Inevitably there is always something that is overlooked or overscheduled. There are nips and tucks to make and as children change, there will be changes made there too. The important thing is to not be discouraged.
I don't have a Saturday or Sunday Schedule yet, but this past weekend has shown me how very essential a loose schedule would be for each of us to know what needs to be done instead of roaming around waiting for someone to tell us something. LOL
I have our schedule posted on a nice bulletin board (at hubby's request). I also left some room to add a weekend schedule in the middle. I'm hoping to get that finished here soon since our busy season is quickly closing in on us.
A note of encouragement~this schedule is the goal. It is not the driving force. If something happens or we have someone over, the schedule goes by the wayside. We can always pick the schedule back up once things settle down. The key is to not fret or stress out or stress those around us about keeping up wth the schedule.
Another thing~I do not schedule my husband. I let him know that I would like to spend a particular time with him during the day, but ultimately, he has final vetoing power in our home. I do not stress out about this. He is the God ordained head of our home and if he wants to change the schedule around a bit for the day, then I encourage that. He needs to feel that if he'd like to do a "spur of the moment" fishing trip as a family that we can have the freedom to do so. One never knows if there is a God given lesson that He is intending to teach us through my husband or us through our children (God is that way, huh?). We need to be flexible when times call for flexibility. Copperswife uses the terms "hold our plans loosely". I love that saying!
Remember the goal for having a schedule is to bless our homes and families and as a reminder to help us accomplish the things the Lord has given us to do. We are not to hold the schedule so tightly that stress reigns in our homes. Our homes need to be a place of peaceful sanctuary for those who are blessed to be called our family, and occationally those who come to visit.
Blessings,
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