My daily routine (a work in progress)

In my ramblings here and here, I mentioned a few times that I knew things had to change and most of it had to do with my mindset. My mind was going to mush as I was just going through my day with no plan, no goals, and I wasn't really doing anything to help with my relationship with God. As morning sickness was starting to become a thing of the past, and energy was coming back, and a few nesting aspects were settling in, I wanted to start working on my morning/daily schedule. 


But where to start?


Just then I started reading a blog series from Money Saving Mom called: How to Develop a Routine That Works - and Stick With It! 


Crystal had us start out by looking for the "Big Rocks in Life" and what mattered to us most in our routine. She had us ask ourselves: "What are the most important things I want to be prioritizing in my life right now?" I took time to write these down on paper so that I could visually see my "Big Rocks."


Here's the list that I came up with:
1. Alone time with God/prayer life
2. Preschool with my son at home
3. Family time (reducing computer/tv)
4. Housework
5. Couponing/Menu plannin
6. Blogging/social media
7. Exercise 



The next thing we worked on was creating a basic Morning, Afternoon, and Evening Routines. I adapted a routine from Crystal's printouts you can find here. You can download a customizable one if you'd like for free! :)

And that's how I started coming up my goal. (It's just a little goal, but it's something) My goal is to maintain a half way decent routine so that my day wouldn't be so chaotic, lazy and nothing would get done. SOMETHINGS were going to get done!!!!


So...here's a peak at my Daily To Do/cleaning list:


Before Breakfast
Bible/Prayer time
Work out
Shower and Dress
Quick clean up over bathroom
Start load of laundry
School Prep


After Breakfast
Clean up breakfast dishes
Unload & load dishwasher
Wipe kitchen counter tops
Thaw anything needed for dinner
5-minute pick up
Switch load of laundry


After Lunch
Clean up lunch dishes
Load dishwasher
Sweep Kitchen Floor
5-minute pick up
Check something off the Weekly To Do/cleaning list


Before Dinner
Dinner prep
Fold Load of Laundry and put away
5-minute pick up


After Dinner
Clean up dinner dishes
Load dishwasher and run
Pick out tomorrow's clothes


My day does not go like this on a normal basis. I'm lucky if I get a somewhat regular routine done during the day! It used to bother me when I'd start my day thinking I'll have everything crossed off, and by the end I would be no where close to having it all crossed off. So I would get frustrated and end up giving up.


This time I told myself to start slow, try it for a few weeks and see what happens. I can always tweak my schedule to what works best. So far the best thing is just sticking to it, slowly chipping away, not worrying about the stuff that didn't get done, and instead focus on my family more.


These were just the first two steps of the blog series. I'm still working on 3 and 4! 


Later this week I'll blog on how the schedule has been going so far, and list my Weekly to do list for you to see!

Before you go...

What's your daily routine like for you and your family?

Linking up with:

365-16

Please check out my recent post for a special announcement!


Organizing the pantry!!!! (du du duunnnnn...)

I'm taking a step of faith and letting you all see my messing pantry. But it was about time for me to get in there and reorganize the mess. For the last couple trips we've made, stuff was falling out, cereal everywhere, sugar spilled, and lots of frustration when I had to look for something...

Before:Everything thrown around...Lincoln decided to help and eat some of the left over cereal! Which was a bad idea! I turn around to throw something away, and Lincoln thought it'd be cool to DUMP the entire box of chex onto the floor! (I was seriously not happy when I took this shot!)

After:
I'm kinda disappointed that the before and after pics look the same. I'm telling the truth, I DID organize this closet! It looks MUCH better in person. :) I took everything out and even wiped it down top to bottom!
I didn't go out and buy special containers like I should have. But everything IS more organized and I did get rid of lots of things that were outdated. I even found some extra things to put into the Haitian pantry that the church in Ducan, GA was putting together.
I can find things a lot easier and nothing fell out today when we drove back to Greenville!