Facebook reply turned blogging post

So I just replied to a facebook group post from our local homeschool group here in town and I thought I'd share it with you because I figured you'd all appreciate it.  Here is the post:

Question......How do you do it? How do you keep your house clean? My husband pointedly asked me tonight why when we go to other people's houses, they are clean. Then he used his parents' house as an example. (might have just put me over the edge on that one) Anyway, how can I do it? I am at the store 5 days a week from 10-5. Prior to going to the store, I try to get a load of laundry done. I also do school work with N. for about 2 hours before leaving. The girls are helpful while I am gone and do their list of chores. When I get home I fix dinner, clean up, and run the kids to various locations. Sometimes N. has more school work that needs done as well. I have Sunday off, which is generally family day and we are rarely home, and Monday (other day off) I do the laundry in between school work and regular house work. I just feel like I don't have time to scrub what needs scrubbed. I don't know how to make it all happen.

Sound familiar? This woman also has a children's consignment clothing shop, so on top of raising kids and homeschooling, she also has a full time job! Super Woman's got nothing on her!

Here was my reply, which like many women in general, I am trying to find a balance between all the madness. I'm slowly coming to terms that my house isn't going to be spotless, at least not for a very long time... and that's ok.

This is how I "Do it ALL" :0) ... I have fingerprints on my windows that have been there probably all year. There are little flecks of dried something or other between my kitchen floor tiles. It looks like a science experiment blew up in our microwave even though I bought one of those plastic plate covers that stays in there all the time. The kitchen table is generally only smudge free between the hours of 9am-12 pm. My husband has decided to take on keeping our bathroom toilet clean because our bathroom is the LAST place I clean when I actually get time to do it. While my living room might appear dust free every other week, don't look on top of the piano; there's probably at least three month's worth of fluff piling up. Oh, and I tend to keep my ceiling fans running 24/7 because if they stop, the insane amount of dust that has accumulated is frightening.

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 With that being said, dirty dishes and general disarray is what puts my husband (and me too a little bit) into grumpy mode. So, when I do have some spare moments, I try to take care of the "triggers" so we can relax together instead of being tense about what's not getting done. It's a balance we're still trying to figure out, but it has taken a lot of flexibility on his part. Is our house as clean as he'd like it? No. Is it as clean as I'd like it? No. But right now there are more important matters at hand. The house cleaning will be there when I get around to it... in 18 years. There are two quotes I've seen on pinterest that I tend to live by: "Boring people have clean houses." And "Please excuse the mess, but we LIVE here." :0)

 

The chaos that has become my everyday

Sitting here this morning after preparing the school week until 10:00 last night, and I'm still a bit tired.  This homeschooling adventure, while is going to be great for the whole family, has taken a little bit of freedom from my previously SAHM "only" status. (I put that in quotes because as if being a SAHM in itself isn't enough of a job, I've also just volunteered to become a full time, year around educator as well...what was I thinking?!?) 

Anyways, here is my reflection on the past two weeks since we started school.  First of all, I chose to start our school year the same week as our community swimming lessons everyday for two weeks, and Wiggly's had five baseball games in the evenings that had brought us to what felt like rushing from one activity to another for quite a few days in a row... But now swimming and baseball is done with for the summer, so hopefully our schooling schedule will feel a little more relaxed and less "crammed" into the section of time we have to work with that particular day. 

I think Sunday is going to be my major school planning day for the week.  It's one of the few days that hubby is home and I get to share the responsibility of putting out fires between my kiddoes.  It's so nice not having to drag my feet to the scene of the crime whenever someone yells "MOM!?!" in that unique yell only reserved for tattling.  (Or does anyone ever feel like just turning out the lights and locking yourself in whatever room you happen to be in whenever that particular tone rings through the house?  Is that just me?)

I will say that I do like that when it IS time for school, my kids don't groan and whine.  They genuinely don't seem to mind it, and my guess is that Wiggly enjoys the one on one time.  Right now, it takes him about 2 1/2 hours to complete his 10 boxes if we don't have any science or craft projects going on.  This week, I've decided to reserve his daily box 10 for practicing his piano.  Since we've begun this endeavor, he's maybe practiced twice, and it's usually the night before his lessons.  I know we're supposed to have MORE time for things like this, but it just hasn't made it in to our new routine yet. I'd like to make a cute little card to put in his workbox for practicing piano, but I'm relatively inexperienced with the new word programs. If I make one that's worth while though, I'll be sure to share! 

Although I had planned on starting school in the morning, taking a break for lunch, and then finishing after, it is working to knock out the hours while Peanut is napping after lunch.  Love her to death and her enthusiasm for wanting to do school along with her siblings is great, but chasing her down every 5 minutes because she's running around with markers isn't my idea of fun when we're trying to accomplish something.  And like Wiggly needs any additional distractions... he's a distraction all to himself.  I totally get why he and his teacher had had enough of each other by the end of the school year.  His wiggliness is fine at home; if he wants to roll around on the floor while spelling his words that's fine by me, but man, does he move. I saw these on pinterest and thought of him.  I may have to get one for home just because... I'd probably use it too! :0)

The only major adjustment for me is putting MYSELF on more of a schedule.  I can't just go to Target (it's a 40 minute drive) whenever I feel the need or grocery shop (all the decent stores are at least 25 minutes away) on a whim because I now have a new responsibility to provide an education on a regular basis to my children.  Oh the days when I could drop off 2/3 of my children for hours on end to be educated by someone else... But the easiest way isn't always the best way, so I will suck it up and figure out the balance. 

For those of you who giggled over my attempt at a housekeeping schedule, for the record, that has been blown to smithereens for the time being.   The only thing I've maintained on that list is sweeping the living room on Monday, grocery shopping on Friday, and laundry on Saturday. And that's only because I set up a chore chart for the kids to coincide with my master housekeeping schedule. And it works...when I enforce it.  But if I'm not reminding them, it doesn't get done.  (As I'm attempting to finish this post, I'm trying to manage the kids with their chores; the chart is not four feet from this computer.  Now what was I about to say? Oh, yeah...) I really like Erica's Chore chart from Confessions of a Homeschooler, but I need to add the chores that are specific to our house. Like, organizing the shoe rack in the garage. 

It's in a constant state of disarray, and do you notice how many pairs of shoes are actually ON the rack???

Gah! I need to go.  I have to manage the new crisis in the living room.  Wiggly is threatening to sweep up Miss A's American girl stuff without giving her time to ACTUALLY pick it up before he plows her over with his "chore".  And of course, she's screaming like someone is trying to stab her...

Let's Make a Schedule

Although I don't know of I can openly admit this to many people (especially my husband), I have found that since I becoming a SAHM, I do not operate around the house as productively as I did when I was working. There... I said it. I may have been crabby and overwhelmed 110% of the time when I came home from work every evening, but I still managed to feed everyone, keep filth from piling up around the house during the weekends, and usually had clean clothes for the family to wear for the week ahead. My house wasn't spotless by any means, but it was good enough.

Once I began staying home, my husband and I both had these thoughts of grander that the house would be properly maintained, the kids would be spotless, and cleanliness would all just magically come together, mostly because well, I was HOME now. All you veteran SAHM's can openly laugh at me now... Now, while I am SO much happier and more relaxed, (this is as a general rule, I DO have my moments) the house work has not magically fallen into place like I though it would. I would even say that our house is dirtier now that we're home all day than when I was working and only half-cleaning. It's taken me two years to say it out loud, but I NEED A SCHEDULE.

I've seen those "clean your entire house in 30 minutes a day!" schedules on Pinterest... I've even tried a few of them, and none of them have stuck. The only thing I've discovered is that there's no way I can vacuum/scrub/wash/wipe ANYTHING in my entire house in 30 minutes, even if I DID do it every week. But really what it comes down to is that the schedules I've tried created by other people just haven't fit for us. Then I read other people's advice about being flexible in your house cleaning and fit it in 10-15 minutes here and there, but the problem with that is that I'm TOO flexible (and a horrible procrastinator). If I didn't fit it in today, ah, I'll just do it tomorrow... or the next day, or the next... or just whenever...and Surprise! It doesn't get done.

So the epiphany I've had recently is this: I need a set schedule to operate in order to be productive. Period. One that needs to be set in stone, not just a rough idea in my head. Homeschooling may have been just what I needed to get this started. I understand that if I don't have a schedule for homeschooling, nothing's going to get done, and my children's education is a little more important than a clean house. And following along with homeschooling, my two oldest are at the age where some they can have some responsibilities of their own in helping around the house. As it stands, once we start homeschooling, my idea is that chores will be done before we start school at 9. And if the kids are going to have a set schedule for chores, so should I. Other people's schedules weren't working, so I created my own that I'm hoping will work for our family. This will probably need tweaked once we implement it, but hey, it's a start...

April's Home Schedule
(appox. 45 min.-1 hour each day)

Daily- dishes, wipe table/counters, general pick-up, sweep hallway as needed
Kids chores/pick up playroom

Week 1-Monday- vacuum & dust Living/Piano room

Tuesday- vacuum & dust Bedrooms, vacuum Hallway

Wednesday- clean Master Bathroom

Thursday- Meal Planning/ Grocery

Friday- clean Laundry Room/ Hallway, Half-bath

Saturday- clean Kitchen, do Laundry

Sunday- do Laundry, gather trash

Week 2- Monday- vacuum & dust Living/Piano room

Tuesday- vacuum Bedrooms/Hallway, clean/vacuum Playroom

Wednesday- clean Kids' Bathroom

Thursday- Meal Planning/ Grocery

Friday- clean Laundry Room, hallway, half bath

Saturday- clean Kitchen, do Laundry

Sunday- do Laundry, gather trash

Some of these chores I'll be able to enlist my kids' help in, which will be good for them. I tried to organize the cleaning according to "zones" in our house... Our bedrooms are in one section, and our larger kitchen gets the brunt of the "filth" during a week's time, so it gets a day all to itself. And lastly, I included meal planning/grocery because I try to only go to the grocery once a week. I enjoy knowing what meals I'm going to make during the week; it really takes the guess work out of "what am I going to make for dinner?" But, planning it all out and going through recipes usually takes me an hour, so I wanted to make sure it was on a set day. Also, Thursday afternoons and Fridays are hopefully going to be our out and about days where we can take day trips, run errands, and make appointments. The plan now is to not homeschool on Fridays.

If you're giggling at my nativity in my attempt to tame my house, just know that I'm laughing too... If it all falls apart at my fingertips, all is well...we'll just go back to the drawing board and try, try again. :0)