Back to school time! Schedules and goals

Well, it's almost that time of year again!  Back to school time!  I love this time of year!  Not just because it means I get a little bit of a break while my kids are in school (although, I admit, I'm a little excited about that.... it's been a busy summer!) but I've always thought that the hype of buying school supplies and a new backpack and lunchbox is so much fun!  And my girls get SO excited about meeting their teachers and their new friends!!!  It's just very exciting!
Plus, it means fall is soon to come, which is my favorite season!  Fall means pumpkin (do you guys know how much I love pumpkin everything?), football (I loved football season before I lived in a football state, so now it's even more fun!), cool evenings but warm enough days to play outside, leggings (I hope this leggings trend never gets old... it's like wearing sweats all the time), soup, chili nights, family time and beautiful leaves.  I can't wait.  Okay, that's enough wishing my life away.
But for reals, it is so much fun to live through Adelaide's excitement!  Lucy and Julianne are excited, too, but Adelaide meets her teacher on Friday and starts first grade on Monday, so right now is her time!  She seriously checked the mail 100 times the last several days waiting on her teacher letter!  She was so disappointed when it didn't come as expected!  When she read her letter, her eyes just beamed!   She has Mrs. Collins.  She doesn't know anything about Mrs. Collins, but she is thrilled to just know her name!  It's fun to get on facebook and find out who all is in her class! Remember when we were kids and we had to wait and look around or call everyone to find out who's in our class!?  Well, thank goodness for facebook!  I knew within minutes that Adelaide had several friends in her class!!!
I know this is going to be a great year! I can't believe Adelaide is a first grader!  This is almost more shocking than Kindergarten!  Kindergarten still sounds sort of little... but FIRST grade!?  When did that happen!?
So, this week, our last week of summer with all the kiddies home, we are making the best of it!  Monday was super busy for me, but Jason took the girls to eat at Tip Top Grill and to run and play in the park.  Tuesday we went to the zoo with Hope, Braden and Brooks.  They drove all the way from Florence to play with us.  We had a great day!!!
Today we are hitting McWane with Amilia and Bella, Adelaide's friends from 4K, tomorrow we have a playdate with Ayla, Adelaide's most favorite friend from Kindergarten (she's also in Adelaide's first grade class, and I couldn't be more excited because her mama and I also became good friends over the last year.  Friday, we meet Adelaide's teacher!!  I mean, really, what a fun week!
I am so thankful for a summer with my kiddos, but we really operate better on a schedule.  Here is my hope, plan and dream for this school year.  I love to be organized.  Sometimes my yearning to be organized doesn't actually last into staying organized.  A lot of being organized, at least for me, is finding a system that works for us.  So, sometimes I spend what seems like forever creating a system and then I figure out that it doesn't really work well for us.  That is disappointing, but I'm doing better at realizing that we just have to move on to something else if that doesn't work.
So, what I'm PLANNING for the school year is to prepare a lot in the afternoon.  I don't do nights. I'm an early bird. But I don't really get moving all that fast in the mornings anymore.  Here's my reasoning.... hear me out.  Julianne's room is right next to our bedroom.  I love it this way because when she was tiny, we didn't have to worry about stairs when she got up during the  night.  It's still fine, but I don't really love how light of a sleeper she is.  She wakes up at the beep of the coffee pot or the wood creaking when we walk.  And now that she's in a regular bed, she is up as soon as she hears us stirring.  You would think the third child would sleep through everything.  You know we haven't been quiet for her... but she is a light sleeper... sometimes I don't think that's something you can "unlearn."  All that to say, since she wakes up so easily, it makes the early morning prep less helpful.  It doesn't do me a lot of good to wake up 2 hours before everyone else to pack lunches and get ready when she's up as soon as my feet hit the floor.  So, my plan for this year is to get my lunch prep, backpack prep and clothes picked out in the afternoon.  I'm going to try this for awhile.  I think making lunches during the dinner prep is probably the best time for me.  I'll already be bustling around in the kitchen, but it's before I'm exhausted.  When I get the kiddos to bed, I'm done.  I mean, like hit the couch as soon as I get downstairs, done.  So, I think afternoon will work better for us.
My goal is to have backpacks loaded and clothes picked out the day before.  We started this last year, but by the end of the year, we were scrambling in the morning to find clothes and library books... I want to do better this year.  I don't want to rush every morning.  I want us to have a calm breakfast and a happy start to the day.  I'm still planning to get up early.  I don't like waking up with my children.  I like a few minutes with my coffee cup and my Bible before I see anyone and get bombarded with "I need a drink, what's for breakfast, Disney junior."
There, I wrote it down, so now I have to do it, right?  Afternoon prep... remind me to tell you how it's going.

Cleaning schedule and meal planning

Okay, I've been harassed into blogging today (I'm pointing at you, Liz) and I don't have a lot to talk about. That last part isn't true. I always have a lot to talk about. Where should I start!?

Well, first of all, Jason is home! I'm SO thankful he's back! Last week, Jason went to Cuzco, Peru on a medical mission trip. They saw like a gagillion patients. For real! I am super proud of him, as are his girls, but I am so relieved that the trip is behind us. We all missed him terribly, but Lucy had the hardest time of all. She was crying about any and everything. I kept trying to get her to talk about Daddy. Where is he? "Peru." What's he doing? "He gets to be Jesus' hands." She kept saying she was so proud of him, but she is the most intuitive child. She knows when something just isn't right. She sensed that a piece of our puzzle was missing and nothing else was fitting right with him not being here. I hated seeing her go through that and not feeling like there was much I could do to help her. I tried, but I didn't know what to do. I lost my patience. A lot. I fussed right back at her and acted like a child. I admit it. I prayed for months before this mission trip, that I would handle the stress of him being gone with grace. I failed. Big time. I'm not a very calm person. Nor am I patient. At least not patient enough. Is it possible to be patient enough? If so, I'm not. I'm ashamed at how I behaved in the middle of the week. I wish I could do it over again. Well, not the trip, but I do wish I could change my attitude about it. Anyway, I'm glad it's over. I'm glad my children have a Daddy that wants to do all that he can to repay the debt we all have. He was able to show over a thousand people last week the love of Christ. And that was just in Peru. I know he made an impact on many people here... especially his family. Our girls kept saying, "I'm so proud of him." I'm glad they are... and I hope they always will be. Their daddy is pretty special and I'm thankful for him.

He is also the author of a brand new blog that has quite a following already. You should check it out! www.bevelup.wordpress.com. He explained to me what bevel up means, but I don't really get it. Something about a needle. He's so nerdy.... er, smart. :)

In other news, I've created a new cleaning schedule in hopes of getting rid of my cleaning lady. She currently comes every other week... I love her. She's been cleaning for us for the better part of 7 years... and I think I'm crazy for letting her go... but she's expensive. Really expensive. And I should be able to do this myself. Right? I normally can keep up with things just fine, except for the floors and the bathrooms... let's face it. We have a lot of floors... and bathrooms. But I'm hoping with my new cleaning schedule, I'll be able to stay on top of all the cleaning and save some money every month. I can do it, right!? Right??

Here's the plan for now... I'm sure I will tweak it. I have flylady habits running through my veins, but I have a hard time with some of her daily challenges... sometimes they just don't fit my house... you know? So I'm trying to make a schedule of my own. The last couple of weeks I've stuck with it and I've done the whole house with every step. I think, starting next week, I'll break it down to upstairs one week and downstairs the other. We'll see how that goes....

Monday- daily routines (I'll list them below), clean toilets, wipe down bathtubs (alternating upstairs and downstairs... there are 5 bathrooms altogether... that's a lot of toilet scrubbing...)

Tuesday- daily routines, change bedsheets, dust wood, clean glass (I'll do all sheets every week, because I just can't stand leaving them on more than a week, but I'll alternate the wood/glass for upstairs and downstairs)

Wednesday- daily routines, empty garbage, wipe out microwave and fridge (this won't alternate obviously)

Thursday- daily routines, vacuum, mop floors, vacuum cabinet doors and vents, under furniture, stairs and pick a closet (I'll focus on upstairs/downstairs with the exception of our high traffic areas downstairs)

Friday- daily routines, a monthly task (these will alternate... I'll list them below)

Saturday- daily routines

Sunday-daily routines

Daily routines:

Kitchen-

1. wash dishes, load/unload dishwasher

2. wipe down countertops

3. vacuum after meals

Bathroom-

1. wipe down counters in main bath

2. wipe down to and back of toilet

Make beds/open blinds/turn on lamps (it just makes everything look cleaner)

Laundry

1. wash a load of laundry and put it ALL away (usually I do more than one load, but I try to do at least one a day)

2. collect all dirty laundry at night (I like to pick up all the dirty laundry when I tuck everyone in and sort it at night. I put a load in the washer at night and put detergent in... so all I have to do in the morning is push the button. This cuts down on procrastination in the morning and helps to get everything started as soon as I'm moving in the morning. I also have a recipe for homemade laundry detergent that I love... I'll post that soon. :)

Tidy up seating areas

1. fold blankets

2. fluff pillows

I'm bad about leaving the blankets sprawled over the couches during the day from our lounging on the couch at night... no more! It looks so much better when the pillows are properly fluffed and the blankets are folded!

Pick up!!

1. 15 minute tidy at nap time

2. 15 minute tidy at bed time

Monthly chores:

clean out garbage cans

vacuum wall corners and ceilings

vacuum inside couch

clean stove top trays

cycle clean the dishwasher and washing machine (this is usually done more like bimonthly)

vacuum inside vents

wipe down switch plates and door knobs

dust ceiling fans

sweep/vacuum garage

launder bath rugs

scrub grout

Quarterly

change air purifier filter

clean oven

wash bed linens (for the kids, this is usually more than quarterly)

vacuum mattresses

vacuum window treatments

clean coffee maker (usually more than quarterly)

clean out fridge and freezer (thorough clean), vacuum crumbs, wipe down with soapy water

I've also made a meal plan for the year... here's what's for dinner this week:

Monday- we had the Pioneer Woman's meatloaf... yummm!!!! with mashed potatoes and macaroni... yes, I realize, there wasn't a veggie... it wasn't meant to be healthy. :)

Tuesday- chicken rollups ( a can of chicken, block of cream cheese, package of ranch dressing mix all mixed up... put a dollop onto a crescent roll, roll up and seal the edges and back on 350 for like 30 minutes... delish... found on pinterest) with green beans.

Wednesday- italian grilled chicken with corn

Thursday-leftovers (Jason working late)

Friday- english muffin pizzas

Saturday-??

That's all I've got for today. Lucy and Julianne are performing in Hunter Street's spring program tonight. I'll have pictures shortly. :)

Oh, and if anyone knows how to get that weird white box at the top of my blog to go away, I would greatly appreciate it! ;)