Schedules & Kiddos & Goals! Oh My!

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.”

~Stephen Covey

Something I feel we can all agree on is that for those of us that have kids home whether it’s 24/7 or on the weekends when school is out, is that it can be hard to not make your routine one of 2 extremes: either 1) about maintaining sanity because of the kiddo chaos or 2) just shoving the kids to the side and becoming tunnel focused on what needs to happen. I’m guilty of both… and then feeling guilty with either path I choose. I have a child with me 24/7 and have to prioritize the child, my sanity, and the home. So today I’m going to talk about the schedule I’ve concocted that gives the child proper priority (hopefully) as well as the house and my sanity.

The number one thing that I have *never* prioritized is my sanity and health… basically me in general. I always thought it was selfish to make it a priority instead of just “trying really hard to fit it in”. And guess what? I’ve ended up even more tired, burnt out, and at my wits end with my health and coping abilities.

So I’ve decided that I’ll have to get up early and get some quiet time in first thing. My quiet time is when I’ll read my Bible/ devotional and hopefully a few minutes of a book to encourage personal/ mental growth. That will be promptly followed by my workout. I plan on either walking in my neighborhood (especially for starters) or going to the gym. For the month of April, I’ve got something super fun that will actually be my monthly goal so definitely stay tuned for that.

The rest of it is pretty self explanatory so I’ll just elaborate on a couple points. Coffee time- what is that? Well from the first day we were married, my sweet husband, Isaac, has always brought me coffee in bed. (I know! I am so spoiled!) He hasn’t missed a day unless I specifically requested he let me sleep. I’m a horrible insomniac so it happens about once a week that I just desperately need a little more time. He works about 13+ hours each day and with how stressful and demanding his job is, coffee time is really the only time throughout the week that we can talk and connect. I keep this on the schedule because it’s so important to prioritize time with your spouse. Even if it’s short and routine. My husband’s love language is quality time which makes it being a priority even that much more important.

Another thing I want to hit on is my cleaning schedule. Ya’ll, I can keep the house picked up like nobody’s business… and the bathrooms are always clean-ish but everything else just goes by the wayside until it’s so bad I can’t, in good conscience, ignore it any longer. *Hangs head in embarrassment and shame* So I decided if I schedule EXACTLY what to clean each day, it won’t take me that long especially if I’m staying on top of it every week. Sounds good right? What do you do to stay on top of the actual cleanliness of the house? Do you just drown in it or are you one of those ridiculously cool people that can stay on top it? Please share your wisdom!

There are 2 more things I want to touch on- 1) My personal interest time and 2) clocking out. Believe it or not they actually go hand in hand. So obviously I have a blog. Maintaining that and the social media and content will take time. I don’t want it to consume my time from taking care of my little one and home and even my health so I have to schedule it. Emmy will have some down time to read books (and maybe on occasion she’ll nap). If I am working on a specific project that I need to focus on, I will also use that time for it as well. As for 2- clocking out… “okay, what the crap, lady? You’re at home. You don’t clock out, psycho.” Actually… I do. And here’s what I mean by that. About a year ago, Isaac and I talked about how I feel like I can’t just stop what I’m doing at the end of the day. EVERYTHING had to be done. In conjunction with that, he felt like when he got home, the house was stressful, I was intense, and it was just plain nuts. So we decided, I pick a time to start winding down and prepping the house for the next day and at a specific time (after eating dinner) I officially “Clock Out” and save the rest for the next day. With the little bit we’ve implemented it, it has made a HUGE difference for both of us. My husband comes home and feels like he can unwind and relax after a stressful day and I can be guilt free in just sitting and being done and enjoying the evening with my family.

I know that we have a little luxury right now because we don’t have any evening extracurricular activities dominating our time like dance or music lessons but I feel like if we can master this schedule now and we add stuff slowly, that we will be ahead of the game and on the road to future success. Not that there won’t be growing pains and learning curbs, but there will be a previous consistency to build upon.

This is what it’s all about. We have to prioritize our children and spouse in our schedule.

Sometimes that means prioritizing ourselves and our mental and physical health so we can take better care for those we love most. If we schedule our kids and quality time with them into the normal monotony, then they will feel prioritized. I fully expect this little routine and schedule to change as homeschooling becomes more of a focus and Emmy’s needs change as she gets older. But the key things I addressed are things that can’t be left out- time shifted and adjusted? Absolutely! But never not prioritized.

How do you prioritize your kids and their emotional need for mommy connection? How do you prioritize your spouse? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas! Please drop a comment or contact me through IG or FB and lemme know! Stay on track, peeps!

P.S. I know we left the last blog post with some questions. I will doing Part 2 of that installment next week. My goal is to mix a bit of reality and my history in with the goals and progress I’m currently trying to achieve. If you have any specific questions you’d like me to answer in Part 2, please send me a message or comment below!