PLANNING Your Year

Monday Morning by Sarnoff

How will you spend your year?

It took me about 40 minutes to really think how I was going to fit everything I say I want to do into one week.  I finally came up with:

11:00 – 8:00 SLEEP.  Yes, we need 9 hours. 

8:00 – Get ready – this includes breakfast, exercise, and dressing/hair/make-up/jewelry.
 9:00 – I determined that right now, I can only homeschool 3 days a week in order to keep on top of everything.  By this I mean h.s. that is structured, with my reading lessons to him and supervising every letter my kindergartner is writing.  The other days still have books on tape, Classical Conversations songs, reading before bed, reading to self, and practicing writing.  But I need the other 2 days to go grocery shopping, run errands, make meals, declutter, do chores, and do laundry.  Or to go to the park before lunch, when it is uncrowded and the sunshine makes the whole world look beautiful. 

Monday will still be my grocery day – but mainly Monday will be an AT-HOME day. 

Something new I am going to try is to begin preparing dinner at 1:00 p.m.  I find that so many things can keep (like salad), or can steep (like soup), that to make it early will help me not to resort to quick dinners. I find myself so hungry that I don't give enough thought to a balanced meal.  I'm hoping this will change that bad habit.

From 2:00 – 5:00 on Mondays only I plan on tackling my Home Beautification Projects.  Most of my projects now include painting – and I need more than 15 minutes a day to complete them.  Since I’m used to the idea of At-Home Mondays, I’ll know not to schedule anything and I feel confident that I’ll be completing a lot of home projects and decluttering this year.  (Update - 3 years later & at-home Mondays still work)

5:00 – I’ll have a mountain of laundry to fold, and my little one and I are enjoying old b&w t.v. shows, like Dennis the Menace.

6:00 – Dinner every night at 6:00 except on Wednesdays.

7:00 – I needed to schedule internet & blog reading or writing time.  It has to take the place of something.  My DH loves to watch movies at night, but I can only handle that 3 times a week.  The way the schedule is set up, they are interchangeable. 

9:00 – Shower, read to son

10:00 – Bible study and reading books

11:00 – Lights out

Time	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
8:00	Breakfast	&	Exercise	&	Get	Dressed	!
9:00	Church	Groceries	CC HS	HomeSchl	House	HomeSchl
10:00	Church	Laundry	CC HS	HomeSchl	Errands	HomeSchl
11:00	Church	House	CC HS	HomeSchl	Park	HomeSchl
12:00	Lunch	Lunch	CC Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:00	Prepare	Dinner	Prepare	Dinner	Errands	Prepare D.
2:00		House	House	House	Or Park	Pictures or
3:00		Project	Internet	Laundry	Or Mom’s	Scrapbk
4:00		Rooms	& Blogs	House	House	or workon
5:00		& Yard	Or project	Dinner	Prepare D.	Genealogy
6:00	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	AWANA	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
7:00	Movie	E-mails	E-mails	Internet	E-mails	Movie	Movie
8:00	Movie	Internet	Internet	Drive time	Internet	Movie	Movie
9:00	Shower	&	Read	To	Son	!	!
10:00	Bible	Study	&	Reading	Time	!	!
11:00	Bedtime	Bedtime	Bedtime	Bedtime	Bedtime	Bedtime	Bedtime
12:00
1:00
2:00
3:00
4:00
5:00
6:00
7:00

Tuesdays we’ll be at Classical Conversations.  .

Wednesdays will be homeschooling, more house care & laundry, plus AWANA.

Thursday will be errand and park day (We count down our errands, with the last being the PARK!) or we will go visit my parents.  It is a good day to have playdates.

Friday – the biggest change I’m making is on Fridays.  Fridays have always been Fun Day.  But with no structured h.s. on Monday – now Friday needs it.  I hope to spend most Fridays at home now, with Thursdays being more of a fun day.  I also hope to have time to work on family albums and genealogies.  Every year I say I’m going to work on this – but the time always gets eaten up.  I hope this is the year to make a few albums that my son has requested, and complete the family histories. 

The one thing that hasn’t been scheduled is family fun.  I find that whatever I’m doing, I always have a buffer so that I can play board games, card games, read aloud, etc.  And you’ll notice that Saturdays and most of Sundays are free to be with family. 

If you plan it…it will turn out a whole lot better than just hoping to get things done!   Blessings on you in the new year!