A Kick in the Pants

Life around here has been a little loosey-goosey for a while.

No 2 days are the same. No 2 weeks look alike. Rush's schedule constantly changes, and thus mine does as well.

Rylie has a million appointments.....GI, plastic surgery, ENT, dental, speech. Jude is starting in now too. There's been baseball, soccer, swim lessons, church, choir, preschool, elementary school. It makes me tired thinking of it.

So.....some things have suffered. Namely, any semblance of a schedule, routine, structure....yada, yada, yada.

And Rush and I are slightly Type A. Well, we used to be, anyway...before 4 kids made us chill out on a lot of fronts.

But recently we've felt the need to get things whipped into shape a little more.

So, we came up with a daily schedule. I was worried the kids would hate it. That they would protest all day long. That I wouldn't want to stick with it.

BUT.

IT. IS. AWESOME!!!!!

Someone tell me why we didn't start this earlier. Like 5 years ago. Sheesh.

It's not crazy scheduled. But it does set up a few things like learning time, chore time, a bible lesson, book time, etc. There's plenty of free time in there too.

The kids get a list of chores to do every day during chore time, but also are expected to help out at mealtimes, and then do a general clean up in the evening before bed.

They love it.

They are begging to do chores. They know what to expect each day, even when things are a little flexible and get changed up due to appointments or playdates. I cannot believe how easily the implementation has gone. They are fighting less, cooperating more, and in general have better attitudes.

It's made our summer break really enjoyable...even on those days here and there when we don't really have much scheduled or planned. I haven't even heard the dreaded "I'm bored!" mantra but a couple of times.

Heck, I even get some free time every now and then during the day. Gotta love that!

Flexibility for the craziness? Check! Appeasement for my long lost Type A self? Check!

What's not to love?