Time Management

Everyone is given 24 hours in a day to accomplish our tasks. Rather you have a smaller household with no children (or one, or two) or a larger household with four or more children no one is given any more hours in a day than the next person. If you find yourself saying "I'm out of time" or "I don't have time" to complete what you need to do for the day, perhaps more hours of the day isn't what you need. Perhaps you need to learn to make better use of the hours you're given. Perhaps you need to stop planning to do more than you have time to do it. Lets face it, when you are given more you tend to use more... AND need more. More hours of the day will only enable you to continue to overextend yourself or waste more time because you have it to waste!

We have four wonderful children (for now) and people often wonder how we manage our days, all of the household responsibilities, and everyone's needs. Here's a very popular comment: "I only have one [child] and I'm exhausted with all of the responsibilities." First off, let me say that 2 or 3 kids is much easier than 1. Sounds crazy, but true. Last year when my boys went out of town for the holidays and I was home with Jenesis, I got nothing done! She was always in need of someone to play with, which meant that the only time I could do any chores was when she napped. We also spent extra money on activities to keep her occupied. When her brothers are home, a $2 ball would keep them busy for hours. So in a sense, more kids equals more time to get things done AND less money needed to be spent on activities and toys.

Now, how do we manage our days to accomplish everyday tasks? Simple. Prioritize and Organize! We have 3 different types of schedules in our home. A monthly/weekly giant desktop calender, a school day schedule (view it on our "Homeschool Life" page), and a daily to-do list of chores.
Sometimes when you're busy, members of the household can get forgotten and they don't get to do the things they'd like to do or you forget or "Run out of time" to spend quality time with them.We schedule every activity (drum practice, football, swim lessons, ballet, Johnny's weight lifting class, my spin class) on our large desktop calender to keep track of everything. We also schedule one-on-one quality time with our kids and make every attempt to slip in at home date nights and quality time for each other. Here's the running of a typical weekday:

6:15---I wake up, pray, and start a load of laundry. I MUST wake up before everyone else in order to get a head start. This way breakfast will be made when everyone wakes up. And, it's nice to have some time to myself first without hitting the ground running.

7:00- 8:00  I wake up Jevani, he gets dressed, feeds the animals, and starts his computer work.

8:00-12ish  Homeschool day, see the schedule on the page titled "Homeschool Life" (insert another load of laundry)

12-1:00p lunch time and clean up

1:00-2:30 nap time or this will be the time we'd schedule appointments or errands (I do some cleaning, laundry, and planning during this time. Sometimes I get a nap too)

2:30 snack time

2:30-4:30  chore time, play time (The boys have football practice with dad twice a week at this time)

4:30  Start dinner, if it isn't already in the crock pot or leftovers (One day a week is Mommy and Me work out day and Jenesis's ballet class. We typically do crock pot or leftovers on that day)

5:30-7:00  dinner time and family time (One day of the week this is my spin class time and another day, this is Johnny's weight lifting time)

7:00-8:00 bedtime routine (baths, brush teeth, vitamins, story, prayer) I finish folding and put away the day's laundry.

8:00-11ish Mommy and Daddy time (in-home date nights, board games, television, dessert, talks, or surf the net, prepare for the next day)
11:00 We go to bed, and hope Jericho lets me sleep well.

If I can do it with a family of 6 and a few animals, you can surely do it with 1 child. If you get off track, just pick up from where you should be. Remember: Prioritize and Organize... relax... enjoy parenthood :-)