Taming the Mad House

Something had to be done to make life less hectic.  Simplifying seemed the only option.

I began by creating a spreadsheet.  My spreadsheet contains several important daily activities:

• breakfast
• lunch
• snack
• dinner
• chores
• & activities.

Next, I put the days of the week Monday- Friday across the top and the daily activities along the left hand side.

Then, I filled in a healthy meal for each of the days... specifics for breakfast & generic themes for dinners.  For example, Thursday will be Mexican.

Finally, I added in our weekly activities that remain constant.  Ours would be guitar class on Tuesday from 4:30-5:00.  I also added in daily chores.  We are going to begin cleaning the kitchen and living areas nightly as a family.  I added in 2 laundry days and 1 day that is for vacuuming.

I printed the Weekly Schedule on cardstock and will get it laminated.  It will be hung on the side of the refrigerator as a reference.  Each night we will look at the next day's lunch and create an assembly line for making the lunches before bedtime.  This will give us more time in the morning when everyone is a bit sleepy and not yet movin' & groovin'.

To further simplify what needs to be done in the mornings, I will have each of us pack up our belongings that need to travel with us the night before.  Each of us will place the items in a designated area for easy grab and go.  This means in the morning each person will only need to

• get dressed
• eat a sit down breakfast (as a family)
• brush teeth
• & grab and go.

Eventually, I will make a picture sequence for the boys.  It will contain everything it takes to get completely dressed before coming downstairs in the morning.  The sequence will be taped to the bathroom mirror as a visual checklist.

Hopefully with all of this in place our morning rhythm will be smooth, peaceful, and on time.  We will leave each others company both calm and ready to take on the world.