Homemaking Schedule

Pretty immediately after Edwin was born I started to feel completely overwhelmed.

It's not that Edwin was a particularly difficult baby, but I don't think it really matters what your kid's personalities are like--having two kids 19 months apart is just HARD.

My biggest worry was getting a handle on simple everyday tasks. I mean, like showering. I ran into another mom from our ward at the park while Edwin was still super little and was pretty much like, "TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!" She has 4 kids, and I just couldn't figure out how she did it.

How do you balance everything the kids need, and still manage to shower daily and feel like a put together human being whose house wasn't just uprooted by a tornado?

This is pretty much every day.

The kids just never stop. When Edwin was born Kate was down to only one nap a day. Luckily newborns sleep constantly, so there was an afternoon chunk of time when they both were down together (hallelujah!) but that quickly faded when Kate turned two and stopped wanting any sort of nap at all :(

While Jon's parents were visiting a few weeks ago I made an off-hand comment to my mother-in-law saying,
"I feel sometimes like all I do is feed people and clean up messes all day!" {haha! but like, seriously.}
and she responded, "That's because you are!" {haha! but like, seriously.}

So while browsing Pinterest I came across a daily homemaking schedule:

smilelikeyoumeanit.net

 
It's just a single page that blocks out each day of the week and generally breaking up the chores into simple and manageable chunks. I tailored it to be more relevant for our needs, and voila!

(The image above links through to my OneDrive. You are welcome to Pin, print, or change this for yourself)

You all know that I'm big into schedules. They just help me feel grounded. It's not like I stick to them 100% of the time. In fact that is why I like this one, because it is general and flexible. I think if I had every last detail planned out then I would get more stressed when things fly off course. But this homemaking schedule has made the last two weeks feel less overwhelming :)

We all have those days when we wake up and all of the sudden we see that EVERY SINGLE ROOM is a disaster and desperately needs attention.

 
Where to start?? What to work on?? And the kids want breakfast?? I think I'll just go back to bed and hide under the sheets . . .

Well NO MORE! I'm taking charge of my days and helping myself keep it simple. That way none of it builds up to a massive state of chaos.

These kids do that job just fine by themselves ;)