Scheduling My Month

I've never been much of a scheduled person, always doing activity A on day 1 and activity B on day 2, etc. In fact, aside from when the kids were younger, it has been since college days that I followed anything close to a schedule. But now I'm starting to rethink that, especially for my Saturdays. And, the more I think about it, maybe "schedule" isn't the right word. "Plan" would be better.

Usually by Wednesday or Thursday of each week, I start thinking about what I want to accomplish on Saturday. Sometimes we'll be going out of town or have something specific we want to do. Maybe I'll decide to do baking day or work on an unfinished project. Maybe I'll think "I have no clue what to do!" Generally Saturday is laundry day and I'll pick a room to straighten up and reorganize, but I'd like to switch that to a weekday, leaving me an actual full Saturday to do whatever else. I'd also like to have my shopping done during the week so I'm not spending 4-5 hours running on a Saturday. Shopping always takes longer on the weekend; too many people and too much traffic, I suppose.

With the kids starting high school in a little over a week, this would be the perfect time for me to make some changes. So here's my plan: The kids will need to be out the door around 7 AM to catch the bus and will be home about 2:45 PM. I would love to have my work finished before they get home. I would then have 90 minutes or so to clean, sit and talk, plan shopping trips, laundry, etc., before starting dinner. Then after dinner, finish dishes, any clean-up that needs done, and have the evening available for any church or school activities, yard work, a shopping night, family "bonding" activities here at home (puzzles, games, favorite TV shows that we watch together), and maybe, just maybe, a little stitching time! I would also like to sit down at the beginning of the month and tentatively plan out our weekends - are we going out of town or doing an inexpensive fun day? Which Saturday would be best for a baking day or an unfinished project day? And maybe I will start planning out specific days, too, like Monday is yard day - mowing, weeding, fertilizing, etc. If I'm trying to get away from laundry on the weekend, then Friday would have to be laundry day. (The kids have gym every day for a semester, so those clothes have GOT to be done every week! lol) Wednesday is always youth and small groups at church. Anyhow, you get the idea.

When I'm done with work today, I'm going to sit down and pencil out a schedule for the rest of this month and post it here. We will see what happens!