You head to Heart of the Matter and read my post about making an Abnormal Schedule to go along with your Abnormal Life, of course!

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

For several years I have used this 12 week Holiday Planner to plan my time from shortly before Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

I had listened in on a conference call with Marilyn Moll {then of the Urban Homemaker} and two women I had never heard of.  The first was Sheri Graham, who had co-authored the 12 Week Planner, and the other was Ann Voskamp, who’s Jesse Tree devotional at the time was being included as a bonus with the Planner. {yes, there WAS a time when Ann Voskamp wasn’t a household name…at least not in my household!}

I decided this was exactly what I needed to stay on track during the holidays, so I purchased it that night and downloaded and printed it off immediately.  I took their advice and slipped each page into protective covers inside a notebook (Jesse Tree devotional included) and sailed through the holidays despite the impending birth of our 6th child {a large factor in my needing this planner!}

Now, some people can plan their holidays just fine without a planner.  I am not one of those people.  And I’m also not someone who can come up with everything I need this time of year on my own, so I am truly grateful for people like Sheri, who put together materials like this!

Now, you might be wondering why you need a “well-planned” Christmas?  And what does a well-planned Christmas look like.  Well, let’s just say, I got the planner out late this year and it shows!  Without planning, your gift giving is haphazard, your meal planning is over budget, and you feel more stress than peace during a season that ought to be full of peace and thanksgiving.  I am so glad I remembered to get my planner out, even if it was late in the game…better late than never!

So, if you are looking for order this Christmas (and the next and the next), I highly recommend the 12 Week Holiday Planner!  I’m sure there are others out there, but this has worked for me for several years now and I don’t plan on changing.

And if you are looking for peace in the weeks to come (and long after the Christmas decorations are put away), check out my ebook 10 Days to a Peaceful Home.  Only $1.99!

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

This week we’ve learned how to feel blessed and how to create a haven.

Today we bring our day to a close…peacefully.

This is one thing I have only recently begun to implement in full.  I’ve done bits and pieces throughout the years to slow our evenings down, but nothing fully intentional.  What changed all that?

Reading the Old Testament.

While working through the Balancing the Sword Bible study, I came across the why behind the Jewish day ending at sundown (Genesis 1:3).  For the Jewish people, there is a marking of the end of a day that is very distinct.  Sabbath begins in the evening, Feasts begin in the evening, and all begin with a marked slowing of pace; a separation between the preparations of the day and the beginning of the celebrations.

Our family decided that this separation of morning and evening should become a part of our family life as we worked toward creating a God-glorifying peaceful atmosphere in our home.

I will tell you now, I have no solid Scripture to base this on and I would never insinuate that you must separate your day in order to have a functioning home, but I can testify to the beauty and peace it has created in our home.

Here are some ideas for bringing your day to a close:

*Have a set time to put away schoolwork. In the workforce, there is a start and a finish to the work day.  When we blur the day into the night, we are often asking more of our children (and of their Mommy) than any person is capable of giving.  Of course, there are exceptions, but as a general rule, choose a time to end the day and then end it…no matter what.

*Do a quick Tidy Up. Around 5pm every day, we stop what we are doing and tidy the entire house as fast as we can.  It is so nice to relax in a tidy home in the evening!

*Greet Daddy at the door with the distinct purpose of separating his daily grind from his evening at home. I know not all Daddies are home in the evenings, but this applies no matter what time Daddy comes home!  I have trained our children to excitedly run for the door when Daddy gets home.  How did I train them to do this?  By being excited myself! It thrills Daddy’s soul to have his entire household happy he is home.

*Enjoy your evening meal. Read Stop the Meal Time Madness for ideas!

*Spend the evening in slower pursuits. This is the time for dimmer lighting, quieter voices, calmer play.  After dinner, we clean up and almost immediately get our baths taken and jammies on.  Sometimes we play a game or watch a movie or read books.  The little ones will play cars or pretend they are homesteading, but we require that the pace stays as calm as possible.  There are the occasional wrestling matches with Daddy, but we try to keep those toward the beginning of the evening and nowhere near bedtime.

*Family Worship Time. I talked about this in yesterday’s post.  We do this in the evening and then say bedtime prayers.  We do not always send the children to bed right after prayers, but I’ll talk more about that in tomorrow’s post.

Evenings around here are such a blessed time since we’ve begun to purposefully slow our pace.  I would love that same blessing for your family too!

10 Days to a Peaceful Home HOMEwork:

• Come up with a doable time to end your day and be diligent to meet that deadline.
• Work on being excited and in turn teaching your children to be excited to have Daddy home.
• Come up with a list of “slower pursuits” your family could enjoy in the evenings and post it where your family can see it and make choices from it.

Purchase the entire series along with new content and worksheets for $1.99!

Be sure to visit these brilliant women during our 10 days adventure between November 7th-18th! I love these ladies and we know you will too.

10 days of Character Studies | Confessions of a Homeschooler
10 days of Christmas Countdown Ideas | Milk & Cookies
10 days of Creative Writing | Chocolate on My Cranium
10 days of Crockpot Meals | The Happy Housewife
10 Days to a Godly Marriage | Women Living Well
10 Days of Growing Leaders | Mom’s Mustard Seeds
10 Days of Homeschooling High School | Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
10 days of I Wish I Had Known | Fruit in Season

10 days of Kid-friendly Food | Planner Perfect
10 Days of Language Arts Lesson Planning | Jimmie’s Collage
10 Days of Learning Apps | Daze of Adventure
10 Days of a Mason Jar Christmas | Cajun Joie de Vivre
10 Days of More JESUS in Christmas | Preschoolers and Peace
10 Days to a Peaceful Home | Raising Arrows
10 Days of Raising a Life-Long-Learner | Bright Ideas Press
10 days of Science with Math | Blog, She Wrote
10 days of Teaching Values | Our Journey Westward
10 days of Winning your Child’s Heart | I Take Joy

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

We’ve checked our hearts, we’ve greeted the day with goals, but what happens when the day just doesn’t seem to be going as planned?

We remember that peace can still be found when we allow ourselves “wiggle room.”

If you’ve read my series on Creating a Daily Routine, you already know that I am not fond of sectioning off a day by 15-30 minute time slots.  I don’t do well in that kind of environment because it feels too boxed in.  I much prefer a routine that is loosely based on times of day and order of activities.  The times listed on my daily schedule are suggestions and guidelines rather than rules.

I know, if need be, I can adjust.

THAT is wiggle room.

But, why is this post entitled “Well-Ordered Wiggle Room?”

Because despite the fact I wholeheartedly believe you need flexibility, I also wholeheartedly believe you need order for peace to flow throughout your home.

Living life willy-nilly however you may please may seem free-spirited and wonderfully peaceful on the surface, but underneath all of that footloose and fancy-freeness, there is often found randomness that stems from an aimless life searching for contentment and peace.

Where there is no vision, the people perish:  but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Proverbs 29:18

God is a God of order, not chaos.  He gives mankind guidelines and parameters to work within because He loves us.  Ordering our day glorifies Him and shows our love for those in our household.  Allowing wiggle room amongst the order of the day allows room for God to work and our family to act on those Works!

10 Days to a Peaceful Home HOMEwork:

• Begin creating a family schedule/routine that factors in wiggle room.
• Practice your reactions to things not going as you planned.
• Try your newly created schedule/routine for a few days and tweak as needed.

Purchase the entire series along with new content and worksheets for $1.99!

Be sure to visit these brilliant women during our 10 days adventure between November 7th-18th! I love these ladies and we know you will too.

10 days of Character Studies | Confessions of a Homeschooler
10 days of Christmas Countdown Ideas | Milk & Cookies
10 days of Creative Writing | Chocolate on My Cranium
10 days of Crockpot Meals | The Happy Housewife
10 Days to a Godly Marriage | Women Living Well
10 Days of Growing Leaders | Mom’s Mustard Seeds
10 Days of Homeschooling High School | Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
10 days of I Wish I Had Known | Fruit in Season
10 days of Keeping Your Marbles | The Tie That Binds Us
10 days of Kid-friendly Food | Planner Perfect
10 Days of Language Arts Lesson Planning | Jimmie’s Collage
10 Days of Learning Apps | Daze of Adventure
10 Days of a Mason Jar Christmas | Cajun Joie de Vivre
10 Days of More JESUS in Christmas | Preschoolers and Peace
10 Days to a Peaceful Home | Raising Arrows
10 Days of Raising a Life-Long-Learner | Bright Ideas Press
10 days of Science with Math | Blog, She Wrote
10 days of Teaching Values | Our Journey Westward
10 days of Winning your Child’s Heart | I Take Joy

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

Now that you have taken a hard look at your own heart, it is time to focus on the pieces and parts of your day that are an expression (or not) of that peace.

Starting with your morning.

Mornings have never been easy for me.  I am naturally a night person.  However, even as a certified night owl, I have realized that in order to have peace in my home, I have to greet the morning with more than a grunt.

There are, of course, seasons in a woman’s life when mornings are more difficult to greet, but the principle remains the same despite the circumstances.  Let’s take our cues from the Proverbs 31 woman:

She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.
~Proverbs 31:15

This verse is less about what time she gets up and more about why she gets up.  She greets the morning with productivity rather than laziness.

Now, I can hear a few of you screaming for your early morning coffee on the veranda, but let me challenge you…

Greet your morning with coffee AND plans and provisions for the day.  You will find such peace in spending time with the Lord and setting goals for the day in the quiet of the morning.

From there, get up, get dressed, and get going!

Take the goals you have prayed over and start working through them, fully conscious of the peace you gain from knowing where you are going!

You won’t always {or ever} be able to meet every single goal you set in the morning, but having a plan will give you the focus you need to create an environment that is peaceful.  It is the kind of peace that comes from knowing you began your day with purpose and praise.

10 Days to a Peaceful Home HOMEwork:

• Print off my FREE Greet the Morning Checklist, grab your Bible and a cup of coffee and make some goals for your day!
• Don’t overdo your goal list!  Be reasonable about what you can accomplish.
• Make sure you are planning in some family activities that promote peace in your home.

Purchase the entire series along with new content and worksheets for $1.99!

Be sure to visit these brilliant women during our 10 days adventure between November 7th-18th! I love these ladies and we know you will too.

10 days of Character Studies | Confessions of a Homeschooler
10 days of Christmas Countdown Ideas | Milk & Cookies
10 days of Creative Writing | Chocolate on My Cranium
10 days of Crockpot Meals | The Happy Housewife
10 Days to a Godly Marriage | Women Living Well
10 Days of Growing Leaders | Mom’s Mustard Seeds
10 Days of Homeschooling High School | Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
10 days of I Wish I Had Known | Fruit in Season
10 days of Keeping Your Marbles | The Tie That Binds Us
10 days of Kid-friendly Food | Planner Perfect
10 Days of Language Arts Lesson Planning | Jimmie’s Collage
10 Days of Learning Apps | Daze of Adventure
10 Days of a Mason Jar Christmas | Cajun Joie de Vivre
10 Days of More JESUS in Christmas | Preschoolers and Peace
10 Days to a Peaceful Home | Raising Arrows
10 Days of Raising a Life-Long-Learner | Bright Ideas Press
10 days of Science with Math | Blog, She Wrote
10 days of Teaching Values | Our Journey Westward
10 days of Winning your Child’s Heart | I Take Joy

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

Yesterday, I told you how I keep a clean home and homeschool at the same time, but I realize not all my readers are homeschoolers.  Because of this, I want to say something that goes beyond the boundaries of the homeschool mom world…

How you spend your time matters.

The notion that what we do with “our time” is our own business simply isn’t true because everything, and I mean everything, we do affects someone else in some way.

I was thinking about my friend Nony who no longer has children at home during the day.  She’s had to revamp her entire schedule because her life has changed.  Yet, she’s still not free to do whatever she wants.  There are limitations and boundaries that if crossed, will create chaos.

Even if you are like me and run on a routine, rather than a minute-by-minute schedule, you still must keep some sort of order to your day or you end up aimless.  Your order may be more a framework type of schedule like Rachel’s at Finding Joy or it may be a schedule based on a routine you already have in place like mine.  You may have toddlers who throw a wrench in your schedule like Maureen or perhaps like Cindy, you have a love/hate relationship with schedules and need to make peace with it.  No matter what kind of schedule you are working towards, keep this verse in mind…

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16

Can you give an account of how you spend your time?

Are your days a never-ending string of chaos or is peace the norm and chaos the exception?

Do you have some sort of meal plan like my friend Jimmie or are you scrambling to find nourishing food every single day?

Are you spending quality time with your family?  How about your husband?  {Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers knows the importance of scheduling in couple time.}

Do you have Weekly Chores for your household that ensure a clean home?  Are your children pitching in?  {You can see Cheryl’s chore list for teens or you can check out my Chores by Age list for ideas.}

Do you have heaps of creative projects you’d like to finish, but the urgent always gets in the way?

Is your family thriving?

Or are you run ragged with nothing to show for it?

It might be time to take a hard look at the hours of your day.

“Everything we do, no matter how noble the cause, if it isn’t to please God, is done to please ourselves.”
~The Organized Homeschooler by Vicki Caruana

Ouch.

That hurt.

No matter how noble the things we spend our time on are, if it is wrecking our home or causing us to lose sight of God’s true purpose for us as wives and mothers, then we are not spending our time wisely and God will not be pleased.

Order you day in a way that honors God.

period.

Do you have a post on Well-Ordered Days?  Then link up below!

And then visit my well-ordered friends…

Jimmie – Meal Planning for Well Ordered Days
Maureen – Do Toddlers and Well Ordered Days Mix?
Kris – Scheduling Time with Your Husband
Lacy - Creating a Schedule Your Family Can Thrive On
Nony – Creating a Schedule for the New Normal
Cheryl – Chores ‘Round Here – The Teen Schedule
Angie – Finding Time for Creative Endeavors
Rachel – The Flexible Schedule.  It’s Possible.
Cindy – How I Stopped Dithering and Learned to Love the Schedule

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

This house has the laundry tucked away behind doors in the hallway.  Something I always thought would drive me crazy…after all, where in the world would I pile all my loads of laundry???

I knew I would need to totally revamp my old laundry system in order to accommodate my new laundry “room.”  Here’s what I came up with:

*Each room has a laundry basket. There is a small one in the girls’ room, a medium one in the boys’ room, and a large one in mommy and daddy’s room.  Three total.  All placed where I can quickly walk by the room and tell, at a glance, if that room needs laundry done up.

*Laundry is washed by room “as needed.” Originally, I thought I would have a schedule that went something like this:

Monday = Mom & Dad
Tuesday = Boys
Wednesday = Girls
Thursday = Sheets/Towels
Friday = Any extras

However, I quickly realized there was no way this was going to work.  It worked much better to do the laundry “as needed.”  I also love this system because I know I only have to do the amount of laundry in that particular basket. It is NEVER over 3 loads.  I cannot even remember the last time I ONLY had to do 3 loads (confession: even though I had more than 3 loads to do, I rarely got more than 2 loads done in a single day…again, out of sight, out of mind)

*The same laundry basket is used for dirty and for clean. Yes, I know I just grossed a few of you out, but here’s why I can get by with this…I keep anti-bacterial spray and paper towels on the laundry room shelf!  Once I’ve sorted the laundry out of the basket and onto the hallway floor, I give the basket a quick spray and wipe it out.  It’s ready to go once the first load comes out of the dryer!

*The dryer buzzer is my friend. When the laundry was in the basement, I could not hear the dryer buzzer.  Now I can!  What a difference that makes!  Clothes are taken out immediately, folded (or hung up because all the closets are nearby), and put into the basket and into the right room.

*The children put away their own clothes. Blake (age 12) is in charge of the boys’ clothes and Megan (age 10) is in charge of the girls’.  The younger siblings help, but ultimately the putting away of the laundry is their responsibility.  Micah (age 2) has his hanging clothes in my walk-in closet, and Garin (age 5 months) has all his clothes in my closet.  Blake is responsible for putting these away as well.

And the process starts all over again…

This is very different from my shelf and basket system, but the more we settle into this house, the more acutely aware I am of how very different homes can be and how you must adjust accordingly.  And honestly, it has been kind of fun to revamp our lives!

{And since we are talking laundry, let me point you in the direction of an awesome blog for all things laundry from a dear friend of mine…Lauren at Mama’s Laundry Talk.  She has a post on different methods of sorting laundry, and also WHY you should organize your laundry room – just in case you needed some motivation!  I know I’ve mentioned Mama’s Laundry Talk before, but it deserved being mentioned again because the laundry and the laundry room itself are often difficult for us moms, and Lauren’s posts are just the kind of energy shot we need to stay on top of Mount Washmore! }

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

We are also a family who likes to sleep in places other than our own beds.  As I am typing this, my husband is asleep in the chair across from me, my toddler is tangled up in the covers in my bed, and the rest of the children (minus the baby) are having a slumber party in the boy’s room!

But, the actual sleeping isn’t usually the issue in a growing family, now is it?

It’s either the getting to sleep or the staying asleep that causes us angst.

Nicole asked
How do you deal with sleep issues?…I feel exhausted with nursing a baby and having waking toddlers. I’m leery of them sharing a room too soon because I’m scared they would wake each other up! How do you do it? Do you sleep train your kids?

To answer these questions, I thought I’d give you a glimpse of what we do, what works, what doesn’t, and what I’d like to see us do better, and then turn it over to all of you!

The rooms are divided up as Girls and Boys. The baby currently sleeps in our room in his crib for most of the night and in bed with me some of the night (he is very easily congested and doesn’t do well co-sleeping).

I usually move baby out of our room about the time baby turns 10 months or so. That is a totally arbitrary age.  It just seems, for some reason, about that time frame is when I feel like I need them to start sleeping through the night, and sleeping through the night is better facilitated outside of my room.  It usually takes me another couple of months to get them to the point of sleeping through the night.  So, yes, in a sense I do sleep train, but it’s a pretty wimpy version of what most people mean when they say “sleep train.” I really like the book, The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley.  I use a lot of her ideas when I move baby to a different room.

The room I move baby to depends on which room is the calmest at night. Currently, that would be the girls room; however, this has not always been the case.  I have a daughter who struggled with sleep issues for many years.  A couple of years ago, her room would not have been a good place for baby.

When I moved Micah out of our room, he went into a room by himself for a time.  I managed to create this environment by putting our preschool aged son in his sister’s room and moving my oldest downstairs to a small room of his own (which he hated, by the way…so much for kids needing their own rooms, huh?).  We kept this arrangement until Micah was able to go to sleep calmly, at which time we put his brother back in the room with him.

The little boys' toddler beds.

I have found that at a certain point, children become immune to the cries of a baby in the night. I don’t know what the precise age is, but around here it seems by about 20 months, they don’t even flinch in their sleep when they hear a baby cry.  In fact, I remember nights of babies crying very loudly for a very long time and my oldest son sleeping right through it all!

In order to cope with the inevitable sleepless nights, we have a mandatory Rest Time. Each afternoon, I either snuggle up with the toddler or the baby while everyone else heads to their beds or another secluded area of the house, for an hour of rest.  And yes, I sleep too!  I find having the children in their own beds works best for keeping them “restful” during this time. However, if I really want the toddler to sleep, he almost invariably has to be in my arms…which is fine with me since warm squishy toddlers make for warm sleepy mommies!  It isn’t uncommon for me to get the toddler to sleep while we sit cuddled up in the recliner, only to eventually move to the couch with the baby because he’s awakened and fall back asleep with him in my arms.  (I seriously look forward to this time of day!)

As you know, bedtime here is later than in many households, and all the children (except for the baby, who is usually down by 8pm) go to bed at the same time.  This greatly reduces the desire of the children to get up and see what might be going on that they are missing by being in bed.  I suppose at some point this will have to change, but for now, it works well.

We try to keep a rhythm to our evenings as well. Around 7:30 or so, life begins to slow.  On bath night, they bathe and put on jammies and often snuggle up on the couch for Bible Time or a movie or grab a book to read.  About 8:50, the evening paraphernalia is put away and teeth are brushed, prayers are said, and children are carted off to bed.

We do not allow a lot of commotion after everyone is in bed. That means no jabbering, no getting out of bed, no asking Mommy for this or that.  Now, don’t get me wrong, all this still happens, we just keep a pretty tight rein on it all.  That said, I do try to stay in tune with my children to decide if what they need is truly a need. I do take the time to sit up and talk with children who need to hash something out or get a drink for a child who truly is parched.  I’ve come to realize you cannot parent with an iron fist because not everything is done in defiance.  Parenting with wisdom is much more effective.

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

It's starting to look like a real home!

Two days in our new home and I knew something had to change.  With every day spent in chaos, I knew I could no longer handle things the way they were.  But how can you possibly get a grip on normalcy when you are living amongst boxes?

You make an ABNORMAL schedule, of course!

The idea stemmed from my ride back with my husband after we dropped off the rental car I’d been driving.  During our 2 1/2 hour drive, we talked mostly of our daily schedule.  The majority of the conversation revolved around the way we would like to see things go once we were settled in and were able to resume school; however, I realized during our discussion that in the meantime I needed a schedule as well.

But how do you make a schedule for a life that is in such upheaval?  Is it even possible?

I was willing to try.

The results have been SPECTACULAR!

Here is what the schedule looks like:

8 am – Wake Up
-tidy room, make beds, get dressed, brush teeth, help littles

8:30 am – Breakfast
-table chores

9 am – Unpack 1 box

9:30 am – Play Time

11 am – Clean up & do Chores
-Mommy assigns chores

12 pm – Lunch
-table chores

1 pm – Play Time

2 pm – Reading/Rest Time

3 pm – Outside Time/Games

4 pm – Clean Up & Chores

4:30 pm – Computer/Videos

6 pm – Supper
-table chores

7 pm – Free Time

8 pm – Bible Time (and get ready for bed)

9 pm – Bed Time

Most assuredly you will notice precisely what my children noticed first…

There is a ton of Play Time!

In our pre-schedule chaos, the whole day was play time because Mommy was just trying to find the kitchen and the school room and the bedrooms and…well, you get the picture.  I had to come to grips with the fact that when you are in a transition like this, there WILL be a lot of play time.  HOWEVER, there are other things that can be interspersed amongst the play time that makes for a day that is less chaotic and much more productive.

Let me put a little flesh on this bare bones Abnormal Schedule for you:

*Giving a set time for wake up lends itself to stability, something hard to find during a move.  Giving them a few set morning chores helps to get the morning started right.

*Table chores of some sort have to be done with a large family.  Even if you are using paper plates, there will be clean up.  Getting the children involved in this gives them ownership and responsibility within the new home.

*I didn’t want to ask them to unpack more than one box because they inevitably need help with putting the contents of their one box away.  5 boxes (Garin isn’t really up to unpacking a box ) is quite enough for mommy to help with in a 24 hour period.

*Play Time isn’t just a free for all.  Mostly the children play together, and I try to make sure if one toy/game is abandoned it is put away before heading off to the next activity.

*Chores usually revolve around unpacked items. A few days ago, Ty set up the bookshelves downstairs and we set the children to unpacking book boxes.  They decided to play a game with it.  They guessed how many books we owned and as they unpacked they counted.  By the time I called them to lunch, they had unpacked 450 books! (Yes, I DO own a small library…just ask the movers)

*Rest Time here used to be right after lunch; however, as Ty and I were discussing what we want our day to look like once school is back in session, we decided we wanted school to be completely finished by 2pm and not be broken up by Rest Time since we seem to totally lose our school mindset after Rest Time.  So, I decided to put Rest Time in the slot it will hold once normal returns, making the adjustment to the new schedule easier.

*We experienced a killer snowstorm only a few days after moving.  No outside time for the kiddos, which is why I put it down as Game Time as well.  My idea here is that once we are back in school, this time will be spent partially in free play and partially in a more structured play that I will use for Physical Education in our homeschool. We have a fairly large open area in our basement that I will use for PE during inclimate weather.

*We currently allow each child 30 minutes of computer time on Tuesdays and Thursdays and movies on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday.  Any extra of any of those is Dad’s Choice (and dad is a softie )

*Bible Time right now consists of Daddy reading from Matthew.  We have not yet found our  Mighty Acts of God book and Daddy really felt led to read to the children from the book of the Bible he was reading from.  The fruit of this has been absolutely beautiful!  Daddy reads, we take the time to explain any concepts they might not “get” and then discuss.  The discussions often come up again throughout the following days.  I can really see how even the smaller children are processing God’s Word and learning.  It is imperative children hear the Scripture itself and not just books ABOUT Scripture.

*And finally, Bed Time.  For the past several months bed time has been rather erratic.  Daddy likes to keep the children up, Mommy likes to put them to bed.  So, we met in the middle.  9 pm works for us.  And yes, ALL the children go to bed at this time.  I have yet to figure out a way to only put some of them to bed and not have a crazy mess on my hands.

So far, this schedule has been a sanity saver!  The children do not spend the entire day wondering what will happen next and I have a house that is fairly peaceful despite all the boxes (did I mention movers like to pack boxes with only a few items in them and tons of paper?  Craziness!)  Eventually, we’ll move away from this schedule and into something more normal, but for now, I’m quite pleased with the results and feel comfortable using this schedule as long as it takes to find normal again.

…and if, perhaps, you are looking for help in making a schedule that isn’t abnormal right this very second, might I suggest this posts:

The To-Do List Series (from my blog)

Posts in the Large Family Moving Series:
The Logistics
Making an Abnormal Schedule ~ this post
Saying Goodbye
Unpacking

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!

A family slumber party in the living room.

In my post on practical ideas for helping you have enough of you to go around, I said the majority of the activities we participate in are things our entire family can enjoy.  Karyn asked me to elaborate, so this post is that elaboration.

WARNING: This is either going to be one of those posts you love, or one of those posts you hate.  Either way, I hope I offer some food for thought here.

Outside activities for members of our household are put under close scrutiny before we allow participation in them. We don’t just do things to do things.

So, what guidelines do we try to stick to when evaluating an activity?  Here’s a generalized list…

1. Is the activity God-honoring?

There are lots of things to do out there; however, not everything is glorifying to the Lord.  I won’t try to discern for you what is and is not glorifying, but I will suggest this verse as a starting point:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Phil 4:8

2. Does the activity have “lasting merit.”

An example of this is Scouts.  In our family, Scouting is a worthy activity.  Our oldest son has learned an incredible amount of pertinent and beneficial information through Scouts, and even saved his younger brother from choking because of what he had learned as a Scout.

There are other activities we don’t feel have lasting merit; and therefore, do not want to spend our precious time participating in those things when there are so many better activities out there.

A good question to ask yourself is:
20 years from now will the fact that a family member participated in this activity prove to be beneficial to them or someone else in some way?

3. Does the activity correlate with the family member’s particular giftings?

God has blessed each and every one of us with gifts that can benefit the body of Christ.  We should pursue excellence in those giftings.  We strive to hone the gifts our children were born with in order to “train them up in the way they should go.” (Prov 22:6)

This goes for adults as well as children.  If I had a knack for arranging flowers (which I don’t), our family might consider it wise for me to take a class on floral arranging, make up arrangements to beautify our church, and further that aspect of myself in order to give of myself in my particular gifting (and possibly pass that knowledge on to other family members in the process).  However, much of this could be done without me being away from my family for very long at a time.  Anything that would take a family member away quite often and for several hours/days on end would need to meet the next criteria…

4. Does the activity benefit the family?

An example of this is my husband’s hunting.  I know we’ve had a good laugh over the buffalo on my wall (which still doesn’t have a name, but may, at some point, need buffalo-plasty because of how often I run into her nose!), but my husband doesn’t hunt in order to bring home trophies.  That buffalo provided us with a freezer full of meat…low fat, high iron organic meat.  Sometimes it is a deer, sometimes it is a pheasant, but his policy is don’t hunt it unless you plan on eating it.  And that’s what we do.  Therefore, that particular activity, now also enjoyed by our oldest son, benefits the family.

5. Does it encourage family-togetherness?

As you can see from my examples above, not everything we do is done as a family; however, family ALWAYS takes precedence over all else.  As I said in my practical ideas post, if an activity shows signs of tearing away at the family, it needs to go.  If we are spending more time apart as a family than together, we will begin to lose family unity–something I’m not willing to sacrifice.  Always look for the unified family version of an activity before signing up for the separated family version.

Some things we do not base our decisions off of:

1. Is it fair?

If I spent my entire life trying to make everything fair, I would be a crazy lady and our household would run a muck.  Fairness is not a good way to make decisions because I would likely end up with 2 or 3 places to be per child per week, which totally goes against #5 on our list.

2. Peer pressure.

Just because a friend is doing it doesn’t make it right for your family.  That doesn’t necessarily mean the friend is making a poor decision, but you can’t choose activities based solely on what your friend or your child’s friend is doing.  For example, if my friend has decided to invest thousands of dollars in scuba lessons and equipment for her son because he intends to be an underwater archaeologist, it would be ludicrous for me to invest that kind of money on my own child, who more than likely has no interest or gifting toward that line of work.  Make decisions based on your own family, not someone else’s.

3. What the child wants.

OK, that sounds harsh, but hear me out.  Most children have two types of desires…those that are in line with gifts they possess and those that are not.  My daughter may really, really, really want to take gymnastics and really, really, really want to take photography classes; however, I shouldn’t feel compelled to give her both simply because she wants both.  The Bible clearly states children are foolish.  Guide them to good choices, avoiding willy-nilly choices based on the whim of the day.

Now, Karyn asked about two specifics activities:

Music lessons
and
Sports

There is no way I can straight-across-the-board condemn or raise up one over another.  My husband paid his way through college on a football scholarship.  I had a music scholarship.  My husband hasn’t played football since.  I sing all the time.  His football benefited the family, my singing had lasting merit.  It’s a wash.

So, rather than saying certain activities are ALWAYS bad and certain activities are ALWAYS good, we go back to our list.  We work our way through it, prayerfully.  At the end of the day, your family is your family, and the activities you choose to engage in do not have to meet MY standards.  Go to the Lord in prayer about what HE would have your family participate in.  Then do it wholeheartedly, as unto the Lord!

Click here for the FEBRUARY SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL ~ Homemaking from the Heart Bundle!