Managing Our Household.....What works and What Doesn't

The past couple of months have been a struggle for our house.  We have all gotten lazy.  For the past 3 years when people ask me how I do what I do (staying home with 4 kids, homeschool, cakes, kid sports, etc.) without losing my mind I have always said routine.  Routine is important in our household....early bedtimes, everyone naps or has quiet time together, everyone wakes up together, we all eat the same meal, and we all have chores.  Don't get me wrong everything doesn't always get done, it gets loud and crazy and the kids still meltdown but having a consistent routine has literally saved my sanity.  I realize that every house doesn’t need routine, many thrive without it but we are not one of them ;-)  I know this so I have no idea why over the past two months I decided I was done with routine.  I guess we can call it a burn out period, but suddenly it seemed like as a family we just all said screw it!!  Then two weeks ago the flu hit our house, so the house went from barely surviving to a complete free for all and we haven’t recovered yet!!

I quit waking the kids up all at once for breakfast and started letting them just wake up and eat as they wanted.  Some of you might say that's not a big deal and for your house it might not be but for us it was disastrous.  Our normal routine goes something like this, Dad gets up for work and out the door by 4:30, I get up with him and then wake up Dalton… he gets ready for school and is out the door by 7:30.  Next the three little ones are up (Colton usually already is but the little two have to be woke up), we get our cute extra who I babysit around 7:30 and by 8 I am serving breakfast. , by 8:30 it's done.  With everyone waking up when they want (except for Dad and Dalton) I am making 3 different breakfasts at least and by the time Keaton (our late sleeper) finishes his breakfast Colton is ready for lunch because he’s been awake so long.  So before I know it its noon and I am behind on all the chores and haven’t started school yet.  This in turn throws our whole day off, Dad gets home from work at 2:30 and at the point we all start playing and hanging out so nothing gets accomplished, then we have evening sports and supper when we are done by 8 I am too exhausted from playing catch up all day to care what still needs to be done. That isn’t a problem as long as I accomplish it in the mornings but I haven’t been.  The kids have a handful of things they are responsible for….Dalton gets unloading the dishwasher and feeding the dog, Colton and Weston pick up the living room and help keep shoes situated (there are six of us in this house and four play sports so there are a lot of shoes!!!), Keaton picks up his hot wheels (he is only two and he has a ton of hot wheels so for now he gets it easy).  During our burn out time the kids haven’t been doing their chores, I mean Dad and I have pretty much just been doing the bare minimum of ours so who are we to fuss. 

The big point here is how slacking off on our routine has affected our home.  It is a disaster; the laundry is piled up (so we can’t find half of what we need), the dishes are piled up,  the floors need mopped (I seriously can’t remember when the last time I mopped was), we have been eating drive thru food because I haven’t been cooking supper each night, the kids have complete meltdowns when we ask them to do the smallest thing because they haven’t been doing anything, I haven’t been laying them down for naps/quiet time so they are falling asleep in the car on the way to sports in the evenings then aren’t sleepy at bedtime, we are all snappy, grouchy, grumpy and well just pissy!!

The good news is we all agreed we needed back on track so last night we had a family meeting and reminded everyone (including  Mom and Dad ) what is expected of them to make our family work.  I woke up this morning determined to go back to the routine….of course it wasn’t that easy (the kids had other ideas)…..Dalton decided he wasn’t taking a shower before school (he always insists on one whether he actually needs it or not) so we slept in a little later.  Once Dad and he were out the door, I woke up the little ones and started breakfast…..Keaton fell back asleep on the couch 45 minutes after waking up and is still asleep.  Weston is also now asleep on the couch (it’s a rainy day here), and Colton went next door for a play date with my niece.  In response to my game plan for our routines to be back stronger than ever completely failing I am pretty much just hanging out (I have tons of stuff to be doing)!!

We will try again tomorrow!!  I will have my sanity back by the end of this week….anything else is unacceptable ;-)

What are some things that just have to be a routine in your house?  What happens when you veer from that routine?  Does anyone successfully thrive without one?  Share your thoughts in the comment section!!