Does anyone else just stink at schedules? Rachel from A Mother Far From Home is a genius at them. I think they’re a great idea. I even think they would help my children and me. But when I think about schedules my heart starts to hurt. I get all nervous and my brain stops functioning. I really really hate them. I really am not the manager type. Time just isn’t something I think about a lot, unless I’m trying to figure out how long until bedtime.

I have always tried to follow a very loose schedule: Wake up around 7:00, eat breakfast, play/watch show/do something together, or alone. Eat lunch around 11:30 or whenever we’re hungry. Nap time. Play/watch a show/computer games/cook dinner. Eat dinner. Do something with the family. Or maybe my husband and I sit on the couch while our kids find something to do by themselves. Bedtime at 7:00 or 7:30. That’s not really a good schedule, though.

I have this magnetic schedule board so my kids can at least see what is going on in my mind, and if we need to move things around a bit, we do that easily with the magnetic release.

There are a lot of things that I want to make sure we do each day, and in order to make those things happen, I think we need to find a stricter schedule around here.

This is what I’m thinking:

7:00 Wake up
Breakfast
Read the Bible
Read some other books
Work out (kids are welcome to be near, but they must be quiet and not crawling all over me, for safety reasons)
The baby wakes up and eats breakfast while the boys do something at the table (color, play doh, practice reading, have a second breakfast)
Sibling time while I shower and dress
Outside time (our sidewalk is all shaded in the morning, so this is a really good time for us to get some fresh air in the summer!)

*sometimes the above gets all messed up because we go to the playground or the Children’s Museum or the library, or we have to do errands (blah!) I try to tell my children what to expect when they wake up, but sometimes I just decide in the moment that we need to get out or that we need to stay home. It’s fun having a creative mind! It would be more fun it all my kids did too.

11:30 Lunch
Baby takes a nap
Boys do home school stuff with me
Boys in their room for 1 hour of quiet play time, or nap time depending on their tiredness levels
Boys can watch some TV or play computer games
We/I prepare dinner

4:30 My husband gets home!!! Excitement!!!
Dinner
Family time

A couple nights a week, I leave at 6:00 to do some serious writing. Sometimes we do church stuff. Friday is Family Movie Night, where we all get to snuggle up and remember how much we love to be near each other. Saturdays and Sundays bring a sort of “Que Sera Sera” with them.

Okay. I’ve written it all out. Now I need to try to stick to it. That’s the really hard part for me.

What kind of schedule do you follow? Do you divide the day with meals like we do? Do you have a hard time scheduling your day, too? Do you want to figure out a schedule that works for you? Or are you lucky enough to be able to sing “Que Sera Sera” all the days long?