Early Rising Experiment--Day One

I used to use the index card system to organize my life. It was WONDERFUL for getting me started on serious home management and getting all of the household tasks done. I'm grateful to my aunt for teaching it to me. Once I got used to spreading the chores/tasks out in an organized way and it became habit, I stopped doing index cards and made a home management binder with a very detailed weekly and daily schedule. This was great for keeping my days productive and organized! During the summer, I went with just a very simple weekly schedule instead of daily because of our more relaxed days and time outside and with friends. Now, I'm using the Daily Docket format I found on Simple Mom's site and I just write a to-do list like the one below in my notebook, which is in my home management binder. Different plans work for different seasons and everyone is different in how they approach home organization. I find this works for me! As of 9:30a.m. this is what I had checked off on today's list. MIT stands for Most Important Tasks. As with my older, detailed binder schedule, I want to make sure I include my hubby's needs on my MIT list. It's too easy as a mom to get so wrapped up in chores and kids that you fail to ask your hubby how you can bless him each day. So, it helps to write on your Daily Docket Template, "Ask Hubby How I Can Bless Him Today!"

Today was a pretty full day (but then again most of my days are.)

Now, at 4:20 p.m. as I'm posting this, I have gotten supper half-made, have done a load of laundry, have walked to the library and to the grocery store with the kids, have done an ENORMOUS load of dishes and have gotten veggies and fruits purchased and ready for Ali's turn to do preschool snacks tomorrow. What has changed in my schedule today? Well, I ended up not having time to do roast beef sandwiches so we did tuna sandwiches for lunch. And thus I decided to make roast beef with potatoes and peas for supper since it needs to get cooked. A friend going through a rough time called and needed some encouragement and advice and my brother stopped by to hire me to do some paperwork that has to be done here in America and sent to him so that he can gain some residency in the country in which he ministers. Sometimes God plans something different for us to do than what we planned on, which is great, but it's still nice to have a general plan for your day so you don't just sit around surfing the web and feeling overwhelmed (believe me, I have those days!)

Daily Docket reference page from Simple Mom. Print your own here.

I thought about printing off copies of these for every day's use but then decided that would use a lot of ink and paper. So, I have this blank one in my home management binder and I can look it over and just write down my copy in a notebook.

Simple Mom's weekly chore chart is also free for download and is very helpful to just glance over once or twice a week. I don't check it off, but since it is in a plastic page protector, I could use a dry erase marker if I wanted to. It's just a handy reminder of the main chores that should be done weekly around the average home.


I know it's not Tuesday yet, but I had to share that today, Day One of the Early Rising Experiment has gone really really well! The Lord woke me up about 30-40 minutes before my kids and I managed to sneak out to the laundry room where I could turn on a light and read some chapters in my Bible and jot down a schedule for the day. Justus woke up in the middle of the schedule-making but I was able to feed him quietly and pray and cuddle him and then finish my schedule holding him. I squeaked in a shower just after the other kids woke up and then made them french toast for breakfast. I felt like my day started off in an AMAZING way just because I had those precious moments of silence to pray and plan before I was hit with the endless stream of tasks and my noisy blessings continual chatter. I was a little groggier-feeling today from my day beginning earlier, but that can be fixed by going to bed even earlier tonight!

I'll share on Tuesday how this experiment has worked out for the whole first week!

Now that I've taken a quick moment to post this I'm on to finishing supper and vacuuming the living room. After supper we'll go say our goodbyes to my brother and his new wife. (boo-hoo) Later, when the kids are in bed and King Jo is gone at Youth Group I will finish up laundry tasks while I'm listening to Deuteronomy on CD. I have struggled to keep up with my OT reading but have found that listening to 10 chapters once or twice a week while I do a mindless task is the best way for me to keep up with my goal of reading through the Bible in a year. I will also finish hospital bill paperwork since that really needs to get done and is on my MIT list.

And if you happened to notice that my kids' needs aren't listed on this page it is because they comprise most of my day and I don't need a list to tell me to feed them and change them because they will let me know (or my nose will) when they need attention (and all of you moms know this is about every 5 seconds!) I don't need a list to tell me to cuddle them, discipline them, help them, dress them, or read to them. They are the biggest part of my day, but sometimes in keeping up with them, I can neglect the household chores or paperwork tasks if I don't make a list and try to stay organized!