Trying to Get Out from Under all the Laundry

I actually did a great job keeping up with the laundry on vacation. I guess that's the plus of staying with family and having access to washing machines and dryers. The down side of that is you have to do laundry on vacation. Somehow, though I ended up doing two loads of laundry yesterday, and one today. Part of that was car seat covers because both babies Zack and Ben both had leaky diapers on the way home. Lovely. So, three loads of laundry later and it's all done. I just have a super huge monstrous pile to put away.

My friend here in Tampa gave me the most brilliant idea ever for packing. Seriously, I would have never thought of this and it made things just easy. Before I left, she said she takes a giant Rubbermaid container and puts all the little clothes and stuff in. I stole the idea shamelessly. I was going to be in and out of 3 hotels in 3 nights and it just made sense. I layered the clothes by day and by kid and in the end had the big wheeled storage container full of clothes. I also packed a suitcase for the first night. Then each day, I just repacked the bag. One suitcase going into the hotel, versus the usual 4. Beautiful. Then, when we arrived at our destination, I heaved the giant thing inside and it was really so much easier to keep organized as I had control of the whole lot of it instead of each kid getting into their own suitcases. It also made repacking on the way home really easy. Also, I used a Ziplock big bag for dirty clothes. It was a little bigger than a garbage bag, and see through, so I didn't have to fret about it being mistaken for garbage. So, thanks Maureen for the awesome packing tip. It was great! (And I plan to call you as soon as I get unpacked!)

My biggest goal for coming home was to get me and the boys on a good schedule. Less tv time (eek), less computer time (double eek), more efficiency and quality time. I have struggled with scheduling my time as long as I can remember. From birth, I'm sure. I've always balked at the idea of a written down schedule, but the time has come. I need this. We need this. The two weeks I was home alone with the boys before vacation was a real struggle for me because it was just mass chaos. The schedule won't cure all the chaos, but it has to help some. (Right?) Anyway, here's my basic plan. It's simple. There is room for error and adjustments. I'm not going to be totally stringent every single day. However, I really intend to stick to it as much as possible (without being crazy and inflexible.)

7 get dressed
7:15 make beds
7:30 breakfast
7:45 brush teeth

That first bit is probably a little silly for most people. We do this stuff every day, but the idea is not to lounge around until almost time to go somewhere and then rush and go crazy trying to get ready to leave.

8 daily chores - more in my effort to get things done early, so I don't have to do it all in the afternoon when everyone wants me to do stuff for them right this minute.
varied time - gym, or errands, or away from home play
11:30 lunch
12:00 tv time
1:00 workbooks and reading
2:00 free time. This, ideally will be my blogging time and time for the kids to play and me to catch up on the chores I didn't do in the morning.
4:00 afternoon clean up time - Stealing this concept from my friend Shanna who does the afternoon cleanup everyday with her 3 kids. She does every room and I hope to get there someday. For now I just want all the public rooms in the house straightened at this time of day. You know, so maybe by the time Kevin gets home it *might* still be *kinda* neat. Maybe that's just a dream though.
5:30 dinner prep - this will very likely be another tv time for the boys.
7:00 baths
7:30 bedtime (flexible for the summer depending on the day and how badly I need them to go to bed.

So that's the plan. Like I said it's simple, and I hope someday not to have to dictate what I do with most of my time. Organization does not happen naturally for me, so for now this is what I will try.

In case starting a new routine wasn't enough for me to handle, I'm tackling potty training today too. I said I would after vacation, and this is after vacation. If I don't start now, then it's just never going to happen and poor Zack is ready and just waiting for me to get on the ball. So far, so messy, but he'll get there.

And here I go to fold and put away more laundry than you could possibly imagine. Well, you can probably imagine, you've all been there!