S---L---O---W and Steady

 With Josh back to full time and me facing slight health issues, these past few weeks would definitely find me struggling to get by.  While we have struggled a bit, I noticed that I'm finally accomplishing the bare necessities without much difficulty.  The biggest factor in accomplishing this has been making the decision not to move.  Yes, that means a lot of unpacking, sorting, organizing, etc.  We feel that this will be a great thing in the long run.   

I started getting us on track by making sure that we all get to bed early.  We started by sending the kids to bed at 8:00pm each night.  When I realized that Josh and I could get more sleep if we also retired at 8, we set that in motion.  We don't actually turn out the lights until 9:30, but being in our room so early keeps us from finding distractions that will keep us up too late.  After only a short time, everyone is getting up early and feeling more refreshed thanks to our earlier bedtime.

In trying to keep things going by priority, we began working on meal times.  Lunch is at noon and I start making dinner at 5:30pm.  This has worked so far, but could be much improved if I were to come up with a menu plan.  Some nights 5:30 comes and I still don't know what to make for dinner!

My next step was to put the littles (5 and under) down for a nap and institute quiet time for the big kids.  At 1:30 every afternoon, I get Laiken settled on the loveseat, Teslyn lays at one end of the couch and Jonah and I snuggle at the other end.  Jonah usually nurses to sleep, then I read or use the computer.  We are still in the supervision stages, as the older kids still need to learn to be quiet and the littles need to be watched to make sure they lay down and are quiet.  I think that in another week or two I will have the ability to get a few things caught up during quiet time.

I have also been more stringent about making sure that all children have their teeth and hair brushed directly after breakfast.  This is a bit difficult some mornings, but there has definitely been improvement. 

The laundry monster has "mostly" been tamed.  All of our clothing has been moved upstairs (again), where it is all stored in the master bedroom.  I have caught up with washing and drying all of the laundry and most of it has been sorted, folded and put away.  My plan is to run a load of laundry each day and add bedding on laundry day.  I keep a small tote in the laundry room to transfer laundry from the washer to the dryer, which is usually done by Teagan or Jonah.  Then the tote will be used to carry laundry from the dryer to the bedroom where it will all be put away.

Once these habits have been established, we will once again attempt to stick to our daily schedule, which will include our cleaning schedule.  I am hopeful that this goal will be attainable in another week or two.