Two Important Rules

Rules I made for myself. Rules I often ignore. Yet, when I follow these rules, life just works better around here.
Rule No. 1: Stay home on Mondays. I made this rule about 10 years ago and when I abide by it, my whole week just goes better. Saturday's a work/prep for Sabbath day; Sunday's the Sabbath. A quiet Monday at home allows us to catch up without feeling pressured. It takes some discipline and learning to say, "no," but I will have margin in my week!

Rule No. 2: Rest for 30 min each afternoon. Yeah, right! I have 5 kids and I homeschool! Despite that, if I carve out time to relax and refuel in the afternoon, I am a much nicer person in the evening. Without it, I'm a zombie by dinner and too exhausted to enjoy the sweetest time of the day - when the whole family is together. Even working furiously all day, I still don't get everything accomplished, so why not take a short break that will benefit everyone?

What makes your life tick?

Comments

Andrea said…
Working on Sunday always ruins the week for me. And my getting to bed late is the worst for everyone in the family! Yes - we need to stick to our 'rules' for the sake of our family and to be able to glorify God nin our work!
Andrea
May 14, 2008 at 10:09 PM
jennifer h said…
The Monday at home rule sounds like a good one. I need to be more disciplined about several things, and this sounds like a good discipline to incorporate into my plan.
May 15, 2008 at 10:25 AM
Melissa Lester said…
Starting the day with prayer, exercise and Bible study helps me feel balanced during the day. When I allow circumstances to interrupt this schedule for too long, my days become much more difficult.
May 15, 2008 at 8:10 PM
Wendy said…
I try to do that on Mondays too. Mondays is my laundry/cleaning day.

I'm trying to be better at meal planning right now - making a menu and shopping by what I need for it. Sounds easy when I write it down like that, but I've been inconsistent w/it.
May 16, 2008 at 9:32 AM
Mary@notbefore7 said…
Great rules, especially for a homeschooling mom. I might adopt the home on Mondays next year for sure.

Right now we have our 1 hour rest time. I have to stick to the reading the bible during that time or else it doesn't happen so easily!

I think rules help to keep everyone sane and allow things to go smooth!

We gaurd natimes for little ones around here like vigilanties too ;)
May 17, 2008 at 3:41 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Homeschool Giveaway!

Image
*******Update: the Giveaway is over. Go here to see the winner! Have a great year, everybody! Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations is sponsoring a Curriculum Cleanout. Now through August 15, lots of great resources will be recycled through giveaways. Have something that needs a new home? Need a few items to round out your curriculum? Then check out this great blog carnival that grows daily! My giveaway is for Exploring God's Creation Science workbook from Christian Liberty Press. First, I just want to say how much I love Christian Liberty Press! They are affordable, user-friendly, and have a solid Biblical worldview. This science workbook (we used it more as a "text") has information and activities on a range of topics in all the major areas of elementary science. It's listed in their 3rd grade materials, but we used it as a group when my kids were in 4th, 2nd, and K. (The first couple of lessons have some marks - before I got smart and photocopied the lessons.) Each cha...
Read more

The One About the Mer*ry Mai*ds

Ok, so here's the thing - someone had given me a gift card for Mer*ry Mai*ds (henceforth known as MM) two Christmases ago. After the summer craziness and a laid back attitude toward housework, I decided to redeem the gift card in the hopes of at least getting part of my house grime-free and ready for the start of school. So I called the local chapter and explained what I wanted. I knew that MM was expensive, so I told the lady I wanted whatever cleaning my $100 could buy me, starting with kitchen and bathrooms. She said that I could make an appointment for a consultant to come out and give me a free estimate. I reminded her I just wanted to redeem a gift card. Nevertheless, it seems to be MM policy that their "consultant" come out first. Fine . So I made the appointment for a Thursday afternoon. Day 1 of my schedule being cleared or adjusted for MM. Of course the kids and I spent Thursday morning frantically tidying up the entire house, so the house cleaning consultant (...
Read more

I'm Still Here!

Image
Hello, Internets! I've missed you! I've been absent from the blog world for a while: we've had a couple of birthdays, a trip to Tennessee to visit family, and I've been working like a madwoman getting ready for school. But I'm still here! Now that school's beginning, I look forward to a more structured routine. I'll be around on a limited basis posting and visiting. I'm going to experiment with a new way of weekly reporting, so come back to see that if you're interested. Meanwhile, check out the fruits of all my hard work last night getting ready for today - our first day... (Notice there are no pics of M's desk - we moved it up to her room and she was still asleep when I took the pictures. I'll add it later, maybe.)
Read more