The Virtues of a Routine

 

Hello again! It's been a loooong time since my last post. Life has been hectic in general and I, um,  became disorganised (yeah, yeah, I know. Shock horror, huh?). So I'm left without a doubt that when my home is disorganised, my head is the same. I run late, the place looks a mess, the children are irritable, I find myself yelling and well, let's just say chaos reigns supreme. 

So I sat and had a think. Obviously I have some defective gene that prevents me from naturally being organised and getting things done. I remembered back to the days of my first baby and the huge lists I'd write down so I didn't forget anything. And then it struck me. Routine. Things seemed to run smoothly when I had a nice structured piece of paper telling me when baby was meant to be sleeping, when I was going to do the shopping, when I was setting aside cleaning time - etc. Yep, I was once one of those 'list' people. And you know what? It worked for me. Well, at least I seem to remember it working. Of course you allow for some flexibility within your routine but it was somehow reassuring to see there was a plan for how my day was going to go.

So, now that I'm the mother of four children, it stands to reason that I probably need that little piece of paper more than ever. I don't have a baby anymore (my youngest just turned 3) so there's no longer naptimes etc to contend with. But I do have a preschooler who does 4 half days a week, 2 big kids who have drop off and pick up times for school, a big house that just won't clean itself for some reason AND I'd like to maybe get some baking done some days. 

I was also just getting tired and fed up. Tired of not being organised in the mornings, rushing to sort out uniforms and school lunches, telling kids to hurry up with their breakfast because we're running late - all of which was my fault. Not theirs. Surely my children deserve a mother waking them up with a happy 'Good morning!' as opposed to a quick 'Get out of bed we're going to be late!!!'.

Okay, so it wasn't quite that bad, but it wasn't the peaceful start I wanted. Plus, there's coffee. I was missing out on my morning coffee! It just wouldn't do. So I got to typing.

Don't laugh. But I've pretty much outlined everything I do in a day. With times. But, like I said above, flexibility is key. That doesn't mean I can just ignore the routine and carry on my merry disorganised way, but if I don't get that load of washing in the machine while the kids are eating breakfast because I'm cleaning up spilled milk then that's okay, it can be done later when I get home from the school run. I use those sorts of things as little reminders of what I could be doing when my brain is frazzled from having an in depth conversation about what the smallest planet is at 7:00 am. It keeps me on track.

 

As a result, my days are peaceful. They flow. I have no excuses for forgetting to stop at the supermarket because it's right there in black and white reminding me to do it. I've stuck this up in the kitchen where I'll see it all day. Just above it I have a daily cleaning list and a weekly cleaning list, to remind me as well. And of course I have my trusty meal plan stuck up inside my pantry door. I'll let you know how it all goes. But for now, I sit here in a clean and tidy house, with dinner started, a cake baked for afternoon tea, washing done, folded and put away and I have a quiet moment to blog.

I'll do another blog post some other time that details my routine and cleaning lists I've got going on at the moment. I'm more than happy to share if it helps others!

But for now, life is sweet.

Have a happy day,

Nadia 

xxx