Sunday, May 31, 2009

apologies for my absence...

Where does the time go?! We are embracing the summer break here...swimming, bike-riding, parks and picnics, baseball, softball, tee-ball, and any other outdoor activity we can scheme up. The kids are staying up long past there 8:30-9:00 school night bedtime, and sleeping in a little too. While I'm loving this break from school schedules and homework, it has turned our happy little organized routine upside down. Gone is my "quiet time" while the younger kids nap and older ones are at school. Gone too is my evening routine of cleaning up the house, and spending a little time on the computer after the kids turn in for the night. (I used to have about 3 hours from when the kids went to bed, till John got home from work.) I'm struggling to find time to get everything done...but it will come, I'm sure. It must!
Since John has been on evening shift, I've been doing all the cleaning, laundry, etc myself. No complaints really...I've had that time slot open to get it all done. The kids have not had chores or "Saturday: Cleaning Days" in a long time. This week, that's all going to change again. Nothing's set in stone, but in order to maintain some sense of, well, ORDER...the chore charts will resurface. Kids will be helping with things like dusting, vaccuming, emptying the dishwasher, evening "pick up" of toys and shoes and things, etc. Oh, they'll buck it at first. Who wouldn't. But it will work out. I'm looking forward to the help, and when things are getting done, I can free my mind to thnk of more things to do outside the house. We've started listing all the parks and other free/cheap things to do and visit this summer. Time to start mapping it all out!