What is your morning routine? Your evening routine? Your personal care routine? Write it down. EXACTLY what you do in the morning.....that is your routine. Now, is that really what you want to be doing? In order to change a routine you have to WRITE IT DOWN and then POST IT in a place where you see it daily.

Morning routine is your personal care and mapping your day...mine goes something like this:

Get up, start the coffee, wake up 2 kids, take shower, get kids up again, get my cup of coffee and my power bar, open my frank (my Franklin notebook which only has half the stuff in there anymore) and my Handspring PDA. Check for appointments and notes to myself. Get the kids out the door to catch their buses. Start a load of laundry. Pull meal stuff out of freezer. Empty Dishwasher. Set alarms on PDA to remind me when to start dinner. Synch PDA and computer so that computer also gives alarms. Check email which includes my daily Bible reading and several groups that give me moral and emotional support as well as practical ideas.

Grab my tools and do a set of cubes. When I was working full time out of the home, I just did one cube a day in the morning and one in the evening. Now that I am a full time SAHM I am trying to do 10 a day.

Evening routine is based on some Jewish customs that I learned from some friends. To start you must put yourself in the right frame of mind. In ancient times, when the Hebrew people were nomads, they lived in tents, similar to the yurts of today. They had carpets that they placed on the ground. During the day, the sides of the tents were rolled and folded back to allow full air circulation. At night they were rolled down and secured. The extended family would gather around the fire where they would talk, eat and share stories. As the children would fall asleep they were placed in the tent in their bedroll. There were usually enough tents to circle the fire so that it became a warm, circle of light in the wilderness of darkness. My evening routine includes dinner and the preparation for it. Before I start cooking dinner, I take 10 minutes to walk around my house and say a little prayer for each person as I stand beside his or her bed. This serves three purposes, I center myself on my God and my family, I am thinking good thoughts about my family members and I am aware of what the status of my home is. I then start dinner. If my children are home, they set the table while I cook, otherwise I set the table. I always have 2 candles on the table, which I light shortly before dinner. This is a reminder of our 2 boys who are already out in the world, but also a reminder of all of our blessings. I make sure that all laundry is in the dryer so the washer is available for things like my husbands work clothes or that outfit that is needed for a special program at school. When we sit down to dinner I take a couple of minutes to really look at each child and my husband and listen to them. This part of my routine helps keep me from getting resentful or angry about how much of the household load I carry. As I have started to learn to work on listening and helping them have a healthy self view, I am finding that I am more comfortable in my own skin. I don't have to try and be it all or do it all. With this view I no longer find it demeaning to be a homemaker, but answering the highest calling.

After dinner we do the dishes, no matter what, they get done sometime in the evening. Sometimes the dishes don't get done until 10:30 when we finally get the last one home from a meeting or school event. We found out that if you just do it, that it only takes 15-20 minutes to do the dishes, if you whine and fuss about it, it can take 2-4 hours.

Rest of the evening routine, I usually do a fair amount of writing and user group work on the computer in the evening. My children do their homework and research on the computer. My husband watches TV or reads. I get up and fold the load in the dryer and the family puts things away. We take 10 minutes to each check the living areas for our messes and put them away. Now our house is still a bit of a mess, but our living areas are daily getting nicer and more appealing as we follow this basic plan. We make sure and have living time in our evening routine. We try, as a family, to go through a small set of things that need to be sorted through, such as toys that have been outgrown, during the evening.

The Nap routine is a different way of looking at naps, baths, reading time or other times that someone may say "I SHOULD be doing something else" . Because I have health issues, I assign myself a minimum of 2 naps a day. Sometimes I take a bath in the evening rather than a nap, or read for half an hour. The rule is that you must take 2 half hour "naps" a day. Natures Attitude Perfection System is another way of saying NAPS. What is it that you do to provide that for yourself. For my friend Joyce it is half an hour on her horse, for my friend Kolleen it's half an hour sewing. For me it's half an hour with a series romance. It is time that is for us. It is needed and we need to look for ways of making it happen.

Place all dishes in dishwasher if you have one, otherwise rinse and place in a dishpan that can be set out of sight or out of the way if needed. Do not set anything IN THE SINK. Keep the sink clear except when you are actually washing dishes. If there is at least half a dishpan of dishes take the 10 minutes to add dishwashing liquid and hot water and wash the dishes.

Sorting

Load and run washer

Move load to dryer or hang on line

Fold and put away