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  • Writer's pictureGrace

Routines

Routines! I love and thrive on routine, and I think probably most of us do. However, I have had to come to realize that routines have to be fluid and change with the seasons and locations you live in. Our routines have looked very different over the years depending on the age of our children, the time of year it is, my husband's work schedule, and where we live. A few things always stay the same, like dishes, laundry, cleaning, and cooking, but even those have some fluctuations depending on the size of home you live in and what is available. (i.e. Do you have a dishwasher and run it once a day or do you need to hand wash 3 times a day? Do you have a washer/dryer in your home or do you have to take laundry to a laundry room in your building?)


Our current routine looks like this: We wake up and make our beds. I make mine and each of the children make theirs. We dress and the children put their clothes in the dirty clothes basket in my room.



We start breakfast and continue on our morning work while it cooks. My daughter feeds and waters her rabbit, takes his tray outside to clean it, feeds and waters the chickens, vacuums her room and straightens it, and puts the dishes away from the dishwasher and drainer from the night before. My middle child vacuums his room and cleans it, empties both bathroom trash, feeds and waters the dog, feeds his turtle, and brings clothes from the dryer to the couch to fold and takes the daily load of laundry down to the washer in the laundry room. I wipe down the bathrooms, sweep and vacuum the main parts of the house, start the load of laundry for the day, fold the load from yesterday and put away all the clothes except the children's (they put their own clothes away - even the 2 year old) and see that the kitchen is all clean after breakfast.




After the morning work is done and breakfast is eaten and cleaned up, school begins. The boys usually play in their room or bring toys to the living room while I work on school with my daughter. They are pretty good about staying quiet during school time although interruptions do happen. :) Depending on how much help my daughter needs with school, I will prep supper stuff in the kitchen while she works, or I'll journal at the table next to her, or I'll write letters. Other days, school is all we get done during this time and the other things has to take a backseat. It just depends on the lessons for the day and how involved I have to be.




Usually we are done with sit down school work by noon when we stop for lunch. Lunch is almost always leftovers. After lunch everyone scatters to their own interests. Sometimes this is outside play, sometimes it's baking in the kitchen, sometimes it's writing letters with the children to send to friends or relatives, sometimes it's art that gets scattered all over the table, a sewing project that gets worked on, embroidery or crocheting, or books looked at. Around 2-3 in the afternoon, I gather everyone together and we all read a few chapters in whatever book we happen to be reading right then. The youngest will fall asleep during reading time and after he is tucked into bed, the house goes quiet. The older kids use this time to work on projects or play games they can't when the youngest is around. I like to read or write during this time for awhile and then finish any supper prep that needs done, change the load from the washer to the dryer, make a phone call, or bake.


I start on supper around 4:30 and start gearing up for our evening routine and my husband's return home. I'll straighten things, the kids will take toys back to their room, the table gets set, candles lit, soft instrumental music put on (if it's not already,) and maybe light a fire in the fireplace. I strive to have things calm and welcoming for my husband when he gets home but this doesn't always happen. :)



Once supper is served and eaten, I pack my husband's lunch for the next day, put leftovers away, load and start the dishwasher, and clean up the kitchen. The children have some play time after dinner while my husband and I visit and drink a cup of tea.



The children will take their baths/showers and do their nightly routines of cleaning their rooms, and brushing hair and teeth, and then they all pile in to our bed to read again. We will read a chapter or two and then my husband prays over each one and sends them to bed.


Of course, summertime routines look very different when there is garden work to be done and the children spend most of their time outside. I bake less, work outside more, and don't have as long of school days. Some afternoons I do a lot of baking or have canning to do or food to work up. Some afternoons I work on sewing projects. Some afternoons I have a friend over. Some afternoons I sit and color with the children or help them with a project they can't do alone. I love both the routine and variations of it.

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