please excuse the fact that real life paper does not have spell check and i spelled vacuum wrong 🙂

last year our summer was all kinds of crazy and no schedule was had. i hated it. i am reminded that work well with schedules, and the best way for me and my children to keep to a schedule is to write it down and have it up and accessible for all to see and to be reminded.

so this summer we are incorporating what we’ve done summers past:

a pretty scheduled summer.

oh now don’t roll your eyes at me and say “yeah, well, what if you can’t stick to a super tight underwear up in a bunch kind of a schedule? i mean life happens!”

yes, i am the first to say ” i KNOW life happens.” oh man does it. like at least once a day if not once an hour life happens.

so here’s the secret to my success:

i only stick to a super tight (well sort of tight but not really) schedule everyday, monday through saturday UNTIL 11 AM.

yup, after that its pretty much free for all.

but i try to be smart about it.

after our chores we have lunch…and then  because after lunch i kind of want to keep all the work we just totally did for the day still reasonably done longer than say .5 seconds after i say we are done, i pick one thing that we will do for a few hours away from home.

 like for example i buy a summer pool pass, make sure i stake out all parks (maybe even take a bike ride to the closer ones), and check out the free things going on during the summer that happen AFTER 11 AM.

oh and of course

and i threaten my children that if the chores on the schedule aren’t done…no free time later on. oh and they know i will make up “crap work” just to keep going, that only had to happen one time for them to know i was serious. it.sucked.royally. (for all of us!) for a whole day. 

most of my kids are still in the age that i can totally rule over them (ie. none of them can drive and if they want anything i still am the ruler of their world muwahahaha.) and because they are all reasonably young (12 and younger) they totally still are excited to go places, like parks, and pools, and places with friends. normally i have just one that likes to throw a hissy (the oldest one, but he’s been like that since birth, and pretty sure he’ll be like that for the long haul) so i’ll keep this going and adjust it as they get older.

but that’s how i do it.

that’s like the #1 thing i get asked: how do you schedule your summers?

then the second one is: how can you eat so much chocolate?  the answer to that one is a mystery. i just really like chocolate, and the darker the better. hmm. maybe i should get some right now. 🙂

happy sigh.

i do in fact have plans to sew. maybe today. but first we need to get past our chores, then go to the pool (YAY ITS OPEN!) then, maybe i’ll get some sewing done when we get home and all the noisemakers are tired.

so? you think you can follow a schedule like mine? i swear it works for us. but maybe you have something that works better for you? please share. i’m always open for more ideas.

k. we’ll talk soon. 🙂