Organization

This week I have been working on getting organized. I started Wednesday with getting Israel on a schedule. Before I was just basically following his lead...giving him what I thought he wanted but now he has a specific wake time, eat times, nap times, and bedtime. Boy, is it making life easier! He is napping way better as I have had him "cry it out" this week. I had no clue that he still needed to sleep so much. I read that babies in the 4-5 month range can really only stay awake 1.5-2 hours before they need a nap. Now that I think about it, I am sure I have been feeding him when he was simply fussing because he was tired. As of now he is scheduled to take 3 naps per day. The first two naps he naps great but the last one he is having more trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. I have decided I am going to wake up an hour before he wakes up each morning to give myself time to take a shower and get in the Word. It is hard to get up but I feel great once I do...it is a little me time and the house is nice and peaceful:)

Today, I started making lists so that I can keep up with housework AND care for Israel. So far I have barely been getting by on the housework. I wrote a list of things that I will do EVERYDAY, which is as follows: Shower, Prayer/Word, make bed, 1 load of laundry, exercise, dishes, sweep kitchen floor, and pick-up before bedtime. Then I made a list of daily tasks which goes as follows:

Monday- Empty all trash & grocery shop
Tuesday- General pick-up (pick-up every single thing that is out of place and put in its place)
Wednesday- Dust the entire house
Thursday- Sweep & mop kitchen and laundry room
Friday- Clean the bathroom
Saturday- Vacuum & general pick-up
Sunday- Plan grocery list

Next, I went through each room and wrote down things that need to be cleaned and categorized them as deep cleaning. These are things like clean floorboards, clean light fixtures, organize, clean curtains, wash windows, etc. I will choose one item from the list each day and cross it off after it is completed...when I finish this list I will make a new one and start over.

Then, I made a list of monthly tasks...these are seasonal things like cleaning windows inside and out, weeding, taxes, switching out clothes, etc. Each item has a month assigned to it....where I have the whole month to complete the task. I made spreadsheets to organize these lists and I have boxes next to each item so that I can cross it off when I complete it.

I feel so blessed to be a stay-at-home mom that I want to be a good steward of my time. So I am starting to look at my home like it is my job where I have daily goals and a schedule. I want my son to grow up in home that is in order and where he has consistency and a place where my husband comes home and can be blessed. That is why I start my day with a shower....like I would if I was going to work. Then the most important part is my time with the Lord.....what a blessing it is to seek Him early in the morning.

Next, I would like to figure out how to structure Israel's awake time but I want to leave some flexibility here. I want to make sure he gets time with mommy but I also want him to learn to play on his own and to have a good attention span....I think I will pray for guidance in this area because I am not sure what would be best. As he gets older, I want to be able to do activities with him each day to develop different skills....this will be lots of fun....coloring, blocks, painting, playing ball, ABC's, etc.

Well, this is what I have been up to.....not sure if anyone even reads this but it is nice to write about all this so I can organize my thoughts.

Now it's time for PJ's, ice cream, and movie on the couch with my hubby:)