So, what do you do all day?

[Raspberries]

When you're not taking a break and posting on GCM. Do you have a structured day/week? Do you have a time that you do dishes, sweep, vacuum, laundry, cook, etc. Is it just whenever it happens? Do you clean EVERY day?

[Maggie]

I definitely don't clean every day, but I am probably not the best person to ask. :shifty (I probably NEED to clean every day. We have a lot of clutter.)

:popcorn

[Herbwifemama]

We get up, have breakfast, and when we're done (if it's a perfect day, mind you) I put the clean dishes away, and put the bfast dishes in the dishwasher. Counters have been wiped down the night before. Then we go into the bedroom, and make the bed, get dressed, and sort the laundry. I HAVE to do laundry pretty much every day (other than shabbat, and usually not Friday either), because we have a washer but no dryer, and I use drying racks and hangers to dry stuff in the winter. It's a bit easier in the summer, I can get more than one load done a day. Anyway, in a perfect world, once the laundry is in the washer, we can go out to play. This is where my day breaks down. I don't have a routine for the rest of the day til dinner time. We play, clean, watch tv (I'm working on getting rid of the tv altogether), games, books, cooking, whatever. Then after lunch, I'm usually too tired to do much. (blah hormones, I'm working on that too), and then I get dinner ready, dh comes home, we have dinner, maybe an hour of family time, then dd gets bath, jammies, snack, teeth, stories, and bed. Dh and I would go to bed an hour later.

Looking at that, I think I need to start a "homeschool" time. Along with the CM "outside" time. That would definitely structure our afternoons better... Still don't know when I'd fit in the weekly housecleaning- maybe put it all into one day a week, instead of a lil every day? :think

[Drew]

Weekdays right now:

- Get up and get ready for work. Put away dishes/laundry and start new loads if I have time before P has to get up.
- Wake P and make her breakfast, watch Yo Gabba Gabba, and get her ready for school.
- Drive P to school and hang out with her a bit.
- Go to the office (very near P's school) and put in my "office time". This is where I do the vast majority of my GCMing. :shifty
- Pick P up from school and drive home.
- After lunch snack. Right now it's chocolate cake :shifty but usually it's something healthy like fruit.
- Perhaps do dishes/laundry and straighten the living room and or kitchen either carrying P or with her help.
- Play with P until it's time to make dinner. I'm happy when we can sit and play with puzzles or read books but it's mostly running around. Should I feel this old at 32?
- Make dinner.
- Some wind down activities.
- Bath for P.
- Snack before bed.
- Brush teeth.
- Lay down with P for about 45 minutes. After that if she is not asleep I give her books and leave her small light on while I go to my home office to finish up my "work day".
- Once she is asleep I move downstairs with the laptop to get caught up on TV while I work.
- Maybe some more cleaning depending on what time it is.
- Bed.
- Rinse and repeat.

It's much better when DH is home but right now he's overseas on business.

Weekends are usually just whatever. I get caught up on cleaning at night once P is asleep.

[WanderingJuniper]

If I don't clean everyday and do at least one load of laundry everyday the house gets to a place where I'm overwhelmed and can't be as gentle with my family as I like.
I have a rhythm to my day but when I type it out I get a bit overwhelmed so . . .

[BriansLovie]

I will say I do not have a structured day. I need to do better I know. I need to do school more with Jacob (I was doing really good for a few weeks, now it's hit or miss), and outside time, I just dont do right now. I find it too hard. We live in an apartment building and of course it's been cold and rainy, and also I guess I'm a wuss or something. I find it hard to go anywhere alone with the 2 kids. I guess my fear is where am I going to nurse the baby if all 3 of us are taking a walk or something? There is no place to sit down really. I can't nurse him in the moby because he's almsot 18 pounds and I just cant see how I can do it LOL. SIgh. I dont have a structured day for cleaning either. I usually do laundry every day, clothes and diapers. I clean the kitchen every day, tho not as good as I should probalby. I also have a problem with putting all the clothes away right out of the dryer. I do some sort of cleaning every day not everything tho. Here's what my day looks like usually:

7:30 - 8:00 AM - get up, put Jacob on the potty, change bums, nurse baby
8:00 - 8:30 AM - make breakfast and eat
8:30 - 9:00 AM - take shower
9:00 - 10:00 AM - start laundry, clean or straighten what I can, interact with Jacob
10:00 - 10:30 AM - snack and nurse baby
10:30 - 11:30 AM - interact with boys
11:30 - 12:30 PM - make lunch and eat
12:30 - 1:00 PM - clean up, put Jacob on the potty, laundry or cleaning
1:00 - 1:30 PM - feed baby
1:30 - 4:00 PM - basically whatever goes, snack, nursing babt, putting on potty, cleaning up kitchen
4:00 - 5:00 PM - Make dinner
5:00 - 5:30 PM - Dinney
5:30 - 6:30 PM clean up after dinner, make hubby's lunch, laundry, vacuuming (eveyr few days), nurse baby, whatever else needs to be done

Usually I'm done with whatever by 7 PM, then it's snack time, and time to get Jacob ready for bed. He's usually in bed by arabyound 8 PM, and then I'm done until we go to bed at around 9:30 PM. I just let the baby comfort nurse the rest of the evening.

[Happygrl]

I don't have a strict schedule but below is what I've written down to accomplish in each chunk of time.

Between wakeup and 10:
Get dressed
make beds
breakfast
switch laundry
devotional w/DD
walk

10-12:45
fold laundry
devotional
3-6 chores
prep dinner

1-3:30
Declutter and/or a big chore (like window washing, washing the car, mowing, etc.)
Clear E's projects off table
straighten living room

3:30-5:00
ensure clothes folded and in basket by the stairs
10 minutes on the kitchen counters
clear table of afternoon projects/papers

By 6:15
Final clean up
Bath
While they are in bath, put clothes away and fill basket with tomorrow's load
Sweep upstairs

By 9:00
Straighten upstairs
Pack bags/make lists for tomorrow
Lay out tomorrow's dinner
Sweep downstairs
Start laundry
One last pick-up

[HummusDip]

We're not totally structured but here's what we do now that dh has been laid off...

Morning:
DS gets up first, crawls around and makes messes, playing with toys
I get up and clean up his messes and get him something to eat
I make the beds
I usually go to the gym for an hour
Dad feeds them breakfast while i'm gone and plays with them

Late Morning:
I get home, grab something to eat and nurse/rock DS down to sleep for his morning nap.
After he's down, I clean up the kitchen, load the dishwasher, etc

Noon:
Get the kids something to eat
We tend to go out and run errands around this time
DS goes down for his midday nap

Afternoon:
Plan for dinner
DH and I go to the YMCA and lift weights together for an hour and a half, the kids go into BusyTown while we do that

Evening:
DS goes down for his evening nap in the car ride home, then I transfer him into bed once we get home
I get dinner made
get everyone served
DS wakes up, I get him fed

Late Evening:
Kids usually take another bath
Watch movies together, I might knit
DH and I clean the kitchen
I clean the rest of the house, getting everything picked up, vacuumed, etc... on a lucky day DH helps me wiht that too

Then we relax until everyone falls asleep.

My schedule for activities looks like this:

Sunday-Take the kids swimming at the YMCA, FIL usually comes with us and DH and I take turns with the kids and going into the steam room
Monday-Story time at the Library at 10:30, after that I meet up with 2 of my friends/moms from story time, and we knit while our kids play. We take turns each week where one of us makes and brings a soup, the others bring a dessert or side dish. We do that from 11:45 to about 2:00pm
Tuesday- nothing
Wednesday-Gymnastics at 4:30 at the YMCA
Thursday-Kindermusik at 5:30-6:15 and then I have bookclub at 7:15-9:30 (on these days I do a quick dinner right after music and dh serves it to them at 7 when I head out the door, so this is our "late night"
Friday-Story time at the Library at 10:30
Saturday-Out the door by 7am for garage sales, Shabbat at 11am-3pm, more garage sales, grocery shopping and then we drive the hour home


:)

[thomer]

Here's what we try and stick to:

Get up
Go to work
Get home around 11AM
Eat lunch and hang out with DH until he leaves around 12/12:30
Clean/chores until 2 - one day we run errands
Homeschool until 3:30/4
Get ready for dinner
After dinner sometimes DH goes back to work and DS and I watch a movie before bed.

[RiverRock]

Morning and evening routines are quite consistent, but what happens in the middle of those varies. Three of my kids catch a bus at 7:15 on school days so they are out of bed at 6:30 to get ready and have breakfast. After that I either do housework or go to the gym until the Kindergarten bus comes back at 10:45. Luch at 11:30 is normal for us. After this time I will sometimes do errands, grocery shop, or take to young kids to an activity (park, piano lessons or tumble time at the gym), or stay home and do meal prep. I do a lot of big batch cooking and baking so probably once a week I am busy in the kitchen in the afternoon. Then the older ones are home from school and we have down time, piano practice and dinner prep. My oldest has swim club M/W/F/S so I sometimes register the other kids in recreational programs at the Y since I am dropping off dd anyhow. Dinner, bedtime...

[KatieMae]

When you're not taking a break and posting on GCM.

You mean when we take a break from GCM (/Facebook) and go do things? :haha

I have a very general daily routine. Wake up/breakfast/get dressed, then we play for a while, I clean up here & there, maybe make a list for the day. If we have any outings to do, the morning is the best time for that (read: the kids are most patient in the mornings), but I try to be home by 11am. If I have cleaning to do, I usually put on my little radio & listen to Glenn while I clean. We have lunch, I clean up dishes & then Jude takes a nap (or sometimes he falls asleep before lunch, whatever :shrug3) We play all day, I tidy whatever & whenever I see it needs. If I need to be upstairs for a while - to clean bathrooms or change sheets or something - I'll bring all the kids upstairs & pop in a DVD in our guest room and they're content for a while (we have very few toys upstairs, I don't like them playing w/o me nearby.)

My cleaning schedule is basically
Monday - kitchen
Tuesday - bathrooms
Wednesday - bedrooms
Thursday - catch-up day, a special project, or doing things I've been putting off (Procrastination Station, I call it)
Friday - living & dining rooms & general tidy all around
I do laundry usually on Sunday & Thursday, or as needed.

Now, I intend to flex this a little to allow for a LOT more time outdoors (see the Charlotte Mason post in the homeschooling forum) but I'm finding that I can still get things accomplished even in short spurts like when the kids are having a snack between play sessions.

[HummusDip]

See I don't have specific cleaning days. We clean up every morning and after breakfast I try to clean up too. I sweep and vacuum daily. I mop when the floors get bad and I have time, usually once a week. I clean the bathroom daily, but do the floors and mirros and toilet like every week or two (I know, I've been slacking here really bad lately).

But overall, our house is very clean. The worst part is our kitchen because we are SO messy in there. But it's cleaned every night. :shrug There's never, seriously never anything on the floors that our ds could get hurt or swallow. We're really clean in that way, always making sure the hosue is baby proof and there's nothing small that fell off the computer desk or something.

Once we have a bigger house, I'm sure I'll go back to having certain chores each day. I used to use Motivated Moms and I loved it!!! I'll buy the new calender for this year once we move.

[BeckaBlue]

im fairly unstructured :O
on weekdays i get the kids up, have them ready to go to the bus and send them off to school. if jo is still aslee and i can, i join her until she wakes up,
when were both up i get her a little breakfast and vacuum if i feel like it :shifty
we send the day time running errands, playing, lunch, and whatever else
kids come home, we do whatever till i get dinner done,
we eat, then do whatever again till close to bedtime, they have a snack, and head to bed,
i get johanna to sleep, then do the dishes, pick up, sweep, mop, whatever else needs to be done
and then i go to sleep :)

I do have cleaning every day, i tend to slack more on friday/saturday though :O

[joyfulmomof2]

Weekdays right now:

- Get up and get ready for work. Put away dishes/laundry and start new loads if I have time before P has to get up.
- Wake P and make her breakfast, watch Yo Gabba Gabba, and get her ready for school.
- Drive P to school and hang out with her a bit.
- Go to the office (very near P's school) and put in my "office time". This is where I do the vast majority of my GCMing. :shifty
- Pick P up from school and drive home.
- After lunch snack. Right now it's chocolate cake :shifty but usually it's something healthy like fruit.
- Perhaps do dishes/laundry and straighten the living room and or kitchen either carrying P or with her help.
- Play with P until it's time to make dinner. I'm happy when we can sit and play with puzzles or read books but it's mostly running around. Should I feel this old at 32?
- Make dinner.
- Some wind down activities.
- Bath for P.
- Snack before bed.
- Brush teeth.
- Lay down with P for about 45 minutes. After that if she is not asleep I give her books and leave her small light on while I go to my home office to finish up my "work day".
- Once she is asleep I move downstairs with the laptop to get caught up on TV while I work.
- Maybe some more cleaning depending on what time it is.
- Bed.
- Rinse and repeat.

It's much better when DH is home but right now he's overseas on business.

Weekends are usually just whatever. I get caught up on cleaning at night once P is asleep.



Ditto this...