Good Morning - Becka

I've been wanting to post for awhile but felt like I didn't have much to report.

I'm doing really well at getting up early. My kids have to be to there new school by 7:55 which means we need to leave here by 7:30. I've been getting up at 6:00 am, having a little time to myself, waking them up at 6:30, getting breakfast on the table at 7:00 and out the door at 7:30. We probably don't have to leave that early but we have to drive a couple miles to school and I don't want them to feel rushed because we're running late. Also, depending on the traffic it can still take us up to 20 min., although it's usually closer to 10 min. I'm not doing this every day but I'm getting much better. Most days I get up between 6 and 6:30 but I'd like to make it always 6. Also on the weekends I almost always sleep in which I need to stop. It's hard because my husband is a night owl and it's hard to go to bed when he's still up.

I've also been working on getting my house more organized. I have a long way to go in this area because I am essentially a slob. A neat freak slob but a slob none the less. I get really discouraged when my house isn't clean and tend to give up altogether. I could blame my mother for working and us always having a messy house or I could blame my illness because when I'm sick things seem to fall apart but I know I could do a lot better then I am. I do have to make adjustments for the fact I get sick but if I was better organized then I wouldn't have to worry about getting sick so much because I'd know that things would be taken care of. I'm not even asking for a perfectly clean house. I'd be so grateful if we always had clean dishes and we didn't trip on toys going down the stairs.

I've been working on a job chart for awhile. We've used it before and it worked pretty well but it was a pain for me to put out different jobs every morning and if I forgot the kids never did anything. I'm now making laminated papers with larger jobs on them to make it easier for me.They keep them in there slots for a weeks moving them daily between "to do" and "done". Also, it describes how I want the jobs to be done and that is one of the hardest things for my kids. It's kind of like a step by step list to ensure they get everything in a room done. I've made some for their morning routine, evening routine, and afternoon routine so far. The morning and evening routines aren't difficult it's mostly to help Joe (my 3rd child) see what he's suppose to remember to do; like brush his teeth, get dressed, say prayers. If I don't list them he gets up and goes straight to reading (which totally makes me laugh). The job lists are more instructions on how to do a specific job. Sometimes the way they load the dishwasher makes me cringe or wipe off the table. I know a lot of it is they are just different people then me but a lot is also some of these jobs need to be taught because it doesn't come automatically.

My goals for this week are
1. To get up by 6:00 am every day, even on the weekends.
2. To get my job chart finished and rehang it on the wall.

I can do these for a week, right? Well, I just have to remember Progress not perfection and that small goals will do more then trying to do big ones and that at least if I'm trying then I'm at least not moving backwards. Thanks for all the support. I love being able to come here for help.