ROUTINES

Part of starting the Lawrence Virtual School you have to set up a schedule of what you would like your day to be like. Now I know that it isn't perfect. I tell my kids things don't have to be perfect. As I was working on this and also the routines of the day I have been practicing for a little while now. Today I want to talk about some of my routines.

Routine #1- pick up at night. I know that this sounds easy. But for us it wasn't. We ended up cleaning up in the morning. I decided that since I wanted to do school in a picked up house we should do it at night. This has been working good. I try and make sure that it is done before I go to bed. Last night was pack night for scouts and the house didn't get picked up. I did most of it. I ran out of energy and was tired so I went to bed and left it for today. I wish I had finished it. Every other day has been great. It is nice to wake up and have a picked up house.

Routine #2- run the dishwasher after dinner and empty it before I go to bed. This has worked great for me. With the dishwasher being empty in the morning the children can put their breakfast dishes in right after eating. It saves the dishes from being piled up on the counter. I just have to remind them about putting them in the dishwasher.

Routine #3- empty the dryer and fold later. I know this probably makes most people cringe, but this is what works for me. I keep a laundry basket by the dryer. As I do laundry throughout the day and empty the dryer into the basket and fold the clothes all at one time. I deal with the wrinkled clothes at a later time. This keeps lets me keep my sanity and I don't hate doing laundry.

Routine #4- laundry baskets. I bought each child a laundry basket and wrote their name on it. They leave it in their room and when they bring their baskets up and empty them in the big one I fold the clothes and put them in their baskets for them to take down and put away. This has been better than the clothes sitting on the table. And I can fold clothes at different times of the day and stack the baskets out of the way. And the children only need to take the clothes down one time.

Routine #5 - Wake up earlier than the children. I don't like waking up early. I have made a point to wake up at least 15 minutes before I get the children up and shower and get dressed. If I wake up early enough I sit and read my scriptures until 7:00 when I get everyone else up.

Routine #6- read scriptures as a family in the morning. It is hard for us to read our scriptures at night. One day I had the thought that we needed to read scriptures in the morning. I wake the children up at 7:00 and by 7:15 I am reading scriptures with everyone here. It has been great. We have a better spirit in our home through the day. I am a nicer, happier person also. And not very often do we not read scriptures during the week. Now the weekend is a different story. I need at least one day to sleep in.