Yes friends and faithful readers. It is AT LAST the long spoken of, but never written “brewing post.” Ha ha ha!! Though to be honest, it’s not the post that’s been brewing. I’m just writing off the cuff. The IDEAS that it contains though have been rattling around in my noggin for quite a while. And to be perfectly honest the main reason that I haven’t written it yet is because I’m lazy and actually putting these concepts into words and publishing it for all the world to see means that I myself am going to have to do some changing. When I think about it, it seems like a LOT of work for ME, but I think, eventually, it will pay off in HUGE ways that will make it worth it all.
So you may or not have an inkling of what this post will contain, but I’ll keep you in suspense no longer. It’s about structure. Yep, that’s it. Hope it was worth the wait. 
Toodle-oo!!
Okay, so you know my wordiness enough by now to realize I cant just leave it at that! 
I’m sure I’ve mentioned that I’m a fan of schedules. For itty bitty babies through high school, college and just life! The schedule of course, flexes and completely changes with different phases of life, but in order to really get things done, and ever accomplish anything you HAVE to have some kind of schedule. When I was younger (as in jr. high even) I used to write out my day in chunks of half hours so that I’d have a schedule to follow. That usually lasted for a couple of days and then I’d can it. I don’t know that being THAT scheduled is necessarily healthy. I prefer to have wiggle room in my schedule and more than doing everything at the exact same time each day, doing things in the same order. For example: have breakfast, brush teeth, comb hair, get dressed. That’s the order of the schedule, but it might happen at 7am or start at 7:30 and if we’re LUCKY on a weekend 8!!! Know what I mean?
Now I have kept a loose schedule with the lads, and granted there have been some uh… diversions this year. But I realize now that I, as the mom, really have to step it up. I find myself somewhat frazzled and at the end of my rope more than I want to be. Sometimes that’s just going to happen. Life can’t always be predictable. But as far as I can influence it, I believe that having a more structured routine will bring peace and SANITY to the entire house. *Ahhhhhhh* can we all breathe deeply for a zen moment! Ha ha ha!! Hey, I’ve seen it work, I’ve even put it into practice with other people’s children and I know for a fact that it brings good results. It’s just the getting there part that’s work.
And that’s why I’ve been putting it off. Yes, I can be a procrastinator too. Sorry to burst your bubble. But I kinda enjoy escaping into my “cyber world” of Facebook friends and blog feeds. I’m isolated! I don’t have adult conversation!! I NEED to feel connected to the outside world!!! Those are all valid, honestly. But they don’t need to take up a huge chunk of my time. And if they are pulling me away from my kids, and home responsibilities then they are actually a BAD thing!! So setting up a structure and having a little LESS wiggle room in my schedule will actually be a good way to help me be more disciplined as well.
This year I’m going to be babysitting 2 little girls. They are our “friends” from our play dates that you may remember me mentioning. Well, the oldest is 4 and a half and the younger one is just a couple months younger than Myles. I have decided in our new ‘structure’ to begin preschool with Qade and Danielle. *sniff sniff* This makes me kind of sad and nostalgic because I just can’t think that Qade is REALLY old enough for this. But I KNOW that he is. His mind is like a little sponge right now and I want to capitalize on that and be the one who is “filling” his sponge with good things. So I have purchased the preschool curriculum from Answers in Genesis and am actually really excited about teaching him and Danielle from a Christian world view. This will help us have some extra structure to our mornings. It’s going to go something like this.
Breakfast
Singing time With ALL of the kids, except baby girl, most likely!
Days of the week review
CHORES! (this’ll be exciting! I’m going to print out picture cards of the chores they are responsible for and then they can put those in a basket once it’s finished)
Free-play (for about 1/2 an hour they can play whatever they like)
School time! (for Qade and Danielle this will likely last about an hour)
Room time! (for Myles and Hailey. They will play in the lad’s room, or the living room while we have school)
Snack time!
Outside play
Lunch
Story time
Nap for little ones
School time (for big ones)
Nap for big ones.
Snack time!!
That’s it in a nut shell, and I know I’ll have to tweak it somewhat, and there will be days, especially once the baby comes, that I know things won’t get done as well. Still I think that having that structure will help the kids. They will know what to expect and know what is expected out of them. It’ll be good once we get there. The transition where they learn to be content may be rough. For example the little ones and learning to enjoy “room time” while I work with the older kids on school. They may not appreciate being kept in a room, and I anticipate two unhappy faces peering over the gate for awhile. But eventually, I know they’ll come to enjoy it and even look forward to playing without the intervention of their older siblings.
There you go. Hope it wasn’t too big of a let down for all the time I spent hyping it up. It IS going to be work for me, but I know we’ll all be better off in the long run. I know that for me personally I absolutely MUST have the discipline to get up earlier, have a little me and God and coffee time in the morning, and then start the day out right and on the right foot! I honestly believe that some of the behavior problems I keep running into with the lads will pretty much vanish when they have better structure to their days. Of course structure isn’t a “cure” for all issues, and loving discipline will have to still reign. I plan to have, and use, the time-out chair for the kids I’ll be watching, and of course the boys will also have time out, in their room, if they need it. I anticipate fewer problems and more fun on a regular routine though. 
I’ll be sure to keep you posted and let you know my successes and failures along the way I’m sure!
Toodles, for now weary reader!
Sounds wonderful, Rach! Wow – you are keeping the two kids besides your three? You are going to do this with a newborn? Whew! I am very much going to be praying for you! Right now it is a handful for me with just my three! But anyways, I will keep you in my prayers! Haha!
I have been thinking much along the same lines as this. I usuallyhave quite the schedule for the kids, but that has sorta gone out the window since Libby was born, and I, too, think that is partly to blame for me getting so frustrated and the kids “going wild.” I NEED to get up earlier – it is just so hard since Libby is still not sleeping all night. But I have been thinking about it much lately. Hmm.. You have inspired me. Maybe we can keep on each other to be sure that we are trying harder to be more organized and scheduled and getting up and stuff. I know I need it!
Thanks for being honest in your blog. It is really nice to know that I am not the only one out here who is struggling some!
Great ideas you’ve got going
I’m sure you’ll do a GREAT job!
New babies DO tend to wreck havoc on a “normal” schedule! I’m sure you have been doing a fantastic job, Emily! Better than me, I’ve just totally blah-ed out this year. I had great goals for my “new year’s resolutions” but pregnancy knocked those out rather quickly! Now I know that it’s EXTREMELY important to get my act together before baby girl comes into the picture. I’ve already told the family I’m sitting for that I’ll need 4 weeks “off” once she arrives so that we can hopefully integrate her into the schedule, as much as possible, ya know! We totally should keep each other accountable!! I know that it helps for me to have someone “prompting” along the way too!
Amen, sister!! Going through a similar transition here, with less computer time, and more family time/ time well-spent. I love the internet & all it offers… but it tends to be rather addictive & time-consuming. Neither of which a SAHM has time for!!
Getting up earlier & being more structured is exactly what I’ve been doing lately too!! Good to hear your perspective on all of this. I’m definitely finding that it is helping a whole lot.
The problem I’ve been runing into the last few months with internet time (umm… Facebook! ha!), is misunderstandings via access to information about our family that just isn’t really worth being upset about. lol. interesting problem to have! :p Any suggestions? I value your opinion.
Thanks!
-Sarah
I just went through several FB friend purges and got rid of a lot of unnecessary “friends.” I also hid some people, that I couldn’t delete because they were family or whatever, but I didn’t like seeing things that they post on their walls and such. Also something Stu has done, that I may also is to block certain friends from being able to see your whole profile. That way if there are things that you like to post or write or whatever that you know will cause “drama” for someone on your friends list, you can block them from seeing that. I’ve tried to just not worry about it so much and let people bask in their own issues without getting involved.
Still I try to keep what I do post as “friendly” as possible, but I just know you can never please everyone all the time. Some people are just out there looking for “ammo” to get all irate about something, and generally if that’s the case, they’ll find it! So I figure they aren’t worth having as a FB friend anyway, and limit interaction to e-mail or other things. Make sense?