Help me come up with a schedule

[boysrus]

I am suffering!!
I believe I have add, and things can fly out the window like you wouldnt believe.s
I homeschool(unschool) and have three boys-3(highly spirited) 6(loves order and routine) and 8(aspergers)
I have a hubby who has aspergers who loves order. He is a waiter and works crazy chaotic hours, sometimes goes in at 10, sometimes 11, 3, 4 or 4 and then will work until 5 or until 9-12. He doesnt have set days off. He has also started taking a class every morning except fri, from 9-10:30. He needs lots of study time.
We have just moved into a new house(actually an old house) in April. I am still figuring out what goes where. I have two new dogs who need a lot of training time and exercise time. I have a garden that wants tending, a yard that needs looking after, and various household projects. I am also planning on starting school in the fall, taking 12 hours. DH will be taking twelve hours at that point too.
Ever since I have moved in, I have not been able to establish any kind of routine!! We eat whenever, the boys go to bed whenever, the cleaning gets done on the fly. I dont even know where to start!! Please, start throwing scehduling ideas out at me~~

[UUMom]

I think depression is common after a big move-- it's a huge stress. So keep that in mind.

My first thought would be to establish a library routine. Get the summer programming/ story hour/ craft schedule from your closet library. Make it a point to go to everything. It might suck, but it wll get you out and with a purpose. The kids can meet the librarians, you can get some fluff mags and the kids can also get books and videos.

Email the local hsing group. See if anyone is planning on meeting at all during the summer. My hs group does park dates and other casual things during the summer. It's mixed age and my kids enjoy it.

Is there a community pool nearby? If so, find out the hours and go.

Call LLL if you have a nursling. Take the kids to a meeting. They can play and you can sit and check people out.

Take things slow. One thing at a time. But try and find something to do a few days a week. Moving is way hard.

[aisraeltax]

scheduling

i looked at this b/c i need it too! this pregnancy is really hard on my motivation!
i looked at the flylady yesterday but thats too much for me!

as far as schedules go, i think meal time is a great place to start. im not always great in the summertime with bedtime and thus meal time, but i usually try to keep lunch and dinner at the same time every day. kids do much better with scheduled times b/c they know what to expect. im not advocating regimenting their every minute, but meal time and bed times are good places to start.

with cleaning, well, i will leave that to someone else. im not working right now so have to do my own cleaning and its not a pretty sight! im an organization freak (OCD) but cleaning i hate to do! i look forward to going back to work just so i can get a cleaning person again! lol!

i need help with the yard, garden, etc. i dont feel motivated to do anything lately! im always tired and easily exhausted! help!

as far as the unpacking, i would recommend taking one room at a time. that worked for me...choose whichever is the most important to you and do that one. that way you will actually accomplish something sooner and you can reward yourself and pat yourself on the back. trying to do the whole house is too overwhelming!

good luck and i hope others post here more help ideas that we both need!
Rach

[RainbowSquidney]

I'm in a similar situation....two 6-year-olds and a 3 month old baby. We just bought a home (end of May) and we also have two pets! DH has two jobs, days during the week, nights on Sat and Sun, and he goes to school three weeknights. Needless to say, he is unable to help with my overwhelmingness!

I've come up with somewhat of a plan because I noticed that I wasn't really getting ANYTHING done because I was soooo overwhelmed.

What I did is break down chores. I made a list (I love lists! : ) of daily chores (ex~dishes, laundry, take out trash if can is full, water plants).

Then I made a list of weekly chores. For example, I wrote out~Monday~pay bills, return email/phone calls, balance checkbook, wash sheets. Tuesday~clean toilets, tubs, and bathroom sinks. Wednesday~dust, sweep, mop......you get the idea.

Then I walked through the house room by room, closet by closet (even outdoors) and made a list of EVERYTHING that I saw that I wanted to do/needed to be done (we bought a fixer-upper). These incude things such as: organize sewing area, wash windows, repair screens, clean ceiling fans, weed the area by the deck, hang curtains in living room, paint kitchen, etc.
I broke these down into very individual, specific tasks. Like hanging curtains. Yeah, we need to hang curtains in every room, but just writing "hang curtains" was too overwhelming for me. If I see that I need to just "hang curtains in the living room", it seems like a task I can accomplish and I'm more apt to get it done.

That being said, when I wake up in the morning, I look at my 3 lists. First I accomplish everything on the "daily chores" list, then I move on to the "weekly chores" list. If I get all these done, GREAT.....if not, the dirt will still be there next week! If I do, by chance, get my daily and weekly chores done, then I pick something from the BIG list to get done. Like yesterday, I got all my chores done and then sewed up a plastic bag holder (which was on my big list of things to do) and cleaned up all those plastic bags we had wadded up in a corner.

As for the kids (we homeschool too).....we eat meals around the same time each day and they go to bed around 8:30-9:00. I don't usually worry about them getting dressed and things unless we are going somewhere. They know they have to get dressed before they go outside and so they do this on their own.

Anyway~just some things that I've come up with that worked for me. I'll definetly be watching this thread for more ideas!

[2GR8KIDS]

I like the "3 list" idea. Basically, I have the following weekly schedule:

Sunday: Dinner planning and grocery shopping for the week
Monday: Laundry (I do laundry other days, too, but Monday I try to catch up- all hampers empty)
Tuesday: Paperwork- bills, school stuff, phone calls, etc.
Wednesday: Errands
Thursday: Light cleaning (I have a cleaning service every 2 weeks and I don't spend much time cleaning, but I at least tidy the house before the weekend)

I frequently depart from the schedule but it gives me a framework if I feel like things are getting out of control.

Daily, we try to have meals and kids' naptime/bedtime at about the same time every day. I'd like to also get a more definite snack schedule (say, 10 AM and 3 PM) because otherwise I feel like I always have to pack snacks every time we leave the house.

Good luck. Don't worry to much about coming up with the "perfect" schedule. I'd just pick a few things to work on, then tweak your routine until you find something that fits.

[AngelBee]

: Was just diagnosed with ADHD..

I know how frustrating it can be...

[apmama]

Just wanted to say I'm sorry, you're going through a tough time, be gentle with yourself.

As for advice, I have none. I suck at routines, I'm trying very hard to cultivate one. I love the "framework" that 2GR8Kids posted, that's a great idea and seems like it would be easy to implement and then build upon. I'm trying to get my act together this summer, so we can ease back into a homeschool routine.

[AngelBee]

I have started calling them patterns instead of routines. Seems less rigid that way

[apmama]

oohhh, patterns, I can do patterns. LOL And the kids LOVE patterns, now to convince them.....

[boysrus]

blah, even just reading what you all have written is too overwhelming for me!!
Need, Life Skills For DUmmies!!