Pulling it Together Again, Day 6

Well, the house is basically re-ordered and finances/office sorted, bedroom organized and tidy and class room ready for me to start prepping the fall homeschooling. We have a basic routine that falls around the daily meal times, and all this set up within a week. Yesterday, I had to stop sorting for a bit and harvest some herbs that have been growing in their new bed. Also needed to seriously water the gardens due to what in my area is a virtual drought. But it all fit in nicely within the time-chunks, and so I did not get thrown off.

Regarding my rule, the emphasis for me remains on ensuring that my First P is lived faithfully and keeping the spirit of recollection and receptivity to God's Will throughout my day. For those interested, here's an interesting free download of a booklet taking about a "plan of life" - specifically, the prayer section of a daily 'rule' - well worth examining:

http://www.scepterpublishers.org/product/index.php?FULL=654

Secondly, I was thinking about how important it is for us to feel 'free' (my treasured spontaneity!!) - to not feel 'tied down' and burdened by our duties, and that the key way to do this inside of our mother's rule is to only schedule the 'basics' - such as daily prayer, meals, chores etc - coming up with a daily template or structure that covers the basics, but that leave us 'free to choose' among our other duties according to circumstance, time available, energy, need, and family considerations.

Two tools help the most:

The time-chunk method is the best way to deal with this - having large sections of time in between our regular routines - to enable us to cover what needs to be done without our prayer life and housework falling down.

So, for me, that means on most days, between 9:00 & 12noon, 1:30 & 4:30, and 6:30 & 9:30 (except for Family Rosary), I am free to attend to all the things in my life - from cleaning, to organizing, to gardening, to errands, to visiting, to reading or studying, to being with my kids, to spending time with hubby, to homeschooling, to tutoring a friend's child, to shopping, etc...

The Weekly Planner is the second tool - a little "To Do" notebook that, at the beginning of the week with the help of the family and the calendar, figure out what is coming up 'this week' and figure out when things can be done, with ample time to spare in case something unplanned comes up.

So for me, in the summer now, that means, I will be spending quite a bit of time prepping lessons for the fall for the homeschool coops I am in, keeping up with my gardens, and getting my mother moved in with us when her house sells. This will all be worked out, week by week.

Then - day by day, according to level of need, personal energy, and our attraction to any given task, we can choose what aspect of the weekly plan we want to work on during our time chunks and feel a bit more 'free': this leaves room for the impromptu trip to the beach on a 100 degree day, or friends dropping by from out of town, without feeling like our home or routine is falling apart.