Fall 2019 Routine

The more kids we have and with the addition of our three foster loves the more important our routine becomes.  This is hard for me because I am not the most consistent person.  I like to wake up in the morning and see what I feel like doing that day, instead of waking up and saying... oh it is Tuesday time to mop the floor.  But with 8 kids and three who don't do well with unpredictability we stick pretty close to our routine each week.  The day that usually ends up being the hardest is our saturdays because there is no set plan for that day it just varies from week to week.

I like to do these "routine posts" so that I can look back and remember what our daily lives looked like during this time in our lives.

Here is the basic run down of our fall schedule...

Monday- Thursday Addie, Jensen, Big Sis, and Mr. J all go to school in the morning.  I hang out at home with the Declin, Magnolia, Little A, and Rockwell.  The older two often watch some of TV  or play in the backyard.  I work on house work and play with the younger two.

After school time is filled with homework, therapy sessions in our home, Upstart for Big sis and Declin, and visits with kids bio mom.

Here are our evenings...
Monday- Swim lessons and FHE
Tuesday- Big Sis has dance.  McKay used to go to young mens this evening, but our new calling is Indexing so we try to spend an hour indexing after the kids go to bed.
Wednesday- Swim lessons
Thursday-kid date night.  The kids rotate through and we take one kid a week on a date night with mom or dad.
Friday- Family Fun night.  We do a fun activity as a family.  Sometimes it is sleeping in the backyard, doing an art project, a family dance night, or movie night in the basement.  The kids usually get to stay up late this night.
Saturday- mom and dad date night

Sunday we have church at 1:30 so that is "fun" and then it is just dinner, come follow me lesson, and bed.

McKay and I both REALLY miss being able to get anything extra done in our days, but this is just not the season.  Dishes alone take us until 9:30 most nights followed by a last minute laundry switch before we fall into our beds exhausted.  We have been trying to paint our kitchen table for 3 months now and it is just not getting done.  But we remind ourselves that this is a season and someday we will get to do projects again or even have a moment to workout.

The kids are all in challenging phases right now as they work through the struggles of all of the changes in their lives.  We try and be with them as much as we can to encourage them to feel safe and calm about their lives.  Most days I wish there was more of me to go around... wouldn't that be nice.