A Revial

From when I used to post my daily activities and notes about what was up and my to do list. You know boring mundane stuff that I actually kind of like to read on other people's blogs. It's so much more satisfying than a FB update because there's more detail. H would say it's because I'm nosy. I say it's because I'm a writer...I'm curious. So in that spirit....

My To Do List:
Clean up the dining room area which means organizing the shelves and homeschooling crap that is all over the Place (at least it's not in boxes).
Do dishes.
Do ALL the laundry including a diaper load.
Maybe fold said laundry.
Finish the syllabus for both classes and upload to Moodle.
Organize the articles I have online on Moodle.
Send threatening letter to future students.
Sit at the pool and drink beer with H.

I started this post around noonish and thought as I typed it out "There is NO WAY I'm going to get this all done!" I mean yesterday, it did take me five hours to clean my microscopic kitchen. And yet look at those strike outs. I did all that in like four hours. And I'm one load away from being caught up with laundry. I'm also thinking that within an hour I can put a line through my last to do as well.

I wish there was a way to replicate what makes some days easier to get things done. Yesterday seemed no different really. Rowena was just as fussy today and took as many short naps. Maybe I had more energy? I just don't know so that means tomorrow I'll get NOTHING done and feel like a failure.

My goal this year is yet another attempt to get us organized. I know I say this at least twice a year! But in my defense we get a bit better. Before I got pregnant I was quite adept at keeping the house respectable. And we do a lot more schoolish type stuff as well. I've found several blogs where moms have these schedules for chores. These outlines are usually divided into daily chores, weekly chores, monthly chores, etc. If I can get the house really clean then I think we can swing ourselves into that kind of routine. I KNOW we need to do this before we start our Ph.Ds or it's going to be utter chaos. We HAVE to train now.

My problem is that there is a big of me that just hates this kind of thing. I hate routine, schedules, etc. I detest being tied down by outlines. I resented having to write outlines of papers in school and then being FORCED to follow said outline. One of my greatest joys in my family is how deliciously spontaneous we are! But I also am becoming painfully aware that much of the time our house looks like three mini tornadoes whirled through destroying everything in their path. I walked into the kids' bedroom and found one of my favorite Mexican boxes broken. It made me sad rather than angry because I knew if I had kept up with the cleaning I would have noticed it missing likely before it got broken. In addition, our kids are slovenly and spoiled about it. They are the destroyers of rooms because when one room is destroyed the move onto another. They don't like to play in the messes they created.  But how do I balance this? I spent the last two days cleaning and we didn't go out all day. We really can't live like that. I don't want to live like that. How do other homeschooling moms do this? Or am I placing unreasonable expectations on myself? How clean does the house really have to be?