Finding A New Normal
These past few weeks have been nothing less than extraordinary. Unprecedented. Nothing I would have imagined in my lifetime. My coping mechanism was to tell myself that this is very temporary and to stay busy. I have cleaned, organized, and minimized everything in my house (except the garage). But now I know that this is new normal, at least for the next few months. Here in Georgia, we are in Shelter in Place until at least the end of April and school will be at home for the rest of this school year.
My 13 year old (7th grader) was already in an online Public Charter school. His life isn’t extremely different than it was before. However, my 4-year-old went to preschool 2 days a week. She loved her class time and I got so much work done those 2 days every week. I know for many of you life has completely changed.
So how can we create a new normal for our families? There was a sense of newness to all of this, but now the new has worn off and we need to get back to rhythms and routines to be productive and continue to grow. (If you don’t have kids at home feel free to skip this next section.)
When this all first started I created a new plan for my family. A timeline for each day. Did that work? Not in the least bit. If we got off a little bit in the day it was all over. So I thought about it for a few days and realized that this is pretty much our summer schedule now! I already have a daily plan for my son that works really well. Let me tell you why this works for us.
Planning is still so important!
But we have to give ourselves grace during this time.
There are no times attached to anything on these schedules. Let me just be honest, if my kids want to sleep until 9:30, I let them. We are no longer on a rigid school schedule where our kids have to be on the bus at 7 AM. Give yourself grace. With my kids sleeping later this gives me some morning time for my devotion and then to get some work completed.
Both of my kids can look at their list each day without me having to referee everything. The teen doesn’t ask for the iPad or his game because he knows what I’m going to ask. “Have you checked your list?” For my teen, this gives him some flexibility. If he wants to unload the dishwasher first thing or if he wants to do school first. It’s up to him. This is teaching him time management and responsibility. Not having access to media or devices is all the motivation he needs.
My 4 year old loves to look at her list and know what’s happening next. Kids need structure. This gives her a balance of structure and flexibility. I do plan for “quiet time” to be around 1 PM each day.We allow for adjustments. If I need my teen’s help with something I might take something off his list for an exchange. Or if I have an important phone call I might move “craft time” up a little earlier and let her paint as long as she wants. Flexibility is a good thing. As long as the things are done, all is well!
I have attached their charts here: Older Kid Older Kid BLANK Younger Child
Now let’s talk about our homes. Since we are all home, all day, things can get messy. If you haven’t done this before, have a family meeting about how we are going to all do our part to keep the house neat. This isn’t just Mama’s job. Routines make ALL the difference for me. My Weekend Routine sets me up for success for the next week. See that blog post HERE. My Evening Routine is HERE and it is the most important to my sanity.
I have tweaked some cleaning routines from other bloggers and created what works best for me for keeping my house clean. Maybe you had a house cleaner before and now you don’t This takes 30 minutes or less each day and it will keep your house so clean! Here is what my week looks like:
Monday - Bathrooms (my son cleans his own - I’ve been working with him for a while to teach him this VERY important life skill. Now is an EXCELLENT time to get your kids involved in cleaning.)
Tuesday - Upper Level. I dust and vacuum the upstairs of my home on this day. I also make sure little piles are dealt with in these rooms. If you only have one level to your home replace this with “Bedrooms.”
Wednesday - Main Level. I dust, vacuum, and mop my main level on Wednesdays. This takes me the longest since I have hardwoods on most of this floor. If you have only one level replace this with all the other rooms in your home and dust and do the floors.
Thursday - Deep Clean Zone. On this day I focus on a piece of my Deep Cleaning Zone for this month. I can do a large part of it or divide this up into small parts for each Thursday of the month. Again, get your kids involved. Check out my blog post about my zones HERE. (You can download my Monthly Zone list HERE.)
Friday - this is my free day. I can work on a project or not. Or if I didn’t get to something during the week I will catch up on Friday.
We have been gifted this time at home, let’s not take it for granted. I know so many aspects of this are really hard for so many, but we can see a lot of bright spots too. We have been given time to finish the things that have hung out on our to-do lists for so long. We can finally tackle the clutter that we have wanted to manage. We can teach our kids the life skills they will so desperately need when they are no longer under our roofs.
When this all first started I dove in with both feet. Now I realize that this isn’t sustainable and I also need to work on carving out more areas for rest and family time. So I have created a list of the things I would like to accomplish this month. I prioritized them and I plan to work about an hour each day on them. One hour. I can do that. You can do that!
If you aren’t already, I would love for you to follow along on Instagram. We are having a blast in our stories going through all of this together!