Summer successes – Part 2

Another ‘success’ of my summer has been the organization of my home, household chores, and family activities.

Take a second to breeze through this old post to get an idea of how overwhelmed I was with housework, my job and parenting back in January of this year. I feel sorry for myself just reading back through it (especially when I look at the picture of that disastrous roast).

I feel a thousand miles away from that now.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago about the chores and activities calendar I created recently to help me get on top on everything. I have absolutely loved this new system ever since I started it. And, surprisingly, so has my husband. Michael has commented several times out of the blue over the past few weeks about how much he appreciates the organization of our home, meals and activities.

I do laundry only on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays now. I vacuum on Wednesdays. I clean bathrooms every Friday. I run most of my errands on Wednesdays. Gabriel and I go to the library on Monday mornings, and we attend daily mass every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Friday is our play date day.

It was a little tough to make myself  stick to the schedule at first (and I still allow myself reasonable flexibility), but I have noticed that my house is the cleanest and most peaceful that it’s ever been, by far. And the routine I’ve created stands up to interruptions like teething, rainy days, tired days, and company.

I’m definitely still tweaking lots of things, and sometimes I definitely don’t feel on top of all of those little daily challenges of housework and motherhood that all of us face. But as I finish my summer as a rookie member of the noble SAHM club, I think that me being home has concretely made my life and my family’s lives more peaceful and orderly, and I am so thankful for that!