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Busy Thursdays

Okay, it's official. Thursdays are very busy around here. And I probably should not have decided to clean the carpets today...it's not gonna happen, and now it's on my list and won't be crossed off :( I LOVE crossing things off my to-do list. The list itself never gets any shorter, but that doesn't matter so long as I can cross some stuff off daily. And writing down what I did AFTER I did it and THEN crossing it off doesn't get it for me. I've tried that method several times in the past, but it just doesn't have the same calming effect.

So, since my Thursdays are VERY busy, and I tend to forget some major things that need to be done each Thursday (eh-em, I'm talking to Janette - she knows what I mean!) I suppose I had better come up with a way to cope with my busy Thursdays while getting done what must be done.

For example, dinner on Thursdays is difficult to pull off. GKB & Big AMB skate at 5 pm. SGB has Christian Youth Theater (CYT) at 4:30. Tony often has meetings on Thursday, which brings him home later than usual. Big AMB races home from skating to change and head off to her session at CYT, and hopefully there is actually something ready for her to eat before she leaves. She doesn't get home until nearly 9:30pm, and that's a little past family dinner time, ya know?! So LJB and Little AMB have a lot of waiting to do on Thursday evenings...waiting for Mom to get back from taking someone here or there, waiting for Dad to get home from work, waiting with Mom or Dad to pick up this sibling or that sibling, waiting for dinner, etc. Those two have become pretty good "waiters", by the way! And my husband is so gracious, he never even blinks about busy evenings or late dinners on Thursday.

School is always hectic on Thursdays - for some reason, we seem to end up having a lot of science experiments on that day of the week, laundry is on "overload" on Thursday, I need to be finished with church stuff for the following week on Thursday, allowance is usually paid on Thursdays, blah blah blah. The life of a homeschooling mother is not so much different in my house than in your house, so I don't need to bore you with all the same stuff that happened at your house today. But how do I make this all work? How do I get the "have-to's" done without waiting until 10 pm to eat dinner with my family?

My ideas are not foolproof, but I have to start somewhere so here are a few ideas to make Busy Thursdays a little less hectic. Dinner needs to be planned ahead - that means days in advance for me. I have to keep Thursdays in mind all throughout the week or I will use my idea for an easy Thursday dinner on another day of the week (when I am convinced that somehow Thursday will be less hectic and I need to make the easy dinner today instead). And if I plan wisely, I can make Thursday dinner something that can go hand-in-glove with the kids dinner on Friday. We have a relaxed routine on Friday evenings, except GKB who usually ends up working. That means I can actually begin the weekend a little bit refreshed, ready to get some things done on Saturday and enjoy church on Sunday before jumping back into school and house work on Monday. Tonight we are having meatball hoagies. The meatballs and sauce are ready in the crockpot, the hoagie buns are ready, the mozzarella cheese is ready - everyone can eat before they run out the door, and Dad and the 2 girls at home with him can enjoy a nice dinner, just the 3 of them. With plenty of extra meatballs and sauce, I can make a simple baked spaghetti for Friday's dinner. I know the kids will enjoy both meals, and I won't have to think about it at all since it's a no brainer.

My other ideas to make Thursday less hectic are along the same lines - plan ahead, think about these changes often enough that they become second nature, and DO NOT add anything else to my already full Thursdays. Grade as we go on Thursdays, instead of letting it pile up for "later", which never arrives on Thursdays. (Tony, ignore the pile to be graded - I'll implement that next Thursday!!) Stop telling myself I'll have time to do extra big projects on Thursdays - I don't have time to clean carpets, to organize a closet, to shingle a dollhouse...not on this day of the week. I must be ruthlessly realistic, and stop expecting so much more from myself than I do from any other person on this planet.

One thing I'm not changing, however, is my time with the Lord on Thursday, or any other day. I really can't think of many things that keep me from my mornings with Him. And I hope that you don't have things that keep you from Jesus. He's it, ladies - the Alpha and Omega, the great I AM, the only Savior for this dying world, the One who lives to intercede for you at the Father's throne day and night...my time with Him is non- negotiable, even if we had to eat dinner at 10 pm every night of the week. When I go to bed at night, I'm already looking forward to the next morning when I'll have my time with Him. Actually, I start looking forward to the next morning as soon as it heads toward evening. I hope each one of you has that same longing to spend time with Jesus, just you and your Lord. If you haven't had that time for a while, start tomorrow. And right now, start looking forward to it. It's the most important date in your day timer :)

Now, I'm going to make a phone call to Friends...so that my son can access his class blackboard and do his assignment for his slightly liberal history class. And guess what? It's not even on my to-do list, but I'm going to do it anyway and I'm not going to go write it on my list before I do it so that I can cross it off "legit". But the carpets, they're still on the list...sigh.

Back to my busy Thursday!

Day 10 done :)

Jan L. Burt
www.homeschoolingmothersbiblestudy.com

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