Cut the excuses

I got called out by a dear friend today. She asked me what has been stopping me from staying on top of my responsibilities. I was ready for her with my standard answers, I need more time alone and less distractions.. But the look she gave me was so penetrating I had to stop defending myself. It was embarrassing to admit my real reasons. But I needed to know how ridiculous it really was to be so behind on things. Unacceptable.

Suggestions:
Kids clean ten things and put them away
Ten minutes completely focused on them, playing. Love bank, ten minutes to clean alone
Give them an activity to do
Put away one toy before taking another out
Be playful, get on their level often, but be firm when you have to be

Use your heart more not your head, solution to depression as well as cleaning, responsible time v. Intellectual time
Go biking while the weather's nice!

Talked about exercising the kids, park time for instance, but it's not enough
Intellectual time and attention and playtime

They knelt down to pray facing each other this morning, mom and daughter

This lady is a powerful force for good, no wonder she's restless at the end of the day! So much energy to share :)

Check out fly lady, so funny she says

Routinely Rodriguez

I took my DeLorean back in time a year.. and I discovered something unfathomable. I used to do morning routines with the kids. This was back in March and from what I can tell the kids took really well to routinely making their bed and putting on day clothes before breakfast. Scripture study was a must too, just after we'd eat breakfast.

Well, then what happened? Ahem, Uncle Frito changed Job's work schedule. In April if I'm not mistaken. For whatever reason I fell off the schedule and took the kids down with me, LOL.

But today we decided to be responsible again. We ALL put on day clothes, brushed our teeth and made our bed. I started breakfast only to have Job finish it while I put Memo to bed, then after eating we read scriptures! Brilliant! And we're starting to do bath time at nights, instead of whenever the mood hits me, leading me to seriously cut the current night time routine down to bare bones.

Let's see.. now we do our *favorite part of the day* in the morning (favorite part of yesterday?) and we do our tooth brushing as a family in the morning (all the other times they're on their own). Even our pajama dance is, you guessed it, done in the morning! Before we put on boring day clothes :)

And that's where we're at right now. Thank you for reading my disjointed account of what we do with our lives! All in no particular order =D


**UPDATE**
 Routine is as routine does. And my routines are ALWAYS changing. Poor boys, I hardly know how to stick to our bedtime routine and daily routine! We're still doing the morning routine of day clothes, brushed teeth and bed made . But the early morning pajama dance fizzled out and however ideal it is to bathe the boys at night, I also really like when Job steps in to wash 'em before he heads out for work!