Inspiration for today's planning:

 

If you have no system, you have to reinvent your housekeeping or debate what to do first every time you do it, and the required mental effort is a major obstacle, especially when you are tired.

    Cheryl Mendelson, Home Comforts

 Homemaking is not something that stands in the way of our deeper fulfillment; it becomes the ground that feeds it.

   Shannon Hayes, Radical Homemakers

Good morning everyone! I started working on my own chart earlier today, it looks so similar to Jenny's that I didn't take pictures (instead you get a gratuitous shot of a fall still life, with needle felted pumpkin, Trader Joe's gourds and a special French clay rabbit, all on top of the cake stand I used at my wedding). I also spent a few minutes gathering inspiration from two seemingly different (but actually related in many ways) books: Home Comforts (that I mentioned the other day) and Radical Homemakers.

Weekly Family Flow

Hey Angel!

How is Autumn going so far for you? The light has changed here, it's so weird how that happens nearly overnight. It feels like Fall now, though we're still getting spectacular weather. I have to admit, as much as I loathe June around these parts (so cold and rainy, many people call it June-uary), September more than makes up for it. Gorgeous.

I am such a dumb-dumb, I didn't get a chance to pick up the copy of Home Comforts that I had requested at the library, and my hold expired, so now I have to request it again. I cannot wait to get my hands on that book!

In the meantime, I've been working on a rough schedule for our family routine including my own diverse to-dos, now that we're back at school. I thought I would share my process, in case it can help a reader or two and/or encourage discussion!

Instead of "routine" or "schedule", I thought I would call it a "flow" -- I loved when you used that word in our last Skype conversation. Life with littles is so unpredictable in so many ways, it helps to have fluid expectations.

So... I began by writing out a list of all the things I need to and would like to accomplish in any given week, in terms of house-keeping and family organization. Nothing fancy like dusting baseboards, just a basic list of what should be doable. I should also make a disclaimer here that my standards are not Martha's. Ahem.

I had done a lot of thinking about this list, and decided it should be separated into the 4 major categories of my life:

• Kids
• Home
• Work
• Personal

I then filled out the list in each category.

A post about keeping house, and all that entails

Oh my, a chill is in the air even in these parts! Hard to believe summer is almost over. I'm always sad to see the main growing season go, but by now I'm also worn out by super hot and humid weather and mosquitoes as big as hummingbirds. So, bring on Fall!

Thoughts of cleaning, organizing and nesting have set in, and as I look around the house I can see I have some major work to do. I never really got back into a routine after we moved back into the house in March, and my sanity (and the state of my house) has suffered greatly for it. I make valiant attempts to "get back on track" but they never seem to stick. I need help!

Enter in my favorite new book, Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House. This comprehensive housekeeping guide, written by Cheryl Mendelson, is not only an encyclopedia of indispensable explanations and tips for every household task, it is also brilliantly written. Sort of like a cookbook that you want to read even when you are not actually cooking......




The book is a large one, at almost 900 pages the hardback version is formidable. The pages are divided into the broad categories of Beginnings, Food, Cloth, Cleanliness, Daily Life, Sleep, Safe Shelter and Formalities. Those eight sections are further divided into 72 chapters, so you can find exactly what you need when you need it without getting overwhelmed by all the rest.