I love lists. I love making lists, making schedules, drawing up charts. I love finding blogs about lists, and free printables for lists and chore charts and school schedules. I love it.
I sometimes wake up at 5 a.m. to prepare charts for my family - homeschool planners, calendars, chores, groceries, meals for a month - because who doesn't like to check off completed activities?? WHO??
I love Donna Young, and this idea, and these are amazing!
I have a problem, I think.
I don't know when I became a rule follower. I suspect it has something to do with being the oldest child. I like rules and I see charts as a beautiful way to help people follow the rules.
Problems arise when I get off schedule, though. For instance, Tuesday is the day that we give the bathrooms a thorough scrub - but sometimes it doesn't happen on Tuesday. So, if I walk into our our bathroom and its a disaster but its Thursday I am at a loss. What do I do?
I'm like Rain Man. I walk out of the bathroom and pace in the hallway. I rub the back of my head. I bite off all of my nails. Tuesdays are bathroom days. Not Thursday, my beautiful chart in the page protector tells me so.
Fridays are devoted to cleaning up the homeschool mess and the van. So if someone dumps their bowl of cereal in the backseat on, say, Wednesday. it's just going to have to wait. I just kind of short circuit, have to hit the reload button and keep going.
I knew things were getting serious when my daughter knocked over an open container of Gatorade in the fridge. There was red dripping everywhere, pooling in the vegetable drawers.
"Aren't you going to get a towel?" her father asked.
"It's not Thursday. Thursday is kitchen day," she said without hesitation.
"What? Are you being smart with me?" my baffled hubby asked.
"Ask mom. She's got the chart," she answered with a shoulder shrug.
I do. I have the chart. In fact I have a three ring binder that I made under the direction of the FlyLady.
Perhaps I need to loosen up. Go with the flow. Get things done on an as need basis.
Deviate.
Nah.
I think I need to make a contingency chart.
I sometimes wake up at 5 a.m. to prepare charts for my family - homeschool planners, calendars, chores, groceries, meals for a month - because who doesn't like to check off completed activities?? WHO??
I love Donna Young, and this idea, and these are amazing!
I have a problem, I think.
I don't know when I became a rule follower. I suspect it has something to do with being the oldest child. I like rules and I see charts as a beautiful way to help people follow the rules.
Problems arise when I get off schedule, though. For instance, Tuesday is the day that we give the bathrooms a thorough scrub - but sometimes it doesn't happen on Tuesday. So, if I walk into our our bathroom and its a disaster but its Thursday I am at a loss. What do I do?
I'm like Rain Man. I walk out of the bathroom and pace in the hallway. I rub the back of my head. I bite off all of my nails. Tuesdays are bathroom days. Not Thursday, my beautiful chart in the page protector tells me so.
Fridays are devoted to cleaning up the homeschool mess and the van. So if someone dumps their bowl of cereal in the backseat on, say, Wednesday. it's just going to have to wait. I just kind of short circuit, have to hit the reload button and keep going.
I knew things were getting serious when my daughter knocked over an open container of Gatorade in the fridge. There was red dripping everywhere, pooling in the vegetable drawers.
"Aren't you going to get a towel?" her father asked.
"It's not Thursday. Thursday is kitchen day," she said without hesitation.
"What? Are you being smart with me?" my baffled hubby asked.
"Ask mom. She's got the chart," she answered with a shoulder shrug.
I do. I have the chart. In fact I have a three ring binder that I made under the direction of the FlyLady.
Perhaps I need to loosen up. Go with the flow. Get things done on an as need basis.
Deviate.
Nah.
I think I need to make a contingency chart.
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How many charts have I made? And how many of them have ever kept me on task?
ReplyDeleteI too, have no nails right now...
I love charts, too. And lists, and organization. A place for everything, and everything in its place...as soon as I find a place for everything.
ReplyDeletei find making a chart for my charts which contain lists of my list of lists helps (:
ReplyDeleteHilarious. When I read "Thursday is kitchen day," I really did Laugh Out Loud :)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI totally do the Rainman thing. ugh.
ReplyDeleteBut it just hit me that what you probably need is not just any old contingency chart but a FLOW chart.
Like... is the mess going to get sticky? yes - clean up now. No - see below.
Can the mess be discretely brushed onto the floor? no - clean up now. yes - see below.
Will brushing the mess onto the floor result in crap getting stuck on Mom's feet while making dinner? yes - clean up now. no - wait until Thursday.
My sides hurt from laughing so hard!! Thank you Kara. ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm going to have to start some research on flow charts . . .