Goodbye Schedule:)

Okay, so after that last post about all of the lists and schedules that make daily life in our home functional, I thought it would be good to follow up with a post about a day at home where we don't follow the schedule.

Today, I decided to take the day off from school and do some deep cleaning.  We are hosting several events and family holiday gatherings over the next six weeks and our house really needed a thorough deep cleaning. 

I decided NOT to tell the kids until the last minute.  (This is something that I am doing more and more these days.  I have found that when I tell the kids about plans in advanced, they build up expectations and then reality never measures up.  And, it helps if we need to make last minute adjustments to the plans.)  So, I waited to tell them so that they would sleep to the normal time (they always get up so early when they know something different is going on...amazing) and get their morning routine accomplished without the extra excitement and energy that comes with a change of routine.  We did everything just as scheduled until 10:30 or so when we completed My Father's World for the day (This curriculum is planned by the week so I like to stick to it as much as possible.). 

At this time, I explained to the older three kids that we would be having a "cleaning day".  You should have heard the happy cheering kids!  They know how I love to have a clean house and consistently tempt me to put school aside and clean so they were overjoyed that I was finally doing just that.  Everyone was given a different job and we all set about busily cleaning windows, ceiling fans, light fixtures, baseboards, walls, vertical blinds, etc.  I wanted to do all of those things that are hard to work into the normal schedule and those that we have skipped recently:)

The two little boys played computer games and watched a video and the baby napped.  Sometimes I have the little ones help but today I was more focused on actually getting the place clean rather than training little hands, so I used a cheap babysitter...haha.

It is always a challenge to get cleaning done while monitoring the kids doing their cleaning.  Between the ages of six and ten, they are still easily distracted and I have to chase them down from time to time and get them back on task.  

We took a break for a late lunch and then did a little yard trimming and clean up while the little ones napped in the afternoon.

 So, you see...I can leave that schedule behind...really I can:)  It is actually a nice change of pace every once in a while.

After mopping the floors tonight, I am now sitting in a clean and peaceful house...ahhhh.  Now to keep it clean past the event that we are hosting tomorrow night!