My schedule....

I realized, well, ok it didn't JUST dawn on me today, that I am a "schedule" person. I like to know what's coming next and what needs to be done. So in procratinating, I mean browsing through other blogs getting ideas, I decided it may be good for me to write down some of my schedule/organization. For my own sake and possibly the sake of others.
See, I live with an anal DH. Belive it or not, he forces himself to be that way. He has trained himself to be organized. If he isn't, he loses things. Case in point... he couldn't find his ATM card. He looked all over his car, my car, his desk, pants pockets etc. When I asked him a day or so later if he ever found it he sheepishly said, "Yeah, it was on the other side of my wallet." So if things are not exactly where he is used to finding them, he loses them. This has caused me to become anal as well. If I see his keys, wallet, sunglasses, cell phone etc. in a not-the-usual place, I go put them in the usual place immediately. I don't know if he even realizes it. But living like this for the past 15 years has caused me to change some of my own habits. I've always been scheduled, I've not always been "organized".
My desk, when I worked and at home, is messy. It's piles. It drives DH crazy! But I know exactly where to find what I need - I KNOW what is in those piles. Eventually I file, toss, review, take care of what is in those piles. I just save it up for one big session. I did it at work for years so I'm used to it. That is where I am a typically organized person. However, look into my clothing drawers, closet, kids closet, pantry, laundry room and I AM organized! Still not quite to the extent DH is but I'm close. (Yes, he has "lost" an aticle of clothing because it got put in the wrong place in the closet as well.)
When I worked, schedules were sometimes regular and oftentimes ever-changing. But if we always had a staff meeting on a Tuesday morning, we just knew it was coming. If I always had a budget due to a client on XX day of the month, it was just always due then. The ever-changing things were what threw me off sometimes. But I learned to love the regular scheduled events and deal with the ever-changing ones. When I became a SAHM, I had my baby on a schedule. I knew when to feed him, when to change him, when to put him down to sleep... it just worked for both of us. So 6 1/2 years later, I'm still pretty scheduled! And so are my kids. We don't have a ton of activites to keep track of (lack of funds and I don't want to over-do it with them either. I'm a big believer in home & family time).
Here's my week:

Monday: back to school day for both kids. I manage to get up and showered before waking them. Off to school for both of them and then either I help DH with work or run errands on my own (who knew that would be heaven on earth??) Monday is usually a regular dinner night.

Tuesday: school for DS only, DD and I putz around the house. DS comes home, does homework quickly and then we run him to acting class. Dinner is either a crock pot dinner if I'm on the ball or we pick something up on the way home from class (he gets out at 6:15, tough time on a dinner schedule!) I generally vacuum and wash towels/bed linens if needed on this day as well.

Wednesday: repeat of Monday. Regular dinner night too.

Thursday: school for DS only, laundry day! I also usually vacuum again. I do clothes laundry only on Thursdays. I'm also scheduled about how I do that! I start with whites and either do a bleach load, then a whites load that can't have bleach, light colors, jeans, dark colors. Some weeks the dark colors load doesn't get done until Friday because of the stuff drying. When I can use my outside clothesline, I get laundry done WAY faster than in the cold months.
My laundry is even organized. I keep five bins in the laundry room - one for jeans, sweaters and sheets, one for towels, one for whites, one for colors, one for darks. Oh, I also have one for items that need ironing as I save that up for one big ironing session too. A friend of mine recently made fun of me for having so many laundry baskets. He asked how many baskets a family of four really needs. I replied, 11. :P I LOVE those mesh wash bags too. I wash DD's socks in them - no little tiny socks getting lost in the dryer! Delicate sweters that could get snagged, bras etc. in them. I have lots of those too.
Thursday is a tough day on me because DH works on Thursday evenings. So no "real" dinner. Sometimes I cook just for the kids and I, other times they eat chicken nuggets and I eat a, gulp, frozen dinner or we'll have a frozen pizza. It's just a long day for me!

Friday: clean the bathrooms, change towels, dust, pick up in general from the week. I started doing this because then I have my weekend free for my family. I like to go out to dinner on Fridays but budget-wise that hasn't been an option for us lately. So I'll make pizza or something fun. We rarely have a full "meat & potatoes" dinner on a Friday.

Saturday: this is our ever-changing day. If there's a birthday party or a football game to go to, it changes our day. If DH is golfing, it changes our day. If we do something as a family, it changes our day. This is fine with me. I anticipate that it is the "ever-changing day" so I don't have my sights set on anything in particular. Besides, it's good for a "schedule person" like me to have a fly by the seat of our pants day.

Sunday: sometimes an ever changing day as well. Sometimes we have dinner with family. Most of the time we have the kids "adopted uncle" over for dinner. I like to make a big yummy Sunday dinner that includes dessert. He doesn't get anything homecooked so it works out for everyone. We used to go have church and Sunday school but we've decided as a family to take a break from our church. Long story that could be another blog but I won't even get into it.

My schedule also includes cleaning the kitchen floor & sinks, cleaning the fish tank, cleaning the litter box, ironing, changing bed sheets (every other week here), play dates, park dates, DH schedule changes and evening meetings and of course, the occasional completely off day where I don't cook or clean or do much of anything! DS has homework M-TH, they get a bath/shower every other day, there are doctor appointments, classroom helper days, field trips, grocery shopping days (I do BIG shopping around the 20th every month and go in between as needed. I would spend WAY too much if I went every week - tried it, tried to stick to a list, nah ah, didn't work for me!). Meals are planned weekly since our meat is mostly frozen. I guess I am old-fashioned in that I write it on a dry erase board that hangs on the fridge. I need to get up with the times and do it on the computer!

I'm sure I have bored you by now. But it has helped me to see that I may not be the busiest mom on the block or the most organized but I'm doing pretty ok! My family is happy and we ALL know what is coming next.