I’m about 3 weeks late to write this post as a link-up, but I did enjoy the topic, so I thought I would write my own post on it.
As one blogger mentioned, not everyone has a Sunday reset routine: I am one of those people. However, this is not by choice- rather, it’s because Sunday is the middle of the workweek for us.
To be honest, this has been one of the hardest parts about being a law enforcement family and especially a Christian family. SO much of the “recommended” routines for marriage, family, religion, and resetting all revolve around it happening on a Sunday. And, yes, everyone tacks on the end of their advice: “but you don’t have to do it on a Sunday!”. Believe me…that is far easier said than done.
Obviously, this has been a sore spot for me, especially when my children were tiny and there was literally no rest or reset times on Sunday. I’ve grown more at peace with it and been able to handle it better over the years.
So, how do I handle resetting for the week? Here’s what it looks like for me:
Monday- big prep day
Monday is kind of my main prep day. I usually go grocery shopping, head to the library, run any other errands that I need to do, bake some muffins for lunches, pack lunches, and make sure we all have our school work done and ready to go for the next day. Monday’s are exhausting, and lately I’ve been trying to transfer any of those activities that I can do another day. For example, we’ve been working on finishing all homework on Friday/Saturday so that we don’t have to do any on Monday. And if I can fit in a grocery run on another day of the week, I try to do that instead. Still, Monday has big prep energy as it’s the day before we head into our busy week.
Wednesday- Family Day
Since we don’t have Saturdays or Sundays together as a family, we try really hard to make Wednesday a Family Day. Sometimes Wednesday ends up being an errand day in the morning, but no matter what we have on our calendar for that day, we drop everything and go for a hike in the afternoon. We have done this consistently now for 8 months, and have only missed one Wednesday afternoon hike since August!
Thursday- Evening Crash
Since we go to school on Tues/Thurs, and Theo starts his workweek on Friday morning, we kind of try to have a “crash landing” evening on Thursday. This is the day of the week that I make a SUPER easy dinner (like chicken nuggets or just buttered pasta) and we watch a movie. We find that we all need a little bit of downtime and something easy before we get to bedtime!
So, I guess, in conclusion…we reset for the week like 3x DURING the week haha. Anybody else have a schedule that is so out of the norm that you have to constantly adjust life and just live on the edge/not in the norm? I don’t know, maybe writing this post will help someone else out there who is scrambling to prep everything on a Sunday afternoon, and it’s just not working. I know how hard it is to feel like you are the only family in the world who doesn’t have a restful/relaxing Sunday, but it really is ok to get creative and do what works for you.
It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is happening, or if it is spread out across a few days, but here are the things that I try to do on a weekly basis to keep my household running:
- Check the calendar for events, playdates, appointments, meal trains, etc.
- Go grocery shopping
- Errand shopping- going to Rural King for feed, stopping at the Dollar Store for classroom items, going to Walmart for prescriptions or special items that we need
- Go to the library- got to keep these kids stocked up on books!
- Bake bread, bake muffins and make granola – three things I always have fresh on hand in our home!
- Meal plan – know what I’m making
- I like to text a few friends each week just let them know I’m thinking of them or praying for them. I find that I usually think of a couple people to text during church on Sunday. I keep a notebook with me to make a “brain dump” because for some reason that hour or so of church is when my mind starts thinking of all the things I need to DO that week
- Keep a running list of any projects or things that I need to do during that week. For example, I need to work on planning a baby shower. It’s not something that needs to be done on a specific day of the week, but it’s something that needs to be done soon and if I don’t write those types of tasks down, I forget them!
I am new to following your blog. I found you through the Wednesday Hodgepodge. I just wanted you to know you are not alone in having a weird schedule. We are a ministry family and we have struggled to have a consistent day off most of our marriage. We finally landed on Mondays but our kids attend school so this is not really a family day in the school year (they are also getting older so are often busy anyway). I feel the pain of not having a normal weekend because I feel like we never can figure out what our other day off is to get stuff done. We try to have Mondays just be a day of rest but then our house suffers. It is a real battle!
Yes!! I feel this in my soul- the fact that it feels like a battle. Sometimes I call it “swimming upstream” or living hours that don’t fit with not normal people hours. I think it’s one of those things that looks easy from the outside – just do it on a different day- but when we actually experience it, it is HARD! Just here to say that you are not alone. And I’m sure that you are doing a wonderful job with the circumstances that you do have, even if it doesn’t look like everyone else!