A New Year: A New Schedule

It's a new year, and January marks the anniversary of becoming a stay-at-home mom. It's been a challenging year, filled with adjustments and change. It's been hard in ways that I probably could not have expected. Our lives have changed from having a concrete routine and school schedule to having days upon days and weeks upon weeks of not even having to leave the house, except of course for things like grocery shopping. The days are long, and my boys have become more active and in need of more consistency then just waking up and deciding what to do that day.

So with the start of the new year, and after much reflection, I have decided to try having a set daily schedule. I spent a lot of time working on it this weekend- finding a space and fitting in each and every thing that I want to have time for, while leaving room for flexibility. I kept in mind the schedule-making advice of 'plan your schedule as if it's your worst day possible and everything goes wrong'.
And I'm excited about the time that I've set aside for a few new activities, things that I always want to do, but don't always prioritize - like a circle time with the littles, reading, knitting, and bread-baking.

I am also curious to see if it helps with some of the behavioral challenges that I have been trying to handle with my preschooler. The more I read about preschoolers needing predictability, routine, and expectations, the more I realize we need a change.

I set it up in my google calender, and David and I have synced our calenders, so hopefully communicating about our schedules will be easier.

Today is Monday, my first trial day. We will see how it goes, and maybe I'll post it here once we've worked out the kinks. And if it makes life more stressful, and isn't a positive change, I can always throw it out.

Do you keep a daily routine/schedule or do you go-with-the-flow throughout the day?