Returning to Routines

The heat of the summer continues to beat down as children prepare or already had their first day of school. Summer whims are a thing of the past as children rush out the door to catch the bus, get a ride to school, or do their chores before their parent teaches them.

I tend to relax our routines in the summer. It's definitely not as strict as the school year, and I only have one school year under my belt. Also, where we live, in the desert, temperatures in the summer can get up to 115 degrees F, and I know how the heat affects me. So our routines of spending tons of time outside are cut more than half in the summer.

Our school year starts in a couple of weeks and I can't help but be excited for the change of routines. I'm excited to have two kids in school. I'm excited to watch them learn. I'm excited to see how their personalities will develop. I know it won't be easy all the time, but it's exciting.

We have pretty relaxed routines to begin with, but certain things have been my habit which has now become a routine. Like, I do all of the laundry on Mondays. Everyone in my home knows it's laundry day on Mondays. I'm spending my day washing, hanging, drying, and folding laundry. Sometimes I'll do one load of laundry later in the week, but 98% of our laundry happens on Mondays. It's a routine I've come to love and it prepares my family and I.

I'm still developing a routine for my family and myself but it's been an interesting thing to think through daily. What are my daily routines? Do I have weekly routines that I do without thinking? One of my daily routines is as soon as I wake up, I get my coffee and spend my time with God. That happens without me having to really think about it. A weekly routine would be my cleaning routines I have set each week.

As school approaches I have to be flexible when my routines don't go according to plan. It was hard to do laundry sometimes on Laundry Mondays because of school. Routines are to be a guideline and not a rule. So when your routines get chaotic, pray and ask God to calm your heart as you go throughout your day.

What about yourself? Do you have set routines that help you throughout your day? How do you handle routines that don't go according to plan?

-Chloe Burch