I'm in trouble now.  How did I get myself in this situation?  Easy terminology did it.  It was easy to say, "The first step..." when I wrote my article: Housewife to Home Manager: Making the Promotion Real.  Anybody who was ever in any kind of school knows that if there is a first step it must follow that there is a second step as well.  So I find I must either leave my readers hanging or buckle down and write about the second step.  And yes, there really is a second step.

I'm afraid it won't be as popular.  I mean, ANY mother would be thrilled with the first message of delegating housework.  But the second message is somewhat intimidating.  It is about organizing time.  What is that you ask?  Organizing time?  Is that like never finding yourself in a position where you HAVE to write an article when you should be planning that 10 hour car ride with 9 children because of Thanksgiving?  Gulp.  Time Management.  Give me that car ride any day!

The demands on a mother's time is incredible.  I remember when I used to be able to plop on my bed and enter the world of my current novel.  Daily.  Now I leave a book in the bathroom because I'm guaranteed to be able to read one paragraph several times every day.  And sometimes it is the same paragraph as I try to remember what I'm trying to read!

Having babies is a big detriment to time management.  A friend of mine with several children couldn't remember why she couldn't get anything done after she had her last baby.  She finally did a time management analysis only to find that she spent 17 hours...HOURS...holding, changing, feeding and otherwise interacting with her baby.  No wonder everything else was falling apart.

But I'm not recommending foregoing that complication.  It is something of a minute stretcher class.  We become super-woman when we have a baby - rushing at top speed to get as much done as possible while that angel sleeps.  We learn that there are things that must be done no matter how pressing everything else appears to be.  Babies must be fed and cuddled.  We learn to force ourselves to either slow down or speed up in an instant.  Somehow we begin to realize that time can be manipulated.  Remember those nine months of pregnancy and how slowly they inched by?  Remember those first nine months of your now teen daughter's life and how they were gone in a blink?  Time manipulates us until we learn to manage it.

Routines

Get a grasp on routines.  They are the framework that makes all time management easy.  There should be some things that you do in the morning.  Always.  I mean, you would hardly jump into the car in your nightgown to drive down the street.  Unless you are my friend.  She did just that to get a carton of milk at the drive-through.  Unfortunately, she also got into a car accident and had to discuss this with a policeman...in her nightie.  Following a routine is better than displaying your sleepware by the side of the road.

In our home we have several routines.  Every home does.  A routine is an established pattern for accomplishing something.  Bedtime routine is what is done leading to sleep.  We can fall into routines or we can thoughtful build them.  Building routines gives us the power to match the routine to our needs and personalities and allows us control over our time.

Look around and discover the routines of your life.  What do you do every morning?  How are chores accomplished?  What is frustrating about the routine?  Can you change it or is it so firm that you need to change something else to make it less of an irritant?  What are your daily routines and what about the unusual ones?  We have a different routine every Sunday than the rest of the week.

Our Sunday routine begins Saturday.  I must schedule my children's showers.  Silly you think?  Well, there are eight children still at home plus the two parents.  The two youngest girls can bathe together but must be supervised.  The oldest boy can't shower at night because his short thick hair would be impossible to control the next morning.  The two teen girls need an hour each in the shower...nobody can explain this to me.  The middle children could care less.  So, it is one of my time management jobs to see that the two bathrooms are used in the right order and by the right children.

Come Sunday morning we have to wake everybody up.  Don't misunderstand.  My children absolutely LOVE church.  But they want to sleep until the last minute even if they know that to do so means they won't look good and believe me, my older girls will not go ANYWHERE without looking good!

Once up, the younger children have to be fed.  None of the older children are interested in eating breakfast.  What a relief!  But, the little girls want to get their pretty church dresses on right away.  Wrong.  Eat first and the dresses stay clean.  So, eat and then dress.  Finished?  Oh no...the older girls also refuse to go anywhere unless their siblings look great as well!  So everybody crowds into the bathroom to get help with their hair.  Does mother do this?  Are you kidding?  Years ago I decided for Time Management purposes it was best that I not learn how to do hair because that way I wouldn't even be asked.  So, older sisters get to help younger sisters.  Brothers look for ties and shoes.  Dad starts the car and everybody rushes out the door.

Sitting in church, somebody figures out that the 2 1/2 year old forgot to take her overnight off and replace it with underwear and somebody sneaks home for the quick fix.

Time Management through Routines.  Routines that make life easier or hair-raising.  They exist whether we want them to or not.  So identify them, alter them and make them work for you.

What would make our Sunday routine easier?  We're working on it.  Our basement is unfinished but will soon be able to add a third bathroom and a real bedroom for the older girls.  The bedroom will include a nice mirror and counter for fixing hair.  Whew!  It will seem like Organized Heaven around here!

Where Do You Find the Time?

I am asked that question frequently.  I'm usually stumped, unable to come up with a clever response.  I usually mumble something about having older children and turn confident when I remember that I find time because my children are not all under the age of five.

What a difference that makes!  There is hope for every mother.  Time really does get easier with, well...with time.  It is true though.  I am better organized with nine children than I ever was with three.  Three children was something of a nightmare on my resources.  I've learned to simplify and to reserve time for the things that interest us.

Homeschooling is a big benefit to time management.  In exchange for a simple routine of home study I get to control the use of time in our environment.  The time we get up, the fact that jobs get done first, the days we study and the time for free creative activity.  This is my kingdom to manage.  I rarely have to tolerate somebody else's imposed structure.  And being a bossy woman, I love it.

Limiting outside activities for the school age child is also a big time management plus.  We don't do adult-structured children's sports.  One of the biggest complaints I ever hear from other mothers centers around either children's sports and practice or around teacher-assigned homework.  Homework is redundant in a homeschool so I looked at sports.  Our children enter the sport world when they become teens.  Until then they play...lots.  They might play sports but they don't work sports...and I don't have to meet a handful of schedules because of my handful of school-age children.

It is not a matter of good or bad.  I don't feel that sports for children is something wicked.  Far from it.  But I believe that it is a matter of carefully deciding what good things to say no to.  I insist on saying yes to learning how to swim.  There is no question that scouting has a top priority in our home.  And music.  Music is always a yes.  There are just so many hours and a mother must allow herself to say no to some time demands.  For us it was children's sports.  And nursery school.  And Community Recreation classes.  And Homeschool Park Days.  Although we do get together with friends once a week for group classes.

My children, like their parents, are highly social individuals.  Our home is filled every day with extra people.  That is one of our Yes Activities.  Discover your yes and no time demands.  Make conscious decisions and leave the guilt at the door.  You are not choosing between something bad and something good.  You are choosing between something good and something better.

Just Do It

Little things make a big difference in time management.  We never watch network television.  I tape the shows we are interested in and then decide when we can watch the tapes.  That way we are in control of the viewing time rather then subject to outside control.

Sometimes it takes a little money to improve on time management.  I bought a second plunger so that there was one in each bathroom.  I bought a third for the kitchen sink!  When a toilet is overflowing it is not the time to kick time into high gear as you run to the other bathroom for a silly plunger!  Spend a little money now and appreciate the time savings for years to come.

I make sure that I have time to concentrate on personal projects.  Most of my projects center around my family.  But there are some that are purely just for me.  Like taking a bath.  What a luxury!  It is the one time when I am alone, quiet, and able to think about life and family.  My friend giggled as she relayed a phone conversation she had with her brother that morning.  "Oh, that funny sound is the water running.  I'm in the bath."   Just then her son knocked on the door to tell mother that the chores were done.  My friend replied, "Ok, get sister ready to go, make sure the dog is put away and gather up what we need to go to the Logans.  I'll be out in a few minutes."  Then my friend laughed and explained to her brother, "I've made it!  I'm managing Cherie Logan style!"

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