What's working now- weekends

And this will wrap up this series...

Saturdays can vary. They are first and foremost my cleaning day. We work together on a list of chores, everything from stripping sheets that need washing to washing pet dishes and bird cages to dusting and cleaning floors. I start early by throwing dinner in the crockpot. Saturday is long and physical. I don't want to have to cook dinner at the end of it. I work on things I need to do myself while everyone else is asleep...purging and organizing an area usually, and cleaning the main bathroom.

The day changes here, depending on whether or not John is off. If he is off and available, Maria and I have a girls' day out. We go thrifting, often, or maybe to the craft store or dollar tree, the bakery thrift store, the library to get books that I couldn't look for when I was there with a bunch of kids, or anywhere else I've been needing to go and don't want to go without littles. We finish up with lunch out somewhere and come home to rest up for the afternoon.

If John is working, then I stay home and make it a project day. I have an ongoing list of things I need to be doing...right now that includes organizing and purging the laundry room and school room closet, and going through clothes to bring out spring and summer things. Also, twice a year the boys play baseball for an 8-week stretch on Saturday mornings.

Whatever Saturday morning brings, when my crew is ready after rest time, we move through the house. If pick-ups have been done nightly, we can work quickly with the dusting and floors. After those chores are done, I send the boys to clean out the van and check the yard for trash. Maria cleans the bathroom off our school room. I clean my bedroom and bathroom. We quit at 5, wherever we are. If it didn't all get done, then so be it. We try. Either way, I'm exhausted at this point! I break out my crock pot dinner. We clean up quickly, and then settle down for a movie and popcorn. The movie is geared toward the older kids, a reward for a hard day's work, but needs to at least be appropriate to have on around the littles. They usually watch some, and then wander off to play. I'm not really motivated to bother with laundry folding on Saturdays and once the kids are in bed I continue my couch patrol. It's a long day, and the next day is Sunday! A day of rest! Woohoo!

Not so much. :) But yes, relatively, it is a day of rest. Sunday varies a bit...some weeks we go to a 10am mass...once a month Maria has a Life Teen mass and so we go to mass in the evening. In April, our parish will start having Life Teen mass every week, so I will go with that routine since it will soon be our norm. I sleep in, at least until Jack wakes up...he's usually the first one. I make brunch on Sundays, but the little kids aren't' going to wait that long to eat, so I feed them something..some yogurt or cereal. I make something to have with our brunch, often banana bread since I have a bunch in the freezer to use up. Around 10, we have our brunch, always pancakes for Jack, and maybe omelets or quiche or a frittata, sausage or bacon, whatever bread I made earlier. We have rest time when that rolls around, and do baths and such after, getting cleaned up for mass. I put dinner on after rest time. We will eat early, around four, since we had brunch and since mass falls over dinner time. Dinner is something yummy but not too time-consuming. I did make that big brunch, and it's my day of rest too! So often a chicken or roast or something like that,,,one of those things that looks like more work than it was. We eat dinner no later than 4 so as to make our communion fast by 4:30, and dress quickly for mass. Since clothes are laid out and everyone is (ideally) pretty cleaned up, it doesn't take long. Maria, by the way, is not here at this point. She has band practice before mass, then sings at mass, then has a confirmation prep class or Life Teen after mass. So she is pretty much at church all afternoon/evening. So, anyway, mass, then back home to relax. We usually pick up donuts after mass for good behavior motivation, so that's dessert, though usually the little kids will need something else more substantial to eat before bedtime since dinner was so early. At some point I will motivate to the kitchen to clean up the dinner mess that is still waiting for me. No baths to worry about since we already did that. I do my laundry room time, even though it's Sunday, because I probably didn't do it on Saturday and I need to make sure clothes are ready to go for Monday. Someone will need to go pick Maria up at 8...but that's the weekend! Writing it all out, Sunday doesn't sound too relaxing :) But it is. I don't mind the cooking when there's not a thousand other things to do. I like making a nice brunch. If I didn't, I wouldn't do it, or I would get some pre-made things to use for brunch. There's still work to do, but the pace is slower.