Just Another Manic Monday

April 1, 2013

For whatever reason Mondays are high stress days around our home. In reviewing past posts you start to see a theme. I remember experiencing the “Monday Syndrome” during my work-away-from-home days and thinking ‘What’s going on here? Why is very Monday so difficult?’ I have never stumbled across an answer that solves the problem either. I do know that the ‘It must be Monday!’ has followed me into my stay-at-home-mommy days.

Knowing Mondays are hard has changed the way we do thing around here though. We still cram a lot of household duties into this one day. I like to get the majority of the cleaning done on Mondays (including laundry!). We like to relax on the weekends, so we tend to let the little things slide. The result? A pile of dirty dishes; rooms to be tidied; floors to be mopped; toys from every corner of the house to be put back in its proper place; and a mountain of laundry to washed, dried, and folded.

If we can accomplish everything on Monday, we have the rest of the week to read and play during the time that has been allotted for chores. For instance, in our home chores follow morning devotions and usually last for an hour, then play time. Now you can get a lot done in on hour, but I would rather cut chore time short and extend play time. So instead of our schedule looking something like this:

MTWThF 9-10 am chores

MTWThF 10-11 am play time

our schedule looks more like this:

M 9-11:30 am chores (no morning play time)

TWThF 9-9:30 am chores

TWThF 9:30-11:30 play time

You would think that Monday means we don’t see sunlight but that’s not true. There’s plenty of sunlight streaming in through the windows :-)! So, while Mommy is busy in the kitchen and laundry room the children are cleaning their rooms. And if they had diligently worked during our nightly 10-minute speed clean, then they have time to play before I’ve finished sweeping and have prepared the room for them to mop. And as my son has finally realized (wahoo!!), if he mops the floor right the first time, he’s done in 15 minutes and off playing again. We’re usually done with three-quarters of the housework by lunch time.

Some days the system works, some days is does not.

Today was one of those days that it just didn’t work – kinda. Oh we still got almost everything done but not without a lot of conflict. You see I had somewhere I wanted to go. That meant cramming an entire day into a few hours. It started out well enough. We were all up by 7am. I had laundry gathered, sorted, and the first load in by 7:30. No one was clamoring for breakfast so I sent everyone to their respective bedrooms. And that’s where the battle began. Little Big Boy Man had his room done in 15 minutes (after several false starts) and moved on to mopping the floor. He was done and ready to go 30 minutes before I was! But my Sweetie Pies took 12 hours and half a dozen backside incentives to get the job done.

I was able to get to my coffee date with my oldest son in before he headed back to college. And the little ones got to spend two hours with Grandma. They always love that…the snacks are way more sugary there!

The laundry is washed, the dishes are done, and the fire wood is brought in. The floors are swept and mopped. Toys have been picked up and put away. Schooling took place, and dinner was made.

You would think I could chalk the day up as a success. But no! More on that later……………..

“The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." - Proverbs 13:4