Un-Scheduling

Last week, after my plea for help from homeschooling mamas to help me get my act together, I finally broke down and spent $14 of my Amazon.com gift cards from Swagbucks on Managers of Their Homes (bought used, without the scheduling kit). I get just a little bit panicky when I think of scheduling my day down to the minute, but I thought since so many capable home-makers are using it, perhaps I could, too.

I should have known better. The problem, of course, is that I am not one of those capable home-makers. I’m more of a good-enough home-maker. My budget gets shuffled around a lot because I don’t mind going a few dollars over on the groceries if I can take it from another category. I put away my laundry every afternoon if I get around to it. My baking days are sporadic and some dinners are completely off-the-cuff because the menu plan bores me this week. Sometimes I send my husband to work without muffins for his breakfast. Sue me.

I get a little off-track from time-to-time. More often than not, my problem isn’t attitude, but the fact that I have four children, one of which is literally eating away at least three hours of my time every day. I thought maybe MOTH could help me get things sorted out, but after reading the book, I can see that this isn’t going to work for me. I’m not even going to try to implement the system. I’m sure it works for the kind of person who thrives under a strict set of do’s and don’t's. For someone like me, who prefers to leave ample room for day-dreaming (you really can’t schedule that, can you?), this is no way to live!

I read through the book with the intention of giving it a fair shot, but there’s too much deliberation involved. Much as unschoolers (which I am decidedly not) let their children’s curiosity take them where it will, I prefer to let my day unfold a little more naturally. I’m an un-scheduler.

With the exception of those times when things are unavoidably out-of-whack, like after a new child is welcomed into the family, we have our routine. There’s a predictable flow to our activities. If I happen to look at the clock when we’re starting to feel hungry, it’s about the same time each day. There are certain times when I can count on the children to play happily together, and others when I know I need to occupy them some other way. I know, in a round-about sort of way, what’s going to happen next. There’s some unpredictability to our lives, but it’s not complete chaos.

I was so worried about not being able to get it all done that I completely forgot one of the central truths of life: It’s never done! You’re not finished until you die!

I have never once ended a day with everything on my to-do list finished. There’s nothing wrong with aiming too high, is there? Ambition is a wonderful thing! Life was not meant to be doled out in hours and half-hours like an envelope budgeting system. At least mine wasn’t! Maybe some people like to break things down into days, hours, and minutes. They’re welcome to it. I like to just ride the waves and see where they take me. As long as I keep my priorities straight–God, family, work, then fun–everything I need to do gets (mostly) done. That’s enough for me. I do not want to spend my life looking at a clock!

How about you? Are you a scheduler, or an un-scheduler?