After a fantastic summer visiting family and then having family come stay with us, I knew I was going to need to find a way to keep some sense of my self and my sanity with the school year approaching.

In case you missed my last Thursday Thoughts, let me catch you up. We’ve decided to homeschool Firecracker (and by proxy, Treat, too). There you are, you’re caught up!

I knew I needed a way to not let my new “job” of teacher take over my entire post-bedtime life.

So, I’ve been doing a little bit of “soul searching,” and I’d like to share my results with you.

My hope is that it inspires other busy moms (and dads) to find time to schedule in your hobbies. Even if you only get 1-2 hours each night, it’s important to not get yourself lost in parenthood. It’s true, you do change once you’re caring for miniature versions of yourself, but you don’t need to disappear. Find something you enjoy, something that has nothing to do with the little ones, and be you. Don’t be surprised if you end up being a better mom (or dad) because of it. Schedule in time to reconnect with your significant other, too.

 Enter my ISTJ personality profile. I made a schedule. Yep, I’ve scheduled out my “free time.” And I’m doing my best to not let the natural deviations that will (okay, already have) occur from frustrating me.

Honestly, giving myself a guideline has put me at ease. It’s also given me the illusion that I can have time to “do it all!”

I spend Sunday evening gathering everything I’ll need for Preschool for the entire week. It goes into our school corner and I don’t have to be scrambling around each night getting ready for tomorrow. All I need to do is take a quick glance at my planner each morning to know which book to read and which project to do.

Mondays I break out the sewing machine! Getting to sew again was the main motivation behind creating this “schedule.” When my mother-in-law was visiting last month, we got to working on a couple of projects and it felt so good to get back to thread and fabric. I knew I couldn’t let it be another year and a half between projects.

Tuesday and Wednesday tend to flip-flop, depending on if I’ve checked the mail or not. One night I’ll do the menu planning and grocery list making, taking inspiration from the circulars (hence the mailbox status). The other, I’ll sit at my computer and do what I’m doing right now – blogging! If I don’t have a post to write, I’ll update my Recipe Index and then address some Social Media sharing. But, blogging only once (or twice) a week really has helped me stay stress-free with this hobby of mine!

Update: Ack! Looks like I need to add updating my Fantasy Football line-up to Wednesday’s agenda, too!

Thursdays tend to get a little haywire around here. It’s those “it’s almost Friday” jitters. I’ve reserved Thursdays for some real stress relieving activities. Either coloring or cross stitching. I haven’t done the latter in quite some time.

Come Friday, my husband and I are ready to reconnect and I set aside my hobbies to have an at-home date-night. It’s time to cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie; maybe make popcorn. Or in our current situation, watch Game of Thrones. There are zero spoilers coming from us, we’ve just completed Episode 9 of Season 1. Honestly, I haven’t decided if I like the show yet. But I want to keep watching it! So I guess I like it? I only like maybe 2 characters, which is probably a good thing based on all of the memes about endless fatalities.

Saturday is my “round-up” day. The “free-for-all” to catch up on anything that needs attention. A blog post needing a final image, emails that need replies, or an extra episode of GoT that just must be watched.

There you have it! A little behind the scenes in the life of Lauren.