in which i battle my inner bruce banner and dowager countess

So this weekend was great. It was the first weekend in many a weekend that we haven't had anything on the agenda.

(Sidenote: can you tell I started this on Monday? It's only Thursday. Consider my back patted for my timeliness.)

In a strange turn of events, my parents invited us to go to a bar with them on Sixth Street. The last time we were on Sixth Street is when my remarkable navigational skills ended us smack dab in the middle of the Keep Austin Weird Poster Children convention. Insert locking of the car doors now.

We played shuffleboard, as any healthy thirty-year olds would do on their Friday night and were home in time for our 10pm bedtime roll call. I call that a win-win-win.

On Saturday, we decided to be spontaneous and invite some friends over. Usually the minutes that follow the breaching of that subject resemble the fallout of Waterloo, complete with emotional exile for my poor saintly husband. I become some kind of hybrid crossbreed between Bruce Banner and the Dowager Countess. I want everything to be perfect and lovely and hospitable and I want it like that right this very giant hulking green second.

But this weekend was different.

How, you ask?

As it turns out, cleaning schedules aren't awful.

Contrary to my free-spirited-cleaning former self, I've been sticking to a cleaning schedule. And encouraging (does that sound better than enforcing?) the girls to follow the one I set out for them, as well. Try not to be floored with my acquired fortitude.

Don't be fooled by these sudden leaps and bounds in the domestic arts. I still panicked because we had no food in the house worthy of being fed to guests. And the above shot is clearly from a computer because we ran out of ink a month ago and I keep forgetting to order more. And since I'm one of those people that will add an item to a to-do list after I've done it just so I can mark it out, you can rest easily tonight knowing I will back-print these lesson plans and daily chore sheets so I can mark off all that we've done over the last month.

Aaaaaand any other subject for 500, Alex.

Gist of my really long story is: find a cleaning schedule that works for your family and you'll be light and happy forever and ever (and possibly won't turn into the Balrog when your husband suggests having a fun and fancy-free evening in with friends).

The above planner is the result of hard work by my husband.

Correction, the above planner is the hard work of myself. It probably took me three hours. When I showed Joseph, he duplicated the exact same thing, only better, in about forty-five seconds. I hate/love him.

This is the result of Joseph's hard work.....

....that I somehow messed up. Notice all the little scary triangles with exclamation points in them? July - the calendar Joseph created for me - didn't have that. Then I decided on an impulse that I would help Joseph out and just quick make the August calendar (again, no ink...why bother?). A couple of little clicks, a few keystrokes, a few neglected kids and hours later (let's be honest) - bam. A calendar filled with terrifying triangles judging me on my computer skills. I'm thankful to know that I just have to show Joseph and we'll laugh a little! We'll talk a little! We'll share a drink and toast! And then he'll fix what I messed up and then redo the entire month of August.

We decided to create this little planner for our homeschooling whims and needs so I can have a paper trail to prove that I haven't completely messed up my children. I had hopes of buying a wonderful Catholic one to remind this well-intentioned-but-forgetful mother of upcoming feast days, novenas needing to be said, and intentions I've promised to pray for, alongside our academic and family obligations. And then I saw the price tag and added that cost to the cost of co-ops and curriculum and my heart fluttered a parting wave to the planner and I told Joseph to go ahead and just work his magic and make me one.

This one includes a monthly calendar (as pictured above, sans scary triangles) with daily and monthly prayer intentions, feast days according to both the modern and traditional calendars (we party like we're Catholic around here); a daily schedule for more detailed planning; lesson plans for each child (as pictured above the above) that has space for our daily chore check-list, a weekly cleaning schedule,  and each child's chore checklist; an attendance sheet so I can prove that we done did school for 180 days, Texas.

I have hopes of including a printed-out set of morning and evening prayers, novenas for each month's feast days, a meal-planning sheet, and a household management section (which will include all or probably none of the following: passwords, frequently-used business information, clothing sizes, etc.). I'll have a binder that I'll put it all in and frequently kiss and pet because its just so beautiful. And all my homeschooling woes will fly right out the window into the clouds that I'm prancing upon when thinking of this planner.

So, Joseph will get right on that for me. Right after we order ink.