School Time Conditioning

My 25-year old brother, God Bless him, is training for a marathon in Milwaukee, WI. He's been conditioning his body and preparing for months and the race still isn't until October. My SIL and I, among others, feel that part of this conditioning for this kind of a race is to have a complete health physical.....he isn't convinced.

I've decided since it is the first of August (almost) that it is time for our family to start conditioning ourselves for school. Last night the kids were in bed a little after 8:30 p.m. and this morning we got breakfast and dressed, made beds and did our morning chores (my older son did this) I am also designating Monday's and Wednesdays as NO TV/VIDEO GAME DAYS! Which has been successful, sort of, so far. It's amazing what their little imaginations can do with pillows, blankets and couch cushions....besides make a horrible mess of the living room....LOL!

I've also been working on a Home Management Binder which consists of basic morning/afternoon/evening routines, basic weekly plans, cleaning lists. I'm going to add other things to this later. Anyway, since I'm trying to condition the kids for the fast approaching start of school, I decided I needed to condition myself as well. We all know how schedules and routines fly right out the window in the summer months.

Today I did my morning routine which consists of showering/dressing/hair/make-up, morning devotions, making the bed, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the bathroom figuring out dinner and starting the laundry. There are also "school related" items included in my morning routine which I skipped today, obviously. BUT, I didn't not complete these things until 11:30 this morning!!! The plan is to have this stuff done before the kids leave for school.....however, today was payday and My Sweetie decided I should do bills first, so I did. Plus, I didn't have it in me to wake up at 6:30....I need to work up to that one next week maybe!

Then I moved onto my basic plan for Monday which consists of Washing/Folding/Putting away the colored and dark loads of laundry, *This is still in process* Blessing my home which is scrubbing the bathtub, scrubbing the bathroom floor, cleaning the glass in the house (doors, picture frames, mirrors) dusting and vacuuming. I didn't get to the vacuuming yet because I can't see the floor due to the pillows, blankets, and couch cushions that are all over. I also have on my Monday List to spend 15 minutes in the ZONE for the week doing a cleaning project....I've decided against this one today also due to all of the extra picking up I've done today.

When you train for a marathon you don't run 26 miles the first day.....so, rather than trying to do EVERYTHING that I plan to do for fall in one day, we'll simply continue to work on conditioning ourselves little by little each day so we'll be ready for the big race!!