Kristi Rolin
March 19, 2025
As a mom of 3 boys and 1 girl, I quickly realized the need for structure and routine in my daily life. I was busy homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, running errands, running the kids to their activities, and keeping them organized and on task. I was always exhausted. After going through the Mom’s Notes sessions on “Structuring Your Child’s Day, Pts 1& 2”, by Joey and Carla Link, I soon saw the benefits of getting everyone on the same page by having a routine and structure in my days.
I started outlining what I needed and wanted to get done each day, and found much of my day repeated itself day after day. I began to prioritize what needed to get done and created a routine to calm the chaos in our home.
A routine helps you be consistent and reduces the craziness that can take over when you don’t have a plan for your day. It adds much-needed structure and a framework to keep your day moving along smoothly instead of spinning out of control. A routine also can give you some time for yourself, or for you and your husband, if you plan it into your day. I started seeing the need for a constant wake-up time and bedtime, planning my quiet time with God into my day, and finding a routine for when I did my grocery shopping and making meals. I saw I needed to get the kids into a routine to have time in their day to help me prep and clean up after the meals and help me stay on top of the housework by doing their own chores. I also learned that if I gave myself some alone time to rest, read, talk to God, or take a walk, I would be much more patient with the kids and myself throughout the day.
Try dividing your day into sections, morning, school hours, after school hours, and evenings when Dad is home. Your morning routine could include things like getting dressed, morning quiet time, exercise, making breakfast for the family, and getting dinner started if you need to thaw something or put something in the crock pot.
The school hours section of your day could be organizing your kids for homeschooling, moving them through the subjects you teach them, or making a routine for cleaning the house, doing the laundry, running errands, and staying on top of managing your home. The after-school hours would include, having a routine for getting the kids to practices, activities, a part-time job, time for homework or chores, and maybe some free time, time with friends, or rest time before dinner. An evening routine would include, everyone helping with dinner prep and clean up, mom and dad having some time together, finishing homework, family time, and a bedtime routine.
I also noticed my weekdays during the school year looked very similar to one another, but Saturdays had a completely different flow to them, and our Sundays were also unlike the other days of the week because of church and a day of rest for our family.
I came up with a routine for our weekends that was very different than our weekday routine to build in time to get things done around the house and in the yard, time to spend together, time for church, extended family and friends, and time to rest. Our weekend routine had much more flexibility built into it than our weekday routine.
Lastly, here are a few tips to keep in mind about structuring your day:
1. Pray and ask God about your routine and the activities that take up your time. Are you too busy or just need structure to get more organized? Do you and your husband know what to say “no” to for yourself, your family, and your kids?
2. Are you trying to get too much done in each day? Do you need to scale back on some things? I liked that in those Mom’s Notes sessions on structure and routine, Carla tells us not to become a slave to your schedule. A routine is to serve you, you should not be so locked into a schedule that you become a slave to it.
3. Live life with margin. Emergencies and unexpected interruptions happen, and will happen often. So don’t overpack your days. Allow room and space for disruptions, then when they happen you have some space in your day to take care of it.
4. Live with flexibility. We often have high hopes of getting lots of things accomplished, but we also need to be flexible when things do not go according to plan.
5. Evaluate if you are overly structured and you need to be more flexible, or if you are under-structured and you need more of a routine to keep you organized. In the Mom’s Notes “Structuring Your Child’s Day, Pts. 1&2” Carla gives a good guideline to go by when thinking about how to add routine to your day.
6. Every family has a different flow and rhythm to it, look at the flow of your family and ask God to show you where and what you need to improve on.
Our God is a God of order and peace. With God’s help, you can create a routine that brings peace to your days and replaces the chaos in your home with calmness.
“God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”
1 Corinthians 14:33
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