With juggling two girls, a business, farming, firefighter life and homeschooling, you can imagine the chaos of our day-to-day. Having a daily rhythm helps us all be as intentional with our time as we can. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this summer, it’s that I can waste a lot of time and feel overwhelmed with the remainder. I ultimately feel like my day is gone before it’s ever started. Being intentional and learning to adopt a rhythm rather than trying to stick to a strict schedule,(let’s be honest-like we could if we wanted to) for our days rids me of a lot of anxiety and helps me obtain some ownership of the day, feeling at peace and with a little control if our day ends up not turning out like we expected. I love a schedule and do try to be diligent about specific things within our day but I also try to have a lot of margin so if things don’t go as planned or if we just want to be spontaneous and change direction, there’s room and availability to do so. We don’t live a typical life as a business owning/homeschooling/firefighting/farming family so take this at face value when I say, we truly just do the best we can.

I’m your typical “Type A” when it comes to liking things so-so. Homeschool and juggling 15 other plates while riding a unicycle has really been the most delicious slice of humble pie, making myself crank down the anxiety knob and learn to go with the flow more while accepting baby steps and interruptions as blessings. As a working mama, having a daily and weekly rhythm frees me up to work when it’s time to work and rest when it’s time to rest while also giving me some margin for me. If you know me at all you know I despise “self help” or what it’s made to be in today’s world but that does not mean that I do not think everyone should have time to theirselves each day. You cannot pour from an empty cup and when mine has been drained, I’m not the best wife and mom that I want to be. Without this, I also can’t imagine we would be very consistent in tackling business at Farm Girl, completing our homeschool lessons, or getting anything done around the house because there is always something that comes up.

I’m learning that a daily rhythm isn’t permanent. It is an ever-changing element, always needing to be adapted to the ebbs and flows of our family.

Our Work Life

I own a rural boutique and general store that, as of March, operates on another cattle ranch outside of our town. Before that my shop was located downtown on main street for 6 1/2 years. In the summer I have a lot of flexibility and can really prep and work a lot to prepare for fall. Now that homeschool has started, we try to knock the majority of our curriculum out from 8am-11:30am. What we don’t, they can take with them and go to work with me or do it in the afternoon if they are with Dad or Nana/Grand. I also blog and take on interior decorating clients each month so on “shift nights” when the girls are in bed and husband is at the station, I work on those projects.

My husband is a firefighter and works 24 hours shifts every third day. So 24 on and 48 off. 1/3 of the year (usually more) he is absent from our home. He also helps my dad with his Hay Operation that runs May-October on said days off. It’s A LOT in the summer but also a blessing to us and something we hope to do ourselves one day. When it’s Hay Season, you’ll see a lot of my hayfield meals posts and it’s also “summer” so we don’t have as much obligation for school. During the fall/winter months he may have some odd jobs here and there when he’s not at the fire station but this is also when he will take over history in homeschool for the girls a day or two a week. It works out because my “busy season” at Farm Girl is fall/winter so he takes over a lot of the load with the kiddos while I’m cranking out work.

Our Kids

My children are currently 6 and 9 years old. Props to all homeschool mamas that have done this since day 1 or do it with multiple children from baby up. I can’t imagine how hectic it can be but I also realize, not many have the schedule we have so it’s hard for me to imagine adding that much more to my plate. Right now, I do both girls schooling with them at the same time, simultaneously. Paisley is really easy with a lot of things so I can get her started and then work one on one with Scout and switch off.

Outings and extracurriculars

We homeschool Monday-Thursday mornings. Fridays I reserve as our “Friday Fun-Days” meaning we can plan/do what we want to albeit a field trip, spend the day on horseback, have a picnic, or just stay at home. If we go on outings or to appointments during the week they are always in the afternoons or on a Friday. Friday’s also help me catch up a little on house work. My Nana and Grand are doing “electives” with the girls and teaching them skills so on Monday’s + Thursday’s, my girls do sewing and gardening with my Grand and on Tuesday’s they have cooking lessons with my Nana. I love that they are getting to spend some precious quality time while also learning some amazing life skills that will serve them well. Wednesday’s they are either with me or Zack and in the evening is church. Evening time at least three days a week we reserve for riding the horses in our arena and “lessons” for roping, rodeo, etc. Paisley used to take an art class which may be something we explore again and Scout has peaked an interest for gymnastics so if we have enough margin without sacrificing Family Time, we may consider adding those items to our week.

Weekends

Our weekends vary depending on what we have going on the ranch, with family, farming, fire life, etc. Our goal is to keep them very relaxed while being together and filled with play time outside and cooking good food or working around the house. We like to squeeze in some fun treats like a movie or go somewhere once in awhile.

Our Family Daily Rhythm

Here is a quick glance at our typical weekday daily rhythm. I shared an entire post about our morning routine here.

4:30-6:15	Mama Morning Time
6:15-8:00	Morning Routine (Get ready, morning chores, breakfast, bible study)
8:00-10:00	Morning time and individual lessons
10:00-10:15	Break
10:15-11:30	Individual Lessons
11:30-12:00	Gather things and go to electives/work
12:00-1:00	Lunch
1:00-1:30	Independent Reading
1:30-3:00	Elective (Art, Sewing, Gardening, Cooking, Farming)
3:00-5:30	Outing / Free Play / Dinner Prep
5:30-7:00	Dinner Chores and Dinner
7:00-8:30	Time together and bedtime routine
8:30-10:00	Mom + Dad time

4:30-6:15 Mama Morning Time

I start my day around 4:30 am depending if Zack is at the station or not. If he is home, I try to get a workout outside or at my gym. I get back around 6:15 and grab a shower and get ready for the day.

6:15-8:00 Morning Routine

I shared all about our morning routine in depth here.

8:00-10:00 Morning Time and Individual Lessons

We do the majority of school in the morning so I will get them started and try to do a load of laundry and load/unload the dishwasher to keep up with some of the house. I’ll usually have Paisley start Math first and then I’ll do some one on one with Scout and switch on and off with each.

10:00-10:15 Break

We will have a quick break here. My girls pretty much have every afternoon to spend time playing, outside, or with an elective so we try to be super focused on school lessons in the morning. We take this time to go outside, get a drink, etc.

10:15-11:30 Individual Lessons

Again, here we work on their lessons in Math, Reading/Language Arts, Phonics, etc. We do “Science” and history in the afternoons or if we work ahead, do those on the days we are caught up.

11:30-12:00 Gather Things and Out the Door

Since I’m spending less time at my shop, I really have to take advantage of my time when I am there. I try to be at the store by at least 12:30 if I have to run errands. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later. But I use this time to drop them by or they go to work with me and we take our lunches and eat them there.

12:00-1:00 Lunch

Depending on when I get to work, I will eat lunch during this time while I answer emails and do book work. The girls will also if they are at grandparents or if they are with me.

1:00-1:30 Independent Reading / Pack Orders

The girls will have independent reading time wherever and I use this time block to print and pack orders.

1:30-3:00 Electives / Content Creation + Website Maintenance

The kids spend this chunk of time doing their electives. At work I’m creating batch content for our business, the blog, or working on our website with adding new products, ordering, etc.

3:00-5:30 Outings / Free Play / Store Work + Dinner Prep

If we need an appointment I’ll try to do them during this time. If it’s a regular day, this is free play time wherever they are. I use the remainder of the day for miscellaneous store work and try to be home by 5:30 for dinner prep. If it’s a day where I couldn’t fit my workout in the morning, I’ll go to an occasional afternoon class. If this is a horse lesson night, we will do the lesson first and swap and do dinner after.

5:30-7:00 Dinner Chores, Lesson, + Dinner

Again, this will vary depending on if we are doing stuff with the horses, roping etc. But we spend this time with dinner, tidying up the house, feeding, etc.

7:00-8:30 Time together + Bedtime Routine

All evening from 5 on we are usually together to connect if not, way before but this is for focusing on our little family and then we end the night with baths and bedtime routine.

8:30-10:30 Mama + Dad Time

This is our time to connect as husband and wife. We get to talk without interruption, watch one of our shows, etc. We usually end up falling asleep on the couch but always have good intentions of spending one on one time together.

If you have a crazy schedule and lots of balls in the air, I hope this gives you inspiration for an outline for your day! It’s helped me a lot to use time blocks and if we don’t get it done, we will pick it back up the next day.