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| The Schedule! |
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First please allow me to introduce the participants: CJ – That’s me MJ – My lovely and talented bride JJ – Our oldest - Son VJ – Our middle child - Daughter GJ – Our youngest – Son The following is what I call our “standard schedule”. These events occur daily Monday through Friday, the majority of the time. If that makes sense? I will break down the deviations that occur from the standard schedule afterwards. That may have to be a separate post because I have a feeling I am going to need a nap after writing all this down. J 5:30 am – CJ up. Quiet time with God to pray and read and meditate on the Word. 6:00 am – MJ up. CJ and MJ start getting ready for work. 6:30 am – Kids up. CJ and MJ assist kids with getting ready for school. Breakfast, clothes, lunches, you know the drill. 7:00 am – CJ leaves for work. 35 minute commute to Knoxville. Does 35 minutes technically qualify as a commute? Anyway I digress! 7:25 am – MJ, JJ, VJ, and GJ pile in the van and leave for school and work. MJ works part-time as a teacher’s assistant for disadvantaged pre-school students at GJ’s elementary school. It is very rewarding work but can be very challenging and heart breaking at times as well. My hat is off to MJ. JJ, VJ, and GJ attend 3 different schools! 1:30 pm – MJ off work. Has until 3:00 pm to run errands, shop, check email, etc. 3:00 pm – MJ picks up GJ at the bus stop. 3:20 pm – MJ and GJ pick up VJ at her school and leave immediately for Knoxville where VJ has gymnastics practice starting at 4:00 pm. VJ changes into her ‘Leo’ in the van on the way to Knoxville and then gets a jump start on homework until they get there. MJ leaves VJ there for practice and she and GJ return to Maryville. 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm – MJ prepares dinner and she, JJ, and GJ eat. I told you in a previous blog (Priceless) that GJ likes to eat. But again I digress. MJ assists JJ and GJ with homework takes care of chores around the house, gets caught up on email, etc. Supervises GJ’s shower and gets him to bed at 7:30 pm. After GJ is in bed, MJ continues to take care of what seems to be endless tasks around the house. 7:30 pm – CJ picks up VJ at the gym (About 5 minutes from where CJ works) and drives her back to Maryville. This is daddy-daughter time that is precious. It is not every evening but I will explain more about that later. 8:15 pm – CJ and VJ eat dinner previously prepared by MJ. VJ showers and does homework until approximately 9:30 pm when she hits the hay. After school all day, 3.5 hours in the gym, and homework until late she is pretty bushed. 9:30 pm – Two down and one to go. At this point any homework that JJ might have had was completed long ago and he is now fully committed to whatever video game he is playing at the time.
10:00 pm – JJ prepares for bed, typically under huge protest. J This process seems to be taking longer and longer the older he gets. 10:30 pm to 10:45 pm – JJ in bed. So that is 3 three down. Did I mention it is now 10:45 pm? 10:45 pm – CJ and MJ say hello to each other. J Both are now exhausted and will soon be hitting the hay themselves. So again my challenge is at this point, I am worn out and MJ is worn out. Sometimes we pray together during this time. Occasionally we will work on a section of a Bible study during this time. But my dilemma is I just don’t feel like we are giving God our best. A lot of you provided some great encouragement and tips in comments on my first post and I am not ignoring those. In fact I think my last post in this will be a summation of what I take away from what you all have written in comments to these posts. I was right. I am beat and need to lie down for a while. LOL Next post coming soon: Bending but Not Broken! |
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Sounds like VJ will be a great gymnast! (Wow, 3.5 hrs of practice a day?)
This is not the life for me, but then, I must not pronounce a qualitative judgment on your schedule, CJ. It is your life after all. :-) You know, this is a fascinating blog idea, to blog our daily schedule. This tells us almost as much about you as if you wrote your life's story, like Gene did. Well, I would do the same but we don't have a fixed schedule, per se. Some things rarely change, many others do! |
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Charlie |
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December 14, 2007 at 5:26am |
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Hey Mike...she is a fantastic gymnast. Have no idea at this point how far she will take it but time will tell. One thing that blows me away is her dedication to the sport and how she glorifies God with her work ethic. When that hard work pays off, we are careful to reinforce the fact that God gets all the glory. She gets it and that is so cool as this is a lesson that will fortify her for life.
To your other point about the fixed schedule. I will explain in my next post about the changes that occur and it gets pretty wild sometimes! |
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| Charlie, thanks for sharing your life. Melanie and I don't have children yet, but what a awesome thing to have a family so praise God for that. I think it is great that MJ can be there for the kids because I am totally against the system where the kids are out on the sidewalk in the dark at 6:00am with 20-30 lb backpacks on, get home around 2-3pm with no parental oversight. That's one of my little soapboxes. Anyways, I think the 35 minutes to work and a half an hour before of time with the Lord is a good start to your day especially with your schedule. If you leave at 7am and pick up VJ at 7pm, that is 12 hours a day of work and commute at least. That is your choice to do that or maybe you have to for a season? |
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Charlie I would love to comment, but I can't. Tooo busy. Love you though, Brandi |
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Gene |
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December 14, 2007 at 7:20am |
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Wow!
With all THAT happening it sounds like CJ and MJ are SOL. |
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Charlie |
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December 14, 2007 at 7:36am |
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| Good one Gene! |
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Charlie |
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December 14, 2007 at 8:05am |
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| I hear you Brandi! Love you too my sister! |
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| Wow! That is a lot going on in a day. I understand the struggle to do all that it appears must be done in a day only to find that there is not enough time for the ones you care about most (God and your bride). I wish I had a solution for you. For now, I will just lift it to our God and ask Him to grant you wisdom to this dilemma. |
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Charlie |
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December 14, 2007 at 8:46am |
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| Thanks Pastor T...much appreciated! |
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Deb |
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December 14, 2007 at 11:59am |
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| Makes me tired just reading it. Time for a nap! Seriously though, I am not surprised that you feel tired! |
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Charlie |
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December 14, 2007 at 12:25pm |
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I hear you Deb!
Well tonight is a little different. As I type this, MJ is on her way to Knoxville with VJ and GJ. They are dropping VJ off for practice. JJ is playing a pick-up game of football with some of his HS buddies and will have to be home by 5:30 so that he can take care of GJ while MJ and CJ go to CJ's company Christmas party in Knoxville. One of the moms on VJ's team, who lives near us, is going to give her a ride and drop her off at our house tonight after practice.
I think the only thing on the schedule tomorrow is picking up a Christmas tree and decorating it. That will be fun but we will all need a nap afterwards I'm sure! |
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Jen |
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December 14, 2007 at 6:05pm |
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The thing that we did with our kids that kept everyone's sanity was setting limits on how much we would let them do. Did they want to play a sport this Spring? If they chose baseball, then they wouldn't be able to also play on a soccer team at the same time. And it was going to be limited to the regular season, not All Stars afterwards that would suck up all of our free time over the summer. All activities that required a schedule, whether secular or "Christian", had to have our parental approval. The kids knew that they would only be allowed so much time for these kinds of things, so they had to choose wisely. It helped that we homeschooled and they were usually finished with their book work by noon each day. (Part of the reason we chose to homeschool, so they would have more time for things other than time spent "at school".) As they got older and proved themselves responsible for handling the "gift of time", we gave them a lot more control over their own schedules and activities. All of them during their high school years were involved in ministry, worked jobs, played sports, etc. Sounds like you guys have your hands full, Charlie! You and MJ sound wise enough to know when those hands might be too full, and when you need to let go of some things to lighten the load. Certainly that's different for every family, isn't it? Like Mike, our family wouldn't be able to function happily at that level of activity on a daily basis. My kids are go-getters, but they all require a fair chunk of time to "chillax". Ditto for me! :-) Blessings to you, brother! |
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Charlie |
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December 14, 2007 at 7:27pm |
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| Jen - Thank you for sharing so much my sister. I will come back to many of your points I am sure when I wrap this up in a few days. Blessing to you! |
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MaKelly |
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December 29, 2007 at 8:31am |
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Charlie I give you and your wife the parent of the year award
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'm exhausted reading all that you and your family do and I'm sure that's not even half the things, let me tell you kids are a lot of work even in time of play and it's good for the whole family, I truly believe family is our first ministry |
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Charlie |
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December 29, 2007 at 8:36am |
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| Hey thanks MaKelly. I appreciate your comments! |
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