I thought I’d check in real quick and give you a picture of prep day at our house.  The key for me has been maintenance throughout the week.  I can’t be hohum about housework for days 1-5 and then magically become Martha Stewart on prep day.  Believe me, I’ve tried.  A good working schedule has been very important for me.  Then I’m not trying to do a week’s worth of work while the sun is rapidly setting on Friday night. 

This has been a weird week, and has shown me the need to tweek my schedule once again.  I planned a trip that had to be cancelled because of weather delays at my husband’s job.  I made several business calls.  I’m trying to get back in the swing of school after forgetting the kids’ books at Marme’s house last week.  My mind keeps drifting to pregnancy topics.  I also starting writing my book about Torah for beginning readers.  This sounds like a good time to rethink my schedule.  I need to block off more time for certain activities, so that I can set them aside and focus on other things, knowing the time is there to work on them later.  This applies mostly to writing for me.  I can work on cleaning the house if mentally I know that I have all evening to focus on writing.  You may have things like this in your life, too.  Try working out a schedule, so that you can put all your energy into the task at hand, and not be distracted by everything else that needs to be done.
(The link in my sidebar, Telling your Time, was very helpful to me.)

What does this have to do with prep day?  You have to maintain a good level in your home all week, so prep day simply consists of doublechecking and putting on finishing touches.  At least, that’s the ideal lol!

This week I am sharing some before pictures of my kitchen and living room.  I will do my very best to post the after pictures before 3:00,  when this linky ends. 

Here is my to-do list for today.  It could have been shorter if I had paid better attention to my schedule lol!

1. Put away clean laundry
2. Bake bread
3. Feed animals
4. Take out garbage
5. Clean kitchen
6. Make sure kids clean their rooms and bathroom
7. Everyone bathed
8. Check sandwich fillings for Shabbat dinner
9. Plan and prepare dinner for tonight, probably enchiladas
10. Make barley cereal in crockpot for Shabbat breakfast

That should do it.  The other thing I’ve learned about prep day is prioritizing.  I learned from Sandra Felton in one of her books, that you do the 20% of work that makes the 80% impact.  No one will know if you didn’t scrub the tub with a toothbrush.  But your baby will notice if you didn’t wash his diapers.  Have a lovely prep day, and I’ll check in again this afternoon, if all is going well!