Sticking to a Morning Routine

I've found that my easiest days are the days that have been started off right.  Anybody that knows me, knows I hate to be late to anything (school, work, church, etc.).  So starting off the day right and not having to rush around to keep from being late is my incentive to keeping the rest of my day on track.  I've been able to (thanks to FlyLady) work out my morning routine, keeping me on time, motivated, and productive.  By making simple and quick changes to my morning routine, I can now get more household chores done before even leaving the door to take the kids to school.  I used to only have to time to get dressed before rushing out the door and then I'd come home only to rush to make dinner and do as much as I could around the house before bed.  No wonder I was always so exhausted, all that rushing around and never getting much done!  Here's what my day consists of now:

-Stretching before getting out of bed to get my blood flowing (just a tiny bit of exercise)

-Hitting the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth and do hair and make-up. (while I'm here, I put in toilet cleaner and let it sit, then wipe down the sink after getting ready)

-while the girls eat breakfast, I put all my clean dishes away (the last thing I do before bed is wash dishes and put in a load of laundry), this makes cooking dinner easier since everything is put in its place

-since the laundry ran during the night, I can now place it in the dryer

-I swish the toilet and get dressed to take the girls to school

-by the time I get back, the laundry is done drying and now I can put it away

-vacuum

-run errands, pick up groceries, pick up girls and start dinner

Of course, these last couple of weeks I've sprinkled exercising in there and since I no longer go to work, I have more time available to me to get done what I need to get done.  But with two little girls, I never know when I'm going to fall behind.  It was really hard at first to build up a routine, but now that I have one, it's worked wonders keeping me on time throughout the day.  By doing light maintenance in the bathroom each morning, doing one load of laundry a day, cleaning the sink each night for the next day, and toting around my trusty laundry basket returning everything to it's place each evening, I accomplish more without even thinking about it than if I were to dedicate a day to completely cleaning the entire house.  I'm not perfect, nor have I perfected my cleaning routine, but by having a routine I've allowed myself to have a presentable house (not spotless), spend more time with my kids, and not feel unproductive.  Like I tell my husband, "if I want my tombstone to say that my house was spotless, I'd have a spotless house", but since being a mother and wife and spending time with my family matters to me most, having an 'ok' house is ok with me.