Life as a zoo keeper...

...I mean a home schooling mom, wife, and animal keeper

Schedule:

6:30 - rise and shine (me) - fix husband's breakfast/lunch, let out the horses to pasture, fix my breakfast
7:00 - wake kids, eat, exercise, devotions
8:00 - school begins - reading out loud for an hour to an hour and a half (A World of Adventure)
9:30 - start laundry (Mon., Wed., and Thurs.), check e-mail/facebook, answer questions, check schoolwork
11:30 - lunch, laundry, check schoolwork
12:00 - chores, round up the horses (they are being kept in a pasture free zone in the PM due to weight and foundering issues), laundry
1:00 - reading time (kids), and sometimes me, but I NEED to work on my book, so I have quit requesting books at the library :-(  , laundry
2:00-5:30 - free time (kids); me: laundry, check schoolwork, sometimes read/work on book and then fix dinner
5:30 (generally) - dinner
6:00 - 8:00 - kitchen clean-up (kids); me: do animal chores - check water/food, gather eggs; then go to whatever activity is scheduled for that particular night
8:00 - kids bedtime - regardless of age (older ones are allowed to read); me: tv time with my husband
9:30-10:00 - my bedtime

Of course this is just a general overview of what gets done in my home. Things change, of course, and we just go with the flow. Fridays we have off for now, but on Sept. 9th we will start our homeschooling co-op and we will get out of the house by 8:15 or so and return between 2:00 and 2:30.

Sacrifice is the word of the day/month/year/life. When I had child three or four (I don't remember which it was), I sacrificed my perfectionism on the altar of sanity. I want a "Better Homes and Gardens" house, but when there are at least seven of us home all day, everyday, I had to realize it wasn't going to happen. Happiness and sanity were more important. So while my home is picked up and vacuumed/swept daily (almost), it is not BH&G perfect and that's okay.

How's your schedule? Do you sometimes get frustrated, like me, with how much there is to do and not being able to get it all done? What have you sacrificed?