homemanagement

Big Fat Disclaimer: I would be a liar if I pretended to 'have it all together' {grin}.
On this page you will read things that we do that work for our family. As wonderful as
these ideas are, they only work *if you {read "I"} do them*! So, in a perfect world, I
have a flawlessly functioning home--we never run out of clean laundry, the floors
never get yucky and we never make a mad dash at 8pm to McDonalds... But, since I
don't live in a perfect world....well, ya know how it goes! The biggest problem is being
*consistent*--There's a word for people who are consistent 99.9% of the time. That
word is "inconsistent". Ouch. I'm hurting myself here. Guess my disclaimer is over!
Whew...Read on...there may be some useful nugget here for you! {smile}

Okay, one of the things that helps me most is to remember that I can't do it all. Say that with me "I
can't do it all". Don't you feel better now? There's no way one person can do all that has to be done to run
a household this size. I have children. They can do things besides make messes and play Legos :-). A wise
MOMY once said that as a mother your job is to work yourself out of a job!

Once I began to see myself as the Household MANAGER I lost all those guilty feelings associated with my
inabilities to 'do it all'. Chores are good for children. They help develop a good work ethic. They bring to
light character flaws that need to be addressed. Got it? Now that you are on the Chores Bandwagon, I'll
explain more how we do things.

LAUNDRY...yes, laundry deserves to be in all caps!
Our children aged 7 and up learn how to operate the washer and dryer. Children aged four and up can fold or
hang most laundry, our children go into Chore Training when they are four and are assigned their first 'real'
chores when they are five. The girls do laundry for the girls, baby and mama. The boys do laundry for the boys
and daddy.

Specifically, Caleb does his, Elijah's and Tony's laundry on Mondays. Molly does hers and mine and the baby's
on Tuesdays. Wednesday Sam does his and Isaac's and Luke does his and a load or two of towels. Thursday
MaryVance does her own laundry. On Fridays we play 'catch-up' and also do towels, sheets, etc... any
'miscellaneous' laundry. Somewhere in there we throw in a couple of loads of kitchen towels just whenever
they need to be done.

It's a beautiful plan and works well when we use it--which is probably 90+% of the time, maybe more...ya
gotta have clean drawers!

Keeping house...
I divided the house into Zones. Each child has one or more zones they are responsible for. We have Zone
Check twice a day, once in the morning and once before Daddy gets home. The older, more responsible
children have the harder chores--the younger have the easier ones. Makes sense, right?

Here's how this idea plays out in our house:
Zone                                   Child
Living Room                        Luke
Play Room                           Caleb
Laundry Room                    Caleb
Hallway                              MaryVance
Master Bath                      Sam
Extra Bath                        Sam (and MaryVance as he is training her to do bathrooms)
Children's Bath                 Molly
Den                                    Molly

For more detailed information on our Zone plan, click here.

Ahhh.... Mealtime chores... We've done these lots of ways over the years. When the children start to get
bored <grin> or they have mastered their chore, we change the way we do things.

Currently, we do Meal Chores in a type of 'zone' too.
Table                   Set the table                MaryVance (sometimes Elijah and/or Isaac help)
Dining Room        Clear the table              Luke
Dishes                Do dishes                       Caleb (Tue, Fri), Molly (Wed, Sat), Sam (Mon, Thu)

                                               Cooking...
Our children all enjoy cooking and each have a day to make breakfast.
Luke, MaryVance and Elijah choose a big sib to help them on their days.

                                              Mon         Caleb
                                              Tue         Molly
                                              Wed        Sam
                                              Thu          Luke
                                              Fri          MaryVance
                                              Sat         Elijah

Miscellaneous Chores...
The children also have several chores that fall into the
Miscellaneous category. They each have pets... we currently have
three dogs, three cats, seven doves -- that are all outside pets.
They also have a ten gallon aquarium full of leopard frog tadpoles...
but that's a whole 'nother story... Oh, and the fish...

Anyway, of the big three, whoever doesn't have breakfast chore
takes care of the outside animals. While the animals are eating,
they use that time to do some other outside chores, ie sweep of
the patio, stuff like that. Or sometimes they just ride their
bikes around the yard and goof off Ü

They help with supper probably half of the time (and could make it on their own all of the time, but Mama likes
to cook too!!) The big three each have certain meals that are their specialities... for example: Caleb makes
chili, sloppy joes, green bean casserole and pizza; Molly makes lasagna and a mean salad; Sam makes Poppy
Seed Chicken and peanut butter cookies! They can each make several other things too. Basically, I can give
them a recipe and let them go. It's so nice Ü.

When I was pregnant with Joseph, they cooked 95% of ALL of our meals. They are all really good at following
directions and recipes and are very confident in the kitchen.