Yup, I said that on facebook last Saturday.
So in response to a few comments, I will write about what our day/week looks like to see if you believe me!
First, a few reminders:
--I had girls first-which are 14, 12.5, 9.5, and 8 yr old girl.
--I have a super helpful, want praise all the time 7 yr boy
Dishes-C & M take turns washing any dishes that need hand washing. G & H handle unloading. We all (well, except dad!) pretty much put our own dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
Clothes-J is an EXPERT clothes folder, that is his main job. C & M take turns sorting and starting new loads and I will do some too. I will usually do a load whenever it looks like there is enough, which is often. Maybe one load a day, or two to three every other day.
Vacuuming-with the dog, I have this thing about doing it myself, usually. But sometimes C & M will do the basement or parts of the upstairs. Knowing it is done every week at least once, I don’t mind letting them do it some-just not twice in a row.
Sweeping-Again, I gotta do this. I do have them sweep every once in a while. But let’s face it, it is a quick sweep at best. They at least get the big stuff I guess.
Picking up-okay, we do do this one a lot. When the toy room was a completely separate place with doors that shut, I could say once a week; but I can’t do it when I walk through it all the time. We pick up after breakfast (again, this is one of J’s areas of excellence) and then before supper. Sometimes before dinner if it is a really BIG mess. We almost always pick up before we go anywhere-church, shopping, whatever. Picking up is mainly J, Ha & G right now. We are still working on My being much of a help. Little He can sometimes be a help. C & M only have to jump in when it is really bad.
All of the kids have to make sure their own rooms are cleaned up after breakfast and before school starts. Once a week they also go through all of their drawers and shelves to straighten them up. (again, if we miss one week, we just be sure to do it the next) On the list there room is listed-they go through that room including dusting and mirrors, etc. whatever needs to be done.
Okay, let’s try to begin.
I wake up at 7 am.
I get the kids up at 8 am. Then eat breakfast (cereal) and then go about working on getting their rooms done.
We have a list for every day of the week as to what work must be done that day. I prefer that we have these done right away in the morning too. Sometimes that works, others it doesn’t-depends on how draggy they are in the morning. So we do this cleaning and picking up until about 9 am (or shortly after if we are almost done). I will put the daily list below. Some days we just can’t get to anything-no big deal, we tackle it the next day. Some jobs are on the list twice a week, like the bathrooms, so if we miss it we can do it later in the week. Or sometimes I do that with other big jobs-I don’t wash my kitchen floor every week. But I know if I don’t do it one week, it’s on the schedule for the next.
From 9 am to noon or so we tackle school.
Noonish we eat and then have “free time” until 1 or 1:30 when it is back to school for anything not finished. If the house work isn’t done, we will finish that first, then on to school.
Then the rest of the day is theirs. On some days the big girls really drag things out so will be working until 3 or 4. But if they would just hit it hard, they would easily be done by noon or shortly after (okay, for now anyway. Starting high school next year-that will be different!)
We eat around 5:30-6 and the kids head to bed at 9 pm.
We don’t leave the house much during the week. A co-op for the kids one day, church on Sunday and Wednesday nights, another class activity. So here’s a secret for laundry: if we have nowhere to go, we stay in our pajamas, especially in the winter. When the kids were younger and not in anything we’d get in jammies on Sunday night and not change until Wednesday AM when we went out. Really, we did. Ugh-true confessions. Sure, sometimes I wish the kids were in more activities, others I just don’t. Like when I hear friends say "we’ve been gone every night for 8 days" or "I hate this day because all we do is run."
Here is the daily work list:
Monday—upstairs bathroom, boys room, laundry room, sweep
Tuesday—change garbage bags, vacuum upstairs, office, mom & dad’s room, sweep
Wednesday—downstairs bathroom, girls’ rooms, sweep
Thursday—upstairs bathroom, vacuum downstairs, downstairs living room, sweep
Friday—downstairs bathroom, upstairs living room, garage, sweep
Saturday—clean up van, wash kitchen floor, clean up outside (including dog poop!)
So that’s about it. Those are my secrets.
Meal planning is a whole other thing. I used to do it-still have my charts. Maybe I will have to get back into doing that. Hmm, we’ll see. Gotta teach the girls how to make more than hamburger helper someday!
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