Domestic Command Zones aka Chores!

A few months ago, I came up with our new chore system for this house.  This system was spurred by my frustration with some children cutting way to many corners getting their chores done and the general mommy feeling of... why am I doing everything?!?  Time for me to re-visit I am a Mother, not a maid. :)

So, I started with what needs done in our home? 

Then I listed exactly what was expected for each chore to be thorougly done. 

Put them onto index cards for easy handing out, easy transport, and laminated for easy wiping off.

Sometimes, it is a chore and a command.  For example, whoever gets "Clean Room" is responsible to clean their own room and inspect the other rooms.  They are responsible to check under the beds, behind the dresser, etc.  Takes the lead off my shoulders and trains them about what it's like to be in charge.

Another example, if they get "Vacuum" then they have to tell everyone to pick-up their stuff and follow through, not me.  

They are in Command of their zone, not me.  

Curbs some of the "it's just easier for me to do it myself" attitude that I can get.  

Made pockets for each child. Early morning I may slip in their 2 chores (1 for Hannah).  Or I may turn them all upside down and have each child pick.  Or I may be in "serious business" mode and assign chores according to who will complete it the best OR who needs to learn how to do it better when I have the time to teach individually.

I use these as either consequence chores or company's coming chores or I want a thorough cleaning chores.

When you have a big family, you might be like me and find yourself  repeating yourself over, and over, and over again.  Several months ago,  I lost my voice really bad for over 2 weeks.  This was my solution to my follow through with the children.  Now, I keep it on the back of the front door, and we use it when we need to "re-visit" expectations. 

 (DCZ is Domestic Command Zone-

hey- I have boys who would rather conquer and command than keep house!)

A Cure for the "Maple Syrup Runneth Over"

I can't tell you how many times a nice and cozy morning breakfast has turned into my frantic shouts of "STOOOOOOOP POURING!!"  LOL!!  We've all been there when the ENTIRE bottle of syrup ($) ends up on one child's plate.  Or the ketchup bottle glubs out half it's contents in one hearty squeeze.  Or the kids have taken so much gravy, there's none left for... ME!

I put everything in these squeeze bottles-- Dressing, Condiments, Gravies, or whatever "saucy" stuff I'm serving.  It allows for the children to serve themselves but not to pour out the whole bottle in the process.  And, if I'm conserving, I fill it half way so that everyone will use less. (It's magic!)

I learned this from my "second mom", Frances, when I was a teenager, and crazy as I was, still enjoyed homemaking tasks and ideas.  Put the syrup in a pot, in the sink, and periodically run more hot water into it.  It warms up the syrup without having to microwave plastic.  I think about her every time I'm warming syrup, or digging under the couch cushions, or saying "this house is a mess".  I love her.

Elijah really enjoys learning how to cook and helping me in the kitchen.  French toast and turkey bacon.

We did have an injury though.  Elijah rested his arm on the edge of the smokin' hot frying pan.  He won't do that again.  Lesson learned, albeit the hard way.


"In the childhood memories of every good cook, there's a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom."
-Barbara Costikyan


My childhood should have taught me lessons for my own parenthood, but it didn't because parenting can be learned only by people who have no children.
-Bill Cosby

Each generation has been an education for us in different ways. The first child-with-bloody-nose was rushed to the emergency room. The fifth child-with-bloody-nose was told to go to the yard immediately and stop bleeding on the carpet.
-Art Linkletter

A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm.
-Bill Vaughan



Beautiful (Organized!) Woman

I have been reading a most excellent book lately called "The Gentle Ways of The Beautiful Woman- A Practical Guide to Spiritual Beauty"  by Anne Ortlund.  I am really loving it, and learning.
Some things I say, "Thank you Lord for developing that in me", so many other things I say- "Oopsie!  Better get to work on that!"

The book takes you through different areas of your life: attitudes, thinking, beliefs, and allowing the Lord to work in you. It also gives very practical disciplines to incorporate into your daily life for maximum effeceincy.  LOVE IT!  NEED IT!  I have found several ideas that I have begun implementing.  It helps me to accomplish the things that are most important and to do it with grace and joy.  I never want to be that crazy-busy-stressed out woman that I was 10 years ago (and that was with less children!) Not that I never "go there", but at least it is less! ha!ha!

The first area I've been working at getting a handle on is my nightstand.  That is where the author says we should start restoring beauty to physical surroundings,  and it makes so much sense to me!  It's the first place I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night.  Unfortunately, it tends to be one of the messiest physical areas of my life.  In all my years of marriage, Paul has never complained about my housekeeping, except for the occasional mentioning of my nightstand ;)  Especially when things suddenly come crashing down.  And then I just leave it where it landed until my (maybe)  once a month shoveling out. (I also blame my babies who pull everything down in an effort to bury themselves alive). What's it so full of ?  Books upon books upon books. Bibles. Some magazines like The Officer or Above Rubies or my Human Events newspapers.  Even some cookbooks and sometimes little notes  my children leave me when they feel brave enough to step over the pile (s). 

So, I've been working at it, with my end goal being NOTHING on top of my nightstand except for my alarm clock, lamp, my picture of Paul as a first year Lt., and, as the book suggests, a small glass vase with a flower inside.  I have two drawers in my nightstand and I have cleared out the top one so that I can put my 1-3 books or magazines, Bible, pen, and notebook in.  The rest of my books must make their way downstairs or  to my office which will be their permanent home.  I love waking up in the morning to a nice and neat nightstand and going to sleep at night with at least my nightstand being beautiful.

Dinner tonight- chili bake and fruit

Organizing Meals

Well, what a wonderful couple of days I've had with friends.  Last night on my way out the door to meet up with two friends that I just adore, the kids were asking me "where are you going, what are you doing?".  I told them I was going to play with my friends... I can imagine that they pictured me running around screaming my head off like they do when they're with their friends, but nope..... I sat my rear down and I think we talked for like 4 hours!  We have so much in common, a deep love for the Lord, larger than "normal" families, and just trying hard to do our best at what we do.  I even got a couple of ideas to implement.  (Ear muffs that block the sound for me was one of them! ha!ha!ha!)   Then we got to go over and visit as a family today so that the kids had their turn to play :)  Now it's even. (I'm a twin, I 'heart' even!)

I thought I'd post about meals... but like I say.. I so don't know it all!  And I sure hope I never come across that way... I just like to share ideas because I know when I get a glimpse into other's lives, I get ideas too.  The Bible says "we should be spurring each other on toward good works"  though I think I get spurrred on more than I do the spurring!

Meals are one of the major daily "chores" of life (the other is laundry), especially when you are caring for children (or others) who can't make meals for themselves, or when you are trying to maximize the nourishment for your money or when you are trying to follow a healthful diet or when you are just plain trying to feed someone some grub!

This last month, God caused Paul and I to really go to town on our budget. It seems to have been a theme for us lately, not because of financial crises or anything like that, but in an effort for us to really be aware of where every dime goes. God provides for us and we should have an account of every penney. Sometimes we let things slide and then it's time to reign in again. We decided to spend barely any money in January and it actually got fun doing it.   I know for sure that God caused that because He foresaw our need to come up with the money to fly Paul down to El Paso for his friends funeral at the last minute.

Now, what does that have to do with organizing? The biggest area that we could save money on was groceries. We do like to keep a full pantry and freezer so that we are always prepared for

great meals, company, quick meals, and worst-case scenarios.

We do this by stocking up on our most used items when they go on sale. Like chicken breasts, beans, cereals, frozen berries, canned salmon, toilet paper, soap, etc. Paul is very good at this and even better about organizing our pantry. He organizes it according to expiration dates and then tells me what I should be focused on using. When we're tight on money or just looking to be more frugal, we eat our way through it, supplementing with fresh produce and dairy. Amidst our last run through, I came accross THIS pantry recipe website that I found most useful. You enter what is currently in your pantry and it organizes your food into great recipes. A couple of them I looked at and though "wow! I didn't know I had all the ingredients for that!" It takes a little time to make your entrys (I did it on a Sunday night) , but after that, you can just update here and there.  I also follow a couple of blogs about keeping a deep pantry.  I even get ideas to implement at the Corps(church) in our Social Service pantry.

Another couple of things I do to keep the meal part of my life running smoothly is to keep a list of all the meals I can come up with that I could make right now this minute without a trip to the grocery store.  On this list, I also keep Paul's or the children's requests so that I don't forget to make their favorite meal sometimes.  I add my own too ;)  I also will keep a weekly menu because I need to plan for things like crockpot meals for Wednesday church nights or Sunday lunches or an evening activity that requires a packed sandwiches or a trip through the drive-thru.

I also try to freeze a couple of meals a few times a month.  For example, if I'm making a casserole, I will make a huge one and freeze half.  I also started doing this with goodies too, like cookie dough (a great idea from my friend Stacie).  And when I'm cleaning up from dinner I'm getting things ready for dinner the next night, however insignificant it may seem, it is so much easier to go into preparing a meal with some of the tedial stuff done first, like chopping, mixing, measuring.  A lot of that is stuff the kids can be doing too.  They want to do it, it usually means a bit more of a mess for me, but on most days, I don't mind.

I am still trying to come up with a good snack system.  It seems like I am always offering the kids the same kind of things- cheese, fruit, crackers or 2 pieces from their candy stash.     It gets pretty boring and redundant, but I don't want to fork out the money or forgo nutrition for a bunch of pre-packaged foods either.  I could really use a good snack system.

Organizing-

ORGANIZING is one of  my most favorite words ever.  I love organizing:   people, tasks, stuff, areas, anything!  

Some may say... I don't have time to organize.  I say, I don't have time NOT to organize. 

Every one of my days are brimming over with people to care for and things that need to be done. (Thank you, Lord).   I don't have the time to be looking for things or time to waste in unproductive ways.  And I want to fully utilize my time occupying planet earth.

In fact, I even look for ways to make my rest time productive (I'm sure my mother wouldn't be surprised! ha!ha!)   I like to plan and organize how I will take my rest- a Little House and the Prairie episode rewound and ready to go, a cup of tea in the clean cup w/ saucer ready to go, a workout on the treadmill where I can always find my work-out shoes waiting for me right beside it, or some time in the Word with my Bible that is always on top of the schoolwork/art drawers with my notebook and blue smooth writing ballpoint pen. 

My organized life will look quite different than yours.   For example- a person might look at my unevenly  and unalphabitized stack of spice jars, packets and shakers in my  spice cupboard and say "what's up with that?!", but I know that I can reach my hand inside without even looking and grab exactly what I want out of about 25 items.  Everything has it's place. It has the order that I want from it so that it works best for me.  How does your spice cupboard work for you?  Do you waste time and energy digging for something?  Do you buy things you already have because you couldn't find it?  Or, are your spices spread out all over your home- pepper? in the couch.  garlic powder? back porch.  gaucamole seasonings? on top of the dryer.

Here are some words I associate with organizing:

Prepared

Plan

Efficient

Streamline

Integrate

Simplify (a theme running in my life right now)

Purge

God (He is a God of order, not chaos ;) check out Genesis 1)

So, this month I will be peppering my posts with the organizing element of my life.  I am not coming with a lot of formal knowledge in this area but I do know what works for my family and tweak it often to change with our needs for the time or when I get a better idea or new inspiration. I do know what works for me in my responsibilities in the ministry, but that changes too, and I end up looking for new ways to make my tasks most effective.  Maybe you'll find something useful or absurd, who knows.  Maybe you might offer me some advice also. 

A quote from a very good book that I just can't seem to put down----

"Let all things be done decently and in order."

-Bible    (1 Corinthians 14:40)