My first blog post! Yeah! It didn't post on Saturday as I told it to. But hopefully we've since fixed things.
It's been a busy month around our house. School starting means I have a first grader who is learning to read (a part time job by itself!), two daughters on soccer teams, a daughter playing her last season of high school tennis (very intense for two months) and a boy figuring out what he likes / wants to do given his physical limitations. And that doesn't include the school work and college application deadlines. Your lives are equally as busy. So I wanted to share a few ideas that make things flow more smoothly around here in the hopes that it might help you all as well.
1. Laundry: I've tried many things to make this most unbearable of all tasks more palatable and I've finally come down with this: never let a load leave the dryer without folding it and always listen to a good book on CD while doing laundry. Sounds simple but not having 6 loads of clean clothes on my bed to fold at midnight has made me very happy.
2. Dinner dishes: Again, I've tried lots of charts, programs, etc. What works best for us is to have us all help together every night. A friend suggested setting the timer (usu. 10 minutes or less for us) and if we make our goal, rewarding us all with money in a jar for dinner out. The timer and dinner out was a good incentive at the beginning, but the most fun has come from Hannah's version of Taylor Swift songs, Joshua's moves while wiping off the table and the good info we get from our girls about high school romances and what happened during their day. Greg and I have learned about what's in with high school kids from music to clothes to TV shows to technology. It's turned into one of my favorite times of the day.
3. Blitz: I hate all the clutter! Those backpacks, stray socks and shoes seem to multiply. So most nights we pick a few favorite songs (Big Yellow Taxi by the Counting Crows has been Joshua's choice for a good year now, with an occasional Les Mis song thrown in) and we dance our way through cleaning up the stuff. Watching the vast difference between Joshua's groove and Greg's 80's moves is worth the nightly ritual.
It's been a busy month around our house. School starting means I have a first grader who is learning to read (a part time job by itself!), two daughters on soccer teams, a daughter playing her last season of high school tennis (very intense for two months) and a boy figuring out what he likes / wants to do given his physical limitations. And that doesn't include the school work and college application deadlines. Your lives are equally as busy. So I wanted to share a few ideas that make things flow more smoothly around here in the hopes that it might help you all as well.
1. Laundry: I've tried many things to make this most unbearable of all tasks more palatable and I've finally come down with this: never let a load leave the dryer without folding it and always listen to a good book on CD while doing laundry. Sounds simple but not having 6 loads of clean clothes on my bed to fold at midnight has made me very happy.
2. Dinner dishes: Again, I've tried lots of charts, programs, etc. What works best for us is to have us all help together every night. A friend suggested setting the timer (usu. 10 minutes or less for us) and if we make our goal, rewarding us all with money in a jar for dinner out. The timer and dinner out was a good incentive at the beginning, but the most fun has come from Hannah's version of Taylor Swift songs, Joshua's moves while wiping off the table and the good info we get from our girls about high school romances and what happened during their day. Greg and I have learned about what's in with high school kids from music to clothes to TV shows to technology. It's turned into one of my favorite times of the day.
3. Blitz: I hate all the clutter! Those backpacks, stray socks and shoes seem to multiply. So most nights we pick a few favorite songs (Big Yellow Taxi by the Counting Crows has been Joshua's choice for a good year now, with an occasional Les Mis song thrown in) and we dance our way through cleaning up the stuff. Watching the vast difference between Joshua's groove and Greg's 80's moves is worth the nightly ritual.
2 comments:
What fabulous ideas, Michelle! I think we're gonna implement each one of those. Having everyone help with the dishes after dinner will sure help it go faster. Plus, it should teach good habits for the future. :) Thanks for sharing.
Love these ideas! What wonderful memories your kids will have and I like how you are turning "chores" into fun bonding times. Thanks for sharing!
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