A Good Day

Today was a good day. Although every day is a blessing and therefore good, some feel better than others. And today I was given a day that felt good.

As I am sure every housewife, mother, home school mom knows, sometimes days like this can be few and far between. We learn to mark success on a different ruler than "average" people. Maybe that is the big challenge of motherhood. Figuring out for oneself what the ruler is that means success.

I have made it a tradition to revamp the kids' chore schedule each fall when school starts. Everyone gets a change and there are always additional responsibilities added on to reflect a news year's worth of age and maturity. This year I was late with it, so we just started the new schedule this week.

At the advice of my good friend, Julie, I am trying something new. Instead of dividing up the various household jobs among the various children, I am dividing the rooms up by day. Each day has a certain room or area assigned and we all work together. Of course those rooms that are too small for a group are still assigned individually, so there are still a few chores for everyone to work on independently.

In the past I have also divided up the table/mealtime chores by child. Sometimes rotating daily or weekly, sometimes having the assignment for an entire year or a segment of a year. These are also now shared.

I am hoping that this new arrangement will allow me to more closely work with the kids to train them well how to accomplish the various responsibilities. I have always managed to assign the chores, but the actual training and checking has not always happened. I can't be in three or more rooms all at once, right?

Well, three days into things, we are doing well. My house is cleaner than it has been in several months. It is still nowhere near perfect but progress is being made.

Also, our school day was good. After we tackled the morning chores, I had a period of time during which the older three kids were working independently and the younger four were doing puzzles of various difficulties and otherwise playing/working nicely together. And the baby was asleep.

I made hot breakfast today and we had two good meals besides. No wandering around the kitchen wondering what to make.

So that is a successful day.