I'm lovin' it!

What a tremendous difference it has made restoring routine in our new home! Wow. The kids have settled down drastically.

Here are some of the things we worked over:

Chores: All of us have to work together to make and keep our home comfortable. I am asking the kids to take care of their own breakfast and lunch dishes - from counter to cupboard - and have split them into teams of two for dinner duties. We no longer have a dishwasher, so each night one kid will wash and one will dry/put away, while the other two clean up the dining room. Jon and I will obviously be helping out in both areas. We also agreed to split the living areas of the house into 4 zones, and right after school is done the kids will devote just 15 minutes each weekday to their zone for the day. On Saturday it will be 1 hour each for a thorough cleaning (although I doubt it will take that long in the zone.) They are all responsible for their own living space in their rooms, which they can tidy up in a few minutes before going to bed.

Play time: After the 15 minutes chore time is done, they can play indoors, outdoors, whatever. this includes computers and Wii, board games, etc.

Reading: mandatory 30 minutes per day, after dinner/before bed. We'll be working on rotating kids through showers during this time.

Laundry: we are continuing with assigned days for laundry :) Loving this! The kids all do great with their laundry.

Personal care: stepping up on this one. Some of the kids need reminding and prodding in this area, and we are hoping that having a set time for it will help.

There are other areas we discussed and are working on, but those are the biggies.

Another area of change is that the kids are now doing scouting. It turns out the boy scouts and cub scouts meet across the street in the Methodist church, so they can still go even if their dad isn't home from work. I like this alot! I sent a message to the girl scouts leader for Lydia but haven't heard back yet... We'll see about that.

Having a sense of routine has made so much difference in the kids' attitudes already. I am so grateful! I woke up the other morning, and the first thought that came to my mind was that the kids were missing the order we had finally established before we moved. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for that breath of inspiration. I may be really dense sometimes... Glad I heard this one!