I liked Elizabeth's thinking. Take the Motivated Moms planner and tweak it be more personal. For me, the $8 annual purchase of the Motivated Moms planner is worth its weight in gold and I will continue that each year. The Bible readings help me to jump into Scripture when I need some direction and the monthly, quarterly, or annual chore reminders are extremely valuable to me. But for this season of my life, I need every little task spelled out for me. The distractions are aplenty and I need the thinking pre-done.

Two of My Favorite Distractions

I made my Excel Spreadsheet so I could see everyone's chores at a glance, but I also made a daily checklist that allows me to readily see who is doing what on which day. If I have to check it off, I am far more likely to check up on their work.

Here's the breakdown:

Mom's Daily Chores

Breakfast Dishes, Clean Guest Bathroom, Laundry, Prep Dinner

Monday: Clean Under Kitchen Sink/Other Specific Kitchen Tasks

Tuesday: Spot Clean Kitchen Cabinets

Wednesday: Clean Out Diaper Bag

Thursday: Wipe Down Dishwasher and Fridge

Friday: Clean Out Car

Saturday: Prep Church Lunch, Iron, Clip Children's Fingernails

10 (11 in October)- year-old Boy's Chores:

Morning:

Prep Breakfast, Empty Kitchen Trash, Empty Clutter Basket, Feed Turtle & Gecko, Run a Load of Laundry, Wipe Down Boys' Toilet and Sink

Evening:

Tidy Entry and Stairs, Tidy School Shelf, Tidy Kitchen Desk, Walk Property, Pour Dinner Drinks

Monday: Bring in Trash Cans

Tuesday: Clean Windows Dining Room/Kitchen

Wednesday: Change Boys' Bath Towels

Thursday: Wipe Down Washing Machine/Dryer

Friday: Stock Diapers and Wipes

Saturday: Prepare Church Clothes, Organize Closet and Drawers, Change Sheets (Every 2 Weeks), Clean Turtle Cage, Make 3 Bottles of Red Juice, Fold/Put Away Clothes, Fold Boys' Socks

9-year-old Girls' Chores:

Morning

Brush Teeth and Hair, Prep Breakfast, Clean Girls' Bathroom, Put Clothes Away, Empty Clutter Basket, Feed Dog and Cat, Gather Eggs

Evening

Tidy Family Room, Tidy School Shelf, Fold Laundry/Put Away, Dinner Prep Helper

Monday: Change Bath Towels

Tuesday: Wash Out Kitchen Trash Can

Wednesday: Stock Diaper Drawers

Thursday: Change Bath Towels

Friday: Organize Shoe Rack

Saturday: Prepare Church Clothes, Organize Closet, Dust School Room, Dust Office, Dust Living Room, Dust Family Room, Change Sheets (Every 2 Weeks), Iron, Bake for Sunday

7-year-old Girl's Chores:

Morning

Empty Trash, Empty Dishwasher, Brush Teeth and Hair, Empty Clutter Basket, Sort Girls' Laundry

Evening

Tidy Upstairs Hall, Tidy School Shelf, Fold Laundry, Dinner Prep Helper

Monday: Change Hand Towels

Tuesday: Fold Rags

Wednesday: Sweep Front Porch

Thursday: Stock Toilet Paper

Friday: Tidy Book Buckets

Saturday: Prepare Church Clothes, Stock Diaper Bag, Organize Closet, Clean Doors (Family Room, Front, Office, Garage), Sweep Front Porch, Sort Girls' Laundry, Change Sheets (Every 2 Weeks), Gather Everyone's Bibles

4-year-old Girl's Chores

Morning

Take Wet Kitchen Towels to Bucket, Brush Teeth and Hair, Gather Phones, Help Empty Dishwasher, Empty Clutter Basket

Evening

Dinner Prep Helper, Set Table, Tidy Living Room

Monday: Bring Rags and Red Juice to Mom

Tuesday: Bring Rags and Red Juice to Mom

Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday: Help Mom

Saturday: Get Girls' Church Shoes & Put Them By the Front Door, Clean Light Switches

It seems like a lot when it's on paper, but the morning chores take us no more than 20 minutes. Saturday work days last longer, plus we tend to have projects as well. We get the jobs out of the way and then we can enjoy the rest of the day.

Amy asked about expectations and reminders. When they are young, I have learned to have really low expectations. I mean really, the help they give is not the work of an adult, nor should we expect it to be. I will remind them gently and sometimes not so gently. I have radically changed my attitude in regards to my responsibilities, their responsibilities, and what I can expect. And yes, I'll be blogging about that soon, too.

The older ones, on the other hand, have an income of some kind and so I have found that charging them a dollar amount if they neglect a regular chore is the most effective consequence. This week I made $8 :)

Our 15-year-old and 13-year-old are responsible daily for the dinner dishes, the chickens, and the pool. They have a full plate of chores on Fridays and Saturdays, but we are happy to let them focus their time and energies elsewhere after so many years being faithful in our home.

Since January of 2006, I have been either pregnant, post partum, breastfeeding, or all of the above. We lost the first sweet baby but were expecting again three months later. We had that sweet guy and then were expecting (surprise!) five months later. Makes me tired just thinking about it. I get really, really sick for the first 18 weeks of pregnancy, and life tends to fall apart around me. Just the essentials are tackled, but everything else falls way off the radar. For over two years now we have held to many of the same systems although our lives have changed dramatically. Two new babies, a new kindergarten student every other year, a baby clinging to life in the ICU, and many other small changes that warranted reorganizing the way our household was being run, but those alterations just never happened. I began last Thursday night to take a serious look at what was going wrong. Seems we were accomplishing most things (granted, we aren't really studying much right now and it's a lot easier to focus on laundry, meals, and the house when there's no schooling going on) but I was doing all the brain work. I was having to think about what everyone was supposed to be doing at any given moment, and the mental work of it all was exhausting me. If I write it down, I eliminate the repeated mental work. That's step one. Step two was to decide which areas needed immediate attention. I chose to begin with chores because our lives have been so full of change this year and the old chore assignments were beginning to be cumbersome. Additionally, I am losing my 13-year-old* to his dad's office in September, and so those remaining at home during the day will be 11, 9, 7, 4, 1, and Mighty Joe (3 months). That cute four-year-old currently has no regular chores, so she has just been promoted on paper. An old and meaty post of Elizabeth Foss's got me to thinking through how I wanted to even present our chores. Did I want to do an Excel spreadsheet as I've done in the past, color coded so each child could see their chores at a glance? Or chore cards, a la the Maxwells? Both have worked well for us in the past. I ended up doing something entirely different, really a fine meshing of both methods with a little Motivated Moms (see sidebar) thrown in for good measure. Elizabeth had done something similar, and I thought it an excellent addition to my chore repertoire. Oh, my kids are gonna love this! Mom staying on top of their chores! Yippee! I am kidding, you know. Don't start bashing yourself because you're kids aren't ecstatic about their chores. Mine tend to have good attitudes and helpful spirits, but they aren't as excited about them as I am. Next post I'll share with you what our new system looks like and what each child is tackling. And guess what? I got my very own chore list, too. I was thinking of adding things like, "Drink a glass of cold ice tea" or "Lock bedroom door and take a 15 minute nap", but I knew my kids would quickly be onto me. *I'll address what the 15-year-old and 13-year-old do all day at Dad's office in an upcoming post.