How We Do What We Do: Basic Weekly Plan

I guess I got ahead of myself with my WHB post. I whould lay out how our week runs. Doing the same thing each day of the week helps tackle what does not get done during our big cleans on Monday and Thursday.



Here is how it goes:



Monday: WHB, wash towels (kids towels every other week the take less showers than the rest of us), diapers



Tuesday: Little boys sheets get changed, laundry room (socks, wipe down, iron & mend- the last two seldome get done!), zone chores and office work (update calendars, checkbook, phone calls, plan week).



Wednesday: Our sheets & baby sheets, zone chores/kitchen, grocery/coupon stuff, start to plan school



Thursday: mini WHB, girls sheets, freezer cooking



Friday: Big boys sheets get changed, diapers, zone chores, finish school plan



Sat: Sat chores (sweep sidewalks, straighten yard, dog and horse clean up, clean vans, bake)



Sunday: NUTHIN...I try not to do laundry on Sunday. I try not to do ANYTHING on Sunday!



Does it look like a lot? yeah.

Does it all ever get done? sometimes.

Do I have a lot of help and delegate? Yep! This is how we feel about work.

How We Do What We Do: Weekly Home Blessing

How to keep house with 8 children?

It's easy. The Weekly Home Blessing.

If you have been a FlyFamily for years like we have been, you learn to perfect it. Well, we're still perfecting it. You learn to tweak it to suit your needs.

What is a weekly home blessing? You can learn about it here: There is no right or wrong way to bless your home. As Mrs. Marla (the FlyLady) says, "Housework, even done incorrectly, still blesses your family." or something like that.

In our home, the weekly home blessing is an hour of time spent on Monday after breakfast but before school. Here are the items we cover:

Floors: sweep, vacuum, swiffer, mop

Dusting

Bathrooms

It would be easy to park all the little ones in front of the tv or lock them in a room or closet while we got our work done, but that wouldn't work for several reasons.

1. It would be wrong.

2. They wouldn't learn how to work

3. The are a valuable part of our team.

So that mass havoc does not occur with four children 5 and under running around, we felt it necessary to "buddy up" and make teams for our WHB. Buddy system is when we pair an older child with a younger child to teach them how to do their job or at least give them "work" to do to keep them out of mischief.

Team 1: The Tub Scrubbers Mom, ds 8,6,4 and the baby. Jobs: vacuum, sweep and wet swiffer wood, sweep and mop tile, dust upstairs.

8 yo vacuums, gets mop water ready and helps mop.

6 and 4 yo move things for 8 yo to vacuum under, fetch stuff like the swiffer, cleaner (get a grip, it's vinegar), broom, dustpan, bucket, mop, towel (for drying tile).

They are also good at moving chairs in dining room and picking up rugs etc for sweep/mop.

We use our FlyLady dusters and some cheapies we bought at the store. I dust what is high (and I can reach...:D) and they dust what is mid and low.

Team 2: Cleaning Tornados dd 17, 10, 5 and ds 3. Jobs: downstairs bathroom, vacuum and dust downstairs.

17 yo cleans the bathroom and sliding glass door upstairs. She help 10 yo if she needs it.

10 yo and 5 yo pick stuff up for vacuuming. 10 yo vacuums then they both put stuff down and dust. 10 yo also deals with the newspapers.

Team 3: Dad Job: Bathrooms

Bathroom job includes, sink, counter, tub, toilet and all the other "stuff": stools, baby tub, trash cans etc.

Dad does the bathrooms sometime on Monday. An ideal day has him doing them at the same time as us. Sometimes Mom does bathrooms w/ help from her team. Sometimes Team 1 and 2 try to race to get it clean when Dad can't. I insist to my husband that I can clean the bathroom in 15 minutes. Really.

When our WHB is done we go downstairs for school. The best part is that the upstairs stays clean all morning long! In a house of 10 that's an accomplishment!

We repeat everything except bathrooms on Thursday. We feel that since we are home all day, every day, our house gets "used up" a lot faster than if the children were gone to school all day. We call it our mini WHB.

In the past, we have tried to do whb on Friday afternoon so we would have a clean house for the weekend. But by Friday afternoon, no one wanted to do anything. So we tried Monday afternoon and had the same result. To take an hour first thing in the Monday gets it done and out of the way. In fact, we take the first hour after breakfast but before school every day to do some cleaning....but more on that later.

The children learn housekeeping skills at an early age. As they age, we will adjust their jobs to be age appropriate. Imagine what we could accomplish when they are all teenagers! They also learn teamwork. I am grateful for our teams! It would take a long time for Mom to do it all alone!

Why We Do What We Do: Philosophy of Family, Work, Fun

Ok, so I promised I would to this series and then I got busy. Real busy. Like, never home busy. And now that I have put my world in order I have time to write.

Before I get into the fun stuff of how to do laundry for 10 people, there needs to be a foundation of understanding. It's not all chores, you know.

So....

Why do we do all the stuff we do for work, fun, family building etc?



Since becoming a Christian my husband and I have learned (and are still learning) what makes a family a family. At the heart of it, is God and it is God who makes up a family. Each of our children are a gift from God and we can have no doubt that God had a hand in each addition to our family.



What this looks like in real life: Well when we as parents or they as siblings are angry and exasperated and at the end of our patience and kindness ropes we step back and gain some perspective. This comes in the form of long talks, purposeful family devotions and stories and role play. We discuss that each of us are blessings and not burdens, We realize our role in this family is a God given role and to embrace it joyfully. We praise each other for a right heart towards one another.



We also believe that we have been put on this earth by God to work. Work can be hard, challenging and also enjoyable and joyful. In this world of saying yes to each selfish desire, it is a struggle to to deny the self. This is a daily struggle for each member of our family. But the more we stress work (chores, school, serving others) as a blessing to God and to each other, we change our attitude towards work and it becomes joyful.

What this looks like in real life: I don't know about the rest of the family, but I enjoy down times so much more when I have earned them. I like to model working joyfully to all members of our home in hopes that they will take on the same. True, I think we need more out loud conversations about the joy and satisfaction of working. There also needs to be more out loud praises of their help. The idea, for me personally is, that my husband has given me the house to manage for him (and Him). Anything anyone does to help is a blessing to us all. I make a concerted effort to tell them thank you for doing things to help run the household.

Adoptive families are a bit different that other two parent-bio kids only families or even step families. We have felt that the family make up needs to be seamless. No US and THEM...even with foster children. If you are here, you are family whether it be for a few weeks or forever. Each of us has a unique story of how we came to be part of this family.

What this looks like in real life: We are sure to reminisce about how each of us came to be part of the family. We eliminate all the sad parts and focus on all that is miraculous and joyful. We are a story telling family. The children love to hear how they came to be part of the family. We also often tell them (usually when they are feeling fragile) that we are glad God gave them to us. We are glad they are part of our family. They are just where God wants them to be. Most conversations happen at the table, though some just happen in the day to day.

I am bad at the big, big deals, but we sure have a lot of moments that are "just us". No big fancy parties, no company, just us being together being us.

From temp camera