Cleaning: Take 13

I have faith that one of these days we will find something that works for our family that will be permanent but until then we keep trying to figure our what will work.  Four out of the last five days Neil and I have both gotten up by 6:15 to exercise together.  We'd really like to go jog together but we can't leave the kids home sleeping in case someone wakes up although I've thought about it.  Instead we've been doing JM.  I used to alternate between treadmill and JM so this week doing it 5 times in a row was so tiring.  I loved how the first time Neil did it he found it hard and was groaning and was sore the next day (glad I'm not the only one).  After we exercise we're able to do our couple scripture study which has been so nice to get it out of the way.  Usually we wait until we're going to bed and we're both so tired we can hardly keep our eyes open and get very little out of it.  It's been nice also to not have it hanging over my head at night.  Once the kids are in bed the night truly is mine!  It's nice to be able to spend some together in the morning.  This new routine doesn't allow Neil to leave for work until 7:30 but now both the kids and I get to see him in the morning.

As for cleaning we've come up with a new system.  The kids used to have a weekly room and kitchen chore they were in charge of.  It worked for awhile but the kids became slackers.  Sometimes they'd clean their room in the morning but by the end of the day it would be dirty again and they'd refuse to clean it up.  Having a messy house drives me crazy, although I try really hard to not let it bother me.  What bothers me is that I feel like Neil and I are failing miserably at raising responsible and hard working kids.  We are not consistent and when the kids didn't clean their messes Neil and I spent the night cleaning so it was ready for the next day.  We'd clean almost every night and never have any time to ourselves so we are now trying something new.  I have made a kitchen chore chart where each kid even Lucy has one job to do that changes daily and rotates through everybody.  So we work as a family to keep the kitchen clean and clean up after dinner.  The boys have to have their beds made and rooms cleaned before they can leave for school.  After school and dinner the kids can play as long as their homework is done and kitchen is clean.  When 7:15 rolls around everybody stops whatever they are doing and as a family we pick up the whole house together.  No one is assigned a certain job.  We start in the basement and work our way to the top of the house.  This usually takes about 30 minutes and then it's time for showers, books, scriptures and prayers and if we're lucky they are in bed by 8:30 and we have 2 hours to do what we want.  It's been a huge success.  I realized I'm going to end up cleaning everything up myself in the evening why not join in with the kids.  The kids clean a ton better when Neil and I are are guiding them.  Yes, Neil and I probably do the majority of the work but at least it's getting done and everyone is helping and we have our evenings free.  It doesn't seem like such a chore when everyone is helping with music the blaring.