In my previous post: Tackle It Tuesday: Inconvenient Lifestyle, I wrote about what I am working on this year. 6 weeks into it, this is what has worked so far:
1 toy at a time
Making the kids stick to only playing with 1 toy at a time was lofty goal. But they got it. They sometimes play with 1 toy and leave it out while they play with another then another. But in the grand scheme of things, it is working.
5-minute bedtime clean
Which leads me to the kids' 5-minute clean at the end of the day. Because they don't take out 50 toys to play with and leave them everywhere, it makes the cleaning at the end of the day super easy. And, more importantly, the kids no longer argue or resist cleaning the play/bedroom. The amount of peace that brings to our home is priceless.
No Movies or Wii during the week
This was not on the original list but I no longer allow the kids to play movies in Motor Mouth's room after school. If it is a school night, they are not allowed to have big screen time. They are allowed to play with their little screens - Leapster games, Leapfrog books, kiddie laptops, math games on the desktop computer. Basically, if it is an educational screen, they can watch on a school night. Otherwise, nope.
15-minute clean
This worked for 3 weeks then fell apart when I got sick. When we do abide by it, it works amazingly well for general tidiness. If someone would help with this more, it might work better.
Activity Jar
I haven't pulled anything from the jar, but I did spend a lot of time crocheting a baby gift so I feel like this is accomplished.
Updates on the rest:
In January, I had 2 weeks of 45 hr/wk at my normally 32 hr/wk job and I got really sick for 4 straight days. Not that this excuses stuff, but I do believe it played a major role in the breakdown of the following:
- Widney Wednesday. I didn't get to Widney Wednesday in January. We did go to the top of the Hancock Building. I think I need to schedule this. But I have to say, we do a lot together as a family, so it's not like we are strangers running in crazy directions.
- 1 load of laundry per day. Sore subject as I lost The Mommy Project's laundry throwdown and still have not tackled that mountain.
- Night Prep. The prepping meals and clothes at night fell by the wayside but I do see the benefit and need for it.
- Home Cooking. I have cooked at home more. It's just hard when I have evening meetings at 6 pm across town.
3 comments:
Thanks for the update. I'm trying to implement a lot of the same kinds of things with varying degrees of success. My big problem is I can get resentful at the amount of time Mike spend out of the house at meetings and working at the farm, which sounds horrible because it's not like he's just goofing off. Plus we talked about the huge time commitment this VP gig was going to require. Still sometimes after the kids are in bed I just want to sit and knit and not worry about making lunches or laundry or whatever else I should be doing. But then again it makes my life so much easier when I do it.
Shan, it is so nice to know I'm not alone in this. I HAVE to get this one crochet project done so I can post for Finished for Friday on Lit and Laundry's site.
I like your style! I did not allow my children to have TV's or game systems in their rooms (still don't, but they usually at college now -- I'm kind of an empty nester). Anyway, that was one of the best rules I EVER made. There was a lot of begging "everybody has one, mom", but my husband and I held to our guns. One year one of the grandmas bought my oldest a small TV. She said she knew he wanted one in his room. Things got a bit tricky then, but the TV went back to Grandma's house.
Do not think I didn't have problems at all with my children because I certainly did at times, but they all have grown up to be REAL GOOD people.
I didn't do everything right, but I did do a lot of things right.
Your little mini me is just an angel. Her ad was beautiful, although I do wish we could have seen her beautiful little face a bit more.
Have a great Valentine's Day!
Jan
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