chaos organized

...and i use the word 'organized' loosley... very loosely. Long ago I realized that my feeble brain could not keep track of the many many things that happen in house with many many children. It all started with those cute Family Night
charts, you know the ones... prayer, song. lesson, etc.
Then I thought to myself, "Kristie, you are such an amazing mother (i tell myself over an dover again) why don't you also put on their chores, then it's all on one cute little chart" So I listened to myslef and did that. Then for leverage in the disiplinary area I developed TV coupons they could earn, and so on. This chart to the left has been our disiplinary chart for about 2 years, it's a little ragged but it has worked quite well ( I have found that no progarm is eternal!)

Once the children became more useful in the kitchen (and it does happen, I promise, but you have to stick with letting the 'help' you for a while first:-) I let them have their own 'day' to cook. I recently discovered that one months worth of meals is easier to shop for and the kids always know what they're cooking... you can see that chart to the right.

Clean-up is important - and rare. So I developed the 'circle' who ever cooks washes dishes, then the rest see what the circle requires of them. It's worked pretty well, although Tawny is not happy about drying when I wash, I have Sat & Sun as well. You may notice David's name missing, he was pretty much worthless with school and work (at least looking for work), so we just charge him a small fee to live with us. ($40.00)

I saw a friend once open a cabinet in her kitchen and jot something down and a whole new world of untouched surfaces opened up to me! I keep recipes, foodstorage lists, spice suggestions, and laundry helps taped on the inside of my cabinet doors, and nobody knows, unless I unwittingly open one. These are the kids' job lists. It took me 15 years to realize that saying, "Your job is the bathroom" is not enough. So on these lists I have it spelled out, 'clean the inside and outside of the toilet' , or ' dust furniture', you know, those things that only come with ... I don't know... work ethic? So these lists have daily chores, you'd think I would have a cleaner house!!

This white board is about 2 x 3 foot and has been in our family for about 4 years. I've redrawn the box lines for the calendar with permanent marker dozens of times. I surprised it's lasted this long. This is my life. I check it before I go to bed and first thing in the morning. The kids know that if it's not on the calendar, it's not happening! Danni decorates the boarder for me...

My shopping lists are on excel and match the menu for the week. We have our family counsel agenda, and the notebooks from Bill's PIE interviews . I look at all these things and think, "Kristie- you are such a great mom - what on earth would you do without your charts?!?" My life would br chaos!