Raising Them for the Lord

Well, week two of 31 Days to Clean is done.  And I actually feel ahead of myself.  Boy does my kitchen feel inviting, along with my living room.  Having guests over really helps motivate me to do a thorough cleaning of the common areas of the house; but I had a whole lot less cleaning to "worry" about since I had been taking baby steps to cleaning my home.  Since we had guests over this Friday, the house is currently in a state of complete peace.  Only because, for the past two weeks, I've been systematically cleaning whole sections of the kitchen.  The idea of cleaning and reorganizing all my cupboards, drawers, and pantry was overwhelming; but by following the Martha challenges to clean them out and reorganize them one at a time each day of the week, I found the task did not take very long at all.  I enjoyed seeing progress, especially in places I avoided cleaning because I figured no one else...

I’ve said that to my children many, many times; as a matter of fact, just this morning I said it to my oldest two. Only this time, I was convicted myself. How many times have I looked at the kitchen counter and thought, “I really need to do the dishes,” and yet they remain there, dirty, for a few more hours (or days). UGH! What a hypocrite I’ve been in front of my children. No, they didn’t hear anyone telling me to clean the house, or know that I refused to obey the prompting and try to rationalize my disobedience with things like the following: • I don’t feel good today; I’ll do it tomorrow when I’m feeling better. • I let it go too long already. I feel overwhelmed by it, and I just can’t handle that feeling right now. • Maybe if I leave it until after my husband gets home I can make him feel sorry enough to do it for me. • I don’t want to do it now, just because! Whatever the reasons, they cause me to not obey right away, the right way. That’s just for the chores that I...

This week we have started chore charts with both kids.  My hope is to have them used to a routine before the new baby comes to help make the transition to a new morning routine easier on all of us.  Our first chore chart has only four things for them to accomplish each day: Get Dressed, Make Bed, Brush Hair, Brush Teeth.  As they get comfortable with the routine, we will add small responsibilities they can successfully accomplish.  The incentive for them is a sticker or stamp for each item they complete each day.  If the chart is completed at the end of the week, we will take some money from their money banks and they will be able to pick out one thing from a dollar store.  I got an ideas for our own chart from the Homeschooling Curriculum for Life website  where they provide free printable chore charts for all ages.  I created our charts for our needs in Word using a Table format. The first day, it seemed really help Bubba wake up better and h...