A busy day

What a day.

I have washed, dried, and folded 6 loads of laundry, washed 3 loads of dishes (by hand, no fancy dish washers here), taken down the Christmas tree, picked up toys, made caramel rolls and biscuits (mom made gravy), cleaned my dd closet, and worked on cleaning my dd and my room.

My dd is finally feeling better. She is running around, playing with her toys, coloring, reading books, and coming up with a million ideas. And so we started our chore chart today.

My brother, as I was making the chart for her, asks me if thats what I'm doing and is utterly baffled as to why I am giving a 4 year old chores. My thought is that if I give her chores now then maybe when she gets older doing her chores will just be a daily part of her life, and not as big of a deal as it is to my brother who didn't do chores until he was older.

Now before I come off as a big meanie, when I say I am giving her chores, I'm not giving her a whole lot. All that she has to do each day is put her dirty pajamas (in the morning) and dirty clothes (at night) in the dirty clothes basket, pick up her toys before bed. So basically clean up after herself.

I also would like to make a part of her meal routine to take her dirty dishes to the sink. These little things will make my day go smoother. There won't be her dishes on the table waiting for me to take them out. Her toys will be picked up and put away when she goes to bed. And I won't be finding her dirty clothes in weird places, like under the footstool, behind the barbie house, and inside her kitchen playset, two weeks after she wears them.

My goal until I start working is to make life smoother in our household. Here are my plans --
1. Make the top drawer in my desk the spot to put my purse, sunglasses, etc. All the things I need when I leave in one spot.
2. Organize my dd's toys so that everything has a place and home that is easily accesible by her, but neatly put away.
3. Set up a routine. Such as cook dinner, eat dinner, clean table, wash dishes, wash table and counters. In that order. Every night. Or...Shut off TV, pick up toys, brush hair, brush teeth, put on pajamas, put away dirty clothes, read book, get in bed. After she goes to bed I will set out clothes for the next day, fold laundry, sweep kitchen and dining room.
4. Organize the movies in the bedroom and living room so there isn't a constant search.
5. Make the 2nd drawer in my desk the library book\movie holding place. Somewhere that I always know I will find these materials in.
6. Pack the dance bag every Sunday night. Have it ready for Wednesday ahead of time so there isn't a search at the last minute as I need to leave Wednesday morning.
7. Set weekend routines for deep cleaning. This needs to include dusting, mopping, vacuum furniture, vacuum dust bunnies on ceiling.

I am hoping that by setting a daily schedule it won't be as big a deal when we have something come up and it can't be done. Here's hoping it goes as smoothly as I think it should.

Well I'm off to swap laundry and fold it before I need to get dd ready for bed.