Ah, the start of a new school year....is there any better time for wanting to get organized, instill new practices that are healthier, get into a good routine, and make a fresh start? Other than New Year's day, I don't think so. It's like getting a blank slate and resolving to do things better, make it easier/smarter/more efficient.
I've been thinking (now you know you are in trouble if you live in this house!) about what I'd like to change with the coming year. I've come up with a short, but powerful list. I presented it to the family and so far, everyone is on board. If even 1/2 of these brilliant ideas of mine continue through the first month, I will be a happy camper....a very happy camper.
1. I am no longer making dinner on Saturday nights. For over 10 years now, I've planned dinners for every night of the week. 95% of the time, the dinners go as planned. Every now and then, we will have a spontaneous night out or bring food in, but for the most part, it's all me putting dinner on the table each night. I'm not complaining, but I am tired and burned out. So from this point forward, I am no longer worrying about feeding my family dinner on Saturdays. I think I will enjoy the other 6 nights of cooking a lot more if I know I have a break one night a week. When I told this Jeff and the kids, instantly Jeff and Ian said they wanted to take on Saturday nights. I happily said, "go for it." Whether they cook, bring in take-out, or plan for us to go out to eat, I don't care. It will be so nice that there is one day every week that I don't worry about what we will be eating.
2. Sam gets dressed on her own. Completely on her own. She is 7 years old. It is beyond time that she picks out what she wants to wear without a huge battle from me. No more whining "I have nothing to weeeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr" or screaming "I DON'T WANT TO WEAR THAT!" or "I DON'T KNOW WHAT MATCHES" allowed anymore. No more begging me to put 4 different outfits on her bed to choose from, only to whine she doesn't want to wear any of them. When the mood strikes her, Sam has shown she can get dressed on her own. She has a great sense of style and knows exactly what goes with what. She manages to get dressed all on her own on the weekends. But for some reason, she enjoys pushing my buttons and putting a big wrench in our mornings before school throwing a fit. I am done with this nonsense. Sam has more clothes than the whole rest of the family put together. I recently went through her closet (with her!) and pulled out everything that might be questionable on what fits and organized her closet by skirts, dresses, sweaters, long sleeve tops, and short sleeve tops. We went through her drawers and organized them by capri leggings, full-length leggings, shorts, biker shorts, pants, and jeans. There are easily 30 different outfits she could wear for any season/type of weather. As of my writing this blog, she is in agreement with everything in her wardrobe. It's all been picked out by her personally in the stores and given the green light that she will wear it at some point. Although historically this doesn't matter if she will actually wear it, but it's a start. I told her I would help if she needed it with a zipper, button, whatever, but I will not help with picking out an outfit.*
*For those who think we should pick the outfit out the night before; we've done that many, many, times. However, she will still wake up in the morning and change her mind and throw a fit. Ugh.
3. Sam makes her own lunches for school. Again, I think the more I tell Sam has to do for herself, the more control she will feel like she has. Sam likes to be in control. I told her I will help her with cutting, cooking, etc, but she has to take the initiative on getting her lunch made and assembled. Ian has been making his own lunches for 2 years now and it is a pleasure in the morning to know he is responsible and making healthy choices on his own. And if she drops the ball on this (because she is spending too much time figuring out what to wear :), then she will have to buy her lunch from the school cafeteria.
4. Help with cleaning the house. We will see how this goes, but here's the idea: I came up with a list of 28 different tasks to do around the house. Everything from clean a bathroom, vacuum the bedrooms, clean the glass door, unload the dishwasher, clean the inside of the microwave to fold a load of laundry and put away, etc. It's broken down into manageable chunks with no chore being that time consuming or too big to do. I created an excel sheet with 4 columns next to it. Each column belongs to one of us; Jeff, Robyn, Ian and Samantha. Every week one of us has to pick an item and do it. When you've done it, you put the date next to the item, under your name. Once all the items have been done, I will provide a new excel chart to begin these tasks again. In less than a month's time, all the chores should be completed and the house will be clean. The best part is, the kids are learning some very important life skills. They get a say in what they want to do in terms of helping (it can change each week/month for them too), and I get some much needed assistance with the upkeep of the house.
Yep, this is what I sprung on the family. No one had a bad word to say and agreed to give it a go. I have high expectations that all 4 things listed above will go splendidly. How awesome would this be if it does?
No comments:
Post a Comment