I LOVE to get ideas from others as far as what they are doing with their kids and routines. It seems like we could always use fresh ideas - especially when the novelty wears off of what ever gizmo charty thing we're doing at the time.
So I'm going to share ONE of the things we are doing. Each morning we have, what I so lovingly call, HAPPY HOUR. Yes, the name is full of irony. You'll see why.
HAPPY HOUR is where the ENTIRE FAMILY comes together and we DECLUTTER and CLEAN one room or section of the house for ONE HOUR. ONE HOUR and ONE HOUR ONLY. If we finish earlier, then extra happiness for us! If we DON'T finish the task, it is OK! We will finish it tomorrow! The timer is set and for one full hour we expect hard, non goofing off, work (Can't you just see their happy sparkling faces now? Yes, they were thrilled with the idea of HAPPY HOUR!).
Now - we did this today while my 3 year old was napping (I'm sure tomorrow we'll be able to find ways for him to help out). We did bathrooms. Can you imagine all six of us in one bathroom? Me neither. That is why hubby and my oldest did the downstairs bathroom, and the other three kids and myself did the upstairs bathroom. We cleaned out the drawers and under the sink. Not only decluttered, but actually CLEANED. I had my 5 yo wiping baseboards and cleaning behind the toilet! I scrubbed the tub like no other, my girls were cleaning out the drawers, I grabbed the pumice stone for the toilet. And we cleaned! And it took us the whole hour. But man oh man does that bathroom sparkle! And since the kids helped get it that way, you can bet they love it to and are working hard at making it stay that way!
Tomorrow we shall tackle the kitchen - which may take the remainder of the week. We're going to clean out the pantry, clean the front of all the cabinet doors, clean out the fridge, wipe walls, detail clean the bar stools and so on. Yes, we'll need more than an hour to do all this stuff! BUT we're doing it together! and putting on fun music to keep the energy positive! (We told the kids that either way they were going to have to do this. They could decide to make it fun or miserable. Today 3 out 4 decided to make it fun (the 4th child shall remain nameless!) My positive spin - HAPPY HOUR).
So by the end of the summer, you can bet I'll have a much more organized and clean house than I do today!
I've also got great ideas for lunches, how to manage "electronic time", and cheap ways to vacation.
But NOW I want to hear from you!
I know YOU, our FAB readers, come in all sorts of family sizes of all sorts of age ranges. I want to hear what is working for YOU! Things such as:
- What things are you doing to motivate kids to do their jobs?
- What things are NOT working for you.
- What are you doing about summer bedtime? (same or later, and how to do it when the sun is still shining!)
- What are your daily/weekly routines?
- Do you plan daily/weekly activities with your kids and if so, what are they?
- What summer traditions do you have?
We'd love to hear all about it!
THEN, I'm going to share it with the rest of our readers! If you want to blog about it and then send me a link, please do! If you just want to email me your "TELL ALL" story, that would be fab! And it doesn't need to be a novel (ahem), but even a simple one line tip will do! Just do what works for you... the most important thing you can do is SHARE IT! You never know, you're idea/story just may help someone who is struggling!
Send me your links and Summer Routine Tips at fabulesslyfrugal at gmail dot com by Friday. I hope to get the post up by the end of the weekend (depending on response).
We call it, FABULESS READERS TELL ALL! We can learn a lot from each other - and it doesn't ALWAYS have to be about couponing does it!? :)
I can hardly wait to read what you have to say!!!
gift