Occasionally I will think about the crazy busy life I live and feel like dropping everything and moving to some remote village in France.  I long for an ideal life. I imagine it would be quiet and serene and life would be simple.  I would walk to the market and buy fresh bread, butter and cheese everyday.  My kids would wake up early and do chores and work hard because, well, that would be the lifestyle. I would spend my time, while they are at school, gardening and canning and preparing meals.  I would also make time for decorating our home.  It would be simple and it would be a beautiful life.

Back to reality.

I wake up early ever morning with a to do list that is already a mile long. We rush to get through breakfast and get 5 kids off to 3 different schools. My days are filled with grocery shopping at different stores to find the best deals, cleaning a house that has toys scattered in every room, meal planning, running all over the place to find the supplies my kids teachers just asked for that they need tomorrow, paying bills, blogging here and there, taking kids to soccer and volleyball practice and games across town, all with my youngest in tow who doesn’t seem to care for any of it…

And the thought creeps in that I hate this busy life.  I really dread it every day.  There’s little joy in the doing and the details seem draining.

One day, while stopping at the 2nd store on my list and agonizing that there are 3 more to go, I had the thought: What if I could live the simple and beautiful life I long for?  What if being grateful and looking for beauty is the key? What if stopping to survey they beauty and uniqueness of the fresh produce and wondering at the blue sky while I walk back to the car were all I really needed to make my life more beautiful and simple?

What if I chose the things I love over the things I think I need?  What if I made my shopping excursions about what was available from the farmers market and had the guts to throw something together that night with my finds instead of meal planning boring casseroles & crockpot meals every. single. day?

What if I made cooking a more enjoyable by thinking of it as art by living in the moment?  What if I treasured the time I spent doing homework with my kids because it was time I actually had with them to invest in who they will become.  What if our car rides to and fro became beautiful because our conversations turned deep as the music was turned down?

We glorify a busy life now days.  We glorify a mom who “does it all.”  Especially if she still looks good and doesn’t seem tired.  But it is running us ragged. We are overwhelmed and listening to voices that keep us in this crazy cycle of being at whits end with no hope of ever not being there {with the exception of when it has all passed us by and our kids are raising their own kids and following in our example of crazy busy lives}.

I wonder at a life with margin; extra space that allows for beauty. It seems thrilling and hopeful and unachievable at the same time.

But it is possible.  It is possible in the laying down of caring about what anyone else thinks of you {and this is really the key}.  It is possible in becoming a hunter for true beauty and a purger of clutter {of things and appointments and tangents}.  It is possible in going after the great things and letting the good things just pass you by.

My calling as a mom is shifting.  I used to feel called to just survive but now I feel called to thrive.  I’m just beginning to figure out what this means.

How about you? Are you just surviving? What can you do to begin to thrive?

Scheduling kids chores is a great way to teach them to get and stay organized.  If kids are used to completing tasks on a regular basis it sets them up for understanding the good results that a schedule can bring. I highly recommend scheduling your kids chores and randomly having them do them.

Start with a list of chores that you want your kids to learn to do and do well. Then figure out what time of day works best for them to complete them.  You can have a daily schedule as well as a weekly schedule.  If you have multiple kids you can rotate the chores every week so they have some variety.

In my house, our kids have chores after breakfast, after lunch, before dinner and after dinner.  I know it seems like a lot but with everyone working together it really isn’t.  It’s basically cleaning up after mealtime and cleaning up the day’s activities before dinner.

We also assign a bigger weekly chore {according to the child’s age}.  This is usually dusting multiple rooms, or straightening an entire room for the little ones {5 to 9 years old} and dusting, vacuuming and mopping entire rooms for my older kids {10 and up}. They love it! Ha! I hope you didn’t think that was true.  They don’t love it but I know it’s so good for them to learn to work and to follow a schedule.  They’ll thank me one day {am I dreaming?}.

Do you have a system in place for your kids? Any tips or advice?

Yesterday we talked about helping kids help you by doing chores.  Today I wanted to set you up for success by sharing with you how to make a kids checklist for chores so that they can complete the chore knowing exactly what needs to be done and what is expected.

You will want to create a checklist for each chore that you give your kids that details all of the steps they need to take.  For younger kids this can be a very simple one or two step checklist with pictures.  For older kids it should be more detailed {see the one I have above for bathrooms}.

You can create your own {I used Word} and print them out and laminate them so that they last.  You can also download the one I have above for bathrooms here.

I hope this is helpful! I am currently making these checklists as part of my 31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom. If you’d like other checklist I’ll be posting more soon.  If you want a specific one let me know in the comments and I’ll see if I can make one.

Do your kids do chores?  I grew up doing chores and I have to admit now that I am glad I did.  Of course, I grew up in a BIG family with 9 brothers and sisters and chores were pretty much a necessity in our house. But I wonder what I would have done if I never learned the right way to clean a toilet or how to cook?  Teaching your kids to do chores is a kind thing. They may not see it as such but it really is.  One day, like me, they’ll look back and be grateful to you {or at least their spouse will}.

So what does kids doing chores have to do with you getting organized?  You can’t do it all.  You just can’t.  I know this from experience.  I try and try to handle all of the work of managing our home but I simply cannot stay on top of it all.  Teaching your kids to do chores is a way that you can help your kids help you.

Start small and be sure to teach them the correct way to do a job before leaving them to do it themselves.  Kids as young as 3 or 4 can start with little jobs {and they think it’s fun at this age}!

Tomorrow I’ll share about giving kids a checklist for their chores to set them up for success and the next day we’ll talk about scheduling chores for them. Stay tuned…

Do your kids do chores?  Do you have a well working system in place?

The idea of getting organized is thrilling for me but actually staying organized will take effort beyond the effort to organize my stuff.  I need to have a plan in place, not just for how I get organized now, but how I will stay organized.  So I thought today would be a really good day to look at goals and lifestyle changes to create new habits of organization.

Take some time today {as I am doing} to think about what will help you continue to stay organized.  Does it mean scheduling weekly decluttering sessions?  Does it mean daily tasks that are repetitive? I know it means these things for me.  I must schedule and stick to a cleaning schedule every week and regularly schedule time to tackle tasks that are added to my organizational to do list.  These are the things I am thinking about today and planning for.

How are you planning for your success in the future of staying organized? What kind of routine do you need to have in place {or already have in place}?

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