How do you do it all?

Posted by Misty | 0 comments

As a mother of eight, I hear that question a lot. It usually garners a smile, a shake of the head, and sometimes I reply, “I usually don’t!” Come on over and I’ll show you my piles: laundry to be put in, dishes to be put away, and papers to be filed. Every mom of more than one knows how it feels to be overwhelmed by the constant needs of the people around her.

And so I thought I’d take an opportunity to share a *few* of the tricks I’ve come up with over the years to bring some semblance of order to our home. You can find these suggestions anywhere, I’m sure, but here’s the short list: what works for us!

Color Coding

Before each child was born, I chose a color for him or her. My first is royal blue, second is green, third is purple, etc. Sometimes the color was easy to choose (my child named after a young king was assigned gold for royalty, and the first girl had to be pink, of course) and sometimes I just chose whatever seemed fun. Anyway, whether I’m buying toothbrushes, laundry baskets or towels, having a color assigned makes at least a few things simpler to identify!

Menu Planning

Several years ago I sat down and made a list of all the things I knew how to cook—and which I knew my children would eat! I found I had thirty-some main dishes on the list. Perfect—a blank calendar and some re-arranging of the list and I was all set. I put one entrée in each day’s slot, added vegetable suggestions to make sure we didn’t eat peas three days in a row, and put the undated “calendar” into my datebook. A list of seven breakfast and lunch menus which could be repeated simplified things even further. Going through and making grocery lists for each of the five weeks put the system over the top. While we don’t always go by this calendar, I find life is much easier when we do—and it answers the never-ending query, “What’s for dinner?” Just direct them to the calendar on your fridge!

Date Nights

Finding individual time with each of my blessings can be a challenge. Planning monthly date nights is one thing we’ve done to alleviate this struggle. My husband and I love to alternate taking each child to do something simple—breakfast, a walk, movie, ice cream, dinner, etc.—on their birth date (the 3^rd or 17^th of each month, for example.) This gives the child the pleasure of knowing their chance is coming, and also lets us have some uninterrupted, focused time with each one.

This can be a lifesaver, plus a pretty precious memory for your children. I think we started when our fifth child was born and the eldest was 10, but you could really do it with children of almost any age. Assigning an older child to a younger child as a helper has been a great blessing to us. We try to have older buddies help littles with dressing in the morning, cutting food at the table, getting in and out of the car, etc. The kids are excited about the responsibility of becoming buddies to a little one and the little people enjoy the special relationship they have with their older buddies. Older buddies are required to be kind and patient, while little ones are required to be obedient. While we try not to put too much pressure on the older buddies, we do feel it’s great preparation for the responsibility they’ll have someday as parents.

Workboxes

Ahhhh! Workboxes were a godsend for our family, and one I need to get back to this coming school year. No more lost books! No more forgotten assignments! If you want to read more about workboxes, check Google for “Sue Patrick’s Workbox System.” There are lots of websites out there, too, where you can see how people have modified the system to best work for them. The idea is to create a space where your children have several containers of some sort—file folders, shoeboxes, whatever—in which you put their assignments for the day, whether those are things like worksheets or “practice the piano for 30 minutes” instructions or even a surprise like a snack or art project. We currently have a setup with wire shoe racks and clear plastic shoeboxes, but I’ve got my eye on wider, shorter boxes for the fall, so we’ll see what we end up with!

Obviously there are more things we do around here that I consider helpful. Chore charts of different types, assigned laundry days where the kids are taught to do their own laundry, letting the kids choose and prepare meals once in awhile—all those things can help you feel more organized and under control as a mom. Please remember, though, that your life will not suddenly become easy, *poof!* once you find the right system, get organized enough, or manage to finally de-clutter your house completely (I’m pretty sure that’s an oxymoron anyway.) Being a mom is a lot of hard work. And that’s okay! No one has it all together. Working hard means you’re doing something right. Rejoice! It’s all worth it. If you can find systems that help, by all means– put them into place. Then please come back and share them with me!

Misty Krasawski is the overly-blessed mom of eight children whom she homeschools in sunshine-y Florida. She has been clinging ferociously to the hand of her Lord since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, homeschooling for the past thirteen years, and has eighteen more years ahead of her with the children who are glad she will have done most of her experimenting on those who went before. Her wonderful husband Rob has much treasure laid up for him in heaven for having been called to such a daunting task. After the house goes to sleep she can sometimes be found gathering her thoughts at www.encouragingheartsathome.com.