Lows: WHY DO I HAVE THEE MESSIEST CHILDREN EVER!??????????
One Random Day Snapshot:
ANOTHER Random Day Snapshot:
and YET ANOTHER Random Day Snapshot:
DUDE those were THREE DIFFERENT DAYS!! Do you feel my pain-they are MESSY!
Someone please tell me I am not alone here. Why do I have such messy girls?! I secretly hope they "snap out of it" by the time they go to college or get married. I apologize in advance to their poor husbands. Hopefully they all just marry someone rich so the maid is included.
Actually they are REALLY good about cleaning it up when I ask them to. I have taught them to make "piles." One trash, one clothes, one toys. THEN put the piles away-this way it's not so overwhelming to them.
I guess my problem is the upkeep-it's great for one day, then I dont say anything (cuz I am never in their rooms-I mean HELLO they can dress THEMSELVES!) so when I actually walk past it I just sigh and close the door. Maybe I need to just be better about having them check on their rooms EVERYDAY!? Is that the secret I am JUST NOW figuring out?!??! Maybe I should just be grateful this is my only low this week!
HIGHS: Every Fast Sunday we get together with Jons family. We usually rotate houses, but lately it has just been easier for us to all meet at his parents house in OC.
Robert doesnt have any meetings on Fast Sunday by choice OR COMMAND as he is the Bishop! HA
So we have Jons parents, our family, Todd & Celene's family, Scott & Kellie and cute little Esther. We always do a "potluck style." Last night Celene made taco soup, I brought a big green salad & made cheddar/jalapeno bread-UM GRUB, kellie brought cut up fruit, mom/dad made their famous punch & a BIG OL' chocolate cake!
I LOVE that my girls are older and there is NO diaper changing, or referring or getting to things we arent suppose to. All of our kids get along SO well-it's so great. I LOVE that we dont discuss boring things or plop ourselves infront of a football game (those are definately happening on other days!!). We are always discussing DEEP things. Whether it's church topics, politics, where we see ourselves in the future, when we think the SO CAL earthquake will hit, what food storage supplies we have etc.
I realize that I am not really "spiritual fed" at church, but when I visit Jons family-I am definately spiritually FED! I come away (as I am driving us all home) feeling so blessed to be in this family, so blessed to have so many righteous examples to TRY to emulate, so grateful our children all get along so well as cousins, so blessed to be encouraged to try harder, do better. I always feel like my "batteries get charged!"
QUESTIONS: What are your secrets to a fabulously well kept childs room?
Do your families get together each month for Fast Sunday? Do your families have great discussions?
9 comments:
It is a good idea, huh!
Those are KILLER rooms. My sister is sorta messy, but I have to say, your girls' rooms take the cake.
I don't have a solution (obviously) but they do have to have the room clean like 5 nights out of the week b4 bed.
I would love our family to get together like that on a regular basis. My family is the couch potato kind, sad. We have 10 kids 9 and under, so it's insane, anyhow. You are way lucky!! Totally worth that drive!
oh those rooms! I think I remember you posting one of those before..I can't stand a mess... their rooms have to be clean before bed. my kids all like to sleep... also- they have to make their beds before schoool... I even went and got maddy out of school once to come home and make her bed! :) she hasn't forgotten since, neither have luke and ems..
I love family times like that. We don't have family close... so that makes me so jelous... I would love that... I love conversations like that too... that make you want to be better... you have great family!
Maybe I was a mean mom but my (6)kids couldn't have breakfast unless their beds were made up. Usually between dinner and family prayers I'd send the kids to their rooms to straighten up and get their clothes ready for the next day. This only took about 10 minutes. Most of our kids made it into a contest to see who could finish first. Their reward was extra reading time or playing board games before bed. As they got older they needed more time for sports and homework but by then they cleaned up after themselves with fewer reminders.
I had a friend who had her 7 kids do 5:30 jobs everyday. She'd say, "it's time for 5:30 jobs" and everyone would moan but by dinner all the bathrooms were cleaned, trash cans emptied, kitchen mopped, toys put away...you get the picture. I was always amazed what she could get them to do in 15minutes!
I think you are an amazing mom and your girls do a lot of things really well because you've taught them well! Consider this a new challenge but be sure to let them know that you will follow through everyday by checking their rooms either before school, after school or at bedtime....whatever works best for you!
PS Thanks for posting those bedroom pictures!! I had forgotten how little girls can create their own "natural disasters"!
Oh my goodness.. you are NOT alone! My girls' room & bathroom is a mess. a MESS! They can clean it one day, the next it's just as messy as it was before it was cleaned. I also do the piles method as well, but it doesn't always click w/ my girls!!
I have no advice on the rooms, Ryan's is always a mess. Though I have to say, nothing like those pics, lol. I might have to show those to Jeremy to help him feel better. :) We've done with our boys if they can keep the room clean (without being reminded) for x amount of days, they'll get a surprise. Hasn't happened yet. lol.
LOL! Sorry to rat my little sisters out, but they had TERRIBLE rooms! The good news is that now they are all great housekeepers. I remember coming home from school one day and my mom had taken ALL of one girl's clothes and put them all over the front lawn. It was so funny! When Ashley and Natalie who share a room went through a particularly bad spell, I used to make them sleep on the floor in the hallway with no blankets. "That room is not yours, it's mine, and unless you keep it the way I like, you can't sleep in there." :) I'm such a meanie! Now we do a nightly "room check." We take 10 minutes to "clutter clean" the house before scriptures and prayer so we all wake up to a clean house. Works wonders.
As for your family, you're right. I LOVE you all to death. It honestly makes me MARVEL to have such great family on my mom's side as well as my dad's. CRAZY LUCKY...but really just blessed. YOU are a huge part of that, you know! Jon chose so WELL!
I love you all so much. I think those Sunday dinners are really key in keeping family close. We used to visit my dad's sis every weekend. Now, we get together all the time with my family. So important, I think!
Keep up the good work. I think you'll find these things work themselves out, but sometimes drastic measures are just "fun." Hee hee hee! (Oh, the vision of those clothes all over the lawn...) ha ha ha!
Sorry...another quick thought. Tiffany is SO ORGANIZED. She told me recently she cleaned out her kids' drawers, and gave away the old and even "new-ish" clothes that just got passed over and weren't worn as much as some of the kids' favorites. She doesn't keep many clothes for her kids...maybe 2 weeks' worth. That way, the kids simply don't have much to mess up with! (you do have to stay on top of the laundry, though!)
I also remember my mom taking stuff we left out and made us "buy" it back from her. (money, chores, or something else).
Emily's room would look the same way, if i didn't clean for her!
My kids can clean out their rooms, have everything looking great and then by the end of the day it will look like those pictures. I don't know how it happens. It drives me crazy though.
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