Behind the Garden Walls
Aug. 18, 2007
VBS and Routines
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Verity has been encouraging me to write an entry for VBS, which was last week. For five days the four older kids left the house and went to learn and have fun at church. I wasn't there much this year so it is hard for me to write about it....I only see the results....the t-shirts, the singing, the paper bags full of treasured crafts. It was Peace's first chance to be in a class, so she was excited about that. The memorable thing about the week for me was that I was left alone at home with the twins for four days. And I discovered a few things. 1. The twins take a lot of time. 2. My older kids are a big help to me. 3. Except for eeking out some basic chores, I was utterly without a routine, and had no idea where to start when presented with a few extra minutes. Part of the problem with lack of routine is that our lives have been so uprooted this year, anyway. We took 5 major road trips, spending more than a month away from home, in the first 6 months of the twins' life. Right now I feel like I am coming out of some sort of hazy daze. Well, I have set out to remedy the lack of routine.....I made up a job chart for the two older girls. We tried it out this week, and it is working beautifully. They rotate among the jobs of vaccuuming the kitchen and dining room after meals, wiping the table and chairs, washing the dishes, and drying them. The chart has especially helped me in the mornings, when there are so many demands on my time....breakfast, cleanup, feeding the babies, and getting the four younger ones changed and dressed. I am also feeding the babies more formula. I nurse them, then give them a couple ounces of formula, and the girls rotate days of baby duty of feeding them their bottles. This is helping to save me some time, too. And I downloaded a weekly chore list from motivatedmoms.com. That is just what I need----someone to tell me what to do! I have definitely benefited from the focus that the list has provided. I post it on the refrigerator and make little happy tick marks when a job is done. We are moving in a little more than a month, so there is plenty of packing and organizing to do. This week we have been blessed with help from the dear teenage girls in our church. They have come to watch the children for me (and do some bonus cleaning!) while I have spent time in the basement sorting and packing. It was a mess down there, and I have derived great satisfaction in the heaps of things sent to Goodwill and more heaps of things sent to the garbage. I am almost done sorting through all of our boxes. Bruce has been called to a church in Michigan....and we are very excited about our move there. To me, it is especially sweet to be moving to a rural area, as I so love the countryside. It should be good blog fodder. We will start our school year after the move. In the meantime, Benjamin is learning his alphabet and numbers and every shade of color (he seems so be fascinated with colors), and Peace is sounding out words left and right. Everyone devours the "new" books that I bring up from the basement. And so it ought to be. |
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