Now that we are into a new month it is time for us to work on building the bridge of consistency in household chores. I have never been seccessful at getting my kiddos to be regular chore doers because if I were at the school for Chores then my report card would be full of 'F's. At least now, thanks to the Flylady, I understand the theory behind home management and how it all should work. Now is the time to get going training myself to be a professional keeper of my home! And a big part of doing that involves training my children in assisting me in that all important role of homemaker.

So this first week is going over the list of chores that keeps a household running smoothly - these are the essentials like bill paying, grocery shopping, washing clothes, etc - and I wanted the children to understant that they maynot be responsible for all of these chores but if it is all left up to one person (me or their dad) then it is quite a load. We are a team with different God-given roles (daddy needs to lead the family, mummy as homemaker, helpmate, and a affectionate wife and mother, and the children to be obedient to their parents and to grow up in the Lord's admonition) and as a team we must work together to help each other do what pleases the Lord. Keeping one person from doing what God wants of them because they are overloaded by tasks/chores that other family member could do, within their ability, doesn't make any sense spiritually.

And so begins August and our new 'one thing'.

One thing that characterises our family is that we can start many things but are not that good at finishing the things we've started. This is something that we are committed to changing. There has been a certain recognition between Marcel and myself that we don't allow enough time for a new change to become a habit before taking on another new thing. So starting in July, each month we are focusing in on one new thing and being totally committed to making that become a fixture in our day to day routine.

So our first 'one thing' is family devotionals. We talked over what might work best and I suggested how about we do it first thing in the morning. Oh my goodness, even now I can't really believe that I put that suggestion forward but I knew it was one of the only ways it was going to happen consistantly. My picture of this time was to see Marcel leading the devotional time and I was really grateful when he agreed to leave for work later in the morning so that he could be there to lead his family. So, by nothing other than God's grace, we have been getting up at 7am monday to friday for the month of July to have our family time with the Lord.

What a wonderful blessing this has been! We are reading through the Bible using an abridged chronological guide and each day we read a chapter which we then talk about and apply to ourselves and our day. We also spend time praying. And the best part of doing this is our morning devotionals are now a regular part of our family lifestyle!

Welcome to my new little piece of cyberspace. This place is just for me and my homeschooling thoughts, without all the various happening of our family life, it's a way for me to simplify the way I do things. You might be asking how is having two new blogs simplifying my life? Well, one of the things that I'm working out about myself is that having a few separate compartments in my life helps me to reduce the number of decisions I make in a day. I can just talk 'homeschooling' here and on our new family blog I can be general and newsy. If it doesn't make sense to you, thats ok as it makes sense to me ... and sometimes that all that matters ;-)