Weekly Chore Schedule

This is my cleaning schedule. Taking real life into consideration! 

Sunday: The Lord’s Day!
Worship Him! Rest!

Monday: Clean Master Bedroom

Wash and Change Bed Linens

Tuesday: Clean &Take Inventory of Fridge,

Freezer, & Pantry

Make Menu & Shopping List

Wednesday: Grocery Shop & Errands

Thursday: Pay Bills & Purge Mail & Planner

Garden Work

Friday: Organize and get rid of unwanted or unused items from one room each week.*

Saturday: Work in the yard or on a home improvement project.

*Week 1: Kitchen

*Week 2: Bathrooms & Yard

*Week 3: Master Bedroom

*Week 4: Kids Room

*Week 5: Living Room

Daily Chores

This is our daily chore chart. 

Mom

Make bed

Make Breakfast

Table Clean up

Start a load of laundry

Take out dinner

Kitchen and Living Room quick pick up

chore of the day

Oldest Son  

Fold and put away blankets, make bed

Feed the Dogs

Sweep the Kitchen

Take out the trash

Chore of the day

Help with laundry

Dinner dishes

Oldest Daughter

Clean room and make bed

Feed animals

Wipe counters and table am

Breakfast and lunch dishes

Chore of the day

Help with Laundry

Dinner Clean-up

Middle Daughter 

Clean room and put pillows on the bed

Pick up shoes and toys in Living Room

Help put away clean dishes

Wipe chairs and table at lunch time

Little ones

Be sweet and adorable! 

Our Schedule

Morning Routine

6-7am

Wakeup!!! Read and pray.

7-7:30am

Get ready for the day.

7:30-8am

Make breakfast! Children wake up, get ready & eat breakfast.

8-9am

Family worship and devotions.

9-9:30am

Daily Chores.*

9:30-10am

Outside time!

10am-12:30pm

Snack and disciplined studies.*

*Check master schedule.

Afternoon Routine

12:30-1pm

Lunch and clean up.

1pm

Nap time for little ones.

1-3pm

Fine arts. Pick up projects!

3-4pm

Outside play time for children. If weather is too severe, a quiet indoor project.

Sewing project for mom.

4pm

Begin Dinner with helper.

Older children finish up school or read.

4:30pm

Hang, fold, put away laundry.

Evening Routine

5pm

Finish up dinner. Set table with helper.

6-7pm

Dinner and clean up.

7-8pm

Free time.

8-9pm

Children get ready for bed, story time and in bed!

9-10pm

Dad and Mom time. Go to bed!

The Ultimate Homeschooling Tip

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

Discipline and Discipleship- First and foremost, be diligent to teach your little ones the word of God. As they learn to submit to God’s word and the authority He has lovingly and providentially placed over them, they will gain a heart of wisdom and understanding. It will be very difficult, to say the least, if our children cannot obey us, to educate them as God has called us. We must make first time obedience our highest educational priority. Our greatest goal should not be high test scores, prestigious colleges, degrees, or even to merely to complete the curriculum. For what will it profit these little ones if they gain worldly wisdom and have not the wisdom God will impart to their very souls by the implanted word. Instead, are greatest joy should be that our children walk in truth. If they know and love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart then He himself will be their sufficiency. By all means we are to educate our children so they may be productive adults who can do all that the Lord has called them to do. Sow the scriptures in their life and reap a harvest of a Christ-centered home and education. This of course cannot be accomplished apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our life and in the hearts of our children. But let us make this our aim, to be well pleasing to the Lord, as we discipline, and disciple our children. For to this, we have all been called, homeschoolers or not!

A New Years Resolution: To Be a Keeper At Home

While millions of people are making new years resolutions that may never take, may we resolve in our hearts to be busy at home, blessing our family and training our children. Let us look forward to this new year as one of hope for generations to come. I encourage you to gain renewed vision and passion for your precious calling as a wife and mother. Though trials and discouragement come, may the all sufficient Word of God be our standard and may the precepts therein stand the tests of the cultural tide. We are the women whom God has blessed with the privilege of raising the next generation, teaching them His truths, and creating an atmosphere that is vibrant and full of love and the joys of life. There is no other place on earth that we are more needed to give these blessings, than in the home. There is no other people who need these blessings more from us, than those of our own household.  The influence we have over the next generation can be greater with our own children in our own homes, than in any oval office or Sunday school classroom.  J.R Miller says it well in his book Homemaking (or recently republished under a new title The Family).

There have been wives who in their zeal for Christ's work outside have neglected Christ's work inside their own doors. They have had eyes and hearts for human need and human sorrow in the broad fields lying far out, but neither eye nor heart for the work of love lain about their own feet. The result has been that while they were doing angelic work in the lanes and streets, the angels were mourning over their neglected duties within the hallowed walls of their own homes. While they were winning a place in the hearts of the poor and the sick or the orphan, they were losing their rightful place in the hearts of their own household. Let it be remembered that Christ's work in the home is the first that He gives to every wife, and that no amount of consecrated activities in other spheres will atone in this world or the next for neglect or failure there.

Let this be the year that you put your hand to the plow and did not retrieve. Put away activities that keep you from serving your husband and discipling your children. Commit yourself to cultivate well for Christ a home that is productive and efficiently managed, that shows the skillful handiwork of God. And may you reap a harvest of blessings in the years to come.

Grace and peace be upon you in 2009 and many more to come as the Lord sees fit. 

Love Your Children? Discipline Them!

Mmm, the sweet smell of a new baby. And the joy that is set to overflow when God causes a new life to be brought into your very arms. Just the thought makes me want another! Truly what a blessing children are! That is what God intends them to be. That is what they are if they are loved. Why does the world think children are a burden and why do so many mothers feel the same way about their own flesh and blood? Did they not have the burst of joy I had when I birthed my children? Did they not swim in the emotion for weeks and months there after? I believe they did; it is normal maternal instinct. But sin. Yes, sin and babies go hand in hand. They were born into sin just like you and I. And soon, as they grow, it begins to show itself in ways that the world has deemed as just normal and childish behavior. And any child left to continue in that state is hindered from becoming the blessing God has intended him to be. With parents scared and confused about discipline it's no wonder there are more brats then blessings. Shame on us mothers! Shame? That's what the Bible says about a child that has no discipline or discipleship. Proverbs 29:15 "The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother." We know it all to well, a mother is going somewhere or is having company and warns the kids to behave and not embarrass her, then she is upset with them for their ill behavior. I believe in most cases it is unwarranted, since she has failed to love them by not training them! Love equals discipline. Yes, there are others ways we love our children but discipline is a most important factor in their growth. Proverbs 13:24 " Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." I know many of us think we discipline our children to our best ability. But in order for it to count it must be done diligently! We cannot be slack concerning the outcome of our children! Proverbs 23:13 "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol." No there is no guarantee that disciplining your children will cause them to be regenerated. But it will cause their heart to be much more apt to submit to God's authority when they have submitted to yours. It may sound harsh to some, but consider the options: discipline my child and give them understanding, or spoil them and cause them to despise wisdom and become fools. If we love our children then I think our course of action is clear. We must discipline them diligently. We cannot wait until dad gets home, we must maintain the order of the home. God has called parents to be over their children, this is not a democracy. This too, is a way we honor our husbands, by training the children when he is not home so they are a blessing to him. We must not tune out sinful behavior hoping they will grow out of it, be warned they will continue in it in their heart and be swallowed up by selfish desires. We need to hone in on the areas of sin our children are struggling with and help them see it clearly by taking them to God's word when we discipline and disciple them. And if they are still to young to reason with, then we must begin to cause their will to surrender. It may sound like a task that is insurmountable, but God has given us the responsibility and the authority to carry it out and He will provide the means. And your children will become a source of blessing to not only your family but to all around them! May God renew your love for your children today, by giving you a fresh vision for bringing your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, for His glory! Ephesians 6:4

Let the little children come...to God's word

My oldest child, Scott, will be sixteen in two weeks, and I am so humbled by the grace of God, that he gave him to me and has grown him to into quite a remarkable young man. I will not boast about him as if he were something other than a product of God's amazing grace. That's not what my intent is today. I want to boast in God's faithfulness. I want to boast in the sufficiency of His word. I want to boast in His Son, Jesus Christ who alone gives life to the dead. And all these, I see in my son maturing into a man of God. I can truly say it was nothing I did or didn't do apart from God and pure mercy and grace, because prior to becoming a

Christian I knew nothing of being a woman, wife, or a mother. I was a young struggling single mother who had no direction and was drowning in my

sins. Yet, Christ was calling me to himself and when I heard the word of truth that saved my soul, the gospel, I was converted from death to life, from darkness to light, from a girl with a baby, to a mother.

My 3 year old son had witnessed the radical change in my life and even at this young age, God began to convict him of his sin as I preached the gospel to him. He said He wanted to repent from his sin and be born again. And immediately I saw a change in him, and so did the others who knew him! He came to me one day soon after, saying he wanted to get rid of all his Power Ranger toys because they did not glorify God! I didn't lead him to do this, it was all him. He was memorizing stories and scripture on his own. His play time was spent acting out bible stories and playing church (he was the preacher!). By no means am I saying my child didn't sin or do childish things, but he had a heart that feared God and was repentant. He was truly a blessing. I really thought this is how all children in the church were. The church I was attending was more like an over sized youth group. But as we began to have more children, I saw a difference, yet we all went to the same church. What was different? I believe that one of the things was the Word of God in the home. As a new christian I was hungry for God's word and read it constantly. We read the Bible together almost every morning and evening. I immersed myself and my son in it. And we grew.

It was a providential work of God's grace, I hadn't ever read a parenting book or had any real examples. Time went on, I married a man from church and God blessed us with 4 more children. We began trying to figure out our "parenting style". Frustrated with all the conflicting views in parenting books and not content with the results we saw in other children, we finally decided to look to scripture alone! And what do you know, IT was just what we needed! The confusion of whose method was the right one was lifted. We began to actually read together as a family on a consistent basis. We have gone through many seasons where we have read the scriptures together, on our own, and even struggled with reading the Bible consistently. But God has been so faithful to always bring us back, and to anchor us in the place of seeing our need for God's word daily. We continue to have regular times of family worship and are actively training our children. I have seen God work in our other children, all different, but I am so excited to see what He will do in their lives. I pray He gives us strength to be faithful with these little ones, as we cling to His word daily for our instruction in righteousness. And I thought it was my radical conversion that played the large part in Scott coming to faith! I now realize it was pure grace, the Word and God giving the increase.

I have read and do recommend some books on the subject of child rearing, but it is important that we remember God's word is the standard and not someone else's convictions. I myself like to glean from other godly men and woman but my husband and I are responsible to teach my children the way they should go. There's not one recipe for parenting, but the same ingredient must exist in each family, the WORD. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. As I bring my children to the Word, Jesus Christ, I trust Him to bless them as I cannot, by giving life more abundantly.

Do not under estimate the ability of your children to sit and listen to God's word. Start with small portions if need be. But consistency is key. Don't give up even if they show little to no interest, aren't understanding, or behave badly, this is the best opportunity for training them to sit still and honor God's word and you! Remember Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding". I have seen my own children, even at 2, be able to learn to sit for an hour. And then to our shock, recite a verse or catechism question that an older sibling was working on! Not to mention sing several stanzas of hymns like "Come Thou Fount" and "Be Thou My Vision"! Consistency is key!

Please don't leave it up to someone else to teach and preach the Word of God to your children, and especially only once a week. If you or I were to limit our spiritual lives to that meager diet, our heart would wax cold within us. Lead your little ones to the rock that endures forever. May God grant true repentance and may He receive glory through His son who alone is our righteousness. And may He raise up a generation that will proclaim His Name to the nations!

Sola Scriptura