Thursday, October 15, 2009

Simplifying: Finding a Win-Win Solution

I met with some other homeschool Moms the other night. Support and companionship is essential in the homeschool world. On this particular night, the topic of discussion was organization.

I realized in that exchange, doing the dishes and feeding the family is quite a job when you are home all day. At times, the hump of my day has been lunch. In the past, I've overcome it by occasionally buying paper plates to assist with the lunch clean up.

Suddenly a light bulb went on. My daughter likes to wash up the dishes. It's more of a play activity for her. Why have I not developed this interest into a solution?

For some reason I never think to ask her to help with the dishes. She's old enough. Yesterday, I asked her if she would like a new job - washing the dishes up after lunch! She readily agreed although she was a little disappointed that she just had to rinse them and put them in the dishwasher. She was hoping to handwash them all and spend a lot of time with the water. =)
Delegation is an important part of simplifying life. I just had not realized my children were old enough to take on that responsibility. Delegating the dishes from lunch clean up was a win-win solution for both of us. I think I heard her humming as she was rinsing!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Family Fun: Camping in the Backyard


Last night we sat at the campsite we had created in the backyard. Hubby had recently set up our tent. Naturally a campfire was built and surrounded with camp chairs. Hubby, the kids and I were all gathered around. Feels so natural and comfortable. We've raised the kids this way. The fire was larger than I liked for us being so close. The kids roasted marshmellows and seemed very content. We sat by the campfire and shared stories and sang songs. I looked up in the night sky and pointed out the stars above. It's a good life.