"a woman's work is never done".............

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The old saying, that a "man works from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done" is only too true when you are talking about domestic labors. They are Never Done. There is always something that I could be cleaning, dusting, repairing, decorating, baking, sewing, sorting, organizing, training, weeding, watering, washing, mending, cooking, etc.

When I got the puppy - a lap dog - one of the things we all noticed is how rarely my lap is actually available. I rarely sit down, and when I do I have some kind of handwork to do while I sit - multitasking all the time.

There is no way I can clean everything that could be cleaned everyday, so one way to try and fix this is to make a schedule. We used to have a schedule, and we just fell out of the habit, even though it was very helpful.

So I sat down and started with a list of everything I could think of that has to be done Everyday, Twice a Week, Once a Week, Once a Month, and Seasonally/As Needed. Then I made this monthly schedule and starting plugging things in to it. I am home on Mondays and Fridays, so I loaded most of the chores onto those days. I put family-style and outdoor chores on Saturdays, but left one Saturday a month with no chores on it so that we are flexible enough to accommodate the possibility of a day trip or really busy Saturday.

I gave the kids each a daily chore:

Hypatia: Monday vacuum, Tuesday straighten the Entry Way baskets, Wednesday Dust, Thursday clean her room, Friday dishes.

Carbon: Monday dishes, Tuesday bathrooms, Wednesday take out the compost, Thursday clean his room, Friday vacuum.

I really hope this keeps us on track AND lets me say my work is done for the day.