Homemaking

From the time they were walking (and even earlier when they were in the sling or the Ergo) the girls have always helped with whatever needed doing around the house. Be it dusting or canning or gardening they've always been a part of making our home our own. I love that we've always had that "all hands on deck" approach to whatever it was that needed doing and I think it's because of that that the girls never bat an eyelash when there's a job to do (after all, how many seven year olds and five-and-a-half year olds do you know that easily and eagerly put in twenty-four hours painting a fence?!).Over the last couple of months we have gotten back to a dedicated "cleaning day" (as the girls call it). From the moment we bought the house (almost ten years ago) Saturday became cleaning day. As I became a mama I fiddled with cleaning day. I found, at least for me, that when the girls were babies and toddlers that it was easier to break the work up and do one or two set tasks each day instead of dedicating a whole day once a week to doing the cleaning. Now that the girls aren't so anymore we've gotten back to Saturday being cleaning day. Don't get me wrong, we are always cleaning each and every day, "straightening up as we go" as my Mom would say, though now on Saturdays we dive head first into whatever's on our list. Together we make that days list at breakfast, and as we complete each task the girls take turns checking them off. We are all loving our cleaning day. It's wonderful to work together to make this home our own, and it's wonderful to see all the pride they have in the work that they do. As the saying goes "Many hands make light work". We couldn't agree more!