Week 2--Toy Pick-Up Time

Week one of 2012 is over and so far so good. I’m slightly behind on some of my reading, but that’s okay as my reading plan has catch-up time built in at the end of the month. I did not have time to do any reading last Sunday because we hosted a huge New Year’s open house. Throughout the day, about 50 people and a handful of dogs came through.

The truth is that we didn’t even go to church that morning because we were preparing. When Keanna found out we weren’t going to church, she said, “We’re trading God’s Word for a party?!?” Robbie and I are so thankful that Keanna’s heart is sensitive toward spiritual things! Fortunately, our church streams the service on Sunday mornings so we were able watch it while dusting, sweeping, and rearranging the furniture. (You can find it here, but not next week--1/15.)

Anyway, I have about nine chapters of Genesis to read to be caught up. We’ll see if I get all caught up this week.

One verse that jumped out at me in my reading for this week is Psalm 4:4, “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your hearts on your beds, and be silent.” We’ve been dealing with angry outbursts from the boys, especially Lukas. I definitely want to commit this one to memory so I can use it to admonish him.

This week’s new habit has to do with running an organized house. With four kids, it doesn’t take long for a clean house to go to shambles. And once it’s a disaster, it’s harder to get back in order and more overwhelming of a task to tackle. So the new habit we want to establish is having the kids clean up all their toys, projects, and forts before getting dessert. We used to try to have them clean up right before bed, but too often we’d skip the clean-up because it was getting late and we just wanted to get them into bed. By moving up clean-up time to right after dinner, we won’t be tempted to let it go because of the time. And by having the kids clean up before dessert, it gives them an incentive to get it done quickly.

Before our New Year’s party, we got the family room in good order, so we have a good start. And my wonderful husband hauled the mess out of Keanna’s craft area and completely organized it for her! She will be required to clean up this area every day as well.

This is going to require some planning ahead on days when we won’t be eating dinner at home or will be leaving the house right after dinner. In those cases, we’ll have to leave time for clean-up before we need to step out the door.

My desired outcomes for this habit extend much further than having the toys cleaned up. My goal is that I will sweep and vacuum more often because the floor will already be toy-free. Also, I’m hoping that the kids will learn that, if they clean up a little all day long, they will have less to clean up at the end of the day.

So, I hereby resolve to have the kids clean up their toys every night after dinner and before dessert in order to maintain a more orderly house.