Category: Work

A Lesson In Making The Bed

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I make my bed every morning. No big deal.  Takes me less than two minutes to do it correctly. (I timed myself once!)  But today, I did not want to do it.  I don’t know why.  I just threw the blankets across the bed haphazardly and began to walk away…

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Until I remembered the three young lives I’m responsible for today.  And the prayer from morning worship about being a witness for Christ in all our words and actions.  And the expectation that my children to do their best at their morning chores the first time.  I remembered my first work.  It took less than two minutes for me to feel 1000% better about my day.

“Parents, do you ask what your work is? It is to take up your home responsibilities, doing the best you can, and seeking daily, hourly, to set before your children an example worthy of imitation. God’s purpose for your children is that they shall be sanctified through the truth, and to reach this condition, all the help that you and heavenly agencies can supply will be needed. “  The Signs of the Times – Nov. 14, 1911

Motivation Monday

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“In the home school the children should be taught how to perform the practical duties of everyday life. While they are still young, the mother should give them some simple task to do each day. It will take longer for her to teach them how than it would to do it herself, but let her remember that she is to lay for their character building the foundation of helpfulness. Let her remember that the home is a school in which she is the head teacher. It is hers to teach her children how to perform the duties of the household quickly and skillfully. As early in life as possible they should be trained to share the burdens of the home. From childhood boys and girls should be taught to bear heavier and still heavier burdens, intelligently helping in the work of the family firm.“

Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 122.

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Motivation Monday

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laundry pile“Begin early to teach the little ones to take care of their clothing. Let them have a place to lay their things away and be taught to fold every article neatly and put it in its place. If you cannot afford even a cheap bureau, use a dry-goods box, fitting it with shelves and covering it with some bright, pretty-figured cloth. This work of teaching neatness and order will take a little time each day, but it will pay in the future of your children, and in the end will save you much time and care.”

Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 142.

Motivation Monday

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“God has given to parents and teachers the work of educating the children and youth in these lines, and from every act of their lives they may be taught spiritual lessons. While training them in habits of Girl with a broomphysical cleanliness we should teach them that God desires them to be clean in heart as well as in body. While sweeping a room they may learn how the Lord purifies the heart. They would not close the doors and windows and leave in the room some purifying substance, but would open the doors and throw wide the windows, and with diligent effort expel all the dust. So the windows of impulse and feeling must be opened toward heaven, and the dust of selfishness and earthliness must be expelled. The grace of God must sweep through the chambers of the mind, and every element of the nature must be purified and vitalized by the Spirit of God. Disorder and untidiness in daily duties will lead to forgetfulness of God and to keeping the form of godliness in a profession of faith, having lost the reality. We are to watch and pray, else we shall grasp the shadow and lose the substance.”

Testimony Treasures -Volume 2, Page 436

Looking Back: Organization

~Melissa2 Comments

Organization

Household organization and cleaning seem to be a mysterious burden for all of us.  In answer to your requests this new column will pass along hints and ideas.  Feel free to contribute your own tips.

We devoted the September, 1994 issue of AHE to organization.  Mainly homeschool records, but also a little “fall house cleaning” and getting ready to start the new school year.  Since then, I’ve received letters and phone calls expressing your frustration and need for more help in this area.  Homeschoolers are constantly in their homes and I know that they have a tendency to become messy much faster than homes where the family is gone all day.

Now I’m not an expert at this, but I am a melancholy by nature and I can’t tolerate messy surroundings.  I’m always looking for ways to keep my home, work area, files and schedule organized and clean without spending a lot of time doing it.  I have found lots of ideas, information, and cleaning tools and supplies from Don Aslett’s Cleaning Center, P. O. Box 39, Pocatello, ID 83204.  Write for a free copy of the Clean Report which arrives in a file folder marked Cleaning.*  I read about the various ways to clean and the professional supplies to use, and I have proved it myself, it pays in time and money to do it right using the proper tools and cleaning supplies. I set a monthly amount to spend and slowly built up what we needed as we ran out of grocery store brands, replaced them with professional cleaning products.

Children and Husbands

So since you asked for it, I’m starting this little column with tips and ideas to help make life a little easier.  I’m going to start with the biggest problem of all – children and husbands.  I read in one of Don Aslett’s books that 90% of the messes are made by children and husbands, and that 90% of these messes are cleaned up by the woman of the home.  By the way, he agrees with me, husbands and children should participate in picking up their own clutter.

The best rule for keeping a home organized is to have a place for everything and put everything in it’s place.  This means to have a bookshelf or special place for school books and work when they aren’t in use.  A toy box of some kind to put away toys is imperative.  It also helps to have a place where the children can work on projects and not have to clean them up before each meal.

Have two or three times during the day when everyone helps to pick up the house for five minutes.  Just before school starts, before or after lunch and then again before bedtime are good times.  Even toddlers can help with this project and it really helps keep down the clutter of toys, books and other things.  Half of the housework is picking up and putting away things that others leave out!

Make a household rule that if someone puts something down where it doesn’t belong they will pay a fine (1-15 cents depending on individual resources) or do a chore, to get it back.  Children (and husbands) will quickly learn to put things where they belong.  Donate the money you collect to investment or missions.

Another good rule is if you make a mess, you clean it up.  This teaches children to clean up after themselves.  You may have to touch-up or help at first but it’s a good habit.

The best advice I’ve ever been given was from Dorothy Moore.  She said, “Don’t do anything for your children that they are capable of doing for themselves.”  She meant making beds and picking up after themselves, etc.  We are not the maid, we are the mother and we must train our children to help keep the home tidy and clean just as we discipline or homeschool them.

Turn your young mess makers into helpers.  I was longing for a maid when my daughter expressed a desire to earn money.  I had my “maid!”  Each child has their daily chores which they do just because they are part of a family and those things that have to be done daily.  But I pay for cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing the stove, washing the car, heavy duty cleaning, etc.  Not much, 20-75 cents per chore but it provides her with a small income, and I get much needed help.

I hope these ideas help you tame the messiness around your home.  Remember this is an ongoing process – keep working at it and you will be rewarded.

Article from The Adventist Home Educator Newsletter, February 1995, p. 6.

*Resources have not been checked out to see if they are still available.

Motivation Monday

Ann1 Comment

“God desires both parents and teachers to train children in the practical duties of every-day life. workEncourage industry. Girls—and even boys who do not have outdoor work—should learn how to help the mother. From childhood, boys and girls should be taught to bear heavier and still heavier burdens, intelligently helping in the work of the family firm. Mothers, patiently show your children how to use their hands. Let them understand that their hands are to be used as skilfully as are yours in the household work. Often a fretful infant or a sick child keeps the mother awake night after night. At such times how much better it is for the children to draw upon their strength than to allow the already overtaxed mother to be burdened with work that they should do. Too often the mother succumbs to disease, sometimes lying upon her death-bed before her children realize that by sharing the home burdens, they could have lessened her cares, and spared her much suffering and affliction.”

 

The Review and Herald – Sept 8, 1904

Motivation Monday

Ann1 Comment

chores“Never will children and youth feel the peace of contentment until by the faithful performance of home duties they relieve the tired hands and weary heart and brain of the mother…. Those who neglect to bear part of the responsibilities of the home are the ones who are troubled with loneliness and discontent; for they have not learned the truth that those who are happy are happy because they share the daily routine of work.”

Child Guidance, 352, 353