Household Chore Charts

I think I originally read about this idea somewhere else, but it has been a wonderful help to me and is reusable which is always great!  I wanted to share with you what I personally use at home to keep up with regular household chores that need to be done.  You can easily make one of these yourself and use it to help keep your home organized and stay on top of your chores.  Here are the two charts I have:

There are several steps to take in making up lists such as these.  You may find that it works better for you to keep such a list in a household notebook, but I have mine up in the kitchen so I see it regularly.  I took my list and laminated it so that I can use a dry-erase marker on it and use the same copy over and over.

1. Make a list of every room in your house, as well as a category for "whole house" and "outside."  (As you can see from my chart, I also added a "finance" category for going over expenses and paying bills).
2. Write down cleaning and general household tasks that need to be done related to each room or area.
3. Mark beside each one how often it would ideally need to be done (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally).  
4. Prioritize the tasks.  It would be an excellent idea to ask your husband what things on your list are most important to him in keeping up with the household.  You need to mark each task as "necessary" or "desirable."  
5. Transfer all this information to tables in MS Word document.  Use bold print to distinguish the "necessary" tasks from the "desirable" ones. 
6. Print it off, laminate it and put it up somewhere where you will regularly see it.  You could also skip the laminating and plan to print new copies as needed.

As you can see from my lists above, I added some things unique to our household, such as fish tank maintenance and chicken pen cleaning.  You can certainly customize your own list to include any tasks required regularly in your home. 

This list doesn't mean you have to take care of all of these tasks yourself.  I use this list to keep up with the tasks our family has accomplished for the week, month, etc.  My children also help out with some of these chores as they are able, but at the moment my oldest is 5, so they don't do a large amount of chores.  My daughter helped create a chore chart for herself which includes some personal care as well as some household responsibilities she helps with.  We simply make new copies of hers, as it is not laminated.  Here is her chart:

The "necessary" versus "desirable" task differentiation is really helpful, especially during certain seasons of life (such as a new baby in the house) or when you just have "one of those days."  This chart provides for some flexibility as it doesn't designate a specific day for the weekly chores or a specific time for the daily chores.  If  you require more structure, you can certainly work that in.  I personally find it helpful to allow for the flexibility as I find that some days I have more time to devote to household chores than others.

If you're having difficulty keeping up with things or are simply in need of more structure in keeping your household, I'd encourage you to try out making your own charts and see how it could work for you and your family.  Also, if you have any great ideas related to home organization and management, please share them here.  Leave me a link and/or your comment!  

Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

I have read quite a bit about coconut oil recently.  This is a great choice to use in many instances in cooking and baking.  This picture shown above is a brand that is even available in Wal-mart where we live, so you don't have to go to a specialty health food store to obtain it.  I do think you'd have to go to a health food store to get the unrefined, virgin coconut oil though, as I have not seen that type available in our grocery stores here in east Tennessee.  Let me tell you about some of the benefits of coconut oil.

This type of oil is the best to use when frying or sauteeing on medium high heat as it is almost fully a saturated fat, which means it will resists chemical changes when heated to high temperatures.  This is in contrast to the polyunsaturated oils, such as corn, canola and soy, which oxidize cholesterol when heated in cooking, converting the good cholesterol to bad cholesterol.  Oxidized cholesterol in your arteries leads to a significant increase in risk for coronary artery disease.  Olive oil is a beneficial oil as well, but when heated above 200-250 degrees Fahrenheit, it also runs the risk of oxidation.

The fat in coconut oil is 50% lauric acid, which is an amazing ingredient.  This is converted by your body into monolaurin, having anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-protozoa properties.  Coconut oil contains the most lauric acid of any food choice.  What a great option for your diet that will help support your immune system, especially this time of year when people seem more prone to illness.

Coconut oil has also been touted as beneficial for diabetics, because it does not cause an insulin spike when consumed although it provides fast energy to your body through its medium-chain fatty acids.  It gives you quick energy like a simple carbohydrate would do without the drawback of an insulin spike in the bloodstream.

Coconut oil can also be used directly on the skin for a moisturizer or a massage oil without any potentially harmful ingredients!

Here are some links to more information about this healthy oil:

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2012/January/Coconut-Oil-Touted-as-Alzheimers-Remedy/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/22/coconut-oil-and-saturated-fats-can-make-you-healthy.aspx

Try it out!  I'm sure you'll love it.  I personally use it frequently for frying.  If you're going to fry foods, this is certainly the best choice!  This oil also has a very mild taste, making it a good substitute in baking for other vegetable oils.

The Blessing of a Godly Mother

"Mother and Child" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

What a great blessing a godly mother is to her children!  I am privileged to have such as woman as my mother and have been greatly affected by her influence in my life.  My mother planned from the start of their family to stay at home with the children.  It was difficult financially for them at first, especially while my father was in engineering school, but she felt that it was best for her to be at home raising her children.

She remained at home through all of my childhood years, my sister's, and remains at home while my brother completes high school.  She is very intelligent and could have chosen to invest part of her time and energy elsewhere, but she instead chose to put it all into our family and service to our church and community.  I would like to thank her for the time, teaching and love she gave and continues to give me and my brother and sister.  Proverbs 31:28-31 says:

'Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all."  Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.  Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.' (NKJV)

My mother blessed me with her example of how a godly mother should serve her family.  She always put us ahead of herself.  I don't remember ever worrying about what we would have to eat, as my mother always prepared something for us.  I don't remember ever worrying about what I would wear, because my mother always made sure we had adequate clothing, whether by sewing or shopping for and with us.  I don't remember ever worrying about being sick, because I knew my mother was doing all she could to care for me.  She was a daily, living example of God's love for me.

My mother showed me how to be diligent, how to serve others, how to care for a home, how to love God, how to be a good Christian wife, how to teach, how to be patient, how to care for children, and how to be a good steward.  She taught me diligence through requiring me to do various chores around the house to care for my own things and those of our family.  She taught me service to others by setting a good example of service to those in need and especially to those in our church family.  We participated as a family in service activities such as caroling to the older people in our church at Christmastime and she also involved my sister and I in activities, such as baking and delivering cookies to our neighbors around the holidays.  She also selflessly served my father and us, her children.  She made sure we had the things we needed before purchasing anything for herself.  She taught me how to care for a home through her example and through teaching me to do various tasks, such as cooking and cleaning.  She made sure our home was clean, neat, and beautiful so that it was a blessing to our whole family and any others who were there.

She taught me how to love God by setting an example of obedience to God's direction in her own life and through giving precedence to Bible study and church attendance.  She taught me how to be a Christian wife  by her service and devotion to my father.  She taught me how to teach through her role as a Sunday school teacher at our congregation and through involving me in teaching and assisting in Bible classes as I grew into a young woman.  She also taught me to read at home by home-schooling me in kindergarten before sending me to school in first grade.  

She taught me how to be patient by her example of patience with us.  I know she had a lot of patience to put up with the many faults and mistakes of me and my brother and sister.  One area she really demonstrated patience with us was with our desire for pets, which would inevitably end up being taken care of by her for the most part once they had resided at our home for a while!  She taught me how to care for children by letting me be involved in the care of my brother, who is twelve years my junior, and by encouraging me to babysit and help out in the nursery at church.  This prior experience was a great blessing to me when I had my first baby, because I did not feel quite the fish out of water that I could have been if I had lacked this experience. She taught me good stewardship by wisely allocating our resources in her areas of influence (such as groceries and clothing), thereby supporting my father in living within our means.  

I know there are many other areas in which my mother positively influenced my life, but these are the ones that stand out to me.  Now that I have a husband and three children of my own, I can understand much better how my mother sacrificed for our family and how she followed Christ's example of putting others first.  My mother embodies Philippians 2:3-4 in our family:

"Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

Now, don't get me wrong.  My father is a good Christian man and has also played a great role in my life.  I greatly appreciate the blessings I have through him as well, but, as a woman who is now a wife and mother myself, I can more closely identify with my mother's influence in my life.  I praise God for the great blessing He gave me when He placed me in my mother's womb.  When I grew up, I knew that I wanted to be the same blessing to my husband and children that she was to our family.  I am privileged to have her as a mother, mentor and friend!

Great Home-school Science Curriculum!

We are new to homeschooling this year and are just starting out with a kindergartner.  We have two boys coming along behind our oldest, a girl, and I am already on the lookout for products that can be used across multiple age-levels.  I know it is going to be a huge help to be able to do some subjects as a joint study across multiple grades.  The "God's Design" series by Answers in Genesis is just such a product for science and has been wonderful for us so far for with our kindergartner.

We have started out with the God's Design for Life series and are going through The World of Plants right now.  Each lesson is set up in two sections, a "Beginner Section" and a regular lesson.  The "Beginner Section" is recommended for use with 1st and 2nd graders and contains a brief overview of the topic of the lesson (generally 3-4 paragraphs) with some vocabulary words, as well as review questions at the end to test your child's reading comprehension.  There is also a recommended activity to correlate with each lesson that can be done with this age group.

The regular lesson, recommended for grades 3-8, is much more detailed and includes more review questions to test your child's knowledge, as well as a "Challenge Section" recommended for 6th-8th graders.  The "Challenge Section" varies by lesson, but always includes more relevant, detailed information for the lesson and often has a suggested activity to help reinforce what was learned that lesson.

"Special Features" are also scattered throughout the book.  These focus on related topics such as specific plants or historical people of interest in relation to plant life.  These are enjoyable to read and I have generally included them in the lesson along with the "Beginner Section" for my kindergartner.

We have greatly enjoyed this series so far and are looking forward to working through the other series available as well.  In addition to the God's Design for Life series, Answers in Genesis has also published God's Design for Heaven and Earth, both of which are recommended for grades 1-8.  There are two more series recommended for grades 3-8, God's Design for the Physical World and God's Design for Chemistry and Ecology. All of these books are presented from a young-earth perspective and affirm the Genesis account of creation.  They are of a sound Biblical worldview!   The books are available here:

The World of Animals (God's Design for Life)
The Human Body (God's Design for Life)
The World of Plants (God's Design for Life)

I wholeheartedly recommend these products for your home-school and for use across multiple grades.  What about you?  Do you have any products to recommend that you have used for multiple ages in your own home-school   Do you have tips on things that have worked well for you while home-schooling multiple ages?  Leave us a comment or a link to your own blog post on that subject!

"But I Don't Want to..."

"But I don't want to!"

How many times a day does a mother of young children hear those words?  If your house is anything like mine, the number is high...especially from the toddlers.  Mom says, "It's time to go lay down." "But I don't want to..."  Mom says, "It's time to go inside."  "But I don't want to..."  Mom says, "Give the toy back to your brother."  "But I don't want to..."  Can't you just hear the little (or sometimes not so little in volume!) voice in response?  I know I can!  My typical response is, "I didn't ask if you wanted to, you just need to do it."  Maybe that's not the best way to handle it, but it's what usually comes out!

I wonder if we sound like frustrated toddlers to God sometimes.  We are studying and spending time in His Word and something stands out to us.  What we're reading sounds like something God commands us to do or is a principle that convicts us of a certain activity in our lives.  We feel that we ought to change, but...here comes that little voice...we respond "I don't want to."  How does God respond to this?  How does this make Him feel?  Well, I know that God loves us and He always has our best interest in mind.  Consider I John 4:9-10:

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  (NKJV)

 How can we respond in such a way to a God who loves us so much that He watched His innocent Son endure the punishment and death that we deserve?  How can we say, "But I don't want to...," when we know He loves us so much?  We are much like toddlers to God as young Christians and hopefully we mature past that.  Of course, He is hurt, but He allows us to make our own choices and decide for ourselves whether or not we will obey.  I know I have responded this way before and still do it at times.  Our sinful nature pulls at us and our own desires create that same old response, "But I don't want to..."

Perhaps if we remember how much it hurts us when our children fight against doing as they are told and how much it hurts us to see our children have difficult situations in their lives because they didn't do as they were told, then we can understand a small bit of how our Heavenly Father feels when we protest His commands and put off following His instructions to us.  We love our children so much, but our Heavenly Father loves us, His children, so much that He was willing to watch His own Son endure such a painful death in our stead!  Is this not proof enough that He has our best interest in mind when He gives us instruction in His Word?

Just as we feel that our children love and respect us when they follow our instruction, so does God when we do as He has instructed in His Word.  In fact, we are told that this is the way we demonstrate our love for God.  I John 5:3 says:

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.  And His commandments are not burdensome."

God does not give us commands to wear us out or make us feel burdened.  He does so because He has our best interest at heart and He wants to take care of us, just as we want to take care of our own children!  May we remember the motivation behind God's commands to us and the way we are told we demonstrate our love for God the next time we are tempted to say, "But I don't want to..."

Being Truly Thankful

 "in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  - I Thessalonians 5:18 (NKJV)

I remember singing a song as a child at school that went with this verse.  What a blessing it is to have music as a tool for learning!  It is such a help to committing Scripture to memory and keeping it there!

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I have been doing a lot of reflection on thankfulness and what it means in God's eyes to be truly thankful.  We are told in I Thessalonians to be thankful in everything.  Does God really mean that we should be thankful in everything?  Surely not, we think.  What about that spilled cup of coffee, those piles of dirty laundry or that recently elected President whose policies we disagree with?   Note that it says "in everything," not "for everything."  The NIV translates the first section, "give thanks in all circumstances." 

Let's consider this in relation to our country.  Many people feel that as Christians we are coming under more and more persecution from "the Left" in our country.  Our freedom of speech is being hindered by those who are antagonistic to Christianity.  We are mocked in the media.  I do not disagree with these things.  We do have a degree of persecution in our country and it is likely to become worse unless our nation turns back to God.  But, consider the following verses in relation to this:

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." - Romans 5:1-5 (NKJV)

The above passage tells us that our trials produce perseverance which leads to character which leads to hope.  One way we can be grateful in circumstances that we might consider unpleasant is through the spiritual blessings they can provide to us if we will allow them.  Here's another passage listing the blessings that can result from trials in our lives:

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.  But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." - James 1:2-4 (NKJV)

What about that spilled coffee and those piles of dirty laundry?  How can we be thankful in those instances?  Well, the very fact that those things are occurring is evidence of physical blessings in our lives.  I'd like to end with a list of things I'm thankful for in relation to some things that could be considered unpleasant in and of themselves.  I'd encourage you to make a list like this yourself whenever you're tempted to complain about something that comes up in your life.

I'm thankful for:

• Spilled coffee, because it means that I have coffee to drink in my home.
• Piles of dirty laundry, because they mean my family is blessed with clothing.
• An election result that I disagree with, because it means we still have the freedom to vote and elect our leaders.
• A sink of dirty dishes, because it means my family has had food to eat.
• Having to stop at a red light, because it means I have a car to drive.
• Leaves all over the front yard, because they mean I have a beautiful maple tree to look at year-round.
• Stinky diapers to take out, because they mean I've been blessed with another beautiful child.
• Stacks of utility bills to be paid, because they mean I have a home with running water and heat.
• Sawdust in the kitchen floor, because it means we will soon have more space thanks to the hard work of my husband, dad and grandfather on our home addition.
• Toys that get spread out in the living room floor, hallway and anywhere else you can think of, because they mean I have been blessed with three wonderful children.
• Books all over the dining table, because they mean I have the privilege of homeschooling.