Cleaning Day, Movies, Etc.

With seven kids, the house gets pretty filthy, as you can imagine. As well as doing a general tidying up when it particularly needs it, sweeping the kitchen after each meal, and other daily chores, we do a full housecleaning every Saturday morning. This works particularly well because we usually have company for dinner Saturday night, so when they come the house is generally in presentable condition, if we lock everyone in the basement until the minute they arrive. :)

We have a cleaning list which either Papa or Sylvia prints out from the computer every few months with all the cleaning jobs we ever do listed on it, and a row of boxes in front of each item on the list. Each person writes their initial in the first empty box in front of the job on the list that they are about to do, and when they are finished, cross out their initial. Then Mom checks the job, and if it is done to satisfaction, the box can be shaded in. Next week, the next column of boxes is used.

We don’t do every single cleaning job on the list every single week. Some things, such as vacuuming the guest bedroom, are only done occasionally. Before we start cleaning, Mom goes down the list crossing out whatever doesn’t need to be done that week. Then each person chooses a job and cleaning begins. When someone finishes the job they are working on, they choose a new one, until the house is clean. While crossing out the jobs that don't need to be done, Mom chooses the easiest jobs for Gloria and Thor. They are almost always finished before everyone else.

After cleaning the house, we are free for the rest of the day. We're allowed to watch movies one day per week on either Saturday or Sunday. Today we chose to watch some more Jonny Quest episodes, and we turned the office into a movie theater complete with popcorn in striped bags. We had a break in the middle of Jonny Quest for a short cartoon and a 'news broadcast' which was a movie we had made about a year before in which Thor was eaten by a dragon. :)

Yesterday Knut and Thor got to go to a friend's birthday party. They played Laser Tag and had a campout in the friend's backyard. Consequently they were pretty tired today, and Thor has been feeling pretty sick all day. They sure did have fun, though!