Tuesday Tell: Making house a home

I am a homemaker, who takes care of a house, kids, schedules, and life that comes with being home all day long. I'm not very good at this job. I have come very far, but I am still learning A LOT. Part of that comes from not learning a lot in my childhood, so I am constantly on the search for what I should be doing and how to get it all done and having TIME to do it. In fact the other day, I was sitting in the living room, trying to figure out how to get all the chores around the house done and how to keep the kids busy (and out of my hair) at the same time. This is when a little light bulb went on, "duh, put the kids to work, and have them work right along with you", I thought.  It's amazing how much I forget this (having them do more than just their daily requirements, my kids do do something :-)!  I shouldn't, but I do.  So, I gave each child a chore that fit their abilities, and it was beautiful.  Even little Aric, I gave him the dust vacuum and he did that for a while going around vacuuming all the little crumbs.  We got all the chores done, and they were actually asking for more.

Anyway, I found some inspiring ideas, and thoughts today that I wanted to share.  There are a few great blogs that devote some or all of their blogs to homemaking and teaching daughters (and sons) to fulfill their duties in the home.  So, I wanted to share some articles, and ideas, here they are:

1. The lost arts  -this is a great post about how so much of what homemakers used to know is being lost.  Knowing how to do things around the home is such an important skill/art that is fading away.
2. Raising homemakers -I just found this blog, and think it's great.  It has a lot of great and inspiring ideas.
3. Managers of their homes -I just may try this family schedule out!  I have tried a lot of schedules, but this one looks like it may work for us.  I'm thinking about using it next school year for when we are homeschooling again.  You can read about it in action here.
4. Chocolate on my cranium  -this Mom has 7 daughters, I think she does a beautiful job of sharing her "ways" of homemaking with us.  I have been inspired so many times by her, and now she even has a weekly teaching homemaking post. 

So, I even sat down and planned the menu for the whole month at the beginning of the month, something I've been trying to do for a while now.  I could plan a week or two, but could never get past that.  I finally figured out how it would work for me!  It worked really well for me to do all Monday's, or all Saturday's, or all Sunday's at once, rather than taking each day at a time.  I could think about what usually happens on those days and it was easier for me to figure out what meals would work best for those days, and just plug them into those days.  Anyway, I know that this isn't rocket science for some of you.  Most of you are probably better than I am at all this stuff, but this is an area that I've needed to work on for a while, and I just plain want to be BETTER at it.  As well as better planning and preparing (one of my goals this year).  I have a lot to learn especially since I have a daughter who needs and desires to know how to run a home.