Summer and the Living is Easy?

Being a mom is such a surreal experience sometimes. I mean, inside I'm really still the 12 year old who runs out the door on Saturday mornings to play the entire day. Now at 45 I do things on Saturday that rarely include going outside, and almost never include playing.

When did I learn to enjoy washing dishes? Truth be told, if I didn't have to do dishes, I wouldn't. In fact, most of the housekeeping would be left for someone else to do. It just happens that I've become that someone else. I've talked myself into enjoying things like dishes, cooking, dusting, and yes, even cleaning the bathroom. Really, I guess that the best part of any of those jobs is the result and not the process. A clean toilet equals a healthy house.

When I was a kid, I didn't enjoy chores. First of all, they are chores. The word doesn't even sound fun. Plus, chores took away from my play time. I felt like I was being punished since I had to do my chores alone. That's the worst part of chores for me, even now... the being alone.

My kids do some of the chores around the house now. They take turns clearing the table and putting the dishes away. They also take the trash cans down to the road. They rarely do the chores alone, and sometimes I swear they are having too much fun. If you've ever seen the trash can drag race that happens in my yard, you would understand.

Our plan for the summer is for the kids to take on more of the chores. I'm preparing them for the change in our routine. We will have 4 separate roles. The Kitchen person will clear the table after dinner, sweep and mop the floor, wash down the counters and appliances, and unload the dishwasher. The Bathroom person needs to make sure that the bathrooms are stocked, sinks and tubs clean, and dirty towels put in the laundry. Our laundry person sorts all of our clean laundry to the bedrooms, folds towels, mates socks and hangs up all of Dad's shirts. And lastly, we have the Anchor. This person does everything else including throwing the trash, feeding the dog, and keeping the floors cleared.

As thorough as I think that sounds, there is still a great amount of work that I will still have to do around the house. This includes cooking, dusting, and cleaning the toilets. I need to figure this out again.