I really need to get back into the habit of using the 3 in 30 challenge to focus on specific tasks and get things done around here. Habits, projects, you name it. I decided I was going to do this again and even though I haven’t gotten around to write a post about it before now, I’ve already been working on some habits for this month.

What I’m saying is.. I intended to write this post at the first of the year and get right down to business working on my goals.

And then I got sick. Actually I got sick even before the new year began. New Year’s Eve eve found me holding my head in the fetal position while dosing up on allergy meds and decongestants. Apparently cedar pollen is going crazy here and my sinuses were screaming in opposition. I didn’t need weather.com to ME there was something in the air…

But despite the assault on my senses, I managed to pick out three goals for January and actually start working on them a little.

The first one is a “gimme.” Kind of a cheater, I think. But it’s a legitimate goal.

1.) Bring back all the habits that have gone before…

There were several habits we worked on and added into our routine during the year last year that for one reason or another fell by the wayside. I like to blame the holidays. Okay sure, some of them may have disappeared before then, but can I pretend it was just the holidays? Blaming aside, they need to come back. WE need them to come back. So this month I’m gathering the good, harnessing the helpful, rallying the routine. My first goal/habit this month is getting up by 7:30, getting in some quiet morning time and bible study, and starting our bedtime routine at 7:30 to get the kids in bed by 8:30 for a story.

2.)  A new format for an old habit…

Morning family devotions is something we’ve been working on for a while. Last year we tried devotionals individually at the same time. This year we’re using The Jesus Calling Devotional for Kids and the Gospel Story Bible (along with some journals) and doing it together. Right now our morning routine is shot, ruined by too much holiday time and too much tv. My goal for this month is to cut off our morning tv time, and develop a daily morning family devotional time.

3.) A little self maintenance PLEASE?

Okay, I’ve NEVER really been very good at washing my face every night before I go to bed or using moisturizer each day (let alone anything with sunblock in it.) I’ll do great at keeping my nails trimmed for a while and then realize they’re terrible. One of my goals for 2012 is to take better care of myself and that starts with the small stuff, right? This month I’m starting small. Yes, I’m also trying to drink more water and make some diet changes but that’s outside of this goal. This goal is all about self-maintenance. One thing I decided to do to make that easier was put everything in one place. DUH, RIGHT? So this week I reorganized the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, removed some less used items to under the sink and made sure all of my regular items are together.  Hopefully keeping these things all together in one place will help a little bit — when I’m in the cabinet for my deodorant, which I DON’T forget, I’ll see the moisturizer and remember it. Sounds good in theory right? So the first part of this goal was to set up the medicine cabinet – Done. The 2nd part is to USE it and develop a better daily (or weekly for nails, etc.) habit of taking care of myself, starting with the small things. Little things matter, too.

So those are my 3 goals for this month. And even though I’m only just now getting the post up I have been trying to work on them already. Can you believe we’re already a 3rd of the way through January?! Yep! So I’ll check back in at the end of the month and let you know how it went! What about you — working on any goals this month? Or new year’s resolutions or something?

Check out the 3 in 30 Challenge here.

Okay – REALLY?! The March 3 in 30 has only just begun and the first check in was yesterday. WOW.

I’ve made it pretty clear that it takes several weeks for me to develop good habits so obviously I haven’t been at this NEAR long enough to have any kind of progress to report yet.

Still.

It’s been four days. I should have at least something to show for it, right? Well. Here’s what I’ve got:

1.) We’ve been turning the tv off at 9 (or close to – a couple of times breakfast was late, my fault, and we were still eating.) After there was a lot of asking about the tv during the first couple of days, I’ve been covering the tv with an afghan the last couple of days. There are a lot less questions now.

2.) No tv and school til 3? Welllllll… this has been an off school week. No, not a week that we’re off. A week that is a little off. My MIL picked the kids up on Monday and Tuesday for the afternoon while I worked on taxes. Yesterday I schooled from bed all day. We pretty much did do school-ish things until 3, for the most part. Next week, being a more normal schedule, will help bring structure and cement to that habit, though.

3.) Regular 20-Minute Clean-Ups after each meal? Um, sorta? I think we’ve gotten at least 2 out of 3 meals each day. It’s a step closer.

So that’s about it. Unimpressive. Yet promising. What about you?

And once again it’s time to make some new 3 in 30 goals. A couple of days ago I told you how happy I was with our February goals and I’m really hoping to build on that success for March! This month, as I mentioned, the girls and I chose the goals we are all going to work on together. We’re picking more daily habit/routine type goals and I need their cooperation on these. I have high hopes. =)

Without further ado, our goals for March:

1. Turn the t.v. off at 9 a.m.

That may sound really lenient.. and in a way it is. On the other hand, if they get up at 8, that gives them an hour of tv, breakfast, getting dressed and whatever before we’re supposed to start school. The problem is that if they turn the tv on… THEY DON’T LIKE TO TURN IT OFF. … I’m sure you can relate.

We all agreed that it’s important to our day to start school at nine and one of the ways that we can help make this happen is by making sure that the tv goes off at 9 am. Recently when the 5 year old was having a particularly hard time with tv addiction I would actually cover the tv with a table cloth during school hours as a visual reminder and it’s AMAZING how much that helped!!

To accomplish this goal: I have an alarm on my phone that goes off at 9 a.m. to mark the beginning of the school day. We can use this alarm to develop the habit of turning off the tv promptly at 9 a.m. We can also cover the tv with a tablecloth during the day if we need to.

Challenges: The five year old is going to be the biggest opponent to this new rule — but it will do him good. And he didn’t throw a fit the other morning when I did this so maybe that’s a good sign…. *fingers crossed*

2. School until 3pm.

This has less to do with “the action” and more to do with “the mindset.” Lately (and this will get worse when spring fever sets in) my children have been pretty bad about asking to do other things in the middle of the school day. “I’m done with my math, can I draw?” (Math is first, so, um, no –let’s keep going.) “Can we take a break and watch a movie?” (Again, um, no.) I am ALL. FOR. drawing and playing games and playing outside but there needs to be some kind of order to our day and that’s why we’re here working on these things.

So the girls and I talked about this, too.. we need to adopt the mindset that from 9 to 3 is school time. Even if we finish all our basics before lunch (and we should be able to) we can fill our afternoon with projects, art, music, games, nature walks, journaling, you name it. Things that are educational AND fun. So you see, this is less of a “we need to be working hard at books every single minute” rule and more of a “there are better things we can do with our time than turn on the tv” habit.

To accomplish this goal: There’s an alarm on my phone that goes off at 3 p.m. for snack time. This can also serve to mark the end of our school day. The snack time habit is a solid one, so we don’t need to develop that habit, too, we just need to add the habit of working on good things up until then and not wanting to turn the tv back on or do something else.

Challenges: Being prepared ahead of time to work on projects for history and science is one area I struggle in, but preparation will help make sure we get enough projects and activities in. I need to develop some kind of system. I’ll see if I can work on that too, but right now we can at least work on the habit of staying busy (with SOMETHING) until three. I bet we see some future planning and “system” 3 in 30 goals. I open for suggestions. =p

3. Tidy after lunch, breakfast and supper.

The other day I told you about our new “20 Minute Clean-Up” that we’ve been using to get chores done and how well it is working for us. I started it just to get some cleaning done when it needed to be done…and now I want to make it a regular part of our schedule three times a day. I kind of tried to do that at one point last month, but it wasn’t our main focus and it hasn’t really become habit. So it’s going to be our third habit to develop for this month.

After breakfast, lunch and supper, each of the kids will have an assigned room to tidy and clean while I do the same in the kitchen. (They’ll each take a turn in each room so that by the end of the day they’ve each had a hand in keeping the whole house picked up.) I want this to help us develop the habits of cleaning up after meals immediately AND keeping the house picked up throughout the day.

To accomplish this goal: You guessed it – alarms. On my phone. Yes, my phone has become my personal assistant. I already had a bell for breakfast time at 8 and for school at 9 (and similar for other meals.) I *thought* I could just remember to call for a 20 Minute Clean-Up “whenever” everyone was done eating. …And here’s where I take a minute to laugh at myself… Since THAT never happened I’ve added bells to go off and remind me. I think I have a dozen bells on my phone now.. but hey, it’s working.

Challenges: Only resisting the urge to not want to follow it through or ignore the bell. Or also, if a meal is late for one reason or another, it’s too tempting to want to skip the clean-up after. But seeing the benefits of getting it done makes it worth it and encourages me to press on.

SO THERE YOU GO.

Three more habits to develop to help our day run smoothly. Three more habits to work towards our 2011 “Well-Functioning” goal. Three more ways to train ourselves to be good stewards of our time and things. What will you work on in March?

Linked to the 3 in 30 March goal linky.

Photo Credit: Some rights reserved by digitpedia

Every now and then I come up with something that’s REALLY good.

Most of the time I come up with good ideas and they’re good for a little while and then our needs and abilities change and we need a new idea. (Sometimes I come up with ideas that seem good at first glance but really aren’t feasible but that’s beside the point..)

But every now and then I think up a real golden nugget of an idea.

This is one of those golden nugget ideas. I really think so. I give you our:

20 Minute Clean-Up

The basic idea is simple, really. Set the timer for 20 minutes and clean. But it’s bigger than that. The rest of the idea (the golden nugget part) is that you give your children, and yourself, a specific task or tasks to do during the 20 minutes– and then whatever time is left before the timer goes off is theirs to keep. To read or sit or whatever. I cannot assign more tasks or anything until the timer goes off.

What?!

I know. Sounds crazy. But stick with me, okay? Don’t give up on me yet.

Here’s why this is so great:

• Manageable Pieces – 20 minutes is a manageable chunk of time for children to clean without overloading their brain and inducing resistance and whining.
• Manageable Tasks - specific tasks suitable for their age and ability allows the child to focus only on the task(s) at hand, not the whole list of everything that needs to be done that day.
• Time Management – HOW MANY times a day do you find yourself saying, “If you’d just hurry up and get it done it would be over with.” ? My children are actively learning that the longer they spend on the task, the less time left over at the end of 20 minutes, the faster they get it done the more time they have to themselves.
• Work Ethic - The kids are encouraged to do their best and work hard first, then enjoy a rest after. They’re learning how to mop, vacuum, fold, etc.  They’re working together for the purpose of keeping our house picked up – just because it’s the right thing to do and not for reward of money, bribery, or threats of punishment.
• Built In Breaks – If you need to repeat back to back 20 minute clean-ups, the kids have built in “breaks” with their leftover time so they feel ready to begin the next 20 minute session — again with no whining.
• Work gets done faster – It really does. The kids and I, working in the four main living areas simultaneously, can completely tidy the house in 20 minutes. We can clean the house well in one hour (3 sessions.) The lack of whining, feet dragging and bickering that normally slows us down helps us get more work done in less time.
• Kids work independently – Before this method, the kids did not work well without my husband or I standing in the same room, micro-managing. I despise micro-managing. I ADORE knowing that they are working, really working, in one room while I’m getting work done in another.

Can you see how good this is?! We’ve been doing this for about six weeks now and IT IS BEAUTIFUL. I can’t tell you how good this has been for us! So far I’ve used this tactic at random times here and there. At least once a day most days. 2 or 3 times a day on Saturdays for work days.

I’ve been trying to add the 20 minute clean-up to our regularly daily schedule — after breakfast, lunch and supper. I haven’t been able to stick to it, so for the month of March we’re going to be working on that habit. I’ve added alarms to my cell phone to remind me. Now we’re not only training ourselves to clean quickly and efficiently but we’re setting good habits of cleaning up immediately after meals and keeping the house picked up throughout the day.

More beauty.

Here’s how we implement this plan here at our house:

• Call for 20-minute clean up (this was explained beforehand, what I expected, how it was going to go, etc.)
• Assign tasks.
  • For random clean-ups I look around to see what needs to be done and assign things to do. I give tasks that I expect to take about ten-fifteen minutes, less if they hurry, longer if they dawdle.
  • For regular after meal clean ups I have zones assigned. They rotate zones after each meal so that by the end of the day everyone has cleaned each zone. (Except me, I do the kitchen each time.)
• Set the timer.
• Work on your task while the kids work on theirs. Feel free to call out time remaining a couple of times, or call out and ask your kids how it’s going. Or you may actually need to step away from your task and teach a child how to do something. It’s fine! Teaching is good. Then get back to work. Lead by example and work hard.
• Expect, require, good effort. When they kids say they’re done with their tasks, I run and check. If it’s not good enough, I point out what’s left and ask them to finish. This prevents rushing through with sloppy jobs to earn more free time.
• Expect, require, participation. Younger children who throw a fit, older children who want to be lazy, need to be gently reminded that we all have to work together and that it’s not optional. I’ve only had this happen twice! I reminded them that the earlier they finished the more time they would earn. I also informed them that if they didn’t finish because they didn’t try, they would have to keep working until it was done, however long they made it take.
• Discipline for defiance/disobedience – ONCE. One time I had to discipline the 5yo for defiance and refusing to clean in the middle of a clean up session. I gave him a 5 minute time out right then. That means he also lost 5 minutes of cleaning time and as a result had no leftover time when he was done with his task. The next time he started to complain I reminded him and he has worked with us ever since.
• “Reward” hard work - The kids are not penalized for not finishing their tasks in 20 minutes if they really did work hard. It doesn’t happen often but it has a few times. I don’t require that they keep working once the timer is up, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by my kids a few times when they stuck with the task until it was completed, despite the empty timer. =) When this does happen, though, I give a 5 minute break before starting another 20 minute clean-up (if we need to.)
• Encourage and praise your children. You have an opportunity here to TEACH your children (how to clean, how to have good habits, how to work hard.) Make the most of that. Wrapping that up with a “Y’all did a good job, the house looks great!” or “We got that done so fast without whining, I’m so proud!” will really help to seal the deal.

This is really the most simple idea ever, isn’t? But yet so laden with great things for my kids to learn and practice.

I’m starting to feel a bit like an infomercial: “Yes, YOU TOO can get your kids to clean! Act now and never listen to a whine again!”

Well.. at least not a whine about chores. =p There’s one more thing I want to give you. The next question to ask is:

“What kind of tasks are age appropriate? And what about littles?”

First, YES, your littles can do this, too! 2-5 year olds can help mom with her tasks, or even an older sibling. Give them something specific to do. Here are a few suggestions:

• Cleaning off light switches & doorknobs with a step, a cloth and a small spray bottle of your favorite preschooler safe cleaner–kill those germs! (We use Nature’s Source)
• Wiping down the front of stoves/dishwashers/lower cabinets.
• dusting the tv screen
• checking under furniture for ‘lost’ items
• wiping down dining chairs

My 5 year old is often assigned many of the above and also:

• cleaning off the dining room table (yes, he takes dishes to the sink and returns stray items wherever they go!)
• cleaning under couch cushions
• tidying and wiping down the bathroom sink/counter
• cleaning in his room
• he’s learning to sweep (but needs a little help)

The 7 year old is given tasks such as:

• Cleaning sinks and mirrors
• Sweeping and mopping
• Cleaning the microwave
• Vacuuming
• Starting/switching loads in the washing machine/dryer
• Folding clothes

The 10 year old is given tasks like the above for the 7 yr old and also:

• Scrubbing toilets and tubs
• Organizing and other tasks requiring more attention to detail
• Putting dishes away and other tasks requiring more height (and more care)
• Cleaning/oiling wood furniture
• Sacking up and emptying trash

How do I decide to assign tasks? For regular clean ups, as I mentioned, they have assigned zones (rooms). If a zone still looks clean and picked up since the previous clean-up (which you’ll find happens A LOT when you do this regularly throughout the day.. HUH.. IMAGINE THAT..) I can assign a couple of  ‘other’ tasks for deeper cleaning, like dusting, vacuuming and toilet scrubbing. I just pick some things that need to be done.

Our house is staying CLEANER than it ever has before!

Messes still happen. Things still get left out from time to time. I’m working on cleaning up messes right away and reminding kids to put things away but at least once a day we have a REAL,  ‘Good Effort’ clean up that makes a whirlwind of a difference in just a few minutes.

It still surprises me how much work we can get done so quickly.

Yesterday we cleaned for an hour, 3 sessions back to back (because my Dad was coming so we did yesterday instead of today.) In ONE HOUR we: tidied the living room, vacuumed (under the furniture and couch cushions, too), cleaned off & wiped down the dining room table and chairs, swept & mopped the dining room, tidied the bathroom, cleaned the mirror and sink, scrubbed the toilet and tub, swept and mopped the bathroom and hallway, unloaded/reloaded the dishwasher, washed hand dishes, cleaned the stove and counters, scrubbed the sink, swept and mopped the kitchen, emptied the trash and the kids cleaned in their bedrooms for 20 minutes.

Maybe that’s normal for your house but up until six weeks ago that could have easily taken us the majority of the day.

Gone is the whining. No more nagging, begging, threatening or bribing. For the first time ever I have what I have always wanted — chores getting done JUST BECAUSE it needs to be done, family members working simultaneously in different rooms, everybody working together.

I am thrilled!!

AND ONE MORE PERK – I no longer feel like housework is competing with school work. Which is just such a big, big relief. Twenty minutes after breakfast, or after lunch is enough to tidy up and get right back to school. Keeping the house picked up more throughout the day relieves me of the pressing feeling that I need to be working on housework while the kids are doing school. I can’t tell you how much of a weight that has taken off of my shoulders!

I hesitate to even share this with you because every time I share a golden nugget on my blog it seems to suddenly go bust in my home. But we’ve been doing this for six weeks now. It’s stuck, it’s stayed, and I really hope that it helps somebody else out there. It’s working for us. I hope it works for you, too!

Part of my 3 in 30 journey and also linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Helpful Homeschool Hints.

Image Credit: Some rights reserved by Theresa Thompson

P.S. This post contains amazon affiliate links. Every penny goes toward homeschool curriculum.

Doesn’t it seem like just last week we were setting our goals for February? February already has the short end of the stick when it comes to days on the calendar, but really, this month has truly flown by!

All the same.. February has been a very good month. MUCH better than January. ;0)

You may recall my 3 habit goals for February:

1. Get up at 7am
2. Read & pray first
3. Have breakfast on time.

How did it go? Very well! Not perfect (is it ever?) but very, very well!

Get up at 7am — I’d say that I got up at 7 at least 60% of the time… between 7 & 7:30 at least another 25% of the time, and after 7:30 for the remainder of that percentage.. For a woman going from sleeping until 9 am or so after sicknesses and cold weather in January.. getting up at 7 MOST of the time makes me very happy. It has become habit enough I have no doubt I’ll continue it throughout March and thereafter.

Read and pray FIRST – I’m SO pleased with how well this went!! I got terribly behind on Bible in 90 Days during the month of January, and where I was half as far along as I should be I am now two thirds as far along as I should be. This is largely due to setting this habit of getting up and reading my bible first thing. Even if I didn’t get up on time, even if the kids got up early… at least 99% of the time I read my bible first thing in the morning. At least 30 minutes, most days closer to an hour, some days more than! It was so nice to have a quiet hour, LITERALLY, before beginning my day. One of the ways that I made this possible as often as I did was making breakfast ahead of time… see below. =)

Breakfast on time — One of the things I needed to iron out to make this work was getting breakfast ready by 8 if I wanted to get up at 7 and read for thirty minutes to an hour. Many days I made breakfast ahead. For example–making muffin batter (with fruit and nuts or oats, etc), pouring it into a pan and storing it in the fridge overnight so I just have to pop it in the oven and read while it bakes. Other ways to make breakfast ahead.. preparing freezer meals (we did sausage and cheese biscuits once and we all liked that.) You can make quiches and fruit breads, breakfast casseroles and healthier versions of fruit crumbles the night before and bake them in the morning. There are crockpot options. Mornings that need more work I can still read for thirty minutes. Mornings that need less work I can get in a whole hour. I like this, need to develop this habit better, it needs to stay!

So now that February is coming to a close (so successfully and happily).. it’s time to look forward to March. What habits shall we add for March, hm?

Since the beginning of the year.. I have added/refined these habits:

• 7 am wake time
• morning bible study
• kids up by 8, breakfast at 8
• been WORKING on a “lunch at 11″ habit, it hasn’t stuck, but I’m working on it
• (we’ve had a firm “snack at 3″ habit for a long, long time.)
• supper between 5 and 5:30
• bedtime routine/storytime/prayertime at 8:30
• going to bed earlier myself – my goal is midnight, making it most nights

Little by little we’ve been nailing down checkpoints in our daily routine. Some of these need more work than others. I’ve added a lot of bells and whistles to my phone (literally) for these and a few other time checkpoints to keep me moving through my day and that has really helped. Of course, it’s easy to ignore them if I want to, but that’s where the habit making part comes in. There are still some of those habits (like the lunch time habit) that need to be fully developed.

I have many things to choose from to work on for March! At the beginning of the year I really set about focusing on meal times and wake/sleep times and now that we’ve got those in place and a good morning and night routine, there are several other starting/stopping points in our day that we need to nail down. After talking with my girls about what we need to work on next in our daily routine, we finally settled on our 3. We chose them together, and we’re going to work on them together.

BUT… I’m going to tell you THOSE in the next post.

How did YOUR February go??

Photo Credit: Some rights reserved by Minimalist Photography

And the mornings and the evenings rotate one by one, marking the passing of days. February slips by like a thief, stealthy and unnoticed.

It is nearly gone.

January, a distant memory now, began a journey through the bible that is nearly half over. January left a bitter taste with many failed goals but brought the sweetness of a new evening routine. February embraced a challenge to fine tune a morning routine as well.

Morning, and evening, and morning again.

Morning comes, and begins with a book. THE book. The word of God. By the early light of day, in the cool of the morning with a warm cup of coffee in my hand I meet with God. Pages and pages turn, unfolding stories and truths.

Morning progresses with children’s faces shining. Breakfasts eaten. Teeth brushed. Chores done. Books opened. The day moves on…

A day is bookended with an evening routine. Kids are bathed. Teeth are brushed. Beds are turned down. Storied read. Prayers said.

Stillness falls outside. Stillness falls inside.. falls in a mom’s busy heart as chores are done, rooms are tidied, order is restored. Stillness reigns as the Word is opened. Beginning and ending days.

Morning after morning after morning. Evening after evening after evening. Training myself. Leaning on God. Making habits. Making memories. Restoring order.

Smiling.

Linked with The Hip Homeschool Hop. Also written for my journey through 3 in 30 and Bible in 90 Days.