Taking Care of the Moments

On Saturday Douglas and I put up a wall decal in our living room.  It says this:

Take care of the moments,

The hours and years will take care of themselves.

It is a beautiful thought.  But here is the thing, how do you actually do it?  I know quite well by now that "the days are long but the years are short."  So how do you turn those long days into profitable moments?

Let me be honest here.  I love to spend time with my children.  I love doing projects with them and cooking with them and reading stories to them. I love doing all of the fun extras.  But when it comes to teaching them to do the nitty-gritty "no dirty socks under the bed" type of stuff I lag.  It really is not as much fun to teach them to keep their shoes in neat rows as it is to make rockets fueled by Alka-Seltzers (today's science project). 

Somehow I think that "taking care of the moments" needs to include both the fun and the mundane aspects of life.  So, for myself, I'm trying really hard to focus on teaching them the basics of doing all of their jobs right. It is a little wearing, but I know it will pay off in the end.  

Here is my method.  Each of them has assigned jobs each day.  The boys' jobs rotate between them.  Last week we all cleaned the house really well.  We worked together so I could show them exactly what I expect in each room.  Now each day they have a choice: clean their areas correctly or after chore time we start over and all clean the whole house again.  So far we have started over and cleaned the whole house every.single.day.

You think my method is working?! I don't know.  But I'm not quitting yet.  I just know one of these days everything is going to click and they are all going to realize that cleaning the whole house cuts in to play time quite a bit.  In the mean time my floors are going into shock from being swept and mopped so frequently.  

I know that for many mothers "taking care of the moments" may mean something totally different. But this is where I need to focus right now.  We are still having fun and making rockets and reading stories and spending lots of time together, but we are trying to learn to enjoy doing our jobs right too.  And the house is cleaner than it has been in many a long month!

 P.S. Y'all come rescue me if things don't take a turn for the better, OK?  I may desperately need a mommy's night out soon...