SATURDAY CLEANING!

In every home, the parents 'bless' their children with a list of chores that they have to complete in the certain amount of time given to them if they want to have certain privileges awarded to them. That's considered a Win-Win Situation. My family, originally housing 8 kids of all different ages, moved into a house that would be big enough to accommodate for all 10 of us. That was back in '97 or '98, not too long after Allan was born. Since then, I guess you could say we've done A LOT of work on the house to make it more modern and in style. We've knocked out walls, added more space to our rooms, kitchen, bathrooms, built a pool, a workshop, a craftroom, etc.....But now, because everyone, (besides Allan and I) have gotten married and moved out, the list of chores has slowly been handed down to just us two. Although we have been pretty good about cleaning up after ourselves (by that, I mean better than when we were 10 years old), we still have family and friends who come over for most hours of the day and forget to pick up their messes. So our weekly chores aren't always done in the best of moods. Allan and I will probably never understand why we have to clean up a mess that someone else made. Obviously a baby doesn't count, but a kid about 3 or 4 years and older shouldn't have a problem picking up a little if we are there to keep them focused, right?....

Our thoughts exactly.

But regardless of how much we moan and groan about the whole situation, Allan and I still get the job done so that we can have certain privileges awarded to us. (Win-Win)

About once a month or so, we have a day called Deep Saturday Cleaning. Which usually means waking up early, doing yard work before the suns gets too high, and then spending as much time as possible cleaning inside the house once our outside work is done. We spend most of the day cleaning, so Saturday chores mainly go for about 8 or 9 hours. Our housework chores mainly consist of the area's on the lists. Sometimes there is either more or less depending on how messy our house is. But these lists are the general idea. 

My list (Upstairs)        Allan's list (Downstairs)          Parents list (Whatever they feel like cleaning)

Kitchen                       Family Room                          It really is whatever they feel like cleaning.

Living room                 Bathroom                               

Bathroom                    Hallway

Hallway                      His room

My room                    Trashes

Entryway                    Dishes

Stairs

Dishes

You may be sitting there wondering, "Why would anyone want to clean that much for that long!?"

Well my answer is brief..... When you have a family like mine, it's hard not to have fun while you clean.

Here is my example/proof of what I mean. :     

(You don't have to watch it all the way through to understand my point)
(And no we didn't choreograph any of this)

Yes, we do dance while we clean. It's sort of a family tradition. Dancing can be a little....distracting at times I'll admit. But hey, if the job gets done in the end, does it really even matter? Sometimes it's better to take your time and have fun while you clean so you can relish in every moment you have together. 

And there is nothing wrong with that.

Me scrubbing down our back door

In the video, my Mom was crawling on our kitchen counters cleaning.....not dancing haha! But here she is cleaning the window while Allan is scrubbing down the counters in the back!

Because Allan and I had worked (and danced/sang) hard for most of the day, my Mom decided that she would treat us to lunch at a restaurant of our choice. Who could say no to that right!? A fun (and free) lunch date with your Mom? Sounds like a pretty legit deal to me. So of course we both decided to go to Applebee's! Allan and I love their wings, but I especially love their pasta dishes! Holy cow, they are SO GOOD! I purposefully don't finish my meals just so I can take them home to have for left-overs!

Not to sound super cheesy here or anything.....But I honestly don't think I could live a day without these two in my life. They are my best friends. I am so grateful that I had the amazing honor of being put into this family by my Father in Heaven. He was really looking out for me on that one. I know that my parents and all my brothers and sisters are the best thing that I could have ever received. Being in a big family can be hard. Most definitely. But think about it this way....

The more siblings you have, just means the less amount of time you have to spend alone.