I’m working my way through my little stack of books, and I’m working my way through our house, piece by piece, to get things in better order. I have a pretty good cleaning schedule and daily routine in place. But sometimes we just get off track and into maintenance mode rather than intentional homemaking and we’re just getting the minimum done every day.

This weekend, while in Richmond, we took the kids to the Science Discovery Museum.

I’m not actually sure that one of my current books was on the list, but it’s been on my shelf for a while and I needed a little inspiration to get back to work. I’m just about done with Large Family Logistics, by Kim Brenneman, and it’s gone really fast for me.  Her writing style is very easy to read and all the chapter are very short–most of them are 5 pages or less–so it’s easy to snatch a few minutes of reading time and actually make progress.

That’s Mr. Fix-It’s sister in the orange shirt. We don’t know the guy in gray–I think he was the dad of those little girls in pink. That’s our Ladybug in red, and our boys there in green and brown.

I’ve mentioned before that I love reading about large family living. For one…large families are fun! My momma is from a large family (she’s was one of 8) and both side of our family are very close, so I’m use to having a lot of family around all the time, even if they’re not our immediate household. On my momma’s side, I was the first grandchild of…I believe we’re up to 24 now, but I’d have to double-check that.

That’s Mr. Fix-It in green. They had to call in reinforcements to reach the top! 🙂

But for two…it seems like after you hit about 5 kids, you either “get it together” or chaos reigns. These busy momma’s know what’s what when it comes to keeping a household running. There is so much to be learned from them! And in big families, everyone works and everyone helps. If you’re wondering what to do about chores for your kids, ask a mom of many–I guarantee they have a chore chart or list for any age group!

This arch building was part of an entire hand-on “building” section of the museum.

I love that she spends the first couple chapters on having the right attitude, heart, and self-discipline for the job. Homemaking is empty without your heart put in it. I also love the theme throughout the book that our parenting in public is part of our Christian witness to strangers. How you discipline your children in the grocery store should be a reflection of Christ for people who see you handling the situation. If we say our children are a blessing and a treasure in a world that doesn’t appreciate children, then our behavior toward our children should reflect that attitude.

There’s Grandpa Ray getting in on the action to help place the keystone!

Now, some of Kim’s concepts in Large Family Logistics don’t quite work for me, because I work outside the home full-time.  I don’t have the option of designating a certain day of the week exclusively to one activity–like Monday is laundry day, Tuesday is Kitchen Day, Wednesday is Town Day, etc. She also homeschools, so she has more control and flexibility over the children’s schedules than I do now.

I wish I had thought to reach out to that little family so I could share these pictures with them!

But I can certainly follow her thoughts on grouping my activities for efficiency. I definitely group our “town” activities. Being out of the house during the week is just very stressful and makes it hard to get school work, dinner, and bedtime done well. We run errands on Tuesday evenings because we’re already out for Piano lessons, and I cram grocery shopping into Wednesdays because of double coupon day and because we’re already out all evening with Church.  Otherwise, it’s my goal to be at home after work. We also plan Family Movie Night on Fridays to stay in, relax, decompress from the week, and start the weekend off right.

Part of the lesson becomes the unbuilding…

I was also tickled to see that she uses a modified zone cleaning schedule similar to mine–although mine is more monthly than weekly. And I love the idea that they stop whatever they’re working on at 4 pm and start their afternoon chores, dinner, and evening so that everything is in place to welcome daddy home to peace and tranquility. Mr. Fix-It gets home an hour after I do and it’s very hard to have dinner cooking when he walks in the door, but he always notices when I do. It’s a goal I’m striving for.

…And the walls come tumbling down.

Managing our homes is just a never-ending process of developing and then refining the system that works for our family. I can certainly use all the help I can get!

Do you have a favorite homemaking resource?

{I did not receive any compensation for this post. I bought the book for myself a few months ago and loved it and I think it would offer my readers a great perspective and practical help with homemaking. The Amazon links are affiliate links.}