Family Chore Day

Every Saturday we have family chore day.  Every member of the family pitches in to get all of our household chores done.  Not everyone is always in a great mood or participates in a motivated way....but, the chores always get done and the girls are learning valuable lessons about taking care of themselves.  As I mentioned, it is not always a day filled with joyous laughter or helpful cooperation.   The fall season brings lots of outside commitments on Saturdays, which means we struggle to fit the chore day in to our busy weekend.  We usually cram it in between a soccer game and a 4-H meeting....  everyone is annoyed about the fact that they cannot just relax on their weekend.   In a moment of pure genius, I decided that we would switch our Saturday chore day to Friday chore night.  I know, what could be a more exciting way to spend your Friday night than doing chores with your family.  Well, apparently, nothing could be more exciting.  My evil plan worked like a charm.  I have no idea why it worked but the girls were ALL downright cheery while doing their chores.  They even worked TOGETHER.  One of Emma's chores is to move all chairs and bar stools to the office so that we can mop the floor.  Rachel decided it would be much more efficient if she put Emma in a chair and shoved her across the room, while holding the chairs/stools.  Yes, that one was a real shocker.  To say that Rachel and Emma do not generally work well together would be the understatement of the year.  We also instituted a time limit so that we could keep track and try to beat our personal best record for finishing (I know, we are so cool when it comes to chores)  Unfortunately, we were not as quick as we could have been.  Another feature of family chore day/night is playing music at an incredibly loud volume and singing along to it.  This week, the girls added a few dance numbers which were highly entertaining.  I was compelled to ambush them in the photos to record these significant family moments.  Cooperation, laughter and chores have never been synonymous in our house.  On Friday evening we were lucky and I wanted to record it for posterity.   I will really miss these moments when the girls are all grown up and have moved away.  Mostly because that will mean that Matt and I will be responsible for doing all of the chores by ourselves.  Although, I could totally see Matt singing and dancing while holding a swiffer mop.....and as long as my hips don't give out, I would definitely be up for that chair flinging thing that Ray came up with.