how you do it, part whatever

i haven't written a 'how you do it' post for a long time
(i know, i haven't written ANY post for a long time)
but here's one, in case you're wondering

we've really been struggling with the family maintenance/housekeeping scene for, um, forever
and lately we've found something that has worked way better
for a whole week
so i will share it with you because a week's success after 2 decades (or a lifetime) of failure
makes me an everloving expert.

specialization
the Duggars call it jurisdictions
instead of what we did before, which was
every kid has a laundry job AND a kitchen patrol (kp) job
every day
so my 9 relatively competent children were on various teams for laundry and kp
each laundry team was to do one switch and sort (move wash load to dryer, start dryer, start new wash load, fold and sort stuff from dryer, hanging shirts, folding everything else; putting shirts in each person's spot on rack, putting pants and underthings and other things in one of 10 buckets or on mom's bed; each person has in his bucket his own things and stuff for his little buddy or another category like dress up or attic bathroom towels . . .)
you can see where that got complicated, right?
and kitchen teams, with a sweeper, a table clearer and wiper, and a dishwasher loader for each meal of the day
and the oldest 7 had a day that was their day to unload the dishwashers, all day

whew.
it sounds ridiculous, and never worked.

here's what we're doing now.

9 relatively competent children, right?
#1 (age 17) hangs up shirts
#2 (16) dining room floor
#3 (15) dining room table
#4 (13) fold and sort laundry except shirts and socks
#5 (12) washes and dries all laundry
#6 (11) unloads all dishwashers
#7 (9) kitchen table
#8 (8) matches all socks
#9 (6)(ok, really me) kitchen floor
#10 (4) helps unload dishwashers, or not

they all have a household cleaning job as well
this way, they are able to master their jobs and actually do a good job
and if they don't, it is easy to know who needs some training

so much better
so much less frustrating

(baby in bed = typing with capitals and punctuation)
In other news, for those of you reading here just so you know how to pray for me, I am doing better in the health and fitness department. I've run walked 21 miles in the past few weeks, and I'm eating somewhat healthier, though that's been just this week. We have a chart on the fridge with 150 boxes. Each one is a mile. When hubby or I or one of the adolescent children does a mile, we fill in a box with our initial. When we fill the boxes, we go to Cheesecake Factory! Mostly I'm doing it because it is good for my blood pressure, which has not really gotten back to normal after baby #14, probably because I ate so much that my weight is in the "tilt" bracket and my body systems are on strike. I have a check up coming up, and I'll probably be put on bp meds again, but I'm doing my darnedest (no kidding, that's how you spell it!) to get it under control before then.

More veggies means more full means not as hungry in between. But also, a wonderful friend and I are humiliating humbling ourselves and texting each other every blessed thing we eat. That helps a whole lot.

But the main thing that is going better which is really the mojo behind any other improvement is that I cried to the Lord and He heard me and delivered me and helped me and comforted me and healed me and gave me wisdom. He is faithful. I highly recommend Him.