That's right, I am down right lazy sometimes. I just want to sit back, watch tv, sleep or do absolutely nothing. How do I do it and get by with it? With 8 children and a husband, my house can become cluttered and down right messy in a flash. But sometimes I just don't feel like cleaning, cooking or organizing. Maybe I am tired, have a lot of errands to run, or maybe I just want to watch movies all day and I am just being plain old lazy. On those days I noticed that my house becomes overrun with clutter, clothes piled up on the floor, every dish in the house dirty, crayons and toys everywhere. Empty food boxes and cans fill the kitchen. I guess everyone thinks if mommy is taking a break we can too. During these awful times, I notice that I throw away food, have to rewash clothes, throw away broken toys, crayons, etc. Shampoo gets thrown into the bathtub full of water, soap left in the water, even the toilet paper gets thrown into the toilet. Maybe I have the most unruly children or maybe they are just being kids. Well, I came up with a program that works to keep my home running smoothly on my lazy days.

Here are some simple guidelines that I use to keep an organized home and be lazy..

Set Up A Basic Chore Chart That Is For Daily Cleaning. Things that have to be done no matter what. Easy enough to where you don't have to spend a lot of time going behind your family seeing if things are done correctly. I have chore charts and house rules hanging on the walls thru out the house. So in the event I am not home, sick or just being lazy, everyone knows that they are still excepted to follow the simple guidelines of home living. Now yes I have heard from my kids, well why aren't you cleaning, mainly on the days I am being lazy. So I fixed that by giving each child one day off a week. Problem solved.

Home Rules. This one is very important. Now with this one you really have to be consistent. No shoes worn in the house, no food outside of kitchen, clothes put away, toys put up after playing, etc. If home rules aren't done everyday, then your home can quickly become full of clutter and just a plain unhappy place. You end up wasting time and money cleaning it back up. You get in a bad mood, might yell at the kids, they get mad. Just horrible. So set yourself up a list of basic home rule guidelines and post them up to remind your family what the rules and goals are for your family. Be consistent in making sure they are followed.

Meal Plan Ahead. Now I am not the kind of mom that makes daily menus of what we are going to eat. What if I made out a meal planner and Friday is chicken day and I don't want chicken. Unhappy mommy. We don't want that do we? So what I do is a weekly grocery list with ideas for meals. My husband is a butcher so I always have plenty of meat to choose from. If you don't have a butcher at home, keep up with your weekly grocery ads. Get to be friendly with your local meat manager and meat cutters. They will tell you when they mark meat down and when to come pick up mark downs. This works everywhere in the grocery store. The grocery manager can tell you when they are going to mark down grocery items. Networking works everywhere. Now that you have your grocery list together and your items bought, you can write down possible meals. Write them down so your older children or husband can cook too. When you cook, make extra. For instance when I make spaghetti, I always make extra. You freeze it. On a day when I don't have time to cook or being lazy, I just zap it in the microwave and make spaghetti sandwhiches.

Be Thankful. After you have put into to place these simple ideas, don't forget to thank everyone. and reward them. If I am just gonna lay around and watch movies, then I make sure I get my family a movie that they have been wanting to watch. Let them pick a meal they would like maybe pizza. Everyone understands that mom needs lazy days sometimes too. So make sure that your family knows how much you appreciate their efforts to give you a free day. If you do thank them they are always going to be more willing to let you enjoy your lazy days.

Future articles will include my list of home rules, chore charts, what we call 8 ball, home binder, and being a successful home manager. Make sure to come back and thank you so much for stopping in. Have a wonderful peaceful day!