Work, work, work!

Yes, that is work X 3! Three employed adults in my home.

It's about time!

Tai got a job at a home improvement store - he's working in the plumbing department. It's not glamorous, but it'll do! And it even pays more than minimum wage! (Ok, not by much, but it's a start!) He also gets an additional $2.50/hr on weekends. And he's going to work weekends pretty regularly.

Mike got a job at a fast food restaurant that is only two blocks away from our house. Handy - he can come home during his lunch break, and he doesn't need a car to get there.

Thus far, Tai has been working 2nd shift hours, for the most part, and Mike has been working 1st shift hours. I, of course, work 3rd shift.

Sooooo...we're really having to get organized around the house. So we know who is working when, who will be getting the kids off to school, who will be taking kids to doctor's appointments, who is going to attend meetings at school, who will be home when the kids get home, etc, etc, etc...

I made a 24-hour daily planner, on which we put our work schedules bar-graph style, in different colors. Any appointments or meetings are written in as needed. I also made a "Communication log" or "Shift exchange" binder. Whoever is home when the kids get home goes through their backpacks, reads the papers, and writes down anything important that needs to be passed on to the other adults in the house. Anything else that needs to be passed on gets written, too. Like, "There's laundry in the washing machine," and "I folded the laundry, please put it away," or "We need milk." I put the schedule in the book, and I added a section for important school papers, too. And in the front of the binder, the kids' morning schedule is written out, including what time each leaves for the bus. The back of the binder has their after-school and evening schedules.

Whew. I'm not a very organized person. This is killing me dead!

We have discovered that Mike has major issues with making decisions. (For example, the other day, he let two pizzas nearly completely thaw on the counter while he was trying to decide whether to cook them in the oven or with the Pizza Pizazz.) We've also discovered that his cooking skills leave a bit to be desired. (Example: he puts the water in a pot, then put the spaghetti in, THEN put it on the stove. That makes for some really gooey spaghetti!) So I made up five simple meal plans, with directions, and I printed them out on index cards. I made pouches with magnets on the back - one for meals he hasn't made yet this week, and one for meals he's already made this week. Now all he has to do is pull an index card out of one of the pouches, and poof! He knows what to make for dinner! And how to make it! I just have to make certain that we have all of the ingredients stocked at all times. He would have issues substituting things. (Like swapping out peas for green beans.)

While I was feeling so creative and organized, I also made a set of pouches for each of the kids. One for chores that needed to be done, and one for chores that they had completed for the day. Each has four chores, typed out on index cards. They pull a card out of the "to do" side, do the chore, then move the card to the "done" pouch. This way, everyone knows what is expected of them, and the adults can see who did what for the day. Good stuff.

Soooooo....that's what's going on 'round my house! How's yours doing?