Honey Do, Job Jar and Delegating Saturday

[Harriet]

Saturday is traditionally the day when we have a little more help around the house and yard, though it may be Sunday, if Saturday is the Sabbath. Spouses and older children with payroll can sometimes spend more weekend time on projects together than other days. There is more chance for supervision for children, so they can lend a hand efficiently.

How do you use a "Job Jar", a "Honey-Do List" or other family plan?

Are there chores you should be delegating but aren't?

How can you use delegation to move your household along swimmingly?

[Harriet]

This morning, all our household was on "Job Jar" duty, packing our truck and sending it off with dstepson and the young man. Dd25 supervised the fitting-in puzzle as it was packed with the large items, most still in boxes after delivery here. The largest was the new bed. Then the mattress, which is a spring(ed) one, but still had arrived in a box, compact-ish. Easel, step-stool, kitchen gifts. There were a LOT of smaller ones, and some inadvertently left behind, but we'll be doing this again.

The guys will off-load, do odd jobs around the new house, then more work on the garage.

Dd25 is off to her final fitting, along with one of the bridesmaids.

Honestly, I'm glad they are all outahere now. Whew. I can get down to my own household chores! Also, I want to work on the quilt sleeve, which I got dd to help me measure.

Yesterday evening was a happy birthday party for me. Mexican food from a favorite restaurant seemed to please everyone. Dd44's youngest met us in their yard to announce that the TV was going to play Grandma's music. Lol - "radio" station called Beach Boys, with that era of music variety. Dd explained loudly that BBs themselves were actually WAY before Grandma's time, but she would like the music. I kept explaining songs to the children and giving pop quizzes to our kids - what's the song (Bridge Over Troubled Water), who's voice is that (John Lennon), etc. Bless them, they knew about half of what I expected they would know. Time marches on.

In a romantic-looking gift bag , dstepdil gave me the first zucchini from her garden. We all ooooed and aahhhhed - it is a classic beauty. Herbs, too. Ds gave me a hummingbird feeder with a promise to put it up somewhere near my flowers. HRH wouldn't stay for the whole thing, whispering a goodbye to me before gifts. I've learned not to argue about that. Not a gift-opening person, no matter how good the food has been. Our green-eyed boy said, "He doesn't like the cheesy stuff." But dgdC helped me open the gift he left, and then the younger children took turns trying to read tee-tiny words on a pendant necklace, with eye-rolling and groans about the sentiment, lol.

[Harriet]

Hello, bittersweet!!!!! Sorry to call you out (no, I'm not. Too delighted to see you to leave you alone!)

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

No one here to delegate to.

In fact, people seem to be delegating to me. I'm not sure I approve!

I have 3 really early mornings in a row coming up, all dgs focused. Tomorrow I need to be out of here at 6:45 to drive to dgs' town to attend a Fly-In Breakfast at their local airfield. I'm looking forward to the event, I'm not looking forward to the early rising and the 2 hours of driving.

Last autumn I sat with a childhood schoolmate at a church lunch. He grew up to be a small plane pilot and I was mentioning dgs' fascination with planes and he suggested I take him to a Fly-In Breakfast this spring. I saw him in church last Sunday, mentioned I needed to look that up and he told me that dgs' airport was tomorrow. So I texted ddil and it is all arranged we'll go.

Monday, I need to drive back there for 8:15 in order to babysit for an hour while ddil has physiotherapy. She damaged her ankle badly and is recovering from that (I got a phone call up at the cottage 2 weeks ago from ds asking if I still had the crutches!) I missed the phone message from ds asking for the favour for 7 hours and they worked out she could take dgs. As I said, he's good but he's not that good. So there's another 2 hours of driving for me.

Finally, dgs will be here on Tuesday for regular babysitting (including me leaving here at 6:30 in order to pick him up from the hospital parking lot.) If ddil's appointment had been later in the day on Monday, I might have brought him back home with me and kept him overnight. But it isn't so I won't and instead it will be the third day in a row when 6 a.m. will be my alarm time.

On Tuesday, I return him to the hospital for 3 p.m. and, if I can truly get my act together, I will have the car fully loaded on Monday night except for my bite guard, medicine bag, and computer bag (plus a bit of food.) I'll load those, plus dgs into the car at 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon (hopefully he'll take a nap AND be awake by then) and drop him at shift-change at 3 at the hospital and keep driving up to the cottage, arriving by 7 at the latest (maybe 6, if I can drive through without stopping to eat.) The goal is to get off the road as early as possible before the deer and moose get on the roads. There have been many more collisions than usual this year and wildlife experts suspect the animals are standing on the roads to get away from the bugs in the woods.

Then I'll be up at the cottage and can relax a bit.

Yesterday I got another strip of metallic paper up (this time on the wood below my sink), tacked up a strip in my bathroom to test if I want to use it in there (I think not.) I shopped online for new glass shades for my bathroom fixture to make it more modern and decided to hit Home Depot to search in real-life. They don't sell them in the stores but another store did, just not the ancient fitting style my old fixture requires. I did learn that to buy something I liked, x3 shades, would cost more than a new fixture. So I'm back to the renters' dilemma, I can't update cost effectively because I can't do simple things like swap out light fixtures and mirrors.

I spent many hours with dd and family and we went to the fun fair. I was exhausted after but did manage to do some grocery shopping on the way home.

I went back to online shopping for the light shades and realized I really have to give up that idea. Sigh...

Got to bed at 10:30 which wasn't too bad.

Goals for today:

1. finish potting up the balcony plants and getting the balcony ready for the summer.

2. Put up the first piece of backsplash paper (which arrived yesterday.) That job is 1/2 done, the wall is cleaned the contact paper cut and ready to go but I was hungry so paused to eat something.

3. BBQ tonight (and I forgot to buy meat for it today so I guess it will be a burger.)

4. Water indoor plants and do a quick tidy of the apartment. I need to stay on top of the PUPA.

5. Update Quicken and check to confirm a bill has been paid. I was sure I paid it last week but got a reminder.

[Nancy]

K in C I hear you in that no one here to delegate to. Waving!
For me it is like put it off...
sigh one small branch on the roof still there. . .

On to other things sheets are clean and back on the bed.
duds out of the dryer folded & put away.
Had qt & bfast
Planner reset under way contemplating June goals.

I could call a grand kid for help if they had time but all are working good jobs so sort of hate to do that.
My lip is better yea!
dressed by 8 so that is good progress.
Walked.
Hoping to see a yd. sale on our walk.
HBurger is my plan for dinner.
-----
Move rocks to hold down table cloth out on deck. x
Hydrate x
Lunch x
Put 1 & half can of weeds to go out in the trash next week. x
Water newly planted Sunnies & rinse off lawn chairs. x
-----
Did a bit of writing.
I pruned the apple tree.
Mixed up a my dinner & ate it.

[Lady Maverick]

(((Nancy))) - how is your lip healing today?

Sometimes delegating to teenagers can be twice the work compared to doing the tasks myself. I have to pick and choose the effort level I want to put into the task. If I have the energy & focus I will teach & monitor the task to a teenager. Otherwise, I find that getting the task accomplished as easy and quickly as possible is all I can handle.

Consistently doing their cards is a tremendous help. I do add cards to their stack so I guess that could be considered delegating.

Ds15 called requesting food and drink. I agreed to do it this time, but we discussed the need for him doing better with his prep. He had a protein drink before he left for work this morning, but he found himself hungry a couple hours later. Doing physical work needs fueling. DS15 will eventually learn what he needs to eat before leaving for work. He is used to being able to go through drive-through and get a piece of pizza if he got hungry. There are no drive-thrus when he is working in the country miles from town. Ditto on the drinks. He needs to take a gallon of water with him to work. He is doing asphalt work today (boss long driveway) so it is hot, humid with no wind.

It is first of the month so those tasks are due. We did the cash from the bank monthly card on the way back from dropping off food and drink to DS15

[CathyS]

Hi!

Went to a "class" this morning at the same location that I go to on Friday afternoons. This is a group of ladies that all do stitch work with a thread and a needle. Most of them are doing applique. The lady beside me was doing embroidery. It's a nice group and it's only once a month.

Honey-do list? Job jar? Not here, unfortunately. I used to be able to ask dh to do something and it would be done instantly. Now I can leave a pile of rinsed pots and pans for a week, and he won't touch them. Laundry? Nope. Weeding the gardens? Nope. I do everything and he sits on the computer playing games and watching/listening to the tv turned up loud. When I do ask, his back hurts, his legs hurt, he's too tired... I swear it's like living alone most of the time.

Supper tonight will be Burger King. He's requested it a few times and I don't feel like spending another night cleaning everything up.

I'm going to go read on the bed and see if it turns into a nap.

[bittersweet]

I'd love to delegate a few jobs around here, but it seems to be a bit of a pointless endeavour! So far today I've:

-washed three loads of dishes (no dishwasher)
- put in a load of laundry
- cleaned the bathroom
- vacuumed the living room and hallway

Next I'm going to head outside and plant some beans, sweet peas, and morning glories. Then it's over to the hospital to visit Mum. She was admitted with what turned out to be pneumonia (never a good thing, especially if you already have COPD!), but seems to be turning the corner back to her usual self. My sister flew out from Ottawa to help out a bit. I'm the only one of the three kids that lives in Edmonton, so the vast majority of Mum stuff is on my shoulders. Help whenever I can get it is always appreciated!

[Lady Maverick]

Bittersweet! It is good to see your CI. My thoughts and prayers are with your DMom as she continues to recover.

Kathryn - That is a lot of early mornings in a row. Will you need to adjust your bedtime or add a nap?

This week I have shared the road with 4 deer and a baby calf. Thankfully I was able to hit the brakes in time to prevent running into any of them. The 4 deer jumped the pasture fence, ran diagonally across the road and were in a hurry to jump the fence on the other side of the road. On a different day the baby calf ran out from the tall weeds in the bar ditch and got in front of my vehicle and just stood there. I pulled to the side of the road and eased the vehicle around it as it stood in the middle of the country graveled road. The baby calf ran along side of my vehicle for a few feet then went back to the bar ditch. We made a couple phone calls to potential owners, and they were going to put the calf back where it belongs.

DD13 and I went to the church to pick up trash before DH mows it. It took us about 30 minutes to walk the grassy area picking up food/drink trash left by the kids. We have stopped doing meals at church until school starts so the food/drink trash should be greatly reduced. DH seems to be thinking clearly today so hopefully he will do okay on the zero-turn mower. It is about 3 acres to mow so it will take a couple hours. I am going to take him something to drink in a few minutes so I can talk to him and see how he is doing. I want DH to return to doing everything that he safely do.

It is 80F today but is so humid so it feels much warmer. Every year I have to get used to the heat and then I don't notice it much.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Balconies are done and look lovely. It is worth the effort but having worked outside for 3 hours, I'm tired from all the fresh air.

The plants were watered (inside and I had repotting to do outside) and I've refilled my inside potting soil container. I'll keep using the big bag outside until winter but will have hopefully enough inside to handle any winter indoor plant repotting. I have two plants I'll be taking up to the cottage so will package them up Monday night and secure them in the car somehow.

The piece of backsplash paper is up and looks good. I'm not sure if I like it or not. It changes the look of that part of the kitchen dramatically. The question is do I like the new 'look'?

I'm going to shut my eyes for 15 minutes and then get my food ready for the bbq.