Chores for the boys- starting today!

I am realizing how spoiled I was living in Thailand.  I could run out on my motorbike to our local street and pick up a coffee for $2 or less.  The boys and I could run and grab lunch for $5 when we needed to get out of the house.  I had a helper that was with us 3-4 times a week, taking care of all of my cleaning, laundry, and cooking once a week.  I was able to tutor after I was done teaching the boys to add to our income.  And on those nights I tutored, we could grab Thai food for dinner.  My main responsibility was to take care of the boys and teach them.

Fast forward to Chile and my life is not quite as easy here.  I did upgrade and get a proper sized oven, no American sized, but I can fit one cookie sheet in it! I also have a dishwasher and dryer, so that makes my life easier, but all the cleaning and cooking falls on me again.  I know, such a sob story, right?  But after 5 years I forgot why I was always stressed out when I lived in the States.

So, chores start today!

I need help.  I cannot teach the boys full-time, clean and do all the laundry, and cook 3 meals plus snacks during the day.  If you can do all of this, you are amazing.  I need to get advice from you, because I am just not able to do it.  So to hopefully to help ease my stress a little, the boys will be starting their chores today.  They do most of these things everyday, but I have added a few things to the list to make my weekly cleaning a little easier.

I also found a great list of daily jobs that I should do so I can actually enjoy my weekend instead of cleaning the whole day on Saturday.  I found this cute FREE, customizable chore chart from Live Beautifully on Less.  I added the chores I wanted the boys to take care of every day and printed it off. I also found this great list of daily chores for myself at My 3 Monsters Blog.

Now I have the lists, it's time to follow through.  I put the chore charts up in the kitchen, so we can keep track of what we need to do every day.  I am really hoping we can do this.  It would make me a much happier mom, which will make the whole house a lot happier.  Well, I don't know if the boys will be happy with the added work, but someday they will be happy I made them clean, right?

I would love to hear what tips and tricks work best to keep your house clean and organized with kids.