the 2-year-old was making a mess by throwing rice krispies all over the floor & storage buckets. snap-crackle-pop-smash-crunch. At least I hadn’t done the pantry floor yet … and now after an afternoon of cleaning (thanks to nap time for tru), it is tidier and cleaner than ever.
p.s. i really, really don’t think i will ever like the smell of vinegar(even with essential oils). What do you use to clean & sanitize your floors?
You know when you have a glorious idea for family home evening and you plan it for weeks… and then when you actually have it, it’s not quite like you envisioned. Yes. This happens. It happened on Monday. But – ya know – despite its imperfections, it’s still a fun memory for me. I hope my kids will remember it too. There was craziness and hitting (from the littles) and arguing (who got more turns putting on stickers … and who got to hold pictures) … but the Spirit was there as much as possible and so hopefully the kids learned something.
The Message: Temples & Families can be Together Forever
The Activity: Pin a few more stickers on temples in the United States… we’re about half-way done.
The Goal for 2012: Earn as many pennies as we can for the ‘Temple Building Fund’. The kids loved running all over the house trying to find all the lost stashes of coins. They’ve even contributed a few of their own $$ which is a huge sacrifice because they hardly ever have $$. (I loved Jimmy’s idea to add these coins to our Counting Money Jar and each year we’ll contribute to a different church fund).
And then… today I finally got some new pictures on the wall. I think the last time I changed the pictures in the frames in the stairway was in Arizona… like 6 years ago. Nice! And in our bedroom we had those 2 frames with all the models staring at us for like 2 years (sideways no-less). Now we have our children smiling back at us. It’s nice. My favorite wall is the play room with the proclamation and family pictures. I so don’t know how to arrange a cool collage like that but since it is lined up on the top and some of the sides, I guess we’ll keep it.
Nothing in our home is fancy. I’ve come to grips that I have no style or trendiness in me. The breakables can’t even be out right now in this stage. But I hope my kids will have good memories of this home and that what is on the walls will remind them that our goal is ETERNAL LIFE … to be together as a family in the Celestial Kingdom.
My dear friend, Steph, who resides up in Alaska (the land of much snow this year),
reminded me yesterday that LIFE is a process.
It’s not about becoming perfect all at once.
It’s about taking Baby Steps.
And my favorite line:
Isn’t that awesome!
Really I’m thinking the Star Trek way might be the easiest:
I somehow think things like this are hilarious at 11 pm when I’m half asleep.
I love having good friends who help me keep the right perspective.
Today: Baby Steps. Hope. Encouragement. Patience. Wisdom.
needs some encouragement. I’m not good at a few minutes here… a few minutes there. I’d rather conquer something all at once. But such is not my life.
I needed to revisit something I read by Emilie Barnes in the book I’m reading…
Before I read this book I thought to myself… oh, I’m not a pack rat.
Well – according to this book… I am. Oops. Better get going on fixing that.
Speaking of organizing… the shoe organizers for the backs of closet doors just arrived. Some are for shoes… some are for craft supplies… some are for laundry room items. I hope I like them!
Off to organize while the tots are sleeping!
that the maid did not show up for work today.
wait? what maid?
oh right – that’s me.
fortunately the mother showed up for work (well… mostly)
and she loved the wee little fussy Eliza
all the day long.
which means… that reality is…
that when you decide to set a goal and get something accomplished…
something else is sent your way…
like having a wee babe not take her normal naps.
which means… that my home clean-out (40 bags in 40 days)
and home organization projects
did not get far today.
fortunately hannah joyfully (or not!)
cleaned her room since she was home with a sore throat.
I helped her organize all her special papers from the past few years.
we threw a bunch of papers away.
so – a little progress.
just not the amount I was hoping for.
this may take months… not weeks…
or years? please don’t say years!
I just want to be done by the time we’re all playing outside all the day long…
for then the maid really doesn’t show up for duty…
she’s too busy being a mother.
sigh…
The van won’t start. We think it’s the starter. Hmmm… not that we really ever go anywhere… but today is the day to begin my new organization system while we’re at home all day long. I’m completely copying my friend Shauna who inspired me to try this system.
As much as I love to play all day, I thoroughly believe this is true:
p.s. is the book I’m getting ideas from:
I’m off to work. I hope I can get some work done here & there while still being a mother. I imagine this might take weeks… but Try I shall.
The Goal: to feel Supremely Satisfied with my home: A Place for everything; everything in it’s place.
for some reason, when I make cookies, i feel like a good mom (*note… i did not say “AM a good mom” … keywords: “feel like”). It has something to do with the entire cookies & milk & yellow balloons thing.
Today I made a double batch of Ang’s Perfect Cookies. I made half plain choc chip for the kiddos. And half with orange gummies & chocolate chip. Yummy. They are quite tasty.
Now… to figure out dinner. Hmmmmm?
just what y’all wanted … or not
Thanks for all the suggestions friends. I really, really, REALLY appreciated the ideas. Keep them comin’!
I took all the comments and wordle helped pull the top 25 words. This is what it came up with:
insightful… maybe? After soaking in everyone’s comments I’ve decided it boils down to a few things. These are the words I came up with.
Every Year I go through issues with dishes & laundry. I try to come up with a new system… and for me I think I need to find something that works and then just get to work. I think deep down I know that staying on task with a system and doing the work is what needs to be done. Staying on top of things makes it do-able. Instead of letting it stack up and feeling swamped with a mountain of laundry/dishes. Sigh…
It’s like my mother taught me when I was a little girl (a message from President Monson):
So – the goals.
1. Simplify the baskets… because we do have so many colors in our system, I think “well, that batch isn’t full”. If we have fewer baskets, they will need to be washed more frequently… which will help a twice a week or once-a-day laundry plan. I just need a system that will be easy for the kids. That’s why I had a gray basket. gray… that’s easy enough. jeans… easy enough. We’ll work on that.
2. Helpers… I have the kids do loads of work on laundry… mostly sorting… getting their dirty laundry sorted with the family’s. They often “fold”. They “put away?” their own laundry. I need to teach more in this area… how to do it right the first time.
3. Hannah helper. I’m going to make a chart for the laundry room that tells how to do laundry so Miss Hannah can assist me in getting loads started, etc.
4. Clean out the laundry room. It’s gotta be done people… at least once a year. Will do that soon. I love when the table in there is cleared off. Love it!
5. Purge and sort… I liked the advice to purge and sort. My closet needs this desperately. I still have maternity clothes out… debating if I give them away or not. Other clothes may never fit again. Keep up with purge and sort with kids is so tricky, but I know if I keep up on it weekly, it won’t be so daunting a task.
6. Just get to work Heather. I think I can make things easy… when really I just need to buckle down, establish a routine (morning routine… what’s that? genius idea.) and do the work that needs to be done. Work first, play later. sigh…
7. Family time… I liked that someone mentioned that if the laundry is done throughout the week, Saturday can become more of a family day. That is so true around here. Generally we all work together Saturday morning… but come summer, all I want to do is go to the mountains and hike on Saturday mornings. Then we come home to a messy house. Cleaning during the week leaves more time for family on weekends. very good. Let’s do it.
why? because I need your help… and because it’s part of our every day life… eh?
So this is our laundry for the week.
Jimmy did laundry on Saturday while I was forever-more at the church doing Visiting Teaching changes. I guess a family of 7 produces a lot of laundry. And because we have so many kids who make many messes, we wash an outfit a day (at least) per person. And then there is Eliza who spits up on parents so our clothes also make it into the dirty laundry pile daily.
This seems like a crazy amount of laundry. I should do a batch a day or something nice like that… but usually I save it all up for Saturday. Abe carries it all downstairs to line up against the wall by the laundry room, I try to remember to keep it going, and then reality is that Jimmy folds it. I shouldn’t admit that, but it’s true. He’s great. I’m not. Ok. Moving on.
My friend told about how much she loves her laundry room (hi laura!). It’s upstairs. She has all the dirty clothes stacked in 3 hampers. She can fold the clothes in there on the counter. She has a window in there. She loves that the laundry never goes downstairs. Sounds great… well, except for that you still have to do the work. I don’t love my laundry room. I do sorta like it when I clear the table off in there. But it’s smallish. And I painted it light buttercup in hopes it would bring me cheer, but it’s too bright for such a small space. You can just ignore all my babbling about now.
Anyhoo… so… let’s chat about laundry.
How can we simplify?
I hear about people who have 3 laundry baskets. What’s the system? Lights, Whites, and Darks?
It appears that we keep adding colors to our system. A while ago I decided to label the baskets (see green arrow in picture) so the kids would get the laundry in the right basket. So we’ve got Jeans, Darks, Brights, Pastels, Grays/Tans/Blues (seriously – we have a lot of boys), Whites, Towels… did I miss one? Oh yeah… sometimes Red if we have enough.
So – am I completely wacko? You can tell me yes. Well… in a nice way maybe.
Should I really just go with lights, whites, and darks… or whatever the 3 basket system is? Do the clothes really get as clean? Where do the brights go? I’m at a loss.
Folding out of the dryer. This is a very nice idea. I absolutely love folding warm laundry out of the dryer. I think it’s happened like once in the past year. I do not like folding wrinkled cold clothes. I really don’t.
So – is there a realistic solution to being able to fold clothes warm out of the dryer? I’m serious here. Is there? I don’t mind folding laundry, but I don’t like the kids running through the nice folded piles (ah-hem… truman)… or throwing laundry out of baskets (ah-hem… max!). And I don’t like to be interrupted. I like to watch a movie and sit in peace and fold. Realistic in my life right now… nope.
I think I’m done with my questions and babbling. Let me know what works for you. I’d love to hear ideas.
“I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void.” Meg – You’ve Got Mail
Came across this poem today.
I know I ought to greet the day singing…
being grateful for life … family … opportunity.
Yep – Need to work on that. Mornings aren’t my specialty.
Yesterday I was so super tired. I’m not sure why, but my body was drained. All I wanted was a nap.
At the end of the day, this scripture came to mind.
There is so much good to be done – if I can just keep going.
Today I’m recommitting myself.
The dishes and laundry need some attention.
My tots could use some one-on-one time with a nice mom.
I need to get on top of my game with Relief Society stuff.
Onward and Upward!