Shoeshine

So you know those moments where your heart is just overwhelmed with love for your children or your spouse? Well I had one of those today. My son Nathan has been choosing to wear his 'church' shoes on Sundays. His question before lunch today was "Dad can you teach me how to shine my shoes?" Now why this particular comment would cause that love sensation I'm not sure, but it did.

Who Knew?!

So who knew dishwashing was a contact sport? Apparently in our house it is. Nathan faked right and went left and I smashed into his forehead with the edge of a plate. Whoops!

                                                               

Spring Cleaning Fever

Well spring is in the air.  It must be because my little fingers are starting to itch and my brain spin with spring cleaning ideas.  It doesn't help that I've been reading a book titled "Is There Life After Housework" by Dan Aslett (I think I spelled the name right).  My plan for spring cleaning this year is to start by SIMPLIFYING.
I was doing laundry this week (so what else is new) and Emily brought down her dirty laundry...all three baskets mounding full...and she still has stuff in her drawers!  Seriously?!  Nathan and Megan's clothing piles aren't much better.  So I'd like to downsize the kids closets and then just get rid of all that stuff that's been sitting there for years that I haven't touched since we moved in here 3.5 years ago. 
I'm planning to start in my bedroom, which is a bit overwhelming because our closet has a storage area in it.  I am so looking forward to decluttering our house!
Of course it may take me years to do it, but I'm hoping not.
Alright, off to bury myself in dust and stored stuff.

Well it has been more than a month since the last posting and my playroom/house is wonderfully (mostly) still organized. I still have to tackle the craft drawers, but I think that will be waiting until after Christmas.

I just love being able to see my floors *smile*

Today will be a day to multitask. Though my laundry is clean (we won't discuss the several loads waiting for me upstairs) it needs to be folded and put away, I need to start sewing my 2 year olds Christmas present (a "Toothless" dragon, from How to Train Your Dragon) since I couldn't find them in store anywhere and online were running $150-$200. That wasn't gonna happen! I also need to start her Christmas PJ's (the other two kidlets, plus one set for my friends little girl are already done). I would like to clean out the window in the kitchen to display all my Christmas nativity scenes and what not. I think however, that I might save deep cleaning the laundry/bathroom for Monday.

Now as to budgeting...I still don't like not having money, but I can tell my mindset is changing because I walk out of the stores with only what's on my list, perhaps minus a few items that were non necessities instead of what's on my list and then some. I was still a hundred dollars over my food budget last month, but hopefully that will be rectified this month. Where we have run into a snag is that horrible column called "Extras". You know all that miscellaneous stuff that doesn't deserve a column of its own, but needs to be put somewhere. Yeah well that horrible column was sitting at almost $500 last month. Really?! Why do we need $500 worth of misc.?

On the upside of the whole budgeting thing, I have managed to procure a job watching a little girl during the day while my older kids are at school which will allow the kids to stay at their current school as it covers the cost of their tuition plus a whole extra $10. Whoo hoo. I am very grateful for this opportunity that God has provided as it meets all the criteria that we felt the ideal job for me should have at this time. I can work in my home, it covers the cost of the kids schooling, gives me the same days (mostly) off that the kids have, and best of all the little girl is my son's teachers daughter so when I pick him up, I drop her off. I also think it is a bonus for my 2.5 year old to have that experience of not being the youngest and learning how to deal with someone much smaller than her.

Well that's all for now.

Well just to add on at the end of this day, my laundry still remains unfolded, but the kitchen is clean, the downstairs is vacuumed, toys are put away, kids' rooms are cleaned, Toothless is maybe half done. Now my back is tired from all that sewing, but I feel good about my day. Perhaps I will even fold laundry while me and David watch a movie.

The hard part is getting started!

The hardest part is getting started. From oozing out of my bed early in the morning, to getting ready for bed at night. I have also found that once I have started whatever it was that I had been dreading (mmmm it can't be 6:30AM already!) isn't as bad or as hard as I thought it was going to be. My current dread/project is undigging my house from the mountainous melange of toys that my three munchkins have brought into it. When did that happen by the way, every time I turn around there are more and more toys...especially those oh so wonderful (if you're a kid anyway) happy meal toys. I'm telling you we must eat at fast food a lot more than I supposed if the exponential growth of these toys is any indication. Currently I have literally swept out the living room of all toys, clothes, and debris and deposited the pile in the play room. Now I have to start the sorting process. We are often telling our kids "Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do" and today I have to tell myself that. On the up side my laundry monster has been tamed (for a day at least), the children are dressed and groomed and departed for picture day at school, I don't have to go anywhere until 2:30 this afternoon, and when the toys are sorted (and some of them disposed of...a whole day to do it without interruption wahoo!) I will have a clean, organized playroom. Yay!

Now what you have to understand about these pictures is that they were taken after I had been sorting and cleaning for about 3 hours...AND there is even more upstairs in the kid rooms.

Well ta ta for another day from this mama living in her muddled house.

Busy Bee Day

I am not sure what happened to spring sunshine. I think April forgot to end so that May flowers could bloom. Here we are on the 18th of June and I have little hope that the corn in our garden will be knee high by the fourth of July. I sure hope September and October are extra nice to make up for this wet, cloudy spring.


In other news I had three extra kids added to the household for the day. My niece Bridget, nephew Seth, and my friends little girl Bailey. All in all I find having friends over can be easier than not having them. Other than general supervision and guidance, oh yeah and feeding them, they entertained themselves pretty well. A few squabbles here and there, but nothing serious. However, it amazes me that adding even one more kid can increase the dishes by so very much, but adding three has pretty much emptied my cupboard bare. I have done dishes no less than 5 times today. Amazing. Had a light bulb turn on after supper...I made the kids clear the table, rinse the dishes, and put them in the dishwasher. Revolutionary I tell ya! I guess I can't totally blame the kids for all the dishes. I made home made mac and cheese for lunch, and homemade chicken enchilada's for supper, and am about to finish making two chocolate cream pies.


David and I spent last Saturday cleaning up the downstairs of our house. I think 80% of that was toys. We have reduced the toys downstairs by probably 90% and it looks so nice, and the kids are actually playing with what is there instead of just stirring them into even greater chaos. It will be one week tomorrow that I have managed to keep the downstairs of my house cleaned. I amaze even myself sometimes.


The kids enjoying the pool...so what if it doesn't have any water in it :)

Returning Home

Well, I had a marvelous weekend away from my crazy, can't keep it neat, or tidy, or clean house. I went to a Ladies Retreat up at Canby Grove Conference Centre (in Canby, Oregon). My friend Megan and I left Friday and came home Sunday afternoon. I wasn't sure I was going to get to go. Thursday night about, oh 8:00 PM I started not feeling so well. Everyone in our house except Nathan and I had already caught this particular stomache bug. Sure enough (almost two weeks since the last person had it) I caught it. All night I made visits to the bathroom, still determined to go to retreat. The next morning I got up and called my father-in-law and asked if he would take the kids to school, left my youngest in bed (she was happy and singing to herself), and proceeded lay down on the couch and try to convince myself I wasn't sick. I'm glad I did go, even though I missed Friday evenings speakers and slept instead. I felt much better the next day and back to normal by Sunday.

I love coming home after being away from my family. My marvelous husband had made sure the kitchen was CLEAN! Better than I ever seem to manage. My four year old informed me she missed me sooo much but that she still loved me as much now as she did before and that none of her love had gotten lost :) Made my heart warm. My son proceeded to eat 3.5 big bowls of the black beans and rice I made like he had been starved all weekend and pronounced it soooo goooood. Megan (my Mega roo, not my friend Megan...confusing I know) on the other hand, who had apparently been missing me all weekend, singing songs about "mommy back?" really didn't want much to do with me. Oh she didn't fully ignore me, but she wanted daddy to hold her and put her to bed which is very unusual. Two days later things are back to normal and she is my little shadow again. I'm glad my shadow plays so well by herself.

Well, aren't I chatty today!

Signing off to start all those chores! Despite the kitchen being clean (which it is no longer of course) nothing else got cleaned and the bathrooms are desperately calling out to me for attention!

Clean kitchen...dirty kids!

Are we done yet?

Well, I feel great this week, which is fabulous. We have had a icky stomach bug making its

way around the family. First my little Megan bug caught it on Saturday, then the next Tuesday my sweet Emily got it and followed it up with 3 days of a different bug, I caught that bug and hurt for almost 4 days, then I thought "whoo hoo, we are done" I cleaned, I sanitized...and wouldn't you know it, David woke up a week and a half later on Friday morning with the original stomach bug that Meg had. Now, starting Monday, Nathan seems to be down with the ouchy tummy stomach bug Emily and I had. Hopefully it'll clear up tomorrow and life can go on. I do not like watching my kids be sick and in pain when there is nothing I can do about it.

I am half dreading catching the original throw uppy bug, I HATE throwing up, but the other half of me just wants to get it over with since there seems to be quite a long incubation period for whatever it is. The cynical part of me figures I will get sick either right before or during a Ladies Retreat I am going on next week.

Ah, well life continues and since I am feeling so well I guess I should go tackle my dishes and the giant pile of CLEAN laundry. At least it is all clean this time. I have kept up on washing it, but folding and putting away after every load is still eluding me. Goal for next week, is to keep on top of the laundry.

Waking up Clean

Well, here I am the day after Easter enjoying my mostly clean house (just don't look into my living room where shredded paper (thanks to my 4 going on 5 year old) and blankets reign supreme). I woke up this morning and came downstairs and just enjoyed the fact that my kitchen was clean! I didn't have to clean it. Marvelous! Thrilling! OK so it doesn't take much to excite me.

This morning was parent-teacher conferences. I am a proud parent. Both my kids are doing so well and get top grades in Listening and following directions, getting along with peers, participation...I love it. Nathan is having trouble with his cursive writing. My poor little leftie is just finding it so hard to find that smoothness when writing and as a result it is a tad(!) messy. Better than the beginning of the year, but still not great. His teacher and I and then his dad and I discussed what we could do at home to help him with that without making it a chore. I don't want him to hate writing! If you have any fun ideas with the whole fine motor skills thing let me know.

Me and my Easter beauties

Tap, tap, tap...

Well here I sit, staring at my computer screen and ignoring the five things that I have to complete in order to finish what I set out to do today. I feel like my almost 5 year old..."I don't wanna!" However, I suppose I should aspire to the proclamation of my two year old, "Mommy awesome!" Of course keeping a clean house is not what being a great mom is all about, but I think that attempting to keep a clean house is actually important for kids to witness and take part in. I'm sure it'll affect their characters somewhere down the road...just don't ask me how right now as my brain is falling asleep and I don't wanna finish my work.
And of course I have my Spring resolution of trying to be more organized (which in my head means more clean) tapping me on the shoulder.

(my lovely large and overflowing laundry room)