One thing that is always heavy on my heart is making available to other Moms the resources that I happen upon that bless me. 

The link below holds a great resource for Moms.  I can't always go out of town to attend a conference but I can get online!  There are quite a few online conference calls that I've participated in from Marilyn Moll's Urban Homemaker and I always learn something.

Here's the link for the conference call.

Click on Mar 15, 2007 - Marilyn with Lori and Lisa

I took a few notes for my own benefit.  I'd like to share.  Be sure to come back and leave a comment here on the blog if you listen and are blessed!

When you are training your children in obedience there is an acronym to help you and your kids remember what obedience really is:  CRIJ - Completely Respectfully Immediately Joyfully (sparkle in your eyes)

Obedience isn't just an action but it is an attitude of the heart.  Our concern for our children should be the heart.  Not just the behavior.

Require your children to get their chores done before breakfast.  The Bible says if you don't work you don't eat.  There is value in work.  The first thing to do when your children have obedience issues is to give them additional WORK.

The most important job of a mother of young children is to be at home.  Many a mother is burnt out and frazzled because she is attempting to balance more than she is designed to handle.  The church many times even subtly puts pressure on mothers to minister in the church, running programs and such.  However, the most important ministry of a young mother is the ministry to her children.  Every need does NOT constitute a ministry. 

The key to doing a good job in your home is to BE AT HOME!  Many SAHMs are not at home very often.

Interested in Gardening? - Take a look at the gardening book by Elliott Coleman (didn't get the name), Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, or Cinderblock Gardening (author not mentioned).

Know that however you may insecure in your abilities as a wife and a mother, there are other people like you!  Keep trodding along.  God will lead you to the people and places that you need in order to be all that he has created you to be!

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There are six of us in this house.  The 15 year old and the 11 year old girls both share similarly sized feet as do my 4yo and 2yo boys.  This equals sock pandemonium.  I have two solutions.  First, I have trained the members of my household (all but the 2yo) to clip their dirty socks together with a clothespin (cheap from WalMart) before they drop them in the dirty clothes basket.  This equals easy-to-match socks. 

When the socks are folded and put away however, my oldest boys socks seemed to make their way to the younger boys and so on.  My solution?  A good friend of mine told me about the "dot system"

My oldest boy is my number three child.  My youngest boy is my #4 child.  I dot their socks with the appropriate number of tiny circles (courtesy of a blue Sharpie in this case) and I never have to figure out whose socks are whose! 

This system also works for clothes. 

Now for those bright minds that are wondering what happens if I have more children or when my kiddos grow our their socks/clothes...here's your answers.

I buy oldest boy (child #3) new socks.  I put 3 dots on them.  His old socks with 3 dots get passed down to youngest boy (child #4).  I add one dot to those socks giving him a total of 4!  Then if we have baby #5 (hint to hubby if he's reading this) then I can take all of youngest boy's socks (or whatever) and add 1 dot making 5!  Simple enough....you will either love this system or wonder why I am making life so hard on myself :)

Be sure to check out Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips

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Q:  Does the borax harm any surfaces (that you've tried), or not? I have all these ingredients on hand... I should try this! :)
A:  Nope....not that I've tried.  The author of Clean House Clean Planet says that this concoction "can be used the refrigerator, walls, tile, shower, and toilets. "  She also says that it works well on shower walls, doorknobs, fingerprints on walls, cabinets, toilet area, and trash can deoderizer.

Q:  Is this mix going to get a bathroom disinfected? Is a pre-schooler safe to wield it? (I don't know anything about Borax.)
A:  The book says "This recipe has a little bit of mildly toxic borax in it.  Although technically not a disinfectant, borax is reputed to have antifungal and antiseptic qualities.  Borax is toxic to ingest, so please be sure to label the bottle with the ingredients, and keep out of the reach of children."  That said.  I would probably give a go of the recipe minus the Borax.  If you find that it works...let me know.  One more thing.  The author mentions using this spray with baking soda sprinkled on the surface to clean first for a more powerful clean.  If you X the Borax you might want to try using the spray in conjunction with baking soda.

Bottom line on the toxicity - this cleaner is toxic but probably in a much milder form than most of the commercial cleaners out there.  I enjoy making these because it keeps my grocery/household costs down, because I get to choose my scents, and because it doesn't hurt my head or nose to get things clean!

Hope that helps!

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I'm great for talking about all of the things I'd like to do as a Mom.  I great at planning.  I'm great at cruising the web looking for ideas...

but I'm not a natural doer. 

So normally I envy those Moms that do nice things for their kids.  I feel inadequate when I see how other Moms celebrate the holidays with their kids, and make wonderful memories.  Normally, I'm disgusted with myself at the end of a day that I failed to implement my plan.

Today, however, was a new day!  I actually followed through on my ideas!

Most importantly, I took Jana's suggestion and posted sticky notes all over.  He ran into them everywhere.  I laid his card in his car with a single rose for him to find when he got in to drive to work.  On his computer, in his computer, on his glasses, keys, car window, etc. He's been giving me this sheepish smile all day :)

For my oldest daughter, a card and a single rose were in order.  Just as I did for her Dad, I made sure that she would "find" them at some random point during the day.

My little ones had fun too.  After leaving the gym this morning, I stopped at Wal-mart to pick up a couple of "cheapie" odds and ends.  So here's how our day went:

A Valentine's balloon was the centerpiece for the table. 


We started our day with heart shaped pancakes served on themed paper plates.





My preschooler worked on my arts and crafts idea for the day.  My mommy's helper helped him out and, of course, took my idea WAY FURTHER than I would have ever taken it!







We strung hearts together to represent the tying together of our family's heartstrings- one heart for each member!



Kanaan stayed busy working on his own "project".  Oh the joys of a highchair!



Our next fun thing to do was bake...SUGAR COOKIES!







I had never baked sugar cookies from scratch before...not to mention attempted to decorate.





At least we tried....

The day was wonderful.  My three year old is STILL talking about Valentine's Day.  Memories are a wonderful thing.

I'm so glad I followed through on one of my ideas...maybe this will motivate me to do that more often!

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I have started making my own cleaner after reading frequently about the danger of chemicals in the home.  In addition, I've been trying to watch my costs at the grocery store. It's actually not hard and I have come to love the control I have over my fragrances.

I picked up Clean House Clean Planet by Karen Logan.  This booked is chalked FULL of great homemade cleaner ideas!  Here's the way you make your own multipurpose cleaner.

Ingredients:  Liquid soap or detergent (I use Original Dawn, or Lemon Joy), white distilled vinegar, borax, purified water, and an essential oils for fragrance.

How to Make:  Mix 2T of vinegar with 1tsp borax.  Pour through a funnel into a spray bottle of 16 oz.  (I use a 32 oz bottle so I double this recipe for my container).   Fill the rest of the bottle with very hot water.  Shake until the borax is dissolved.  Add the 1/4 cup of liquid soap or 1/8 cup of liquid detergent last.  To scent, add 10 to 15 drops ( or whatever smells good to you) of essential oil.  I like to use a combination of lavender/lemon, orange/lemon, or lemon/peppermint!

Here all of my supplies...



Here is my finished product...

Be sure to check out Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips.

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I have to admit that the toddler years are the hardest for me.  Not because I don't love them because I absolutely do, but because sometimes those bundles of joy just get in the way.  They touch EVERYTHING with their sweet little hands, and they explore EVERYWHERE on those pudgy little feet, and they bother love on EVERYONE all the time. 

Right now I have an "almost" two year old.  He's old enough to do things but not to do them for very long.  This results in time where my older children are happily occupied and the toddler is getting in the way. 
My recourse has been to investigate my options for entertaining my little ones.  I've had mother talk to me about gates, play-yards, and play pens.

I utilize, without guilt, a play pen for short periods of time.  It teaches him, like my other children have been taught, to keep himself occupied and happy without being entertained by another individual.  It also gives him the time and space, to explore, with focus, a variety of quality toys I make available to him - one at a time.  I also utilize, on occasion, a gate that will block of the entrance (or exit) to our staircase.

With that said, I for the most part let my children roam free in our home.  I take time to teach them what they can and cannot touch and where they can and cannot go.  For the most part, they learn compliance. (Read that last sentence as  - " they ARE children and do test boundaries but they can learn to respect boundaries too")

I'm still left with a quandry though.  A toddler...is a toddler...is a toddler... what to do?  Well,  somewhere in my Mommy journey I discovered a life saver.  The "Wrap".  There are different variations of it.  I started with a Baby Bjorn and grew frustrated as the growing weight of my baby on my front proved too much for my back.  I was then referred to a Maya Wrap that would let my baby sit on my hip but this still proved a bit uncomfortable with increased weight.  The Maya is 10x better than the Bjorn for an infant, but still not the answer for a toddler.

Glory Hallelujah!  Some web research resulted in a old but new solution.  The Wrap. I know can carry on my  front, hip, or back, a newborn, infant, or a toddler (or a preschooler) with ease.  The learning curve is real but short.  Great tips abound on the web at MamaToto.  This solution has been around for centuries in various cultures.  I'm glad that I got wind of it here in our oh-so-technically-advanced- US of A.

Here is me with my not-so-little one (ignore the chunky arms...I'm working on that at the gym) .  He rode "piggy-back" today while I worked in the kitchen for over an hour.

I guess he got a little worn out.  Swaying hips are MAGIC !!!

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We are a part of an organic food coop.  This allows us to get fresh fruit and veggies every other week.  Usually we receive a couple of heads of lettuce in our bin. 

I've learned that keeping lettuce dry is the trick to making it last.  When I first started preparing my lettuce, I would wash it and then use a salad spinner to dry it.  This did the trick but was a little labor intensive as all of the lettuce would not fit in the spinner.  By accident, I figured out another way.

I washed my lettuce after cutting/tearing it by soaking it in a large bowl of cold water.  I then placed the lettuce on a kitchen towel on my countertop.  I got distracted and hours later came back to a bunch of DRY lettuce...no effort on my part.  This has become my way of drying lettuce for salad. 

Put in a plastic container or Ziploc bag with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture, lettuce will last a LONG time.   The only thing to do is to  check the paper towel every now and then to make sure it's dry.  If not, replace it!  I've had lettuce last up to 3-4 weeks!

Be sure to check out Rocks in My Dryer for more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips.

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Today I baked bread.  I started attempting to make bake bread soon after getting married as I thought this was one of the things I ought to be able to do.  After a few years of making contact with people much more health/nutrition oriented than I, the transition has been made from attempting to bake bread on occasion to baking regularly.  I am now a regular bread baker and I rarely buy bread from the store. 

This is nothing less than amazing.  I'm the same girl who rarely cooked a meal and constantly ate out.  Now I bake my own bread....incredible.

I've always been a person driven to be the best at whatever I do.  I thought that a wife and mother ought to know how to bake bread...just because.  Now I bake bread because I'm convinced that it is the only way to make sure that I'm giving my family the best bread possible w/o paying an arm and a leg.  Whole grain at the grocery store is really not whole grain.  Once I understood how many foods, including bread, are stripped of their true nutritional value, I committed to doing what I could to give my family my best. 

Not only do I bake my own bread but I mill my own flour.  I know....REALLY insane!  How'd I go from the up and coming financial research guru to breadbaker...I dunno...I guess it's Jesus.

I could try to explain the reason for milling my own flour but it's already been done so well HERE. 

Anywho, I milled my fresh flour and produced five beautiful loves of bread in about 1.5 hour.  Here's the bread going into the oven....

Here's the finished bread on the counter to cool with fresh melted butter brushed over the top...Mmmmmmmm!!!

I went on to slice the bread with an electric slicer.  A good friend just gave me this tip.  This was my first time to use the electric slicer and it was wonderful! 

Not bad.  I also took some additional dough (the dough that is normally the sixth loaf) and made a gigantic "Hot Pocket".  It was so good.   A little cheese, turkey, and miracle whip inside before baking followed by melted butter and parmesan cheese on the outside after baking and VOILA!

I started about 4pm and was finished at 6pm.  This included cleanup...and....one hour of this time was spent looking at magazine while my bread was rising and baking!  Not bad :)

We ate a loaf.  I put one in the refrigerator for later (cuz we almost go through a whole loaf when the bread is fresh and hot...wonderful with butter and fruit spread).  I also put two in the freezer and sent one home with my mother-in-law.  I will bake again in a couple of weeks.  Many times I give most of it away b/c when I get in a groove of baking every week we just can't eat it all.  Not a bad problem to have :)

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People sometimes ask me how do I get it all done.  Well...first of all...I don't.  Getting it all done is a myth that I am trying to rid myself of right now.  No one I know gets it all done unless they pay people...and they still don't get it "all" done. 

What I have learned is that being effective and using my time wisely is the goal.  I desire to maximize every minute of my day and in order to do that I need organization.  So, I have asked many more experienced at-home-Moms to help me and have utilized many books and resources to figure out my day.  Now, I am aware that my many schedules and routines make me appear super Type A and inflexible.  The reality is that with the amount of activity in my life, the routines help me know what comes next - that's all.  I am always free to choose whether or not to go with the plan or circumvent the plan.

Today, for instance, my family and I are going to the fair.  Our morning chores will either get done tomorrow, or not at all.  Hanging out with my family is more important today than clean bathrooms.  My schedules and routines allow me to make choices about where I want to spend my time.  If I didn't have some kind of guide for how to do things I would always be putting out fires and doing whatever I felt like at the moment or what had to be done.  I know Moms like this and I've BEEN a Mom like this...operating out of chaos.

OK...enough preaching.  I'm going to the fair and this was supposed to be a quick post :)

Although it constantly changes, I thought I'd share our most recent updated Chores Schedule.  Hope it helps someone.

BTW...when you look at just know that I KNOW it could be more simple but...I wanted not only to know what needs to be done in our house but WHOSE JOB IT IS to do it!  I refuse to be the maid.  We all mess up so we all clean up....except my hubby who brings home the check so we can BE at home :)  But even he does his part :)  I just don't put him on the schedule.

There is a comments sections on this blog.  Feel free to post your thoughts or any questions :)

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