Jan. 8, 2007 - Quilting: A first

Nov. 15, 2006 - Our Thanksgiving journal

As I was growing up, my mom instituted a Thanksgiving tradition.  One evening prior to Thanksgiving day, our family would gather around the table and make a family thanksgiving tree. 

Basically, we drew a big tree on a poster-sized piece of paper, dated it, and then we'd each grab markers and write down things we were thankful for-- usually just a short phrase or even one word.  When we were done, mom would hang it up near our table and there it would remain for the next month or two... a daily reminder of the things our family was grateful for.

I loved doing this, and wanted to have a tradition similar to that in our home.  I wasn't quite sold on the tree-on-a-paper idea, although Mark and I tried that for a couple years when we were first married.  What I didn't like about that format was that I wanted to save them from year to year, and I didn't want another stack of papers- least of all poster-sized papers. 

When our daughter was born, I came up with the idea to make a family Thanksgiving journal.  We basically do the same thing-- record the things we're thankful for-- we just do them in a spiral-bound book, and each family member gets a page. 

Our Thanksgiving journal sits on an end table in our home during the month of November.  Others have the opportunity to peruse it when they're in our home, and of course our children look through it frequently.  And it is a delight to look back at the things God has done in our family through the years. 

I'd love to hear some of your Thanksgiving traditions!

~Stacy

Sep. 27, 2006 - Can I get an instruction booklet, please?

There is a household task I cannot seem to figure out.  I have determined, over and over again, to complete this task.  And yet no matter how many different ways I've tried it, no matter how many times I've done it, it evades me.  My attempts to complete this task result in utter frustration on my part.  And 9 times out of 10, I end up calling for my husband to come and take over.  

Are you curious?

It is this: Putting The Duvet Cover On Our Down Comforter.  The task itself sounds simple enough.  I assure you, it is not.  This task is not for the faint of heart.  (Thus, not for me, apparently, since I always end up giving up in exasperation.) 

And yet.  I begin confidently, every time.  I even give myself a little pep talk as I proceed.  This is very simple, Stacy.  What we're going to do is this: Hold onto the left-hand corner of the comforter, and reach into the duvet cover.  When you get into the corresponding corner, grab both corners (comforter and duvet) and hold tightly.  There.  Now go for the other corner.  Grab both of those corners.  Hold very tightly.  Now, shake it out. 

It is at this point that I realize that while my first reaching for the corner attempt was successful, my second corner attempt was not.  I always end up with the wrong corner of the duvet.   

For a visual, imagine the diagram below as my duvet cover.  I am standing at the foot of our bed, near the C and D corners.  My goal is to reach for corners A and B.  However, I invariably end up holding on (for dear life, I might add) to corners A and D.  The B corner is the problem.

A    B

o

C    D

What is it about this seemingly simple task that I cannot seem to wrap my brain around?  Is it the sheer size of these two items?  Do I need longer arms?  A map? 

Don't even suggest the whole turn-it-inside-out approach.  Do you think I haven't tried that?  I saw those step-by-step directions in a Martha Stewart: Living magazine years ago.  I pored over those directions.  Probably even tore out the page and brought it into the bedroom with me, consulting it as I went along.  IT DOES NOT WORK.  Not for me, anyway. 

If I weren't so attached to my down comforter, I would toss it out for a quilt in a heartbeat.  But I happen to be very attached to my down comforter, so the problem persists. 

Last night, I gave up again in exasperation.  Mark dutifully came in to rescue me.  I came back into the room as he was finishing The Awful Task.  So I asked him, "What do you DO?"  He began to carefully explain his procedure.  He started by saying that he turns the cover inside out.  I rolled my eyes.  And then he said this, "..and then I climb inside with the comforter."  I had just taken a drink of water and I literally spit it back into my cup, I was laughing so hard.  The image of my husband- all six feet, six inches of him- climbing inside our duvet cover has me shaking with laughter even now.  How could I have missed this event so many times?   Now I can't wait for the next installment of Putting The Duvet Cover On Our Down Comforter.  I plan to snag a front row seat.

Sep. 26, 2006 - Christmas cards: cast your vote!

In my last post, I invited you to vote on our family Christmas cards this year.  If you missed that post, you can read it here.

Before you view the options, please keep in mind that I kept them simple.  (I just don't have it in me to tackle embossing powder with preschoolers.  Or little eyelets, for that matter.  Though I'm sure my son would have been mighty excited about the hammer I use for pounding those in.)

For our 2006 Christmas-card-making-venture, here's what we (me with my two-year old and four-year old) came up with: 

#1  (This one I colored)

 

 

#3  (Obviously very similar to #1, just with deckled edge scissors on the red paper, and the Merry Christmas and snowman have changed places.  And it was colored by my daughter).

 

 

#4  (Merry Christmas is on the inside)

 

 

#5  (I tried to limit the coloring pencils to the greens and reds, but my son got ahold of the orange pencil for this card! :))

 

Okay, cast your vote for card #1, #2, #3, #4 or #5.  I'll give it one week, tally up the votes and proceed! :)

 

Have a wonderful day! 

~Stacy

 

Sep. 25, 2006 - Making Christmas cards

Once a year I let myself "splurge" at the stamp store.  I go in for the sole purpose of purchasing a stamp (or two) to make Christmas cards with.  Then I head to the paper store and get the paper and envelopes I need. 

I really like making our Christmas cards, and it's a tradition I plan to keep.  Making cards is something I used to do it a lot, but it's rare that I ever have the time anymore.  I look forward to this time a year when I get to be creative and make cards. 

When I get to our stamp store, I first walk around and look.  There are many cards made and hanging up above the stamp displays, so I look for elements I like in those cards.  I glean ideas, and try to get my own "vision" for what kind of card to make.  Once I have a rough idea, I search for a stamp to use within the framework of that idea. 

This year I decided that I wanted our children to help me make our Christmas cards.  When I headed to the store, I was looking for something that would:

a) be appealing to them, and

b) be something they will be able to help me with

This is what I came home with:

I usually experiment a bit with the stamp(s), papers and colors in an effort to determine what I like best (or, what is easiest to mass-produce!)  I generally make up a few cards and then ask my husband to choose the one he likes best. 

Well, this year I thought I might open up the voting... to YOU!  Tomorrow I'm going to post pictures of the five options I've come up with and let you vote on which one you like best.  (Does this sound fun to anyone but me?)  The card that gets the most votes is the one I'll make in bulk and send out for our Christmas cards this year.

~Stacy

Aug. 18, 2006 - 10-minute cleanup!

Unfortunately, it's become a habit around our house for our children to play with something in one room for awhile, and then leave the toys where they lay and move to the next room.  They enter the next room with a collection of toys from the original room, and as they meander through the house during the day, they deposit toys in every room!  (Does this sound familiar to anyone?)

At the end of the day I try to straighten and pick up the toys.  But at that point, the kids are sleeping in the rooms that the toys belong in, so... things don't always get to where they belong. 

Having stepped on and tripped over too many toys laying on the floor, I have recently begun trying to instill some good cleaning-up habits in our home.  

Truthfully, I'm almost embarassed to write this post because it's likely that most of you already have a system in place (and probably a better one!), or have been doing something similar for ages. 

However- our "system" has been working so well for us, I thought I'd share.

A couple of weeks ago, I gathered up all the toys that I found on the floor of our playroom and stuck them into a laundry hamper.  I then set the hamper in the middle of the floor and explained to my children that I was going to set the timer for 10 minutes.  I told them that when the timer beeped, if there were any toys still in the hamper, they would go into the garbage (!)

On that first occasion, I helped guide them a little to ensure that everything was going away in it's proper place.  I think it is important for everything to have a spot in order for this to work.  We have a larger version of one of these:   

 so it's easy for our kids to see what belongs where.

When the timer went beep, the hamper was empty.  And our children were elated and proud of themselves for doing it well before the timer!

I only used the hamper that first time.  Now I just periodically call out, "10-minute cleanup!"  I give a bit of instruction as to where I'd like them to focus their energies, and they scramble about to beat the timer.  I've been doing this about 3x a day, (once before lunch, another in the afternoon, and another before bedtime).  And this has worked wonders for the cleanliness of our home. 

In addition, the kids love it.  My daughter, especially, is really into this.  She gets a little frantic that things might get thrown into the garbage and becomes a speedy little cleaner-upper.  I've heard her often call out her own "10-minute cleanup!" instruction to her little brothers as she sees things getting messy.  It's very cute. 

For the first time last night, I set the timer for 5 minutes and told them to clean up the little cars and a few other toys they'd been playing with.  My daughter ran about cleaning up, but my son chose to play during the 5 minutes instead.  We noticed he was doing this, and encouraged him once, but let him continue playing.  When the timer went off, my husband and I headed into the room with a garbage bag, and packed up all the little cars he'd been playing with.  There were many tears from both of our children.  My son plays with those cars every day, many times a day. 

Now, we didn't actually throw the cars away.  We just packed them up and took them away.  We explained that they wouldn't get to play with those toys for a day (Mark says it should have been longer, but I had to come up with something spur of the moment because I hadn't pre-thought this part of it!)  My son, especially, was very disappointed and tearful but understood it was because he had played instead of cleaning up. 

Anyway, that's our system.

What's yours?

~Stacy

Aug. 16, 2006 - So that you know...

...I may be a perfectionist in some areas, but I am not perfect.

Recently, I read an entry by Corin that acknowledged that when blogging, we all like to write about what we're doing right, what has worked, what tasks we've finished, etc... (so true, isn't it?)

And yet, she writes, "we all have weaknesses, we all struggle from time to time.  How often do we only write about the good and "forget" to mention the rest?  Or our pride gets in the way...?"

Corin's challenge was to post 25 things that would keep you off the cover of 'Perfection Weekly'. 

I'm game.  Lest you think this is easy for me, it is NOT.  It was, however, not a stretch for me to come up with 25 things that reveal my imperfections, but it is difficult for me to post them!  So why do it?  Because I want to be someone who is willing to talk about the things that are imperfect in my own life.  And I could always come down a few notches in my own pridefulness.  (This oughta do it! :)) 

Without further ado, my own 25:

1.The surfaces of the tables in my home (or really, any flat surface) are usually cluttered with piles of books, papers, mail, projects, etc...

2. I am a much better spender than saver in terms of money.

3. I am a much better saver than thrower-awayer in terms of stuff.

4. Just so you know, our freezer is regularly stocked with chicken nuggets or corn dogs (or both) for quick lunches.

5. And our freezer also proudly displays many cartons of ice cream (four at last count, I think).  We eat ice cream practically every day.  I'm serious.

6. Despite my desire to be hospitable, I am terrible at inviting people over for dinner.

7. I get crabby and exasperated with my children. 

8. I am very impatient.  Especially when we're trying to get out the door!

9. I rarely do school-type things (practicing letters and sounds) with my four-year-old.

10. Sometimes food goes bad in my fridge.  (Usually sour cream or cottage cheese.)  I know... ICK.

11.  There have been days that my children are still in their pajamas (or at least one of them is) when daddy comes home from work.  And they weren't sick, either.

12.  I'm continually beginning projects but not finishing them. 

13.  It's been months since I cleaned our bathtub.

14.  We give our kids baths once a week.  (Although it has been more frequent lately since they've been outside and getting dirty more often.)  Still.  On average, it's once a week. 

15.  I never wear make-up (with the exception of lip gloss or lipstick).

16.  My hair is in a ponytail 98 % of the time.  (If I don't have a hair elastic with me and my hair is down, I panic.)

17.  I very rarely dust my furniture.  I mean, very rarely.

18.  On the small desk on which my computer sits (that I'm at right now), I see the following things: an opened letter we got in the mail probably 2 weeks ago, a purple marker, two tubes of toothpaste, a toothbrush, a roll of tape, the recharger for our digital camera, a stack of post-it notes, a water bottle, a pillow for my daughter's dolly, my Bible, journal, a magazine, a pair of Bob the Builder underwear (clean, I promise!), some kleenex, some more mail, a library book (probably overdue), an envelope of photos we picked up nearly a month ago, a CD (need I go on????)  This is the NORM. 

19. I regularly walk past something that isn't in it's proper place. And I should put it there, but I don't.

20.  I have about 5 loads of laundry piled onto the couch right now.  My laundry days were Monday and Tuesday.  It's Wednesday.

21.  I haven't exercised in a week.

22.  Our covered back porch is generally so crammed full of stuff, you might be risking your very life (or at the very least, end up with a broken leg), to try to walk through it.

23. I often forget to brush my children's teeth.  Or remind them to.

24. I always misplace my keys.

25. Our bedroom is a mess.

And there you have it.  I'm cringing, but I will post this.  Now.  Before I change my mind.

~Stacy

Aug. 14, 2006 - I know a little about perfectionists...

..because I am one. 

I'm the type of person who will be writing a card or a letter to someone and if I happen to write the wrong word, or- heaven forbid- misspell something, I do not cross out that word and begin where I left off.  Nor do I use white-out.  (It flakes off, don't you know?)  What I do is this: I throw the card away and start over again. 

For those of you who may be like me in this area, you know that when your children are helping you, you have this strong urge to do things over again. 

For instance, when my daughter (4), helps me fold the laundry,  her little stack of folded washclothes and towels isn't so little.  It's lumpy.  And the corners are mismatched.  It can be very difficult for me to put those little piles away without doing a bit of retouching on her folding.  But I refrain. 

And last week, she was helping me snip and cut the beans from our garden.  I watched (and winced) as she cut her beans in tiny little pieces.  I even cut a sample size for her and laid it on her cutting board for inspiration.  It never struck.

But I have learned that there is great joy for me in pulling those little lumpy washclothes out of the drawer.  And I was delighted the other night at dinner when I saw those little bits of beans. 

Now if I could just figure out why my perfectionistic tendancies aren't really bothered by the piles of clutter around my house...

~Stacy

Aug. 9, 2006 - Sewing: My first project

My mom sewed many clothes for me and my sister over the years.  I have fond memories of heading to the fabric store, selecting a pattern, choosing a fabric, and watching a piece take shape as she worked on it. 

Although I learned a lot from watching, I never actually learned to sew myself.  With the exception of a couple of Home Ec projects, I have never sewn anything myself. 

This past year I've been itching to learn.  I have many plans to make curtains, bibs, aprons, dresses and skirts for my daughter, doll clothes, and some quilting.  It is also one of the practical skills I want to teach my daughter. 

A friend of mine from church, who is an excellent seamstress, recently offered to teach me.  I jumped at the opportunity.  She invited me over for my first lesson this past Monday, and I made this for my daughter's stuffed bunny (and constant companion) Flopsy.

 

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the whole venture so I thought I'd share it with you! 

 

My encouragement to those of you who already know how to sew: teach someone else!  It is a generous gift to give. 

 

And I think I've managed to convince my husband to buy me a machine for Christmas (so, for you sewers out there, in an effort to help my husband- any suggestions on what kind of sewing machine and which features to look for in a machine?) 

 

~Stacy

Jul. 31, 2006 - Apples!

This is the time of year in our home that we're busy storing up food for the rest of the year. 

We have two very happy apple trees in our yard.  We'd picked apples before leaving for vacation, and they were waiting in our fridge upon our return.  We've picked one more box in addition to these you see here.

I usually make applesauce, but we still have some from last year (and two of my children won't eat it anyway), so this year I decided to use our apples for apple pies.  As you can imagine, this idea was met with great delight by my husband.  Apple pie is hands-down his favorite dessert. 

 

This past week our evening activity has been peeling, coring and slicing apples. 

 

So far I have 9 bags of apple pie filling.

I broke down on Saturday morning and made three batches of applesauce afterall (just to change things up a little).  I'm down to one more drawer of apples, so within the next couple of days we should be done with the apple season (and have nearly 20 bags of apple pie filling!  How many apple pies can one make in a year?  Mark says, "Never enough!")  I'll be glad to get down to the last apple.  I'm a bit appled-out!

 

Most of what we stock up on is fruit.  Each year we go strawberry, raspberry and blueberry picking.  We end up with bags of frozen fruit that I use for smoothies or an occasional berry pie.  Every other year I make jam.  This year I made raspberry freezer jam- and lots of it!  This past month we did the strawberries and raspberries, and this week we'll go blueberry picking.  (And yes, based on my last experience, the thought of  heading back to the berry fields makes me nervous, to say the least.)

We've also been pulling zucchini out of our garden.  Last night I made two loaves of bread and froze a number of 2-cup portions of grated zucchini, which is what my zucchini bread recipe calls for.  There's many more where that came from.  I'm sure I'll be grating zucchini for weeks to come! 

Later this week the beans will be ready in our garden, and then we'll be snipping, cutting, and canning.  The corn from our garden we'll freeze.  There will be carrots and onions and hopefully cucumbers (although those don't look too promising; we'll see).

I'd love to hear what anyone else does to stock up your freezer or pantry for the winter months!

Jul. 28, 2006 - Questions for the wise- Part four and Part five

Two more questions for you wise mamas:

1. What sort of planning calendar/system do you use?  For the past number of years I have been using a Franklin Covey planner.  I don't think it's working anymore.  It's too small, for one.  Ideally, what I would like is this:

-One that hangs on the wall (more visible).

-One that has room for not only birthdays/addresses, but also meal plans, lesson plans and other notes. 

What are you using?

2.  What is your system for getting your children's pictures taken?  (the get dressed-up, "school" portrait type of picture).  I would like to buck this tradition altogether and just get a yearly family picture taken, but my mother-in-law has a wall of those 8x10 individual shots of each grandchild that she likes updated photos for. 

What do you do?

-Do you have all of your children together in one picture or get individual pictures of each child?

-How often and when do you have these taken? (I want to hear if you don't do this at all, either!)

Okay, two questions.  You don't have to answer both but please do comment on one if any thoughts come to mind!

Blessings to each one of you today!

~Stacy

Jul. 20, 2006 - Excellent gift ideas – part two

It has been easy for me to find gifts that Stacy has given to our family to show off because Stacy is a very thoughtful gift giver!  A gift that she (and her family) gave to my second born son for his second birthday is definitely one of my favorites.  It is a book that Stacy’s whole family worked on together where Luke is the star. 

In order to make this amazing book, Stacy first had the foresight to take thoughtful pictures when our families were at the county fair together.  She then compiled and cropped them (as any good scrap-booker would do) in a way that tells a story.  Stacy then employed her husband and children to come up with the story that would go along with the pictures.  The end product is a wonderful picture book that has been read over and over again by all (and to all) my boys complete with rhymes! 

Here is a picture of the front cover of the book:

And here is a picture of one of the pages inside:

This gift to could be done well for a number of different people and a number of different occasions.  But for kids especially because as we all know they love to be the star.  They read books about others’ adventures all the time; it is so special for them to read a good story about one of their own adventures.  I don’t think our family will ever grow bored by reading this classic treasure.  Thank you Stacy, Mark and kids!

~Amy

Jul. 5, 2006 - Solution!

Last week I was looking for a solution, or a "home", for our craft items.  Everyone who commented gave great ideas.  I considered purchasing a new storage center but decided against it since we don't really have the room or the money to purchase one.  I considered recycling an old dresser and using the drawers for storage, but again, didn't really have the room.  In her comments, MotherHen suggested using a kitchen cupboard, and that's what I've done.  (Thank you for the practical and inexpensive idea!)

I cleared out the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard.  This cupboard happens to be the one closest to our kitchen table, which is handy, since that's where we do most of our crafts!  Also, this shelf slides out for easier access. 

I bought 8 shoebox-sized bins ($1.99 apiece, at Target), some labels, and set to work.  Here's the result:

Jun. 28, 2006 - Looking for a solution

Last week Amy posted her first 'question for wise moms', on socks.  She got some great responses, so I'm hoping you can also help me!

A few days ago I was cleaning our living/family room and decided something had to be done. 

As I put things away, I was very conscious of all the things that didn’t really have a place.  So I grabbed a piece of paper and taped it on the wall.  At the top of this paper, I wrote: "Things without a home".  Then each time I came across something (or a group of things) that didn’t have a ‘home’, I wrote it on the list.  Not only did I write it on the list, but I then took that item and set it aside.  So now I have a pile of things that don’t have places. 

Out of the eleven items that made it on my list, five of them are all in the same category: markers, paints & brushes, stamps, crayons, and paintbrush pens.  Here are some of those things:

Now, obviously our crayons have a 'home'; they're in a bin, but where should I put that bin?  And the markers.  Where do those go? 

Until now these various containers have been setting on top of this, which houses the toys, 

but I'm tired of having them there.  It's too cluttery.

Can some of you share what you do with crafty items?  Do you have a shelf, a drawer or a larger bin you put all these things in?   Please help!  I’d love some suggestions!

Thank you,

Stacy

Jun. 20, 2006 - Questions for the wise

Stacy and I were talking about all the things that we would love to ask our blogging buddies.  We think we have quite a list!  So, our plan is to periodically post our “questions for the wise” and see if we can get any good help.  So here is my first question:

Socks!  What do I do about the socks?  It seems like my boy’s socks ALWAYS have holes in them!  Do I…

1)      Just let ‘em wear holey socks?

2)      Buy more expensive socks?

3)      Buy socks every month as cheap as I can?

4)      Forget about socks?

Are we the only ones with this problem?  Is there something we are doing wrong?  Or is this just life with kids –you can always use a few new pairs of socks?

Thanks for the help,

~Amy

Jun. 15, 2006 - It works for me (part 2)

Our grocery list system is one that works great for us.  Mike took all of the items that we usually purchase on our big shopping trips and typed them all out on a spreadsheet.  (Have you noticed my financial guy husband really likes spreadsheets?)  I took the list and arranged the items in the order we come across them in the store.  Next to each item is a box.  Throughout the week, I can put a 1, 2 or 3 in the box next to the items we need.  Before we head out for our shopping trip, we go down the list and make sure we’ve marked everything we need.  And we are off.  It took just a little effort the first time, but now making shopping lists is a breeze.  We have tweaked the list here and there throughout the years as the store and our tastes change.

Also, we have found that it works best for us to go shopping as a family one night a week.  Mike really likes to shop and find the best values; as for me… it’s not my favorite job (especially with the three boys).  So we all go together.  We usually grab dinner at Costco (not healthy I know but cheap has a value too and one night a week is not going to kill us)!

So that’s what works for us, what do you do for shopping and planning?  Is there any way we could be more efficient?

~Amy

Jun. 2, 2006 - My laundry system

A couple of days ago I visited Joni’s site and the beginning of her post read like this: “I am forever trying to find a good system for keeping up with laundry.” 

Now this is something I can relate to! J  Laundry is hands-down my least favorite chore (well, okay, aside from dusting, which quite frankly just doesn’t get done).  I’m going to let you all in on a little secret and share with you- in just 8 easy steps- what my laundry system was for years:

STEP 1: Wash clothes

STEP 2: Dry clothes

STEP 3:  Pull clothes out of the dryer

STEP 4: Put in hamper

STEP 5: Take hamper to my room

STEP 6: Dump clean laundry from hamper onto our bed, with hopes that I would fold it at some point that day

STEP 7: Do other loads of laundry throughout the day, dump onto bed when dry

STEP 8:  At nighttime, when I wearily entered my room and wanted to crawl into bed and sleep, I was met with a MOUNTAIN of clean laundry on my bed.  Did I fold and put away?  Heck no!  My husband and I had a nightly routine of ‘cleaning off our bed’ before we could get into bed.  So you might be wondering where we put the laundry, then.  Well, back to the hampers, of course. 

I am so serious.  That was my system.  The following day I would empty all the hampers onto the bed again (this is so embarrassing, really) with the fullest intentions of folding that laundry.  But again, the day would pass, night would come, and our evening routine of taking the laundry off the bed would commence.  And if I did any other loads of laundry throughout the week, well, you know where it went.  On the bed!  Sigh.  You can imagine what it was like trying to find something in those piles of laundry.  Occasionally we would get fed up with the mountain and one of those late nights, we would fold and put away all the laundry.

But here is the good news:  I do not do this anymore!!!  I posed this question to my husband Mark the other night, “Honey, what do I do differently now with the laundry that I didn’t used to do?”  His response was immediate: “You fold it.”  I’m still smiling at that, because it is SO true.  My new “system” is this:  I fold the laundry when it’s clean.  It’s really that simple.  There has been such a vast improvement in this area of my housekeeping that it truly is notable.  Here’s the thing: it really does not take that long to fold a load of laundry.  For all the time I was taking hauling it to and fro and digging through the clean laundry for a sock or a shirt, and all the mess it was causing in the process, it is well worth the folding-right-away effort.

A few things have helped that are worth mentioning:

Sorting: I used to sort all of our laundry into two categories: lights and darks.  I now sort our kids’ clothes into separate piles of lights and darks.  So I have two lights piles and two darks.  This way the loads are separate; their clothes don’t mingle with our clothes.  When their clothes are clean, I bring them into their shared room.  I really think this saves me time sorting.  And the time of bringing the clothes into a room that they won’t end up in.

Enlisting help:  On Monday mornings, the kids’ laundry is done first.  When it is dry, I take their hamper of clean laundry directly to their shared room.  We all gather in their room.  They first make their beds, and then their job is to sort the laundry.  They grab an item of clothing out of the hamper and determine whose it is, then set that piece of clothing on the bed of whomever it belongs to.  We do this until the hamper is empty.  The baby’s clothes go at the foot of their beds (his crib is in another room).  When their clothes have been gathered atop their beds, they each sit on their beds and “fold”.  My daughter (4) works at folding hers and I help my son (2) with his.  When he is finished, I move to my daughters bed with her and help finish folding her clothes.  Then I usually put them away while they play.  Then I fold the baby’s clothes and bring them to his room.

They also help me with our laundry.  My daughter folds all the washcloths and kitchen towels, and puts them away.  She can also distinguish between daddy’s clothes and mommy’s clothes, so she helps sort those.  My son finds pairs of socks, and then wanders around helping.

Size: It is much less daunting to tackle a load (or even two) of laundry than it is to tackle the mountain that used to cover our entire king-sized bed.  I’ve learned this.  It is so satisfying to tackle the folding in smaller portions.  It really only takes a few minutes to fold and put away one load (especially if the load is all towels!  Those are my favorites!)

Motivation: I still don’t really like this chore.  There are times when I grab the timer and set it for 10 minutes and say, “We’re folding laundry!” and we all (me and my children) work at it for that allotted time.  This is especially helpful to do if there’s something I want to do instead, such as read, email, blog, make a phone call, or whatever it may be.  I tell myself: “AFTER I’ve done 10 minutes of laundry, I will get the reward of sitting down to read that book.”

Scheduling: This is something I’ve only recently begun doing, but I love it.  I’ve determined which days I will do laundry (I do it on Mondays and Tuesdays).  This has been so good for me: to have a set time for doing it, and a goal for which it is to be completed (Tuesday night in our house.  Before I go to bed that night, my goal is to leave no laundry piles anywhere, dirty or clean.  Everything is clean, folded, and put away in its place.)

Okay, that about wraps up my thoughts on the subject.  But as much as I’ve grown in this area, there is still room for much more growth and efficiency, so: suggestions are always welcome! J 

~Stacy

Jun. 1, 2006 - It works for me

As I was visiting a blog last week I read this question: “What do you do about all your kids shoes?”  Kim C. of Life in a shoe: the methods and madness of a mother of 7 has 7 girls and her answer is that they own only two pairs per child and that helps them keep track of the shoes.

I thought I would share what we do because it works so well for us.  While we have fewer children, we have more shoes.  With the mud around here we need boots, sandals for the sun, church shoes, play shoes… anyway it adds up.  What we do is keep ALL our shoes in the laundry room.  I have shoe racks in there and I do not allow kids shoes to enter any other room of our house.  Whatever door the kids come in, they take off their shoes and take them to the laundry room.  Of course occasionally we will find a shoe in another room (especially because the toddler loves to steal shoes!), but we all know right where it goes.  When it is time to go, we know that the shoe we need (and its match) will be in the laundry room. 

So if you find yourself traipsing all over the house looking for lost shoes, this might work for you.  In Hawaii, they leave them right outside the door.  So the shoes never go inside the house.  And of course in Japan all shoes are kept right inside the doorway.  Don’t worry, if you come over, I won’t ask you to take off your shoes, --it’s just a kid thing.  Unless you start asking me to find your shoes for you, then you might have to start keeping them in the laundry room too!

Have a great day! 

~Amy

May. 26, 2006 - Revisiting my 18 in 90 list

A little over a month ago, I made an '18 in 90 list'.  This is a much smaller version of the 101 in 1001 that I read about on Kendra's site.  I couldn't bring myself to make a list of 101 things to work on, so my list contained 18 areas to work on in a 90-day period.  Amy and I came up with this plan to go through each room of our house to determine the 18 things.  See here for more details on the 18 in 90 plan.

Well, it's been a little over a month so I thought it was time to revisit my list and see how it's been going.  Will you join me?  I'm going to list my original "plan" (in bold type) and then comment on how I'm doing.  (This is a bit humbling for me to let everyone in on the fact that I'm not doing too well, actually.  Oh well.)  Here goes:

Closet

-Memorize Isaiah 40  What was I thinking?!?!?  Does anyone realize this is 31 verses?  Could I not have started with, maybe, 5 verses?  Goodness!  At one point I had verses 1-3 memorized (that’s all the further I got), but I think those have since faded from my brain.  Any memorization tips?  Sigh... something to work on in the next 2 months, anyway...

-Pray for Mark daily (using Power of a Praying Wife as a guideline.  Wow, wouldn't it be cool if I selected 30 specific things to pray for him for and then did that 3x over (over the course of the next 3 months?!  Hm... maybe I'll try that.)

See here for the list I made.  I posted this by my sink, but kept forgetting to check it.  I posted a second list in the shower, so that I could be reminded first thing each day what to pray for.  This is working better, but there are still days I forget.  Not quite in the habit yet.  But I do love this focused prayer when I remember!  I will keep this up!

Bedroom

-Organize & declutter clothing (in drawers, closets & bins under the bed)

Check!  I have done this.  A few weeks ago I got rid of MANY clothes (4 garbage bags full!).  I also went through my closet and drawers and pulled out all my wintry clothes and brought out all my spring stuff. 

-Plan romantic evenings, 2x per week

Yes.  Doing fine here, too

Kitchen

-Work on kitchen clutter areas (by phone, on top of dishwasher, 5 minutes per day)

HA!  I haven’t done this once.  Well, no.  I think I did do this ONE time.  So, maybe instead of 5 minutes per day, I should change that to 5 minutes per MONTH?!?!  Arghh.

-Practice hospitality by having guests over for a meal (1x per month)

Uh, no.  We haven’t had anyone over for a meal.  We have had people over for desserts and snacks.  But… no meal.  This actually makes me really sad because I love having people over and I want to grow in the area of hospitality.  How do some of you others do this?  Is there one day a week that you set aside for having guests over?

Bathroom

-Clean out & declutter & reorganize cupboards (throw lots of stuff away!)

Um.  I started this one day.  Everything came out of the bathroom cupboards so that I could go through them all and decide what to keep, what to get rid of.  And then I ran out of time to do it that afternoon.  Everything sat on the bathroom floor for a day or two until someone dropped by one evening and I went straight to the bathroom (in an effort to quickly clean!) and pulled the stuff (bins, bags, boxes, etc…) off the bathroom floor and sat the pile in my bedroom, on the floor.  And there it sits.  The bathroom cupboards look great, though.  Just not my bedroom floor.

-Use shower time to pray for the day/activities ahead.

Yes.  I like doing this.

Kids' Rooms

-Clean room WITH them, teach them how to make their beds (1x per week)

Yes on the making of the beds.  Each day they’ve been making their own beds, and I’m very pleased about this!  As for the cleaning of the room?…This has happened a few times.  We were in a good routine for a few weeks and then the accident happened and all routine is off.  We’ll do this again though!

-Extended prayer time for each child by their bed, while they're sleeping (1x per week)

I have done this only twice, honestly.  And I’m ashamed to say it because this is one of my favorite things and rather than doing this once a week, I would someday like to be doing this every night!...

Living Room

-Clean out desk drawers

Yes!  Did this.  And boy, do I love cleaned-out-desk-drawers!  It was long overdue, let me tell you!

-Sunday service training (each Saturday evening on couch)

We’ve done this 3 times, I think… and it’s been great!

School Room 

-Make Chore Chart for E & I

Check!  See here if you missed it. 

-Individual time with each child (14 minutes per child, 3x per week)

     *E- alphabet pages, practicing writing her letters

     *I- puzzles, cutting or coloring together, play w/ little cars

     *I- sing action songs, read board books

We’ve done this a few times (3? 4?) and I really loved it (as did my children!), so… when things pick up around here again will get back into it!  I love having this built into the schedule.

Outside

-Purchase gardening gloves, practice weeding, which I dread

Yes.  I actually turned over our garden this year (since Mark couldn’t).  Only because I had to, though.  Otherwise, I don’t think this would be a check!

-Weekly walk with the kids, just for the fun of it (ie- not 'on the way' to get somewhere, but taking our time!)

Ahem.  Twice, we’ve done this.  My poor children.  They love to go for walks!  What is my problem?!

Laundry

-Set specific (weekly, or twice/week) laundry day(s), and stick to it

Yes.  Mondays and Tuesdays are my laundry days- and I love this!  One of my favorite changes!

-Have E & I help with folding and putting away laundry

Yes.  They love this, as do I!

So.  There it is.  Not too bad, then.  There are a few 'yeses' as I skim over it.  Making some progress.  And, much more progress than I would have made had I never made this list to begin with, so that's a good thing! :) 

~Stacy

May. 25, 2006 - Habits part 2

Monday I shared my habit of repeating recipes (when they work for my family).  Another habit that many people do different variations of is a housework schedule. 

A few years ago I divided up my non-daily chores and assigned them to different days of the week.  This really set me free.  Before I made the schedule, I felt like I was behind in my housework every day.  I felt like I could never get on top of it and I was always wanting work on it more.  After the schedule, I would be able to know that I had done what was needed and could spend extra time playing with the kids.  The house never feels immaculate to me, but it feels clean and I can handle that.  Another bonus is that on days like today when I feel so incredibly exhausted and queasy, I can tell myself that I only have to do this one job…. I can do it.  So here is the schedule that works for me:

Monday                     laundry

Tuesday                     bathrooms

Wednesday                floors (deep sweep, vacuum, & mop)

Thursday                   dust & windows/glass

Friday                        laundry

Saturday                    outside & extra & make up

Sunday                       rest on the Lord’s Day!  Yippee!

I do laundry on two different days because it keeps it from overwhelming me.  I like to watch a video in the evenings while I fold.

I love to hear and read about what other women do with their housework especially as most of my children are too young to help much.  It has been at least two years now that this system has been the best for me to handle.

Blessings fellow managers of the home,

~Amy