Ug, its dirty AGAIN???

I've been stuck in a "no cleaning" rut.  Trying to do school with Will, cook healthy meals for the family, and clean just seems like too much some days.  So, priorities take over and the cleaning stays on the "to do" list.  Sitting there, bugging me, I hate a list that never gets done.  But, I also like flexibility for those days that I'm over ambitious and feel like I can conquer the world, and for those days I just can't seem to pry myself off the couch.  Hey, they happen to all of us. 

I was ready to conquer this beast.  I've recently been motivated by other websites that are encouraging us to "organize your entire life".  Great endeavour, but it almost seems impossible.  Luckily, she is taking it slow.  First things first, our daily schedule, and cleaning.  We have a pretty good daily schedule we can all live with, so I'm focusing on our cleaning.  Also, keeping in mind that my kids are old enough to help.  They will be able to take care of most of the "daily" clean-up tasks.  Phew, I knew there was a reason I had those little buggers around. *wink*

 Knowing I dive deep into the prospects of planning, over enthusiastic, and setting unrealistic goals; I decided to make this as flexible and realistic as possible.  I know there will be times when things just won't get cleaned as much as my list says.  That's okay, I have a plan and a decent way to keep track of things that have been done this month, and things that haven't.  If they get skipped over this time, it will be first on the list for the next week. 

I added to my existing monthly schedule.  The top portion is for the family, doctor apps, church activities, sports practice, ect.  The bottom half is one week at a time; errands, chores, dinner plan (although its been taken over by my cleaning schedule).  I have a monthly meal plan posted on my fridge, so its a bit redundant anyway. 

 I took an idea from "modern parents messy kids" and used my beloved paint chips. (LOVE paint chips)  I first made a list of everything I'd like to get done in a week and month.  (Eventually I will have quarterly and yearly tasks)  I quickly realized this would have to be an every two week endeavour; after taking 3 hours plus hours cleaning yesterday, I was not about take that much of my life everyday to cleaning.

From there I wrote each rooms tasks (one for weekly and one for monthly) on a paint chip.  With some sticky tack they will fit nicely onto my wall planner chart.  As I finish a task, it will go from my planner to the "done" portion of my cards.  I have put a start date, so I know roughly when I started my monthly tasks.  If I finish early, I get the rest of the month off.  If I take too long, well hey, I'm the only one who is counting.  Same goes with the bi-weekly lists.   

This is a list of the daily tasks we already do.  I can "see" them and dole out duties as the kids have time.  I try to take care of the kitchen duties, as that it my space. 

So, that's my plan.  We'll see how it goes.  But at least I have a plan.  Better to have a plan and not always use it, than to find a man eating dust bunny under your bed.  Happy Cleaning!

Addition with Carrying

This is probably pretty self explanatory, but I had to share.  Jack's class has been working on addition with carrying, his teacher said a lot of the kids were having a hard time with it and any practice at home would be helpful.  That's all she had to say.  I was scouring the Internet and found this idea.  I thought it was brilliant.  I made a chart and put it under our handy little wipe off learning board.  (Thanks mom! for the board, and thanks God for Divine inspiration.  I know I couldn't do it without a little help)

I reviewed the tens place and one's place.  The first few times we made dots next to the ones side.  As we counted 10 dots, we circled it and wrote down(in the ones column) what was left.  After he got the hang of that we moved on.

   After he understood only ones could stay in the green column we could just add that side first.  Get it, Green for go, so that's where we start.

 Again, reviewing ones spot stays on the green, tens spot moves up to the red.  After doing a few of these he was confident in the process.  He even said it was fun and thanked me for teaching it to him.  Wow, warmth in a mother's heart! 

The end process.  We don't write the arrows every time, but it was needed to show him the first few times.  He really likes writing on this board too. 

Tomorrow we will try it without the board to see if he can remember what he has learned. 

Just what have I been doing.

I almost feel silly even trying to write anymore.  But I guess the "better late than never" mantra comes to mind.  I guess I don't feel so bad as I'm quickly reminded why this IS so hard.  Ella always wants to help me "check" my mail.  So, thus far, I have already deleted several of her additions.  Thanks Ella.  Not to mention the fact that I have been busy schooling Will, doing the extras with Jack that the school just can't manage to teach him.  Really, its a school, but anyway.

So I guess that kind of introduces the last several months.  Thanksgiving and Christmas were stuck somewhere in the middle and the winter that wasn't.  We have been enjoying an amazingly beautiful season, very little snow and way above average temps.  We get disappointed if the high isn't above freezing.  So strange.

I'll start off with our little princess.  She has begun to declare she is the "dancing princess".  She sings a lot in there too, she adores singing.  She will do it everywhere, and she has to make sure everyone can hear her.  She loves the spotlight, and luckily for her, she has an audience. 

Just before Thanksgiving Ella decided she would potty train herself.  I made sure it was all her decision and gave her lots of choices during the process.  "Do you want to wear a pull up or underwear?" or "Do you want to use the little potty or the big potty?"  Pretty much anytime I could offer a choice, I did.  After a while, I had realized that she had been dry for four days!  Wow, I LOVE girls!



Will has been busy learning all I can teach him.  This kid is a sponge.  I'm really quite jealous that I can't remember things as well as he can.  But we each have our own gifts.  I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty proud of him.

We thought really hard about homeschooling him so he would stay challenged, but the school assured us that they would place him at any grade level he was performing at.  We'll give it a whirl, he is so excited to be in school with Jack, and I think the daily interaction with friends will be a lot of fun for him.  He likes to be social, and its hard to get it in as often as I should. 


Jack has apparently become the "cool kid" in his class.  I'm not sure how this happened since I was the one hiding under the slide at my school.  But I'm more than happy that he has friends and is confident enough to talk to girls.  I don't think its by coincidence, I pray daily for his friendships and the favor of the Lord to be over my kids.  Thank you Lord for answering prayers. We do talk about how this position of favor allows him to encourage and include all kids and not single certain kids out and how God would want us to use our status in society, not to abuse it. 

There are always tears in the midst of rejoicing.  And we have had our own struggles with Jack.  He has always had trouble reading, and the issue has only gotten worse; despite the schools extra help last year, and our time at home.  We went around and around with the school, trying to find help for him, contemplating homeschooling, and finally settling on an amazing tutor who is offering her services free of charge.  Yup, free.  Another answered prayer, other tutors were thousands of dollars!  Um, yeah, how is that going to work out?  No need to worry, God has it figured out. 

He has been disappointed with the weather.  There are plenty of sidewalks for skateboarding, but no snow for his new snowboard.  Just another chance to try to look at the silver lining, something we are trying to focus on.

Lewis has been plugging away on his hot rod project.  If you are interested in more details on that you can check out here.  As for me, well, those previously listed have kept me pretty busy, and I'm loving it.  Most days :)