Duh!

What I'm about to say may sound really dumb but just forgive me in advance.

It's amazing what you can get done in the morning when you wake up early. It is also amazing how quickly you crash when you wake up super early in the morning and forgot to go to bed until almost 1 o'clock am the night before.

I've been getting up at 6 to go running. FYI, I am not a morning person in the least. So last night just before 1 o'clock, I headed to bed. Hubby thought there would be no way that I would still wake up at 6 to go running so I think just to prove him wrong I did it. I should have proved him right!

When I got home from my run I did some yoga, took a shower and got completely ready fixed hair makeup on and real clothes (all before 8 am) which is kind of a miracle for me. I fed the kids when they woke up and started doing stuff around the house. That is the point at which I crashed. I had absolutely no energy. After lunch we went to the Library and I've done nothing since we returned home. Apparently sleep is more important than I thought.

I think I'll go to bed early tonight.

Bathroom Day!

I have missed both Monday's since I started my challenge. Today is the first day that I've done all of my weekly's on a Monday. My bathrooms are sparkling clean and I love it!

Another product review: the Swiffer sweeper. Last week on kitchen day I tried the sweeper (which I also purchased with coupons a few weeks ago). I hated it but I didn't want to review it yet because I wanted to give it a chance on bathroom day. The reason that I hated it so much for my kitchen is because I have kids. If you have kids you know what I mean. If you don't have children then let me explain. My kitchen floor usually has enough crumbs to feed a small army. Daily we have large crumbs, small crumbs, wet spills and sticky messes on the floor. I am fairly confident in saying that as much food as enters the mouths of my kids also ends up on the floor. When I tried to use the Swiffer sweeper on it there was no way it could all stick to the magic pad. It was simply too messy.

So what did I think about the sweeper for the bathroom? I LOVE IT!!! Why the difference? The main difference for my bathroom was that my bathroom floor is fairly clean to start with. We don't have food crumbs or other messes on the bathroom floor. The main mess on the floor is either dust or hair. The sweeper did amazing with both of these messes. I also used the wet cleaning pads after sweeping with the dry cloths and it did a great job. I love that you can flip it to the edge and scrub - I used it to clean off shoe marks on the floor. I also used the scrubby edge to clean the base boards without bending over. I really did love using it.

How is everyone else doing? I miss having other bloggers add feedback. Let me hear what you have been up to. What is working in your home?

He Noticed

I know that I am very old fashioned when it comes to being a wife and mother. I know a lot of people don't want this life but I'm happy this way. Over the weekend I got to go out with a friend and visit - it's been way too long!! She was laughing at me because I love to grind my wheat by hand to make bread for my family. "Why don't you just get an electric grinder?" she asked. My answer, "Because I like to pretend like I live on a farm." Plus my kids get to help me grind it by hand, it wouldn't be so fun to have the machine do it all. Maybe someday I'll get an electric grinder but for now I really enjoy doing it slowly, by hand.

I share this story to illustrate that I actually find joy in doing things the old fashioned way. I LOVE being a stay at home mom and it makes me so happy to take care of my children and my husband the way women did way back when. Sure sometimes I wish I could get out of here and have something else in my life to make me feel more important. But, I know it would not be worth it because I already have what really makes me happy - a family. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids full time and not have to work outside of the home.

Yesterday I did all of my daily and weekly chores from the heavy duty schedule and my house looked better than it has in months. I also spent some really good quality time playing with my kids, teaching them some new skills (planting seeds and grooming flower beds), and having them sit curled up on my lap reading to them (a personal favorite). When hubby arrived home he found a house in order and a very happy family. The best part - he noticed.

I do everything that I do in my life because it really makes me happy and I enjoy it. It is the icing on the cake when I see that he also gets enjoyment out of it, and that he really appreciates what I do being at home. Plus, I really just love making him happy. All in all, it was a great day and today is already shaping up to be just as good.

It's hard to admit

It's hard to admit when you don't follow through with stuff. . . well guess what? I didn't.

Today was supposed to be the day I did everything on my list and felt so proud of myself. Well it's almost 9pm, kids just barely went to bed and hubby isn't home. I have been gone all day, haven't cleaned a thing and I'm done. I want to sit down and chill for a bit.

It was a productive day though, I got together with my mom and sister and made a dress for my baby girl. This project has been on my to do list for literally MONTHS! Now, it is done and the pattern I was borrowing from a friend has been returned. Stress is officially relieved. And the best part - the dress is adorable!!

The plan for tomorrow is better. It is more likely that I will get stuff done around here. I told the kids we will either visit the park or the library (depending on the weather). Other than a short trip out we will be home all day and I WILL clean.

Tonight I will iron (argh) while watching pride and prejudice (yay) until hubby gets home. That's better than nothing.

What are you doing?

I like this blog and here's why- it makes me think! My house hasn't been spotless by any means, but my cleaning has improved! I think about cleaning, while I'm cleaning, and I start to find things that work better for me or at least motivation to get done what I need to do. So, now that we are all considering better ways to do what we do, I propose some goal setting. My goal is to be "ready" by 10am every (weekday) morning. To me, this means having my downstairs presentable as well as myself. There will be some toy clutter, and I'll likely be sporting some yoga pants.However, my hair will be under control, I'll have some amount of makeup on, lose the pj shirt, and have a generally picked up downstairs. This way, if somebody stops by at noon, I don't have to be completely embarrassed. Also, if I want/need to run an errand it's not an event just to get ready to get out the door. So this is my goal, what's yours?

The One-Touch system

Although my house is not perfect, I like organizing. One of the things I've learned from reading organizing books is that you should organize your house to fit your habits and not the other way around. If you organize to fit your already-established habits, your organization is much more likely to be successful.
An organization thought process that I really like is the One-Touch method. This means that you should be able to clean or organize your space in one touch. For cleaning, it means that you put stuff away right away. You clear the table and put them right in the dishwasher instead of letting them sit in the sink or next to the sink. I'm okay at doing this for breakfast, but usually after dinner is when I let things sit.
Here's what I did to clean up the paper clutter. When I bring the mail in, my habit is to just drop it somewhere. This makes a messy table or countertop. In addition, then I end up "touching" it several more times every time I move it out of the way before I finally get to sorting through it and doing bills and etc. What I did to solve that problem was I created a file system in my kitchen. I know I'm not going to change my habits and immediately file what needs to be filed, shred what needs to be shredded and pay what needs to be paid right when I walk in the door. This file system was a solution so I have one place to easily sort and drop my paper mess and get to it when I can. This system really works for me because I pay bills once a month. The rest of the month, I just let things accumulate. This system may not work for you, but think about your habits and creating a space for organizing your habit in One Touch.

As you can probably tell, I don't think I've done any shredding since Christmas break.

I bought the file organizers at an office-supply store and then just Mod-Podged paper inside and used scrapbooking rub-on letters to label them.

Now if someone could tell me what to do with my shoe mess!

Thanks Flylady

I am on my way to bed but I am so excited about my spic and span sink that I didn't want to wait until tomorrow to post it. FYI, my hubby is a little embarrassed that I was taking a picture of our dirty dishes so hopefully no one thinks less of us. Ta da! I have never been good at keeping up with dishes. Embarrassing or not but hey, at least I'm being honest. I know most people probably already have a clean sink when they go to bed each night, but not me. I've been in the habit of doing last nights dishes after I feed my kids breakfast in the morning. I am already looking forward to waking up tomorrow to my nice clean sink. Think of the free time I'll have after breakfast, I wonder what I'll do?