Advent ~ A Photo Diary ~ Day 1

I finally found an advent "calendar" that is going to work for me this year. I have been looking for 3 years now. I got this adorable little advent cabinet from Home Outfitters.
I have to find my own objects to fill the boxes, but I am so excited about doing that. The first one was easy, since the theme for day 1 is the tree of life, I just put a little christmas apple ornament inside. Phew! I'll need to be creative this year, but I know I will have so much fun collecting symbolic objects for all 25 boxes in the years to come. I also want to print out each days verses on pretty cardstock tags and put them in their appropriate boxes as well.

Tonight we began our 25 night advent vigil, complete with
first Christmas baking

Tree up and ready for decorating

lighting of the first advent candle

scripture readings, (the tree of life)
(Gen 2:9; 3:22-24; Isaiah 11:1-5; Rev 2:7; 22:12-14)

and songs from our beloved Readers Digest songbook.

Deck the Halls, Haul Out the Holly, Here We Come a Caroling; The Holly and the Ivy; O Christmas Tree;

Being the non-conformist rebel that I am, we completely keep advent to the tune of our own drum. I like to put a different series of symbolic ornaments or decor out each day and have developed my own symbolism and scriptures stemming from that. So day 1 centers around the tree and parallels the tree of life, day 2 we string up the garland which parallels Jesus being the vine and we being the branches, etc; day 3 the lights and Jesus being the light of the world. (as you can tell from the pictures I usually get a bit ahead of myself as we already have some garland and lights up. I get so excited about decorating I have a hard time holding myself back!)

Stay tuned for more as we rejoice over the Savior who came as a helpless babe and will come again as conquering king.

Christmas Tags.

graphic design courtesy of Billy Alexander.

And by that I mean I was tagged with a Christmas meme.

Wrapping paper or gift bags? brown paper packages tied up with string

Real tree or Artificial? artificial, I'm too cheap to buy year after year and love nature too much to chop 'em down from their native bower.

When do you put up the tree? TODAY =) closest saturday to the start of Dec.

When do you take the tree down? First saturday of January

Do you like eggnog? enough to drink about half a cup once a year.

Favorite gift received as a child? walkman and Amy Grant cd

Hardest person to buy for? P-guy

Easiest person to buy for? My kids, they are so easy to please.

Do you have a nativity scene? YES. We are starting to collect Willow Tree, a few pieces a year, to replace our old one which is missing quite a few ears and hands, and whatnot from all the love....

Mail or email Christmas cards? hand deliver.

Worst Christmas gift you ever received? hmmm, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life.

When do you start shopping for Christmas? when I feel like it.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? yeah, it's a Canadian tradition... we are all about recycling. =)

Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? butter tarts?

Lights on the tree? oh yeah. white ones. lots and lots of white ones.

Favorite Christmas song? Oh come, oh come Emmanuel

Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home... definitely

Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? I think so...

Angel on the tree top or a star? star. P-Guy has this "theological issue" with victorian angels, and I do see his point....

Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve, all dressed up and home from church.

Most annoying thing about this time of the year? consumerism

Favorite ornament theme or color? stars, angels, white lights, gold ornaments accented by reds and greens.

Favorite for Christmas dinner? rack of lamb.

What do you want for Christmas this year? a houseful of thankful and rejoicing hearts, and not over material gifts.

I was tagged for this by my friend Becky whose blog is private. Thanks Beck, I'm looking forward to starting to share snippets of our "Home for the Holidays" traditions starting next week.

The Gift That Keeps on Giving.... Day After Day.

photo credit, Jeff Prieb

Thoughts from the Devotional Corner for today and the year to come.

"Why spend your money on something that is not real food? Why work for something that doesn't really satisfy you? Listen closely to me, and you will eat what is good; your soul will enjoy the rich food that satisfies. Come to me and listen, listen so that you may live.... Rain and snow fall from the sky and don't return without watering the ground... The same thing is true of the words I speak. They will not return to me empty. They make the things happen that I want to happen, and they succeed in doing what I send them to do." verses 2,3,10,11

I loved these verses this morning. In seeking to consciously choose HIM this season, to focus on Him and keep things simple and beautiful and centred on Him, this passage was like a fragrant balm. He is the greatest gift, money can not buy happiness, He fulfills us and His Word is the daily gift that empowers us to become daily offerings (gifts) to Him. If I had to pick one "discipline" that my kids took to heart out of all the training we seek to instill in them, it's that daily dose of Him that is offered to us by unwrapping each day that gift of His Love Letter and reading just a few lines of His Story. Truly, it's such a little thing, with the biggest impact. If you are not in the habit of setting aside just a few minutes in your day to quieten yourself and read the words He has left for you, I urge you, urge you, urge you to carve out a time and make it a priority.

Don't wait for New Years to make a resolution to spend more time in The Word. Start now so that by the time New Years rolls around, it will already be a habit that you will carry into 2009. It will be the greatest gift you receive this year because it contains thousands of years and the quintessential offering of blood, sweat, tears, grace, love and forgiveness in the making. (If you need a "plan"... don't know where to start... come on over to the devotional corner and join us in readng a chapter a day. If you have your own plan, and want some fellowship and accountability, come post about where you are at, what you are struggling with or how God is speaking to you in what you *did* read...)

Truly I feel like I receive a beautifully wrapped gift in the word each day. And in sharing it, it`s like wrapping up my present of thanksgiving and offering it back to the Lord. Join me in giving this gift of praise to the Giver of all Good Gifts in the day and year to come. I challenge you! His Word contains the remedy to all that ails us. Sad? It will bring comfort and joy. Afraid? It will bring peace. Weak? It will bring strength. Angry? It will soften. Doubting? It will multiply faith. Apathetic? It will challenge. Lost? It will light the way. Seriously, the Heavenly Physician is the only one who knows just right the perscription for all that ails us... and His office is always open.

Thoughts on Thankfulness

photo by Nat

I was too caught up in "being" thankful at Canadian Thanksgiving to really talk about it much... but now that it is the end of November, the Christmas baking and packaging has yet to start and all of my American friends are busy celebrating Thanksgiving, I have more time on my hands to just reflect on Thankfulness.

When I think of the heavy depression that darkened my life just four short years ago, the darkness that shrouded everything, everywhere I looked, I am truly thankful for the ability to "see" and "be" thankful. Learning to practice thankfulness in the every day, to recognize the gifts and beauty in what we commonly refer to as the "mundane", to see that every thing, every person is inevitably a reflection of the Creator and Lord of all... recognizing this, attuning my eyes to search out and see the One behind all, every sunrise, every sunset; every crawling thing and every colored leaf; every moment and every breath. This has been my source of healing and hope, joy and strength.

When Thanksgiving rolls around, the thing I am most thankful for, is the thankful spirit that is growing within me each and every day of the year. It is the best gift I could ever ask for. Because with a thankful spirit, come what may, I won't lose heart and I will find the beauty in the ugly as Ann so perfectly refers to it.

May we all grow in thankfulness in the coming year.

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings! ~Henry Ward Beecher

Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live. ~Jackie Windspear

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. ~G.K. Chesterton

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. ~G.K. Chesterton

If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get. ~Frank A. Clark

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. ~W.T. Purkiser

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance. ~Joseph Addison

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things. ~Horace

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. ~William Arthur Ward

Fruit Fritters

I called a friend at 9:15 this morning to ask her if she was coming to church for ladies brunch. While I was talking to her I was searching for berries in my freezer for the fritters I was going to make to bring to brunch at 10:00. Oh, and I live 10 minutes from church. She was quite amazed when I walked in with a bowl full of these babies fresh out of the pan. They are a popular and easy breezy baking treat that require very little prep/cooking time. Only problem is, one can never seem to make enough.

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cups frozen berries or finely diced firm fruit.
Oil to fry and confectioners sugar to coat

sift dry ingredients
beat eggs, add liquids
fold liquid into flour, adding flour to bind if neccessary (I usually add another half cup)
Add fruit

Drop by scant tablespoon (they swell, and need to be able to cook through the middle) into hot oil and deep fry for 2-3 min's per side until golden brown and slightly crispy. Serve hot. Let stand on paper towel for a few minutes then toss in confectioners sugar.

Cows, Calves, Carts n' Chaos...

For a rockin' story of cows and divine steering pop over to the devotional corner.

For some stinkin' cute pictures and prose of my prairie poppets pop over to the family room.

And now a horror story for your reading pleasure. Yesterday as I was updating Prairie Portraits I noticed that The Hero's label was missing the article. It read, Portraits of Prairie Hero. It works, but didn't match the other labels that all contained the article A. So I pop over to my post editor, select all the posts in The Hero's label, add a new label with the article. Then delete the old label. Every single post vanished. Poof. Gone. No warning that there were photos in those posts that were going to be deleted and did I want to keep them stored, no nothin'. Just a split second vanishing act. Panic. I hoped against all hope that the LABEL had merely disappeared and the POSTS were still there, just not labeled, but no luck. I had seriously deleted every single post devoted to The Hero.

I rush over to my recycle bin, nothing. Desperately search blogger for information on deleted post retrieval... madly post help messages to the Sonlight forum (which is not your run of the mill homeschool curriculum forum, this forum can advise you out of ANY fix I tell ya... ANY.) and while I'm waiting for the emails to start comin' in from Sonlight I do a google search and find Vin. Okay, help is on the way. Seriously, this guy oozes confidence and reassuredness. Only problem being, apparently he wasn't home yesterday till 5 pm, and neither were any of the people who could help me over at Sonlight. For some reason I had this panicked impression that lost information was retrievable for only a short window of time (I had 30 minutes in my head) and I was not going to give up until those 30 minutes were passed. On Vin's site I saw that if your blog is open to Google searches there is a search you can do for your blogs cache and retrieve the posts that way. Oh delight. I thought my blog was open to google. Oh the remorse when I see in my settings that no, I had closed my Portraits to google search, because indeed, why would I want any Tom, Dick or Harry to happen upon it in their Google wanderings. People who know me and want to find it can find it through Prologue which is Google-a-ble. Anyway, that was no go.

The story does have a happy ending. I remembered that I had seen Portraits show up in Google Reader and that it actually has a "follower". A-Team, you don't know how happy I am that you clicked to follow that blog, because you did all the posts are saved in Reader and since the blog is not that old I was able to scroll through all the posts and copy the ones from The Hero and re-post them to Portraits. Can you imagine the horror? I'm only thankful that this happened early on in my blogging experience and not when I had hundreds of posts to that label. And as I mentioned to Dawn in a private email exchange yesterday, it would figure that this would happen to the posts of my MIDDLE child... the one I work extra hard to recognize and build up....

All that to say I spent considerably too much time at the computer yesterday and was preoccupied over at Portraits, so that's why I'm routing you over there today. I hope to start posting some fun Christmas stuff here soon, just simple, short recommendations for a meaningful and RELAXED celebration. Gift ideas, thrift decorating, focusing on the heart of Christmas, stuff like that. But today I need to be productive away from the desk.

William Wilberforce and Amazing Grace

Copying this over from Prologue... because I can, and I want it in these archives.

Della at Dwelling in the Land had posted an Amazing Grace you tube video last week that had tears rolling down my face and goosebumps making my hair stand on end. Unfortunately I can't access that video anymore and I really wanted to share it. I don't know if it was the fact that we had just finished reading the biography of William Wilberforce, or were at the height of climax in "Amazing Grace" the movie that tells his tale the day I watched it.

The scene of John Newton's confession of slave atrocities, where he sits aged and blind is forever etched on the easel of my mind. Sobbing, he tells Wilber "I may be blind, but now I truly see." Oh the depth of truth encaptured in that sentence! Della's video was filmed in the dark open air of a Croatian amphitheatre remarkably reminiscent of the Roman Coliseum, another element to bring on the tears.

All that to say, I couldn't manage to locate and embed that video, but here is the Chris Tomlin video made for Amazing Grace, and it is equally effective. If you get a chance, I urge you to read Wilberforce's biography and watch the movie, he remains one of my favourite heroes of faith and faithfulness. 50 years he fought to abolish the slave trade and other misjustices of man. A whole lifetime fighting desperately to bring about change, change that eventually turned the world on it's ear and saved millions from the evils of secular injustice for all the generations that followed. May you experience His grace today and always.



How greatful I am once again for the freedom and opportunity to homeschool. I know without a shadow of a doubt that in public school, although my children would have learned a paragraph or two about abolition, they never would have been taken on a journey so rich and inspiring right into the heart of one man's personal life and faith and perseverance that really got to the heart of the matter. It's moments like these that truly educate.

EDITED TO ADD... What once was lost has now been found! Dawn at Dawn Writes found the elusive video for me! It is just as wonderful the second go round. Thanks Dawn!

Amazing Grace

Della at Dwelling in the Land had posted an Amazing Grace you tube video last week that had tears rolling down my face and goosebumps making my hair stand on end. Unfortunately I can't access that video anymore and I really wanted to share it. I don't know if it was the fact that we had just finished reading the biography of William Wilberforce, or were at the height of climax in "Amazing Grace" the movie that tells his tale the day I watched it.

The scene of John Newton's confession of slave atrocities, where he sits aged and blind is forever etched on the easel of my mind. Sobbing, he tells Wilber "I may be blind, but now I truly see." Oh the depth of truth encaptured in that sentence! Della's video was filmed in the dark open air of a Roman amphitheatre in Croatia, strikingly reminiscent of the Coliseum in Rome, another special touch that freely brought on the tears.

All that to say, I couldn't manage to locate and embed that video, but here is the Chris Tomlin video made for Amazing Grace, and it is equally effective. If you get a chance, I urge you to read Wilberforce's biography and watch the movie, he remains one of my favourite heroes of faith and faithfulness. 50 years he fought to abolish the slave trade and other injustices of man. A whole lifetime fighting desperately to bring about change, change that eventually turned the world on it's ear and saved millions from the evils of secular injustice for all the generations that followed. May you experience His grace today and always.



How grateful I am once again for the freedom and opportunity to homeschool. I know without a shadow of a doubt that in public school, although my children would have learned a paragraph or two about abolition, they never would have been taken on a journey so rich and inspiring right into the heart of one man's personal life and faith and perseverance that really got to the heart of the matter. It's moments like these that truly educate.

EDITED TO ADD... What once was lost has now been found! Dawn at Dawn Writes found the elusive video for me! It is just as wonderful the second go round. Thanks Dawn!

Tricks of the Trade Postcript; Order Prevents Chaos

Practical Tips and Tricks for Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here)

Ahhh... poor Prairie Guy. He really was Mr. Mom this week, the lovable guy didn't know what hit him. Love you babe. Now I'm just mending and he's officially out of commission, thank you Lord that it didn't hit us both at once. Well, it's been a full week, a true week to test wether getting by on daily essentials really cuts it, and by that I mean absolute essentials, pretty much getting some food on a plate, and getting the plate washed, and putting away whatever you use. For the record, it's worked just fine. I got up for the first time today to start a load of laundry, and was happy to find that I can just pick up where I left off last week (mainly because we've all been living in pyjama's all week....) I cleaned the kitchen for the first time all week (Prairie Guy has been doing his best to keep on top of that, but you know how it is). And the girls washed the floors for me. Things look no worse for the wear despite the fact I have not lifted a finger around this place in 8 days... praise God.

So, that's my speal for this week, it works, stay on top of stuff when you can and it won't drown you when you can't. Now here's my Sick Prairie Chick account, if anyone is wondering what I've been up to.... and thanks so much for piping up with all your words of comfort and cheer, I feel so blessed by all the "cares and prayers".

Last night I was finally able to get up and make myself some tea and talk on the phone... liberty! Apart from that I've been up only to hackingly make my way to the bathroom or the emergency room at the hospital...

Friday I was admitted after chest x-rays and blood work that revealed a viral chest and bronchial infection, but after sitting in a lonely hospital room all day for no reason beyond having an IV I said, "no thanks" and discharged myself and came home. Sunday night my ear started pounding and quickly escalated to an excruciating pain as though someone were repeatedly stabbing me in the eardrum with a knitting needle (excuse me for the violent visual, but that honestly describes it). After a night of pain and tears and being at the end of my rope we went back to emergency on monday morning. I told the doctor "every time I cough I feel like my ear is going to explode." He took a look at my ear with his ear thingy-ma-doey and winced; "oh dear, and it just might." was his response. Turns out I have a wicked ear infection in my left ear, and according to him the right ear "doesn't look much better" (can't feel any pain in that one at all...) so he proceeded to prescribe me half the pharmacy. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but for someone who has gone through 5 full term pregnancies with ZERO medication, I was a little freaked out by all the prescriptions.

He assured me that being so far along, the meds would not have an adverse reaction on the baby, and that really, the most important thing for baby was me getting well and getting over my infections. Um, okay, I had been breaking down weeping at every cough for the past 24 hours between the pain in my raw throat, a stabbing pain somewhere in my back that I presume had something to do with a lung, and the ear about to explode, that I was in no mood to turn down any help. So, armed with Penicillin, Codeine, a topical solution for my ear, Gravol to help my stomach through the turmoil and Extra Strength Tylenol to replace the codeine I came home and hit the couch once more to do nothing more than drink soup, apple juice and take meds.

I held off on the codeine till night, thinking I'd save it for when I needed it most, took one, waited 45 min's, nothing. Took another one, waited, NOTHING. Took two extra strength tylenol which finally dulled the pain in my throbbing ear and knocked me out. After my first good sleep all week, I've been feeling much better today, despite the fact I am virtually deaf... hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing when you're a mom of 4~ Here's to a slow and steady recovery from here on out.

Tricks of the Trade 9, Bedrooms

Practical Tips and Tricks for Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here)

For previous entries in this series see here.


Room By Room: Bedrooms.
Tips and Tricks that I've found helpful in curbing the chaos in the bedrooms.

I used to try to tidy my bedroom FIRST THING, but somehow or other I always procrastinated about it. How can I start procrastinating FIRST THING??? Well, I had to go to the bathroom first, Prairie Sonshine II needed to get changed, once I was in the boys room anyway, I would start getting kids dressed and, and, and, things would just happen and by then half of the chicklets would be downstairs and I would feel pressure to get breakfast on the table. Once we were downstairs the upstairs became "out of sight out of mind" and our bedroom was one of those "frequently falling through the cracks" zones. It bothered me. So I set to work tweaking the schedule.

Since I also was not happy about "starting the day off" with a cleaning mentality, here is what I've settled on.

7:30 use the bathroom, call kids to wake up. I change Prairie Sonshine II while the kids use the bathroom and gather on the landing around the window seat.
7:40 Family devotions.
7:50 or when we finish; get dressed.
8:00 we start in the master bedroom ALL TOGETHER and do a 3 minute room clean (make bed, take care of loose laundry, gather up any garbage or things that don't belong. When the first room is done we move on to the next, and so on. Working together like this speeds up the process SO MUCH! We manage to clean 3 bedrooms, the landing and bathroom in 15 minutes! Before heading downstairs I gather up that days load of laundry, pile up anything that belongs downstairs in the laundry basket and carry it all down on our way to breakfast.

3 minutes a room people! And I get to start my day knowing that what is out of sight is not a ghastly sight ;)

Other tricks I have discovered for keeping our bedrooms organized;

I bought $3 cloth zipper "boxes" to store off season clothes under our bed. I had previously tried those long plastic boxes on wheels but found them awkward to deal with. The "boxes" (they are more like bags till you fill them up) I bought are made of soft cloth, with a clear plastic top that has a zipper closure like a suitcase. They are practical for storing under the bed because you can "squish" them places and you can see what is inside. My dream (and the item currently listed as #3 on the indoor projects list) is to have a custom built closet along the full length of one end of our bedroom and do away with dressers completely and have room to store both in and off season clothing. Until then though this system is working for us.

We have a standing coat rack in our room. Prairie Guy usually has about 3 sets of clothes on the go at a time. (Dress clothes for work, casual clothes for home and work clothes for on the farm). I am a frugal laundry woman.... clothes do not go in the laundry merely because they were WORN... and work clothes for on the farm do not get washed at the first smudge either, they need to be DIRTY. But since you don't want to fold up worn clothes and put them back in the drawer with CLEAN clothes, enter the coat rack. I hang his "in use" pants over the lower rungs, and hang his shirts up on the higher rungs above. No more used but not dirty clothes laying around on top of the dresser or trunk... I love it.

Designating bedrooms as "BED Rooms" not "TOY Rooms". We each have a small surface in our rooms for storing the books we are CURRENTLY reading, and each child is allowed to have ONE stuffed animal or doll on their bed. Apart from that, all toys, games, books, crafts, etc have OTHER HOMES. I don't mind if they take something into their rooms to play there, but when the play is over the item must go back to it's home and not be left in their room.

They should school the young women to be affectionate to their husbands and to their children, to be sober-minded, pure in their lives, 5 industrious in their homes, kind, submissive to their husbands, so that the Christian teaching may not be exposed to reproach. Titus 2:4-5 Weymouth New Testament

From Our House To Yours...

In ancticipation of the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (some would say that should be Easter, but we wouldn't have Easter without Christmas, so doesn't it go without saying?)

Our christmas playlists (christian, secular, instrumental) can be found here and here and here for your personal listening pleasure.

So tell me.... what is some of your favourite christmas music? Favourite song? My all time favourite Christmas songs are "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel", "Carol of the Bells"; O Holy Night, Breath of Heaven, This Baby (made the angels sing), and Mary Did You Know. But I love so many more, those are just my favourite favourites =)

And for the record, the secular list has christian and secular songs in it, just performed by secular artists, if that makes sense. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! We sure are.

Tricks of the Trade 8; The Kitchen

Practical Tips and Tricks for Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here)

View previous posts in this series here.


and no this is not *my* kitchen!

Room by Room: The Kitchen.
Tips and Tricks that I've found helpful in curbing the chaos in the kitchen.

Dishes;
-Keep a clean slate (counter). I keep a sinkful of soapy water handy while I am cooking and wash my cooking dishes as I go so that the counter is clean and ready for dinner dishes after the meal (I rinse in very hot water, only dry tupperware and pots and let everything else stand in the dish rack until the next go round).

-Just do em'. The sooner the better. The longer I leave em', the less motivation I have to get them done. I park myself at the kitchen sink right after meals and the kids bring everything to me. They are in charge of putting stuff away in the fridge, scraping plates into the compost, disposing of garbage, wiping the table and sweeping the floor while I put dry dishes away, stack the dirty dishes and quickly wash them. Prairie Guy helps by drying and putting away after supper. I usually do dishes at least four times a day, (breakfast, lunch, while cooking and supper); but it only takes me about 10 min's each time.

Counters, Appliances and Cupboards;
I talked in this post about breaking weekly kitchen cleaning tasks down into 10 minute daily chores.

Garbage and Recycling
I have a pantry type cupboard in my kitchen that I use for storing my re-cycling so I don't need to haul each individual item out into the mud room. I keep a garbage bag in there for non-recyclable/burnable/compostable items that need to go to the dump, a small box for payable recyclables, and a bin for all other recyclable materials. Once a week (Tuesday) I pull everything out and have the kids carry it to the mud room and sort it.

As for the other garbage, I have a large garbage can for burnables that stays beneath the sink, plus an ice cream pail for compost. These get dealt with on a need to basis (daily or every second day). When I go to hang laundry the girls are responsible for taking the garbage out, PP I is in charge of the burning garbage and PP II for the compost. I also keep a large coffee can under the sink for used cooking oil, fat and grease, when that is 3/4 full PP I takes it and dumps it in the burning barrel.

Cutting Back on Doubling Up.
Do you ever think how many times you haul out the cutting board or use and need to wash the food processor/grater/fill-in-the-blank for every bag of onions, block of cheese, bell pepper etc, you chop or grate in a month? Not to mention the pans and utensils you use to saute stuff? I've become a post-shopping-bulk-processor and I find it is a great time/energy saver in the long run.

I buy bulk cheese, grate it in one shot when I get home (or the next day), package it in medium size ziploc containers, leave it sitting in the fridge for 24 hours and then freeze all but one package. (Somehow refrigerating it first keeps it from block freezing). I peel and chop MY whole bag of onions or peppers, saute them and freeze them in small ziploc containers. I buy 3 whole chickens at a time, pre-boil them, freeze the broth, shred the chicken and freeze it for future meal prep. You can also pre-brown your hamburger meat the same way so it is all pre-cooked and waiting to get tossed in your next casserole or taco salad. This saves on preparation time and clean up time.

Illicit Help from Little Hands.
I spray down all the cupboards, but I only wipe the upper ones, the prairie chicklets do everything below counter level. They also can wipe down the front and sides of the fridge and oven. The girls (8 and 6) are also my official floor sweepers after meals and floor washers once a week (the day they wash the floors (Friday)I vacuum, so they wash in lieu of sweeping). I find the most effective cleaning gets done when we are working side by side, and I am talking them through stuff as they go, as I work. If I try to get them to do chores while I am doing something else it takes FOREVER and isn't always up to snuff. It's more fun to work in company anyway.

Just for Fun
Last tip for today, and one I love, silly as it is. Electric toothbrushes have become my best friend in the cleaning department. I keep one in both my upstairs and downstairs cleaning caddies and use them to clean all the seams and edges on appliances and around the sink. I know the toothbrush is an old trick, but the electric toothbrush is SO much more fun and effective. Have fun with it!

They should school the young women to be affectionate to their husbands and to their children, to be sober-minded, pure in their lives, 5 industrious in their homes, kind, submissive to their husbands, so that the Christian teaching may not be exposed to reproach. Titus 2:4-5 Weymouth New Testament

I........

am... saved. from myself. from my enemy. from the power and debt of sin.

I want... to live accordingly.

I have... too much. stuff in my cupboards. clothes in my closet. weight on my body, stuff in my basement. no matter how much I try to simplify and downsize, it continues to be too. much.

I wish... I were a double A, and I'm not talkin' sports.

I know... I am loved.

I hate... clutter

I fear... something tragic and painful happening to one of my children.

I hear... Peace is Here (Jars of Clay)

I crave... real mozzarella, the squishy, soft, juicy kind.

I search... for the matching pair to 30 odd socks... always.

I always... think.

I usually... think too much.

I am not... competitive

I miss... vineyards and olive groves, Tuscan hills and yellow sunflowers all visible from the windows of my home.

I love... life. it's precious.

I never... look back.

I rarely... get offended.

I cry... easily. reading, watching movies, listening to music, singing in church, at weddings, at baptisms, at funerals, talking about sweet things, funny things, sad things, looking at someone I love. simply put I'm just a big cry baby.

I lose... socks. but I think I've already mentioned that.

I should... go to bed earlier. and get up earlier.

I worry... that despite all my devotion to make the most of each fleeting moment, the moments are just that... fleeting.

I dream... of the day that the clouds will part and the trump will sound and I will see Him and know Him even as I am known.

I was... tagged for this by Berry Girl. If you think this would be a fun exercise, (it was for the record), then consider yourself tagged! I try to follow you all in google reader, or click through to you once a week through the posse links, so I'll keep my eyes peeled. Such a fun and simple way to get to know each other a bit better.

Like Lists? (and other More Important Matters)

If you are anything remotely like me, you will go ga ga over this site. Seriously. For under $10.00 american I just got an unlimited years subscription to downloadable calendars, lists, schedules and planners. I have spent the past two days pouring over all the options to make photo calendars as gifts, family planning calendars, weekly chore lists for the kids. My heart is palpitating just talking about it. You can make your own special events calendar (with birthdates and anniversaries of all your family and friends) type 'em in and then insert the list into the calendar... upload your pics and choose what photo format size you want. Print index card calendars to make desk top calendars, on and on..... It's insanely fun. Since we had decided to MAKE christmas presents this year rather than contribute to the billions of dollars America spends on material excess at this time of year, I am just ecstatic about this. I'm killing a whole lot of birds with one stone. Creating gifts that involve my passions (pictures) and planning (calendars).

Not to mention it has meal planners, academic planners, to do lists, bill tracking.... oooh... I can't even stop gushing. Seriously, this totally revs my engines. Check it out at Quick Calendars
(Berry Girl, make sure you're seat is firmly planted on your chair, this is gonna knock your socks off.)

And I've been meaning to post this vignette here for those of you who haven't seen it yet. It was instrumental in our decision to "buy" less and "give" more and really DO something about all our talk of "taking back Christmas" this year. Sometimes it takes a jolt to wake a person out of their culture induced stupor. This did it for us.

Tricks of the Trade 7, Seasonal Cleaning, Year Round.

Practical Tips and Tricks for Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here)

For previous Tricks of the Trade entries see here.

Seasonal Cleaning. Avoiding Spring Cleaning Burnout.

Spring cleaning can be fun, there's something invigorating and fresh about it. It can also be overwhelming and draining and rob one of the energy or time to get other essential tasks complete. I've found that no matter how much I try to stay on top of things throughout the year, there will *always* be lots of those spring cleaning tasks left, never fear... so I do try to accomplish "seasonal cleaning on a more year round basis. Like everything else, I stick to my philosophy of baby steps and slow and steady.

10 minutes a day gets the job done. I admit this is probably THE biggest area that I allow to fall through the cracks... especially during winter months when I have hours of school each day, and alot more essential housework to do since we spend most of our time IN the house. I also find it hard to get excited about doing these tasks in the summer when there is gardens to plant, water, weed, grass to cut, horses to train and hammocks and swings and books calling my name.... but I force myself to buckle down and put in those 10 minutes a day at least half of the time.... so what does that look like for me?

Pick a room, any room. Usually the scariest, most embarassing room. Day 1, start at the entrance door and work your way to the right for 10 (I say 10 but it always turns into at least 15, because once you realize how quickly 10 min's fly by you encourage yourself with "just this next little thing" for at least 5 more minutes because it feels so good once you start ;) ). minutes. This is where I wipe down doors, sockets, baseboards, give a serious spring clean out and cleaning to any shelf, cupboard, appliance, that stands in my path. I also move all the furniture and give serious cleanings behind and beneath.

Things that help make this job easier. I always have a garbage can, a Prairie Guy box, a clutter box and a good will bin alongside me as I do this chore. Sort as you go, don't waste time hauling things out of the room to it's proper home at this time, just put it in the "clutter" box which you can then carry around and put away at the end of the task. Anything I don't LOVE or USE gets tossed in the good will bin, garbage goes straight to the garbage. Anything I have a question mark about (does Prairie Guy need/use/want this?) I put in the Prairie Guy box for him to deal with and find a home for.

My rule of thumb to get a room organized is;

1. Does this item BELONG in this room? (is this where it is primarily used)

2. Has this item been used in the past 6 months or is it LIKELY to be used in the next 6 months?

If the answer to either of these questions is no, the item has to find a new home. Either in a more practical/useful location in the first case, or in the free will container.

I keep on in that room, making way all the way around the edge till I reach the entry door again and then tackling central items (light fixtures/fans/tables) before deeming a room complete.

Using this method a room can take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to completely spring clean and organize, depending on the size/state of the room and how diligent I am at getting my 10-15 min's a day in... Even if I only get these 10-15 min's averaging say twice a week... I can easily overhaul my entire house, including basement and sun porch twice a year.

They should school the young women to be affectionate to their husbands and to their children, to be sober-minded, pure in their lives, 5 industrious in their homes, kind, submissive to their husbands, so that the Christian teaching may not be exposed to reproach. Titus 2:4-5 Weymouth New Testament

Tricks of the Trade 6; Flex Schedules

Practical Tips and Tricks for Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here)

For previous entries in this series see here.

Tie-ing it all Together.
Okay, so, somebody asked for a by the clock breakdown of my day. I am happy to oblige, but I must preface it with a disclaimer that this week's schedule was not neccessarily last week's schedule, and will not neccessarily be next week's schedule. With the changing of seasons, stages of childhood, personal energy level, outside factors, etc, my schedule seems to be an ever fluid and fluctuating affair. A few months ago I was consistently going to bed at 9 pm because I was exhausted, and I was getting up at about 8:30 with my kids and doing my quiet time while they had breakfast because I cherished every moment of rest I could get my hands on (entering that third trimester...).

Now on the other hand I am staying up happily till 10:30 or 11:00, and waking up energetic as a lark at 7 am. So the look of my morning has changed slightly. When baby arrives in a few weeks, and school is finished and gardening season arrives, well, things will change again. Also, my schedule looks different depending on wether I am home all day, or have a morning out, afternoon errands or evening commitments. So I will post a schedule of what our "normal" day would look like, and then how I tweak when we have outside commitments. (my seasonal and organizational missions get ommitted for sure on such days, and often my weekly essentials get skipped either to be caught up on a subsequent day or just let slide...). So here goes; (I am not staring at the clock, but this is a general clock schedule of how the day looks)

A Typical Day at Home
7:00 Wake up, dress, clean my room, collect laundry and garbage and carry it downstairs. Sometimes I take morning showers, sometimes evening baths... depends how I feel.
7:15 Quiet Time
7:45 Computer time
8:15 Get chicklets up, dressed and have them make their beds.
8:30 Breakfast, girls clear and wipe table, sweep
8:45 Older chicklets wash up while I do breakfast dishes and weekly kitchen essential.
9:00 I wash up with Prairie Son-shine II and do weekly bathroom essential as well as start laundry.
9:15 School with girls, boys have independent play time. (They are happy to have full reign of all the toys, craft items, rooms of the house, and do very well). Prairie Princess(6) gets them a snack (fruit, yogurt or a granola bar) at 10:15 when she finishes up her classes.

12:00 lunch prep, lunch and clean up (I switch my laundry over or go out to hang it right after lunch)
12:30 Quiet time. Older 3 in their beds doing scheduled readers, or looking at books, I lay down with Prairie Sonshine II on the couch till he falls asleep and then have free time.
1:30 Older kids play outside, baby continues napping, I start on my weekly household essential, seasonal and zone chores.
2:30 Take baby outside and do outside chores and fun activities with chicklets (in winter they don't spend this much time outside, we might play a boardgame or watch part of a video from the library that corresponds with what we are studying in history or science).
3:30 Everyone in for a snack.
4:00 I start supper, girls help, also get laundry in off the line (just hung it for the first time this spring yesterday!!).
4:45 Kids have designated upstairs play time until Prairie Guy calls them down for Daddy time. PG and I catch up while I fold laundry at the dining room table.

5:00 Prairie Guy terrorizes the chicklets while I set the table and do last minute supper prep.
5:15-5:30 Eat, supper clean up.
6:00-6:15 Read Alouds, I read to the chicklets while they tidy rooms (bedrooms and playrooms); Prairie guy works on home projects.
7:00 Baths or Family time (game or watching 30 min's of a library video together)
7:30 Wash up
7:45 Family Devotions and prayers in the library nook upstairs
8:00 Snuggles, Tickles, Kisses and Lullabies
8:15 Bedtime for chicklets, quiet time for PG and I (scrapbooking, reading, discussing building projects, watching something...)

A Morning Out Day
Only changes to schedule listed, everything else stays the same.

9:15 Weekly essential, possibly seasonal/zone chores if I have time before we need to head out the door.
9:45 off for our morning outing.
12:00 lunch prep, lunch and clean up (I switch my laundry over or go out to hang it right after lunch)
12:30 Boys go for nap and quiet time while girls do school
1:30 Prairie Son-Shine I goes outside with Prairie Princess II when she is done her classes. Prairie Princess I continues classes.
3:30 The rest of us go outside and do outside chores.

Afternoon Out
12:30 We head out on city errands, youngest naps in the van. (we have a 45 min drive to the city)
4:45 Try to get home by this time, and bring something "easy" to heat up for supper.
Seasonal, Zone and Weekly Chores don't get done on an afternoon out day.

Evening Out
3:00 Do Read Alouds; chicklets tidy rooms (bedrooms and playrooms while I read)
6:00-6:15 Get ready for evening appointment (kids club, small group) and head out.
8:45-9:15 (8:45 on club nights, 9:15 on small group nights) get chicklets washed up and straight into bed.

Hope that helps bring the big picture together for those of you who wanted to see a step by step schedule.

They should school the young women to be affectionate to their husbands and to their children, to be sober-minded, pure in their lives, 5 industrious in their homes, kind, submissive to their husbands, so that the Christian teaching may not be exposed to reproach. Titus 2:4-5 Weymouth New Testament

Tricks of the Trade 5, Workin' 9 to 5...

Practical Tips and Tricks for Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here)



Workin' Nine to Five...

With all of my Daily Essential's and Daily Extra's scheduled into my day and running routinely, I still end up with about 3 to 4 hours of spare time in my "work day" schedule. I say work day, because I feel that this *is* my job. I am blessed with the great gift to be able to stay home and be "the boss" of my own doings and comings and goings, but that said, I don't want to take that for granted and I want to be a dilligent and worthy worker. So, that's going to be my theme this week before I move on to discuss Weekly Essentials next week.

Just yesterday I had two people rave publicly about me to people I don't know. This made me feel extremely awkward! They both said things along the lines of "She is amazing! She has four kids, is pregnant, homeschools, her kids are amazing, etc, etc." and then turn to me with; "I just don't know *how* you do it!!" I find this very embarassing and I think people don't realize how easy and fulfilling my "job" really is. But at the same time, I think I find it easier and more fulfilling because I *do* view it as a job. A very rewarding and even cushy job if I stay on top of things, a not so rewarding and rather draining job if I don't.

What I mean is, if I consider that Prairie Guy leaves the house at 8 am and returns at 4:30, with half hour for lunch and half hour of breaks... well, my job that starts with a quiet time at 7:30 in my pj's and a one hour time slot to eat and get washed up... well, that's cushy! If I consider 3 hours of lolling around learning with my kids WORK, well, I'll take that ANY day!!!

I just had to shake my head when these women raved about "how can you do it?" One was a doctor, the only pediatric specialist of her kind in the city. The other is a public school teacher. Well... truth be told, I look at women in the work force and it's *I* who can't fathom how *they* do it! They work full time, 3/4 of the day OUTSIDE the home, and then have to take care of all the things that I have *all* day to devote to in the short period of time available AFTER work or on weekends when I am usually kicking it back with my feet up. *If* I stay on top of my job during my "work time" that is.

That said, I don't want to make my lot out to be all peaches and cream either, there are ways that my lifestyle adds work for sure. This house is lived in by 5 people ALL day, dirtying dishes, dirtying bathrooms, using and messing rooms when many people's homes sit empty for the majority of the day and are only lived in in the evening. This does mean my floors get dirtier, I have more dishes to wash and more pick up to do... but like I said, if that's my *job*; to stay on top of those things, I'll take that any day over a work force 9-5!

My "trick" for this week, is how important I believe it is to recognize my "stay at home" status as a full time job and to do my best to organize my day in such a way that my job gets done dilligently, every day (for the most part, I'm not about to abandon all the perks and flexibility that being my own boss allows, but at the same time, I'm going to stay committed to not taking it for granted and getting my job done well in the end, even if it is on flex time!) Just like I would devote myself to staying on top of my paperwork in a work force job, I need to devote myself to staying on top of my house and parenting work at home.

Now, all that serious stuff said, like I mentioned in the beginning of this post; all this "work" still leaves me alot of cushy time in my day. On a normal day, with all of my Daily Essentials and Daily Extra's scheduled I still have about FOUR hours of cushy time. One of those hours I already devote to complete "down" time (after lunch quiet time) so that leaves me with THREE hours to do the "extra's" and *still* have time to spare.

How people can rave about "how I do it?" based on that information written down in black and white, well you can see why I "don't get" their amazement. I truly feel "work" couldn't get any better than this! Next week I'll touch on organizing weekly chores into bite sized daily chunks and start chipping away at those 3 hours plus of spare time in my day :D.

Introducing Mr. Jack Frost

When the fields are naught but stubbleAnd the final leaf has fallen
When November's moon is waning
That's when Jack Frost comes a callin'
Fences can not hold him back
Nor barbs keep him away
Over the stile and through the gate
He silently makes his way
Through the grasses brittle, brown
Across the orchard bleak and bare
He stops to leave his frosty breath
On crimson apples hanging there
Past the clothesline, barren now
From our farmhouse we see him appear
In his white cloak and sparkling scarf
And best of winter cheer


Pictures and Poetry by Prairie Chick, all rights reserved.

Tricks of the Trade 4, Zone Cleaning

The weekly essentials list in the last post doesn't cover ALL the essentials necessary to curb the weekly chaos in our home by a long shot. Besides that list I have another weekly list that basically separates my home into 5 zones on the main floor and five on the second story. I *try* to spend 10-15 min's per day PER floor focusing on doing some more concentrated cleaning in these rooms at some point in the afternoon. True to my Mnemonic approach, here is what that looks like for me.

Monday; Master Bedroom up, Mudroom down
Tuesday; Toy room up, kiTchen down
Wednesday; Washroom up and down
ThuRsday; The Rugrats room up, The dining Room down
Friday; Feminine (girls room) up, Foyer and Family room down

Zone cleaning is just 10-15 min's of more deep cleaning in that room, wiping down cupboards, organizing a drawer, cupboard, or cleaning furniture or appliances. The key is not feeling you need to deep clean EVERYTHING in a zone room on a given day, but hit one thing a week and then everything will end up getting deep cleaned at least once in a 3 month rotation or so. Zone cleaning for me also involves changing linens in those rooms and washing that room's clothing on it's given day.

Granted, if anything needs to give in my schedule, it's usually the zones that fall through the cracks, but that's okay, I get to them when I can get to them, catch up on weekends sometimes, or just let it slide for a week (or two...). In the next post I will talk about I set up alternate schedules for different types of days. Days at home, days that we are away in the morning and days that we are away in the afternoon.

Tricks of the Trade 3, Weekly Essentials

Weekly Essentials.

I have tried to conquer the weekly chores in a variety of ways, I think flexibility is neccessary with a growing family and changing lifestyles. I am smack dab in the midst of tweaking this set up, but I will share the way I tackled weekly essentials until now. First off, make a list of things that need to be accomplished on a weekly basis and assign them a day of the week. My main list is as follows.

Monday-Mudroom (This is an unheated/uninsulated sun porch off the front of our house and therefore part but not part of the house and doesn't get covered in regular daily housework. My dream is to have this room properly shelved and benched with creative storage ideas but for now it's a hodge podge MESS 95% of the time)

Tuesday-KiTchen,-this involves one shelf of the fridge each week, deep cleaning one section of the stove (dials, range, oven, front/side) per week of the month, spray down and wipe cupboard doors, take care of recycling)

Wednesday-Windows (spotclean)

Thursday- FeaTHer duster

Friday-Floors (vaccumed and washed, they get swept/swiffered on a need be basis)

Splitting my weekly essentials up into daily chores means they take only a 10-15 minutes per day. Also, whenever possible I get my kids involved in helping out with these chores. Especially dusting in low places, and windexing/polishing lower surfaces. They are also the official furniture washers (we have cream colored leather furniture, what was I thinking...)

stay tuned for more on how I tackle individual room rescues/deep cleaning/ and organizational projects.

Tricks of the Trade 2, Daily Extras

Daily Extras
Besides the Daily Essentials there are other things that I would really like to see happening on a daily basis. I call these things Daily Extras. I find that doing them routinely is still relatively essential. They are different from “essentials” in that if flexibility and “life” gets in the way and these fall by the wayside for a day or even two, they are not going to “get me behind” or ruin the flow of life like mountains of laundry or dishes would do, but it's hard to make good headway without tackling these things on a regular basis.

Here is my list of “Daily Extra’s”;
1. Quick tidy of all main rooms in house (and when I say quick I mean quick... no dusting or vacuuming here, just quick clearing of surfaces, pick up of floors and removal of items that don't belong in that room.
2. 15 minutes minimum dedicated to completing ONE of the chores on my weekly essentials list.
3. 15 minutes minimum-30 minutes maximum dedicated to *working on* (note, I did not say COMPLETING) an organizational/deep clean project.
4. Sweep kitchen, dining room and entry at *least* once a day
5. Couple-Catch-Up (one on one uninterrupted verbal communication with Prairie Guy
6. play room end of day pick up.

I’ll talk more about weekly essentials in the next post but in a nutshell this is how I classify things like dusting, vacuuming, washing floors, bathroom deep cleans, etc. I allot one weekly chore to each day of the week.

For deep cleaning and organizational projects I work one room at a time, 15 minutes a day until that room is deep cleaned, then move to the next one. Deep clean involves cleaning out cluttered drawers, cleaning off shelves, light fixtures, fans, baseboards etc. Some rooms take a couple days (bathrooms) some a couple weeks.

A quick note on multi tasking. There are things that pair up very well and can be completed simultaneously. My favorite multi tasking part of the day is when P-guy gets home. This is when I get the kids to go upstairs and tidy their rooms (I specifically save it for this moment, because they are climbing the walls at this time of day), P-guy sits down at the table to sift through the mail and I fold laundry while we chat. Read Alouds and Toy room clean up are another great opportunity to multi task. I read while they sort through their toys. I love multi tasking, you get twice as much done in half the time.

So If I take my daily essentials list from yesterday;
7:30 devotions
8:00 breakfast followed by wash up (start laundry)
8:45 quick tidy of the main floor, everyone working together
9:00 school
1:00 lunch
1:30 quiet time
outside chores
4:00 initial supper prep,
5:30 supper
6:30 read alouds
7:00 baths.

and merge in my daily extras, here is what I will get;

7:30 devotions
8:00 breakfast followed by wash up (start laundry)
8:45 quick tidy of the main floor, everyone working together
9:00 school
1:00 lunch
1:30 quiet time
2:00 quick tidy of second story just swooping room cleans, nothing dramatic
2:20 weekly essentials chore (I'll expand on this in the next post)
2:45 Room rescue (organizational or deep clean chore)
3:00 outside chores
4:00 initial supper prep
4:30 couple catch up, fold laundry, kids clean rooms
5:30 supper
6:30 read alouds
7:00 baths.

I added quite a number of tasks and time to the schedule, but only consumed another hour and a half, leaving still 50 spare minutes in the afternoon between my outside chores and start of supper prep. Of course, supper can get pushed back and that provides another extra hour in the afternoon of free/flex time if we need to go out or add something to the schedule. Stay tuned for a look at how I line up my weekly essentials.

Tricks of the Trade I, Daily Essentials

Practical Tips and Tricks on Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here).

Baby Steps and Basic Routine.


I confess, I’m a firstborn with a perfectionist, borderline OCD, box checker personality. If I don’t have a list, or a plan, or something in writing to keep me on track, I inevitably will spend most of my time “planning and intending” and very little time “doing”. So I need a list. And if I am ever going to have any success in following the list I need to start with a very BASIC list. A baby step “here’s what needs to happen in order for us to eat, sleep and stay alive” list. This list will save my husband and children from starving when I forget to cook because I am eyeball deep in a closet clean out (or a good read) when I should be putting supper on the table. So whenever my life is on the verge of (or fully swamped in) chaos, I go back to my “essential to survival” list. I tally the necessary tasks, come up with a guesstimated time each essential should require to accomplish, and order them chronologically in my day in the order they will most likely take place.

Here’s what I mean by daily essentials:

Devotions
Breakfast
everybody washed up
Quick house tidy
school
lunch
quiet time (yes, this is essential...to my sanity)
supper prep and meal
dishes
laundry
outside chores (feed animals, burn garbage, dump compost)
kids baths

These are pretty much the essentials to our daily life. If I can't get anything else done I NEED to get these things done. So they are the first things I must plan carefully and give priority to. I look at those things, separate them into morning, afternoon and evening slots and assign them a basic time frame (leaving 10% cushion or "padding" time in there to allow for unforseen cirucumstances and flexibility).

So my essentials schedule would read
7:30 devotions
8:00 breakfast followed by wash up (start laundry)
8:45 quick tidy of the main floor, everyone working together
9:00 school
1:00 lunch
1:30 quiet time
outside chores
4:00 supper prep, fold laundry
5:30 supper
6:30 read alouds
7:00 baths.

As you can see, the essentials take up a GOOD part of the day, but don't despair, split up over the week the other stuff isn't as time consuming as it at first appears. I'll post on weekly essentials tomorrow. Well, blogger will, as I won't be here... isn't technology handy?

This week I leave you with some great “planning” quotes, enjoy!

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” A.A. Milne

“Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.” Dennis Wholey

“A good plan faithfully executed today is better than a perfect plan next week.” General George S. Patton

“To be prepared is half the victory.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“Proper preparation prevents poor performance.” Charlie Batch

“It is better to make many small steps in the right direction than to attempt a great leap forward only to fall flat on your (behind).” Chinese Proverb.

Tricks of the Trade, Laundry

Practical tips on staying sane amid the chaos of life with kids at home, homeschooling and trying to stay on top of it all (trying being the operative word here).

Let's Talk Laundry!
Seems to be one of the biggest dreaded tasks I hear of, and yet it is one of the household chores I actually enjoy the most! Although I will admit, I get nervous and overwhelmed by it when I don't stay on top of it. It's one of those things that is never really done, therefore one of those things that I find it best to stay on top of.

So, here are some laundry tips I have gleaned from others, or come up with myself. Hopefully others will pitch in with more great tips (I know some women who have amazing organization tactics in the laundry room, I haven't gotten that far, and don't have the space yet, but their ideas inspire me to dream up reno projects for my dh!)

Rounding Up the Beast
-invest in a laundry divider and store in a central location near bedrooms (3 dividers are better than 2!)

-gather up laundry first thing in the morning while making beds and sort into laundry divider (I sort whites/kids clothes/and grown up clothes/delicates have their own little mesh bag and I deal with them on days when there is no other laundry to do).

-pick fullest divider and transfer to hamper to be carried to laundry room at first opportunity. Our bedrooms are upstairs so we get dressed, make our beds, I put away yesterdays laundry that I brought up the evening before, and then refill the hamper with the fullest divider and bring it downstairs to the laundry room when we come down for breakfast.

Penning the Beast
-start load first thing in the morning. I do this right after breakfast clean-up while we are washing up (our washer/dryer is in our main floor bathroom.

-Transfer laundry to dryer (or hange it on the line weather permitting) at the same time every day. In the winter I transfer laundry to the dryer while I have a spare minute in my lunch prep, since the bathroom is right behind the kitchen. In summer I do it right after lunch and then take an opportunity to lounge in the hammock next to the clothes line for 20 min's or so ;-) The important thing is doing it consistently at the same time so you won't forget and leave wet laundry sitting there all day (or longer!).

-Same thing for folding... pick a strategic time and do this consistently. I fold laundry on the dining room table while supper is simmering, and dh and I have our "couple catch-up" when he gets home from work. I can stir, listen, chat and fold at the same time and kill a lot of birds with one stone.

-Don't lose your laundry! Carry the basket to it's put away location first chance you have (I leave mine at the bottom of the stairs till my next trip up and then drop it off on the trunk in my bedroom to be put away in the next mornings bedroom clean up.

-Put laundry away at the same time every day- don't let loads and loads of clean laundry pile up!

Just a side note. You will notice I mention nothing about ironing here... that's because I don't "do" ironing :D I don't buy clothes that need ironing if I can help it. I have a great wrinkle spray I buy from Melaleuca that I will use the odd time on dh's shirts or the girls cotton dresses... but for the most part I shake and hang, or fold and press (with my hands!) and nobody is the worse for it.

Those are the basics, then there are handy little tricks like;

-putting dirty socks in mesh bags rather than mixing them in loose with the other dirty laundry

-strip and wash sheets when you don't have a full load of anything else (I wash sheets once every two weeks and never have to do an "extra" day's load to get them done.

-When you are washing whites go around and collect all your white towels/dish towels etc on your way to the laundry room.

Taming the Beast;
-limit the sets of clothes your child has for any given season. I limit to 7 changes of every item excepting socks/underwear. 7 house pants, 7 dress pants, 7 t shirts, 7 dress shirts, etc. They don't always have 7 of everything, but that is my max.

- make a habit of folding your kids clothes in sets. This way they pick a *set* and don't rummage through piles of clothes and make a mess of them all the time. Until 5 or 6 years old I usually just lay their set on the foot of their bed in the morning and then they don't even need to go in their dresser at all.

-make a habit of changing the towels in the bathroom when YOU deem, not every single time a towel is used. We actaully use our terry cloth robes as towels after baths, which cuts down greatly on the towel laundry! My kids are not allowed to throw towels or dish cloths in the laundry, because they would use it once and toss it.

-I have my kids lay their clothes (besides socks and underwear of course) on the end of the bed when they change into their pyjamas. Then *I* deem wether they are dirty or can be re-used when I come to tuck them in. The older kids usually wear the same house clothes 2 days in a row while the younger ones need a new change every day for house clothes, dress clothes should usually last at least 2 wears, or more for the girls (I have them change the moment we step in the door from being out!).

Well, that's what I can think of off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more great tips out there, have any you want to share??!!

Tricks of the Trade Intro; Purpose

Practical Tidbits on Staying Sane Amid the Chaos of Housekeeping, Homeschooling and Trying to Stay on Top of it All (trying being the operative word here).


A Sense of (Sacred) Purpose, A Labour of Love
9-5... wouldn't that be dreamy? A 40 hour work week? Hello! The life of a homemaking mommy of two pre-schoolers is said to be the equivalent of two full time jobs in the work force. What does that mean for home-schooling mothers of 4+ kids?! Double time, overtime, on call 24/7, no holiday, no EDO's. It's a BIG JOB, that's for sure!

If you think of it as a job that is. Well, it is a job. A duty, a responsibility... hmmm, those words weigh rather heavy. It all falls rather flat if I leave it at that. But I can't leave it at that, it's so much more than that! It is ripe with purpose. Sacred purpose. Something I must tackle whole-heartedly as unto the Lord and not just unto Him, alongside Him. This is His family too. This is His home, this is His gift to us. Only if I fully understand this will I feel that sense of joy, peace and fulfillment in the mundane every-day.

When I seek the sacred purpose, every act of duty is transformed into a labor of love. I'm no longer changing dirty diapers, I am nurturing tender, pink baby flesh and being given the opportunity to stop and touch, kiss and tickle an adorable bundle of joy in the process.

I'm no longer merely gathering up another load of dirty laundry or dealing with another sinkful of dirty dishes, I am handling evidence that I have 5 people to love and cherish and share my life and meals with every day. A full washer and a full sink equate to a full heart.

I'm not merely sweeping and dusting, mopping and scrubbing. I am creating a peaceful and beautiful haven of rest for my and my loved ones pleasure and enjoyment.

I am not merely teaching bible and history, math and science "facts". I am walking hand in hand with my children on an exciting adventure into the shallow depths of His Story, discovering His glory and truth revealed everywhere in His creation.

And lest I ever feel this is a thankless work, the Father himself has declared it of the highest value. Better than any white collar salary. "Worth more than rubies." He says (Prov 31:10). Worthy of praise at home and in society (Prov 31:31).

Not to mention, that their faces and voices and touch and laughter, their presence and personality... there is truly no greater joy.

Where's the practicality in all this emotional mumbo jumbo you may ask? The truth of the matter is, I believe if we don't have a clear picture of the sacredness of our calling, we will never truly flourish in our "field".

If I've whet your appetite on the concept, here's a few links to moving quotes I have come across in recent surf sessions...

"She (the christian household manager) would, in short, understand that her household labors were also Kingdom labors, intimately connected to her own faithful discipleship as a Christian woman, and to the Christian formation of her family." Harriet Beecher Stowe

from a book review for "Keeping House" by Margaret Kim Peterson. "The truth is that housework is hardly effortless, and it involves, to be sure, some drudgery. But when viewed through the lens of the Gospel, rather than the lens of Better Homes and Gardens, housekeeping presents itself as a theologically meaningful site of Christian formation".

"rather mundane tasks like cooking, washing clothes, and changing the sheets become crucial, transformative acts of love. Insofar as housework is creative, incarnational, physical, and sacramental, exposing the ways the material and the spiritual come together to remind us that "the provision of home is a central aspect of God's creative and redemptive activity," housework allows us to participate in life with the God who called the very dust mites into being".

"a Christian home, properly understood, is never just for one's own family. A Christian home overflows its boundaries; it is an outpost of the kingdom of God, where the hungry are fed and the naked are clothed and there is room enough for everyone."

Great quote in this short interview of Lane Jordan. "I Corinthians 14:33 says, "For God is not a God of disorder but of peace." When we have order, we will have peace and when a mom has peace, she is able to show the fruits of the Spirit to her children as well as to others. When a child is surrounded by love,joy,peace, patience, kindness, he will be much more able to live for Christ and serve others".

She goes on to advise; "Take time to stop and plan. Sounds so simple but it really can be quite hard to stop!"

Ah yes, the P word. For lack of planning cities have fallen... but I'll save that for next time.

And last but not least, this little quote really touched me this week; "I only wish I had treasured the doing a little more, and the getting it done a little less."

Here's to labouring in love and searching out the sacred amidst the suds.