Cleaning Lists

 What a fun and busy weekend we had! Saturday marked our six year anniversary of adopting our kids. We spent a fun day at the beach with family and friends! The baby was having a melt down when this picture was taken so she was not allowed to join! :) Anyway, this is the reason I did not get to list some of the articles I found that I will be sharing with my girls this week. I will see if I can get to that a little later today.
For now I just wanted to share some of the things that are going to help me teach my girls about being homemakers.

In our home I came up with a list for every room of the house. Each child has a room they are responsible for and it rotates every month.  These lists tell the kids which chore needs to be done and when. Daily is everyday, of course. Saturday chores can be an extra hour to two hours on Friday or Saturday. It's a deeper cleaning. Then I listed monthly chores that can be done each Saturday. For instance in the bathroom on the first Saturday of the month we take the cat box outside and hose it out and scrub it clean. Some rooms have 4-5 monthly projects some rooms have 1-2. In the kitchen on the fifth Saturday of the month (if there is one) we pull out the stove and fridge and clean behind it. Because there are only a few fifth Saturdays this does not get done very often, but it is also not a neglected chore.

I'm sorry that the pictures are blurry. I was rushing around taking them last week. I just downloaded them this morning so I did not know how blurry they were. :)
We've been using these lists for about 2 months now and it's working out well. I have seen some things that I need to tweak so I'll probably work on that this month.
Starting this week I will be working one on one with the kids in the rooms they are responsible for. I'll probably work with a different kid every day and keep doing that until I feel they can work more independently. Then I will make sure to check their work. While the jobs are being done around here they are not being done well. I want my kids to do everything they do for God's glory. Yes, even cleaning the bathroom. :) I think if my attitude were better about keeping our home up I would do a better job at it. I'm hoping that working with my kids in the coming weeks will help all of our attitudes improve.

I hope that you all are having a blessed day in your homes!

Secret Weapon

Disclaimer: These pics are not of my home... yet. :)

 I made an amazing discovery today. I was reading through my copy of Large Family Logistics (love this book by the way!), anyway I was reading and taking notes and realized that I was getting restless. You see, the same thing happens when I'm reading a good encouraging blog. I can't just sit on my blessed assurance while reading of someone else's productivity.

 I need to get up and clean something, cook something, teach something, make something.. I think I might have found a secret weapon. :) Mother's day is coming up and I think I will make a list of homemaking books that I've had my eye on, unless I get my real wish and hubby is able to take a day off to take me to the state homesechool convention at the end of the month.

I have been making lists and notes and coming up with all sorts of ideas to share with my family next week as we launch our new Giving My Girls the Advantage project. I'm so very excited! I've been praying and asking God to strengthen us and give us grace for next week. To really bless our week and give me wisdom. I've been led to many blog articles that I'm looking forward to sharing with my girls.I'll try to list some this weekend!

Giving my girls the advantage!

I remember a blog post I did not too long before Lily was born. I linked to this post from Lady Lydia (who I adore by the way!) The one line I took from that post that has stayed with me even until today is this:
"A woman with more than one daughter ought to have the nicest, cleanest, prettiest house. "
Here is the blog post I wrote way back then... :)
I need to get back on that wagon! I'm cheating my girls out of so much with my lackadaisical approach. They need me to teach them, to mentor them, to guide them. I am so grateful for ladies who have the gumption to put it out there and tell it like it is. For ladies who are willing to mentor and guide younger women.
Next week I will spend some time talking about what I am doing to give my girls more guidance. I'm excited. I also want to share Mrs. Lydia's writings with my girls so I think every morning I will pick one of her articles to share with them. This one will probably be the first one. :)
What are some ways you are training your young ladies to be keepers of their homes?

Share time

I had visions of blogging every day this week. I almost did not make it today. We are having a sprinkler system put in and our wifi provider marked the wrong spot and our wire got cut. They came out and fixed it this afternoon. This also means I have not had a lot of time to play with the new blogger format. Once again no pictures.
Hmm, we'll just use our imaginations again! Picture kids standing around laughing and surrounded by bubbles and flowers. :)

I really just wanted to share one of my favorite blogs with you today. This lady is so encouraging and I've learned a lot from her. She lives a simple life in Australia along with her husband. She is an older lady full of wisdom!
Down To Earth

I hope you all enjoy her blog as much as I do!

Do it with your own hands

Pretend like there is a lovely picture right here. It is a big garden with flowers and vegetables. In the background you can see a small grove of fruit trees and bushes. We might be using our imagination a lot if I can't figure out how to get my pictures to upload here. Of course at the rate I'm blogging I might be the only one using my imagination on this blog anymore. LOL


Just wanted to share a quote about gardens with you having just come in from the cool beautiful morning tending my little garden.


When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gardening Chores

Yeah, this is supposed to have pics of my garden not our totally awesome trip to Legoland. We are still working in the garden. I'm on the hunt for some mulch right now. Free, preferably. I have been checking Craig's List and some other sites daily. I'm hoping to find some by this weekend, because I really want this project to be done THIS WEEKEND!
I figured out what I'm going to do to the front of the house to make it look all homey as well. But that's a project that might have to wait until the end of the month. We have two birthdays this month and our adoption day. We might actually have a beach party for adoption day. We usually just do some stuff together as a family, but the kids have not had birthday parties in a few years so this would give them a chance to hang out with friends.

Back to gardening chores.

I need to:
Mulch around my beds.

Plant my butterfly bushes and lantanas. (To attract the pollinators)

Finish getting the seeds or plants in.

It'll be a busy weekend if I get to it all! I have before pics, but I refuse to show them until I also have after pics. :)

So happy to be getting back in the groove!

Be blessed!

Oh glorious day!

It is Palm Sunday. Most of my house is very quiet. I'm going to be doing a few chores soon and listening to some praise music. It is a wonderful day. We went to the lake with some friends and had a cookout. Lily found some palm fronds and we talked a little about what Palm Sunday was. Our church is looking forward to a wonderful Holy week. Thursday night we will have the Seder supper and Sunday morning a wonderful Sunrise service followed by breakfast for Resurrection Sunday! I'm so looking forward to the Seder as we've never participated in one before.

Can you believe I forgot to take pictures of our meals this week? Well, I did. I don't even remember what we ate. LOL I am going to work on a menu and a budget for the month in a little bit so I should have some stuff to share next week. We have a yearly budget, but Roy and I decided to do a monthly one for a little while to see where we can make some more changes. I'm afraid since he stared working again my trying to be frugal has hit a snag. Something about not having money for so long and then having a little extra, well.. let's just say I was not a good home manager. :( But our God is a kind and forgiving God. Much as we discipline our children when they've done wrong so that the next time they can make different choices God has revealed to me my wrongs. I'm trying to make better choices now. :)

Well, I better sign off. This week I would like to blog about my garden, our meals, my new book of the week/month, and my goals journal. I am also trying to get my homeschooling blog going. If I do, I'll make sure to link to it here. I hope you all have a blessed week!