Laundry Day #1 – PM

The septic alarm did not sound. I gave my washer and dryer both a pat on the back for the good job they did. I put my last load in the washer at 3:45pm. I did 2 darks, 2 colored, 2 jeans, 1 white, 1 towel and 1 bedding(Gracie had an “on purpose” last night) for a total of only nine loads. I set a timer to go off every 45m, which was usually enough to complete a cycle, then folded right out of the dryer into a basket. When I had three loads folded, off I & my chosen partner went upstairs to put them away.

 

I realized that along with doing coats on Wednesdays, bedding on Fridays, I need to do towels on yet another day, that would help cut down Mondays laundry.

 

8:30am to 5:15pm. Not bad. The best part it is ALL done. Whew, I do not have to THINK about it until next week, that’s the best reward.

…and I even found $1.03, a rubber frog, a K’nex and 4 nails in the washer tub, not bad for a day’s wages.

 

My shelving held it all but we have decided the children have way too many clothes and to make this *eliminating the laundry monster thing* work, I need to get rid of clothing. After laundry was finish the shelves had about 30% more clothing.

In the midst of all this it was quite easy to find time to help children with schoolwork.

 

Tomorrow is Office Day…more on that to come.

Laundry Day, #1 - AM

This is going to sound very corny, but I was so excited to get up and do laundry this morning! It was the first thing I thought of when I woke. How bad is that?! Here are my four baskets, laundry to the top. I got up early, spent time with the Lord in His Word and prayer, led the children in the same and let the sorting begin!

 This is 7 days of laundry for 9 people, rather little, I was surprised. Watching that laundry level rise has raised my blood pressure, I am sure. When I see aaaaall the baskets so full, I feel like I am sitting on the brink of a catastrophe. More times than not in years past, I have *lost it* and my house is a living laundry pile after exploding with laundry thrown in every room, clean, dirty...who knows?

  I sorted and Spray n Washed everything and even kept out clothes that didn't appear dirty, because, we all know, it is easier for a child to throw the clothes in the laundry basket than it is to hang it up and my little children are good at trying to pull this off!

So, the day begins.

Off to eHow.com to learn how to starch a shirt. ;)

After all clothes are washed and stacked, I will take a picture of my new shelving Paul built for the household clothes. It needs a little fine tuning on my part, but I think it will be a welcome addition. 

Those Lazy Mothers

There are some mothers that are too lazy that they do not pay much attention to their little ones… 

Thankfully, *I* am not one of those mothers. I diligently tend to the needs of my children…

 

I feed them the healthiest food we can afford…

 

and make sure they are fed on time so their little tummy’s do not go hungry and cause them to get their food from odd places…

 

 

(I hope by now it is obvious I am mocking myself)

He pulled this out of the grocery bag and started munching while I was busy with something else. He seemed to enjoy it. After slicing & buttering a piece, he wanted nothing to do with it. Go figure.

Day 6 and still holding strong...

I am fascinated that this is working, in all appearance. After reading Large Family Logistics, I started a Home Management binder. Instead of doing my allotted 2-3 loads of laundry a day, I am now experimenting with a Laundy Day, like the women of old used to do. Monday is laundry day and I laughed at the thought of this working, but a mother of 9(!!! That still sounds like such a huge number for me, lol) said it worked her, so I began my trial period last week. Granted all clothing is washed on Monday...bedding is stripped on Tuesday(if it is dirty) and all dirty coats are washed on Friday - breaking up the laundry into more of a bite-sized piece. All these reminders are written in my Home Management binder which lies open on my table. Why didn't I do this years ago?!?!?!? 

So far, so good. The 4 laundry baskets are holding almost 6 days worth of laundry, and only 2/3 full at that. I actually think we'll make it! The hardest thing for me has been that little alarm that goes off in my head every day telling me to get the laudry going or switch loads! Seriously, it has been haunting. I have noticed the extra time I have each day since laundry has ceased. So, Monday I did all my laundry, but was caught up so it wasn't that big of a deal. This next Monday will be interesting to see how long it takes us to get it done. All ironing and mending(last week was one white button on one dress shirt impatiently ripped off instead of unbuttoned by a certain 8 yr old) gets done on that day as well as the whole day is commited to laundry. I like staying home on Mondays, this works so well for me. I am looking forward to it and my husband is just hoping our septic system alarm doesn't go off, lol!! Truly, this could be an issue ;)

So, This weeks schedule has been as follows...Monday - Laundry Day, Tuesday - Office Day(grocery lists prepared, menu plan for 1 week, errands listed, bills paid, 1 snail mail letter written, taxes started), Wednesday - Town Day(piano lessons, grocery shopping, errands), Thursday - Kitchen Day(sweets baked for the week or month, freezer meals(if I feel like it), deep clean kitchen areas), Friday - Cleaning Day(mopping, dusting, scrubbing, tubs, showers all the stuff I can get away with on only a weekly basis) and Saturday is yet to be determined. She had Gardening Day, but I ain't working in our rain at this time of year...so maybe barn and dog kennel day? Who knows.

Homeschooling has fit in quite nicely in the midst of all this. It is too early to comment on this new *way* but it *seems* to make life easier and give me more time to rock the little ones, read them books and work on hot spots within the home.

The progress that has been made this week is due in part, I think, to the laundry not taking up time. All our dressers are on Craigslist today and Paul is busily building a whole wall of shelving to take the place of dressers in Elijahs room. His bedroom(the boy's old room) is now our family closet housing all the children's clothing and laundry, ironing board and mending supplies. I will take pictures once he finishes.

So see Laura C? The laundry seems to be working so far!

Skating whilst it snows..

    On Monday night, our church had their skating party. It is another highlight of the year. Everyone counts down the days until the skating party much like they do Christmas.

 

I packed up a bookbag full of toys and books, dressed the little ones warm as it is always freezing in there and off we went. A problem arose when we got there and Gracie right away started talking about *skating*. Daddy tried to persuade her to stay and play with Mommy and Elijah, but her heart was already set on skating and nothing was working. He could have just said no and that would have been that, but those blue eyes got to him and she ended up getting her skates. Even though the nuts were tightened to where the wheels couldn’t spin, she was on cloud nine *skating*(more like clomping) with Daddy and brothers and sisters.

 

This was about the best picture I could get of Jessie, she and her friends were pretty much a blur all night.

 

We had a lot of people!  Notice the loooong limbo line in the middle.

 

Danny was a terror on wheels, always flailing arms and legs, but rarely falling.

Micah and Emma limbo’ing. It was a great night full of sweat, friends, bumps and bruises. On the icy drive home it was snowing.

 

The next morning(Tuesday) we all awoke to snow. O.k., reality was I awoke at 6am(!) to the sound of my house dog barking, very out of character for her. I got up and found Jacob and Daniel outside, fully dressed and playing in the snow for crying out loud! They had been out since 5 something. Crazy children I have.

 

They came in, had breakfast and after a proper start to the morning we put off chores so they could go play. After all, the rains were coming.

 

Micah with his ears flipped outside his hat.

 

Elijah dreaming of snowsuits, snowballs and a motivated mother who would dress him…his dream did not come true.

But Jessica made me a snowmushroom. How cute is that? I can even tell it is a Fly Agaric!

Go Sock?

This is the epitome of why I blog.

 

I don’t know whether to think there is something wrong here or to rejoice my children are enjoying their housework.

About five minutes ago I walked into the living room where the children were asked to sort and fold socks. They were playing Go Fish….with socks. And it was working. At the moment Jacob is ahead and Daniel is asking if someone has a “dirty looking clean sock with a blue ring around the top”.

 

The socks are almost sorted so I guess I can’t complain. This game was Jessie’s brainchild one day when she had laundry basket FULL of socks and manipulated her siblings into playing her *game* I LOVE it!

My Favorite Book of 2011

 

O.k., so it is a little early to make a claim like that, but really, I think this book will be my favorite. It is fresh off the press and It has been on my want list since the day I heard about it. So, what is this book I am raving about? Large Family Logistics written by Kim Brenneman.

The book is written by a down to earth, easily relatable wife and mother. There is hope for a large family to have a clean house…the laundry done an orderly home…a happy home.

This book was written with the tired, mother of many, often pregnant mamma as the audience. Some chapter titles are Teaching a new chore, Life with Littles, Baby Balance, Your Home Management Book, Laundry Day(Day? DAY? I can’t wait to see how she pulls this one off)Town Day, Cleaning Day, Deep Cleaning Day, Tea party Day, Meal Time Routines, Quiet Time, Bathroom Management, The Children’s Hour, Homeschooling the Large Family, Meal Planning, Feast Night,Read Aloud Time, Pregnancy and Preparing for the Newborn, The Buddy System…there are 47 easy reading chapters total.

Just browsing through different topics makes me wish I had this book years ago, anyone of any size family can benefit from her wisdom.

You can find it HERE and if you so choose to buy it, I have a free shipping coupon to VF you may use, just email me.

New Year Ramblings

Like I'm sure everyone can say, the time since Christmas has been a blur. A good blur, but a blur. The children won and we took aaaaall last week off school, it was quite a nice break to just get the house back in shape, organize stuff and enjoy the lackadaisical week. Paul and I agreed that since we are not sharing half our living space with a Christmas tree this year, we'd keep it up for an extra week. Well, Monday came around and that is as long as I could stand it. We had everything down, vacuum and dusted by the time Daddy came home from work. Good riddance.

We were all very excited for another New Year's Eve hymn sing and fellowship with Hope Family Fellowship church, a dear sweet body of believers we just cherish. It was so much fun to eat, watch children and adults alike perform music, singing or readings. The poems were my favorite. Then we sang the old wonderful hymns until late. I treasure the fellowship and encouragement I receive while there. ;)

Our good friends the P's, who live on Camano Island, came home at midnight with us to spend the night at our home. All 11 of them, what adventurous parents! It was SUCH a hoot! The next day we were excited to be invited to a New Year's Day dance and celebration down in their neck of the woods, but two of our children came down with fevers. By the next day, New Year's, we had 4 down with fevers. By the next day all 7 had come down with it! Needless to say our plans were scrapped, but the worst part is I think my eldest daughter was contagious at the HFF New Year's Eve party. Sorry to all her friends out there, you'd know by now if you caught it. ;) I am quietly waiting to hear from the P's to see if any of their children came down with it.

Sunday was filled with sick children and tending to their little needs, charting tylenol doses for those with high fevers and making sure everyone drank 1 full glass of water every two hours. I am the Water Nazi.

Monday was much better. Only Emma and Jess were down still. I got the privilege of doing Jessica's chores by caring for the goats. While I was out there I am sure I saw babies kicking inside the doe's tummies ;)

I went to my midwife appointment at two. She commended me for being able to wait until this appointment to hear the heartbeat! I laid down and...nothing. I was getting nervous now. I asked her if I could skootch down flat on my back as I felt that was the problem and sure enough, as soon as I did that we found a strong heartbeat. I teared up. She got the idea and we listened to that quick thump-thump for a good long time. :) It was music to my soul. Ann commented on the fact baby had a *growth spurt* and asked if I usually measure large. I have a couple times in the past, but the last couple pregnancies have been quite normal. Oh, it is fun to dream of twins, isn't it? I wish.

Oh, and last night Paul and I finally found a guinea pig for Jessica on Craigslist. He is a male smooth-haired Dalmation Black. He is happily feasting on fresh hay and a plethora of veggies. I have missed pigs, they are some of the best pets. ;)

There is a bunch of useless information and if you make it this far, you deserve an award.  Love from the J's