A Small Rant…

 

…over a simple thermometer. Glass mercury thermometers to be exact. If you have mothered through the last 10 years and like reliable equipment, you have probably guessed my impending rant.

I went to buy another thermometer back when the flu was in our home after my old one hit the floor a little too hard. After a brief look around the local pharmacy I could only find those worthless, digital, battery operated, undisinfectable, gotta-buy-the-plastic-sheaths type of thermometers, of which two I have already tried and returned in years past.

I went to the desk to inquire why I could not find these wonderful little gadgets, when to my horror, the lady in the long white robe looked at me and with a slight look of arrogance and announced “We no longer carry them. They are dangerous and were taken off the market.” What?!?! Seriously? Off the market? Nowhere to be found? Yup. I guess this is old news, I just haven’t gone shopping for a thermometer in a while.

Well, I only ever take an under the arm temperature with my glass thermometers. It is the most comfortable, easy, accurate way to take the temp of an infant or sick teenager….oh, you have to add a degree, not exactly hard.

I decided to buck the system. I searched all the online drug stores…maybe it was just a Washington State thang? Nope, it wasn’t. Then I went to eBay and did find some but they were asking an arm and a leg. It hit me. my good ole vet supply store. Sure’nuf. $1.49ea. I bought 5 and am now happily taking temps again, my way. The easy, accurate, non-battery, you-can-disinfect-it-with alcohol way.

Why five? To spread the wealth with like-minded mothers ;)

Accomplishment

I know, you are sick of hearing about the floor, but I want the memories to print out someday. Paul finished laying the floor late that night, edges and all. We were told 3 days to do it ourselves as opposed to hiring the *professionals* to do it. Yeah….right. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to lay this floor and all you need for tools was a good hammer, block of wood, measuring tape and a chop saw.    

Now I pick out wall color, then paint and the dining room is finished until April,which is when the wood stove can be shut down long enough to build our hearth.

Next project is to start building the new hallway upstairs and finishing the new baby’s nursery before the little one arrives. Will the house ever be done? I doubt it.

Tomorrow is Laundry Day again, and as last week, I am looking forward to digging in! 

New Floor

The new floor is going in. We have been eating in a carpeted dining room for a couple months now and if you want to know why my Little Green Clean Machine bit the dust, just consider 7 children eating over carpet for 3 meals a day.

Up comes the ole nasty carpet.

 

Prepping the subfloor which held no surprises as Paul replaced the whole subfloor several years ago after lifting the second story of our tired, sagging 100 yr old farmhouse and bracing it with a large beam.

 

Daniel(10) loaded the flooring from Daddy’s pickup into the nook. In the rain no less. His choice, btw. All >700lbs of it by himself, no job is too big for that little guy when he has his sights set.

  

We found this written in the middle of the old subfloor. How sweeeeeet…..I do not remember doing it. It just hit me that was our 10yr anniversary, Aug 7, 2003…aaaaaww.

 

Laying begins. Isn’t it pertty?

Danny became Master Laminate Layer after laying a good 40% of our floor himself. Daddy sat there shaking his head at that boy. Jacob was/is much happier outside exerting energy mucking the goat stalls and rabbit pen with Micah. They spent hours this afternoon making trips with the three-wheeler and trailer to the every growing compost pile.

Can’t wait to see what it looks like tonight! Any ideas for farmhouse dining room wall color?

Cleaning Day - Friday

Large Family Logistics – Ideal for the family of 2 to the family of 20. A must have in my opinion for any size, the earlier on the better. Keeping life sane and glorious in the midst of pregnancy, babies, toddlers and up, homeschooling and life. The planning I mention below is a small, teensy bit of what the book covers.

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Start by washing all towels, washcloths and handtowels – I trrrrrryyyyy to keep this down to 1 large load a week by recycling clean bath towels. 2 washcloths in the kitchen and 1 hand towel in each bathroom a day.

(Psst…this isn’t in my house)

Before I started reading LFL, I had written every cleaning project down and divided it up over the course of Mon-Fri. The problem with that is on the hectic days things were skipped, which normally wouldn’t have been a bad thing, but it seemed the same two days were very busy for us leaving certain jobs undone for weeks at a time. It’s amazing how in just 5 weeks a single spider can spin a web that looks like it has been there for months, if not years.

Having a Cleaning Day gets everything done in one day and it seems to take a lot less time when we are all working together on a list of items. The flip side to this is, every so often, Cleaning Day will get skipped and then I will just switch it with another day(Kitchen) that I can sacrifice.

Some of my children work best playing beat the timer, sometimes we do the buddy system(an older with a younger), some work best just giving them a list of chores with a  Starburst at the end when finished, Some like work to 15 min, take a 5 min break and repeat, some need to be prodded the eeentiiiire time and they become Mamma’s partner. Working along side your lazy children builds your patience and sharpens YOU while it teaches them work ethic and children looove working alongside their parents, that’s how God created us.

Another tool we have used in our home is if there are two children that seem to be at each others throats, I pair them together. We read over scriptures concerning working together, loving one another and then they are supervised for squabbles. I encourage often to love each other and work together and amazingly this has brought siblings together as buddies for days on end. The Lord has told us to confront our weaknesses and deal with our sinful attitudes, what better way to confront hard hearts in siblings?

I am in a new season of life where the children do the majority of the housework. From Micah to Jess they can get an enormous amount of work done. It is much easier to keep my home cleaner now than it ever was in the past with just 3 or 4 small children. It is a place we are all bound to be, there’s hope and you’ll make it!

As far as rewards go. I do not like rewarding sugar on a daily basis and I can not afford to reward children with dollar store prizes or candy often, that’s not us. We do not pay our children for chores, not that I have anything against doing so, it just doesn’t fit our budget. I try to encourage by singing, kind words, keep the house *happy*, reward with reading a book or 4 player Wii for 20 minutes. This kills 4 birds with one stone.

Sweet prayers and raiding the fridge..

Daddy asked Micah(5.5) to close us in prayer after dinner devotions tonight. It touched my Mamma’s heart, can you tell why?

“O.k. everyone, let's pray,

Dear Jesus thank you for this day, please bless our family and this dinner that my Mamma has made. Just bless her for this food, I really love her and she is so beautiful and I really like her food. Thank you for being our Lord and please help me not to be a bad boy and just make you my Lord. Please bless someone that is hurt, in Jesus name A-men.”

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This is the same child that I took to town with me today and aaaaaall the way there asked questions and told stories. At one point he asked “Mamma? Have you ever just followed someone(meaning a random car on the road)  to see where their home is?”

“No, Micah, I haven’t”

“Well, when I grow up and get my own truck I’m going to follow someone to their house to see where they live and when they unlock the door I will wait until they go in the front door then I will go in the back door and go to their fridge and eat up all their good food, then run out the back door again, jump in my truck and leave.”

“Why in the world would you do that?”

“Just for fun.”

Kitchen Day -Thursday

Large Family Logistics – Ideal for the family of 2 to the family of 20. A must have in my opinion for any size, the earlier on the better. Keeping life sane and glorious in the midst of pregnancy, babies, toddlers and up, homeschooling and life. The planning I mention below is a small, teensy bit of what the book covers.

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Kitchen Day –

I am still building this day into what I want it to look like. I am cleaning out 2 cupboards on this day. It is pretty lame yet, but I like space to grow and this is that day.

Jessica has been baking one large batch(10 dz) cookies of her choice using the Bosch(makes like simple) every Kitchen Day. Daddy is happy to be swimming in cookies every time he goes to the freezer(where only well seasoned cookie connoisseurs keep their cookies)

Pack away as many freezer meals as I feel like.  

I wash all top sheets and bottom sheets today. 8 beds worth, usually 2 loads and hang them to dry if the Washington skies are not raining….again. I was dreaming about those summer clothes line days when my mother told me that back in her day, you hung clothes on the line, everyday. Outside if weather permitted, or in the garage if weather did not. She said she’d hang the clothes on the line on a 28 degree day. First the clothes would turn stiff as a board as they froze, then, as the ice evaporated, the clothes would become soft and start to flow in the breeze. That is when you knew it was time to take them down.

One thing Kim mentions one thing that I  have never considered before(and obviously appeals to the flesh!). It is to consider a reward for yourself after great accomplishments. My first thought was “A great way to waste money, encourage women to spend money on themselves”, something many of us don’t need prodding in. But after thinking on it and after I tackled some of the jobs I did like clean off the top of my fridge(ack), clean my laundry room which was our catchall room, organize the back porch(bazillions of shoes, boots, dirty ole socks and sandals scattered EVERYWHERE) it became apparent that it would prevent burnout.  So I changed my thinking on that topic and after today, after I tackle that great Master Bedroom, I am going to buy myself….drum roll please….a meat baller!! Yes, this friendly little gadget I have secretively coveted ever since I bought it as a white elephant gift this last Christmas…and lost it to a friend ;(

Gotta go wipe peanut butter and jelly cheeks…

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instructions as to how you ought to walk and please God that you excel still more. 1 Thess 4:1

Town Day – Wednesday

Large Family Logistics – Ideal for the family of 2 to the family of 20. A must have in my opinion for any size, the earlier on the better. Keeping life sane and glorious in the midst of pregnancy, babies, toddlers and up, homeschooling and life. The planning I mention below is a small, teensy bit of what the book covers.

Town Day - Wednesday

Today is my most dreaded day of the week, the day out. Today we wake and start the day as usual – Bible reading, morning chores, eat breakfast, feed animals, grab lists, musical instruments and pack in the van for lessons at 10:45. It is a blur.

Today I’ll bring Jessie, Jacob and Danny to music lessons in Lynden. We run to the Green Barn for produce, do banking, go to the Franz bread outlet to buy our weekly bread then pick up the musicians and drop everyone off at G-ma’s while she so kindly feeds them(THANKyou mother) and I get groceries. After groceries, I enjoy a hot cup of coffee and a chat with my mother, then pack everyone up and head to the consignment store.  After that there are usually tears of tiredness at which point to home we go to tuck little ones in.

The afternoon is filled with quiet nappers, unpacking groceries, cleaning the van and organizing the groceries in cupboards.

All dirty dog kennel bedding will be thrown in the washer.

Office Day – Tuesdays

Large Family Logistics – Ideal for the family of 2 to the family of 20. A must have in my opinion. Keeping life sane and glorious in the midst of pregnancy, babies, toddlers and up, homeschooling and life. The planning I mention below is a small, teensy bit of what the book covers.

Office Day comes before Town Day, my once a week day out to run errands, get groceries and send children to music lessons. On Office Day I prepare 1 week of meals, print out the recipes and put them in my Home Management planner, plan breakfasts and Daddy’s lunches then write out my shopping list. The majority of my time is spent on meal planning, the way Kim describes in her book is more labor intensive than I have done in the past, but in the end it will pay off and make life much easier. I am setting up 3 months of meals(she suggests 1 month) all gathered together in one place and written down in the *Meals* section of my book.

As well as this, I write down anything the children may need from the consignment store, make a list of any errands that need to be done, and if I handled the bills, I’d pay bills on this day. Thankfully, my hubby does that.
I plan on writing 1 snail mail letter to a friend, if time permits.

Spend 10m hitting 3 different *hot spots* around the house. Last week I was amazed how much was cleaned in this little bite-sized piece of time.

Start taxes, which I do.  Business and household.

Wash dirty coats as soon as I get up so they are dry and ready to be worn when we leave for Bible Study at 12:30. FYI this is the first time in 8 years I have been able to join a bible study and it is ONLY because Jessica and Jacob stay home while the youngest two nap. The 5, 8 and 10 yr old come with me and go to a class that they thoroughly enjoy. Be content in our seasons. 8 yrs was a loooong time to go without that fellowship, but we made it! 

Tonight is the J Ladies Bible Study…just me and my daughters, studying Raising Maidens of Virtue.

This schedule is loose and easy to handle and I LOVE IT. I LOVE my new Home Management planner. When I tried following Managers of Their Chores I felt like such a failure, it really bothered me for a long time afterwards. This *way* is soooo me, loose and forgiving. I can attain a good solid homeschooling day, deal with *on-purposes* like the 5lbs of sugar spilled on my dining room floor yesterday(yes, Dee, it was Grace).
Off to work. May the Lord give us the grace to handle all things that come through His hand today. ;)