Sweetheart's Room

I finished cleaning Sweetheart's room. It's not as lovely as I want it to be, but at least it's clean. I hope to get another set of sheets for the girls' beds so they'll match, plus protective mattress covers and one more pillowcase. I'd like to get a nice pink area rug for their room, too, and a few fake flowers (the real ones couldn't take the neglect ;-) ) to finish it off. There are still things that need to be done in there, like the floor needs to be repainted. The paint we chose that was supposed to be "scuff resistant" looks awful already. Still, I'm glad I didn't put carpet in there! It would be a mess!

Today is floors day. I hope to get all of the bedrooms vaccuumed. I had also hoped to clean the wood floors downstairs, but I don't think I have the energy. Maybe I can get Bo to do it?

I'm having an awful time with 13-year-old Houdin and 9-year-old Monet getting them to do their chores. Could it really be because they're boys???

On the other hand, I'm very thankful for Bard.Thank you, Bard, for keeping up with your chores without being told. I appreciate it more than I can say.

Sundays make it hard.

I decided that Sunday would be a day of rest, so I told everyone that we would have no major cleaning, only that each person would clean up after themselves and do their regular daily chores, like making their own beds and washing dishes. I decided not to do huge things, like cleaning bedrooms and organizing. I'll tell ya what...relaxing on Sunday makes a huge amount of work on Monday. This is pretty frustrating, considering that I spend just about every day cleaning, organizing, straightening and overseeing. ONE DAY should not make that big of a difference, but it really does.

Monday we had choir, so we spent the morning preparing the house to be the kind of place we want to come home to, and it was a good thing, because our friends Du and Blue, who rent our cabin from us, came up to take showers while we were gone. It was great peace of mind knowing that the house was in good order when they came.

Tuesday was a field trip, so I basically just did laundering and overseeing. Monet and Sweetheart packed lunches, Bard got The Baby ready to put in the car, and Houdin dragged his feet all morning, which resulted in me losing my temper which resulted in him staying home from the field trip.

Today's not going so well. I woke up and did some web surfing when I really should have been preparing for the day, and now I feel like I'm running behind. We messed up the balance, I think, when we switched chores on Monday. Bard doesn't want to do breakfast and Monet doesn't want to do dishes. Houdin doesn't want to do anything. He switched jobs with Bard so he would be in charge of breakfast, but heated up old pancakes which were too few for the family. So, things aren't going so well today.

I feel like I'm playing catch-up. I don't like this feeling.

Friday and Saturday

Picked up two free recliners today. Yesterday, I cleaned the bird cage. Day before that, Houdin and I sorted through the shoes and coats, making a huge pile that will go to charity.

Yesterday, Houdin and Bard stripped their beds and washed all of the linens and Houdin vaccuumed his mattress/boxsprings, etc.

I vaccuumed the couch, too.

Monet washed the big bean bag chair cover.

Houdin THOROUGHLY cleaned out the van.

Bought a new pillow and pillow covers for Bo. Bought a new comforter for Sweetheart and Baby's room. Now they have two that match.

Bo and I found two sets of dishes at Wal*Mart for six bucks. They're diner style with green rings around the edges, a green that matches my kitchen cabinets. They'll make great breakfast dishes. I hope to find two more sets at a different Wal*Mart since they were all out at the one near us.

Houdin cleaned out the litter box today.

I scrubbed a bunch of the trash cans in the house.

Oh! And I learned how to do mitered corners on beds. ;-)

And one more thing. Get this: an Amish neighbor told me that she never uses Windex or any other glass cleaner to clean her window. Just a rag and plain water. I tried it, and I'll be doggoned if it doesn't work!

Amazed...

Done and To Be Done

Watered plants
Laundered
Sanitized whirlpool tub
Houdin cleaned toilets
Houdin cleaned guinea pig cage
Houdin took out trash--we hired a new trash company and they arrived before 8:00 A.M. Good thing it got done!

Needs done:

* Yard pickup
$ Gather trash from garage
# Clean french doors in computer room.
# Spot clean french doors in gathering room.
# Clean hardwood floors on first floor.
^ Hang shelves in children's bathroom.
Dust children's bookshelves on first floor.
# Laundering.
All--Go through coats in mudroom and shoe closet to see what needs to be given away or stored.
All--Same with shoes.
$ Sweep porch.
# Chart of weekly chores
# chart of penalties for chores/tasks/responsibilities not done.
All--Sweetheart's bedroom.
@ Dust piano room.
# Call Alpha Omega about S.O.S. problems
* Clean out van, including under back seat. Vaccuum floors and seats. Wipe down dash.
#+ Clean bird cage

* Boys
$ Houdin
@ Monet
# Mom
+ Bard
^ Bo
Sweetheart

Cleaned the Flatware Drawer.

I can just see it now. A bunch of young twenty-somethings standing around the office saying, "And there was this one blog, I kid you not, where the woman was talking about how she cleaned and organized her flatware drawer!"

Oh, yeah? Well, I did it, okay? And I polished the flatware. And I'm happy about it. And I now have a clean and organized flatware drawer. How many people can say that? Huh?

Weekly Chore assigments.

I had a little mini-meeting last night to assign weekly chores. Each of the kids drew two chores out of a box.

Houdin: Vitamin Duty and check bedrooms
Monet: Feed dogs and do dishes
Bard: Make breakfast and maintain children's bathroom
Sweetheart: Wake up duty and check toilet paper holders

Monet and Bard were frustrated with their chores, so they switched "do dishes" and "make breakfast" with each other.

I hope to make a chart today to have them check off if they do their chores.

Bought flowers for my bedroom. Pretty purple irises and pom pom flowers.

Shopping Trip

Just got back from our weekly shopping trip to Sam's Club. We go through about six gallons of milk a week, so, for now, this is where we get our milk. I'd like to get into the habit of getting six gallons a week from Ralph, the local organic raw milk farmer, but I don't have a good way of storing and transporting until I find some good leak-proof containers.

Bought:

Two jugs of laundry soap
Fabric softener
Dog food
Diapers (then discovered I bought a case last week, too)

It's my hope that I can estimate our budget for these things by keeping track of when I bought them.

Hey, Bard

This message is for Bard: You need to write letters to other people asking for China donations.

Did you write thank you notes to the other ones?

What Needs Done

• Clean french doors in computer room.
• Spot clean french doors in gathering room.
• Clean hardwood floors on first floor.
• Hang shelves in children's bathroom.
• Dust children's bookshelves on first floor.
• Vacuum dirt that cat knocked over on tub deck in master bath.
• Put away laundry.
• Go through coats in mudroom and shoe closet to see what needs to be given away or stored.
• Same with shoes.
• Sweep porch.

A Clean Fridge

It's good to have a clean fridge! There were things in there from quite a while ago. I always feel so guilty throwing food away, but some of it was just plain gross. With as much money as we spend on groceries, it seems that I could find a way to cut down on food waste. All greens and grains go to the goat and all meats and cheeses go to the dogs and cats, but still...

Today is grocery day, so having a clean fridge will make unloading quite a bit easier.

Compulsive Listkeepers of Yesteryear

I decided to keep a blog of the chores that need to be accomplished and the ones that have been completed daily. I know it sounds terribly boring, but it was inspired by a book I'm reading called Home Comforts. The author reminded me that, in the "old days," homekeepers would keep a journal of all of the chores that they had accomplished around the house. It was probably for the purpose of keeping track of when a certain task had been done and when it would need to be done again, but it was also probably a catharsis for my fellow compulsive list-keepers of yesteryear.

I once found a journal on a dusty shelf of an antique shop. Within the pages, the woman wrote about her daily comings and goings in the early 1930s. The majority of the pages were filled with things like, "Took down drapes and laundered them," and "scrubbed floor before J and B arrived." It was oddly appealing to me. I felt a kinship...a sisterhood with this woman, though the only things I knew we had in common were our daily home maintenance rituals.

So, if you want to know the comings and goings of my homekeeping day, if it will bring you into kinship with me in some odd way, feel free to observe. If you don't...well...