Cleaning the van

I wonder.... Does washing and vacuuming the van count as cleaning for the day? I haven't gotten to my house chores yet today but I did run a couple errands and wash and vacuum the van. It really needed it.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful hump day!

Cleaning

I hate cleaning house. I only do it because I have to and I generally try get The Man and the kids involved because I do not want to clean up every body's mess all by myself. The Man is usually really good about helping on the weekends but he is so tired and worn out from his work schedule and lack of sleep during the week that he doesn't do much during the week.

The oldest boy is supposed to do a chore every day but rarely gets one accomplished between school, homework, dinner, and practicing his instruments. I am quite lax on him about the chores because I think that the school work and practicing the instruments is more important. I never had the opportunity to learn to play an instrument when I was a child so I am thankful he gets the chance to learn two. He also has a bad attitude when I ask him to do anything and when he does do something he puts very little effort into it and it usually isn't much better than it was before. How do you get an 11 year old boy to understand that helping out in the house is important?

The little two boys don't quite get what chores are. I try to get them involved with helping but if I am not right there helping them they make more mess than the help is worth. I can hand them wet washcloths to help wash fingerprints off walls and if I walk away they are smacking each other with the rags. I will help them start cleaning the toys off their floor in their room but if I leave the room for any reason they start playing and pull out more toys. I have taken toys away for them being left out and it doesn't seem to affect them. What are some easy chores for little kids (5&3) that they really cannot make too much mess with?

The baby of course cannot do much at this point. It would help if she would play peacefully in her playpen for a little and not cry when I walk out of her sight so I could get a whole lot more accomplished.

I struggle on how to implement the family's help so that I am not the only one who is stressed out about it all the time. I read a few blogs about large families (much larger than mine) and they seem to have figured out how to limit the "stuff" their kids have and they home school so there are more helping hours. I don't home school mostly for my lack of strict structure and my oldest son's attitude. I would love to be that great mom who was able to home school her children and get everything done around the house as well, but I am not.

While I know my house isn't a pigsty or a disaster it is cluttered and always looks too lived in for my liking. I do not know how to combat this. I can figure out how to get rid of "stuff" but new stuff seems to just come in to replace it. I am really hoping that as my children age that the house wont look so messy to me all the time.

Do you have children who are great helpers around the house? How did you get them to be involved without the attitude? Do you have some suggestions on how to get everyone involved without too much arguing and complaining?

Children And Chores- I Need Suggestions

As a child I did not have chores and so I struggled quite badly to learn to keep a house clean and still struggle to this day. My house is not horrible but it is not nearly how I feel it should be. I would love to have a house that is presentable at any time to visitors. As it is right now I would need about 30 minutes warning so that I could tidy up and make me comfortable enough to have people over. I know that I should not expect a perfect house as there are 6 people living here and 4 of them are under the age of 10.

I have struggled with how to teach my children to help keep house as well. I don't want my children to be little slaves but I feel they should help out in the house. I struggle most with my 10 year old. He acts lazy. I know he isn't lazy because when it is something he wants to do he will do a good job and put effort into it. It shows in school as well as home. He loves math so he puts effort into his math and does well at it. He doesn't like reading so he chooses not to put much effort into his reading by picking books that are at the very lowest level acceptable to his teacher. He likes to watch TV or play video games and so he does well at vegging out and doing that. He doesn't like to help in the house so when I ask him to do dishes he puts the 10 largest items in and says he is done. I ask him to pick up the toy room and instead of putting things in their proper place he just puts them where ever they fit. He knows this is unacceptable to me and I make him redo these things. My struggle is how to get him to do things properly the first time. How do I get him to show pride in doing things right when they are not things he likes? I have already tried doing a chore chart, allowance, and taking privileges away. None of those worked with him. I have tried explaining to him that he needs to do something to help every day because he is a part of this family and unless I bug him to do it he will not do anything. Do you have any suggestions on how to get him to want to help out and show pride in the things he does even when he doesn't enjoy them?

Laundry.... Again

I posted a month ago that I had finally caught up with laundry and had planned to keep up on it from that point forward. Well I am sad to update that due to illnesses running through my house I am backed up again. 4 out of the 5 of us caught some kind of tummy bug that ran a nasty course through our house. I had to wash tons of extra blankets, sheets, clothes, towels, and throws due to the illness and so now I am behind again. Now that we are all feeling better I am going to try to get caught up again but it will probably take me a week or two to get totally caught up again. It is amazing how many clothes and household linens 5 people can go through. I would love to be able to own 2 washers and dryers but since we do not have a home of our own right now that is not an option. I hope to try for this when we actually buy our own home if there is enough space to safely do so.

The Many Faces Of Mom

I read in one of my friends Facebook status how she felt like a bad housewife because she wasn't perfect at it. It made me sad. I am a stay at home mom and housewife as well and know that I am not perfect nor should my husband, children, or anybody else think that I am. It made me think of some the things I do for my household. It will probably have to be edited as I think of more but I am going to start a list so when I have one of those days I can look back and feel good about the things I do for my family. Maybe, just maybe it will help another mom or housewife who is having a bad day see that she also probably does tons of things for her family.

I AM:
-wife
-mom
-chef
-housekeeper
-nurse
-accountant
-entertainment planner
-coupon clipper/sale finder
-referee
-hairstylist
-tutor
-chauffeur
-cheerleader
-calendar

I will come back and add more as I think of more as I am tired and drawing a blank right now but this list is not complete. I am the one who keeps this house running as smoothly and organized as it does. I know that The Man could do it without me but I like to think things run just a tad bit more smoothly with me taking care of certain important aspects of the house.

My Laundry Accomplishment

This is the closet that usually houses our mountain of dirty clothes that I try to get through constantly. I am the only person in my house who washes and dries clothes and getting through all of them seems to be a never ending challenge. I not only have clothes for 5 people but also all the bedding and cloth diapers to keep up on as well. I decided last Sunday to have everybody gather all of the dirty laundry they had in their baskets and put them in this closet and then I would do my best to manage to get through all of the clothes in the closet by this Sunday when I would have everybody bring their clothes down again. Well, I am happy to share with you that not only did I manage to get through all of the clothes I also vacuumed the closet out as well. Then we as a family all folded and put away all our clothes in the correct spots. It feel super nice to get through all of those clothes. I think we might just all have too many clothes. I am going to try to make this closet look like this every Friday. I am not sure I am that good though because when I have a day that I dont feel the greatest I seem to get behind on everything and then it takes me forever to get caught up. I did it and I feel great!!!

Meal Planning

I find that it is hard for me to figure out what to make for dinner every night. On a few of the thrifty blogs I read they make out a meal plan for a week to a month at a time. A lot of their meal plans seem to be very detailed including all three meals and snacks. I have decided to try figuring out dinners for a pay period at a time. I found that when I tried to make it specific to a day that on that day I did not want to eat what I had planned. I then decided it was better if I just came up with the 15 or so meals on a list to choose from each morning. This worked better for me since I don't like to eat things too similar two nights in a row but also want to be able to use up leftovers before they go bad. I have done this for 3 pay periods now. Not only is it saving a little bit of money because I am not stressed out trying to figure dinner and end up going out to eat but also I have been able to get the majority of our groceries in one shopping trip per pay period. I get everything to make those planned meals and a few extra items that may be on a great sale or for lunches, breakfasts, or snacks. I only have to go back to the store for milk, bread, and produce. It is working well so far. Here is my list for this pay period.

1-chicken broccoli rice casserole
2-crockpot chicken pot pie
3-impossibly easy cheeseburger pie
4-teriyaki chcken and rice
5-stir fry
6-lasagna
7-Thanksgiving turkey dinner
8-chili & cornbread or rice
9-chili dogs
10-spaghetti
11-tacos
12-homemade pizza
13-chicken noodle soup & grilled cheese
14-slop and rice
15-mini meatloaves, corn, mashed potatoes

Tonight we are having chili.

My House Is Relaxing Now

It is amazing how relaxing a clean house is. Since The Man and I got married almost 5 years ago we have just had too much stuff. Even though our house wasnt messy it was most definatly cluttered and unorganized. I decided this is my year of change since this year started a new decade in my life. I was not going to keep looking at the clutter and keep getting frustrated because I felt that my house was a pig sty no matter how much I cleaned. I have been going through room after room and trying to figure out if the things we have are things we need or actually use. If it is not in one of those two categories it must go. My house over the last week or so has finally started to feel like a comfortable place to be for me. It is still a work in progress and probably always will be but my hope is that if I can keep one step ahead of the clutter I will not dislike being in my own home. Do you have any tips for keeping the house clutter free?

Decluttering

Decluttering. Hmm that is a great word. It makes me feel great to rid my house of useless to me things and free up more space.

I am in the process of decluttering my house. It is interesting how many "cool treasures" (according to my mother in law) one family of 5 can collect. I have been through the closets and managed to donate 3 trash bags of clothes. I could probably get rid of another one or two but The Man refuses to get rid of any of his too-small-haven't-been-worn-in-10-years shirts. I am convinced now I am going to find someone who can make a quilt out of these shirts so atleast they might be useful. I am hoping I can find someone to do it for a reasonable amount too since I will have to ship them off and pay to have them shipped back too.

Toys. Oh My Goodness Toys. With 3 boys we have quite the collection of toys. I cant remember ever having 1/3rd of the toys these boys have. I managed to donate about 4 full trash bags of toys and they still have enough to have an entire cluttered playroom full of toys. I have tried and tried to convince the grandparents to only send one toy per child per occasion but I have figured out I can tell them til I am blue in the face and they will never listen. I think I am going to try again this year to enforce that, even if they dont listen I wont feel as bad donating the toys they send. I just cannot replace the good quality toys that all three of the boys play with to keep some random new toy that will be broken or forgotten about in a matter of weeks.

I have managed to get the kitchen and living room in pretty tidy order but the one place I am having a HUGE issue with is the "room of doom". This room of doom is a tiny bedroom that is full of stuff. I am not sure there is much stuff that is worth keeping in there but I have tried to convince The Man to clean it out and he will not part with anything. We have an old xbox and playstation in there that have not been played with in the almost 5 years we have been married but he will not part with them. We have the new versions of each so there really is no reason not to donate them and let some other family get some good use out of them. There are also many random computer parts in there. I do not understand the logics of keeping so many parts that probably havent been used in a few years either. Aside from all of the electronic treasures I couldn't even start to tell you what else is in this room. This room is going to be the last of my decluttering effort as it is going to be the most stressful. I am still trying to figure out how to convince The Man to get rid of his "cool treasures".

How do you do it??

I would LOVE to know some tips on how large families make everything work. How do you manage to take care of all the kids and make sure all the housework gets done and from scratch home meals? If you have some wisdom to share with me I would be eternally grateful.

Laundry Detergent

Living here in the UK via the military has so far proven to be great fun but also a pain at times. The biggest issue to date is the availability of products that I am used to getting in the states. The commissary tends to carry only select few varieties of items and you have to adapt to the "if you see it you better buy it now" attitude. I was using Country Save laundry detergent in the states and loved it but they haven't carried it here at all so I bought Purex free and clear at almost $10.00 a bottle. I like it, but having a family of 5 we can go through lots of detergent very quickly. After going through a bottle in a very quick amount of time I decided to do some research to see if there was a cheaper way and possibly home made way of doing laundry detergent. There are many sites out there that are set up to help the frugal (or cheap as my 9 year old put it) people. I read lots of sites before determining that I was going to try to make the detergent myself at home. Most of the recipes were for a liquid version and made like 5 gallons of detergent. I don't have enough room to store that much so I found a few that had powder recipes. Of course they were all a little different so I just estimated and put together my own based on a conglomeration of them all. I used 1 bar of Fels Naptha grated then ran through the food processor, 1 cup washing soda (or soda crystals as they are called here), and 1 cup of Borax. I mixed them all together in a Tupperware type container and put an old 1 tablespoon measuring spoon in there. For each load I dissolve 2 tablespoons of this mixture in HOT water and then dump it in my washer for the load of clothes. I usually wash my clothes on the cold/cold cycle and this will not dissolve the mixture properly. I really like this detergent and it cost less than a bottle of stuff from the store. I still keep a bottle of the liquid detergent from the store in the cupboard in case we run out of hot water to dissolve the home made detergent in, but I am super impressed by the frugal, impressive because I did it at home detergent.

Laundry: One of those chores that is NEVER complete

I find myself not enjoying the chores that never get 100% done like laundry and dishes. I was reading another blog recently and she had a set schedule for everything she does. I figured maybe if I had a typed out schedule to do laundry that I wouldn't feel like I was under a ton of laundry all the time. I started it last Friday and so far so good. This is what it looks like:

Monday: towels, kitchen and bathroom rugs, and diapers
Tuesday: dark colored clothes and Husband's uniforms
Wednesday: white clothes, bright colored clothes, and diapers
Thursday: Light colored clothes and jeans
Friday: all bedding and diapers
Saturday: oldest son does his own laundry
Sunday: finally a day for rest

I have this posted near the washer and dryer so that it is a little reminder everytime I am there. It seems like a lot less laundry divided into days like this.