New Cleaning Supplies!

 So last week I posted the weekly cleaning check list I put together for the girls for our weekly housecleaning.  I am working on getting them fancified, printed on card stock and laminated so I can attach them to our new cleaning supplies baskets!

Separate baskets for each cleaning checklist:
Bathroom, Living Room and Hall/Bedrooms

All three baskets have window spray and cleaning wipes.

Living Room

The Living room has wood cleaner, screen cleaner and reusable dusting cloths a small hand broom and dustpan.

Bathroom

 The bathroom has toilet bowl cleaner, and bathroom cleaner. 

Hall/Bedrooms

I was able to get these at Target for really cheap. The baskets and dusting cloths were from the 1$ spot at the frot of the store. The broom and dustpans were $1.19 the cleaning supplies were all reasonable and I usually stick with the store brand. All told I spent less than 25$ on all of it! I did also get a two pack of full size brooms to keep in the kitchen, because that was holding us up last week. I will be posting how the day goes with before and after pics.

Weekly Cleaning checklist and instructions

I just put together our weekly housecleaning check list. This is for once a week deep cleaning.  What do you do for weekly deep cleaning?

each day's trouble....

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

(Matthew 6:34 ESV)

Today is Tuesday which means according to our new life schedule, I do laundry all day and this week Mary made Lunch and I made dinner. I also have to move the car for the street cleaner. It sounds so simple. After breakfast and devotions at 8, I collect the laundry supervise kids getting breakfast and grab a cup of coffee and my phone and head out to the car. I have developed a system. I sit in the running car until the street cleaner is a block behind me, I go around the block and repark in the same place and leave the car. I end up sitting in the car for about 45 min. Today we got our new pedometers delivered and some curriculum so the time went fast.

Mine are like this only no hanger bar

When I got back in the house around 10:30 I *just* loaded up the two hamper sorter carts (three hampers in one)and three individual full sized hampers, 40$ worth of quarters, Tide

 Clorox, oxy-clean and goo-gone haul them all to the elevator and take it from (12) down to (B) . Where I begin the cycle. Load 4 triple loaders with laundry, add quarters and soap....organize remaining loads so as to not leave the laundry room mess, set the timer on my iphone for 37 min, take the elevator from (B) to (12) break up the fights that have begun as a result of  my absence, check my email, have a second cup of coffeemake my bed straighten my room, start loading the dishwasher. {TIMER OK}
Take the elevator from (12) to (B) switch all four washer loads to dryer loads and reload washers, Set the timer for 35 min, take the elevator from (B) to (12) Break up the bigger fights, check Facebook, think/pray about/for each kid and the upcoming school year. Fight the desire to get back in bed and sleep the rest of the day............look at pics from the weekend......REALLY want to go back to bed and sleep now, decide no, I should do something about how there are no decent pics of me(besides deleting them) and print off forms to keep track of EVERY bite. Because either I am eating ALOT more than I think I am or there is something seriously wrong with my body. {TIMER ok} (


12) to (B) empty 2 dryers start folding, put two washer loads in dryers put two more washer loads in. Fold.... hangers, fold hangers. (B) to (12) Bring 1 laundry cart up, put away. (12)(B)  Switch 2 more loads   Fold, hangers, hangers, fold. Switch 2 more loads put last load in washer. (B)-(12) put away another cart load....break up more fights, write down lunch making instructions for Mary  (Its 3PM by now LOL so much for a schedule). Make Charlie come down with me as he is destroying everything in my formerly halfway neat home.  12--B put last four loads in dryers fold.... hangers, match socks  (yuck) fold..... hangers..... B-12 put away....discover one of the lovelies decided to make jello..... missed the mold several times kitchen floor is red and sticky.  FUN. (12.B) Fold and hang remaining laundry while keeping Char from destroying the 30 expensive bikes hanging in storage area adjoining laundry room. B-12 put away... discover a load that HAS to be done hiding behind a corner............... TWELVE TO B....... Start a washer load.... b.up.to.12......
Pour a very full glass of Shiraz. Eat cold leftover tuna hotdish....Load the dishwasher,  sweep the gross disgusting floor, spray bleach spray on the many sticky spills from counter to floor, pull my<3 Shark steam mop out and...... voila white floor.... for now.  Saute some chicken breasts for kids to have for dinner since Jamin is working late and lay down on my bed to blog... 9PM

Ya know Jesus was right?!?!
 Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 
I am grateful that his Mercies are new every morning!


Tomorrow, we will again attempt..... a schedule!

The wind and the sea obey him

We had a busy weekend, the weather was beautiful.

 My dad and his wife were here on their layover and we decided this was the weekend to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.

 It was beautiful, windy and awe inspiring what we as humans can create. It is a nice reminder that we are made in THE Creators image, which is why we desire to create. 

Margaret and Madeline

Yesterday we spent the day admiring and enjoying God's creation the Atlantic Ocean. It was wavy but not too wavy. Perfect for us to attempt some body surfing.

Mary

Margaret doin' it

My dad and Jamin

Dad and Marg again

Liam and Char waiting for the right wave.

 Every so often a slightly larger wave would overtake us and we would emerge sputtering wiping the salty water from our faces and mouths. 

Dad and Margaret getting overpowered

Madeline sputtering

The power of such TINY waves was humbling, even they had the power of the Creator to knock my footing out from under me and remind me who has the power.  I couldn't help but think about "real" waves, the kind hurricanes make, and tsunamis! We feel the power of these tiny waves and are both overly confident and far too faithless at the same time. As if we can handle the waves ourselves and then frightened and doubtful when they overwhelm us. This was part of my scripture reading this morning.

Mark 4:37-41

"And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

How tempting it is too focus on the waves and the wind and assume that because there are waves he is unconcerned about me. I want to remember when they crash in on me that the wind and sea OBEY Him. My faith is in the Creator and Master of the sea.

Not the best pic.... keepin' it real

Charlie made (drew) a person!!

OFF THE WAGON ALREADY

Nothing keeps me from my tasks as much as a good book, I will ignore my email, my phone, my children my husband, if I am engrossed in a book. I just finished "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. WOW I am processing it right now, but I will be back to post about it soon. I spent ALL day reading it. I have hardly moved a muscle and now it's time to face the music. The chaos that spins out of control the moment I stop attending to our world is here.... My dad and his wife will be here for a 30 hour layover and will stay with us SO time to get off my arse and whip these people and this place back into shape.... No more novels for me until I have stayed on schedule/task for a few weeks.

My weakness

I am a lazy person.  I am a night owl.  These two things left unchecked tend to make me very inefficient at my day job. When I worked outside my home, I had a schedule. I had to report to work on time or I would suffer the consequences on my performance review and probably my paycheck. Those consequences motivated me to overcome those weaknesses with will power and an alarm clock.

I came home from work when I was pregnant with our 3rd child Margaret. I was convinced that my failings in housekeeping were all due to working crazy hours as a waitress. My desire to turn the tv on and let Lexi(5) and Liam(3) watch countless hours while I slept on the couch had nothing to do with laziness (sarcasm). Surely now that I was home everyday I would become a sexier and better "Suzy Homemaker" I would no longer desire to lounge in ripped up sweatshirts and cut off sweats. I would get up every morning to my sparkling kitchen put the coffee on have devotions, and greet my husband and children with a smile....... Notice I did not say make breakfast, I had told my husband of 5 years that I would never, never, never, never never make breakfast. At least not for breakfast time... I think I got up before the kids woke me up once. The tyranny of the urgent and the reality of having 3 little ones 5 and under, was, well,   hard. I would wake up to kiss my husband goodbye from my bed and roll back over until I could hold the kids off on breakfast no longer.

When Margaret was 13 months old I got pregnant...SURPRISE!!! I was still nursing her alot...We were err preventing (ahem).... I was supposedly infertile....(that's a whole 'nother post) 6 weeks later we got the biggest surprise of our lives that far, TWINS.  I COULD.NOT.BELIEVE.IT.  The twins were born at 32 weeks we brought them home 3 weeks later and they became my built in excuse for letting things go.

Fast forward 10 years add 1 more child and things have changed little in my day job efficiency. I had a brief respite when we lived in Hong Kong and had a live in maid (ah sweet freedom). I did basically the bare minimum to keep up with the laundry and cleaned the house when someone was coming over....usually. The thing is in my mind no person was watching, no one was going to give me a performance review and potentially a pay raise for a job well done.

When I was preparing to move this time I realized I had just HAD it with stuff.  I filled three dumpsters and it.felt.great, almost as good as I imagine losing 40 lbs would feel. I am however pretty good at big projects and really lousy at consistency at daily consistency. It started to pop into my head that this was sin.... I whacked that mole right back down! It kept popping up with greater strength and speed.

During this time I started following @sarahmaeblogs who is a seller on @theopenskyproject . She launched the website www.raisinghomemakers.com and as it showed up in my inbox, The mole stopped going back in the hole. SIN.... it was sin, and I was being a selfish mother and wife....

 Last weekend the girls [Mary, Madeline (10) and Margaret (11)] and I sat down together and I confessed to them that I was wrong for my laziness and that I would try with God's help to be diligent in our daily life, that we were going to have (gasp) a schedule and a meal plan.... The sad thing is they were giddy with excitement. They have been driving me crazy for.. well forever nagging me "what are we doing today mom?" "what are we having for lunch, dinner, etc" What am I supposed to read, what's my math? I had been telling myself that I have unusually buggy children and the Lord revealed to me (as usual) that they are not the problem.... I am. 

Here we are 3 days in and I have MADE BREAKFAST twice! We have been keeping our house picked up the girls are enjoying learning cooking and housekeeping skills.  Jamin almost fell over when I  was up before him this morning. 

Here's what I know, I am lazy and a nightowl but more importantly I am a sinner saved by Grace and His Grace is SUFFICIENT for me, Therefore I will blog all the more about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest on me.