Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Zoo Adventure
Yesterday was FREE day at the zoo, and since I DIDNT get picked for jury selection in the morning (woohoo!), my neighbor and I decided to Carpe Diem and go to the zoo. Who cares if it's nap time, let's go!
Meeting Zoboomafoo (a famous Leaping Lemur and favorite TV show of Audrey's) in real life. Audrey and Kierra were very excited to meet him.
What? I can't hug that bear? Why not?
The girls had to show me their Churro crumby hands.
Our pretty neighbor, Hannah.
Don't forget me too, Mom!
So cute. This is some African village room you can rest in.
Audrey was being a pill by this point and wouldn't stand in front of the gorilla. Sounds like Audrey, no? (Btw, did you know that gorillas like to eat shredded paper? Yup, saw it with my own eyes. Weird.)
They just had to terrorize a few turkeys before we left. (Us Moms were a little concerned, thinking that turkeys attack like geese do. Luckily, these turkeys did not.)
One did strut his stuff for us though, trying to scare of the yelling children. And he made this weird yelping/hissing noise. Crazy.
Meeting Zoboomafoo (a famous Leaping Lemur and favorite TV show of Audrey's) in real life. Audrey and Kierra were very excited to meet him.
What? I can't hug that bear? Why not?
The girls had to show me their Churro crumby hands.
Our pretty neighbor, Hannah.
Don't forget me too, Mom!
So cute. This is some African village room you can rest in.
Audrey was being a pill by this point and wouldn't stand in front of the gorilla. Sounds like Audrey, no? (Btw, did you know that gorillas like to eat shredded paper? Yup, saw it with my own eyes. Weird.)
They just had to terrorize a few turkeys before we left. (Us Moms were a little concerned, thinking that turkeys attack like geese do. Luckily, these turkeys did not.)
One did strut his stuff for us though, trying to scare of the yelling children. And he made this weird yelping/hissing noise. Crazy.
Organizing Class #7
She saved the best for last: Food Storage Night!!
-She says that for regular storage, Rubbermaid lasts longer than Sterilite, but Sterilite is cheaper. And she really likes this one Sterilite bin that has the lid attached on both sides so there's no losing the lid. Also important: clear sides so you can see the contents, and stackable (won't slide when you stack them).
-She also likes these clear 1 gallon squarish bins she keeps in her pantry. The lid pops open and doesn't come off, so you just flip the top, scoop out what you need, and snap shut.
-Master Menu: she suggests dividing our lives into 7 days of food. Name each day according to your family. Her example: Monday: Pork, Tuesday: Mexican, Wednesday: Chicken, Thursday: Beef, Friday: Italian, Saturday: sandwiches, Sunday: Breakfast for Dinner.
-Beef night is mostly because you love your man. The kids won't be too happy, but he'll be pleased.
-Okay, now within those categories you chose, choose 4 recipes. Example for Mexican dishes: tacos, enchiladas, burritoes, and taquitos. Now choose a vegetable that works well with Mexican dishes, and a fruit. So now you know that every Tuesday you will be having some sort of corn and oranges with your Mexican dish. If it is the first Tuesday of the month, you'll be having tacos with your corn and oranges, if it is the second Tuesday of the month you'll be having enchiladas, corn, and oranges. And so on.
-Try to make things simpler (don't overwork yourself). On roast beef night, you'll cook double what you need and freeze the second portion (BEFORE dinner, so that it doesn't get gobbled up accidentally). Then the next week on Beef night, you'll have that roast meat to use for Roast Beef Sandwiches or whatever. Cook once, eat twice. And alternate. Let's say you cooked a roast chicken on Wednesday, then the next day use the leftover roast beef (so you're only cooking a complex recipe once in 2 nights). Then the next week use the leftover chicken meat, and the next day make meatloaf. And so on, alternating easy and hard. (Does that make sense?)
-For her Mexican dishes, she uses the same taco meat mixture for all 4 recipes. She cooks this once a month and freezes it in 4 portions. The same with her pasta sauce. She color coordinates these so she doesn't have to label: blue cottage cheese tubs are pasta sauce, green sour cream tubs are taco meat.
-Having a routine to meals will settle kids down. And it will answer the awful question, "Mommy, what are we having for dinner? Aw, not again!"
-Some of us take pleasure in getting mad from 4-5pm each day while we stare at the pantry trying to decide what to make. It is your decision to control this and the anger/frustration associated with this. There is something magical about not having to find the blue cookbook and which certain page has the right recipe. You know exactly where it is: in your recipe box. This is a professional way of thinking.
-She puts her 28-day recipe collection into index-card dividers labeled Sunday through Saturday. Behind that are other recipes she doesn't use as often, like her taco meat mixture. Then behind that are even less frequent recipes, like holiday recipes. Behind that go recipes she wants to try someday. Then in the back are heirloom recipes written in her Grandmother's handwriting that she doesn't want to get rid of but probably won't ever try.
-5-Point Nutrition. Draw a star. The five points that should be in the meal: calcium, protein, carb, fruit, and vegetable.
-On Monday mornings, she pulls out of the freezer all of the meat she will need for the week and puts it in the fridge. She also gets anything else out she'll need to thaw (whipped cream, sauce, etc.). She also doesn't like having warm applesauce or peaches, so those types of canned goods also go into the fridge at this time.
-This Master Menu is not in cement, it is a plan! It's flexible. You can change it for birthdays, holidays, etc.
-For teenage boys with hollow legs, she serves a bread along with every meal. So, for Mexican night, she makes cornbread. For Italian night, she makes breadsticks. And so on, so they can fill up on cheaper items.
-A fun thing to do is to have a taste test with your family. Buy 4 different brands of green beans. Cook them and label them A-D. Do a blind tasting and the one that most everyone likes is the one you stock up on.
-You only need one brownie recipe. Once you find one that functions for your family, stop searching!
-D&C 88:119. Food storage. The prophets have asked us to do this (even this month in the Ensign!). The Lord wants you to do this and so will bless you with the capacity to get it done. Store what you eat, eat what you store. Put your grocery store in your home. If you decide to do this, the Lord will provide a way. Trust in Him, and you'll find more ways to stock up and find more money to spend on food storage. Where there's a will, there's a way. And if you do accomplish this, the Lord will miraculously extend your capacity and things will last longer. (AMEN.)
-Initially, she went out and bought 18 months of food. Then they worked their way down so they only had 12 months of food, and then she went out and got 6 months worth of food. And so on, till now she only has to get non-perishables twice a year.
-To start out small, just buy double. If you need 1 ketchup, buy 2. If you need 2, buy 4. If you need 4, buy more than 4.
-Start tomorrow by choosing one item your family uses often, maybe it's Cheerios, and going out and buying 48 boxes of it.
-Emergencies appear in a variety of forms. Who knows if you will or won't have electricity (i.e. a freezer) in an emergency. You might, so store it.
-Don't be self conscious when you're buying 100 lbs. of ground beef. To be laughed at is a small price to pay to be obediant.
-Remember, put a rubber band on the last item so that you know when you're about to run out (and therefore need to redo your inventory).
-People in Europe during WWII didn't have any soap. They bathed for 4 years without it. Might make you think twice about how much soap you have stocked up.
-Let's say you've got a bonus coming in soon. Try to spend it all on food storage. The plan: 1. Make a Master Menu to give you focus. 2. Look at food receipts for the last 4 weeks. 3. Look at the pantry and double check what things you use often. 4. Make an inventory of what you'll need to get. (If you're making spaghetti every month, then you'll need to buy 12 boxes of spaghetti).
-DO NOT WORRY WHERE TO PUT IT UNTIL AFTER YOU BUY IT. You will always find a place for it. You always find a place for gifts and other things that come into your home. The Lord will bless you and help you be creative as you try to find places to store it.
-She keeps apple boxes and buckets filled with food underneath everyone's beds. And she picks the room that is used least (or seen least by company) and puts Xerox or apple boxes along one wall, floor to ceiling, of food storage. This only takes up a foot of the space.
-Wouldn't you rather have food in your house instead of at the store?
-Make all your shelves approachable, out away of the wall (perpendicular) so you can get to the front of the shelf and the back. This makes it much easier to rotate (putting new items behind the old).
-Keep only a few in the pantry, the rest in the food storage.
-Date stamp. Make it big! (I put the month I bought it, and then the month it expires. Just because I don't buy things twice a year, so the peanut butter I stocked up on last month is good till next year but the peanut butter I bought this month is only good till next month. It helps me organize it better. But she doesn't care about expiration dates, so oh well).
-If you buy food buckets to put bulk items in (flour, oats, etc.), don't buy bigger than 4.2 gallons. Any more and the average woman cannot lift it. Label both sides, and put one label up against the wall.
-If you buy 18 months worth of food, for unexplained reasons, it lasts much longer.
-Do what you can and in your season of life.
-Spices last forever. She is using 20-year-old spices that work just fine. She just rubs/pinches them before using and they're fine.
-If you do have crackers or chips that have gone stale (again, she doesn't worry about expiration dates and rarely has problems with staleness), she puts them on a tray in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.
-Don't worry about expiration dates. Things will last for 1 year. The Lord will bless you. She's still standing!
-Start with the 28-day menu, make an inventory, and start buying.
-She promised that if we ask the Lord tonight what thing we can do tomorrow to help us get our house in order, He will let us know, and help us get it accomplished.
-She says that for regular storage, Rubbermaid lasts longer than Sterilite, but Sterilite is cheaper. And she really likes this one Sterilite bin that has the lid attached on both sides so there's no losing the lid. Also important: clear sides so you can see the contents, and stackable (won't slide when you stack them).
-She also likes these clear 1 gallon squarish bins she keeps in her pantry. The lid pops open and doesn't come off, so you just flip the top, scoop out what you need, and snap shut.
-Master Menu: she suggests dividing our lives into 7 days of food. Name each day according to your family. Her example: Monday: Pork, Tuesday: Mexican, Wednesday: Chicken, Thursday: Beef, Friday: Italian, Saturday: sandwiches, Sunday: Breakfast for Dinner.
-Beef night is mostly because you love your man. The kids won't be too happy, but he'll be pleased.
-Okay, now within those categories you chose, choose 4 recipes. Example for Mexican dishes: tacos, enchiladas, burritoes, and taquitos. Now choose a vegetable that works well with Mexican dishes, and a fruit. So now you know that every Tuesday you will be having some sort of corn and oranges with your Mexican dish. If it is the first Tuesday of the month, you'll be having tacos with your corn and oranges, if it is the second Tuesday of the month you'll be having enchiladas, corn, and oranges. And so on.
-Try to make things simpler (don't overwork yourself). On roast beef night, you'll cook double what you need and freeze the second portion (BEFORE dinner, so that it doesn't get gobbled up accidentally). Then the next week on Beef night, you'll have that roast meat to use for Roast Beef Sandwiches or whatever. Cook once, eat twice. And alternate. Let's say you cooked a roast chicken on Wednesday, then the next day use the leftover roast beef (so you're only cooking a complex recipe once in 2 nights). Then the next week use the leftover chicken meat, and the next day make meatloaf. And so on, alternating easy and hard. (Does that make sense?)
-For her Mexican dishes, she uses the same taco meat mixture for all 4 recipes. She cooks this once a month and freezes it in 4 portions. The same with her pasta sauce. She color coordinates these so she doesn't have to label: blue cottage cheese tubs are pasta sauce, green sour cream tubs are taco meat.
-Having a routine to meals will settle kids down. And it will answer the awful question, "Mommy, what are we having for dinner? Aw, not again!"
-Some of us take pleasure in getting mad from 4-5pm each day while we stare at the pantry trying to decide what to make. It is your decision to control this and the anger/frustration associated with this. There is something magical about not having to find the blue cookbook and which certain page has the right recipe. You know exactly where it is: in your recipe box. This is a professional way of thinking.
-She puts her 28-day recipe collection into index-card dividers labeled Sunday through Saturday. Behind that are other recipes she doesn't use as often, like her taco meat mixture. Then behind that are even less frequent recipes, like holiday recipes. Behind that go recipes she wants to try someday. Then in the back are heirloom recipes written in her Grandmother's handwriting that she doesn't want to get rid of but probably won't ever try.
-5-Point Nutrition. Draw a star. The five points that should be in the meal: calcium, protein, carb, fruit, and vegetable.
-On Monday mornings, she pulls out of the freezer all of the meat she will need for the week and puts it in the fridge. She also gets anything else out she'll need to thaw (whipped cream, sauce, etc.). She also doesn't like having warm applesauce or peaches, so those types of canned goods also go into the fridge at this time.
-This Master Menu is not in cement, it is a plan! It's flexible. You can change it for birthdays, holidays, etc.
-For teenage boys with hollow legs, she serves a bread along with every meal. So, for Mexican night, she makes cornbread. For Italian night, she makes breadsticks. And so on, so they can fill up on cheaper items.
-A fun thing to do is to have a taste test with your family. Buy 4 different brands of green beans. Cook them and label them A-D. Do a blind tasting and the one that most everyone likes is the one you stock up on.
-You only need one brownie recipe. Once you find one that functions for your family, stop searching!
-D&C 88:119. Food storage. The prophets have asked us to do this (even this month in the Ensign!). The Lord wants you to do this and so will bless you with the capacity to get it done. Store what you eat, eat what you store. Put your grocery store in your home. If you decide to do this, the Lord will provide a way. Trust in Him, and you'll find more ways to stock up and find more money to spend on food storage. Where there's a will, there's a way. And if you do accomplish this, the Lord will miraculously extend your capacity and things will last longer. (AMEN.)
-Initially, she went out and bought 18 months of food. Then they worked their way down so they only had 12 months of food, and then she went out and got 6 months worth of food. And so on, till now she only has to get non-perishables twice a year.
-To start out small, just buy double. If you need 1 ketchup, buy 2. If you need 2, buy 4. If you need 4, buy more than 4.
-Start tomorrow by choosing one item your family uses often, maybe it's Cheerios, and going out and buying 48 boxes of it.
-Emergencies appear in a variety of forms. Who knows if you will or won't have electricity (i.e. a freezer) in an emergency. You might, so store it.
-Don't be self conscious when you're buying 100 lbs. of ground beef. To be laughed at is a small price to pay to be obediant.
-Remember, put a rubber band on the last item so that you know when you're about to run out (and therefore need to redo your inventory).
-People in Europe during WWII didn't have any soap. They bathed for 4 years without it. Might make you think twice about how much soap you have stocked up.
-Let's say you've got a bonus coming in soon. Try to spend it all on food storage. The plan: 1. Make a Master Menu to give you focus. 2. Look at food receipts for the last 4 weeks. 3. Look at the pantry and double check what things you use often. 4. Make an inventory of what you'll need to get. (If you're making spaghetti every month, then you'll need to buy 12 boxes of spaghetti).
-DO NOT WORRY WHERE TO PUT IT UNTIL AFTER YOU BUY IT. You will always find a place for it. You always find a place for gifts and other things that come into your home. The Lord will bless you and help you be creative as you try to find places to store it.
-She keeps apple boxes and buckets filled with food underneath everyone's beds. And she picks the room that is used least (or seen least by company) and puts Xerox or apple boxes along one wall, floor to ceiling, of food storage. This only takes up a foot of the space.
-Wouldn't you rather have food in your house instead of at the store?
-Make all your shelves approachable, out away of the wall (perpendicular) so you can get to the front of the shelf and the back. This makes it much easier to rotate (putting new items behind the old).
-Keep only a few in the pantry, the rest in the food storage.
-Date stamp. Make it big! (I put the month I bought it, and then the month it expires. Just because I don't buy things twice a year, so the peanut butter I stocked up on last month is good till next year but the peanut butter I bought this month is only good till next month. It helps me organize it better. But she doesn't care about expiration dates, so oh well).
-If you buy food buckets to put bulk items in (flour, oats, etc.), don't buy bigger than 4.2 gallons. Any more and the average woman cannot lift it. Label both sides, and put one label up against the wall.
-If you buy 18 months worth of food, for unexplained reasons, it lasts much longer.
-Do what you can and in your season of life.
-Spices last forever. She is using 20-year-old spices that work just fine. She just rubs/pinches them before using and they're fine.
-If you do have crackers or chips that have gone stale (again, she doesn't worry about expiration dates and rarely has problems with staleness), she puts them on a tray in a 200 degree oven for 20 minutes.
-Don't worry about expiration dates. Things will last for 1 year. The Lord will bless you. She's still standing!
-Start with the 28-day menu, make an inventory, and start buying.
-She promised that if we ask the Lord tonight what thing we can do tomorrow to help us get our house in order, He will let us know, and help us get it accomplished.
Organizing Class #6
Since tonight is the last :( House of Order class, I thought I should put up last week's notes. Sorry they're late!
Teaching Children to Work
-Mosiah 4:14 So our children won't be hungry, naked, transgress, or fight.
-Be firm at the first, or it will get worse. (I'm ashamed to say that it took me a few years to understand that principle!) This applies to discipline, house rules, modesty, dating standards, etc.
-Begin tonight to insist on being obeyed. Watch them until you're obeyed. (Say the standard/rule and then watch them closely).
-It is appropriate for you to be in charge.
-Never again tell them what to do. Tell them what needs to happen.
-We all have 3 attitudes: a parent attitude, an adult attitude, and a child attitude. If we are talking like a parent to a child, you're talking down. Ineffective. Act like an adult talking to an adult. And if you're talking like a child to a parent (I'm begging you please clean up the toys!) then you're in a heap of trouble.
-Example: "It is 5pm, Timmy, it's time for blocks to be put away." Watch until he obeys. Timmy throws the block at you. "Blocks belong in the box, and are not something that we throw. You need to go to your room while I bandage my arm."
-If you get mad, the child has won.
-There is no small discipline situation! Most of your problems you live with everyday. We need to move from problem to solution. (She said she wanted to teach us eternal principles and then it was up to us to turn that into practical hints for ourselves.)
-Try to motivate and make it fun. Example: "I think those blocks can be picked up in 25 seconds. What do you think?" "If I lay on the ground and put my feet just so, I bet you can't get those blocks through my feet and into the box."
-Be absolutely fun to live with! Sometimes when we're so focused on getting things done and keeping things in our house in order, we become a not-so-fun person to live with. Be corny! When the teenager whines about something, mimic the whine right back to them to alleviate the atmosphere. They'll roll their eyes, but they're not whining anymore, and are probably communicating by now about how they really feel, etc.
-In trying to talk like adults with your children, make a statement and leave the choice up to them. "We can't eat until the table is set." And don't ask a question like, "Could you set the table, please?" because you're just setting them up to say no. Instead, ask, "Would you like to put the forks or the spoons on first?" or something like that.
-Parenting is about standing firm no matter what. It's not a "popular" thing. You're not going to be "popular" or "accepted" in your home until they're all gone and grown up. So be firm and teach them principles.
-Parenting is about building walls of safety around your child until they leave and have to make those decisions themselves. "Why can't I watch the rated R film my teacher recommends?" "Because in our home, we don't do that. Yes, you can decide to watch that when you become an adult, but our home is a home of safety, and we don't do such things."
-Talk about urgent matters when it's important and not urgent (another time). Example: Talk about dating standards from the time they turn 12 so they have 4 years of ingraining those standards in their heads before they actually start dating.
-Compliment specifically. As specific as you can get. Which compliment are they going to remember longer: "You cleaned the rug so nicely! Thank you, it looks great!" or "Wow, you cleaned the rug so nicely that it almost looks brand new!"
-Other examples of this: "The bathtub is so clean that I can see my reflection in it! Good job!" "You put all those blocks away in 25 seconds! That is so awesome!"
-Identify their job and teach S.I. (self-initiative). Talk about how they are being more independent. "You know, you picked up those blocks right when I asked you to. Maybe tomorrow we can have a little signal so I don't even have to ask you. And pretty soon you'll be ready for S.I. What is S.I.? Well, when you are being more independent, you'll just know that you need to pick up the blocks without being told to. And then you'll R, R, and R. ?? It means Return, Report, and Reward (her reward was a bumblebee kiss)." So the child would know that at 5pm, he needs to pick up his blocks, then he would Return to his mother, Report that he did the job, and then get his Reward. Another example: "We always brush our teeth at night, right? Well if you have S.I. you'll go to the bathroom as soon as dinner is over and brush your teeth without being told. Then you'll R, R, and R."
-Usually, (well, at least for ages 2-5) they can handle as many jobs as they have years. Your 2-year-old can handle, say, putting shoes away, and scooting the chairs in after dinner.
-If the child is old enough and able enough to get it out, they are able enough to put it back.
-When they begin to contribute, they will feel valued. And when they feel valued, the will have high self-esteem.
-Patterns and consistency are taught before they reach school age.
-Include them in the problem-solution process. "Timmy, I think you know we have a problem with these blocks. The blocks need to be put away so we can have dinner, and if it doesn't get done, we get hungry, etc. What do you think we can do about this problem?" The are just waiting for you to give them the opportunity to grow up. And kids are actually really good at helping find the solution. Her 6-year-old still had his pacifier. The doctor said they needed to find a way to get rid of it. So they brought the problem to their 6-year-old. He said, "Well how about this. I get Binky time for 5 minutes 3 times a day for a week. And then the next week I only get it for 10 minutes each day, and the next week I get it for 5 minutes each day. And at the end of that week, we'll have a funeral for my Binkies."
-Teaching them to work builds the foundation for them to grow up. If they have a good work ethic, they'll be better adults.
-Parenting is complex and one of the hardest things you'll ever do. Pray about it!
-When school gets out for the summer, they have 3 days of vacation. They all (including Mom) lay around in their pajamas all day, sleep in, watch TV all day, eat junk, whatever. For 3 days. On the fourth day, Mom gets out the chore cards and they decide what chores they want for the whole summer. "We all need a dusting job, which room would you like?" They all have indoor jobs, outdoor jobs, bathroom jobs, cooking jobs, etc. Each of them cooked lunch once a week (prepping, cooking, cleaning up). And she split them up so they're not all dusting on the same day, and they're not all cleaning in the bathroom on the same day (that spells disaster, doesn't it?). And they're consistent throughout the whole summer, so they can't just slack off on the dusting one week because they know their sibling that's good at dusting will fix it the next week. And that way you know who's to blame if you find the living room isn't dusted very well because there's only one person in charge of dusting that room. It's important to keep them simple, short, and consistent.
-Her kids could not play with friends or watch TV, etc. until their chores were done. However, they did something fun together each day, whether they had finished their chores or not. The consequence/punishment should not be taking them away from a family activity, but something else, like TV privileges or something. On Mondays (usually at 10am because that gave them ample time to finish their chores) they went to the park. Tuesday, the library. Wednesdays, watched a movie. Thursdays, an art lesson or craft project. Fridays, a science experiment.
-It's not soccer, drama, piano lessons, etc. that teach them to be an adult. It's the work. They'll know how to do it when they're gone from the house. Sometimes, when we schedule them for so many extra-curricular activities, it's like they're on a vacation from 12-19 years of age. There's no responsibilities or work ethic.
-Teach them that WORK is anything that stops being fun before it is done.
-They don't do what you expect, they do what you inspect! Inspect the jobs when they're done, and don't finish or correct it. Teach them so they know how to do it right themselves.
-Individual responsibility leads to group success.
-Children aren't getting enough sleep these days. Young ones should be getting 10 hours.
-(Teens especially) need to own a job for a long time (6 months at least), consistently, to really learn it.
-Ages 12-18, 99% of their time is spent thinking of the opposite sex. Utilize that other 1%. Sometimes you have to pick your battles (hopefully it doesn't get that bad) to use that 1% of time.
-If your child thinks the only word you know is "hurry," you need to slow down so they don't burn out.
-Your child should know the second you're serious without yelling, etc.
-Always allow them to have a choice.
-If your child acts up at the store (grabbed the blinkie coupons when they're not supposed to was the example), take them out to the car. Give them the choice: "Do you want to go back in and try again or should we just go home? Just remember, if we do go home, we won't have any milk on our cereal tomorrow morning, but it's fine if we go home." It'll probably only take that once to go home and have dry cereal in the morning for them to realize you mean business.
-The Rainbow Effect- adding a little extra. You know, the tub looks great and so clean, but how could we help Mom enjoy her bath a little more? Johnny: I could fold a towel to look like a turtle! OR The table is set so nicely, how could we add a little extra love? Flowers!
-If they are allowed to hit when young, they are more likely to be immoral when they're older (teens). Because of a lack of physical control. Say, from a very young age, "Hitting is not permitted." Yes, you'll have to do this over and over and over...
-Don't tell the child the bad thing he/she just did. Say what the rule is. Then wait (timeout) and then ask if they are ready to be in control yet. You can let the child decide when they're ready instead of the timer doing that. Obviously, if they're ready to be in control after 3 seconds of timeout, they haven't really thought it through. But you get the idea.
-It is very effective to let the child decide on their own punishment. (Not right when it has happened, but for when it happens in the future).
-Always teach them to respect each other. Respect starts when they're young. "We do not tease/make fun/call names, etc."
-Be creative when helping them through their problems. When 2 siblings aren't getting along, have them lay down touching heads, and they have to sing themselves through the problem to the solution.
Now remember, these aren't my thoughts, but my notes from the class. So don't get mad at me if you don't agree. And here are the handouts from last week:
Teaching Children to Work
-Mosiah 4:14 So our children won't be hungry, naked, transgress, or fight.
-Be firm at the first, or it will get worse. (I'm ashamed to say that it took me a few years to understand that principle!) This applies to discipline, house rules, modesty, dating standards, etc.
-Begin tonight to insist on being obeyed. Watch them until you're obeyed. (Say the standard/rule and then watch them closely).
-It is appropriate for you to be in charge.
-Never again tell them what to do. Tell them what needs to happen.
-We all have 3 attitudes: a parent attitude, an adult attitude, and a child attitude. If we are talking like a parent to a child, you're talking down. Ineffective. Act like an adult talking to an adult. And if you're talking like a child to a parent (I'm begging you please clean up the toys!) then you're in a heap of trouble.
-Example: "It is 5pm, Timmy, it's time for blocks to be put away." Watch until he obeys. Timmy throws the block at you. "Blocks belong in the box, and are not something that we throw. You need to go to your room while I bandage my arm."
-If you get mad, the child has won.
-There is no small discipline situation! Most of your problems you live with everyday. We need to move from problem to solution. (She said she wanted to teach us eternal principles and then it was up to us to turn that into practical hints for ourselves.)
-Try to motivate and make it fun. Example: "I think those blocks can be picked up in 25 seconds. What do you think?" "If I lay on the ground and put my feet just so, I bet you can't get those blocks through my feet and into the box."
-Be absolutely fun to live with! Sometimes when we're so focused on getting things done and keeping things in our house in order, we become a not-so-fun person to live with. Be corny! When the teenager whines about something, mimic the whine right back to them to alleviate the atmosphere. They'll roll their eyes, but they're not whining anymore, and are probably communicating by now about how they really feel, etc.
-In trying to talk like adults with your children, make a statement and leave the choice up to them. "We can't eat until the table is set." And don't ask a question like, "Could you set the table, please?" because you're just setting them up to say no. Instead, ask, "Would you like to put the forks or the spoons on first?" or something like that.
-Parenting is about standing firm no matter what. It's not a "popular" thing. You're not going to be "popular" or "accepted" in your home until they're all gone and grown up. So be firm and teach them principles.
-Parenting is about building walls of safety around your child until they leave and have to make those decisions themselves. "Why can't I watch the rated R film my teacher recommends?" "Because in our home, we don't do that. Yes, you can decide to watch that when you become an adult, but our home is a home of safety, and we don't do such things."
-Talk about urgent matters when it's important and not urgent (another time). Example: Talk about dating standards from the time they turn 12 so they have 4 years of ingraining those standards in their heads before they actually start dating.
-Compliment specifically. As specific as you can get. Which compliment are they going to remember longer: "You cleaned the rug so nicely! Thank you, it looks great!" or "Wow, you cleaned the rug so nicely that it almost looks brand new!"
-Other examples of this: "The bathtub is so clean that I can see my reflection in it! Good job!" "You put all those blocks away in 25 seconds! That is so awesome!"
-Identify their job and teach S.I. (self-initiative). Talk about how they are being more independent. "You know, you picked up those blocks right when I asked you to. Maybe tomorrow we can have a little signal so I don't even have to ask you. And pretty soon you'll be ready for S.I. What is S.I.? Well, when you are being more independent, you'll just know that you need to pick up the blocks without being told to. And then you'll R, R, and R. ?? It means Return, Report, and Reward (her reward was a bumblebee kiss)." So the child would know that at 5pm, he needs to pick up his blocks, then he would Return to his mother, Report that he did the job, and then get his Reward. Another example: "We always brush our teeth at night, right? Well if you have S.I. you'll go to the bathroom as soon as dinner is over and brush your teeth without being told. Then you'll R, R, and R."
-Usually, (well, at least for ages 2-5) they can handle as many jobs as they have years. Your 2-year-old can handle, say, putting shoes away, and scooting the chairs in after dinner.
-If the child is old enough and able enough to get it out, they are able enough to put it back.
-When they begin to contribute, they will feel valued. And when they feel valued, the will have high self-esteem.
-Patterns and consistency are taught before they reach school age.
-Include them in the problem-solution process. "Timmy, I think you know we have a problem with these blocks. The blocks need to be put away so we can have dinner, and if it doesn't get done, we get hungry, etc. What do you think we can do about this problem?" The are just waiting for you to give them the opportunity to grow up. And kids are actually really good at helping find the solution. Her 6-year-old still had his pacifier. The doctor said they needed to find a way to get rid of it. So they brought the problem to their 6-year-old. He said, "Well how about this. I get Binky time for 5 minutes 3 times a day for a week. And then the next week I only get it for 10 minutes each day, and the next week I get it for 5 minutes each day. And at the end of that week, we'll have a funeral for my Binkies."
-Teaching them to work builds the foundation for them to grow up. If they have a good work ethic, they'll be better adults.
-Parenting is complex and one of the hardest things you'll ever do. Pray about it!
-When school gets out for the summer, they have 3 days of vacation. They all (including Mom) lay around in their pajamas all day, sleep in, watch TV all day, eat junk, whatever. For 3 days. On the fourth day, Mom gets out the chore cards and they decide what chores they want for the whole summer. "We all need a dusting job, which room would you like?" They all have indoor jobs, outdoor jobs, bathroom jobs, cooking jobs, etc. Each of them cooked lunch once a week (prepping, cooking, cleaning up). And she split them up so they're not all dusting on the same day, and they're not all cleaning in the bathroom on the same day (that spells disaster, doesn't it?). And they're consistent throughout the whole summer, so they can't just slack off on the dusting one week because they know their sibling that's good at dusting will fix it the next week. And that way you know who's to blame if you find the living room isn't dusted very well because there's only one person in charge of dusting that room. It's important to keep them simple, short, and consistent.
-Her kids could not play with friends or watch TV, etc. until their chores were done. However, they did something fun together each day, whether they had finished their chores or not. The consequence/punishment should not be taking them away from a family activity, but something else, like TV privileges or something. On Mondays (usually at 10am because that gave them ample time to finish their chores) they went to the park. Tuesday, the library. Wednesdays, watched a movie. Thursdays, an art lesson or craft project. Fridays, a science experiment.
-It's not soccer, drama, piano lessons, etc. that teach them to be an adult. It's the work. They'll know how to do it when they're gone from the house. Sometimes, when we schedule them for so many extra-curricular activities, it's like they're on a vacation from 12-19 years of age. There's no responsibilities or work ethic.
-Teach them that WORK is anything that stops being fun before it is done.
-They don't do what you expect, they do what you inspect! Inspect the jobs when they're done, and don't finish or correct it. Teach them so they know how to do it right themselves.
-Individual responsibility leads to group success.
-Children aren't getting enough sleep these days. Young ones should be getting 10 hours.
-(Teens especially) need to own a job for a long time (6 months at least), consistently, to really learn it.
-Ages 12-18, 99% of their time is spent thinking of the opposite sex. Utilize that other 1%. Sometimes you have to pick your battles (hopefully it doesn't get that bad) to use that 1% of time.
-If your child thinks the only word you know is "hurry," you need to slow down so they don't burn out.
-Your child should know the second you're serious without yelling, etc.
-Always allow them to have a choice.
-If your child acts up at the store (grabbed the blinkie coupons when they're not supposed to was the example), take them out to the car. Give them the choice: "Do you want to go back in and try again or should we just go home? Just remember, if we do go home, we won't have any milk on our cereal tomorrow morning, but it's fine if we go home." It'll probably only take that once to go home and have dry cereal in the morning for them to realize you mean business.
-The Rainbow Effect- adding a little extra. You know, the tub looks great and so clean, but how could we help Mom enjoy her bath a little more? Johnny: I could fold a towel to look like a turtle! OR The table is set so nicely, how could we add a little extra love? Flowers!
-If they are allowed to hit when young, they are more likely to be immoral when they're older (teens). Because of a lack of physical control. Say, from a very young age, "Hitting is not permitted." Yes, you'll have to do this over and over and over...
-Don't tell the child the bad thing he/she just did. Say what the rule is. Then wait (timeout) and then ask if they are ready to be in control yet. You can let the child decide when they're ready instead of the timer doing that. Obviously, if they're ready to be in control after 3 seconds of timeout, they haven't really thought it through. But you get the idea.
-It is very effective to let the child decide on their own punishment. (Not right when it has happened, but for when it happens in the future).
-Always teach them to respect each other. Respect starts when they're young. "We do not tease/make fun/call names, etc."
-Be creative when helping them through their problems. When 2 siblings aren't getting along, have them lay down touching heads, and they have to sing themselves through the problem to the solution.
Now remember, these aren't my thoughts, but my notes from the class. So don't get mad at me if you don't agree. And here are the handouts from last week:
Feb. Food Co-op
So here's my order this month. This is so much fun! I'm loving being forced to try new foods and new recipes. A very fun challenge, in my book. Plus it's cheap food. Always a plus.
I got all of this food for $23:
I'm not a big mushroom fan, so this is an interesting challenge for me. But I found a bunch of yummy-sounding recipes that I'm excited to try. And I'm a little terrified to cook the artichokes, but again I found a recipe that sounds promising. What does everybody use their green onions for? I usually omit them from recipes because I never buy them. Help!?!?!?
And I got a bunch of extras for a total of $19:
I haven't decided what to do with the sourdough yet. Any suggestions? The apple cider was really yummy, and the kids have been begging me to open the dried pineapple chunks, but I'm saving them for Pina Colada Granola. Can't wait.
I got all of this food for $23:
I'm not a big mushroom fan, so this is an interesting challenge for me. But I found a bunch of yummy-sounding recipes that I'm excited to try. And I'm a little terrified to cook the artichokes, but again I found a recipe that sounds promising. What does everybody use their green onions for? I usually omit them from recipes because I never buy them. Help!?!?!?
And I got a bunch of extras for a total of $19:
I haven't decided what to do with the sourdough yet. Any suggestions? The apple cider was really yummy, and the kids have been begging me to open the dried pineapple chunks, but I'm saving them for Pina Colada Granola. Can't wait.
Mexico Adventure
Last weekend we went to Taco Bell to teach their 99 cent menu a lesson. Jeromy tried to liven things up a little by teasing the kids.
Jeromy: "Okay, kids, I'm so sorry, but we're not going back home tonight, or ever again. We're moving to Mexico as soon as we're done eating. We won't even stop to pack our bags because we've got to leave here in a hurry."
Audrey: "Are you serious?" (totally not buying it- rolling her eyes and talking like a teenager)
Jeromy: "Yup, and Jacob and Kierra are going to have to drive the car so Mommy and Daddy can sleep in the back where the bad guys won't catch us."
Audrey: "I don't believe you, Dad."
Jeromy: "I'm serious, we're moving to Mexico tonight."
Kierra: "Okay, Daddy, I'll sit with Jacob, and I'll look all around (hands up to her face like binoculars) for crocodiles. And when I see one, I'll kill it!" (Kierra understands this game all too well)
Audrey: "We're not going, Kierra.
Jeromy: "So maybe it would be a good idea for me to teach you some Spanish before we get there. Say hola."
Kierra: "Hola."
Audrey: (rolling eyes) That means hi, dad. (giving in to Daddy's game) "Okay, fine, I'll look for....dinosaurs."
Jeromy: "That's the spirit! What's Mommy going to look for?"
Hilary: "Salamanders."
By this time, we were all finished. We had to sneak out to the car (we may have gotten some weird looks, but it was worth it) so as to get to Mexico undetected.
It was a fun trip through our neighborhood, searching for salamanders. One fell on my lap and I had to throw it out the window. While the kids were battling crocks and dinos in the back, Jeromy asked me a peculiar question: "I think the next time one of us gets pulled over, we should get in back and put some kids up in the front seat before the officer gets to our car. Wouldn't that be awesome!?!" Um, ya, hon. Totally wicked.
Then we pulled up to our home and into the garage, at which point Kierra started crying because she really wanted to go to Mexico. We had to convince her that we would go someday, and then had to bring the game inside to calm her down. Who would've thought there were 2 crocodiles waiting for us in the kitchen?
Jeromy: "Okay, kids, I'm so sorry, but we're not going back home tonight, or ever again. We're moving to Mexico as soon as we're done eating. We won't even stop to pack our bags because we've got to leave here in a hurry."
Audrey: "Are you serious?" (totally not buying it- rolling her eyes and talking like a teenager)
Jeromy: "Yup, and Jacob and Kierra are going to have to drive the car so Mommy and Daddy can sleep in the back where the bad guys won't catch us."
Audrey: "I don't believe you, Dad."
Jeromy: "I'm serious, we're moving to Mexico tonight."
Kierra: "Okay, Daddy, I'll sit with Jacob, and I'll look all around (hands up to her face like binoculars) for crocodiles. And when I see one, I'll kill it!" (Kierra understands this game all too well)
Audrey: "We're not going, Kierra.
Jeromy: "So maybe it would be a good idea for me to teach you some Spanish before we get there. Say hola."
Kierra: "Hola."
Audrey: (rolling eyes) That means hi, dad. (giving in to Daddy's game) "Okay, fine, I'll look for....dinosaurs."
Jeromy: "That's the spirit! What's Mommy going to look for?"
Hilary: "Salamanders."
By this time, we were all finished. We had to sneak out to the car (we may have gotten some weird looks, but it was worth it) so as to get to Mexico undetected.
It was a fun trip through our neighborhood, searching for salamanders. One fell on my lap and I had to throw it out the window. While the kids were battling crocks and dinos in the back, Jeromy asked me a peculiar question: "I think the next time one of us gets pulled over, we should get in back and put some kids up in the front seat before the officer gets to our car. Wouldn't that be awesome!?!" Um, ya, hon. Totally wicked.
Then we pulled up to our home and into the garage, at which point Kierra started crying because she really wanted to go to Mexico. We had to convince her that we would go someday, and then had to bring the game inside to calm her down. Who would've thought there were 2 crocodiles waiting for us in the kitchen?
Monday, February 16, 2009
Housecleaning Handouts
Okay, the first two of these handouts are the ones I got in class this past Thursday. The other ones I got from the book. I really don't think she'll mind:)
Miscellaneous Handouts
Here are some other handouts from the House of Order classes. Enjoy!
What she suggests you have within arm's reach at your "Command Center":
What she suggests you have in your kitchen:
What to have in your Information Binder:
A personal information sheet to have for each member of your family, and file it in your Information Binder right behind that person's divider:
What she suggests you have within arm's reach at your "Command Center":
What she suggests you have in your kitchen:
What to have in your Information Binder:
A personal information sheet to have for each member of your family, and file it in your Information Binder right behind that person's divider:
Finance Worksheets
Here are the House of Order handouts for the finance class, if anyone is interested. There are more on her website, too.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Organizing Class #5
This was one of the funnest classes yet!
-Don't stretch yourself too thin by signing up for too much. Be realistic. Or you'll end up a BLOB by the end of the day.
-When it comes to housecleaning, you've got to have a written plan! Work according to method and not mood.
-We all have different standards of cleanliness, but if we do things in a cycle, it will always be clean.
-There are 3 different types/levels of housecleaning:
-Daily. We should "neat" our house everyday. Having the house in order like this will give the illusion (to 80% of visitors anyway) that our house is actually clean.
-Weekly. We should "clean" our house weekly. Set up a plan. Mondays are bathroom cleaning days. Thursdays are kitchen, etc. Or number them and rotate through.
-Occasionally. We "scrub" our homes occasionally (basically any job you do less than weekly). (if we don't have a plan, then we'll forget and it will be less frequent and not as often as we should.) If we scrub often enough, it won't be painful (like if you have in your plan that you'll scrub the shower every month, then it'll be easier/faster to get the job done and therefore less hate-ridden than if you did it less often and have to use more elbow grease). If you wait too long, you'll hate it.
-Think of all the things you have to do to keep the house running. Write each job on a card. Use these categories: Daily Do (things you must do everyday: eat, sleep, shower, get dressed, etc.), Daily (nice to do things everyday: neat toys, do dishes, sweep kitchen, do a load of laundry, etc.), Weekly Do (things you must do every week: get groceries, get things ready for church, etc.), and Weekly (nice to to things every week: clean bathroom, vacuum, budget, etc.). Then on each Weekly Do or Weekly card, write which day of the week you'd like to get that job done, OR number them (it doesn't matter what number you assign each job, just that you go through them in order to maintain a cycle), whichever plan suits you best. (I'll scan in some helpful worksheets soon).
-If you do this, you'll start working according to method, not mood, and you'll sleep better and be less moody!
-When you're head has to remember all these things (when was the last time I cleaned that area of the house? etc.), it can't solve problems as easily. Get as much on paper as you can to free up your brain.
-If you don't get a job done, just move it to next week or wherever and don't worry about it. Life happens. Don't beat yourself up.
-Take on the attitude of a Professional Homemaker. A Professional Homemaker will want a comely, peaceful, beautiful home, striving to make home a haven. See D&C 88: 119. If it's comely, it'll be organized. And order invites the Spirit. Think about how orderly the temple is. Our homework is to pick one area of our house this week, and try to make it feel more like the temple in that spot.
-When it comes to furniture, clothes, floors, etc. think in terms of mid-tone, pattern, and texture. Mid-tone things are the color of dust. Patterns hide problems and stains. And texture hides things too.
-So when you're picking out furniture, tiles, etc. bring a little baggy of dirt from your backyard to make sure it matches!
-When you make your bed, your room is 80% clean. Change has to be little and done!
-There should be more layers on the floor near doors than in the middle of the house. Each foot should touch rugs 2x when entering the house.
-She has 3 aprons (one to use, one to wash, and one extra) she uses when she "neats" her house. They have 2 pockets, one for putting trash in, and one for putting out of place items in. When she's done, she puts the items she collected in each person's mail holder, so they put away their belongings, and you're not running up and down the stairs putting miscellaneous things away. Plus you're teaching your family how to put things in their rightful place, etc.
-Use muffin tins to sort a lot of little things found around the house. Kids love this job.
-Think about the TRS idea: Tools, Routines, and Systems. She gave a TON of great tips about tools, and how important it is to invest in the right tools, because you'll be using these things for the next 300 years.
-Have a good duster. She has a lambs wool one (hers was $15, but I got one for about $3 at Ikea). When it starts to look really dirty, she rinses it with a little bit of mild soap and air dries.
-A good mop. Think about trying to mop your kitchen floor with something the size of a pencil. Now imagine mopping something that has the diameter of 1 or 2 inches. More grip is a big difference. Also think about length because if you have to bend your back, you're going to hate the chore even more.
-Disposable gloves. They're cheap, and you don't have to feel guilty about throwing them away after using them for horrible chores. Use them for ANY job you don't want to touch with your skin.
-Good heavy duty rubber gloves (not the regular yellow variety). She found hers at a hardware store in the Tiling aisle. She's had them for several years, and they are still in tact (i.e. no holes in the fingers). Also, when using these to clean hard to reach, up high places, she takes a cuff off of her husband's old matchless socks and wraps it around her wrist to catch any drips (so you don't end up with a wet shirt!).
-Super tuff rubber gloves for the truly unpleasant tasks, such as retrieving things from the toilet or disposal. She called these ones the "skin the squirrel" gloves.
-BIG sponges. The less you have to cramp your hands, the better. And different varieties for different jobs, soft to abrasive. (never use the hard green ones on plastic, it WILL scratch! We looked at so many homes that they cleaned in a hurry and used the green side of the sponge to clean off the front of the microwave or whatever, and now they are permanently scratched. So sad).
-On the door of your shower, after sanitizing, wipe with Old English lemon oil. For a few days, your shower door will look amazing because the water will repell right off. And for a few weeks, it will look very clean, and then it will look a little yucky for those last few days before it comes into your plan's rotation again, then wipe with lemon oil again. Don't use this on the actual shower walls because if you put weight on a wall, you'll slide right off.
-To help family members differentiate between regular cloths for face and body, and those used for cleaning the house, draw silly faces in the middle of each cleaning cloth with a permanent marker.
-A good sturdy brush for those "scrubbing" jobs. It's much better to have the handle on top than out at the end, distributes weight better.
-A good brush for your dustpan. Early in their marriage, her husband splurged and got the $10 brush instead of the $1 brush. He figured it was worth the investment if it only took them one swipe to clean up, instead of 10 or 15. From then on, whenever she swept, and it only took 1 pass of the brush to get it all clean, she would think, "Oh, honey, I love you!" She then told us this story might give our spouses good incentive to help us invest in proper tools for our home. :) (I told Jeromy this, and the next day, he happened to be sweeping the kitchen and he counted how many swipes it took to get everything into the dustpan. 17. I think I've sold him on this point;)
-A scrubber that looks like it could be a horse toothbrush. Actually a brush found in the painting supplies aisle. It's bristles are plastic so it won't scratch anything, but it's very firm so it'll clean very well.
-A squeegee for cleaning showers and windows. Make sure it has a rubber edge so it won't go brittle on you. To keep the shower clean, swipe the squeegee down each wall after each use. To wash windows, spray her homemade Windex all over windows, scrub here and there, and then squeegee off, and you'll have streak free windows!
-She has 5 cleaners: her homemade Windex, her homemade Lysol, her homemade "no-rinsing" cleanser, upholstery cleaner made for cars (to clean furniture), and Simple Green (her fave degreaser). Recipes are at bottom of this post. Oh, and vinegar too.
-She keeps white vinegar in a clean ketchup bottle so she can squirt where needed when cleaning. Vinegar is great for getting hard water stains off, it only takes awhile. She cuts paper towels into 1 or 2 inch strips, wraps them around the taps, soaks them with her vinegar, and leaves them for 8 hours. No more hard water stains. She does the same thing with her showerhead: she attaches a clippy ring to an old paper muffin cup holder, and clasps the ring aroung the neck of the showerhead. Then she fills the cup with vinegar, and leaves for 8 hours. Another great thing about vinegar is it won't ruin anything!
-Her favorite toilet bowl cleaner is Lysol Power. Nothing else works. And she scrubs using gloves and rags ever since one of her sons ate the toilet brush.
-If you've got mold on your grout, use a solution of one part water and one part bleach, and scrub with a toothbrush.
-When members of her family are done with their toothbrushes, she washes them in the dishwasher, then puts them in her cleaning supplies box. When she cleans the toilet, she uses one of these to clean around the little knobby things at the base of the toilet, then throws the toothbrush away.
-The best spot cleaner for carpet, she has found, is her homemade Windex and a cloth (sponges will just get shredded). Make sure to test an inconspicuous area first.
-When she mops, she uses 2 buckets: one for clean soapy water, one for dirty water. Her mop has removeable microfiber cloths. She dunks it in the clean soapy water and mops like normal, but then instead of going back into the clean water with a dirty mop, she removes the cloth, dunks it in the dirty side, wrings it as dry as she can get it, and then reattaches it and puts it into the clean water. This way, since it's dry going into the clean water, all it can do is soak up the soapy water instead of contaminating it.
-And she mops DAMP, not wet. And when she's finished, she wraps a towel around her mop and goes around soaking up any leftover moisture. AND she doesn't normally mop all the way to the wall because no one hardly ever walks on the 12 inches closest to the wall (she sweeps or vacuums the rest).
-Get the freeloaders off your bathroom counter. Think about how great it would be to be able to clean your bathroom counters with just one pass of your cloth.
-Clean the cleanest first, then work your way to the dirtiest. The mirrors, counters, sinks, showers and tubs, floor, and then toilet last.
-If you have a cleaning kit close to the site with all the tools in it you'd need, it will save you a lot of time.
-She keeps a plastic bucket in her laundry room for rags to be washed (so they stay separate from normal laundry).
-If you're right-handed, go in a counter-clockwise motion around the room you're cleaning. Left-handed = clockwise. This is much more efficient.
-Light-Duty Cleaner (like Windex)
1/4 tsp. liquid soap (to help make it sudsy)
2 tsp. ammonia (non-detergent/non-sudsy)
1/2 C. isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
1 1/2 C. water
1 drop green food coloring (so everyone knows it's a cleaner)
Write recipe for homemade light-duty cleaner on spray bottle with a permanent marking pen. Mix ingredients and store in spray bottle. Use for all light-duty cleaning.
-Medium-duty Cleaner (for the tougher jobs)
1/4 C. Pine Sol
2 C. water
1 drop red food coloring (so everyone knows it is a cleaner)
Same instructions as above recipe.
-Heavy-duty Cleaner (mostly for "scrub" jobs)
1 C. ammonia (non-detergent)
1/2 C. white vinegar
1/4 C. baking soda
1 gallon boiling water
Mix well in large bucket and let cool a bit before using. Can be used on everything: kitchen appliances, furniture, floors, carpet, paint and varnish, etc. Items do not need to be rinsed unless the cleaner is used on windows.
I hope you enjoy the notes!! I scanned in some worksheets from last week, just haven't posted yet. Tomorrow, it's late and I'm tired. Happy cleaning!
-Don't stretch yourself too thin by signing up for too much. Be realistic. Or you'll end up a BLOB by the end of the day.
-When it comes to housecleaning, you've got to have a written plan! Work according to method and not mood.
-We all have different standards of cleanliness, but if we do things in a cycle, it will always be clean.
-There are 3 different types/levels of housecleaning:
-Daily. We should "neat" our house everyday. Having the house in order like this will give the illusion (to 80% of visitors anyway) that our house is actually clean.
-Weekly. We should "clean" our house weekly. Set up a plan. Mondays are bathroom cleaning days. Thursdays are kitchen, etc. Or number them and rotate through.
-Occasionally. We "scrub" our homes occasionally (basically any job you do less than weekly). (if we don't have a plan, then we'll forget and it will be less frequent and not as often as we should.) If we scrub often enough, it won't be painful (like if you have in your plan that you'll scrub the shower every month, then it'll be easier/faster to get the job done and therefore less hate-ridden than if you did it less often and have to use more elbow grease). If you wait too long, you'll hate it.
-Think of all the things you have to do to keep the house running. Write each job on a card. Use these categories: Daily Do (things you must do everyday: eat, sleep, shower, get dressed, etc.), Daily (nice to do things everyday: neat toys, do dishes, sweep kitchen, do a load of laundry, etc.), Weekly Do (things you must do every week: get groceries, get things ready for church, etc.), and Weekly (nice to to things every week: clean bathroom, vacuum, budget, etc.). Then on each Weekly Do or Weekly card, write which day of the week you'd like to get that job done, OR number them (it doesn't matter what number you assign each job, just that you go through them in order to maintain a cycle), whichever plan suits you best. (I'll scan in some helpful worksheets soon).
-If you do this, you'll start working according to method, not mood, and you'll sleep better and be less moody!
-When you're head has to remember all these things (when was the last time I cleaned that area of the house? etc.), it can't solve problems as easily. Get as much on paper as you can to free up your brain.
-If you don't get a job done, just move it to next week or wherever and don't worry about it. Life happens. Don't beat yourself up.
-Take on the attitude of a Professional Homemaker. A Professional Homemaker will want a comely, peaceful, beautiful home, striving to make home a haven. See D&C 88: 119. If it's comely, it'll be organized. And order invites the Spirit. Think about how orderly the temple is. Our homework is to pick one area of our house this week, and try to make it feel more like the temple in that spot.
-When it comes to furniture, clothes, floors, etc. think in terms of mid-tone, pattern, and texture. Mid-tone things are the color of dust. Patterns hide problems and stains. And texture hides things too.
-So when you're picking out furniture, tiles, etc. bring a little baggy of dirt from your backyard to make sure it matches!
-When you make your bed, your room is 80% clean. Change has to be little and done!
-There should be more layers on the floor near doors than in the middle of the house. Each foot should touch rugs 2x when entering the house.
-She has 3 aprons (one to use, one to wash, and one extra) she uses when she "neats" her house. They have 2 pockets, one for putting trash in, and one for putting out of place items in. When she's done, she puts the items she collected in each person's mail holder, so they put away their belongings, and you're not running up and down the stairs putting miscellaneous things away. Plus you're teaching your family how to put things in their rightful place, etc.
-Use muffin tins to sort a lot of little things found around the house. Kids love this job.
-Think about the TRS idea: Tools, Routines, and Systems. She gave a TON of great tips about tools, and how important it is to invest in the right tools, because you'll be using these things for the next 300 years.
-Have a good duster. She has a lambs wool one (hers was $15, but I got one for about $3 at Ikea). When it starts to look really dirty, she rinses it with a little bit of mild soap and air dries.
-A good mop. Think about trying to mop your kitchen floor with something the size of a pencil. Now imagine mopping something that has the diameter of 1 or 2 inches. More grip is a big difference. Also think about length because if you have to bend your back, you're going to hate the chore even more.
-Disposable gloves. They're cheap, and you don't have to feel guilty about throwing them away after using them for horrible chores. Use them for ANY job you don't want to touch with your skin.
-Good heavy duty rubber gloves (not the regular yellow variety). She found hers at a hardware store in the Tiling aisle. She's had them for several years, and they are still in tact (i.e. no holes in the fingers). Also, when using these to clean hard to reach, up high places, she takes a cuff off of her husband's old matchless socks and wraps it around her wrist to catch any drips (so you don't end up with a wet shirt!).
-Super tuff rubber gloves for the truly unpleasant tasks, such as retrieving things from the toilet or disposal. She called these ones the "skin the squirrel" gloves.
-BIG sponges. The less you have to cramp your hands, the better. And different varieties for different jobs, soft to abrasive. (never use the hard green ones on plastic, it WILL scratch! We looked at so many homes that they cleaned in a hurry and used the green side of the sponge to clean off the front of the microwave or whatever, and now they are permanently scratched. So sad).
-On the door of your shower, after sanitizing, wipe with Old English lemon oil. For a few days, your shower door will look amazing because the water will repell right off. And for a few weeks, it will look very clean, and then it will look a little yucky for those last few days before it comes into your plan's rotation again, then wipe with lemon oil again. Don't use this on the actual shower walls because if you put weight on a wall, you'll slide right off.
-To help family members differentiate between regular cloths for face and body, and those used for cleaning the house, draw silly faces in the middle of each cleaning cloth with a permanent marker.
-A good sturdy brush for those "scrubbing" jobs. It's much better to have the handle on top than out at the end, distributes weight better.
-A good brush for your dustpan. Early in their marriage, her husband splurged and got the $10 brush instead of the $1 brush. He figured it was worth the investment if it only took them one swipe to clean up, instead of 10 or 15. From then on, whenever she swept, and it only took 1 pass of the brush to get it all clean, she would think, "Oh, honey, I love you!" She then told us this story might give our spouses good incentive to help us invest in proper tools for our home. :) (I told Jeromy this, and the next day, he happened to be sweeping the kitchen and he counted how many swipes it took to get everything into the dustpan. 17. I think I've sold him on this point;)
-A scrubber that looks like it could be a horse toothbrush. Actually a brush found in the painting supplies aisle. It's bristles are plastic so it won't scratch anything, but it's very firm so it'll clean very well.
-A squeegee for cleaning showers and windows. Make sure it has a rubber edge so it won't go brittle on you. To keep the shower clean, swipe the squeegee down each wall after each use. To wash windows, spray her homemade Windex all over windows, scrub here and there, and then squeegee off, and you'll have streak free windows!
-She has 5 cleaners: her homemade Windex, her homemade Lysol, her homemade "no-rinsing" cleanser, upholstery cleaner made for cars (to clean furniture), and Simple Green (her fave degreaser). Recipes are at bottom of this post. Oh, and vinegar too.
-She keeps white vinegar in a clean ketchup bottle so she can squirt where needed when cleaning. Vinegar is great for getting hard water stains off, it only takes awhile. She cuts paper towels into 1 or 2 inch strips, wraps them around the taps, soaks them with her vinegar, and leaves them for 8 hours. No more hard water stains. She does the same thing with her showerhead: she attaches a clippy ring to an old paper muffin cup holder, and clasps the ring aroung the neck of the showerhead. Then she fills the cup with vinegar, and leaves for 8 hours. Another great thing about vinegar is it won't ruin anything!
-Her favorite toilet bowl cleaner is Lysol Power. Nothing else works. And she scrubs using gloves and rags ever since one of her sons ate the toilet brush.
-If you've got mold on your grout, use a solution of one part water and one part bleach, and scrub with a toothbrush.
-When members of her family are done with their toothbrushes, she washes them in the dishwasher, then puts them in her cleaning supplies box. When she cleans the toilet, she uses one of these to clean around the little knobby things at the base of the toilet, then throws the toothbrush away.
-The best spot cleaner for carpet, she has found, is her homemade Windex and a cloth (sponges will just get shredded). Make sure to test an inconspicuous area first.
-When she mops, she uses 2 buckets: one for clean soapy water, one for dirty water. Her mop has removeable microfiber cloths. She dunks it in the clean soapy water and mops like normal, but then instead of going back into the clean water with a dirty mop, she removes the cloth, dunks it in the dirty side, wrings it as dry as she can get it, and then reattaches it and puts it into the clean water. This way, since it's dry going into the clean water, all it can do is soak up the soapy water instead of contaminating it.
-And she mops DAMP, not wet. And when she's finished, she wraps a towel around her mop and goes around soaking up any leftover moisture. AND she doesn't normally mop all the way to the wall because no one hardly ever walks on the 12 inches closest to the wall (she sweeps or vacuums the rest).
-Get the freeloaders off your bathroom counter. Think about how great it would be to be able to clean your bathroom counters with just one pass of your cloth.
-Clean the cleanest first, then work your way to the dirtiest. The mirrors, counters, sinks, showers and tubs, floor, and then toilet last.
-If you have a cleaning kit close to the site with all the tools in it you'd need, it will save you a lot of time.
-She keeps a plastic bucket in her laundry room for rags to be washed (so they stay separate from normal laundry).
-If you're right-handed, go in a counter-clockwise motion around the room you're cleaning. Left-handed = clockwise. This is much more efficient.
-Light-Duty Cleaner (like Windex)
1/4 tsp. liquid soap (to help make it sudsy)
2 tsp. ammonia (non-detergent/non-sudsy)
1/2 C. isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
1 1/2 C. water
1 drop green food coloring (so everyone knows it's a cleaner)
Write recipe for homemade light-duty cleaner on spray bottle with a permanent marking pen. Mix ingredients and store in spray bottle. Use for all light-duty cleaning.
-Medium-duty Cleaner (for the tougher jobs)
1/4 C. Pine Sol
2 C. water
1 drop red food coloring (so everyone knows it is a cleaner)
Same instructions as above recipe.
-Heavy-duty Cleaner (mostly for "scrub" jobs)
1 C. ammonia (non-detergent)
1/2 C. white vinegar
1/4 C. baking soda
1 gallon boiling water
Mix well in large bucket and let cool a bit before using. Can be used on everything: kitchen appliances, furniture, floors, carpet, paint and varnish, etc. Items do not need to be rinsed unless the cleaner is used on windows.
I hope you enjoy the notes!! I scanned in some worksheets from last week, just haven't posted yet. Tomorrow, it's late and I'm tired. Happy cleaning!
Sledding
We went sledding yesterday in a rushed attempt to be able to enjoy winter as a family before it melts for good. We had a great time.
Yes, my little one was not very prepared for the elements, partly because his father was totally against putting pink snowpants on him, and partly because his space-cadet mother thought we didn't have any little mittens for him (but we do! I just don't know where. That's why I'm going to these organizing classes, peoples).
So we had to try to keep him somewhat dry and warm, but all he wanted to do was crawl/slide down the hill on his own. Too cute.
Yes, my little one was not very prepared for the elements, partly because his father was totally against putting pink snowpants on him, and partly because his space-cadet mother thought we didn't have any little mittens for him (but we do! I just don't know where. That's why I'm going to these organizing classes, peoples).
So we had to try to keep him somewhat dry and warm, but all he wanted to do was crawl/slide down the hill on his own. Too cute.
Audrey's 5th Birthday Party!!!
Happy Birthday, Audrey! She really wanted a scooter for her birthday, so we had a party at a skating rink that lets you use scooters. So fun! We're so glad so many of her friends could make it. Thanks everyone!!
The birthday girl with her new scooter.
Just chillin' in Grandma's arms.
Kierra watching her sister, to see how it's done, of course.
Daddy and Kierra racing, and Scott and Kevin too.
(Most of) the partiers.
Mmmm, pizza!
Yay, cake! Thanks again, Costco, you're the best.
She was grinning ear to ear all night. Happy Birthday, kiddo.
This is the birthday prize tank. I don't think she really understood what to do at the beginning, but then she got into it. And then when the fans stopped, she just dropped all the little papers on the ground, not realizing what they were for. Cutey.
The birthday girl with her new scooter.
Just chillin' in Grandma's arms.
Kierra watching her sister, to see how it's done, of course.
Daddy and Kierra racing, and Scott and Kevin too.
(Most of) the partiers.
Mmmm, pizza!
Yay, cake! Thanks again, Costco, you're the best.
She was grinning ear to ear all night. Happy Birthday, kiddo.
This is the birthday prize tank. I don't think she really understood what to do at the beginning, but then she got into it. And then when the fans stopped, she just dropped all the little papers on the ground, not realizing what they were for. Cutey.
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