How We Handle Laundry

I' m not sharing this because I think everyone else will need to follow our schedule, but because this type of organization does not come naturally for me. My natural tendency is to let things get to emergency status. "Who needs socks and underwear today?" Well, in an effort to stay ahead of "mount laundry" I have posted this daily laundry schedule on the refrigerator. What would we do without a refrigerator to stick everything on?!

When we follow it, we all have clean clothes and we feel in control of the laundry. When we don't, it gets away from us quickly!

Everyone keeps a basket or two in their room to collect dirty clothes. It is easier to wash, dry, and put away clothes from each bedroom than mix everything together.

EVERYONE helps with laundry. There is no other way to keep up. Tommy (Daddy) is a huge help with laundry. Our kids learn at a young age to run all appliances;)

Monday-Mom, Dad, and Rose

Tuesday-Abby and Anna

Wednesday-Wendy and Lily

Thursday-Jacob and Samuel

Friday-catch up day, sheets and towels

Towels and cloth diapers are done as needed. A load of towels are done almost everyday. The number of loads done daily varies. Yesterday five loads went through. We have two washers and dryers, one set upstairs and one set in the basement. We are trying to hang dry as much as possible to cut drying cost.

I hope this is helpful to someone else. It is so simple, but not for someone as organizationally challenged as I am!

Read more Help For Growing Families at Ship Full of Pirates.

Morning Routine

I want to join the challenge by Crystal to follow a morning routine. I do these things every day, but not necessarily in the proper order to be most productive. `I'm easily distracted and get off "course" easily. To keep on track, this list of five things to do first thing will be on the side of my fridge by the coffee pot.

1. Get ready for the day, personal hygiene
2. Start coffee, drink water, take vitamins
3. While coffee brews, start laundry that is scheduled for that day, change Rose, check cloth diaper supply for the day
4. Bible reading, have coffee
5. Read email, nurse Rose, make to do list for the day

Note of encouragement.... The older kids all have a specific morning routine also. While I am following my morning routine I have to meet the needs of Wendy, Lily, and Rose and guide the older kids through their responsibilities (mainly keep them from talking too much) so school can begin on time. With that said, I remind myself that my family is my ministry and focus. This post by Laura says it so well! EVERYTHING I do is interrupted and there is no absolute schedule to this routine. There are no "scheduled breaks" for spills, potty breaks, dirty diapers, bickering and discipline, a sock in the central vac, etc. :0) It just is not possible to follow a set timed schedule with littles. Notice that I did not set an exact time for this to begin or end or a set time for each chore. I just need something to come back to in order to refocus. Don't be a slave to your list, use it as a guide! We do have goals of finishing tasks by a certain time while remaining flexible. The Lord will bless our effort.

Goals for 2009

Instead of New Year's resolutions, I have made some written goals for myself. There is something very motivating about writing a list of goals and sharing it with others! Some of these things have already been started! There are long term and short term goals. I hope to finish even the long term goals before the holidays, knowing that I won't be motivated to organize when I really want to bake or decorate!

Personal Goals

• Read from the Bible everyday
• Keep a prayer and praise journal
• Read a book every month
• Continue learning to crochet, complete a project each month, if I get tired of crochet, I may try knitting

Long Term Goals

• Clean up my bedroom (started) organize my closet, organize my clothes,organize baby clothes, spot clean carpet, put up curtain rods and curtains, organize linen closet and stockpile from all the CVS shopping
• Organize school room, get rid of excess, organize what we need
• Paint the living room (if I can decide on a color...these decisions are torture for me...any suggestions are welcomed) and trim, possibly add crown molding

Short Term Goals

• sell/donate excess clothing (started)
• I still want a clothes line
• back up my picture files on the computer (Can you believe I still haven't done this?)
• organize coupons(started)
• set up my files beside my desk. This will hopefully allow me to keep my desk clean. I need a system better than my current "make a pile system"

I will post on my progress! Happy New Year!

Making Your Home A Haven Monday

Monday is always "extra" busy here. There is lots of laundry and clean up from the weekend, but thankfully I am usually a bit more motivated after a weekend "off". Here's a to-to list

1. Wash Wendy and Lily's laundry (started)
2. Fold and put away clean laundry from Friday
3. Make a menu and grocery list (done)
4. Run errands...library, vitamin store, Kroger, dollar store

I'll update tonight how the day goes....Read more at Biblical Womanhood.

**updated** We made great progress yesterday. Lists and errands are done! Laundry is a work in progress. It's never done. We got behind last week, so we will play catch up all week:0)

5 Budget Busters!

I've been tagged by Sarah at Fiddledeedee! She shared her top 5 budget busters last week and "tagged" me to do the same! So here goes in no set order...

1. These first two are totally dependant on planning and organization. We spend less in these areas when I plan and organize. I would say this is true in all areas of spending! Food! Food is a biggie here. With so many mouths to feed and two growing boys , there is a lot of food coming in and quickly being eaten. "What's to eat, Mom?", "What's for ......breakfast, lunch, dinner?" echoed over and over! It's nice when I actually have an answer, and I usually do, because I have a menu plan and shop accordingly. But when things don't go as planned food is a huge budget buster! Feeding so many with take-out, even the dollar menu is expensive. I always think in terms of how many groceries I could buy when we have to spend extra. I need to do a better job in planning for times when I need a quick meal and we could save more in this area. I have said, it's a shame we can't eat toothpaste and shampoo, hee-hee! Fellow CVS'ers will know what I mean!
2. The second is clothing. When we aren't organized, it is so hard to know what we have and what we need. It is so nice to pull out a well labeled tote of size 2 summer clothes when you need it for the next in line, but it doesn't always work out that way! Having five girls in a row, organization of shoes and clothes can and has saved a tremendous amount of money as they "hand down". I am a "sucker" when it comes to dresses. It is so hard not to add to our dress collection. We have been blessed over the years with a huge collection of dresses. I love having them and try to resist the urge to buy more....I just remind myself..."Tommy's gonna kill me if I buy another dress...OH, this would be so cute on...But, Tommy's gonna...." You get the idea?!
3. Heating and cooling a 4000 square foot house....enough said!
4. Hobbies can be a budget buster. Photo supplies and scrapbooking, I love it! I have a small fortune in supplies and little to show for it! Someday I will get it done, I love scrapbooking and if someone can tell me how to get it done with so many littles, please share! Oh, one more thing, babies, sweet babies, another "hobby" of mine:0) I love all the stuff that comes with babies. I have learned to keep it simple in this area, but I have to resist the urge to buy baby things. It helps that I am a home-body and don't shop much!
5. Lastly, having three babies and moving twice in the last four years has been expensive. I'm not complaining...I love my babies and the moves were job related and God is good to us. We have everything we need and a lot more! I have been blessed with a very hard working husband and I have never had to worry about money.

Now I'm tagging Monica and Tisha!

Making Your Home A Haven

I'm taking Crystal's challenge today to work on decluttering some areas of our house. The clutter multiplies QUICKLY around here! Ok, "keepin' it real" Here are the before pictures...and since you've seen it I HAVE to clean it up, right?

My desk

The top of the steps
"Piles" in the dining room floor (We had to move it off the table to eat:)

Socks and books on the steps
I'll update progress, this may take a while!

*Update*

We had a good, busy day and we will tackle that dining room pile tomorrow. I don't think it is as bad it looks. Most of it is probably trash! Have a good night!

Making Your Home a Haven Monday

Crystal at Biblical Womanhood challenged her readers to pick a drawer to organize today. I had been wanting to do the kid's bathroom drawers for a couple of weeks. I would not have done this today without her encouragement.

Before..

After.....If anyone has any suggestions for organizing lots of toothbrushes please comment:)

Check out more at http://www.biblicalwomanhoodonline.com/labels/Making%20Your%20Home%20a%20Haven.html

Just Waiting...

Waiting for our baby to be born, (our seventh, due date Jan. 4), has given us lots of time to get excited and anxious too. Strange as it may sound I think everyone else is more anxious about the timing than I am. After being induced with the last two, I am quite content with letting this one come when the time is right. Sometimes I think we get so "stuck" on "THE DATE" that we forget that it is an estimate, just a guess basically.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely have my moments of feeling miserably anxious, but for the most part I am enjoying the extra time to prepare mentally ,physically and practically. We have accomplished a lot around the house that wasn't exactly necessity, but has been nice none the less. I was able to grocery shop one day this week and stocked up on some more convenient foods to help out the first few days at least. Hopefully the baby will come before we eat it all up! We also cleaned out and organized the pantry. Today I worked on organizing the changing table. This was fun, just looking at all the tiny things, wondering whether we will need the pink or the few neutral things we have to put on "little britches". Not knowing if we are having a boy or girl has made waiting even more fun, at least for me. Having had four girls in a row our house is over run with pink, which I love. If this baby is a boy we will be so happy to go out and buy blue and red and green and brown and denim, Oh wouldn't a pair of brown corduroys be precious! Either way we will be thrilled of course!

Before and After of the changing table:)

Having had so many, I am well aware of the sleepless nights, blurry mornings, and endless days of feedings and diapers. But having had so many, I am also aware of the blessing of a new baby, a new life God has entrusted us to love, care for, and raise up for His glory. Thank you Lord for the blessing of children in our family. As we wait, let us not forget that everything good comes from Him.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

Starting Off Great In 2008

Following my blogger friend and "twin" Monica's lead http://monica-shineagain.blogspot.com/2007/12/starting-off-great-in-2008.html I am excited to share some organization that has taken place here at home. Her enthusiasm and encouragement started with a list she hoped to complete to start the new year on the right foot.


Our motivation seems to come with a move or a new baby. Since we never really organized many things after our last move (a little over two years ago now) there is much to do! To give even more perspective on how badly we need to organize and regroup I will throw in a bit more history...We moved twice and had two, soon to be three babies in just over three years. I don't recommend this, at least not the moving part. To add to chaos, I am so not a natural at being orderly and do not have an eye for organization. Thankfully I am married to someone who is and is more than willing to help, especially at times like this when it is so needed. (Baby #7 due friday!!!! We have considered naming this one "seven" wondering if it would help us call the sweet thing by the correct name:)

Here are some pictures of what has been done lately. Again, credit goes almost completely to my husband and daughter Abby, a natural like her Daddy and very self-motivated child.










We have made much progress and there is still much to do. The most important thing is maintaining order. I will share more as we go. Happy New Year!!