Happy Fall, friends!!

If fall is the season of change, I feel like we may have taken that a little too literally this year. This fall finds our family in a new house, just down the street from our old house. Also, I took a new job! This is my first in-person job in eighteen years.

Oh! And our oldest son went away to college, and Alan changed jobs. But then, Alan changes jobs every one to three years. The military is crazy like that.

What better way to celebrate fall and a new house then sprucing our new place up with a beautiful garden?

Okay. I don’t actually have the beautiful garden part all set up yet. In fact, our playroom still contains about six cardboard boxes and two plastic bins to go through. I’m in desperate need of more time at home to work on our house.

So instead, I have an expert guest blogger here from Warrenton, Virginia to share fall gardening tips with us! Hurray!

Let’s all give her a warm welcome and see what we can learn. I’ll scatter in here a few photos from outside my new house as well as a few inspirational photos with the perfection I have not yet achieved!

15 Inspiring Garden Ideas for the Fall

As the summer heat fades and crisp autumn air settles in, many gardeners find themselves reinvigorated and ready to tackle new projects. Fall is an excellent time for gardening, offering ideal conditions for many plants and providing a perfect opportunity to prepare your garden for the coming spring. Let’s explore some fantastic garden ideas to make the most of this beautiful season.

1. Plant Spring-Blooming Bulbs

One of the joys of fall gardening is planting bulbs that will burst into colorful life come spring. Tulips, daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths are all excellent choices. Plant these bulbs in well-draining soil, about 6-8 inches deep, and water them thoroughly. Come spring, you’ll be rewarded with a vibrant display of flowers.

2. Create a Fall Vegetable Garden

Many vegetables thrive in cooler temperatures, making fall an ideal time to start a vegetable garden. Consider planting cool-season crops like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, and carrots. These hardy vegetables can withstand light frosts and will provide fresh produce well into the colder months.

3. Enhance Your Landscape with Fall-Blooming Perennials

Add pops of color to your autumn garden with fall-blooming perennials. Asters, chrysanthemums, sedum, and goldenrod are excellent choices that will bring vibrant hues to your landscape as other plants begin to fade. These perennials will return year after year, providing reliable fall beauty.

4. Implement a Composting System

Fall is the perfect time to start composting, as you’ll have plenty of leaves and plant debris to work with. Create a simple compost bin using wooden pallets or purchase a ready-made composter. Layer green materials (like grass clippings and kitchen scraps) with brown materials (like fallen leaves and small twigs) to create nutrient-rich compost for your garden.

5. Plant Trees and Shrubs

The cooler temperatures and increased rainfall of fall create ideal conditions for planting trees and shrubs. These plants will have time to establish strong root systems before winter sets in, giving them a head start for robust growth in the spring. Consider native species that are well-adapted to your local climate for the best results.

6. Design a Rain Garden

As autumn brings more frequent rainfall, it’s an excellent time to implement a rain garden. These specialized gardens are designed to capture and filter rainwater runoff, reducing erosion and pollution while creating a beautiful, low-maintenance landscape feature. Choose plants that can tolerate both wet and dry conditions, such as cardinal flower, swamp milkweed, and Joe-Pye weed.

7. Create a Cozy Outdoor Living Space

Extend your time outdoors by creating a comfortable seating area in your garden. Add weather-resistant furniture, outdoor rugs, and throw pillows to create an inviting space. Consider installing a fire pit or outdoor heater to keep warm on chilly evenings, allowing you to enjoy your garden well into the fall season.

8. Install Garden Lighting

As the days grow shorter, garden lighting becomes increasingly important. Solar-powered path lights, string lights, and lanterns can create a magical atmosphere in your fall garden while also improving safety and visibility. Use lighting to highlight key features of your landscape, such as trees, water features, or architectural elements.

9. Build Raised Beds

Fall is an excellent time to construct raised garden beds. These structures offer better drainage, warmer soil temperatures, and easier access for planting and maintenance. Fill your raised beds with a high-quality soil mix enriched with compost. According to Gateway Home and Garden Center that sells gardening soils and mulches in Warrenton, VA, using the right soil blend is crucial for the success of raised bed gardens.

10. Implement Water-Wise Gardening Techniques

As you prepare your garden for fall, consider incorporating water-wise gardening techniques. Install a rain barrel to collect rainwater for irrigation, group plants with similar water needs together, and use mulch to retain soil moisture and suppress weeds. These practices will help conserve water and create a more sustainable garden.

11. Create a Fall Container Garden

Bring color and texture to your porch, patio, or entryway with fall container gardens. Combine ornamental cabbage, pansies, mums, and ornamental grasses in large pots for instant autumn appeal. Don’t forget to include some evergreen plants to maintain interest throughout the winter months.

12. Establish a Wildflower Meadow

Fall is an excellent time to sow wildflower seeds for a beautiful, low-maintenance meadow garden. Choose a mix of native wildflowers suited to your region, prepare the soil by removing existing vegetation, and sow the seeds according to the package instructions. The seeds will lie dormant over winter and sprout in spring, creating a diverse and colorful habitat for pollinators.

13. Plan and Plant a Spring Cutting Garden

Use the fall season to plan and prepare a cutting garden that will provide beautiful blooms for arrangements come spring. Plant a variety of annuals and perennials known for their long stems and vase life, such as zinnias, cosmos, dahlias, and sunflowers. Prepare the soil now and sow hardy annual seeds or plant bulbs for early spring flowers.

14. Create a Sensory Garden

Design a garden that engages all the senses by incorporating plants with interesting textures, fragrances, and sounds. Plant lavender, rosemary, and thyme for their aromatic foliage, add ornamental grasses that rustle in the breeze, and include plants with interesting bark textures or seed pods that create visual interest in the fall and winter months.

15. Implement Vertical Gardening

Maximize your garden space by incorporating vertical gardening techniques. Install trellises, arbors, or wall-mounted planters to grow climbing plants like clematis, honeysuckle, or even fall-bearing raspberries. Vertical gardens not only save space but also add visual interest and can create privacy or define garden rooms.

As you implement these fall garden ideas, remember that this season is also about preparation for the coming year. Take time to clean up garden beds, divide overgrown perennials, and protect tender plants from frost. With thoughtful planning and care, your fall garden efforts will set the stage for a beautiful and bountiful garden in the seasons to come.

I want to thank our guest blogger again for her wonderful ideas.

For the first time ever, I actually did buy boxes of bulbs. Maybe tomorrow I will finally get those buried in the ground!

What all are you planting or designing in your yard this year? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section.

The post 15 Beautiful Garden Ideas for Fall appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

How is year 2 of the COVID going for everyone so far?

Anyone else still virtual schooling? I know almost everyone in our area is. There are days I wish I had jumped on the private school bandwagon fast enough to get one of those spots. However, other days I remind myself I need to try to enjoy this extra time I have been gifted with my children.

Sometimes the boys’ character flaws cause extra stress, things like not turning on the camera when they know they are supposed to or just giving up instead of asking for help. ….Or partying in the kitchen because they see a brother having recess when they in fact should be sitting in class.

The non-synchronous recesses are an actual problem in a house of four different kids with four different schedules.

But other times it is just my own character flaws: impatience, laziness, refusing to take a computer class in college….etc, causing my own problems.

You’ve all heard enough of me whining about the struggle. Today I want to document a day to remember this experience by.

7:00 Hit snooze. Chastise Midnight April for reading the internet last night instead of going to sleep. Since when do you follow politics? Vow to go to sleep earlier tonight.

7:30 Stumble out of bed and wake the oldest boys.

7:45 Arrive downstairs for coffee. Microwave it because I slept so late.

7:50 Stare out the window and drink coffee. Relish in the silence.

8:00 Check some apps on my phone. Scold self for wasting time on the phone when I could be reading my Bible and praying for the day ahead.

8:10 Read Bible and pray.

8:40 Feed Daniel and JD breakfast. Today was pancakes: Wegman’s frozen pancakes with Log Cabin syrup. We are not fancy.

Make my to do list for the day.

9:00 Realize boys are running late for class. Boot up and sign on to their computers for them. Sleeping late is a domino effect of this sort of thing.

9:00 All boys are in class. Phew. Remind them to turn on their cameras.

Go upstairs to get dressed. Alan is in my room on a virtual meeting with like 100 people at the Pentagon. He has a stand up desk using the top of my dresser. Make sure his camera is off before I get dressed. Ha! 2021 problems.

Put in earrings which makes me feel better about myself.

Spot my nail stickers on the counter. Hope to find time to fix my nails later. It has been about a year since I have found time to do that.

Carry the laundry hamper downstairs.

9:20 Come downstairs and do the dishes.

9:25 Help JD figure out the special instructions for reading class today because his teacher is in a meeting and can’t be in class. Check email to find the instructions. Help JD find the worksheet and a sharpened pencil, glue stick, and scissors. He so rarely uses the glue and scissors.

9:35 Try to figure out what Daniel is doing. Help Daniel with username and password for social studies activity. Make him turn his camera on. Feel accomplished and happy that we did that successfully today.

9:47 Head down to laundry room to start the day’s laundry. I pretty much have to wash one or two loads a day. Yesterday was sheets day, so I am finishing up that.

Fold fitted sheets. Seriously consider making a How to Fold a fitted sheet video. Maybe one day. Alan’s Aunt Janet taught me how to do it. I’m still not as good as she, but I do all right.

10:15 Check on everyone. Check things off on my to do list. Make sure everyone has everything they need so I can leave the house for 17 minutes for a walk.

Call Rosie. Huh, she didn’t come.

Call Rosie again. I hear her scratching. That means she is in someone’s room and is waiting to be let out to run to me. So cute. Alan lets her out of our room, and she comes bounding excitedly down the stairs.

I heard it was cold and windy today, so I put a sweater on the dog, plenty of winter gear on myself, and we head out.

10:23 Short walk. What a life giving ritual. So glad I made the time to do that.

10:40 Check on everyone again. Start the robo-vacuum in the living room.

Sit down to work on the blog. Check Facebook instead.

Suddenly, everyone in the house is up and hanging around me. Some are on break, and others are not. Alan is eating lunch and talking to everyone. He tries to help Daniel with a music assignment which was hilarious. Daniel finishes on his own, and then I helped him upload and submit his work.

I hear John David answering a subtraction question in math class. Very happy with how well he is paying attention in class today.

Clean the hair out of the robot vacuum cleaner so it will get back to work.

11:15 Cycle the laundry. Find a boy not taking notes during a math lesson, and make him take notes.

11:20 Haul a Christmas bin upstairs and begin taking down decorations. Clean out the robot vac again. It cannot handle the rugs.

11:35 Help JD photograph and submit his math quiz.

11:40 Make peanut butter sandwiches and Ramen noodles for lunch. I told you we are not fancy, but in my defense, I did serve them turkey, strawberries, and crackers yesterday. We do try to cover the food groups.

Get hair off the robot vac brushes again. Gracious, this thing. Two long red hairs and some black thread and it just can’t possibly go on.

12:00 Do more Christmas un-decorating. Find Daniel’s Halloween pillowcase full of candy in the corner of the office. Dig out a couple of pieces, and rake the rest of it into the trashcan. Feel impressed that one or two of my children actually refrained from eating all of his candy. I never could.

Loose strands of plastic garland are everywhere. The whole house will need to be cleaned up from the Christmas clean up.

12:15 Talk a child into trying Ramen noodles again. Hurray! He ate them!

12:30 My Lunch: Greek yogurt and kettle chips while I read the book I am almost finished with. I love this book. Fascinating!

1:05 Realize I’m five minutes late. Oops! Head downstairs to make sure everyone is in class. Make them sit up and listen, etc., again.

Make Daniel another bowl of Ramen noodles.

Watch in dismay as JD runs free style science projects because he has a few spare minutes…

1:25 Clean up all the lunch dishes. Restart the robo-vac again.

1:35 Work on laundry. Take down another bin full of Christmas decorations. Have the boys carry the bins down to the basement.

2:00 Help JD with a library quiz. Trap the robo-vac into a corner and beg it to clean it.

2:10 Help Daniel with math.

2:15 Drink a mini coke. Log JD into writing class. Sharpen 10 pencils.

2:30 Sit down and work on blog. Resist the urge to take a stress nap because energy just left the building.

250 Help JD submit more work. Desperately wish to collapse on sofa. I have not been sleeping well lately, which is unusual for me. Then remember I promised Caleb I would take him to Target

3:30 Headed to Target with Caleb so he can buy the Millenium Falcon Lego set with his Christmas money. Pick up a few groceries too. Wander around in there a little because I love that place.

4:45 Pick up Burger King on the way home. Oh well, nutrition took a hit today. There is always tomorrow.

5:15 Read emails from teachers. Print out work for the next day. Have kids find missing assignments.

6:30 Lose all track of taking notes for the “day in the life.” This was only a few days ago, but I cannot remember anything else that happened.

Daniel and I finished reading The Prince and the Pauper together this week.

But that’s the basic gyst of what the days look like. Of course, each day is a little different.

I go back and forth between being thankful for the extra time we all have together, and yearning for more head space. It is hard to find a spare minute alone with this current schedule, but then that is how I lived for ages, birthing four kids in seven years.

Oh, and by the way, I finally gave up on the robot vacuum cleaner. My new upright man-powered vacuum works much better, though I do have to power it myself.

Are your days anything like this? It is fun to me to hear about the different ways people are doing virtual school or home school. We would love to read about your experiences in the comments below.

The post A Day in the Life of a Virtual School Mom appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Was I ever good at the actual housewife part of the stay-at-home-mom life?

Ehhhh. It didn’t matter too much. I didn’t feel like that was my real job. My job was caring for the kids and cooking dinner. So long as the children were well taken care of, towels and underwear were clean, the dishwasher was run every night, and everyone got to eat, I was a smashing success.

Then last year they all went to school, and it began to dawn on me that all “that junk” is actually my main job all day long. Grocery shopping, school supply providing, cooking, and cleaning— that’s my job. Blehhhhhh. I never wanted to do any of that mess. How did this happen?

So what did I do? I decided to mainly give myself a year to chill, and also I bought a dog. Then we got orders to move, so I spent most of that year unpacking and re-packing our stuff up.

I’ve gotten somewhat skilled at un-packing and re-packing a room.

Unpacking is finished now, so I spent a couple of months wallowing around the house. I was sad about things, unmotivated, lonely, bored with my housekeeping job, and watching out the windows as soon as it was time for the kids to get home. Being around people is important to me!

Thankfully, I am happy to report that I am past the sad, homesick phase of the move. No more wallowing.

Having three sets of company come and stay with us was a badly needed jolt. I couldn’t let them see me all pathetic. I must get my act together, so with all the gusto I could muster, I set to putting my house in order.

Giving this noble thing a try

I vowed to turn this thing around. There’s no excuse for my house to be messy anymore. I DO have time to clean it, and I DO have time to do all sorts of things, like writing on the calendar, baking, and even dusting.

What I’ve been missing was the want to. The want-to is surprisingly important.

But right before Nonna and DaddyO’s visit, energy, motivation, and optimism all showed up. Yep. I used my Fly Lady skills, my Fitbit stopwatch, and set to work.

First, I went down to the basement and dug out more fall decorations and replaced spring silk flowers with fall ones. Yes, I use silk flowers, mostly from Big Lots and Hobby Lobby. This makes it impossible for me to kill the plant.

I set my Fitbit stopwatch. If I promise myself I only have to clean up a room for 10 minutes, it makes it way more doable. Confession: I gathered up 7 pairs of shoes from the office and hauled them up to my closet. Yes, I am the kind of person who takes her shoes off exactly where she’s sitting and leaves them there. 17 years of complaints from Alan has failed to change this about me, so you might as well accept this flaw.

What do other people do about shoes?

You are sitting on your sofa, want to kick your feet up, and so you take of your shoes. Then later you forget about said shoes. You need to run to the bus stop to pick up the kids, so you grab a different pair of shoes and repeat the vicious cycle an hour later.

Isn’t it funny how when you finally attack the giant tower of papers on the kitchen counter it turns out to be 90% recycling? I mean that’s what happens when you don’t empty book bags straight into the recycling bin.

This post is rambling, so I’ll spare you all the details of the 4 rooms of cleaning I did. You should just know that I have the most surprisingly high feeling of accomplishment, and guess what. This is the most amazing part:

At the end of the day, our six-year-old came inside and said, “Oh, great job cleaning today, Mom!”

That felt like sunshine and joy. Someone noticed my work!!!!

“I am going to do this again tomorrow I vowed!” This high pace of accomplishing things was kept up for quite a few days until I came down with some sort of laryngitis/cold.

Until I do enter the workforce again, and who knows how long that will be as we still have many summers and military moves to get through, this is my job. My goal here is to take it seriously again, even the oh-so-mundane house-cleaning part. I’m even going to write things down in the Google calendar, send out Christmas cards on time, and declutter on the regular. I mean it!

Why am I blogging about this?

Well, I’ve had many fits and starts before and never stuck with it much. I don’t want to end up spending the days walking and reading Facebook. A clean house and fresh baked goods at least give me something to show for my days, so I want to stick with this.

It’s really just a matter of deliberately finding joy in my work and purposing to do it better. The moving slump has been dealt with for all of us here, and life is getting good again.

Plus, Christmas is coming, so life will NOT be all vacuums and dishes. I’m trying to take housekeeping more seriously, but let’s not get carried away. The fun is still important too!

The post Goal: To Take Housekeeping Seriously (But Not Too Seriously) appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Today is the 5th day of school, and guess what.

It is definitely time to recover from summer.

And you know what else? It’s going to take me way more than 12 days to recover the basement playroom and the stacks of papers from a summer of neglect.

There are about a billion cluttered surfaces in my house that I’ve saved for “when the boys go back to school.” And you do not want to see the storage room where I shoved all the bins of items I didn’t have a place for when I unpacked them from the move. “I’ll find a place for those when the boys go back to school.”

Ah yes, that day has come. Time to put my working hands where my mouth was.

Do you listen to music when you clean?

I HAVE to.

Like it or not, cleaning must be done. It’s quite important, so I find it imperative to distract myself with some fun, upbeat tunes from people with better voices than my own. And of course, I will be singing along, sometimes even dancing, and not just because I like to watch my children roll their eyes.

My big accomplishment of the day wasn’t just cleaning though.

(Cleaning is the never-ending job.) It was this YouTube playlist I put together of a few (like 14) of my favorite songs to listen to while I work! After all, who pays hundreds of dollars for music when you can listen for free on YouTube?

It’s super simple to do. I thought about typing up an explanation for how to make a playlist, and then I figured that’d be time-consuming, and it’s already been done. Here’s a link for how to make your own YouTube playlist.

Here’s my playlist below. What’s on yours? I’d love to hear more ideas for songs to add.

Link to my playlist:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIigYXl0ipjUCeVz0lttQ71FPZZD7JRr8

1. Someday by Michael Bible and Meghan Trainer (love those 2!!)
2. I Wanna Go Back by David Dunn
3. Grace Got You by MercyMe
4. Tell Your Heart to Beat Again by Danny Gokey
5. A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman Soundtrack
6. The Lost Get Found by Britt Nicole
7. Hold Me by Jamie Grace and Toby Mac
8. Little Ol’ Me by Jamie Grace
9. Fight Song by Rachel Platten
10. You Belong with Me by Taylor Swift (The high school girl inside of me finds this song quite relatable okay)
11. Still That Girl by Britt Nicole (Skip the first 30 seconds of the song and then listen. LOOOVE the rest. She could’ve had a huge hit with this one if she’d chopped off the intro, in my humble opinion..)
12. Better Place by Rachel Platten
13. This One’s For the Girls by Martina McBride
14. Keep Walkin’ On by Faith Hill & Shelby Lynne

I need more songs for it. I’ve already listened to this whole list twice in the last 24 hours. What should I add??

The post 12 Days of Summer Recovery: Day 1 is My House Cleaning Playlist appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Hello, friends! April is resting a powerful case of tendonitis, so Edna Thompson, of the United Kingdom, is sharing tips with us on age appropriate chores for kids today.

Everybody knows that it is not an easy task to maintain a clean and organized home with kids around. But not necessarily! Try including your kids in the cleaning and organizing process. Let them help you clean the mess they make. Of course, depending on how old your child is, there are different chores they can do. But even the younger ones can be put to work. Give them easy to do tasks turned into a game. This way they will be engaged, and instead of making a mess, they will be fixing it.

Here are some simple tasks, categorised by age groups and rooms that you can give to your children. But keep in mind that; of course, this can be adjusted any way you want because every child matures differently.

And another very important thing to remember is to give them one task to do at a time, especially the younger ones. Give them one chore to do, wait for it to be finished, and then give the next one. The younger the child, the more supervision of course, so never leave them alone and always go and check their work.

But also keep in mind that you should not be fixing their work in front of them.

And the most important thing is to make it like a fun exercise and enjoy the time spend with your child.

photo credithttp://www.saluteokay.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ALLERGIE.LAV1_.jpg

Here are a few chores you could give them to do by age:

2-4

• Tell them to clean in their room, give them different coloured bins and tell them to sort scattered toys in the bins by colour
• Put dirty clothes in the laundry hamper
• Put other things like books, glasses, clothes back in their places

4-5

• Make their bed
• Water easy to reach house plants (with supervision of course)
• Feed and give water to pets, if you have any
• Wipe the table
• Sort clean silverware
• Help set the table

6-7

• Dust the furniture
• Use hand-held vacuum
• Sweep the floor
• Empty dishwasher
• Put away clean dishes
• Fold their washed clothes

8-9

• Rake leaves
• Load dishwasher
• Clean after a meal
• Vacuum
• Collect and fold clean laundry
• Collect and take out trash

10-11

• Mow the lawn
• Prepare easy snacks
• Saw
• Clean counter tops
• Rearrange pantry

12 and up

• Wash windows
• Mop floors
• Paint walls
• Shop for groceries with a list
• Iron clothes
• Even watch younger kids

Of course you know what your child can and cannot do, so you can adjust this in a way that is better for your child. This is just for orientation, but mama knows best. 

Pick a cleaning song and sing and dance while you clean. Make a competition between your children, like who can organize and clean their room faster.

The goal of having your kids helping you to clean the house is with the idea that they learn how things should be done by helping you at first. When they get older they can do them by themselves. Plus you will be spending some time together and doing something useful while having fun with them.

The article is written by Edna Thomson. She runs a small company called Notting Hill TenancyCleaners

The post Cleaning Chores For Kids, By Age appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This post comes from Anna Aamone, who runs a small cleaning company in London. She loves writing about cleaning and decorating. I hope you find this article as helpful as I did.

How to Spend Less Time Cleaning and Still Have a Sparkling House

Everybody dreams about having a spotless home, but they rarely feel the urge to spend hours cleaning. Considering there are thousands of better things to do than brushing the toilet and removing limescale build-up from faucets, it is understandable why so many people want to spend so little time housekeeping. The good news is, your home could still be sparkling even if you dedicate a very small amount of time to keeping it so darn neat. Here are a few tips to make house-cleaning more time-effective.

Focus on key areas

There are some telltale signs of why your home doesn’t look clean. The first one is your television. It needs dusting on the daily. No matter how much time you dedicate to cleaning, if dust still hangs on your DVD stacks and your television, it’s like you didn’t accomplish anything. It may sound a little “wait, what?”, but it’s not really important to have a clean home but rather a home that looks clean. So it’s wise to focus on those areas that show dirt and stains.

Some other key spots to focus on are your book shelves (dust), knick-knacks (dust), toothbrush holder (lots of residue), bathroom floor (soap scum, limescale, stains), kitchen countertops (food stains, crumbs), sinks (soap scum, limescale), space under tables (crumbs, stains), entryway (mud stains, dirt, soil), stove top (grease, burned food).

Wash the dishes right away

Do wash the dishes after your family is done with their meal. Dirty dishes look nothing but disgusting, making your home look like a sty. Because what kind of a housewife doesn’t have time to wash the dishes?

Get rid of pet hair on the daily

Pet hair can be difficult to remove, especially if you haven’t bothered to deal with it for a whole month. The easy way to cut down on hair and spend less time getting rid of it is to clean it on the daily. Put on rubber gloves and wet them. Run your hands over furniture or your pet’s favorite spot to hang around. Hair will get caught on the gloves and off your domestic surfaces.

Do one chore at a time

Because you want to do as many things as possible in the shortest time possible, you often fall into the trap of doing many chores at a time. But this is not okay. Staying focused on one task will make you more effective. So keep it simple.

Do small tasks every day

Cut down on clutter by doing small tasks every day. At first it may seem like you have to clean and tidy all the time, but soon you will find out that your domestic chores have been reduced to a manageable level. Because you will tackle small jobs on the daily, you won’t ever have to take a whole Saturday and spend it cleaning the house. Sweeping the floor takes about five minutes, washing the dishes is ten minutes, dusting is ten to fifteen minutes. Combine this rule with the next one to get better results.

Focus on a different chore every day

Monday could be vacuuming, Tuesday is organizing the shelves, Wednesday is for dusting, Thursday is doing the laundry, etc. etc. Even better, make a list of all the chores that have to be done throughout the week and distribute them evenly. You will find this to be a very good rule. Waking up knowing there is only one chore to do today makes it seem less burdensome and tiring.

This is the best way to spend less time cleaning and still have that spotless home you are willing to have. SW7 TenancyCleaning wishes you good luck!

*****************

The post How to Spend Less Time Cleaning and Still Have a Sparkling House appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Well, that’s been me for…well, since we moved, I guess. I just keep telling myself that if I just make it through this year, things will get better.

I love my children. I enjoy teaching them. I don’t even mind cooking dinner, but there is one part of this whole stay-at-home, home-schooling, blogger-mom gig that causes me very great stress.

Housework.

Where the school day ends, the house work begins, and with a house of 6 people, that “career” is enough to keep me busy all by itself. Then there’s the whole question of dinner. I’m out of the habit of making realistic dinner plans, so I’ve been pulling that together at the last minute.

Plus, every where I turn, we have another ant invasion. That’s right, our whole neighborhood has the most insane ant problem I have ever seen in my life. There are lines of them, eating-I can’t-figure out what in all of our bathrooms. With the rain, they have come into our home in record numbers.

Basically, around 3 or 4 everyday, I feel so completely burned out and defeated, that what I truly wish to do is get in my car and just drive until I find a restful place to stop.

The other day, in the depths of feeling as melancholy and hopeless as ever…

(I get that some of you have no idea why I would feel that way. Well, I’d take pictures of my house to explain it, but I’m afraid that would cause me to be judged by others of you, so I will be sharing no such pictures at this time.)

My messy house makes me want to cry. It sucks the energy out of me. People think of me as laid back, but I’m totally not. I’m actually a polite, high pressure, control freak that smiles a lot. There I said it.

Today I had 20 or so things on my mind, I was desperate to get out of the kitchen and escape somehow for a minute, and just as I thought I might go sit on the love seat and pout for just a second…Daniel spilled juice all over himself and the kitchen floor. At that EXACT SAME moment, JD knocked over a BOX of vanilla wafers, which at the bottom of the box, was more crumbs than wafers.

Did I mention that I had JUST swept and mopped the floor, not 30 minutes prior to this incident?

Did you also know that JD is so tall–almost freakishly so–that he can reach the kitchen countertops?

Somehow I didn’t manage to find all the crumbs to sweep up, so the floor is wet and crunchy. Daniel, Caleb, and JD are all taking a bath. That sounds nice, except I’m going to have to summon energy from SOMEWHERE to get them all dressed again.

When I say that I want to cry every single day, that is a gross understatement. I actually do cry most days. I have no idea how to catch up on all of the housekeeping, so I’ve taken to keeping one room of my house completely immaculate. I just started this a week ago.

It makes me feel like I have some sort of control over SOMETHING in my life. What room did I choose? The smallest room in the house: the laundry room. I’ve been working so hard on that room this week. It’s all I have time for! The washer and dryer are crud and dust free. The floor is spotless. The shelves are dusted. Nothing is in that room that doesn’t belong there–well, except for those photos that I haven’t hung yet.  But seriously, when?? When will I hang pictures?

So if you can’t find me……that may be where you will find me. NO, not hanging pictures, but cleaning my laundry room, so that I can feel like I’ve got something under control.

Do you think this is an awful lot of whining about house cleaning? It is! The cleanliness level of my house directly affects my mood–even if that should not be so.

Wednesday, as I was laying flat on my face, crying and whining to God in my prayers about how hard it is to teach these boys, never leave the house, and whoa whoa whoa whoa wheaaa wheaaaa wheaaa wheaaa wheaaaa….. I said, “I should just go get those boys right now, and put them back to work. Lord, what in the world should I do?”

“See them how I see them.”

No, don’t worry, friends, I do not hear the audible voice of God, never have, but I promise that he speaks to my heart.

I went to the boys’ window, and looked down at my three biggest boys, on the trampoline. JD toddled along beside me.

There they were. They each sat on a different side of the trampoline, Indian style. They appeared to be having some sort of meeting.

“Oh, right,” I thought, “They are just darling little children. I’m so thankful they have each other.This time on the trampoline together is good for them.”

I need not destroy the magic of their childhood with my own anxiety problems. Yes, I put too many demands upon myself. That’s not their fault. They are just children. 

So I have a goal, a very important goal. I am going to ENJOY the trip to Alabama this year. I’m not pregnant or breastfeeding, so I have that going for me. Yes, I have to fly with four children, but at least this time Alan gets to go with us.

I’m going to try to enjoy the plane ride and visiting the way that the children do, because normally I don’t, and that makes the trip less fun for everyone else.

Is this phase of homeschooling while also taking care of a toddler and a preschooler the hardest thing I have ever done?  YES. Aboslutely YES. I did home school Joshua in K4 and part of Kindergarten. That is  not the same at all as home schooling three different ages. Joshua and Caleb are so big now, that I don’t want to mess this up.

The really sad thing is that I’m letting all of these  pressures that I put on myself steal my joy. Why? I want everything to be perfect, and that is not an achievable goal.

Who likes perfect people anyway?

I’d better go take the boys out of the bathtub, remind myself to see them how God sees them, and try not to rain on everyone’s Christmas. 🙂

I feel like I’m giving my Eeyore-self a pep talk!!

“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'”            James 4:6

The post “See it how I see it.” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.