Reality

At the ripe old age of 32, I feel like I frequently have to remind myself that I have a home and family to care for.  Like, the dishes won't get done or things won't get picked up unless I do them.  Things will just sit and sit until I give myself that wake up call that these things are my daily responsibilities.  Whoa,  when did this all happen?  It all seems so sudden.   I grew up as the baby of the family.  You mean, I'm not the baby anymore?  All this responsibility is mine?  How did I get here so fast?   Where was the How to Run a Home for Dummies book when all this started?

A "Hot Spot"

Having four kids is one of the obvious wake up calls.  Breakfast, school, feed baby, soccer, scouts, lunch,  feed baby, dance, gymnastics, dinner, homework, feed baby, reading, hair, young womens, feed baby and hockey all while maintaining a home.  Did I mention feed the baby?  Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of it.  What I don't love is trying to keep all of this chaos in my head.

It is simple to love and nurture my kids everyday. Some days I have the 4 kid thing down. Other days,  I feel like I'm totally frazzled!  And the worst thing about that, it shows!  On the frazzled days I can't even complete a thought in my brain let alone carry on a decent conversation.

So I did what I had to do.  Get all that stuff out of my head and write it down.  Then I hopped on google reader and became inspired by other moms who seem to have things figured out.  This is why I love blogging so much.  I have been able to learn so much from other moms who have been there and apply it to my life.

My brain station

This is not the first time for me to be blogging about cleaning.  I always go through cycles of trying to keep my house clean all the time to crash and burn. Hopefully with these new tips I can make it a habit.  I thought I'd share the things I've added to my routine.

• Meal Planning-  I always seem to go through cycles of planning.  I HATE meal planning.  If I can get beyond that, my week is SO much easier.  I wrote down a list of everything I make that the family loves.  I first plan from there.  And if nothing sounds good to me that week then I try a new recipe.  Last week I let the kids each pick their favorite meal.

Shower/Get ready- Before the kids wake up.  HUGE time saver.  It's hard, but worth it!  Noon rolls around to quickly if I don't.

Swish & Swipe- Use 2 Clorox wipes to touch up bathroom sinks and toilet.  Brush toilet with bowl brush.  This takes seconds and maintains my bathroom with ease ready for use by anyone.  Daily.

Prepare Dinner in the Morning- LOVE this idea I got from Sarah!  Because who wants to spend an hour in the kitchen at that crazy busy time of day cooking dinner?  It's the dream to just pop something in the oven when dinner rolls around.  All ready to be cooked.

These next two tips I got from flylady.net.  She wrote a book called Sink Reflections that I want to get.  All her tips are on her website but I still want the book.

• Hot Spot-  Find the one or two areas in your home that is always collecting clutter.  That is your Hot Spot.  Twice a day, I have to check my hot spot to put things away to keep it from getting out of control.  It seems like a high maintenance task but not everyone puts things away ;)  I'm  still fighting to work on this constantly.  But I love the idea of it.

• Shine sink-  One of the Fly Lady's tips is to always have a shiny sink.  Always.  Start there.  Make it a habit and you'll feel much better about your home knowing your sink is clean.  I love a clean sink.  I have felt great to be able to maintain this one.

My favorite one of all (which I have done for years) is to start the dishwasher at night, climb into bed and fall asleep to that beautiful sound that's cleaning your dishes.  A reminder that the house is all clean. :)

Lastly, my lists.  Lists to keep my mind from going crazy!

• What's on the brain- My favorite.  Things pop in there that I forget way too easily.  I just write them down so I can think about them later when I have a minute and focus on the now.  Things to talk to Kev about, reminders, call backs, emails, school projects, etc... 
• Things to look up on the internet- Another fav for that free computer time I get in the afternoons during nap time. :)
• To do- Cleaning, Organizing etc...
• Errands I need to run.  This helps me lots.  I get in a PANIC when I get those random times of free time.  To run without the kids.  I usually can't think of a thing I need to do because of the pressure of sudden free time.  Not anymore!  I just have a looky at this list and I'm gone.
• Grocery list
• Costco list

All my lists are taped on my cupboard next to my calendar.  I call this my brain station.   Because this brain of mine needs extra space.  An external hard drive.

My hot spot recovered.  

Which now actually looks like this.

I love the sudden look of fall out my window!

What are your favorite household and routine tips?

"P" Party!

The Young Women in our church have a goal setting program called Personal Progress.  It helps them develop a testimony of Jesus Christ through activities, scripture study and prayer.

We thought it would be fun to have an activity to help the young women start some goals or pass things off.  I got this fun idea off Sugardoodle.  

We had so much fun Preparing for this Party!  Our brains went crazy thinking of all the P things we could involve.  We even had it at Sister P.......'s Place.

Pink and Purple Polka dot balloons.

Everyone brought a P snack.

I brought my favorite sugar cookies.
 Purple Pumpkin cookies on my Pink and Purple Paisley Plate.  (try and say that fast)

We had Pizza and Pop.

We broke off into groups with the leaders and worked on some value Projects.  Some were able to Pass things off that night.  And I was able to use my Purple Pen (which I had taped to the end of my Princess wand). :) 

My darling Personal Progress leader put together these cute door prizes.

Pedicure kit

"Put your best foot forward with Personal Progress"

The winner, who wore the most P items, received this cute Pink basket filled with all things that begin with a P.

All of us in our P garb.  Pajamas, Plaid, Polka dot, Pink, Purple, Pirate ;), Princess, Ponytails......  We had a lot of fun telling of all our P items!  

It was such a fun night.  Now I have a hard time saying anything with a P without a big Pronunciation.

My girls stood on the porch whining to come with me.  All they heard me talk about was the P party I was going to.  They wanted to dress up as Princess too.  I'll have to have one with them.  One of their favorite games to play is "I'm running to Young Womens!", "I have to go to a Young Womens meeting!", " I have to go to the P party!", "I'm off to Young Womens!"  while caring notepads and pens.   

My life must seems so glamorous to them.  

Oh it is!

A dancer.

MaryJane started dance and she absolutely loves it!

I can't believe she is old enough to go now!

I'm soooo not ready for her to grow up.

Their first day they learned to dance like a balloon.  

She is looking less and less like a two year old as her birthday approaches.  

She's growing up way too fast!

My Sweetness

I can't take it!  I'm just going to blast this post with pictures of frankie!  He is just so cute! 

 I can not get enough!!!

I love him sooooooooo much!

He loves staring at his little zebra friend.

Fascinating!

Frankie at 3 months old.  Time is flying but he still seems so little.  

He has been such an easy baby!  That is new for me.  Calm and mellow. 

Oh, he MELTS MY HEART!

Family night

It's been a long time since we've been up the canyon for a barbecue.  We love to go as much as possible in the summer to beat the heat but this year with the new baby we didn't make it until just a few weeks ago.

HuiJu, a family friend visiting from Taiwan.

LOVE this picture of Cole!

I can't believe I am posting these pictures but it explains MaryJane's bear hugs the best.  

Anytime I am sitting down feeding frankie, she will just hug my neck SO tight and attack me.  

She is so lovable and is so good at showing it.

Can you say, SQUISHY FACE?

Back to School 2010!

Sadly, these are my only photos of Cole's first day of school.  Probably because it was a very ruff morning.  Tears and all.  The whole sock and shoe thing throws him in FITS.  Every year.  A daily battle.   We've tried EVERYTHING!  Our current remedy, I squeeze my feet into his socks for a few minutes to stretch them out.  If I can distract his thoughts by talking to him, making him think about something else while I get his socks and shoes on, we're golden. 

Talk about jumping through hoops!

 I love my second grader!  He is so happy to have some of his good friends in his class.

He's already at it again. Chasing girls.  A new crush.  His favorite recess past time. (besides soccer)

Sadie began kindergarten a week later than Cole.  

I love Kindergarten!

I can't believe I captured this!  I just snapped a quick one to do a lighting check just as Sadie peering into school.
It turned out perfectly!

She could.not.wait!

As soon as her teacher rang the bell.  Boom.  She was up there second in line. 

Ms. Okabe gave 3 simple instructions of things the kids were to do upon entering the classroom.  

1. Hang up your backpack

2. Find your cubby.

3. Cut out a leaf and color what you did this summer on it.

She then began to quiz them asking what the 3 things were. 

Sadie was so eager, she shouted them all out before others could answers.  

Sadie followed all the instructions...

cut and colored her leaf and was done before others even began. 

Ha. A little over achiever.

She jumped right in and learned the welcome song really quick.  

Me and my little Kindergartner.  

Tea Party!

I have the greatest sister!  She did such fun things for me when I was little.  

I've told Sadie many times of the the fun things we use to do and she just loves to hear all about it!  

Her favorite one is the Tea Party.  Sometimes when I was little, my sister would tuck me into bed at night and tell me that she would wake me up for our secret tea party and to not tell Mom or Dad.  

For our secret tea party, she'd wake me up after everyone was asleep and in her closet would be her laundry basket tipped over as the table, a flashlight, food and juice. 

 It was such an exciting thing to look forward to.  

When Aunt Jill came to town, she slept over a night and told Sadie that she'd have a tea party with her.  After doing Jill's hair, it was late, like 2 am. 

  

Jill set up in her cute little play closet. 

Apples, PB&J on crackers (Sadie's favorites) and juice.

Once Jill woke her up, she bounced right out of bed into the closet and immediately began eating.

Cheers!

{cute Ts from aunt Jill}

Thanks for being such a great aunt and sister!

We love you!