Kid's Art

We had our first art class for this year. I have found a great art site by a school art teacher that I will be using this year for some inspiration of different projects. It is Deep Space Sparkle. Today we did painting similar to Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting. I think the boys did a great job!

I am going to mount all their artwork on construction paper and make a gallery going up the staircase of all their artwork.

House cleaning schedule

I am always so curious how others keep up with all the work of keeping a home. Especially when the kids are there all day and constantly making a mess. Being a home schooler gives people the image that you have all day to clean and you should have a perfect house, but that is so far from reality! In reality you don't clean and then everyone leaves for the day to return to a clean home. You clean then turn around and they have taken out toys, made a snack, decided to wrestle and knocked over everything... it never ends. So many times it feels futile to even do anything because you know it won't last.

I have found that if the underlying home is clean that their play messes do not seem as bad. You can look and see it is just a million legos all around... everywhere... and try to go on with life. I also have learned that I cannot keep the floor mopped, but if I know in my head that it was mopped on Monday and will be mopped again next Monday that somehow I have learned to live with that. For a visual person that is a hard one, but for a sane person it is necessary.

I used to clean my whole house one day a week then daily get up and maintain it by wiping the bath, doing laundry, etc. That was when we had two or three bedrooms and a small house. It has morphed to a larger home with more than I can handle to do in a day. The job became too overwhelming to do in one day and I would put it off. I have learned to break up my tasks and consentrate on different areas each day. I haven't gotten it down to where I am doing it daily, but have a schedule to try to have a purpose each day.

Monday- grocery shopping for the coupon deals and errands. All the stores are within 3 miles from me so I run to Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Publix, and Kroger in a day. I have my list and coupon match ups ready and get in and out quickly. Usually it takes between 1.5 and 2 hours. If I buy a lot of meat I try to start cooking up some of it to freeze. I brown 10 lbs of hamburger meat, grill a family pack of pork chops, grill up a large package of chicken, or boil a whole chicken to freeze the meat for individual portions. Wash Kitchen rugs for clean rugs tomorrow. Wash Master sheets.

Tuesday- Kitchen and Bath- Spray down the tub and shower and let sit while I wipe the sinks, vanity, then tub, shower, and toilet. Go back with windex and do the mirror and silver edging on the shower. Shake rug and sweep the floor. Put a cup of water in microwave and heat 3 minutes to steam the crud loose. Wipe microwave, clean stove with cleaner, wipe toaster and coffee maker, clean sink. Wipe downstairs bath sink and toilet and cabinets. Clean mirror. Sweep foyer and laundry room. Mop baths and foyer and laundry room. Wash towels.

Wednesday- Vacuum and Dust- Start in Master bath and dust any pictures or cabinets, do master bedroom, upper hall, foyer, front room, kitchen stuff on walls, family room, and top of washer and dryer. Clean all the hardwood floors. Wash girls sheets.

Thursday- Pay bills, make any follow up calls, file papers. Schedule any appointments on Thursday afternoons. Iron clothes for the week. Wash boys sheets.

Friday- I save Friday for fieldtrips, playdates with the kids, catch up day. Once a month I go to Sams, Target, and Walmart and buy a months worth of items that I need. OK, at Target I search for things I don't need but find irresistable. Wash towels.

Daily - take the hand towel and wipe water and spots on vanity, wipe down toilet, make bed, take clothes down to laundry and put in a load, fold dry clothes that I hung dry, unload dishwasher, CHECK KIDS CHORES ( I never do this, never, and really need to). After school put up school work and put in another load of clothes if enough. Around 4:00 straighten, start supper, put up all folded laundry, spot mop wood floor in kitchen/family room area.

The kids do dishes, wipe counters, and sweep daily as their chores. They also vacuum and wipe interior of our car, wipe cabinet fronts, clean the front of the appliances, wipe baseboards in kitchen, wipe their bath, and sweep the porch and deck.

So there it is. Sounds so much easier than reality of doing it. But, if I do my house stays so much cleaner and runs so much smoother.

Freezing Food for Breakfast

School starts Monday so I am starting to make up some things to freeze for quick morning meals and snacks. Today I made up biscuits, pancakes, and oatmeal peanut butter cookies. I make up the biscuits and flash freeze them before baking. I then put them in a big zip top bag. That way they are not stuck together and you can take out as many as you need and bake. I flash freeze the pancakes and then put them in a bag so you can take out what you need and heat up in the toaster oven.

I made the oatmeal peanut butter cookies to try. I will be making some more to freeze because they were good. I have a whole container of oatmeal that is close to expiration date so I will be making some different recipes to use it up and have snacks ready. I want to make oatmeal breakfast bars, oatmeal raisin cookies, and anything else that looks good.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup oats

Cream shortening, butter, brown and white sugars, and peanut butter together with a mixer. Beat in one egg at a time. In seperate bowl combine flour, soda, and salt. Gradually add to sugar mixture until blended. Fold in oats. Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Let cool on pan about 3-5 minutes then transfer cookies to cooling rack.