Morning Routines!

The kids made their morning routine sheets today! They look awesome! I am going to put them in sheet protectors and into my control journal so we can check them off w/ dry erase markers each morning.

We kicked ass on the cleaning yesterday! The girls' room looks really great and we tossed 6 bags of trash and broken/unused toys.

Today is for resting and laundry and packing. We leave for 3 days/2 nights in Atlantic City tomorrow ('cept poor papa who has to work :( ).

Wow!

No, I'm not writing about World of Warcraft (although I should have a little more time to play tonight!) - I'm really impressed by how clean the house was when I got home today! I'm sure Bethany and the kids can write more about the work they did. It was very pleasant to walk in the house (after passing a big pile of trash bags on the front porch) and see the progress that happened today.

I'll see if I can take the kids swimming for a little while as a reward for doing a good job today!

Morning Routine

The morning routine seems to be going well. I will likely need to add to it, but for now I'm keeping it simple and attainable.

Get up.

Make bed.

Wipe down bathroom sink and swish toilet.

Start a load of laundry, fold and put away anything in the dryer.

I'm also straightening my bedroom when I take laundry downstairs and generally picking up things in the bedroom, hallway and bathroom that are out of place.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Thursday night checkin' in

Dinner dishes have all been washed and the sink is shining!

I also mowed the backyard tonight. I discovered that the bees have made another nest in the back - this one is in the old stump in the backyard and the bees were kind of annoyed that I mowed over them. I showed the girls where the nest is so they know to be careful when playing around there. These bees seem very docile, they kind of buzzed around the spot that I mowed over but they didn't chase me or anything. I'm a little torn - I don't really want to spray them and kill a whole colony of bees plus unleash more poison into the environment, but I also think they might be encroaching into our domain a little too much. We'll have to consider this as a family and decide how we want to handle these potentially dangerous backyard inhabitants.

hey new Blogger in Mcfarms Come Clean

Hi I'm Julian (Bethany's son) anyway I see what my mom's saying about getting the house in shape and stuff. I'm real glad she did this cause if she didn't I don't think I would help my mom out that much like I do now,lol. I hope this blog will help me become a better person. I'll also start thinking about making my own persoal list of stuff to do on here. well I'll check in later!

Let's Dish

So, I'm working the Flylady program. I know, it's not exact the coolest thing in the world. Still, the house isn't gonna clean itself and that part of homemaking doesn't seem to come naturally to any of the people who live here. Plus, the Flylady program has worked for me before and I really want us to have a decent routine for housework going before we start the new academic year.

Anyway, dishes. The first habit of the FLY program is to shine the sink. The sink is to always be clean, dry and sparkling. It's a hard habit to get into, but it does work. Having the sink clean makes it easier to want to clean the counters, which moves to the stovetop, etc etc etc.

If I (mama) promise to have the sink clean and empty when I leave for work in the afternoons, than can papa leave the sink the same way for when I wake in the morning?

Bad, silly mama

omg, I am the world's biggest moron. I left the kitchen sink running (I can't even remember why I turned it on in the first place) and didn't know about it until the kitchen was flooded and it began to RAIN in the basement. omg. The cabinets under the sink were completely flooded. We took everything out, mopped up what we could and now have fans to dry everything out. And the rain in the basement? Well, actually, it could not have happened in a better spot. It rained all over the dirty laundry. Yeah, so now I have to wash and dry (or hang outside) it all so it doesn't start to stink. But, really, not anywhere near as awful as it could have been.I just feel so dumb.

This is all going on while I'm sitting on the computer working on getting a house cleaning schedule set up. Oh well, looks like "clean out under kitchen sink" and "get caught up on laundry" just hopped to the top of the list!

Monday ToDo

Starting small.

Morning Routine

Groceries to be delivered between 9:30am and 1pm

Clean fridge

Drop of library books

Drop off clothes to be donated

Order pump supplies

Before Work Routine

The Basement Desks

Ahhh, the before picture. The main computer, seen here, is of course the dumping ground for papers and garbage and all sorts of lovely things. Also, lots of dust. I don't think it's been properly

cleaned in months.

The kids' desk is a bit less messy. This computer is really only used for gaming, though.

And, after. Took about 25min. Could have done more---those drawers still need organizing/cleaning out. But, the surface is much better and the floors underneath are relatively clean. Boy, that back wall could really use some art work, eh? Maybe I'll put up some cork strips and hang kiddo art work there.

Family Blogness

Well, a fresh start deserves a fresh blog!

This blog is going to be McFarm central for house stuff: cleaning, budgets, menu planning, de-cluttering, crafting, homeschooling. There may be talk of spirituality and such, but this will mainly be about the mechanics of running our household.

All family members will have access to the blog itself, so I'm hoping they will all pipe up. This is kind of the fridge door for the 21st century. We'll plan, check off, suggest and celebrate success here.