Playing With My Food

The other evening my hubby told me he wanted a salad for supper.

Our lettuce in our garden is doing so well we can hardly keep up with eating it.

The house was tidy and I was a little bored.

So, I played with my food and came up with this creation.

Everything on the platter is from our garden except the tomatoes.

They came from a friends hothouse.

In case you were wondering it tasted every bit as nice as it looked.

What God Sees

When I look in the mirror I see a rather frumpy looking thirty-something lady looking back at me.  There are straggles of hair around my face and dark circles under my eyes.  My chin has multiplied and there are love handles in places where no love handle should ever be.

This makes me wonder...........

What does my husband see when he looks at me?

  Why do his eyes still sparkle when they meet mine across a crowded room.  Why does he search me out when he walks in the house after a hard day of work?  Why does he call me for no reason in the middle of the day to see how I'm doing?

What do my children see when they look at me?

  Why do they bring me their treasures to share with me?  Why do they cling to me at night after a bad dream?  Why do they tell me their deepest darkest secrets with such a look of confidence in their eyes?

What do my friends see when they look at me?

 Why do they send me a card just to let me know they are praying for me?  Why do they listen to me when my babbling makes no sense and I just need to vent?  Why do they sound so happy to hear my voice on the phone?

Most importantly what does God see when He looks at me? 

Does he see that my intentions are good even when I fail?  Does He know why I cry when no one else can see?  Does He care if I look frumpy?

To Clean or Not to Clean Part 2

I am a rather scatter-brained disorganized person by nature--so do not read these posts and get lofty ideas about how orderly my mind is.  I organize my days to survive.  If I just cleaned when I felt like it my house would look like the proverbial pig-sty.

 Having said that I promised yesterday that I would tell you how I clean a room.  This concept is not original to me--I worked for a housecleaning service for several months many years ago and I learned it from them
 I have added my own little quirks to it, but the basic concept is not mine.

When I clean a room I take all my supplies into the room.  Usually this includes a dust rag, Windex, and vacuum cleaner.  (My dust rag is a microfiber rag that I dampen with a little water--I have a son with severe allergies so I avoid dusting sprays)

I start by emptying the trash can--if there is one in the room.  Then I start to the left of the door and work my way around the perimeter of the room in a clockwise direction tidying and dusting.  When I have completed a full rotation around the room I wash all the mirrors, and vacuum the entire room.  If the room has linoleum I sweep and then wet mop.

I try to continually tidy the house all week long.  I borrowed an idea from Raising Arrows and recently began incorporating 15 minute pick up time late in the afternoon.  We turn on some energetic music and everyone cleans up like mad.  This makes the house look nice when Daddy gets home. 

Another coping strategy that I use is to put something away every time I walk through a room.  For example if I'm headed for the bathroom and I notice that the Ora-Gel is sitting on the kitchen counter from a late night teething session I grab it and take it with me to the medicine cupboard.


I've found that with this cleaning schedule I can accomplish my chores in about an hour per day.  This means that if I have a busier day with Doctors appointments etc--I can still finish my work for the day either before I leave in the morning or after I return.  It also means that if I have fussy children I can get it done during nap time.

Keeping an orderly house is a continual work-in-progress for me and if you stop by to visit me unannounced you may find my counters covered with dishes and toys and dirty laundry on the floor.  It just means that a busy family lives here.

I'd love to hear from some of you.  How do you accomplish your weekly cleaning?  What works for you?

To Clean Or Not To Clean Part 1



I've cleaned my house using a schedule for about 4 years.  I find that it helps me hit all the major areas in my home at a relaxed pace rather than tearing around on Friday or Saturday.

My former weekly schedule needs some revamping due to the arrival of two new little ones in our home.  For one thing we are using a bedroom that was normally empty, and also I don't have quite as many large blocks of time.

An article over at The North Forty got me thinking about this even more.

  Sometimes when something changes in our daily lives we simply give up and decide we can't keep up.  Our homes and lives can end up in a disordered tangle and we hopelessly shrug and sigh--when all we really need to do is use our time more wisely and come up with a better plan.

My weekly cleaning schedule formerly looked like this.

Monday--Laundry


Tuesday--Laundry


Wednesday--Laundry, Clean Both Bathrooms, Water House Plants


Thursday--Laundry, Clean Master Bedroom, and Living Room


Friday--Clean Laundry Room, Kitchen, Family Room, and Boys Bedroom


Saturday--Outside Work, and Preparation for Sunday.

You will notice that I do laundry almost every day.  I usually do 1 or 2 loads every day.  This works for me because my hubby encouraged me to use my dryer a little more to help me keep up in the laundry department.

Here's the new schedule.

Monday--Laundry, Wipe down all kitchen counters


Tuesday--Laundry, Wipe down kitchen Appliances and Washer and Dryer


Wednesday--Laundry, Clean Bathrooms, Water House Plants


Thursday--Laundry, Clean Master Bedroom, and Living Room


Friday--Laundry, Clean Laundry Room, Kitchen, Family Room, and Children's Bedrooms

Tomorrow I'll post a little more on how I clean a room, and how I maintain the house throughout the week.

Life's a Bowl of Cherries

As I mentioned yesterday I bought two 5 gallon buckets of sweet cherries. 

Last night I sorted and washed them. 

Today I bagged up 23 quarts of them to freeze. 

 I don't pit them we just eat them partially frozen and spit out the pits like you would do when they are fresh. 

 This is a favorite evening snack for our family in the fall and winter months when fresh fruit is not readily available.

 The rest of them I put in a clean drawer in my fridge for a healthy snack.


 

List Time

This past week felt productive--until I looked at my list and realized I didn't accomplish anything on it.  I did work on my canning shelves a little.  Somehow making it to the sewing room is a daunting task right now, but I guess I will just forward some of last weeks list.

Patch jeans.

Sew on my dress.

Freeze sweet cherries. (I'm getting two five gallon bucketfuls tonight.)

Work on a new weekly cleaning schedule.  I'm planning to post more about this later in the week.

Have a blessed week!

A Day of Rest

Listen closely to the words of this song--so beautiful!!