New Year, New Datebook

In Part 3 of the My Journey to Homemaking series I did last year, I sang the praises of this datebook. I loved it.I think last year was either the 3rd or 4th year I'd used a PlanAhead planner. I knew how it worked. I had everything figured out, I knew how I liked to fill it out and maximize it to fit my needs. I loved how each day had it's own space, and my daily lists fit each day almost perfectly. But there were a few things I didn't like, but I didn't realize it until almost the end of last year. When I needed to get a new planner for 2010, I "shopped around" a bit, keeping in mind what I liked about my old planner, and what I wanted in a new one.

Out with the old, in with the new!

I came up with this Mead Daily/Monthly Planner:I bought it at WalMart, I don't remember how much it cost, but it was more than the PlanAhead planner. I decided that having a good tool was worth the money.

It has monthly tabs! Not something that was on my "want" list, but I've been enjoying them!
Each month has month-at-a-glance pages. Love it! I can write or pencil in activities, and don't have to go flipping through the whole book to see what's scheduled on a certain day. I also have enjoyed using this to plan my menus - I can pencil them in here and easily rearrange or change it before I write it out for the week. It also makes it easy to see what meals we've had recently so I don't do repeats too often.With the 1 day per page format, yes, it is a little bigger and a little bulkier, but it just stays on the counter so size isn't a real issue. I wanted more space for each day, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for. This format works perfectly!
In the old datebook, appointments and my to-do lists got all jumbled up together. I tried using different colors of pens, highlighters, etc, but that was just too much to keep track of. I specifically wanted something that with each day I had space for appointments, and space for my to-do list and notes. (And no, my social and Dr. visit lifestyle is not so massive that I have THAT many appointments! But I figured with a little person joining our family, we'll have more than the one annual poke'n'prod Dr. appointment to keep track of.)

With this format, the left side of the "day" has times printed in, where I can write in appointments. The right side is blank where I fill in my to-do list and notes. My to-do list starts at the top and works down, and little extra things I need or want to do (phone calls, projects, reminders) I start and the bottom and work my way up. That way I know what is "to-do list" and what is optional or really needs my attention. I also use the right side to remind me to pay bills. When a bill comes, I determine when I'm going to pay it, then I write it at the top of the "to-do list" side in red ink.

Across the very bottom of the page is a blank block. This is where I write the menu for the day and any notes that need to go along with it.

So far I am really liking this planner! If you're looking for something that will work for you, I hope this gives you some ideas. If you already have a system you really like, please share, either with a comment or a link in my comments. I love seeing what works for other people, and gleaning ideas :) Or if you just want to leave a comment saying that you stubbed your big toe or the kids are driving you crazy, that's fine, too!

This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday

Get A Good Habit Going - How Did I Do?

Back at the beginning of November FishMama invited us to join her Get A Good Habit Going challenge. I took her up on the challenge! My "good habit goals" were:

• Go to bed earlier.
• Complete my To-Do List each day.
• Be more consistent with my weekly menu-planning.

Eh, was I successful? Not totally. But I think I did improve in each area. This week I need to remember that these are goals I'm going to have to work on for a while so they become second-nature habits.

In the going to bed earlier department, I did ok. I didn't make it to bed by 10:30 every night by any means, but if 10:30 rolled around and I wasn't in bed, my attempt at the new habit did make me stop and say "Hey, I need to quit ____ and get going to bed!" A good, long night's sleep always makes the next day go better!

Completing my To-Do List.... hmm, I tried. I don't think there were very many days that I really did ev-er-y thing on my lists, but most days I did get the major things done, and I have been keeping up with some things that I tend to push to the back burner and let go - like washing the kitchen floor and cleaning the bathroom! Today has been an especially good day, and I think I very well might get everything done! (If I don't spend too much time on here...)

Menu-Planning. Haha, as I type this, I have NOT planned this week's menu at all! Supper tonight was figured out about 4:30 this afternoon. BUT it is on my list for today, and I really hope to have it figured out by the end of the day. One step I did try taking was planning a week ahead so I could shop for next week this week. I liked it when I did that, and I might do it more often.

I really enjoyed this challenge, and I hope to continue challenging myself through December, and even into next year with new goals and habits that I want to achieve or get into.

(Oh, and my bed-time goal for tonight? 10:00 sharp. I'm bumping it up 30 minutes.)

Getting A Good Habit Going

Jessica (better known as FishMama) over at LifeAsMom started a new challenge last week. One that I read about, thought "what a great idea!" and went on my merry way. I toyed with the idea of joining in, and after yesterday morning's MOPS speaker spoke on time management, I've decided to officially take the plunge.

I don't have any "keepin it real" pictures to share, but here's the new habits I want to get going (again) during November:

~ Go to bed earlier! My new "in bed by" time is 10:30 (meaning "no later than" so I really could go to bed anytime before that...). Last night was the first night and I was headed to bed by 10:40... it was 11 till I actually crawled between the sheets, but that's still a whole half hour to an hour sooner than I can easily let my self stay up. My hoped for result of going to bed earlier is that I will feel more rested for the next day and not have to take as many or as long of a nap... and therefor be able to accomplish my next item:

~ Complete my "To-Do" list each day. Yesterday the MOPS speaker talked about making sure you don't over-fill your list, making it impossible to get everything done in the time frame you have to work with. I think I'm pretty good in that department. Yesterday, believe it or not, I was able to cross out ev.er.y sing.le i.tem on my list!! It was later in the day since I was gone all morning and had a rather significant nap in the afternoon, but by 9:30 I'd even gotten the floor washed, taken a walk AND done my Bible Study!! (Sadly those 3 have been getting pushed back over and over again.) My hoped for result of this habit will be that A) the house will be cleaner (duh) and B) the transition from SAHW to SAHM will be smoother. And for kicks, C) if I get all these things done, I should have plenty of time to do the extra things that need done to be ready for our little Bambino's arrival :)

~ Menu Planning. I like having a menu plan, but I can be a hard-core procrastinator. My goal with this one is to plan the NEXT week's menu so that I can grocery shop for NEXT week THIS week (to fill in the cracks for the odd things I might not have a supply of). I also want to start working on some freezer meal plans so that come January I can spend some time filling our deep freeze with MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) to use in March. The no-brainer result of this will be not having to scramble at 5:00 or 5:30 to throw together something for supper. I have done this before, I just rolled off the wagon somewhere back there and haven't made an effort to jump back on.

I'd like to invite/encourage any of you to check out FishMama's challenge and join us! Especially if your one of my MOPS-mates... I think this goes hand in hand perfectly with what Anita was teaching yesterday! Leave me a comment if you decide to join, I'd love to hear (or read if you post about it) about what your "Good Habit" goals are :)

So Far, So Good

I am really tickled with how well I am staying on top of things this week. It's not like I didn't think it was possible, it's just been awhile since I've really applied myself to really do beyond the bare necessities for survival. I think both Monday and yesterday (Tuesday) there are 1 or 2 things that I didn't get crossed of my list, but they were small items. In the overall picture, things are going great! I even squeezed in a quick trip to CVS yesterday and can't wait to show you what I got :P

Last night while we watched NCIS I made myself get the laptop and this week's menu plan and figure out my grocery list for today. This morning I just have to clip coupons and I'm ready to go! I'm a little relieved that this week there aren't any major, huge deals going on... means less coupons to clip and a smaller grocery bill :P

All that said, I'd best go start the washing machine, get dressed, and get started on today so it can be successful :)

Plans for This Week

It's MONDAY!! That means a whole new week. 2 new, clean pages in my datebook. Another day for the dog to bark at squirrels. I just finished filling out the to-do lists for each day of this week. Except for Saturday - Saturday is my "day of rest" from to-do lists and I do pretty much whatever needs done or I want to do.

I don't have a full menu plan for this week yet, but I'm working on it. It's on my list for today to get one in place! Last week we had a lot more leftovers than I'd thought about, so we didn't make nearly all of last week's menu. It will be nice to be able to carry some of those meals over to this week. It was very nice to have a menu plan, though!!

I am getting a late start on the day, having slept in this morning. The past several nights have been pretty short for one reason or the other. However, it's a most bee-u-tee-ful, breezy day here, and I expect to get everything done on my list today :)

Two of my goals for this week that aren't in the usual plans are to get a better storage/organized system for my weekly coupon inserts, and to get the desk cleaned off. The latter will be cause for celebration as the surface area of the desk hasn't seen the light of day in a very looong time.

My third and most important, gonna happen ASAP, goal is to kill the big green fly that keeps ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZing around here. The kind that clunks and thunks around the windows and lights and just ANNNNOOOOOYYYYYYYS the beejabbers out of me.

Homemaking Q & A .... and A Giveaway!!

There were a couple questions after my last post on Homemaking, and I wanted to go ahead and answer them.

Sally asked about baking and cooking - when do I do it? So far I just fly by the seat of my pants as far as a baking schedule. If it's something that I really, really, MUST bake or cook, I'll put it on my to-do list. Otherwise, I just do it as needed.

Edensgarden asked about the "Empty Slop" item on my list :) That's where I empty the slop! I have a lidded container that I keep under the sink (it's about the size of a shortening can - it's actually a bucket leftover from a church social) that all of our food scraps go in. Bones, drippings, veggie peels, egg shells, etc. When I clean out the frige and have something to "go" it also goes in the slop bucket. On the days that I have it on the list, I haul it out to the garden and dump it on the "slop pile" - which is just the place in the garden that I dump the slop. I change it up from time to time to spread the joy. It also doubles as Rascal Entertainment and Barker Exerciser. Especially when there are very many egg shells, the turkey buzzards all think that my garden is "the" happenin' place! And it drives Rascal bonkers. He'll spend the whole day barking and barking at them... unless I shush him - more than once. It gets the slop out of the house, it keeps it from stinking up the trash can until the trash gets emptied, and it is my way of composting.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to host My Country Cupboard's first ever ...

BLOG GIVEAWAY!!!

A couple years ago I bought an extra something with the intent of giving it away as a gift, but it ended up not happening. At least right then.

In light of it being spring, the weather turning nice and springy, the overwhelming - yet intriguing - idea of "spring cleaning" rolling around in our heads, and the simple fact that y'all make blogging fun for me, I'm going to give away this:

One copy of More Hours In My Day by home management expert Emilie Barnes can be yours!! I haven't read and highlighted the copy I'm giving away, so you'll be able to do that yourself :P

You will all have (3) opportunities to get your name in the hat, you can do any or all of the 3. They are:

(1) Leave a comment! Tell me what method you currently use for maintaining your house. It could be "clean it all in one day once a year", "spend 30 minutes each evening", "hire maid service", "move each time it gets too deep", "when I can't find the dog", "none", or whatever floats your boat.

(2) Let more people know! Share this giveaway on your blog or facebook page, and come back here and let me know about it. If you blog about it, leave me a link so I can come visit your blog :) (Um, as an afterthought, if you don't have a blog or facebook page.... leave a comment letting me know. Just trying to keep it all fair and stuff.)

(3) Tell me this: What kind of laundry soap do you use and why? Not really relevant to anything in particular, but I had to come up with something for #3! :D

The giveaway will run until Tuesday, April 21st at 12:00 noon EDT. One (1) winner will be randomly drawn and announced sometime Tuesday evening.

And I think I've covered all the bases. Now I'm gonna go clean my kitchen - in my bathrobe. Because it's Saturday and I don't have a "to do" list for Saturdays, which means there's nothing making me get dressed today. And I just kinda like bummin' in my bathrobe once in a while. I promise I'll get dressed before I go outside.

I have to come back and add this... I'm gonna have to get dressed. Cleaning in my bathrobe just ain't cutting it. I don't feel like cleaning when I still have my bathrobe on. It feels like I should be sitting here being lazy instead. While I certainly enjoy doing nothing, I know that I NEED to get the dishes cleaned up. I don't touch the kitchen on Sunday's unless I really have to, so I need to get it done TODAY. Guess it's been awhile since I really spent the whole day working in my bathrobe - it just doesn't feel right anymore.

~~Giveaway is closed. Winner will be announced at 8pm EDT~~

My Journey To Homemaking

Welcome to Part 3!

(Here is Part 1 and Part 2. I'm not Dr. Seuss so I didn't call it Thing 1 and Thing 2.)

"When you hear the chimes ring, like this (insert cheesy chime noise), turn the page! Let's begin now... Once upon a time in a far away land..."

After reading More Hours In My Day by Emilie Barnes (see Part 2), I decided that my best approach would be to make lists. I thought about what my overall goal was: to maintain a (relatively) clean house (most of the time).

Side note: I say "relatively" and "most of the time" because I am not a neat freak. Nor am I a spic & span person. Or somebody who's entire world crashes down on them if a piece of dust hits the floor, or the trash can stays full for a day. I know people that I walk into their house and think "this house is clean" and 5 minutes later they're telling me that it resembles the Wreck of Hespers and they just must get it cleaned up before they have to be admitted to the loony bin because they can't stand it. Basically, it doesn't bother me if something isn't perfect.

So, I established what I wanted the end result to be. I knew that I wanted the house to be clean enough that we could invite people over at the drop of a hat, or just spend a couple minutes of quick cleaning and it would be fresh as a daisy. My next step was to figure out a way that I could maintain that. So I made a couple lists.

My first list was a weekly & daily list. Things that I need to do every week or day. Sweeping, washing, laundry, dishes, dusting, picking up, etc.

Then I made a monthly list. Things that it really wouldn't hurt to do on a monthly basis. Clean out the car, dust the ceiling fans, sweep under the furniture, empty the dryer lent catcher - JUST KIDDING!!

And I don't think I ever made a yearly list, but I wouldn't be surprised if I wouldn't come up with one sometime. It could be things like washing windows (I do this randomly throughout the year), polishing the hardwood floors (haven't done this since they are still new), cleaning the oven (I cheat and use a piece of foil), re-organizing your closet, wiping out your kitchen cupboards, polishing Aunt Maude's silver tea set that you inherited, mailing Christmas cards, fertilizing the lawn, blah blah blah.

After I made all those lists, I went back to the weekly & daily list and started to break it down. I broke the house down 1 room at a time, and picked which day I wanted to focus on that room. Now, our house doesn't have many rooms. I know that when we get a bigger house, I'll have to kinda combine some places maybe, but since I already have a system I don't expect it to be a big deal - the main part of the house will still be the kitchen, dining room and living room.

I took each room and listed what all needed to happen in order for it to stay clean. For example: The Living Room. We live in ours. It is not unusual for the floor to get cluttered throughout the week. So I have "Pick up the Living Room" listed to happen a couple times a week. This isn't The Time to clean the living room, just take the stuff that is out of place and put it where it belongs.

For our laundry, I listed each load that I need to do.
~Daniel has 2 loads: darks, lights
~I have 2 loads: darks, lights (I don't wash ours together because his have a tendency to be pretty dirty.)
~I combine our "Sunday clothes": darks, lights
~And the sheets, towels, etc.
That is a total of 7 loads. I did not want to do ALL the laundry ALL in one day, but neither did I want to do a load EVERY day. So here's how I worked it out.

Monday - Daniel's darks
Tuesday - Daniel's lights
Wednesday - Sheets, towels, etc
Thursday - Miriam's darks, Miriam's lights
Friday - Sunday darks, Sunday lights

My loads of clothes are usually on the small side, so it's not a big deal to do 2 loads in 1 day and it still fit on the washline and be manageable when it comes to folding and putting away. I know that most of you have kids and thus generate alot more dirty laundry so 1 or 2 loads might not be enough for you, but I found it to be really really manageable and not nearly as overwhelming if I do a load or two a day. It's alot easier to muster up the gumption to fold it and put it away when it's not the whole weeks worth of Mount Washmore staring down at you. When I was working and wasn't home to do the laundry in the day, I would start the washer the night before, go to bed, wake up, put it in the dryer, and then fold it and put it away that evening. The especially neat thing about this system? I know that as long as we each have 7 pair of sock & undies (and Daniel has 6-7 pair of jeans), we're ok. When pair #7 starts to get too worn to wear, I go buy new ones to add to the pile so that I don't have to "wash on demand".

After making my lists, I needed a system to help me stay motivated, on track and doing the lists. I started out with a card file (like a recipe file). I had tabs for each day of the week, and had cards with the tasks on for each day (1 or 2 things per card, multiple cards). It worked for a while, but it wasn't visual progress enough for me. I needed something that I could look at the WHOLE DAY and see things crossed off. So I moved to this:

And I totally love, love, love it. "To know, know, kno-ow you is to love, love, lo-ove you, and I do, and I do and I do..." Sorry ;P I looked over several different styles and kinds of datebooks, but this is my all-time favorite one. It is 100% user friendly, it has enough space for me to write on each day without using minuscule handwriting, it's easy to read, and have I mentioned that I really like it?

It is made by PlanAhead, and is an 18-month planner (July of this year - December of next year). I usually get "next year's" when I start having things to write down for the next year - about September or so. I get it from WalMart, and I prefer the large size. They have a med. and small size, but they are too small for my needs. If you want to take yours with you, the smaller sizes might work better. This one is just basically for my daily to-do lists, menu planner, and I do put appointments on it. I really like the weekly layout, plenty of room for writing, and I don't have to flip pages to see what's going on.


At the beginning of each month they do have a "whole month" calendar, so if I know something is going on, I also put it there so I can flip and see the whole month all at once.

I will say that I don't always (rarely) stay on top of my "monthly" list. I need to work on that. I want to share with you my weekly list so that if you, too, are trying to "figure it out", maybe it will give you some ideas.

Monday:
Breakfast & Make Bed
Start Laundry & Get Dressed
Dishes (put away clean ones, wash dirty ones)
Counters & Table (put away any collected clutter, wipe off)
Hang out laundry/put in dryer
(at this point, if you need to do a 2nd load, start it - same for all the other days)
Empty slop
Sweep floors (hitting the high spots)
Wash Kitchen & Pantry/Laundry Room floors
Laundry Away
(if you had a 2nd load, you'll have hung it out/dried it when the washer was done - same for all the other days)
Feed dog

Tuesday:
Breakfast & Make Bed
Start Laundry & Get Dressed
Dishes
Counters & Table
Hang out laundry/put in dryer
Clean refrigerator (I set the timer for 15 minutes and do this. Over a couple weeks the whole frige gets cleaned.)
Pick up Living Room
Clean Bedroom (dusting, sweeping, etc)
Laundry Away
Feed dog
Make grocery list (I do this on Tues since I go shopping on Wed)

Wednesday:

Wednesday is a little lighter since I do my shopping in the morning and we have church in the evening.

Breakfast & Make Bed

Start Laundry & Get Dressed

Dishes

Counters & Table

Hang out Laundry/put in dryer

Pick up Kitchen & Living Room

Laundry Away

Feed dog

Groceries Away (since this is the day I shop)

Thursday:

Breakfast & Make Bed

Start Laundry & Get Dressed

Dishes

Counters & Table

Hang out Laundry/put in dryer

Empty Slop

Pick Up Living Room

Dust Living Room & Dining Room

Sweep All Floors (this is THE sweeping of the week)

Laundry Away

Feed dog

Friday:

Breakfast & Make Bed

Start Laundry & Get Dressed

Dishes

Counters & Table

Hang out Laundry

Empty Slop

Pick up all floors

Scrub bathroom Toilet, Sink & Tub

(I list all 3 since I hate to do each one - it makes it seem like smaller tasks, yet when I'm done I have "more" crossed off my list :D )

Wash Bathroom Floor

Laundry Away

Feed dog

Saturday & Sunday:

"free time" since the house is clean!

Empty Trash goes on one of those days, but I don't have a set day for it. I think I did at one point, but right now I add it to my list when I see things are starting to get full.

I know that most likely you won't be able to follow my daily plan exactly. Our houses are different, our schedules are different, our laundry needs are different. You may work 60 hours a week and go to school full time. You may be a homemaker with 5 kids running around in mud puddles all day. This is what works for me. At this stage in my life, when I get up early and get going and don't let things like blogs, email and facebook continually distract me :P, I can get all of these things done in good time and have time to relax and do other things. Before high-speed internet and blogs entered my life, I could usually have my whole list of things done by 1 or 2pm in the afternoon. I loved it :) And I know that it could still happen. That is another thing I like about having my list the way I want it - I could choose how "cram full" I wanted my days. AND since these things are done on a daily/weekly basis, you know what? If I don't get something done this week, it's not the end of the world and I'll just do it next week.

Back to the monthly and yearly lists, here's how I would do it, I think... I think I would simply look over the list at the beginning of each week or day, and decide if I should do one of those things at that time. Or if I'd gotten everything else done and still had time, I'd look at the list and see if any of those things should be done. Maybe I don't have time to wash ALL the windows, but I could get one or two done. Right now my eventual goal over the next few weeks is to get all the windows washed, doing them a couple at a time.

I hope that this mini-series has been helpful to you. And if you already have it all figured out, hopefully you enjoyed reading it, maybe even getting a few laughs out of it! I'd love to hear your questions or comments, so please feel free to question and comment away!

My Journey to Homemaking

Part 2

Part 1

Thanks in large to my older sisters, I did know quite a bit about the different facets of housekeeping. They are the ones that taught me what I did know about it. How to read a recipe. How to cook. How to make amazing pie crusts (I still remember the lesson :) ), bread, rolls, how to shape the rolls so they look pretty. They instilled in me the ability to see a job or task through to the end no matter how tired I was, didn't like it or it didn't suit my fancy. I learned from them how to do my own laundry. How to scrub the floors on my hands and knees - or use the mop. Shucks, they even taught me how to sew!

My problem was not knowing "how to" so much as it was knowing "when to". Does that make sense? I knew I didn't like cleaning the house it one big flurry, but I didn't know how to keep the house clean otherwise. So I would always end up cleaning it all at once. And then it would all be clean and I wouldn't have any cleaning to do (which I certainly don't mind not having any cleaning to do!). Then it would slowly morph back into a mess and the cycle would start all over again. I didn't care for my lack of homemaking skills. Relaxing in a living room that the floor is cluttered and the dust is an inch thick is not fun. Laundry exploding out of the hampers is not fun - let alone going to get dressed and having run out of clean ____. I did have ONE spot that I liked to keep clean - my kitchen. It probably helped that the size of the original kitchen in this house was the size of a shoebox and I had about 1/2 a shoebox's worth of counterspace to work on. So no matter how small the cooking/baking ordeal was, the whole kitchen was a mess and I had no room to do anything else until I cleaned it up.

As I began to realize that there HAD to be another way, I started looking for solutions. Somehow I came across Flylady and the magic wonders of her methods. I signed up for her emails and daily reminders and did tons of online reading, joined forums, discussions and so on and so forth. I watched her online videos. It was inspiring and great looking... but overwhelming at the same time. Very overwhelming. I tried figuring out "zones" for my cleaning routines, but it just wasn't clicking. There were plenty of times that I thought "If I had her duster... If I had her timer... If I had her water bottle..." I would be able to keep a pristine house and it would be easy as pie and I'd never know what hit me. I'm glad I didn't spend any money on any of those things (and if that's what it takes for it to work for you, then by all means, I'm glad they do!). I get along just fine without them. There are a few things that I learned from her that I use today, but I cancelled the 1,001 daily email reminders that continually filled up my inbox to overflowing and threw out my attempt at the axis of the Flylady system, the "Control Journal". Maybe that's why I didn't like it so much - I didn't like the control those pieces of paper had on my day. And if I fell behind, then the whole thing was off. I wanted to be in charge of my day. I wanted to be able to figure out my own schedule and routine and not be controlled by it, but me control it.

I still knew there had to be SOMEthing out there that could teach me how to be a good housekeeper. In a way that was easy to learn, easy to do, and something that I could make work for me, and not me work for it. So one day I just decided I had to go find "it". Whatever "it" was. I went to the bookstore and just started browsing. I have no idea what section I was looking in, but I found this lifesaving gem:



There were a couple different books that I looked through, but this one continued to stick out to me like a brilliant rainbow on a clear day. I bought it, brought it home and started devouring it right away. I think I read the whole thing through in a couple days before going back and re-reading it again. And again. I continued to have "YES!!!" moments. Times where it all clicked and made sense. Keeping a clean house and enjoying doing it began to seem possible.

Not only did this book teach me how to be a housekeeper, but it has also taught me many things about being a wife and mother (not that I'm a mother, but I hope to be one day and use these things to help me). Things that I would have never thought of or known to do on my own.

I try and read this book about once a year. The second year, I took it on vacation with us because I knew I was going to have a lot of time to read. Many of the pages in the book looked like this after that vacation:




The thing I like about this book? I all comes from a Christian perspective. The other think I like about this book? It wasn't rules and regulations. It was hints. Tips. Tricks to make things easier. It didn't tell me how to do it, it told me how I could do it. (Side note: Flylady's system did have lee-way for making your own schedule, but I still couldn't figure it out. I know it works amazingly well for some people.) It told me how I could figure out a laundry plan. A cleaning plan - for things that need done every day and things that don't need done every day. I can't explain it - it just teaches! And it's all spelled out there, all I had to do was read it. I much prefer being taught instead of being told. Does that make sense?

Within just weeks, our house looked totally different. It wasn't perfect, mind you, and it still isn't. In fact, I should be working on my list for today instead of writing this. I have 9 things crossed off and have 12 things left. Yesterday some things did not get crossed off the list. Usually I let it slide until the next week, but I really want to get some of those things done - especially if we're having company tomorrow for supper (I'm not sure yet). You might have read "9 things... 12 things..." and are wondering what in the world is on my list that it is 21 things-to-do long, and I don't even have kids! :D I am such a visual person. I put EVERYthing on my list. I have "get dressed" on my list. For two reasons: so I don't wind up going the whole day traipsing around in my bathrobe (it used to happen sometimes!), and so that I can cross it off and have 1 thing done! And a third reason for kicks: so that I'm dressed when the mail-man has to drop off a package or the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on the door. It is not often at all, but my luck is usually that they come on the rare days that I haven't gotten dressed yet.

I will leave you with this excerpt from the book to mull over until next time, when I hope to share with you my methods for happily homemaking :)

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could wake up in the morning and know exactly where you are going, why you are going, and how to get there? Do you wish you had the secret to spending more time with your husband and children? I'm here to tell you that you can go to bed at night with the satisfaction of knowing you have accomplished all you set out to accomplish that morning, both in your family life and in your extended responsibilities. So get ready for some exciting challenges and the ride of a lifetime as we work together to become all God has designed us to become!" ~ Emilie Barnes

Part 2

Some of you have asked about Part 2 of My Journey to Homemaking. I just wanted to let you know that it is still coming! I was working on it yesterday but didn't get it finished. I hope to have it out in the next couple days.

My Journey to Homemaking

Part 1

This is a topic that I've been wanting to share and talk about probably ever since I started my blog (and before), and it recently "resurfaced" in my thoughts.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that were born with the art of being an "on top of it" homemaker in their blood. And I know there's probably plenty of people out there that don't have one iota of it in their blood and can't figure it out. Me? I was the latter. It wasn't in my blood at all. We grew up in a house that only got cleaned under one of three circumstances: a) Somebody just drove up and got out the their car and they'll want to come in, so QUICK, haul all the laundry off the couch upstairs and pile it on beds, swipe the dirty dishes off the table and over to the piled up counter and scoop all of the toys into a pile. b) Scheduled company - which wasn't often. And then Mom would declare a "clean the house" day and that's all the 7 of us kids and mom did for an entire day and the next day until the guests arrived. I hated it. c) Mom would randomly decide "this Saturday we're going to clean the house" - and that wasn't too often, either.

As we kids got older (unfortunately the older ones got "older" faster and me and the rest of the younger siblings had to oblige to their direction) - and turned into 10 siblings instead of just 7 - things did improve under the direction and guidance of my older sisters who were starting to take charge of things. We swept and washed the floors more often. We even got to the point of washing them at least once a month (living on a farm, once a week couldn't have been too often). Sundays became the day where everyone worked on the dishes after dinner (lunch) and cleaned the kitchen (yeah, I hated that, too), and eventually we all realized that it was just better to wash dishes everyday and would just do it.

Fast forward a year or two, and I was a 19 year old newlywed who didn't know how keep a house beyond doing the dishes, cooking and laundry when it needed done. There was no rhyme or reason. If I didn't have a REASON to clean the living room or bedroom, then it didn't need cleaned! And when we would decide to have company over, oh my, the emotional melt-down and failure feelings because the house was a wreck and an overwhelming mess and that meant that I was a bad housekeeper and Daniel would lovingly reassure me that I was just fine and would usually help (as if my begging and pleading for his help wasn't incentive enough) get things straightened up before the guests arrived.

About 2 years into our marriage, and a little more than a year in our house (we were renting before), the cycle continued. After company would leave, the house would be clean and I liked it. Then eventually it would morph back into a big mess and I would get overwhelmed all over again. My laundry schedule was this: When Daniel went to get dressed in the morning and put on his last whatever, he'd tell me and then I'd do a load of those clothes. And if he forgot to tell me... well, he'd dig the cleanest dirty one out and wear it. I didn't have a cleaning schedule. I didn't know I needed one. But I began to realize that I didn't know how to be a homemaker/housekeeper. And I started to look for help.

To be continued.