A Clean Home

I've been fed up with my weekend cleaning sprees for the whole winter now, if not since school started in August.  At first I thought, "I work full-time and do real food. I don't have the time each day to clean too."
Consequently we (or I) spend the whole day Saturday cleaning. Really, that is not a problem at all when the weather outside is dreadful and there is nothing to do. However, when it is nice out, or i have plans, or we want to get a project done, it is a problem. You can catch up on seven loads of laundry when you are running errands or out of town for the day!

Eventually I''d had enough. It started with doing a load of laundry each night (in theory). We were also talking among the teachers about chores that some of the other teachers' kids have to do (even the 2 year olds). Growing up we had always had a chore chart. I had also been reading about a cleaning schedule of a blogger that I follow. I thought, "We won;t have that much to clean since it is just the two of us right now. We won;t have to do all of those things daily. I bet if I got in the habit of doing it every morning/afternoon/ evening it wouldn't be so bad eventually.  Plus that way I can have a list of things that I need help with when Baby comes. I can just cross of the ones I've done with dry erase so I  know what I need help with." So it started.

That was two weeks ago. We had a snow day and I sat down with my computer, searched, thought, and typed up a few lists and charts. Now I have daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal cleaning lists. I also have a weekly graph where I write down meals, appointments, and cleaning tasks.  I also put my daily and weekly list in the front of the binder that I keep everything in so that I don't even need to open the binder for a reminder.

That was two weeks ago. Our house has been clean at some point every day since then. Sunday evening no cleaning gets done. It makes for a rough Monday morning since I leave for work earlier and have more clean up to do, but asi es la vida. Really, it is WAY better than before. I enjoy coming home more, so does my husband. I like my house when it is clean. Now I can do things on weekends like shop for carpet for the baby's room, exercise, craft, and visit. Yeah!

We'll see if it continues, but it is much easier now than it was at first, and my husband works harder at it too.

What is next? Keeping track of what is in my fridge so that food doesn't go bad. Plus as the DH said, "You need to make hoggies for your next project."

Kefir and bread failure redeemed

Kitchen update

I do most of my baking and special things on the weekend. Since I don't get home on most weekdays till 6 and then we make food and eat til 7 or later, that doesn't leave enough time for some things. I still do kefir during the week and I soak rice and oatmeal during the week. On the other hand,  yogurt, baking, and other experiments are done only on weekends (or snow days). This picture is of by kefir fermenting.  I keep it in a 1/2 gallon or quart jar. I now use cheesecloth on top so air can get in but other things can't. Also, this way I can pour out the kefir leaving the grains in the jar. I can also pour new sugar water in through the cloth so that I don't have to worry about loosing anything! Yeah!

On another note, I baked buns last weekend (bread this weekend) I had a little bit of dough left, yet my pans were full. I decided to try clover rolls. They over baked. Then, I forgot to bag them, and they became even harder. Needless to say,  they were basically unedible. (Well, I could have steamed them.) However, I recently picked up some fish fillets with the intention of making fish sticks. (Unfortunately VandeKamps has ingredients on my list of "non-food 'food' products.") Asi es la vida. So... redemption. Finally soaked whole weat breadcrumbs! I smashed and pulled the rolls apart, left them on the counter on an old cereal bag that I saved, will roll them into crumbs, and store them in a jar. Yeah! If I have extras then I can use them in meatballs, meatloaf, or burgers.

Belly Picture 5

Here is my February belly picture. I'm sure that baby and belly have already noticeably grown since we took this picture. I'm feeling much more balanced now that I've been taking my fermented cod liver oil/ butter oil. Today Justin and I were able to take a walk too. (Thank you God for the melting and sunshine!) We had our appointment this week. Justin came with me. We also talked to our Dr about perspectives on care and expectations. We aren't certain what we decision we are going to make with the new information. Please pray that God will give us clarity in which decision to make and peace with whatever that may be. Physically, I'm feeling great, better than I have for months. Justin is very diligent about asking me if I am doing my stretches and exercises. I've not been doing white as good with nutrition. The sugar cravings are a killer. However, they are not as strong as the dairy cravings. I do have this week's menu planned and PLENTY of fruit in the house. Hopefully that will help.