I have decided lately that I really need to find out a better method of keeping my house in order. I am not a morning person, thus I wake up when I absolutely need to. I hurry and get the kids ready for school and then send them out the door. Then between a boy that practically wants his mothers attention 24 hours a day and other things going on, my housework seems to get put on the back burner. My time is literally not my own for most of the day between running errands, playing with children, kid's homework, and the list goes on. I have had an especially hard time these past few weeks with absolutely GORGEOUS weather outside. It isn't hard to convince me to be outside at all and I find myself at the end of the day realizing that my house has become neglected once more. My laundry, deep cleaning, and other misc. jobs are in desperate need of a routine.
Yes - my kids all have their own jobs that they do every day, but there is still that deep cleaning that probably wouldn't get done without my supervision or me doing it. They all do a wonderful job and are responsible for keeping their bedrooms clean. I even had great intentions of having each child do their own laundry above 8 years old, but I find that that isn't happening.
I would love to hear from the rest of you on how you are able to manage this fun task. I have started thinking about the hard reality of getting up at 5 a.m. to have 2 hours to myself every day just to get on top of these things. Do any of you have your children do their own laundry and how do you get that to work successfully in your home? I have realized how much smoother the family runs when there is laundry in drawers, piles put away of papers, closets clean, etc. Please any suggestions would be WONDERFUL!!!
Last week there was a REALLY nice day (May 18th) where we were actually able to do the slip and slide (which has been requested since the spring even in the 60 degree weather). Since Monday was nice and warm, the kids were very excited to try out Tanner's new slip and slide. Bradley even joined in the fun.
Watching girls dance for 2 hours isn't exactly my boy's idea of fun. They were very creative and found some great entertainment all on their own. Can I just say that my kid's seem to be so flexible and can flip their bodies into crazy positions so quickly. Luckily the hand rail could hold them all up:). (Bradley, Parker, Carter & Johnathan)
Melissa & Camille after the performance.
Byron was away on a business trip, so here are the rest of us after the performance - Tanner, Tricia, Johnathan, Parker, Bradley, Carter & Camille - It was around 9:30 p.m. when this picture was taken - can you tell some of my kid's were ready for bed and bored out of their minds:).
Beautiful Camille!!!
We finally got our garden planted on Wednesday. I tilled the garden on Tuesday night and purchased plants Wednesday morning. Camille & Parker were so great to help me plant them Wednesday night. I saw some celery plants at the nursery and had to try growing it. I am looking forward to my garden in 2 months - Nothing tastes better than a tomato straight out of the garden with salt - YUM!
For Webelos last week, Tanner enjoyed whittling a potato. He came home with this cute potato man creation.
A couple of weeks ago, the YW and YM had an awesome activity where they were each given a mission call to a particular place. They learned the first discussion and then went to a families home in our ward and was able to share it with them. Camille was able to go and listen to Sister Northrup share about her mission to Australia. Camille had such a great time and learned so much. She came home with this cool name badge. We were able to have 2 leaders and 1 YM come to our house while Byron shared his mission to Chile. It was fun to watch the kid's listen to their dad - some of the stories they probably hadn't heard before.
Our cool Bradley!
Tanner is so cute with Bradley. He is so sweet and soft spoken with him. He will play with him when he is having a bad day or when his mom needs a break. This particular day about 1 1/2 weeks ago, we had had tons of rain and weren't able to go outside for a few days. We woke up on a Saturday to nice weather. Tanner took Bradley outside and began making this sand castle with him. Bradley couldn't have been any happier and LOVED spending that time with Tanner.
Bradley was wearing these particular overalls for the first time and noticed his pockets. He started walking around with one hand in his front pocket and the other hand in his back pocket - priceless!
I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful mother-in-law who is more like my own mom. She is absolutely amazing and I have learned so many great things from her. Today I had the fun privilege of taking her out to eat at Olive Garden. The food was delicious, company awesome - what more could I ask for!
