this image makes me happy:

and serina asked about my cleaning schedule. fortunately for me, this schedule is extremely flexible and it still works when i don't get around to doing ti all, every day. because in reality, every day is full of surprises. like yesterday, i had three loads of laundry planned, but our pipe froze (it did last year in single digit temps, so i should have known!), so the first load resulted in a floor full of water. so here it is...

Liz's Very Flexible Cleaning Schedule

Monday:
Launder sheets from all beds (guest room bed if overnight guests from the weekend)
Launder towels
Reorganize/straighten back porch, office and kitchen

Tuesday:
Launder boys' clothes
Clean upstairs bathroom (tub, floor, toilet, sink)
Reorganize/straighten upstairs

Wednesday:
Launder Liz and Kenny's clothes
Launder kitchen towels
Clean downstairs laundry room/bathroom

Thursday:
Vacuum downstairs
Dust upstairs

Friday:
Vacuum upstairs
Dust downstairs

Saturday:
NOTHING!

Sunday:
NOTHING!

On Sunday evenings, I look at our week and adjust the cleaning schedule as need, around the errands I need to run. For instance, this is how this week looks:

Monday:
Grocery shopping
Launder boys' sheets and guest room sheets (we had an overnight guest this weekend)
Launder all towels
Clean laundry room
(but Monday's schedule changed because of a frozen pipe in the laundry room. It thawed by early-afternoon, so I was only able to do the towels, so we readjust today's schedule to fit into the next few days).

Tuesday:
Launder Liz and Kenny's clothes (and boys' sheets)
Dust downstairs
Vacuum upstairs

Wednesday:
Library day! Return books-on-tape (the boys have been listening to the Frances books - or in their words, "Frahnces" because the narrator is British)
Launder guest room sheets
Dust upstairs
Vacuum downstairs

Thursday:
Catch up on cleaning (if I didn't get to any, this is the day I fill in)
Launder Liz and Kenny's sheets

Friday:
More catch-up!

This morning, I found Adam reorganizing my small pantry for me:

Now all the asian ingredients are in with the baking ingredients. i don't have the heart to re-reorganize. he WILL notice. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

april from SALT for the spirit tagged me for a little meme. it was fun to stretch my mind around this one...thanks, april!

Love/ Hate Meme
I love to eat: meat (i'm a true carnivore...see above); death by chocolate (i'm a true addict).
I hate to eat: wet eggs. scramble the heck out of them for me, please!
I love to go: on vacation with my man. and the boys.
I hate to go: shopping between thanksgiving and christmas.
I love it when: all five of us are piled on the bed, reading, watching tv, chatting....
I hate it when: "The Office" is a rerun YET AGAIN.
I love to see: the older boys playing with adam, teaching him their games - they're great little teachers!
I hate to see: the weekly forecast in january and february; a snow storm in late-march;
I love to hear: adam's waking up words: "uh, oh mamamama! uh, oh dadadada!" (that's "hello!" not a true "uh oh!"); owls chatting at night;
I hate to hear: "mommy, i just don't feel so good"

i tag...stephanie for this one! and anyone else who wants to post it in their own blogs. let me know if you post it!

a month ago, i signed up at OrgJunkie's blog for a whole room organization challenge. today we have pictures to show the final product - and even a bonus area where "organization happened."

i love that this project happened during spring. it was a great way to spring clean clutter from these areas and other areas in the house!

without further ado, here are before and after pictures of our very high-traffic areas: the enclosed backporch (playroom) and the office.

Before

the coat and shoe "area":


bookcase in the office:


After



all the toys put away!


a shelf and cloth bins for the boys' books:


their "craft" table with toy bins on each side:


their "thinking chairs" (if you watch Blues Clues, you'll understand why Rowan and Sawyer named them that) in their little "book nook area." they enjoy a good book and a cup of milk and snack in these chairs:


this is my favorite change to the room. i brought a hardly-used bookshelf down and put it in the corner with a reading lamp, and the magazine rack. kenny and i spend a lot of time in these chairs while the boys play, or while we all read. so now there is an "grown-up" area for books, magazines and a table nearby for a cup of coffee:


the new coat, shoes, and "muck boots" area:


each shelf in the office has a purpose: reference shelf, cookbooks, bibles (between the two of us, we have a lot of bibles), and learning-type books:


And...  as an added bonus, and through inspiration from this organizational challenge, i organized my cleaning closet from store-bought chemical-laden products...



...to all natural (mostly homemade) cleaning products:


1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?
it took me a while to wrap my head around what to do with the stuff, and the piles and the unused, old and broken toys in the playroom. i finally just started chucking everything into piles of "keep," "give away," or "storage." fortunately the winter coats and boots went away to their proper bin in the attic.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?
two rules:
(1) we have a LOT less stuff in the playroom. there is only enough toys that will fit in the toy bins with the lid on (that is a hard and fast rule. if we can't close the lid, then something has to go). we don't store piles of old mail and old papers on the table in the playroom anymore.
(2) there is a place for everything...so if it doesn't have a "home" in the playroom, it doesn't belong there. clean-up is so easy now that we can put toys and diapers and books in their proper places.

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?
we took a trip to Goodwill where i unloaded a lot of winter clothes, coats, toys, and books that we don't use any more. i found an empty bin in the attic where all the winter boots went, and i stored away the winter coats.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?
less is so. much. more.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?
i tend to get really antsy when our house is a mess. and since we spend the majority of our time on the back porch in any season, i would prefer it to be clean and orderly. i'm much less stressed when our house is clean. and that's a big job. so keeping at least the few rooms that we use the most ordered will make me so much less-stressed out.

i'm a neat-freak. and i've lost the OCD side of that since marrying and having kids. because other things take priority - like reading and playing with the boys, making meals, and spending quality time with each other as a family. 

Menu-planning Monday has been left in the dust recently as life as become well, very unstructured. Illness and chickens seem to throw off the balance. I planned our month of meals over the weekend and Kenny and I spent a very romantic date at the grocery store Saturday evening (really...it was great to stroll the aisles and take our time). So we're set for the month!

We have a very international-inspired menu this week. It was all by accident, I promise. I guess I subconsciously threw in the American standard meatloaf and potatoes because we'd need some sort of break from the spices. Fortunately, we love 'em all.

We are having company for dinner on Tuesday. I hope they like Indian! (Does anyone call dinner guests "company" anymore? Or is that so "yesterday?")

Monday, April 30 - Aloo Gobi over rice
Tuesday, May 1 - Chicken Tikka Masala with leftover Aloo Gobi
Wednesday, May 2 - Meatloaf, potatoes, peas
Thrusday, May 3 - Asian Noodles Satay with vegetable
Friday, May 4 - Teriyaki chicken and salad
Saturday, May 5 - Peanut Ginger Beef
Sunday, May 6 - BBQ porkchops and salad

Lots more menus over at Laura's place.

I never have anything to contribute to the weekly "Works for me Wednesday" over at Rocks in my Dryer, although i do always get some pretty good tips there.  But this week, I have a great little tip to share with all of you. The best part is...it's environtmentally sound!

There are several organizations that you can sign up with to get rid of your junk mail. You've all heard of the "Do Not Call" list?  There is a "Do Not Send" list as well, and here is where you sign up for it. It's free!

Another great organization that does this AND plants a tree every month for every customer that signs up with them (it's $36/month), is Greendimes.

Get what you want in the mail, and save/plant a tree at the same time! Visit other Works for Me tips here (every Wednesday!)

 

before you go snickering about how earth day is just a way for tree-huggers to get their own (recycled-only, please) hallmark holiday, i'd like to point out that there is a lot of good that comes out of observing good earth-stewardship practices.

for instance, and i'm not saying i'm a big fan or anything, but OPRAH dedicated an entire show this week to environmental issues, and how the average household/person can make small changes in their daily lives to make a big impact. Oprah is watched by millions of people. Surely more people will begin recycling and reusing, now?

there are also earth day celebrations in many cities and towns across the country making people aware of the need for change in how we live. so how did you ring in spring by observing earth day this year?

we were so excited to be outdoors (on saturday) where it was sunny and warm. i spent the morning washing and line-drying all of our bedsheets (our room smells lovely - i can't wait to crawl into bed!). the boys helped kenny clear out the area around the firepit at the base of our yard (old dead leaves and lots of weeds. we plan to plant grass, have a few big rocks to sit on, and plant wildflowers and other indigenous plants). we planted a few plants that may or may not live (easter hydraneas and lilys...probably hothouse flowers, but it's worth a try), and picked up sticks that fell throughout the winter all over the yard (hundreds and hundreds of sticks and small- to medium-sized branches). 

kenny and i walked around the yard with the boys making plans for the flower beds (the previous owner had HUGE flower beds with just about every flower imaginable. i'm incredibly intimidated by these overgrown and weedy beds. but they need help), the shrub garden (yes, a garden of shrubs. it's becoming an eye-sore and i've never really liked it. we're getting rid of it by replanting the shrubs elsewhere in the yard and planting grass) and the vegetable garden. (kenny is currently starting heirloom vegetable seeds that we received as a thank you gift from our friend serina to plant out in the garden by the end of may). i also began the change-over to completely natural cleaning products and cleaned our laundry room bathroom with water, baking soda, and vinegar.

but we did spend a good part of the day frustrated at the lack of recycling recepticles in our county. in fact, we spent a good part of the day looking at neighboring counties and admiring their recycling programs. i am planning on calling the recycling department monday morning to get the skinny on the lack of recycling in or area. goodness knows, we don't need everyone burning their plastic containers every saturday this spring and summer (since everyone in the country seems to burn their garbage).

if anyone reading this knows anything about starting a recycling "system" in small-town america, please give me your best advice. not that i'll be doing it, but i can at least make a lot of noise.

we ended saturday by cleaning out the chickens brooder's bedding. we've done this a few times already since monday and we are just shocked at how quickly these little chicks are growing. their wings are starting to get bigger and they stretch them out and mock-fly around the brooder. rowan begs to pick them up about 400 times a day.

tomorrow is a picnic lunch at moraine state park after church!
enjoy the sunshine!

the past two days have been in the mid to high 70s, sunny skies, and just plain gorgeous. adam is even addicted to the sunshine. he's fussy until we step outside and then all he wants to do is swing, walk, romp, play with grass/dirt and definitely NOT go inside.

there is so much to do in our yard it's amazing we'll even be indoors this summer at all...but i sense a pattern here. weather is gorgeous=less blogging from me.

i'm going to try to fight the urge to NOT blog because i love doing it, but the great outdoors calls loudly when it's warm, especially when you have three boys who love running and climbing and hanging in the garage (man-garage/tool shed/tractor storage) with their dad. even adam loves the garage.

BUT...i saw a challenge over at OrgJunkie's blog (the blog that hosts menu planning monday) that i need to be a part of. It's a 30-day organizing challenge, and have we got the perfect two rooms for the challenge. I can't wait to get started...especially since it's now going to be in the 30s and SNOW for the next week or more (i'm trying hard to ignore that).

our office and enclosed backporch are the highest traffic area of the house. the office has the desktop computer, built-in shelves, and all our files. the playroom has all the toys (the ones that aren't in the boys' room). we don't have a ton of toys because we like to go through them a few times a year and give away some, put some away for the baby, etc. but the disorganization of the rooms make it seem like we have a paper problem in the office, and too many toys for our fairly large enclosed back porch/playroom.

my challenge is to organize frugally. i want to "install" organization systems that aren't going to cost me much at all, and that the boys can help me put into place. afterall, the playroom is theirs.
my dream is to replace the paneling in the office (it's much too dark in there!) and make new window valances for the porch windows.

playroom:

office: