Dare I say it???

I'm afraid to utter the words.... but I'm too excited not to tell you, in hopes that it may help someone else as much as it's helped me!! I think I have FINALLY found a cleaning routine that is working for me!

I am a homeschooling mom. I am the director of our local co-op that meets every Friday during the school year. I babysit a soon-to-be one year old. I have to make dinner, do laundry, wash the dishes, clean the house. We don't live in filth by any means, but sometimes it would be one a couple several months that I wouldn't get around to dusting, or it would be too long between bathroom cleaning and vacuuming. It was discouraging and extremely frustrating. We would either have school or clean the house, but certainly not both, not ever. Then I would spend an entire day doing what I like to call "crisis cleaning." You know the one, the one where either you're about to have a nervous breakdown because you can't stand the way the house looks any longer or someone calls and says that want to come over? Flylady calls it CHAOS or Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. I'd spend hours cleaning the house top to bottom, swearing that this was the last time that I would ever let it go so long. Yeah, right...

I can't tell you how many cleaning schedules I have written, blogs I have poured over, sites I have signed up for. I still could not make it all work together. There was NEVER enough time in the day. I tried Flylady. I loved it. In theory, it looks wonderful. I just personally could never make it stick. I was at the end of my rope, ready to pull out my hair in frustration!!

Cue Pinterest and the pin "15-20 minutes to a Clean House: How to have a {fake} immaculate house." I was totally skeptical. Right, 15 minutes Monday-Friday, and I don't have to do any crisis cleaning before company comes? AND I can fake an immaculate house? Nah, not happening!

..........But I was WRONG!!! I am now going into week 4 of a new cleaning routine, and I am so happy with what is getting accomplished. Now, mind you, it isn't a spring cleaning, but it's company ready all of the time. I can now have someone knock on the door and allow them inside rather than go hide until they're gone! We have actually had several surprise visits, and I was so proud to open the door to them!!!

I did have to rearrange it a little to fit my family, but here's what mine looks like:
Monday-Clean Kitchen-This includes wiping down counters, wiping our microwave, sweeping, quick spray-and-mop, etc.
Tuesday-Dust House-This is done with a swiffer, occasionally with pledge. I personally dust from top to bottom, meaning door molding and vents to heat ducts and baseboard, but you can do what you're comfortable with. It only takes a couple of minutes on each room. You are not spending a bunch of time. Just start at one side of the room and quickly work your way around, dusting surfaces.
Wednesday-Clean hall bathroom. This includes spray and wipe off counters, cleaning the toilet, spray and wipe the tub, and I spray and wipe the floor by hand.
Thursday-Clean half bath and laundry room. Same thing as the hall bathroom, minus the tub. I sweep the laundry room floor and make sure things are put away.
Friday-Vacuum the whole house. Run the vacuum all over and behind things. I pull out baskets and tables and quickly run the vacuum around. We have a few carpeted rooms and a few hard wood, so I use 2 different vacuums. One is a regular vacuum, the other is the smaller $25 vacuum from Walmart for non-carpeted floors.

Almost everything takes 15-20 minutes, but I never spend more than 30. Our house has 3 bedrooms and is 1300 square feet. Everyone can spare 30 minutes a day to have a clean house. It really does work, plus you get the weekends off! :) I can honestly say, this is very doable in my crazy world.

There are a few other tips that I have learned that really help as well:
1. Do one load of laundry from START to FINISH every day, unless of course you don't happen to have any that day. I don't do this every day yet, but I'm working on it!
2. Make sure dishes are done in the evening before you go to bed. It is so nice to wake up to a clean sink! I don't do this every day either. Some nights I call it quits early, because it's been a long day.
3. Put things where they belong! I have a habit of laying something down to put away later, and then forget to it. Do it when you remember. Don't wait. It really doesn't take that long.
4. Give the kids (and yourself/husband) a 15 minute night time clean up. Before the kids go to bed, set the timer and have them put away anything that doesn't belong in the living room, kitchen, den, their rooms in it's *proper* place. *Read:: Do not have them pick up their toys from the living room and drop them on their bedroom floor.* This instills good habits for them and for you.

There are 3 things I am still working on that will be a big help as well.
1. Go to bed earlier. This will help with #2.
2. Get up earlier than the kids. This gives you time to get things done for yourself. Get ready, go for a run, read your Bible, have an uninterrupted cup of coffee, check your emails, etc.
3. Meal planning, meal planning, meal planning. I want to do this desperately, but I just haven't gotten there yet. I am going to set a 2 week schedule. It will be SO nice to look at the menu the night before and be able to know what we are having the following night!
Ten Habits for a Well-Run Home was also a helpful read.

The goal here is baby steps. You can't jump in and do all of it. Take one thing at a time and get into a routine, then add another. It will be worth your while. I promise!! I feel so much better about the house. I can't promise that there won't be toys strewn all over the place, but I guarantee I won't have to tell any surprise visitors that the bathroom is out of order, lol!

So come on over! I'm ready for ya!!

Curriculum Clean-Out: See the Light Art DVD Giveaway!

Jolanthe, over at Homeschool Creations, is hosting the Curriculum Clean-Out Giveaway! Yay!!

I love this time of year, going through old curriculum, seeing what will work for next year and what won't, and getting packages with your new curriculum in the mail.

I am giving away 2 (YES 2!) brand new, unopened copies of See the Light: Drawing Children to HIM, Volume 1. This dvd contains lessons 1-4, Tools of the Trade, It All Starts With a Line, Contours & Composition, Draw What You See, and 2 bonus lessons, Chalk-It-Easy and Chalk Art Lesson.

To enter, leave a comment telling us one piece of advice that you would give to new homeschoolers. If you are new to homeschooling, tell us what your excited about for your first year.

For an additional entry Follow Me, and leave me a comment telling me you did.

Please enter only if you are in the continental US.

There will be 2 winners in this giveaway. Deadline is August 4th.

If you want to join in on the fun or see what other curriculum is up for grabs, visit Jolanthe here!

This giveaway is now closed.


Congrats to to #6 and #21! I will be emailing you shortly. :)

HUGE Back 2 School Giveaway!!

Hurry! It's almost over! Enter for your chance to win over $700 worth of homeschool curriculum. There is only 1 winner!!! :)

Reading Eggs Review

Just recently, we were blessed enough to be able to review Reading Eggs. Reading Eggs is an online, learn to read program. It has been designed for ages 3-7. They also have a program for ages 7-13 called Reading Eggspress. The program is able to take non-readers and have them reading on a first grade level.

Ladybug got to be the lucky one to do the fun stuff! She is 5, and we had been working on reading in Kindergarten this past school year. I thought Reading Eggs would be a great to addition to reinforce what we were already doing.

She does not enjoy learning to read the way her older sister, Butterfly, did, but she does LOVE to play video games. Video Game Brain is something Ladybug inherited from her father, so when the opportunity to review Reading Eggs came up, I was thrilled. I was still a little skeptical, but she took to the game right away.

When you sign up with Reading Eggs, you are able to choose whether or not you'd like to start as a beginner or take a placement test. We opted to take a placement test, but Ladybug quickly decided she needed to start from the beginning to "crack all of the eggs." After choosing how you'd like to start, children are taken to a map. The spots on the map are lessons that teach a phonetic sound, special sounds, or combination.

In each lesson, students are given about 10 different games to play (more or less) to teach and reinforce the sounds that are being taught.

She did get a little bored at some of these, and I found a few to be a little repetitive, lesson after lesson. She was not discouraged, however, and wanted to finish so she could get her reward at the end. At the end of each lesson, the children get to watch a new egg crack open. Inside each egg are very funny mix-matched creatures, like a cat/octopus, a dog/frog/dophin, or a tiger/turtle. Ladybug loved watching what new creature she had unlocked. She even had Butterfly curious as to what was about to hatch.

They are also rewarded with golden eggs. With their golden eggs, they are able to go to the store and buy creatures, clothes, and furniture for their house.

Lady bug has stepped back from playing, but I really think the only reason is that she had forgotten about it during a week that we were very busy and away from home. I'm going to remind her and encourage her to keep at it. I think it's definitely helping to reinforce what we've been doing and helping to teach her additional things we haven't covered yet!

Head on over to Reading Eggs and try it out for free for 14 days!!

~Mandy

*We were given a three-month subscription for review purposes only. No other compensation was received and opinions are our own. :)

Random musings...

The year is coming to a close for some people, but I have decided this year to try schooling through the summer. We aren't going to go everyday, but we do need the extra days. I started a homeschool co-op for the 2011/2012 school year, and it has been great. Our schooling was set back a little though because of it. I don't think this school year will be like that, but there was a lot of fine tuning that needed to be done the first year. I eventually want to get to a point that our summer schooling consists of a lot of nature walks, science projects, and bird watching with a little review of math and language, but this year, we need to play catch-up.
I've seen a lot of areas in our schooling and on the homefront that need some work, and most of that consists of me. One of the main problems is that I am not a very good steward of my time, and isn't something I'm proud of. If God thought it was important enough to add it in the Bible, then I need to make it important in my life. I know it's an area that I really struggle with, and I really think that if I can get control of it, I wouldn't be so stressed out through the year. I plan on spending a lot of time working on me this summer!
We haven't set any summer plans as a family, but my husband and I are going to sit down with the girls soon and make a list of things we'd all like to do or try this summer. They don't have to all be amusement park huge. They are going to consist of things like camp out in a tent in the back yard, try horseback riding together, things like that. I'm really looking forward to making this with the girls and hearing what ideas they come up with!
I am already thinking about next school year and next co-op year. I am an organizer and a planner, so I think it's just one of those things I can't help. I am going to try to at least make it until the end of June until I start working on the next school year, but I'm sure I won't make it that far! Sigh...  A girl can hope though, can't she? ;)

Reevaluating.

Can I be honest?

I started this blog because I love to write. I may not be great at it, but I enjoy it. If I am completely honest though, I thought that by blogging, I could somehow be one of those super blogger mommies. I was going to blog daily about our amazing homeschooling accomplishments. I thought surely that by blogging I would suddenly be able to do all the perfect things that these super blogger moms were doing with their kids. I would miraculously have a super, amazing homeschool room with every educational toy and game filling my shelves.

I think I forgot myself for a minute. I, by nature, am not an original, creative person when it comes to awesome curriculum ideas and projects for my girls. I have my moments, but more often, I see an idea somewhere that I am able to build on. I also realize that we don't have the space for the homeschool room that I have all put together in my head, nor do we have the finances for all of hose educational games, toys, and extra curriculum. Sometimes we don't even have money for craft supplies.

Do I still wish that could miraculously turn into super homeschool mommy? I'd be lying if I said no, but I would like to take baby steps towards it. I don't think that all the other moms are perfect. I know everyone has their days, but I also know I need those ladies who so freely give their time and energy to help and inspire me.

For myself, I need to reevaluate why I wanted to blog in the first place. So... While I won't be blogging every day about our amazing successes, I will try to blog a few couple once a week about what is working, what isn't, and how I'd like to make it better. I will definitely still share when I've actually managed to have an awesome homeschool day, have the dishes done, house straightened up, laundry finished, and a home cooked meal on the table all in the same day. A rare occasion, I assure you.

Wish me luck!