Flying Solo

So my house cleaner quit yesterday. I'm usually not a crier, but I did after she left. DH and I have decided before we commit to another cleaner we (and the DDs) are going to try to clean the house ourselves.

I pulled out my FLY Lady book and Control Journal and am going to try to make it work again. (I can't seem to get the hang of her system, but I am determined to tweak it to fit us.)

Anyway, I am learning that the only constant in life is change. Goodbye Beth, thank you, and good luck with your new journey.

Routine Badges

So I have a few new best friends. Timers and Routine Badges. I was so tired of having to constantly remind the DDs of what they should be doing. So I made routine cards with both am and pm sides, and times alloted for each thing. Both the routine badges and the timers I have can be clipped to their jeans. So they put in the time, press start, and I let the timers yell at them to keep moving.

They were really wonderful at the beginning, then the excitement waned. I had one morning where they were running so late. I gave them a good drilling and told them that the routine cards were there so that I wouldn't have to ride them. They agreed the routines were better and now are still on track.

Notice how on DD3's she has pictures? Yep, can't read that well yet. Also, they have a Boyer team item. That is where I can give them any chore like laundry, bathroom, food prep, etc. They put these on first thing in the am and first thing when they get home. Yet another thing my DH says was a stroke of brilliance! :)

Raising Daughters = Lots of $ for Gas

Took DD1 with me tonight to run a short errand. I knew it would be a great opportunity for just her and I to talk, and it was. We ended up sitting in the driveway with the car running (to keep us warm) for about 40 minutes. I am finding that raising girls takes a lot of talking time, and it looks like my personal office is turning out to be our car. (It is the only place where I don't get disturbed.)

I found out her friends think I am weird for the following reasons: We have a house cleaner and yet the girls still have to clean their room and bathroom. We don't have cable t.v. and screen time is closely monitored. I also found out that some of her friends don't like me because their moms have started to make them work after talking to me about how we do chores.

I got such a kick out of that and I think it is awesome! It means I'm doing my job.

Emergency Preparedness - Water Bottles

This year we are determined to get our 72 hour kits together. We have been talking about it for years now, but this is the year it is going to happen. We are taking it one thing at a time, but I thought I would bring you all along for the ride so that you can get yours together too.

Yesterday I ordered filtration water bottles for every member of our family from this link http://store.lds.org. Look under the Home and Family section and hit the link for Self Reliance. They are the Seychelle water filtration bottle kit. You won't find a better price on these anywhere else. I looked.

Having these bottles will make it so we don't need to haul around as much heavy water or make room for it in our packs. Of course, we live in a place where there are rivers and streams everywhere so this is a good option for us. We also have a Katadyn back packing filter pump so that we can pump larger amounts of water for cooking.

Marcus and I are going to keep a case of water in our cars and we will still keep a few full water bottles in our packs as well.

PF Changs has nothing on these

With a stroke of brilliance I have won the salad fight with the DDs!! Yes, I invented the "Salad Wrap" and now my kids can't get enough salad! No kidding DD3 will eat 12 of these (the equivalent of 6 full romaine leaves) and they are the first thing she asks for during dinner.

Ingredients:

Whole Romaine Lettuce Leaves rinsed

Whole Spinach Leaves rinsed

Croutons

Anything else you want to sneak into their mouths

Dressing of your choice

Assemble:

Rip the lettuce away from the main stem of the leaf (romaine). Then pile 3-4 spinach leaves at one end. Put one crouton on top of the spinach. Place small dab of dressing and roll it up.

I have found they are also a good way for me to eat a lot of salad w/out a lot of dressing. It is also a great way to sneak spinach into their diets. I showed you the container that I use to store the lettuce. It is by Lock and Lock and has a slotted bottom insert to allow water to drain away from the lettuce. (One job the DDs do is to rinse the leaves for dinner.)

ENJOY!

New Recruit Training

Today, a beautiful thing happened. DD2 saw the opportunity to get DD3 to help her with her chores. However, she spun it into, "Don't you want to learn this life skill? I'll teach you how to do it."
So this is what I hear coming from the bathroom, "Help me Windex the mirror. Woohoo!! Isn't this fun?! Great job DD3!! You're doing great!" Laughing ensues.
There are a few things this lets me know. First is that DD2 knows her life skill well enough to teach it. Secondly, that they don't hate working. Third that they enjoy working together (most of the time), and fourth, when you train them and then let them fly, beautiful things happen.

Insanity???

I am 12 days from the end of this pregnancy (less if I go into labor on my own). DH has been itching to build closet organizers for our room. He started today and I am wondering...."Are we insane to start a major project at this point?" I guess at this point, everything feels insane - why not add something else?

**My mom is in town so that does help with the outlook of things.