The Last Day of School

I can't believe it's here already! I'm heading out the door to get my daughter from her last day of school. Wow! Where did the year go?!?

In preparing for the end of school, here is a recent article I wrote:

Oh no! It's summer!

Do you feel that way as the school days are coming to an end? In some ways I do. My daughter is bright and enjoys learning so school is great for her. But Summer means that Mommy has to be organized and run a “summer school”.

Now my summer school isn’t a full-fledged educational study. It’s more of a project-based entertainment plan.

My daughter loves to have projects to do and loves to be helpful. To work on both those things, she and I recently planted a garden.  It’s nothing big but we’re hoping it produces some fruits and vegetables. She enjoyed digging up holes and putting in each plant. She’s been doing some weeding and checking on her plants most days. I’ve been doing the watering in the mornings while she’s at school but that will soon be her job too.

My daughter isn’t really a fan of the water, so we’re putting her in swimming lessons again this summer. She passed the first three levels last summer so we’re hoping she’ll get through the last two. This should take care of a couple hours Monday to Thursday.

Both my little darlings will be helping with the grocery shopping as Daddy will still be at work all summer long. My son is still pretty good to ride in the cart, so that just leaves my daughter walking along beside. We make a mission of searching for the items on the list as we walk throughout the stores and they even get to pick a few things (like the kind of ice cream to get). We’ve also talked about what food we’ll eat during the summer and most days lunch will happen on our deck.

I’m hoping for Fun Fridays too. Since we won’t have to go anywhere on that day, I’m planning themes that we can do. So far on the list we’ve got camp, spa, beach, pajama parties, pirates, and fairies. The idea is to have a theme for the day and activities and food to go with it. Not sure which we’ll get done or if I’ll have to add some more but it can be a work in progress.

What are you doing with your kids this Summer? How will you keep them entertained so your don’t have to hear “Mom, I’m bored!!!”?

Join me here to find out how my kids and I survive the Summer during my quest for Domestic Diva-hood.

Treading Water during and after Turmoil

Yep, that's how I'm feeling - treading water. The house isn't bad, I've been keeping up with most of my ministry work for church, I've been having some fun with my knitting, but I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere. Do you get like this? In a kind of slump or rut?

Despite the family crisis that happened recently that put me into this funk, I realized I have been treading water the whole time. Without a conscious effort, I have still kept up with the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, and a few other things.This Treading Water is a good thing. It means the things I want to do daily and weekly are happening. :) These things have become habits that I can accomplish with little effort or attention.

Now, though, I want to make a move. I want to aim for the shore and get there, not just hangout in the middle of the lake. Know what I mean? So I'm putting together a page to put in my weekly schedule. Every week for me is different because of a few events that get moved around. My plan is to set up a page that I can fill in each week as to what I'm doing. I know lots of people have calendars of different kinds, but I want one page that I can erase at the end of the week and plan for the next one. Hopefully this change will motivate me for a while. :)

What can you do that will help you move towards the shore instead of just treading water in the middle of the lake?

March Un-Madness - a review; and April Showers

Still here! Life has been w-e-i-r-d lately. March caused a lot of upheaval in my family's life and it has trickled into April too. It's soon going to be the middle of then month and I feel like I'm stuck back in my March ideas. I didn't get to as much as I thought I would in March but I still made some great progress and happy with the changes I made that month.

So, moving on....

April Showers

I had this idea that the end of March Un-Madness would lead into April Showers. The idea with April Showers is to begin the actual cleaning. As the weather is getting warmer and I want to have them open, I thought I would start with the windows. Each one needs to have the screen taken off and scrubbed, and both sides of the glass cleaned. I'm hoping that the clean windows will lead to other clean things. ;) And I figured I would start upstairs and work my way down. Hopefully I'll be able to get one or two done a day. No pressure, just going to add this task to my daily plans until it's done.

What can you do for April Showers? How did you do on your March Un-Madness? 

March Un-Madness: March 18-24

Review of March 18-24:
The goal was to work on some Main Floor stuff. As all good planning goes sometimes, I didn't do as much as I wanted. Due to family crisis, some of my ideas went by the wayside. I did, however, get something accomplished. My desk is looking better. I reorganized all our sweaters, jackets, boots and shoes. The kids' toys got done too but still no shelving unit of any kind. Need to keep an eye out for one.

Plan for March 25-31:

• This is Bonus Week.
• As it is a busy week, I'm not sure what all I will get done, but I'm going to try to work on each of the floors and try to get stuff done that I didn't get to yet. 

March Un-Madness: March 11-17

Review of March 11-17:
The focus last week was on the kids. Even though it was March Break, I still got a few things accomplished. :) I took my little journal with me and went through the kids' clothes. We boxed up some stuff that doesn't fit anymore or that they just don't want. I wrote down the things they need and the sizes. I also got a new storage system for the Barbies that my daughter keeps in her room. WalMart had a sale on and I found a plastic 3 drawer unit that fits in her closet and holds all the Barbie paraphernalia. This is a much better location for all the stuff as it's right near the Barbie house. We also had time for fun and baking, and a trip to my sister's home and picked up some of my old toys. Never got to anything in the basement but that's okay.

Plan for March 18-24:

• The focus this week is the main floor. 
• I would like to work on my desk again. (It's got some piles going on.) Seems like this needs to be a task that gets done more often, or I need to remember to clean up after myself a bit better.
• I would like to find a better storage solution for the kids' toys that we have here. Might just need a book case or something.
• There is a bit of miscellaneous stuff hanging around too that needs to be taken care of like mending and ironing.   

March Un-Madness: March 4-10

Plans are great but they don't always work out. :)

Review of March 4-10:
I don't think I had too much on my list but not everything got done. The only thing I got completed last week was the linen closet. I tidied it up, got rid of a few half full bottles by dumping them into others, picked up a few more baskets at the dollar store, and re-organized. I'm happy with how the linen closet turned out, I was just hoping for greater progress last week.

But it's ALL good! When ever we get something accomplished we should smile and be happy that it got done. Time to regroup and move onto this week.

It looks like the decluttering and organizing is going to take all of March. I am planning the actual "deep cleaning" part to start in April. As the month goes on and I move from room to room, I'm taking notes of what I want my "deep cleaning" to include. 


I had a genius idea for an old journal. I had a brand new journal sitting around, not being used for anything. When I attacked the linen closet, I brought it and a pen with me. In the front I started making lists of the items that get grouped together (one group per page). At the back, I started shopping lists (a general list and one for the dollar store). I'm taking this journal with me for the rest of the March Un-Madness so I can continue to organize. It's not too big so it's easy to carry around and it's just such a handy idea.

Plan for March 11-17:

• The focus this week is on the kids and their stuff.
• We're having a Fashionista Day to go through my daughter's clothes. Since I didn't get my son's clothes done last week, I hope to do them at the same time.
• I would like to get through the kids' bedroom. The toys and books need to be decluttered and re-organized.
• If there is more time, I want to start going through the boxes of kids' stuff in the basement.  

March Un-Madness: March 1-3

March Un-Madness is underway! These first few days have been spent with a little decluttering as well as some research and planning.

After Google-ing the topic, Spring Cleaning seems to be just about decluttering, organizing and "deep" cleaning your home. So those three things are my goal for the next little while.

In reality, I don't think I will be done by the end of March. It's going to be a bit of a job. I definitely need to go through the kids' clothes as they have items that are too small or wearing out. I would like to purge some of their toys too. Too many toys just means more mess as they really don't play with them all. I know I need a few more baskets and containers to make some storage areas work better. And well, there's always the basement - still full of too much stuff!

So, I'm just going to take it easy and not stress. The end result is to get the job done, doesn't matter how fast or slow it takes to get there. And this is my first attempt at Spring Cleaning. More of the focus is going to end up on the decluttering I think.

"Deep" Cleaning refers to some things that I don't normally do. It focuses on make sure to clean:

1. Walls and ceiling
2. Light fixtures, fans, vents
3. Windows and blinds
4. Furniture
5. Lamps, pictures, knickknacks

I do clean these areas but more focus is needed, making sure to do top to bottom.
Plan for March 4-10:

• The focus is upstairs (second floor) which consists of two bedrooms, a linen closet, one bathroom, and a hallway.
• I would like to get through the linen closet and my son's clothes this week.
• Different containers for storage in the linen closet need to be purchased.
• Some decluttering of the top of dressers would also be good.