A while back, I posted my cleaning schedule on Facebook.  It worked well for several months, but then, after Pascha, I fell out of the habit.  I still, typically, keep the house somewhat neat and clean.  Obviously, some day are better than others.  However, there are two areas in the house that I have trouble keeping clean: the laundry room and the Master bedroom.  The root of the problem in both of these rooms is one thing:

LAUNDRY.

The combination of cloth diapers and regular laundry forces me to prioritize, and if I am going to do this, the diapers come first.  We reliably have clean, cloth diapers ready to go at any moment.  Clean clothes… not so much.

It is not that we never have clean clothes.  The problem is that the clothes  live in the laundry basket.

The kids and I spend most of our time downstairs during the day, and the bedrooms are upstairs.  This is one of the major deterrents for my being able to efficiently put the laundry away.  But it is still no excuse… I could be doing it now instead of blogging, right? But I dread it…

I am writing this because
I NEED HELP.

There.

I admit it!

Please leave a comment with the method that you use to do your laundry and put it away.

I would appreciate any advice at this point.

It has been months since I last did a Multitude Monday, but I really want to get to one thousand.  I have a long way to go.

41. My husband’s return after a week-long trip to Canada.

42.  Seeing him cuddle on the couch with all three kids.

43. Hearing Bunky say, “All Done!” at only ten months old.

44. Watching Bunky go from sitting to crawling,
to standing to pulling up, all in about a week!

45. Learning my husband’s trick for calming
Punky down when he is getting too wild.

46. Watching Punky build castles.

47. Hearing Spunky say, “You’re my sweet Mommy.”

48.  Seeing my little girl pretending.
This time it was “going shopping”:

49. A sunny day after several gloomy days filled with rain.

50. My first, not so perfect, tomato:

Outside my window… Sunny, humid and HOT.
I am thinking… that I just saved 65% of my grocery bill!  YEAH for coupons!
I am thankful for… my wonderful husband!  We discovered a week or so ago that in order to be able to send Punky to the Latin School, we need to seriously tighten our budget.  However, it seemed that it would be too tight for us to be able to put money into savings.  This is not a situation that we want to be in, so we temporarily withdrew him from the school.  BUT we found out today that my hubby got a raise!  Now, Punky will be able to go to the Latin School and our savings won’t be affected.  Yea!
From the learning rooms… the children discovered the educational toys in the closet and had fun playing with lacing dolls.  Not much else going on in there… summer is here and the kids are outside a lot.
From the kitchen… we made low gl cornmeal muffins with fresh strawberries this week.  Spunky is on a PB&J kick and Punky is eating a lot of cheese.  I’ve always discovered, through experimentation that Bunky is NOT allergic to dairy like his big sis.  So, now he is enjoying lots of cheese and yogurt.  That kiddos loves to eat… well, they all do!
I am wearing… a purple v-neck with a sage tank top peeking through, khaki cargo capris, no shoes and I French braided my hair today- it feels so nice and cool this way.
I am creating… piles of laundry… that need to be put away.  I hoping to get that done today, but right now I am taking a break after a very stressful morning.
I am going… to the dentist tomorrow.  Apparently, all of the morning sickness from my pregnancies has “eroded” the enamel on my back teeth (I hadn’t been to the dentist in a few years- yes, I know, I’m a bad girl).  So I will be spending two hours in the dentist’s chair tomorrow having my enamel fixed and a few small cavities filled.  I am not looking forward to it.
I am reading… still….”Strong-Willed Child or Dreamer” (a book I found on a homeschooling blog and it is really helping me better understand my eldest).  Reading has been at a minimum for me this week.  At the end of the day, all I want to do is go to bed (or watch some tv).  It has been a rough week!
I am hoping… for a decent night’s sleep… less than five hours is not enough for this mama.
I am hearing… the sound of the water in the tea kettle about to boil.  Punky is all about tea today.  This is his second cup.
Around the house… a vacuum cleaner is waiting to be used in the living room, dishes need to be put away and then others put into the dishwasher, and, of course, there’s laundry.
One of my favorite things… watching Bunky pull up on everything.  He works so hard and has such satisfaction when he is able to do it.
A few plans for the rest of the week: take the kids to see Toy Story 3 as a celebration for Daddy’s accomplishment at work, some alone time for ME on Saturday, church, and possibly the county fair.
Here is picture for thought I am sharing… Bunky’s first drawing (age 9 months)

The Simple Woman’s Daybook was started here.

The story begins with my entrance into our guest room where I discovered that our Pack ‘n Play had been destroyed!  The mesh part on the sides had been ripped/cut off, but by whom??

Punky blamed Spunky at first…

then he blamed Bunky.

Seriously?!

Spunky claimed that she didn’t do it, Punky did it.

Not knowing which child to believe, I had to separate them into their bedrooms for a time.  Then I spoke with each.  Spunky maintained that Punky had done it.  Her story never changed.  However, Punky’s story was all over the place.  First, he blamed Spunky entirely.  Then he claimed that he and Bunky had done it together.  Then the truth came out:

Punky had kicked it with his foot, which caused it to rip.
Then he and Spunky used the “zissors” to cut the mesh off.

He also cut a whole in a knit blanket that his great grandma made.

He was put to bed for the night, very early, and will be “grounded” tomorrow.  When I told him his punishment, he changed the story one last time: “Spunky told me that she was going to break it, cut it up and throw it in the garbage.”  That doesn’t sound like Spunky to me…  Finally, he admitted that he had done ALL of it.

So, our eldest is in BIG trouble tonight… and tomorrow.

I really like this photo.

There are several aspects of it that I like, but the main one is how it is real. I didn’t fix my hair or makeup. I didn’t really even pose. I was sitting at my computer when Spunky came over to me and asked to take my picture.   I looked up from my computer while she took picture after picture.

Since I am the one to usually take the photos, it is very rare that I can find a photo of myself that isn’t from a holiday or some type of photo shoot.  We have, literally, thousands of photos of the children, and of those, I am sure that not even 1% are of me.  Especially not of me living out my day to day life.

Do you have a photo of yourself that you love?

If you do, please feel free to use this post
as inspiration to post your photo on your blog

• If I think at night, I’ll need coffee tomorrow, I should follow through and drink some.  I made a pot this morning, but didn’t get around to drinking some until just now.  My energy level was at a low by about 1pm, so in the future, I should drink my coffee before it got cold.
• My friend, Trish, and her son are coming stay with on Friday and Saturday, and it hadn’t occurred to me that I should clean my house today so that I can just enjoy her company on Friday.  Then on Saturday, another friend who has moved away, is coming to town, and I am hosting a gathering for some ladies and children so that we can all spend some time with her.  Should be a fun weekend!

• Our grass has been growing like crazy, and then I realized that we need to mow it this week- we usually pay someone.  Oops… I guess we’ll do it this weekend.  And, for the record, I like clovers and all the bunnies who come to our yard to eat them.  I will not be spraying them, thank you very much.
• We need to put some type of baby gate at the top of our staircase.  Recently, Spunky has been sneaking downstairs in the morning and rummaging through things in the kitchen.  Sometimes it is my purse, other times it has been candy, but this morning it was a disaster! Spunky climbed up to the counter, pulled out the marshmallows, sprinkles, and pumpkin pie spice and mixed it all together with some popcorn I had popped last night.  Punky thought it was delicious, but all I could see was the mess his little sister had made.  Fortunately, Punky started cleaning up all the pumpkin pie spice for me while I wiped off Spunky.  He is seriously the most helpful child!

• Daddy: fixing fences, doing the computer
• Mommy: making food, washing the dishes
• Leo: eating food
• Papa: making things
• Grammy: buying presents
• Aunt Lu: building things like tall buildings
• Grandpa: killing bugs
• Grandma: making cereal
• Aunt Rachel: making pizza
• Uncle Kyle: cutting the grass

The watercolor “class” wasn’t much of a class at all.  I didn’t learn a single thing.  I had hoped to learn watercolor technique or brush strokes or something, but I learned nothing at all.  How disappointing!

So here is my pitiful painting- I had no idea what I was doing:

I would like to take another art class sometime, but, hopefully, it will be taught by someone who knows how to teach!

In the movie, Thumper is reprimanded by his mother for saying something critical of Bambi, and then he repeats what his father had told him that morning: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”

How often do we say things that aren’t nice?

I know I do it far too often.  I’ve noticed that Punky has started calling things or people “stupid”.  Do you know where he learned that from? ME.  I call Leo, our Labradoodle, “stupid” all the time.  Now, he can be infuriating at times due to his lack of smarts, but that doesn’t mean I should be lashing out at him and calling him names.  Even if he is just a dog, as I often claim, we all do love him like a family member.

It is so important for us to watch what we say around our children.  If we don’t allow our children to name call, then we shouldn’t do it ourselves.  This is so obvious to me, but, yet, I still falter.  It seems, at least for me, my lack of patience is always the root of my problems.  If only I could be more patient, I wouldn’t be so inclined to speak without thinking, specifically when it comes to criticism.  It is always best to reprimand our children without criticizing them or berating them. “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1).  Stirring up anger in my children is not something that I want to do, but my curt answers or accusatory discipling does just that.

Molly shared this quote on her blog today, and I want to as well because it pertains to what I have been pondering as my children watch “Bambi” this morning.

“Pray and then speak. That’s what to do with your children. If you are constantly lecturing them, you’ll become tiresome and when they grow up they’ll feel a kind of oppression. Prefer prayer and speak to them through prayer. Speak to God and God will speak to their hearts. That is, you shouldn’t give guidance to your children with a voice that they hear with their ears. You may do this too, but above all you should speak to God about your children. Say, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, give Your light to my children. I entrust them to You. You gave them to me, but I am weak and unable to guide them, so, please, illuminate them.’”

- Elder Porphyrios