Cleaning: What works for me

I almost decided to forego this post in the All in a Day Series, but the kids are playing gloriously outside, the baby is sleeping, the laundry is going and I have a whew.....moment. :)

I have to firstly report some terrible news. Yesterday, I was taking pictures of my parents' new baby goats. I had my camera in my pocket. My 3 yr old and I were out looking for the newest baby goats when he fell in an ant bed. I immediately scooped him up and rushed him over to a spring flowing, close by. I submerged his hand in the water and immediately my camera slipped out of my pocket and yes, into the spring. My new camera. I am just sick. It worked for a few minutes and I was so thrilled. But, alas, now it won't even turn on. I know those things happen. I don't feel like I was being careless or anything. I sure would've been sick then. I think my memory card is ok. I sure hope so.

Anyway...onto cleaning.

Right now, I am going room by room through my house and decluttering. Here is my living room after decluttering:

I read Tsh Oxenreider's (Sp?) book, Organized Simplicity, and she advocates going room by room, having a bag for trash and a bag for yard sale stuff. She says take everything out of the room and put in one location (this is really fun and AMAZING to see all the stuff that was in a room). You then Spring Clean that room, go through your stuff and purge and trash, put things back, and fall in love. :)

Once I get every room done (I am now in my bedroom...wow), I hope to get a scheduled cleaning system going.

For now, here's what I do:

Keep the dishes washed

Do laundry at least twice a week

Sweep the floors and mop when needed (this is usually sweeping every other day and mopping about once every two weeks...I do a lot of spot mopping in between thorough mops)

Kids keep bedroom straightened

Keep LR and DR straightened

Dust when I see dust piling up (or ignore it for a few days until I find out I'm going to have company)

Clean bathroom when I see it can't go any longer

And that is what I do. Maintain. Cook. Straighten. Mother.

That's what I do.

Mother.

That's the most important thing, right?

Read how these other mothers do it:

Carrie @ Our Full House Christi @ Where the Creek Meets the Lake Elizabeth @ Yes They’re All Ours Kathy @ Kathy Mom of Many Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage Lori @ Happy Busy Mama Renee @ Bakers Dozen

All in a Day….Laundry

I’ll tell you, I’ve had many different laundry routines in my life as a mom. I’ve tried doing Towels on Monday, Kids’ clothes on Tuesday, Husband’s clothes on Wed., my clothes on Thursday, and towels on Friday…etc… (by the way, I don’t remember exactly why I quit this method…maybe I just got bored?)

I’ve done the method where I just dump everything and anything into the washer until I have a full load.

Once, before I had kids, I actually read and followed the laundry instructions on the tags. Yeah. really. If it read, Wash in cold water, I would wash in cold water. If it read, Hand wash, I hand washed. Separately, I washed separately. Wow, how tedious. I would be standing at the washer all day long if I did that now.

Basically, at the moment (until I get bored with the current laundry method), my laundry routine is this:

When my laundry hamper gets full (Full means piled about 6 inches past the brim of the hamper), I will dump all the clothes in the laundry room floor, gather other laundry from various places around the house (I have another hamper outside my other bathroom) and then sort. Whites, Darks, Delicates, Blue Jeans, etc… Then, I begin my day of washing. Most of the time, I have about 6 loads out of that laundry day. It usually always carries over to the next day. Then the day after that, the hamper is full again. So, basically, I’m dealing with clothes every day.

I actually do not mind doing laundry. It is one of my favorite chores. I enjoy the sorting, I enjoy looking at my children’s clothes, taking care to fold and neatly place them in their proper places. As I am folding, quite frequently I have to place a garment or two aside to be put in the too little bin. I get mixed feelings about that.

Another reason I enjoy laundry, is I love hanging out my clothes. I enjoy using my beloved clothes line. I love this outside time I have to collect my thoughts, pray, enjoy nature, watch the children play, or more than likely, all of the above. I love the wonderful smell the fresh air gives to my clothes and sheets. While doing laundry, I can often be found sniffing dreamily into a freshly air-laundered garment. Ahh….

I try to be prompt about folding clothes and putting them into the proper places. I like to dump my clean clothes onto a chair into the living room where I am more apt to fold it because I know it will be an eye sore if I don’t. If I leave the pile in the laundry room, then it might as well be in the hamper, never laundered.

Let’s see, what else? I use cloth diapers with my 18 month old during the day. I just wash them with my regular clothes, but I always put the diapers on a rinse cycle before I wash them with regular clothes. Of course for messy diapers I am sure to take extra steps before laundering with my regular clothes.

As for laundry detergent, I have made my own. In fact, I made my own for a couple of years. Occasionally, I would find natural, earth-friendly laundry detergents on sale at my favorite burnt-out store and I would snatch that deal up and use that for awhile. Now, I still snatch up the occasionally earth-friendly, eco brand, but mostly, I will just purchase something that has a high stain removal power (I’m really dealing with stains here) and that is as gentle as I can find on a Wal-mart or Dollar Store shelf. I also hate, hate highly perfumed laundry detergents. Ugh. I have received clothes from people before in which I never did get their laundry detergent scent out of the clothes even after many washings. I like something that is a light, fresh scent. Right now, I’m using Arm & Hammer detergent with Oxy Clean. Not exactly eco-friendly, but it will do until I come across some more Seventh Generation or BabyGanics at a cheap price.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures I’ve taken over the years relating to laundry.

Check out how these other busy moms do laundry:

Carrie @ Our Full House http://www.ourfullhouse.com/
Elizabeth @ Yes They http://yes-theyre-all-ours.blogspot.com/ 're All Ours
Kathy @ Kathy Mom of http://www.kathymomofmany.blogspot.com/
Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage http://www.homemakerscottage.org/
Lori @ Happy Busy Mama http://1happybusymama.blogspot.com/
Renee @ Bakers Dozen http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/

Feel free to share how you do laundry! Just leave me a comment in the comments with the url of your blog with the laundry post. I would love to read about it!

All in A Day: Grocery Shopping

My computer cord has a malfunction, so this week I haven’t been on the computer much at all. We have also been in revival this week (second week!) and I just haven’t had time to blog. I’ve had a few things rolling in my mind, so maybe I won’t lose them until I get a free minute to jot them down to you.

I did want to keep my word to participate in the All in A Day Series, but I’m afraid my post for today will not be as excited as others’. Grocery shopping, for me, is bi monthly. It is a time I really look forward to, because most of the time, my mom will keep my youngest kids for the day. I can relax and enjoy the day to myself (which is rare!). If they want to come, I let them, of course. Many times it will just be me and my oldest and we have a really nice time, just the two of us.

I, first of all, like to check out my favorite store, Dirt Cheap—especially if I have a little piano teaching money that I’ve put back—and see if there are any extra special bargains (like, 90% off) on decor items for my home. Usually, I will stay in there for an hour or so (last trip I got the boys a very nice Target blue wooden toybox, reg. $99 for $12) depending on how many children I have with me. The next stop will be the library. We love, love to go to the library. Our library has a nice children’s center complete with Dorothy the Fish, Veggie Tales puppets, computers, and even a puppet stage! I always have books on loan to pick up—books that I’ve been recommended by Amazon based on my interests (usually on farming, mothering, health issues, etc), that I’ve had the library to ‘order’ for me. I get the children anywhere from 10 to 15 books to take home until the next trip. The library is a blessing to us!

We may or may not pick up something from a restaurant to eat. If it is just me, I may pick up some healthy snack from the health food store that I usually stop at to get my Veganaise or my organic grits. If I have the kids with me, we will usually go to our favorite Mexican restaurant or if my son gets his way, Chinese. :)

My grocery store is Wal-Mart. We have other smaller scaled grocery stores, but Wal-Mart is the only one in town that carries a half-way decent selection of organics and whole foods. I usually order our beauty products from Vitacost (sorry no link, just google it….) or the health food store. That leaves me with only having to purchase our groceries, tissue paper, dog/cat food, etc.,, from there.

I usually have a $130 budget ($260 per month for a family of 6) to spend at Wal-mart and it can be challenging at times. I have found ways to cut our prices by making our own bread, not buying any processed foods, not buying juice (I buy a bag of organic lemons and make us ‘Honey-Lemon Water’, as my kids call it), and steering clear of any thing we can do without (things like popsicles, even organic juices and prepackaged mac & cheese).

My mom and dad supply us year-round (with the exception of about 4 months per year) with fresh, delicious goat milk and both my FIL and my dad have bee farms, so we get fresh, delicious honey from them. They both have chickens so we get fresh, delicious eggs from them as well. I am SO thankful for this blessing! All of those items are very expensive, especially if you get them fresh, organic, cage-free, etc., so I am so blessed in that area! That takes quite a load off of us, expense wise.

We also garden in the spring/summer and put up tomatoes, peas, corn, okra, and jams and jellies. I hope to delve into that more this year until I’m no longer a novice! :) We have deer meat and pork in our freezer as well. Fresh meat that hasn’t been tainted with hormones is a blessing! My parents grind their own deer meat into deer ‘burger’ so I have fresh hamburger meat a few months out of the year.

Just typing this out makes me realize just how blessed I am!

From a different perspective, my kids are pretty good if taken on our grocery shopping excursions. Sometimes my husband will come along with us and we will go to a larger city, about 50 miles away and make an evening of it. My kids take this as a real treat, because we usually take them to Pet-Co or Books-A-Million. Occasionally, we will take them to Chic-Fil-A to play and we enjoy some time ‘alone’ while we watch through the glass, the kids play.

That’s it for the grocery shopping. My biggest challenges with it is that we pretty much can’t get our school work done on those days and also the house pretty much has to stay ‘as is’ until the night. That is not cool for me, because I really dislike bringing groceries in to an already messy kitchen. :/

Feel free to link up through the comments. I’m going to try this linky thing, but if it doesn’t work and you want to share your grocery experience, feel free to type in your link in the comments!

I’m so excited to have a few new followers! Welcome! I will be by to visit you soon!

God bless your hearts! Here are the others who are participating:
Carrie @ Our Full House http://www.ourfullhouse.com/

Elizabeth @ Yes They http://yes-theyre-all-ours.blogspot.com/ 're All Ours

Kathy @ Kathy Mom of http://www.kathymomofmany.blogspot.com/

Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage http://www.homemakerscottage.org/

Lori @ Happy Busy Mama http://1happybusymama.blogspot.com/

Renee @ Bakers Dozen http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/

All in A Day

I’m happy to be participating in a new series, I guess you could say, which focuses on what life is like in a large family. Now, my family is probably still on the small-ish side, but I do have four children under the age of eight, so life is a bit busy and full.

Here are the others who are participating:

Carrie @ Our Full House <http://www.ourfullhouse.com/>
Elizabeth @ Yes They <http://yes-theyre-all-ours.blogspot.com/> 're All Ours
Kathy @ Kathy Mom of <http://www.kathymomofmany.blogspot.com/> Many
Kristy @ Homemaker's Cottage <http://www.homemakerscottage.org/>
Lori @ Happy Busy Mama <http://1happybusymama.blogspot.com/>
Renee @ Bakers Dozen <http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/>

Please feel free to link up if you would like to share your full life with us!

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If this is your first time visiting, let me introduce myself. I am Natural Mama, which I use because I still can’t get used to using my real name on the internet. :)

I am happily married and have been for 2 years which translates to 12 years (where has time gone?). I have four children, two boys and two girls, ages 8, 5, 3, and 1.

We live in the South and in the country. I have always lived in the country and absolutely would loathe city life. I just know it. We have an old house that we are remodeling (slowllllly) and it gets a bit drafty in the winter and a bit, hot, in the summer. We have lots of romping grounds on which our kids can, romp, stomp, and just be country kids.

We have chickens and we hope to add a few more small scale livestock to our farm as time progresses. I lived on a farm as a child, but sadly, I could have been found inside with a book most days (which translates as I don’t know as much as I should about raising animals).

We love music in our family, have a singing group (with our best friends) and sing a few dates out of the year. I have played piano since a small child and now currently play at my church. My husband is a songwriter and has written songs for a few Southern Gospel groups. He is an awesome singer, in my opinion (and everyone else’s who knows him) but is truly humble about his ability. We really, really love to sing and play music. I teach piano to 6 students once weekly and he teaches guitar during that time. It gives me some extra money to help decorate our home! :)

We homeschool 3 of our children and I hope to share with you soon about our homeschooling days. I taught school for almost 5 years and felt very convicted to homeschool our children both through reading material God lead me to and as a result of my teaching experience. I also felt convicted to stay at home with our children and have been a stay-at-home-mom for 3 years. I would rather have no earthly calling.

My husband works in Environmental Heath and has a nice state job. He also taught school for a couple of years, but the Lord opened this (way) lower stress job for him and we are so thankful. Thankfully, our environmental disasters have been few and far between since he has been working in this field.

I love to read books, especially books that I feel will help me be a better wife and mother. Second to that, I love to read books about farming, gardening, herbs, crafting, and natural living.

We cook with whole foods, try to eat organically when possible, use natural medicines.

Some of these things I share in past posts, so be sure to surf through my archives.

All in all, I am a woman like you, trying to please God with how I raise my family, trying to keep us unspotted from the world in how we live, act, and dress, and bringing God glory in all we do. We try, we fail, and try again. I am inconsistent a lot of days in bringing God glory, but with God’s grace, I will not quit trying.

For now, I’ve got one who can’t find the Peanut Butter and is most distressed, one who is crying, “Help Me” because he is falling off of the chair, and my two girls are calm as can be. For now.

Welcome.

PS. If you would like to link up to this post, for now, do so using the comments. I forgot to mention in the introductions that I'm not really great with computers.