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

Biscuits and Gravy Tutorial

Here is a tutorial for a good ole Southern breakfast! I’ll bet you have all you need in your cupboard and refrigerator! I’ll give options on some of the ingredients, so if you haven’t had breakfast, now you know what to make!

I am no cooking expert and my husband can say 'Amen' (if he wasn’t so nice, but thankfully, he is), but I do enjoy cooking most of the time and especially enjoy cooking foods I love and I LOVE biscuits and gravy! :)

First, you will need All Purpose Flour or Self Rising Flour (you can use unbleached, organic, store brand, whatever you have on hand). If using AP flour, get out your baking powder (not soda) and salt.

Get out a medium-sized mixing bowl and also a sifter, if you have one. Now would be a great time to preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Get out a cast iron skillet (for best results) and spray it lightly with non stick spray, or use a small bit of the fat you are using in your biscuits to grease it. Do your skillet NOW, because your hands will be too gooked to do it later. Also put a handful of flour in a small bowl nearby your station.

If using AP Flour, measure out 2 cups and place in your sifter, which you have sitting inside your bowl. Add 1 tablespoonful of baking powder to your sifter and 1 teaspoonful of salt. Sift 3 ingredients together into the bowl.

Please excuse the PMS tea which seems to be in every picture. :)

Remove the sifter, and now you have this:

Let me interject to say if you are using Self Rising Flour (which I don’t because I can’t find any that is unbleached), then all you have to do is put 2 cups of SR flour into a bowl. If you do, please don’t use the Baking Powder or Salt. You will thank me.

Next, measure out 1/4 cup of fat. This can be coconut oil, olive oil, or for best results (now, not later…:), shortening. I have even used mayonnaise, in a crisis.

You can do one of two things here. You can put in your fat in solid form, which will cause you more work, or you can melt it and save some time. If you put it in in solid form, you will have to work it into your flour mixture until your flour mixture looks like it is little balls of flour ‘peas’. The second thing you can do, which is what I have discovered that works best for me, is to melt the fat, but do not burn it, add it and immediately add your milk (getting ahead of myself), and you will save time.

So, add your fat to your flour mixture.

I used olive oil because I was in a pinch, but for best results, use coconut oil or shortening.

Do not stir! This is very important if you have liquid fat that you do not stir yet.

Okay, now you can get out your buttermilk out of the fridge. Don’t even think about using sweet milk. If you have regular ole milk, the least you can do is add a tp of vinegar or lemon juice to make fake buttermilk, but still, you will not get good results like you do with buttermilk. While you are there at the fridge, get some sour cream. It is very important for the taste of your biscuits. May as well get the butter, too.

Add a little over 1 cup of buttermilk to your mixture. I usually just pour a tiny bit extra after pouring in my cup of buttermilk. *Edited to Add...I made them this morning and it's about 1 & 1/4 cup of buttermilk. Add your 1 tablespoonful of sour cream.

Now here comes the fun part!

Using a fork, sort of mash the milk/fat mixture in with the flour until it is sort of worked in. You do NOT stir it in. Your biscuits will be tough tasting if you do.

Once you have the liquid sort of mixed with the flour, you get to dive in, hand first. You will probably want to take a moment to get your hands clean at this point. Even if, only for a second.

With your hands (if you’re squeamish about using your hands, get over it), squish the mixture together a few times to blend it all together. If you use a spoon or a fork, it is too ‘rough’ for the mixture—it will be tough.

When you are able to pull a small amount with your hands without it feeling too ‘liquid-y’, it is ready to roll into biscuits. *Edited to add...you may have some dry flour at the bottom that hasn't meshed into the other ingredients. Don't worry about mixing it in. Just leave it at the bottom of the bowl. It's okay. :)

Dip your hand into the flour (that you put in the extra bowl) to coat your hands. Break off a small ball of dough (about a tennis ball size or less). Roll between your hands a couple of times, place in the skillet and pat down a bit. Do this until you have the biscuits in the skillet like so:

Place a small pat of butter in the middle of each biscuit. You will thank yourself when you take a bite.

Bake for about 17 minutes. At the end of 17 minutes, broil for 1 minute. Do this if you’re like me and just have to have those biscuits brown. Do not over bake. You will hate me if they are too hard.

Don’t bother rolling out the dough and cutting out this biscuit recipe. You are much too busy, mama, for such complication.

Plus your biscuits might make mine look bad.

Don’t forget to butter ‘em again!

*Special thanks to my husband's deceased Great-Aunt Inez for this biscuit recipe.

Leave me a comment if you plan to try these biscuits! You’ll have to come back tomorrow for the gravy part. My day is much too filled and I’ve taken far too long. I will be busy gardening (I Must set out those broccoli, peas, and pepper plants today), laundering, cleaning, decluttering, straightening, homeschooling, and piano teaching.

Oh and take a look at this:

We have sick children. Again.

The two youngest.

I hope it’s not the biscuits.

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!

What a Blessed Weekend!

Good morning, readers friends! I trust that you had a wonderful weekend filled with God’s blessings upon your family. No doubt, you did, because:

Every good and perfect gift is from above. and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Thursday night was my first ever Piano Recital and it turned out great! The weather was awful and I thought that would surely hinder our crowd, but we had a turnout of about 35 people, I’d presume! My students did splendidly:

my older students…one is missing due to being out of town…

My youngest student, with lil sis admiringly looking on…

one with my only male student :)…and the refreshments

A close-up of the cake….yummy…made by my Aunt :)

Then Saturday night, lo and behold, we were invited to a Sweet 16 fancy-smancy birthday party! I could even bring a date! See who I brought…

He’s been my date for 14 years now! :) Oh, and he was in mid-song during this picture. He is so known for his singing ability and to be able to find an appropriate song for every situation/occasion. :)

Oh, but here is the Birthday Girl (yes, she is pictured in one of the above photos):

Our best friends who sat at the table with us:

My childhood friend married my husband’s childhood friend….:)

Sunday morning found us in front of the opened freezer door, trying to get some relief for my crouping daughter. Ella and I stayed home with her from church. Erin spent lots of time resting (i.e. watching Dora..ha) and I straightened up the house a bit. Before the ‘men’ came home, she and I made a pizza for lunch.

working on the crust….

Puttin’ on the toppings…

More toppings (the peppers are fresh from the garden)…..Bellpeppers, olives, peps, banana peppers, portabella shrooms….

Ready to go in…..

There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of making and eating your own homemade pizza! It was really good, even if I did forget to put the salt and oil in the crust. :)

Before the kids napped, I read to them a little out of our current Read-Aloud,

During their nap, I worked on a project that I will unveil in a separate post tomorrow. I also started to work on organizing the kids’ rooms. I feel like that is a project that I need to revisit every month for it to stay organized! Anyway, I sorted blocks, littlest pet shops, animals, small trucks, baby toys, baby dolls, magnetic toys, etc…into separate bins. I even broke a sweat and I’m not so sure I rested enough for a Lord’s Day. :/

While the men went back to church for Evening Worship, Erin settled back in front of Dora (I never let her watch that much Dora, or anything for that matter, but, I digress…we did swing for awhile). Once I noticed she seemed very lethargic and her cheeks were flushed. I decided I’d better check her temp. It was 101.8. I thought I would wait a little before I gave her medication so the fever could do its work. I made some cookies, Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies (for you, Amy, j/k) and then worked some more on my organizing. Erin’s fever seemed to get worse, so I told her to get in the bathtub and then I would take her temp after her bath. It was 103. I gave her Tylenol and within minutes her fever was completely gone and she was playing. I told my husband that someone was praying for our little girl. I have never seen temperature go down that fast!

Here she is…doing a quiet activity before bed …making a clock…(she loves to sleep in her slip)

Here is Evan playing with the newly organized small trucks:

I’ve got to take more pictures of Emory…he is practicing the guitar and taking lessons from his Dad now. I will have to get a picture of him playing. He really does look like a natural.

Well, today has begun. The children are awake and it’s time to begin our day! May you be blessed. :)

PS. Check out our Garden Tour in the post below!

Thank you for your comments. They are so encouraging to me. Honestly.

A Garden Tour

One of our favorite things about summer is gardening. Yes, I love it. Even the picking, the putting up (okay, that part is so very time consuming), the planting…it’s all so rewarding. I remember the night before I went into labor with Ella, I was putting up peas until late in the night. Now, every time I reach into my deep-freezer to get a bag of frozen peas, I wonder if it is from the batch I put up while having intense contractions. :)

My Father-in-law helps us tons in the garden. He does a lot of the planting, plowing, and even some hoeing. We are so very grateful to him. He even puts us up an electric fence to keep out the munchers!

Sorry this picture is so fuzzy—I was standing way off so I had in extra-zoomed!

My kiddos all love the garden. They even help some with the harvesting (digging potatoes and picking peas). It is a great experience for them from teaching them to appreciate God’s bounty to teaching them their colors! Evan learned the color purple last year because of us teaching him to pick the purple peas and not the green ones!

Evan, taking a stroll through the peas

This year we have peas, okra, potatoes, corn, watermelons, string beans, banana peppers, and tomatoes planted. I never did plant zucchini squash, but I still plan to…

Here are a few pictures…

That’s peas on the right, potatoes in the middle, and you can barely see corn in the far left.

Even the dogs love the garden.

String beans—I hoed them a few days after this pic! :)

Watermelons…

Father-in-law’s bees are just outside the garden…hopefully will be essential in pollinating our fruit trees we have at the garden.

Our tomatoes and Bell peppers are closer to the house and I failed to photograph them. We have picked several pods of peppers so far! In addition to our garden, we have fig trees, scuppernong arbors, and pear trees.

Can you tell I love living in the Country? I’m so thankful for the Lord’s bounty and for my husband’s grandfathers who planted some of the fruits we enjoy every year!

My MIL and FIL have a mulberry tree at their house that is just loaded with fruit. My MIL or I will be trying out some Mulberry Jam or Jelly in the next couple of days. I’m sure I’ll share with you that experience.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

⁷Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

⁸Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

Proverbs 6:6-8

He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame. Proverbs 10:5

If you’ve never tried gardening, don’t be scared. You can even try a small container garden, such as planting a few things in Rubbermaid containers. Cut some holes in the bottom for proper drainage. Research Raised Bed Gardening. Try that. You’ll be pleasantly surprised that you can grow something. And then, you’ll be hooked!

Especially when you start harvesting….

And can immediately turn the above into this…

Sprinkle some flour, salt and peppa’ over the 'taters’, fry in hot oil, and you’ll be rushing on out to dig more….:)

I’ll leave you with a shot of my darling daughter, posing unawares, just outside the garden. I ‘tweaked’ it a bit….

Isn’t it lovely?

It’s past midnight and I’m off to bed. That is, after I pick up this 60+ pound girl off of my lap and put her in her bed. :)

Good night and Happy Gardening!

Some Spiritual Sharing & To Do List

I am having a lovely morning here in my Haven in the country. My Ella went back to sleep early this morning and I had a wonderful time reading my Bible and praying out on my front porch. The Cares of life & Evils of this world just seem so far away when I am out on my front porch, listening to God, hearing His nature, and hearing the quietness, all simultaneously. Ah.

I am currently reading in the book of Genesis and I truly believe it is my favorite book. I very much enjoy the wonderfully true stories of God’s provisions, his wrath and incredible mercies, the deaths and births, promises coming true at the right time—it’s just all wonderful. This morning I read the story of Isaac and Rebekah and what a glorious story it is. There are so many things (for lack of a better word) one could pick out of this story to apply (ah..applications..that’s my word) to one’s life. Complete trust in God is what I gleaned from this story. The servant completely trusted his master, Abraham, enough to complete the seemingly strange task he had set for him to do. The servant trusted God to send the woman that was providentially designated for him to take back to Canaan. Rebekah trusted the servant enough to even water his camels (think about how we would feel today, in our flesh—“what a weirdo! He wants me to water his camels, too? He must be a pervert”). Laban trusted Rebekah enough to come to get the servant to take him home. The whole family trusted the servant enough to allow Rebekah to go with them (even if, understandably so, they didn’t want her to leave right away). And Rebekah trusted again enough to be willing to leave right away. Isaac trusted God to be willing to receive what God had in store for him. It is all goes back to being the result of Abraham’s complete trust in God (see Romans 4:3). I want to be like Abraham’s servant and be willing to be obedient to my master, no matter how unusual the request. I want to be like Rebekah and be trusting in God from the small things (i.e. watering the camels) to the large things (muy grande—marriage).

In my prayer time, I felt impressed to pray for myself (how unusual…) from my head to my feet. I wish I had time to share with you my prayer, but I have household duties awaiting me, somewhat too patiently, I might add. But, for my head, I prayed that God would help me to wear the Helmet of Salvation today and to also be in submission to Him as my head and to my husband as my head. For my feet, I prayed that He would shod them with the preparation of the gospel of peace and also lead me in the ways I should go. I also prayed that my feet would walk on Holy ground today as I go about my duties.

And if I pray in sincerity, God will always be faithful to reveal something in my life on which I need to work. Today was the ever present job of putting God first. He spoke to me on what that means for me. It was wonderful. I hope to share with you at a later time.

On to other more ‘carnal’, albeit important things, my first ever piano recital turned out great! I hope to maybe have some pictures downloaded or perhaps even a video clip of the recital in the very near future. Everyone did great, I sweated profusely under my arms, and only said, “you know”, about 27 times while talking. So there you have it. :) I’ll share more later, Lord willing.

I would love to see some of my blog readers share what your ‘to do’ list looks like. Today, my list looks like the following:

*Read Bible

*Pray

*Blog

*Begin Breakfast

*Spend 10 minutes in each room that is not in the main portion of our house.

*Spend 15 minutes in each room that is in the main portion of our house.

(Did I ever mention how much I love my timer?)

*Wash towels & washcloths.

*Get all laundry put up.

*Get some flowers planted.

*Play with my littles (Nana has the ‘eldests’ today).

What does your day look like?

As for now, I’ve got the cutest-ever two year old in my lap, who desperately needs dry clothes (somebody forgot to put on him a diaper before bed). Add to list above, *Wash sheets.

Have a great day!

My Afternoon & Evening….Monday

If you didn't ready my Morning post, please scroll down and read it below this post...it will make things a lot less confusing!

Sorry for the delay….let’s get back to my day! :)

Kids start school at 12pm. I start my oldest daughter in Kindergarten today as she is now 5 years old. She does really well and is super excited!

In the near future I hope to do a Home School Day post…. Here Erin is doing a shapes worksheet (coloring the shapes that have equal sides) and Emory is doing his Bible Study that he does on Monday. You can’t see Evan, but I think he was playing with Play-Doh.

Around 12:15, I put a chicken in the Crock Pot to thaw and cook for tonight’s unknown supper. I’ll think of something between now and then (I ended up using it to make Chicken Salad Sandwiches for the following day’s lunch).

I am beginning to feel the weak trembles (as my Grandmother use to say) from the empty calorie Honey Bun I ate for Breakfast, so I snack on pecans. I start lunch which consisted of leftover Vegetable Venison Soup and Garlic Toast.

Very yummy and satisfying. I have the picky-est daughter in the world, so she just had toast. Sometimes we will make her eat 2 or 3 bites during our supper meal, but for lunch she can eat fruit or something else healthy instead. I don’t give her a bag of chips or a hot dog while we eat healthy. :)

At 12:30, the Living Room now looks like this:

My motto for this picture is, “We’re not trying to have a clean house, just a lot of fun.” :)

Ella awakes at 12:55 and I feed her somewhere between 1-2pm. (The details start to get sketchy here…)

At 2pm, I read Evan a Max and Ruby story (notice my nice posture and Ella’s hunger for paper pages)

and it is time for his nap. He goes to sleep instantly.

At 3, Ella is back down for her late afternoon nap. The laundry now looks like this (sorry so dark):

I am still washing clothes…lots of cleaning/straightening is still to be done!

Emory is still working on schoolwork at 3:23. He is very distracted today. Not misbehaving, but just very distracted. My husband says that is just how he was. For example, Emory’s chore (I skipped posting about chores somehow) was to sweep their bedroom. It takes him about 10 minutes because he finds sweeping at the light fixture and ceiling fan more entertaining. Distracted.

Erin is supposed to be napping at this time, but we still haven’t done her reading (I’m just starting to teach her to read).

At 3:30, Erin is down for her nap after finishing reading. She is still not thrilled about learning—maybe she was sleepy?

I had a small break here to myself while Emory did his outside chores (his daddy assigns him a different outside job to do daily). Today it was picking up some sticks that had fallen by the house.

While he was outside and the others asleep, I worked on the Living Room and did more laundry.

At 4:00 Emory and I do his Language and History. He learned about the articles, a, an, and the. In History, he learned about Chinese calligraphy/pictograms and how they were the first to write this way.

At this time, my dear husband called to ask if we wanted to eat at the new Mexican restaurant in town. He had received a gift cert from the Home School Asso. at where he spoke.

We were delighted. Sorry, Mr. Chicken, you can wait until tomorrow. :)

Ella is awake at 4:15 and at 4:45 Emory is finally finished with school with the exception of reading. Here he is reading his current favorite books, the Hardy Boys. Check out where his foot is and who might or might not be chewing on his toes…

After this, things become a blur…. I get fixed up a bit, get the kids up and we go eat Mexican.

My husband has to practice with his singing group for an upcoming singing, so the kids and I come back home (he takes the oldest son with him). I let the kids watch a DVD or either play the computer (I don’t remember).

Bath times follow soon after and I start putting away the clothes that now look like this:

The kids are in bed by about 9:30 and I finish picking up—still not tidy as I would like, but at 10:00, I take my bath and got to bed, resisting the temptation to blog about my day. :)