Some Things That Are Helping Me

I thought I would share a few things that have been working for me and my family. Three of my least favorite things used to be laundry, meal time/planning, and bed time. I decided I needed to make some changes, because feeling frustrated, disorganized, and tired all of the time was just not making me a happy person or the person I wanted to feel like everyday. Here's what is helping me with each of those now:

Since the beginning of the year I have been trying to stay more on top of the laundry. When the twins were first born, I did at least a load of laundry a day to keep up because they were going through so many outfits in a day. As they got a little older, I went back to just doing laundry whenever I had time (or when everyone ran out of clothes.) What was happening with that, is that my kids have tons of clothes so they would just wear everything they had until I had the hugest mile high pile of laundry to tackle. Same with Riley, because he could wear two or three outfits a day between his day job and coaching. And you know what's not fun? Having to spend a whole day or consecutive days trying to get everything done and caught up. I would dread it and it was pretty overwhelming. I recently went back to doing at least one load a day and it has helped enormously. I start a load as soon as I get a chance in the morning and hopefully can get it folded and put away before lunch. I've found that if I just do a load of whatever clothes everyone wore the day before, it doesn't pile up and no one has to ask where such and such item is because it's always back in their drawer the next day. There might be a load of towels or sheets to throw in one or two days a week, but it has really simplified and paired down the process. Sometimes I can't get to it right away, but I've  noticed a huge difference that doing that one thing does in keeping my laundry room from being out of control with the floor clean and free and everything ready and clean for my family to wear again. And I've come to the conclusion that we all just have way too many clothes. When laundry is done every day, you realize the excess that is really there and how little you really need.  I've started making sure to put the clean clothes on the bottom so they all get rotated through. Probably a no brainer for most people - but something that is making a difference and then my kids are wearing those shirts and things that before were never quite making their way to the top of the drawer. I hear the most complaints from friends about hating laundry but I am getting to the point now where it is no longer a source of stress and sucking up all my time. Riley and I also recently organized our closet and paired down and got rid of lots of things that were just "hanging" out and taking up space.

Another thing that has really helped is the process of doing a two-week meal plan. I got hooked on The Food Nanny on the BYU channel and loved her method and style of cooking. I bought her cook book which is filled with the best family friendly recipes and ideas and tips for how to get back to having good family dinners {which was something our family needed to work on with everyone's crazy schedules}. It makes a big difference to have meals planned out for two weeks, I usually do a shopping trip for one week's worth of meals unless I am feeling really energetic and brave to get it all done at once. It is the best thing not to have to go to the store all of the time {except for diapers and milk which we go through like crazy}. I love having a theme night for every day of the week and it's helped me get out of my cooking rut and plan meals everyone is going to love. I try to make sure that in every meal there is at least one thing that everyone will like, {not an easy task}.

 Here is what our's looks like:

Sunday:
Family Traditions  (pot roast, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, ham and potato casserole, fried chicken, etc.) All those good things that make coming home after church and walking into a house that smells terrific worth it.

Monday:
Comfort Food ( stews, soups and rolls, french dip sandwiches, chicken and gravy, chicken pot pie, casseroles, meatloaf, etc.)

Tuesday:
Italian ( spaghetti, lasagna, tortellini soup and french bread, meatballs, bow tie pasta, chicken piccata, fettuccine, etc.)

Wednesday:
Breakfast/Meatless/Fish (french toast, pancakes, waffles, eggs and bacon, breakfast burritos, German pancakes, biscuits and gravy, baked or grilled salmon, fish tacos, tuna melts, etc.)

Thursday:
Mexican ( tacos, enchiladas, taco soup, fajitas, quesadillas, beans and rice, taco salad, fiesta chicken and rice)

Friday:
Pizza ( We do home made pizza unless we're going out for dinner or getting the kids a babysitter. Some of our favorite's to make are: bbq chicken pizza, pepperoni and olives, canadian bacon, hamburger and cheese, and we like to do build your own topping pizzas which the kids love. We'll also make bread sticks if there's time)

Saturday:
Grill Night/Quick and Easy (hamburgers, Frito banditos, sloppy Joe's, bbq chicken drumsticks, grilled steak, potato bar, build your own grilled hot dogs or sandwiches, ribs, etc.)

What a difference it has made in helping to simplify my life. The kids really enjoy having the theme nights and looking up on the menu board to see what is for dinner that night. It is a big money saver as well, and I find we don't really eat out AT ALL when we stick to it. I'm not scrambling at the last minute to think of something and I can prepare earlier in the day for things I know are going to take a bit longer. We have been sitting down eating all together on the nights that we can and dare I say, it is actually fun!

The last thing that has been helping around these parts is putting all of the kids to bed at the same time. I have to admit, bed time is my LEAST favorite time of the day. I'm just usually wiped out by that time. We used to let Kendle stay up later, but then Morgan would cry and ho hum around and then it was disruptive {since they share a room}. We were also keeping the babies up later to help them sleep in longer in the mornings, but now that they are sleeping longer stretches usually that's not an issue any more. We decided we needed a change and a better solution, so when 8:00 rolls around, it's time for bed and lights out for all the kids. We say "ok, it's night-night time" and the babies go running to their rooms to be tucked in. We bought the older kids head lamps for Christmas so they can read in bed, but they have to stay in bed. Sometimes I will find little toys and things Morgan has been playing with up in his bunk, but it's fine because as long as they stay quiet with the lights off I don't mind. Surprisingly there are few complaints from Kendle about the earlier bed time {she loves to read at night} and it has been working out great to have everyone in bed at the same time and the house fairly quiet that early. If I'm really feeling organized, I will have everyone get in their jammies and ready for bed by 7:30 and then they can just hang out until it's time.That means I usually have two hours before I go to bed to just relax and spend time with Riley {unless he's still at practice, and then I am just glad I got everyone to bed by myself without losing my temper 50 times}.  We definitely need that down time to regroup, talk about our day, plan for the next day, and get a breather. *And lest you are all thinking there is no way things can work out that perfectly every night, let me assure you we still have our nights where we get home late from visiting family or sporting events where we do a whirlwind pajama change/throw all the kids in bed method. And that works great sometimes too. :)

So laundry, meal planning, and bed time have gotten much better and less stressful around here. Three things that used to cause me a lot of frustration are now not so bad.

What are some things that are helping you lately?

I did it.......whew

(The After Picture)

While Riley was tackling the garage this afternoon, I got to work on the coat/storage closet by the front door.  It now looks sooooooo much better. Look at all those neatly stacked games and coats that are actually on their hooks. I didn't think to take a before picture, but trust me when I say it was horrendous. I swept up so much dirt and finally got all of Morgan's Thomas the Train and Lego pieces picked up that have been hiding out in the dark recesses for who knows how long. I made a nice little stack of old games and puzzles to donate and threw away the little odds and ends that somehow ended up there and no longer served a purpose. It was a good reminder that we have those fun games and we need to PLAY them more often and have some good quality family time with the kids. I also discovered an amazing puzzle that's never been opened and I'm going to get it out later tonight just for me.

So it really wasn't that bad. It took me half an hour or so and it was pretty painless.

Now the questions is, how long is it going to stay that way??????????

Next on my list - my bedroom closet.

A Day In The Life of Me

Today has been a very productive day. If I could consistently have one or two days a week like this I would be in good shape. I baked a huge batch of cookies, made 4 loaves of zucchini bread, shredded and stored the rest of the leftover zucchini, folded and put away 3 baskets of laundry, sent off Morgan's pre-school info., got dinner prepped, and swept the floor approximately five times. (That last part is a joke, I sweep the floor at least that many times every day and it still looks like a tornado rolled through.)

It is hard working in the kitchen when the twins are awake. If they are in their walkers they are constantly slamming into the back of my ankles as I expertly attempt to push them out of harms way with one leg as I open the hot oven or load the dishwasher. They pull on my pant legs begging for snacks like little puppies. They are so tickled when I look down and give them a little smile and a pat on the head. Although it can make doing things hard sometimes, it fills me with joy when I see how much they want to tag along with me wherever I go, they're smiles so big and hands flapping with excitement.

Kendle and Morgan circled the kitchen until I was done making the cookies and then swooped in to claim who got to lick the batter bowl, the beaters and spoon. Then it was back to circling like vultures until the timer beeped for the first batch of warm cookies to come out of the oven. After eating their cookies I shooed them outside to play and give me some peace while I tidied up a bit. Of course Morgan came inside soaking wet yet again from playing in some spot of water or another. Today it is a bucket that must have been left where the sprinkler could hit it last night. Second outfit of the day for Morgan - check.

The babies have been following Morgan around and he thinks he finally has some play buddies. He will hand them a car or two or some blocks and explain what they need to do with them and then he basically plays around them on the floor. Lucky for him they are growing immune to his loud talking in their faces and sudden urges to wrestle them. My daily routine has started to include keeping Morgan from doing stunts off of their walkers.

Kendle was excited to go get the mail for me again today. She has been waiting for her check to come from singing at the Watermelon Festival. The lady in charge was so nice and wanted to send her a little money. Today was the day she got her check for $25 with a nice little note attached. She was so excited! Her first paid gig. Now if she can just get some more singing jobs....................

At least the weather has been cooler today and made my baking possible without heating up the house too much. That was a nice bonus to wake up to. It was a little preview of the approaching fall weather.

Well, babies are hungry so I'm off to go feed the little darlings.

Getting Ready for School

Today was the little "ice cream social" aka visit your new classroom and put your school supplies away day at Kendle's school. This year Kendle's class is out in a pod near the playground and her new teacher seems very peppy, friendly, and nice. I think Kendle will really enjoy her. We found her desk and her cubby and looked around the room a bit. Morgan was very taken with a big fake bear rug the teacher had draped over the chair in the reading corner. He was ready to sit down and stay a while.

I just put the Morgster down for a nap and Riley took Kendle out for the afternoon on a little daddy daughter date. While they are gone I am going to take advantage of the time to clean out and organize her room a bit. I feel like it needs to be done before school starts on Monday. If I'm extra industrious I hope to have time to clean out all of her hair accessories in the bathroom cupboard. She has tons of little barrettes and things that don't fit in her hair anymore, so it's time to chuck them. I bought some new clear plastic storage containers to put all the rubber bands, headbands, clips, ribbons, etc. in and hopefully that will help somewhat tame the chaos of searching for something to put in her hair.

I feel like I'm kind of behind this year on getting all of the school stuff done. Kendle has quite a few pairs of pants that I wanted to hem because they are too long, but maybe I can get that done next week. Come to think of it, I should put some reinforcement material behind the knees of all of her pants now too. I don't know what she does at school, but her jeans never last very long. I know I'm not alone with that problem.

This weekend we'll be working to get ready for the new school/fall season. I've got some baking to do, lunch supplies to get ready, and school clothes to iron. Riley will be working on our fence that needed some mending and getting the car washed and cleaned out. Also, hopefully putting up our new wall lights from Ikea that will go by our bed. I'm excited about our bedroom makeover I've been working on the last few weeks. I'll have to post some pictures when I'm all done.

I can feel the change in the air and I'm looking forward to fall, the cooler weather, and perhaps having a bit more time to start getting ready for these baby boys to get here. I feel like the nesting and cleaning frenzy is already kicking in and I'm driving my family crazy with how cranky I've been lately about the house not being spotless. I know that it is just those fabulous hormones rearing their ugly head. Riley knows by now though that if things aren't just so, I go crazy and don't feel prepared. As the saying in our house goes, "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." I usually feel bad after I get mad about something, but there is just something about a stray sock or shoe laying in the middle of the floor and everyone just walks around it like it's not there that drives me absolutely insane! I know I should be used to it by know and let it slide, but I just can't. Some things just will always bug me.

Well, off to go work. Then I'm taking the rest of the night off! Ha.

Learning something new...

Today I tackled both bathrooms and gave them a thorough deep cleaning that they were in dire need of. It's one of my least favorite things to do, but it always feels good after it's done and no one's complaining that they can't see themselves in the mirror because of the toothpaste spots anymore (young children brushing their teeth can be quite the adventure).

I washed the bath mats and rugs and decided I'd even throw the shower curtains in the wash too. Then I got to looking at the shower curtain liners that looked like they were needing to be replaced and had seen much better days. I was going to the store and thought I'd just pick some up while I was there. Then I thought - I'll just try throwing them in the washing machine too and see what happens. These particular liners were kind of expensive and pretty heavy duty so I hated to just get new ones. Was I ever happy when I saw that the liners came out perfectly clean and looking brand new. Am I the only person who has never tried this before? For some reason I thought the washing machine would ruin them, but I was so pleasantly surprised. Ladies, these are the things we need to be sharing with one another! Why didn't someone tell me this before! :)

An extra bonus was that a big old black grease smudge (I have the guy who fixed the crack in our soaker tub to thank for that) on my really nice shower curtain from our master bathroom came out too. I was thinking I was going to have to buy a new shower curtain, but I guess that old saying definitely applied to me and my endeavors today:

"It all comes out in the wash."

Summer Vacation?

I've been working hard the last few days getting some things done that have been neglected the last couple of months and needed some tending too. I had a little spurt of energy yesterday since I am finally starting to breath better at night and getting some better rest. So in between breaking up the on-going battles between Kendle and Morgan I managed to go to the library, stop at the store, do quite a few loads of laundry (all folded and put away), went through all my maternity clothes and packed up and donated ones I will never wear again, packed up all of Morgan's clothes he's grown out of in the last six months into a storage container ready to go in the garage, cleaned out the freezer, made two batches of freezer jam, and lastly made a "real" dinner for the family ( I say real because we've been eating lots of easy food lately like salads and sandwiches). It's amazing how after doing all of that work, my house can still look like a total disaster by the end of the day. I think breaking up all of the fights and the yelling, screaming, and tantrums are almost more exhausting than the housework.

Today after swim lessons we went grocery shopping and now after feeding the kids lunch and putting groceries away I am wiped out. My reward for working hard? I am going to put the kids down for naps/quiet time, take it easy the rest of the afternoon, read one of my new books from the library, and later I will meet up with my mother for some Olive Garden and shopping.

*I'll post soon about some of the great books I've been reading this summer.

Monday List

(I always feel more accountable if I post these on my blog)

Today I'll be busy with the following:

*Cleaning out the fridge (yuck, I hate this chore)

*Cleaning out the laundry room

*Catching up on everyone's laundry

*Cleaning the piano

*Packing up Morgan's clothes he's outgrown

*Packing up my clothes that I will not be able to wear for a long time (sniff, sniff, tear)

*Making Riley a "honey do" list ( he, he, he - love to make those)

*Sort through Kendle's giganctic mountain of school work she brought home the last week of school that has been taking over my dining room table.

*Plan something good for dinner

*Have a FHE on Patriotism and make plans for the 4th


Time to get started! I better crank up some music and get going.

Happy Monday - it's fresh new week!

Finally some sort of Organization

For the last few months I've been wanting to help Kendle's disaster of a room become more organized, specifically her closet and her mass of clothes that seemed to be spilling from every available space. I am not exagerating in the least when I say it was like a war zone in there. I should have taken some before and after shots. Her dresser was one of Riley's old ones that we had painted and fixed up but the drawers were really hard to open and falling apart. I figured, how can I expect Kendle to keep her room clean when she doesn't even have a good place to put her clothes away? So yesterday I moved out her old dresser from her closet and replaced it with one of these:





















The baskets are way larger than her original drawer space and I think this will be one of the best purchases I've made in a while. I labeled each basket so she can easily see what goes where and made one basket specifically just for play clothes, which in itself will be huge laundry/time saver because if ever there was a little girl who is rough and tough on her clothes it is her. She is old enough now that I've been trying to promote a lot of self responsibility in taking care of her own things and since I just made her up a new chore chart, I wanted her to be able to start off with a clean slate. I found a really cute "responsibility" chart that has a place for weekly chores and daily chores from this article on I'm an organizing Junkie.

Here are the links she provided if you want to print your own off:

Girls Chart
Boys Chart

Kendle's daily chores are:
Make her bed
Tidy up bathroom
Let Bogie (our dog) out to play and make sure he has food
Play with Morgan or read him a story
Put dirty clothes/shoes away
Tidy bedroom before bed

Kendle's weekly chores:
Empty bedroom garbage
Sort laundry
Wash sliding door
Weed/Help pick up yard
Help clean out car
Clean room well (which I told her if she is doing her daily chores like she should this won't be a big job because it will already be clean)

I'm hoping some of these things will just become routine. I may be aiming a little high giving her so many things, but I think she is capable of doing it since she already does a lot of them anyways. Now I just need to get the rest of my house in shape. It seems like every time I get one room under control, the rest of the house decides to look like a tornado came through. :)

The Bane of My Existence

There are two things in our home that drive me absolutely batty because they are so hard to keep clean.

The first is our soaker tub/shower combo. I scrubbed that thing like nobody's business yesterday and swore up and down last night to Riley that we would never put one of those in another house ever again. The tub is so large I have to actually climb inside of it it to clean it and then scrub all of the walls while I'm inside of it too. If I choose not to do that, I have to kneel down outside of the tub and stretch and strain to reach all of the corners and ledges and it is physically painful. It is probably my LEAST favorite thing to do ever.

The second thing that drives me crazy is our piano. It's pretty and it sounds beautiful, but it is black and has a high gloss finish which shows everything. It's constantly covered in fingerprints and smudges galore. It is impossible to keep clean. I want my kids to grow up having the freedom to sit down and play anytime they want, but this is not the piano for practicality purposes. Hopefully someday we can have a music room or a den so we can put it somewhere that it won't be in a such a high traffic area and tempt the kids to wipe their grimy little hands all over it. A shiny surface to the under 8 crowd is too hard to handle.

*Mouse update: As of this morning - still no mouse to be found. Maybe he heard the words "poison" and "trap" and high tailed it out of here.

There's a Mouse in our House

About 1:00 in the morning Riley woke me up with our bedroom door opening and a flashlight in hand. I asked him what he was doing, and he replied that he had opened our closet by the front door and a mouse had run out and he wasn't sure where it went. He said he was about 90% sure it had gone under the laundry room door, but he was still checking the other rooms. I was freaked out! I hate rodents, spiders, and anything else that isn't supposed to be making itself at home in my house. I could not go back to sleep after that. I kept imagining that I heard little mouse scratching noises. I had horrible thoughts of getting up to go to the bathroom at night and stepping on it. Finally after drifting off, I was awakened again by Kendle - she had a bad dream. She woke me up two different times last night. Apparently there was something spooky looking on one of the top shelves of her closet. (this has got to stop, she wakes me up almost every night - it is worse than a newborn baby) We closed the closet doors and I tried to go back to sleep, so tired by this time that I wouldn't have cared if there was a mouse in my room or not. Riley put one of his sticky traps from work in our laundry room and as of 8:00 this morning it still had no mouse. I asked Riley how he thought it had gotten in the house, and he said he had found some signs of some mice in our garage and that mice can squeeze under a quarter of an inch opening or something like that. He's going to bring some heavy duty poison home from work and hopefully we can kill them all.

Moral of the story - I am one tired and grouchy lady today.

Back to work

I have a big case of the Mondays this morning. My house is a wreck. I seriously wish I could just take an eraser and wipe the slate clean and start over. Sundays always leave a trail of turmoil throughout our house and by the time we get home from church, cook dinner, and attempt to at least do the dishes (usually around 6:30 or 7:00) I'm too exhausted to do much about it, so it waits until Monday morning. I actually did pick up a bit as I was getting Kendle off to school, but as soon as Morgan woke up it's like a super speed tornado coming through - pulling pillows off the couch, toys out of the bucket, and anything else he can get his hands on. Have I mentioned before just what a busy little guy he is? Wow. Literally, in two minutes he can have everything torn apart. At this very moment, he is standing with one leg in the movie basket, one hand plugging adapter chords into the TV, and the other hand turning the TV on and off. Good thing for him he's too adorable to get mad at.

At least someone in our family will be doing something fun today. Riley and my dad are leaving this afternoon to go to a Mariner's game. So yay for them! It should be fun, and that means I don't really need to cook dinner tonight if I don't feel like it. That's always a plus.

So now I'm going to psyche myself up for some cleaning (which might involve eating a brownie), so I can have an afternoon of relaxation if that's at all possible. The life of a domestic engineer is never easy.

Colds, laundry, and attempting to bribe my child

Today was one of those tedious days that seem to drag on forever. Riley is out of town for a work convention in Spokane, I'm on my fifth day of battling a cold, and it was laundry day once again. On top of that, the majority of the day in between folding load after load of laundry and blowing my nose a gazillion times, was spent trying to get Kendle to clean her room.

This is a constant battle at our house. Even though I regularly throw junk from her room away (she 's a pack rat), it piles back up, and she goes through at least three outfits a day so there seem to be clothes everywhere. It's driving me crazy. So today it was time to clean up her room after us being away all weekend and I tried everything under the sun to get her to do it. This kid has negotiating skills that would rival any high profile trial lawyer. She knows it is one of her regular jobs and she is not supposed to get any extra money or treatment for cleaning it, but still she attempts to best me at my patience and sanity level. I do not think it is hard for a 5 year old to put her toys in the toy box, clothes in the hamper, shoes in the shoe box, and books in the bookcase. Four things. So as I type this, Kendle is in bed in her half clean room and I am still folding laundry and battling a giggling baby who isn't showing the slightest bit of sleepiness. Ain't life grand? Riley doesn't know what he's missing.

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere. It must be October.

Today is the day that I unpacked my fall decorations. I love doing this and look forward to it.

Kendle loves to help me and place some decorations in her room as well. I remember when I was a child, we would beg my mom to get out the holiday decorations and make the house look festive. This year I have a lot of pumpkins placed around my home. It might be a bit overkill, but I love them.

Can you tell that I love black?

Now, I'm officially in the mood for the season. Did anyone count how many pumpkins there were?

The day I dread during the week.....

Welcome to :

Usaully Monday is laundry day at the Dodson house, but since it was Labor Day on Monday, laundry day got pushed back a bit. Laundry to me is like listening to a bad song over and over again. I don't mind throwing it in the machines, but folding it, sorting socks, and putting it all away is one of my least favorite chores. I tried painting my laundry room a nice color and decorating it a bit to make it a little more bearable - didn't work. It's still not fun no matter how I try to trick myself. Riley always has a ton of socks with no mates (seriously, where can they all go?) and Kendle's clothes get so dirty that I have to scrub and scrub before even putting them in the washer. I do love the clean, fresh smell after it's all done. I just wish I could take it to one of these instead -

I am seriously the only one in my family who wears just one outfit during the day; it's insane how much piles up in a week. So I just had to stop and rant a bit in between my 99 and 100th load of laundry for the day. And if you happen to be doing the same thing today at your house, happy folding to you.