Field trip day!

One train


Two boys (My monkey is in the Gilligan's hat):


Three tickets:


Four hours later:


An then Monkey 2 tries to get the party started:






We held strong though and kept on becoming one with the couch while Monkey 2 moved on to bigger and better things.

Daddy :)

The proof is in the pudding

So today was scramble-and-clean-the-house-because-I-know-I'm-not-going-to-have-time-to-do-it-over-the-weekend day (that's a mouthful).

Confession time: One thing I haven't quite kept up is the weekly schedule that I created in the spring. We are out for so much of the day and doing a variety of summer activities, I find it really hard to stick to a schedule of chores. So I've been doing big cleans twice a week during my daughter's hour nap in the afternoon (according to the books she should be sleeping from 2-3 hours, but my kids never go by the books). The big change is that now that the house is actually tidy, I don't have to work through the mounds of stuff I did before, so it works really well.

So, back to my point. Today was clean the first floor day. Alexander loves to help clean and plays such an active role in keeping the house tidy that it actually surprises me. We made him clean up toys and such before, but now he likes to help vacuum, dust (thank god someone is willing to do it because I hate doing it) and mop the floors as well, and cleans up after his messes instead of just getting me to do it.

Case and point, he dropped an open container of apple sauce yesterday and spent all of 10 minutes in the kitchen attempting to pick it all up with paper towel. HE wanted to do it, I was going to do it for him. He didn't want my help and about half a paper towel roll later he finally got it done to a three year old child's standards. I was super proud and so was he. Although when I offered him another apple sauce he sighed and said they were too much work, lol.

Today, he mopped the floors in the kitchen and even got the corner of my base cabinets where all the yuckies like to collect. He then moved to the dining room and did the floors there and actually noticed that the floor was the dirtiest under his chair. His words to this realization "Mama, I's gots to be more careful when I eating. So i don't make a mess on the foor." Ah, bless his heart. He actually was more careful at dinner that night. He sat in Daddy's spot ;)

Alexander is such a helper and it makes him so proud. These recent changes in his behaviour have shown me that he is learning from the example I am setting.

And before people start to think I'm running a slave labour camp here, Alexander has picked these things up all by himself. Because of his age, his actual chores are limited to picking up his toys, wiping down his chalk board and putting his clothes in the laundry basket.

Add to the list taking out the recycling and garbage only because he is currently totally in to anything that has to do with waste management, as I think most boys go through at one time or another.

His "great helper" (that is what he calls himself) has also really changed his daily behaviour, so much so that both Peter and I are making an effort to slow down and let him take part in more activities around the house, like the cooking, garden work and grocery shopping.

But, more on that tomorrow. Today I am basking in the glow of my shiny wood floors, complements of my "great helper", knowing that he went to sleep feeling like a very proud little man.

Cheers!

How things are changing at home

While listening to my son play the other day, I realized that all the changes I've made to the way we live has changed the way the other family members function in our home.

1. I haven't seen a dirty work sock on any of my floors in a very long time. I don't know how long exactly, but it has been a while. Nice :)

2. My son was putting away his toys and was just talking away to himself and his sister and I heard him say this "See! If you put the toys back in this basket you find them next time. Hmm, I don't know where this tractor goes. Better put it with my farm because it matches." He went on like this for a good ten minutes, telling her all about where the toys go and what toys he was putting away. Much better than the bulldozer method he used before (he called it bulldozing, not me).

3. I don't feel the strain I used to feel when organizing things. The daily tasks are done without much thought anymore and new tasks are added with less pain.

4. I have relaxed A LOT when it comes to getting the chores done. While I still like to get everything done, I'm not as hard on myself as I was at the beginning.

5. Being more organized at home has allowed me to explore other interests in my life and enjoy them again.

6. I will admit that the house does look lived in now, and not the pristine house it was at the beginning of this project. But things are organized and have a place, which makes things so much easier and nicer to look at. No more piles of magazines, toys have a place, laundry is put away, books are on the shelf. It is really nice.

I have been putting off picking the next room because we are in the process of putting the kids in one room (and thankfully Anna will be out of my room). So I've been doing organizing around that, moving furniture, organizing toys, but because I can't pull a chapter out of the book for that, there is going to be a few weeks of random cleaning.

The order of the rooms after the big switch:

Bathroom
Bedroom
Kids Room

I'm not sure where I'm going to go after that because, well, I'm not sure how long those rooms will take. Maybe if my youngest starts napping more than an hour at a time, I might actually be able to get something done!

I also wanted to mention that I will be taking this blog in to another direction as well. What I have realized is that while this is a blog about getting my house organized, so much happens in my life that I want to share, that I'm going to start sharing those events as well. After all, I am changing myself, and a very big part of that includes the members of this family.

AND, now that I have all this new physical space, my brain has opened up and I actually have complete thoughts. And I can organize them and put them on paper! (or computer screen?) So I hope to share some of them with you as well.

Until next time!