Saturday DECLUTTERING!

[Heather W]

This Week's Challenge: Floors! Could be any room and any style of picking up floors, washing floors, vacuuming floors, etc. Try to focus on all the floors. Make them better than they were before you started.

School Challenge: Long range planning and prep

Inspiring Thought: I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these. - Mr. Darcy, Pride & Prejudice

For me today:

• laundry
• print some of my new planner pages
• add to my planner lists
• gather trash and recycling to go out- snowy so this might wait
• work on a reading checklist
• nature journal time
• school planning
• play some games
• read aloud
• answer some email
• bake cookies
• cook food
• blog work- several things on the list
• powder room- assign this?

It's a snowy morning! Last I checked we were to get about 8 inches. Not sure what the current outlook is.

Today I'll be hanging out with the kids, making food in the kitchen, and doing desk work like blogging and school planning. I saw this cool idea on Instagram where this CM mom charted out the reading she needs to do both for school and personal. It's a chart by the week, but then she knows how much she ought to read each week. I think it was set by term, but I suppose you could do it by when you need to have the reading completed if it's not a term length. I'm going to think on this idea for myself.

Whatever you are up to this Saturday, have fun!

[Jen in OK]

Good morning!

Heather, enjoy your snow! We're still just cold. Boo.

So far:
*breakfast in the crock pot
*laundry washed and in the dryer
*took ds to swim team
*picked up groceries

I think I get to stay home for the rest of the day!

*finish up laundry
*ironing
*planning
*RAR time
*blog
*chili in crock pot--or maybe decide on something different. The kids will have skit practice Tuesday evening so I may move chili to then and cook something different tonight.

Have a great day today, friends!

[Paige P]

Good morning, all

Heather -- enjoy your snowy day

Jen -- for being at home!


Here:
* Jim and the boys are outside with two other men -- they're in the midst of a hog killing/scraping/butchering this morning. So, we've had company in and out since 8 this morning -- the water in the bathtub froze last night, so Jim lit the fire and had to wait a long time this morning to get it up to temperature
* the girls slept in
* I've been washing clothes
* I'm about to go work on MY closet and get some stuff OUT of there that I haven't worn in years (that's my plan at least!)
* pulled out a gallon of veggie soup from the freezer that we can have for lunch -- I have it unthawing and will heat it up later
* M's currently watercolor painting
* K's working on editing her book
* I want to do some French with the girls later


That's it. I think we're going to try to get the pig in the freezer late afternoon/evening -- with as cold as it is today, it'll be COLD by then. Farm life in AL.

[Heather W]

Paige- I love the stories from the farm! Just like in Little House in the Big Woods when they do a pig.

Jen- I'm glad you got your errands in this morning so you can stay in the rest of today. Do they always swim without eating since the night before?

Update:

• got the trash together- included some food that needed to be discarded
• started today's laundry- first up is a load of towels
• cleaned the powder room- and switched the towel
• switched the hand towel- in the master bathroom
• cleaned the vacuum- filters and emptied the canister (hoping I don't have ill effects from all that dust)
• had the dishwasher emptied- and reloaded by KP kid
• made a cute meme- with today's IT. Shared it.
• texted with dh- the move is happening today at noon

Now I need to see about getting some kids to shovel some areas. We have a lot of snow but also a lot of ice under the snow. I don't really have anything to treat the ice under the snow. So, I will have them shovel just a bit and see how slippery it is under there first. But, the mail box needs to be cleared. E is expecting something in the mail and our carrier is not at all ok with snow in his path.

Time to give the kids some bad news about the shoveling...

[Mindy in TX]

Good morning. I slept until 9:30 I can’t remember the last time I slept that late! I was up in the night with terrible throat pain and coughing so I really appreciate DH protecting the room from roaming kids. He also made biscuits for breakfast. I donl’t know why I feel so much worse in the night than I do during the day.... it’s getting old.

Heather, I’m sorry to hear your kids are not feeling well. And that really stinks about the wait time at the Dr.’s office. I always think of the Seinfeld episode... do you know the one? Where George cancels his appointment with the Dr., the “delicate genius”? We reference it all the time here! Also, praying for you and your husband as you deal with aging relatives.

Jen, what kind of breakfast do you put in the crockpot? Also, do you use your IP on slow cooker setting as a crock pot? I would really like to, but didn’t have luck with the roast cooked that way. Hope you get to stay home all day! (After groceries)

Paige, I LOVE hearing about farm life! Exciting! That’s awesome you have soup from the freezer. Hope the closet clean out goes well.

I have been planning off/on this week as I haven’t felt like doing much else but sit with a hot drink. I am wondering, how do you all with multiple kids keep them all straight? Heather, you’ve mentioned a planner video...you’re using it for blog/work, right? Do you still use spiral notebook for your kids? I realize your kids are older than mine. I’ve been reading The Four Tendencies, and it’s clarified for me why some of my list-making isn’t really helping a few of my kids. All of my kids still either need me for most their school tasks, or to be reminded half a dozen times. I understand that is probably to be expected.

Well, DH just left with DD to get her some new shoes with arch supports and run to walmart. I better get dressed! Have a great day, everyone!

[ShayChristie]

Heather, jealous of your snow! We have freezing rain which is making an icy mess. Lots of cancellations for local activities and small businesses closed for the day.

Paige, have fun! I have tried to talk dh into doing the butchering ourselves. He says paying the butchering fee is very much worthwhile to him so he doesn't have to do it! Maybe I'll just send my kids to YOUR farm to see the final results!

Jen, any day which has lots of home time should be a good day!

SO, we had all that rain yesterday and it made a mess of our ice rink. We tried to clean it up as much as possible last night, we'll see how it re-freezes. Most of the snow in the plowed areas is now gone. The rest has melted/compacted to just a few inches. My kids are waiting for the freeze tonight as the snow will be very hard and icy and their sleds will fly all the way to the treeline, which means the littles will need older siblings to make sure they roll off or stop before hitting a tree.

Today's list:
-pilates, ugh.
-back to bed. Yup. I fell in and couldn't get back up. I checked e-mail and surfed a bit from my iPad.
-breakfast, Julie tried to make cinnamon rolls from the can but took them out and frosted before they were done
-chores are mostly done
-Julie collected pinecones, going to fill with peanut butter and birdseed and use our dead Christmas tree to feed the birds
-Bekah is doing chores for money, she wants money, I need my vehicle detailed.
-Ben is in charge of laundry today
-Nick is working on college stuff. I want to e-mail this all in this weekend.
-Jon and Josh worked in their room. It needs much more, but they did do some. I'll help more later.
-I re-worked some of the transcript. Need to review with dh.

Okay, I've been interrupted numerous times and need to go. I'll post more later if more happens.

[Heather W]

Mindy- Oh yes! I still use a spiral for school. I'm done playing that game. The only reason I'm using it for blogging right now is that I can't keep everything I want to do straight in this season. It has a lot of potential for my goals. Which is really the thing...I have goals I want to meet. With school, the big picture is already set and I am heading there with each kid in his or her own way.

Update: The shoveling out at the mailbox and at the end of the driveway is finished. The side steps are finished. And there is a walking path from the end of the driveway to the steps.

Plus, there's a kid out there playing in the snow. So, that ought to be good.

If I didn't have snack duty tomorrow at church, I would stay home. But, I think the van can get over the rest of the snow to get out of the driveway in the morning.

[CINDY LB OH]

Good Afternoon!
It didn't start really snowing heavily until 9pm or so, and kept it up for most of the night. We have a good 6 inches, plus we've had some flurries off and on this morning, and a white-out snow squall that lasted about 5 minutes. I'm not sure how much ice is under that snow, but I don't think it was too bad. Dh shoveled, neighbors have been shoveling or using their snow blowers. It looks like a snow plow made a pass down the middle of one road, turned the corner and went up the next road, but that was it. I never saw it, so I have no idea when it came through. The rest of our road hasn't been plowed, so obviously no one has been back to do more than that quick pass down the center. It's not really helpful when they do that, because they pile up a bunch of snow for several feet in front of the mailboxes. Ugh. Digging out the mailboxes from snow-plowed snow is not fun. Dh did some, and the neighbor's son came later and did the rest. Our mailboxes are next to each other. I'm assuming main roads our decent, but it may take them a long time to get back here. Dh was out and went to the bank.

We have mostly sunny skies now. It's good to see blue sky again. We haven't had any a long while. It's cold again though. 16*F, with -8* wind chill. Brrr.

I've been busy being productive!

So far:

• email management/reading
• paid some bills
• pulled burger from the freezer for chili and biscuits (ds10 requested biscuits)
• been running laundry.... I'm on my third wash load. Two are drying now, folded the one from yesterday
• swept the kitchen floor and ran the duster under the table
• took all the clutter off the kitchen secretary, where I keep my calendar plus all sorts of such I shoved under it
• put back only the things I want on the secretary
• went through most of the clutter piles... much to recycle box/burn bag, some filed away, more to deal with.... I don't know why I let it pile up so bad last year.
• scrubbed the toilet bowl, the rest of the toilet, and the floor around the toilet
• emptied a laundry hamper last week that was filled with old stuff and finally scrubbed it out; it's drying in the tub now
• lunch is done

I think that's it so far. I need to keep moving on house stuff.
No tutoring on Monday (MLK Jr. Day), so I need to get house things back in order. Which I meant to do during break but didn't get everything done I wanted.

For the rest of TODAY:

• finish up the paper clutter
• finish up the laundry
• pack up Christmas, leave out just the snowmen.... our tree is still up; we may haul it out tomorrow
• make the chili and biscuits
• school planner/journal work... I didn't do any of it yesterday
• tutor reading assignment and homework schedule... don't know when our make-up training day will be yet

HeatherW-- I saw something on instagram yesterday too, it sounds like the same one. She had little boxes with the chapter numbers needing to be read inside them, and then she colored in the box when she did it. I don't remember if it was weekly or not. It's a little more cheery than just a list with check boxes, which is what I use right now.

Jen-- Glad you can stay home the rest of your day. I'm staying put inside too.

Paige-- How's that pig coming? We had pigs growing up, but we never processed them ourselves. We loaded them up and sent them on their way. Occasionally my dad did a hog roast though, outside in a pit.

Mindy-- I'm sorry you aren't feeling better. Get your rest.

[Mindy in TX]

I’m so jealous of the snow! It’s been 90 days now since we’ve had moisture It’s sunny today. When I moved here, I was so excited about the sunny days, kept saying I need to get out an enjoy it. Then my MIL informed me that it’s pretty much always sunny. After AK, I was thrilled

Shay, so is Pilates like yoga? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a video.... I love yoga, so I was wondering. I love that your kids are all working on something today.

Heather, I have more spirals on the Walmart list for DH to pick up. Do your kids each have their own spiral/planner, or did they at my kids ages? I guess that’s what I’m asking. Maybe I should just accept it, but it’s so much work for me to write in all their responsibilities in their own spiral (which we’ve done in the past, but it didn’t seem sustainable) and also write out my plans in another. I think my expectation (at their ages, anyway) are just off.

Cindy - stay warm!

For me so far:

Washed my face and “got ready” for the day - always makes me feel better
Listened to a podcast
Cleaned the bathroom
Changed my sheets
Listened to DS read while combing/braiding little girls hair
Made some tea

Now I need to feed the kids some lunch. DH is still out with my oldest. She normally orchestrates lunch. We had a late breakfast, so late lunch it will be.

Today I want to:
Weave in the ends of a blanket I have been crocheting FOREVER. I will upload a photo. I’m so proud!
Long range planning - been working on, need to commit to some units
Plan our next unit
Maybe go by the library
Figure out dinner.

[Jen in OK]

Good afternoon!

Paige, have fun with the pig! There are some things I am not cut out for.

Heather, on Saturdays he just gets up and swims and eats afterward. In order to not feel full, he'd have to get up super early, which he doesn't want to do. He's usually exhausted and starving by the time he gets out, so I try to have something quick on Saturdays!

Mindy, this is what I made today. It took a little longer than the time written to cook but it was good--kind of like a cinnamon roll bread pudding. I just used my regular crock pot. My IP has been hiding in my cabinet...I should bring it out...

Shay, the ice rink sounds fun!!

Cindy, enjoy your day off Monday!!

I have not accomplished much. I did finish up the laundry and puttered a bit in the school room. I also read to the kids, made lunch, and cooked up the hamburger meat I was going to use for the chili. So I've done some things, I guess, but nothing exciting.

I'm waiting for the water to warm back up because I was last in line for a shower!