Work Zones

I shared my schedule a few posts back, and I thought I would show you what a work zone entails. For example if Madeleine is in charge of zone 2, then she has the kitchen, nook, and laundry room. These are connected and have a natural flow so I pick areas that go together for a zone. In these zones I post a laminated list of what to do in that area, and then a day of the week chore. Here is a picture of the kitchen chart. The laundry room has it's own chart. I post this in the room where the child can access it easily.
Because I have laid out exactly what I would do in the kitchen, and what I expect, it is much easier for the child to do the tasks without having to figure out what mom wants, or what to do next.

Here are a few more examples for other rooms throughout the house..


I was blessed when a friend Steph shared this system with me several years ago. It is not exactly the same as hers but she gave me the pep talk, the theory behind it, and the "how to" to initiate it. I think as mothers we believe that we should be able to do it ALL. We are home all day, right ? Well ladies we were given these blessings to be a blessing to the family not a burden to take care of. If we require that each child bless their home with service they are not only learning valuable life skills, but become the blessing the Bible references. No child is too young to work. If they can play they can help. Work doesn't need to be thought of as drudgery. You can make it into a game for young children, children love to please, so talk up how excited daddy will be to come home to a clean, tidy and orderly home. Believe me when things are tidy order falls in line. I can't tell you how much less stressful it is when everything is in it's place and laundry is done when I need it. Now as a disclaimer I must say that I often fall away from the schedule or become lax and then the house spirals out of control. Look at it as you are the CEO of your home. If the head of the company is unfocused then what happens to the employees? Chaos, right? So as mother the best thing you can do is NOT work yourself into oblivion while your sweet little blessings play wii, or watch TV... No, keep the troops mobilized, on task, and the home running smoothly.

Remember we have many, many , many jobs. If you are scrubbing the floors and making lunches, can you be lesson planning, meal planning, scheduling appointments, and all the other tasks that are as important to the running of the family. A CEO does not do it all but can effectively delegate and encourage those around him.

The first week, start each zone as clean as you expect it and then turn it over to them. It is too overwhelming to ask them to take it on in chaos. Then you train for a week, correcting as needed. After you know they know what is expected, and have performed satisfactorily, then I treat it as a discipline problem if they do not perform the tasks as required.

I needed this little pep talk as much as anyone else, so I hope it helps someone who may be feeling burnout on the home front.

So how do you organize chores in your home?

Update on Home Organization

*I have cleaned out and organized the pantry

*My Schoolroom is clean and about 90% organized.

*Yardwork is never ending and I hope to mow again tomorrow before I leave Sunday

* The dining room is good

* My laundry is all done, I just need to continue folding the mountain on my bed

So To Do before Sunday:

**Yard
**Clean back porch and front porch
**Make sure all laundry put away
**Pack
**Light cleaning to all rooms (vacuum and dust)
**Put some meals in the freezer for Mike
** Saturday Night WIZARD OF OZ--- it is Sat night right??


I am off to the pediatricians, and then to get my cleaning groove on at home.
I have a huge long post on children that I am forming in my head, hopefully I can get it typed out tonight.

Hi to everyone we saw or heard about in town today, WHAT A SMALL TOWN!!!

1930's wife - I don't smoke dope

61 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Okay, well maybe I am not very superior but I didn't even think I would rank this high. But since I don't smoke in bed, have cigarette stained fingers, or smoke dope that must count for something.. It was a fun test, and my friend over at Winchester Academy is right on about being a thrifty wife. I would love to explore ways each of us are helping our family during this recession. Sorry I used the "R" word but lets face it gas at 4+ dollars and a weeks supply of groceries topping 250.00 we definitely are tightening our belt around here. That may be because we have gas guzzling vehicles. Diesel should hit 5 dollars soon- ouch!

So maybe we can share on our blogs if we run across a good deal at the grocery store, or sale at target. How about Thrifty Thursday and we can post a good recipe or ideas to help cut household costs. We are going back to the laundry line, it truly saved me about 100.00 on my power bill. I just have to get the clothes out before the rain comes ;) Okay enough blogging I am off to clean the house...

EHM

Okay, so far we have

Debi - Shelves, organizing and painting. I think a trip to ikea would help with bins or baskets
Amy- guest room into Evan's room, painting and organizing office supplies
Julie- schoolroom (maybe?)
Leisa- Kitchen/Pantry/Laundry (no painting ;))


Anyone else ??

Ok, Amy is working on her's this week before Evan gets home from camp.
Debi do you want to work on yours this week?
Julie??
I am doing mine in a week or two, so no rush on my end.

Office Remade

I posted previously on redoing my office. Sadly I did not take a before picture, but imagine peach walls and FSU border, 2 desks, lots of papers and electronics. Boxes from various electronics, college textbooks and junk....



Now I am using it as storage. Shelves that hold scrapbooking gear, empty luggage, cleaning supplies, extra toliet, and papertowels..

Yard Work Day

We spent all day in the yard mowing, weed eating, weeding, grooming the garden, roundup-ing and lots of neglected outsidey stuff. Well in the midst of me push mowing (because I ran over the hose with the riding mower and put it out of commission) Maddy ran out to have me referee an argument about "sharks and minnows" a pool game. Mind you I am dripping sweat pushing a mower in 95 degree weather. My face is blood red and I am gasping, yet she wants me to stop and talk about a pool game!! Like I would love to be in the pool...


Liv did something later in the day and I sent her to time out. Well after weed eating for about 45 minutes I remembered her.... Poor thing I found her like this

My garden is putting out all kinds of tomatoes.

The Cleaning Bug

It seems that most of us have caught it. I have spent the week, organizing closets, painting a room, and generally cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I have a back office room but it is attached to my master bath, so it is in an odd spot. It has more often been used as a junk room, and was stacked full of old mail, electronics, books and just crap in general. Did I mention it was also this beigy peach color that drove me crazy and it had an FSU border?? Well of course I had to pull off the border, and paint it!

Can I just say that being a patient mom, driven and in project mode is completely incompatible. Maddy brushed by the ladder, which made it fall and a full gallon of paint fell into my master tub.. Liv just stood there and then I guess from the look on my face decided to put her hands up to her ears. It made me stop and swallow my anger, and instead just called Mike to come get his kids!
Well, I think God has a sense of humor because not 30 minutes later, while on the ladder I spilled a full gallon of paint on the carpet and ruined it. So I had to tell Mike, and Maddy, pull up the carpet, paint the floor, wake Mike up to build the shelves because I wanted them done that night ;), and then start organizing. I had only allotted 1 day for that room and I was determined to keep to my deadline.

I rented the rug doctor to clean my carpet. It worked okay for the 26.00 rental fee. Then I moved on to my upstairs guest bedroom.

I could barely open the door, it was piled up, and soon to be creeping out the hall. Well once in there I kept finding clothes and things that the kids had recently been wearing or playing with. I called Maddy in and asked her how these items foun their way into the guest room. She hesitated so I KNEW she had been cleaning her room by tossing what she didn't want to put awayinto a room she knew I did not go into... I can just say that by this point I lost it.


Anyway, I have the school room, a touch up on the kids closets, and my kitchen, pantry, and laundryroom and I am done.... I am trying not to just do my usual clean but to organize, cull out and logically organize so that I can go back to our cleaning system. It worked very well and was introduced to me by Steph. I got each room clean and organized, and then taught Maddy and Liv what I wanted and expected and how to clean the room. I posted the steps to do it, so there was not any thought on how to clean. After they were trained I treated it as disobedience if they didn't complete their chores properly. It worked really well, but I just have gotten out of the habit. So hopefully once I get it back under control I can reintroduce this system.

So anyway, life hasn't been all that fun here at the Freeman house this week, but I am hoping it will pay off when we have more free time in the end...

Happy 4th everyone

Extreme Homeschool Makeover

Ok, it is summer, time for relaxing, vacations, and sleeping in right? Well maybe, but remember the new school year is just around the corner. Is your house recovered from the last year??? Is there a spot, or spots that need divine inspiration. Well Come one come all, and bring all of our special talents to each others homes. The goal is to organize our homes, inspire our friends and cheer each other on.

So, how do we do it???

Pick a spot or two in your home that needs help. And blog on your blog about it. Post pics of the before and describe what it is you need, want, and envision for that space (styles,paint colors, magazine ideas) . Remember to write about the purpose of the space and how you currently use it.

Then, each of us that is participating will offer ideas, tips and yes, the grunt work to help you accomplish your goal. For example one of my problem areas is my kitchen. It looks all nice and tidy until you open cabinet after cabinet to find a hodge podge of chaos. I need someone who can plan how to, and where to put things, so that I can utilize my most effectively. And when people come over I can say, yeah it is in that cabinet...

Don't worry, dream big, we have painters, seamstress, and maybe even a guest carpenter (Mike) Sorry Ty couldn't make it!!

Ok, so get thinking and blogging. My goal is to be done with this project by August 1st

Oh and if you do not have a blog-Caryn, or it is private-Michelle then you can't participate until you get one.... JUST KIDDING! Post your post here in the comments section. We still love you guys!

I am going to visit my Aunt Elaine

Please pray for us

My favorite Sermons

Now that I have an ipod I have been downloading sermons from one of my ALL time favorite pastors. So I thought I would share with you all. He is amazing and would tempt me to move to Chattanooga just to go to New City Fellowship. I first met Reverend Nabors at a PCA Mercy Ministries Conference, and his sermon was so invigorating that I was hooked =) Hope you all enjoy...

http://www.newcityfellowship.com/sermons.html

Look for the sermons taught by Randy Nabors, and at the bottom of the page are archives from 2006 sermons. Enjoy

My "New" Table

One of my goals this winter was to refinish my kitchen nook table. It had sharpie, and other marks that even my magic eraser was not up to removing. So I decided to refinish it in the shabby chic distressed style. So here was the outcome...

Triple Booked Days... Tis the Season

Ok, to start off this post I must confess that the word triple never looks spelled right to me. Is it tripple, or triple?? They both look funny to me, so someone who likes to look things up let me know, or I could spell check.... Anyway it is the season to have 3 events ongoing each day. Preschool pictures, Baby Jesus party, get Christmas tree, and the Christmas walk in Mount Dora. Ayy-ya-yi too much business. On an off note my kids just came in and asked me if they could go swimming. Gotta love Christmas in Florida.

Ok back to the original post. We went to the Happy Birthday Baby Jesus party at the park and had a great time. Thanks Tiff for organizing it. I didn't realize how much I missed Pendleton Park and Fridays...hint...hint I have to sew all night tonight after I decorate the tree and visit Mt Dora, because my quilt is still on my dining room table with 750 million pins in it.

I have not finished my Christmas shopping, and really don't have any inclination to complete it. I am a procrastinator, so maybe the motivation will kick in closer to the 24th? I am also heading up the Angel Tree gift program at our Church and am being just as complacent about it. I have decided that Sunday after my quilt is done, I will kick it into high gear =)

Well this was just an update, the girls are playing flag football at the Y so we have games Saturday AM's and practice Thursday nights. I will post some pics of the It's A Wonderful Life play and the party later on tonight.

We Are Home

Minnie please put the load in the dryer!

While cooking and cleaning I stumbled on this Tea Party

604 emails to wade through, 3 mountains of laundry, a complete pantry and refridgerator to unload and we are HOME!! There is truly NO place like home. I missed everyone. I just wanted to check in and say hi. I will catch up on blogs and emails tonight.

Fort Building

My kids were inspired by Tiff's kids' fort!!

Bedtime

Accountability

This is my week and what I have to accomplish:

*Ephesians Bible Study every day 15 minutes
*Preschool carpool daily
*School with Maddy daily(Math, Bible,History,Spanish,English,Spelling, Home Ec)
*Finish Debi's quilt square
* Start my quilt top
*Cook dinner every night :0
*Sams Club & Joanns on Tuesday
*Paint my bathroom~~yes I still haven't painted it yet.
*Call Michelle for some muffin and bread recipes without sugar & bake them
*Start Maddy back up on swim team, walk the neighborhood while Maddy is swimming
* Finish Maddy's tier skirt
*My laundry is caught up-yeah!!!
*Straighten Up upstairs, magic eraser the marker on the walls (Ethan)
*Plant garden, which I weeded last weekend/ Help Michelle what do I plant? Did I miss the season?
* Learn how to program my DVD recorder for Homesat & Do it
*Update our budget (this could be scary! and what I have been avoiding =(
I will try and update daily ....

Today I kept Liv home due to the preschool virus. She has not caught it and truthfully it is easier on me to have her home and not run the school bus ;) I was able to do all my laundry, teach Maddy Math, English, Reading, and Spanish. We have a spelling test tomorrow, and if she does poorly I think she will be grounded for life. I have encouraged, threatened and begged her to independently study for this test. So we will see.... Mike mowed the lawn and I grocery shopped and took Maddy to swim team. Rotisserie chicken, broccoli and baked potato for dinner. I ended the night with Bible study at the church. So not too bad of a start for the week.

Week in Review

Well Mike hurt his hand this week and asked me to nurse it for him. I love the Hello Kitty bandaid baby! Liv loved it too...

I made T's Pumpkin Muffin's this morning. I doubled the recipe thinking it would make a dozen or so. Well like 40 muffins later I was making the rounds delivering them at my friends homes ;) They were great, you gotta love fall.

Bedtime with Ethan is a little bit better. It is only taking one spanking to keep him in bed when we put him down. He is sleeping until 5:45 AM, at which time I feel a little hand touching me saying ,"Hi Momma." How can you be mad at that?? So my wake up time is coming very early for me~yawn. We are still battling about an afternoon nap. He truly needs a nap he can barely keep his eyes open by 4pm and makes life real pleasant for the dinner hour.

Lyns is home for the weekend, and she wants me to make a strip skirt for her. I told her to take it off, and that she could not wear it out to dinner!

My Favorite Front Porch

I love the color of our friends front porch.

Our Dream Home~~Goes to the Dogs

Our Alabama farm house on 20 acres, 2800sq

feet Nice large front porch and rear porch off the master suite. The back of the property has a creek running through it. It is dripping crown molding, high ceilings, and hard wood floors. You walk out your front door and down a short country driveway to the local country store, or antique shop that sells fresh bread. All this paradise for 259,000 which is high for the market, so you could probably get it for closer to 200,000. Well we were almost convinced that this was our escape. I mean the home is 3 minutes from the lake and my mom's cabin.




So, anyway we viewed the house with our realtor. Mike talked to the next acre over neighbor, and we were pretty certain we were moving to the deep south. Well on our way home Sunday as we were leaving we decided to ride by one more time, and we chose to ride down to our third would be neighbors house. It is about 2 acres down from the house and guess what ran out of the yard to greet us? Three big pit bulls, and a puppy. Yes, well that clinched it for me. We would be moving to the country so that my kids could never go outside unless armed. Of course there are no leash laws in the Alabama country, much less fence laws. So this is not the home for us. =(