This was a lot of work. It was a labor of love. Nothing good comes without some hard work. If you ask my granddaughter or daycare kiddos, this playset is VERY good! They are delighted. This is going to bring hours of happiness and memories.
Work is a good thing! A good work ethic is something to be admired, rewarded and something we strive for in our place of employment and at home. God made us to need to work. We would be very unfulfilled without work. God worked! God worked for 6 days when he made the earth and then He rested. Do I think He needed to rest? Nope. Not at all. God made us in His image so I believe He was simply showing us how to pattern our lives. We need to have a balance in our lives between work, rest and play.
Work doesn’t stop when you clock out. It just changes form. There is no getting around the fact that there is work involved in a clean house. Good habits and routines will drastically reduce the amount of housekeeping that has to be done, but let’s face it, the vacuuming, mopping, and scrubbing toilets still have to happen.
I am going to share some tips with you to help you work smart, not hard, to get that work done and still have time for rest and play.
Enlist help. Like my husband did with the swing set, get the family to help you. Kids, even little ones can help. The bigger ones definitely should help! Your children need to learn to work. It’s a life skill they will appreciate learning! (Eventually!) They need to learn how rewarding a “job well done” is. How nice it feels to have a clean room and how proud you feel of your home when it is clean. I, personally, don’t feel that rewards or allowance for doing household chores is beneficial. I don’t get paid to clean my house. The reward comes from feeling good about the job you did. Teach them to take the time to enjoy the feeling of accomplishment.
2. Make it fun. Whether it is just you or the whole family involved in cleaning, make it fun! Make it a good time rather than drudgery. If you hate it, your family will pick up on that. Why would they want to help do something that is clearly a terrible thing? Fake it till you make it if you have to! Put on some music dance with the broom, sing loud and silly! Do whatever it takes to make it fun.
When my kids were elementary school age, we made it a game. I wrote every chore that needed to be done on an index card. I broke the chores down into very specific things. “Clean upstairs bathroom tub”, “Clean downstairs bathroom toilet”, “Mop kitchen”, etc. The index cards were placed upside down on the kitchen table and mixed up. A bell was in the middle of the table. We all gathered around the table. I would ring the bell and start a stopwatch. We all grabbed a card and ran to do the chore on our card as fast as possible. When the chore was done it was placed in a discard pile, you got to ring the bell and then grab another card. It was wild and hilarious! I am sure we looked ridiculous running like crazy people through the house, breathless, tripping over the vacuum, running into each other, the bell ringing loudly and often. The person with the last card got to make crazy noise with the bell and stop the stopwatch. Housekeeping got done in generally less than twenty minutes! Crazy, right? And it was FUN! It may not have been done perfectly but it was done, everyone was happy and we could go spend our day doing something really fun and come back to a clean house.
3. Break it up. Everyone’s life looks a little different. For some doing a housekeeping game on Saturday morning with the family will work. Now that my kids are adults, I have the housekeeping responsibilities myself. I do not want to spend my Saturday cleaning all alone. I choose to break up my chores and do one or two each day before or after work. The things that may take longer I do on days that I usually have more time or more energy. Most things really don’t take all that long. It always remains the same so I always know what day I am doing what. Monday is laundry and vacuuming, Tuesday is bathroom day. I clean the toilet, the tub and take out the trash and wash the bath towels. Wednesday is sweeping and mopping the house and menu planning. Thursday is the kitchen and some miscellaneous things. I take Fridays to do anything I may not have been able to get done during the week or just take the day off! That is just an example. You know your life and how that might look for you.
4. Do It Weekly. Don’t procrastinate and wait until you stick to the kitchen floor and the tub has a nasty ring around it. Do it while it still looks clean! It is so easy to clean a fairly clean tub in comparison to the full aerobic work out to clean a yucky one. It is house “keeping” rather than the house “cleaning”. The goal is to maintain, not struggle to clean what is already dirty. This saves a major amount of time!
We had some AMAZING Chicken Gyros the other night! I love Gyros and love the traditional lamb, but these were a great switch and super light. Perfect for a summer evening on the patio with a wine spritzer and family to share it with.
Speaking of wine spritzers, if you haven’t had these, you should! YUM!
Barefoot Refresh. Delish!
Here is the link to the Chicken Gyros. We grilled them outside instead of baking in the oven. Was fantastic!
Go check out a Bitchin’ Kitchen!
Please check out the program I use for all my recipes and menu planning! I couldn’t do life without it!
Memories being made right here…..
, 
, and pink 
. Nothing like getting your hands in the dirt to make you feel close to nature and at peace in your soul. It is such a great feeling!
, 
, and a 
right away. I looked at my watch. 2:14pm. I sprayed the whole baseboard along the longest wall. I started scrubbing at the end where I had started spraying. I scrubbed, sprayed, wiped. I also scrubbed the floor where it met the baseboard.
type mop, fine, not as bad but don’t use it all the time. You don’t want to be pushing ickies to the edges of the room. Use an actual 
that you can twist and wring out and replace the mop head now and then. It will not leave you with gunk in the corners so much or be spreading nasty bacteria. I also spray my mop with 
Cleanup after rinsing it when I am done. I hang it to dry between uses.
a flat surface takes very little time. I still don’t enjoy it but at least it doesn’t take long. Less time doing housework equals more time with your family and more memory making! Get rid of some stuff and go do something you love!
” by Rae Simons and “
” by Dona Partow. I highly recommend them!)
to go with our Easter dress.
slaving away.
and hang it outside. The spring air is the best 
freshener!
! Instantly makes the bathroom fresher.
and run a full cycle or try a 
.
, put foil on the bottom that you can replace when it is dirty. (only if you have an electric oven) Self-cleaning is really hard on your oven so I try not to clean it too often. Cleaning the oven in the future will be a breeze!
Competition in Montana. It was a great excuse to have a weekend away! Sometimes you really need a three-day weekend to recharge. We got to stay in a pretty nice hotel, go swimming in the pool, sit in the hot tub and enjoy some good food as well as watch some amazing skaters!
. I use their 
and 
exclusively for my bread, baking, and granola. It’s great stuff!! I can’t purchase it in fifty-pound bags locally so whenever we are anywhere near Missoula we stop in and buy it there.
and empty it. Don’t leave any dishes in the sink.
bread recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
, clutter, piles of
and a ring around the 
then why should we even bother with trying to establish habits that will keep our house clean and tidy? If I am not a natural clean freak then what is the harm in just being a bit on the messy side?
can, unwashed dishes in the sink, food left out or food particles on the counter or stove all are a breeding ground for disease and bacteria. Mmmmm….. dinner with a side of E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter!
s and 
s that are not cleaned properly can harbor mold and bacteria so that washing your dishes and clothes in them can actually make you sick.
s are a fire hazard and the smoke they emit every time they are turned on is harmful to your lungs.
. Even the cleanest bathroom is going to have some of this nastiness in it but imagine when it is not clean! Shudder!!!
problems
, AGAIN!
. There was still plenty of snow to make it fun! It was thrilling and our need for nature therapy has been met for now!
, started a fire in the fireplace and grilled steak for dinner. Hubby said it was one of the best birthdays he has ever had. WIN!
and 
and do it all at once. This drudgery is overwhelming and discouraging even before you start. I prefer “housekeeping”. Keeping your house clean rather than ruining every other Saturday scrubbing and having your house look crummy two days after all that effort and will until the next scouring session.
and 
over medium-high heat. Add one-third of the pork and cook, turning occasionally, for 2-3 minutes or until brown all over. Transfer to a bowl. Repeat in 2 more batches with remaining pork.
and bay leaves and 1 T of the chopped sage and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
The Self Cleaning House 
