Balancing cleaning priorities and leaving time to play. AKA: shortcuts and the shortlist of cleaning

I am by no means an expert on house cleaning but there's a few key things I've realized that can trick the masses into thinking your a super clean freak when all your doing is managing a mess that a four year old hurricane can create. At the very least, it will keep your home looking clean but lived in. Disclaimer: I cannot speak to what your mom may or may not see, but I can guarantee, she'll notice a few of these

• Get that garbage all the way to the garage/outside. Mark taught me that there's no such thing as a Daddy Job, after grabbing the kitchen garbage from the hallway and brought it to the garage grumbling "I guess this is a Daddy job". It made me realize that although each of us has our strengths and we balance each other well, there's no such thing as a Mommy or Daddy job, if you can do it... do it.
• Ugh, another tea bag jumped off the spoon onto the floor. No worries, that J cloth has almost worn out it's use with dishes, go ahead, grab it and do some spot cleaning on the floor! It puts off mopping for another day. While I don't mop my floor near enough, it's usually when I'm forced to by sticky spills. Mopping is usually last on my list. 
• Whether you want to or not, eventually there will be a juice spill that demands for you to finally mop. In my world, you're allowed to just git er done and leave the stuck stickers a few times. I don't recommend leaving them for more than a few months..or people will notice. Worse comes to worse, let your kid help clean the floor with a cloth and water, only do that on days when you have tons of patience though.
• Playdoh - if you're just not up for sweeping again today, put on some old socks and stomp it up, then toss the socks out. It's a win win! Use your husbands holey socks for a super win!
• Crumbs look, well crumby. Keep wiping!
• Keep your toilets clean and extra toilet paper handy!
• Leaving dishes in the sink is okay,  but if  the same company sees the same bowl for days...they may start to question your cleaning skills. 
• One sink full of dishes is acceptable, make it look even better by rinsing and not leaving crumbs in the sink.
• A burnt out interior bulb goes a long way to hiding spills and messy shelves in the fridge. If you don't have a burnt out bulb, give the shelves a quick wipe before loading up with this week's groceries. Do yourself a favor, and before stocking your fridge, clean out all old leftovers that didn't make it into "fridge soup".
• Never, ever... ever buy a white coffee maker
• Keep keys and wallets where you can find them. Nothing makes you realize everything is a mess more than not being able to find the most important things when you need them.
• Which leads me to... do not use a catch junk kitchen bowl. It can be handy in a pinch but those things just collect useless stuff. When you finally sort through all the way to the bottom, you'll end up tossing most of the stuff in the garbage anyway. 
• Use stacking bins, it keeps kids focused and on one task, and makes one mess. It's also makes it less of bewildering mess for a young child to clean up. The dollar store is an awesome place for nice looking baskets, pouches and boxes. Get a bunch that match and you can use them all through the house with the added bonus that it looks like you thought out your decor.
• Letter magnets sure look like fun and educational but they don't hold anything and end up under the fridge and being kicked around the house. They don't hurt as much as stepping on Lego but do yourself a favor and buy big fridge magnets instead. Letters. Seriously. Suck.
• Laundry. Ugh, the never ending pile. I almost don't want to talk about it but I must. If you're like me, things make it to the washer and dryer but folding is a bottle neck. Clothes wash and dry better in smaller loads and make it more manageable to fold afterwards. Drape pants and shirts over your arm out of the dryer, grab socks and underware in your hand and the sorting is almost done already! Try doing one load every other day during the week.
• Close curtains in a pinch. To get off that window crayon that's been stuck on for months, old newspaper and water work wonders on glass! I swear there's something in the toner that works better than any commercial glass cleaner.
• Okay, seriously. Again, in a pinch, moisturized hands work better at a quick hand dust. Come on, you know you've all done it.
• You are definitely allowed to over announce that you've wiped all door knobs and doors down with lysol after the last virus invaded your house and all inhabitants. 
• And my favorite.... go ahead and use that old annoying toy to press down the garbage in the can. Just don't let them see you do it!

This is by no means the end all be all of cleaning, there's tons not on here. This list comes in handy if your house is already somewhat tidy and organized. If you're house has piles of stuff in corners, etc... this list just won't have the same effect. 

Tasty apple spit....

Me "Ali, what are you chewing on?
Ali, "nothing, I ate all my apple and now I have tasty apple spit! "

Ali the gymnastic starr

This past Wednesday was Ali's second 10 week session of gymnastics at Gymtastics. There was a fun parent day and Mark left work to join us. At the end of the last class, after playing with Dad and having fun in the foam pit (What a good sport you are, Mark Anderson!) Ali was presented with a certificate.

This concludes her fourth or fifth round of gymnastics. This year I did consider putting her into the pre-competition classes but she has so much fun and Gymtastics have the perfect balance of fun vs skill for Alexiss. The pre-comp class is 4 hours a week with the weekly hours spread over two days. There's no music or play, it's all practice and drills.

I think we'll continue with FUN gymnastics for now.. :D

Loving the honey!

I don't usually get on any kind of soap box, it's just not my style. I do share under the right circumstances and I don't hide, you may be observant and happen to see homemade toothpaste on the sink or look in my bathroom drawer to see I use natural deodorant. If you came to the wedding you were treated to my home made mosquito repellants. I'm not a hard core natural-only kinda mom. We still have Goldfish crackers and Kraft Dinner and hot dogs in the kitchen. Mark still uses Crest and drinks pop. I drink too much coffee.  I don't eat fast food but I don't eat enough vegetables either. These are my personal choices and I don't force them on others. I do believe there's too many chemicals and additives in the world around us and it contributes to our health. Those that are healthy can better balance and purge these things but people with a slow metabolism and not top health need an extra boost to purge and not pile on heaps more for a body to deal with. I've never done a "cleanse", I try not to get swept into the "next best" health fad...that I know of. But I am trying to balance the chemicals and foods going into my body.

Now here's where you roll you're eyes....Pinterest has really become an amazing place to share knowledge and recipes for some tried and true natural remedies. Some are a little too experimental for me, I use my personal knowledge and common sense and listen to my body more than believe everything put infront of me. I do extra research and often times use and embellish the natural remedies and recipes. My facebook friends also share things that interest me. Pinterest is just structurally better suited to keeping this information in albums instead of having to search a chronological news feed.

I gotta tell you, I'm amazed and awed....... I found a cold remedy that I was excited to try. Within two weeks I'm on my third batch already because we are loving it AND I just had to share with a few neighbors. Mark and I have both thwarted the last cold with two hot steaming cups of this before bed and one in the morning when we thought we were getting a cold. Ali has a cold and it's making it definitely more manageable, but it's hard to pinpoint the healing because it doesn't have druggy side effects or mask sickness. It's just honey, ginger and lemon but they all have anti bacterial antiviral, anti-inflammatory and analgesic qualities that make a power house remedy. Sure you could put lemon and honey in tea but letting them sit together really brings out their healing properties. I don't mean to sound like an infomercial or ad, but I can't help but share this. As with all natural cures, what works for one may not work for the next so if it may not work for everyone.

                                Home Cold and Flu Remedy from Remedy from Instructables.com                     

With my embellishments and comments

Jar can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Ingredients: 

• Fresh lemon
• antiseptic, aids digestion, great source of calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, bioflavonoids
• Fresh ginger
• antiviral, anti-inflammatory, aids digestion,  effective against human respiratory syncytial virus, great for upset tummie
• Raw honey
• antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral
• Disclaimer: Experts don't recommend giving honey to children younger than 1

Directions:

• Slice lemon into quarters or slices and pack into jar  
• I use two lemons
• Peel and grate ginger, and add to lemon
• I prefer diced. I use one large sized ginger root but the amount is up to you
• Fill the jar and cover lemon and ginger with honey  
• almost 1 kg, unpasteurized is better
• I let mine sit for 24 hours to bring out the juice of the ginger and lemon and thin the honey, you will need to stir once as the honey settles to the bottom the first day

To Use:

• Add 1 tablespoon (or more to taste) to hot water and stir. it's a nice soothing hot drink.
• We use two or three
• drink it from a tbsp like a cough syrup

Embellishments:

• 5 - 10 sprigs of Fresh Thyme 
• The flowers, leaves and oil of thyme are commonly used for, stomach ache, arthritis, colic, sore throat, cough (including whooping cough), bronchitis, flatulence and as a diuretic (to increase urination).
• 10 - 20 Whole Cloves
•  Helps digestive issues, an expectorant, soothes sore throats, cloves are anti-fungal, antibacterial, antiseptic and analgesic. They’re packed with antioxidants and are good sources of minerals (especially manganese), omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and vitamins
• 1 tsp Cinnamon 
• In medieval times doctors used cinnamon to treat conditions such as coughing, arthritis and sore throats.

I noticed Ali's not as diligent about nose blowing and because of that she gets a bit of a sour stomach due to nasal drip. With the ginger and lemon and with added cloves, this stuff even helps settle her stomach!

I've gotta say, in the past, for me, adding honey and lemon in tea hasn't really done much for me and colds, I feel like it was just the hot water soothing my sore throat for a short period of time, it never really shortened or thwarted an oncoming cold, but this combination and the way it's put together seems to perfect it. If you do try it and it works for you, please let me know. 

Chicken Whisperer

In the past few weeks we've had reason to visit some friends in the area that have land and ANIMALS! Each time, Ali cried the whole way home but nothing beats this week's visit to Marissa and her chickens.

She had a chicken under her arm the entire time we were there, all 2 1/2 hours of it. There was one instance of two chickens, another instance of a chicken almost falling asleep and one instance of Ali going down the slide with a chicken held in her arms. Marissa has 99 chickens. We came home with 5 eggs.

I can see where her love came from, most kittens and puppies don't revel in her body heat as much as these chickens. Ali learnt quick that they are easy to catch if you sneak up behind them. At first it was a catch and release game but then she wore out and started holding them.

I told Mark we better buy land soon, while we can still afford it or we'll have to get pet chickens....and I don't think that will go over well.

Letters BS and L

B makes the buh sound! Ali really wants to read, she knows her alphabet but hasn't connected the sounds yet. Taking a letter and concentrating on it in a whole day is helping her learn and helping us find things to do for the day. We're only three letters in and she's already picking up quicker, as you may be able to tell from the time spent on the craft.

The first letter we chose was B, it was a few hours of crafting fun and talking while walking scavenging for all things that start with the letter B. Bedtime was fun as she was telling dad about the letter b, her eyes got big and she yelled buh buh BED!

There's many online resources to help children learn letters, but I found they were either too simplistic to keep her interested long enough to have it really sink in, or too many letters at the same time, overwhelming and over doing it.

I decided to simply let the days and letters choose themselves instead of forcing a certain day or certain way. We start with a craft, in some way representing the letter. I also try to get Alexiss to print the same letter in the workbook, some days it works, and some days it doesn't. I'd much rather have learning stay fun for now instead of a arduous task that must be done.

S proved to be a little tougher and kept getting confused with the letter C. I can see (no pun intended) why. This letter got spaced out more over the day so we didn't get to frustrated and angry and by the end of the day, Ali had it straight.

We had breaks in between each letter day. I discussed the letter with Alexiss before craft time to see if she was interested.

With the letter L, it all started as we were playing in the green space, the leaves crunching under our shoes as we walked looking for ladybugs. There were too many L's to let the opportunity pass by. We came in to get something to collect them with and brought them inside as we talked about the L sound. As you can see, the letter L was a quick easy one. We barely got our crushed leaves glued onto our big L and a few words spewed out before the remaining leaf crumbs were scattered through the house. Within an hour, Ali had L mastered.

Fore Fall

Since the wedding, life has settled in, Mark and I are dating again too! Sounds odd, but it's true. We enjoyed a date day yesterday and I really enjoyed our time chatting and laughing. It still stands, we can say anything to each other, not judge and have it turn into run on joke. Life is good.

Ali and I have been passing the days learning the sounds letters make, playing golf, running to occasional errand, definitely NOT cleaning out pumpkins.

Ali self adjusts somehow the weeks before Daylight Savings, it's odd, but true. She's been waking just a little later each morning so as the clocks change, her sleep/awake times are just right. I've noticed it the last few years but don't put it together until the time actually changes and we're back to our normal times.
 
 

Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) ready to go trick or treating

The best dad in the world! He shovelled all the snow in the back yard to make a sledding hill!

This is comfy?