forty chore friday.

Welcome to the second installment of Forty Chore Friday. I wonder if anyone will join me in this. I guess I kind of doubt it because 40 chores are kind of a lot. And it's Friday. But maybe someone else will understand my reasoning and find that they feel the same. :)

Here is my list:



I failed at grocery shopping earlier in this week and have to do it today, unfortunately. So I got a head start on a few of these things yesterday when I realized my problem. Stopping at the Farmer's Market AND the Co-op usually knocks out the entire first part of our day.

forty chore friday update.

Here are the results of today's Forty Chore Friday:




I have to finish moving the boxes that were on the stairs. I may steam mop tonight after Olive goes to bed and while Honey is outside. I didn't print the CSA photos but I might do that later. And I didn't mark the hallway shelves for cutting.

I started with 40 things. I didn't do 4 things. I added 7 things. I might do 3/4 of the things left.

So today was 43-46 Chore Friday. :)

forty chore friday.

Have you noticed a lot of people doing twenty chore Tuesday posts? On their blogs and on Instagram? Or mentioning it on twitter?

Tuesdays don't work for me. I typically go grocery shopping on Tuesdays which cuts out about half the day.

Fridays work much better for me. Why? Maybe you've noticed this phenomenon as well. Stay at home parents seem to have a difficult time on the weekends when the other parent is home. Maybe that sounds weird, and I don't mean it in an offensive way, but things get thrown off. You relax (or try to). Children act differently. There are more dirty dishes, more things to put away. And an addition human being, and ADULT human being, to interact with.

Starting today I'm doing forty chore Friday. Because forty is way better than twenty. And also because its kind of my finial push to prepare for the weekend. Get things extra organized, prepare for an activities we may be doing, whatever. Just get ready for the different than is the weekend.

Here is my list:





Let me know if you would like to participate too!

And don't forget.. No one will die if you don't cross everything off of your list. ;)

we're all visual.

I learned quite a few things during my time working as a Mental Health Practitioner at Fraser. A recurring theme, in numerous settings, was visuals. I first used then when I worked in Day Treatment classrooms and then when I provided services in-home. I helped staff find ways to use them in-home and I taught families what visuals were and came up with ways to use them when I was a Visual Consultant. Visuals are huge for people on Autism Spectrum and are huge for their families, teachers, and peers. But do you know what I learned? With the exception of a very few number of people (whom I will never be able to understand), we are all very visual.

Numerous times while making visual schedules for little kids who struggled to get through daily routines at home I reassured anxious parents that nearly all of us are visual. Right now this child may need to see pictures to understand what comes next.. but maybe that's because they don't yet understand words.. hopefully someday that schedule will become smaller and smaller and potentially nonexistent someday. But maybe they'll still carry a checklist in their pocket as a teenager.. who knows? But how many of us don't carry a checklist around with us from time to time? Do you write yourself a grocery list? Do you make a list of what you need to pack or do before heading off on vacation? How about a checklist of daily chores? Do you cross things off as you go? Make a little check next to each item? Erase them? Just because there aren't pictures involved in these lists doesn't make them any less visual... they're still visual aides and I'm assuming you've used them before, if not daily.

I am very visual. I think in maps when I'm driving somewhere.. I picture myself on a map and I have an ariel view perspective. If I look online for a map of how to get somewhere I rarely consult the street names... I just follow the route, the turns I make, the ways the roads curve, and I find my destination. I also write lists. Sometimes five times a day I'll write a different list for a different thing. But often those lists fail me, unfortunately. I've come to realize that my brain think it's smarter than my lists. And my brain doesn't realize how gosh darn distractible it is. I honestly wouldn't be surprise if I was diagnosed with an attention problem if I sought that out.

Here's why: I make a list of the things that I want to accomplish any given day. On my way to do thing number one I decide that thing number four is easier or more important or more fun. But in the middle of thing number four I cross paths with thing number six so I skip over to thing number six until I realize that I forgot to add something very important to my list... so in comes thing number twelve. And this process continues and repeats itself until I have twenty five things on my list and by the end of the day I have only completed thing number two and a portion of thing number one, thing number four, things number six through eighteen, all the while thinking constantly about thing number twenty five. That's no way to get things done, now is it?

When I taught families the usefulness of visuals one aspect I would frequently highlight is that they are concrete. "Oh, you don't want to do that right now, well the schedule says that's what it's time for." Pretty simple. You shouldn't get mad at mom, you should get mad at the schedule. Mom may be showing you the schedule but it's the schedule that's saying it's time to get dressed. In my case I made the schedule and I made it on a piece of paper and I still have the pencil in my hand so.. scratch scratch.. scribble scribble.. why don't I change my schedule a little bit? It's much better now, isn't it? Yeah, I try that ten times and then realize that they day is over. Whoops.

I also get extremely overwhelmed by all there is to do at my house and in my life that I sometimes reject my little lists because they're just... pointless... how can a little list get me anywhere when I have ten million things to do to this house before we can even think of selling it? Why should I waste my time cleaning the kitchen when I hate the kitchen? When the floors are screwed up and the ceiling is weird and there is tile where there shouldn't be tile and the stove smells weird?

As I'm sure you can imagine my time spent at home with Olive since her birth has been... interesting to say the least, in terms of my accomplishing daily tasks and having a relationship with our house.

I may be jumping the gun here but I think I have found a solution to my problems and I feel moved to share it with you. And who knows, maybe it will help you, too. It's a little thing called Motivated Moms. Sounds pretty, uh, cool... right? It's basically a chore planning system but it's done for you. You don't have to figure out how many times a month you should do thing one or if thing eight is more important than thing twenty three. Just do what Motivated Moms tells you and forget about the rest. Don't stress out about that dirty thing you just walked past because you have your tasks for today and that dirty thing will surely be taken care of in the next day or two. It's available in both paper and iPhone App form. I'm trying to Motivated Moms Lite right now. It's a two week free trial and after that I'm going to purchase the full app. It's $2.99 for the rest of 2011. Each day there is a checklist and when you're done with a task you tap it to check it off.

Over the past two days my life has changed. I have gotten more done than everything combined in the previous month. I am completely serious. And it wasn't stressful and it wasn't difficult and it felt oh so good.

Yesterday I...
changed the towels and dish scrubbie in the kitchen
changed all of the towels in the bathroom and washed them along with the rugs
cleaned the top shelf of the refrigerator (isn't that so much more manageable than the entire refrigerator?)
clipped olive's nails
organized and dusted the dressers in our bedroom
dusted in olive's room
cleaned the kitchen counters and the kitchen sink
did laundry
emptied all of our trashcans
fed honey
washed the dishes... a few times
made our bed
made dinner
read Joel 1-3
read Olive a couple of books
took my vitamins
cleaned the bathroom sink
And I also did a few things that the App didn't tell me to do...
I painted 1/3 of the trim in my room
I made kheer
I made some phone calls
I worked on editing photos
And probably some other things

Today I...
cleaned the kitchen sink
vacuumed the car, the car mats, and cleaned trash out of the doors and other little crevices
cleaned our hairbrushes
wiped the kitchen counters
dusted in the living room (even the blinds!)
emptied the trashcans
fed honey
did dishes
made our bed
mopped the kitchen floor after i vacuumed it
made dinner
read to Olive
straightened our bedroom closet
took my vitamins
wiped out the bathroom sink
And again I did a few things that the App didn't tell me to do...
I painted another 1/3 of the trim in my room
I cleaned up pup poo in the backyard
I took out the compost
I clipped my fingernails
I took a shower
I gave Olive a bath
I made bread
I almost made coffee cake but we don't have enough butter. So maybe I'll make butter again when I'm done with this post.

I still have to read Amos 1-4 and order a free Experian credit report...

Wow. That feels so good. :) The App tells me what to do and I trust that it'll get around to everything that needs to be done eventually. No need for me to stress out about some dog hair on the floor - I'll get to that tomorrow or in a couple of days. And the App is structured and concrete... I can't scribble on it. I might whine but then I'll tell myself "Oh, you don't want to do that right now, well the App says that's what it's time for." And then I'll do it and be happy when it's done. My brain can't outsmart this because it didn't come from my brain.

So if you're a stay-at-home mom or dad or you just need a little help structuring what to do each day after work I really encourage you to check out Motivated Moms. I'm almost certain I can say it's changed my life though I may be saying that too soon... seeing as it's only been two days.

I am writing this out of the goodness of my happy, organized, non-stressed heart. Yes, it's a review I suppose, but only because I wanted to... not because anyone told me to. Also, a big thanks to Emily from Joyful Abode for posting some photos of her cleaning process on instagram. Without that I may not have learned about Motivated Moms! And then were would I be? Probably walking in circles between thing number seven and thing number forty one.

a big day for olive!

This is probably not a big deal to anyone other than me, not even Olive. But I need to share! Last night we all officially went to bed at 11:30 and Olive didn't wake up to be changed/eat until 4:30 in her bassinet! I'm pretty sure that's the farthest she's made it at the start of the night. She typically sleeps only 2-3 hours at a time in her bassinet but will sleep a lot longer with me in bed. I was pleasantly shocked when I woke up to her squeals and looked at the clock. :)

I need to apologize for my unintentional lie in my last post. I said that I would post later in the day. And I clearly didn't. Whoops. So I'm here to write a substantial and hopefully interesting post because my last two were a little lame. I'll go backwards starting with.. now!

It's another Monday morning - Olive and I are starting our week of trying to figure out if we have a schedule and getting things done at home. We've made phone calls, vacuumed, and snuggled.

She's getting bigger! But still squeezing into a few newborn sleepers. Olive has her 2 month appointment next week on Wednesday. I'm excited for a weight and length update - it's been a while since the last one!

Yesterday Tyler cleared out Olive's closet. We were super slackers when it came to that closet. We've lived in this house for nearly two years and had piled so many things into that closet (when it was just a guest/junk room). We even piled it on top of a huge tarp and pile of plaster debris that the previous owners left. Olive and I looked on as Tyler dug through the layers starting with clothes that are too big for Olive, some things that Olive can't use yet, empty suitcases, and old space heater, an air conditioner, and on down to the tarp and pile of yuck.

The closet doesn't have have dowel rods or shelves so it's not quite done but it's significantly better than before! I put in a few big tubs of clothes that are too big for Olive, a laundry basket full of stuffed animals, a bunch of hangers, and her car seat carrier. Maybe I'll do a little home improvement post when I get to the closet. It's pretty deep so there will be two rows of dowels and maybe some shelves in back. I'm debating if it's necessary for us to paint in there... What do you think?

I had intended to go on the north Minneapolis home tour but we got to work on the closet when our friends Brooke & Scott were heading to the tour so I skipped. :( I was hoping to share some of the gems of our neighborhood with you!

Later in the day we ended up at Brooke & Scott's where we enjoyed a family fish feast for El Amin's Fish House, a few cookies, and an unprofessional game of table tennis.

And.. it was in the 70s! woah!

Saturday was a rather lazy day. We watched a lot of golf. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't take photographs of the dinner that I made - Tofu Stir-Fry with Snow Peas and Red Onions. It was soooooo very yummy - one of my favorite dishes I've made recently, I think, and I've been loving the left overs, too! I suppose that was the highlight of Saturday..

And Olive took a little nap on the living room chair.

Last week Olive and I took a long, indirect, walk to the post office and to North End Hardware.

While we could have walked straight north on our street to get to the post office we headed west and walked through the parkway. We turned onLowry where we found the post office and hardware store before making our way to our street and heading back south that way. It was a wonderful day for walk. I saw quite a few postmen who were all very kind. Everyone at the hardware store was very helping with holding the door for me and finding what I needed since I had Olive in her stroller. I also ran into a DJ from KMOJ who was in need of some help but I was unable. Unfortunately I encountered some yucky and unhelpful people on my walk while I was on Lowry. Just as I thought they were being nice and friendly I realized they were being too friendly.. and after some uncomfortable comments about my legs I made my way a little more quickly to the post office. ick. Save for that 30 second interaction the walk was wonderful and, as usual, Olive slept the entire time. She woke briefly in the post office and in the hardware store since we had stopped moving and she's not a fan of that.

So there's a little update since I really owed you one! Today is another beautiful day! I need to continue cleaning up the yard after a winter's worth of honey's yuck.. maybe I'll do that today. I also want to hem our living room curtains. And possibly finish Olive's. Kinda dropped the ball on that one. What are your Monday plans?

Happy Monday!!

homemade detergent.

Have I told you how much I love the homemade detergent that I made? (what a silly use of the word 'love')

I received the recipe from a coworker who also received it from a coworker. I was putting off making in for a while as I had other, store bought, detergent to use up. I made a batch shortly before Olive arrived and haven't thought to post about it since. I also wanted to make sure it didn't irritate her skin and that it worked well with her cloth diapers before raving about it. :) Well.. after numerous loads of laundry I can tell you that the soap does not irritate Olive and her cloth diapers seem so clean and white! It's also incredibly inexpensive.

Here's what you'll need:
~ A bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap (either in the laundry isle or bar soap isle of your grocery store) (there are a few other brands out there, too, I just choose this one)
~ Box of Borax
~ Box of Washing Soda (looks like Arm & Hammer Baking Soda but the box is bigger and it says 'Washing')
~ A large pot

Melt 1/3 of the Fels-Naptha bar in 10 cups of boiling water. You can shave the bar into small pieces to help it melt more quickly.

Once melted turn off the heat, add 1 cup of Borax, 1 cup of Washing Soda, and mix. Once mixed pour in a gallon of hot water and continue to stir.

Pour into two gallon containers, keep it in the pot, or put it in whatever works best for you. Some of the detergent will stay liquid and some will turn into a gel.

Use 1/4 cup per load of laundry. (I use less for Olive's clothing and diapers)

I use this in a high efficiency machine and it doesn't seem to be a problem. The first time I made this it gelled pretty thick so I squished it with my hand after putting it in the soap compartment as I found some large chunks still sitting in there after completing a load of laundry. This shouldn't be a problem with machines in which you add the detergent directly to the laundry.

Honestly I have never felt our clothes being quite so soft after using this detergent and the whites seem to come out extremely bright. It also has very little fragrance - the Fels-Naptha bar is scented but you're using only 1/3 of the bar per about 2 gallons of water so the fragrance is very diluted.

Enjoy! :)