Making Your Home a Haven: Errands

My new chore schedule has worked really well for me this week. I imagine a lot of this had to do with being snowed in for several days. When I stay home I seem to accomplish so much more.

We woke up to snow on Monday and it is just starting to melt off today.

Here is the new schedule:

Monday- Laundry day (This is my catch up day from the weekend.)

Wednesday- Organization day

Friday- Cleaning day

I also do 1 load of laundry every weekday but I let the washing machine and dryer rest on the weekend unless it's necessary to wash something. :-) Tuesday is my Hospitality day and I either spend the day at my parents house or invite someone to our house.

I also started the Flylady's Zone cleaning this week. Her focus this week was the Kitchen but I really needed to work on my Master bedroom ( it was a mess!!) so I swiched rooms. I plan to start back on her schedule next month.

The topic this week is Errands. Just like Monica, Thursday is my errand day. I try to accomplish all my errands (grocery shopping, bank, post office, etc.) on this day. I also plan my doctor's appointments for this day. Thankfully we live close to all of our family so Olivia always stays with one of her grandma's on this day. I take Noah with me now but he will stay behind when he stops nursing.

Hope you all have a great weekend and a productive week!!

Making Your Home a Haven: Chores

I did pretty well in my planning this week. I worked on it Sunday evening and Monday morning. It was a little more detailed this week since it was the beginning of the month. I really enjoy having my Home Management Binder to keep me organized.

Monica's topic for this week is chores and that is something that I'm adjust in my binder right now. Before Noah arrived I had my Daily Chores (bathrooms, mopping, etc) spread out through the week. Now I'm hoping to plan a cleaning day were I get everything accomplish in one day. I think Friday will work the best that way everything will be clean for the weekend and I can relax. I'm also planning to start using the Flylady's zone cleaning idea to help keep my house a little more organized. I'm still working all this out so I will be back next week with a more detailed post. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Making Your Home a Haven: Time to Plan and Catching Up

I have not been able to participate in this Making Your Home a Haven at The Homespun Heart until now. So this post will cover the last few weeks Monica has covered as well as today's topic. I love being a part of this series because it always turn my heart back to my home and family.

1.  The first part of this series was Start with God. My goal in this was to

~Start off my day in the Word

~Develop a prayer system that works for me (praying scripture for my children and husband as well as the rest of my extended family and others)

~Read through the Bible this year

All of these are part of my routine now and I try very hard to keep them as the top priority in my life. Some days the baby has needs and my Quiet Time is moved to the afternoon but I still try to not let a day go by without time in God's Word.

2.  The second part was establishing a Morning Routine. With a newborn and a one year old our normal routine has "flown out the window" lately. I knew this was going to be the case before Noah arrived so I gave myself some grace in that area for the month of January. Now that Noah is 6 weeks old and is sleeping better at night I have decided to get back into somewhat of a routine. (with the exceptions of any sleepless nights) Here is the morning routine I hope to begin this coming week.

6:00~9:30

~Wake up/Quiet time

~Exercise

~Shower/Dress for the day

~Prepare/ Eat breakfast

~Family Bible reading (Eric leaves for work after this)

~Clean up kitchen/sweep kitchen floor

~Start a load of laundry

~Dress kids for the day

~Supper prep

3.  And our item for this week is to make Time to Plan.

~My goal in this area is to sit down each Sunday evening and plan my week. I have a Home Management Binder and will take that time to fill in my weekly to-do list, plan my menu, update our budget, and check my project list to see what could be accomplished that week.

~I will also be working on a toddler/preschooling curriculum for Olivia. I hope to begin this with her by the first of March and will spend a little time each day preparing for the next day.

I hope each of you are having a wonderful time Making Your Home a Haven!!

Making My Home A Haven: Inviting and Giving

Well we changed things up a bit yesterday but over all I still accomplished everything on my list. I have pictures of Olivia and Lacey helping me bake cookies but I will have to upload them later.

We had a great time celebrating my brothers 18th birthday last night. It is so hard to believe that he is already an adult!!

I decided last night that today was the day I was going to finish my Christmas shopping. So with the theme Giving in mind I set out for the mall (an hour away) and Olivia and I shopped till we dropped. But everything is bought and I hope to finish all my wrapping this weekend.

My husband works for his family in construction and tonight we helped to host a company Christmas party. I decided to claim this as my Inviting. We had a wonderful time and the food was delicious!!

I have really enjoyed this series and look forward to doing it again soon. I think this is something that I plan to do in my home at least once a month. It is so beneficial for my home as well as my family.

Making My Home a Haven: Fun

I had a busy but productive day yesterday. My project that I choose was to finish wrapping some Christmas presents and make a list of stocking stuffers for Olivia and Eric. Since I had to go out for the afternoon I choose something simple and quick and enjoyed the rest of the morning by watching a Christmas movie with Olivia!! Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Enjoying my morning quiet time.

Here is the laundry that I had to fold and put away. Thankfully it was all accomplished!!

Today's list:

1. Bible study time
2. Breakfast
3. Wash dishes
4. Dress Olivia and myself
5. Visit the library
6. Lunch
7. Pick up my younger sister for the afternoon
8. Olivia naps
9. Bake cookies with Lacey
10. Craft or do some more decorating for Christmas
11. Supper: Going out to a birthday dinner for my brother
12. Watch a Christmas movie with Eric
13. Advent study

I think I have included several fun things to do today!! Saturday will be a really fun day for us since I have several activities to do that day. We will be going to a Christmas craft fair in the morning, a bridal shower in the afternoon, and our annual Christmas parade that evening!!

Making My Home a Haven: Cared for

Well I once again accomplished all but one item on my to-do lists from yesterday. I sympathize with Monica in understanding why I can't be this organized on any given day. It is so easy for our focus to be drawn away from our home and family into outside things or selfish ambitions. I do believe their is a time and place for others as well as enjoying time to ourselves but they should not come before our ministry in our homes. So with that thought in mind I'm going to start another day with a list in hand and hopefully a heart for my home.

1. Quite time
2. Breakfast
3. Shower and dress
4. Start a load of laundry
5. Get Olivia ready for the day
6. Fold laundry
7. Wash dishes
8. Project for the day (undecided)
9. Lunch with Eric's grandparents
10. Hair appointment for me
11. Doctors appointment for me
12. Deposit at the bank
13. Supper: Leftovers
14. Church service
15. Advent study before bedtime

Making My Home a Haven: Clean

I'm proud to announce that I accomplished all but one item on my list from yesterday!!! It was a rather ambitious list but I work well under pressure. Here are a few pictures of my now TIDY house. :-)

Christmas totes are now in storage.

And all of my Christmas decorations are spread throughout the house!!

Here is my list for today:

1. Bible study time
2. Shower and dress
3. Breakfast
4. Feed and dress Olivia
5. Start a load of laundry
6. Grocery shopping
7. Clean out fridge
8. Wash dish
9. Lunch
10. Check laundry
11. Dust
12. Sweep and mop floors
13. Wrap gifts
14. Go to in-law's for supper (Venison Chili)

Be back tomorrow with an update!!

Making My Home a Haven: Tidy

When I ran across Monica's post this morning at The Homespun Heart I was so excited. I had already decided today would be a de-clutter (tidy) day for me and I had even started a list. We have been on the road this past weekend and my house was in desperate need of a good cleaning. Well after reading her blog post and finishing up my list I started in on all my major messy areas. Here is my list and a few before pictures:

1. Bible study time
2. Breakfast
3. Start a load of laundry
4. Quick clean bathroom
5. Wash dishes
6. Bath and dress Olivia
7. Fold laundry on couch
8. Vacuum bedrooms
9. Re-check out library books online
10. Put laundry in dryer and start another load
11. Run an errand to my moms and visit for awhile
12. Lunch
13. Check laundry
14. Make a menu
15. Make a grocery list
16. Wrap presents sitting in dining room :-)
17. Organize bill payment
18. Take Christmas totes back to storage
19. Prep supper: Poppy Seed Chicken, green beans, corn, and rolls
20. Prep for advent study tonight
    

I will post an update with pictures and what I accomplished tomorrow morning.

Making Your Home a Haven: Wake Up Time

Tammy's Making Your Home a Haven challenge for today was establishing a "Wake Up" time. This is one of the hardest things for me to do each day. I am a night person and even if I go to bed on time (10 to 10:30) I still have a hard time crawling getting up each morning. My official wake up time is 6:30. I was rather close this morning at 6:45 but for disciplines sake I am going to try and work hard at making sure I am up and about by my set time. So I am off to bed now and hope to be up with Bible and possibly coffee in hand at "6:30 AM" tomorrow morning. Please pray for me!! :-)

Making Your Home a Haven: Evening Routine

Well I have to say my morning routine did not go as planned this morning. We have had a busy weekend (A wedding my husband was in and Easter with family) so I took the morning slow, caught up on some laundry, and spent time with Olivia. The schedule has been a great help to me in the past few weeks and has kept my focus on the task at hand before I move to another.
Olivia has benefited from this in that her naps are well scheduled out as well.

Showing love and kindness to my family this past week seemed to go better than I though it would. I tried to make a point of staying home several days last week and I can say that it left me less stressful, therefore less unkind. I continue to pray each day that God would give me a cheerful spirit even when times are tough. I want our family/home to radiate God's goodness and I believe having a kind and loving demeanor will portray just that.

This week Tammy ask us to come up with an evening routine and so here is mine.

Evening Routine:

1. Feed Olivia and put here to bed

2. Make sure all the dishes are washed

3. Walk through house and make sure everything is picked up and put in it's place.

4. Shower and/or get dressed for bed

5. Pray and Read with Eric

6. Read to myself in bed.

Making your Home a Haven: Showing Love and Kindness

I have been joining up with Tammy and her Making your Home a Haven Challenge and boy has it been a challenge!! I did great on my bedtime routine last week (I actually went to bed at 10 several times), but the morning routine went down hill after Monday. :-( I was gone a lot visiting with my mom at our family cabin and so Wednesday and Thursday were my catching up days here at home. I also decided to change some things around. In my routine I should actually be heading out the door soon to go grocery shopping but I decided to change Monday around and do my shopping this afternoon. Since Monday's are so hectic, I like to spend my mornings at home. I had planned on tweaking it anyway if it didn't work out for me.

The challenge for us this week is to show kindness and love to our family while we maintain our schedules/routines. Isn't this so hard to do when we get behind or overwhelmed?!?! So many times I find myself getting angry or upset with Olivia when she is fussy or very needy. I keep thinking that if I act this way with one child how will I be when I have several. This is the time I need to stop what I am doing and evaluate my priority's. Maybe I just need to hold her for awhile or play with her in the floor. I plan to work on this area of my life this week and see what good comes out of it for our family.

Making Your Home a Haven: Bedtime Routine

I decided to participate in Making Your Home a Haven over at Tammy's blog today. Her challenge was to establish a bedtime routine and and commit to it for the week. I would have to say getting to bed at a decent hour is a hard thing for me. I'm always cleaning or reading till way past my bed time. So I have decided that 10:30 will be my established bed time this week and 6:30 is when my morning routine will begin. I may tweak this some in the weeks to come depending on how it works.

Making Your Home a Haven: Morning Routine

My Morning Routine:

1. Bible Study

2. Exercise 15 to 20 minutes (This is just my floor or DVD exercise time. I walk in the afternoons)

3. Shower and dress for the day

4. Cook breakfast, eat, and clean-up

5. Spend time with Eric

Mid-Morning Routine:

(after Eric has left for work)

1. Start a load of laundry

2. Feed, bathe, and dress Olivia

3. Supper prep

4. Sweep kitchen floor

5. Do daily chore*

6. Free time till lunch ( Read, visit my mom or mother-in-law, baking, play with Olivia, etc.)

Afternoon Routine:

1. Blog, e-mail, etc.

2. Do weekly project**

3. Start work on supper

* Daily Chores:

Monday- Grocery Shopping

Tuesday- Clean Bathrooms

Wednesday- Clean windows and dust

Thursdays- Vacuum and mop

Friday- Change sheets

** Weekly Project:

This varies with what I have going on that particular week. This week I am organizing closets and changing out the seasonal clothing.