Saturday before vacation!

Well, I planned on packing today.  Ended up not packing, will wait until tomorrow.  I did, however, get my schoolroom cleaned!  It looks so nice.  I threw a huge lawn bag full of garbage out; I know it's horrible!  Boxed up a box full of toys that were laying around in there that the kids never play with and will probably never miss!  Finished the laundry so that end of the room is empty now as well.  It feels so nice to be able to look at the school room and know if I keep it clean, school can function well in the fall.  So, here are the before and afters
Before:

See the dysfunction?
Now, the after:

Rebekah saw me taking pictures and wanted me to snap one of her.  The little cutie!
It feels nice to have the rooms looking clean and orderly.  It makes me less stressful and frustrated.  See you all next week!

SOAP

Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer.  I will be starting a new, and different challenge in July.  It will be to read the Bible in 90 days!  What I plan on doing is cataloging my progress by SOAPing each passage I read to the best of my ability; I'm no scholar.  I've never read the Bible in it's entirety and think this just may be the way for me to do so.  Now, it's only going to be a read through, which is why I thought SOAPing it may be a good idea.  Thanks for all of your support in following my blog.  God bless.

Home Educating Family Publishing

Home Educating Family Publishing

All in a day...

Today was just one of those days.  One where the kids just seemed to be on 'mean' mode.  The fighting, whining, arguing was like nails on a chalkboard.  So, I sat them all down and we had a talk.  We talked of how they were behaving, what consequences would come from it and what consequences would come if they changed their attitudes.  After that, things went a bit smoother.  Phew.  I worked more on organizing the girls laundry-4 girls can accumulate quite a bit!  I'm still not done with their room, but at least the closet is organized!  I made a monster of a dent in the laundry, have maybe three loads remaining.  Yes!  I also finished our master bathroom; just have to put curtains back up.  With such a busy week and packing quickly approaching as well as driving Mariah out to Geneva tomorrow, I pray that I'm able to finish the living room and put more of a dent on the girl's room.  Here are the before and after of the bathroom.

Before:

After:

Thanks again for following and keeping me accountable.  I will be taking a week off starting this upcoming Monday for our annual "Cousin's Camp" at my in-laws.  I'll return to the challenge when I get back home the first Monday of July.

Struggles

I've been struggling to keep up with the challenges.  Who knew implementing something so foreign to oneself could be so difficult!  Well, my goals for today are to finish kid room #1 and begin the overhaul of kid room #2.  I bought shelving and bins for their closet in the hopes of managing their clothing more effectively.  I pray that it is successful.  I have also bought a book, Managers of Their Chores, to better help maintain the home by giving us all an expectation of cleanliness and responsibility.  Pray for me as I try to get this all accomplished today without my big helper, Mariah.  She has been gone since Monday visiting some of her family and won't return until late tonight.  If I am successful, I will post my pictures tonight or tomorrow morning.

End of the day

Well, today was a busy day.  I was able to maintain the kitchen and the dining room, yay!  I was able to clean a 'hot spot' in the school room as well as clean the main bathroom.  We had a piano recital for the two oldest today so it was a shorter day in which to get everything accomplished.  I did start one bedroom but ran out of time.  Will finish tomorrow.  I went online today and ordered shelves and bins to organize the kids clothing inside their closets.  With six kids, there just isn't enough room for dressers!  The roll away bins under the beds just don't have enough room.  I'm hoping with the bins it'll reduce the mess on the floors under their beds due to clothing falling out.  Well, I did take before and after photos of the bathroom and the hot spot in the schoolroom.
Bathroom before:

Bathroom after:

The schoolroom 'hot spot' before:

After:

I plan on hanging the peg board and white board above the desk.  I am planning on using the multi-colored bin for our family workbox in school and the two black ones are for Mariah and Thomas.  I also plan on buying the magazine boxes for Naomi and Rachael, still on the fence on one for Rebekah.
Here are my two pianists:

They both did an excellent job!
Tomorrow I plan on finishing the one bedroom, more laundry (it never ends!) and trying to get to the other kid's bedroom!  The challenge of writing my 'Six List' has helped me to stay on track immensely!  Night all!

Hmm...

Well, I didn't finish the laundry.  Who does, really?  I did maintain the kitchen, will put the final touches after Ben and Mariah arrive back from church and finish their dessert.  Though I am 'behind' I am committed to finishing this out!  Today took a 'backseat' to the challenges in that I have a project that I am working on and it has a deadline.  So, I worked on that quite a bit today.  Tomorrow will be a day in which I plan on getting the bathrooms done around piano lessons.  I'll also keep on with the laundry; it's just a task I must do daily or it piles really quickly.

Day ?

Well after I recovered from the headache, I was able to accomplish some of the laundry.  It's amazing just how much a family of eight has!  I didn't complete it, my dryer takes FOREVER!  I did, however, maintain the areas that I had cleaned, yay!
Then came Friday.  I have been dealing with lower back pain for over a month.  I just thought that it was due to straining it gardening.  I was wrong, very wrong.  I woke up unable to move.  I could barely get out of bed.  I couldn't bend from the waist to save my life; trying to wrap a towel around my hair-fail.  Mariah ended up being surrogate mom for the day.  She made breakfast, changed diapers, cooked dinner, applied heat compresses on my back, took the kids outside to play, helped me climb into bed.  I would not have survived Friday without her.  After Ben called his father and explained my symptoms in correlation with my eating habits, we discovered the reason for the horrendous pain was a kidney stone!  I've never had one before and never wish to again.  On Saturday, Ben's dad drove all the way up here and dropped off medicine for me.  It is now Tuesday and I am able to bend over, sit, stand, and climb into my own bed.  This event has placed me a little behind in my challenge.  I was feeling better on Monday so I determined to re-clean the two rooms I had first cleaned, since they went to the kids while I was sidelined.  Today, I restarted the laundry challenge and it continues.  Today I worked on my bedroom and will work to finish that as well as the bathrooms and laundry tomorrow.
Thank you for keeping me in your prayers as I strive to make this challenge into a lifestyle for my home.

Day 3

Well, yesterday was to be day 3 where I was to catch up on laundry.  Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen massive headache that almost completely took me out of humanity for the day decided to show up, I didn't complete or even attempt the challenge.  Sigh.  So, today will be my day three and hopefully that pile of unwashed laundry will turn into nice, clean, folded and put away laundry!  Thanks for following!

Dining Room/Entry Way

Before:

After:

Mind you, this is before dinner, but at least after dinner it will be easier to clean!

End of Day #1

Well, it may have taken me all day, but I accomplished the task!  Phew, it was a lot of work!  The 'Mary' challenge was to find my motivation behind wanting a clean home and the 'Martha' challenge was to clean the kitchen.  My mission statement is:  "To become more and more each day the woman, wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend that God wants in me.  To be the example my children need to see what a godly woman is and ought to be for themselves and, for my sons, their wives."
Before:

After:

  Tomorrow's task will be to maintain the kitchen and add a room.  I think I may try to do the dining/entry way or the living room.  Thanks for following!

As Promised..the before photos

As much as I am ashamed to put these up...I will to stay accountable.

This is bedroom #1, the girls room.  As you can see, they like to take out all of their clothing and leave it dispersed all over the floor.

Bedroom #2, the other kids room.  Same issue with the clothing as well as toys.

Bathroom #1, the main one, not too bad.

Hallway leading to last three rooms.  Door directly in front is the closet and the one to the right is the unfinished basement.

Dining Room/Entry Way.

Living Room, view #1

Living Room, view #2

Dining room/Entry Way, view #2

Kitchen, view #1

Kitchen, view #2

School Room

Mud Room

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom
As you can see, I have a lot to learn with this challenge!  Please pray for me as I undergo this endeavor to not give in and to not get frustrated when the kids add extra challenges along the way!  Thank you all.

The End of Saturday

Don't you just love how you have 'plans'?  They are always so grand and seem so doable!  Well, I accomplished my shopping for today, fed the kids and bathed them.  We had our normal play and did accomplish a smidge of cleaning.  I am really dreading taking those photos tomorrow; and I can't even use a good excuse since I bought the batteries for the camera!  It certainly seems like it would be so easy to give up before I even start, but then what kind of an example would I be?  Signing up for this focus group and starting this blog are really going to stretch me, and the challenge hasn't even begun!  I am thankful to each of you following me, I will be coveting your prayers!  I also would love for you to comment on any of the posts to make sure I'm sticking to this.  I will try to comment at least once at the end of the day to summarize how it went.

It's Saturday

Well, Saturdays are typically our 'clean house' and shopping day.  So, we will work on finding the kids floors again and the kitchen counters, catching up on the never-ending laundry pile a family of eight quickly makes into a mountain, and then shopping for groceries.  Oh the joys of a Saturday!

A Revelation?

As I was reading through some of the posts on 31 days to Clean's FB page I was convicted to take one huge step in my path to a more functional home.  There were those on the site that have taken before and after photos.  So on Sunday, no matter what my home looks like, I will also take photos in order to see just how well I follow through on this challenge.  It will further motivate me to stick to it, knowing that I will have followers who are monitoring my progress as well as seeing it for themselves.  Thanks for helping!

Preparations

The focus group will officially start on June 6th.  So, in preparation, I am trying to clean up a bit before the new "routine" takes place.  Do you think that the children like this idea?  Exactly.  I just got the youngest into his morning nap so I think that I will try to 'gently' motivate the older five to clean.  Soon the three younger girls will take their naps and I'll have relative quiet to hopefully allow me to accomplish some items that I need to finish.  We'll see how this plan evolves.  

The beginning

I never thought I'd be one to blog, but I thought that since I'm going to be a part of a focus group for an ebook, "31 days to Clean, having a Martha house the Mary Way" by Sarah Mae, I figured it would be a good place to jot down my successes and failures in the endeavor.