Spring Cleaning Life

Here we go!  I've had this stinkin' chest cold for over a week...it's still lingering, but I am so in the mood to just get to spring cleaning.  Not only the house, but everything.  Organizing my life, my cleaning schedule, my kids chores, my workout plan.  Aren't you in the mood to spring clean life?? I've started a little vegetable garden and planted flowers.  Let's hope I don't kill them. :)

It's time to reboot my Cleaning schedule.  This is an older post of mine, but I really love it when I stick to this cleaning schedule.  I just feel so....clean & organized! A few things might have changed a little in my daily routine and such, but I pretty much need to get back to doing this daily.  And it starts Today!! Do you have a certain way you clean?

I'm also so revamped to start eating healthy again.  I know, I know....I say this all the time.  Believe me I feel it....ups and downs, eating healthy, trying to eat healthy, not eating healthy!! Ahhhh....I'm a normal person I guess! :) But, why do I keep going back to not eating so healthy when I know how good  I feel and how happy I am when I do eat healthy?  I'm not saying I eat horrible a lot of the times, but I just feel so much better when I really am eating mostly whole foods.  So, when I'm not...well, I feel it.  Last week since I haven't felt good I didn't workout and I guess I use food to try and lift my spirits and feel better.  So, at every chance I could I was taking the kids for ice cream, grabbing pizza for dinner since I didn't feel too good and didn't feel like cooking.  HA! All the stuff probably just made me feel worse.  Oh well! It's kinda funny, I do that every time I'm sick or injured.
I've also realized I can't restrict myself from certain foods.  If I really want something I'll have it.  Because when I restrict myself.  Later on I go on a binge.  You gotta have a treat every once in a while.  You gotta have your favorite meal sometimes.  But, 90% of the time I'm going to try and eat mostly whole foods, fruits & veggies, more protein, less sugar, drink more water every day!! Every morning I'm going to run on the treadmill to start the day off.  Continue cross fit of course, I feel horrible missing all last week.  I just keep visualizing how I want to look, how great I want to feel, the confidence I want to feel this summer wearing a swim suit.  That keeps me motivated.

Now to the kids chores.  My kids love their Marbles! It's been a good system to help good/bad behavior.  I feel like now that they are getting a little older we need to revamp their chores a bit and their good behavior jars.  I also want them to learn about earning money for the good work that they do.  I gotta figure out how to mix them all together: chores, behavior, earning money.....?? Still trying to figure out a great system for it all.  I saw this idea for younger kids that seems pretty good, but I still want to use our marble idea and our chore chart/family board in some way. I'll let you know when I figure it out.  Do you have any ideas or specific things that work with your kids? I would love to hear it. Maybe I'm trying to make it too complicated.  Hopefully I'll figure it out soon, my kids are slacking on their chores lately.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed trying to reboot everything and also during my busy music teaching schedule....trying to write the program & get things ready for our recital, get registrations for the new fall classes, finish our lessons for the end of our semester.  Plus all other daily busy things of life, running the kids everywhere, dance practices, soccer practices, battling sicknesses.... bills, doctor appts, school volunteering, church calling responsibilities.  It's A LOT sometimes.  But, I just keep going & going one thing at a time.  It's going to be a busy May & June, hopefully after that I can take a breath. :)

Mail Clutter & School Paper Organization

I Love Organization.  I've said it before, I'll say it again! I love it! But that doesn't mean that I'm the most organized person. Really. I try.  I find great ideas, or think up great ideas....and I try! :) I really really need this:

A Mail clutter Sorter.....Love it!!

How do you sort your mail? Do you have any other great ideas for me?

One thing that really frustrates me is all the school papers my kids make and bring home.  Don't get me wrong, I love to sit down and have them show me what the did at school that day.  I love all the creative and fun things they make.  But, one thing that's going through my mind is, "what do I do with all these papers??" I hate throwing them all away when they aren't looking :( (does that make me a bad mom?) but I hate the growing pile on my counter top while I try and think of what to do with them. As it gets closer to another school year {yikes, it's getting close already} I think I may just give this idea a go:

Cute & easy too!

Seeing ideas like this really excite me, just like a new notebook and pen excite me.  I can hardly go into the store without buying a new notebook....really! I'm easy to please...LOL buy me a new notebook and I'll be your friend forever! Make it cute like this or this and that's even better! Cute & simple gift idea, a cute notebook & a pen or other accessories personalized to go along with the event in their life.

If you have any organization ideas send them my way PLEASE!
I'm feeling another
Linky party coming on!! I'm gonna start "Feelin' Organized Monday." So come back next Monday and link it up!!! Can't Wait!

linkin' up:

House Cleaning Organization

One of my goals is to be a little more organized and better at House Cleaning! Not my favorite job as a Wife/Mother.  But, it's one of the most important besides taking care of the kids. When it's done I feel so much better and the whole house seems happier. So, I have organized my house cleaning and hopefully I can be better at sticking to it.  The Fly Lady says when you do it like this and take baby steps to get better and better it will soon almost feel like the House cleans itself :)

Can't wait until I get there! haha

So, this is how I'm doing it. kinda like the FLY Lady with a different Zone each week (if you haven't heard of her, check her site out. There is a lot of info there, kinda overwhelming at first, but a great start!) I personalized my Zones a little more, each week of the month is a different Zone to focus on, but each day starts with my daily routine, daily chores, "Zone work" for that week, and then ends with my night routine.

 I have my "Daily Morning Routine" & "Daily Evening Routine" on the 1st section you see on the magnet board. The 2nd section you see there I have seperated what really needs to get done on each day of the week. The 3rd section is where I put what ZONE it is that week. (see the specifics below) I will try and figure out how I can make you a document like this to be able to personalize and print if there is enough interest.  Any tips on how I can do that is much appreciated. :)

I laminated each Section and put a magnet on the back to easily organize on a magnet board or the fridge for quick reference.  Of course the kids have their daily chores too. My goal is to stick to this & hopefully the house will clean it self..haha, or at least it will feel like it's not as hard and always guest ready.. ~My dream~. How do you clean your house, do you have a plan of action, organized chores, etc. ??? I'd love to hear anything that you have found that works for you.

Here is an the example of my laminated sections.

(1st section)

Daily Morning Routine

Make Bed

Exercise

Shower

Get Dressed

Hair/Face

Brush Teeth

Wipe down Bathroom (counter, mirrors, shower, etc.)

Swish Toilet/clean on & around

Laundry Load

Unload Dishwasher

Breakfast

Kids Ready

Reboot Lundry/Fold

Daily Do's/Calendar/Email

Daily Evening Routine

Dinner

Vitamins

Workout (unless already did that morning, or do it again :)

Shine sink/wipe countertops

Start dishwasher

Lunches for tomorrow

Dinner for tomorrow (thaw?)

Kids Bath/Shower

Kids "Alligator" Clean up (the kids have to do a quick cleanup of the main living rooms, if any of their toys or stuff is laying around not in it's place the "Alligator" will eat it and they have to pay marbles or something to get it back at the end of the week.

Wash Face

Scriptures/Journal/Prayer

Bed by 10 pm

(2nd section)

Monday

Vaccume

Sweep/Mop Kitchen

Dust

Work/Blog/Lesson Prep 

Declutter/Hotspots/Fling

Tuesday

Empty all trash cans

Zone work

Lesson prep/work prep

Wednesday

Vaccume

Zone Work

Anit Procrastination

Thursday

Menu Plan

Checkbook Balance/Track Expenses

Old Mail clutter

Zone Work

Friday

Vaccume Stairs & Down Stairs

Errands/Pay Bills

Appointments

Groceries

Clean out car

Finish Zone/Any other cleaning

Crafts

Zone 1- Entrance, Porch, Dining/Office

Entrance/Porch

Sweep/mop entrance tile

Cobwebs outside

Sweep porch

Weeds/Dead plants/water flowers

Repot (Spring/Fall)

Prune Rose Bushes

Wash down outside

Dust stair banister

Straighten Coat Rack

Welcoming touches

Dining/Office

Clean ceiling cobwebs

Baseboards

Dust window sills

Dust furniture

straighten desk & files

clean windows

clean walls

bottom of chairs

any finishing touches

Zone 2- Kitchen

Empty fridge/Clean out

Clean Microwave inside & out

Clean Stove/Oven

Wash canisters & knick knacks

Straighten drawers/cupboards (1 at a time)

Wash walls, switch plates

wash inside window

wash blinds

scrub down cabinet fronts (few at a time)

Clean under sink

Wash down bar stolls

Declutter countertop

Clean other appliances

Super scrub contertops & sink

Wash out garbage can

Top of Fridge & cabinets

Any Dust/Cobwebs/Lights

Zone 3- Bathrooms & Laundry Room

Bathrooms

Wash area rugs

Sweep/Mop floor

Straightern drawers

Wash doors/walls/switch plates

Clean Shower stall/tub

Throw away emplty bottles

Wipe own cabinet fronts

Mirrors

Counters

Toilet

Sanitize Bath toys

Check supplies

Laundry Room

Wipe top of washer & dryer

Counter tops/Cabinets

Check supplies

Throw away old boxes/containers

Gunk from under washer lide

Dryer lint

Cobwebs

Sweep/Mop

Wash pets dishes, etc.

Zone 4- Master Bedroom/Closet

Extra room/Kids Room

Dust Furniture

Vaccume

Clean sheets/Bedding

Vaccume Mattress

Flip mattress

Declutter

Straighten drawers/clothes

Clean under Bed

Get rid of old clothes

Go through kids clothes/storage

Wipe down walls/Baseboards

Wipe down doors

Wash Windows

Wash Curtains/Blinds

Zone 5- Living Room/Family Room

Cobwebs

Dust

Vaccume & under furniture

Straighten Book cases/movies

Straighten shelves/organize

Wipe walls/baseboards

Wipe down phone

Under cuchions/under couch

Countertops

Clean out baskets/end tables

Wash Windows

Window Sills

Shampoo Carpet

Shampoo Couch

I know this is a lot of info :) These are my Zones, etc.  When there are not 5 weeks in a month I will combine the 5th and 1st zone (the 1st is a little less intense and wouldn't take too long) let me know if you have questions.  I'm hoping to stick with this real good. I'll stay accountable to you guys and update you on how it's going :)

Happy Cleaning!!

Partying with:

My New BEST FRIEND & Our Family System Revisited

I want to tell you about my new Best Friend...the Fly Lady!  Many of you probably already know about her.  I heard about her a couple of years ago, but didn't pay much attention at the time.  Recently I found her again and I Love, Love, Love Her!  FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself.  She helps you to keep an organized and clean house to finally love yourself and keep the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Sydrome) away.  I'm sorta a born organized person.  I keep a strict calendar, Many lists, I like things orderly.  But, sometimes getting things that way is hard especially with 4 kids to get things all out of whack.  But, the fly lady is helping.  I feel it's okay if somebody drops by without calling, my house isn't perfect but I'm finally loving the way it is everyday. It's more peaceful and....hmmmm, well clean & orderly I guess you could say.  I'm not overwhelmed by loads of laundry which is a big giant plus.  The Fly Lady is helping me do little by little everyday and create new habits to my morning and night routines so it's now a habit and I'm not spending the day cleaning for hours and hours.  My kids are getting into a great routine too Just in time for school.  Check out the Fly Lady's website here.  Don't get overwhelmed by all the info there.  Start wih the The Getting Started Section & Baby Steps and Flying Lessons.  It really does work.  She has some great tools as well.  Make sure you sign up for her emails.  You will get an email each day of what you need to do that day to stay on track.  I'm loving it.  It's so exactly what I needed.  Let me know if you are already FLYing or if you try it Let me know how it goes! I promise you'll be feeling so much better!  I also like the ideas from JOY over at Just Organize Yourself.  She uses a lot of the Fly Ladies system and might give you some other ideas as well.  This resource might also be worth checking out!  How to do develop that morning routine, how to actually get out of bed in the mornings..haha!
 I also love this for our family Calendar, shopping lists, to do's, etc. on the computer.  I also think it's important to have a calendar for everybody to see other than just on the computer.  If it's not on the Calendar, it doesn't happen!  Fly Lady has a great wall calendar.  We did an FHE lesson on "House of Order" to kind of kick off our routines.  I'm also using the idea of the House Fairy to keep my kids a little excited to stick with their chores everyday.

We are still going strong on our Family Board System.  I made some new magnets w/ pics of what they should do with a morning routine, aftershool routine & before bed routine. So that can start to get in more of a habit of what they should do during those times. I also made me some that I keep on a different magnet board.  I'll take some pics soon and add here.  I switched up how we use our points a little bit.

Basic Points per day

good behavior faces= 3 pts/day if on good face
chores & schedule complete= 3 pts/day
eating all or most of food at dinner= 2 pts
trying a new food= 1 pt
Choose extra chores = 1 extra pt each chore
Help make lunch or Dinner= 1 point
*other things get them points too, only Mom or Dad can decide to give points out, for doing an extra good deed, helping somebody out, etc.

Points Taken Away
hitting
yelling
bad words
being mean
whining/crying for no reason
talking back

Can pay mom or dad points
a sandwich at dinner time instead of what we are eating= 3 pts
30 minutes computer game time after chores & homework are done= 1 pt
30 minutes DS after Chores & Homework are done= 1 pt
30 minutes TV= 1 pt

**extra rewards given by parents= weekday movie night,

wii play, date w/ mom, date w/ dad, etc.

*can trade in pts for money at the end of each week, money goes in our family bank binder, pay tithing on fast Sundays and they can save up money to buy things at school, a small toy at the store or save up for something bigger*
5 cents per point (cheap I know..haha, but the points add up)

**The kids got a Special Letter from the "House Fairy."  She's the one that comes to Inspect their rooms and to see how good of job they are doing.  This created some excitement for them and anytime they see a little sparkly fairy dust around it reminds them of her and that she is stopping by each week to make sure they are still doing thier jobs well.  They'll get other letters and little trinkets from her in the weeks to come.

It's important that kids know what you expect from them, for our Family Night we also established some basic family rules so they know for sure what is expected in our House.  These are rules for everybody, mom and dad too!! =)

Talk Nicely to Each Other
No mean or bad words
If you Get it out You Put it away
If you make a mess you clean it up
Do your Chores
Trash goes in the Garbage Can
No Food or Dishes in bedrooms
Do your best in School
Do your best in Church Callings

Whew!  I guess that's it for today!  Let me know if you have any questions of specifics of our system.  Are you as crazy and me and have to have a totally organized system in your house.  What's your ideas, what do you do?

*Our Family Board & Our Family System*

Okay....I am IN LOVE with OUR FAMILY BOARD project I just finished! WOOHOO!

I had so many ideas of what I wanted on this board, cause you know I LOVE organization and chore charts and behavior charts, etc, etc. So, I took my ideas to my sister and she helped me build it & bring my idea to life.

I just Love, love, love how it turned out!! These pics DO NOT do it justice... =)I have a section for each child, I made little chore magnet gems with pictures and words that they can move from "To Do" to "Done." Those are their everyday things that they need to do. I also have other gems that I can put on there for extra jobs for that day or saturday jobs, etc. The paper covered part is also a magnet board for extra jobs, school papers, b-day invites, etc. That is also where I put whose turn it is to have a Date with Mom or a Date with Dad. We switch between my hubby and I and between the kids each month. I made a special magnet for those.
Also, my smiley faces and sad faces you see there....here is how it works:
I made the little Arrow magnets and it has each kids name on their own.
If they do something bad, not listening, hitting, etc. (whatever it may be) they get moved to the middle face (that is their warning). If they do something bad again they get moved to the Sad face and they go to TimeOut. They can also move back to the Middle (okay) face, then the Smiley Face by doing something good, in example: listening, picking up their toys, saying sorry etc.

At the End of the day if they did their Daily Chores They get 2 Point Cards (the ones with the Yellow Smiley Faces, they are worth 1 point each which it says on the back). They may get an extra point for extra jobs that they are given. If they end up on The Smiley face at the end of the day they also get 2 point cards. If they end up on the middle (okay face) they get 1 point card. If they did something extra special Mom or Dad may give them a Reward Card. (This has things like Stay up an extra 10 minutes at bed time, play the computer or video game for 30 minutes, it also says the point value of each reward, they can also buy a reward card if they have enough points, or they can save up their points to buy stuff in the family store that we have every other weekend. I got the original Reward Points Idea and Family Store idea Here
The top part of each childs section has plexiglass that you can use a dry erase marker to write messages and I put a cute picture of each kid from the month underneath. It just screws on and off so I can change out the picture whenever I want

We also give the kids an option between 3 point cards or 25 cents for doing chores each day {(they're young kids, they think 25 cents is awesome ;)} They put their money in their own individual piggy banks and once a month or every couple weeks we count up what they have and put 10% for tithing and they can put some in our big family jug for our family vacation if they would like, and they put the rest in their section of the Family Bank. Whatever money they earn from b-days, Grandpas and Grandmas or chores will eventually end up in the Family Bank and that is their money to save up or buy a little toy or treat, a jump rope from school, etc. When they want something we look to the family bank to see how much they have to spend. There is a section for each kid with their name and in the very front we keep tithing slips and envelopes.

I have thought about every detail of our family system and This board has every detail in it and keeps it all organized. It is quite big, It measures 28 inches (2 feet & 4 inches) from top to bottom and 53 inches (4 feet and 5 inches) across.

My sister made one with just 3 sections so it's a little shorter.

So, that is Our Family System and Our Family Board! Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!!

I may revise it every now and again, but

I'm loving our board and our system & I know we will use it for years!!

~Angela

Love it! Great Organization Tips!!

I so LOVE organization {although I'm not always organized...LOL} & great ideas to make a better functioning household. I've always been sorta that way of making millions of lists, planning each step out, taking notes, I've made plenty of To-do lists for myself and charts for my kids, etc. etc.

My most favorite site lately is Meck Mom. She has so many great Organization tips and SO much more than that!

Check out the top 20 readers choice ideas HERE

Very Soon I plan on making my own kinda unique version of each of these:

The Family Big Board

The Mom Game Plan Chart

The Important Documents Binder

Simple ways to control Mail Clutter

Homework organization

Under-Bed Daily Clothes Organizer

There are SO many more great ideas there, I never have time to check it all out. Do you know of other similar sites with great ideas? Or what are somethings you do to keep your family more organized?

Reward Systems

I lOVE Organization and rewarding good behavior in my home and I tried THIS great idea with a point system for chores and good behavior with my kids. They actually love it! You can change it to personalize it for your own family. It's also great with setting a time limit for playing there DS' and things like that. (example- it costs 15 tickets to play your DS for 30 minutes). They earn the tickets by having good behavior and doing their chores, etc.
Try it out and let me know how it works for you or any other ideas you come up with. I also Love, Love, Love THIS blog & I can't wait to try this Rewards Points System Idea out. I'd love to hear what you've tried and what works for you and your kids!!