The Hamper Cleaning Method

There are some really great home-making, house-wifey blogs out there, authored by some pretty amazing, organized women. I'm talking type-A, label-happy, energizer-bunny , catch-me-if-you-can women. They motive some of us less-energized (ahem) to step it up a little. I appreciate that. But I find it baffling, and somewhat amusing when I see women creating and selling e-books they've written on basic cleaning and cabinet organization. People actually pay $5.00 for an e-book telling them how to line up things in their pantry?

You're in luck today, ladies! You get to see a real, live, complete with demonstration photos cleaning post, absolutely FREE!

Seriously, I was at my SIL's house the other night, helping her tidy her house before our trip home (don't you wish you had a SIL like ME?? :)) and I was showing her how I clean a room in a jiffy. She actually thought it was a pretty nifty way to do it. I call it The Hamper Method.

*You line up three containers (like so--see above demonstration picture). Anywhere-on the floor, your couch, anywhere will do.

1. Hamper or box for stray toys.
2. Hamper for stray clothes/shoes/hats/gloves/need I go on?
3. Grocery bag or trash bag for trash (junk mail, long forgotten drawings, chunks of scrap wood and steel van bumpers). No, I'm not kidding. Look closely at demo photos to find the strange objects. Leave a comment and tell me where they are and you get a prize. (not).

*Next, let your three (insert number of children you have at home) children help you pick up said objects from floor and any and all surfaces or bookshelves and place them in corresponding containers.

*Have each child take toy hamper to their room and deposit their toys in appropriate places (toy box, bookshelf, etc).

*Sort through clothes in clothes box and separate dirty from clean, then have children return clean clothes to clean drawers and dirty clothes to laundry room.

When that's done, you're ready to dust and sweep/vacuum. WAIT! Maybe you have procrastinated about cleaning under your couch cushions. Do that now. There's an entire box of crayons and two containers of hair pins under there!

Here's Before:



(I think it is ADORABLE how Emma is saying "Cheese" in each picture. She thinks it's all about HER!)

Here's After:




Now, you can dust your hands together after a job well done, and move on to more enjoyable things...

Busy As A Bee

Does it seem to you that life seems to get busier and busier? Sometimes it seems that each week brings greater challenges than the one before, making the months pass so swiftly it's scary.

I'm asking the good Lord for some extra help this week, for better time-management skills and stronger resolve to resist idleness when there's so much to be done!

Here's my list of To-Dos:
*As soon as the kiddos are up, fed, and dressed, it's off to Wal-Mart to buy ingredients for making homemade spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce for canning (can you still call it canning when you're actually 'bagging'?). I'm tempted to buy one of those sauce packs where you just add it to the tomatoes and you're done. Definitely not the all-natural approach, but a lot less work.

*Home to blanch and skin tomatoes, and start making batches of sauce.

*Knock out mountain of laundry we brought back from 'Bama

*Regular daily stuff (kids school worksheet time, Bible memorization, reading time, etc.)

*Fill an order for 20 hairbows (goal, by Friday)

*Clean out disgustingly disorganized laundry room (which I loathe to enter)

*Pick up check from consignment store, 20 miles away

*Attend court hearing in town two hours away on Wednesday

*Keep up with garden output

*Clean church

And all the other necessary daily stuff that has to be done!! Well, at least I won't have any trouble going to sleep at night :).

A Plethora

(Just to clarify)--Plethora:

–noun
1.overabundance; excess: a plethora of advice and a paucity of assistance.

LOOK-"paucity"-a new word! It means "smallness of quantity". Therefore, paucity and plethora are antonyms! Ya learn somethin' new every day! (and if you're scratching your head at "antonym", try wikipedia, and if you're wondering what in the world is wikipedia, well....figure it out :).

Here's another interesting definition:

2.Pathology Archaic . a morbid condition due to excess of red corpuscles in the blood or increase in the quantity of blood.

Obviously totally unrelated to this post, so...moving on...

A plethora of events and sweet memories over the past few weeks...

We had a wonderful time celebrating Memorial Day with two of our church "families"-- one where we attended and served as youth pastors for 5 years, and the other our current home church.



Elijah, using his water gun to keep cool on Memorial Day at the park.


We spent two weeks in Sweet Home Alabama, also known as L.A. or Lower Alabama (not to be confused with LowEST Alabama, which would be the coast). My, I'm informative tonight. Bear with me.

We were able to spend the weekend as a family lounging around the family pool at my Mom's..aahh...


We said goodbye to Dad on Sunday (sadly) and geared up for some busy, fun times!

The first week was filled with youth camp activities, also known as "church camp" to some. This camp was started at my home church when I was 17, 13 years ago (now you know how old I am!), so it is a special yearly revisiting kind of thing for me. It was indescribably influential in my spiritual growth as an older teen. The services were phenomenal! LOVED seeing the youth of today (the future church) getting blessed and encouraged!

This year was the first year of corresponding Junior Camp, for ages 5-11, where I dedicated most of my time. My kids had a blast! Here's a peek at some happy kids with their crafts from "Super Hero Training Camp":



Monday, June 14th, we celebrated Grace's 4th birthday! I am so proud of my baby girl. She is truly a joy to have as a daughter. She is smart, sweet, and thoughtful of others--always willing to share with her siblings and friends. I'm a very proud Mommy! In celebration of her 4th year, we had a small family party on Monday and on Tuesday, I took her and my niece, Erin, to see the play "Willie Wonka, JR." at the local Ballet & Arts Theatre. It was really cute and the girls loved it!


The rest of the week was spent lounging around the pool, reading, and just enjoying being near dear friends and family. Here is Emma with her namesake, my great-Aunt Emma. Please excuse the cloudiness, as there was a smudge on the lens of my camera.



Now we are at home and back into the swing of things again! I am on the verge of beginning a Master Bedroom Makeover, which I hope will come together quickly. I will keep you updated!
It's so good to be back and catch up on everyone's blogs.

I leave you with a request: please remember our family in your prayers as we have some family issues that have escalated into a legal matter, and a court hearing will be held on Wednesday in an attempt to settle them. I am praying that everything will work out for the best for all parties involved. Love you, my blog readers!

On Hiatus

We are having a blast in Alabama. Youth camp, birthdays, and poolside time are making for wonderful memories. I'm snitching someone else's internet so you'd know I'm still alive :).

There will be many pictures to share upon my return to Louisiana. Have a great week!