Category Archives: household managment

The Changing of the Seasons

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In times past the changing of the seasons were busy times. Spring was a time for preparing and planting, the long winter was over and it was time to start planning for the next winter. Autumn was a time for harvesting, preserving and hunkering down.

Now days Spring and Autumn aren’t quite the busy season like they use to be. Spring is a time to get out the summer dresses and flip-flops. Autumn you break out the winter coat so you can be warm while you run from your heated house to your heated car.

Not only was Autumn a time of harvesting and preserving it was a time of preparing the home for the long cold winter.

“All day long Pa was busy, banking the little house and the barn with dead leaves and straw, held down by stones, to keep out the cold. The weather grew colder all day, and that night there was once more a fire on the hearth and the windows were shut tight and chinked for the winter.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

We decided last winter that we were going to try to use our furnace as little as possible. I only wish we had a wood stove, but since central heating is the only method of heating our house that meant we needed to keep things nice a cool.

“The room grew colder. There was no heat from the front room to help the cookstove. The cold had crept into the front room and was sneaking in under the door. Beneath the lean-to door it was crawling in too. Ma brought the braided rugs from the front room and laid them, folded, tightly against he bottoms of the doors.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter

Since our modern homes have weather stripping we didn’t need to go the extreme of folded rugs at the doors, we did however change somethings. We closed all the heat vents in the bedrooms and kept the thermostat at 65 during the day, at nights 50 degrees. Warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing, but still pretty chilly. This meant a change in our bedding. More blankets! This week we had our first freeze, and so Friday I changed the bedding. It may seem small and simple, but to me it means the beginning of winter.

In the summer we only have a sheet and the top comforter, so I added a quilt.


Then on top, our comforter.

At the bottom of the bed another quilt is folded, so it is easy to pull up during night if it is needed. Also folded up under the bed are other blankets within easy reach.

Underneath all the blankets it is easy to stay warm and toasty. Last winter we saved about a 1.50 a day in heating costs. Well worth the extra effort. All the children’s beds are made in the same way, two quilts and an extra at the bottom. The two year old gets two layers of pajamas since he kicks his blankets off, and he stayed nice and warm.

“When Laura’s eyes opened in the morning she saw that every clinched nail in the roof overhead was furry-white with frost. Thick frost covered every windowpane to its very top….Sliding out of bed into the cold that took her breath away, Laura snatched up her dress and shoes and hurried to the top of the stairs….thankful for the warm, long, red flannels under the flannel nightgown.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter.

“That night Laura woke up, shivering. The bed-covers felt thin, and her nose was icy cold. Ma was tucking another quilt over her. “Snuggle close to Mary,” Ma said ” and you’ll get warm.””
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

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How do you prepare for winter?

Chit-chat

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I love to read the comments that are left on my blog. Sometimes I want to talk back but I don’t really know if I should do so in the comment section or not. So I thought I would make a post dedicated to my last post’s comment section. I would like to chit-chat with you a bit. 😉

Mrs. Mordecai said: Wow, thanks so much for sharing all this. With twotiny children, including a nursing baby, sometimes it seems that a real schedule is only a dream, but I hope I can have something like this someday.

You will someday, I promise. You are way more organized that I ever was when I just had my two oldest. When I had little babies (and I had them fast my first two are 13 months apart) my schedule was something like this: Get up, eat breakfast, get everyone dressed, do chores, eat lunch, nap time, pick up, dinner, bed. I have changed a lot over the years.

Lisa said: how do you do laundry on Monday?!! on Monday i am digging out of the mess that has happened on Sunday. i would like to know…when do you do general picking up? or are your kids/husband good about picking up after themselves?
(BTW Lisa, I really need an invite to your blog, if that would be alright with you…aimee@prosphotos.com)


Monday, well that was the day my Mom always did it, so it just seemed natural for me. Monday is kind of a general “digging” out day for me, laundry really doesn’t take that much time during the day. First thing in the morning I sort laundry in my bedroom (my laundry “room” is more like a large closet) and I just start going. The biggest thing is to keep on top of it, as soon as a load is washed it goes either on the line or in the drier depending on the time of year, once it is dry it gets piled in a chair in the living room waiting to be folded later that night. That leaves me plenty of time while things are washing and drying to dig out! To be perfectly honest, the socks pretty much never get folded and there are a lot of times I have a straggler load to do the next day. It sure makes the rest of the week nice to not have to worry about laundry!

As for general picking up, most of that is taken care of by the kids when they “do their stewardships”. There are two scheduled times to pick them up, and if the house gets really messy then I just stop everyone and we check stewardships, that is how the house stays picked up (as much as a house with 5 kids realistically can) I am mainly in charge of the kitchen area, I take care of that when the kids are busy doing their school work, since there class room is at the kitchen table, it is easy to help with math and load the dishwasher.

Does that answer your questions?

Jessica said: You’re nice to fold laundry – I already make my kids fold laundry.I hope to one day have a scheduled date night! It’s been interesting to really think over my scheduling so as always: “thanks for posting!”

Jessica, you are smarter than I am. I like my kids to do socks and stuff, but I forget to have them do it and, well, that is just something I let go! LOL! As for a scheduled date night, Dadzoo and I have been doing that since our first baby was born (almost 11 years ago). We have only recently started to “go out” on occasion since we have older kids. Typically, I will feed the kids something quick and easy then send them to bed, or let them have a “sleep over”, where they pick a bedroom and are allowed to watch movies, play games or whatever until late, as long as they don’t bug the parents. Dadzoo and I will either get take-out or cook something special and have dinner together and watch a movie. It is simple, can be as inexpensive as you want, and it sure recharges those Mommy batteries. I really look forward to my Friday nights, my favorite is to get take-out and enjoy a yummy meal that I don’t have to cook or clean up after!

My Personal Schedule…sort of

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As for my own personal schedule, it is mostly in my head. I don’t have a pretty typed up piece of paper to show you all, it has good and bad points, someday I would like to type it all up and carry a blackberry and all the jazz, but for right now it isn’t happening.

On thinking about how I schedule my time I came to the conclusion that I have three different schedules that run my life; daily, weekly and seasonally. I will go over all three and if there are any questions please ask.


Daily: (This ties in very closely to my kids daily schedules and our homeschooling)

6:30– get up (groan) cook breakfast and do any needed ironing for the day
7:00-Breakfast and family devotional (Dadzoo takes care of this)
7:30-get dressed, make-up, hair, make bed (I hit that about 80% of the time) and keep kids on task.
8:30– Walk punk #3 to the bus while the others are finishing up on stewardships. This is my special time with her and on the way home, I get my special quiet time.
9:00-finish breakfast dishes, start any projects that need to be done that day and get ready for school
9:30 School, I teach the lesson then get the girls set up with their assignments and then I will go and finish any cleaning that needs to be done or any other projects.
11:30 lunch, take punk #4 to the bus, we all go, it is a fun little walk for the whole group.
1:00 start up school again, lay down for a tiny nap if needed do misc chores
4:00 everybody home from school, start dinner
6:00 dinner and evening schedule
9:00 to bedtime, finish up any projects, get ready for breakfast, make lunches and other misc stuff

Weekly Schedule

Monday: laundry, I do this all day, I try not to schedule any other activities on Monday. My goal is to get it all done and folded so Tuesday morning the kids can put their clothes away. I get it done about 90% of the time if I stay on top of it all day. In the evening I will put on a movie and fold the clothes, I rather enjoy this, quietly folding. There are weeks when this doesn’t get done, for instance last week I was canning tomatoes and that took all my extra time and attention, the laundry got washed, but my poor family had to paw through a pile of clean clothes all week. I am planning on making it up today.

Tuesday: This day is a free day where I can either take it slowly or work on a project that needs to be done. This week for instance I am going to be baking bread. I am out of bread and there is nothing on the calender so I will bake like a mad woman and fill my freezer for the next two weeks.

Wednesday: I cut hair in the afternoon. Preparing for the afternoon, while homeschooling, then having my afternoon booked pretty much does it for me, Wednesday’s are exhausting days.

Thursday: Same as Tuesday

Friday: Cleaning day and Date Night. Homeschooling on Friday is more relaxed, the girls help in the morning, I call it “Life Skills”. My 10 year old can clean the bathroom, tub, toilets and floor and does a wonderful job. My 9 year old cleans the living room, dusting, vacuuming and polishing. While they are doing that I clean my bedroom (change sheets), my bathroom and Baby Boy’s room. We break around noon for lunch and a run to the bus stop. Then we do Science and Art, when we are done with that the girls have free time while I start on the kitchen. When the younger girls get home from school they all clean their bedrooms. If the kids are helpful and cooperative they get to have a “sleep over” and stay up late while Momzoo and Dadzoo have a date night.

Saturday: Yard work and outside chores.


Sunday: Rest

Seasonal Schedule:

This is more flexible, but keeping this in mind I can plan my weeks accordingly. If I know that in September I need to can Tomatoes, Apple and raspberries, I can keep my schedule a little more open. Same goes for the Springtime, there is a lot of work getting the gardens ready and I need to keep my Saturdays open. Spring and Fall are by far my busiest times.
Winter: I like to hunker down and keep things as simple as possible. This can be a challenge during the Christmas season, and I try to keep on top of things as much as I can and make December smooth and simple. In January and February if I have potatoes left over I will can them. February I start planing the garden and order seeds.

Spring: As soon as I can I get out into the garden and start cleaning up and working the soil, prep the garden boxes for spring veggies and plant. March I plant peas and lettuces; April, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions; May all the summer veggies get put in. There is a lot of cleaning and prep work to do, it keeps our Saturday’s filled. I also start looking for strawberries on sale so I can get some jam made.

Summer: I try to keep summertime as relaxed as possible.

Fall: Is a busy time for me. I do all sorts of canning and food preserving. In September after the kids are settled in school I start my canning. I do Tomatoes, Apple and Raspberries and make soap. We also put the garden to bed for the winter. There are potatoes (most years…long story, but there aren’t any this year) and onions to dig, carrots to cover, old beans and peas to pull up and feed to the chicken or compost. Garlic to plant, flowers to pull up and this year we are preparing new beds for raspberries and grapes. Busy, busy time, but I sure love the feeling of preparing to hunker down for the winter. So when plannig my week I need to keep these seasonal chores in mind and not over schedule myself.


So there you have it, for what it is worth, my schedules.

How To

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When establishing a family schedule you have to figure out what your priorities are for the space of time you are scheduling. For example, in the evening, our priorities are family dinner and scripture study. If, for instance my son has Karate practice from 6:00 to 7:00 on Tuesday night, my Tuesday schedule would look something like this:
6:00-7:00 Karate, Bathe small children,Homework
7:00-7:30 Dinner
7:30-7:45 Scripture Study and family Prayer
7:45-8:00 Family Read out loud
8:00- Bedtime, Karate Kid shower and bed
9:00- lights out
Or something similar to that. To make scheduling work you need to be flexible (I know that sounds weird when talking about schedules) and adaptable. Figure out your priorities and family goals and work your schedule around that. Be willing to try different ways of scheduling and tweak things as you go along.

I find my motivation by keeping my eye on the goal: a quiet, mostly picked up home with kids tucked into bed by 9:00. Seriously, that is my sanity. Does it happen everyday? Nope, but we probably hit it 90% of the time. There is no magical trick to making and keeping a schedule, it takes sheer dogged determination and a lot of really good chocolate.

Evenings

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“…Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of
fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of order, a house of
God.”

Doctrine and Covenants 88:119

 

 

My Evening schedule came to be about a year ago. After we had been reading scriptures for a while in the morning we felt like it wasn’t quite enough. Dadzoo would read a chapter while the kids were eating, and while that was good, it wasn’t as good as it could be. We still continued to read in the morning, however we tried to add some study in the evening. Tried is the key word here, it just never seemed to happen. Since having a morning schedule seemed to work so well I decided to implement an evening schedule.

Here is the rough schedule we are working on right now. It isn’t totally complete yet, I am still tweaking it a little, I have added a some new things from last year and I was able to take off “homework” for my two oldest (yay!).
5:45-6:00 Check Stewardships.
(I like the house to be picked up when Dadzoo gets home)
6:00-6:30 Dinner
6:30-7:00 Clean up dinner and bath Tom
(every child has a weekly dinner stewardship: Setting the Table, Clearing the Table, Rinsing dishes, and Bathing Tom)
7:00-7:15 Scripture Study and Family Prayer
7:15-7:45 Tom to bed, baths and homework
7:45-8:00ish Family Reading time
(This is new this fall, and so far we are loving it, right now I am reading Tom Sawyer out loud to the kids, it is a part of being a “house of learning”)
8:30 Bed, the children may read if they would like
9:00 lights out, no exceptions
(Momzoo turns into a witch after 9:00 and nobody really wants to see that)

This is what works for us for now, at this time in our lives. Our evenings are fairly empty and as far as I am concerned I am going to try to keep it this way. On evenings where either Dadzoo or I are not home, the other keeps to the schedule as much as possible. This has become a wonderful time for our family. We laugh together and we learn together, it warms my heart to her my girls giggling over Tom Sayers and Dadzoo’s deep laugh in the background.
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Homeschool Schedule