Make the Best use of your time - Have a schedule

I know it sound silly but sitting down and writing out a schedule can benefit you big time. Before I wrote down my daily schedule, I felt like I wasn't getting anything accomplished. Since I now follow a routine my house is always tidy and neat even though I have a 2 year old and a 2 year old daycare child here!


It may take a little time but do what works for you! Trust me it will help!

I hate when the power goes out

I honestly HATE when we lose power, especially at night. Night time for me is my relaxation time. It's when I can finally sit down on the couch and watch some TV or sit at my desk on my computer. I had lots of ideas fr articles to post but couldn't last night as our internet was out. We had power but the TV was cutting in and out and not worth watching. I took advantage of this and cuddled up in my bed with a good book. It's been a while since I've done this and I really needed it.

A big part of being a stay at home mom is making sure you have time for yourself. Lately I have been getting increasingly testy and I believe that it was because at the end of the day it seems that there is no me left. I spend all day "waiting" on other people. Getting meals ready, getting snacks, cleaning up meals and toys and books and blankets, cleaning the house, filling up sippy cups with juice and the list goes on and on.

Everyone needs time to themselves to recollect. Set aside a time for YOU time each day. Whenever it fits into your routine, don't skip it and do chores instead, they can wait. My quiet time is now going to be for a little while after my daughter goes to be every night. I would do it in the morning but I am not a morning person. When do you fit in your "me" time? What do you like to spend your "me" time doing?

Today's Goals

Today has not going as planned. It seems like overnight my 2 year old learned attitude. Everything is attitude attitude attitude. Today is one of my crazy days. These are days where I am just frustrated and need a break. It's one of those, I can't wait until bedtime kind of days. Everyone has these days. Don't feel guilty about feeling this way about your kids. It happens.

My plans today were to get up early, get ready and head out the door mid morning to run some errands and be back before lunch. Didn't happen. It is now nap time (1pm) and we didn't leave and I'm in my "comfy" clothes. Part of being a mom is learning to be flexible and roll with the punches. When you have kids things will not always go as planned. Instead of getting mad and frustrated that we weren't going to be able to get our errands done today I decided to make it positive. We read books, watched a movie and cuddled. We had a nice mommy and daughter morning. I think that was the real problem. Now that I am doing daycare my daughter gets less attention from me, she just needs some extra love some days.

For this afternoon my goals are 1. dishes 2. laundry 3. clean bathroom 4. pick up living room.

Yesterday I was feeling like supermom and this morning had me feeling like a new mom.

How to spend less time on housework

Are you feeling overwhelmed with keeping up with your housework? I know the feeling. It feels like your house is never clean and you feel disorganized and chaotic. Recently, I have made several changes to improve my lifestyle and the living environment for my family. I was never really good at cleaning in fact, I loathed it until a couple months ago. I found out the reason is because I had no real method or routine on how to clean. Even my cleaning was disorganized. Here is what I did. I made a cleaning room and stuck to it. All of a sudden my house is almost always picked up and clutter free and my family is much more functional and happy.

Do the wet rooms first such as bathroom and kitchen. I usually start in the bathroom. Now, where do you start? Start on the left and work left to right, top to bottom. First things first, put some toilet cleaner in the toilet and let it soak while you do everything else. Knock down the cobwebs, wash the shower, wash the mirror, wash the sink, scrub toilet and flush, wipe baseboards, sweep, mop. A word about mopping, I actually scrub my floors on hands and knees, it is truly the only way to get it really clean. If you do this weekly your bathroom will be looking good. I use this method in all my other rooms as well but make slight changes to fit each room. I find that if I do this once a week in each room my house stays very clean and collected.

How to get book for cheap online

I have been wanting to expand my daughter's book collection for a while now and I did some looking online for new books. Brand new books can get expensive especially if you are looking to expand your child's library. Used children's books however are all over the internet, you just need to know where to look and what to look for on how to find them.

My first thought for used books was Amazon.com. They have books on there for a few cents, however, most of these sellers will charge high amounts for shipping and try to make their money back there. If you are looking to buy a large quantity of books I suggest looking on ebay. The cheapest way to get good books on ebay is not t:o just search for children's books but to enter a special keyword at the end. This keyword is "lot." A lot is a collection of similar items. Try searching for "children's books lot" the results you get will be amazing. I'm talking yard sale prices here. Check it out and let me know what you find!

Books are taking over my house

This morning as I started my routine of cleaning and tidying up as my toddler played, I noticed that our "book setup" just was not working anymore. We have been storing them in a large basket under a little decorative table. This worked for a while but now that she has more books than reasonably fit in the basket. The kids were having trouble getting the books in and out because it was stuffed full and heavy as many of the book are board books.

Finally having enough of this I started brainstorming what I could do with all these books. I really didn't want to buy a new bookshelf or any new furniture at all as we are on a budget. I got to work clearing off a bookshelf that was already in the living room that held my husbands books. He already has a book shelf in the closet filled with all his books too so I really don't feel bad making him give up this one.

Once I got the cleaning bug in me and all my daughter's books transfered to the bookshelf. I still had a shelf that was empty after transferring the books so I took the time and decided it was time to reorganize toys as well. A few days ago we bought a couple different sizes of some small plastic totes. I love these things! I am always finding new uses for them! I always hate when the toy bins are just filled with random toys and my daughter gets frustrated because she can't find the toy she is looking for. One bin became dedicated to her tea set which consists of cups, silverware, plates, bowls, etc. Another bin became the play food bin, another for wooden blocks and the last for "little people and assesories" I did a little rearranging and moved some toys from the living room to my daughter's room and my living room is feeling much cleaner and functional.

A clean and house means and organized mind!

My Daycare/House Rules

Last week as a got my house in "daycare mode" I looked online to find some contract forms and information and daily schedules and just general daycare tips and ideas. The one thing I could not find is a good sample list of daycare rules. After a failed attempt to find a suitable list of rules I decided to make my own. Here is what I came up with.

1. Be Kind
2. Follow Directions Quickly
3. Use indoor voice
4. Keep hands and feet to yourself
5. Have Fun!

I wanted to keep the rules simple but have all my bases covered. What are your house/daycare rules?

I normally don't mind chores

Most house chores don't bother me but I really hate washing dishes. The dish soap dries out my hands, it's very time consuming and my shirt always gets wet!

What really irks me is we have had a perfectly good and working dishwasher in our garage ALL summer that I have been waiting for the person (my biological dad) to come and install it like he said he would. I have not heard from him since the day he dropped it off. Kind of a bummer. I'm so tempted to tell my husband that we should just install it ourselves. I'm so sick of washing dishes with a perfectly good dishwasher in the garage. When we bought the house there was a dishwasher here already but it is junk so it's just like teasing me with it's presence. If I don't get my new dishwasher in soon I might go insane!

Relaxing Sunday

Part of being a stay at home mom is there is always something to be done when kids are around. I was hoping to have a relaxing day and just putter around the house, however, I have a mental list of all the things that need to be done. As a mom the work is never done. Don't get me wrong, this is what I wanted. I wanted to be super mom and stay at home with our baby. I love it but sometimes it gets lonely when my husband is at work and my toddler is napping. Even when she's awake sometimes I would kill to have an adult to talk to!

here is my list of things I need to accomplish...1. Thank you notes for our wedding reception (husband and I got married in april of this year just before our daughter turned 2) 2. LAUNDRY 3. figure out something for dinner

I have more that needs to be done, clean bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms, you know the routine but I think those are going to wait until tomorrow.

Whew! Finally Some Quiet Time!

I have been wanting to start a blog about my day to day life as a stay at home mom. Now, I'm finally making the time. Everyday my 2 year old takes a nap at 1pm. Lately, this has just turned into quiet time. It's getting harder and harder to get her to actually sleep during naptime. Many days I have to go in her room and "reset" her and start naptime over because she gets disctracted playing with toys.

Last week I started a trial run as a daycare provider with my first child! It's my nephew who is a month older than my daughter. I know, I know, I'm just watching my nephew but I'm running it like a daycare to keep things under control so I don't lose my mind!

I am hoping to make time to blog daily. We will see how it goes!