Chickadee Manor

15 minutes

Despite the feeling of productivity yesterday, I didn't actually get all that much done. Today was even worse. I've decided that I am going to break out my timer and work on a few chores for 15 minutes at a time. Maybe then I can get to some sewing that I've had sitting in my living room for the past two weeks!

15 Minutes of:
Tidying the kitchen
Folding laundry
Cleaning the bathroom
Vacuuming
Reading with the kids
Tidying the living room
Dusting

Fall routine

We have had a busy few weeks. We were out of town for dental appointments and to pick up supplies for building our house for about a week, then we were all sick for about a week, and then Dwayne's parents and some of his uncles and an aunt came for a visit (ranging from 2 to 5 days). Dwayne's parents leave first thing this morning and then we are back to being just the four of us. We had a lovely visit and the kids will miss their Grandma Anne and Grandpa Bob I am sure.

Now we have to settle back into some semblance of a regular routine again, whatever that looks like around here! Dwayne has the next few weeks off to work on finishing up our little log house and I hope to do some fall cleaning and some downsizing and organizing in preparation for our move.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how I'm going to get it all done. I might just break down and hire someone to help me. That is a big deal for me because I like my house cleaned a certain way and things put away a certain way and well, sometimes I drive my husband nuts because of it! He says I'm like living in the fairy tale of "The Princess and The Pea". LOL! (For any of you who watch The Martha Stewart Show and caught the segment a couple of weeks back about how to make a bed - that is me.)

I want to arrange my house and our belongs in such a way that the amount of "stuff" we have is manageable. I want to easily be able to maintain and care for the things we have so that I have more time to spend playing with the kids and spending time on useful hobbies rather than constantly being picking up things and cleaning and shuffling clutter around.

I'm not sure if there's much point in coming up with some sort of fixed schedule for the next few weeks or not. I think I will try to stick with a consistent supper and bedtime routine so that it makes getting the kids to bed simpler and will leave the days free and flexible. I am going to draw up a list of the things I need to accomplish in the next little while so I can at least keep track of my tasks.

I also have a list of friends that I need to call or write to. I have been terrible lately for keeping in contact with people. Between little people and our building project, being out of town several times in the past couple of months, and feeling under the weather I am afraid I have badly neglected my friends. :(

In any case, I hope we will have a productive few weeks with Dwayne off work - he working out at our new house and I getting this one ready to move out of.

Finding inspiration

Where do you find inspiration for decorating your home or for craft projects? I like to browse the rooms at www.bhg.com for house ideas and I like to look around MarthaStewart.com for crafts, decor, cooking, and holiday ideas. I also love browsing through the Ikea catalogue and visiting their stores whenever I can. It's so neat to see what they can fit into small spaces. Then, of course, there are so many great craft inspired blogs out there. I really have to keep my Bloglines links under control or before I know it I can be spending the whole day reading blogs!

Schedule revisted

I pulled this from a blog post long ago when my toddler was only a few months old. I think I need a schedule again so I am going to study this one and tweak it a bit and see what I can come up with. Things will have to change a bit as we now have 2 little ones.
I am also contemplating putting the TV away for most of the summer or at least taking it out of the living room. I know that isn't on the schedule but it does tend to eat up more of our time than we realize.

Daily Schedule - Monday through Saturday

7:30 a.m. - Up, breakfast, load of laundry into washing machine

8:00 a.m. - Dishes, 1st load of laundry into dryer, 2nd into washing machine

8:30 a.m. - Devotions & Prayer

9:00 a.m. - Fold & put away 1st load of laundry, put 2nd load into dryer

9:30 a.m. - Tidy bedrooms, check email

10:00 a.m. - Fold & put away 2nd load of laundry, supper preparations

10:30 a.m. - MONDAY - Clean aquarium, wipe down chalkboard
- TUESDAY - Bathroom, water plants indoors
- WEDNESDAY - Bedrooms
- THURSDAY - Clean bunny cages, vacuum
- FRIDAY - Dust, sweep & wash floors
- SATURDAY - Tidy entrance, clean bathroom

11:30 a.m. - Shower, prepare lunch

12:00 p.m. - Lunchtime

12:30 p.m. - Dishes, tidying up

1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - Unscheduled

4:30 p.m. - DH home from work

5:00 p.m. - Supper

5:30 p.m. - Dishes

6:00 p.m. - 10 p.m. - Unscheduled

10:00 p.m. - Water plants outside, clean kitchen sinks

10:30 p.m. - Get baby ready for bed, tidy living room

11:00 p.m. - Nurse baby, bedtime

As you can see this schedule allows a lot of unscheduled time which allows for fun times and extra chore times as needed