6 Tips for Decorating with Puzzles

Chalisbury All Soul's Fair, heading up the
stairs in our house.

I have been working pretty diligently on decorating my home. I've bounced around from house to apartment, east coast to west coast so much in the last few years, that now that I finally have a home, I'm making it ours. My budget isn't extravagant, which means thinking outside the box for many decorating ideas and many trips to yard sales, Goodwill and thrift stores.

Hubby and I love doing puzzles, and got into a habit of gluing each puzzle when we were done, leaving us with a huge stack of glued puzzles. He pitched the idea to me that we frame the completed puzzles and hang them up on the walls.

Immediately, 2 thoughts rushed into my head.

1. This was an amazing idea. Beautiful art adorning the walls of our home, and when you look closely you see that they are puzzles, which means we put time and effort into them and just didn't pick them off of a shelf of an art store somewhere. Inexpensive, too, as we have already bought the puzzle, now we just needed frames.
2. This idea was absolutely horrible, and people would look at the puzzles on the wall and think, "Hmmm... they didn't want to put forth the money to actually decorate their home, so they put puzzles up everywhere."

I was seriously scared to go along with the plan. Michael's craft store edged me forward when they put all of their poster frames on sale, Buy 1 Get 1 Free. We stocked up and put our plan into action.

The result so far has been amazing. When people come into our home and see them up, they are reacting in a way of, "Holy crap, those are puzzles. That's awesome!" rather than "Wow. Puzzles. Interesting." And it motivates Hubby and I to get puzzles done, glued and framed, and we even turn it into a family event.

There are several tips you should keep in mind when wanting to decorate with puzzles:

1. Don't buy cheap frames. I'm talking about the 'poster' frames where all 4 sides come off and you have

DIY Natural Wood & Key Art and Easy Slate Coasters

I'm a mom. I'm a writer. I run a household and I spend most of my day doing things for other people. I do get asked from time to time what I do to escape: Where is my Happy Place?

Crafting and creating art. That's my Happy Place. It doesn't matter if I'm at my kitchen table, in the middle of the floor or at a friends house; when I am creating art, I am truly happy. There's just something that makes me feel wonderful inside when I am adding to the beauty of the world. Working with my hands, taking ideas and making them tangible, decorating my home- all things that make me happy.

A friend of mine and I decided to get together and have a craft day at my house. We headed to Michael's, stocked up on supplies, and then rock n' rolled. Because I have a huge love of keys and doors, I decided to take that idea and run with it. We were also in desperate need of coasters, so when I saw the supplies Michael's had, I was thrilled.

Y'all have to excuse this post if it's not a traditional crafting DIY post; it's my first. I tried to take pictures of every step... Next time I'll nail it, I promise. For the pictures of the individual steps, just click on it to make the picture bigger.

DIY Natural Wood and Key Art

Supplies for Natural Wood and Key Art

 Supplies Used:

Organizing (the Skeletons in) My Closet Under the Stairs

For some reason, I love organizing. Making things all neat and orderly, easy to find- sign me up!

It's tackling the mess to get it organized that causes me to procrastinate. I'm not a fan of cleaning or clearing out.

We moved into our house 3 months ago, and while this new place has plenty of storage room, the closet under the stairs seems to be the most frequented dumping ground for all of our crap junk belongings. Now, this closet was supposed to be my craft/stockpile closet (you know, when I buy 5 things of toilet paper because they were on sale and I had coupons for them- that stockpile), but it quickly turned into the we-don't-know-where-to-put-it closet. As a result, I would just open the door, throw the item in, shut the door real quick and run.

At the first of the year, I decided no more. I wanted my closet back. An organized closet meant

1. I would craft more.
2. I could keep better tabs on my stockpile so I knew when to buy stuff and when not to.
3. I no longer had to throw-and-dash.
4. We wouldn't lose a cat in there.
5. I had a comfortable place to hide when the children were annoying me.

So, I did it. The final cost of organizing this closet was a mere $20 for the wire 3 shelf rack you see in the corner. I had the big clear bins in the garage, and everything else was just stacked a little nicer. I ended up throwing out 4 empty boxes and a trash bag full of crap we didn't need anymore.

The Before Pictures: 

Yoga mat in the floor, grocery bags full of goodness knows what, mini-stockpile of toilet paper right in front

Decorating on a Budget Infographic

My friends over at ForRent.com know my love of decorating... and my even bigger love of saving money. They sent me this infographic to share with you all, and it's amazing. I'm a huge advocate for finding things at Good Will and refurbishing them into one-of-a-kind pieces, and while I love decorating, our budget definitely doesn't allow for shopping at the high-end retail stores. This infographic gives some basic tips for getting the most out of your dollar when it comes to decorating. (Click it to make it bigger!)

Courtesy of ForRent.com

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Check Your OCD at the Door and Make Your Kid Do Chores

I woke up this morning to the sound of the dishwasher running. That means the kids loaded the dishes after dinner last night and didn't start it... again. Many mornings Hubby is greeted with a full, yet dirty, dishwasher and has to run it before he leaves for work. It has become a huge pet peeve for us both. But it is to be expected when the 10 year old and almost 8 year old are doing the dishes at night, right?

I laid in bed and listened to the loud ass dishwasher (still in the 900 square foot apartment where the kitchen is almost directly across from the bedroom, and our dishwasher is so high grade that mold grows in it after every wash), wondering how my kids weren't woken up by it, and remembered a conversation I had recently had with another mom about chores.

Courtesy of SuSoutter

I volunteered to run one of the learning stations during The Girl's field trip a few weeks ago. The field trip was at an environmental center (45 minutes from my apartment, but we won't go into that right now) and was focused on getting the kids interacting with their desert surroundings and history of the area. At the end of the day, I was in the kitchen at the campsite talking to another mom about how her day went teaching the kids how to make Indian Corn Pudding. She was telling me various stories from her day, and mentioned that at the end of her session with each group of kids she picked a few kids to help her with dishes. Not once, not twice, not even 3 times, but too many times to even count, she'd pick a child who looked at her and said, "

"I don't know how to wash dishes."

Get the f*ck out of town, these kids are 10 and 11 years old. What do you mean they don't know how to wash a dish? I asked her if she thought the kids were just trying to get out of work, and she said no. She made them help with dishes anyway, and they seriously had no idea how to wash or dry a plate.

I stood there for a second, dumbfounded, and then started laughing. The other mom looked at me a little strange, but in my laughter I managed to get out, "Kids nowadays are so spoiled. I can't believe there are parents out there who don't make their kids do chores. My kids would love to have parents like that."

That was my first assumption, yes, that many of today's parents just don't think to teach their kids the basics. With dishwashers, washing machines, microwaves and all of the other high-tech stuff out there, what's the purpose in teaching a kid how to wash a dish, right?

My second thought was that many of today's parents just don't make their kids do a damn thing around the house. A kid is told to do the dishes, they start to throw a temper tantrum, the parents back off because they don't want to upset little Jimmy.

I honestly never even thought about a third possibility, which this mom brought to my attention.

"It may not be that at all. I knew this woman one time who gave her kids chores to do, and when she went behind them to check and see if they were done correctly, her OCD kicked in, and she decided she would just do them herself so they were always done right."

Okay, seriously now... get the f*ck out of town. Good grief, I don't even know where to start with this one...

New Times Moving and Statewide Relocation Review

Alright, Inklingers, I told you all I would be posting a review post about my moving experience, and here it is, in all it's glory!

For those who find this review through a search engine, here's a quick snapshot of my moving experience with New Times Moving and Statewide Relocation: On a scale of 1 to 10 of my happiness with the move (1 being not happy at all, 10 being ecstatic), I'd give them a -523. Yeah, that's a negative 523. From start to finish, it was a horrible experience, and I wouldn't recommend this company to my worst enemy. For more details, continue to read below, and trust me, it's worth it.

Hubby called New Times Moving Company to get a price quote for moving us from Virginia to Arizona. This company, unlike other moving companies, estimates your move by cubic feet of household goods instead of weight. Hubby gave them a pretty detailed list of what we were bringing, and the representative at New Times Moving said he was putting it into his little moving calculator, and it spit out 400 cubic feet at $4 a cubic foot, for a total move of $1600.

We'll pause right there. Go and google '2 bedroom apartment cubic feet' and see what you get. Hell, I'll make it easy on you. The estimate of how much space the contents of a 2 bedroom apartment take up is 875 cubic feet. 400 cubic feet is a small 1 bedroom apartment with hardly any furniture. So right there, the company underestimated our move by half; keep that in mind, it will come up later. Yes, we should have done our research beforehand a little more into this, but the representative made it sound like we really had 400 cubic feet of household goods.

Hubby and I talked about it, decided this company must be awesome, googled some reviews and made our decision. We put down our deposit, scheduled a date for pickup, and started the saving money and waiting game.

After receiving our confirmation email, we get a call from Statewide Relocation saying that New Times Moving had contacted them about our move and they would be handling it from here on out. Hmph, a red flag was raised, but whatever, this must be how things are done. Spoiler alert: New Times Moving IS Statewide Relocation. Google Statewide Relocation's reviews and you'll start to put the puzzle together. Same company, same address (I kid you not- look at the 'Contact Us' sections of the websites- they moved a '1' over to make it look like it's not the same address) 2 different websites, 2 different phone numbers, 2 different sets of reviews so you are thankful, when you do your research like we did, that you are getting a company with amazing reviews. After you pay your money, you find out that Statewide Relocation, who has horrible reviews, is the actual company moving your goods. Yeah, no lube, no loving, you just got screwed big time.

What can I say about Statewide Relocation? They hardly ever answer their phone. When you actually do get

Laundry Day Schizophrenia

Today is one of my most hated days ever... Laundry Day.

I'm pretty sure no mom out there likes Laundry Day. I used to make things easy on myself by doing one load of laundry a day to keep up with it, so I never really had a Laundry Day, but alas, that's fallen to the wayside. I need to get back to that, because knowing days like today are coming up makes me want to crawl back into bed and hide under my covers.

What is it about Laundry Day that sucks so badly? It's a major thorn in my side currently because we don't have a washer and dryer. Yeah, you read that right. Hubby's apartment doesn't have a washer and dryer hookup, so I have to haul laundry down 3 flights of stairs and across a courtyard to one of the community laundry rooms, then pay $1.50 in quarters to have 1 load of clothes washed and dried. Then I have to make the decision of whether to stand in the community laundry room and fold my underwear or just shove it back into the basket and haul it to the apartment to fold it. Anyone who has ever actually known me and visited me, knows that laundry doesn't get folded in my house. It stays in the basket, or better yet, a designated Laundry Chair in the living room (my friends who read my blog are laughing their asses off right now, because I know they can picture that damn chair, full of clothes. I can hear them now, 'Hey, MoMo, why don't you just fold these clothes?'), and you can just pick out your clean clothes from there to wear. I've been better about folding clothes since we moved here, because we need to sit in what would be the designated Laundry Chair (how dare we, right?), and because the cats would just lay on top of the pile of laundry and get it covered in cat fur. No thank you.

Community laundry room aside, I've always hated doing laundry. Loads of towels I don't mind. Those are washed, dried, folded and put away almost immediately. But any other load of laundry sucks. I think it's about time to break this down so maybe I can figure out a way to not think suicidal thoughts on Laundry Day.

Doing Laundry Sucks Because...

• It Takes Forever. Load the washer, wait 30 minutes. Remove clothes from washer, which has to be done in a timely fashion or else the clothes will begin to mildew, throw them into the dryer. Get comfortable on couch, start to watch a movie, and an hour later, when you really don't feel like moving and have lost all motivation, you have to unload the dryer and fold the clothes before they wrinkle. If you have to do multiple loads in a day, the washer time and dryer time never match up so you can just keep a steady rhythm; washers usually take around 30 minutes, dryers around an hour. So you are always waiting on the dryer. Before you know it, one load of laundry has taken almost 2 hours to do. Yes, you can multitask and do other things in that 2 hours, but the dishwasher takes under an hour to load and run. Mopping the floor takes a few minutes. Vacuuming takes a few minutes. Scrubbing the bathroom takes a few minutes. Laundry takes 2 freaking hours per load. Blah.
• Kids' Clothes are So Tiny. How many pairs of kids' shorts fit into a regular sized load of laundry? About 153. Doing kids' clothes never ends. Adult shorts? 7 pairs... that's it. That's all you'll have to

Tatted Mom's Guide to Living on a Budget

I've never lived a lavish life. Even when I was at the height of tattooing, I could pull down maybe $1000 in one weekend, I'd always turn around and either stock the house with food, or buy the kids much needed clothes, or pay the bills for the entire month. I wouldn't say I'm bad with money, but I'd be lying if I said I had a savings account with even a dime in it.

So budgeting has always been a part of my life. Sometimes the budget has allowed for 'fun money', sometimes the kids and I have been forced to use our imaginations when it comes to fun activities, because that's all we could afford until the next payday.

Right now we're in the 'can only afford imaginations' section of life, because of the move here. The moving company we chose were scheisters (I will be doing a review post on them here soon to warn other people), and we ended up having to pay twice what they quoted us to get my stuff back. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for us financially and then we're back to saving money and living life a little more. I can't wait.

In the meantime, though, I wanted to pass on some budgeting tips, Tatted Mom Style, of course. (For newbies to the site, whenever you see a 'Tatted Mom Style' or 'Tatted Mom's Guide' post, you're in for an upside down view of how I see things. Yes, the tips are helpful, but there are some crazy ones thrown in, because I don't see the world the way others do.) These tips are great if you have an unexpected expense that throws your finances in a whirlwind for a short period of time, or if you need to re-train yourself with money and need a longer term solution.

1. If you've never had to budget before, use The Envelope System to start. It's the best way to get a visual representation of money. Get a box of envelopes, and mark each envelope with a separate bill name: 'Rent', 'Electricity', 'Cable', 'Food', 'Gas', etc. When you get paid, remove most of your money from your account (keep in any money that used to automatically pay bills or bills that you pay online) in cash, and divide it into the various envelopes. When the money in the envelopes is gone, that's it. It keeps you majorly in check with paying for food, or entertainment, and is a great training tool. Personally, I don't use The Envelope System anymore, but I've had to do it numerous times over the years to get my brain back into budgeting mode.
2. Just say no. I understand 'no' is negative and causes crappy feelings, but when you are budgeting, 'no' is your best friend. Tell yourself no, tell the kids no, tell Hubby no, when it comes to buying things. If you get into the mindset that you are broke, and can't buy anything, then it makes budgeting a hell of a lot easier. The funny thing is, if your financial situation is only temporary, it's hard to re-train your brain to say 'yes' again when it comes to buying things. That's not a bad thing, necessarily. It keeps you from buying things you really don't need, even if you have the money to do so. Your mindset is probably the most important tool you have when it comes to budgeting.
3. Over-estimate expenses and under-estimate income. When you find a budget worksheet to

Effective Childproof Bottle for the 21st Century

Kids nowadays are too smart for their own good, and it means that us moms have to always be on our toes. What happened last night at my house really got me thinking about this. Keep in mind The Girl is 10 and The Ginger is 7 1/2.

The Girl asked if she could have one of their gummy vitamins. I told her yes, and to hand me the childproof bottle so I could open it.

The Girl: Let me try it, Mom. Please?

I thought about it for a second, remembered how much she struggled with a childproof cap about a month ago, and told her to go for it. It was a gummy vitamin, not a bottle of acid. She struggled and struggled, and then The Ginger spoke up:

The Ginger: Let me have it, I know how to open it.
My Sister (outraged): Um, you shouldn't know how to open it, it's a childproof bottle.
(The Girl is consumed with struggling to get this bottle open, and isn't paying attention.)
The Ginger: But I know how to get it open. Sissy, let me have it, please.
My Sister: Don't try and open the bottle. It's childproofed.
(I'm sitting back, with a smile on my face, watching all of this.)
The Ginger: Sissy, push down on the cap, then turn it.
(The Girl pushes down on the top, turns it, and the bottle of gummy bear vitamins magically opens. My sister is appalled.)
The Girl (beaming): Ha! You said I couldn't do it. Thanks, Ginger.
The Ginger: No problem. (looking at my sister) I told you I knew how to get it open.
My Sister: But it's childproofed!! He should not be able to get that open!

My reply?

Me: He knows how to beat 87 levels of Legend of Zelda... I think he's fully capable of figuring out a childproof bottle cap.

What? It's the damn truth. Do I worry that my kids now know how to open a childproof bottle cap? Nope. They have been taught what they aren't allowed to touch and that I'm the only one who can give them

Daily Family Planner

I tend to have a one-track mind. Once I start something, that's it; everything else kinda gets put on the back burner until that thing is done. I've always known this about myself, but every now and then the reality of my blinders hits me. The most recent focus of my time and energy has been my blog. I get up in the morning looking forward to getting the kids off to school, grabbing my cup of coffee, and blogging. It's like crack; I post, people comment, I check a few times a day to see that I have a new follower or two- more people to make laugh and share my craziness with- wooo hooo!! Now I need to have an epic post, draw more people into my chaotic world, get their feedback, so I research for future blog posts. What can I say tomorrow that will knock their socks off? Maybe make coffee shoot out of their nose in laughter. (I'm not aiming for that to happen to any of my Inklingers, but if it does one day, please share. I might pee my pants in excitement that I made coffee shoot out of someone's nose, and I'll be sure to let you know I peed my pants to share in the embarrassment.)

Something had to be done. My addiction was taking over. I was still getting the housework done, the laundry, remembering to pick the kids up from school, but I was doing things like checking books out from the library, keeping them for 3 weeks with only having read 16 pages and renewing them for another 3 weeks, because my free time was spent on blogger. I fell behind on some of my TV shows, too, in keeping the laptop up and running after the kids went to bed. It's great to have a hobby and all, but having other outlets is good, too.

Lego Cake Adventure and Recipe- Tatted Mom Style

Today is my son's 6th birthday. As seen in previous posts, he is obsessed with Legos (found in every corner of my house, under every piece of furniture, in the laundry, everywhere). So, at 8 last night when the kiddos went to bed, Z and I began our Lego Cake Adventure, which we documented (well, after having been baking for about an hour- I kinda forgot until then), to share with you all.

A Crazy Mom's Cleaning Schedule

So, we have lived in our new house about a month now, and I'm getting back into this whole stay-at-home-mom/ housewife thing again after a few years break. The first week after we unpacked everything, I scoured the internet looking for helpful tips on cleaning routines. Back in the day I followed Flylady. Amazing concept, worked for years for me. But now that I'm having to relearn the ropes again, with my new found quirkiness of the last few years, I decided to take a few wonderful points from her and continue the search. As far as daily routines, I found they all pretty much had the same basic steps, which I began immediately (we'll get to those in a moment). As far as weekly routines, though, they were so different from picking a level of the house (ceilings, surfaces, walls, floors) to clean each day of the week, to picking a different room in the house to clean each day, to a little bit of this and that everyday. After all my searching, I found no one else's routines fit me, whether it be because I didn't agree with it, or couldn't remember what I was supposed to be doing on Tuesday (bathroom? No, wait, kitchen... damn). So, I devised a weekly schedule for myself that made sense, is easily followable, and is dummy-proof for my forgetful brain (catchy is another way to put it), at least.

I do realize that, like all the other lists on the internet that didn't fit me, this list isn't going to make sense to everyone. And, it needs to be stated that, since we just moved in a month ago, things in the house aren't overwhelming. The kids rooms still mostly resemble the organized manner I set them up in when we moved in, we have yet to accumulate tons of clutter (though I know it's coming), and we don't have years of stuff traffic ground into the floors and carpet. So, keeping things clean on a weekly basis isn't as huge of a task as it used to be. My kids are also older now (8 and almost 6), so I make them clean their own rooms, fold their laundry, and help out with small chores around the house. I seriously doubt this routine would work for a brand new mom (get your naps in while the baby naps and do as little to the house as possible- my advice to you all), or for people who have a 3000+ square foot house with numerous rooms (there are 5 of us in a 1400 square foot- gets a little snug sometimes, but comfortable). But, it's working for me, and isn't the typical humdrum lists out there.

Like I said before, the daily routines I found were all similar, and considering it works for me, I'm sharing it here, as well.

Daily Doings

1. At least one load of laundry, from start to finish, a day. Some days I make it through a few, some days its just the one. But, from start to finish, that's the key. I'm notorious for leaving clean clothes in a basket, unfolded, forever. I used to figure, hey, the kids can just get the clothes outta the basket, wear them, and soon the basket will be empty. Yeah, no more.
2. General straightening of the house. I usually do my straightening before bed. I make the kids take any toys that are out and about to their room, and I pick up dishes, cups, put things in their place, etc, and then head to bed. Sometimes I'll do it right after the kids go to bed, so I can relax a little more while watching my shows at night.
3. Keep up with the kitchen. When the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, unload it (or delegate down for someone else to do it) as soon as possible. That leaves an empty dishwasher that can be reloaded as dishes are used. But make sure, at the end of the night, the sink is empty, the counters wiped down, and that load either run, or if it's empty, good job. This is probably the hardest step for me, personally.
4. Keep up with paper clutter. I usually do this during the general straightening at night. Go through junk mail, make sure the kids' homework is in their bookbags, file bills that need to be paid. We do accumulate a lot of paper clutter, which is a simple thing to take care of.

A Crazy Mom's Weekly Cleaning Schedule

Mainframe Mondays
This is the day of the week I do the 'main' parts of the house- Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, maybe the bedrooms (the bathroom gets a whole day to itself, but still straighten in there, clean off counters, get up dirty towels, etc.)  But, all I do is straighten & sweep/mop/vacuum. A more thorough straightening is involved on Mainframe Mondays, than in my daily routine. I'll organize a little more, actually put things away instead of just carrying them to the appropriate rooms, but, in essence, the house (or the main parts of it) look completely presentable when the hubby gets home from work, the kids from school, and if company stops by.

Touch Up Tuesdays

Head back into the rooms covered on Monday and this time, go a little deeper. Dust, ceiling fans (yes, may require you to re-sweep or vacuum), wipe down the windows, move around stuff on the counters and wipe down, wipe down the outside of the kitchen appliances and the outside of the kitchen cabinets. Get to anything you didn't do on Mainframe Mondays.




What's that Smell? Wednesdays

Ahh, the fun day. Clean out the fridge (make sure to take the trash out immediately after doing this, so you don't end up having a What's that Smell Thursday), throwing away leftovers and checking expiration dates. If you'd like, give the fridge a quick wipe down for any visible spills, or stickiness (every fridge has it, don't worry). Check the trashcans throughout the house and empty them, spray the inside with Lysol or another germ-killing spray. While I scoop the litter box out everyday, Wednesday it gets overhauled. Same principle works for dog kennels I guess (never really had dogs). Spray the cloth furniture down with a fabric refresher (like Febreze- I prefer the antimicrobial one, because it kills the bacteria that causes the funk), maybe your closet and hubby's shoes as well (couldn't hurt). And, the biggest part of What's that Smell? Wednesdays is probably the smelliest part of your home- the bathroom. Today's the day to scrub it down- toilet, bathtub, sink, floors- get it smelling like an orange grove in there, or lemony fresh (or whatever cleaning product smell tickles your fancy- we all have them, it's okay to admit it). Now, with other daily routines, I've seen to wipe the toilet down daily. This is definitely a good tip if you have men in the family, which is why I keep a container of antibacterial wipes under the bathroom sink- easy peasy, and yes, I make them do it (devil woman, I know). I also have one of those Kaboom Scrub Free continuous toilet cleaners, which keeps the inside clean for up to 3 months- I love it (watch the demonstration video on the site- not sure why but it cracks me up, probably because it really is that easy to install it. Heck, I did it myself. It's not one of those looks easy to install but isn't things.) So, that's why I don't scrub the toilet everyday. But, off the subject a little (I'm good at doing that), What's that Smell? Wednesdays are the day to scrub that bathroom clean.

Throw Away Thursdays
The first part of Throw Away Thursdays is to grab a trashbag and a donation box. Spend about 15 minutes in each room throwing away what you can, or putting it into a box for charity/yardsale/storage etc. 15 minutes is just about all you'll need, unless you decide to make that room your room for Thursday. The second part of Throw Away Thursdays is completely up to you, tailor it to fit your schedule and lifestyle. For me, I spend a little time in each room really cleaning- organizing, cleaning out, scrubbing what needs to be scrubbed, vacuuming out the sofa, getting spots out of carpets, things like that. But, like I said before, my house hasn't gotten too overwhelming (yet). If it suits you more to use Thursday to completely tackle a new room (or maybe 2 rooms), from top to bottom, each week, then go for it (for example, the kitchen/dining room the first Thursday of the month, living room/family room second Thursday of the month, etc. ) That way, by the end of the month, you'll have a completely cleaned out house. Make Throw Away Thursday work for you, your family, your house, your life, and your level of motivation.

Feel Good Fridays
All, I love Feel Good Fridays. Gearing up for the weekend, the kids will be home, the hubby off work. So, Feel Good Fridays are just that- do what you need to set your family up for the weekend. I go ahead and wash all the sheets in the house (nothing feels better than freshly laundered sheets), do the final straightening of the house, maybe sweep/vacuum/spot mop if needed. Grocery shop, run errands, make plans for the weekend, whatever is left that you need to do to get yourself a much needed weekend off, too (as much as stay at home moms can get time off, that is). And, I have been known to pamper myself a little on Feel Good Fridays (everyone needs a reward for a job well done every now and then). I'll do an at home facial (I have a homemade recipe for an all natural Strawberry Honey facial mask that not only softened my skin but took a few years off, that I'll share at some point), or read a book, maybe paint my nails. But, in the least, I get everything set up to be able to spend time with my family all weekend.


Now that my routine is all laid out, I can say I've thought about it from the perspective of how it would fit into other people's lifestyles. A bigger family, for example, probably wouldn't make it work only doing one load of laundry a day. I can say I try to play catch up with the laundry on Sundays and Mondays. I also realized, in creating my weekly schedule, that my cleaning standards may not be as high as some people's. I don't require a Martha Stewart home to feel comfortable or to be happy. I don't live in squalor, either, though. For example, taking everything out of the kitchen cabinets and wiping them down is not a priority of mine, but I know people who do that once a month. I'll wipe down baseboards as needed, but I know people who do them every week. So, my goal, as a mom and homemaker, is to make sure my house is clean, presentable if company comes over unexpectedly, not a safety or health hazard to anyone, but comfortable enough to relax in, to play around in, to feel at home. I'm not big on the 'everything is so clean I don't think I can touch a thing' houses. I want people to feel welcome here, and not leave and never return.


So that's what works for me! I'd love to hear either feedback, or tips on what works for you- just drop me a comment below!