In celebration of making my way back to the blogging world heres an entirely new piece
This time on organization.....
If anyone knows me personally I'm a super tidy person and I cannot ever leave my house in any type of array. That being said heres a few tricks and tips to keeping your home tidy, alot of which seem like common sense but make a big difference.
Maintenance is key!
Bathrooms aka scrub showers, toilets, vanities and floors should be done weekly but countertops need to be wiped down every night and cleared of unnecessary clutter.
Kitchens need to be cleaned fully every night no exceptions. Leaving food out or dirty dishes attracts bugs and smells; neither of which are acceptable in the house anyway. Tip here is to wash dishes as you make them. Its insanely fast and easy to wash one bowl and one spoon; time consumption occurs when you pile endless dishes on top of each other. Clutter also increases the likely hood of fresh food spoiling on the countertop so keep it as clear as possible and do a wipe down every night at least.
FIFO your food. if you've never worked in food industry that means "first in, first out." Stop wasting food, you're really only throwing away money. Plus you should acknowledge that 1 in 5 kids are food insecure, so think about that next time you throw away an entire loaf of bread wastey-mcwastey. If you're not already meal planning I'd highly recommend it to both limit waste and save on your budget. Your refrigerator should be cleared out of old expired food or anything that shouldn't be in there (like take out from 4 days ago) at least once a week and wiped down. Microwaves should be wiped down daily....I low key judge people based off of the nastiness of their kitchen appliances. Its rather easy to do a quick look clean but you can tell how clean or not a household is on the state of their appliances. Cole is also the worlds messiest eater and his high chair needs to be cleaned after every meal. I mean mild clorox solution cleaned.
Floors need to be vaccumed or swept at least daily, if you have kids or pets id recommend twice daily. We have hardwood floors and we mop the floors weekly.
Laundry - My husband is a massage therapist who works out of a portion of our house (they use the seperate entrance/bathroom/etc) That being said we go through a lot of laundry. We need to do one to two loads a day in order to keep up. I recommend starting the laundry as the first thing you do when you wake up minus brushing your teeth. Most wash cycles are around 45 min and max out around an hour. Even if you need to head out, by the time you've gotten all the kids fed, situated and dressed you'll be able to throw it in the dryer before you leave. I also recommend washing bedding once every 1 to 2 weeks. Laundry is also an easy one to pile up. Fold it as soon as it comes out and it won't be nagging at you for the rest of the day. Even giant loads shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
Toys - This is probably unnecessary to most people but I'm minimal in general so the kids don't have a ton of toys to begin with. They have one corner of our house with toys and thats everything therefore its manageble for me to wipe down all the toys with clorox wipes every 2 to 4 weeks. This also gives me the opporunity to go through and get rid of whatever is broken and put aside whatever they haven't touched in awhile to be donated.
Clothes - I go through the kids clothes once to twice a month because they really do grow that fast. I set aside whats to donate and whats to hold on too. I also refold and organize their dresser drawers weekly since they get pretty messy when the kids go through them. Adult clothes I go through monthly, if it hasn't been worn in over a month or two it will go to donation.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Ezykiels Kamehameha Homework Recipes
kamehameha is pretty homework intensive for a preschool but alas here was one of his weekend projects.
he had to choose two recipes, type it out(courtesy of parents), make it and take pics of him thru each step
so here ya go
we made chocolate banana bread and pancakes both from scratch
also added the sweet potato pizza
he had to choose two recipes, type it out(courtesy of parents), make it and take pics of him thru each step
so here ya go
we made chocolate banana bread and pancakes both from scratch
also added the sweet potato pizza
Friday, October 6, 2017
Bed Time Conversations
Every evening, Ezykiel and I spend about
20 to 30 min talking story about our days and at the tail end of his
bedtime routine I allow him to ask whatever questions he has about
anything.
Most nights the questions are light and curious such as "what did you do today mommy?" or "why is your favorite color orange?" or "why dont we have two moons?" Other times they are really thoughtful such as "what do you think coley dreams about?" or "how did you feel when you were a little girl in preschool?"
Today was the first so far with a couple of hard questions......first up "what does 'die' mean?" which led to "but does everyone die?" He was really upset (understandably) for a good chunk of time. Muttering about how he didnt want to die and how he doesnt want me or coley or mima or dad to die ever.
This conversation lasted awhile and I reassured him that right now everyone is safe and healthy. I guided the direction of the convo but for the most part we equally contributed. We talked about ways to "malama ke kino" which means take care of our bodies so we can live a reallllly long time. We talked about ways to stay safe like using carseats and looking before crossing the street.
Mostly though we talked about how and why its so important to be kind and to have fun each day. We talked about giving lots of hugs/cuddles to the people we love. We talked about how we can help other people. We talked about appreciation and happiness.
All and all it was a great conversation and he fell asleep just fine. But I feel like its such a difficult concept to grasp and Im not sure how well I went with it. Any how, what were some hard questions your children have asked you? what were your answers? how did you talk about the concept of "death?" Also as an ending note, I asked where he heard the term "death/dead/die" and he said his friend in schools cat died.
Most nights the questions are light and curious such as "what did you do today mommy?" or "why is your favorite color orange?" or "why dont we have two moons?" Other times they are really thoughtful such as "what do you think coley dreams about?" or "how did you feel when you were a little girl in preschool?"
Today was the first so far with a couple of hard questions......first up "what does 'die' mean?" which led to "but does everyone die?" He was really upset (understandably) for a good chunk of time. Muttering about how he didnt want to die and how he doesnt want me or coley or mima or dad to die ever.
This conversation lasted awhile and I reassured him that right now everyone is safe and healthy. I guided the direction of the convo but for the most part we equally contributed. We talked about ways to "malama ke kino" which means take care of our bodies so we can live a reallllly long time. We talked about ways to stay safe like using carseats and looking before crossing the street.
Mostly though we talked about how and why its so important to be kind and to have fun each day. We talked about giving lots of hugs/cuddles to the people we love. We talked about how we can help other people. We talked about appreciation and happiness.
All and all it was a great conversation and he fell asleep just fine. But I feel like its such a difficult concept to grasp and Im not sure how well I went with it. Any how, what were some hard questions your children have asked you? what were your answers? how did you talk about the concept of "death?" Also as an ending note, I asked where he heard the term "death/dead/die" and he said his friend in schools cat died.
Chore Chart
This is Zekes chore chart. I shared it with a friend and it seemed
to inspire her to try it out so I figured I'd just share on here too.
It's become so routine for me that I forget how much of a difference it
makes. This kinda goes off of the "having high expectations for your
kids" thing I posted a few days ago.
These are all the responsibilities or as Ezykiel says his "kuleanas."
we talked about it to decide what exactly should earn a star on the
chart to figure out what chores are fair. They are not set chores
though, for instance we've phased out "wiping own butt" bc it is now
simply an expectation. And we also agreed that you should be able to
earn a star for the chore every day....so he can earn bonus stars for
other things like helping me clean the car, helping with dishes or
trying a new food (I have the world's pickiest eater.
The thing is though I don't nag him to do any of it. (Except taking meds which needs to be done without complaint) It's his choice to earn the star or not. The quickest he can fill the chart is a week but he realistically average two. A full chart is worth $10 to do whatever he wants with. He can get a toy or save it for something bigger. Right now he's saving for a big transformers set that's $60 so far he's earned $40.
Although I don't keep junk food in my house, he is also free to use HIS money to buy a big ass bag of Cheetos or whatever.
For me it just teaches him accountability. We rarely buy him toys "just because" so he understands the concept of earning money for treats. It also teaches him a very basic form of money management.
The last rule when he does get something tangible though is that for every toy that comes in something needs to go out. So he decides what he's ready to donate and we go and pick out whatever it is he wants
It also teaches natural consequences....if you want something you need to put in the effort and earn it. We as parents happily provide for all of their needs and they realistically want for very little but the small things that are purely wants are earned
The thing is though I don't nag him to do any of it. (Except taking meds which needs to be done without complaint) It's his choice to earn the star or not. The quickest he can fill the chart is a week but he realistically average two. A full chart is worth $10 to do whatever he wants with. He can get a toy or save it for something bigger. Right now he's saving for a big transformers set that's $60 so far he's earned $40.
Although I don't keep junk food in my house, he is also free to use HIS money to buy a big ass bag of Cheetos or whatever.
For me it just teaches him accountability. We rarely buy him toys "just because" so he understands the concept of earning money for treats. It also teaches him a very basic form of money management.
The last rule when he does get something tangible though is that for every toy that comes in something needs to go out. So he decides what he's ready to donate and we go and pick out whatever it is he wants
It also teaches natural consequences....if you want something you need to put in the effort and earn it. We as parents happily provide for all of their needs and they realistically want for very little but the small things that are purely wants are earned
Time Management - Working Out
I've had a couple friends ask how I work out with kids present annnnnnd I'll go ahead and share that now.
I'll usually try and do my workout during Coles nap but if he's really fighting it I'll just put him in the pack and play for independent quiet play and usually he will fall asleep on his own anyway.
Ezykiel is now normally in school when I do my work outs but if he's home (like now bc fall break) than he also has quiet independent time. Since Cole is confined during this time it's when I allow Zekes to play with all his art stuff since he requires very little supervision. Cole is still in the oral stage, meaning he puts things in his mouth from time to time so he cannot be roaming free when Ezykiel has a hundred tiny things laying around.
I have a bunch of stuff in a bin for him to choose from; all of which work on fine motor skills. Some examples in pics, I have wooden beads that he can string on pipe cleaners, we are starting to learn patterns right now. I have stencils in shapes, letters, numbers and shapes. Both to work on finger strength and letter/number/shape recognition. I allow crayons only and color pencils...although he is old enough to know where his "art station" is, I will take no chances and don't want markers on my walls. I also drew out a bunch of simple shapes in sharpie in his paper book if he wants to practice using kid scissors. Scissors on an obvious note help both with muscle strengthening and dexterity.
There's actually alot of things he can choose to do and I could go on for days. If anyone's actually interested I might make a separate post.
Anyway my work out is an hour and some change and Coles nap is usually two hours. I usually split that second hour and work with Zekes on whatever (patterns/drawings/painting) and than make lunch. When Cole wakes up everyone gets fed before we head out for whatever afternoon activity.
I'll usually try and do my workout during Coles nap but if he's really fighting it I'll just put him in the pack and play for independent quiet play and usually he will fall asleep on his own anyway.
Ezykiel is now normally in school when I do my work outs but if he's home (like now bc fall break) than he also has quiet independent time. Since Cole is confined during this time it's when I allow Zekes to play with all his art stuff since he requires very little supervision. Cole is still in the oral stage, meaning he puts things in his mouth from time to time so he cannot be roaming free when Ezykiel has a hundred tiny things laying around.
I have a bunch of stuff in a bin for him to choose from; all of which work on fine motor skills. Some examples in pics, I have wooden beads that he can string on pipe cleaners, we are starting to learn patterns right now. I have stencils in shapes, letters, numbers and shapes. Both to work on finger strength and letter/number/shape recognition. I allow crayons only and color pencils...although he is old enough to know where his "art station" is, I will take no chances and don't want markers on my walls. I also drew out a bunch of simple shapes in sharpie in his paper book if he wants to practice using kid scissors. Scissors on an obvious note help both with muscle strengthening and dexterity.
There's actually alot of things he can choose to do and I could go on for days. If anyone's actually interested I might make a separate post.
Anyway my work out is an hour and some change and Coles nap is usually two hours. I usually split that second hour and work with Zekes on whatever (patterns/drawings/painting) and than make lunch. When Cole wakes up everyone gets fed before we head out for whatever afternoon activity.
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