Sunday shortcuts

Lately Dan has been working a lot. Today unfortunately he had to go in to work after church so I have had to cut a few corners to keep my sanity. Since Sunday is after all the day of rest I thought I would share with you a few shortcuts to help you get through your day. These may or may not be things that have happened in our house today, but they probably did.

Wake up with approx. 1 hour until you need to leave for church to get there early and get all your kids to their classes. Perfect that leaves lots of space for a shower (in case you haven't taken one in like 3 days). First run down and preheat the oven so you can throw in some need to get used up so you don't eat them  in a moment of desperation for sugar cinnamon rolls. While in the shower mentally pick wardrobe for church.
Shortcut #1
Go with leggings so you only have to shave about two inches above your ankles.

Arrive at church 20 mins late...

After church if you need to run to the store and all went smooth. Get your kids buckled up and get ready to go. If for some reason your 3 year old starts screaming that he has to PEE RIGHT NOW!!! but you don't feel like getting every one out and going back in. That's ok
Shortcut#2
Just let said three year old hop out and pee in the sewer drain next to your car. Stand very close and make it look like you are both looking at a bug or something else. No one will know and this whole process will only take about two minutes with no one peeing themselves. Don't judge me!

When you return to your home with your family and your 18 month old is covered in a full beard of chocolate from the cookie you got to keep him quiet in the store. Don't worry about it.
Shortcut #3
Stick him in bed and wash the sheet after nap time. Between the milk he drools out and his sweaty head you know the sheet will need it anyway. Plus, that sweat may aid in getting the chocolate off his face.

Ecomaids of Dayton review

So, a few weeks ago I won a free cleaning from Ecomaids of Dayton from Mommin it up. Friday was the day that they came to clean. I was super excited. One thing that made me really happy is that all the products they use are ecofriendly. We are (for the most part) a bleach free home. I started this long ago before Dan and I were married and I try to maintain this especially with little ones around. So, the idea of having professionals come in with products that won't hurt us or the enviornmet made me jump up and down. Seriously, when I won I jumped up and down like I'd won a thousand dollars. Plus, the fact that some one else would come in and do my dirty work was pretty exciting.
                                                                                                                                                                           The ladies who came were very friendly. They got right to work and didn't mind my kiddos and the craziness that came with them. Before they left I had to do an inspection. So, I did a quick look at each room and they all looked great. The counters were sparkly, the microwave looked like new. The front of my fridge looked great. They had dusted my entertainment center so my kids couldn't practice their art skills in the dust any more. My bathroom looked great. No smears on the mirror, no pee on the floor (yes, this is common in my house), even the faucet looked good. I saw them dusting out the fans, and they even did floors! So with my inspection done I signed a paper saying I was satisfied and then they took off. They left me a cute little bath set, too. I do love presents! So, I was happy.

However, once I got into my kitchen I was standing and admiring how pretty it looked I did notice a few things. my stove top was sparkly white, but the burners and pans had not been touched. There was still a noodle that had dropped from dinner the night before just hanging out there. Then I looked at my base boards and they didn't look a whole lot cleaner. So I took a wet rag to them and noticed the corner still had a ton of crumbs. My rag was full of dog and cat hair and dirt and kitchen yuck. I was a little bummed because I surface clean most days. I was really hoping they would be doing some deep cleaning.  Next I moved to the living room. Before they left I had asked about window since mine were still a mess. They said they don't do windows...ok, no biggie, but when I went to clean them there was still a decent amount of dirt in the bay window. My bedroom also looked pretty, and really the only thing I noticed right after they left was that they didn't dust the blinds. Again, not a big deal, just one of those deep clean things I was hoping they would do. At bed time though I did find some dust clumps from the fan that were hanging out on my bed. Then there was the bathroom. I was the most excited about this. With as many little boys as there are hanging out here my potty can get nasty. So, I was very pleased to have a deep clean here. However, when I lifted the lid the bowl had not been cleaned. That isn't even a deep clean kind of thing. It's more of a first thing kind of thing. My shower had been cleaned, but none of the bottles on the shelves had been lifted and wiped under. Both things were very quick and easy fixes, but I would think they would have been done.

Now, I will say that I didn't get a deep clean. I just stuck with the freebie that I had won. So, some of the things I had hoped for are a little extra from what it looks like. Some of the things that weren't done are supposed to be done in a routine clean.  

I am so thankful that I won. It was great timing because we have a birthday party today. I am so glad that it was free help. However, I think had I paid for the services I might be a little disappointed. I felt like overall it was a great surface clean. The ladies did a good job of making my house look pretty. I don't think that this was the deep clean I was hoping for, but I also have never had my house professionally cleaned so I don't know what is normal to expect. I did pull up the site and here is the cleaning checklist they used. So, if you are interested in using Ecomaids you can have a more in depth idea of what to expect.

Update: I wanted to let you know that Sid, the owner of Ecomaids, called after the cleaning to ask if I was satisfied. I let him know about the areas I felt were not done well in my opinion. He sent a team out to fix anything I felt was not 100%. He even came himself to make sure the job was done well. I am very impressed with a business that guarantees their work and is willing to fix any inconsistencies. The customer service is fabulous. Thank you, EcoMaids.  

My Fave!

I just saw this and I had to share! Family Christian has The Jesus Story book Bible on sale for 50% off. It is marked down to only $12.49! This is my favorite kids Bible. It was given to us by our friend and it is a huge favorite around our place. We loved it so much that we bought the deluxe set (which is what this is) with the audio. The kids love this.

A cool idea I saw was to use this as a kids quiet time. Isaac loves his Bible time. He sits with head phones and listens to the stories while following along. It is a great way to start the habit of spending time each day with Jesus. We also will play the CDs in the car and since now we have two books the boys can each read along. 

The thing I love about this Bible vs. other children story Bibles is that Jesus is tied in through every story. From creation to the cross it is explained how Jesus is the Hero of the story. The illustrations are fun and the stories are worded in a way that helps kids understand. We love this, and hope you do too!

Happy Birthday

Today is my wonderful husband's birthday!

I'm so thankful for him. He is my best friend. 

God is so good to have given me such an amazing man. 

Every day he points our family toward Christ. 

He is the best daddy in the world. Every time the door opens there is a stampede and cheers for "Daddy!"

He works so hard for us. I am so proud that he does such a good job at all he is given. 

He is a leader to not only his family, but also to those around him. 

He makes me laugh. He keeps me sane. 

He is constantly serving me and his family. 

He sets an example to our boys of what a Godly man looks like. 

I am so proud to call this incredibly handsome guy my husband.

He may be a little bit nerdy. 

But he is mine. 

He is super athletic.

 He is the keeper of the camera.

He's my other half, my best friend, my pastor, and my love. 

He is the driver of the car. My favorite person to road trip with.

He is the keeper of the chaos. Without him we'd go crazy. 

He is the best daddy ever. 

He is MY super hero.

 

I love being married to this man. I love our family. I love that God has blessed me so much by bringing us together. I hope to wish him many many more Happy Birthdays! 

Happy Birthday to my Love!!!

Levi on a mission

As a parent there are those moments where you have to ask yourself "where is my kid".

 So you go in search and this is what you find.

 A little boy who wants to be just like his brothers.

 yep I found him today in the sink. Brushing his teeth.

 with both his brother's toothbrushes.

So, on our Kroger trip today we picked up a few new toothbrushes for everyone. :)

Home school ahead

http://www.abeka.com/I am getting so excited to start Kindergarten! I know I should have started it like 22 years ago, right! I am so excited to get to start officially doing Kindergarten with Isaac and preschool will start with Asher. We have been doing preschool for almost 2 years around here to see if it could really work for us.

Now, the time has come and we will be starting on Kindergarten material soon! So, I thought I'd share with you some of our curriculum plans.

I have decided to use My Father's World as our curriculum structure for the year. One of my friends allowed me to borrow hers so that was a big savings. I will let you know what I think once we get into it a bit, but for now I love that it is Bible based. I feel like Isaac is a little further ahead of where this starts, but I will use this for both Isaac and Asher just moving at a pace that works for each of them. This will cover our Bible, science, and some social studies. I will use some of the ideas for phonics, but from what I have heard it is some what weak in the areas of reading and math. 

We have been slowly working through the hooked on Phonics K program. I LOVE LOVE LOVE hooked on Phonics! I bought a few different sets awhile back when they were running some crazy awesome sales so I have K-1st already. I can't say enough about Hooked on Phonics. I am an ADD mom and some of the programs I have looked at have made my head spin or bored me to death. These come with everything you need in the kit, it is fun and colorful, and so straight forward. I can't say enough good things. 

For math we will be using A beka math for Kindergarten. I am looking forward to researching more math programs and land on what we plan to use in the future. We are attending a home school conference at the end of March. I plan on checking out a lot of our choices for next year and beyond.

I will have lots of other fun supplemental manipulative and other goodies as well, but I feel like I have narrowed down my basics. Until I go to the conference and see all the cool stuff that is out there.  :)

Free episode- Jake and the Neverland pirates

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that my cool new ipod touch is not my own. Although it was intentioned to be a special mommy thing. The reality that my kids LOVE it is overwhelming. Now, at times this is not a bad thing (i.e. today in the grocery store). So, I like to have a few babysitter distractions for the kiddos loaded on my pretty pink toy.

So, I was excited when my friend over at DealsforDayton posted about a free episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates from itunes. Holla! Can you say 'watch this so Mommy and Daddy can eat in peace at a restaurant'. I can! Needless to say it is downloading right now, and, yep, it is going with us tomorrow when we go out to celebrate my hubby's Bday.  (who needs a sitter when you have a portable movie). 

Just so you know my kids don't get my ipod often, and we don't usually let them watch movies in restaurants. But since we couldn't get a sitter for tomorrow night there is a good chance we will be pulling out the big gun distractions. :)