31 Days to Clean Review ~ Day 1

I was super thrilled with Day one of the book, especially the challenges. There is no cleaning involved. That may sound a bit lazy, and maybe it is but it is perfect for me. I need a day or so to really wrap my mind around any new concept, or any old concept that I have been avoiding.

I also loved that the first chapter, like many of the other chapters in this book was short enough to read through in just a couple of minutes. Really, if we are reading a book about cleaning, we need more time to clean, not read.

MARY CHALLENGE

It took me more than a few minutes to make my list of reasons that I want a clean house. In fact, I made my initial list, left it then, came back and added to it. Here is what I came up with:

~I want a clean house because:

~I want to feel comfortable practicing biblical hospitality;

~I want my home to be a haven and a sanctuary for my family;

~I want my home to be visually peaceful;

~I want to be calm and peaceful for my family in a way that I can only be when I am not stressed about the state of my house;

~I want my husband to rest in the fact that he can always invite someone over with no notice and not be ashamed of his house;

~I want to set expectations in my sons for their future wives;

~I want to set an example for my daughters and teach them how to keep a clean and comfortable home.

WOW!! That is a lot of information to formulate into one mission statement. I did think for a moment that I would rather be cleaning :)

Here is the Langford Clean House Mission Statement:

I will work diligently to provide a clean and clutter-free home for the health, peace and confidence of my family.

MARTHA CHALLENGE

This was SO much easier! Scanning through the Martha challenges was pretty simple. Most projects required cleaning supplies and tools that I already have on hand.

If you are taking this challenge with me, don’t run out and buy too much. I will be sharing some daily recipes for chemical free cleaners that do a fantastic job of cleaning your house, cost less money and do not require you to sacrifice your health due to chemical exposure.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me!

Weekly Recipe ~ Missy's Banana Bread

This Banana Bread is great for breakfast or with a cup of hot tea in the evening. It is so easy but there are a few key ingredient modifications that make it irresistible!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 Cups Flour
2 Eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup walnuts

Yummy Modifications:

1. I use fresh ground hard red wheat flour.
2. I use REAL butter, no margarine!
3. I use unbleached natural raw sugar or sucanat.
4. I use VERY ripe bananas (almost mushy)like these:



Directions:

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Combine dry and wet ingredients. Mix in bananas with mixer until smooth or desired texture. Stir in walnuts. Transfer to greased loaf pan and bake on 350 for 50-55 minutes.



The finished product is delicious. This is one of those quick and easy recipes that is perfect for coffee with company. While baking, the bread makes your house smell warm and inviting. Enjoy!

31 Days to Clean Review

I recently had the privilege to read Sarah Mae's 31 Days to Clean. I did not do all of the suggested activities in the book. I wanted to read the book first to see what I might be getting into.

Each day provides a chapter to along with a Mary Challenge and a Martha Challenge. I was really worried about committing to the challenges of this book because I like to think of myself as more of a Mary than a Martha. Translation: I like to read and write much more than I like to clean :)

After some consideration and reworking of my daily schedule with the new year, I think the 31 Day challenge is completely doable.

Will you take the challenge with me? You can get your own copy of the book by clicking the link below. We start on Monday, January 23rd!

Click here to visit Sarah Mae.

Homeschool Monday ~ A Schoolroom...or Not

I have attempted to write a post about my favorite school rooms and my own personal school room for a while now but it just hasn’t happened. Most folks who know me know that I do my best to live outside of the proverbial box in every way I can. It occurred to me that it wasn’t absolutely necessary to have an actual school room with school desks. What if my kids would be more comfortable in other areas of the house? Would it be more convenient to have them doing school where I could also be doing dishes or folding laundry while answering questions? Don’t be deceived, our house is not huge at all but, with a toddler, three school age kids and all the housework that comes with a family, I often wish that I could be in several rooms at once. With that in mind, I finally took the plunge and pulled my school room apart and moved my kidos to the kitchen table. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a good bit of schoolroom envy. In fact, here are a couple of my favorites.

This is the Murphy Academy schoolroom complete with giant whiteboard, networked computers and some fancy lighting.




This is Edie's from LifeinGrace.com garage transformed into a schoolroom.




I still get the urge to go IKEA shopping when I look at those rooms but, I have finally realized that it would just be money wasted if the whole “room” thing doesn’t really work for me. When I was a new homeschooling mommy, all I wanted was a school room. We lived with my parents the first year we homeschooled and our entire school spaced consisted of a corner of my mom’s dining room where my two oldest sat at their little two seat children’s table and a 5 shelf bookshelf in another corner. One of the things I looked most forward to in moving into my newly remodeled house was my school room. We have made it work for 4 years now but only because that is what I that I needed to “properly educate” my children.

For a few weeks now, the older children have been doing school at the kitchen table where I can teach and do dishes at the same time. I have one small bookshelf where the kids keep the things they need to do school each day.

I love it! Our school room has been transformed into some multi-purpose space. It is part playroom but it also now houses our computer which was moved out of our office. This has also proved helpful. I can now do the family accounting, blogging and anything else that I need the computer for without being tucked away in our office.

Our office has also been transformed. This is my favorite part!! The old office is now our library! EEEKKK!! My own personal library complete with organized and cataloged books. I have in heaven!! I admit it. I am one of those weird souls that gets a strange endorphin release from seeing shelves lined with books, that are MINE!

Anyway, the point is that your school space, and your entire house for that matter, should work for you and your family no matter what the norms are.

Recipe of the Week

Aunt Robin's Homemade Veggie Pizza

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Minced Garlic to taste (we use about 1 TBSP)
Sun Dried or Roma Tomatoes
Mozzarella Cheese
Chopped Spinach
1 each Yellow, Orange and Red Bell Pepper Chopped
1 cup Tomato Sauce

Make a basic bread dough like the one found here. Roll out to a pizza crust thickness to fit your pan or baking stone. Brush dough with olive oil and minced garlic. Spread tomato sauce over crust. Cover with spinach and chopped veggies to taste. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

Homekeeping Tuesday ~ Homemade Shower Spray

Making huge changes all at once has always overwhelmed me. I find that I am a person much more suited to baby steps. I took this into consideration when I decided that to eliminate chemicals from my home. Instead of going through my house with a trash bag and purging every chemical product I could find, I simply wait until I run out of a product and then find a recipe and make a natural replacement.

Today I am out of shower spray so, here is what I am going to replace the chemical stuff with:

24 oz spray bottle (I buy these at the Dollar Store and keep several on hand)
½ cup of vinegar
6 drops Castile Soap
10 drops tea tree oil
10 drops sweet orange oil
Fill with distilled water

This version of shower spray is completely safe, costs less and works perfectly!!

Home Keeping Tuesday ~ Menu Planning

Menu planning was never a part of our routine until the last couple of months. Once-a-month-cooking makes it almost too easy to just walk out to the big freezer every morning and pull out a bag or casserole pan of whatever sounds good at the moment. Once-a-month-shopping, however, necessitates a menu plan to cover all of the extra side items for dinners and little things that we make a quick trip to the store to pick up.

Until now, I have done weekly menu plans more for the sake of preserving my own sanity. A mom can only answer the “what are we having for _____” question so many times in a day. Plus, I discovered that a simple plan posted on the fridge takes the think work out of the day’s meals.

I am by no means an expert menu planner but here is what we are doing now in preparation for our big OAMS trip coming up in two weeks.

1. Keep a list hanging on the refrigerator or in another easy place to note items as you run out of them.

2. Inventory the items (with amounts) that you still have in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer.

3. Begin working your way backward from a simple menu plan. I like to use the weekly menu plan form from Money Saving Mom. Looking at the plan a week at a time makes it seem less overwhelming. Be sure to list everything you need for each meal in your menu plan including condiments, beverages and specific fruits and veggies.

4. Transfer items from the menu to a grocery list. I have a couple of drafts of this list. The first is messy with lots of tally marks as I add to the number of each item I need. The second is neat enough that I can actually read it in the grocery store.

Additional tips:

*Some moms keep a list of the family’s favorite or most common meals in their home management binder and fill in the menu plan with those meals and leave spaces for new recipes to try. (I’m still working on this one.)

*Plan even those meals that you don’t think you need to plan. This will eliminate the extra trips to the store and take the guess work out of the day.

*Plan your menu based on using as much as possible of what you already have in inventory to save money.

*Save your menu plan to reuse again for the weeks or months that you just don’t have time to plan.

Share your great menu planning ideas in the comments!