These Days

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I am finally getting back into a schedule, though it all revolves around my hubby’s work schedule. Sometimes he is home and sometimes he’s at client sites all day long.

My mornings consist of exercise, Bible study, breakfast, and cleaning. I try to have all the cleaning done by noon. This gets me into the habit of abiding by the time of use plan that goes into effect May 1 with our electric company. They charge more for electricity usage from 11 to 7 on weekdays over the summer so I try to do my housework, baking, etc. on the off-peak hours. It’s one way I can keep the electric bill lower.

In the afternoons, I study Japanese for about an hour, read, quilt, and work on other projects around the house. I have a list of projects about a mile long that I want to tackle but I’m trying to concentrate on only one thing at a time. Last week and this week was devoted to finishing up my quilt for the church. I put in my last stitches this afternoon and will be dropping the quilt off on Sabbath. I think tomorrow I’ll take pictures and post them here in remembrance of my first quilting efforts.

The rest of this week I will spend my project time prepping for a quilting session with my mom. We’re getting together early Sunday morning to start working on Hazel’s mystery quilt. We are dreadfully behind but hope to really dig in on Sunday and complete as much as possible so we’re not lagging so far behind. I have to wash all the fabric and iron everything before sundown on Friday. After that, the only time I’ll be working on that quilt is when my mom and I get together for a quilting session. This will be my second quilt and her first.

My brother, his wife, and his daughter are coming to stay with us for five days in May. I’m hoping to have all of my deep cleaning complete for the living areas of our house. I also have to clean up the spare bedroom so that they have a place to stay. We have a mattress on the floor in that room and tons of boxes filled with who knows what. I wish we could afford to buy a second bed so we had a proper spare room, but we can only provide a mattress, home-cooked food, and our company. Ah, the joys of being broke. 🙂

It looks like my hubby is about finished with his work assignment so I am going to go cook up my black bean burgers. The recipe looks really good and I’m hoping it will turn out tasty!

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Spring Cleaning – Kitchen

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For various reasons, I have been feeling an urgent need to deep clean our apartment. The weather is beautiful, which brings memories and promptings of spring cleaning. I’ve been sick off and on for over a month so I’ve fallen even farther behind in my cleaning. I’ve been reading articles from Ladies Against Feminism which are awakening even greater desires to be a better homemaker. Last but not least, I saw a post somewhere issuing a challenge to eliminate clutter.

In between bouts of sickness, I’ve been tackling the kitchen. So far, I have sorted through every single cupboard and pulled out all utensils, dishes, food, etc. that we do not use. All of the extra dishes were dumped into a big box and I will be storing it in our spare bedroom for three months. At the end of three months, if I haven’t needed anything from the box, I’m selling it all on craigslist. There is enough in that box to qualify as a good kitchen starter set. I don’t know why we have so much extra stuff.

Here’s what I’ve thrown out so far (this does not include the storage box items):

Old rice
Bag old powdered sugar
Couple muffin tin liners
4 expired bottles of spices
2 icky ice cube trays
2 measuring cups
2 cat toys
Dried up superglue
Expired cat ear mite medication
2 tea lights
3 cat medication syringes
5 lids with no containers
Old spatula
2 chipped Pyrex dishes
Dried up package ArmorAll cleaning wipes
Feather duster
Really old bottle of apple cider vinegar

Whew. Feels good to have all of that junk out of my kitchen.

I’ve also wiped out all the cupboards and drawers, organized all food and dishes, scoured behind and under the fridge, and cleaned the floor and one wall of our trash room (tiny little room with one shelf and room for the trash can and broom). I still have to mop the floor, finish the walls in the trash room, clean the oven, scour the inside of the fridge, and have hubby wipe down the ceiling. For some reason, there are food splatters on the ceiling above the stove. How is that possible?

It feels really good to be spring cleaning. It’s a lot of work and it’s taking days because I’m doing such a thorough and perfectionist job of it (besides being sick). When I’m done with the kitchen, I’ll be tackling the living room and then the bathroom. Fun stuff!

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This and That

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I have a number of other topics I really want to post about, but writing about the Bible reading takes up all of my creative energy! I’ve had some interesting cooking experiences lately, have read some great books, and I’m decluttering our apartment. Decluttering is a way more involved job than I thought it would be!

On the creative side of my life, I just finished tying my first quilt today. I should have had it done five weeks ago but I’ve been procrastinating. All I have left is to sew an “in the ditch” seam around the borders and then fold the border over and sew the quilt closed. I’m planning on doing the sewing tomorrow but we’ll see how I feel. I’ve been feeling terrible all day today.

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Fridays – Bathroom

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Friday’s cleaning assignment is the main bathroom. I have to:

  • Sweep floor
  • Mop floor
  • Change towels
  • Wash sink
  • Clean mirrors
  • Scrub the toilet
  • Wipe down shower

This week has been a total success with my cleaning schedule. We have company coming over for lunch tomorrow and I didn’t have to spend the day running around and frantically cleaning the apartment. I still have a few things to do that will take awhile (my desk!) but I’m making progress.

If Jesus came over to visit this evening, I wouldn’t be embarrassed by the state of our home.

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Thursday – Master Bedroom

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Today was all about the master bedroom and bathroom. My weekly chores include:

  • Wash sheets
  • Sweep bathroom floor
  • Wipe down sink/counter top
  • Clean toilet
  • Straighten closet

General tidying is done daily, as is the vacuuming.

This afternoon, I also spent some time sewing my test project. I’m doing a trial run of one of the Christmas presents I’m making. I’ve never attempted this project before and wanted to see how it would it turn out before making the official gifts. I’m still trying to decide if I want to post about the sewing and put up a picture of the gift. The gift recipients don’t usually read my blog but they do have the website address…

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Cleaning schedule

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I’ve been frustrated lately with how our home looks. There are always dirty dishes in the sink, clothes on the floor, and the bathroom is never fully clean (just being honest!). Whenever we invite people over, it’s always a scramble to have everything presentable before they arrive. I knew it was bad when I was embarrassed to let the maintenance guy come in and work on something.

I decided I needed to make a change. Our home should not be this messy. There was really no excuse for it, other than my laziness. When I was first laid off from my job last October, I thought that transitioning into homemaking would be easy. It’s been over a year of trial and error and I still don’t have everything right.

On Sunday, I walked around our apartment and made a list of every single thing that needs to be cleaned. It was a very long list. I broke it down by room and then labeled each item as something that needed to be cleaned daily, weekly, or monthly. Then I assigned each room to one day of the week. Each day, I will concentrate on that specific room while completing a few additional daily chores.

Wednesdays are all about the living room. Each week on Wednesdays, I will:

  • Tidy and wash off the table
  • Dust desks/end tables
  • Straighten the game shelf
  • Water the plants
  • Clean couch cushions
  • Clean off printer shelving

I also have monthly chores for each room, the living room chores assigned to the 2nd Wednesday of every month.

  • Clean light covers
  • Wash patio windows

I also have a few daily chores that have nothing to do with today’s room assignment.

  • Wash/put away dishes
  • One load of laundry – wash, hang, iron, put away
  • Wash and tidy the kitchen counters
  • Sweep kitchen floor
  • Vacuum the apartment
  • Clean the kitties’ litter boxes
  • General pick up around apartment
  • Make bed
  • Personal items (devotional, exercise, reading, etc.)

I started this new system on Monday and it’s worked very well so far. My daily chores don’t take that long and then I work on the room assigned for that day. I estimate I’m spending between 2 and 3 hours each day cleaning. This might get faster as the apartment stays clean instead of doing damage control. The only challenge is working around the times when hubby is working at home. He spends a lot of time doing phone support for clients and I can’t be heard in the background. During those times, I find quiet cleaning to do or I take my breaks and read. Right now he’s on the phone so I’m writing my blog post. Now I’m off to read until he’s finished and then I’ll make dinner.

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Weather, kitty update, and to do list

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I can’t believe how quickly it has cooled down. Just two weeks ago, it was reaching 105 degrees by afternoon. Today, my windows and doors are all open, a cool breeze is blowing into the apartment, and I’m actually a little chilly. Our highs are now around 85 degrees, which is starting to get chilly for Arizona. I’ve lived in Arizona for 10 years and I’ve acclimated fairly well. While I won’t complain about temperatures in the 70s, I will be wearing jeans and possibly a long sleeve shirt!

My kitty seems to be feeling better. Hubby saw him eating breakfast and he’s a bit more feisty. Hubby also caught Bruno and Susano on the counter early this morning eating one of my houseplants. Bad kitties!

I’ve neglected my six most important things list. I’m not sure why I stopped but not writing the list lowers my productivity levels. So today I decided to post my six most important things on my blog and see how much I can accomplish.

Preparation Friday:
Dishes
Wash and dry the sheets; remake the bed
Vacuum
Sweep floors in kitchen and bathrooms
Clean kitty litter boxes
Clean toilet and bathroom sink

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Easy-peasy

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Today was a pretty easy day for work and I’m glad. I’ve been feeling under the weather all day so I was quite happy when I completed three hours of contract work and was told that would be all until tomorrow.

So instead, I did some cleaning. I washed two loads of laundry and washed the dishes. If I’m feeling better tomorrow, I might tackle the kitchen floor. It’s looking kind of grimy in front of the closet where our trash can is stored.

I also worked on my Nano outline for awhile, putting together some information for my first two chapters. It’s been very interesting trying to imagine what it would have been like to live through the plagues. How hard would it have been to find drinking water by digging in the banks of the Nile? What would it have been like finding your house overrun with frogs and being able to do nothing about it? Most of the plagues affected both the Egyptians and the Hebrews so no one was immune.

I wonder how much the Hebrews remembered about God. They were in Egypt for a really long time with no prophets. The 10 commandments reminded them of God’s precepts, like keeping the Sabbath. Does this mean they had forgotten to keep the Sabbath or were just keeping it incorrectly? Or maybe they knew about the Sabbath and wanted to observe but couldn’t because they had to work every day. Do we know for sure? I’m not sure that we do, but it’s been enlightening trying to imagine what life would have been like.

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