My day began with a splash — literally. One of the children decided to get up early and help themselves to a bowl of cereal and milk. In the process of trying to get the milk out of the fridge, they somehow managed to spill the entire gallon of milk all over the kitchen floor.
So, we pulled the refrigerator out and it took seven towels to mop everything up. The upside? The floor underneath our refrigerator is now spic and span! 🙂
Gratefully, the day got better from there.
We had Egg in a Hole for breakfast, by Kathrynne’s request (what’s with me not following the menu this week?!?).
After our morning homeschooling and chores, I pulled down the sock basket and the children matched socks while I read to them.
Apparently, a number of socks have grown legs and walked off to live where the lone shoe lives because this was the pile of socks without a match! Argh! It’s like we have a sock-eater here or something. 🙂
{The pile of mismatched socks is counting for my 7+ items I’m getting rid of today, by the way. Now watch, as soon as I get rid of these, all their matches will mysteriously appear!}
Late this afternoon, I did the vacuuming and worked on the closets.
None of them were disastrous, but Silas’ closet was in need of some cleaning out.
I moved some of the books and toys downstairs since he’s a creature of habit and only has a few favorite things/books he plays with/reads during quiet time. I figured I might as well move the rest of the things to the toy closet downstairs so the girls can play with them since he really doesn’t.
Jesse had to work late tonight, so I did another impromptu freezer cooking session and made homemade poptarts, homemade cinnamon rolls, plus three bags of cooked beans, two bags of cooked wild rice, and ground up two big bags of whole-wheat flour. It’s so good to be filling my freezer again! {I’ll post about my homemade poptart experiment and my freezer cooking session tomorrow, for those who are interested.}
How did you do on Assignment #18? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.
diane says
Why do I look at your ‘ 7 things’ and think I really need thay one or I have that on my list to buy!?!
Betsy says
It’s really okay to vary from your planned menu!
Crystal says
😉
Camille says
I use socks without a mate to dust and polish furniture. If you stick your hand in like a glove it’s really easy to polish chair rungs and things like that. Yummy looking cinnamon rolls!
Carly says
“What’s with me not following the Menu this week?!” Remember: YOU’RE a genius for your organization and discipline, and WE are geniuses for following and implementing your ideas, too :D, but the children – well, sometimes they just don’t “get” that there was a schedule and a plan – and they want what they want. That’s one of the things making you a great mum – you recognize when to simply MAKE THEM HAPPY. xoxo, C
Kristie says
We used to have the same mismatched sock problem at our house. The answer was to attach a mesh laundry bag (used for washing lingerie) to each child’s hamper. They put their dirty socks in the bag every night. When it’s time to do a load of laundry, zip it up and throw it in. No more lost socks.
AJ says
Awesome idea!
Mother Lydia says
We did that for a bit but the socks were not getting clean.
Meredith says
It feels so good to get so much done! I only have the upstairs closets to finish. I’m ready for today’s challenge.
Crystal says
Great job!!
Stefanie says
If you have the same STYLE of socks that just have different designs on them…….if they have similar colors, my kids just mis-match them and wear them like that. It’s all the rage these days with the teenagers!
Meredith says
It may seem like a pain but when you take off your dirty socks, make a ball out of the pair and put them in a separate pile. When you are ready to wash them, undo the balls and wash them as normal. You are guaranteed to have all of them when the laundry is done. My husband actually taught me this homemaking thing.
LaRae says
The cinnamon rolls look delicious. Could you please post the recipe?
Crystal says
I’ll post details on how I made them today. My family declared them delicious! 🙂
Cherilyn says
Ha! My day ended with spilled milk. It was only half a small glass but it went EVERYWHERE! 🙂
Jessica says
My spill was at lunch time! It landed all over the lunch I just made him so I had to clean up the milk, change the kid and remake lunch! lol!
Jan says
You have so little stuff- I just can’t get over it- unless you’re hiding it all some where? LOL!
Mother Lydia says
She’s talked about it before. they really have very little stuff. I have NO IDEA how they manage it.
Joy says
As a younger woman, I’ve been encouraged by seeing Crystal’s pictures/ideas about clutter! It’s so easy to get sucked into our clutter-creating culture of more is better. Thanks, Crystal!
Jody Susan says
I totally thought you were going to say that you found the shoe behind the fridge!
I like to use extra socks for cleaning – especially blinds and cars – then I don’t keep dropping my rag – just put an x on them with a sharpie to know that they don’t have a mate.
MaryAnne @ Parenting and Money says
What do you typically read to your kids during this type of activity?
Crystal says
You can see all of the read-alouds we’ve read this year so far here:
http://pinterest.com/crystal_paine/books-read-aloud-to-children-in-2012/
And here’s our list of read-alouds we read in 2011:
http://pinterest.com/crystal_paine/books-read-aloud-to-children-in-2011/
Emma K says
I can empathize with the spilled milk to a degree. By lunchtime today the baby had spat up on me, my potty training daughter had an accident and my son had spilled his drink at lunch.
I did get caught up on cleaning and reorganizing my pantry this morning and am going to tackle the closet floors during naptime.
Elizabeth says
I go throw away the socks once every 8 months or so. We have what is called the ‘lonely sock’ bag it’s where socks go when they are lonely and about once a month I go through it and see if I find any new matches though it never fails I make the match 8 months later right before I get ready to get rid of the lonely socks and they are too small so I still end up sending them off to donation… I guess that means at least they are ‘lightly’ used 🙂
Jessica says
I do the same, I keep a shoe box on top of my washer of single socks, but I pull it out and set it down every time I match socks so I can compare. I usually find a few! I also switched both of my kids to just plain white socks, each kid gets there own brand labeled in those treads on the bottom. It makes matching so much easier.
Liz says
There are only 4 feet in my house – mine and hubby’s.
There are infinitely more mismatched socks, however.
We live in less than 1000 sq. ft. and I know for sure I have checked every corner of the house for said socks.
Do you suppose God has a sense of humor and that when we finally meet Him face-to-face He will hand us a huge basket of mismatched socks?!?
Crystal says
Sometimes, I truly wonder if the washer eats them or something!
Shelly@Frugal Family Home says
My son was such a big helper today. When we were done he asked me what are we doing tomorrow. I told him I did not know yet but we would find out tomorrow. He is really liking these assignments we are doing each day.
Plus our house is looking so much better.
Victoria @Snail Pace Transformations says
I was just thinking the other day I really need to introduce my kids to egg in a hole. I use to love it as a kid. Can’t believe just 2 days left!
Cheryl says
We were doing the same thing at our house today-matching socks. I can’t believe how many have lost their matches! Where could they possibly go? Lol I keep some for dusting or rags.
Tasha says
I have a question. Did you grind the wheat and freeze it?
I didn’t know that I could do that. I am a newbie at grinding my own grain. How long does it last in the freezer?
This could save me so much time…if it is indeed an option.
Thanks,
Tasha
Shelly@Frugal Family Home says
Tasha,
I grind my own flour and store it in the freezer. I think it will last 6 months or so. Ours never is in there that long though. I will sometimes grind a gallon bag full and just leave it in the refrigerator until I need to use it.
Jody Susan says
Tasha – Definitely freeze it, or you might get those moths in it – we call them “millers”, but I don’t know what the official word is.
We freeze flour a lot, and I have never had any go “bad”. I have heard it is good to let it return to room temp. for baking, but usually we just use it straight from the freezer.
Crystal says
Yes, I grind and freeze. If you don’t, it loses nutrients/freshness quite quickly. It can last up to a few months in the freezer, but I usually don’t grind more than what I can use in a month or so.
Tasha says
Thanks so much. I have been grinding as I go. This will help me so much.
Tasha
Angie says
I made pasta for supper tonight, but also made a big batch of chicken and noodles since I had frozen noodles on hand and some extra chicken that I shredded this week. I’m freezing part of it and saving some for the weekend when the weather is supposed to be cold and rainy. It felt great to use my time in the kitchen to “get ahead” a little!
Danielle B says
It’s a splashy sort of week. 🙂
Monday night one of my children knocked the entire pitcher of sweet tea off the dinner table right after I had everyone’s plates filled. Then today we had lunch at Subway, splitting $5 subs, and right as I had finished handing out each person’s little section, another child knocked over the just-filled cup of soda. I ended up with sticky pants for the whole rest of our grocery shopping trip.
I told my husband that God is telling us to stick to water. 😉 It’s a whole lot easier to clean up when spilled.
Anyway, all splashiness aside, we had a wonderful day! I knocked off several things on my “to do” and “to catch up on” lists. More importantly, we enjoyed having my husband home today, as he usually doesn’t actually take his Wednesdays off. It was so nice just being together as a family and running errands together.
Looking forward to more spring cleaning tomorrow!
Andrea says
I wear mismatched socks because *gasp*, I’m lazy and never match up socks. I know, I’m a bad, bad little homemaker. 😉
And that being said, I had to giggle at the comments over at Heavenly Homemakers about this recipe: “It’s not healthy! All that butter!!” Yeah, sure. There’s butter. And sugar. Oh noes…but it’s HOMEMADE! You can pronounce all the ingredients in the recipe!!!
We make them here a lot and I LOVE them. There are so many fillings you can put in them, not just sweet, but savory too!
Crystal says
You crack me up! 🙂
Sharla says
Those cinnamon rolls look delicious.
Kelly Logan says
Wow great job on your freezer cooking I need to try those cinnamon things =)
Jerri says
Miss matched socks are the in thing. You can even buy them that way at Claire’s. My girls when they were teenagers would always wear mismatched socks.
Charity says
I have become aware of this new “style” recently, and it makes my OCD nature just go crazy!! It bothers me big time!! 😀
Brianna Shore says
I still wear my socks mismatched. And now my kids do because I never taught them any different lol.
Sara Furlong says
Interested to see how your pop tarts came out! I tried last week and plan to do more before the weekend. I will definitely work my dough more next time and roll it out very, very thin next time as they were too thick. But both my husband and I could see the potential deliciousness so I’m giving it another go. Good luck! 😉