A Cleaning Post

First, you have to make sure all the children are well contained and hopefully not doing something destructive while you are tackling a cleaning job. You could even send them off to do their own chores while you do yours! Wouldn't that be super efficient? Sometimes mine can sort clothes or other little jobs, but today I just let them lounge in the living room.


Meet my new friend. His name is Hoovey.
And that is my old friend, Clorox Wipe. If you haven't been well aquainted with Clorox Wipe he is pretty handy. You can even use him to wipe down your spotty toothpastey mirror and there will be no smears. He wins against other wipes. You can leave him in the bathroom and train your boys (and girls) to wipes down the toilet if they make a little sprinkle. Seriously good friend.

Mr. Hoovey is my new all-terrain carpet washing/vacuuming contraption. He also does hard floors. New toys make cleaning fun.
Look at how dirty this carpet was? Yikes. Who knew?



It's kind of amazing actually.

After the floors I spot clorox the rooms. You could also do this before you cleaned your floors. Either way.



Look at all the yuck on this door jam!


After!


Now let's do the kitchen floor. I let it get nice and seasoned to test the new machine.

Oh but first we have to dump out the dirty water from upstairs and then put in hard floor cleaner. Look at the gunk left! wow!


You can refill the hoover containers right in the sink unless you have a big tonka truck there.



Now, here is the dirty floor.


And here it is after the Mr.Hoover!



Definitely a success!

I had previously been using a hoover 'floormate' for my floor but its hose broke and it started leaking. I think the new hoover will do an excellent job with the benefit of being able to handle carpet. It definitely takes a few passes to get up those 'juice spots' on the kitchen floor so I will probably go back to pre-scrubbing it with a little water beforehand and then letting the machine suck up the water and do light scrubbing.

Coloring pages for Advent & Christmas

So today I am scouring the internet for some coloring pages and I've found some really good ones to share.

First let me tell you that one of the best purchases that I got this year for homeschooling was this laser printer (see image at the bottom). It's actually supposed to be wireless too but we don't exactly have that set up right now. Maybe I can get on Dan's tech schedule!

Click here to find this guy on amazon.


Having a laser printer means that you can now water color or BINGO marker and no longer will you have ink bleed!

Now for the coloring. You HAVE to check out the Tomie dePaola site for coloring pages! Specific look at this cool little Christmas ornament you can make. Click here for the PDF. SO cute! The directions are on a separate page so I'll clue you in that you cut this fellow out and then the top gets folded and becomes his hat! You can glue a cotton ball on the top and maybe just thread him through a little metal hook to hang him.

You can find Tomie's official coloring page here. I have to point out one more and that's the nativity that is listed on that page.

I'll add that for these projects I put a little heavier weight paper in the printer. Right now I'm using the stiffer "premium" drawing paper from discount school supply. It looks like it's just listed as "heavyweight" I guess. I wouldn't exactly call it the best paper (it bothers me that it is slightly off white) but it is a nice compromise for not buying super expensive water color paper.






Another 'trick' I've learned is to take out black ( and brown if you feeling extra confident!) from the water color tray. It makes sense to me because the black just destroys the other colors and it overpowers everything usually resulting in a blacky-green mush mess. You can even buy separate colors and just present the color combinations you want them to work with. You'll have to decide if this is stifling creativity or helpful herding =)

Simplifying

I don't think I'm going to do a lot og explaining on this blog but I am just stating for the record that I am a full on Hyperemesis Gravidarum sufferer while pregnant. It is making it nearly impossible for me to keep up with all the commitments and activities that I thought we would continue into the Spring. Hard decisions have been made and many extras are being cut. It has to be done because I need to be very careful about where I spend my energy. Driving around is really out. So we are refocusing, less stressing and turning inward to our little unit. I'll be spending the next few months focusing on household learning and using extra energy for the fun field trips I want to get them on. I'm really sad to see Max's preschool go but it is too far away right now and in the scheme of things.. I could have stayed home today and watched POLAR EXPRESS here instead of sending him to school to do it. I will just never understand showing movies at school to 3 and 4 year olds.