Our developing laundry system

I mentioned in my last post that I've finally figured out a laundry system that we seem to be able to implement with some consistency. Here is more about that system and its evolution, in hopes that some part of it will be helpful or inspiring to you.

I should start by saying that the whole laundry thing has been a blight on my homemaking existence for years. I've often thought with a bit of (naive, I'm sure) jealousy back to the times when folks just had 2 or 3 outfits to wear and wash. Nine people worth of clothes and laundry just adds up! I never know whether to laugh or cry when one of my friends on Facebook mentions in their status that it's "laundry day." Every day but Sunday is laundry day here, or else Mt. Washmore raises its smelly head in our laundry room.

Several years ago, one of those miracle moms with 10 children and an immaculate house talked at our home school support group about home management. She had a lot of great ideas, some of which I have implemented with varying degrees of success. One idea we adopted was that of giving each child (that is old enough) a day on which it is their responsibility to do their laundry (and for the older ones, the laundry of an assigned sibling, who would be taught more responsibility as they grew). We bought stacking plastic laundry drawers per her suggestion as well.

Over the years, we've tweaked the system here and there. Last year we bought two three-bag laundry sorters, one for the girls' room, one for the boys room. For some reason, this did not work for our Blessings. I'm not sure why, but it just didn't.

Several months ago, we moved the laundry sorter to the laundry room and all the Blessings bring their dirty clothes and put them in the appropriate bag (we have two bags for darks, one for lights/whites). The children still have their day to do laundry, but the requirement has changed to doing two loads of laundry from start to clean and folded, choosing whichever bag(s) most need to be done.

This was a big improvement, but Mt. Washmore still had a tendency to rise, because we didn't have a spot for the towels/sheets/blankets. This "other" category seemed to spread all over the floor AND inspire children to drop their dirty clothes on the floor instead of in the proper bag.

So, a couple months ago, we bought two large sturdy (and cheap!) laundry baskets, one white, one blue. The dark "other" laundry goes in the blue basket, the light in the white basket. These baskets are now included in the "what most needs to be washed" selection process. This seems to have been the piece of the puzzle that we've been missing!

I haven't posted about the evolution of our laundry system for a while because for so long it just wasn't working! But this incarnation has been in place long enough that I think I can say with some confidence that it's working for us.

Here's a picture of the laundry room yesterday morning, in a pretty typical state for a Saturday:

It's not perfect, which is fine with me. There is no mountain, no stench, and no shame. A couple of notes:
~ The laundry sorter's usual home is to the left of the washing machine, so that children can reach the washer. I moved it for a more compact picture. And so that you can't see the mess on my sewing desk.
~ The tan basket on the dryer is the sock basket. It's supposed to have only unmatched socks, but often a whole load worth of socks gets dumped there. It's a process, right?
~ The white laundry basket on the dryer is a rest stop for clothes that no longer fit anyone, but that are nice enough to save. There is a larger tub on top of the big freezer that I can empty this into occasionally, and which I sort through at the seasonal clothes changeover. This is another recent addition which I like much better than the accumulating pile of too-small clothes in my bedroom!
~ I noticed when I looked at this picture that I need to remind the Blessings to throw the bag into the washer when they get to the bottom!
~ Jonathan and I have a blue basket and a white basket in our room. I throw our laundry in in the evening and/or on the weekend.
~ With baby will arrive daily diaper laundry. This will require more diligence at prompting the Blessings to start their laundry early in the day and finish it in time for me to put in diapers in the evening.

So tell me here or post on your blog and share a link. What laundry ideas work for you?

Hand Washing

Though I want to be a good steward, I'll be frank and state that I am not overly concerned about "saving the earth." After all, it's all going to burn one day and be replaced.

The interesting thing I've found about some "earth friendly" thinking is that it relates closely to "people friendly." The anti-bacterial soap ingredient that gets into lakes and kills fish? It's the same thing that makes me more likely to get sick by promoting bacterial resistance; the same substance, classified as a pesticide, that can make its way into breastmilk for my precious babies!

So while "being gentle to the earth" isn't one of my main goals, being gentle to my family's bodies is. And I've found those two goals overlap more often than I used to think they might.

All that is an introduction to this post on Hand Washing at Simple Organic. Very informative and practical. Anti-bacterial soap is bad for you, dear ones, and this gives a great explaination of why, with links to additional resources. It also answers the "what do I do instead?" question.

My First Furniture Re-do

From this:

To this:


I have no experience, and this project is proof that if you're content with imperfection, you can have beauty! This is a chair that came out of my G'pa and G'ma Byrd's attic. The original cover was totally torn up by our sheltie when the chair lived out on the front porch for a while. The chair itself has been extensively repaired by Jonathan as it had taken several injuries. It's been sitting in our room, too ugly/messed up to use, just taking up space. Time for it to be lovely again!

One of the boys and I unscrewed the seat from the chair and I ripped off all the old stuff. I didn't have any padding, but I thought of this old worn out mattress cover. I folded it over and over, and cut it to the right size. I think I ended up with seven layers.





Then I took a jumper a friend gave me several years ago. I love the fabric, but it had several worn (or burned?) spots that made it unwearable. So I very roughly cut it, leaving plenty of room to bring it to the underside of the seat.


At this point, I checked the stapler and found it empty, so the project was put on hold until we could pick up some more staples. Today, as I prepared to load the staple gun with new staples, about an inch and a half of staples fell out of the gun. I think God just knew on Saturday that I'd done too much and needed to stop.

So, I have no idea of the "right" way to do this, but I stapled the sides first, pulling the fabric snug, then trimmed the side fabric. Next I did the front and back, also trimming after stapling. Last came the corners, which I pulled together rather haphazardly. But it worked!



Now it waits for Jonathan to come home and screw the seat back on the chair.

The fabric is just cotton and not super sturdy, so I'm sure it will wear more quickly than official upholstery fabric. But it was free, I think it's lovely, and I can find something else fun next time it needs to be redone. Or whenever I get in the mood to change it!
Thanks, Nester, for telling me over and over that IDHTBPTBB! I don't think I would have tackled this otherwise.

Baking Fun

Jonathan got me this wonderful mixer for Christmas. Doesn't it remind you of the tail light of a '60-something Chevy? I love it!

I also love that I've started making bread again, thanks to this strong reliable mixer and its dough hooks. I just can't handle kneading bread, and this does the hard part while allow me to do the fun stuff. The above shot was on New Year's Day. I was working on my "first" batch of bread while playing Apples to Apples Bible Edition with the boys.

Here's my second batch of bread. Should've gotten it out a little earlier, but it is still very yummy.


Also yesterday, I brought Katie "alongside" and she helped me make this Cranberry Crunch for dessert. She really did most of the work, and it was such fun to do it together. She even let two of her siblings go ahead of her in line for computer time because she was enjoying her time in the kitchen so much (she and Grace also helped me make quiche for supper).

Mama Stuff

Stacy at Your Sacred Calling has a great post up today about Kiddos in the Kitchen. Before you read on here, I'd love it if you'd go take a look, and be sure to read the article she links to at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee.

Done? Good stuff, wasn't it?

The whole "Did he know what He was doing when He gave them me?" question resonates with me (and probably most moms) deeply. I've spent a lot of time beating myself up for my failures instead of accepting His forgiveness and moving on in HIS strength. But He keeps working on me, and it's wonderful to know that His grace covers my mistakes, failures, impatience, etc.

On the kiddos in the kitchen business...
I have long admired and desired the parenting "model" that brings your children alongside you as you work through the day. It made sense and it sounds so lovely (two links there). But man oh man, it seems so hard to do! (Listens for the Amens) So I continue to desire to live with my children alongside me, and keep looking for ways to make that workable for me.

Here's how my efforts have often gone in the past. I have something to do, think it would be something with which the Blessings could help. I gather them around, thinking what a fun and bonding experience this will be. 30 minutes later, the project is complete, I feel like I should be half bald from pulling my hair out, and I go to take a nap wondering, "Why do I even try?" A couple months later, I might get the courage to try again.

That probably doesn't sound at all familiar, does it?

Well, first of all, I've been working lately on my heart attitude toward my Blessings. You know I don't call them that just because I think it's cute, don't you? The world around me needs to know that my children are viewed as Blessings. And me? I need the reminder! Yet it is so easy to fall into viewing them as burdens instead of blessings, and I'm continually needing to ask the Lord to give me HIS heart toward my children.

Another very practical thing I've realized is that it just doesn't work to bring all seven of my Blessings alongside me at the same time! The goal of bringing them alongside as I work dovetails beautifully with my (also often unrealized) goal of spending time with them one-on-one. So lately, I've been working on remembering to call them to me one or two at a time to help with something.

This has been a great help when it comes to special projects as well. We made gift jars for Christmas presents this year (something I plan to post about separately), and I had them help in teams of two. Each team helped me put togetehr a batch of 6 gift jars. Stephen "helped" on more than one team. Similarly, when we made edible Christmas trees, it was just two or three at a time at the counter.

So while this is a cute pictures of the Blessings and their trees,

I realized while reading the aforementioned blogs that they're not a realistic view of how those trees happened, and I don't want to add to anyone's Mama complex by presenting a false view!
They happened like this:

and this:

one, two, or (at most) three Blessings at a time. Then when they were all done, time for a fun picture, then the eating!

So what I'm trying to say through all my sputtering is this: Take heart, fellow Mamas! Keep stepping along with baby steps, seeking the next thing you are to do, treasure your Blessings, and know that God's grace covers you and them when you fail. And don't forget that one of the greatest gifts you can give your cbildren is for them to see you honoring, respecting, and loving your man!

New recipe on Love You Can Eat

There's a new recipe for some yummy Butternut Soup on my poor neglected food blog. Hope you like it!

Making Powdered Laundry Soap

I made laundry soap this morning and decided I'd try taking pictures of my work, both for the sake of having pictures for a tutorial and for the sake of trying to hone my meager photography skills. I've posted more of the pictures here and would love any input on the photography aspect of my project in the comments.

And now, on to the laundry soap!

I realize some of you already make your own laundry soap, but I thought a tutorial would be fun and hopefully helpful.

Ingredients:
1 bar Fels Naptha (I have friends who use whatever soap is on sale, but my results increase exponentially with Fels Naptha, so anymore, I don't do subsitutes)
1 cup washing soda
1 cup Borax


Instructions
Grate the Fels Naptha. If you have a food processor, I highly recommend using it. I use the fine grater on my Cuisinart.

I then pour the grated Fels into a bowl (isn't it gorgeous?!),


put the chopping blade in the processor and replace the Fels.

Pulsing with the chopping blade for a bit takes it from this:


to this:

which I think has to be faster to dissolve.

Add the borax and washing soda and mix:


Then transfer to jar, or whatever works for you. I personally love the look of my laundry soap, so I like to keep it in a glass jar.



I made a double batch, which fits easily in a half gallon jar. It's actually a little over 5 and half cups of soap. I use about 4t per load, so I get 65+ loads out of it. I need to use less now than I did before Jonathan installed the water softener, so if you have hard water, your loads/batch may vary.

Quite a day

Papa and Mama Byrd are staying at the lovely Traxler "Bed and Breakfast" this week while they visit. It's a nice way for them to visit us and some dear friends at the same time. Yesterday when they were getting close to our place, their Suburban started overheating. Not a good sign! They nursed it along and got it here, then Papa and Jonathan tried a bunch of stuff to get it to stay cool. Unfortunately, it kept overheating. They wound up spending the night here last night - yay for late night games! - and having it towed in today.

Once they left with the tow truck this morning, it was time to get busy in the garden! It's been too wet to finish my planting, but it's been a terrific time for the weeds to grow. Ugh. So today I had lots of weeding and planting to do. I also finally got the various areas staked and "fenced off" with string. Next year, this will be the first thing I do after tilling!

I got all of the seeds planted except the winter squash. We'll have pie pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and butternut squash (drool...), but I wasn't sure how big of a "hill" they needed, so today I just marked where the hills will be.

After the seeds are all in, the next thing to plant will be tomatoes and peppers. We also have some rhubarb and asparagus to plant, but since those are perennials, I'm not sure where I'll put them.

Anyway, several hours and lots of dirt and sunshine later, I was glad to take a shower and relax a bit! Here is the evidence of my day's labor (I didn't take any pictures of all the dirt and sun that got on me!):

A couple other things...

We found some material for the kitchen window! Because of the width and the look I was going for, I made a real valance instead of doing a mistreatment. I've been enjoying sewing lately, so it was actually fun to put this together. (I'm not thrilled with either of the pictures, but the second one does a bit better job of showing the colors in the fabric - it's actually more green than gold when you see it in person.)



I recently got our family picture frames up in the hall, and today I ordered some pictures printed. Jonathan picked them up, and I was pleased to get some updated pictures of the kids on the wall. I was also pleased to leave the non-updated picture of my man and I. There's nothing like wedding pictures for pretending you haven't changed in the last 14 years... :-)

Christmas Bookcases

My beloved Bubba Eric and dear sis-in-love Beka gave us a generous gift of Christmas money when Beka and the Cousins visited in December. We decided to use it for materials to make bookcases for our Reading Nook. And at last, I have pictures of both shelves to post!



Today, I mistreated the window so our little Nook would look more finished. The little rocker is in dire need of re-finishing, but that's a project for another day. So is establishing some sort of order to the books.

We'd like to add another bookcase eventually, but these two, plus the older shelf on the right, made it possible for me to finish unpacking almost all of our book boxes (there are quite a few books in our room, plus two bookcases that don't show in these Nook pictures).

We are excited about and really enjoying our Reading Nook. Thank you, Byrds, for the lovely shelves! And thanks, Dad and Mom Smith, for helping us put them together!

Bargains

Jonathan says that you know it's gonna be good when the Lowe's employees are swarming the discount display. Last night he picked up three of these (note the price tag!):


And six of these (again, $1!):


I'm not sure where they will end up, but I am positive they will be a help in my organizational efforts! One of the shelves has already found a home in this corner of our room/office/den:

Even though the shelf has been placed on top already, this is still a "before" shot. Someday, I'd like to have a tall storage cabinet for my school supplies (so I can shut the doors!) but for now, these are my school "shelves." That's the changing table that Jonathan and his dad made when we were expecting Davey. We haven't used it for a while, and I'm hoping to make this little corner a lot tidier over the next week or so.

The Eyes Have It

Grace's Ruffle

Finished taking out the first hem on Grace's skirt and gave her a ruffle today.

Sewing Again!

It's been a while since I've done any significant sewing. At our last house, there was just no good place to have the sewing machine set up, and it was therefore rarely used.

One of the things I love about our current home is that there is room in the laundry room (a nice bright cheery room) for my sewing desk and "stuff." I finally got enough stuff unpacked and put away that I can now access the sewing machine easily, and I got busy last Thursday on some skirts for the girls!

I've had this thought for a while that I should be able to make skirts for them from pillowcases (inspired, I'm sure, by Vanessa at V&Co.). I picked up three recently for a quarter each, and decided to give it a go!


Each of the skirts is a bit different. Ellie's the purple one. It was super-simple; I pretty much just cut off the sewn end and make a casing for the elastic. I didn't shorten it at all, because she really liked it this long.

Katie's was pretty basic as well. I cut a decent bit off to get it the right length, made the casing, added the elastic, and hemmed it.

Grace's is the short one. It was a bit more adventurous, as I used these guidelines for an A-line skirt. It was still very easy and fun to make.

I mis-figured on the length of Grace's, so I decided to use the polka-dot trim from the pillowcases to make a ruffle. My first ruffle ever! I grabbed a floral skirt, tore out the hem, ironed it, and proceeded to make and attach the ruffle with the help of this tutorial. The ruffle was so fun and looks adorable. It also is attached to Katie's skirt, not Grace's. Oops! There's no way I'm taking it off, so I'm going to look for some other material to coordinate for a ruffle for Grace's skirt. I'm thinking I might have some denim that is a similar weight to the flannel. Or I could find some flannel that coordinates. Any thoughts?

I have enough left over from Kate and Grace's pillowcases that I'm planning to make them some hair scrunchies.

Oh, and I almost forgot a funny part of this project. I was thinking all along that the flannel pillowcases were homemade. See why?

Well, when I turned one of them inside out, I was shocked to find that these uneven pillowcases were not only store-bought, but a nice brand!

Just goes to show that you can't judge a case by its cover. Or is it that you can't judge it by its brand??

A Project

Jonathan purchased some additional shelving for our pantry and bathroom last week, and I was thrilled this afternoon when he got them installed for me. Of course, this meant that the task of re-organizing the pantry could no longer be put off!

I forgot a before picture, but here is some of the mess in the middle:


And the new shelves added in to the not-quite emptied pantry:


And a couple of "after" shots:



Lots of work, but glad to have it done. The pantry is more workable for us this way, and the nice thing about these shelving systems is that they are easy to adjust to your needs.

Bargain Chocolate

A couple weeks ago, I dropped by Lowe's to look at paint colors. We were on our way home from church, and J and the Blessings just read in the van while I ran in.

I got myself a handful of paint "chips" in the color range I had in mind. I'd never browsed the browns section before, but for some reason I have had brown on my mind for this bathroom. About the time I finished gathering paint chips, the paint lady finished up with her customers. C. used to work in the Home Decor department at our Lowe's ("our" Lowe's being the one out of which we do most of our install jobs), and we enjoyed getting to know her as we worked with her on installs of blinds and shutters. I think she just might think we're nice folks, too.

So, I asked C. if they had any "ooops" paint I could look at before I left... just in case. She goes behind the counter and holds up a can of paint. "This one's only worth about ... a dollar this way. It lost its handle, and we'd have to send it back. Want to find a color you like?"

This can of premium paint (usually sold for $20.50) wasn't even tinted yet! So off I went with my paint chips to the stain department. Why the stain department? Because we have lovely oak cabinets in our bathroom, and finding a brown that neither blends with nor clashes with oak is a bit tricky. Since I didn't have time to go home and hold all my paint chips up to my cabinets, I found the sample in the stain department that most closely matched them (in my mind's eye) and used that for color comparison.

Several minutes later, I walked out of the Lowe's having paid $1.08 for a $20.50 gallon of Belgian Chocolate paint. I was giddy all afternoon with the thrill of the deal!

I got permission this Wednesday from our friends/homeowners to paint the bathroom. Thursday found me busily taping away (because I'm lousy at cutting in), then painting. Though I took pictures along the way, I decided to wait and post the finished product.

For a reminder, my previous nesting attempts in our bathroom are shown in this post.

And here it is now:



(I had to lighten this shot excessively to get the window mistreatment to show)


We've talked about framing the mirror, but in the meantime I was inspired to use these sheers (do you remember when we bought them, Mama??) for the mirror and the window.

Input? Constructive criticism? Note: Constructive criticism does not include telling me I'm out of my ever-loving mind to paint my bathroom this color. :-)