I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Yesterday I was sweaty.
I was sore.
I was teary.
I was at times speechless.

Why?

It's all because of my friends.

See, I am in the process of trying to get my house ready to sell.

I know that might come as a shock to many of you, but it's true. The Funny Farm will be no longer.
In fact, all the farm animals have been rehomed, and we are left with only a handful of cats and dogs. Big change from where we were at the peak of farmdom.

But yes, due to some life changes and the fact that the kids are reaching the "grown and flown" stage, I am downsizing. I will likely be moving on to a house roughly a third to half the size of the one I've been in for the last 11 years.

So for probably over a year now, the kids and I have been working on this old house.

Painting, ripping up carpet, tearing down wallpaper, changing out curtains, changing out rugs.
Putting in new light fixtures, installing new flooring.
Cleaning out the barn, the garages, the workshop, the basement.
Filling dozens and dozens and dozens of bags and boxes for Goodwill, for trash, for sale on my local Facebook yard sale site. Filling to the brim one of those giant construction yard dumpsters with rubbish.

I have hired professionals to fix and paint the deck, pressure wash the house and porches, fix broken stuff galore.

And now I'm down to the nitty gritty. And I'm down to the wire. I have set a date with my realtor to come take pictures and get this house listed.

And all of a sudden, when I thought there remained only a few details to take care of, I realized how much more needed to be done.

I found there still remained a handful of drywall holes, and already patched holes that needed to be painted. There were leaky shower heads and non-functioning lights. There were large items that needed to be moved, and cabinet pulls that needed to be put on, and flaking paint that needed to be touched up, and caulking, lots of caulking. Plus ceilings and even whole rooms that should be painted. There were errant paint marks (more than I care to admit to) on wood trim throughout the house. Basically if you were a piece of wood trim within 30 yards of a room we were painting, you got paint on you.
What else.... baseboard radiators that were falling apart or rusty or both. Chimney flanges that needed to be replaced, speakers dangling from the wall, broken heat units, broken windows....

Enter my friends.
They have been an enormous source of support for me over the last few years: listening, advising, hugging, wine-pouring, card-sending, shoulder-lending.
And now, paint-brush yielding.  Drill-swinging. Hammer-holding.



They gave up their day off to come over yesterday with tool boxes and paint clothes.  They took my lists and went room to room fixing up my house for me. They went above and beyond my expectations, doing so much more than I had asked.

I did my best to answer questions, find supplies, pour wine, scrape paint, hug, kiss, laugh, put out munchies, bring ladders.

So like I said,
I was sweaty.
I was sore.
I was teary.
I was at times speechless.


Theresa,
Tim,
Sue,
Mike,
Susan,

Thank you.
With all my heart,
Thank you.

You are, quite literally, Godsends in my life.

A Tip for Tuesday - Chore Boards

When our kids keep up with their chores and responsibilities, they earn privileges such as later bedtime, an extra soda, a pack of gum, extra screen time, that kind of thing.

Trouble is, with eleventybillion kids in this family, and about three brain cells left, I lose track pretty quickly of who's earned what, and who has what chores, and who woke up late and who's taking this Friday's soda next Tuesday.

So we use chore boards.

Each kid has a small dry erase board on the fridge. Down the left-hand column are all their daily responsibilities, and a place for their weekly rotating chores (on a magnet that I can move from one board to the next each week).

Lets me keep track of things like getting up on time, getting themselves ready for school (including remembering to pack their lunch, sneakers if it's gym day, homework, etc), treating others respectfully, doing their homework, doing their chores, you know, kid work.

Marks are tallied, privileges are earned, negotiations are made.

In our house, we have five major rotating chores:
dishwasher (empty once or twice a day)
pets and trash (feeding pets, taking out trash and recycling)
barn (taking Annabelle to the barn every night, letting her out in morning)
dinner helper (helps make dinner)
table helper (sets and clears table, puts away leftovers, washes non-d/w items)

We also have a million other chores that are assigned at random, and are not included in the weekly rotating chores. Things like cutting the grass, pulling weeds, running the vacuum, straightening up as needed. We just count those as "extras".

Since we have six kids, that means one of them gets a "star of the week" free pass. Much coveted.



So I like chore boards. Helps shape them up, makes clear my expectations, and lets them earn rewards for a job well done.

Of course, if you have some old dry erase boards that need repurposing, you can use my trick I posted here last week.

Have fun creating your own!






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Thanks!


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In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday
and Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop and Country Momma Cooks Saturday Link-Up

Since today is Tuesday, that means I'm linking my post "Beulah as Biographer" with Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up, and my post "Mother of the Year Award" with Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday


Come join the fun!

A Tip For Tuesday - Reusing Dry Erase Boards

If you're anything like me, you have a million and one dry erase boards in use. I use them for chore boards, calendars, art boards for the kids, you name it.

Problem is, as quick as I come up with a use for one, I come up with a way to tweak my system. But I usually mark 'em up with Sharpies to make my grids or labels or whatever, so they don't just wipe right off.

They're not the boss of me, though. I learned how to get Sharpie off a dry erase board. And I pass that knowledge onto you now, so you can breathe new life into your wipe-off boards. Just in time for the new school year.

All you have to do is scribble a dry erase marker over the Sharpie lines, and then wipe off.

Just like new again.

A blank slate, ready for your organizational genius.



















*********************

Don't forget to vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs! Just click on this brown button with the juggling chick. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!


***************

In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday
and Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop and Country Momma Cooks Saturday Link-Up

Since today is Tuesday, that means I'm linking my post "The Library Card" with Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up, and my post "When I First Saw You" with Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday


Come join the fun!

A Tip For Tuesday - Save on Hand Soap (NOT diy!)

I don't know about you, but I like the foaming hand soaps for the bathroom sinks.

With kids in a constant state of motion, I always wonder if the soap is really being distributed well across their hands, and I think the foaming hand soaps ensure that it is.

However, they cost more, and I'm always looking for good ways to save money.

Now, before you go get your iron kettle out and curse me for telling you to make your own homemade soaps or reuse your bar soap slivers, just chillax a sec.

It's nothing like that. All you have to do is buy those big giant, "economical" soft soap refills. When your foaming hand soap dispenser is empty, just fill it about 1/3 of the way with the refill stuff, and add water to the top. Swirl it around a bit and replace the dispenser thingy, and voila, you've refilled the bottle for a small fraction of the cost of replacing the whole thing. Plus, you've reused your dispenser, so less stuff going into the landfills, and all that.

Those lttle bottles of foaming handsoap cost a couple bucks a pop.
The big giant refill bottles cost about $5.00.
So for what you would spend to buy two of the little ones, you can buy enough to refill about a bazillion bottles, give or take.

So there you have it. My Tip for Tuesday will save you money and save the planet.

No iron kettles required.


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Don't forget to vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs! Just click on this brown button with the juggling chick. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!



Holy handsoap, tomorrow is the last day of voting for the Circle of Moms contest!
To vote for me, click this pink badge, then scroll down till you see my blog, and click on the thumbs-up button. Hurry now!
Thanks!



***************

In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday: Homestead Revival's Barn Hop
Tuesday: Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday
and Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday: My Life and Kids Finding the Funny
Thursday: A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop
Friday: Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday
Saturday: Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop and Country Momma Cooks Saturday Link-Up

Since today is Tuesday, that means I'm linking my post "It's Happened Again" with Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up, and my post "Glass Half-Full" with Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday. Come join the fun!

A Tip For Tuesday - Laundry, Simplified

Multiple Choice Test:

Q) What is the hardest part of the laundry for you?

a) Putting it in the washer.
b) Putting it in the dryer.
c) Sorting and folding.
d) Putting it away.

If you're like me when I was young and foolish (and had young and foolish children), your answer is probably c, followed closely by d, but a and b you can likely do in your sleep.

So stop fighting it, and get rid of those two hellish choices. I learned laundry from a sage of a large-family Mom years ago, and it has changed. My. Life. Neither my sofa nor my bed has seen piles and mountains and heaps of laundry in years.

I graciously pass that wisdom on to you now.

I'm beneficent that way.


It's really quite simple. Instead of throwing in mixed loads and then sorting afterwards, wash each person's laundry seperately. Each family member should have at least one hamper of their own. In our family, there's a hamper in each person's room, as well as hampers downstairs in the mud room. When one of them needs to do laundry, they just gather their laundry from their room and downstairs, and throw it in the wash. I usually switch it for them, and sometimes I fold it when it's done, and they take it to their room and put it away. Even the folding is pretty simple, as I have a pole above the washer, so all shirts (even t-shirts) get hung in their closets. Sticking a shirt on a hanger is way easier than folding.

When they're putting their clothes in the washer, they keep out any whites. They each have a zippered mesh laundry bag in the laundry room for their white socks. On the weekend, I do a load or two of whites, and throw all the mesh bags in. When they're done, I just give each person his or her bag to take to their room and put away.

I do my mine and Fred's laundry on the weekend, as well as any towels, sheets, blankets, curtains (cough - almost never) or any other assorted and sundry items.

My kids have been doing their laundry like this (or at least being significant helpers) ever since I first learned about it, back when my youngest was maybe four. Even little kids can gather. They can throw stuff in the washer. With a little help, they can add detergent. They can sort socks, put underwear and PJs in their drawer, fold towels.

This is NOT my laundry room.

Nor is this.









I would post a picture of mine, but you don't need to see that. Trust me.

I have a family of eight, and I am here to tell you I am NOT overwhelmed by laundry. I do not have a beautiful, dedicated laundry room with high-end, state-of-the-art appliances. I have an old top-loading washer and a boring old dryer squeezed into a cubby in the upstairs hall bathroom. I almost never have piles of laundry sitting about, and I almost never feel behind with it all.

Remember, it's so simple: each person's laundry seperately. That's really all it takes.



And just think, with all the time you free up, you can catch up on all those bon-bons you're behind on. You can finally take up knitting or learning the guitar.

And with all the laundry off your sofa, think of the things you'll find:

The remote.
$785 in assorted change.
The missing hamster.
Four phones.
That neighbor kid from across the street.


Try it today, don't delay!

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Images from Pinterest, courtesy: southernliving.com and loghomefloorplansonline.com
Also: reviews.crateandbarrel.com, and superstock.com
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Thanks for stopping by.
If you like my blog, I hope you'll be able to take a minute to add yourself as a follower.
Come back soon! I'm here every day, rain or shine...

~Anne


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Don't forget, I will love you forever if you throw me a vote on Top Mommy Blogs.
You know the drill by now, don't you? Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.




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I'm linking up my post "Ode to the Mom in the Grocery Store" with Heavenly Homemakers "Gratituesday". Come join!





Also linking my post "LOL Lunch Date" with Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link Up. Come check it out!