Homestead Happenings

Living in the country does have it's down side....

Waking up on a Sunday morning with NO WATER and coming to the realization that you CAN NOT just call then city and demand they fix it, realizing that your water pump is not working then (2 day later) paying $2000 for a new water pump!!!

Oh bother.  

We still like living out here.  We are now discussing the possibility of putting a solor system on our well pump.

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Laundry for 8 ~ my plan

We are a family of 8, soon to be nine so there is always laundry to be done.  My goal is not to finish all of the laundry on a given day (for that is truly to dream the impossible dream) but to keep it going at a steady pace.

Before I tell you my plan let me say that there are weeks when I do not follow by brilliant plan and we get behind.  Like all families we get busy or something happens in life that needs a lot of time and energy.  So I am not perfect but I do have a plan.

Let me share some pics!

As you can see I have bins in which to sort our dirty laundry.  There are 6 bins for: whites, lights, pinks/reds (we have 5 girls!), jeans, darks, and towels.  Each bin has a ribbon on it (just noticed the white bin ribbon is missing) so the little ones can tell what goes where.  Yes, my children sort their own laundry.  They do not have a hamper in their room so they sort their clothes each night.

See the bucket? That is for "yucky" clothes.  Think potty training and getting sick.  By having a bucket I can see what clothes need to be washed right away.  Right now we have 2 that occasionaly have accidents plus a baby coming so I am thinking I need a bigger bucket. 

Here is a wide shot.  My cleaning supplies are on the top shelf and clothes that need to be ironed hang on the bar until I get to them which is often only right as Handosme Hubby needs to wear them on Sunday morning.   I am still working on that one.  See the paper taped to the wall?  That is my laundry schedule.  By following the schedule, clothes from each bin get washed twice each week and unless I am really behind I will see the botton of each bin at least once per week.  Not bad, says I.

Here is my schedule:

• Monday - reds, lights, towels
• Tuesday - whites, darks, jeans
• Wednesday - reds, lights, towels,
• Thursday - no laundry due to co-op day
• Friday - whites, darks, jeans

There you have it.  Gotta go.  I have laundry to do!  

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Another closet done!

The hall closet is done!  This closet needed some demo but I did not take any "before" pics.  Oh well.  I was working on this closet at the same time as I worked on the girls closet.  It was quite a job to completely cover the old paint.  There is something about the paint that was used in this house.  It takes 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of color to cover it properly.  Now you know why I was working on 2 closets at once.   I have decided all the closets will be painted white.  I am not about to take out shelves (or worse yet paint around them) just because I changed the room color.

This closet holds our games, books for sale, office equipment and some of Handsome Hubby's business papers.  Until this closet was done all of this stuff lived on our piano and in various places in our livingroom.  Not very tidy so I am very glad this project is now in the "done" side of the list!

See the door?  Well that is what happens when you leave a tray of paint in the closet and forget to close the door.  Then this little guy......

decides to put his hands in it and try his hand at painting.  Yea, you may be laughing now but I wasn't then.  He painted the door, himself and both of the sisters that found him.  I soaked all of their clothes in a sink of water for 3 days and then washed as usual.  ALL of the paint came out.  He IS cute though, isn't he?   Well he got in trouble for it anyway. 

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

The girls' closet is finished!

Finally!  It's done.  I was able to finish the girl's closet and get everything put away, in order, with room to spare.  I am so happy I could cry.  Really I could.  Closets are a big deal for me.  It's a type A thing.

Each girl (there are 5) that share this closet has her own hanger color and plenty of hanging space.  The 2 big girls get long and short hanging space.  The 3 smaller girls have a lower rod that they can all reach (even the 3 y.o.) so all are happy.

All it needs is some closet doors.  That's in Handsome Hubby's department.    Now it's on to finish the hall closet!  Horray for organization! 

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the LordHelpmeet to my Hubby who is my best blessing of all