Life Lessons: I Forgot To Do My Chores

In our home, we believe that children are to be willing participants in keeping our home clean and safe for everyone to enjoy. It's not just on Mommy to keep the house clean, do the laundry, and cook the meals. Everyone has to do cheerfully do their part, as a team, to make our home a place that we all can enjoy.

There are many things that we don't want to do in life but if we just ignore them, we can cause harm to someone else or even inflict some pretty bad consequences on ourselves. I don't always want to wash dishes but if I ignored them long enough, the stench from decay as well as waste left by microscopic organisms that thrive in such conditions would make my family ill. Further, if I do my tasks with a dismal or complaining attitude, my children will find their work to be just as dismal and I will have a difficult time convincing them to do their tasks with joy.


When one of our children doesn't complete their task, there is a consequence. These consequences vary accordingly. This week, my seven year old missed three days of bringing the laundry down to the laundry room. Since we absolutely have to wash at least four loads of laundry daily to keep up with it, missing just one day can lead to a heaping pile of laundry. Since it was time to wash comforters, I didn't check up on his job, personally. One of his older siblings brought it to my attention when looking for a clean shirt to wear. Having kept up my washing, I traced the missing shirts back to my 7 year old not doing his part in bringing down the laundry. Of course this made more work for me and my other laundry person. So I decided to teach a lesson about how important it is for each person to do his or her share.

 I thought it would be nice to take a trip to the laundromat to wash all of the clothes and since the laundromat comes with a price, my son had to pay a price as well. It was a tiresome morning washing, drying, and folding all 14 loads, and there was no mercy from the heat that came from the dryers that added to the already scorching weather we had here. I brought drinks, and we worked until the laundry was done - no breaks.

Sure, my sweet son was able to replenish his fluids and race around the laundromat on the laundry carts as he went from washer to dryer but it was definitely not a fun experience that he'll want to repeat. His take was, "I never want to do this again." My response, "Then it's important to do your job promptly so you won't make more work for the others on your team or yourself."

Fantastik Cleaning Spray With Scrubbing Bubbles Action Only $1

With the cleaning products coupons we're finding, it's a great time to stock up. Dollar General has Fantastik with Scrubbing Bubbles Action for $1.50. With the coupon for $.50 off on coupons.com, I was able to snag it for only $1.00. I also noted that the regular price for the Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom spray was regularly priced at $2.50. This was not for the new foaming action cleanser but for the original spray in the green bottle. So if you missed a 2 for $5 sale. Dollar General has these regularly priced 2 for $5.

Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foamer Review

Spring cleaning is amongst us, and coupons.com is helping us get this thing underway. Right now there are some nice coupons for some of the SC Johnson cleaning products like Pledge, Scrubbing Bubbles, Windex, and Fantastik. Many of these products are on sale at my local Martins and a few are on even on sale at CVS.

Usually, I try to stick with my natural cleaning items like vinegar, baking soda, and ammonia, using Soft Scrub only occasionally; however, I'd been hearing a lot about the Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner and the coupons make for a perfect opportunity to try it out.

I headed over to Coupons.com and printed out coupons for $.50 off of any Mega Shower Foamer from two different computers, which gave me four coupons per product (since it's a 2 print per computer limit). Martins had Scrubbing Bubbles for $3.50. I'm not sure if it was the best sale price on this item but it was decent enough for me to get a couple to try out. I was able to get $1.00 off because Martins doubles up to four like coupons. So $2.50 didn't seem like a bad try it price.

My shower is completely white and can get very difficult to clean so I've been looking for something to help me get this done the best way possible. Soft Scrub has been the closest thing to that for cleaning my shower until this morning when I tried the Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Foam Shower Cleaner with Extend a Clean. I was quite impressed. I sprayed it on at approximately a three feet distance, left it on for a few minutes and wiped my shower down with a rag. Immediately I noticed how easily I could wipe the surface clean. I'm talking about a really nice clean! There was no soap scum or residue on my shower surface or streaks on my chrome fixtures. I also noticed that it removed the soap scum from my glass shower doors; however, it didn't leave it "Windex" clean, which I would have preferred even more. It was probably the only con that I can note, especially in comparison to my Soft Scrub standby. The foamer also left a clean smell that wasn't perfumey, heavy or overpowering. It was just a nice looking, clean shower when I finished.

I was so happy that the clean was so easy that I found myself doing my very own Scrubbing Bubbles dance. I know my sixteen year old thought I'd about lost it when she saw me dancing around my bathroom but she's a clean a-holic and can appreciate a good cleaning agent. Besides, having cleaned my shower a number of times when I was recovering from the c-section, she knows, first-hand, how hard my shower can be to clean. I could tell from her smile that she couldn't wait to use it herself. I found it quite impressive.

So now I'm going back to get some rain checks for more Scrubbing Bubbles (since I took the last two). I'm also going to check the boards for running prices so that I can make sure I get the best stock up price on these.

5 Uses for Fabric Softener Dryer Sheets

If you thought that dryer fabric softener sheets were only good for laundry, not so. As a stockpiling mom who does a minimum of four loads of laundry daily, I have a pretty nice stock of Arm & Hammer dryer sheets. However, I don't just use them for my laundry. Here are five great ways to make more use of fabric softener dryer sheets:

1. Use them to loosen up baked on food in your baking dishes. Cover the baked goo in your baking dish with water and toss a fabric softener sheet in. Let it sit for a few hours and that goo will lift right up and be ready to wash!
2. Place a couple of dryer sheets in your packed away seasonal clothing for a nice fresh scent when you go back to them.
3. Place one or two in inconspicuous places in your car. They make great air fresheners.
4. Place them in your drawers, closets, and cabinets to freshen them up a bit. (This is not a good idea for food cabinets.)
5. Place them in your husband's boots to absorb odor. Just make sure you take them out before he puts them on.

You don't have to use Arm & Hammer for this. Any dryer sheet should work just fine. If you find any other uses, let me know. I'm always looking for more ways to use these.

A Mess in My House!

Why in the world does my house look such a mess? From the time the children wake up, we have breakfast, do our memory work, bible study, and our math lessons. I try to keep everyone in the same room but, it never fails, when I take a tour of the downstairs prior to lunch, it's quite a mess.

It's not easy keeping things orderly in a home of eleven. In fact, I've had to realize that things will NOT always be orderly. I mean, if you walked into my home right now, you'd see books stacked in front of the fireplace from our reading basket, a table with almost empty water bottles on the tea table, papers sprawled across the sofa, a laptop on the back of the sofa, and the vacuum lying on the floor. Now it wasn't like this when I started my morning but, somehow, between breakfast and our last lesson, an invisible tornado went through this house and we were sitting right here amidst it . So how do we get things back in order?

Here are a few things that I always revert to when the invisible tornado hits my home:

1. "If any would not work, neither should he eat." (Thess 10:3)  Before we can have lunch, everyone has a jurisdiction he or she is responsible for. All jurisdictions must be complete prior to sitting down for lunch.

2. Everybody must be responsible for his/her own things. If you put it down, you must pick it up.

3. Do all things without complaining or disputing. (Phil 2:14) There will be absolutely no complaining (verbal nor nonverbal) about a job you have been assigned or there will be a consequence (a less favorite meal - soup works for my children, loss of free time, or even an extra chore).

As I type, my little blessings are busy getting things back in order so that we can enjoy a comfortable home once again. Soon we'll all be having lunch and quiet time. However, the fourth matter of importance that I've found - a must for success with children, I must now go to inspect all of the tasks that they've been given.

I'm still not sure how things get this way so quickly but it's not as frustrating when there's a plan to get things back in order.