Laura's Laundry Tips

This is our goal right?

I never dreamed that an empty laundry basket could bring me such happiness. I have been thinking about sharing my strategy for keeping up on laundry. So thanks to my friend for bringing it up. :)

I say "keeping up" on laundry instead of "getting it done", because...let's face it...Laundry is NEVER done. At least in my house. So, to keep my husband from getting frustrated every Sunday morning, because his white Sunday shirt is either dirty or wrinkled or both, I use a little schedule.

It goes a little like this:

Monday: Mind the Blues (darks)
Tuesday: Toss in the Towels
Wednesday: Wash the Whites
Thursday: Think Light (light colors)
Friday: Find the Jeans
Saturday: Save the Sheets
Sunday: NO laundry...free day.

Someone used this cute little motto: A LOAD A DAY KEEPS THE PILES AWAY!

The goal for me is to toss in a load to the washer first thing in the morning, throw it in the dryer before I leave and then fold the clothing on my lunch or when I get home. Sometimes I forget to change it to the dryer before I leave, but oh well, the fact that they are clean is what matters right? I also try to do any ironing, etc, IMMEDIATELY upon removing them from the dryer, that way I save time later. Besides, let's not forget that the whole system revolves around my husband's happiness with his white shirt.

This whole laundry routine when added together takes about 20-25 minutes total (5 min. to sort out the colors, 5 min to load/start washer, 2 min to switch from wash to dry and about 10 min (give or take, depending upon the load) to fold.) So in reality it only takes about 20-25 minutes total to do your laundry instead of spending an ENTIRE WEEKEND catching up. Creating more family time!

Now, I can't really take all the credit for this little system. A website that has helped me get my routines down as a working wife is FLYLADY.NET. I don't do everything she says, mostly because I am not that obsessive about perfect clean house. But a lot of the tips and tricks that she suggests help me to keep a little sanity.

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And...some great crockpot recipes? Try this website, I have never tried it myself, but as a self claimed expert she seems to have the crockpot scene down.

What? Working Mom??

So, I never planned to be a "working mom", but here I am working at a Day Care teaching preschool and caring for sweet 2 1/2 and 3 year old kids. I love my job and I feel so blessed because I get to bring my baby with me so I don't feel like I'm neglecting my mother duties, but boy am I busy now! This is how my day goes:

7am-Wake-Up and get myself ready
7:30am- Get Emily ready (cute outfit, hair done, diaper bag packed, shoes and coat on)
7:55am-Out the door. I have to get out before 8:00 because there's a school bus that stops right in front of my house at precisely 8am, and it successfully holds up traffic for atleast 5 minutes so I can't get out of my driveway.
8:30-4:30pm-Work
5:00pm-Get home, make dinner, do dishes, clean up the house (because it's always a mess after our hectic morning)
7:00pm-Emily's Bedtime Routine. Bath, book, prayers, songs
7:45/8:00pm- I finally get to sit! Steve and I watch a movie and have some us time
10:30pm-Bed. I know it may seem early, but in reality I start getting tired at about 9:00pm and I have to force myself to stay awake so I can spend time with Steve. Then it starts all over the next morning.

Now, I'm not complaining. I actually feel like I have a lot more energy since I started working because I never sit and I'm constantly on the go. When I stayed at home and had extra time to lounge I found myself feeling tired all the time. So, this is a plus but I still have the problem of trying to accomplish everything in my day. I'll be able to start working only 2 or 3 days a week soon, so that will remedy just about all my issues, but for now there are 3 main things that are getting me through my crazy days:

1. The Crock Pot. I can prep all the ingredients and put them in the crock pot the night before, and then pop the pot into the fridge. Then in the morning all I have to do is put it in place, turn it on and go. This works very well, but I need more good Crock Pot recipes!

2. Frozen Food. Now, I love to cook. It's probably my favorite thing to do, but sometimes I just don't have time or I'm just plain not in the mood. Because of this I am so grateful for frozen food! I know it's the easy way out, but let me tell you-it's nice to be able to pop in a Digiorno pizza, Fish n Chips, chicken nuggets, or whatever and have dinner ready in minutes. Plus, the clean up is usually just a baking sheet, not bad!

3. Steve. My husband has been such a big help. He gets up with me in the morning to help get Emily ready (I have to pick out her clothes though. I swear, some of the outfits he comes up with...). And when he comes home in the evening he changes her diapers and helps with her bedtime routine. He is amazing! I don't know what I'm going to do without him when he leaves for Nevada this summer.

I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on just about everything except LAUNDRY. No matter what I try my laundry piles up. I guess washing the laundry isn't the problem-it's FOLDING the laundry. I hate it. It takes forever, so I avoid it but then it piles up so by the time I get around to it I have a MOUNTAIN to fold. Oy...what to do, what to do.

So, if any of you have some laundry tips, quick dinner ideas, or anything else that might help I'd love it! And KUDOS to all your working women out there. I'd forgotten how hard it is to work and be a housewife at the same time.

Brooke's advice for Baby Coughs

A cough is annoying as an adult, but atleast we can take cough syrup and cough drops to help, but when a baby has a cough it's easy to feel helpless. The first time Emily had a bad cough I took her to the doctor and he told me that almost always a cough in a small child is caused by nasal/sinus drip. So to get rid of the cough you have to get rid of the drainage. He prescribed me a decongestant called C-Phen. I love having this on hand. Whenever Emily gets the slightest signs of a cold or drainage I start giving it to her and it always does the trick within a day or two. That's from my doctor-here's my advice that I've found works very well.

1. A vaporizer/humidifier. I have the Vick's vaporizer and you can buy medicine (like liquid Vick's Vaporub) to put in it. This helps more than anything I think. Good investment-only $12 dollars at Walmart.

2. Baby Vicks Vaporub. Especially for night time /nap time since that seems to be when its the worse since they're laying down.

3. Avoid giving milk right before sleeping. Milk or any dairy product makes the mucus thicker and just plain worse so try juice or water right before they go to sleep. If your babes won't take juice or water then water the milk down half and half.

Anyone have anything else that works for their little ones?

Luke and Katie said...

I have to agree..we LOVE the Baby Vicks Vaporub. I haven't really tried this (my sil has), but try putting the vaporub on the bottom of their feet (then put socks over so it doesn't get all over the sheets). Weird, I know, but she says it works!

Enjoying the Moment

I got this quote off of my sister-in-laws blog, and I think it is a great reminder to all of us mothers. When we are woken up 7 times a night every night for a week, we need to remember that they are only going to be like this for a little while. I know it is hard, Carter is up a lot at night, but I have come to enjoy those quite moments with him.

“The biggest mistake I made as a parent is the one that most of us make. … I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of my three children sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.” (As quoted by Elder M. Russell Ballard in his talk, "Daughters of God.")