Mom's Self-Report

Thanks to the many of you who have been praying for & inquiring after my mom. She posted an update on her own newly-minted blog a couple of days ago.

http://arosynewera.blogspot.com/

Start at the Bottom

I am a pretty awful housekeeper. I look on in awe of those who seemingly without effort have beautifully-kept homes with tidy children and look irrepressibly cute, if not gorgeous, themselves. I can only manage one out of three on most days, although somehow I do better for holidays or visitors (but even then the cute/gorgeous item is a lost cause).

But I'm going to post my rules for myself, because I need a place to go to help me keep on track.

1. Start at the bottom. I can get the rest of a room tidy more quickly if the floor is clear (& ideally swept, mopped, or vacuumed). It's very feng shui, I know, but I really do need to be able to walk without any sort of obstacles. And two minutes with the vacuum really makes a huge difference on how I feel when I walk into a room.

2. Clean things before they get dirty. I mopped the floor last night before it got black & so the mopping when fairly quickly. And looking down, I realized that the fridge door needed a wipe down even more than I thought it did & I had time to do it & all the other cabinet doors, too.

3. A mountain of dishes really will become a molehill if I clear the sink first. When I was growing up, there was a proper way to put the dishes in the sink to soak/get washed. But the sink had to be empty first. When I was finished, I was supposed to scrub the sink out with Comet. Due to many moves & several houses without double-side sinks, I've lost that habit. But when I talk myself into getting the sink clean first, the dishes only take half the time to wash.

4. More dishes: wash the weird/seldom-used items first. I usually leave these for last, but then they languish on my counters for days, even weeks, while I spend lots of time washing the items that get used at every meal.

5. Yet more dishes: wash the big things (pots & pans) next.

6. Laundry doesn't back log as badly if I wash the items that dry the fastest first. And then put the items that dry the fastest on the radiators & the items that dry more slowly on the drying rack or line.

7. Laundry also doesn't seem as overwhelming if I put the dirty clothes in the basement by the washer. When I pull a clean load out, I don't have to run upstair to get the next load -- it's already there.

8. (This is a new realization as of today.) Newspapers are great for cleaning windows, shining mirrors, & making steel appliances (like our oven) sparkle. Use the throw-around newspaper on the day it arrives. Five minutes in the living room (lounge), another five in the kitchen. Windows, mirrors, & stove shiny. I can do this. . .and maybe get the kids to help. (Lesley, do you remember how Cami would beg to wash windows because she could use a spray bottle & be on the ladder?)

So, there's my rules for myself. Nothing earth shattering. I just needed to write it down to make it more real to myself. If you've read all this, you are either really bored or else a true friend.

Parental Units

Yesterday Rose looked at Jason and said, "Da da da da." The classic I-feed-you-you-know-his-name-first scenario, I thought. I don't get upset about it, because I expect it.

Later, she was just burbling away and she kept saying, "Da da da" so I thought maybe her identification of Jason was just a fluke. But, perhaps not. I left the room and she came crawling after, crying, "Ma ma ma ma."

Sunday Politics

As I posted last week, I'm now a member of the Primary Presidency and so I was in charge of a Sharing Time lesson for the children age eight to eleven. About half of the children didn't know me at all, so I thought it was appropriate to steal a teaching technique from Jason: let every class member ask me one question.

Most of the questions were about life in America or what I thought of England. But I received a compliment from a mother in attendance with the question she asked. She wanted to know what I'd done to give Cami the confidence to walk into Primary and participate fully when we first arrived in England. Most of that confidence is innate, although my encouragement from babyhood to explore new environments probably helped.

But the thing that surprised me the most was when a nine year old asked what I thought of Barak Obama being elected president. And the thing that made Jason laugh this evening was that another child immediately asked, "Is he still the president?"

The World's Leading Expert

Our eldest daughter is trilingual. She speaks English (or, more accurately, Yorkshire). She speaks American (we often have to ask her to translate for us). And she speaks Camish. Linguists have yet to identify it, as it's only recognized by a small population and they all live in our house. But, as Cami explained to me tonight, "I know how to speak Camish because I know all the words."

Smell the Soundtrack

I was listening (via YouTube -- my personal anytime radio) to "Cheek to Cheek" while working in the kitchen. Cami wandered through and asked who was singing. I told her Jane Monheit. She then asked, "Is she one of the singers for Panera Bread?"

By Any Other Name

Nicknames are an important part of identification in our family. Cami is Cams, Cami-Girl, Camster, and Hippo. (Yes, she'll be in therapy someday.)

Graham is Bud-Bud, Buddy, Graham-Boy, Mr. Graham, Graham-a-lam-a-ding-dong, and Grambo.

We intended for Rose to known as Rosie, but that hasn't ever happened. Instead she's just been Baby Rose, until this past week, anyway. Graham has taken our intentions and put them into practice. He calls her Rosie-Rose.