Alli the Preschool Grad

She did it!  She's all ready for Kindergarten to come!

Miss Lori's Preschool finished off a great year at Pump It Up! I love that Allison earned the "Most Independent" Award!  Suits her just right!

We have treasured Miss Lori!  This special daughter of ours has learned so much from her and we'll never forget these years of shapes, number, colors, beginning to read, the cutting, the singing, the dancing, field trips, robots and so much!

Now, Yeah for Summer!

Amazing Dishwasher Detergent!

Years ago I lived with my wonderful Parents-in-law.  I learned so many wonderful things from them but one thing I learned was how they struggled with their icky dishwasher.  So, now that I have a so called "icky" dishwasher I knew exactly who to go to.

My wonderful Father-in-law, Joel figured this Detergent out that takes all the water stains and buildup off of clear glasses. It comes in handy when you have hard water for sure. It also literally cleans the inside of the dishwasher too.  Lets just say this is a much better solution than getting a new dishwasher.

Just wanted to share:

Amazing Dishwasher Detergent

1 T. Borax
1 T. LemiShine (by all the dish washing options in grocery store)
1 T. Baking Soda
1/2 cup White Vinegar
Your Choice of Dishwasher Detergent (powder form)

You put the top 3 ingredients in the container with the lid (where you normally put dishwasher soap) and fill the rest with your choice of detergent and close the lid.  Then you pour the 1/2 c. vinegar just down in the bottom of the dishwasher before you start the load like usual.

Saturday Job Jars

I used to do the cleaning by myself--you know, when the kids were at school.  I'd do a my dusting on Monday, the vacuuming on Tuesday, etc. Don't get me wrong--the kids have always had daily responsibilities and one extra job they helped me with each day.

I just began to realize how overwhelmed I was feeling with my own responsibilities. I'm a full time piano teacher on top of everything else and just never was getting my daily cleaning jobs done which left it hanging over my head.

I made "the switch" to our Saturday Job Jars where we all clean together on one day!  It's so much faster, my kids are being taught so much and our house is completely clean all on one day--so nice!

So, this is how it works:

We each have one of these jars that I set in front of us at breakfast each Saturday. As we're finishing up eating I turn the fun music on and unclip that ring!  

We go youngest to oldest and pick a job and put it in our jar. When the jobs are all passed out...we hop to it!

The finishing trick is that Mom and Dad are the "Keeper of the Ring!"  You have to have your jobs checked by Mom or Dad before that job can be taken out of your jar and placed back on "the ring" (ready for next Saturday).


Our Jobs:

Dishes, Kitchen and Kitchen floor mopped
Shake the rugs
Clean all Mirrors
Vacuum Downstairs and Stairs
Dusting
Vacuum Upstairs
Sweep Front Porch
Clean Toilets
Clean Sinks
Sweep Hard Floors
Mop Hard Floors
Clean bathtubs
Laundry
Empty Garbages 

Here's a template for these jobs if you're rethinking your cleaning process...

Saturday Jobs Document
(click link)