Have you heard about this big sale over at Biblical Womanhood? TODAY ONLY you can get an incredible ebook package from MoneySavingMom.com–over $100 worth of money-saving ebooks, homemaking helps, and encouragement for only $5.97! This is a really super offer. You can check it out here.

This ebook package includes the ecourse Supermarket Savings 101. This course, alone, is worth much more than $5.97. It claims to teach you how to drastically reduce your grocery bill. She says, “If high fuel and food costs are discouraging you and leaving you strapped for cash, you definitely need to buy this ecourse. You’ll learn how to cut your grocery bill by up to 50% or more and have fun saving money at the same time!”

Go here to read more about this nice package. All the items are listed with images. I have a couple of these, already, myself, but plan on purchasing this package. Hurry, though, the price goes up tomorrow–get this ebook package at this really good price while you can!

I want to share about an audio I listened to recently that may be a great help and encourager to other mothers who are trying to juggle family and home.

From Chaos to Order, Bringing Organization to Your Home (41 minute  workshop) comes from www.homemaking911.com.

Malia shares, in a seminar-type approach, how you can get your home organized and cause less stress for yourself and give your home a new peace.  I found it to be a shot in the arm, even for me! It is an exhortation with practical insights to get one going.

For $7, I think this resource is worth it. It is something you will want to listen to now, and then again in six months. You may not be able to implement everything at once, but she gives you step by step ideas to get you going. You will want to come back and glean more later.  It is so practical and doable!

Malia is a great example of a Titus 2 woman. If nothing else, you will enjoy browsing her site! She is adding to it constantly!

If you know me very well, you will know that I am a huge Don Aslett fan! He has written books such as

Clutter’s Last Stand (a must for every home), Is There Life After Housework,

among other books.  His most recent work is HELP! Around the House. A mother’s Guide to Getting the Family to Pitch in and Clean Up.

I am on his mailing list for his “Clean Report” newsletter, which you may sign up for at his website, http://www.cleanreport.com/ A little over a year ago, he asked, “how do you get your kids to help clean?” If he chose to use your submission, he’d send a book. Well, yesterday was the day! I received my book. And right on the inside, he signed it, Ruth, Good Cleaning, Don Aslett. ’06. I know… it’s hard not to be jealous.  Heh heh

You can find me on page 34, at the bottom.  Check out how clever I was to end up in his book:

“How do we get our kids to declutter? This one is easy for me! I had my teenagers read your books! Before my oldest daughter had even completed the second chapter of Clutter’s Last Stand, she was cleaning the dreaded closets, kitchen shelves, and storage rooms in our home! We finally got together and used each other as motivators. I’d sip my coffee and she’d read me a chapter. We’d both be motivated and ready to go take on the day … until the next coffee break. Hey! Those sessions can be grueling and emotionally challenging!”

And… to top it all off, In the back, my name is published
for all to see what a clutter I truly am! Wouldn’t my mother be proud?

Sorry life has taken me away from posting. But then again, maybe it’s best if I don’t post too often. You know the old saying, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Do you grow fonder the longer I am away?  Hehe

Well, the Superbowl is today. I have no clue what number year this superbowl is. We haven’t watched it in over 17 years! But I do know this: Steelers are playing the Seahawks. Being the Northwestern gal I am, and since I was born just outside Seattle…and because my Dad is a huge Seahawks fan, I guess I’ll officially, silently, root for the Seahawks.

I did find out, however, a few years ago, that today is a great day to do any shopping at Costco! Anne and I went there to find a very vacant warehouse! Oh! We did bump into our neighbors.  They told us they make an annual event of shopping on Superbowl Sunday because no one is around.  So there’s my tip to you today!

Dennis has been heavy into recording for our new CD. This one will be much more professional than the last, which was really intended just for fun and family.  I am excited to see parts of it coming together.

The purpose of this CD is to encourage the Saints and to plant seeds in non-believers. You can come visit our band’s site at www.electricchurch.net.  Please join the mailing list and enjoy reading!

Dennis has a 3 day weekend! Yippee!!!  What a treat for us! He really needed a break. He works between 14-16 hour days 6 days a week, usually.

The mice have been keeping us on our toes here, lately. It seems that they have all moved from the shed into the house. Understandably, right? I mean… the house IS warmer and there are crumbs…yes, crumbs. I know, it messes up your pristine image of me.

Anyway, the mice never keep us short of excitement here. I think their life’s goal is to taunt me.

School is moving right along! I enjoy sitting and working with the girls. The boys are mostly doing independent work.

I haven’t been feeling real well lately. I think it has something to do with the fact that we are expecting [again] in September!

We had a worm (a virus) infect a couple of our computers recently. It wiped out a lot of personal items, for which I am sad about. Just another reminder to have things backed up on CD!

Yesterday, Bethy and I sat and went through a large box of photos. It was so enjoyable to do this and everyone in the house came by us more than once to view all the photos of memories past. We managed to get them all organized into 2 small shoebox sized boxes.

I guess that’s enough for now. I need to get started on my day.  Until next time!

MOTH = Managers Of Their Homes

In theory, it’s supposed to streamline and organize your family.

Reality is another thing…or is it?

This year, I sat Anne down with me to help me work out our schedule.  You see, the main reason we’ve been using the MOTH is because we have 3 networked computers and a handful of students and I needed a way to coordinate everyone doing their Switched on Schoolhouse Language Arts and their DIVE math CD in order to do their Saxon, not to mention all the “earned” computer time and educational “stuff.”

We got the schedule down.  It looked like a dandy!  It was beautiful!  I was pleased.

A few things have changed since last year due to Benjamin graduating and working full-time, as well as Anne taking on a new job of sewing hunting decoys for MT Decoy and Cabela’s.  (She does this from home)

The first day of our schedule arrives.  We are poised.  Mom is excited and motivated to take on the days ahead!  The schedule has been gone over, checked and rechecked.  By the end of the first couple of hours, it becomes very apparent something’s amiss!

I knew that something was wrong when Emily came to me and said, “Mom, you forgot my SOS.”  Ok.  I could deal with that minor oversight.  Another child came to me and said I had forgotten to schedule them for a bathing!  Hmmm  Later, Elizabeth came to me and said, “Mom, you forgot my SOS, but put me down for reading three times.” (Poor girl. Imagine that! What a rough schedule when reading is your very favorite thing to do in life!)

Of course, I got the usual complaints, “Mom, can you reschedule us to feed and care for the chickens at, say, 7:00?  6:30 Is too early.  “No, sweetie.  If I did that, then you couldn’t eat breakfast.”  “Mom, I don’t like that my ‘free time’ is scheduled.  It doesn’t feel free if it’s scheduled.”

Back to the drawing board…or in our case, Excel.  I work our MOTH in Excel.  Since there are so many of us, it seems to work well.  Some great ladies at the Titus2 forum, since closed to any ol’ yahoo, helped me out to learn how to monkey with the cells to get them to conform to my likeness. At least that is the hope.  In the past, I color-coded everyone, but this year, I am trying something new by color-coding times in which a person is on a computer in order to keep it all straight! It also helps that each of our computers have names.  My computer is fondly called “Mother” or “Mothership.”  Since the other two computers came from our office, we lovingly named them after the people who used them, “Darren” and “Valarie.”

I finally made the unfortunate decision to delete Abigail (1) and Jayden (2) off the schedule since we were hanging off the edge of the paper and I couldn’t find my tape to print more pages to put together like a puzzle.  I didn’t want to attempt “landscape,” for this old brain of mine just couldn’t handle further confusion.

Well, after a week of stumbling through my first draft of the final schedule, or was that the final draft of the first schedule… I sat down and revamped it once again.

Of course, there is an exception to every perfect schedule and our exceptions are those of Thursdays when one son has guitar lessons, every other Wednesday, two sons work in the morning, they just began a job each afternoon at a neighbors “until the snow starts flying”, Monday’s Daddy’s home, so we have to remember that we may not always follow schedule on Mondays…shall I continue with the “exceptions to the rule?”  Of course there’s sick babies, and sometimes, sick mama’s.

We used to have a “loose” schedule.  Up by 8 o’clock, chores and fed by 10 o’clock then start school until lunch, finishing in the afternoon.  When baby number 9 was on his way, I knew a few things had to change:  One, we needed curriculum that freed me up a bit, and two, we needed more order and discipline in our lives.  However, many other benefits have come from this schedule:  I can make sure we are doing everything Daddy wants us to get done in a day, if laundry is sitting there, I am assured it will be taken care of “in it’s time.”  You know the old saying, “A place for everything and everything in it’s place?”  Well, using this MOTH schedule is like that.  We could say, “A time for everything and everything has a time.”