I've been watching the show How Clean is Your House on the BBC channel lately and I love the different homemade cleaning mixtures that they come up with. So far, we've tried the grout cleaner made from salt, vinegar, and dishsoap. It worked pretty good. And we've tried dark soda in the toilet as a cleaner. It really didn't do much but it could be I didn't let it sit long enough but really, you have to be able to use the potty at some point.LOL I love the idea of homemade cleaners that are nontoxic. We have so many little ones, I hate having poison in my home. Of course, I like a clean home also, so it has to work.

All this watching has spurred me on in my own cleaning. I super cleaned my bathroom on Monday and scrubbed all the hard floors in the house. We had blueberry, plain, and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and I put the extras in the freezer for another day. I put a roast in the crockpot for lunch the next day and I made the Beef Tenderloin for dinner that night. I also did laundry and was able to get that all caught up. I did a quick clean, straighten, and vaccum of all the other rooms and I even had enough energy to go for a walk that night.

Yesterday started off a little slow. Sophia was up a lot that night. I made granola bars for breakfast and those who wanted smoothies made them themselves. I decided to make the sandwich loaf for lunch and invited my mom over to visit. The little ones had a great time helping with the breadmaking. I made a roast beef, muenster, parmesian cheese loaf and it was really good! Everyone, except the littles, enjoyed it. They wouldn't even try it.lol After lunch, my mom took Evie to her house for a few hours. Evie had cut her hair again and it really needed to be evened up a little. She is now sporting a short summer cut.lol By dinner time, I was tired so we had a fend for yourself night. There was plenty to choose from.

Today, I was awake by 6am and I've been keeping fairly busy. I had a loaf of buttercrust bread that no one really cared for, so I made it into bread pudding for after lunch. The rest will be served for after dinner. I did some crafts with the littles this morning. We started with an ocean scene and ended with making bird feeders. I love www.thebusybeebag.com They have some really cute crafts for preschoolers and I don't have to buy anything extra. Just open the bag and go.lol Perfect for the sleep deprived mom. I'm also looking at this next: http://www.mylilpicasso.com/ I like to keep those little ones busy.lol

Sophia's been a little grumpy today so not too much has been done. Just a few crafts, some baking, and baths for all the littles.lol I was going to make the California Porkchops tonight but forgot to put it in the crockpot so we'll just make the hamburgers on the grill instead.

We watched the second movie in our Movies As Literature program and the kids are really enjoying it. It's like I have my old kids back. You know, the ones who keep asking when we can do more work as opposed to hiding and hoping I don't make them do anything.lolol I also keep finding Allison at the table doing her math work. What a difference. The kids have been reading the first unit in their history online and have doing the work without my prompting. They are really looking forward to the hands-on part and have already decided what areas they want to study further. I guess praying and then searching for curriculum that is geared directly for your kids learning styles really does work.lol Do they have curriculum for hard headed people cause I think that may be my learning style.lolol

Blessings,

Lisa