1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,240 Thanks for joining me in this episode. 2 00:00:02,240 --> 00:00:05,600 I'm going to talk you through a quick speed clean of your 3 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:10,120 bedroom, just a bedroom reset. We're going to get your bedding 4 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:15,200 washing and then we're going to quickly clean your room. 5 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:19,280 But I'm also going to be answering a listener question 6 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:25,560 about getting everything done in the course of a day when you 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,280 have kids and cleaning your room. 8 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,520 This could be any bedroom. It could be your bedroom, or it 9 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:36,760 could be a kid room or even an office or craft room. 10 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:41,480 Just a room in your house that would be advertised as a bedroom 11 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:45,840 if your house were up for sale. So just a general bedroom speed 12 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:47,600 clean. I'm going to talk you through 13 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:52,840 the steps and I want you to try to keep up, you know, challenge 14 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,560 yourself to get your room clean during this short time. 15 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:59,840 I'm here to talk you through it and I'm also going to be giving 16 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:05,080 you some of my best time management tips from both of my 17 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:08,360 home schooling eras, which I'm no longer in. 18 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,240 It's time to gear up for your cleaning session. 19 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:17,080 Maybe you need to grab a trash bag if you don't have a 20 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,480 wastebasket in your room. Or maybe you want to just grab 21 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:21,680 your kitchen wastebasket and bring it in there. 22 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:25,960 You're going to need a place to quickly throw away trash while 23 00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:29,440 you're cleaning the room. Another thing you're going to 24 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,200 want to do is think about where you're going to put any 25 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:35,560 donatables. This isn't about decluttering 26 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,400 your wardrobe or purging your belongings. 27 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:42,400 I have other episodes that cover that and I plan to make another 28 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:45,280 one soon. But still, you might come across 29 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:49,360 something where you're like, OK, every time I try on this outfit, 30 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:51,640 I don't like it. So it needs to go in the 31 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:55,800 donation pile. So maybe you have a donation 32 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,200 station in the back of your closet, or maybe you want to 33 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:04,480 grab a bag or a box for those types of items in case you come 34 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:07,240 across them. Cleaning supplies. 35 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:11,400 You're going to need some kind of a dusting spray and also a 36 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:16,920 glass cleaner, maybe a couple microfiber clothes, whatever you 37 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:22,360 have on hand for wiping surfaces in your room, both glass and non 38 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:24,640 glass. Or maybe you use one single 39 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:27,200 product. There's there's a pledge multi 40 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,880 purpose spray that works for glass and wooden furniture. 41 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,800 And you're going to vacuum or sweep after this episode, 42 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:39,640 perhaps while listening to music or listening to a podcast about 43 00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:42,520 another topic. But I'm going to get you through 44 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,000 the tedious parts of cleaning your row. 45 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:49,400 This is a speed clean, so I'm not going to beat around the 46 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:50,840 Bush here. I'm going to get you started 47 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,480 right away. I want you to strip your bed and 48 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,160 remake it with different bedding. 49 00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:01,480 I'm pretty sure you have a complete other set of sheets, 50 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:03,600 even if you only have one comforter. 51 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:08,720 What I recommend is changing your bedding, putting on those 52 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:13,760 alternate sheets and pillowcases, and then grabbing a 53 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,360 random blanket or backup comforter and just making your 54 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,880 bed with that. It doesn't have to look perfect, 55 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:26,320 but having a maid bed will give you kind of an instant sense of 56 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,600 accomplishment. It will make even the messiest 57 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,680 room look a lot better instantly, and it's also going 58 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:36,800 to give you kind of a staging area to place things that you're 59 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,040 having trouble making decisions about and just help you get 60 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:44,440 things off of the floor during those early stages of cleaning 61 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:47,960 the room. OK, so again, I want you to get 62 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:52,640 your bedding washing and put some alternate bedding on your 63 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:54,680 bed. If you only have one set of 64 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:58,680 sheets, I do recommend purchasing another set. 65 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:02,880 I know times are hard, but that's one thing that's going to 66 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:07,800 make your life a lot easier. And sometimes things happen, 67 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:11,800 spills happen, you know, a kid pees on your bed. 68 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:14,920 And one of the reasons why I put an alternate blanket or 69 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:19,240 comforter on my bed instead of waiting for the first comforter 70 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,560 to dry is because lately I like to air dry my comforter. 71 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:25,680 I hang the comforter up over a room divider. 72 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:28,360 And if I didn't have that room divider, I would probably hang 73 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:30,320 it up over my glass shower doors. 74 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:35,520 I sometimes air dry items there. Anyway, hopefully you're making 75 00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:38,160 your bed while I talk. While you do that, I'll just 76 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,960 read the the listener question that I'm going to be answering 77 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,840 in this episode. It says love the podcast. 78 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:48,800 I'm a financial supporter. I was wondering if you could do 79 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:52,680 an episode about trying to get everything done in a day with 80 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,320 small kids. Homeschooling, exercise, 81 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,400 housekeeping, and dinner. It feels like I don't have 82 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:00,840 enough hours in the day sometimes. 83 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,480 I'm going to do my best to answer this question. 84 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:11,400 I will preface it by saying that when number 5 was a baby, I put 85 00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:16,120 numbers 1-2 and three in school because I was not able to keep 86 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:20,160 up with everything. With five kids in the house and 87 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:25,120 trying to homeschool, do my housework, and have dinner done 88 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,760 by the time my husband got home from work, it was a lot. 89 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:34,040 It ended up being too much so I ended up taking a year off from 90 00:05:34,040 --> 00:05:41,200 home schooling where my 2 youngest at the time were home 91 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:45,240 with me, a preschool age child, and a baby after I dropped the 92 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,080 kids off at two different schools. 93 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:53,480 So anyway, the numbers one and two went on to graduate from 94 00:05:53,480 --> 00:05:56,040 public school. I never brought them back home 95 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,000 again to home school once I put them in school. 96 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:04,600 But #3 didn't really like school at that time, and she asked to 97 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:09,280 be homeschooled the next year. So then I was doing a 98 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:13,200 combination of dropping teenagers off at school and then 99 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:16,680 homeschooling. This gradually evolved back into 100 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:23,120 me being a fully homeschooling parent once #2 graduated. 101 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,600 Don't tune me out if you're if you're not into homeschooling. 102 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,920 I think there's a lot of time management tips in this episode 103 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:37,080 that could apply to anyone, especially anyone with kids 104 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,560 because some of you have small children who aren't in school 105 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:42,960 yet. And whether you have others who 106 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:48,160 are in school or none of your kids are school aged, you're 107 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:51,840 still home with small children and so a lot of these tips will 108 00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:54,400 apply. OK, now that your bedding has 109 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:57,240 changed, the next thing I want you to do is start picking up 110 00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,560 your bedroom floor. I'm talking about putting shoes 111 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,440 in the closet, putting trash in the wastebasket or trash bag, 112 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:07,760 OK. And there are a couple ways you 113 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:10,480 could go about this. If you have hard floors, maybe 114 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:13,320 you like the method of sweeping everything into the middle of 115 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:16,160 the room, especially if this is a kid room with toys and other 116 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:18,560 debris. Even if it's a carpeted room, 117 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,000 you might want to just kind of pull everything out into the 118 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,560 middle of the room. Because if this is your time to 119 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,080 clean a kid room, maybe they've been stuffing things under the 120 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:28,120 bed. Or maybe you're cleaning an 121 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:32,120 adult room and you're like me and you've got a dog who drags 122 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:34,400 things under the bed and you have to pull that stuff out with 123 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:36,880 a broom. Somebody needs to write in and 124 00:07:36,880 --> 00:07:40,240 tell me if they relate to that part because I feel like it's a 125 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,600 weird thing that I bring up on the show, but it's an issue. 126 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,040 I should tell you some of the other weird things about that 127 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,000 particular dog, but we'll save that for another show. 128 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:53,560 Maybe you want to pull everything out into the middle, 129 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:58,120 or maybe you want to just walk around the room kind of end to 130 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:01,480 end, corner to corner, just picking up whatever you come 131 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:03,400 across and putting it where it goes. 132 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:06,240 Or maybe you want to put things away by category. 133 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:08,280 You might be thinking, OK, I'm going to put all the shoes in 134 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:09,840 the closet. I'm going to put all The Dirty 135 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:12,760 clothes in the hamper. Or you might like more of a 136 00:08:12,760 --> 00:08:16,240 geographical method where you just put away everything you 137 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:18,440 come across. If you're trying to get steps 138 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:22,200 in, the geographical method will have you walking around more 139 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:27,640 where you're just putting everything away as you work your 140 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:30,240 way around the room. You know, maybe you put a pair 141 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:33,640 of shoes away, you put something in the trash, you hang up a 142 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,440 sweater, and you're just doing all different things that can 143 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:40,760 maximize your steps. You might want to put things 144 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,840 away by category. The important thing is that 145 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,520 you're clearing your floor now you're going to come across some 146 00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:48,680 items that you don't know what to do with. 147 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:51,360 Place those questionable items on the bed. 148 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:53,000 I'm talking about you pick something up. 149 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,640 You're not sure if it's clean or dirty or if you even want to 150 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:00,120 keep it at all or it it doesn't have a home. 151 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:03,640 Place that on your bed. But if you know what to do with 152 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:07,360 something, put it away. And I don't want you to get hung 153 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:10,320 up on thinking about your cluttered night stands, dresser, 154 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,160 desk. I want you to be focusing on 155 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:15,960 getting the floor cleared. It's going to give you an 156 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:21,040 amazing sense of accomplishment. The most egregious clutter is 157 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:25,440 the clutter that's on the floor. OK, you want to get your floor 158 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:28,720 cleared first. That's what I want you to be 159 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:31,640 working on right now. If you don't have a lot of 160 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:36,360 clutter on the floor, great. You can start folding some clean 161 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:41,440 laundry on your freshly made bed, or you can start 162 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:45,040 decluttering surfaces and cleaning them. 163 00:09:45,440 --> 00:09:47,600 You know what that glass cleaner is for? 164 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:50,280 It's for washing the inside of a window. 165 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:52,200 Or maybe there's a sliding glass door. 166 00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:55,600 But for a lot of you, picking up the floor is going to take a 167 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:57,920 minute. I just wanted to let you know 168 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:01,160 what the next step is in case you get ahead of me while I'm 169 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:03,640 talking about all these time management tips because I'm 170 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:07,840 trying to squeeze a lot of information into this episode. 171 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:14,880 So exercise during my first homeschooling era where nobody 172 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:19,880 was in school, my only exercise was child centered exercise. 173 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:25,560 Meaning I would put little ones in a stroller and all of us 174 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:28,520 would go for a walk. You know, some would be on foot 175 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:31,640 or on a bike, little ones would be in strollers. 176 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:36,240 We would go for a walk and we would often walk to a park in 177 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:41,480 our neighborhood and at that park there was a sidewalk that 178 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:46,320 went around the playground area. So sometimes I would just kind 179 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:50,640 of walk laps around that sidewalk while the kids were 180 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:53,320 playing in the playground in the center. 181 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:56,960 This isn't going to work with just one of these huge spread 182 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:01,280 out city parks where your kids are going to just take off out 183 00:11:01,280 --> 00:11:05,840 in some other direction. What I'm talking about is maybe 184 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:11,720 a small playground in like your subdivision where and not 185 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:13,480 everybody's going to have this. I get it. 186 00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:18,320 But I'm just describing the type of park that I find useful, you 187 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:22,600 know, when watching small kids and exercising at the same time. 188 00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:27,640 But if there's a small playground and you can circle 189 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:34,120 around, they're like briskly walking or even jogging while 190 00:11:34,120 --> 00:11:38,120 keeping a visual on your kids. That can be a great form of 191 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:40,640 exercise. And your kids are also wearing 192 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:44,960 themselves out if they're toddlers or preschoolers and 193 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:46,800 you're wanting them to take a nap later. 194 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:50,760 Or even if they're older kids and you just want them to blow 195 00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:54,080 off some steam so that they'll be more mellow when you get back 196 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:57,440 to the house. But a time management tip that's 197 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,320 going to relate to everybody, even if they're not in a season 198 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:03,960 of life where they're caring for small children during the day. 199 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:06,920 Getting out of the house, even though this seems 200 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:10,480 counterintuitive when you have just housework piling up and 201 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:13,160 you're like, I need to stay home and focus on this housework. 202 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:17,280 Getting out of the house can make you more productive. 203 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:19,680 It gives you something to look forward to. 204 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:24,200 It gives you kind of a deadline and it it just injects some 205 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:27,960 structure into your day. For example, telling 206 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:33,080 homeschooled kids, if we get our first two subjects done by 207 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:38,120 12:00, we'll go to the park after lunch, you know, and then 208 00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:40,520 you get back from the park and you put the youngest ones down 209 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:44,000 for a nap. Now, don't get me wrong with 210 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:47,360 homeschooling, not usually practical to have a super rigid 211 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:49,520 schedule. Like, OK, we're done with math 212 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:54,160 at nine O 5, but you should have an order of operations. 213 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:57,800 We do these subjects first, which are going to be those 214 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:02,120 important core subjects like reading, language arts, math. 215 00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:06,080 You're going to do that stuff first in the beginning part of 216 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:09,800 the day when everybody's fresh and you know it's going to get 217 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:12,840 done and you're going to have an order in which you do things. 218 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,960 But you're going to have a goal of getting certain subjects done 219 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:22,000 by a certain time. You know, lunch and then play 220 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,920 time and then nap time. Or maybe your play time is going 221 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:30,200 to come a little before lunch because you want to do the naps 222 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:34,680 directly after lunch. I definitely had a routine. 223 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:39,240 Basically, I favor routines over schedules because with kids 224 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:42,440 you've got to be flexible. You know, with small children, 225 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:45,360 obviously if you're homeschooling only school age 226 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,960 children, your schedule can be as rigid as what they would have 227 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:53,600 in an actual school. But with these age gap families 228 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,680 where or just families where some of the kids aren't school 229 00:13:56,680 --> 00:14:01,160 aged yet, you've got to have some flexibility built in, which 230 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:06,720 is why I favor a routine over a schedule where every hour you do 231 00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:12,840 a certain thing. OK, but what I'm getting at is 232 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:16,160 the idea of going somewhere is going to punctuate your day. 233 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:23,320 And this could apply that to someone who's at home alone, but 234 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,800 you're still struggling to fit everything into your day just 235 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:29,800 because of procrastination, lack of self-discipline. 236 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:32,360 We all struggle with those issues in one way or another in 237 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,720 our lives. None of us are perfect, OK, 238 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:40,800 Telling yourself that you're going to maybe go for a walk and 239 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:45,480 call a friend while you're walking or meet with a friend 240 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:48,160 and walk with a friend, that that's even giving you more 241 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:51,000 accountability because someone's showing up waiting for you. 242 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,320 Telling yourself you need to get certain things done before that 243 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,840 can definitely help. Getting enough exercise can 244 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:00,080 energize you to where you're more productive around the 245 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:03,480 house. Now, we're going to talk a 246 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:08,200 little bit about bad weather, but I want you to, at this 247 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:12,400 point, move on to clearing and cleaning the surfaces of your 248 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:15,240 room. You may not have time to clean 249 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:18,720 interior windows and window sills and mirrors and things 250 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:22,320 like that, but you have the cleaning supplies there in case 251 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:25,480 you do. So I do want you to uncover 252 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,600 those surfaces, you know, clear off everything that doesn't 253 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:32,560 belong on your night stands, your dresser, other surfaces in 254 00:15:32,560 --> 00:15:36,000 your room. OK, Make sure your room is 255 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:40,640 vacuum or sweep ready before you move from the floor to cleaning 256 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:46,360 the upper surfaces, OK? And I'm trying to kind of keep 257 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,000 you distracted while you do it. I feel like this show is a 258 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,920 balance I'm keeping you distracted from knowing your 259 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:56,960 cleaning, but also snapping you back to reality occasionally to 260 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:59,640 tell you when to move to the next step to make sure you are 261 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:02,960 still cleaning. Another time management tip for 262 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:09,360 someone in this listener's situation or anyone who's home 263 00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:12,400 during the day. Think about dinner early, 264 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,960 ideally in the morning. Think about what you're going to 265 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:16,200 take. You know what you're going to 266 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:19,200 have for dinner, ideally the day, either the night before or 267 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:21,640 first thing in the morning because you might need to thaw 268 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:26,080 something out. OK, but know what you're making 269 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:28,600 for dinner by noon. I think I got into this habit 270 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,760 because my husband tended to text me in the middle of the day 271 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:35,800 and say what's for dinner. I don't know if he was wanting 272 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:41,600 to make sure that I made dinner or if he just wanted to kind of 273 00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:45,200 get his taste buds ready and start anticipating dinner. 274 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:48,200 Maybe he just wanted something to look forward to and that was 275 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:50,000 the time of day he was starting to get hungry. 276 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,520 And, you know, maybe all he had was a little bag of chips or 277 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:56,240 something and he wanted to think about what I was making, but he 278 00:16:56,240 --> 00:16:57,600 would ask me what was for dinner. 279 00:16:57,600 --> 00:17:00,720 So that kind of got me in the habit of planning dinner early 280 00:17:01,280 --> 00:17:04,839 because he'd ask me and then I kind of rushed to the kitchen, 281 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:09,079 figure it out and then tell him. But later that evolved into me 282 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:15,560 thinking about dinner on my own earlier in the day because, you 283 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:17,839 know, nobody wanted to get to the end of the day where they're 284 00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:20,359 just pulling a frozen piece of meat out of the freezer. 285 00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:22,839 And they're like, oh, I got to thaw this in the microwave. 286 00:17:22,839 --> 00:17:27,119 And that's not really the ideal. I've always wanted to try 287 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:31,080 getting these like slabs that you put the food on and it 288 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,320 causes it to thaw out quicker. I don't know how well that 289 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:36,880 works, but I've, I've seen like infomercials on that. 290 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,320 But when you think about dinner, it doesn't necessarily mean 291 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:41,560 thawing something out. It could mean that you opened 292 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:43,720 your freezer and there was something in there that can go 293 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:45,760 directly from the freezer to the oven. 294 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:48,040 You know, maybe you look in your freezer and you're like, OK, 295 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:52,080 we're gonna have chicken Nuggets, tater tots and I'll 296 00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:54,240 toss a salad to go with that or whatever. 297 00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:58,240 Hopefully you're working on those bedroom surfaces, whether 298 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:03,400 it's windows and windowsills or night stands, dressers and so 299 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,800 on. The key to getting your house 300 00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:09,760 really clean during these episodes is being observant and 301 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:14,000 doing what needs to be done. That's another tip I have for 302 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:19,640 those who are in a very busy season of life, going into each 303 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:24,080 room of your house and doing whatever needs to be done the 304 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:27,160 most. I think some of our household 305 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,440 struggles have to do with prioritizing. 306 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:31,800 Wrong. Some of my priorities during my 307 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:35,640 busiest seasons have been getting all the dishes done 308 00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:41,720 within a 24 hour period, keeping up on at least washing and 309 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:44,880 drying the laundry even if people are sometimes living out 310 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:49,920 of a clean laundry pile, and making a home Nate homemade 311 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,240 dinner at night. And that might not be a priority 312 00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:59,760 for you, but when my husband was working, he definitely preferred 313 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:03,920 a homemade meal to me saying like, oh, we're just going to 314 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:07,440 order pizzas tonight. It was probably that Acts of 315 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,320 Service was one of his love languages. 316 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:14,280 OK. But it was also a good idea for 317 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:18,360 us because cooking at home saves money especially when you have a 318 00:19:18,360 --> 00:19:23,520 large family. After my #3 wanted went to 319 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:25,520 school that year and wanted to come home. 320 00:19:25,520 --> 00:19:31,800 I later went on to home school my 4 youngest and not that they 321 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,880 were all homeschooling at at the same time, but eventually they 322 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:37,560 were when they all got to be school aged. 323 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:43,960 But having four in the house while homeschooling was going on 324 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,480 was my limit. So if you're homeschooling and 325 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:51,120 you have 5 or more kids at home, like you're not dropping any of 326 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:54,680 them off at a school, you've got five kids in the house. 327 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:58,600 Your spouse might not be happy with the amount of housework 328 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:02,960 you're getting done, or you might not be happy with it, or 329 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:06,480 you might be struggling to get in exercise because it's hard to 330 00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:09,440 have kids all on the same schedule sometimes. 331 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:16,240 The other thing I was going to say about exercise that I didn't 332 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:19,000 really do, but it's something that I probably would have done 333 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:24,240 if I had it to do over again, is exercise videos. 334 00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:30,040 Because it's something I do sometimes now and I think it 335 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:35,200 would have been a fun way to, you know, for those rainy days 336 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:40,240 to get in some exercise. I, I really tended to do these 337 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,800 like park outings and walks when the weather was nice. 338 00:20:44,120 --> 00:20:50,920 Now, at some point during my second homeschooling area, 339 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:55,360 things got easier because I had a neighbor who was also 340 00:20:55,360 --> 00:21:02,280 homeschooling a child who was close in age to my #3. 341 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:05,920 So it became an incentive. Like if you get your work done, 342 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,040 you can play with so and so. So, you know, maybe interact 343 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:12,280 with another family. I'm really big on incentives for 344 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:16,080 kids getting their work. And later that family and our 345 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:20,120 family both went into our ice skating era. 346 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:25,160 I put two of my kids in figure skating lessons, one in hockey 347 00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:30,200 skating lessons, and I got a little backpack with a leash for 348 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:34,640 my 2 year old. I created these homework binder, 349 00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:39,880 the I created these homeschool binders where I made our 350 00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:44,080 workbooks and everything portable to where we would get 351 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:48,760 ready, go to the skating rink and the kids would be able to do 352 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:51,800 some of their schoolwork in the car and during some of the 353 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,320 downtime at the skating rink between classes and whatnot. 354 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:57,680 And well, you know, because different classes were at 355 00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:03,080 different times for different kids and we ate lunch in the 356 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:08,480 restaurant there and it was just it was an era that was super 357 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:12,200 fun. And again, getting out of the 358 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,760 house made us all more productive. 359 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,320 It made the kids more productive with the schoolwork. 360 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:22,360 And it also made me speed up on my housework because I had to 361 00:22:22,360 --> 00:22:25,200 kind of justify that that I was leaving to do this. 362 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:27,080 I will say that it wasn't expect. 363 00:22:27,080 --> 00:22:31,360 It was pretty expensive hobby. I mean, at that point you could 364 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:33,840 almost put your kids in a private school with a sports 365 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:38,640 program, but it kind of breathed some life into our home 366 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:41,240 schooling. Also, I was getting to socialize 367 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:43,880 with this other mom. Yeah, don't get too isolated 368 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:47,560 when you're home schooling. You need a buddy where you could 369 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:52,560 do play dates or another way we had structure later on is when 370 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:57,000 we first got to this town, we did a homeschool PE at this 371 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:02,200 Community Center once a week. And so that was something to 372 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:06,200 kind of look forward to. I'm really big on exercise, I 373 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,360 guess. But at the same time, like I, I 374 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:13,720 was never on a formal exercise program until like around the 375 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,600 age of 42. OK, so let's talk about that. 376 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:25,520 At around age 42, I got into running and #2 was a teenager 377 00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,640 who was in public school. I was home schooling and 378 00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:33,320 watching younger ones at home. What I did is I started going 379 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:37,120 for a jog or a run and I started out with walking for a few days. 380 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:40,040 It evolved into jogging. I call it running, but it was a 381 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:43,560 very slow pace. OK, but I would go for a 20 or 382 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:48,400 30 minute run in the morning while my teenage son watched the 383 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:52,680 younger kids, you know, who are often still in bed. 384 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:59,520 And one of the reasons that I switched from walking to running 385 00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:04,040 is that it's a lot harder to carve out the time for an hour 386 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:08,520 long walk than it is to go on a 20 or 30 minute run. 387 00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:13,440 You know, as far as like calorie burn and cardio, whatever you're 388 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:19,200 going for. Now I'm into walking, but I have 389 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,120 the time to do it on a rainy day or cold day. 390 00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:26,120 Could do some kind of exercise video that might even be child 391 00:24:26,120 --> 00:24:29,720 centered. For example, sometimes the kids 392 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:34,160 in our school, in the school where I work, do these step 393 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:38,520 programs where everybody has this little wooden step and 394 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,400 they're doing it along with a video. 395 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:45,640 And one time I was subbing in there and I was doing the step 396 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:49,480 aerobics with them. And the video was geared toward 397 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,880 kids, but it was fun for me as an adult as well. 398 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:57,320 So something like that could help you wear your kids out. 399 00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:59,720 Physical exercise is so important. 400 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,480 You know, there's a reason why kids have recess. 401 00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:07,040 So get your kids out more, get your kids outside more, wear 402 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:11,360 them out even if it's inside the house, and have an enforced 403 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,680 quiet time during the little ones naps. 404 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:20,560 I will admit, sometimes I was just on the bed with my two 405 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:25,200 younger ones relaxing with a book or the computer or whatever 406 00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,600 because they stayed asleep longer if I was right there with 407 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,200 them. But my older kids knew that they 408 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:33,400 needed to be quiet during that time. 409 00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,440 There were school subjects that they were able to work on 410 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:42,040 independently during that time. And you know, it was just, it 411 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:43,960 was just a quiet time. But sometimes when you have a 412 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:48,080 kid that's like 3-4 and they don't necessarily go to sleep at 413 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:51,960 nap time, you can still have them lie down on a mat, maybe 414 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,600 with a book and just be quiet. Because if they were in a 415 00:25:55,600 --> 00:26:00,680 daycare or an all day kindergarten, they would be 416 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:05,080 forced to lie down at a certain time of day and they would 417 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,920 gladly do it. So you can have them do that 418 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:09,520 too. It's just you've got to be 419 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,840 consistent. No, you don't have to go to 420 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,520 sleep, but you are going to lie down South. 421 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:20,240 Sanity tip for those with small children who just need a break, 422 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:21,960 whether it's to do some housework. 423 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,800 My mom always said involve the kids in housework. 424 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,200 I've said this in other episodes, but hand them a baby 425 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:28,960 wipe. Let them wipe some things down. 426 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:33,240 So yeah, walking with a stroller or finding a playground where 427 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:37,600 you can walk circles around it. Exercise videos. 428 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:41,960 Maybe going for a run when you do have someone at home to watch 429 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,360 the kids, whether it's your husband or someone else. 430 00:26:44,360 --> 00:26:46,400 Thinking about dinner early in the day. 431 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:51,000 Later, during the end of my second homeschooling era and 432 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,560 even when I wasn't homeschooling anymore, just having an alarm at 433 00:26:55,560 --> 00:27:00,080 3:30 PM start dinner. You know, worst case, if I 434 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:04,400 didn't think about dinner early in the day at 3:30, I'm going to 435 00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:08,040 put some meat into a pot of hot water and get it thawing out by 436 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:12,680 3:30 in order to get dinner ready around 5530. 437 00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:16,480 The crock pot can also be a solution if you have more time 438 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:18,960 in the morning where you can get up. 439 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:22,200 Don't be afraid to have two crock pots. 2 crock pots going. 440 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:27,160 I went through a phase where I was homeschooling and writing 441 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:31,000 from home and had two crock pots going because it was easier for 442 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:37,320 me to prep dinner in the morning then to do it after a long day 443 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:40,360 of writing on the computer. When I was mentally drained, it 444 00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:43,880 kind of physically drained me. So you can do potatoes and corn 445 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:47,400 on the cob and one crock pot and meet in the other. 446 00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,080 Another thing is I didn't allow toys in the living room. 447 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:55,320 I think having an area where you do the home schooling where your 448 00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:58,080 little ones are playing with toys while the other kids are 449 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,680 doing their school work is the way to go. 450 00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,480 But some of my main priorities were getting the dishes done 451 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,520 every 24 hours, keeping my entryway in front room 452 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:15,800 perpetually clean, and keeping toys in the bedrooms. 453 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:21,160 And of course when you're home all day you need to have like 3 454 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:25,080 resets. Morning, afternoon, evening, you 455 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,560 need to clean as you go. Have your kids clean up before 456 00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,560 moving on to another activity. You might also want to take a 457 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,560 lot of their stuff out of circulation simply so they can't 458 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,800 spread toys all over the house. OK, especially if you have a 459 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:42,440 very low clutter threshold. Hopefully your bedrooms picked 460 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:46,640 up, your surfaces are clear, and you've wiped down those 461 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:49,280 surfaces. I hope you got a lot done during 462 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:51,640 this episode. Special special thanks to my 463 00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,360 financial supporters who've already unlocked bonus episodes. 464 00:28:55,480 --> 00:29:00,240 Hopefully, I've given you some tips for, you know, surviving 465 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:05,480 homeschooling or just parenting small kids or even just planning 466 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,800 your day. Maybe you don't even have kids, 467 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,600 but you need to get out of the house more, you know, meet with 468 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:15,800 a friend for exercise or, you know, do certain things before 469 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:21,600 you leave the house or set a timer to make dinner, especially 470 00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,400 if that's something that makes your husband feel loved. 471 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:27,160 OK, Thank you so much for listening. 472 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,120 I appreciate each and every one of you. 473 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,080 And as always, happy cleaning. I'll talk to you the next 474 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:32,640 episode.