How to de-clutter, clean and organize your entire home in 30 days

How cool would it be to have a clean and organized home before the holidays? After 10 years of staying home with my children I am now a full time working mom. My house has slowly turned from

Anal Retentive Obsessive Compulsively Clean and Organized

to a war zone.

Instead of spending quality time with my children and my husband at night and on the weekends I am always frantically cleaning trying to stay caught up. So this is where my neat nick bone is going to kick in. I am going to teach you how to methodically go through each room and clean and organize it, while at the same time cleaning and organizing my home just in time for Halloween. Think of all the fun things you can do during the holidays if you aren’t worrying about all the clutter around your home. Plus I will inject some great housekeeping tips I learned as a housecleaning some years ago, to make the job just a little easier. If you have areas that you need help with

feel free to leave a comment to ask.

I will do periodic updates to help everyone out. Just think if one person is asking, then at least 2 people somewhere need to know. :-) And if you have any tips to help me out please leave them in the comments and I will add them. (Remember I am playing along too)

Oh and don’t forget to bookmark me. I will be updating everyday from now until Halloween.

And one more ps. I have tried to fly and I just can't seem to get into the swing of that right now.

In Loving Memory

Grandpa
Father
Great Grandpa
Funny
Proud
Woodworker
Tile Man
Carpet
Game Player
Giver
Story teller
Handyman

Wanted

Each year when I get peaches, I take the lid off the boxes, set them against the wall in my kitchen and divide them out. So half of each box goes into the lid. I learned that when you do this they ripen more evenly and you don't get spoiled ones in the bottom that you don't know about. Well this year, I did similar except I put them in my front living room because it is cooler in there and I knew that I couldn't get to them right away. This being said, Jack figured out that we had peaches in there on the floor. Everyday he has gone in there, stuck his face in the box and picked out a ripe juicy peach to munch on. The first two times he did it, we didn't notice until he had munched up over half of the peaches. The next two times he did it, we noticed right away and took them away from him. Dang dog! Bill told me I should put the peaches on the counter. Why would I do that? That is way to easy!

Help!

I am up to my eyeballs in peaches.
I picked up 3 boxes last week and this is what I have made so far:
Peach Chutney
Peach Salsa
Peach Freezer Jam
Peach Syrup
Peach Cobbler

I have used up all of my canning jars (we didn't do as good last year eating the peaches I put up, so we have a ton of those left) but I still have a bunch of peaches. Help me figure out what else I should do with my peaches. We are eating as many each day as we can. Do you have any good recipes that use peach puree?

Reflection

As Billie sat eating breakfast this morning I had a moment of reflection. I could see her cute little baby face inside her beautiful radiant big girl face.
If that makes sense...

Then she looked up at me, saw me staring and with not much effort blurted out, "Whhhaaat?" Just like a sassy 8 year old.

"I remember when you were a baby sitting on the floor and I sat with you, looking at you all bald and chubby, wondering what you would look like when you were a little girl and I especially wondered what your voice would sound like. I don't have to wonder anymore."

To which I was met with a little krinkle at the corner of her eye and a tiny blushing of her cheeks. "Oh" was all the little sassy 8 year old could muster.

Student of the Month

I guess September Grant is our Honorary star! (Someone remind me in October to make Billie the honorary star cause I will probably have forgotten by then.) On Friday, September 5th Grant was honored as student of the month at school! This is a great accomplishment for him. I can't believe how making a change of schools can change a child's attitude so much. He is truly a whole new kid. We love him and we love the choices he is making. (He is still a boy kid and we are anxiously awaiting the regrowth of brain cells which I know could be many, may years.)

(Sorry the video was blurry, it was from my camera, way back in the back! And okay, so you can't really hear very well at all, video journalism is not on my learn to do list yet.)

September 11th

For all the husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, wifes, mothers, sisters and aunts who are fighting for the freedoms we enjoy so effortlessly. We thank you, we love you we miss you. God Bless you and your families!
WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN!

G-Man

So I really debated about posting this. We try really hard to not be one of those parents who is always bragging excessively about our kids. That doesn't mean that we are not proud of them because we are, we tel that home all the time but we just don't talk about it outside of the family much. So all that being said, I am posting this so I don't forgot just as much as I want Grant to know how proud we are of him

Last week we had curriculum night at the kids new school. We ended the night in Grant's classroom. I have to say that i just love his new teacher. She and he have much of the same personality. Since Grant has "been there and done that" with this particular year she was expressing to him about how she expects him to be more than normal. She wants him to be extraordinary. She asked him to be a leader in the classroom. As she finished expressing these things to Grant she turned to Bill and I and asked if Grant had told us about "M." She said that M was a new boy in the classroom with some speech issues and physical disablities. She then proceeded to tell us how Grant totally took M under his wing, letting him join the group of boys, helping to be a translator if you will when M couldn't express things the way he wanted. She said that M had a horrible school experience last year with kids making fun of him, excluding him and bullying him. And that he would cry everyday before and afterschool. She said that M was really scared to come to this school for the same thing. And when Grant went out of his way to make him part of the class it changed M's whole outlook on school. His teacher said that she was so proud of him for doing something above and beyond that nobody asked him to do. We are so proud of Grant for looking past M's challenges and becoming his friend anyway. This is one of the qualities in him that is my favorite. He wants to be friends with everyone. And the best part about it, is that Grant did it without a second thought, he didn't come home and tell us, he didn't expect his teacher to notice, he just did it. We love you Grant!