Monday, June 13, 2011

31 days update and today's Muffin Tin Monday

Ok I'll start with the Muffin Tin Monday since I know most of today's traffic will likely come from linking up to that.  Today I did breakfast again.  It's easier for me to put something together for breakfast and then I'm not rushing trying to get something cute together for lunch.  Since the kids tend to leave me be while I prep breakfast but not so much when I'm prepping lunch.  So here's the scoop on our MTM breakfast.

plain oatmeal in the bowl, banana slices, brown sugar and raisins for the oatmeal, and blueberries.

Even Princess got in on the muffin tin action today.  She got a few blueberries and some banana slices.

Squirrel monkey mixed his sugar and raisins right into his oatmeal.  He ate every bite.

Not sure what Spider is doing here but I think he put the wrong thing in his oatmeal. lol 


And alas I did NOT get a pic of Howler with his meal as he was away from the table when I was snapping the pics.

So remember I'm linking up here at Muffin Tin Monday so go check out the other great muffin tin meals today.

Moving on.  31 days to clean challenge.  So, we have completely week one.  I'm having a hard time getting the cleaning challenges done at the "right" time of day according to my perception of the way this is supposed to work but I'm working hard and getting them done as I can throughout each day.  Last week I started out with the kitchen as the challenge says.  This is what my kitchen looked like before:
So then I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.  I spent a while cleaning probably two or so hours but that included washing all the larger pots and pans and whatever didn't fit into the dishwasher.  And I got this:


Not too shabby right?  Yeah I didn't think so either.  I was very pleased with my clean kitchen.  I really went at it.  Cleaning things up that I'd ignored for too long.  Things behind the sink, on the windowsill etc.

The next challenge was to clean a hot spot in the kitchen.  I chose this shelf:
And after spending probably 20-30 minutes on it I came out with this:
No I moved the storage bins down onto the wire shelf on the bottom so I could more easily reach them and moved the raisins and snacky stuff up to the top shelf.  So far it is staying in nice condition.

So we're supposed to be getting into the routine of picking up the kitchen each morning after breakfast and tidying our main spaces.  I don't have pics of tidying the main spaces.  Sorry ya'll, cause that was a dramatic change and it took me and the boys about an hour to accomplish the other day for the initial clean up.  And on Friday's we add cleaning the bathroom to the routine.  Right now I'm very glad we only have one bathroom.  On Saturdays we add preparing our meals for Sunday to our schedule so that we can have a complete day of rest.  What does that look like?  The day of rest?  Well I'm so glad you asked let me show you:

Now keep in mind we were super busy this weekend so we didn't have much time for keeping up after ourselves on Sat so this is actually the accumulation of two days of not cleaning in the kitchen not just the one.  So I started out with 20 min on the timer this morning.  Then I got distracted and did some switching over of the laundry and such during that time so after probably 10 -15 min this is what the kitchen looked like:

After a walk to the library and returning home and resting for a few minutes I got to work finishing up the kitchen and it turned out like this:


Took me maybe another 30-40 min including washing by hand the accumulation of larger bowls and pans and what wouldn't fit into the dishwasher again.  Not too shabby.  And it feels so nice to look into my nice clean kitchen.

Today I'm supposed to clean a bedroom and wash the laundry from that room.  I'll do the boys room because their sheets need washed anyway. Then tomorrow it will be adding our room to the rotation.  I'm also supposed to be aiming to do a load of laundry each day.  I have already done that today and will add a load of sheets to today's tasks.  After reviewing the calendar and aside from Monday's when I'll need extra time to catch back up from taking Sunday's off I really don't think this "routine" should take me more than an hour of maintenance cleaning each morning and then just picking up after ourselves throughout the rest of the day.  I will also be adding a children's chore system to the foray as called for by the "Next Thing" on Thursday.  I've already started it but I'll get it finished and star using it this week.

Anyway, so far I like the challenge.  More than the prescribed tasks though it's knowing that others are out there working hard keeping their homes tidy too.  Check out the facebook page and join one of more of the challenge groups to feel more connected to others that are on this same journey with us.  I do highly recommend this as a jump start to getting your home in order and finding a way to keep it that way.

5 comments:

  1. Kitchen looks awesome!

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  2. We enjoy our breakfast tins too! :)

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  3. JDaniel is asking for oatmeal for breakfast again. I will need to try your add in choices with him.

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  4. We did a breakfast tin too! They are nice and easy and the kids love them. Great work on the kitchen. I am doing a major clean, sort and purge at my place too.

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  5. Looks like a yummy breakfast. I always forget about oatmeal. You asked where I got my bear shaped muffin cups- I got them at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores. A new one just opened in our town, so I headed over to check out their muffin tins with my 50% off coupon- yay!!

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