Dear Friends,

Each night I take a look at my calendar for the next day, and I look at my master To Do List. I write down 3 things I want to do the next day. Some days that might be a portion of a bigger project.

I have learned a lot about being patient with the time it takes me to do a bigger project. When I work on a large project around the house, I do something small to put it back together. I am discerning about what I put back and where I put it. I have a giveaway box for things I do not want to put back when I am redoing a room.

Bigger projects are hard to do when you are homeschooling. You have to choose a time that you can have your school schedule changed for a day or two. For instance, if you need to paint a room, choose a time to do it when you can take a break from regular school work. You can teach your children life skills with painting a room, but you have to realize that the paperwork part of school work might be on hold for several days.

Some of you put off parts of your basic routines, zone missions, or home blessings. In talking to many of you, I can list the ten things you put off the most in caring for your home.

The Top Ten Things You Procrastinate:

1.  Swish and Swipe

Spend 2 minutes a day doing a quick swish of your toilet and a quick swipe of the sink and counter. Make it easy by not keeping a lot of items on your counters. I find it easiest to do this right after my morning shower. It is a habit that I don’t think about it. I just do it.

2.  Laying Out Your Clothes for the Next Day

For many homeschool moms, you wonder why in the world would you need to lay out clothes the night before. Laying your clothes out the night before saves you time in the morning. You won’t have to think about what to put on. Your clothes will just be there ready to put on. You won’t skip a beat and can get dressed in a flash!

3.  Dusting

Some of you have a mental block about dusting. It’s a holdover from being told there is only one way to dust by taking everything off the shelf or flat surface and dusting each item one by one. During the Weekly Home Blessing, your dusting time is just supposed to take a few minutes. You use a feather duster and dust quickly around the items on the flat surfaces. When we do the monthly Zone Missions, we move things around to detail dust.

4.  Cleaning Out the Fridge

Who has a science experiment or two in the back of their fridge right now? Take 10 minutes each week to evict the leftovers and science experiments. This is best done on the day you put the trash out. Once a month, we have missions in the kitchen. Use one of those missions to check expiration dates on the condiments in the fridge.

5.  Vacuuming

Some of you like to vacuum and make pretty lines in your carpet. When you are raising a young family and homeschooling, vacuuming is one of the things that you don’t get around to as often as you used to. That is ok. Once a week, spend 10 minutes vacuuming the high traffic areas of your home. Vacuum around the stuff that is on the floor. Once a month, you can use your Zone Mission time to move furniture and vacuum around it. The biggest tip I have for you in floor maintenance, is to teach your children to pick up behind themselves on a daily basis. That one thing will help your floors look better.

6.  Sweeping and/or Mopping

When is the last time you swept and mopped? This is something that is done well as a team. When we do out floors, one person sweeps, and a second person comes behind them with the mop. It goes so much faster that way. Someone sweeps under the table and in the entryway daily. It is a quick two-minute mission that helps keep my floors maintained.

7.  Decluttering Paper

We all have paper, and this month our focus is on getting rid of paper daily. Use your timer and let go of paper. Play a 27 Fling Boogie in getting rid of paper. Get rid of 27 pieces of paper per day. You will see a difference by the end of the month, if you are consistent with this Habit of the Month.

8.  Paying Bills

For many reasons, sitting down to pay bills gets put off. I have heard many reasons for this one habit. It is a part of running a household. It’s not fun, and sometimes budgets are really tight. But you need to sit down once a week to pay bills and review your budget. This will keep you from overspending.

9.  Going to Bed at a Decent Hour

Who are my night owls? Our days are full and busy and noisy. Once the kids go to bed at night, it becomes Mommy time. There are many ways we like to spend our quiet time after the kids are in bed. Use a timer and don’t get sucked into electronics that keep you up too late at night. You need your rest, and if you want some quiet time, set your alarm to get up before your children in the morning.

10.  Getting Dressed to the Lace Up Shoes Each Morning (See #2)

When you lay out your clothes at night, be sure to include your shoes and socks. Ask your children to do the same thing. Then, you have everything you need to get ready in the morning without thinking about it. You are also going to be able to get everyone out the door quickly if the need arises.

This is in no way an exhaustive list. These are just the ones that I have learned in mentoring ladies the last three years that they need to work on regularly.

Tell me what you are procrastinating. Am I on target with my list?

Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.

Your Zone Mission for today is to wipe your kitchen counters.

My menu plan for Tuesday is hamburgers.

Have a blessed day!