got 20?

Well now that you have waited way longer than I intended, I thought I would start with one of the most practical things I learned at the Teaching Them Diligently conference. First, let me say how grateful I am for women who are walking in their calling of wife and mother and are so generous to share what they have learned. Sometimes the information and experiences they share are mind blowing and life shattering but sometimes they are so simple you might wonder why you never thought of the idea yourself. I have, myself, have had to fight off, the "duh syndrome" a few times and focus on the fact that we all have gifts and talents and mine is not always in the way of family management innovations. I encourage myself by knowing that I am bright enough to know when I come across a good thing and to go ahead and give credit to where credit is do, thank that innovative mind, whoever they may be and move forward with the plan. I also know how to improve on a good thing so that it becomes a custom fit for my family. This practical tip was not mind blowing but was definitely a little astonishing in how simple yet helpful it was in having a smooth and easy day. I do not come from a large family. This means a lot because a messy house was never something I really experienced. There might be a messy room sometimes (mine mostly) but not the whole house at once appearing to look like a hurricane hit it. When my children were younger it was so much easier to keep it contained; they stayed in one area, usually together and I was the one who dealt with the rest of the chores but now as there are bigger people that has changed. Free range along with different interest and projects and let's face it being a homeschool family means are house, on most occasions, is everything to us. It is our library, restaurant, play room, craft room, church and then it also serves the purpose of every other house just no breaks because we are here ALL day. I was getting a little discouraged in how to keep a tidy house, not spotless, not perfect, just tidy. With the birth of baby number 5 I started to realize that I wasn't enlisting help as much as I should. Also there are things that need to be done that I can't exactly put on a list. The revolutionary answer that was unearthed at the conference from the wonderful blog Raising Arrows writer Amy was these short spurts of cleaning. I can't remember how many minutes she did but I dubbed ours the

20 minute Tidy. I liked the sound of it and the time is just right. I can set the timer for 20 minutes when a room is at that "I just can't take it anymore" state or just when it needs to be taken care of and we don't have a lot of time but it hasn't had any attention and we can totally transform it: in just 20 minutes.And because we are following Charlotte Mason in our educational approach, the atmosphere of my home being peaceful and inviting is so important. I am not a person that functions well when my house looks like it "threw up" on itself. I can't think and organize my thoughts well enough to teach when there is chaos around me. This one small addition to how we clean truly has been a life send. If we do two a day it is usually enough to make our house an acceptable amount clean so that we can have a smooth and easy day and if someone happens to stop by I don't feel like I have to run them off before they even get out of the car or give that whole speech of why the house looks the way it does. With a 20 minute Tidy we can get to all the rooms of the house in a week, so even on weeks like this, when we are gearing up for recital and our minds are not really focused on home we don't come home after everything is over and wonder when the slobfather showed up and demolished our home. Simple solutions like these are so wonderful because there is no start up "cost" you can just jump right in. We did and it has been awesome! Hope this is encouraging to those of you who have asked me to share. There is more to come! Happy tidying!