I just made that word up. I liked it better than 'random thoughts', or what I almost titled this post, 'random crap.' Its one of those days. You know what I mean? Where you're trying to get back in the swing of things, but the motivation just isn't there? Since my sister and her crew left, its been hard to get caught back up. And it doesn't take much to make me want to sit around and do nothing.
Getting back into the swing of things means starting back our "school" today. We finally got around to doing this pumpkin/counting/matching activity that I prepared weeks ago. I stole the idea from the workbook that my sister uses with her boy, and just made it myself.
Jude had to match the number of pumpkin seeds to the actual number on the pumpkin itself. Even though he needed help with counting 7 and 8 (sometimes he skips a number), he did really well...and even finished it! His attention span is reeeeally short, so getting him to finish an activity is a challenge sometimes.
After this, we "flew" like airplanes around the house several times, which included crashing onto the floor or couch. You know boys. They love to wrestle, so any reason to dog pile on Mommy gets 2 thumbs up from them. Then we watched a few videos online of real airplanes taking off and they loved it!
We sang some songs, read a few books and did our calendar time. I started losing him around calendar time, but I think its just because he doesn't really have much of a concept of time. He's probably thinking, what is a month? It's a hard thing to grasp. We keep at it anyway...someday he will get it.
On another note, I decided to tackle the delight of cleaning my oven. Why is cleaning your oven such a daunting task? Does anyone have an easier solution to this? I don't use the self-clean option, so that won't work. I tried it once and it smelled like the house was on fire. I couldn't breathe, the kids were coughing and the animals were freaking out. Also, another reason is because it uses way too much energy, leaving your oven on that high a temp for so long. So, I'm using vinegar and baking soda today and having to scrub like crazy. Delight, not duty? I am having to really think about this one. :)
Some helpful ways you can use vinegar for cleaning:
- Clean counter tops and make them smell sweet again with a cloth soaked in undiluted white distilled vinegar.
- Clean the shelves and walls of the refrigerator with a half-and-half solution of water and white distilled vinegar.
- Remove soap buildup and odors from the dishwasher by pouring a cup of white distilled vinegar inside the empty machine and running it through a whole cycle. Do monthly.
- Easily clean your mini blinds by wearing pair of white cotton gloves. Dip gloved fingers into a solution of equal parts white vinegar and warm tap water, and run your fingers across both sides of each blind.
- Renew sponges and dishrags by placing them in just enough water to cover them. Then add 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar. Let them soak overnight.
- Get rid of stubborn bathtub film by wiping it with white distilled vinegar and then scouring with baking soda.
- To make the toilet bowl sparkle, pour in a cup or more of diluted white distilled vinegar and let it sit several hours or overnight. Scrub well with the toilet brush and flush.
- Remove white water rings from wood with a solution of equal parts white distilled vinegar and vegetable oil. Rub with the grain.
You can find more HERE.
Vinegar, baking soda and Borax are my new, natural cleaning methods. (they're not new, of course, but me using them is new...and I love it. No chemicals, yippee!) If there are any more out there, please educate me! :)
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