SOOOOO much great info here, stuff that has taken me years to learn/practice...but wanted to address this first... "I'm not certain, but can I say WOW! It looks like you have it all under control!" Hardly. I have four children, have two elderly relatives living with us and we entertain - alot! So it is by necessity that I keep up with the pace of what's happening around here. I met a super nice mentor homeschool mom (whom has since passed away - I will be forever greatful for her friendship and mentoring!) who modeled a gentile, grace-filled demeanor. THAT is what I'm not capturing. It's either dinner on the table and laundry overflowing with a moderate smile on my face - or dinner done, laundry done, schooling done - and my halfhearted presence at dinnertime. I can't get there just yet - but those days when I'm together (quiet time, organized, prepped for day's events and ready to meet needs of others) it's like an orchestral celebration in the heavens. It's the whole If Momma ain't happy thing that gets me. My attitude is very tied to being prepared mentally and physically - when I'm caught off guard and neglecting my duties things easily fall into arguments or chaos. That's not good with so many folks.

"So in our house, the best way to decorate for July 4th is not to decorate at all. " Awww. Gee. I get the premise but I want to be that gal who actually has presents wrapped at the first holiday open house!! I want! to decorate for 4th of July :hat: But I so get what you are saying~and have relied on that method for years :iagree:

Ohhhhhhhhhh thank you ladies! See, I knew there would be someone (or 2) who care! I mean it seems like such a minor thing - buy a rag, but not really!!!!

"I vacuum first or wipe everything with a slightly damp paper towel first to get the hair & dust. " The times I've done this it worked well. Great idea! We're long thick hair heads over here!!!!!!!!

I am the primary person in our large family who is responsible for the running of our home. Cleaning, bill paying, gardening, project planning, maintenance, cooking, storage, any of it is basically under my care. I love it, but could use any reference material you've found helpful or any websites you have found that have really made an impact in the way you manage your home. Plus, it's very very interesting to me. If I could follow a full time paid house manager for a large estate, I think I'd be a happy camper for a day. I know there are improvements in what I am doing, and would love to hear what has stuck and is working well for you. Organization wise...I keep my in box to empty, put stuff on calendar or next action list as soon as I think of it, keep anything knick-knacky or needing to be dusted out of our main living space and kitchen, and designate my personal desk as a no drop zone. I'm working on a seasonal meal plan and making sure I know what is for dinner in the morning. I'm designating more and more chores for the kids to do so I can be available in other ways. We are really big now on putting stuff where it goes. But I'm looking for mom stuff, encouragement yes but procedurally I need help. Like how do I best shop for linens and what is the best system for actually decorating for 4th of July instead of "Pinterest"ing a picture or two the Friday before, lol.

1. Kitchen Norwex kitchen washcloths were working well but after a year need to be replaced. I'd love to find something less expensive. Drying towels, hand towels...I need reasonably long lasting dish drying towels - the ones from Bed Bath and Beyond have loops that pull out and make me crazy and the ones I bought from Williams and Sonoma were so pretty but were white with a colored stripe. NOT good for getting the whites white and keeping the color stripe from being bleached. I'm sure that is a laundry washing problem but for me, if a dish towel I'm using for drying is even a little stained I'm all freaked out by using it on clean dishes, kwim? 2. Bathroom WHAT are fingertip towels, anyway? Love to find some that will last longer with really rough use. We're a large family and buying a $50 Turkish bath towel just isn't happening. Keep in mind it has a 1 in 7 chance of being drug across the front porch by a little girl as it hangs from the "bed for my baby" box she found in the garage. 3. Cleaning WHY is it so difficult to find a cloth to clean a bathroom? I'm just looking for something that will last and not get holes in it after a few uses. It would be a bonus if it could gather stray hairs and keep them from spreading all over. 4. Bedroom I am looking for a blanket that is comfortable in a home with an air conditioner. The ones we have are either too heavy and for winter or...well...that's all I have, lol.

Jealous!!!!!!! I don't know what Little Prince and Wallse are??? I'll have to look. I have the Chelsea Market cookbook and am going to chops with mojo sauce from it...I'm always curious if a cookbook recipe is as good as the place itself, probably not.

Are they as amazing as they seem? I think I'm going to plan a field trip :drool5:

We use Child's Geography in our morning basket. We just pick it up and read through a section over a month or however long it takes us. I am sure to not rush the reading aloud - since it's all new for her. I take my time with pictures, geography, looking on web for extra videos or documentary on the region that has interesting pics to fast forward to. I'm not at all lining it up with SOTW. That doesn't matter to me~ HTH

Any takers on helping me modify this crockpot recipe to the instapot? I'm hoping to decrease the very large amount of frozen chicken thighs I've acquired, lol. http://www.wellplated.com/healthy-corn-chowder/

I didn't look it up, phone rep for a hotel chain said it's roughly 18 minutes... I just don't know the area of where to even look. Every hotel I've called inside the area I can see on google near Dupont is booked solid!!

But all the hotels are booked! Some conferences going on and I have to look a bit further out. My hubby has big meeting near Dupont Circle and the children and I want to either shop :) or see DC museum stuff. Before I get too far in planning the fun, I need to get a hotel squared away. Does anyone with familiarity of the area have a recommendation? I talked to someone who said Tysons Corner might be a good idea since it's not too far from Pennsylvania Ave. And it's right near Tysons which would be fun. Thoughts?

I thought the idea was nice but it was VERY structured timewise and my life with two!! aged parents and four children plus a home and pets does not fit my timeline for my day. If they'd all fall in line with what I put on the pretty schedule it would have worked for us :) I haven't seen any video review, sorry.

Reubens on the panini maker and potato salad. Not uber healthy but oh so easy and yum! instapot yumminess http://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-mongolian-beef/ and a great cookbook I've had on my shelf by Anna Pump. I was determined to read cover to cover and am so glad I did. Got to learn a little about a woman who left quite a legacy. She led what seems like my dream life, house in the Hamptons, a take out healthy food store, traveling on the off months, parties/family, a rich life. I was inspired by her today - hope the book is a blessing to you. I've loved reading it, and she's Ina Garten's friend. I want to be Ina's friend!!!! http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Plate-delicious-no-fuss-recipes/dp/1451626010?ie=UTF8&refRID=541V20K9CKY57N90Q4A8&ref_=pd_ybh_a_7 soo many yummy things She has since passed away (killed on a city street by a car! If you scroll down a bit on this page can get some ideas by looking at their store menu. I just ordered another book by her about entertaining. http://www.landffoodstore.com/

Be sure to keep the manuals that came with it. The rice - it took me a while. The container that comes with it is the measuring cup you use for rice. Your regular liquid measuring cup is what you should use for the water. Be SURE to open after the 10 (I think) minute cool down, no more than that or you won't have "perfect rice". And this is sooooo kid friendly. Sweet + meat + the carbs in the rice and we're golden. I add snow peas. YUM. http://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-mongolian-beef/

The Simply Irresistible Sampler is $40 but includes a $40 coupon - great way to sample it out first then see what pages you want/need. I find the blank pages, college ruled pages and tabs worked great. Dated pre-printed pages were very cumbersome for my needs. I wanted white space and room to jot down junk and keep it out of my head. I really miss using it~will be going back. Maybe I need to watch the brain dump video for GTD again. Good stuff~~~~~ http://www.bohoberry.com/bullet-journal-gtd/

I love this http://www.levenger.com/CIRCA-326/CIRCA-NOTEBOOKS-339.aspx and this http://bulletjournal.com/ I needed something more colorful and pre-printed/dated for homeschool. As such I bought and customized the plum paper option mentioned above. I don't know how it will compare to Levenger - but I do know keeping my homeschool info in the Well Planned Day planner and a personal planner in addition was important, otherwise it got too jumbled. I'm posting the first two for you because I find great value in keeping everything on paper and not in my head (think Getting Things Done brain dump) because my brain is too full managing 5 other people. I used the Levenger circa notebook before bullet journals came out. I could keep invoices, to do lists, household inventory, a printed meal plan from Plan to Eat, our budget page from YNAB, my homeschool calendar page that I printed the public school calendar on the back of, and have tabbed sections for work, homeschool, volunteer, home, whatever - all in one place. I got the clear cover and smaller discs that came with the sampling kit for $40 and put pics of my family as my personalized cover. The circa punch is necessary if adding your own pages so if you're even 80% sure you like Levenger circa notebook idea, buy the punch. The notebook won't be the same - your own!- unless you can add/take away pages as needed, in my opinion. I just loved it. My hope is to get my plum paper planner for school set up - filling it with CC ideas and field trips to flesh out our year. Once the school planner is done though, I'm setting up my personal planner. I'm thinking I should have done it the other way, personal then school since I still have a few months of summer :) I have realized I am a paper planner girl, if I don't write it, it's gone. Tech is not my friend there~HTH

http://www.recipesformyboys.com/2013/04/chicken-stuffing-casserole.html I ended up making this because I couldn't wait for a response :(. Your info is helpful for next time though, thank you! This - "guys!!" - this was amazing! SAID in my best toddler voice. I can't stop taking bites of it as it cools on the counter. I used the Williams and Sonoma box of focaccia stuffing I got on sale for reduced price, then 75% off clearance. OH MY the smells!!!!!

trying to find something, but all I keep coming up with is cream of...recipes

I can't believe I did that, I was tired and the dog peed so I was only thinking of smell, not stain. Ugh. Silly woman.

I just read on the Gaiam site steady state cardio could be walking. Yay! :lol:

I was just! looking at that one! I'm not ready for her to be listening to the radio though, so it's a no go for us. I'm thinking I may just bite the bullet and get her an ipod but I sooooo don't want to deal with that level of tech for her yet. She's a baby really :) lol

I got a bike! My dd got a bike! We made it halfway up a large mountain trail and did two mornings in addition this week of park riding. Yay us!

I think it's an apple issue. I inherited my mom's :( dinky mp3 player she bought at Rite Aid for 10.99 back in the day that worked well with librivox downloads. Now I have this hi-tech phone that can't play what I want. Grr...

1. I want to play librivox audio readings on my phone for my daughter in one room while still being able to actually use my iphone in another 2. I want to play audible downloaded books on my iphone to my child's headphones in the back of the vehicle 3. I want to use my sonos speaker to play said stories should the need arise I'm thinking 3 isn't going to work without a physical cable cord from my phone to my sonos. I have two sonos styles, one is the bigger one and that has a place for audio input but my smaller one doesn't. Bummer. Sonos will only work with music systems, I'm guessing? I'm thinking 2 needs wireless bluetooth headphones which will allow 1 to happen as well. Does anyone have actual success with a specific brand of wireless headphone with an apple product? I just bought a bluetooth speaker from Best Buy and it isn't showing up on my iphone under bluetooth tab. Maybe this specific one is broken, or maybe I need an apple brand speaker? I don't know. I've been at it for a few hours and it must be a dud or not compatible with apple products. Of course the Best Buy rep sold it to me and said no problem. 4. I'm want to upload the Classical Conversations cd to either itunes or my computer. That probably can't happen because it's copyrighted and can't be copied? Obviously I'm tech challenged.