Valentine’s Day fun for Everyone!

Ih oh! You've reached a page that is no longer valid.

Are you a Christian homemaker? I'd love to stay connected with you via email!

My Valentine’s Day Wreath

I made this winter wreath back in January, but I made a quick update to turn it into something for Valentine's Day.

First I'll tell you how I made the winter wreath, then I'll tell you how I turned it into a Valentines wreath.

*The best part was that this wreath cost me nothing to make.  It was all junk I had stuffed stashed neatly up in the attic.

1. First I took a wreath form and traced it onto a piece of cardboard.  Then I cut it out and wrapped it in strips of white fabric.

2. Then I started on my flowers.  I took tissue paper and cut it into lots and lots of  squares.  Then I stacked 4 squares together.

3.  I folded the whole stack accordion-style.

4.  Then I folded my “accordion” in half and stapled it in the middle.

5.  Next, I snipped off the ends to form a point.  (I figured out later that this step is optional.  It makes your flowers look slightly different, but really it's just a matter of preference.  Try it with and without snipping and see which way you like it better.)

6.  All I had left to do was fluff up the tissue paper to turn it into a flower!  I carefully peeled apart each layer of tissue paper and fluffed it until it looked like a flower.

I kept making flowers until I thought I had enough to cover the wreath form, but unfortunately I do not have pictures of the rest of the process.

I got distracted by a minor emergency:

Snot, peanut butter, and marker.  It was time for me to turn my focus to my kids who had done so well occupying themselves at the table.

The rest of the wreath should be pretty self-explanatory anyway.  I hot glued the flowers onto the cardboard wreath form until it was completely covered.  Then I took some pieces of lace, rolled them up and glued them on, and added another piece of lace to hang the wreath.

When February arrived, I printed up the word LOVE on red scrapbook paper, cut it out, and taped it to some twine.  I taped the twine onto the back of the wreath, and I was done!

I've never done any sort of Valentine's Day decor before, and I had fun cheering up my door with a free Valentines Wreath!

Did you do anything special to your house for Valentine's Day?

15 Minute Tasks for the Week

If you're just joining us this week, this program is set up so that you can jump in right where you are!

Last week we worked on disinfecting the remaining bedrooms.  I hope you didn't find any bed bugs!  This infographic from Moxie Pest Control tells you exactly how to look for them and how you can get rid of them.

This week we’re going to focus on organizing any of the bedrooms that you didn't work on a couple weeks ago.  I’ll be focusing specifically on the master bedroom, but do whatever works for you.

Be thinking ahead how to best organize your bedrooms so that you can be gathering the necessary supplies.  Andrea posted a very inexpensive way to make matching organizational bins, and Nicole shared some great tips for organizing small spaces.

Monday

Head into the room with a trash bag and three boxes.  Set the timer for 15 minutes and begin a purge of the room.  Work your way around the room clockwise and go through every closet, drawer, nook, and cranny.  Throw away any trash, add anything you do not need to one box to be donated or sold.  Add anything that belongs in another room to the other box to be put away.  In the third box, place items on which you are undecided.  You may think you can’t bear to part with something, but by the end of the week you may realize it’s time to let it go.  (Don’t focus too much on cleaning out the clothes unless you readily see something you know you need to get rid of.  We’ll be spending a couple days dedicated to just clothing later on.)

Tuesday

Continue with another 15 minutes of purging.  If you finished one bedroom on Monday, work in another bedroom.

Wednesday

Set the timer for 15 minutes and work on organizing one closet shelf or drawer.  Place like items together in bins or baskets.  Over-the-door shoe holders work well for holding small items such as small toys, scarves and accessories, or hey, even…shoes!  If you’re working in a child’s room, organize the room in such a way that is easy for children to keep organized themselves.  Label dresser drawers or toy bins (use pictures if they can’t read) so that children can put their items away in the correct places all by themselves.   If you're an adult, don't be embarrassed to label bins for yourself too.  We all forget sometimes what we decided belongs where.

Thursday

Work for another 15 minutes on organizing another area of the room.

Friday

You guessed it!  Another 15 minute organizing session in the bedroom!

Saturday

Take 15 minutes to wrap up loose ends in the bedroom.  If you have boxes of things that you haven’t decided what to do with, now is the time to make a decision.  Decide where the items belong and put them away, or put them in your donate box.

How did you do last week?  Did you get those bedrooms disinfected?  It makes you feel wonderful when you walk into the room, doesn’t it?

If you’re just joining us, you’ll probably want to subscribe to email updates or follow along on Facebook so you can keep up with each week’s new tasks.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.

Organized Homeschooling: How to Keep Those Records Straight! (Part 2)

The following is a guest post from my sister-in-law Lauren.

In the previous post, we looked at where to find all the papers you need to organize your home school.

Now, we must look at how to get all those mounds of papers organized into the filing cabinet in a functional and effective way! I also want to include in this organizational project, my own personal three ring binder that I keep out of the cabinet and on my “school shelf”.

I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com.

You can go here to read this post at the new site.

Organized Homeschooling: How to Keep Those Records Straight!

I love to be organized! Who doesn’t? or may I say, who wouldn’t?! Oftentimes when it comes to home educating our children we seem to take one of the two approaches.

I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com.

You can go here to read this post at the new site.

15 Minute Tasks for the Week

We've already spent one week disinfecting bedrooms; now let's make sure we finish up the bedrooms we didn't do last time.  I'll be working in the master bedroom this week.

Monday

Take down and wash curtains and bed linens in the bedroom(s) of your choice.

Tuesday

Clean ceiling fans in all bedrooms and knock down any cobwebs from the ceiling.

*Helpful tips for cleaning ceiling fans*

1. Use an old pillowcase to clean the fan blades.  Just slip it over the blade, grip it tightly, and slide it back off of the blade.  The dust will be contained inside the pillowcase instead of floating around in the air.
2. Clean the rest of the fan with a swiffer duster or a damp rag.
3. Keep a spray bottle of water handy, and spray the air around the fan as you dust.  The mist will help the dust particles fall to the floor instead of floating around in your face and making you sneeze.  (I tried this for the first time this week, and was amazed that I had no problems with sneezing, itchy eyes, sore throat, etc. like I almost always do when I’m around dust.)

Wednesday

Mist bedroom walls with a non-toxic disinfectant.  Scrub any smudges, crayon drawings, etc. off with a rag.

Thursday 

Move bedroom furniture out from the wall.  Dust the baseboards and spray with disinfectant.  Vacuum the entire floor, including underneath of the furniture.  If you have a wood floor, sweep and spray the entire floor with disinfectant.

Friday

Spray all bedroom furniture (dressers, bed frames, etc.) with a non-toxic disinfectant and wipe down with a rag.  Empty trash cans and spray with disinfectant before replacing the liner.

Saturday

Move quickly through all bedrooms and remove any items that do not belong there.  Place them in the correct places in the house, throw away trash, and get rid of things you no longer use.

Non-toxic disinfectant recipe for those that asked last time:

16 oz. water

3 tbsp. liquid castile soap

30 drops tea tree oil

Mix together in a spray bottle.

There are many, many ways you can make a non-toxic disinfectant if you don't have these ingredients on hand.  (I order my ingredients from Vitacost since they have great prices, plus you get a $10 off $30 coupon when you create an account through my referral link. )

Other non-toxic products with disinfecting properties:

Vinegar water (50/50 ratio) (do not use on marble surfaces)

Hydrogen Peroxide (3 percent; if you want to spray it, you must use a dark spray bottle or screw the nozzle from another spray bottle directly onto the original peroxide bottle.) (Use vinegar and peroxide in conjunction with one another.)

Thieves Oil

Grapefruit seed extract

Do you have any favorite disinfectant recipes?  I'd love to hear about them!

If you want to keep up with 15 Minutes to a Clean and Organized Home or anything else that will be going on around here, then you’ll want to subscribe to email updates or follow me on Facebook so you won’t miss it!