Most people think of housework as hated chores to get through, not a blessing.

I consider housework to be a blessing.

I have changed my weekly cleaning day to Thursday, instead of Friday, so I can cook for the Sabbath on Friday. I thought I’d share a few ways I get a blessing and bless others while cleaning.

Every time I get my dusting mitt, out to dust, I think “Oh, I get to pick a new Bible verse today.” We have Scripture holder on top of the entertainment center in our living room. Every week, when I dust, I shuffle the Scripture cards and pick a new one. See?

I am blessed while dusting!

Don’t like laundry or ironing? Pray for each family member as you handle their clothes.

Don’t like dishes? Turn on praise music while you work. Or, invite the family in the kitchen with you, not necessarily to help, but to talk.

If your family disappears when your working in the kitchen, use the time to pray. These can be rare peaceful moments in an otherwise busy household.

Doing housework is not only a blessing for us, we in turn bless our families.

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Making a Home
Preparation Day Linky

Thanksgiving, that time of year when we are supposed to be thankful. I’m thankful everyday for what the Lord has done for me and provided for me. I have tried to teach my children to be thankful everyday also. That said, Thanksgiving is a great time to gather the family together and reflect on all that the Lord has done this past year.

Here are a few pictures from around our house:

2 different looks we’ve had on our dining room table this fall season.

In the dining room corner

The kids Thanksgiving Tree on the front door. Yes, a girl made the leaves this year!

Basket of flowers to the right of the front door

Basket of flowers and candle on the piano

Yes, those are the tissues tucked down inside the flower basket!

Our Thanksgiving Tree is where the kids, parents, and even guests and friends are welcome to take a leaf, write what they are thankful for and put it on the tree.  I try to have the kids do one leaf a day, starting on November 1st. Guests are welcome to add as many as they want. This encourages kids to think about being thankful on a daily basis. Since we’ve been doing this for a number of years, like almost 20?, I have had many a good chuckle at some of the things the kids put on their leaves. And, nope, I don’t make them change a thing. If there are leaves on the tree that say “kool aid” and “legos”, well, I’m just happy my kids are thankful they have something to drink and something to play with. 🙂

I had a great idea this year, instead of the Thanksgiving Tree on the front door, we would use a wreath. I had a nice grapevine wreath, and was going to buy the leaf garland to cut the leaves off. The kids would use a permanent marker to write what they were thankful for, and tuck them in the wreath. I love how pretty that sounds. My kids didn’t. “But, Mom, it’s tradition!” was the great chorus that went up. So I quickly gave up that idea, and went with tradition.

Food is another area of Thanksgiving that tradition dictates. Here’s our menu:

Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Gravy
Creamed onions using onions I canned from our garden
Corn (this year, we’re having corn on the cob from a neighbors garden that we froze)
Green beans
Cranberry sauce- the jellied kind, of course!
Homemade dinner rolls
Gingersnap pumpkin pie
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Chocolate pie

The Gingersnap Pumpkin Pie is new, and oh, so delicious. Of course, you also see the traditional pumpkin pie on the menu, too. There would be a pumpkin pie revolt from certain traditionalists if there wasn’t! lol

Dad is taking his vacation this week, so no school for us!

Here are a few Thanksgiving links for you to check out:
Simple Schooling Thanksgiving Cursive Copybook
Thanksgiving and more Thanksgiving ideas
Read the Thanksgiving Proclamation
Free Thanksgiving Ebook

What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions and recipes?

For more homemaking ideas, visit
Homemaker Monday
Tackle it Tuesday
Homemaking Link-up at Raising Homemakers
Works For Me Wednesday

You can see my Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Lists, in case you missed them.

Your welcome to copy my lists if you want, changing and adding chores to make the lists your own.

The best way to make your lists, is to walk through your home, room by room, making a list of everything that needs to be done, and how often you think it needs to be done in your house. Frequency will be different for every home, depending upon the number of people living there, and if any are little kids.

Don’t worry about making your list perfect. You can adjust it as you go along. If you’ve forgotten a chore, just add it in. As you start working your lists, you may find that some chores need to be done more often, or less often (always good, lol), you can easily adjust that also.

Here are a few resources to help you in your list making:

Flylady has a lot of great information about setting up your lists. You can also sign up for her reminder emails. When I was on her email list a few years ago, she sent out a lot of emails every day.

Organized Home has lots of help. They use a 3×5 card system, instead of lists. I started using the card system way back before my kids where born. So it’s been about 25 years. I still prefer to keep the monthly chores on cards. But at this time in my life, with kids and homeschooling, I find lists easier to use for daily and weekly chores. There’s even an Index Card Christmas Planner. Organized Home also has the Holiday Grand Plan with printable lists to get you ready for the holidays.

HouseCleaning Tips.com has information on how to set up a house cleaning schedule.

I hope you have found these posts about my cleaning lists helpful. If you have any questions, just ask!

For more homemaking ideas, visit
Homemaker Monday
Tackle it Tuesday
Homemaking Link-up at Raising Homemakers
Works For Me Wednesday

Last week, I shared my Weekly Lists, and before that, my Daily Lists. This week, it’s on to the monthly lists. If the daily work is done regularly, the weeklies are pretty easy to do, and they go fast. And if the weekly work is done regularly, the monthly work is pretty easy to do.

Is everything on the list done? Not always. Some months, I even skip tasks. *gasp* I try and make a note if I skip something, so I make sure and get it done the next month.

My lists are a tool to help me take care of my home, not something that has to be followed no matter what. I have learned to not be so hard on myself when it comes to my lists. See, I’m a perfectionist, and can have a hard time with not doing everything perfectly.  I’ve learned, (and am still learning) to put people before the lists. While still getting to the lists. 🙂

Here are my monthly cleaning lists.

Schoolroom
clean rug
cob web duty
cull bookshelves
rearrange tops of shelves,cabinets
dust above shelves, put everything where it goes
find things we don’t use anymore to give away
clean light fixtures

Master Bedroom
clean out dresser drawers
cob web duty
clean closet shelves
wash shower walls
clean carpet
clean light fixtures
declutter
turn mattress
mop bathroom
wash rugs

Living / Dining Room
clean light fixtures, ceiling fan
cob web duty
clean carpets
wipe down doors, light switches
move furniture and vacuum under

Kitchen
wipe down laundry room door, inside and out
straighten drawers/ cabinets
clean light fixtures
cob web duty
dust above cabinets
wash rugs
wipe step stool
clean off top of fridge
clean oven
move stove and fridge, clean under

The kids do their own bedrooms and bathroom. Their lists are similar to mine.

Next week, I’ll share how I came up with my lists.

For more homemaking ideas, visit
Homemaker Monday
Tackle it Tuesday
Homemaking Link-up at Raising Homemakers
Works For Me Wednesday

Last week, I shared my Daily Lists. This week, it’s on to the weekly lists. If the daily work is done regularly, the weeklies are pretty easy to do, and they go fast.

Is everything on the list done? Not always. Nor is everything done on the day planned. But everything goes much smoother if I have a plan. Something always comes up. With a plan and a list, I can get back on track quickly.

My Dining room table

Weekly Plan

Monday – desk duties, print assignment sheets & to do lists
Tuesday – monthlies
Wednesday – Master Bedroom, Bathroom and Kids bathroom
Thursday – School room, Craft Room
Friday – Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Laundry Room
Saturday – porch, outside chores
Sunday – coupons

WEEKLIES

Living room and Dining room
Straighten shelves
Dust LR, DR
Wash windows
Edge vacuum LR, DR
Clean out furniture
Wipe down electronics
Vacuum DR chairs

Back porch
pick up
sweep
wipe down rocking chairs

Front Porch
pick up
sweep

School Room & Craftroom (2 separate rooms)
Straighten Bookshelves
Straighten computer desks
Straighten drawers
Dust
Wipe down electronics
Edge vacuum

Kitchen
Dust
Wipe down cabinets
Wipe down appliances
Wipe inside of Fridge
Remove & wash ice/ water tray on fridge
Wash drip pans
Wash Kitchen window
Wash Laundry room door windows
Wash glass doors on cabinet
Straighten Laundry room shelves
Wipe down Washer, LR fridge

Master Bedroom/Bath
Change sheets
vacuum
wash mirrors
dust br/bath
clean off sink vanity
clean tub, toilet, sink
sweep bathroom

The kids do their own bedrooms and bathroom. Their lists are similar to mine.

Next week, it’s onto the monthly list!

For more homemaking ideas, visit
Homemaker Monday
Tackle it Tuesday
Homemaking Link-up at Raising Homemakers
Works For Me Wednesday