Conference prep

Every year, my sister in law Tara inspires me by getting her home all sparkly clean and ready for General Conference weekend.  I always read her blog and think "I really would love to do that".  Well, this last week we had a day off of homeschool group classes, and I decided to do a whole-home deep clean in preparation for conference.  I didn't get as ambitious as my friend Tracy, and try to de-clutter by getting rid of 40 bags of junk, but we did a lot of scrubbing, dejunking, and organizing. It was a lot of work, but what peace I have felt this weekend! Everyone helped a little bit, but it was Aliysa who helped so much while Jace and Spencer were gone to work with Bob. Zach, Andrew and Abby did their part by trying to mess up whatever part of the home we weren't working in currently.  Courtney and Mallory enjoyed having some days off of school, and they played and pretended and entertained the little ones whenever I wasn't having them help.

Aliysa and I listened to Dave Ramsey's financial peace CD's, and a radio theater production about the life of William Wilberforce while we worked.  Both were excellent and we enjoyed them, although we've found that Aliysa doesn't work so well when her mind gets too involved in what she's listening to.  I caught her staring open mouthed at the cd player multiple times and just had tease her.  Hee hee. 

 

Here's the last batch of laundry in the washer!  Yeay!

 The boys bathroom even smells good now.  It really needed a good scrubbing. 

 Aliysa made the girls bathroom spotless, even the cupboards and drawers are organized.

 I took down Taycie's bassinet this weekend (sniff, sniff).  She loves the crib in the girl's room, and sleeps all night, every night.  What an angel.  Anyway, this gives us a little more room in our bedroom now.

 There's nothing better than a freshly-cleaned bathroom.

 Taycie cleaned this whole room herself ;)

All the dishes are done, some cupboards cleaned out, countertops bleached and scrubbed.  I even washed out and scrubbed the garbage can.  

The couches are all set up in front of the TV to watch conference.  All distracting toys and balls taken out of the room or locked in the toy cupboards.

 The boys room

The dining/school room

Mallory pulled out all the couches in the living room, vacuumed under them, and took the cushions off and vacuumed the hidden crevices in the couches, then put it all back.  Thanks, Mallykins!

 Empty laundry hampers - no dirty laundry.  Ahhhhhh!

There are still lots of things that could be done - the garage and attic storage room need lots of help, the fridge and pantry didn't get cleaned out, etc. On the whole, though, it has been so nice to be able to focus on conference, enjoy being together as a family, and walk through a nice clean home this weekend.