15 minute pick up

I have been a fan of www.Flylady.net for a few years. Her thing is called a 15 minute sweep and it is basically the same thing as what I describe. Now if you need some serious help organizing/cleaning, check her out. She seriously helped me after the miscarriage. I found lots of things that I could do to fill my time and keep my hands busy. I have kept up with most of it because it is simply that easy.

Now, I do NOT claim to have a house that is picture perfect!! Did you hear that?? If you were to come over, you will see cups on the counter, toys on the floor, and other random items laying around. This does make my type A personality a little crazy. We have a "every item has a place" kind of house. Well, I like to think we do. The girls are quickly driving me nuts with all their baby stuff that ends up all over the house. You know how it goes, as soon as you finish cleaning one room, they destroy it while you are cleaning the next room.

But today I decided to get the little ones involved! I am not sure why it has taken me this long to get them on board. But the crazy nesting stage has begun and the constant picking up after them is driving me nuts. Plus bending down these days is, well, interesting!

We have cleaned out just about everything that we can clean out, and they are still having a hard time keeping it picked up! So today I actually used my brain and decided not to nag or threaten, we played a game.

I called the game "The 15 minute Pick Up".

Right after lunch, we started. I still needed to get the dishwasher going, so I knew where my 15 minutes were going to be spent. The object was to see exactly how clean we could get the house in 15 minutes. I am very impressed with how they worked. After about 10 minutes they said they were done and I did a quick glance into the rooms. There were a few things that still needed to find their homes, but they were pretty much done!! By the end of the 15 minutes all the clutter had been put away!

I could breathe! AHHHH!!

We all sat down for a story and then it was rest time. And today instead of cleaning while they rested, we ALL rested!! And I am a happy mommy!

Do any of you have some kind of system like this?

Chocolate Syrup

I am not sure about you guys, but we go through a ton of chocolate syrup. Well, maybe not a ton, but we do use it a lot.

The girls have at least one cup of chocolate milk a day, then we have ice cream, and anything else we can find to use it on.

Since I read everything on the label these days, I was SHOCKED to find what was in chocolate syrup. After all, it is chocolate syrup. Does it need all of that junk I can't pronounce? NO!

So I set out to make my own. I know, shocker! Huh?
My hubby just laughs these days, when I say I am going to try to make it myself.

This is what I have found: experimenting with chocolate is FUN! That and making your own chocolate syrup is beyond easy.

You will need the following things:

Sugar, Cocoa, salt, and vanilla
(We use vanilla powder because some vanilla extract contains gluten. But either will work fine.)

Chocolate Syrup

1 1/4 cup Sugar

3/4 cup Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup water

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Whisk together sugar and cocoa in a medium sauce pan.

Add water and salt. Stir well.

Bring mixture to a boil and allow it to thicken slightly. Once it has thickened remove from heat.

Allow the wonderful stuff to sit for 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Allow to cool slightly before jarring.

(Let it come to room temperature before you put it in the fridge.)

The little squeeze containers would work great, but I have jars on hand!

Enjoy!