Laundry, weeds, and happiness

So I've made a life changing discovery....doing all of the laundry in one day every week!  It's amazing!  I know lots of people do it this way, but today was my second day ever to do it all in one day.  This past week I have had a burden lifted!  I did not spend the whole week worrying about laundry and thinking about how behind I was, and how I didn't put away yesterday's load yet, etc. etc.  Sigh.  Miraculous.  I saw laundry slowly building up and just had peace knowing it would all get done on Wednesday.  Tonight it got folded, and tomorrow I will divy it up to the children to put away.  Seriously--life changing enough to feel inspired to blog about it.

A few other quick and happy happenings:

Today I caught Austin (6), Avin (4), and Jonathan (2) weeding the garden!  They weeded the whole thing!  I have maybe 5 weeds I need to go find!

Jayden has been with us for 5 1/2 days and it's been delightful.  This is super worth mentioning because in all of my time being his step mom, we have probably never had this enjoyable of a visit.  He's growing up!  AND he's making good friends in the neighborhood.  He's out playing night games right now that HE organized.  Part of what makes it delightful is getting to share things with him that happen during the week, like morning devotional, and "kidschool."

The kids and I (mainly Jayden and I) are planning a Charity Dog Wash.  I'm letting Jayden do a lot of the work, planning, and details.  It's so cool because he's excited and engaged and it will be a learning process.  I'm excited about this entire process, including the younger kids helping at the actual event and making and selling doggy treats.  I think the smaller kids will probably man the dog treat table if they can't quite handle washing dogs.  So fun. :)

We have a bean jar.  I put beans in it when the kids are kind, when they share, when they do something without complaining the first time I ask, stuff like that.  It's about 1/3 full.  When it gets full we're going to have a massive friend pizza/water party.  This will be interesting to plan cause I need it to be fun for the little kids and the teenagers.

 I feel like I'm floating in a happy cloud a little bit....although there always are many, many moments of fighting, crying, whining children every single day--I think the spirit and happiness in our home is improving--along with the enjoyment of learning.  I'm loving our devotionals and designated free learning time.

That's all--wanted to catch my family up on our lives a little.  I'm sure I'll think of about this many more things I should have included--but I'm not into saving a post for later and completing it--write, and publish, write and publish. ;)