a cleaning rampage and a few doodles

After reading this great book on hospitality over vacation I was thoroughly inspired to--among many other things--keep better care of the house. The author spoke of a concept called "speed cleaning"--sounds great, right? There's a book out there on this subject that has tips and ideas to cut your cleaning time in half...which allows you to actually get it done *perhaps* every week. One of the tricks are having a few important tools--window cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, toothbrush and rags--on an apron (I purchased this lovely brown one with loops for the spray bottles) so you can zoom around, attacking one room at a time, top to bottom finishing with the floors. Another key is keeping your house organized and reasonably decluttered so that cleaning day is a breeze...all this being said, I spent at least 12 hours over the last few days "speed cleaning"...well, speed deep cleaning and organizing and decluttering among other various mini-projects that I got distracted with. My hope is to keep up with it--maybe Monday will be my cleaning day--not just to keep a clean home, but to cultivate a peaceful atmosphere for my hubby & kiddos, and any guests--with the ultimate goal being to glorify God by "looking well to the ways of my household" (Proverbs 31). Some of my Amazon finds were this nifty closet doubler for the kids and some hanging cloth shelves with a few coordinating drawers for small items. Have I put you to sleep yet with my essay on house cleaning? Other things going on this week: swim lessons and napping marathons from the kids (hooray for post-vacation exhaustion!). I also had to post a few of my recent favorite masterpieces from Cami:

Some bears in animal floaties catchin some serious waves (the bear along with his ducky intertube are both exclaiming, "Woah!" ...and this delightful family of dinosaurs: "I want to give you a hug"

Cami and Calvin (wearing a replica of an actual monster t-shirt that he has) standing on a rainbow. I believe the sun is using binoculars--and I can't remember what the other object is in the sky...maybe a raincloud?

Hope you all had a great week too! Happy 4th this weekend.