My Favorite Household Tools

We are all glad that pakner4lyf is back from his mission trip. He arrived on his birthday, July 28. Although I may now be relieved from taking care of the car, which reduces my daily responsibilities, I feel like I have more to do since he returned. I had some important paperwork for the bakeshop that I needed to work on. Instead of writing posts for this blog during my free time, I chose to join my children in playing Minion Rush. My children and I love Despicable Me, you know!

 

I get to finish every household chore one at a time. Since I am still breastfeeding our youngest son, who is now 18 months old, and the fact that household chores will never come to an end. 
I keep that in mind so I can work on the things I see need to be finished first and then return to other tasks that can wait.  Modern technology and ingenious inventions have made life easier, for which I am very thankful. I have two favorite household tools that have helped me immensely. 

 

I have had this tool for more than a year now, and it is still in good working condition. When my children started to crawl, I knew I needed to keep our floor extra clean. It was on a 50% off sale when I bought this, and at that moment, I was unsure if it would work well. It certainly did and performed its job effectively.  I am so happy to own one. This has made cleaning our floor much easier than it used to be. This specialized mop has a built-in tub that rotates to wash the mop head and a separate spinner to remove excess water. I don't have to use my hands to hold the mop head, even when I need to replace it.  I can keep my hands clean while doing one of the dirtiest chores in the house.  Its handle is also adjustable to any length I feel comfortable with when using it. I also use this mop to clean our walls. 

We have no choice but to look for a new washing machine since the one we were using is broken. After discovering that it needs a motor replacement and the timer is also faulty, we decided to buy a new one instead of repairing the old machine, which we felt wasn't worth the repair cost. Our old washing machine doesn't have a dryer, making it difficult to dry clothes during rainy days due to very limited space. I never realized how convenient it is to wash clothes with a fully automated washing machine. All I need to do is load the clothes, add the desired amount of detergent and fabric conditioner to the reservoir, and then select a program. I can leave the laundry and tackle other chores simultaneously. When the machine stops, I simply hang the clothes, which are almost dry. For stained clothing, I directly apply bleach to remove stains before placing them in the machine. I can also wash my kids' stuffed toys and our pillows because of this! This machine hasn't increased our water and electricity consumption. In fact, it helps me save water, as there have been many times I unknowingly left the faucet running while filling our old manual washing machine. 

"Being present isn’t about taking care of children’s needs or simply fulfilling our parenting duties. It's about giving our children our full attention, even if only for a moment or two. This is what children need, want, and continually ask for until they receive it.  Time and attention are rare and valuable gifts." - from Mary Ann Johnson's blog.  I agree with her that it is not enough to just fulfill our obligations to our children.  I try hard to spend genuine quality time with my kids, ensuring they feel my presence instead of merely seeing me occupied with tasks.  We might believe we are working hard for the benefit of our family, but that doesn't change the fact that they still crave our presence, even if we provide everything for them. By utilizing my favorite tools, I can save time and effort on household chores, allowing me to spend more time actively engaged with my children- reading books, playing their favorite games, laughing, and learning together, where they can truly feel my presence.

"Being present isn’t about taking care of children’s needs. It isn’t about doing our mom and dad thing. It is about giving our children our whole attention even if only for a moment or two. This is what children need and want and ask for in many ways and will keep asking until they get it.  Time and attention are rare and valuable gifts." - from Mary Ann Johnson's blog.  I agree with her that it is not enough to do things we should for our children.  I do try hard to spend real and quality time where my children will get to feel my presence and not just see me around occupied with tasks to accomplish.  We may be doing hard work thinking at the back of our minds that we are doing this for the benefit of our children/family but it will not change the fact that they will still long for our presence even if we did provide and do everything for them.  Through my favorite tools I get to save my time and effort to finish chores in the house so I can have more time to spend and actively engage with my children, read books, play their favorite games, laugh and learn with them where they can feel my real presence.