Awana Awards and Minimalism

Thanks so much for the comments on the last post! It makes me happy to feel the love from my family and friends alike, who are still chugging away with me:) I love you guys!!

I know these pictures aren't the greatest (because I totally lack the confidence to run up the aisle and be snapping sappy-mom pictures!!) however, last night was the last Awana night for the year and it was Awards night! Every volunteer got little pins and all the kids got certificates, ribbons and plaques, etc, depending on what they accomplished through the year!

Zakkai was a Sparky (K-2nd grade) and his group were the "Green Frogs." He finished 2 whole books this year, which would be somewhere between 175-200 verses memorized! He would often do 5 or more sections per week. He got two ribbons!

Ben was a TNT shepherd this year and his group was called the "Red Lobsters." He had mostly girls:) And a very sweet bunch of girls, too! I was a "Listener" so kids would come out in the hallway to read verses to me and a couple of Ben's girls were a little too shy to read to him so they came out to me:)

Samuel (front row) was a "Blue Shark" and he was a TNT (3rd-6th grade.) He finished his whole first book, which was somewhere around 130ish verses. The books get harder as you go on so his were more difficult than Z's.

Samuel was one of 4 to get the Alpha award for finishing his book! He got a really cool glass award to wear around his neck:)

The Cubbies, Eliana's group (ages 3-Kindergarten) got their Awards and ribbons last week. They got a quick recognition and then got to go do a craft. It was such a fun experience over all for our whole family. It was hard some weeks to rush, rush, rush to get there but so good for our kids to learn all the verses and for Ben and I to be able to be volunteers and help out. We will definitely be doing it next year!

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If you've followed my blog for awhile, you've probably heard me mention one of my favorite books on organizing several times! Go ahead and roll your eyes but I'm about to mention it again!

It's called "Organized Simplicity" by Tsh Oxenreider. I have LOVED this book since the minute I got it. I've read it cover to cover a few times and am starting again. The organizing/simplicity bug hits me usually around January or in the spring time, when I feel a renewal of energy.

As you know, our schedule has been much busier than we are used to with both of us working 2 jobs and now with sports practices and games. We only have one weeknight where we don't have to rush off to something! One of my jobs is cleaning houses and an office and by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is clean my own house!

I told Ben I'd like to pay someone to clean our house:) haha. Lately, I've been intrigued by and researching the idea of minimalism. Of course, not on the extreme end! We will not be moving into a 128 sq foot house or allowing our children only to play with blades of grass or wearing the same clothes every 3 days. But it would be a whole lot easier to keep up on our home if we had less stuff!

I found a blog about minimalism and while they take it to a point I am positive we will never reach, having kids and all, I am intrigued with some of their ideas! One thing I am challenging myself to do and throwing out to you (yes, yes, it's true!!) is the 30 Day Minimalist Game!

I am starting tomorrow! The rules are: You have to get rid of one thing on the first day. Two things on the second day. Three things on the third and so on. Yikes! I've heard it gets challenging by week two! You have to either trash, donate or sell your item(s) by midnight that day! In other words, out, out, OUT of your house before remorse sets in and you end up tucking it back in its dusty spot!!!

We got rid of a LOT of stuff before we moved here last summer. Moving is, after all, the ideal time to purge. I also got rid of some more as we unpacked. We have an out of control pile of stuff taking up our basement that is waiting for a garage sale. I will be SO relieved to have it all out of the house!! Plus, it never hurts to make a little extra cash:) Maybe some for our kitty jar! Or maybe a long-dreamed of family vacation!

So, if you want to tag along and try to challenge yourself, join me this month in May! Let's see how much we can get rid of!! I will be keeping a running list of what I purge and I am going to see how far I can get with this. Less to clean, less to dust, less mess!

Who's with me? (this is where you chime in!!)

Weekend!

 It's been a nice weekend! Usually the most exciting thing we do is visit the library or something of that caliber but yesterday we went to a model train show downtown! It was free for kids and it was very crowded!

It's fun to see all the little cities and scenes set up. There is a lot of detail in each one!

We really enjoyed walking around watching the trains and studying the details of the cities. They had trains for adults and trains for kids, too!

Z even got to help drive one of the trains sets:) Our favorite part was listening to an expert speak on Walt Disney and the Railroad. It was really cool and we learned some neat facts! A nice way to spend our morning:)

Ben had to work for a little while later in the day so after I fed my trio, we attempted our first game ever of Monopoly! The boys really liked it and Eliana did, too, and tried to buy as many properties as she could:) She said to me, "Now I know how to play Monopoly! You just go around and around the board." Wish it were that easy!

I finished my cooking magazine project! It took almost two weeks of working in all my "spare time." I love, love how it turned out!! I made a little cover by cutting out magazine letters.

I got a 3 inch binder since I was going through about 100 magazines. I probably could've gotten away with a 2-inch but I wanted to have plenty of room in case I add to it later.

I got wide tab dividers for all of my categories. Each recipe is cut out and glued on a thicker white paper and in a plastic sheet protector. There are about 60 pages, front and back. Can't believe I reduced all those magazines to one binder! I think it'll be so much easier for me to use now and it makes me look forward to cooking more!

(this was about half of the magazines I went through!)

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And this afternoon, we met some friends at the park for about an hour and got a little exercise and fresh air, which always lifts the spirits! It was by no means a beautiful day, being muddy and misty off and on but it was good:)

Now we're ready for a new week!

Books galore and projects!

Eliana and I have actually had a fairly quiet day today, which is rare for us! She is always coming along with me to clean houses or running errands, going to preschool, etc. We weren't intending to stay home today but plans changed because Ben was sick this morning (he is better now) and Eliana agreed that it was nice to just "be" today!

We played some Legos. She is getting quite a nice little collection of Disney princess Legos and Lego Friends. We have them set up on top of her low bookshelf. She has Frozen legos (of course!), Rapunzel's tower, a lemonade stand and a farmer's market. Pretty cute!

We also weeded through all of our kid's books this morning. I did that before we moved but the boys especially are moving into harder series and leaving behind easy chapter books like "Magic Tree House," which were the series to jumpstart Samuel into loving to read! The boys got a huge collection of Roald Dahl books for Christmas that they just love. Samuel found a series that he is really into these days so he often looks a lot like this:

He definitely comes by it honestly!! Give me a good series and I will be happy to ignore cooking, cleaning, talking to people, etc. And we got that from my mom!

Zakkai is an eclectic reader. He flits from one thing to the next and can often be found reading 4 books at the same time, sometimes finishing none of them. We are working on that!

Samuel giving Eliana a ride on the recycling bin train the other day:)

You can often find Zakkai and Eliana looking like this these days! When he isn't annoyed with her and being a complete police man (grr!), he is the sweetest thing ever with her and will play for hours! She loves to ask him to play because 9/10 times he will say "yes!"

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I am undertaking a huge organizational project. I finally (to Ben's relief!) am cutting down on my cooking magazines. I started getting "Quick Cooking" (which later became "Simple and Delicious")in 2003 right before we got married. My all time favorite cooking magazines ever! Then I switched to Taste of Home (by the same company) because I got a good deal. You get 6 magazines per year so you can imagine....I have probably close to 100 magazines. I attempted to file and organize them years ago and got through 2010 before giving up:) Now, I am ready to admit that I don't even use all of them because there are so many!

So, I am going through them, cutting out my favorite recipes or ones I really think I will try, and tossing the magazine. It was hard to make that first cut! I don't like cutting up my magazines! But it has gotten easier with time and now I have gone through about 60 of them. I am going to glue/tape them to paper, put them in plastic sheet protectors and file them in a binder, with tabs. I think I will use them a lot more often then! It's been so interested going through them and finding forgotten oldies but goodies and realizing that these magazines really taught me how to cook! I knew a few things when we got married but these magazines really got me off to a good start (with a few memorable boo-boo's in between!) with creating new, tasty meals for our growing family. Ah, to wax nostalgic...

I squeeze in some cutting time while dinner is cooking each night or during E's rest time in the afternoons. Sometimes Eliana sits beside me and cuts through the mags I have already weeded through and saves her own recipes:) She loves to tell me about the delicious recipes she is cutting out! I am really looking forward to having this done, although I think it will take several more days.

Call me a nerd but I do love a good organizing project!

Belated New Year's!

It's hard to believe it's Wednesday already! Our week is flying by with regular activities and preparation for Ben's travels this weekend! He wishes alternately for more time and for it to speed up so he can get this interview over with. Thankfully today he had some really encouraging conversations and has had a few meetings with various people already, giving him helpful advice and tips on the interview process, people who work at the university, etc. Now we just pray for him to get all of his preparations for his presentation done in time and then some peace and we're good to go!

Eliana was all dressed up for church on Sunday, without arguments surprisingly, and when I asked what shoes she wanted to wear, she requested firmly her new Dora rain boots that she got for Christmas:) A perfect match, wouldn't you say?! She does look so sweet in this picture.

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I have been thinking about New Year's and resolutions and all that jazz and I've come to the conclusion that I was right last year in concluding that small goals are the way to go! They are much less overwhelming and I think much more successful, too. I know there are always things to change, habits, patterns, routines, etc. I have no huge goals in mind at the moment, which could always change!

The things that come to mind for me are taking specific, purposeful time to give attention to my kiddos, especially the boys. All too often, I find myself doing something else while they are talking to me and sharing about their day or asking me questions and I want to take some more time to actually look them in the eye and show them that they are valuable. It's not always easy to do graciously, especially when you are in the middle of dinner prep (a.k.a. the bewitching hour(s) or your other two children are fighting or talking to you (because for some reason, they all like to talk to me at the same time! I know I'm a cool multi-tasker and all that but still!), or you are exhausted and the last thing you want to do is talk or even listen!

Being a mother takes a lot of selflessness and strength. I need to be better about putting my own weaknesses or interests aside and valuing my kids more. Before they turn into aliens (a.k.a. teenagers) and they don't want to talk anymore. I also want to hug them spontaneously a lot more.

That's probably the biggest thing for me. I can always become better organized, clean a little more, etc. So can everyone else! (at least let me believe that anyways...) Something that helped me get a little better in the organization, routine, cleaning departments this past year was a planner I found on clearance at Target last year which I LOVED. I kept it on my counter facing my Mom Plan It calendar (a yearly gift from my dear MIL which I anxiously look forward to each Christmas!) and I write down my to-do lists (and check them off as I finish them!) or info as I am making phone calls, etc and then transfer any important info to my calendar afterwards. I was very sad to see my $2 planner come to an end with the start of a new year and I am hoping that Target still sells them! Ben has been much better about adding events/meetings to the calendar, too, this year and told me that he checks it regularly and it helps him when I keep it up to date. Who knew?

I also decided to make Mondays my big cleaning day since I am home without a car anyways, instead of spreading out my cleaning a little each day. I found that I was avoiding the chores I didn't like (hello, mopping!!) and then they weren't getting done until it was absolutely necessary. Or gross.  It helps that I can't go anywhere and that I have a crawling, busy baby coming to my house a few days a week. Good motivator to keep the place clean! Maybe cluttered...but clean:)

We have also really cracked down with the boys' chores this year and have been much better about handing out allowance to them. There are rarely arguments about their daily chores like unloading the dishwasher and clearing off/wiping down the table or wiping down the downstairs bathroom (they are so dirty!!) but we do need to work on their daily bedroom cleaning. We came up with the nicest cleaning chart together and it is even hanging on their wall but it's so hard to find time for yet another thing in the day.

Ah well, there is always this year to get better! Anyone have any good resolutions or changes they are making this year??

Cleanliness is next to...

What a day! This week is going to be so crazy, I can tell! This morning the kiddos and I had a playdate with some of their friends and then we came home for lunch, a nap (for E) and some serious cleaning!

Nothing like having family come to light a fire under your rear! A long time ago I mentioned one of my favorite books here, that truly changed the way I organize my home and even think about my home. I 100% recommend it! Anyways, I pulled out my book and started reading snippits of it again and started her 10 day plan to simplify and organize your home. Except I sort of need to cram 10 days into 5 days:)

I've already been working on closets upstairs because closets are a great place to shove things you don't need at the moment or have grown out of, etc. I have quite a pile of stuff to give away or sell! But today I focused on my living room. In the book, she tells you to take everything out of the room except the furniture, rugs and lamps and then clean it top to bottom. So I did! Wow, dust accumulates in spots you didn't even think about. Then you put things back in the room, only if they are needed or wanted and you keep the rest out. So my living room is clean and spic and span tonight! Samuel came inside and said, "Whoa! It's so clean in here!" I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not;) haha.

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The summer reading program at the library really spurred the boys into reading a ton! Zakkai is reading more than he ever has before. We have some rules about morning time at our house, to ensure that our day doesn't start too early or too loudly. On school mornings, our boys were not allowed to get up (excepting bathroom runs) before 6:30am and then were allowed to read quietly from 6:30-7am. On the weekends, we push it back to 7am before they are allowed to start reading.

This prevents car-driving, lego-building, game-playing, wrestling and who knows what else in the early hours of the morning! Since we signed up for the reading program, it has been SO quiet in the mornings. I discovered that it was just the incentive the boys needed to stay in bed quietly! They both read at least 2 hours before we all moseyed downstairs this morning!

They definitely take after B and I:) The boys are excited to turn in their reading logs for prizes this week and pick up new sheets. Who said free wasn't fun?!

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And tomorrow, we may be heading to the museum for a free day! Ben has never been to the Shedd Aquarium and we are hoping to change that, if we can get moving in time. It can get really crazy at the museums on the discount days so earlier is better. I'll be sure to bring the camera and share pics!

Budget Appeal

Budget.

It's a name, a word, an idea that can strike a chord of fear, stress, anxiety, and even excitement in our hearts. Probably fear the most!

It's something most people probably have and/or need. For us, it is a need. When you are a family of 5, living in an expensive city, have children with rapidly growing appetites and bodies and do not have a lot of money to work with, you must have a budget.

I don't remember having a budget when we first got married. Did we even need a budget? We were living on love! The first time that I really remember us sitting down to figure out a budget was after we'd been in Chicago for a year. We had a general, wimpy budget. A little food, a lot of rent (which, unfortunately double the minute we made our move from Indiana to Illinois and has continued to increase since), some clothes for our cute new baby, we were set, right?!

Wrong. Suddenly a year later, it came time to plan out our finances, as we have done every August/September since we've been here, being on the academic calendar. And we realized, all those little extra trips for the "forgotten" dinner ingredients down the street at the ridiculously-over-priced grocery store? Killed what little budget we had.

Oh.....a budget! You mean, we have to actually restrict our store trips and have a limit on how much we spend? Yikes! So we did the nasty, the ugly, the horrible job of calculating what we were spending on average and after we got over our spasms, chest pains and finger-pointing, we settled on a budget.

You know a stinky thing about budgets? They don't stay the same because prices continue to increase! Very annoying.

So our budget has been tweaked and twanged, cursed over, dusted off and recalculated every single August/September. Gradually, as the University sucked my husband in and claimed him as its own, Headmaster Heidi took over budget duties. And one baby became two. Rent went up a certain percentage every year. People needed clothes. We moved. A few times. Had the third bambino. Continued to feed these bottomless pits, we call children. Had to buy a bigger car. And pay for the gas that is so overpriced here. And so on and so on.

And the guilt of my failure at not being able to have a perfect budget and remake my children's clothes out of rugs and drapes, eat beans 65 times a week and make my own shampoo like all the other perfect bloggy moms out there, really began to weigh on me. I always kept thinking "this month will be the month I stay on track and do a better job." And then, oh, crap, milk rose another $.20 a gallon, Samuel grew out of his underwear and the car's making a funny noise.

Budget? What budget? And on and on. Recently, as God has been breathing new life into our family and home and revealing areas of neglect, we have been (as you can probably tell) revamping many things here at home to make things run more smoothly and efficiently. Today was budget day. It wasn't planned. It started suddenly with tears (on my part, of course) and frustration but it ended on a really good note.

You know how sometimes, even though you might have a semblance of a budget, money just seems to fall into a black hole? Kind of like socks after laundry day? Well, we fixed some of those holes today. We decided to apply our new cleaning rule to our budget, a home for everything! A home for every dollar. Our miscellaneous fund, which includes Ben's monthly nasal spray (a lifetime expense), laundry money and clothing among other things, isn't very large but is constantly blown to pieces. We added some specific categories, moved some things around and most of all....we got on the same page (imagine that!!) and for the first time in awhile, I am feeling real hope that next month really will be a good month.

 One of our new favorite verses is in Jeremiah 17. It says, "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

We've been like thirsty plants for so long but now we are being replanted and soaking Him up like a tree by the stream! Allowing Him to shed light on dirty, dusty areas so we can clean them up and honor Him better. It's painful and it hurts kind of like ripping off a scab but underneath, it feels really good.

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Oh, and we were able to cut our internet bill down by $35 a month!! Our internet provider didn't quite tell us we had some other options until they were forced to send out a price change sheet of all their services recently. Despite me asking them at least 3 times in the last 6 months if we had other choices or options to lower our bill, no one ever told me that we could downgrade to a lower plan! Frustrating to say the least, but at least now we can save a little $ in that area. It never hurts to ask! Again and again and again....:)

We got caught up on some other things today like sending out invitations for Z's bday party next weekend! I was a bad mommy and procrastinated on the planning and details and we had to postpone til next weekend instead of this weekend. I feel really bad but he's been really gracious, as children always are, and hopefully it will be special for him.

I asked him if he could turn 5 again and he said, "No way!! But...I might stay 6, if you want me to...." Such a sweetheart! Pics of the birthday boy tomorrow!!!

The Dungeon and The Tyrant

 We had a nice, quiet day at home today with the boys being off for President's Day. I totally forgot they'd be home and as I was directing them to prepare their book bags for school on Sunday night, they were shouting, "Mommy!! We don't have school!!" lucky for them:)

It was a quiet morning and then we spent the whole afternoon organizing the basement and most especially, Ben's office area, which we have nicknamed, "The Dungeon." Poor guy hates to work in a cold basement with no windows but it's all we can do for now!

The boys actually spent most of the afternoon playing outside with friends and came to check in every so often. When Zakkai heard me using the paper shredder, he was downstairs so fast. He loves stuff like that! He seriously spent at least an hour shredding paper with me:)

The good news is, B came up with a large stack of books to return to the university library, which means he might have out less than 150 now! A miracle! He used to have over 300 books out during his crazy, class years. Ugh. He also can see the top of his desk now and the floor is no longer covered in stacks of books and papers. There is hope for him yet!

This cute little thang napped most of the time, which was good because she's a regular tyrant these days!

You would never know it, looking at this darling little face! We are working hard to teach her words and sharing because my, can she scream! Today she heard Zakkai press a music button on her Dora book from the other room and I caught her up in mid-run as she came flying around the corner, yelling, "MY BOOK!!!" She sure knows how to make her presence known:)

Poor thing fell off a couple steps yesterday at church and got a rug burn on her forehead and that "extra eyebrow" you see, which is a bruised imprint from her glasses:( She was the saddest little thing but oh, the attention she gets from people! It really is very hard to resist that cute little face and sweet voice. Samuel put it so perfectly the other day when he said, "But she's just so....huggable and squeezable!"

I just love this picture!! I wish there wasn't a glare on her glasses but other than that, it's just perfect. Missy and her adoring Daddy!

Clean Sweep Part 2!

 We have been busy bees over here the past few days! It's been really refreshing to be active and busy and accomplishing things with new energy. Before I reveal our hard work, I need to share pictures, of course, of 3 of the cutest kids ever! No bias here.

There has been no let-up in the adoration of Baby Anna:) Eliana insists that Baby Anna wants to eat with her so they share almost every meal in the highchair. It's a tight squeeze but apparently worth the spacial sacrifice! Baby Anna finally ran out of batteries today for the first time and when I opened up her head (yes, I know that sounds creepy and it was a little..), I discovered that the reason the batteries had endured constant daily use for 2 months was because they were not ordinary batteries. No, it costed $10 to buy replacements! Ouch. I found some cheaper back-ups on Amazon with a lot more for the price so I think I'll be getting those soon.

Yea for Missy! She has FINALLY adjusted to no paci and is back to sleeping like a champ, although I probably shouldn't say that out loud or she'll wake up! She's been a napping stinker for 3 weeks now and even spent over 2 hours crying in the middle of one night last week. We got firm with letting her cry 20 minutes, going in and tucking her in, giving her a kiss and walking right out and repeating. We were getting pretty desperate by the end of last week. She was moodier, tired and driving us crazy!

But finally we started to see improvements and now she is back to her great sleeping. yea!

The boys are so thrilled with all of our new clean space, thanks to our new cleaning routines, that they spent the longest time horsing around before dinner tonight. Literally.

See? You should have heard the giggling and silliness coming from these two! It was really fun to see that enjoying each other (and our clean floor:)

And last but not least, I give to you a video of 2 days of very hard work! Ben and I are genius when we put our heads together to solve a problem, if I don't say so myself:)

 

 

Ben had no idea I was taking a video and gave me the funniest look at the end;) We all LOVE our new spaces and are all excited to keep them organized and clean!

Clean Sweep!

It was a nice Saturday! I went to a baby shower for a good friend this afternoon. I was up trying to finish sewing my presents at 7:30 this morning but couldn't finish in time, darn it. My neck and back have been so bad in the past 2 weeks that hunching over to cut fabric and sitting in front of a sewing machine was just not happening!

Thankfully, the pain has decreased a lot in the past 3 1/2 days and I am really hoping that it will leave for good this week. Please, Lord!

I got to carpool to the shower with a couple of friends, one of whom I haven't seen in 2 1/2 years. It was so fun to spend the long car ride catching up! After a couple hours of munching, talking and watching our friend open lots of adorable presents, we headed home.

And I walked in to a spic and span house! Which, unfortunately is a rarity these days. Sigh. Let me explain how this all started. I, like many people I've discovered, feel really overwhelmed and stressed when I am surrounded by a messy house. I have a lot of systems in place to create routine and organization around here (you know how I love organizing!), like baskets, hooks,etc. but with me being the only one who has attempted to keep these systems working....it wasn't working. I started feeling really defeated by the constant multiplying messes 5 seconds after I cleaned them that I started giving up cleaning them. Vicious cycle!

On Friday I was excited to attend my MOPS meeting (Mothers of Preschoolers) because they were bringing in speakers who were talking about none other than...organization and decluttering!

I learned a few good things at the meeting and when I came home, had a heart to heart with my hubby, sharing my feelings of stress and defeat. My dearest was SO helpful in brainstorming with me ways to help reduce the toy clutter (because we aren't lucky enough to have a playroom) and the overflow of papers, 2 of my biggest trouble zones. We get, on average, a minimum of 50 school papers weekly sent home with the boys. Add bills and normal household papers on top of that and we've been drowning in paper!

We've implemented some new paper filing systems, which I'll be happy to share later and some other new cleaning rules. For example, the boys each have a colored fabric bin (same one I use for traveling kits, etc) that they put their toys and belongings in that have been scattered around. Now, before dinner each night, they will go around the downstairs, collect their belongings and take them up to their bedroom and put them away.

And after dinner, they will get their schoolbags all ready for the next day, hopefully adding a few extra minutes to our morning so we won't have to rush so much.

It's been hard to reinforce a lot of cleaning rules without anyone else on board but let me tell you, once Ben jumps on board, he's behind you 110% He had these boys jumpin' and hoppin' today and the result was a clean kitchen (woohoo!), a cleared off table (rare), toys put in their homes and a much more organized downstairs! Gotta start somewhere and having our most lived in space cleaned up was a great start.

We are making sure everything has a "home" to decrease dumping spots. So we are telling the boys to put things in their homes and if it doesn't have a home, we are creating one!

We're both really excited to see how these changes help our home run more smoothly (and decrease my stress~yea). We have some other changes we're planning to make, too, which will be fun to share with pictures when we're done.

It's amazing how something like this energizes me and makes me feel more hopeful and ready to tackle projects that have been layed by the wayside for far too long!

Cool Little Miss.

 Busy day around here! I was very productive this morning, which is always a good feeling! I've had so many headaches lately that it's been tough to want to keep up with housework but I've started a new chart system that I'll share below that's helping me!

Eliana is being spoiled rotten by all the one-on-one attention! She especially loves the days that Daddy works from home and barely lets him out of her sight. She does all sorts of silly things to make us laugh and constantly asks us to "watch." Hope we're not turning her into a narcissist...

One funny thing she has been into lately is carrying around bags and filling them with treasures! She walks all around the house with lunchboxes, bags or her little purse. This is a glimpse of her most recent treasure bag:)

Shoes, her brother's hat, her cup, Mr Potato head pieces, applesauce.....I even think my missing sunglasses might be in there:)

I tossed out our old chore chart from last year and made up a new one, based off of what was/wasn't working. There are certain days that I really don't like doing certain chores so I switched some around. Mopping, for instance! Who wants to start out their Monday mopping floors?!

Not me. I also added more things for the boys like unloading the dishwasher and helping clear/wipe off the table after dinner. It's good for them to have more responsibility! Of course, you may notice that Daddy gets away with very few chores. He does work hard at his job and working on his dissertation so he gets a little slack.

For now:)

So to help me keep up with things, each morning I write out the day's chores on my dry erase board so it's easy to remember and check off! It's really helping me keep up with things I'd rather neglect. And helping me remember to keep the boys busy and contributing.

There is so much to be done around here constantly and it's hard for one person to keep up with! I find myself thinking it seems to be so easy for other people to keep their houses so perfectly spic and span and what is wrong with me?? But, I don't have a play room so my living room is filled with kid's stuff and I have a LOT of helping undoing the the cleaning:)

But I won't mention any names.

All I know is, I try hard and I shouldn't compare myself to other people! I'm sure your houses are messy, too, sometimes, right?

Is that wrong of me to hope so?

The Bug and Silly Faces.

 The bug of change bit me again. Same old, same old; it hits me here and there. Things become too complacent or I become discontented with how things are "working" and want change.

It's been driving me crazy that the first thing people see when they walk into our home is our tv center with mess in it and on top. (I cannot stop certain people from putting their stuff on top of the tv center!)

I can't forget the words of one of my favorite books about home organization where the author challenges you to really look at the focus and purpose of each room in your home. Well, I don't want the purpose or focus of my living room to be tv mess.

So I sheepishly asked my dear wonderful husband-of-the-bulging muscles if he would help me brainstorm and/or possibly move some furniture around:) You could practically see the distress roll across his face but his kindness and love for me warred with it and won. What a good man!

He helped me come up with a new arrangement and voila!

Now when you walk in, you see a nice cozy reading area!

The living room area is much more open now! The big chair used to be tucked in the back corner which made it hard for conversation when we had guests over. Now we can face each other and talk, a definite important focus for me.

I'm planning on making some covers for the tv area so the tv can be hidden when we're not watching it, which is most of the time!

Also, notice the cute little rocking chair reading are for the kiddos in the corner now:)

We even did a crazy thing, which my dear husband was sceptical of, and moved the table and chairs out of the dining room! It was becoming a breeding ground of junk (thanks to my mini junk hoarders) and I really wanted the space opened up more.

It's definitely tighter fit in the kitchen now but I'm okay with that! It's actually really nice to have the kiddos closer to me while I'm preparing or serving food and makes setting/clearing the table easier! Eliana likes having the boys closer, too, from her perch in the highchair:) I think it will be nice for doing homework, too!

And on to silly faces:) The boys taught Eliana how to stick her fingers in her mouth to pull it out and make goofy faces. I missed that part and suddenly she came up to me saying, "Mama!" and doing this. She wants us all to make faces at the same time all the time now:)

Silly girl!

Legos and Baby Step Goals.

Just finished a long solo day with my kiddies. It was a (mostly) good day though! A lot of times these days feel like they are never-ending, especially on Saturdays when I have no car and we're couped up.

But today we had a couple of things that were vital to our pretty, mostly good day. #1) New toys!! Yesterday we had a fun family afternoon. We had a gift card to a restaurant and enjoyed lunch out (an extremely rare treat!!) and then we went to a mall where the boys got to spend their own gift cards at the Lego Store!!

Ben and I love legos about as much as the boys do so we always enjoy an outing to the Lego store. There are places to play with legos, as well as the many displays of tempting lego sets to catch your eye. Both boys had already picked out their favorites several weeks ago (just in case:) and even though they got slightly dazzled by silly things like lego keychains (although they are pretty cool looking), they ended going home with exactly what they came for.

A new garbage truck for Samuel and a space shuttle for Zakkai. Samuel is pretty good at following lego instructions and needs minimal help, although this was a bigger set so we did help more than usual. Zakkai is still learning how to follow the directions so all in all, to help the 2 of them put together their sets it took B and I 2 hours to help! Ben did about half with them last night and I finished the rest with them today.

And then they played and played and PLAYED! I'll post pics of them tomorrow;)

The 2nd thing that helped the day go faster and more smoothly was my motivation to clean and organize and toss! I love when I actually am motivated to do that kind of thing. I really lost my mojo, if you will, over the past 2 months after we got hit with so much heaviness and sickness...and injury, etc. I was thinking last night about how the New Year is a nice time, after a break from reality for a bit, to reorganize, pull up your pants a little and make a few positive changes in your life.

But instead of making any outrageous goals that I can't possibly keep and setting myself up for failure, I decided to make a few small changes to help me get back on track. For one, I am going to wake up each morning and make a small list of what I'd like to or need to accomplish that day. Not the next day or that week. Just that day. I get this awesome family calendar that I adore from my MIL every year (thank you!!) and this year it came with something new: a magnetic dry erase board to write down daily tasks.

So today I wrote "Clean, Organize, Toss." And that's what I did! I'm not worrying about what I have to do on Monday when life starts again. I'll write that on Monday's list.

Today it made me feel really good to accomplish a couple small goals. Well, maybe  not so small when you're trying to do it while feeding the baby lunch, breaking up fights, and  stepping over boys playing space shuttle and garbage truck flying to the moon.

But now I can erase my list and think of a new one for tomorrow. Baby steps to a healthier 2012 me: emotionally and physically:)

A Simpler Life.

If you've read my blog for a little while, you'll remember last spring when I wrote a lot about simplifying and organizing our life; something that is an ongoing process.

I get into a kick, almost like "nesting" and go crazy for awhile purging, cleaning with a frenzy, rearranging and then things die down and we live life. Messy life.

And then something happens to jump start the urge to simplify and organize again. What is it that makes me want to have so much less clutter around me? To not have to clean all the time? To have a house that is more pleasing to the eye? A feeling of guilt for all of the material possessions we have and don't need?

I think, for me, it is a desire to lead a more peaceful life. One in which I am not caught up in all of the things I have to or need to do but one in which I am able to enjoy what I have, namely, my family.

For a long time now, like many other people, I have been fascinated with the Amish. What a unique lifestyle! There is something about their quiet, peaceful life that speaks to our hurried, harried, stressed culture. Something that makes us stop and go, "Huh."

I've often imagined, especially after reading a book about the Amish, what it would be like to live in a world without a television, without lights or my camera, without a dishwasher (my newfound joy!), without a car (no more expensive repairs!) or a microwave (is it possible??!). I've wondered what it would be like to wake up before dawn to milk the cows, bake the bread and do all of the little yet numerous chores that are required to run such a household.

I've often wondered if I could ever live such a life? I could if I'd been born into it!

The difference between a poor, underprivileged person in another country who lives in a world without electronics and material excess and an Amish person is choice. The choice to live a different life. One free of the hold of materialism and one that focuses on hard-work, living a moral, upright life, and taking care of one another and having deeply knit families and community.

While I'm not ready to sell off everything and join a strict sect of Plain People just to see what it's like, I am ready to look around at what I have and what I really need. (again.) I would like to walk in my home and feel comfortable and uncluttered and not stressed about what needs to be done or cleaned up. (oh, to imagine!!)

I want to enjoy my family in our peaceful haven. I want a Simpler Life. One that's a little more organized, a little less-cluttered, and a little more centered around our love for each other and for God.

An excerpt of something  simple yet pround that I found written by an Amish person:

"The Greedy Heifer"

One evening when I was helping my husband do the chores, I decided to feed the heifers so that he would be done with his work sooner. After I had fed them all and they were eating contentedly, I walked past them with another shovel full to feed the dry cows. As I walked past, a young heifer tried to snatch a mouthful off the shovel, ignoring all the feed she had before herself.

"You silly, greedy heifer," I couldn't help but think. It was disgusting, really. She had all the feed in front of her that she could possibly eat, and yet she was trying to snatch away some of the other cows'.

But later on, after thinking it over, I had to wonder how often we are in the eyes of God like that greedy heifer. Blessed with plenty to eat, warm houses, good homes, family and friends, and all the material things we will ever be able to use and more, and yet we look about and lament when we see others who appear to have more than we do.

Are we in the habit of counting our many blessings and appreciating all we have, or are we often wishing for and wanting what others have?
(Unsigned)

I'm thankful that I have what I need today. I have a loving family, a warm home, my stomach is full of a homemade dinner, I have a soft bed calling my name. I have no need to worry about tomorrow. Just to be thankful for what I have today.

A little here and a little there.

I've been wanting to organize the basement for awhile now~well, since we moved in actually:) But since it's the room that nobody sees, I don't usually care! It is a multi-purpose room. Ben's office space/dungeon, a play area for the boys and a storage area for extra kitchen/food supplies.

I decided it was time to change a few things around and make it look a little nicer down there! Since I can't afford a new shelf to organize goods, I decided to take a little here and put a little there:)

I enlisted Zakkai's enthusiastic help in this endeavor. Being the all-wise, all-knowing mommy that I am, I knew that he would find this whole process fun~he who loves to help and get involved. He pronounced it "boring" which is 4 year old "pre-pre teenager speak" but within minutes was happily involved carrying things up and down the stairs.

First we moved the boys' train table down to the basement since they do a lot of playing down there on Ben's out-of-the-house workdays. This will accomplish two things: 1)Make it a new an exciting toy again since it's in a different place and 2)save them from having to carry train/car buckets up and down 2 flights of stairs;)

The train table in its new home! I barely put it back together when Zakkai was already playing with it. Goal accomplished~check!

Next I did two things: I took the boys' bookshelf downstairs to become my storage (hehe!) and turned their dresser/bookcase sideways and moved it to the former train table spot and put the books on top. I think it turned out cute!

This is the "stolen" bookshelf in it's new glory:) It will be very handy for me to grab things that I need now!

And Ben was also thrilled when I showed him under the stairs. It was a mess of boxes and "stuff" thrown under there. Now I have some more storage shelves, the boys' toys and B's tools under there. It looks better than in the picure~promise!

I really love the feeling of getting a little more organized each time:) It really inspires me to do more.

Doesn't she look too little to be standing like this??? She was pulled up on the stool and transferred to the dishwasher. Getting so big! Poor thing has been having trouble going to sleep since she's so stuffy (although all in all, this cold we've all had has been very minor, thankfully!!) and has fallen asleep hiccuping sadly after major tears in my arms several times in the past few days. I put her down for bed tonight and kept hearing noises so I went to check on her and found her standing all the way up in her crib, whining while sucking her pacifier upside down:)

I laid her down and heard her again a little while later and this time she was sitting in the corner clapping to herself! Finally she gave up showing off her wonderful new skills and drifted off:)

And here is my little goofball! While I was vacuuming all the hidden areas of dirt that Eliana has discovered lately, Zakkai decided to make himself a special bed:) He had THE best time with all the cushions and pillows and made about 9 different beds.

He was such a good helper today and I can't believe what a good time we are having during these quiet days together. I wasn't really sure how it would be with these long days with just Z and E but it's been really nice. I am getting to spend time with Zakkai that I don't normally get and he is getting to do things that he wants to do.

We played a good old game of Memory in between organizing today and boy, can that kid cheat! We must work on that;)

Now I am off to finish menu planning for our much-needed grocery trip tomorrow. Will probably have some good new recipes to post soon if all goes well!

Nesting

Back-to-School Nesting, that is:) I've been pretty lax about organizing lately. Only because things have been in pretty good shape since we moved. It's nice to start over and get a fresh start after a move!

Of course, I'm not recommending moving to get organized:)

We have some good systems in place. For instance, now that we have stairs and there is a lot of toy-trafficking up and down, I keep a basket on the lower step (It's a big corner step) and throughout the day toss toys in it or put them on the steps. Each time the boys or I go upstairs, we take something with us to put away. Helps keep the downstairs from getting too cluttered!

I also recently created a chore chart! Something I have been meaning to do for a long time so that the cleaning of 5 people's messes doesn't rest solely on my shoulders.

I think the boys think there is a magical cleaning crew that comes out at night time.

Meet the cleaning crew:)

So now all of us (over the age of "baby) have assigned chores each day of the week. I even broke up my housecleaning into separate days just to ensure that everything is getting done each week. It's easy to let things like dusting and vacuuming and...mopping....and well, just about anything slide. Last thing I want to do at nighttime is clean!

The chart has been helping a lot. Samuel checks it each day and tells me whose turn it is to set/clear the table, etc. I had the boys each choose two days to set the table and two days to clear the table. They also picked Saturday as their room cleaning day.

I'm hoping this will teach the boys responsibility and that it takes a family to clean up the family's mess! Hopefully their wives will thank me one day:)

School starts tomorrow for Samuel (yikes!!) so I woke up today with a spurt of energy and the desire to organizing everything in sight! I started with the boys room, secretly purging little forgotten "treasures" and tiny broken toy bits, saved scraps of papers, old pinecones and the like while they put away toys. I did most of the serious purging while they were downstairs b/c they are definitely more of a hindrance than a help in the purging department! 

You'd be amazed at what you can find in every crack and crevice of a little boy's room!

We have school supplies all ready and organized, clothes washed and I spent some time this morning baby proofing the living room for a certain little busy-bee I know!!

Samuel is nervous about tomorrow and I have been praying especially for a teacher that fits him (a good balance of compassionate and yet at the same time able to push him out of his comfort zone...gently:) and for God to send him at least one special friend.

I can't believe my sweet boy is about to enter first grade. It boggles my mind.

Excuse me while I go find a tissue.....