Simplifying, chocolate, crayons- what does it all have in common?

Today's post finds me exhausted and wanting a nap. My head was spinning with thoughts.

 We (at least, me) have been working our home to a more simple home. Less is more. Less things to clutter our home & our minds, freeing up more time to do more things that are important to us, instead of looking at the piles of things we've amassed and thinking 'I've got to do something with that stuff'.
 One of my big challenges was my oldest daughters room. She's a very emotional hoarder. She wants to save junk mail because it has a pretty picture, receipts from when my mom bought my grandma a Mother's Day card at the Dollar Tree. She can't part with anything, it seems. So when I cleaned her room the other week, I got rid of all the things that were piling up. She was fine with her new clean room and hasn't noticed that so much stuff is just gone. She told me she's happy she can find stuff again.
  Part of the new agreement, is that if it's something you care about, you don't leave it out of place. (I found socks crammed in desk drawers, pajamas on hangers, good clothes in drawers... a mess.) That's worked so far. Til today.
  Earlier I sent her into her room to put away some clean laundry in her newly organized & thinned out drawers. 30 minutes later (I was busy trying to get little ones down to naps, clean up after lunch, do laundry etc.) I call to her and she comes out. She goes back to the table and resumes her work, so I go to her room to find a couple of photocopied pages from a coloring book out and that had been partially colored. I was so angry at this point, that I ripped them up and threw them away.
  She got upset, and then I got even angrier.
  After my reaction, I started thinking, is this how Jesus would have reacted? No. Ofcourse not. But then I thought about it some more. You have to take the temptations away. Like with dieting, trying not to fall into the same old sin- trap, staying focused means eliminating the temptation. Whether it's chocolate, hanging out with old drinking buddies, or crayons stashed in your desk. I thought about it some more, and felt okay with my decision. I'd just had the same conversation with her before we started schoolwork. Was her room clean? Yes it was. Everything in it's place? Yes. Found dolls just thrown in the FLOOR! So they had just gotten packed away into the yardsale pile.
  Any successful dieter will tell you, you have to eliminate the junk foods from your house. Period. Just knowing that you have a stash of chocolate somewhere will tempt you. It's all or nothing.
  There's a bigger picture, and there are forces working against us to keep us from obtaining that bigger picture. Whatever those forces are chocolate or crayons. If you can't say no to them, then they have no place in your life.
  Now I'm not going to throw all the crayons away. But maybe I take all the writing utensils out of her room. (I would prefer having them all stored together then have bits & pieces in every room anyway.)
  Sometimes you have to get tough to get things done. Sometimes we've been la-la-la-ing along, and now we have to take back some control. Maybe tomorrow it'll be something else.
   I'm not preaching a life of deprivation, but there really is so very little that we really NEED, and beyond that is excess. Excess makes us comfortable. Comfort isn't necessarily a good thing. Excess isn't healthy in anyway shape or form- excess food (makes us fat) excess alcohol (makes us do dumb things), excess vitamins can make you sick, excess exercise can mean you burn too many calories.
  I'm taking back my family, my house, my life & my sanity and saying NO! to more stuff.

What did you do today?

This is what our whole family did. We woke our kids up early and piled into my car, and his truck so he could take a wheelbarrow. And we helped many other volunteers build a playground.
  I didn't carry anything heavy, use any tools (other than a rake, shovel & wheelbarrow), or shovel any cement for that matter. Nothing to write home about.
  But when my kids play on this playground, along with many other kids, they can say "My dad & grandpa helped build this!" What's more, is there were so many people there who's kids & grandkids even are too old for the playground, or their families lives far away. There were even people there who don't even have any kids! And they all showed up to show community support & voluteer one day of their time.
   We fell short of our goal number of volunteers- but we got it done.  It did really aggravate me, that there were people in the YMCA working out, while all of this was going on. Deep breath and let it go.
  A devoted group of people at our YMCA worked hard, for a long time to get this project rolling. But now it's done and the kids can play.

Work in progress

 You know the saying, 'You never stop learning? Means we're all a work in progress too. We're aren't *there*, we're working on it."

  Several years ago, I got on the 'go green' bandwagon before it was cool. Alot of the things we did out of necessity growing up would be considered 'green'. One thing I get from my mom is a deep sense of frugality. I'm  not saying I'm the most frugal person in the world and am more frugal than you by any means. We splurge. Often. But that's a work in progress too.
  Every time I would read an article about '10 ways to save on your electricity bill without spending another penny' I was like, 'We already do all that. I've been doing all of that all of my life.'
   So last night, we inadvertantly started a new thing at our house. It was late, I had all of the windows open. I'd just cleaned the day before, including my stockpile of smelly candles (someone's gonna read this and say, "but burning smelly candles releases XYZ into the air & will give you cancer!"-more on that in a different post.) I left one sitting out for us to burn, because we all want our homes to smell good & inviting, at least to use right? It's 80 degrees in my house, I'm not about to fire up the stove to bake something to make it smell better, also because I would eat whatever that something is, and it would not be good for my health either so...
  Burning smelly candle. Kaylor washed the dishes by candlelight, while I got the little kids to bed. She carried it to her room and used it's light to clean her room.
  Adds an extra step or 2 into our day, but as we work on earlier bedtimes, we attract less bugs than with traditional lights. The fumes from the candles might have some bad stuff in them but apparently my CFLs do too. Also the glow of the candles will be more conducive to getting the babies down than bright lights glaring.

How I organize all the kids clothes

 If I'd been thinking clearly, I would have taken a picture of what my house looked like an hour ago. You see, Monday's are cleaning days. And every week, I completely gut 1 room in the house- I touch absolutely EVERYTHING in that room, windows inside & out, wash the curtains, move all the furniture & vacuum, and put it most of it back. Not all, which is the point. I throw some stuff away, make a pile to donate/yardsell or pack up for the next kid in line.
  Last week was Kaylors room, and I THREW away ALOT. Not losing any steam, instead of just doing all my normal cleaning today, dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms etc. I decided that E & F's room would be a piece of cake. Essentially it was, til I got Eowyn's dresser.
  It's been hot, it's been cold. I needed to keep both seasons of clothes out, but she's at an in between stage- I don't want to pull the 4 winter stuff yet.... I started pulling things out, setting aside what's too small for their cousin that's inbetween E & F. Then I went thru Finn's stuff, pulled out things that were the cousin's that needed to go back, things that were ours that I was done with, and things that I want-to-hold-onto-just-incase-we-have-another-baby.
  I had a massive box of clothes K has outgrown & a box of shoes that needed to go up.

 I'm thrifty- but let me tell you I HATE putting cardboard boxes in my attic. I want all the( size 7/8 winter stuff in one container. Not 2 or 3 or however many. I like totes. (I used to not label them. I had K. At the end of a season, it all went in, and then it all went up.) Then I had E, and realized I didn't know what the crap was going on in any of the totes in my attic. So I came up with this code, E1, E2 etc. for which tote we would need for E. But then I emptied a tote and put something back in it. So I went to pieces of paper taped on.
 
 So I needed some totes, and Aaron was going to the home improvement store on his way home for rat traps & small planters for transplanting seedlings.  He brought me home 5 new totes. (2 are giant ones that I wouldn't be able to get up the pull-down-stairs into the attic by myself it it were full- plus the lids didn't fit- so they're going back.)
 So I had a bunch of boxes spread allover my living room, various sizes thrown about. Still not done.
 I want to get all the shoes into 1 or 2 totes as well. I can tell you what size clothes all 3 of my kids wear, but please don't ask me what size shoes they were. So it just makes sense to keep all the shoes together.
  But I did take the chance to pull a whole box of clothes to pass on. And a giant box of stuffed animals (mostly mine. I saved them for my kids to play with. They want to play with everything. I kept my favorites. The rest is going into the yardsale.)
   I think there are 12 or 14 totes, plus 2 boxes of shoes. 3 totes (1 is shoes) is stuff for K to grow into.  I didn't count the 1 tote full baby clothes- newborn-12 mos. I made it all fit in one. I eliminated pieces til it fit.
  I still have several totes to go thru and pull stuff out of. Maybe I can condense them enough to empty a whole tote and get those 2 boxes of shoes into one.
   I can't remember which room is next, but when I get to the toy room, my goal is to get all the toys (with the exception of Kaylor's since she has her own room) into the same room, no more packed up. (Except for the stuffed animals that will get rotated (and some eliminated), depending on what the girls are into (it was dogs, but now it's unicorns & mermaids, so all the dogs are in the attic.)
 

Happy Earth Day... more than 9 mos. later

 In honor of one of my favorite holidays, I'm re-launching my blog. So much has been going on that has been down-right hilarious, or interesting or good learning experiences.
  So I here I go again. I was going to start a new blog, keep this one, (last time I started over blogging, I deleted the old one..) I like simple. I don't need multiple blogs. So I'll keep adding to the pile on this one.
  So follow my blog. Tell your friends about my blog. You will laugh, you will cry, you will be inspired (at least I hope that's what happens)!
   Once I get 15 followers- I will do a giveaway of some sort. Giveaways seem to be hot in the blogging community. Can't say I've ever won one, but then again I don't enter alot of them. You will find out why if you follow my blog, because as some point I will write all about why I don't like 'stuff'.

  But what does my favorite holiday (yes today's a holiday, for me anyway) Earth Day have to do with re-launching my blog? I'll also provide you with greener living tips, which is my ultimate goal- share real practical advice for living lighter, healthier and cheaper, all at the same time.

Today's Harvest July 1st

Last Friday, we made our first 'harvest' from our garden.

I was so excited. We had a zucchini, cucumber and some purple potatoes. I grabbed a few blackberries and wild blueberries (the little tiny blue balls) just for fun.

I loved I am growing things that I can eat. We've gardened for years, expanding a little each year. Last year I wasn't very active in the garden because I was preggers and cucumbers and tomatoes, one our successful harvests were yuck triggerering foods for me. Just the thought of them made me want to barf.

So this year, despite having a small baby again, plus one that I sometimes refer to as 'A rabid Octopus' and my 8 year old that makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes, my husband said 'The garden's on you this year.'

Wha? He's not working more than he has in the past, but he's been working on this massive chicken palace. Then he's got a greenhouse to build, and an outdoor shower, but I think I can handle that last one, if I could just find the time..

So I've been so proud of my little garden.

Diamonds & Dirt

I'm getting a farm girl tan. Days spent bent over pulling weeds in the garden in a pair of shorts too short for me to wear comfortably in public, a pair of rubber boots up to my knees and whatever shirt I happen to be wearing. I have a stripe across my lower back, and on the back of my legs that stops abruptly at my knees.

My hands haven't developed calluses yet, but they have seen better days. They're rough and stained. I gave up on nail polish years ago- I use my hands too much, it chips and within a day it just needs to be taken off but I don't have time, so I don't bother. I've given up on having long perfectly shaped nails. They break.

I never was super-girly-girl. Sure I wore make-up, got my nails done, even used to get my hair highlighted and *GASP* laid in a tanning bed once. But it never was me.

So I haven't felt like I've had to give anything up, really.

Before I said good-bye to working full-time, we were nervous about me not working. I was quick to point out that when we first got married, that I worked part-time, he worked a little more than part time and was going to school full-time. But when we made more, we spent more. I remember the entire time I was pregnant with my oldest, I didn't spend a DIME that I didn't absolutely have to spend the entire time.

But we still had our doubts, plus we were adding a new member to the family at the same time. And it's worked. We've been running on less money in the past 2.5 years, but our quality of life is so much better. My schedule was allover the place, and I just never felt like a grown-up with a family because we never got to see each other and do family stuff.

It's all been worth it.

Before we were ever pregnant with #2, and I'd planned on being a stay at home mom to homeschool anyway, my husbands ex-stepmom recommended a book called 'Your Money or Your Life' by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez. I did not finish the book, honestly. But the basic idea still rings true. You have to look at things you want and calculate how many hours of your life you have to give up in order to pay for it, whether it's a new pair of shoes, massage, etc.

God has blessed me with 3 beautiful girls and tons more. He didn't give me these girls to pawn off on someone else, my homeschool mantra- 'I didn't have these kids just for someone else to raise them'.

One day, my girls will grow up and go and do things without me. They'll move out of my house. I'll have my me time then.

For now, I enjoy watching my girls each and everyday. They change so much. My littlest grows everyday. My middle does something hilarious everyday. And my oldest is at that make-or-break age where I need to be constant.

So you can keep your designer clothes, your manicures, pedicures, new cellphones. You can keep your trips with no kids. I don't want to be away from my kids anymore than I have to. I'm gonna keep doing what I like. And that's spending time with my kids.