Repurposing Myself

At the beginning of 2012 I gave myself a word for the year. The word I came up with was FOCUS. My goal was/is to be a better wife, mother, and example to my children.  By changing the things I don't like about myself, I can repurpose myself into the woman I want to be.  To be more purpose driven, I decided to pick areas that I feel I want to see the biggest change.

F - Faith & Family

O - Organization

C - Children

U - Unclutter

S - Scripture & School

I've set out to change these specific areas of my life to be a better example to my children. I don't feel like I'm terrible at these things, but I do feel we can all grow and change for the better. Some of this (mostly the unclutter & organize categories) will be the biggest challenge for me.  For those that don't know our family grew quickly, and in 8 years I went from being a mother of 1 to being a mother of 6. I let my organization slip because of lack of sleep and energy.

So, I'm beginning a new chapter of mothering the way God wants me to, so I can be an example that my daughters can some day look up to. I've decided to try to find time to blog again so that I can journal my progress.

Creating A Home Office - When There Isn't One

I have 2 goals for today.

1) To get at least 5 of my 'no-longer-needed' homeschool items listed on ebay.  I've come to the realization I don't have the time to get everything listed at once, so if I do a few a day that may work.  Only one problem....I've been up since 2:30 this morning. (yes I'm crazy, lol)

2) To clean off my computer desk.  Not as easy as it sounds seeing as my husband and I each own a home business, on top of the fact that we don't have an office/den/spare room.  So our setup is in the living room, in a very little alcove.  I do about 1/2 of my crochet designing from there, so there's usually balls of yarn, handwritten notes, contracts & estimates for my hubby's tree removal biz, etc.  It wasn't bad until tax time.  I was an accounting major in college, so I do all of our taxes myself.  This year, for some reason, I still haven't organized and put all the files downstairs. 

We'll see how it goes.  I'm hoping to get the majority of it done so I can move on to something else tomorrow.

30 Days To A Clean(er) House

Here I am, exactly 30 days before my oldest child graduates high school. That means a graduation party is in order. The problem? I'm embarrassed to have anyone over.  It has gotten so out of control in the past year or two, that I didn't even know where to start. And because I didn't know where to start, I wasn't do anything. But I've slowly been trying to get better. Now that I'm down to the wire, it's crunch time. I devised this plan in my head to start a new blog, where I could hold myself accountable, but didn't have to be embarrassed by someone I new actually finding out I'm not 'Suzie Homemaker'.  Then I wondered, why?  If these 'friends' that I worry about judging me can't support me, then are they really my friends after all.  So, I've changed my mind, and I'm going to let it all out on here.  After all, do I really have time for another blog???
 
I have figured out there is no way I will get my house in permanent order in 30 days, so I'm going to have a daily goal along with my long term goals, starting now. Hopefully I will post something short every day to keep track but between 6 children, homeschooling, laundry, dishes, and my own business, I don't feel like I have two extra minutes. But I'm aware that's my weak area....time management.

My long term goal is to regain permanent organization (with 3 more children than I had back when I was organized), teach my kids to help more, keep up with the chores, go back to using a dinner schedule, write up a new chore schedule for my kids, and more.  

Each day I'm going to have a short term goal too.  Today's goal is to re-clean the kitchen, which was done on Saturday. But somehow, between Saturday and today (Wed) it's cluttered again. I'm learning that daily I will need to 'pick up' as well as have scheduled 'cleaning' chores. There's a difference. If I can accomplish that I will move on to something new tomorrow.  

I'd love to hear ideas if anyone has any.
 

 

A New Approach to Cleaning Clutter

Every time I have a newborn in the house I struggle to keep up with the housework.  I start to feel overwhelmed because there just aren't enough hours in a day to get everything done.  Most days I'm doing good if I can get a load of laundry done and have dinner on the table before bedtime.  Once I start to feel overwhelmed I don't do anything.  If I don't have time to clean it to my satisfaction then I don't spend any time on it at all.  Before you know it you're buried in housework.  And for me, I'm embarrassed that it has gotten out of control.  I know I'm not alone and here's another tip on making it work.

If you have one specific area that is an overwhelming problem, or one that you have the hardest time keeping clean, there's hope.  For me it's our island.  Everyone uses it as a dump all.  If they don't want there little sisters to be able to reach, if it needs to be fixed,  if you don't know where to put it, things going out, things coming in.....you get my point.  It all gets put there.  Not to mention, we've been considering moving.  With that in mind I've been using my island as a staging area for things to get rid of, pack, etc.  With 8 of us it feels like a never ending battle.  Just when I get it clean its a mess within a day or two.

So here's my challenge to myself, and to you.  Spend just 10 - 15 minutes everyday on that one spot.  Now here is where it may be a challenge.  It has to be EVERY day.  Here's why.  I tried this last week.  I did great for about 4 days and noticed a huge improvement.  Then we had a couple of busy days and it got pushed to the bottom of my list and didn't get done.  In those 2 days I missed, I had undone my 4 days of work.  So, I'm going to try again this week and see how I do.  Last week proved to me that it needs to be every day not just on days the piles start stacking up.  Anyone want to join me?  I plan on posting my before and after pictures next week. 

Clipping Coupons

Here's my Frugal Friday advice.  Clip coupons.  I know it sounds so simple, and those who don't do it probably think it won't save them enough to bother.  But it will.  When I first started cutting them out, I used to keep track to see if it was even worth the effort.  And let me tell you, some days it takes effort.  When I was keeping track of our savings I would count every dollar saved, whether by coupon or sale.  When I was store hopping (that's for another post) I was saving anywhere from $200 - $400 a month. That's HUGE!  Here's some easy tips on clipping coupons:

• Invest in a coupon file system so you can find them easily.
• Cut out more than you think you'll need. (You can always throw them away if you don't use them)
• Don't buy something just because you have a coupon.
• If something is on sale (that you use frequently), and you have more than one coupon, use them both.  If it's an item you use regularly it's worth it to buy it for the extra savings. (Don't do this unless its something you use a lot, or something like canned goods that have a long shelf life)
• Don't get hung up on shopping at just one store.  Look through the sale flyers and see which store has the better sales for what you need to purchase.

I've added a bunch of coupon sites to my right sidebar.  If you don't get the Sunday paper you can just go to these sites and print out the ones you want.  Some of them require you to install a coupon reader.  It downloads in just a minute and you'll be on your way to saving more.

The Missing Socks

I always heard that the washing machine eats socks and leaves you with all these mismatched pairs. Well, don't throw them away until you read my story.....

My girls socks started disappearing about the time they turned 4 and 5 (maybe a little younger). Because they wear the same size, they share clothes, so it was hard for me to 'point the finger', so to speak. After all, no one was really admitting to their disappearance. lol So, I just went out and bought more. Well, let me assure you, this gets old fast. How many times a year should I need to replace socks? Then daughter #3's socks started disappearing too. Maybe it's a conspiracy. Then, I started to think that maybe my machine was eating them after all. When we had depleted our stock of matching socks I would go out and buy more, with growing frustration every time.

Then I started noticing something. About a month after throwing away a sock its match would appear, out of nowhere, in the clean laundry. hmmm.....That's odd. The more I paid attention, the more I realized the socks were showing up at a later date. Obviously I could no longer blame the washing machine, so I turned to my beautiful girls for answers. After many shrugs of the shoulders, and "I don't know"s, I decided to play Sherlock Holmes. Once I started paying attention to their behaviors it all started to make sense. Their socks weren't making it into the dirty laundry. I was finding them in the shoe basket near the entrance door, stuffed between the mattress and the bed, in the bookcase....you name it.

Now that I knew I didn't have to throw away the 'extras' I started saving them. At one point I literally had half a laundry basket of unmatched socks. I was still listening to "I don't have any socks" all the time. I was frustrated.....to say the least. How was I going to get them to actually put the socks in the laundry, so I could wash them. Then an idea hit me. Make them match up the socks! Maybe if they saw how much work it was to sift through half a laundry basket full of them to find a match they might think about where to put them when they take them off.

That was a few months ago. Now, I match up the socks that come out of the laundry in pairs. Anything that doesn't match I give to them. They now have a laundry bag I keep all the mismatched ones in, instead of the laundry basket (we're making progress). It is then their job to match up the extras. It isn't 100% but it's so much better than it was a few months ago. We've gone from 1/2 a basketful to this....

Happy Sock Hunting!

Tip Tuesday

My friend Rebecca at The Blessings of Modern Domestication does what she calls "Tip Tuesday".  She has some great tips every week so check out her blog.  This week, I thought I'd do one. 

Here's a quick tip for organizing your freezer.  Use boxes.  It may seem simple but it makes a huge difference when you're looking for something. 

Here's what part of mine looked like before.  I took all the veggies and put them in a box.  I took all the packaged chicken, hamburg, and other meats, and put them in a seperate box (not pictured).  Then I put all the french fries, and other miscellaneous things in yet another box.  Now when I need a bag of carrots I can go grab one instead of searching through all the items.  Here's what this half looked like when I was done.

Maybe you can't tell from the pictures, but it makes a huge difference.  Try it and see for yourself.  Let me know if you have other great organizing tips.

~Kristine

Back to Reality

For the first 3 weeks after out little Princess Sunshine was born I was amazed. I couldn't believe how well I was doing keeping up with everything and still having time to do the things I love. I crocheted 2 hats for her and started a couple other projects, I sewed a nursing coverup, I read 2 books....I was amazed! I didn't realize 6 kids would be easier than 5. I was keeping up with laundry, cooking dinner, and my house wasn't any more disorganized than normal (if anything I was getting more done). I really couldn't figure it out, to the point where I kept trying to understand how this was so easy. And then it hit me!

I had decided last summer to start school early with the girls (I homeschool), for the specific reason that I wanted to take a month off when I had the baby. Here I was thinking I had my world under control, when it was all really just because I was saving myself hours worth of school work every day. I knew at that moment that I would not be as in control the following week when we started up assignments again.  So, I decided to do half days the first week so I didn't shock my system. LOL

So far, so good. I don't have a spotless house and I'm not doing 2 loads of laundry every day like I used to, but we're surviving. If I ever do have time to myself again, the first thing I may do is type up the dozen or so crochet patterns that I have created.  For some reason, in those crazy first few weeks, I thought maybe I could type them up while nursing my new baby girl.  Never dawned on me it's a little difficult to type with one hand.  lol  I wouldn't change this time in my life for anything. It goes by so quickly that I want to enjoy every moment before it's gone.

Time for Action

For quite some time now - probably the last few months - I have been feeling like things need to change.  Not in a bad way, but I need to make the changes.  No one else can do it for me, and they won't just happen on their own.  Then yesterday, I was reading my friend Kate's blog, and it totally confirmed what I needed to do.  I've been thinking, for a couple months, about the changes I need to make, and how to go about getting the results I want, but that's not getting it done.  It's time for me to take action!

OK, here's the story.....
Five and a half years ago, (I'm going back this far in hopes that my story will help someone), I gave birth to a beautiful little girl. That's when our world changed.  The next 1 1/2 years was pure torture.  My husband used to say, "If she was first, she would have been last."  It may sound cruel to some, but she was a very difficult baby.  For the first 15 months she was alive she would scream from 10pm to 4am every single night.  The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her.....so we would sleep from 8:30pm (when our other children went to bed) until 10pm when she woke up screaming. Then when she fell asleep at 4am, we would go back to sleep until 5:30 when everyone had to get up for the day.  We did this for over a year.  I never knew the ill effects of sleep deprivation until then.  I had no patience for my other children and no motivation to do anything.  Even when I was 'awake' I just didn't have the energy.  My hubby and I both gained 20 lbs. that year.  So, because of these circumstances, I was keeping up with laundry and getting dinner on the table.  Everything else took a back burner, including keeping up with my home.  When she was about 2 1/2 I realized that I needed to get my house back in order.  That worked for a short time, until the next baby came along.  So, here I am 5 1/2 years later, still suffering the effects of long term sleep deprivation, among other things.  It's been a roller coaster.  I'll do good for a while, then, because of a busy week or something else, I'd let things slide & we'd be right back to where we started. 

OK, back to where my story.  God has been telling me to take action and get control of my homemaking skills!  The problem is, I've been working on the plans in my head but have yet to make the move.  Then yesterday I read Kate's blog, and she was talking about similar things.  I believe she even she even said she's going to use her blog to hold her accountable.  That's when the lightbulb went on for me.  I've been trying to figure out a focus for my blog.  So, I'm going to jump on her bandwagon (so to speak) and use mine for much of the same thing.  I'll still blog about homeschooling, fun adventures with my girls, etc., but I believe we are not alone.  With the help of other mom's who struggle with the same thing we can do this.  I've read books on organization. Now it's time to put them to good use.  I'll start sharing some of the tips I remember and hopefully others have tips too.


~Kristine