I posted last thursday about how my current waking and going to bed schedule was not conducive to being joyful and productive. So I began an experiment this past Monday. I woke up at 5am, every morning. I thought it would be interesting to see how I felt and to see what the heck goes on around here at 5am. It turns out my husband gets up and goes running and then comes home and does push ups and sit ups on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. No kidding? So that's what he's been up to. First thing in the morning, I would go down to the office and get some nice quiet prayer time in. Then I would take a shower and grab a cup of coffee. Then I would spend any extra time before kids awake, reading, surfing the internet, or completing any administrative tasks that needed to be done. Bill paying and whatnot.
I didn't feel tired in the afternnon, I wasn't dragging throughout the day. I was surprised at how great I felt and how productive I was. I plan to simply get up early again next week and then after that incorporate some sort of workout routine in the morning as well. Baby steps.
The only day that failed was wednesday because Athena woke up at like 5:15 and I didn't get her back down until 6:30 and by then Shannon was awake and everything was thrown off. I ended up snapping at Shannon almost first thing because I felt bumbarded with requests first thing in the morning. I guess I'm not perfect. Dang it!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Domestic Makeover
A couple of weeks ago, I heard myself saying, "Why can't I ever find anything?" and "Nothing is where it is supposed to be!" I realized that nothing had a proper place to be so that was probably why I couldn't find anything.
I have never really Spring cleaned our house before. To be fair, we are not pack rats at all. So, we don't have 5 years of pile up over here but we do have some stuff that can go. I downloaded an e-book from Simple Mom called Spring Cleaning for Normal People and it was very inspiring. Last Monday, I realized a few of my zones had been neglected so I went through the house, doing a light cleanup and throw out of each room. That evening I downloaded the e-book and to my surprise that was the same task that the book instructed to do on the first day of Spring Cleaning. The book has a 10-day program to get the whole house down. She has you focus on one room of your house each day or two days for larger areas. Since that was last Monday my house should be totally clean now right? Wrong!
I believe I have domestic ADD. I started to work on Shannon's room first for some reason and then I kept wandering over to Chloe's room to do some stuff in there, then I would go put something away in the guest room and realize I wanted to clean out some stuff in there as well. So after nearly two weeks, I am not even close to being done but I did get a lot accomplished. Something that always frustrated me was that we keep stuff in random closets so we never know where to find anything. I was determined to only have Chloe/Athena related stuff in their closet and Shannon related stuff in his closet. I did break this rule a little bit becaue Shannon has the largest closet in the house and he doesn't really have a lot of stuff. So in the main section of the closet, I kept it strictly Shannon and I continue to store a few baby items, that we won't need for a couple more years, in there as well. And my snowboard. We finally got a shelf and bar for the guest room closet so I was able to move all of Stacey's military stuff out of Shanon's room and into the guest room. So Shannnon's room is done. I do want to get him a more grownup bedding set now that he is turnign into quite the little man. He has had the same one for four years so I think it is reasonable to get a new one.
The girls room was not very hard to tackle. We've had our eye on a bunk bed for their room for some time now and we fnally went down and ourchased it this past monday. I can't wait until it comes in. It's a twin over double so I figure the girls can sleep together in the double until Chloe feels comfortable sleeping on the top bunk. I also moved the dresser out of the closet and in the spot where the crib used to be, to make the closet roomier. In the process of cleaning the rooms out, I also found myself with 3 large storage bins of clothes and other items to be sold, tossed, given away. My friend, Pamela, is having a yard sale next friday and I already took the toddler bed, the changing table pad, the toddler bedding, and two crib mattresses over there. I hope to get all of the clothes sorted out this weekend so I can take it all over there next week. I will post some pics of the kids' rooms as soon as I get the bunk bed setup in about a week.
So, yes, I have two rooms down, and many many more to go. The decluttering is getting easier. I started to follow the mantra, "If I don't find it useful or beautiful, get rid of it". Something I have always had a hard with is getting rid of things that other people have given us as gifts. But, I just have to do it. I cannot possibly keep every nick knack that has ever entered these walls. I think the gift givers will understand . . . right?
In addition to the Spring Cleaning book, I also downloaded Simplifying Your Domestic Church and my friend Cherri recommended A Mother's Rule of Life. SYDC starts right off with gettign rid of clutter so I stopped there and started working on that. I am really enjoying MROL. She really focuses on what it all means. Being a wife, a mother, and a servant of God. This really spoke to me because I sometimes get the feeling that my sngle, childfree, friends, think my lfie must be a drag. If I just made a list of the tasks I completed on a daily basis and boiled my purpose down t those things, they would be right. "Dear diary, today I scrubbed my toilets and changed Athena's diaper. Life is good". But when I do these tnings with a greater purpose in mind, I am not only more productive but fullfilled and proud of my accomplishments. So, that book is pretty stinkin' awesome and I highly recomend it.
So that is the Spring Cleaning update. By the way, Simple Mom is beginning a Spring Cleaning series this Monday so if you want to get your own domestic church all sparkly, follow along.
I have never really Spring cleaned our house before. To be fair, we are not pack rats at all. So, we don't have 5 years of pile up over here but we do have some stuff that can go. I downloaded an e-book from Simple Mom called Spring Cleaning for Normal People and it was very inspiring. Last Monday, I realized a few of my zones had been neglected so I went through the house, doing a light cleanup and throw out of each room. That evening I downloaded the e-book and to my surprise that was the same task that the book instructed to do on the first day of Spring Cleaning. The book has a 10-day program to get the whole house down. She has you focus on one room of your house each day or two days for larger areas. Since that was last Monday my house should be totally clean now right? Wrong!
I believe I have domestic ADD. I started to work on Shannon's room first for some reason and then I kept wandering over to Chloe's room to do some stuff in there, then I would go put something away in the guest room and realize I wanted to clean out some stuff in there as well. So after nearly two weeks, I am not even close to being done but I did get a lot accomplished. Something that always frustrated me was that we keep stuff in random closets so we never know where to find anything. I was determined to only have Chloe/Athena related stuff in their closet and Shannon related stuff in his closet. I did break this rule a little bit becaue Shannon has the largest closet in the house and he doesn't really have a lot of stuff. So in the main section of the closet, I kept it strictly Shannon and I continue to store a few baby items, that we won't need for a couple more years, in there as well. And my snowboard. We finally got a shelf and bar for the guest room closet so I was able to move all of Stacey's military stuff out of Shanon's room and into the guest room. So Shannnon's room is done. I do want to get him a more grownup bedding set now that he is turnign into quite the little man. He has had the same one for four years so I think it is reasonable to get a new one.
The girls room was not very hard to tackle. We've had our eye on a bunk bed for their room for some time now and we fnally went down and ourchased it this past monday. I can't wait until it comes in. It's a twin over double so I figure the girls can sleep together in the double until Chloe feels comfortable sleeping on the top bunk. I also moved the dresser out of the closet and in the spot where the crib used to be, to make the closet roomier. In the process of cleaning the rooms out, I also found myself with 3 large storage bins of clothes and other items to be sold, tossed, given away. My friend, Pamela, is having a yard sale next friday and I already took the toddler bed, the changing table pad, the toddler bedding, and two crib mattresses over there. I hope to get all of the clothes sorted out this weekend so I can take it all over there next week. I will post some pics of the kids' rooms as soon as I get the bunk bed setup in about a week.
So, yes, I have two rooms down, and many many more to go. The decluttering is getting easier. I started to follow the mantra, "If I don't find it useful or beautiful, get rid of it". Something I have always had a hard with is getting rid of things that other people have given us as gifts. But, I just have to do it. I cannot possibly keep every nick knack that has ever entered these walls. I think the gift givers will understand . . . right?
In addition to the Spring Cleaning book, I also downloaded Simplifying Your Domestic Church and my friend Cherri recommended A Mother's Rule of Life. SYDC starts right off with gettign rid of clutter so I stopped there and started working on that. I am really enjoying MROL. She really focuses on what it all means. Being a wife, a mother, and a servant of God. This really spoke to me because I sometimes get the feeling that my sngle, childfree, friends, think my lfie must be a drag. If I just made a list of the tasks I completed on a daily basis and boiled my purpose down t those things, they would be right. "Dear diary, today I scrubbed my toilets and changed Athena's diaper. Life is good". But when I do these tnings with a greater purpose in mind, I am not only more productive but fullfilled and proud of my accomplishments. So, that book is pretty stinkin' awesome and I highly recomend it.
So that is the Spring Cleaning update. By the way, Simple Mom is beginning a Spring Cleaning series this Monday so if you want to get your own domestic church all sparkly, follow along.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Farm Fun
I wanted to share a pic of the latest addition to my folks' farm. Meet Fred Bacon. My parents have him set up in a nice cozy pen right next to the chickens. It was hard to get a good shot of Fred. He kept pretty close to the fence.
Eggs . . .
. . . And Bacon!
Notebook: Week of 3/22
Language
100 Easy Lessons 35 - 40
Shannon was on such a reading high that we just stuck with that this week. I want to get to the library soon to pick up some easy readers and see how he does.
Chloe was attempting to read the program during the Chrism Mass today and she did quite well on some parts. What a smarty.
Science with guest lecturer: Daddy
Stacey woke up last friday not feeling very well. The poor guy was probably burnt out from wokring a million hours everyday and then being abandoned by his wife every evening for one thing or another. And then sleeping with a teething baby. Oye. But after he got a few extra hours of sleep in and some general relaxing, he put the kids to work planting seeds in the middle of the kitchen.
This is the first year that we are attempting to plant anything other than a few flowers out front. I'm really curious to see what comes up. Stacey has been flipping through gardening magazines and seed catalogs with the kids in the evenings. And he let them pick out a few veggies to plant. And of course the kids are learning along the way.
That was about it for last week. Pretty laid back. And we're taking Holy Week off so I probably won't have much to report next week either.
100 Easy Lessons 35 - 40
Shannon was on such a reading high that we just stuck with that this week. I want to get to the library soon to pick up some easy readers and see how he does.
Chloe was attempting to read the program during the Chrism Mass today and she did quite well on some parts. What a smarty.
Science with guest lecturer: Daddy
Stacey woke up last friday not feeling very well. The poor guy was probably burnt out from wokring a million hours everyday and then being abandoned by his wife every evening for one thing or another. And then sleeping with a teething baby. Oye. But after he got a few extra hours of sleep in and some general relaxing, he put the kids to work planting seeds in the middle of the kitchen.
This is the first year that we are attempting to plant anything other than a few flowers out front. I'm really curious to see what comes up. Stacey has been flipping through gardening magazines and seed catalogs with the kids in the evenings. And he let them pick out a few veggies to plant. And of course the kids are learning along the way.
That was about it for last week. Pretty laid back. And we're taking Holy Week off so I probably won't have much to report next week either.
What the . . .
I was searching the bedrooms where I had last seen Athena heading when I heard a thumping sound coming from the bathroom . . .
Funny, I don't even remember calling a plumber.
Funny, I don't even remember calling a plumber.
Free board games. W00T!
I went to Toys R Us last night and got some nearly free stuff. Allow me to brag . . . er . . . share.
Twister $8.99
Operation $8.99
Connect Four $8.99
I then used these coupons: $5 off Operation, $4 off Twister, $4 off Connect Four
Then I received a $5 gift card for spending over $20 on Hasbro games
Then I mailed in a rebate form to get $3 back on each game.
So I paid 16.31 out of pocket and got a $5 gift card and $9 back in rebates.
That's like paying $2.31 for three awesome board games.
Rock on. I will store these away until an occasion presents itself.
Twister $8.99
Operation $8.99
Connect Four $8.99
I then used these coupons: $5 off Operation, $4 off Twister, $4 off Connect Four
Then I received a $5 gift card for spending over $20 on Hasbro games
Then I mailed in a rebate form to get $3 back on each game.
So I paid 16.31 out of pocket and got a $5 gift card and $9 back in rebates.
That's like paying $2.31 for three awesome board games.
Rock on. I will store these away until an occasion presents itself.
Cranky Mama
I am cranky this morning and not being a very loving mama. I am not a morning person but I think I need to tweek my weekday schedule a bit or I am never going to get out of this rut. Along side the crankiness, several of the first items on my daily schedule consistently do not get done because I get up late (and cranky) and want to jump right into other stuff as to not fall behind. I recently came across blog post that got me thinking about making small changes for the better. Here are a few things I want to try that will hopefully allow me to accomplish two goals: be more productive and less cranky.
To be fare, I woke up this past Sunday with a bit of a cold so I haven't been feeling 100% but I think a proper routine would allow me to function better, even while under the weather.
- make sure kitchen is clean (for the most part) before I go to bed. Trying to get breakfast on the table when the table is still nasty from dinner and there aren't any clean bowls or spoons is a typical early morning cause of stress. And so easily preventable.
- Get enough sleep. aka: stop staying up until 1am doing stuff that is not that important and can wait until the next day.
- Wake up before the kids. I have a harsh knee jerk reaction to the one responsible for waking me up in the morning, especially when I stayed up way too late. I would rather that thing be an alarm clock than one of my kids.
- Start an early morning routine of exercise, followed by prayer, shower, and coffee. All before the first tiny foot walks down the hall.
To be fare, I woke up this past Sunday with a bit of a cold so I haven't been feeling 100% but I think a proper routine would allow me to function better, even while under the weather.
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