Revisiting MyRoutine 2

EveryDay Tasks:
1. Devotions
2. One Load of Laundry (washed and folded)
3. Dishes cleaned
4. PersonalShower/Dressed by 12pm
5. Cook/make meals
6. Beds made, toys put away, things put in their place
7. Trash
8. Sort through mail
9. Surface vacuum

WeekEnd Task: Grocery Shopping

Weekly focus on ONE Room: Vacuum, dust, purge and organize as many areas that week

CHORES:
Sunday: The Lord's Day!
Monday: Bathroom cleaning
Tuesday: Look over budget, file paperwork, or pay bills
Wednesday: Change sheets and towels, Dust/Deep Clean ONE Room
Thursday: Vacuum ONE Room, Exercise
Friday: Purge and Organize ONE Room, Plan menu for following week
Saturday: Grocery Day (6am-8am)

Monday thru Friday Schedule
5am Hour: DD3's 1st feeding
7:00
Mommy: Get up, breakfast (Mon, Thurs), dedicated time of prayer (Mon), read weekly devotion notes (Tue-Fri), get morning toys out
8:00
DD1 & DD2: Get up, breakfast
DD3: 2nd feeding/Mommy time
8:30
Mommy: Breakfast (Tue, Wed, Fri)
DD1 & DD2: Sibling play time
DD3: Bath (Monday, Thursday), Waketime Activity (Tue, Wed, Fri)
9:00
DD1 & DD2: Bath (Monday, Thursday), Mommy time (Tue, Wed, Fri)
DD3: Naptime
9:30
Mommy: Clean-up from Bath (Monday, Thursday), Chore time (Tue, Wed, Fri)
DD1 & DD2: Sibling play time
9:45
DD1 & DD2: Snack time
10:00
Mommy: Write out weekly devotion notes (Monday), Chore/Computer time (Tue, Wed, Fri)
DD1: TV time
DD2: Nap
11:00
DD1: Free Playtime
DD3: 3rd feeding/Mommy time
11:30
DD3: Waketime Activity
12:00
DD1 & DD2: Lunch
DD3: Nap
12:30
Mommy: Lunch
DD1 & DD2: Sibling playtime
1:00
DD1: Roomtime
DD2: Mommy time
1:30
Mommy: switch out morning toys
DD2: TV time
2:00
DD1 & DD2: Sibling playtime
DD3: 4th feeding/Mommy time
2:30
DD1 & DD2: Mommy time
DD3: Waketime Activity
2:45
Snack time
3:00
DD1: Mommy time
DD2 & DD3: Nap
3:30
Mommy: Chore time/Part of Dinner prep
DD1: Structured Activity
4:00
DD1: Free Playtime
4:30
DD1: TV time
5:00
DD1 & DD2: Sibling playtime
DD3: 5th feeding/Mommy time
5:30
DD1 & DD2: Mommy/Daddy time
DD3: Waketime Activity
6:00
Mommy: Dinner prep
DD1 & DD2: Sibling playtime
DD3: Nap
6:30: Family Dinner
7:00
DD1 & DD2: Clean-up time (toys away)
7:15
DD1 & DD2: Bedtime routine
8:00
DD3: 6th feeding & Bedtime
8:30
Mommy: Chore time
9:30
Mommy: Shower
10:00
DD3: 7th feeding & Bedtime
10:30
Mommy: Plan out next day's activities
11:00
Daddy & Mommy: Devotions/Prayer, Bedtime

DD1 = DearDaughter1
DD2 = DearDaughter2
DD3 = DearDaughter3

Home Life...

I have recovered well from the Shingles. I praise God for medical technology because the Valtrex I took for the Shingles helped me heal quicker and helped the blisters from spreading. All of my blisters have scabbed over but I'm still waiting for some scabs to fall off. However, from what I've read, once they've scabbed over, then I am no longer contagious.

DearDaughter1 did not get the chicken pox, but DearDaughter2 had/has a mild case of it. She had some bumps around her tummy and face. There's maybe 2 or 3 lurking in both places, but this was a mild case as the bumps did not blister up. They just disappeared.

My emotions were up and down throughout my illness. I think it was a combination of being sick, being tired, and being pregnant. On one occasion, I was at Wal-Mart waiting for a parking spot for 5 minutes and as the lady I was waiting for pulled out, another car swiftly stole the spot I was waiting for because the lady who pulled out was in my way. I called DearHubby and just cried his ear off for about 10 minutes. That was about the lowest of my lows.

I do have to admit, though, that I enjoyed having a good excuse for staying home and it allowed me some time to be content taking care of my home and family, as it should be. A friend of mine gave me eggplants and green peppers from her garden and I needed to do something with them. I used 2 eggplants and fried them, but when you're the only one eating eggplant, fried eggplants get old quickly. So, I tried a Classic Ratatouille recipe that combines eggplant, green peppers, zucchini, onions, and tomatoes; a recipe perfect for anyone who grew all these veggies in their garden. The recipe was good, but not as good as one batch my friend gave me. It did make good seasoning for soup I made the next day. I also had the opportunity to make homemade chili (well, from a box and I just added all the ingredients) to use up all of my green peppers. The chili was better after several days of sitting.

I even made homemade apple pie!!!

Anyway, what do little boys and girls use for pillows? DearDaughter1 will be turning 3 this month and for the past 3 years she's been using one of those head supports from a car seat as her pillow. In fact, she got so attached to it that it became a security pillow for her. As I thought about DearDaughter1 turning 3, I thought that it would be odd for her to be carrying around a head support as a security pillow and so this week we went on a scavenger hunt for a Big Girl Pillow. There isn't such a thing! I was so tempted to just buy a throw pillow for $25 until I finally ran into a travel pillow for $4.99. It was an actual pillow and the perfect size for a little big girl! However, there were no pillow cases, so I bought a standard pillow case in pink, DearDaughter's favorite color, and cut it down and sewed a pillow case for her. I don't normally sew and it took me 2 hours to complete the project. I was so proud of the pillow case because it looked so professionally done!

So, that's been our home life these past couple of weeks...Other than enjoying my 2 little girls, I've had the opportunity to do some other things that I don't normally take the time to do. The housecleaning is a different story though.

Well, off to enjoy the rest of my day!

To Mow or Not To Mow?

To mow or not to mow? That is the question...

I have been setting aside Friday as a special time to be with the girls. Today is Friday and I'm not sure what to do...It looks like it's going to be a really beautiful day and when I stepped outside for a second this morning, it was cool with less humidity than this past week. So, my desire is to head down to the beach after this morning's chiropractic appointment because we haven't been to the beach yet this year and I keep waiting for someone to go with us... Today, I feel like saying, "Stop waiting for the perfect time and just GO!!!" However, the responsible side of me is saying, "Take advantage of this nice day to mow the yard!" The yard really needs the mowing and DearHubby finally got it fixed last night.

Ahhh, the dilemmas of a tough life (I'm being sarcastic).

There really is so much for me to do here at home and if I got the mowing done today that would be one less thing on my To Do list for next week. Hmmm...

The Mission Statement at Work

Is it really Thursday?

Well, I am happy for writing my Housekeeping Mission Statment yesterday:

To create a place of refuge for my family, friends, and visitors that brings love, peace, and joy and promotes loving and serving God and others above all else.

It has already helped me stay focused on what's really important. I had a wonderful evening with DearHubby last night and we didn't even need a babysitter. It started off when I met him at the gym. I had complained to DearHubby that though my swims have worked on my endurance I just don't feel like my back's gotten stronger for another pregnancy. So, he invited me to work out with him and I worked out with him for the first time last night. I would have normally declined the invitation because we would get home late, meaning a late dinner and not being able to get some things done at home. As I thought about the mission statement, I thought that working out with DearHubby would give us the opportunity to spend time together, time that we'd normally not have and I thought, "Well, that promotes loving others...". Therefore, I accepted the invitation. We had a really good workout!

Well, after putting the girls down for bed, I was really discouraged because DearDaughter1 has really been acting up and I commented to DearHubby about it. He was frustrated and made an offensive comment back to me and of course I got angry at his comment. I walked out of the room to calm down and I really wanted to hold a grudge against DearHubby, but I remembered the mission statement, especially the part about "bringing peace" and "loving God". I prayed to God for wisdom and patience in how to deal with the situation and after a little while I returned to DearHubby to talk to him about his comment. DearHubby heard me out, humbled himself, sought forgiveness, and I forgave him.

Once we were reconciled, DearHubby wanted to work on another car project. I wasn't too thrilled with that idea and asked him if he would spend time with me. "Doing what?" he asked. "Talking...or we could play a game...," I said. DearHubby looked at the games we had and nothing seemed of interest. So I said, "Let's make up our own game!!! Let's play, 'How well do you know me!!!' You ask me a question about yourself and I'm supposed to tell you the right answer!" DearHubby was a little hesitant about it at first, but he went ahead and asked me a question about himself. It turned out to be a really fun game and we found out some things we didn't know about each other, but we also found out that, yeah, after 8 years almost 9 years of marriage, we know each other well. It was a lovely evening!

The mission statement is not perfect though, or shall I say, I am not perfect. There were a few times in the day when I just didn't care about the mission statement because I was just so provoked to anger by DearDaughter1. I'm not sure why she's been acting up lately. Last week, she did learn a lot of new ways to be defiant from her older cousins. In addition, since I had a few sets of eyes helping me watch the girls, DearDaughter1 may have gotten away with doing things I would normally not allow and having tasted that "freedom" she now feels she is entitled to those "freedoms" here at home. So, in this respect, I am glad we're home again, so that we can go back to a routine where DearDaughter1 knows what her boundaries are. For example, there was no limitation to how much the TV was on nor any limitations to what was on the TV. DearDaughter1 saw some shows and movies that she had never seen before and she also vegged out a lot more. It's been hard getting her back into play and it's ironic because I've had to "force" fun on DearDaughter1.

Well, I have a short store run to do and maybe I'll take the girls to Chick Fil A to play in their indoor play area. Hmmm...I can't believe how quickly this week has flown by, but I feel like nothing has been accomplished here at home. I've unpacked most of our stuff, but I still have that last bit to do...I hope to return to some what of a routine next week so that I can get a little house cleaning done. I believe, at least, a picked up home, not necessarily an emaculately clean home, promotes peace, and so I hope to get some done next week.

A Lesson Learned...and a Housekeeping Mission Statement(?)

After yesterday's fiasco, I have learned that being an overly ambitious housekeeper with Little Ones really sets one up for a lot of frustration and disappointments.

My mind was still on vacation. While we were in Illinois, we stayed with DearHubby's parents and it was like living in my dream home and living in a dream. The house was organized, simple, beautiful, inviting, and clean. I was able to keep up with our laundry, help out with a little of the housekeeping, play with the girls, read, visit with friends, rest, and still have time to be bored. By living in my dream home for a week, I think I came back to my home expecting it to be like it was in Illinois.

However, there were some things I failed to realize.

My MotherInLaw has a house cleaner that comes in every week. She doesn't have to be concerned about much of the house cleaning because that's taken care of for her and she can keep up with maintaining her house organization.

My MotherInLaw didn't and doesn't really have to worry about cooking. While we were there, food was dropped off almost every night as a display of people's condolences towards my MotherInLaw's dad's passing. In addition, my InLaws order from Schwann's and their meals are usually cooked in the microwave. Therefore, their grocery runs are short.

I had "built-in" baby sitters while in Illinois. From the time the girls got up to the time they went down for bed, there was another set of eyes available to watch the girls if I couldn't.

I didn't have to be concerned about any house chores and it was my choice to help out or not.

And my "I failed to realize" list goes on...

As a result of failing to recognize these things, I wanted my home to be like my InLaws' and my time to be like it was in Illinois and that's where I was being overly ambitious.

What is reality? Reality is...
1. My 2 little girls need a lot of my time and attention.
2. I am the only one at home with the girls for most part of the day being the only set of eyes to watch them. I am their sole care giver.
3. I am the sole house keeper who needs to keep up with the cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping, mail, budget, appointments, exercise, play dates, etc...
4. When both girls are awake, it's nearly impossible to work on a house project.

So, how can I both live in reality and in my dreams?

I need to define what it is I want out of my home and work with reality to keep to this defintion so that I am not being overly ambitious and burdening myself with unnessecary concerns.

Housekeeping Mission Statement:

To create a place of refuge for my family, friends, and visitors that brings love, peace, and joy and promotes loving and serving God and others above all else.

I will accomplish this mission by keeping order to the house in our primary needs first like providing the opportunity to care for our spiritual and bodily health, good nutritious meals, clean laundry, paid bills, and sufficient funds in the bank. I will also submit to my husband's priorities and needs before all. All other tasks, at this season of life, comes secondary and will not be a cause of frustration or burden if not done.

I will do all my tasks trusting in and seeking God's strength and peace and with joy and graciousness. When things get frustrating I will step away from any task and seek God in prayer to help me.

I hope my line of thinking is pleasing to God. If it's not, may He correct me towards His will and if this is His will, may He give me the perseverance, wisdom, and strength to do it.

When Jesus' in the family

Happy Happy Home

Happy Happy Home

Happy Happy Home

It's Been Hard Getting Back in the Groove...

I've had a few trials today, but for me, a trial is whenever something doesn't go my way. I had my day planned around helping out one of the coordinators of our VBS, but when I called her, there was no work to be done. I missed out on the work distribution this past Sunday because we were on the road, coming back from Illinois. The next work distribution isn't until this coming Sunday. Though that freed up the time I had planned to work on VBS, I didn't have a back-up plan. The housework seemed so overwhelming that I didn't know where to start.

The grass hadn't been mowed in weeks and our yard was beginning to look like a jungle. Therefore, I decided that I would spend the day mowing so that while I mowed the yard I could think of how and when to tackle my house chores. I put DearDaughter2 down for her morning nap, I set DearDaughter1 up with some bubbles on the patio, and I got the mower all prepped up for the task. It started up with no problems and I was on my way to getting this task off of DearHubby's To Do list. I mowed about a quarter of our left side's front yard when the mail woman pulled into our driveway. Apparently there were bugs crawling around our mailbox and she was grossed out by them and decided to hand deliver the mail to me. Therefore, I drove up to the mail woman on my lawn tractor and turned it off. BAD move! I couldn't start it back up again. I know it was full of gas because I just filled it before taking off. I checked the oil level and it was full. So, I thought the motor just overheated and needed time to cool off. I pushed the mower all the way back to the house to let it sit under the shade of our maple tree. I thought, "No problem. I'll just have lunch with DearDaughter1 and we'll just come out again after lunch."

After lunch and getting DearDaughter2 up and feeding her, I set up the Pack N Play outside for the girls to play in while I mowed. DearDaughter2 sleeps in her Pack N Play, so I had to disassemble it, carry it outside, and reassemble it. Then, I had to choose toys that would keep both girls occupied and lug them all outside. This whole process took about 20 minutes.

It then took another 10 minutes to prep myself up for the mowing task again. I had to put on my socks and work shoes and lather up my legs, arms, neck, and chest with sun block. My thinking was that if the mower started up, everything would be prepared and I wouldn't need to turn it off again and I can just get up and go. Well, to no avail, the mower DID NOT start up. It wasn't even turning over. I called DearHubby to see if he could give me any advice about a quick fix, but he didn't want me to touch anything, hurting myself or the mower. At this point, I grew really frustrated because it was now 1pm and NOTHING had been accomplished today.

I knew that if I stayed frustrated, then NOTHING more would get done. I hadn't had time to think about what house chores to tackle first, so I decided to tackle the bathroom, since it looked the dirtiest. The toilet and tub had not been cleaned in weeks. So, I went through the whole process of disassembling and reassembling the Pack N Play inside. My thinking here was since I was going to use the Pack N Play to occupy the girls outside then I'll just use the Pack N Play to occupy the girls inside. It was another BAD idea!!!

DearDaughter1 is used to playing inside the house. She knows what she is allowed to get into and she knows what she is not allowed to get into. Therefore, the Pack N Play did not keep DearDaughter1 "bound" to just that little area. She was in and out of the Pack N Play. I didn't think she was in any sort of danger. She was just running in circles through the house, something we've done before. Well, little 2 year olds are still very clumsy little ones and somehow, DearDaughter1 tripped and fell, cutting her bottom lip open with her teeth and scraping her upper gums. Blood was quickly dripping all over the floor and DearDaughter1 was hysterically crying. She wouldn't hold still for a second, so I couldn't see whether or not I needed to take her to the ER.

I didn't respond well during this situation and all chaos broke loose in the house. Both girls were now crying hysterically and I couldn't gain control of DearDaughter1. Instead of comforting her as I should have, I retreated and walked away and told her that when she was ready for my help then I would come and help her. She was still bleeding, but I was afraid that if I struggled to see her wound, then I'd hurt her even more. After a little while, DearDaughter1 called for me and I asked if she was ready for my help. I finally got the bleeding to stop and was able to assess whether or not to take DearDaughter1 to the doctor. The cuts on her lips didn't look deep enough for stitches so I decided to just give DearDaughter1 some Tylenol. I then took her into the living room and had ler lay on our futon and I put on a few videos for her. She wasn't interested in sucking on ice to keep the swelling down, so her lips are quite fat. I tried giving her a popsicle, but she wasn't interested in it. So, I put some apple juice in a couple of squares on the ice tray and made her apple juicicles. I hope she'll be fooled into eating those so that we can get something cold on her lips.

I sound so cool and controlled in how I handled the situation, but I know I didn't do what was pleasing to the Lord in a few instances. This was my first time dealing with an accident and I was quite stressed out. And here, I was thinking I was prepared through all the times I've taken DearHubby to the ER with all the accidents he's had around the house. It's a lot different with a child and your own child! The biggest difference is that DearHubby always remained calm which helped me stay calm and I was able to think clearly. I had 2 little ones crying hysterically which caused me to grow anxious and to not think clearly. I hope the Lord will help me lean on His grace the next time.

Needless to say, it's now 4:09pm as I'm writing this. The house is in disarray and DearHubby is on his way home. I'm not sure if I should even attempt to pick up a little, finish the tub I was cleaning, or just rest???

The Laundry Room Mt. Vesuviused

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I Mt. Vesuviused my laundry room!!!

"The main point of this method is not to simplify but to sort and store - to get them into categorized boxes. If you come across obvious and blatant junk, get rid of it. But don't examine piles and try to make decisions as you go. Just get the stuff off the floor, table, etc. and into the boxes as quickly as possible.

Putting things into boxes without making decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of may make you feel uncomfortable. You will feel better if you remember that this is the Mount Vesuvious Method. We are dealing with a disaster here. There is not enough time to "do it right."

When they are filled, put the tops on and stack the boxes up the side of a wall, hopefully outside the room you are clearing, with the labeled side out so you can have confidence you can locate anything you may need. Later you may go back and weed out the things you do not want to keep, one box at a time. At that point, you may wish to set up storage areas for the various items you wish to keep...

Just get them out of the way so you can have your room back! Later you can deal with them, but for now use that short-lived but effective, explosive power to get the room uncluttered and clear." (excerpt from The Messies Manual by Sandra Felton)

I got my laundry room back!!!

My laundry room did not seem like a disaster area to me, compared to what I had to deal with last year. Therefore, in the beginning of the year, when I decided to clean my laundry room again, I thought I could take the time to CLEAN IT RIGHT. Well, when mid-May came along and the laundry room still looked the same or worse than what it did in January, I decided that it was time to Mt. Vesuvius the room.

I purchased several bins and a few space bags and packed everything away. Everything was basically sorted in the laundry room and so I took several hours one day and just packed everything away. When I had to deal with this laundry room last year, I basically did the same thing thinking I'd get back to the bins that I stored away. I haven't. That was my biggest concern with doing that this year. I didn't want to store more junk. So, I am hoping that I will have the opportunity to go through the bins and actually keep what we need and give away or throw away what we don't need.

Paperwork is my biggest problem. Despite reading what Miss Felton says about paperwork, I still have a difficult time keeping up with it. I have developed a system where I go through and trash what we don't need on a weekly basis, but there's still a lot of paperwork that I still keep. There is always that thought of "what if we'll need this document in the future..." and it has happened where years later, DearHubby and I have needed a particular document and if I had not kept it, we would have been in trouble.

Anyway, it was a relief to see the floor to my laundry room again. I hope it stays that way ;)

Ready for the Weekend

Is this really a park near our house? Yup, only a 5-10 minute drive!!!

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Ahhhh, the dishes are washed, kitchen cleaned, toys picked up, table cleared, potty training items put away, carpet and floors vacuumed, and a load of laundry is in the washer and dryer! So, I am ready to start my day tomorrow and my weekend.

We don't really have much planned for the holiday weekend. Well, we purchased our Ford Focus Wagon just in time because the Monday after our BIG purchase, the transmission on our Ford Escort ZX2 went out. So, for the past 2 weeks, DearHubby has been driving the Mustang we supposedly retired and he is spending this holiday weekend replacing the shot transmission.

Nonetheless, the girls and I went to the grocery store today and bought a box of Bubba hamburgers (1/3 lb patties), a package of hot dogs, and some other miscellaneous items for a small family BBQ on Monday.

I've been spending a lot of time re-establishing a routine here at home. Potty training has taken much more time than I anticipated and I needed to reassess everthing on my plate and reorganize my time and priorities. Before I started potty training DearDaughter1 I talked to my sister about her experience with potty training. She had a lot of positive things to say and she made potty training sound sooooooo easy. She literally trained my niece in a day and she made it sound like my niece was completely out of diapers immediately afterwards. Maybe it was THAT easy for her and I expected it to be THAT easy for me which caused me to expect a lot from DearDaughter1.

For the 1st few days, DearDaughter1 was really into potty training and only had 1 or 2 accidents a day and so I thought she was ready to go out on errands in undies. Unfortunately, she had one embarrassing accident at the gym and I think that did it in for the potty training and she completely lost interest. I then decided that DearDaughter1 is not ready to go out on errands in undies and that I'd put her in Pull-Ups. However, from that accident time on, potty training became a contentious issue between us to the point where I stressed over it and stressed DearDaughter1 over it.

As a result, at the beginning of this week, DearDaughter1 had an accident every time, and went through all 14 of her undies in about 1 1/2 days. She just refused to use the potty and I got so upset that for a short moment I did give up! I put away all the potty training items and put DearDaughter1 into her little sister's diaper.

After thinking about how I was not exemplifying Christ likeness in handling difficult and challenging situations, DearDaughter1 and I prayed for God's wisdom and strength about potty training. Our decision was to still persevere through it, but I've backed off on expecting more than what DearDaughter1 can do. When we first started, I had DearDaughter1 in undies all day. I took that pressure off of DearDaughter1 by allowing her to be in Pull-Ups for part of the day. I still expect her to go to the potty while she is in the Pull-Ups, but if she has an accident, it's ok. It's taken off stress from DearDaughter1 and me too. The clean-ups from accidents were nasty and very time consuming. The day DearDaughter1 had an accident the whole day, I felt like I literally spent all day cleaning up after her. I wasn't getting much done as far as house chores were concerned and that really made me anxious. I realized that potty training, at least for DearDaughter1, is a learning process. It's a habit that has to be established and it depends on DearDaughter1's maturity level, her willingness to do it, and her physical capabilities to know when to do it. That's a lot on a little 2 year old's shoulders and I needed to learn that the hard way.

I do have to say that despite the challenging moments, I am so proud of DearDaughter1 and her perseverance through learning how to use the potty. I've caused her much stress these past several weeks, but despite the stress, she still managed to reach milestones! Last Friday, while we were out, she asked to use the potty even while in a Pull-Up! This Wednesday, she went poo poo in the potty for the first time!!! They were both very joyous moments and DearDaughter1 was very proud of herself!!!

Aside from working through the potty training issue, I spent a lot of time with the girls this week. The nearest parks I knew about are 20 to 25 minutes away and so I made it a goal this week to find parks closer to our house. I got out the map (on Mapquest) and just looked for big green areas and since Tuesday, the girls and I have been park hopping! We visited 3 known parks and 2 new parks. Some were nicer than others, but we still had a lot of fun at all of them!

It was actually really nice going to the park because it allowed opportunity for the girls and I to spend time with each other and I didn't feel so stressed out because most everything at the park is permissible for DearDaughter1 to play with and I didn't have to do much disciplining. When we got home, the girls were so tired that DearDaughter2 would go down for 2 hour naps while DearDaughter1 quietly played by herself, which allowed me to get much done here at home!

One thing I've been trying to get back into the habit of is doing all the clean-up after the girls go to bed. I got into the habit of cleaning up in the evening a few months ago, but reverted back to doing chores during the day because I was just so tired by the end of the day. However, I've realized that clean-up just goes so much faster when the girls are not around. What usually takes me a whole day to accomplish would take me an hour to 2 hours in the evening because I'm not constantly being interrupted. I don't have much time to relax in the evening and I'm usually working up until bedtime, but I'm finding that I am less anxious during the day because I have more "free" time and I'm not so worried about house chores. That gives me more time to just hang out with the girls and do more fun stuff. I used to not like doing chores after 8pm, but I think this is a season that I will need to and it's helping me get my strength from God.

The next thing I want to work on is good time management. In order for me to re-establish a good routine here at home, I've had to really cut out a lot of play date opportunities and other extra activities with others. I'm not sure how to integrate them back in yet. I'm going to have to take that one step at a time.

Well, it's late...Just wanted to jot down some thoughts before the weekend since I've been quiet all week long.

More of This and That

I am quite upset at myself. Last week I was out of the house a lot and though I got my main weekly tasks done, I was not able to get a start on any projects I've been wanting to work on for a long time. So, I had 2 outings planned for this week and I told myself that those were the only 2 outings I would go to. The first one was yesterday and the second was for either Thursday or Friday.

In the middle of doing dishes today I got a phone call from DearDaughter1's best-friend's mom asking if we wanted to go over their house to bake peanut butter cookies with them. I had a long To Do list that I really wanted to accomplish today and I really should have declined the invitation.

Lately, DearDaughter1 and DearDaughter2 have been waking very early in the mornings, not giving me any time to do any chores at that time anymore. I try to get chores done while they are awake and while DearDaughter2 is asleep, but with all the interruptions during the day, it's difficult to get much done. However, it's still time to get stuff done, especially when the evenings are the only times now that I do have time to work. It's quite draining because I feel like I don't get any rest at all.

I get up at 4:50am to feed DearDaughter2. Right after that I start on DearHubby's breakfast and lunch. Then, after DearHubby leaves, I used to sit and do my devotions and then get a few chores done before the girls got up, but now I feel like my morning time is being intruded upon with the girls getting up at about the time DearHubby leaves the house. Then, we get to the real work of the day, childrearing. Childrearing is such a full time job and for me it starts at 6am and usually ends around 7:45pm. If I'm having a bad evening, then the real work doesn't stop until 8:30-9pm. I do try to take a little break afterwards, but then I'm off to work again on house chores until it's time to prepare for bed, around 10pm, but I don't usually get to sleep until 11pm. It's a long work day.

Therefore, last week, was sort of like a "vacation" week for me and I didn't really feel guilty for playing hookie. Yet, I really didn't want to establish being out of the house often as a daily habit.

So, I'm upset at myself because I knew I should have declined the baking invitation. The only reason I accepted is because I had an outing with my friends yesterday and both girls did really well and was very patient with the whole outing, despite how bored they were...and I didn't have any plans with DearDaughter1's best friend for the whole week. I thought it would have been a good break for her.

So, as a Mommy, did I make a good decision? How about as a Homemaker, knowing that I have many many many many many tasks that needs to get done.

Well...I've got more to write, but I should get back to work. I'll share my blessings and thoughts about online grocery shopping in my next posts soon.

Employing Help

She watches over the affairs of her household...(Proverbs 31:27, NIV)

I tried something new today. I shopped for groceries at ACME online and tomorrow I will be picking up my order. Apparently, when I go to pick up my order, my groceries will be loaded in the car for me. I'm quite relieved for this service because I did groceries with the girls last week and I carried DearDaughter2 in a carrier while I shopped and that was tough on my back. I'm looking forward to just being able to drive up and get my groceries without having to unload the girls.

It's been quite a challenge setting up a grocery day routine. When it was just DearDaughter1, I made Monday mornings my grocery day because the store was the least crowded and the shelves were well stocked. After DearDaughter2 came along I attempted Saturday mornings, where I would get up at 5am, leave the house by 6am, and get back home by 8am while DearHubby and the girls slept. It worked for awhile, but now that DearHubby and I are sleeping in the living room, it's been difficult trying not to wake him while I prepare myself and my list.

I've considered doing groceries in the evening after the girls go to bed, but I am more of a morning person and I am all out of energy by the time evening rolls around. Once the girls are in bed, I get into this zombie like state where I just need to sit down and relax.

So, I tried shopping online today and amazingly, my grocery bill was comparable to what it would be if I had shopped at Wal-Mart. What I liked about shopping online was that my total was calculated for me as I shopped and so if I went over my budget, I could look over my list and remove any unneccesary items or items I didn't necessarily need to purchase this week.

If this shopping online thing works, I may stick with it for awhile.

Another challenge I've had is keeping up with the house cleaning and I've been considering a cleaning service, maybe, once a month. I haven't talked to DearHubby about this idea yet, but I've just been thinking about the things that have been challenging for me to get to and causes me a burden and how I can ease those burdens.

The true burden is purging and organizing and that is where I've been wanting to focus my time on. I created a routine last year where I would spend 1/2 the week working on a major organizational project and the other 1/2 of the week cleaning. The routine worked well when it was just DearDaughter1, but with the addition of DearDaughter2, my time is so much more limited. I barely have time to get to my organizational projects as it is now and so the housecleaning work has just fallen by the wayside even more. My house is not at all filthy as I do vacuum the main areas daily or at least every other day, I clean my bathrooms weekly, and my kitchen and dining table is cleaned daily. However, I have not dusted or cleaned behind or under furniture in over a year and I can just see the layers of dust. Dust accumelates especially quick at my house because we are always under some sort of renovation project. Anyway, as I see my house getting more and more dusty, I become more burdened and more overwhelmed at the thought of getting to those tasks. I guess my goal is to free up my time to be able to focus on our organizational needs and to not have housecleaning so much of a burden. That way I can also have have more free time to be readily available during the day for any playdate opportunities that my arise, because I know that DearDaughter1 is at that stage where play is really important. So, I've thought about looking into Merry Maids and how much they charge and if I can get some housecleaning done for $20 a month, I think I would be interested in that idea.

I've considered swapping babysitting days with a friend, but I wasn't sure if I would really be freeing up more of my time because I would still need to keep DearDaughter2 with me since I'm still nursing her. I tried sending DearDaughter1 off with a friend for a few hours once and I only had 1 hour to really work because the rest of the time I was still caring for DearDaughter2. When DearDaughter2 is weaned, maybe I'll consider swapping babysitting days.

We are by far not wealthy at all and I am not looking into employing help because I'm lazy. I guess I've come to the point where I just find the amount of work just too much for 1 mommy to handle and so I'm looking into ways that I can delegate tasks until things around the house gets settled to a point where 1 mommy can handle it again.

Just One of Them Days

I kind of feel defeated this morning. It's just been one of those mornings where I wanted to get a lot of things done and I feel like I haven't done much.

DearDaughter1's best-friend and mom are coming by this afternoon around 12:45pm. It's now 10am. So far, all I've gotten done is a load in the washer, breakfast for myself and the girls, baths for the girls, and the dishes. I was hoping to work on my 2007 filing paperwork project and prepare dinner all before 12:45pm. It's looking like I'll only have time to get myself dressed and prepare dinner and maybe do some pick-up before they get here.

I've fallen behind on my tasks this week because I've been so tired. I took a day to recuperate from Monday's play date. We were here at home, but there's something about keeping DearDaughter1 and DearDaughter2 in "control" for guests that's just very mentally tiresome.

Then, I took a day to recuperate from Tuesday's workout. DearHubby and I exercised on Tuesday evening and really pushed ourselves and I was physically tired.

So, for the past couple of days, I've been taking it really easy here at home with tasks, doing things that aren't too mentally or physically draining, like updating my girls' blog (and mine - posting things that have have been on my mind for some time), and just keeping up with the minimum basic chores.

I was feeling really good this morning, both physically and mentally, and wanted to get caught up with things I haven't addressed yet this week. I feel defeated because in order for me to get started on certain projects, I would need the space and the time and the right timing to do these projects and I've come to the realization that the 2 hours I have from now until DearDaughter1's friend and mom comes over is not enough time because I still have to feed my girls and myself lunch, get dinner prepared, etc...After they leave, I then have to run to the store to purchase ingredients for a lunch gathering tomorrow. Then, after shopping, I need to meet DearHubby at the gym to work-out. So, today is shot as far as getting much accomplished at home. Tomorrow is also shot because it'll take all morning just to get the girls ready and out of the house in time for lunch and of course the gathering will take all afternoon. Then, we have a wedding on Saturday to attend, which is 2 hours away, so Saturday's shot...and then Sunday is the Lord's Day, no work.

You ever have one of those days? If so, how do you keep yourself from getting overwhelmed by the work you know you'll be behind on?

Children's Clothing

Whew, I just got done putting a load of the girls' laundry into the washer.

I never would have thought that I would ever post about children's clothing, but DearDaughter1 is now 2 years old and the free clothing from my baby shower and hand me downs are now over. I actually went into panic mode a couple of weeks ago because I know how expensive clothing is and since DearHubby and I came with clothes in hand when we got married, I have never had to budget for clothing before. Well, last night, I actually felt a little sense of relief as I felt like I had enough Spring/Summer clothing for DearDaugher1. At the end of the 2007 summer season, I was able to buy short sleeved tops for DearDaughter1 at about $1.98 each. I felt like those tops could get me through the season, but I had no bottoms (ie. shorts or skirts). Well, there is a sale this week at Target on Circo shorts, 2 for $7, and so yesterday, I purchased 1 pair of jean, khaki, and forest green shorts. I thought those colors were neutral enough to match all the tops I have. Then, I looked through the clearance section in the Toddler area and found 2 cute Spring/Summer tops good enough to use at church for 50% off. When I got home, I took inventory of DearDaughter1's Spring/Summer clothes, and felt like I finally had enough clothes for DearDaughter1. All we really need now are some dress bottoms, like skirts, for church, but I'm not too worried about that because for now we could make do until we find some cheap skirts or dresses. In addition, besides dressing up for church, we really have no need for really nice skirts or dresses.

For the past few weeks, I've been hitting the sales at different clothing stores to stock up for next winter. It's amazing what you can buy on clearance!!! I bought great long sleeved tops for about $2.50 or less at The Children's Place and the jeans were on sale too! What's amazing is that these tops and bottoms are much better quality than what you can buy at Wal-Mart and they were much cheaper!!! They're also so stylish :) I'm still not at peace about being prepared for next winter, but I'm close enough that I'll just make sure to keep my eyes open for good deals, like garage/yard sales.

I was able to make a trip to the Thrift store also, thinking that I can make up for the clothes I couldn't buy new, but unfortunately, it didn't seem like this particular store I went to had received donations in a while. Their clothing racks were really bare. There was actually a mom who was walking in with her 2 daughters and I should have told her about the sale at The Children's Place.

Oh yeah, another place I went to to get a few good deals was Old Navy.

Growing up, I always thought that people who thought about clothes a lot were materialistic. However, I have never thought about clothes so much than these past few weeks. I'm realizing that it's not materialistic at all, especially when there's a true concern for making sure my children have clothing to wear.

Another thing I've never done with my clothes that I'm doing with my girls' clothing is hand washing away all the stains before throwing them in the washer. That's what I just got done doing before sitting and writing this post. The clothes that DearDaughter1 is wearing now will have to be good enough for DearDaughter2 to wear in a year or 2. The clothes DearDaughter2 is wearing now will have to be good enough for another baby girl, if the Lord blesses us with one. I used to be lazy and just spray a little Shout on the stains, but I found that Shout alone doesn't get out the stains. I've found what works best is hot water, soap, and elbow grease. Clorox helps with the whites. If anyone out there knows how to ease the elbow grease, I would love to receive that tip. Anyway, the point was, I hand wash the stains so that the clothes's good condition will be preserved to be handed down to the next sibling or even to another family in need.

Well, so that's my 2 cents worth about clothing:
1) Clothes can be found cheap, from 50%-75% off retail price, at the end of the season so think and plan ahead and purchase clothes for next year.
2) Preserve clothes' good condition by washing stains before throwing them in the washer and they'll be good to wear for years to come.

The Toys Belong

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A couple days ago I mentioned how I needed to reorganize my living room area to incorporate MyGirls' toys, but I probably wouldn't get to it until February because it's not on my January list of goals. Well, I couldn't stop thinking about the project and I dove into it yesterday...

There was a sale at Target for cubed containers and so I bought 2 blue and 2 green. The blue and green match the color scheme of my living room AND it gives me storage room for MyGirls' toys. In addition, the brightness of the colors add an air of playfulness!

There was also a clearance sale on a set of wooden puzzles that I purchased. It's a set of 5 wooden puzzles on a bright green rack. I thought it made a great toy to keep MyGirls' occupied, but it also adds to the decor of the living room by also giving it an air of playfulness!

Lastly, I purchased, at full price, a square laundry hamper to store MyGirls' larger toys.

After determining what to do with all these new items, I reorganized my living room. I moved all the toys in the laundry room back into the living room. It felt so good to know that there was a home for these toys. I then moved my trunk, which also stored MyGirls' toys to the middle of the room and leaned DearDaughter1's couch in front of the trunk. This created a divider so that there is a distinct play area in the living room and a distinct adult area.

Although these changes are really so small they really make the toys seem like they belong. The storage boxes gives the toys a home and add playfulness too and so the toys don't seem out of place. Even the magnetic alphabet set on the fridge and bibs hanging on the chair look like they belong.

I am happy with my newly organized living room area. Now my previous post about the house being a mess but stuff getting done will make even more sense in my home. Even though my house is a mess, it is obvious there's a home for the mess to go back into. Therefore, I won't feel so anxious when I see the mess during the day because I know it has a home and I can concentrate on getting the important stuff done. In addition, now that there is an obvious home for the toys, DearDaughter1 can help out by putting her toys away when she's done. That's something that she's still not used to doing and I let it go because she's still only 2, but it's not too early to start training. (As a side note...My house was not necessarily a disorganized home before this change...In fact, one of my projects last year was to incorporate DearDaughter1's toys into the living room...However, as our family grew and as we got more stuff from Christmas, our storage and organizational needs changed. It was that change that hadn't been addressed yet and that's what was addressed yesterday. Probably in a few months I'll need to change things around again as DearDaughter2 becomes more mobile. In the meanwhile, I am happy with this new set-up!)

Applied lessons:
1. There's a place for everything and everything's in its place.
2. This is my children's home too.
(Thanks Bren for putting this concept for me into words...)

If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em

The house is so bare! I finally took down our Christmas decorations today...Aaaahhh, with the exception of a couple of Christmas photos of the girls, all remnants of the holiday season is stored away. I'm kind of bummed about it. The Christmas decorations, in our home, and elsewhere, just made everything look so festive, especially in our dreary neck of the woods where everything is just dead and brown...We had a good amount of accumelated snow last week Thursday, but by Friday morning the snow was gone and washed away by the rain. So what was a winter wonderland for a short time is now a winter's dreary-land...

Well, instead of returning all of my previous decor, I decided to keep the living room bare for a time. We've been working on some house renovations to give us more living room space, but because of our financial situation, the completion of the room doesn't seem like a near future event. Therefore, for the last several weeks, I've been mulling over the saying "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

While our Christmas decorations were up, I stored DearDaughter1's toys in the laundry room so that the living room space would look like an adult room. The toys have overtaken the laundry room and once again there is no room for me to fold the laundry. Therefore, as I've thought about the saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," I've been thinking about turning our living room into a play room. What I mean is organizing the room so that all the storage areas that I have in the living room is for toys. In addition, adding some playful decor so that the room looks more like it's for the kids. I wouldn't be completely turning it into a playroom. My goal is to make the room look organized enough so that when we have company it can still be used for an adult room, but during the day, toys are easily accessible as well as easily stored. Transporting toys from the laundry room and back on a daily basis just isn't working anymore.

This transformation isn't part of my January goals and so I'll probably dive into this project some time in February. I think at that time I'll also go through DearDaughter1's and DearDaughter2's toys and purge out the ones that aren't being used at this time.

Just wanted to jot down some of my thoughts...

In Pursuit of His Call

The House is a Mess But Stuff's Getting Done

Growing up my parents never really had an organized home. As much as I tried to clean the house and keep it organized for my parents, there was just too much clutter because my parents held on to everything. I'm not a true claustrophobic, but in cluttered spaces, I do start to feel closed in and get really anxious inside. Therefore, it drove me crazy growing up in my parents home because I always felt closed in and anxious. The mess and clutter was always there, despite my greatest efforts to clear the clutter up.

In my mind, I thought that once I owned my own home, I would keep it clutter free.

Well, no one ever told me how messy little ones are and no one ever told me that I would have toys and other miscellaneous things ALL OVER the floor.

It was a lot easier when DearDaughter1 just turned 1. If I took out a bunch of toys for her, she would, for as long as she could, stay in one spot and play with her toys. Without fencing DearDaughter1 in, the toys still stayed pretty much contained in the living room area.

As DearDaughter1 became more mobile and more curious she grew to love taking everything out of bins and drawers within her reach. If I left a room for even just a second, stuff would be all over the floor when I returned. I remember one day when I had just folded all of DearDaughter1's towels and wash towels and neatly put them away. I left the room for a short while just to grab other clothes to put away. Well, DearDaughter1 was curious about the fuzzy things and went to her towel baskets and just had a blast pulling each and every towel and wash towel out of the basket. I wondered why she suddenly grew silent and when I peeked in, I saw all the hard work I put into storing her towels in a nice and neat pile in disarray on the floor.

This chasing after DearDaughter1's mess became quite stressful and soon, I was disciplining her for everything she touched that she was not allowed to (in addition to child-proofing). DearDaughter1 learned her lesson.

However, as DearDaughter1 grew into the toddler phase, she also needed more toys to keep her occupied or else she'd really be clingy to Mommy. I was pregnant at that time and could not always appease DearDaughter1's clinginess by carrying her anymore. So, when I didn't use the TV to keep DearDaughter1 distracted, I would take out toys and place them in random places in the living room area. Once in awhile, when I saw that DearDaughter1 was getting bored, I would then rotate her toys by putting away the "morning" toys and taking out the "afternoon" toys.

Going back to my "claustrophobic" tendencies, I would really become very anxious when DearDaughter1's toys just seemed to be cluttering the house. Therefore, I was constantly behind DearDaughter1 picking things up here and there just so the house would stay fairly neat. This was a very tiring exercise, but I did it anyway. I did it because of the anxiety that I felt and I did it to keep the house neat just in case a surprise visitor came over or so that it would like I had a productive day in DearHubby's eyes.

Well, this chasing after DearDaughter1 to pick up her toys became very stressful and it was causing me to become angry and frustrated at her, sometimes to the point of yelling at her. I became angry and frustrated because instead of taking care of necessary chores, I was concentrating a lot of my energy on keeping the house nice and neat.

Once the hustle and bustle of the holidays were over, I made it a priority to return to MyRoutine. I had not followed MyRoutine for a long time just because I was still learning how to juggle my time between 2 kiddos, but now that DearDaughter2 is almost 6 months old, I've determined that it's time to get other things back into order, especially the house work. So, for the past several weeks, I have made myself stay home to get my house back in order. As I've stayed home I finally realized why I wasn't getting things done. I was wasting a lot of my effort trying to keep the house looking neat rather than taking care of the essentials, like laundry. I went back to a post about my husband's priorities and I was reminded of which things he'd like taken care of in the home first. So, I decided that I would put my energies into my husband's prioprities and MyRoutine.

The result is kind of ironic...The house is a mess, but stuff's getting done!!!

Was it the End of the Season?

Last Thursday I wrote a post wondering if it was the end of the season for my friendship with some ladies...Mostly, I was wondering if I should cancel a lunch I planned for Friday...

It turned out that as I was feeling overwhelmed and debating whether to cancel the lunch or not, my friend who cancelled because she was sick e-mailed me and said that she was now well and available for Friday. So, I did have my luncheon.

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It actually turned out to be a nice surprise. Since I was so caught up in preparing for the luncheon, it didn't even dawn on me that this would probably be our last gathering before Christmas. However, these friends did think about it and brought along Christmas presents. I received a soup cook book, some tea cups and matching saucers, a scent diffuser, a book about being an at home mom by Donna Otto, and a Christmas wall banner (which turned out to be my favorite gift of everything I received). I was very overwhelmed by the kindness of these ladies as well as drained from the preparations that I did not have the opportunity to bring up my burden about the "group". Well, it was ok, this time, that I let my thoughts pass because I made the luncheon gathering my Christmas gift to the ladies. It had been awhile since we all had gotten together and if it weren't for my initiating the lunch, this would never have happened. So, the ladies did appreciate my efforts in coordinating the lunch and providing the food.

On to other concerns that I had...

Well, it did take me several days to recuperate from Friday's luncheon. In fact, I just got the last of the dishes done today...Yet, despite the loss of time from the luncheon, I was still able to do some Christmas shopping, planning, and decorating...

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I put up 99% of the decorations on Thursday. I have 2 bins worth of Christmas decorations, but I knew that since DearDaughter1 would probably get into them, I decided to keep everything very simple, which made decorating easier. So, I probably only used 1/3 of my decorations. My favorite decorations that I put up this year are our family stockings! I bought really cheap Christmas stockings and stenciled our names on them and hung them up in our entryway. Above our stockings is a Christmas ornament with "Jesus" written on it to signify that Jesus is above us all and He is the provider for all our gifts. This decor makes for good Christmas greetings for all that enter our home. The last thing I need to do is make a set of pillow cases for the couch pillows. I bought some material on sale at Wal-Mart and hopefully by the end of the week I am able to just hand stitch the material together with red thread for a more Christmasy feel.

On Saturday, I went Christmas shopping at a Christian bookstore. Here's what I've determined so far about gift giving...

For our family: 3 gifts per person (large, medium, and small) just like Jesus received 3 gifts

I got most of my shopping done on Saturday and I felt quite relieved. I sat down today to make out the rest of my "list" and where I will purchase them. The rest of the week will be trying to run those errands to get these gifts.

There's a lot running through my mind about Christmas time. These thoughts started formulating last year and I'm still working through them. I will need to dwell on them a bit longer and when I've come to a "clear" conclusion I will jot them down.

Well, this is the end of this post. Maybe now I'll spend some time making those pillow cases...

I'll start work on our Christmas cards too...

There is a Time and Season for Everything

I've been feeling really anxious...

I got a UTI and then caught a cold last week and didn't get much done around the house. I'm feeling much better, but both illnesses are still lingering. Therefore, I haven't had much motivation to get much accomplished, only the bare minimum to keep our house running. Many days of chores and errand running lost...

In addition, I babysat all day at a DearFriend's house on Tuesday and then went for family pictures in the evening. Another day of chores and errand running lost...

I am a co-coordinator of a ministry called Sister Encouraging Sister at church and every year we have a Christmas party for the ladies in the church. I have a planning meeting today. Another day of chores and errand running lost...

I have a small luncheon planned at my house on Friday for 3 local friends. One just cancelled because she's sick. I am so up in the air about whether to go on with the luncheon or to postpone and reschedule it...There is a time for every season...Does that mean friendships also? These friends are older friends with older kids. Though I am the youngest of the group, these women enjoyed my company as I enjoyed theirs because we all challenged one another in the Lord. I met them before I had children and I was very flexible to meet with them any time and I moved my schedule around to fit theirs. When we first met, we all enjoyed each other's company very much and we got together every week. Times got busy and our gathering time went down to every other week. Times got even busier and we met every month...Now we hardly meet at all. I am usually the one who has taken the initiative to bring the "group" together and so for the last 2 or 3 years now I've been the person coordinating our gatherings. It's not easy coordinating every one's schedule to work out and it takes a lot of time. In addition, since I'm the one coordinating the gathering, it's usually at my house and I need to prepare for it and cook for it. That takes planning and TIME too. So, I thought that once I had DearDaughter2 someone else with more time would take the initiative and try to coordinate a gathering, but that hasn't happened. So maybe this "group" means more to me than to the other ladies? I am not one to easily let go of friendships and I would do anything to hold on to a friendship. However, even in the Christian community, I've heard the word "season of life" used a lot. I know the reference comes from Ecclesiastes, but do friendships count too? I feel like if I don't take the initiative to coordinate these gatherings, then we'll never get together. Though we are local friends, we all have busy lives and don't contact each other often. I feel like if I don't take the initiative to bring us together, then our friendships would quickly fade. It makes me wonder also if we're truly friends anymore if we're only with one another once or twice a year. Have we helped one another carry each other's burdens? Have we shared each other's joys? Is there a season even for friendships and is this the end of the season with these ladies?

These thoughts are running through my head because I have lost many days for chores and errand running due to my illness and other obligations. We normally travel to California or Illinois, to our parents' for the holidays, but this year we're not. This will be the first year my family will have the opportunity to do Christmas here at home and I was hoping to make it special. Since we normally travel, I usually am not concerned about decorating my home. However, this year, I wanted to warm up our home a little and break out some decorations, especially our nativity set, but I haven't had the opportunity to take a walk 300 feet from our home yet to our storage building. It's dark back there and has to be done during the day during the girls' naps. Just getting the decorations alone will probably be a 30 minute to 45 minute ordeal...It will probably take me a whole day to figure out how I would like to decorate my home...A time span that I haven't had yet. Then, since we've never had Christmas at home, DearHubby and I have never really made it a big ordeal to get each other gifts for Christmas. In fact, as we've been married for 8 years we've always talked about not making Christmas about the gifts, but about our Lord Jesus Christ...and not that I want to deviate from our desire to do that, but our little girls are just that, little, and I would like to see the joy in their faces when they receive a special gift. All that said, I have not really put all that much thought to what gift to give to my DearHubby and DearGirls nor have I started shopping (either for materials if it's a handmade gift or for items). That all takes time too.

So, I am a little anxious because I am looking at the calendar and I have only 19 days left before Christmas. I've never done Christmas in my own home before and I haven't even started planning, not even for our dinner :( I haven't even started my Christmas cards, usually 100 of them, and I usually do a family update with enclosed pictures for each. I look at the obligations and time I have and I don't have much. Cancelling tomorrow's lunch would be a huge burden off of my shoulders as it would probably give me at least 2 days back if not 3 (it usually takes me the day after to recuperate from a gathering). It was easier to do these things when I didn't have children and I could do everything, but now that I have 2 little ones the reality is they do take up that much time and I can't do everything. I've never had to prioritize my time and choose one activity over another because I used to be able to do it all, but I've come to the realization that maybe I have to let go of doing some things. My problem is I'm not sure what to let go of and if I have a reason to. Do I cancel tomorrow's lunch and trust God that there will be a time that all of us will gather again one day soon? Do I go on and have tomorrow's lunch and trust God that I will have time to make this first Christmas at home special?

If I took these concerns to my husband I know he'll tell me to pray over it. That's what I'll do, but if there's anyone willing to share any wisdom, I would gladly hear it too.

Hang in There

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When suspended by chains above the center island of your kitchen and given a coat of whitewash, part of a weathered old flea-market ladder is transformed into a one-of-a kind cottage-style pot rack. Anchor the chains with bolts screwed into joists; if you can't locate joists in the ceiling, be sure to use the pot rack for lightweight objects only.

Idea courtesy of Country Home

A Warm Welcome

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Placing pretty storage containers in your bathroom closet not only helps with day-to-day organization but also keeps niceties on hand for improptu guests. A wicker basket packed with fresh laundered towels, a toothbrush, soaps, and a bouquet of lavender can be stored in the closet and then moved to the extra bedroom before guests arrive.

Idea courtesy of Country Home

It's a Frame-Up

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Have a large rescued frame that you'd like to showcase? How about creating a shadow box to show off your plates and other collectibles. Build a backless box, approximately 4 inches deep, to fit the frame. Add desired shelves. Attach the box to the frame using metal L-brackets, one in each corner. Attach one side of each bracket to the box, the other to the fame - this allows the box to hang from the wall without stressing the frame.

Idea courtesy of Country Home