Freedom in Order

 What most homeschoolers understand is that struggle we have between the need to have order to our home and school, but often one of the reasons we chose to homeschool is for the freedom and flexibility and ability to hone the school our children's interests even day to day.

How do you create order and structure while at the same time desiring to nurture creativity and freedom?  Not to mention the normal flow of a changing day with sicknesses, new babies, bad moods, and just household tasks that never end?  This post has a few ideas that we are trying, but we are always tweaking it as we go.

Before and Afters and chains of events

 This particular organizing/decorating venture started with this book shelf.  I saw a blog post about how you can get a tension rod and put a curtain on that to cover your bookshelf to make a room look more tidy.

 Considering that this dinning/art/school/whatever room is most of our main room in our entire apartment.. that little change is kind of a big deal!

 So I did it.  I got a fabric shower curtain and tension rod.  I went for white because I wanted to lighten up the room since the wood is so dark and the area is small and cluttered.  The fabric though was really thick and "heavy" feeling and looking even though it was white.

This led me to reorganizing their school stuff and moving the two younger one's workbox drawers into the living room corner (about 10 ft to the left of this picture on the other side of the couch)  Which led me to moving the hubby's chair/ area... which led him to re-organizing his closet.
So, yes, lots of good changes all tiny in themselves that are leading to great things!

The white curtain over the bookshelf was so easy that I finally took the accordion door off the shoe closet by the front door (which blocked the door from opening when it was open!!!)  and got another tension rod and curtain for here!  I LOVE it!  It's so happy!

 My mother-in-law loved the curtain so well that she got one too.  It's a shower curtain and she's using it that way.  I had to make this a little narrower and then used the part I took off as a ruffle on the bottom to make it long enough.

 At other points I was moving and organizing their school stuff!  These two white baskets were from the dollar tree and I tacked them down right to the table so they won't get knocked over.  The jars that all the art stuff are in were just food jars that I'd saved (like spaghetti sauce or jam jars) and the girls helped me decorate them with pretty scrapbooking paper.

I organized a bunch of cupboards in my kitchen and got rid of a full garbage bag of kitchen stuff that I didn't use or that I really should replace.  I'd been using pots that were given to us a decade ago (that were already worn out and they didn't want) and were now so totally without their finish that they were turning grey instead of staying black.  I burned the rice every time I cooked it because of those pots!  Enter, the new pot.   It's not easy for me to spend $30 or a new pot.  Not sure why this is because I don't have a difficult time buying things for the girls or other people, but things for myself?  I'll usually just make what I have work, BUT this is SO pretty!  AND the rice did NOT burn!

I'm in the kitchen so much each day that choosing to get a pot that actually works well and is a pretty color (it matches the "morning mist" lacquer that I have on my pointer finger!) -- I realized that this must be my favorite color because I keep picking things with THIS color almost exactly. 

I love my "book nook"!  I put a window film on this window so that the people in the parking lot below can't see straight in like they used to be able to.  I used to feel like a dummy on a window display!  Now I can see out past the buildings to the trees without the heat of the sun as much and the people looking in.

Speaking of this "morning mist" color, it's the color of my new bedroom curtains.  I had yellow ones in here, but they didn't really match.  I also got a "morning mist" colored shower curtain liner and several other tiny things.  It all started when I wore my Mom's lacquer of that color in Washington.  I loved it!  AND I think it brings back good memories of being with my Mom, so this color is spreading over many places in my home.

 So speaking of moving my husbands chair which led him to moving his stuff around.  I had a brilliant idea to move his bookshelf ONTO the half wall of our bedroom!  BEFORE you freak out, know that I nailed that thing down and it's not going anywhere!

Now with this shelf there along with the little paper "screen" that I'd made a while back we have a little more privacy from the window on the far side there.  Note, the window behind that lamp?  The window is bigger than it looks from here.

 And speaking of moving the bookshelf.. that led me to move the vase with the sticks in it - an idea that I'd gotten a long time ago when watching "Clean House" - which motivated me to finally organize my dresser area and the kids books right there.  The school area was getting all organized at this point as I moved games and books up here and down there into into that.

 You can kind of see the trees out there from this picture.

 Speaking of wanting to lighten things up a bit.  This dark wood and my dark wood kitchen has always annoyed me.  It's already cramped and the color makes it feel worse.  Well, see above in the picture of the dark wood?  That light color behind the red strainer hanging on that wall used to be the same wood color!  I got some shelf liner paper at the Dollar Tree and covered that side!  It lightened up the kitchen enough to make me want to take it farther!

 Another trip to the Dollar Tree and an awesome find of duct tape.. which AGAIN is that awesome "Morning Mist" color!  And more of that same shelf paper and BAM!

 It's a decorating rental wonder!  My husband thinks it has a French countryside look.  I'm just glad it's not oppressively dark anymore!

 Also, remember the white curtain over the bookshelf that was too heavy of a fabric and seemed to stick out instead of making the bookshelf feel less pronounced?  Well, I moved the green curtain from the dinning room window to in front of the bookshelf.  Suddenly that bookshelf disappeared into the background of the room and I was left with no curtains in the dinning room.

 Enter the yellow curtains that used to be in my bedroom!!!  I LOVE them here!  It's amazing how JUST the color of the curtains (both are sheer) make in this room!  Suddenly the room is cooler even because I don't need to turn the lights on and keep them on all day!  The light makes those curtains glow and it's so warm and cozy.  Light is a huge deal to me and I'd rather have 10 floor lamps in a room than be in a room that's too dark.  I need light!  And this is an amazing way to get that feeling withOUT actual direct light!

Look at that!!!^^  Doesn't that just invite crafting and drawing and art?

 Speaking of sun, I replaced some of our dead plants in our "garden" with Sunflowers!  Which are so fun to see from our window now!

 You can see the mirror effect from the window film that I put up on our window in the picture above too!  It's nice to know that all the people that walk by now can't see right into our house and up the stairs anymore.  :)

And a little farther away our path and some flowers that are amazingly still alive!  I've got peppermint, rosemary, oregano, Asiatic Lilies, a cucumber plant, Hyacinth bulbs, garlic, cherry tomato, Basil, strawberry, and a few other flower plants back here.  I'm a "want-to-be-gardener"  :)

 Last autumn some time I shared my fireplace re-do.. well, the chalkboard paper fell off.  It never stuck well because of the texture of the paint they used to paint this ugly fireplace.  When I talked to my husband about maybe doing it again he was all for it because he really had liked how it looked!
I wanted to take the chalk board thing a step farther and cover the fireplace as well!  In the picture above I can only think of a black hole or something.. it's just so useless!  Maybe if it had an AC unit right in it then it would make sense down here!  As it is, it just seems silly.

 Enter the dollar tree again and 12 decorative mirrors.  I'd already priced floor length mirrors and they would be too tall for this purpose anyway.  So I jimmy rigged these! with wire, duct tape, and sticks that I had to make these panels that I wired to the grill thing at the top of the fireplace (which will be easy to remove since we are renting!)

 The chalkboard paper and some drawings of viney flowers later and it looks like this!!!

This is also the new school area for the two younger girls.  They have shelves with their workbox drawers to the right and it's nice to keep these things separated from the craft and art mess that happens constantly all day long.

And everything back in it's place.  I think I'm a little obsessed with chalk boards now, but they are just so pretty and make me happy!  I tested the look of the fireplace re-do with drawing some words or doing other designs, but for the summer I really like the vines and flowers.  I DID use a hot glue gun to glue down the right and left sides only of the chalk board paper!  It's making a huge difference in how it's staying up and holding up to being drawn on.  The blue will be easy to peal off as well.

 I started organizing JUST in time too because I got our school for next year!  We are doing "Core B" of Sonlight next.  Actually doing the full thing for the first time (instead of just using bits and pieces) and it's World History so we are really looking forward to it!  Once we finish our Alphabet themed school we'll move into that next and it's all waiting in the cupboards above - which USED to be full of my oldest's craft stuff..... which she didn't use often but just had all jammed in there.  This is a much better use of it.  She gets the shelf for current projects and her workbox drawers and I get the cupboards!

I'm already doing so much and still need to do a lot more organizing!  That I didn't want to make another "chore chart" and finally broke down and go the kids these from Melissa and Doug.  
They are magnetic so that's fun and my oldest especially is appreciating her new responsibility chart (because she wants to earn money to save for a toy!)

 I still have a lot more little things that I want to organize and I need to get some more chalk board paper for a couple other things, but the main stuff is done.  A few of my kitchen cupboards have sticky notes on them reminding me to organize them!  As if it doesn't speak for itself?

 And organizing and doing decorating projects while homeschooling three kids feels like trying to run up a gravely hill -- you've got to move your feet twice as fast just to make any forward progress!  It IS worth it in the end.  I already feel so much happier with my little adjustments here and there and this organizing/decorating thing does get easier the more I work at it.  Note: I'm not naturally good at this sort of thing.  I've just learned a lot from a few different places and gotten better as I keep working at it!

I recommend the "Organizing Pro" if you want to get your life less complicated!  She talks about organizing, but it all starts with simplifying as well.  The point isn't to give you more work and make you a super woman.. it's to get this stuff running smoothly so you can do the things you really want to do!  I went through her DVD and book course about 6 years ago.

ALSO, more on the decorating side- check out "The Nesting Place" book!!!  Most decorating books will end up making me feel bad about where I live and discontent.  This lady comes from a place of being a renter for years and years and learning to work WITH the imperfections of wherever you live and how to "love your limitations" -- she also talks about thrifting and other ways to do things yourself to save money while you decorate.  She also helps show you how to look at a space so that you can figure out how you want to decorate it! She calls it "quieting the space"
Seriously, that book and what she says are all so inspirational!  I read a few chapters and I have new inspiration pumped right into my veins and am ready to embrace where I live an make it better.  :)  It's refreshing to read a decorating book that actually makes you feel more content rather than feeling all covetous about the things you'll never have!

I hope some of my ideas have inspired one of you as well!

Sometimes it's the little ideas that help the most

Still loving the locked closet! Toys still trickle down the stairs and into the living room, but at least we can now see the floor, right? I had a thought though the other day about how stressed I get when I'm going to "pick-up" the house. You know how a ton of tiny things just migrate to random spots. I'd go crazy if I was ALWAYS putting stuff away. I mean.. I'd never sit down. On the other hand, doing it once a day or every other day can feel overwhelming. I mean.. just look at my stairs!
(Daunting, no?) Anyway, as I said.. the toys and clutter aren't as bad as it was before I implemented the locked closet, but it still stresses me out at the end of the day because I feel like I don't know where to start.
Today the toys are mainly in sets.. the little cube blocks and little people blocks and things, but there's always those stray things. Like the slippers, or a random toy and craft project laying about.

ENTER-- the basket

I keep this handy little basket for ferrying stray things around the house and especially up the stairs. Generally, I just fill it with everything that needs to go upstairs and while I grab a bunch of stuff to go in the basket I put away the things that stay downstairs.

This is a GREAT way to help Mommy too! Because all that needs to be done is fill the basket! (The Daddy can even do this without knowing where anything goes because I can put everything away later.) It IS pretty important to have a place for everything though and EMPTY the amazing basket so that it can go back downstairs for next time. It's also a lot easier to teach a child to do a specific cleaning task than to just say "clean the room."

Anyway, this is a very small idea, but it's saved me a lot of steps (and my sanity!) Makes picking-up so much faster too!

The Failure's and Success of Maintenance PART 2

I know I said I'd talk about what I've been doing to help maintain the toys and so forth, but it's one of those things that I feel like I can't ever truly get a handle on. I think it's because it's something that just is NOT going to keep itself neat. No matter how well everything is organized or how much you talk to your kids or show them how to put things away the PARENT is always going to have to go behind them and correct and instruct and encourage and do it with them until they are older and independent.

Other advice to start with (my husband and I've been talking about this recently) it's important for us to make it a positive thing. My oldest is 5 and she's always been quite willing to help, but I've always given her lots of praise when she did so (not for a job badly done of course, sometimes I had to show her how to do a better job) often I would do something WITH her.. making sure not to do all the work myself. This is what I still have to do with my 3 year old. When I was laid up after the newest one was born my husband was doing all the housework for me and he was having the girls help. I noticed after a few weeks of this, how wilted my oldest's expression was when she was asked to help. Were we asking her to help too often? Perhaps, but I think it was mainly HOW she was being asked. I needed to consciously make sure we were all asking each other for help in a positive way. Asking with a "Please" and saying "Thank you" and remembering to use a tone of voice to encourage rather than to make them feel like they were being punished are all vital. I don't often have to insist that my kids say please and thank you because they are so used to hearing me say it that they automatically use those words even with each other (which is totally adorable.) Lately though I've had to work with them on asking nicely again for things. I've also had to check my own patience level. I am NOT naturally a patient person, but that's something the Holy Spirit has been teaching me for a while. Having children is a perfect opportunity to learn to be patient.. it's either - learn patience or be admitted into a sanitarium. ;]

But, back to the point of this post.. The question- "Why do we want our kids to clean up after themselves?" is pretty vital to understand before we try to start making things happen.

Is it because the mess is annoying us? Is it because we don't want to do all the work ourselves? Is it because we want to punish them for some wrong that they've done?

I hope our answer is -"because we want to help grow good habits in our children that will serve them through life." There are immediate helps as well. If they can learn to pick up after themselves then our family works better as a unit and things begin to run smoothly. The other day I explained to Lily how much more time I have to do projects with her if she can help me to keep things cleaned up. (This was when we were doing the pipecleaner monsters.)

It's NOT easier or more efficient to have them help out and learn how to clean and pick up though! It's much quicker for me to do things myself, but I need to teach them and help them build some good habits so that when they are my age (hopefully) these things won't be a struggle for them. Today I did my one little room (the smallest bathroom) of cleaning and Renna (3) wanted to help me clean the toilet. I was just spraying some antibacterial stuff on the seat and lid and so on and wiping it off with toilet paper before flushing it all. She thought that was pretty neat though and wanted to help. It didn't take too much longer to show her how and do it with her, yet it wasn't as easy as just doing it myself. But... it's more important that she learn how to do it than the toilet being cleaned quickly. That's the thing. Is it so important to have the house be instantly clean? Or to build our relationship with our children and train them in all parts of living? As homeschoolers, we teach them reading and math, but if we stop with academics then (in my opinion) their training is sorely lacking.
Okay, that intro was really long. So, on with some other ideas that are a bit less deep.

First, I'd like to explain the most recent fail in this endeavor. I thought that if we had a corner hammock thing to hold stuffed animals it would help to keep the toys at bay. I didn't want to buy one though so I made one with some rainbow fabric that I had. It was pretty and worked well, BUT failed miserably because Lily had a hard time getting her animals out of it and it broke. This was the second time it broke so I pulled it down and pitched the idea. The picture is of it's sad state before I took it down all the way.
Now for some ideas that actually have worked. Organizing things according to it's type makes asking the kids to put something away SO much easier. I don't just say, "Clean up your room." Because that is just too overwhelming for them. I'll say something like, "Lily can you please put all the balls and cars in their basket?" (Anything that rolls goes together in this case.) When she starts to do it I thank her. If she doesn't want to do it or complains, I've brought up how I'd be willing to trade jobs with her. "Well, I can do your job if you want to do the dishes and make dinner and change the baby's diaper.." (and so on until she gets a look in her eyes that seems a bit overwhelmed) Or I explain how we all need to work together as a team and each do our part. I also started a sticker chart to give them an incentive to finish something that is difficult. Lily says, "My legs are tired, I can't finish making my bed." And I might say, "I know it's hard Lily, but you can do it, and you'll get a sticker for your chart." She knows that when she gets enough stickers that the chart will keep track of, she'll get a "prize".. right now I'm trying to help them learn about saving, so instead of a dollar store toy they will get a dollar and when they have collected $5 worth they'll get the "big prize" which is a little tinkerbell fairy doll (about 5 inches tall) and a lot nicer than a cheapo dollar store toy. They get about a dollar a week. Renna doesn't earn a sticker right now for picking up because I still need to help her so much with it. She's working on getting a sticker each time she goes potty in the toilet. The issue with that is that she CAN do it, she just gets distracted or tired or isn't paying attention. Well, the sticker chart thing helps to remind her to keep on track. Lily is very interested in the prize.. Renna likes the prize of course, but is just as happy is seems being able to collect the stickers. ;]
To keep the rooms looking neater I've consolidated their art to just a few places. Rather than the whole wall or spread over more than one wall, I've made their closet door a place for art. Also, downstairs in the dinning room there are certain sections of the wall dedicated to the girls art and other sections that have nothing or a simple decoration that I've decided on. This makes the room "look" less cluttered even if there's the same amount of art up. (I do switch it out though as they make more to hang.)


Organizing their many toys though wasn't enough. They'd dump out a bin full of play clothes or of stuffed animals or spread all the tiny little princess dolls and clothes out as they are looking for something. It was driving me crazy and something had to be done! Youssef turned the knob around on their closet door so that the lock was on the inside and we had to use a "key" hair pin to open it! That forced them to ask for things, but I don't keep ALL their toys in there. They have the bigger ones out (like the doll bed and castle.) Some of their big toys are in the closet (the ones they weren't playing with for the time being.) It's suddenly made them appreciate their toys more and has made it all seem new again! I put their little sets of toys (the princesses and ponies) in separate zipplocs in the closet. I've tried to make it a point to get out anything that they specifically ask for if I can (sometimes they have to wait a little bit, but they know they will get it.) This was important to Lily because she was worried that she'd lose the toys forever or that I'd throw them away. Also, I didn't want this tidying up to be a punishment. The locked closet thing is just to give me a chance to keep up with them. Once they've learned to pick up after themselves before pulling out the next and the next thing, then I won't need to lock the closet anymore and they won't have to ask every time they want something. The plan though is to periodically (like once a week or so) let them pick out a new thing from the closet and they have to choose the equivalent toy or toys to go back into the closet for a while. The picture above shows them going through their "play clothes box" that they hadn't been able to get into for a while.
They've had fun going through it and dressing up the last few days, BUT it hasn't driven me crazy because if the toys and things strewn everywhere "go together" then I just have to gather them up and dump them back in the box. It's super easy to have the girls help too because there's no sorting to worry about! This mess was worse by bedtime and I told the girls to lay in their beds while I cleaned it up. They were practically begging to help! Okay, that has NOT happened before! Lily was starting to enjoy helping I think because (besides being easier and seeing how nice her room was to play in when it was clean) it can be fun to put things away because you "find" other toys while you go like a treasure hunter! I found something the girls had been asking for while cleaning up. "Look Renna! I found your turtle!" "My TURTLE!!!" She says excitedly... this totally makes cleaning up a blast for them. She'd been looking for that all afternoon. ;] Also, I've asked them each night if I should leave out the box of dress up clothes so they could play with it tomorrow or if I should put it back in the closet. As long as they are wanting to play with it, I'm totally fine with keeping it out! It's when they get bored with their toys and dump them for no reason that it bothers me. Toys that are happily played with are fun to see even when they are left around the house. Often you can see how their imagination was flowing as you see the positions the toys were left in.
Okay, umm... other ideas. Going along with the closet idea, I thought it would be a good idea to put some of Lily's project things and school up higher so she'd have to ask for it instead of getting it out on her own. Yeah, it's always really great (*sarcastic*) to clean up one mess just to turn around and see play dough all over the floor. Then to clean that up just to turn around to paint all over the table. Even if Lily did a good job of not making a mess she'd often leave something out and Renna would get to it and make a mess with it. SO, we are working on putting stuff AWAY before getting out the next project. (Yes, mommy needs to work on this as well!)
This is their little art table, though we do art at the tall table as well. I sit at their little table sometimes too and we do school or a project there so that we can be closer to Grace in her bouncy chair this is being kept cleaner than it has been in... umm... forever? Notice the artwalls in the background? Also, notice the "white space" on the other walls. Keeping the kitchen bar as uncluttered as possible helps with my own sanity. Also, I don't want to spend ALL day just following them around and picking up and making THEM pick up stuff ALL day. Really.. if they want to get something ELSE out it's important to clean up first and we clean up the tables before dinner and some before lunch, but I'd go crazy if I was in "total clean up mode" all the time. If I find myself feeling stressed from the mess I don't always have to dive into cleaning up what THEY messed up.. no.. sometimes I just need to clear off the counter and my own stuff! I don't always make them clean up their table right after they are done with something either. For one thing, I don't know if they are planning to come back to it or not. For another thing, often they are playing well together and I hate to interrupt them (partly because it's nice to see that and partly because I don't want to stop whatever I'm doing.) But, I figure as long as they are cleaning up the last thing before they are allowed to get the next thing out we'll be good.
By God's grace, our days have fewer incidences of the mommy freaking out and stressing about how many toys there are in this house! I'm finding myself being able to relax more and not feel like I'm drowning in "stuff" to manage. It's so relaxing now to sit at the table and do a project with the girls and sing together. They are so much happier that way too! I'm still getting used to doing these things throughout the day though. I don't like to stop one thing and start another thing. I'd much rather do ONE thing ALL day. Maybe that's weird, but it's easier for me to do than jumping from one to another to another. I lose my train of thought and I feel like it takes longer to start the next thing because I don't remember what I'm supposed to do. We'll keep figuring this stuff out though as we go and hopefully it will get easier. Lily especially likes how we are doing things now though, and how I will do something with them for a while and then give them an idea of how to play on their own or let them watch a cartoon (the cartoons are getting fewer and farther between though as they would rather do other stuff anyway!) I just need to get used to doing bits and pieces of things through the day. Read them a few stories here and there, do a project or teach them a song in between this and that, and so on. At some point I'd like to add in my own projects again (like scrapbooking!).. I just have to be careful to not try to do my own thing for too long (because.. as I said.. I'd much rather focus on one thing for an entire day.. but that doesn't work with kids. They need to be fed and taught and played with, NOT put off and given my minimum attention.. which is far too easy for me to do.)

Soon my husband will be happier as well when our family continues to run smoothly and those clutter things start to disappear as we put stuff away RIGHT away instead of leaving it out! Because, suddenly.. I'll have time to play games with him, just like I found time to do projects with the girls when we figured out the toy situation. The goal is to lessen my exhaustion by simplifying the systems so that I can focus my attention on what really matters.

I wouldn't be surprised if most, if not all of you reading this, look at my struggles and suggestions as pretty basic... you probably already know this stuff or don't struggle in these ways, but.. that's okay because I'm not writing this to "fix" anyone else. Oh, yeah, maybe you wonder why I'd write it all on a blog then for anyone to see? I do hope that my ramblings will encourage someone and in the back of my head I wonder if my kids will read these when they are older and understand their old Mom a little better, but the main reason I write so much on here is to just re-enforce what I'm learning and sort out my own thoughts about it all. Typing helps me to think and if I type to "someone" than what I write is at least a little bit easier to follow. So yeah, all of this isn't to preach to anyone.. it's just laying my heart out there and trying to be honest.

I'm painfully aware of the fact that even if 90% of the time I'm teaching my children with a quiet voice and encouragement that 10% of getting frustrated or yelling at them is going to stand out in their minds probably as if the numbers were reversed. Really, no matter how hard I try I will scar my children in some way because I'm a flawed human in a broken world, yet, it all comes back again (even through all my ideas and advice and finding techniques that work for our family) it all comes back to the real point of what Jesus has done. It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me. It is His grace in my life and not any "how-to's" or rules that could ever make anything I try to do successful.

Galations 2:20b-21 ".. it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."

The Failure's and Success of Maintenance

Let me just start by admitting something (if I haven't before) I'm a pretty terrible housekeeper. I often laugh when people think that I'm a great example of a homemaker. Well, sure.. I'm home.. and I'm creative and I can sew and all that, but I'm NOT good at keeping up with things. My natural bent is to do things all in one go. I won't really clean the house for several months, but I'd do a giant "Spring Cleaning" and re-organizing thing in the space of a few days. Totally wear myself out in the process of course so that I would be too tired to keep it looking good and the viscous cycle would continue.

So, more specifically... a year ago (and before then) the dishes would generally stay in the sink and counter and table for more than a day or two. Making meals was always frustrating because dishes were in the way or I'd have to wash something by hand because I needed it.

Laundry was always a giant mountain to climb as well. I'd wait till the laundry basket was overflowing beyond measure and then dump it all on the floor to put into the piles and proceed to try and get all those piles washed and dried in one day. When each load was dry I'd dump them on the couch to be folded while I watched a show or something. If I ever got around to actually folding the clothes (which could take one day or much longer) I'd often just leave the folded stacks in the basket and they'd all get unfolded when people would look for their clothes or when one of the girls would dump them all out so they could play in the basket.

Those were probably the two most majorly constant things that I was always dealing with. I got a DVD course in organizing last year that really helped me view all of this differently.

You see, I'd read many other books over the years about organizing and schedules and so forth, but I always got the feeling from them that the goal was to be organized. To be organized is not the goal. The reason it's important to organize our homes and schedules is to Simplify our lives! That's what I needed. I didn't need more ways to learn how to make my house "guest ready" I needed techniques to make my home run smoothly so that my life would be simple. I also needed to be taught these things in a grace filled way so that I wouldn't be operating out of guilt. I want to spend time with my kids and do my own projects and homeschool... I do NOT want to spend all of my day picking up after everyone in the family and doing dishes and essentially doing the same thing over and over again. Like walking up a slippery slope where it's impossible to get to the top or move forward.

My natural bent is to try to take on everything all at once. Which, of course, is gearing up for more failure city! I've been struggling with consistency and feel like I will always struggle with this for the rest of my life... but.. I'm hoping it will get easier at least. Starting the dishwasher at night with a cleaned up kitchen and emptying it in the morning has been my goal (little harder with a new baby and two older kids of course, but the goal is still there.. just not always met at the same time of the day.)

Getting rid of things is really important. Giving everything a place is vital (forcing myself to DECIDE where their place is!) Learning to see "clutter areas" and clean up to the point where 2/3s of the counters at least are cleared of stuff is super helpful too.

Right, but that is just mainly the kitchen (the first stage of this process) .. there's still the other big one (for me) the laundry *DUnt dunt DUUUNNNN!* I now do a load or so a day rather than doing it all in one go. It is amazingly easier to get that much washed and dried in one day (yeah, it usually takes me the whole day pretty much to get it through the cycles) and I no longer fold on the couch. I take it to my bedroom so I can put my folded clothes away as I fold them. I then only have the stacks of the girls clothes or towels or something and EVERY TIME I have to bite the bullet (it feels like) to do that final step of putting away stuff. If you think about it though it really doesn't take that long! It always took a long time before, but that was because I was trying to wash everything from about a week and a half and fold and put away it all in one day. Doing the smaller steps really does make my life more simple

And simple is the key, remember?

I'm still not actually "cleaning" though if you've noticed. Dishes and laundry and picking up isn't actually vacuuming or cleaning the toilets or washing mirrors. I have some ideas for a weekly schedule of cleaning up.

I haven't been able to implement it really since I'm focusing on working into the girls school times, but I'll post my idea here in case someone in blogdum is helped by it.

Schedules give me hives. Well, no.. not hives.. but perhaps pretty close to a panic attack. If I start reading about someone talking about their daily or weekly "schedule" I often stop reading. It's just SO overwhelming to read each cleaning task. -- clean the toilet, clean the bathtub, clean the mirrors, dust the furniture, vacuum the furniture, vacuum the stairs, sweep the floor, mop the floor.. etc ect. -- Um. No.

I started to do a schedule like that and all it did was stress me out to think or look at it and then I did LESS cleaning as a result.. which brought on some feelings of guilt or failure or at the very least annoyance at my dirty house, and often more times of eating chocolate or escaping onto facebook so I didn't have to see or think about the fail.

When I was watching some webinars on a homeschool site last week I got some good advice about meal planning (another thing that I've tried to do and struggle with.) She said that she had a schedule that went like this --
a chicken dish on Monday,
a pasta dish on Tuesday,
a soup or casserole on Wednesday,
a beef dish on Thursday,
and homemade pizza on Friday.

This felt revolutionary to me! It's scheduled, but NOT as detailed! I could choose at the time what sort of chicken dish to make on Monday, but it took a lot of the planning out of choosing from "anything"... I mean, there are only so many chicken dishes, right? Plus, I'm then free on Monday to pick something easy (with chicken) or something more time consuming and gourmet (with chicken) depending on how much time I have or how I feel.

Right, so what does this have to do with real cleaning? I'm going to do a "room each day" during the week. THAT way, I'll feel free to do as little or as much cleaning as I want to do on that day! There really are days when I get going cleaning up or doing something and see more to do and it's then easy do it. Other days I might be more tired or the kids might be more needy and just picking up the clutter and wiping down one counter will be all I can take.

So, that's the plan. I'm still struggling a LOT with all of this, but if there's as much improvement from now till next year as there was this past year we'll be doing well, and our lives will continue to become more simple.

Some final thoughts on what I've learned -

-You might get ideas from books and other people, and it's good to study and work to learn more and grow, but be prepared to keep changing stuff till you find what really does work for you.

-Keep the goal of SIMPLE in your head when you organize your house and schedule.

-Look at problem areas like a detective and find where the problem is and what you can do to correct it. The laundry basket sorter that I bought, for example, has put the success in the laundry situation.. other things to consider might be if you need to buy a bookshelf or if you need to move the table from one place to another to help things move more efficiently and simply. Baskets or other ways to organize are also really helpful.

-Organization is a lifestyle. You will never be "done organizing" BUT remember that it is EASIER to live in organization than disorder. If it feels harder, then you need to back up a bit to develop the most important (to you) habits and/or look for that thing to make it easier (like my laundry sorter example) to make that difficult thing simple.


My next post will be about managing toys and the kids room! *Dunt dunt DUDUUUUN!!!*

That is another HUGE issue in our house. And.. Lily thinks we need more toys. Um.. no.. please please PLEASE if you (or anyone you know) are planning or thinking or even have an inkling of giving my kids more toys, just.. don't. Project things are good.. art stuff.. books. NOT more TOYS!

Well,after MUCH trial and error in regards to managing the toys.. I think I've actually come up with something that will work. Stay tuned. ;]

Now.. if I could manage to be asleep no later than 10:30 I think I might actually be able to make these plans work.


In closing, I'd like to mention something that I alluded to earlier.
The point of organizing and maintaining is to simplify so we can focus on WHO is most important in our lives. I just read this article and it ended with this--

Duties are pressing upon me,
And the time for work is brief,
What if with purblind vision,
I neglect the very chief?

What if I do with ardor
What a thousand could maybe,
And leave undone forever
What was meant for only me?

No one else named “Mom” lives in our homes and holds our children’s hearts and lives like we do. Let’s not miss our greatest ministry!