A Tale of Ten Towels

I found this both ironic and amusing, so I decided to share it.

Backstory: In my search for simplicity, I took on my towel situation. Most of my towels looked like victims of a Jaws attack:All of the towels were of an era, much worse for the wear. So, I got to thinking that if each of us had 2 towels each, I could keep up with them a lot better. I put up a hook in the bathroom for each one of us, and made the family promise that they wouldn't leave these towels on the floor or feed them to Sonny. (So far, so good! I think the fam likes having clean towels. Who knew?) The idea was that each set of 5 towels would get rotated and washed at the same time, and that there would always be a clean set ready to go. Here they are, warm and fluffy from the dryer, folded on my freshly made bed:

And, then, there's a reality check. Called my linen closet...or "Proof that simplicity isn't easy in the early days." No room for my fresh towels. Enjoy:

Tuesday Twitterings: More on simplicity

Ugh. Is Tueday the new Monday? Feels like it.

So, in the spirit of simplicity, I went shopping. Ah, the joys of retail therapy! Completely guilt free this time! Thanks to Amazon's handy-dandy textbook trade-in, I got some serious gift cards that I used today on soap. Yes, soap. Castile soap in peppermint, tea tree, and almond scent. Plus some big vats of coconut oil and olive oil cleanser, facial soap, and moisturizer. I might smell like a cross between a pizza and a Copacabana cocktail, but I'm hoping it all makes our lives easier and our skin healthier. I was intrigued by Tsh Oxenreider's shampoo-free pledge on her blog, and I'm going to give that a go too. Jason says he will try it. Can't wait for that! LOL!

I think it has been a year since I went commercial laundry detergent-free, and I think our clothes are cleaner than before that switch. I actually use about 1 TBSP of a commercial liquid detergent--for some reason, the homemade mixtures need just a touch of the premade stuff. The upside is that I buy the liquid maybe every 4-6mo, and the borax and washing soda about that often as well. Very cost effective! The only thing I miss is the heavier scent of commercial detergents. I know I can add essential oils to the homemade mix, but I just haven't been brave enough to do it. I was reading that I can use the Castile soaps in the laundry, so maybe that will do the trick.

Monday Musings: Search for Simplicity

My last entry was 2/28/11. Since then, I have made my bed every day except two! It appears that this is a novelty that is not going to wear off. I do love getting into a freshly made bed. I even enjoy the moments in the morning when I make the bed--I get such satisfaction from such a small chore! Again, I am amazed that I have spent so much of my life wrestling with covers and frustration and poor sleep when with just a few minutes, I can tuck and smooth my way to a restful night. Another perk is in the moments when Jason is just about to drift off when he whispers, "This is the best bedroom we've ever had." He's said it more than once--I think he means it.

I have transformed our bedroom too many times to count--this one has been painted over 3 times in 5 years, but I've never stripped it of things that don't make sense or taken pains to keep it orderly. This room is clean--bordering on sparse. Jason can get up to answer a page in the middle of the night and not have to risk a broken toe. There are no piles of clean laundry blocking the closets. The stuff that is in this room is either useful or beautiful. (Thanks Tsh Oxenreider!) I really, really, really like this simplicity stuff!

Today I am ready to start tackling other rooms with a vengeance. I put all of this on pause while I finished a class, but rather than taking a break and doing nothing, I'm going to dive in. This week, my goals are to complete our family mission statement, declutter the bathroom, and begin work on the dining room/school room.

I'm toying with the idea of homemade soap...

Monday Musings

1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp is transforming me. Grace is difficult to give and even more difficult to receive. There is so much joy and freedom in grace, but I want to cling to my self-loathing, reveling in my unworthiness. God wants to give me grace so that I can give grace. Give. Grace.

The first thing I did this morning was cancel my e-subscription to a homeschoolers' devotion. It weighed me down almost every morning with guilt. The antithesis of grace. No more. Yes, we are all going to screw up, daily, maybe with every breath, but that is the point of God's grace. He knew before we were even a thought that today would be here and that I would react, think, and goof up. He still gave us unfathomable grace. EVEN THOUGH HE ALREADY KNEW what I would do with it. To wallow in loathing is to reject this precious gift. Give. Grace. Giggle (or repent) and get on with it.

Gifts from today:
Clean sheet Monday! Fluffy pillows, crisp sheets just begging to be snuggled in!
Homemade bread!
Eating breakfast together!
Intentional Homewifery!

Towards my mission for simplicity:
Toss extra stuff in the bathroom.
Start on the girls' room. The Boy's room looks great! My room is finally a refuge--I even swept it again yesterday! What a luxurious feeling to crawl into a clean, freshly made bed, deep and soft with warm blankets. How wonderful to crawl out of that bed in the morning without tripping over stuff. I am almost 1/3 of the way to a simplified main floor. It is wonderful and scary at the same time. Why, why, why has it taken me 36 years to realize the beauty in simplicity? I am LOVING this! Thanks to another great book, Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider.

Glue, and not in a good way

I lost it over glue. No, not in a hot, painful low-temp glue gun disaster, but in a cold, white, messy Elmer's sort of way.

I faced the New Year with the longest list of resolutions I have ever created. Go big or go home, right? I searched the Internet for self-help tips and books and ordered my way to a new me from Amazon. As quickly as a book arrived, I devoured it, gleaning truths from people who knew better than me with regard to parenting and finances. Armed with my new personal organizing notebook and fridge calendar--filled in!--I set out to make today THE day to put all my plans and dreams into action. (Well, except that diet thing...) I read the first two chapters of Philippians before the kids woke up, and I was humbled and inspired by the Apostle Paul's advice to the church. I was ready to teach today!

Then the kids woke up. Sick. ish. Sickish. Sick, but not sick enough to give them a sick day. Determined, we plugged on through the morning. The kids did great. Then Dad came home. He was helpful in working with Em, and I really appreciated him, but he threw off my groove. It could have been the incessant and ridiculous humming/singing thing he does (which he is doing right now as I type) of just humming/singing 1 tiny part of a song. "How much is that doggie in the window? Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. The one with the waggly tail? Oh please is that doggie for sale? (Yes, I just typed that from life. Someone shoot me.)

I digress. Science involved cutting and gluing. Yep, we are finally to the glue part. Fresh out of safe, kid-and-Mom's-sanity-saving glue sticks, I brought out the old-fashioned Elmers. I thought my instruction of "just use a little dot of glue" was sufficient. Um, no. Three kids and lots of glue everywhere later, I lost it. Not pretty. Definitely a far cry from the Moms I have been reading about in my self-help books.

I had another hissy fit later over something random. Then I realized that the meat I had set out to defrost was still frozen solid. Then I sat in a funk for a while. All my fine plans unravelled in an instant. I realized I was at a crossroads. I could give in and get take-out for dinner which goes against the Moms advice I've been reading, not to mention the Dave's financial advice, and continue the cycle I have been trying to break, or I could get off my butt and figure something else out for dinner. At home. Now tonight's dinner is still cooking, and I refuse to divulge what I am feeding the family, but it is homemade. Um, sort of.

I'm still cranky, but strangely elated. It is like I am on the cusp of something big and the powers that be don't want me to succeed. I can either approach today as a failure or a springboard. I can either give in and get take out, or charge ahead with those crescent-wrapped hot dogs. (oops) I think the direction my parenting and even financial life will take hangs on these little crossroads. What doesn't kill us, or give us indigestion, or glue us to the kitchen table makes us stronger.



Edited to add--my new books really are helpful as long as I don't use them as tool to quit or beat myself up. Self-help, not self-destruct. =)

New Year's Wisdom from Yoda

"Do or do not. There is no try."

As I looked over my alarmingly extensive New Year's Resolution list, I started to panic. There are so many areas in which I need to improve, along with other areas that I'd like to improve. Fear and the need for perfection have always hindered me. I give something a half-hearted try because I know that I will fail or that my efforts will not be good enough. I've written before about being committed but not submitted, and this cycle leads me right back where I don't want to be. Like Luke on Dagobah, I sense fear, pain, and failure. Luke had Yoda to set him straight in the story--I have someone infinitely better!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

The AOP devotional today referenced Revelations 3:15, reminding us not to be lukewarm. (No pun intended to my favorite Jedi warrior!) This cycle I have been in for so long is lukewarm. Ineffective. Unsustainable...as long as it remains MY list. Through prayer and Bible study, I can have the perfect help of Christ who strengthens me and will help me do all things I need to do according to God's will. Perhaps not all of my list will make the cut. Perhaps there will be more added.

There is something wonderful about New Year's Day. Today is a new day, in a new month, in a new year--a day of renewal that millions are using to improve themselves. But, I don't have to wait. I can have renewal every minute of every day. Praise God for that!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm not doing this on purpose

Pre-Christmas blues? Maybe. I was searching the web for home ec lessons, and I stumbled across a blog about simple living which led to another blog about intentional SAHMness. That got to me. To be a SAHM is one thing, but to embrace it and fill the days with intentional activities is quite another. Case in point--it is 2:20 in the afternoon, and I am still sitting here in my pajamas...that I wore all day yesterday. At least yesterday I put a bra on before the AT&T tech came over to fix my TV. Today, um...

During the school week, I stay pretty much on top of things. I feel like I have a purpose, even though I am not doing all the things I would like to do with my kids because of my own rigidity. I think I am afraid that if I veer from the schedule printed in a random book of curriculum that I will never accomplish anything. Which leads me to this computer on a Tuesday during Christmas break still in my jammies sans bra.

Does purposeful SAHMness mean scheduling every activity and giving up my unorganized, slobby ways? Yep, pretty much. A messy house, full of stuff does not make me happy or fun to be around. The kids could have fun at an insurance seminar provided they had a few basic tools--paper and crayons for Em, a couple of stuffed animals for Bean, and a magnet, or electronic gadget, or a hand blender for The Boy. If they can be happy living so simply--and they are (*see my note), why can't I strip down to the essentials and be happy too? (I do wish bras were non-essential, but that is not my lot in life since I just can't seem to defy gravity all by myself.)

The new year seems to be the natural place to start a year of purpose. Parenting on-purpose, finding contentment in what I already have, and loving each precious day with three beautiful children who insist on growing up too quickly for my liking. To stop letting life drag me by the hair while letting go at the same time. To live simply, on purpose.

*I walked in the living room today to find all three kids snuggled up in a chair together watching a movie. There was no fighting or shoving--just three little kids enjoying a moment of closeness with each other. Simply happy.