I know I said I had a lot of posts planned, but some little person got a hold of my camera and now every picture it takes is blurry. Since I know nothing about all the little buttons in it, I can't take pictures till Kevin comes and fixes it. And since most of my planned posts involved pictures, I haven't made them.
But Kevin will be home in three days and the boys and I can't wait!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Decluttering feels SO good!
After we got back from our vacation, Kevin still had almost two weeks left before he had to go back to work. We all know how it is when daddy is home--no schedule, no school, no normality--so what should I do all this time? I knew it would be the perfect time to do a whole house decluttering.
This was the plan. Go from smallest room to biggest room. Once each room is finished, maintain it and make sure it is still clean before going on to the next room. That makes the list for my house bathroom 1, bathroom 2, hallway, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, bedroom 3, bedroom 4, kitchen, living room, basement.
This is how I did it and it worked really well. I think from now on I will do this about once a year as a get the chance.
1. Gather 3 large boxes or plastic tubs. I used 3 big tubs I usually use for toy bins. It is important to use boxes rather than bags because you can just throw things in them from where you are instead of having to walk over and put in it a bag. Then of course each box is labeled "put away", "throw away", and "give away".
2. The next step sounds overwhelming, but it really is easier and more effective than not doing it. Take EVERYTHING out of the room, one thing at a time, sorting into each box as you go. That even includes every piece of furniture that is not too big to move. Start from one corner of the room and work your way around until the room is empty.
3. For each thing you pick up, ask yourself "Do I really need this? Would I miss it if it were gone? Do we use it?" etc. Don't hold back--your goal is to get rid of as much as possible! Then ask yourself, "Would someone else find a need for this?" If so, put it in the giveaway box. If not, throw it away. Ahhhh--that feels good!
4. Once every thing is out of the room. Give it a good cleaning. Don't be too obsessive. This isn't like Spring cleaning. The focus is on decluttering. I just gave all the floors a sweep and mop (we have wall to wall hardwood--hate it) and all the surfaces a spray and wipe down. Also, clean any furniture you may have moved out.
5. Now it's time to put everything back into the room. I don't know if this is normal, but this is very important to me: Try to make as many things as possible different. I mean, rearrange the furniture, reorganize things differently, put things into different spots or even different rooms. This change feels so nice and fresh.
6. Empty the "put away" box one item at a time. Dump the "throw away box" into the trash (hopefully you filled it up 2 or 3 times!). Put the "give away" box aside to take to a thrift store.
Then you are done and ready to start over on the next room. This is a long process if you have small children, but it is so worth it. It saves so much time and makes it so much easier to maintain each room. And nothing feels better to me than a room that is free of STUFF. I love clear surfaces and floors.
I still have half the kitchen, the living room, and the basement to go. When I am done, I will post pictures of every room in my house. I had been getting discontent in this house and wanted to move so badly. Now I love it again and it feels so good to be home. STUFF steals your time, your energy, and your life. Get rid of it! It is so fun to see it all falling into the dumpster, never to be worried about again!
This was the plan. Go from smallest room to biggest room. Once each room is finished, maintain it and make sure it is still clean before going on to the next room. That makes the list for my house bathroom 1, bathroom 2, hallway, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, bedroom 3, bedroom 4, kitchen, living room, basement.
This is how I did it and it worked really well. I think from now on I will do this about once a year as a get the chance.
1. Gather 3 large boxes or plastic tubs. I used 3 big tubs I usually use for toy bins. It is important to use boxes rather than bags because you can just throw things in them from where you are instead of having to walk over and put in it a bag. Then of course each box is labeled "put away", "throw away", and "give away".
2. The next step sounds overwhelming, but it really is easier and more effective than not doing it. Take EVERYTHING out of the room, one thing at a time, sorting into each box as you go. That even includes every piece of furniture that is not too big to move. Start from one corner of the room and work your way around until the room is empty.
3. For each thing you pick up, ask yourself "Do I really need this? Would I miss it if it were gone? Do we use it?" etc. Don't hold back--your goal is to get rid of as much as possible! Then ask yourself, "Would someone else find a need for this?" If so, put it in the giveaway box. If not, throw it away. Ahhhh--that feels good!
4. Once every thing is out of the room. Give it a good cleaning. Don't be too obsessive. This isn't like Spring cleaning. The focus is on decluttering. I just gave all the floors a sweep and mop (we have wall to wall hardwood--hate it) and all the surfaces a spray and wipe down. Also, clean any furniture you may have moved out.
5. Now it's time to put everything back into the room. I don't know if this is normal, but this is very important to me: Try to make as many things as possible different. I mean, rearrange the furniture, reorganize things differently, put things into different spots or even different rooms. This change feels so nice and fresh.
6. Empty the "put away" box one item at a time. Dump the "throw away box" into the trash (hopefully you filled it up 2 or 3 times!). Put the "give away" box aside to take to a thrift store.
Then you are done and ready to start over on the next room. This is a long process if you have small children, but it is so worth it. It saves so much time and makes it so much easier to maintain each room. And nothing feels better to me than a room that is free of STUFF. I love clear surfaces and floors.
I still have half the kitchen, the living room, and the basement to go. When I am done, I will post pictures of every room in my house. I had been getting discontent in this house and wanted to move so badly. Now I love it again and it feels so good to be home. STUFF steals your time, your energy, and your life. Get rid of it! It is so fun to see it all falling into the dumpster, never to be worried about again!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Kevin is gone to Texas for the next two weeks. I miss him, I really do. But the first few days of him being gone are kind of fun too. (Hope he doesn't read this!) It's nice to just to be able to do what I want with my free time, not have to worry about what I or the house look like, have cereal for supper if we want to, watch what I want on tv, etc. For the first few days I really enjoy it. However, I know in probably less than a week I'll be crying and missing him. That's when short separations start to be really good for your marriage. And it was perfect timing because I think we were just starting to get on each other's nerves! I'm sure 2 weeks of absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder will take care of that!
Before he left we had Zachary's birthday party because his birthday is the 19th and we wanted Kevin to be here. He got a potty for his birthday! I knew he was good and ready because every time he needed to go he would say "diaper! diaper!" (I allow them to run naked at this age for this very reason, so he was telling me to put a diaper on so he could go!) It was so funny because after we set it up and showed it to him, he just walked over and peed in it like it was no big deal! Today he has gone twice and he isn't even technically two yet! I think God gave me an easy potty trainer since He gave me such a close spacing this time ;-).
Since I was so anxious to get back to school, I haven't had time to finish up my decluttering in the kitchen and living room. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to work on them. I have noticed a huge difference in how easy it is to maintain the rest of the house that I have already done, so I'm really looking forward to having these main rooms done.
The kids are all in bed now and I still have a kitchen and living room to clean up and four baskets of laundry to fold and put away. Thankfully I have many Food Network shows DVRed to watch while I'm working. Guy Fieri almost makes laundry fun.
Before he left we had Zachary's birthday party because his birthday is the 19th and we wanted Kevin to be here. He got a potty for his birthday! I knew he was good and ready because every time he needed to go he would say "diaper! diaper!" (I allow them to run naked at this age for this very reason, so he was telling me to put a diaper on so he could go!) It was so funny because after we set it up and showed it to him, he just walked over and peed in it like it was no big deal! Today he has gone twice and he isn't even technically two yet! I think God gave me an easy potty trainer since He gave me such a close spacing this time ;-).
Since I was so anxious to get back to school, I haven't had time to finish up my decluttering in the kitchen and living room. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to work on them. I have noticed a huge difference in how easy it is to maintain the rest of the house that I have already done, so I'm really looking forward to having these main rooms done.
The kids are all in bed now and I still have a kitchen and living room to clean up and four baskets of laundry to fold and put away. Thankfully I have many Food Network shows DVRed to watch while I'm working. Guy Fieri almost makes laundry fun.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Our Vacation
A few weeks ago we took our vacation. My husband loves road trips. He can't stand to stay in one place. He loves to travel and keep moving. So our trip went like this: one day in Spokane, one day in Seattle, one day in Vancouver, then back to Seattle, then back to Spokane, then one night in Missoula, then back home again. I know--it sounds crazy! Not what I would prefer, but that's the way he likes to do it.
We stayed at the Air Force base right off of Spokane. It was beautiful. Because we had such a large family, they had us stay in a nice 2 bedroom house. I wanted to stay there forever. It wasn't a big house, but I thought it was perfect. I tend to like smaller houses even with lots of people. It just so happened that there was a family with six small children staying in the house attached to ours (base housing is almost always duplexes). I never got the meet the mother, but I thought it was such a coincidence that they were staying next to us. While in Spokane we went to a beautiful park and rode these things called gondolas that went over a waterfall. I thought gondolas were boats, but these were in the air. I was scared to death that thing was going to break! You can see a few pictures of it in our pictures.
The next day we traveled to Seattle. I did not like Seattle, at least not the big city area of it. It was crowded and there were strange people everywhere. Every store, even ones like Home Depot and Staples, were in big sky scraper buildings. It was all very strange to me and I didn't like it. I felt hurried and dirty and buried in people. We stayed at a Navy base that wasn't that great compared to the AF base. While we were there we went to a mall (that also looked to me just like another big building!) and I got my first taste of Panda Express. Love that place!
The next day we drove up to Vancouver. That was really strange. We didn't see many other white people. Most people were Chinese, Korean, Muslim, and more that I didn't even know. It was also much too big city-ish for me. We went to another beautiful park while we were there. I wish we had parks here like the ones we went to. We also went to the IMAX theater and saw 2 3D movies--one about the sea and another about a space station. We also went to a China Town. I didn't want to get out, but Kevin did, so we got out and walked around a little. There were Chinese people everywhere and they all stared at us and pointed and exclaimed things in Chinese. A few spoke to us in English with things like "Five?" "All you's?" "All you keeds?" haha--We must have been a sight to them! Their streets were full of markets that sold the grossest looking food I have ever seen. Can you believe Kevin wanted to go to a restaurant there? No way was I going to eat there!
We were going to stay 2 days in Vancouver, but 1 was enough, so we left the next day to head back to Seattle. This time instead of trying to naviate the city ourselves, Kevin wanted to take the city bus!!! Can you believe that? A family with five small children riding on the city bus! That was an adventure. I never saw any other chidren get on the bus--just a lot of weird and different people! Most didn't speak to us, but a few of course had to tell us we had our hands full. If only people knew how old that line gets. Ugh. But we survived 45 minutes on the bus and made it to the children's museum. That was probably the highlight of the trip for the kids. They had so much fun there. We spent all day there, then got back on the bus. It was during rush our so this time our trip was an hour and a half. Thankfully the kids were exhausted and slept the whole way.
Then while we were in Seattle we wanted to go to a couple restaurants that were on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". Voula's Off Shore Cafe was closed and Mike's Chili Parlor turned out to be a bar that we weren't allowed in! So Kevin got a cup of chili to go. It was not as "money" as Guy Fieri made it out to be!
The next day was back to Spokane where we pretty much just stayed another night. Oh and we went to an arcade/go-kart type place there. Thankfully it had a huge indoor playground for the little ones. Then the next night we stayed in Missoula in the nicest hotel I've ever been in (it was a free stay we had earned). The next day was finally home.
You can see all our vacation pictures HERE.
We stayed at the Air Force base right off of Spokane. It was beautiful. Because we had such a large family, they had us stay in a nice 2 bedroom house. I wanted to stay there forever. It wasn't a big house, but I thought it was perfect. I tend to like smaller houses even with lots of people. It just so happened that there was a family with six small children staying in the house attached to ours (base housing is almost always duplexes). I never got the meet the mother, but I thought it was such a coincidence that they were staying next to us. While in Spokane we went to a beautiful park and rode these things called gondolas that went over a waterfall. I thought gondolas were boats, but these were in the air. I was scared to death that thing was going to break! You can see a few pictures of it in our pictures.
The next day we traveled to Seattle. I did not like Seattle, at least not the big city area of it. It was crowded and there were strange people everywhere. Every store, even ones like Home Depot and Staples, were in big sky scraper buildings. It was all very strange to me and I didn't like it. I felt hurried and dirty and buried in people. We stayed at a Navy base that wasn't that great compared to the AF base. While we were there we went to a mall (that also looked to me just like another big building!) and I got my first taste of Panda Express. Love that place!
The next day we drove up to Vancouver. That was really strange. We didn't see many other white people. Most people were Chinese, Korean, Muslim, and more that I didn't even know. It was also much too big city-ish for me. We went to another beautiful park while we were there. I wish we had parks here like the ones we went to. We also went to the IMAX theater and saw 2 3D movies--one about the sea and another about a space station. We also went to a China Town. I didn't want to get out, but Kevin did, so we got out and walked around a little. There were Chinese people everywhere and they all stared at us and pointed and exclaimed things in Chinese. A few spoke to us in English with things like "Five?" "All you's?" "All you keeds?" haha--We must have been a sight to them! Their streets were full of markets that sold the grossest looking food I have ever seen. Can you believe Kevin wanted to go to a restaurant there? No way was I going to eat there!
We were going to stay 2 days in Vancouver, but 1 was enough, so we left the next day to head back to Seattle. This time instead of trying to naviate the city ourselves, Kevin wanted to take the city bus!!! Can you believe that? A family with five small children riding on the city bus! That was an adventure. I never saw any other chidren get on the bus--just a lot of weird and different people! Most didn't speak to us, but a few of course had to tell us we had our hands full. If only people knew how old that line gets. Ugh. But we survived 45 minutes on the bus and made it to the children's museum. That was probably the highlight of the trip for the kids. They had so much fun there. We spent all day there, then got back on the bus. It was during rush our so this time our trip was an hour and a half. Thankfully the kids were exhausted and slept the whole way.
Then while we were in Seattle we wanted to go to a couple restaurants that were on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". Voula's Off Shore Cafe was closed and Mike's Chili Parlor turned out to be a bar that we weren't allowed in! So Kevin got a cup of chili to go. It was not as "money" as Guy Fieri made it out to be!
The next day was back to Spokane where we pretty much just stayed another night. Oh and we went to an arcade/go-kart type place there. Thankfully it had a huge indoor playground for the little ones. Then the next night we stayed in Missoula in the nicest hotel I've ever been in (it was a free stay we had earned). The next day was finally home.
You can see all our vacation pictures HERE.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
I am back! Well, I've been here for a while, but I'm back to blogging! After we got home from our vacation, Kevin still had another 2 weeks off, so I took a little vacation myself. We took a break from school and our regular routine and just enjoyed hanging out with Daddy. And I took that time to do a thorough decluttering in my house. I'm almost done and it feels sooo nice!
So over the next couple weeks I will be blogging about
I've been saving up lots of posts in my head during my little vacation, so now I'm glad to be back!
So over the next couple weeks I will be blogging about
- our vacation--with pictures
- my decluttering method
- a tour of my home
- how to cloth diaper
- our favorite read-alouds
- and more!
I've been saving up lots of posts in my head during my little vacation, so now I'm glad to be back!
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