Household Goals

Right before Christmas I got a new book: Organized Simplicity, by Tsh Oxenreider.

The woman has no vowels in her name...I just had to point that out!

Anyway, I LOVE organization, but I rarely buy any books about it, because they all say the same things. However, this book is different!

The book is about 5x7 and has a spiral spine...that just makes this office supply junkie girl very happy! It makes the book seem more like a workbook instead of a "read and try to implement my ideas" book.

The tag line to the title is, The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living. That just makes me want to take a deep breathe! This book sums up how I want our household to be! Intentional about what we own and how we keep it, and clutter-free! It takes the idea of simplicity and makes it real-world livable. We aren't talking sell everything and live with one pair of pants and one fork kind of life! This book is about make choices about what you have and in what room of your home - understanding that if you choose to have five bookshelves of books because you love books that's fine. You made that choice, but it may mean that in order to have room for those books, you may need to let the Precious Moments figurines go.

And wait, there's more...right now on Amazon, this book is only $10.42!!! So head on over to the Amazon jungle and get yours now!!!

2011 Resolutions:

1. Go through room by room and create organized simplicity I am starting with my living room and focusing on one room at a time. My hope is to finish the decorating in that room as well, but the organization and the simplifying is the main goal. And consistent with Dave Ramsey, my plan is for a big garage sale in the spring to pawn off my junk to someone else in order to build the 3-6 months savings!

2. Create and follow a household cleaning plan I have a plan for laundry that I have been able to follow for the last year and it has allowed me to not have those 20 loads of laundry days. It has been relatively easy to follow, however, I enjoy doing laundry. I do not like cleaning my house, but I am hopeful that if I only have about 45 min worth of cleaning every day that the house will be clean and I won't be overwhelmed.

3. Regular chores for the slaves...I mean kiddos We have tried chore charts galore and have never been able to stick with them. My plan for January is to create a new system for chores for our family...one that works with our kids and our schedule. Most importantly...one that we can maintain for a looooong time!

My main purpose with all of these goals is to have my house be warm and inviting and a place that I am not embarrassed by if someone unexpectedly comes to the door. I want to be able to spontaneously invite someone for coffee or dinner without running around hoping the bathroom is clean or that there isn't laundry laying around or a kitchen full of dirty dishes. I don't want a spotless house, but I don't want my guests to have to move things to find a seat either. And I want to know where things are. I don't want to have to hunt for that receipt or bill or Mike's wallet (that's a whole 'nother story!)

This will be a year long process, but I want to look back on December 31, 2011 and say that we have made progress! I want to know that we are moving forward, not backwards!

All That and the Bathroom Sink

So even though it is now Wednesday, I feel like the week is just finally beginning. Or maybe last week never ended. The craziness of the weekend has spilled over into the next week.

I have been attempting to get to bed earlier (as in before 11:30pm) so that I wake up refreshed before 7:15am when I MUST be out of bed! But here I sit, finally "catching up" at midnight. Why? Mainly because Carrie lovingly brought me a Starbuck's Peppermint Mocha. Oh, the gloriousness of it all. Caffeine and all. Thank you, Carrie, but make a note...no caffeine after 2pm! The caffeine combined with the Buckeyes that Carrie made and force-fed me have made for a tired body, but refusing to sleep mind.

So I will fill you in on the last several days.

The kids had a half day on Friday, and i knew that Saturday would be busy, so I had them do all of their Saturday chores on Friday afternoon. That's just the slave-driving mother that I am. That combined with the fact that Jill and her family were coming for dinner.

Our men were going to a high school football game that I would tell you about, but I really don't care and this is my blog, so I won't. But that left Jill and I at home with 10 children...all under the age of 12. Funny thing Jill figured out - our kids are in 6th,5th,4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st grade, Kindergarten, preschool, and then I have two extras. Isn't that kind of funny that we wouldn't overlap anywhere? But the kids all get along great, and we hardly even knew there were kids in the house for most of the night. Except of course for Meredith who was too excited that she was spending the night at Jill's house that she would ask every 20 minutes if it was time to go. Considering they didn't leave until 11:30pm, that was a lot of times to ask!

So, not wanting put a lot of effort into dinner, we did what every smart mom does and headed to Costco! We purchased four take & bake pizzas. But Costco, being the forward thinking place that they are doesn't just carry your basic pizza anymore. Oh no! This is what we had!

If you do not recognize that, it is a margarita pizza: fresh mozzarella cheese, basil, and roma tomatoes (although, those ones aren't looking very roma like - it was still very delicious). Yummy is about as descriptive as I am feeling at midnight, but let me tell you it was VERY yummy!

Like I was saying, we cleaned before this glorious pizza, child and rook-playing filled night occurred. (By the way, Jill's husband, Kyle, and I were partners at Rook and creamed Jill and Mike! Just needed to make sure I mentioned that!)

My boys were sent to clean their room after lunch. This is what the room looked like after 3 hours.

Yes, you read that right...THREE HOURS. Because I as the mean mommy make my children clean until it is clean.
Really, I think there was a lot more playing being done than cleaning. However, the threat of no sleepovers got the rest of the room clean in 20 minutes. Amazing how those threat things work!

My cleaning job was the bathroom. My pink bathroom. Now I'm not going to show you the pink, because...well, just because years from now I do not want to remember it. I also do not want to remember these sinks, but I must show you so you can sympathize with me.

It looks pretty (mainly because it was clean - you didn't think I was going to show you the dirty one did you?), but don't let it deceive you. Do you see all those ridges. They collect dust, and toothpaste, and all manner of who knows what (and if you do, don't tell me!). And they are not easy to clean. And there are two of them. But now that I have complained, I'll be thankful that there are two, that they are not pink, and that at least one of them gets both hot and cold water. Oh, the joys of a 1950's house! Oh the character, the charm...

Having done all of that cleaning on Friday, I did manage to stay in my PJs until noon on Saturday. I don't think I can remember the last time I did that (not counting the two weeks I spent in bed sick!)

So Saturday was relaxing, and Sunday was a blur (always a blur!), and I think the week has begun. I don't really know what happened to Monday, except that I won my Fantasy Football game.

Which brings us up to Tuesday.

My children have all been stoically fighting of colds of all sorts. I think that comes with the finally dropping below 50 degree days. But Jeffrey has had this cough that just won't go away and is starting to sound worse not better.

And Morgan has put together three words. Sadly, they were, "Mommy ear ouchie" Not a good sign.

So I packed up three kids and headed to the pediatric walk-in clinic. After a pleasant 45 minute wait, the doctor announced that Morgan has a double ear infection and Jeffrey is borderline pneumonia. I left feeling like the worst mommy for letting their colds go for so long thinking they were "just a cold" or a "virus that just has to go its course". But I also left with drugs!

Thank you Lord for the knowledge to create "miracle liquid"! Can I get an AMEN?

So hopefully in a few days, my whiny, clingy, fussy children will have morphed back into cheerful, happy, playful kids!

On the way home from the doctor's office, the school called, Judson isn't feeling too good.

If you don't hear from me in a couple of days...send in the cavalry!