One Goal at a Time: Bible Study and Housework

 


Y'all, if I believed in signs and wonders I'd be wondering if time was going to stop.  I say that in jest, of course.  I'm in a good mood this morning and I'm writing again. What I would like to do is get back to posting here on the blog more often, but I'll take it one step at a time.

Since the last week or so of December I've been changing a few things in my life. I've wanted to talk about those things here, but I've been hesitant to do so, given my flaky background. I'm a great starter, but not always a great finisher, you know?

Like a lot of people, once Christmas was over, I started thinking about the new year and what i wanted to do with it. I usually have a list as long as my arm of things I want to try or do. This time I decided to focus on just one thing: Bible study. I've started that in years past and have only gotten so far before I let life get in the way. Even discussing here at Home only lasted for a little while. But I've never read the bible in its entirety before and that's what I focused on. Thanks to something I saw on Pinterest I checked out www.bible.com.  They have many different reading plans that last from a day or two to all year. Some focus on single topics such as Anger, others take you through the bible in a year's time. I chose one of the latter, as well as a few smaller topics to tackle. That seemed to be a little much for me so currently I read in Proverbs as well as the readings for the bible in a year.  I'm happy to report that I've been doing this for 29 days now. I read the passages online but I have a notebook by my side to write down observations, questions, and such. 

It's been rather humbling to begin this journey once again. I'm noticing things that I hadn't before, even in "stories" that are familiar to me. I find myself talking to my husband about what I've read. And it's helped me with my word of the year:Patience. More on that later, if you'd like.

Strange thing about focusing on one thing at a time and making that a habit; it flows into other parts of life as well. If you've read any of my Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife  posts you know that it's a continual struggle for me. When my brother moved in last August I worked hard at it and grew increasingly frustrated. Finally early this month I sat down and wrote out a chore list for each member of the family. The dishes, for example, are done by Bobby and me. I do breakfast and lunch, he does the supper ones. And I'm happy to say that it works so far. I still have a long way to go in making sure that all of the housework is getting done in a timely manner, but the dishes are done after each meal without fail (okay, it failed once --but we caught up at the next meal). Three of our public rooms are kept up better, if not perfectly the way I want them. It's a work in progress.  

Well, there you have it. That's my goal this year, one thing at a time. I have much more to talk about and it's my plan to write a bit more this week. How has your year started out? Do you have goals and plans you're working on? I'd love to hear from you. Although I may not always answer I do read and enjoy your comments.


 

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife: Fessing Up

These days, if you want to come and visit, you're entirely welcome. Just plan on coming early in the week. 

You know what they say about the road to hell right? It's paved with good intentions. When we first moved here I was Susie Homemaker. I stuck with my routines, went to bed at a decent hour, Baby Bear was in a great mood... life was good. We even got some painting done and even a little decorating. I'll do a post on the kitchen and dining room soon, we just need to finish up in that area. 

But then came things that got in the way. Started chatting on Facebook messenger with friends until Jim came home from work. After dinner chores got pushed aside. We had to run here or there for myriad reasons from helping out a relative to just plain boredom. It rained a lot so that painting wasn't advisable (from what I've read if you paint on rainy days it doesn't dry properly). Seizures and meltdowns reared their ugly heads a few times. In short, while I have been continuing to try and keep the place neat and orderly while making the house more into home, it's been more like swimming upstream while the other fish are busily heading downstream: you're putting out a lot of effort but you're really not getting anywhere.

One thing I've kept up with though, is (mostly) managing to keep Mondays free of distraction so I can get the house back in order. The weekends are now the true weekends so unless I'm babysitting on Sunday, not a lot of housework is being done on Saturday. And somewhere along the lines of Friday, the brains in this house tend to forget where shoes go, and things tend to fall by the wayside. 

That's where Mondays come in. That's my time to restore order to the living room, bathroom, kitchen and dining room. The rooms get picked up, the dishes are caught up, the bathroom gets a good scrub down, and the carpets get a good vacuuming. All that fun stuff. Most of it, anyway. 

Slowly though, I'm figuring out the spring time slump and getting back into a more feasible routine. A load or two of laundry gets done most days, and today I wrote up some rules for a happy kitchen:

• dishes are done by the end of the night and at the very least are put in the drainer to dry if not put away.
• litter boxes are patrolled daily with regular scrubbing
• Floor to be swept nightly
• Trash taken out nightly.

If I can get back in the habit of making sure those are done regularly, as well as mastering the art of menu planning (and sticking with said plans) I think I can keep a handle on the housework so I can better spend my time with Baby Bear and the Hubs, as well as work in time for writing and art work. Home Sweet House is relatively small, which I am thankful for when it comes to keeping the housework manageable. 

So there you have it, folks, my confession for the day. Now, if you'll excuse me, the laundry needs rebooting and dishes are calling. Have a great Monday.

This is Charlie, holding the tv down so it doesn't fly away each night, lol.

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife: Learning Not to Be an Oscar Madison

Cleaning and organizing do not come easily to me. Some people are born organizers and seem to have an innate sense of where everything goes. Then there are those of us who have the Oscar Madison gene. 

 Photocredit: www.starpulse.com

Most people I know fall in between the two ends of the spectrum. I however, fit in with Oscar Madison. (For those of you unfamiliar with the Odd Couple, Oscar is the one on the left, played by the late Jack Klugman. Yes, I know I'm old.)

However, if you're an Oscar like I am, there is hope. I promise. Inside me there is a neat freak screaming to get out. But I usually can shut her up with a pile of magazines or a new book to read. Mmmhmmm.  

As i stated above, there is hope.  While not 100% neat 100% of the time, I live in a home that I could open the door to company without cringing (much. Just don't open the door to the Bear Cave.). If you want perfection, wrong house. If you want to come visit and have some tea and maybe some cake or cookies, come on over!

So how did I get to that point? I moved. Here are some tips I've learned through trial and error and years(!!) of reading books and magazine articles and following blogs dedicated to cleaning and organizing:

• Move. Seriously. Actually, not so seriously. If you are moving soon, great!  If not, pretend you are. In either case, while boxing up belongings, pay attention to what you have and purge what you can.
• In purging, give yourself this test: Do I love it? Is it useful? Does it hold sentimental value? If you can't get a yes to at least one of those questions, toss it, donate it or sell it. 
• Focus on the amount of space you have. For instance, the bedroom closet. Mine is the size of a shoebox and I share it with The Hubs. Do I really need eleventy-hundred pairs of jeans? NO! Cute as they all are, you can't wear all of them. If you have the clothing budget and the closet space to match, go for it. If not, choose a reasonable number and donate the rest. Share the wealth. Bonus: Fewer pairs of jeans means less laundry to deal with.
• When it comes to free things (samples, hand me downs), Learn. To. Say. No. Can I do it? Nuh uh. Nope. If I think I can use it, I happily accept offerings. But I'm learning to use a discerning eye .  I choose what I can use and then I pass the rest on to someone else who can be blessed. 

These are just a few tips that are helping me. I have one more for the kitchen. Both Flylady and A Slob Comes Clean suggest starting with the sink. Flylady says shine your sink, Nony suggests doing your dishes. I tend to agree. Once you do your dishes and the sink is nice and shiny, it spurs you on to other cleaning activities.  That being said, it's time for me to get busy cleaning. Have a great day!

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife: Spring Cleaning and Plans for the House

Good morning! It's a beautiful, sunny day here in my area. Daylight savings time is upon us. The clocks have been set forward an hour (really, I don't get why we still do that but that's a rant for another day) and like a lot of people, my mind is on spring cleaning. Well, for me, my mind is on cleaning in general. Because of the move, a few things like turning mattresses and general cleanup have been done already. But now that we deal with gas for heat and cooking, I get to learn all about that type of upkeep. The windows could stand a good washing (we have awnings from way back in the day on some of the windows so I get to figure out how to wash the outsides of the windows), and I'm pretty sure the awnings need to be cleaned as well. Looks like I'll be starting a honey do list for The Hubs. He's better at cleaning the rain gutters and that type of thing.  It's also time to get moving on a garden and doing a little landscaping out there. I have lots of plans for this home, and hopefully I will share a little of that with you as the weeks go by. Because of our limited budget, not everything on our list will get done this year, but that's okay. 

In sprucing up on the inside, I really want to get some painting done, especially in the two bedrooms.

These two photos were taken before we moved. The top is the master bedroom and is a really bright pink. I love pink, I really do. But that is a bit too bright for me. The Hubs has agreed to a much softer shade of pink. The carpet I'm not so concerned with because as soon as I can replace it with laminate or anything else that fits my budget and looks like hardwood and will last a long while, it's outta here, baby! Carpets in my opinion hold a lot of dust, dirt and cat hair, even when you vacuum regularly. I'd rather sweep and damp mop and keep going. 

The bottom room there has very poor lighting for the photo. The paint looks chocolate brown there but is more of a cross between chocolate and raspberry. I'm not crazy about it. The bear cave is going to become a blue-green. Since the bear cave is J's room, I don't think curtains will go in there at all. I'm thinking sturdier blinds, and very few additions other than removing the carpet for something simpler. He is truly zen. He does not like a lot of clutter in his space. In fact, the barer, the better. I will honor his wishes on that. 

Now that I've shown you the "before" pictures of the bedrooms, I will be sure to keep you updated when the rooms are done.  For now though, my sweet husband has informed me it's time to eat , and then I need to finish my laundry and thin out the growing stack of magazines, not to mention catch up on my filing. Happy Monday!

Packing, Moving, and Hiding Places...Or, Have You Seen Where J Hid the Packing Tape?

For at least two years now I've been wanting to move. For the past six months, it has turned into a must move. While I'm grateful to have a roof over our heads, this place really isn't much more than that. Even with the little we pay in rent for this place, we continue to struggle financially because The Hubs works so far away (about 50 miles one way, five days a week) for pay that is good but not great. So we are looking for a place closer in. No rentals that we can afford have shown up in the city he works in (that isn't an apartment, in any case. Those wont work because J gets very loud much of the time and we have pets) so we have found a place a little farther out. 

This new place is small from what I understand, but I'm hoping this is what we need. We haven't seen the place in person yet --hope to this week. But The Hubs has checked the maps online and it looks as if he can shave off at least ten miles each way in heading to work. If this is the case, then we're going to make the place work. If the mileage is the same... we will be back to square one until another answer comes along. 

In the meantime, I'm already packing. So far not much has been boxed up other than cookbooks, kitchen decorations, linens, and a few baking pieces that I can live without for the next few weeks. However, I've discovered a few things about our dear son since last night. For instance:

• Packing tape and markers are fair game and will be hidden if left out over night (I still haven't found the hiding place for them and I can only hope that the tape is still on its dispenser. Packing tape is evil without that flimsy piece of plastic).
• In an effort to be helpful and put away things his crazy parents left out, a roll of toilet paper has been found in a cabinet holding rarely used bakeware.
• For some strange reason he decided that we needed to keep an empty tea box. It too, was found in the cabinet with the bakeware.

As for myself, while I continue to look for the absent tape, I will keep packing as I can. I am discovering that moving is the perfect time to declutter. While I am still hanging on to certain magazines despite the fact that most of that stuff can be found online, I have gotten rid of quite a few that I no longer need or want, as well as about half a trash bag full of empty jars of various sizes and shapes. In a fit of "jars are great! frugality", I began saving them.  Salsa, pickle, sauerkraut, you name it. Big, small, fat, skinny. Did not matter. Now granted, many of the larger ones have been put to use in my pantry, but I still had  have many empties lurking, I'm pretty sure of it, in dark corners, waiting to be put to use. 

I do know, sure as I know my own name, that once I've found all the empties and disposed of the ones I'm sure I don't need, that I'll find a use for them. That's the pack rat in me talking. After all, I was taught well by two loving parents who, although neater than I am, kept many things. My mom still does this. You need batteries? She has them. Bless her heart, it will take her about an hour of searching through her many boxes, but she has them squirreled away in a closet somewhere.  Nevertheless, it's time to fight the packrat gene and do away with things we really do not need. 

As I tend to do lately, I apologize for not posting very often lately, but I will return. I promise you this, to the best of my ability I will not give up writing here. There is still much to say about J, autism, moving, life in general. In the meantime though, either by the end of it all I will have packed up almost everything to give the place a good scrubbing  and manage to live here a little longer, or we will move quickly so that we can all get back to normal. Or at least a reasonable facsimile of it, just before the holidays descend upon us. Have a wonderful day. I'll talk to you again soon.
 

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife: The Fridge Vs The Respect Dare

Have you ever put off doing a job because  it was just. so. daunting. that it made you exhausted just thinking about it? And then once you decided to bite the bullet and get it done you felt a huge sense of accomplishment? Yeah, that's me right now.

Next to cleaning the bathroom (which is my husband's job, simply because I'm a wimp and he adores me anyway), cleaning out the abyss  the fridge is my most dreaded task. So I put it off. For way longer than I really should. My philosophy is cram the stuff in there and shut the door quickly. Not a good path to follow, in case you're wondering. 

I do have my reasons. In my head I'm very organized. Every little thing in its place. In reality, ehh, not so much. The fridge is old and needs to be replaced. And it will be. Eventually. So I shove everything in there from fresh produce to meat to leftovers... and then cringe when there is no more room and Weird Al is in my kitchen singing to me.

Frightening, huh? 

Well, this week I read Dare 13 of the Respect Dare. You can learn more about that by visiting Unbroken Woman. I'm at least a week behind everyone else but for now, that's okay with me. Anyway, part of the dare was to ask your husband to name one thing you can do for him that would help him out. My husband just happened to be out of town but I could pretty much guess what he would say: Clean the kitchen. So for the past two days (don't judge) I've been working on that. Today I tackled the dreaded fridge. 
   Hubby is home now. While I cleaned and organized the fridge and did dishes, he sat and played a computer game. Did that irk me? You bet! At first. You probably know some of the thoughts: Why am I the only one up cleaning? (He cooked breakfast) You'd think he'd feel some compunction to get up and clean some too. (He worked all night and this is the first day of his weekend). Blah blah blah. 

But you know what? It's all okay. I'm sure an exasperated sigh (or ten, but who's counting?) came out of me today. But I didn't yell. I didn't disrespect him by berating him. I let him do his thing while I did mine. And he did help. He took care of part of the job while I sat and relaxed for a minute or two. And at the end, he thanked me and told me how much he appreciated me doing that. 

The respect dare is not easy. There will be times you feel like giving up because it's not really making a difference. But if you get the book and read on your own or follow Unbroken Woman , I encourage you to see it through to the end. I intend to. It is worth it. Whether Hubby says anything or not, I'm seeing changes in my own spirit, and changes that I'd like to see happen. Not so much because they would make my husband happy, but because I feel that my attitude and my actions would be more pleasing to God. The respect dare isn't all about fetching the paper and his slippers each evening. It's about showing your partner in life the respect and love that he needs, and also (more importantly) respecting God's wishes. 

While it helps that Hubby thanked me for cleaning the fridge,  and that does help, believe me, it's not all about what do I get out of all this. I get a sense of accomplishment, I get less frustration in preparing meals and snacks. The important part is what I put into this relationship. Love. Honor. Respect.

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife : Learning Habits That Work

You know, sometimes I wish I had a camera...And sometimes I'm pretty thankful that I don't. Today is the latter, although you probably wouldn't believe this scene unless you saw it. Then again, if you know me, you'd know it's pretty much business as usual around here.
    Here on the home front I have a kitten asleep on the laptop keyboard. Some of the keys have stopped working so I have another keyboard hooked up to the laptop these days until it can be fixed. Both J and the Hubs are in the bedrooms. Hubs is sleeping because he works tonight, and J is just hanging out. And I'm here in the kitchen... wondering where all my hard work went.
   Just a few days ago my kitchen was clean. Not immaculate, mind you, but I wouldn't cringe if someone came over (Don't ask about the rest of the house just yet. Thanks). For a good week and a half or so we were doing great! Doing the dishes every day, sweeping and mopping, the table could be seen and the counters were either clear or organized. You know, the way normal people live. Every day. Today? I'm catching up on dishes and working my way towards finding the table and my counter space again. I think there is hope for us, though. One of the main reasons my table is cluttered again is my sweet Hubs took everything out of the cabinets and cleaned the cabinets for me. It was on my list of things to do and he did it for me. Now it's my turn, cleaning all the dishware and choosing what goes back and what gets sent to charity.
  I think it's a little easier these days to get back on track because I'm not constantly feeling like I'm pushing a boulder up a steep hill. So far J is doing well on the meds and his thinking is a little clearer. While his room is still a bone of contention, he's not making more of a mess here in the kitchen or in the living room. Instead of finding a corner or the floor to throw something, he heads for the garbage can. Even dish towels and cloth napkins end up in the trash once he's done with them if I don't keep a good eye on him, but hey, he's learning. And those things are washable!
 My little family and I are learning, little by little to conquer the disorganization and chaos. Day by day we're getting the hang of things. While I did detour yesterday and left the kitchen to attack my bedroom, for the most part I'm finally realizing that the chaos didn't appear overnight and it won't go away overnight. And I'm learning that baby steps is key to not getting overwhelmed. Just like when I decided I needed to lose weight I focused on walking every day until it became a habit, then started focusing on what I was eating instead of just how much, in organization I'm focusing on one habit -and one room- at a time. As in changing my lifestyle habits for better health, I slip up and go back to my disorganized ways now and again. That's okay. I'm making progress in both areas of my life. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other. 

Goodbye September, Hello October

Ok, if you received this without a title, it's because it was written last night around midnight when I should have gone to bed. Fun fun.


Can you believe September is already gone? Time sure flies, doesn't it? I haven't written as much as I would have liked this month, but for me, family comes first.  So, what have you been up to lately? I'll catch you up a little and give a few tidbits if you'll share with me how it's going with you. Deal?
  Remember Heavenly Homemakers Funky Fresh Kitchen Challenge? I didn't blog as much about it as I'd meant to, but I tried keeping up with Laura. As for me, I nearly gave myself a big, fat FAIL on the month long challenge series, but I decided to be lenient and give myself a D. A lot of the challenges I ended up putting a "to be continued" label on them for one reason or another. That's okay. I haven't given up on doing those things. But I did decide to try menu planning again, which is a step in the right direction, and I got my pantry area cleaned out and functional. So woohoo there! Sorry, no pictures. Need to replace my camera at some point in the future.
  I decided earlier to put myself through Home Ec 101 and get my act together in a few areas. It's still a work in progress. I have a friend now (Hi, Sharon!) who encourages me each week to declutter and organize. We chat via private message on Facebook on Mondays, and sometimes one other day during the week. We tell each other what we are working on that particular day, and I think it's beneficial for both of us.
  As I mentioned earlier I'm trying to master the art of menu planning. It comes so simply to so many, but I struggle with it. I know basically what my family eats, and I'm learning to keep a list of pantry items so I can come up with nutritious meals. I am even learning to take into account the schedule so I can figure out if we need to eat out on a certain day because of doctor appointments, or whether I can figure out another way to make sure we're fed while on the road.
   J continues to do well without the behavior medications, but I've found that he still needs melatonin to help him sleep. He's currently dealing with insomnia. O joy of joys. So this early bird has had to adjust her sleep schedule a wee bit to accommodate the situation. (Whew! Took three tries to spell accommodate correctly.)
  Also, I'm in house hunting mode. I have a scout in the area we'd like to live in, both for financial and work reasons, and I've been doing some searching on the net to see what is out there that we could possibly afford. I'm seeing a few prospects. The biggest thing now is to look at the houses, set the ball in motion, and trust that God will lead us to the home that is right for us. I'm praying for this.  There has already been a blessing in this: I'm getting to better know an old friend from school, and I have a new friend in his wife as well. I am really hoping and praying this works out because it has been so long since I lived close to a friend so I could visit and talk. Bonus: I'd have more motivation to keep the house organized and clean! I don't know about you, but knowing company may show up is a HUGE motivator in housekeeping.
  Something new, something new.A Proverbs Wife is beginning a weeklong reading of Colossians  today (October 1). It runs through Sunday, October 7. I hope you'll join the discussion there.
  Well, that's all the news for now on my end. What about you? What have you been up to lately? Are you accomplishing all the goals you set for yourself? I'd love to hear from you.

HOME EC 101: LEARNING TO GET IT RIGHT

You know what I was doing last night? I was cleaning my kitchen and planning out what needed to be done today. Okay okay, close your mouth and you over there, pick yourself up from the floor. You don't have to be that shocked. I do get Suzy Homemaker fits...now and then. 
   A friend contacted me last week. She realized we both have the same disorganized gene. She suggested we team up and encourage one another in getting housework tamed. As I've said here Laura over at Heavenly Homemakers is challenging her readers to get funky fresh in the kitchen. Another blogger that I dont get to read often but enjoy, has lately been posting articles on blessing your husband here at A Proverbs Wife  and how to find joy in home making  here.  Still another one, Good (Cheap) Eats  is doing a series on Meal Planning 101.  All of these have been coming under my radar lately. Think I'm being told something here? I think so. 
    Since buddying up with my friend Sharon I've noticed a few things. I'm highly disorganized (we all knew that) and I think it's partly because I have squirrel brain. No, I'm not saying I have the brain of a squirrel... although some may think so at times. What I mean is, 
     this. 
See what I mean? I get easily distracted from project / chore to another. 
  The other thing I noticed is I'm a perfectionist control freak who gets easily frustrated if things don't fall easily into place when I have a plan. Notice that little word there? "I"?  Yeah. That's the problem there. I still have to learn to give up control .  
  So. As of now, I've enrolled myself in Home Ec 101. While I'm the guide on this voyage, the real teachers are some of the bloggers I've mentioned and I am the student. I will be focusing on getting organized / housework, meal planning, and my own attitude adjustment. I feel God is trying to teach me some things here. If you see some of yourself in this, feel free to learn right along with me. Thank you so much to my mentors in this endeavor, whether they realize it or not. And if you're continuing to read this, thank you too. I'd love to hear from you.  What are you working on right now in your life?                
 

Don't Should Upon Yourself

 Do you ever 'should' all over yourself? I used to watch a reality show a few years back. Several women who were dealing with a problem and needed to start over came and lived in a house together. There were two life coaches, both women, who guided them along and gave them assignments to help them with their goal. One of the life coaches, a therapist named Iyanla Vanzant, gave this advice to one of the women: Don't 'should' all over yourself, and don't let others should on you either.
   Some of her advice stuck with me. I don't agree with some of her methods or ideologies, but that's okay. I don't look to her for spiritual guidance. But that one nugget of truth is what I needed from her.
  Why am I blathering on about this? Because I'm sitting here 'shoulding' on myself. I should be checking the laundry. I should be starting the ham. I should be picking up the living room. I should be finishing the dishes. I should be working on my novel. I should be this, I should be that. Enough!
   I am only one person. I can only stretch myself so thin before I finally snap. And I don't think I'm alone in all this thinking. We women have a tendency to wake up in the morning with a laundry list of should do's and must do's , and we go to bed thinking of tomorrow's list, all the while berating ourselves that one or two items on today's list didn't get done. And the time in between? We're running around like a headless chicken, stressed out to the max and taking everyone in our path along for the ride or we shut down. The TV or computer snaps on, fanny is firmly in place on our seat and before you know it, the day is half gone and so is the emergency chocolate stash. (Come on, admit it, you know you have one. Please tell me I'm not the only one.)
   This  does not need to be how our day is. I don't want my days to be like this. So how do I fix this?
 START THE DAY OFF RIGHT
  Prayer and bible study first thing sets the tone for the day. And yes, I'm reminding myself of this, because I have a nasty habit of jumping into the day without this very important step. And I can tell you from personal experience that my day goes a whole lot better when I have my quiet time. Does it stop all bad things from happening? Not by a long shot. Hiccups, mishaps, and just plain bad days are going to happen. Prayer and bible study makes us better equipped to face the problems because we realize we aren't alone in this.
EXERCISE
  Again, preaching to the typist here. I've fallen off the wagon many times on this one as well. But I feel better and my attitude towards everything is better when I take my walk in the morning. You may like exercising in the evening. That's fine. Just remember to take care of yourself. I usually walk alone because I'm the only morning person living in this house. When I do it right, it's part of my quiet time with the Lord. I enjoy that.
PRIORITIZE AND DELEGATE
    As busy wives and moms we have a lot of responsibilities. Some of us even have college and/ or full time jobs on top of all this. And yet we think that we are supposed to buy into the Superwoman mentality who can work outside the home, volunteer and Jr's school, keep the house spotless, and cook great meals, and five hundred other things that come up as well, and not ask for help. Remember that song back in the day? "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan... " blah blah blah.  Also something that trips women up (although it is not supposed to) is the Proverbs 31 woman. 
   There is absolutely nothing wrong with that chapter, none at all. I aspire to be that woman too. But  the reason she was able to do so much in one day is she had servants helping her! If you're like me you don't have servants helping you. We do have husbands and some of us have kids. Ask hubby or Tommy or Mary to fold the towels when they come out of the dryer. Can hubby stop after work and pick up the groceries or the forgotten milk? Oh no, I can't do that. I have to do it because I like my towels folded a certain way. Hubby will get the wrong kind of cereal.
  I started out wanting my towels and other items folded a certain way. Now, as long as it gets done, I'm not gonna make a fuss. As for the grocery list, yes I have a few items on my list that I'm really picky about. My sweet hubby has learned that  I'm going to be persnickety about some items. If I give him a list, I write down the specific brand for those items otherwise I'm at his frugal mercy and I just have to bite my lip and remember to thank him for helping me. 
  As for the stuff you have to get done yourself, write it all down if you have to (I do or it doesn't get done.). Then take a few minutes to decide what absolutely must get done and what can wait. Give yourself some breathing room in your schedule. Surprises, both good and bad, do come up. 
  These are just a few things that may help you in your day. I know it helps me. Now, if you'll excuse me, my kitchen is calling... 

Week 4: Choose Your Own Adventure--and Where' I' ve Been

 Once again we are linking up with Simple Mom  for Project Simplify 2012.  This week we were to choose our own adventure. I mentioned that and my plans here --and then disappeared for the week. Uh Oh. Making a face here. Bad blogger!
  Well, I'll tell ya. The week started out great. I had lots of energy, The Hubby was home to help out. He took J's room and completely cleaned it up minus shampooing or replacing the carpet, which it badly, badly needs. 

 This is the after picture because I forgot to get a before picture. Not showing the floor, sorry, but you do get to see my dear sleeping boy who chose to nap before the sheets were put on his bed. See the part of  the daybed there on the side?  Still not up. Dad needs to get something for it first.

Still, a lot did get done. Two bags of trash came out of there, we found some Tupperware that had gone missing, and also some clothes in bad need of washing. J is great at hiding things but I'm happy to say that J has kept it fairly clean since dad did the big purge, and has been "helping" to keep it neat by throwing unwanted (by him) items out the window. See, this helps mom get more exercise by going outside to pick them up, which is a great idea because....whoa. Wait a minute. Enough of the shenanigans! Mama has enough to do! Time for J man to go outside and pick up the stuff that gets tossed. 
  Next my Sweet Hubby tackled The Bathroom. Miss Dottie, why did those two words get capitalized?  Because Dottie lives in a house with two men and is too lazy terrified to go clean it herself, that's why. Nuff said.

 This right here is NOT a picture of the before of my bathroom. Nope, that's a picture of a sunset I tried to capture with my cheapie but loved camera. I can promise you I DID take before shots which showed all of our mayhem and foolishness in the bathroom, but in uploading pictures to my computer, they somehow disappeared.  Please forgive me, I'm still learning some of the ins and outs of blogging and computers and such. 
 So to get an idea of what the bathroom actually looked like I'll tell you what was done in there.

• all the laundry that wasn't in the basket was picked up and taken to be washed, along with the stuff that miraculously was in the basket. 
• The toilet was scrubbed clean.
• The walls were scrubbed clean (with autism sometimes comes toileting issues. Nuff said)
• The shower was fixed so that we can actually shower again.
• The sink was cleaned and cleared of the hair trimmer, the shaving stuff, etc.
• A new shower curtain was put in place.

For what it's worth, here are the after shots. It's a tiny bathroom and its hard to get great angles so hopefully this gives you an idea.

 Yes, that is a throw on the window instead of curtains. Sorry. That window faces the road which would give anyone a clear shot into my business. I tacked it up when we first moved and sadly haven't bothered to replace it with blinds or real curtains. The whys and the wherefores are an entirely different blog post. If you're wondering, the backwards letters spell out Lampasas. We used to live in Texas several years back.
  So where was miss Dottie during all the cleaning that took place? I was in the kitchen cleaning up some hotspots and clearing out some more clutter. Two bags (from the three rooms) went directly to the trash, two are currently near the front door headed for the thrift store.  
  And then it was time for The Hubby to go back to work...and Dottie started battling low energy and sinus headaches yesterday. I'm still battling a headache today so I'm laying pretty low at the moment. 
 All in all, I've enjoyed Project Simplify 2012. I want to thank Tsh from Simplemom.net for hosting this. While I didn't get as much as I wanted accomplished, I did get a huge head start and am happy with the results. I've also learned that in projects I tend to want to do a lot more in one week than I actually can get accomplished, but that's good. It shows me that I can get things done and also what still needs to be done. I plan to continue challenging myself to make this a better place for my family.
 What about you? Have you followed along all month and spring cleaned along with me, Simple Mom,   and all the other bloggers who have linked up? Are you all done now, or are you inspired to continue? I'd love to hear how your week went.

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife: Project Simplify Week Four Plans

Good morning!
  After all the warm weather last week it finally dipped down into the late 60s, early 70s yesterday. While it felt/ feels good, I'm still looking forward to more 80's weather. 
  This is the final week of Simple Mom's Project Simplify 2012. Because of it I've gotten a few things accomplished and I'm liking the results. I've gotten motivated each week as I worked on the spot of the week and I want to continue that. Having a deadline helped me to focus on the task at hand, and because I stated publicly on Simple Mom that I was going to do the project, I felt accountable to do so.  So, next Monday morning I'll let you know what my project of the week is.
  As for the last week of Project Simplify 2012, Tsh is proclaiming it Choose Your Own Adventure. That means we get to choose what we will be cleaning/ organizing/decluttering for the week. As always, I have a lofty goal in mind and look forward to seeing what actually gets accomplished.
  I have The Hubby at home with me for the next few days as he is on his long weekend of the month (gotta love shift changes...sigh) so he has been recruited to help me out. Bless his heart, he deserves a medal already. He cleaned J's room for me yesterday and today gets to tackle the bathroom for me. 
  So what will I be doing while he slaves away, sitting on my fanny eating bon bons and typing away at the computer? Nope. While I will be typing some, I have my own agenda for the week. I want to tackle two hotspots here in the kitchen that have begun to experience clutter creep once again --my baking center and my table. That's just an appetizer as it will take maybe half an hour to restore tranquility to those things. 
  This week I plan on working in two rooms: the living room and the master bedroom. Both are screaming for help right now and there is a lot of interconnection. Specifically, the laundry needs to be put away, the closet needs to be cleaned thoroughly since Angie moved her babies once again (she's now in the kitchen by the washer and dryer. But at least she's out of the way). The dresser is in serious need of declutter. And The Hubby needs to get his tools out of my living room. 
  That should keep us both busy for awhile. So what am I waiting for? I've got dishes in the sink (not happy about letting that one slide for the last few days. Dishes get done everyday, I just lapsed into letting them sit overnight sometimes. Enough of that!) and hot spots to deal with before my two favorite men wake for the day. So what have you got planned for today? Are you in spring cleaning mode? 

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife: Week 3, Clearing the Clutter

  Yup, this is week three of Simple Mom's Project Simplify  . Well this week she instructed us to work on closets, cabinets, and counter tops. I was going to work on my bedroom closet because it needs it badly.

 Don't go too googly eyed at Miss Ma'am and her striped babies. In real life her fur isnt that orange. Miss Ma'am, aka Mama, aka Angie, is the reason my closet did not get cleaned this week. She didn't give birth to the kittens in my closet, she just decided to bring them in the house to the safest place she knew of. Oh joy and wonder. Want a kitten? Want two? In about 5 weeks are so the darlings are adoptable.
  Okay, so this is supposed to be about what we actually did. I have a set of shelves one might see in a pantry or garage. It's in my kitchen.

  This is the shelving unit known as the catch all. It brings this reaction to mind:

Its over three minutes long so you dont have to watch the whole thing. But if you do, look for King Kong. The woman screaming there is Faye Raye.

Yes folks, I wanted to scream every time I saw that thing. It holds incoming mail, pots and pans and such that I have no other place to store, and in general, junk! This is what it looks like after two separate sessions of purging, cleaning and organizing. Not perfect, but lots better.

Lots better. My kitchen is almost making me happy to be in it now. Things are coming together nicely. I'm not going to kid myself or you and say that I'll be doing nothing other than cleaning a few other corners of my kitchen all weekend while waiting patiently for Monday's arrival to start the next challenge, but I will be maintaining the progress made and working on a few things today. 
Have a great weekend, all.

Day Four of the New Routine

Good morning! I sort of dropped off the radar there for a few days, but I'm back. It is 5:51 AM. Despite getting up at the "late" time of 4:20 or so, I've already made a smoothie breakfast for The Hubby and myself, offered it to J who politely declined, started a load of laundry, fed the cats (who are the best actors in the world by the way.This morning was the starving orphan routine), and started J's breakfast.He's having kielbasa and scrambled eggs. Not bad for a morning.
  Speaking of J, he slept in till about 5 or so this morning. No nap yesterday and the previous night's insomnia did him in. He was in bed asleep by 8:30 last night. As for my routine, I think he likes it. He has been up each day before I woke at 4 and he likes eating that time of the day. He also likes eating about every few hours so if I'm going to keep this up (and I think I will), more snacks are in order.) 
   Amazingly enough, except for yesterday I didnt nap. J did most of the week, but missed his nap yesterday. He did lie down in his room and rest though, and I was thankful for that and slept an hour or so. Really wasn't feeling good.
  As far as the days went, I think Tuesday was the hardest. I woke up crabby because of so little sleep, stumbled into the kitchen, griping the whole way, and made breakfast. Breakfast with my two favorite men in the world made it so wonderful for me. I enjoyed spending time with my husband, talking and eating together before he went off to work, instead of me sleeping during that time and barely remembering the kiss goodbye as he rushed out the door. The rest of the day however, when I wasn't cooking or washing dishes I was in a slack jawed stupor in front of the computer. 
  Wednesday I was a bit more alive. I started a load of laundry, kept up with the dishes, temporarily fixed the bean bag chair, and worked on this week's decluttering project. I wont post about that until tomorrow, however. There is one more thing I'm going to try to do first.
  Yesterday I cooked. That's it. Nothing more. I was feeling so lousy I didnt even do the dishes until last night when I started feeling better.
  So, it's been four days. So far I like it. I feel like I can get more accomplished --J has already been fed his breakfast, the dishes are soaking for a moment, and I'm about to turn the laundry over to the dryer. Not bad for 6:27 in the morning. I remember to take my iron and vitamin most of the time. The Hubby took it upon himself to make the bed each morning. That is a very sweet thing. I hadn't asked him to do it, hadn't mentioned that it needed to be done on my list of daily tasks, I just walked into the bedroom after he left for work and noticed that it was done, complete with my teddy bear and book sitting there waiting on me.
  The only thing lacking this week? My bible study. I didn't sit and read, much less blog about what I read. I did however read and repin various scriptures on Pinterest. So I guess you could say this week I've snacked on the Word rather than feasting upon it. I'm not that happy with that particular part of the week but I think I can get back into the groove in the next few days.
 I think I like the new routine so far though. It needs a little tweaking here and there, but I'm liking it. I get more done during the day. I sleep well at night.  J seems to be doing well on it. The Hubby is happy. That makes me happy.
Have a great day!

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife: End of the Week Recap, and New Focus

 Yup, this is my view of my kitchen table most days. Chubs fights me for a chance to lie on the keyboard, my cell phone is nearby, the pink thing in the background is my camera case. On the day this was taken, The Hubby had just come back from a grocery run for me. Most days my kitchen table is my desk. It keeps J in my sight and I have no excuse to know get work done in here. It seems to work, for now. Slowly I'm getting my kitchen to the point that I like it.

•  My pantry is accessible, not a jumbled mess.
• I can pull out my flatware, kitchen towel, and measuring cup/accessory drawers and immediately find what I need in mere seconds, if that long.
• The bottom cabinets now hold my mixing bowls, waffle maker, and other baking essentials, plus some out of the way stuff in the back.
• My baking center counter... has been cleared off but is finding the clutter creep once again. 
• The fridge and freezer are clean, and while not as well organized as I'd like, we are able to see what we have and what is needed. 
• There are 4 bags in the corner waiting to find new homes at the thrift store. 
• The dishes are done each day, minus the three glasses that managed to escape my notice last night as I went to bed, and the floor is swept daily.

Not bad progress for a week. I've been picking up hit or miss in other rooms, and my bed is made daily. I truly enjoy that sight each day. I feel like I can come up with a plan for the day and give myself time to write (non blog related) or make cards or art journal without feeling the guilt of the house overwhelm me.  My house is far from being guest worthy yet, but it's getting there.
One thing I've been doing this week is reading the blogs of women who know how to organize and keep house seemingly without blinking. I am amazed at the information they are willing to share, and I want to put some of it into practice. One other blog I've been reading, as you know if you've read this blog any during the last week, is A Slob Comes Clean. Nony has been where I am today. She understands the struggle. Because I am a slob. I'm reading her blog from the time she began writing, forward so I can see.
   One thing she did was start with the dishes. It grew from there. Each week she added what she called a non negotiable to her list of what she did each day. A non negotiable is something that gets done every day, regardless of what else gets done or not. My list of must do's at this point is very short: Make the bed,  do the dishes, sweep the kitchen floor. I've decided that Saturdays are when I will add a new "must do" to my list. This week, I'm adding my son's room to the list. Specifically, each day I will check his room for clutter. Then he and I will remove the clutter and straighten it together. 
  Eventually I want that must do to go to his own daily task list, with little or no prompting from me. Why did I add that room as mine? Because tacitly over the years I've taught him it's okay to let his room spiral into chaos. I've turned a blind eye to it until when I finally do notice, it discourages me. His room is right off of the kitchen so there are no excuses anymore. The state of J's room affects the way I feel about the house and it affects my mood.
  I bought a set of dishes yesterday, that were on clearance. They have pink and blue flowers on them and they make me smile. I told a friend that I bought them because they are pretty. I want pretty things in my house to bring joy. That in turn makes me want to keep the house clean and usable. It's a good incentive for me. 
 Have a great day

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife - It's Living In the Fridge!

With apologies to Weird Al, I had to borrow that title. It was the main job I wanted to get done this week, yet I put it off until yesterday. Yup, good ol' procrastination. 
  In my family are two and a half adults. J has autism and he'd rather eat what's in the fridge rather than clean it out. The Hubby and I... have plenty of excuses but no real reason why this particular chore hasn't been done in awhile. 
So... the before pictures of the fridge and freezer:

  Sorry, I took the picture sideways and i still don't know how to turn things around on a blog. But yup, there is my freezer and fridge in all it's horrible, disorganized mess. After I took the pictures and redid the freezer, a friend called and said "Hey, we've been fishing and are just down the road. Want some fish?" Sure! Why not, right? So after he drops off the fish I have them in a bowl of water waiting for a spot in the fridge. It's in the 80's so I'm playing beat the clock to get the fridge cleaned up so that the fish can stay cool and comfy till The Hubby comes home to clean them. Sorry, I'm a country girl but I don't touch fish. That's his department.  What's not pictured here? The icky, dried on, sticky mess at the bottom of the fridge. Trust me, that was not for the faint of heart. It took 20 minutes of scrubbing with baking soda water to clean it.  So not happy with that. The Fridge now gets to be cleaned out once a week whether it needs it or not. Friday is usually our grocery shopping day so Thursday is cleaning day.
 The cleaned out fridge":

 The fridge I'll admit needed to be organized a bit better, but at least the junk had been thrown out, everything was clean, and yes, there are the fish in my Thatsa Bowl.  The cup beside it is apple cider vinegar. It worked. My fridge does not smell like fish.

So what did I do the rest of the week? The Pantry, which is basically three upper cabinets, counter space, and three drawers above three lower cabinets.
Before:

 Scary huh? The angle only lets me show two of the upper cabinets but you get the picture. Sorry for the pun.

After:

 Apparently I forgot to take a picture of the bottom cabinets but they were done as well, and for us, this is fairly well organized. I didn't mean to get it in the shot, but yes that bottle is there. It's an older house. Not proud of it, but it happens sometimes. The ice cream bucket holds flour and the medicine bottle was a cleaned one that is temporary housing for flax seed.
  Well, there ya go. I missed a few pictures, but this is peek at what I did this week for week two of Simplemom.net's Project Simplify 2012. It's not a lot of progress but I'll take it. One step at a time.

A Time of Trial and a Time of Victory

  I've been really committed this week to getting my house (as well as my life) in order. Last week I did some, but not with the determination of this one. I can already see a difference. The bed is made every morning so far; something I hadn't regularly done in some time. I still have clutter in my room, but the sight of a made bed makes me smile. It makes me want to continue the cleaning, and it feels sooo nice to just pull the covers back and slide in at night rather than fumbling for the sheet and fixing the covers to my liking. My dishes are done each day and I refuse to go to bed until the dishes are done and the floor is swept. It doesn't take that long these days because they are kept up each day.
  Faithfully this week I've been working on the kitchen as per Simple Mom. I'll show you the result in tomorrow's post. It's baby steps for me, but I'm so happy with it. Today I need to clean out my fridge. Ugh! So not looking forward to it, but it shouldn't be too.. bad.. I... hope.... Anyway, that is the task for today. 
  This morning has been a mix of trial and victory though. The trial?  J had been up since 5 AM. He was in a really good mood most of that time. When I woke again at 8 he was happily playing and first thing, without prompting from me, *signed* "Eat". That was a victory in itself. He then pointed to what he wanted. Knowing I had other things to do and wanting to reward his communication, I gave him what he wanted and told him breakfast would be a little later. Well, breakfast was coming a little later than expected and he had a meltdown. So not good. When he's in a good mood, everything runs smoothly. The meltdowns are rare these days, but when they happen, it's volatile. He rips things. One of our spring /summer projects will be replacing walls in his room. That's the trial.
  The victory? Breakfast! I didn't have to wash a mountain of dishes to get breakfast started. Because of the project I've been doing I could find what I needed quickly -and put it away-quickly. I didn't have to search high and low for ingredients or dig through the utensil drawer to find my measuring cups. Even when The Hubby was making tea and couldn't find the tea bags, I told him exactly where they were located. Voila! You know how wonderful that feels to a disorganized housewife not to spend half the day searching? It's wonderful! I'm so going to continue this.
  Also, and this is the kicker for me, SOMEBODY (okay, it was me) didn't have the bottom attached correctly on the blender so when I poured the milk for the Dutch Baby (recipe coming tomorrow), eggs and milk spread everywhere on my table and onto the floor. Ewww! But because I had already been trying to keep my table reasonably clear (it wont be completely clear until I can get my laptop back in the living room) only one stray paper took a hit and the mess was easily cleaned up. I'm enjoying having less stress, in the kitchen if nowhere else. It's a start. I'm getting the lesson here. I'm taking it a step at a time. I'm loving the fact that my husband, always supportive, helps me keep the kitchen at least at the level it is now. He encourages me daily. I feel better about myself, not simply because he encourages me, but I see I can do this. It wont be all done in one night because a) I simply don't have that kind of energy to attack a whole house although I admire women who can, and b) it didn't get disorganized in a day. My results may thrill only my husband and me. But that's okay. I like the progress. I like that J is being taught daily to put things in its proper place instead of being thrown in a corner. He will soon be able to do this without much prompting and that will be a major victory.

Queen of Denial

Confessions of a Disorganized Housewife

 There was a song several years back by the title of Queen of Denial. Cute song. Not so cute when you have to face up to what you are in real life. But yup, that's me. It's not like I'm blind to the state of my house. I can clearly see it. But as a coping mechanism, I have learned not to notice the messiness. When I do see it, I list all the reasons why it is this way:

  --I just can't keep up with J.

 -- I don't feel well.

 -- no one in this family helps me

But the one that rarely comes to light is, I'm overwhelmed.  Yes, I have my lazy moments. Probably more than I care to admit. The truth is, I don't feel well a lot of days. I'm tired because of the anemia. And the depression. Yep, that little monster still rears its ugly head sometimes. I fight it, I ignore it, but it's there.  And yes, my two favorite guys in the world are slobs like me. And J does wear me out. While I'm cleaning one room he's in another room messing up. 

  But you know what? I'm working on it. One room at a time I'm working on it. I'm thankful this week that I got the answer I've been looking for in the form of Simplemom,net's Project Simplify 2012 that began last week, and www.aslobcomesclean.com .  I decided to take the up the challenge last week, and as I was reading other blogs on Sunday after posting my own, one jumped out at me: A slob comes clean. Nony tickled me with her style of writing and her vlog posts. She showed me that I can change, one step at a time. She made me cry all day today as I read her blog and realized that I'm not alone in this mess. 

  I didn't just cry and read all day, however. I did my dishes, I swept the floor, I did laundry (even managed to put some of it away), threw out trash, and I have three bags waiting to go to the thrift store. 

 My stove is clean. My dishes are done. As soon as J is asleep I plan on putting away more laundry. I look forward to cleaning and decluttering more tomorrow. That's a first in a long, long time.

  This week I'm still the queen of denial. This time however, it's not to tune out all the disorder in my life. It's to help me focus on one area at a time. If I don't put my blinders on I will see everything that needs to be fixed, changed, or decluttered and cleaned and I will become overwhelmed and stop. It's only been a few days but I like the changes I've made. I like the slow but steady progress. And I'm very thankful for it. 
PS: The Hubby came home from work last night, got his dinner, and washed his dishes and made the tea for today. He is my number one cheerleader, encouraging me every step of the way. God blessed me with a truly wonderful 
husband.
 Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!