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For the Love of Laundry {or the lack thereof}

I’m choosing a spot in my home each week of 2012 to purge. I’m calling it the “52 Week Purge”. {ahem}

I am doing this purge to determine if each space still works, if everything is still needed in it, and to do a thorough cleaning. This week was supposed to be my bedroom drawers, but they didn’t need as much attention as my laundry room did.

I was feeling like I had enough of the laundry room, and my husband had a few free hours. I jumped on the chance to fix this room.

The before:

{please note-when I feel like a room is ugly-I avoid it. Not good for a room I should spend a LOT of time in…}

We attempted to recycle some cabinets for better laundry room storage, but it only made my very narrow laundry area feel dark and closed in. It also gave lots of space to “store” things, like items for homemade laundry soap, and unfinished soap I am never going to use.

I’ve seen much worse, especially since it has been over a year that I purged this space-but I was over it- in a major way.

These hampers are good for all of the sorting I need done, but the tops didn’t hold much weight wise, and turned into a junk magnet.

Are you ready for the after??

The after:

I used the same shelving that I just used for my new office space, this time I used white shelving, and kept the chrome tracks and supports.

I bought the inexpensive seagrass baskets at Walmart {mine is a two-pack}, and the green baskets at Lowes. {I also had a return at Lowes which knocked the project down to super- duper-cheap {aka-Finding Frugal}. Everything else in the room is simply repurposed.

A small dash of pretty to our home network panel.

{printable@ cheepideas.com}

I used the baskets to hold dusting cloths and my Oreck bags. Having a container gives me a limit for how much of an item I can keep.

Our “sock monster” container. Every other week or so I go through and match up all of the spare socks that come out of the laundry.

A tiny basket holds rescued marbles and Legos from the dryer, also home to my little stain bottle.

;)

I lied, I also bought this shoe organizer, to put things that used to get lost in those cabinets out where they can be seen.

Pretty good idea, in my opinion.

Behind the door is a sturdy shelf {which has been there-just didn’t take a before pic} which holds our paper products. My husband also moved a broom caddy from one location that was going unused to here. {I use a Swiffer in the bathrooms-using a broom in there creeps me out.}

The little green baskets hold a few tools and some other less-used items, some canning jars hold our art paintbrushes. A tin laundry soap container is now a home for my yankee and scentsy tarts. There is also my little tool box on the dryer shelf and little black baskets the kids use at clean-up time. I also took my Tide out of the huge box and put it in an old blue container.

To keep the room looking tidy, I took off those top racks on the laundry sorters. I am still trying to decide if I want to convert to all white hangers {for eye appeal} or leave my color coded system {which helps me deliver laundry to the right child, with white as my back-up color}.

I was kind of sad to put the sorters back in-the room is really narrow, but felt a little better without them. Laundry must be sorted, so they win.

{printable@ Sprik.blogspot.com}

How did we do? I no longer avoid the laundry room, which is good in a house of eight people.

Next up-the master closet. I will get to the laundry closet soon too, the perpetual cramped space full of paint cans and auto cleaners.

You Win Some…

Week 2 is gone. I have some wins and some not so wins.

1. Make Bible study a top priority. {where it belongs}

Bible study has been going very well. I am switching back and forth between different studies, while doing my daily Bible reading as well.

2. Make {and keep} office hours.

Last week was a huge win-this week I have taken some things on that have made me not as accomplished in this area. I will get back to the good schedule-it works so well!

3. Start a photo album.

Ugh. I got out my album, and now can’t find my other pics for 2011. Every package I come across is either for 2010 or earlier. If I don’t find them soon, I will have to reorder. ouch.

How was your week?

“Made With Love”—p52

I love that Darcy chose challenge themes this year, and am enjoying seeing the many interpretations from everyone for the week.

I hadn’t planned this photo to be in the mix of p52, but when I looked at it, my first thought was, well, my sweat is made with love--

the love of staying fit, love of my workouts, love of staying in shape two years after losing 78 pounds.

Yes, this shot of sweat hanging from my chin was indeed made with love.

 

A Day in Our Homeschool

Yesterday, Kristy asked me this question in regards to my schedule-

I see that you're doing school from 9-12, how in the world do you get all that accomplished in three hours? I am considering switching to Trail Guide to Learning and I see that it covers pretty much everything except math. Would you say that that helps "move things along" in a more fluid way?… Maybe you could do a "day in the life" post with your current schedule? Perhaps maybe even an in depth look at how the curriculum works?

This post is in request to that comment, and since I am a very visual learner, I decided to take pictures of our day.

According to my schedule, I am to get up at 7, and the kids at 8, but hubby, and the littles and I all fell asleep on the couch last night, and we somehow slept on the floor half of the night. I was up at 8:45.

So…we got to school a little later than 9 we’ll say.

We start our day with Bible. We are still looking for a long-term study solution, but for now we are winging it. First up is copywork.

We recently memorized Psalm 1. To enforce that memorization the kids are writing one verse a day.

Our next chapter that we are memorizing:

We will move on to chapter 2 tomorrow.

To end our Bible for the day, we reviewed the lessons we are currently studying at our church. {Currently studying Joseph}

Then we crack open our Paths of Exploration. This unit we are learning about the Pilgrims and Squanto.

We did our read a louds and narration, discussed cultural differences between England and Holland, the importance of heritage, and did our geography work.

This was part of our word study; Christian always makes the most fun illustrations!

After that we decided to come down for lunch. As I worked, Noah decided before he did his Life of Fred assignment he would do some fractions and multiplication on the iPad. {This kid is good!}

We talked about the Dutch over the cheese we picked up to go with our studies.

And I found the boys working the states in the living room when lunch was over.

{Evan is in a bath robe-this week he is Jack Sparrow- next week it will be Anakin Skywalker again-he does have clothes on underneath. ;) He also repurposes Woody’s hat turned sideways when he is a pirate. I love that kid.}

Leah got her turn with the iPad and was having fun with Stack the States. This is one of their favorite apps. {We only allow educational games on it.}

At this point, we have individual kids doing their Life of Fred, and then either showering for Bible Study, or doing a chore. I am going to juggle math and floor mopping.

I don’t think that learning stops when we leave our classroom, so to have a schedule up with 9-12 for “school hours” doesn’t bother me. That is where our organized learning happens, and we don’t do every subject every day.

Paths of Exploration has been great for helping me see how to incorporate our lives into learning, and not live inside a classroom all day.

Our best learning happens while we live what we learn-one of our most fond memories being a cake we made while using a Download N Go unit study called Rocking Robots. At the end of the week we all went to the kitchen to make this cake-

We had so much fun making, and eating this cake; we named him “Surge 5000”.

{back when our oldest was still shorter me…}

We also do another Bible time in the evening with my husband at the lead, so learning truly does happen all day long here. I am just glad that all of that learning isn’t structured and in the class chair-otherwise we would all go crazy!

**This is really how are days go, sometimes we have a fuller load with a little more on our school plates than today. I didn’t ask the kids to play educational games to look good, I just documented what they did, which is a typical day for us. Every day looks different-but we are always learning, and that is the most important part.**

52 Week Purge & Schedule

I mentioned last week how many schedules I had made, typed, fretted over, and openly defied.

How happy I was to be thriving on order.

I was asked by a friend to see that schedule-the time I didn’t use a computer or printer-so I uploaded my very low tech schedule to twitter, and now I will share it with you:

Simply genius, isn’t it? {wink}

This week hasn’t been as fabulous as last week-but I am committed to this, and I will not fail.

I have also decided to pick one deep cleaning spot each week of the year. I of course do my regular chores daily, but these are the tough ones-like going through closets to purge clothes we no longer need.

You know, the stuff that gets pushed back because keeping a home with six children is tough-that stuff.

I forgot to take a before picture, but just know the kids had taken over my lovely television drawer, and it was chaos. The after:

This drawer is now what it should be, a home for my most-used workouts, and the children’s DS games {which are currently banned-because video games make my kids wonky}.

I purged all of the drawers in the living room last week, but this is the one that had gotten the worst. I chose an easy task to start my year, to give me steam to keep going.

This week’s assignment is the drawers in my bedroom. This is mostly because our 5 year old has too many sets of pajamas.

If anyone would like to join me-feel free. I am going my own way, not using anyone else’s schedule to better meet the needs of our home.

It’s all part of being more focused.

Peaceful Fruit

I woke up in a mood. It wasn’t a good mood. I have searched my mind for why, and haven’t come up with anything other than loss of focus on Sunday.

Perhaps I was just moody.

Perhaps I was disappointed in myself.

"Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.”- Job 14:1

I don’t like it when I am not kind. I don’t like having to ask for forgiveness.

So I asked the Lord for strength, and my husband for forgiveness.

I cannot take my frustrated words or attitude back. I don’t know if I will have another day to “wake up on the right side of the bed”.

I do have this moment.

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”- Hebrews 12:11

Thankful for more time to strive for better. Determined to make the time worth it. Focused.

 

Foundation

In December, I was convicted to do better with the Bible training in our home. Once again, my husband had been telling me that this area was more important than other studies, while state-requirement-checklist me went my own way, allowing Bible to come last, some days- not at all.

The problem is that Bible training was one of the big things that made me finally decide to listen to the homeschool call. The Lord practically kicked me before I decided to do it. Really.

So December I realized I was ignoring my first love.

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”-Revelation 2:4

And with that I looked around and saw just how out of order my home had become; it did not meet the standards I knew we could meet. Most importantly, I was failing in the job God entrusted me to do.

 

“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” -Deuteronomy 6:7

With 2012 just around the bend, I saw all of the things in my life that were out of focus.

Not only was I depriving myself of a proper diet of The Word, I was depriving my children as well.

So we stripped it all down, and put it back together, bit by bit. Building upon the true foundation, the purpose for our journey. Focused.

“But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."-Luke 6:49

 

Far from perfect-but at peace with where we are.

Stick With It Saturday

Last week I was surprised at the feedback from readers who assumed I had always been fit. I thought I had shared my fat pics and weight loss story way too much!

Anyway, I am thankful for the support and feedback, and hope to help others get to the fit person they dream of being.

This week has been a very good week workout wise-

Monday- HIIT 15 {Turbo Fire}

Tuesday- Sculpt 30 {T.F.}

Wednesday- Fat Blaster {Turbo Jam}

Thursday-Tone 30 {T.F.}

Friday- Fire 45 EZ {T.F}

Saturday- Stretch 40 {T.F.}

Two pics to share-

{The turbo Fire warning, which is “not to be discounted”}

{Sweaty me of course..}

Hope you each had a productive week as well-be sure to link up!

“Resolution”—P52

I’m linking up with Darcy this year, with 52 weeks of photography challenges. I can’t think of a better way to represent the beginning of this challenge, or the year, than this reminder of time.

My word for 2012 is Focused, so all of my goals this year will center around it. This will be my constant reminder of how quickly the year will pass, and the need for me to use every moment the Lord gives me to the best of my ability.

 

January Goals—No Regrets

The first week of 2012 is almost gone, our first week of 3in30 goals for January is gone. I am happy with my report for you, and am grateful for this fresh start.

1. Make Bible study a top priority. {where it belongs}

The goal was Bible study in the evening, but my schedule has been going so well that almost every day I have gotten my Bible reading in {reading the Bible in 6 months, and then chronologically the next sixth months} while taking notes, as well as an evening study on John.

2. Make {and keep} office hours.

I am doing better than even I expected! Home life is getting what it deserves, my office hours are working, I have a ton of things done {even doing more laundry than my 3 load goal each day} and I have still posted every day.

This focused path has given me much writing material, and I jot it down on paper when something comes to my mind. I am overjoyed with the changes.

3. Start a photo album.

I have uploaded the pics from December, and have decided to make an album for 2011, but am still undecided for what I will do for 2012-still weighing the pros and cons of an online photo book. I plan to get an album for last year today.

How about you?

Thriving on Order

I can’t begin to tell you how many schedules I have made in the past few years, how many ideas I have had to keep myself on track, each ending in failure.

This was so new to me, I have always loved order and schedules.

I kept telling myself I didn’t need that much order, I would rather have a more relaxed routine.

That sounds much less scary, yes? What did it matter if mom flaked on the schedule?

For one thing, giving myself that excuse led to a whole slew of them-I didn’t even follow that unimposing “routine” and I wasn’t the only one who suffered.

My lack of proper time management caused the kids to follow suit, and took down time away from my husband who felt he needed to pitch in more.

This week I have actually looked at my schedule, to see what was next, to make sure I was on track, and followed it. I have still gotten social media and blog writing time, but it has been scaled way back.

My house is clean again, the laundry is getting done, and I am getting two Bible study times in each day.

I am  also choosing a space in our home each week that needs some extra attention.

This week I am purging drawers in the living room. I’ll be sharing each week’s accomplishment in a page here on my blog to give you ideas, or if you want to join me.

Oh yeah, and we do school too.

I feel so relieved.

I completely underestimated how much more peaceful our home would become. We are all thriving on order, and can actually unwind when it is time.

This first week of the new year holds so much promise. Just like I remember how good my workouts feel when I don’t want to do them, I need to remember what following our schedule does for our whole home.

Focused is really catching some speed around here.