Room #1 and a Little Gratitude

Trash, a box of home school stuff to sell or donate, the different containers I emptied, and a little bit for Goodwill

I decided to tackle the homeschooling/sewing room first.  Normally, I would start in the kitchen for a project like this since that is where I spend the most time, but since the school room is the room where the front door is, and the room we all see first, I decided to start there first.  Also, the girls were at my parents so it was a good time to tackle a room that would have been hard to go through had they been here.

Here are a couple of tips in case anyone is going to do something similar. 

#1  If you don't have a garage or an extra room to use as a sorting area, things may look much worse before they look better!  It's okay though, just keep going and don't over analyze every little thing trying to decide whether to keep it or not.

#2  Try to work fast and get as much done as possible.  I worked as fast as I could because I had some appointments later that day.  Also, I knew someone was coming by that evening and I did not want to be in the middle of cleaning out.  See tip #1.  No one would have believed I was "cleaning"!

#3.  I read this idea somewhere.  Use a dark trash bag if your children are home.  That way you won't get caught throwing away the broken toy that no one plays with or the piece of junk mail that they suddenly love.

Now for the gratitude.

409.  I am so thankful for my mom who was willing to have the girls come down for a sleepover.  It was a great help not to have to stop and take care of squabbles or meals or whatever.

410.  I am so thankful for this school room!   We love it.

411.  I am thankful for the friend who made it possible.  Whose creative mind realized we could make it work.

412.  I am so very thankful that I have the opportunity to stay home with the girls and teach them.  Even when it's hard and the day may be stinky, I'm still thankful they are here.

413.  I'm thankful for Callie who noticed right away how nice the room looked.  It wasn't that bad to begin with, but several of the home school things that I got rid of had been stacked on the desk and it looks much nicer now.

414.  I'm thankful for Cameron who wanted me to tag along with him all the next day while the girls were still at my parents.

Next up?  The living room.  This room will be pretty easy.  It's mostly furniture.  The biggest dilemma?  My Martha Stewart Living magazines. :)

{This Moment}

I'm not sure whether to smile or cry when I look at this.  I usually end up doing a bit of both.  Twelve years sure have gone by fast.  And she certainly doesn't look twelve!

Inspired by SouleMama

Motivated

I came across an idea this weekend that has me totally motivated.

40 bags in 40 days. 

The idea is that, during Lent, which we have never really done anything for since we've never belonged to churches that emphasize that,  you go through your home and get rid of 40 bags worth of stuff.  Most would be donated and I imagine some things just thrown away.

I have never considered myself a pack rat and it seems like I take a bag or two to Goodwill or a local charity once every couple of months.  However, when we moved here, five years ago, we lost a garage, a small attic and quite a bit of closet space.  We also added a child two months after moving here.  Our rooms are fairly big, but there is very little storage. Stuff just seems to breed and there is no where to put it.

I found this idea at my favorite blog and was instantly excited about it.  I'm not sure if we will get as many bags since we are only a family of four, but whatever we get I know it will be helpful to us and to those to whom it will be donated.

I plan to get the girls very involved in this and to work in some lessons on contentment.  We could all use a little more contentment in various areas so I'm sure there will be good lessons for all four of us to learn.  I think encouraging the girls to pray for those who will receive the donated items will be good too.  I want this to be more about just cleaning out.  They are already talking about making room for new stuff and that is certainly not the point!

I'm pretty excited to get started.  I've made a list of our rooms and closets and noted which ones will take more than one day.  I'll be starting in the school/sewing room and just working my way through the house, room by room.

Wish me success!  If anyone decides to join in let me know.  It would be fun to compare notes and pictures.

Yarn Along

photo by Callie

I finally finished Callie's beret.  She loves it!  Kate has asked for one too, but I would like some hand warmers for myself, so she will have to wait.  Except for my first hat, I haven't made anything for myself, so I told her she had to wait her turn since she had two hats and two sweaters.  I'm just thrilled that they like the things I make and want more.  I'm also thrilled to have something to work on while at ballet and 4H meetings.  Those times and in the car are the main times that I knit and it's nice to have something to do.  I'm not too good at reading at those times.  I can't seem to focus when there are a lot of other things going on.

I am still reading As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis Devoto.

Callie and I have been reading Gentle Ben by Walt Morey.  I had never heard of this book, but it was recommended by Ambleside so I thought we would try it.  This would be a classic example of not judging a book by it's cover.  I really wasn't sure if this would be a good fit for Callie, but we both love it.  It is very well written and I have really enjoyed it.  It would be a great book for learning about Alaska.  It is definitely worth getting and reading for boys or girls.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

For weeks I have had in mind what I wanted to do today.   When I saw the article in Martha Stewart Living about fondue I just knew that was what we were going to do.  As a family.  I don't know why.  We are together a lot!  It just sounded like a lot of fun and I knew everyone would like it.  The girls have never experienced a fondue dinner and Cameron likes just about everything so I knew he would like it too.  So...I had Cameron drag down the pot from the top shelf in the laundry room and dusted it off  well. :) 

Fast forward to grocery day....I can't find that magazine with the recipe ANYWHERE!!  It has disappeared off the face of the earth.  I remembered part of it, and there was a recipe in the fondue pot box, so okay.  No problem.  I also needed to buy the gel stuff that you light below the pot.  Not at Wal-Mart.  Not at Meijer.  I figured if Wal-Mart and Meijer didn't have it, no one would and I really had no more time to go searching.

So...plan B.  Italian!  I'm sure it will be yummy and I'll have to find the gel some other time.  Maybe the magazine will turn up too.

I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating your loved ones!

I Wanted to Be Productive, I Really Did

Last weekend, the girls and I went down to my parents house so that I could help my mom with a project.  Before we left, we told the girls to go rip off all of the bathroom wallpaper that they could reach. :)  We've been itching to do this for years.  Cameron ripped off all the rest while we were gone, but it's just the top layer, we have one more layer to go that we will spray and scrape.  I don't think it will be too hard, except that we can already see the poor drywall job underneath in certain spots.  Like holes and such.

The plan was to use the next Saturday which I had off and get all that off and maybe even start painting, but at least get it all off.  Wednesday, I started getting a cold.  Thursday, I thought I wanted to die.  Friday, I felt better and did most of the grocery shopping for two weeks and went to some friends house for dinner.  Saturday.....I didn't want to die exactly.  In fact, the cold symptoms weren't really that bad except I had NO energy.  And I didn't really want anything to eat.  Now you know I was ill!  I did put a chicken in the oven to roast and I did wash the girls sheets.  That was it!  Oh, and I took a shower.  BUT, not until AFTER Cameron came in, with me on the couch and still in my PAJAMAS (at a time that I will not disclose) with two other men to help move a TV! I have never been so horrified in my entire life!  I first made sure that he had his cell phone with him before I got too mad.  But he did.  And it was charged.  His punishment was to take the girls with him to Wal-mart to get the rest of the groceries and something to eat for themselves.  Hopefully, our male friends will have amnesia for this one day.  I told him if he brought me a nice, cold drink that I would never speak of it again.  I'm so easy!

So, no pretty yellow bathroom yet.

 On the up side, I have read quite a bit of my current read the last couple of days.  As Always, Julia:  The Letters of Julia Child & Avis Devoto.  This book has been very enjoyable.  They were prolific letter writers!  It makes me want to write letters to my friends.  You know, paper, envelopes, real mail?  Remember how much fun it use to be to go check the mail? {Thank you Granny and Poppy for a little fun now and then!}  Anyway, it's very interesting if you like to read about real people and food.  If you only like "on the edge of your seat" novels or mysteries or very serious literature, then you may not like it.  It is rather long and I'm sure at some point I may start skimming a bit.  Also, if you cannot tolerate the words "damn" and "hell" you don't want to read it.  They were very passionate about politics.  Thankfully, they were on the same side or I am sure they would have not been friends at all!  There are times when I'm reading that I feel a little guilty though.  These were their personal letters and I'm sure they would not have written some things if they had known that 50 years later they would be published for the whole world to see.  I read Julia's book,  My Life in France, several years ago and very much enjoyed it. 

Well, I hope your weekend was more productive than mine and even though I may sound whiny, I am quite thankful that a cold is all I have!

P.S. Yes, I know that all caps indicates yelling.  And no, I was not yellling, but when you are typing a story, there is just no other way to indicate the seriousness of a situation!

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.


If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments at SouleMama for all to find and see.

Food on the Brain

I've been trying some recipes from one of the gluten-free cookbooks that we got at the library.  Have I said before how thankful I am for the library?  It's one thing I don't mind paying taxes for!

You may be thinking, "Is this all she thinks about now?"  Well, it's not all I think about, but I am thinking about it a lot.  I want to find suitable recipes for our favorites.  Just because we're cutting out wheat doesn't mean we don't want yummy things to eat.  

So far, we've had General Tso's chicken, blueberry muffins, crepes, and chocolate chip cookies.  Callie wanted to make chocolate strawberry crepes  and there just happened to be a recipe in the book, so she made those.   I still need to try a reagular bread recipe.  I keep putting it off.  I don't care for baking homemade wheat bread, much less trying something totally new.   

Everyone is enjoying the baked goods and I'm doing okay at not eating too much of them.  Gluten-free or not, calories are calories!