Oh snot

It's Monday again. I don't have anything to say. My life is so far from decluttered that I wouldn't know where to begin in giving you advice to declutter yours.

Right now, I am dreaming of running away. Canceling every activity, and moving into a camping cabin at carlyle Lake. I will throw my phone into the water and cook every meal from a campfire.

Sigh.

I did however get together a bag of books to donate to the children's hospital. Didn't do much for decluttering my life, but at least one bookshelf looks a tad better.

In other news:
Today, Esther turned Four
No more
No less
So for her I wish to bless
Just a little wish to say
I wish she were well on this special day
But since she is not
I hope she doesn't drown in her snot.

I never claimed to be a poet.

Good Morning Monday!!!

I hear that I have been missed. You wouldn't know it by looking at my comment section. Yes, friends, that was a snide remark and whiney complaint about the fact that the very people who like to gripe about my recent lack of posting do NOT leave me comments. I thrive on comments people. Really. My Love Language is words of affirmation. I don't function all that well when no one tells me how awesome I am. It has taken Dustan ten years to finally figure out that when he steps into a sparkling bathroom and says, "Woah! This place practically blinds me in cleanliness!", that he will come home to sparkling clean bathrooms for weeks. I get all depressed and stuff when people don't tell me they love me.
And don't laugh at my whininess. Take the love language quiz and find out what makes your wheels turn. Then, leave me a COMMENT and tell me what it is. Who knows, I might send you a little gift...which will rock your world if your love language just happens to be GIFTS!
Okay, here is the other reason I have neglected the blog. Depressing isn't it? The price tage was outrageously depressing. But, I have to admit, Tamiflu actually worked. No one ended up in the hospital and the boys' case was hardly a case at all. Mine was a negative on the Richter (I am not looking that spelling up- so live with it) scale. Dustan never even got it. Esther however...poor poor Esther. Oh, and we had TWO strains! as if one was not enough???? We didn't have Tamiflu for the first one. I am considering a lawsuit. (I am kidding)

But, it is Monday, and I am not supposed to whine on Monday. I am supposed to excitedly tell you how to UNclutter your lives. And so I will. So I will. I just had to get all caught up and stuff.
I know this picture will make you think that I have gotten off track on life decluttering and derailed over to the Stuff decluttering...but do not be decieved. This is not about how organized I am.
This entire project started HERE, when I wondered, why my life couldn't always be as simple and as happy as it was while camping. I have thought long and hard about the things that make me happy while camping. I think that thing number one would be my camping drink concoction. Don't get worried. I am not making my own brand of moonshine. First thing every morning (after building a fire) is to heat a kettle of water, then make some instant coffee (from the baggie- not the other stuff...yuck). Then I dump a bag of hot cocoa mix into the mug and drink up. I drink this ALL day long. so much, that I never sleep while camping. I pee instead. ALL NIGHT LONG.
Anyhow, there is something simple about a mug of something. It makes you take a breath. It is pampering and soothing and it belongs in every day...not just the camping ones.
The above cabinet is devoted to drinking (haha- no, seriously, I wish...but no). I don't have time to make a pot of coffee every day, and I hate cleaning out the pot...so...I only pull the coffee maker out for company, and use all that single serving sized stuff for every day. And for those few minutes of the day...

It feels like camping.


And if, in fact, you want a tip for Stuff decluttering, this following is the best one I ever got (okay, maybe not...ONE of the best!)
LIKE STUFF TOGETHER. I yelled that so that it would drive like an arrow into your brain and make you rearrange all your cabinets. If you look closely at my phot, you will see some jarred soup mixes on the top shelf. those are not hot drink stuff. therefore, they DO NOT BELONG WITH COFFEE, TEA, AND COCOA! Trust me, by tomorrow those will be moved. They are so high I never noticed them (which is also why they are almost two years old) each of my cabinets have a purpose, and I am ruthless about things that do not belong.

Good Morning Monday!

A place for everything. And everything in its place. Thanks to my dad and thrity some odd years of practice, it's a lesson I have learned fairly well.
Everything in my kitchen has adesignated spot. If it doesn't have a spot, I don't let it in. I'm mean to stuff. Cruella DeStuff. I have a basket for my root veggies. I have a basket for the dogs this and that, and another basket for all our vitamins and any meds we are currently taking. T

he best way to make you life in the kitchen simple is to take every single thing OUT of the kithen and then put it back ion it's own perfect spot. Now, the perfect spot in my kitchen changes. All the time. I get bored easily. This drives Dustan bonkers as he tries to find his vitamins and they have moved from the cabinet by the sink to the pantry. One day, I will be old and crippled and won't be able to move stuff around, I will probably die of boredom. Anyhow, the point is, that it doesn't. It all still has it's own place. Until it changes addresses, it will go in that specific place. Everything needs a home.

And if it doesn't have one- this is what happens to it: I love freecycle. It's the best thing that happened to mankind. I'm too lazy for a garage sale, and so, I posted the following offer on freecycle today.
OFFER: Half a garage sale. Not the stuff I didn't sell, but the stuff I am to lazy to bother to sell. make some money on my stuff. Pick it up by noon, and take it ALL.

It was gone within half an hour. It would have taken me three times as long to pack it up, drag my kids out, and drive to the goodwill. I heart freecycle. It helps me to declutter my life.

Good Morning Monday!

Once upon a time, I deemed Monday as the day I would declutter my life. I promptly forgot about blogging the experiment, but I did not actually forget about doing it.

Here is one thing I did:

Teach my kids to make their own breakfast. It took about a week before they were consistently not spilling milk all over the counter and floor, and about a month before I stopped worrying about whether or not they would drop the milk and slice a main artery (we have glass milk containers), but it has now slipped into part of our routine. We have cereal a couple of times a week, which gives me two or three days a week, to either sleep in (haha), or spend some extra time doing upstairs bedroom chores (more likely).

Anyhow, I wanted to share, because it has worked out so well. I used to spend my morning stressed, because just as I started gathering up dirty clothes, or got in the shower, or sat on the toilet, I would hear a scream, 'MOM, I AM HUNGRY! IF YOU DON'T FEED ME NOW I WILL DIE! DIE! DIE! DO YOU HEAR ME? I AM GOING TO DIE!!!!!!" Which made me slightly stessed, and more than a little cranky.
So, I decluttered morning crankiness right out of my life. If I am too involved in a morning chore, or morning primping, I just declare it a cereal day, and send them marching downstairs to get their own breakfast.
Next task will be to teach Marcus to make oatmeal...he is eight...do you think he is old enough? I worry that he will burn himself...or his brother...or his sister...or set my house on fire...or drop a pot on his foot and break his toe...or just burn porridge to the bottom of the pot, which, as you know, would be a catastrophe on the grandest scale.

Good Morning Monday!!!

Fall is here and the skies have become gray. My Monday morning pep has gone the way of the Canadian geese. South.

It happenes every year. Fall is my favorite season but I can hardly enjoy it due the the foreshawdowing of winter. winter is cold, gloomy, and lonely. And every year I fret that my trees will not burst forth in new foliage come spring. By the time winter gets here I am tired of gloominess and seek out medicinal help. It happpens every winter. You would think my doctor would see a pattern and diagnose me with seasonal depression. or whatever it's called.

But, because I have a goal to declutter my life, and because gloominess has no room (I filled it up with smiles, and laughter, and soft-voices remember?), I am going to be proactive. I have heard that there are special lightbulbs that can help with SAD (seasonal affective disorder- I just looked it up) and I plan to buy some. It can't hurt. I also plan to do some research and see if there are some herbal remedies that may help.

Do any of my readers suffer from SAD? Have you heard of it? Do you know of any non-medicinal remedies? Let me know.

no picture today because blogger is broken. How depressing. I think I will go back to bed...

Good Morning Monday!

Let's Simplify our lives shall we?

These Monday Morning posts come to you from an effort to make my life less cluttered. Read this post to understand better.

Todays tip is:
Slow down your morning. Take at least the first hour of your morning and press the sllllloooooowwwww button on your life's remote. There is no need to zip through your morning routine as if your life will pass you by unless you hurry hurry hurry. actually, I have found it to be the opposite. Life passes you by while you hurry and scurry doing things that don't really count as living. However, if you slow things down a bit (ok- a lot) you will find that you have time to do a lot of living in those simple mundane moments.

Choose something you love for that first hour of the morning. If you have a task that MUST be done, find a way to enjoy doing it. Do it slowly with reverence and calm for the gift of a new day that God has given you.
*Make your bed and take a deep breath. Sigh with pleasure about crawling into a nice soft bed after a long day.
*Take your dog outside and don't hurry him. Even if it's raining. Take time to enjoy the rain. Take a deep breath.
* SIT DOWN with a cup of coffee and your favorite magazine. Take a deep breath.

I want to also say that in this age of rushing, rushing, and more rushing our children are likely feeling as frazzled as we are. Let them slow down too. I payed close attention to my mornings for a week, and I noticed that when my children sat down to curl up on the couch, went outside on our deck to snuggle with Heidi, or laid down on the floor for a good old fashioned stretch, I was quick to give them a barrage of to-do questions.
Did you make you bed?
Have you gone to the bathroom?
Did flush the toilet, wash your hands?
Marcus, take this washcloth and wipe down the bathroom sinks.
Weston, bring down your laundry baskets so I can do the laundry.
Esther, go straighten up the shoes in the foyer.
all of you, get over here and eat your breakfast.
Are you done with that?
I need to wash these dishes. Hurry up.
Lets' get our school work started. Sit down. get your glasses on. Go get your math book.

And on and on and on.

No wonder it felt like our lives were cluttered

Our new mornings are clear from all this garbage for at least one hour. We have things we have to get done. Breakfast has to be eaten, the dog has to be taken out. But we slow it down, and we enjoy each other while we do those things. Anything that can wait until hour two, waits until hour two.

For those of you who have to leave the house in the morning- you will probably need to wake up and hour early for this to work. I homeschool and can allow ourselves an extra hour in the morning. However, I have found myself getting up earlier in order to extend the morning calm. Now I usually have at least half an hour of time to myself before the kids wake up. I slllloooowwwwwly make myself a cup of coffee and stand on my deck watching all the suburban wildlife scamper through my yard.

This slow time always feels a bit like camping. Which hapens to have been the point.

And because it's Monday: Here's my weekly menu

Fennel-Crusted Pork Loin with roasted potatoes and pears
Roasted pacific cod with olives and lemons
Spanish chicken and rice
Easy Shepherd's Pie
Chicken Picada
Tamale Pie
Autumn veggie Minestrone (Crockpot meal)
2 14.5 oz cans vegetable broth
1 18 oz can crushed tomatoes's undrained
3 medium carrots -- chopped (1 ½ cups)
3 small zucchini -- cut into 1/2" slices
1 medium yellow bell pepper -- cut into 1/2" pieces
8 medium green onions -- sliced (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic -- finely chopped
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup uncooked instant rice
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Mix all ingredients except rice and basil in a 3 ½ to 6 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat setting for 6 to 8 hours or until vegetables are tender. Stir in rice. Cover and cook on low heat setting for about 15 minutes or until rice is tender.

Per serving: WW Points: 1; 195 Calories (kcal); 2g Total Fat; 7g Protein; 39g Carbohydrate; 1mg Cholesterol; 1198mg Sodium

Good Morning Monday!

Happy Monday Morning to you all! Why am I chipper this morning? Because being chipper is less complicated than being grumpy- and I am on a mission to simplify my life. Wahooo! Exciting isn't it? So every Monday, I plan to share a tip on life simplification. Join me on my mission to unclutter our lives. Today is such an exciting day that I am going to give you two tips. TWO! Yay! Free tips! Wahoooo!

Tip number one: Don't answer the phone. I spent a day calculating how much time I spent running after that annoying ring. Ridiculous! I would stop everything, reading, doing dishes, laundry, helping kids with work...everytime I heard a bdddrrriinnnnnggg. Stupid me. No more. Now I am smart me. Now, if I am in the middle of something, I ignore the phone.
I have voice mail. Next time I walk by the phone, I can look and see who called. Bonus is that I don;t have to talk to anyone I don't want to. So. if you call me and I don't answer, it may be that I am home and have chosen to ignore call in an effort to de-clutter my life. haha! Just kidding. I will call you back. Promi...

Tip number Two:
Make a menu. I make a very loose menu. There are seven days in the week and I make seven dinner plans and make sure I have all the ingredients on hand. This way, when it comes to dinner time, I can look at my list and make whichever meal sounds good that day. I make sure to include several "lazy" meals to use on those days that things are nutso in my house. I post this menu on my fridge and every morning I look at it and decide what meal would fit best for today. I write that meal on my dry erase board so I don't forget it. My memory is worse than my typing. Here's a peek into this weeks menu. They are all weight watchers menus and come either from client websites or from the cookbook Flex and Core.

Apple Crusted pork with sweet potatoes
Cheesy Mushroom Burgers with steamed broccoli
Chicken picada with green peas
Summer Corn, bacon, and Potato chowder with salad
Dijon Beef Stroganoff with artichokes
Chicken Souvlaki with rice and yogurt sauce
Tex-mex turkey Meatloaf with coucous and green beans


PS, I added a sweet early morning picture to cheer you up. And freak my sister out- because freaking her out cheers ME up!!!!! happy Monday y'all!!!!!