Those Days

You know those days when you just can't seem to get anything done?

When you want to put some chicken in the crockpot for dinner but you have to keep running to the other end of the house to referee the kids and keep them from putting twist ties in each other's hair and wrecking each other's lego creations, then you just get back into the kitchen and remember that you need to switch the laundry, then another fight breaks out and you try for two hours to get that darn chicken into the crockpot but are STILL unsuccessful because you keep getting interrupted??
Oh, and there are no clean dishes so you have to start washing those just to clean a place on the counter so you can put the crockpot where it will reach the electrical outlet?

I am having one of those days today.
I sure can't do this mom thing on my own!

I am so thankful that I read this verse in my quiet time with the Lord this morning, because I desperately do need HIM:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths."
Proverbs 3:5,6

I need God's direction today so I don't go crazy with stress and impatience! My path today has been erratic and twisty and full of stress, just trying to get through the day. Nothing super important has happened, yet the day has just been really hard!
It's amazing how when we take our eyes off of our problems (however big or small they may seem or actually be) and put our eyes on Jesus, what a peace He gives us and our paths just seem to straighten out and slow down. When we rest in God, everything falls into place because we let Him do His job, instead of us trying to do it for him.

If you're having a bad day, or overwhelmed with problems, just take a few minutes to fix your eyes on Jesus, and remember that He died on the cross for your sins and rose again for YOU, and that if you let Him, he will make your paths straight, no matter how crooked they may be. It kinda puts things in perspective.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted."
Hebrews 12: 3,4

I feel so much more peaceful after taking some time to ponder and surrender my day to God.
Oh, and I did finally get my chicken in the crockpot. :)

Fall is Here!

It's officially fall, my favorite season!

The mornings are chilly, with fog wafting over the fields and the days still mostly sunny and warm.
It frosted this morning for the first time, and boy did the heat from the woodstove feel nice this morning as it warmed our sleepy house!

I love fall.
I love the changing colors, the coolness of the outdoors, getting to wear sweaters and seeing pumpkin stands on the side of the road.
I love making apple crisp for dessert and chicken soup for supper, with homemade biscuits and settling down for a nice lively card game after dinner with my family.
I love seeing my breath in the air as I exhale, the crispness and chill that tries to creep into my bones but is banished as soon as I step in front of the toasty warm wood stove with a cup of hot tea in my hand.

The Italian Prunes are ripe on the tree and my mom and I picked all of the good ones a couple of days ago. There were quite a few, so we decided to make prune (or plum? what's the difference, anyway?) butter.

We made some in the crockpot, let it cook overnight and....its kinda gross. It looks good here, but when it was done, it just wasn't very good.
It wasn't totally gross, as in 'just can't eat it or I"ll gag', but I'll be honest: if there was another choice to put on my bread, I'd take it.
So....we put it in the freezer (because that's what you do with food that you don't really like but don't want to throw out just yet) and might make some muffins or something out of it.
I'm kinda disappointed because it smelled amazing and looked really good, but when we tasted it...yeah. Not so good.

In other news,
Monday was Tim and my (Tim and I's? Mine and Tim's? Grammar help??) 7 year anniversary and we went out on a lunch date to celebrate.
We had lunch at this cute little bakery in Coupeville and then walked on the pier, then went thrifting.
Here are a few pictures from that, it was a gorgeous day!!

The Coupville Pier

That bird sitting up there is a Blue Heron

Gorgeous, Huh? I still kinda feel like we're on vacation...haha it's just so beautiful everywhere you go. I can't believe I took this all for granted when I was a kid. It's so nice to be back. :)

Hey, next week is Kid's Clothes Week Challenge, and I'm going to be participating again!

If you want to know more about it, check out the Elsie Marley blog and sign up, it's so fun!
You sew an hour a day for a week and see how many things you can make for your kiddos. (Or grandkids, or friend's kids.)
I'm going to be making Christmas stockings and maybe some doll clothes, and possibly something else if I can find anything cool on Pinterest, which I'm sure won't be hard. ;)

That's all for today's ramblings, come back in a few days for something new!

Change Is A Comin'....

Things have been a little crazy around here (or a LOT crazy)

Because...

We're moving!

In two weeks.

Clear across the country, to Washington State.

It's a long story but basically, we're losing our home here in Tennessee and moving to Washington to live with my parents in their big house out in the country.

 I feel like I have to add that we'll be paying them rent and getting jobs, we won't just be bumming around. :)


Please don't feel sorry that we're losing our house.
We know this is what God wants- He orchestrated the whole thing.
He gives and takes away, and we know that this is Him taking (a big) something away for us to purify us from our attachment to worldly goods and comforts. Honestly, it's been really freeing.

Okay so here's the scoop because I know you have questions so I'll try to answer some of them:

We are WAY underwater on our house (a.k.a. owe more than we could sell it for) and couldn't sell it if we tried (and we wanted to in the spring!)
But we just accepted the fact back in April that we couldn't sell or rent our house and were planning to live here for who knows how long and then...
God opened a door.
A big one.
Not the one we expected, not the easiest one to go through, our pride (and credit) has taken a hit for sure!
But the right door.
So we're walking through it.

We got behind on our mortgage and were frantically praying for God to provide, and he said, "No."
He has something better for us in Washington, and I'm so thankful that even though it's been a hard process, I've had such a peace about the whole thing.
I know He's got us. So I don't have to worry about anything. (which is hard, because worrying is kinda one of my favorite pastimes.) But I really feel at peace now. It's wonderful.

We've sold almost all of our "stuff" and are planning to drive across the country on a 5 day road trip with whatever we can fit in our trusty little Toyota Corolla, along with our two kids and dog Lucy AND our kitten, Baby Kitty.

We. Are. Crazy.  Who brings a kitten cross country? We do.
Also: who names a kitten "Baby Kitty"? We do. Original, right??

ANyway.
I'm so looking forward to my parents being able to see the kids (every day!) and for the kids to get a rural upbringing without gunshots in the night and drug deals on the corner.

Yep. That really happens where we live now.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the rednecks that live behind us that blast their country music and ride their go-carts around their back yard ALL DAY LONG and blow dust all over my clean laundry hanging on the line...

Then there are the things that we'll miss here like our dear, dear friends; going running along the Mississippi, the fun free events that are available in the city and just the pretty leafy trees and the cicadas humming and the fireflies twinkling in the twilight.


Instead, we get to wake up and look out at fog-covered cow fields and run around in a huge yard and see bald eagles on a regular basis flying over the blue, blue ocean and not have to worry about getting obliterated by a tornado.
We're going to be right near the beach so we're really excited about building sand castles and taking nature walks and just enjoying the things in life that matter-God and family and being outside with each other, enjoying God's creation together.

Please pray for us, that we wouldn't go insane on the trip and that we'd get there safely.
My blog posting may be a bit spotty here in the next few weeks but I promise you I'm taking a TON of pictures on our trip across this beautiful country. I can't wait!

Food Waste Friday: Only buy what you will actually use

Hey, Friends it's








And I missed out on last week because I was getting ready for my Ethan's 5th birthday party.
However, I have some waste to show you this week....one of which isn't even opened at all.
(hangs head in shame)

We bought this 2-pack of ranch dressing at Costco about.....hm, I'd say 9 months ago and we JUST finished the first bottle.
Check out the expiration date:

What was I thinking?!?!
We don't eat that much ranch dressing!

I feel terrible for wasting an entire gargantuan bottle but I was scared to try eating it after the expiration date, with the egg yolks and stuff in there.
If I'd have been more proactive, I'd have at least donated it to a food bank like 6 months ago.
I will never buy that much again- I actually want to try my hand at making my own ranch dressing sometime, without all of the soy protiens and hydrolized oils in it.

Moving on.
The only other things we wasted this week were:
A serving of chicken curry that hubby took to work and didn't eat and then it got left out unrefridgerated for several hours

and a couple of half-eaten hot dogs and a half a slice of bread. ( no picture for that one though.)

How did you do this week?

This is shared at The Frugal Girl, who was inspired back in 2008 to document her food waste in hopes of reducing it. It worked, and she invited others to join in, and so Food Waste Friday was born!

Hodgepodge of Thoughts, on Life and Faith

I've been really thinking lately, and struggling with a few things and wondering what God's purpose for us is right now in this season of life.

(This is a somewhat more "deep" post than usual...so if you're looking for crafts or natural living, today isn't the day. :)

We thought we were moving to Oklahoma in April.
It turns out, every door we tried to open was closed- we couldn't sell our house, we couldn't find a rental house, we couldn't find a job, we couldn't even get change of address forms from the post office! (I tried two different post offices, and both of them were out.) That was the final tipping point- down to the little details, it was clear that God wanted us to stay here.
We prayed and prayed about it and it was obvious we needed to stay where we are.
So we did.


God has totally blessed our obedience and given Tim an awesome new job, we have our cute chickens and are financially doing better than we have ...pretty much ever, even though things are still tight.
But...
I still feel discontented.

Like I'm missing out on some great adventure, and instead I'm stuck in this hot, sticky, sunny place with no beach and tons of humidity when all I really want is to see mountains and have cool nights and rain and be able to be outside for more than 5 minutes without feeling like I'm going to faint from the heat.
I feel frustrated because I really don't want to be here.
 We have several friends who are moving away and I don't want to be left here without them and without any family.
I wish we could still move, not to Oklahoma but somewhere else...somewhere cooler with mountains and wide open expanse where we can have a small farm, but it just seems impossible.

Yet, I just have to trust that God knows best for my life; for our family, that His plans are right and true and good even when they don't seem like it.
The theme of the year for us is "Trust" and boy, is God teaching me that right now.
I know he is good, but do I really trust him? Even when he leads me places I don't want to be?
The answer has to be yes, even though my flesh cries out "no" with each passing moment that it is denied.
I have to trust, because if I don't, I would be denying Him lordship in my life which means I wouldn't really believe he is; indeed my Saviour and worthy of all my trust, my praise. That He is worthy of all glory and honor and obedience...and I am nothing without Him.

A song keep coming to mind when I have days like this; it's by a band called Something Like Silas (they're not together anymore but they were really great)
It says:

"So I'll trust You, when I cannot see,
So I'll trust You, when the shadows hover over me
And I'll love you, when the distance leaves me cold,
And I'll love you, and I'll still believe that You are Sovereign Lord"

And then the bridge goes,

"I'm learning to trust, I'm learning to feel, I'm learning to love you, always."

And so, even though I don't know why we're supposed to still be here, I will trust.
This verse jumps out at me pretty much every morning, when I'm having my quiet time on the back steps, sipping my black, sweet coffee and watching the chickens scratch in the dew.

I am doing my best to dwell in His shelter, because that is really the only shelter we need.

"He that dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
Psalm 91:1,2

Food Waste Friday - Well....

Hi.

Confession Time:

So, I've completely dropped the ball on (almost) everything lately- Hubby's new job has taken some time to get used to and everything is different and I haven't been wanting to cook which leads to
1. eating leftovers (good!)
or 2. eating out (not good on the pocketbook or the waistline)
or 3. food waste. (bad.)

Now, don't get me wrong. Hubby LOVES his new job and I like the hours too, (6a-3:30p with Saturdays off is SO nice when we've been doing 9-5 and then a ten hour shift on Saturdays) but I've had to shuffle everything around and I'm trying to figure out a new menu plan (because we're shopping at different intervals now) and its just been pretty hectic.

I don't have any proof of the said food waste, but just know it was there.
Probably more than I care to imagine.
I'm kind of glad I didn't take pictures, because I'm already embarrassed letting you all know that I have completely sucked at running my household for the past two weeks, let alone you seeing all the money we're throwing in the trash. Or the huge pile of laundry that is sitting in my room, waiting to be folded and put away. (Hey, at least it's clean, right?)

Ahem.

Since I don't have any pictures of food waste, would you rather look at my cute children? I thought so.
This was our afternoon a few days ago. :)

Wild Strawberries are growing everywhere in our yard, and the kids love eating them.

Sprinkler Time!!

It's been in the high 80's and around 90 all this week.

Water is way more fun to drink when it's spraying you in the face ;)

For Next Week...
We're going out of town on Monday for a week, and we're planning on being as thrifty as possible- all of our dinner meals are graciously being provided by my sister-in-law or her extended family, we're taking advantage of the free hotel continental breakfast and only planning on eating out twice while we're there. Or maybe three times.
I have bagels and cream cheese and lots of coffee, for we are driving for 7-8 hours the morning we leave; fruit and crackers to tide us over in the car and lunch fixings for sandwiches throughout the week, so food waste hopefully will be minimal.
We'll see. I'll have my camera with me at all times, so I'll try and be diligent about snapping pictures of any waste we may leave behind. ;)
I hope all of your weeks were better than mine this week!


This is shared at The Frugal Girl, who is the brains behind all of this food waste documentation.

How I Am Weaning Myself Off Of Target

I don't know about you, but I have a terrible time spending too much money at Target.
Like, terrible. I can't help it.
I love Target.

I go in to get diapers or toiletries and come out spending at least $10 (usually like 20) more than I anticipated on a cute accessory, adorable home decor or a small toy for the kids, a snack, or some other thing that just called out my name in such a sweet voice I couldn't refuse.

Seriously, Ya'll.
At one point, I was going to Target almost every day.
Not necessarily to buy stuff, but when Ethan and Ellie were really little I went more just to have some contact with the outside world. Even if it meant ending that contact with the outside world with a screaming kicking toddler.

Then it morphed into sometimes spending money...then usually spending money...and then we were spending over $200 a month last year at Target on who knows what.
I couldn't even tell you what all I bought, but I was frittering away money that we didn't have to spend!

I mean, really! Why do they have so many awesome things?! I love their home decor- the candles, the prints on the sheets and pillows (which I never actually buy but always want) the simple white dishes, the cool designer clothing lines that are limited time offers, the dollar section, THE CLEARANCE SECTION...the marketing team sure knows what they are doing!

I've been feeling guilty about giving in to such materialism for quite some time but couldn't bring myself to stop....going....to....Target.

I think I'm finally conquering the Target-itis that has over taken me so unassumingly, wedging its way in little by little til it took over too much of my life.

(Hooray!)

My secret weapon?

First, when we were thinking about moving to Oklahoma a few months ago, where we were going to move didn't have a Target. This was almost a deal breaker for me. (which is SAD!) :)
WHAT?! No Target? Whatever will I do??

Um...save a lot of money that I would've otherwise spent.
Hm. Not a bad thing.
So I started weeding out my weekly trips to Target in preparation of (sniff) not having one available.
Turns out, we're staying put here in Tennessee, but I decided that even with a Target in close proximity, I was going to shop there less. Much less.


My next secret weapon?
Which is not a secret now...

At the beginning, it had to be drastic.
I started letting Tim take the car to work.
I know this wouldn't be an option for everyone, but we only have one car so if he takes it to work, I can't go to Target. How sad is that?! I had to physically ban myself from taking the car so I would stay away.
It worked.


Next weapon:

Shopping elsewhere for toiletries.
Sounds so simple, doesn't it?
 I felt like a genius when I figured out that other places have just as nice toiletries as Target does. duh!

I started buying our hand soap, "ziploc" bags, toilet paper and trash bags at Aldi instead.
It's cheaper, and I don't spend extra money on cute accessories sitting out at the ends of the aisle. So it could be doubly cheaper.
And, the Aldi brand of toiletries and paper/house products seem to work just as well.
In fact, I really like the hand soap better than Target's store brand.



Right now, I've conquered the addiction to Target down to going only when we need diapers, which is about every two weeks. Better yet, last time I went, I only bought...diapers. And wipes, because we needed those too. And batteries. But those were on the list.

I didn't buy anything extra.

YAY!!

Now, if I can just keep it up.....

Here are some good tips about smart shopping at Target, if you dare to enter the store.
I'll be keeping them in mind next time my daughter needs diapers.

Eleven Interesting (?) Things About Me

Hi!
So, a few other bloggers have been 'tagging' people to share 11 interesting things about themselves and I've joined in on the fun. I'm not sure how interesting these things will be, so feel free to go browse Pinterest if you get bored but here they are, in random order. :)

Eleven Things...


1. I am in love with doing laundry. Seriously. Really, I am in love with hanging my laundry on the clothesline to dry. There is just something so idyllic about seeing it hanging there, swinging in the breeze. It makes me happy every time I look out the window and see it there, in the back yard.

2. When I was in high school I was completely obsessed with hockey. To the point that I would spend 6 hours every Saturday watching 'Hockey Night In Canada' (even though I lived in the States) and had a note book with lists full of every team in the NHL, each player, the position they played, their jersey number and sometimes...their birthday. That's slightly creepy, now that I think about it. ;)
I would yell at the TV about calls made, knew the game inside and out and my dream for my 16th birthday was to travel to Detroit, watch the Red Wings play; then go across the Ambassador bridge and visit the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. I didn't get to do that, instead we took a day trip to Seattle for my birthday but I would still love to make that trip. It would be so much fun!

3. When writing, I use commas too often and have to go back and delete several each time I do a blog post. It drives me crazy!

4. I screech every time I see a cockroach, and it immediately grows (in my mind) to be about 3 feet long and huge and I imagine it scuttling up my leg, which makes it very difficult to get up the courage to kill it. However, I always do. Those things can not be scampering about my house! The kids also recognize "the screech" and come running to see the "oach"'. (Ellie's word for it)

5. I had my first baby (Ethan) in the hospital, had an epidural, gave up breastfeeding 2 days after he was born and fed him formula after that.
I had my second baby (Eliana) at home completely naturally, exclusively breastfed (she never drank out of a bottle) and I hate it when mommas judge each other over whether they have gone all natural or not.
I've done it both ways and can see benefits of both, and drawbacks of  both. Do what works best for your family. (Although if I had to do it again, I'd totally do natural all over again. But that's me. Although I've never done cloth diapers.)

6. I want to learn to crochet, make my own herbal tinctures and body care products like shampoo and lotion.

7. Sometimes I can be too serious. Thankfully, I have a husband with a wonderful, quirky sense of humor that brings out the funner side of me and kiddos that are always doing funny things to keep me laughing. :)

"Let's take a bath in a laundry basket and a toy bin!!" 

8. I absolutely love cheesecake. But I hardly ever eat it, because I'm too intimidated to learn how to make it myself. And I know it's really bad for me. But it's oh, so delicious.

9. I grew up on a small farm; skinning chickens, chopping and stacking wood, helping butcher deer and canning fruits and veggies. I am so thankful now for my Mom and Dad teaching me all of those things, although I wasn't always thrilled about it then. Once Hubby and I get some land, we are hoping to do all of those things for ourselves and pass down the knowledge to our kiddos.

10. I LOVE paperwork. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Give me a form to fill out, and I am one happy camper. There is just something so satisfying about filling in blanks. I want to get a 'data entry from home' job, but it seems like they are all scams. So if you hear of a legit one, send it my way. ;)

11. I don't like chocolate chips. Don't hate me. I like chocolate, I adore brownies, but I just don't care for the chips. They taste different to me. And they are tiny.

AND...

( I cheated. hehe. )

12. When my sweet girl Eliana (she's only 2!) raises her hands at church, worshiping God and singing...I cry. Every. Single. Time.

The End. :)

Food Waste Friday, January 20, 2012

Boy, did I have a lot of waste this week! I almost didn't even do a FWF post because I didn't wanna 'fess up, but then I decided to be honest and show my shortcomings. There are several.

First of all, I completely failed at making potato leek soup, and had to throw the entire crockpot full of soup away. (I didn't throw away the actual crockpot- sorry if it sounded like that! I use that thing WAY too often to throw it away. I love my crockpot!)

I tried making it in there for the first time, ( I've made it on the stove before and haven't had any problems) and I'm not sure if I overcooked it, or what I did wrong but
#1: it was brown instead of white and
#2: it tasted...weird.
Like something I've tasted before but couldn't place, and it wasn't a good memory, but I still couldn't quite remember what it was! Gah! Mommy brain.
Anyway, I contemplated choking the soup down if I slathered it in sour cream and green onions but then decided that I'd just chuck it since it would take me about 2 weeks to eat the whole crock by myself. ( I'm pretty sure no one else would even touch it.)


We also wasted a good bit of uneaten kid food- they got colds again this week and were picky picky picky. ( I guess 70f degree weather then 25f degree weather will do that to the best of us.)
I tried feeding them leftover dinner for lunch the next day and they still didn't go for it on several occasions.
I know we wasted some oats, a bit of scrambled eggs and probably some granola.



I also had to throw out some week-old curry that still smelled good, but the pork in it was over two weeks old, so it had to go. I'd made a 'use up leftovers' curry that made...more leftovers which led to ...
food waste.
So my plan to not waste the pork backfired on me there.
Drat.
At least there was only about one serving of it.

I also found this kiwi to be brown and mushy when peeling it for the kids, so into the compost it went.

Those big containers of kiwis at Costco are sneaky, I tell you. I think I'll just be buying produce from the regular grocery store from now on. We tend to waste more when we buy too much. Makes sense, right?

I think that's all; I didn't take pictures of all of it so something might've slipped my memory. I'm sure this is the longest post I've done for FWF, hopefully I'll never have a longer one!
How did you do this week, using up leftovers and cutting back on food waste? I bet you did better than I did! ;)




This post is linked to The Frugal Girl, who is the mastermind behind all of this food waste documentation.I'm so thankful she thought of this, it's really helped us reduce our food waste! Well, usually anyway. ;)

Food Waste Friday, December 2, 2011

Hello, all!


Wow. I feel like it's been forever since I partook in FWF!
 So I didn't post last week, and didn't take pictures this week of my food waste because my camera was out of batteries and I kept forgetting to buy more. I got some today finally, so we'll have pictures next week!

That being said, we did waste quite a bit of food, sadly.
Taking pictures definitely keeps me motivated to not waste food- I don't want to show the world what I've wasted!

Into the trash went some stuffing from Thanksgiving- a fair amount, I might add. I made it from scratch with homemade bread too, and just WAY overestimated the amount that we'd eat. Sad face. It was good, but you can only eat stuffing for so long and I figured a week was long enough. :)

Next up were the usual suspects: some leftover steel cut oats and a few uneaten noodles, along with some half-eaten sandwiches. These are (with the exception of the oats) from the kiddos just being stubborn and refusing to eat them *sigh*.
 I don't even remember what we wasted last week.
Hopefully next week will be better!
I know it will be more exciting at least, because I will have pictures. :)
Have a wonderful weekend!

I might write about what sewing I've been up to later today or tomorrow....some cute bird ornaments will be showcased for sure, and maybe a real picture of our Christmas tree instead of a stand-in like the last post.



This post is linked to The Frugal Girl, who is the brains behind all of this food waste documentation. :)

Right now, I am:

Things are always crazy the day after you get back from vacation, but I wanted to write just a quick post.
I'm mixing in a few pictures from our trip for you too. :)

So, right now, I am....



About to get Eliana down for a nap or at least a "quiet time" and then going to try to decide what I will try to accomplish with the rest of the day. I'm sure I have too much planned in my mind, so I'm going to be realistic and re-set a few goals for the day.

Today, I am..

Whew! This week has been a little crazy!

We've been going to the chiropractor 3 times a week, and that takes up a lot of time since the office is about 1/2 hour away. Lots of driving.

So, today, I am:

~Going to share some random pictures with you so this post isn't totally boring. ;)

Where we usually go fishing. 

~Going to try and get some laundry done. I started some yesterday, but forgot to put it in the dryer. Oops. Now I need to re-wash it.

Eliana after playing in the sprinkler.

~Making some sort of bread/ rolls to put our roast beef and french dip on for dinner tonight.

Laying on the steps is so much fun! Especially when you're in your jammies.

~Hoping that Eliana lets me do these things, since she fell and scraped both knees this morning and now wants to be held at all times because the band-aids feel weird on her knees when she takes a step. Maybe she'll fall asleep soon.

Eliana looking at some Buffalo.

~Thankful that it is beautiful outside and not too warm.

A butterfly enjoying my Zinnias.

~Trying to have patience when Ethan doesn't want to share with Eliana and  trying to act in love not anger; while disciplining him.

My sweet boy. 

Tomorrow is Food Waste Friday; I'll see you then! I think we did pretty well this week on food waste, although I haven't looked in the fridge too  thoroughly yet. We'll see!
AND we're running our first 5k this weekend! I'm so excited. You'll definitely see pictures early next week. :)

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Momma

I was talking with a friend this morning about laundry and the struggles that go hand in hand with it.
Then I came home and looked around my house, and thought I should write up a "confessions of house-keeping" post; lest you somehow get the idea that I might be super cool or perfect or anything along those lines.

I most certainly am not.

Although sometimes I think I am...:)

But I"m just fooling myself.


So here we go!

I don't sort my laundry before washing it.

Pretty much never.
Sorry, Mom!! I know you taught me well, but I just don't care to take the time!
We mostly have colored clothes anyway- white doesn't stay that way in our house for very long, so this may be one of the reasons. We also are very casual, and don't have any "special" fabrics, except wool in the winter time, which you wash in cold water anyway.
Another reason is just that I don't want to!
The only exception would  be if we were to do some activity that got our clothes really muddy or dirty, then I would wash those ones by themselves. Or if I need to bleach something.
But I pretty much just toss everything in there and let it get clean all together, using my homemade laundry detergent..
I always use cold water as well, so nothing bleeds and it saves energy to boot.



75% of the time, my house is messy.

With a face this cute, who cares if the house is messy?!

Or maybe 85%. With two kids ages 4 and almost 2, things get messy much more quickly than they get clean. I consider it a major accomplishment if I can get laundry and dishes done in the same day.
As long as I sweep the floor, I don't really care if there are toys on it. I just can't stand crumbs and toys everywhere.
I try to keep clutter to a minimum, which helps a lot. And we do clean up once or twice a day; things just get messy again really fast!
How fun is a house so clean that you can't live in it anyway?
I know that as the kids get older, hopefully things won't be so messy because they are learning to pick up and put away their things, so I'm willing to just not fret about it too much for now.


I only mop my floors about once every 6 months.


Yep. I know. Gross. But true.
I don't really have an excuse for this one. I just don't like mopping floors, although I really enjoy the feeling of that clean wood floor after I'm done mopping.
Now that Eliana is potty training and having several accidents, maybe it will motivate me to mop more often.
(And, for you people who have crawling babies and come over to my house, I usually at least spot clean so your child won't be crawling on gross floors.)



I always forget to clean the tile in the shower when I clean the bathroom.

I'm not sure why I forget; the tile takes up the majority of the bathroom! It just doesn't look like it gets that dirty, so I don't think about cleaning it.  I remember to clean the tile on the floor, just not in the shower.



I don't brush my hair.

Now, before you get all grossed out, I have very thick, wavy hair that is kind of coarse.
When I brush it, it gets super puffy and frizzy, and not like 'I'm a supermodel with a blown-out hair-do' kind of puffy. Like, 'I just stuck my hand in an electrical socket puffy.'
I just use my fingers to comb the tangles out, and use a de-frizzing spray to keep the waves under control.
I also don't use a blow dryer or straightening iron or anything.
I just go au natural and let my hair dry on it's own. It has lots of body without any help!

What are some of your 'dirty little secrets'? 
It's nice to get it all out there in the open once in awhile, if for no other reason than to remind yourself that you don't have it all together! No one does, we just like to pretend that we can. In reality, we do the best we can and hope for God's grace to fill in the cracks. I'm learning this more and more as I get older.