Redeeming the Time

I I read a blog post recently by Patty over at babynumber10,  entitled "The Little Moments" that just hasn't let me go. Patty is a stay at home mom to 11 kids(!) and baby number 10 has down syndrome.  She chronicles some of their daily life on instagram as well as her blog.  This particular post is nothing earth shattering, she just reminds us there are little moments in our day we can redeem and use to be productive.   It is just practical, and maybe even for some blatantly obvious, but for ADD people (like me), it challenged me to think.  To think about how I spend my time going throughout my morning and to rewire my natural tendency. 

For those who don't understand what it is like to live in an ADD brain let me fill you in somewhat.  We spend a lot of our time feeling overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed by what all there is to do, and feeling like there is no clear direction in which to do it.  This in turn leads to avoiding issues, like getting the mail because you don't want to have to deal with sorting and paying out all the bills from your daughter's birth (by the way don't do this, it leads to a VERY full mail box and a grumpy mail man).  I do little things like this every day, avoiding them because when I think of everything that needs to get done all together and the time it is going to take me to do all of those things I freak out a little in my head.

Now I know all of you rational, sane, organized people are sitting there thinking "if she would just do it when she first thinks about it, she could avoid this problem" to which I would tell you you're absolutely right.  I know this, deep down I really do, and I desire to change which is why I think this post struck a cord with me and hasn't left.  Here is an excerpt from her post.

Keepers of the home have a lot on their collective plates - and if we were to enter that noble profession, Mrs. Smith forewarned us, we should continually be looking for opportunities to seize the "little minutes" of our day.

What are "little minutes", you say ??

Glad you asked.

Little minutes are the moments in between the big minutes ... that make up our days.

If big minutes are the chunks of time we spend each day devoted to the big tasks : washing the dishes, folding the laundry, cooking dinner, mopping floors .... then little minutes are the moments we have in-between these things : straightening a bookshelf as we return a book to its place, grabbing all the pencils in the junk drawer and securing them with a rubber band as we answer a phone call, wiping the spots off the mirror with a paper towel as we brush our teeth - so many little ways to redeem the time.

Mrs. Smith taught us that there were untold little minutes in every day - and if we paid attention and made room for them, they would be one of our greatest keys to success in the art of homemaking.

So now for the past few weeks I will randomly hear my own version of a mantra as I tell myself to "redeem the time" and try to do those little things when I actually see they need doing.  Redeeming the time comes in the tasks of hanging up clothes when I am putting away all other laundry, wiping window seals in the dining room at least once a week while I am wiping the table down, taking items back to the appropriate rooms, etc.  

So often as a homemaker I feel like I am running in place and falling further and further behind.  This job has made me realize I can't do everything, my house may not ever look "pinterest worthy" or the way I would choose for it to, I mean come on, we live here.  However, in the middle of the love, and chaos, the big moments, and skinned knees, there are ways to attempt to stay on top of stuff and make our home an enjoyable place to be for everyone.  

Another Random Post of Pictures. . .

Once again it has been a while since my last up date.  To be honest I am horrible at taking pictures with a legitamate camera.  I use my iPhone for everything and it shows. . . Oh well. So today people you will be getting a post full of photos from my iPhone. . .  Here are a few things from our life since Owen's 7 Month update.

Life:

From time to time I keep our friends kids for her when their school is closed/babysitter is out.  Genna is 5 months older than Reid and Camp is a week older than Owen.  We always have fun!

Playing Guitars in the closet

Too much fun!

One walking, one riding, one carried. . .

 Then there is just life in general, things that happen here everyday that we just love anyway. . .

Love this sweet blanket a friend made for Owen!

Brothers!

I came out of the bathroom and saw this!  Reading on his own accord!  

A little school time messy fun.

 At one point Owen got a small ear infection (first one ever for us as parents) and then an interviral rash. . . it was so sad and covered his little body for a week!

Texas football came back which me and all my boys were so excited about!  We are heading to our local high schools 1st football game here.

3 babies born 3 weeks apart, all 7 months old here!

 I also have become a designer for Origami Owl!  It is a fun jewelry making gig that I have had a blast with already!  Go look it up at www.kristenclifton.origamiowl.com!  Their slogan is "You tell your story with words, we tell it with jewelry."  You basically take a window plated locket and put whatever charms in it you want!  Tons of fun with so many different combinations.

 And this little guy finally learned to drink from a cup!

Organization for Cleaning

In the previous post I talked about how I have been learning to joyfully clean since I have become a stay at home mom.  I told you my story of how cleaning was not always a favorite of mine, something I actually loathed and hated.  If you missed that story you can catch it here  However, thanks to a good friend (and new mom) and a few books I have now began a process that helps me keep my home clean.

First I started by reading these books that the above mentioned mom leant to me.  She actually wrote a post about this same thing! You can find it here, we actually did things a little differently, so it might be good to catch both.

In it they outlined how they went from slob sisters to a crazy cleaning duo!  It was crazy how much of a messy they were, kinda unbelievable in fact.  However, there system really does work.

What you need:

• A note card box
• Neon colored and white note cards
• divider labels 1-31
• Monthly labels (still have yet to find these anywhere)
• small calendar

After you have all this assembled, the book tells you to make a basic weekly plan.  The general idea of all the things you are going to do for each day.  Here is mine. I taped it to the front of my card holder.

Basic Weekly Plan:

• Sunday:  Church, Couponing, Meal Plan
• Monday:  Groceries/Errands
• Tuesday:  Moderate Cleaning (2-4 hours)
• Wednesday:  Family Clean day  (where if there are jobs my hubby needs to do or we have to do together we use this day)
• Thursday: Moderate Cleaning
• Friday: Free Day
• Saturday: Family

Right now this works for our family because of its small size.  As the family grows, this will undergo some construction.  This is not always what my weeks look like either.  Sometimes the hubby and I will go grocery shopping and run our errands on a Wednesday when he is off half a day instead of Monday.  Or some one might come in to town and I need to go and see them, so a moderate cleaning day may not happen.  It is just a guideline so I can have a goal.

The next step is for you look in the back of their book and see what chores they say to do for parts of your home, combine them with what you are already doing, and then separate them into categories.  This is where the different colored note cards come in handy.

You will have things that you do daily and then things that you do every other day (EOD), these go on one color of notecard.   For example, one of my daily cards is for the kitchen.  On it I have all the kitchen jobs that I need to do on a daily basis (load and unload dishwasher, clean countertops, clean/polish sink, sweep floor).  Then there are the things that you do weekly (such as bleach the tub) on a different color, and on yet a different color you have those things that you do monthly (orange glow the kitchen cabinets), bi-monthly (change and clean out light fixture bowls), seasonally (clean out refrigerator), and yearly all on a different colored notecard.  You also have a separate colored note card for personal things (mine is pink, it reminds me to do certain things, such as print out pictures monthly.)  I have also written on the left hand side how often I do these things (daily, EOD, weekly, EOW, Monthly, EOM, Seasonally, Yearly), and then in the middle I have what it is (usually what room) I should be doing.

Here are the color of my notecards:

• Yellow: Daily and EOD
• Orange:  Weekly and EOW
• Green:  Monthly and EOM
• White:  Seasonally/yearly (On white cards I also write down the month at the top then put all the anniversaries, birthdays, and special dates I should remember and might need to buy cards for each year.  Helps immensely in getting things out on time!  Not to mention you look incredibly thoughtful!  If you ever find or make month dividers though, they will take the place of these.)
• Pink:  Personal  (Side Note: I might have things on a pink card that I need to do Daily, EOD, Monthly, and so on that are just for me.  I just write what the time is (Daily, EOD, etc) in the left hand corner)

Once you have successfully labeled all you cards, you then need to put them in order by date.  This is where a small calendar comes in handy.  Take your numbered 1-31 dividers and place the cards you will be doing for that particular day of the month IN FRONT OF the day.  For example. if today is the 3rd, I will put all cards that need to be done that day in front of the number 3 divider.  The army does it this way and I found it really helps.  You just move the cards all the way to the back and then the divider all the way to the back when your day is through.   It is sometimes hard to know exactly where things need to go throughout the month, but here is where you can be creative and just play with it.

This system has been a lifesaver!  For me in particular I am a procrastinator, so I will just let everything pile up until the inevitable day before the in-laws come over and I am cleaning like a madwoman and mad at the world that it is so nasty.  Now my home stays company clean for the most part.  It helps me to not be lazy, to do little things like make my bed every day, cleaning my bathroom every other day (which I used to think my weekly scrubbing was good, but man was I wrong), going to sleep with a clean kitchen, which make me more at ease.  One of the best things the book tells you is not to stress over anything, if a card doesn’t get completed that day “file it and forget it” you will come back to it the next time it comes up.

It also helped me to get my cleaning supplies organized, but that is a different post for a different day.  This one is long enough.  Hope this helps someone else out a much as it did me.

Joyfully Cleaning

There are many things I am not good at/ I don’t know how to do.  Gardening, sewing, cooking, things of the homemaking nature.  However, one thing I have gotten better on is cleaning.

When I was a kid I HATED to clean.  Literally just loathed it.  Have you ever seen a television show about hoarders?  I have told my husband if it weren’t for my mother, grandmother, and God’s grace I really think I would have been a hoarder.  I used to stash all kinds of things in my closet, until it was a huge massive pile (at least that is what it looked like to me as a little one) that my mom made me clean up.  It would then take me HOURS to do this, because I am ADD so every little thing I would find I would play with and then reminisce about before finally putting it away.  I also had a hard time throwing things away.  My grandmother and mom would come and help me from time to time, but then would get mad at how little progress I had made or what all they found in there.  Needless to say, even to this day, I don’t like people going through my stuff.

However, as I have gotten older I have gotten much cleaner.  In fact I actually find it a joy to do now.  Being home has definitely brought that out in me, because I have time to do it, in fact that is what I spend most of my day doing.  However, it wasn’t always easy for me.  It wasn’t until Reid was about 4 months old that I actually got on a system, thanks to another mommy friend who is also a stay at home mom.  This system consists of notecards and a master schedule for things you do each day, week, month, couple of months, seasonally, or yearly.  It is so wonderful.  I even now have boxes under my sinks that house all the cleaning supplies for each room in the house so I can just grab it and go.

In the next post I will show you pictures of my system and my baskets!  For now, the baby is sleeping and I have already wasted enough time not cleaning and updating.  Remember to come back to see the method to my madness.

Hmm. . .

I was reading some of the headlines today on AOL and came across this article. . .  It made me think a little because it partially describes me in many areas, but since I have become a stay at home mom, I am having a pull towards changing these. . . Take a look:

Flickr, toniwbusch

While today's women are advancing in the workplace and making more money, a new study found that few of them know how to do the same domestic chores their mothers and grandmothers did every day.

Researchers found that only 51 percent of women under 30 knew how to cook a roast while 82 percent of baby boomer females thought it was a cinch. "Women of today tend to be busier, juggling more roles, and are quite prepared to compromise a bit of the homemade just to save some time," social researcher Mark McCrindle told Australia's Courier-Mail.

McCrindle also noted that because these women have bigger paychecks, they don't feel the need to have to bake a cake from scratch or iron their own clothing when instant mixes and dry cleaners are readily available.

"We live in a throw-away culture where, rather than repair something, we will buy a new one, even if it is just a matter of darning holes or sewing on buttons," he said. "As such, many women have lost these skills. If we do want something repaired, women today are more likely to take it to their local drycleaner because they are busy and can afford it."

While older generations may find it disheartening to know that their daughters and granddaughters are without these "lady skills," there are some jobs that research has found women today do more readily than in the past. Over 70 percent of women under 30 admit to taking out the trash, mowing the lawn and washing their own cars.

Which leads us to ask: Why is sewing a button back on still a "lady skill" if we've taken over in all of these departments?

While I am not against moms who work (goodness my mother worked all while doing an excellent job of raising me and keeping her house), it is something to think about.  Right now I don't have a paycheck that contributes to the household, which means there are certain things I am having to learn to do better, cooking being the main one.  I think that the older generation that knew how to do the things such as make a roast or mend a shirt had the gift of one thing that many women don't have today, a gift I have been somewhat granted with by staying at home. . . Time.  


The women had more time to learn how to do those things, so they could be helpful and do them out of necessity since they didn't have the extra funds.  I just found it kind of funny, because honestly never did I see myself on the "domestic" side of the spectrum.  Believe me I am not very domesticated at all, and I am finding it is a learned thing. . . something that has taken some time to get used to, but slowly I am beginning to see the beauty in it, and the gifts it has. . . 


So maybe I have to become one of those women who doesn't have the money to run out and buy a new shirt whenever a perfectly good one loses a button, or get a store bought cake for every birthday, but you know, that is starting to become okay with me.  Strange as it is. . .