HTCI Update

This is extremely embarrassing, but here goes nothing. Welcome to Step #5 - Gather Tools and Document Evidence.

For this step, I had to let my house go for 2 days in order to see where things end up in piles and such. This was really difficult for me, but it had to be done and so I did it. For 2 days, I watched as piles accumulated and my house turned into a complete disaster. Wow. I had no idea how quickly we create piles and how often they land in so many places!

So, without further ado, my documentation:

When you walk into our front door, this is what you see

After walking through the entryway, you end up in our living room

Then, you walk up the stairs to the next level (gotta love split levels!). To the right, is our kitchen:

On the other side of our kitchen, is our playroom/office/supposed to be a formal dining room:

*I cannot believe I am putting these out for the world to see*

Next, you climb the big set of stairs:

This lands you in the upstairs, the first door on the left is the guest/Emma's bathroom:

Keep on going and the next door on the left is our Master Bedroom:

Master Bath and walk-in closet are in this room as well

After this, looking straight ahead in the hallway is our hall linen closet:

To the right of this, is the guest bedroom/craft room:

Next, is the nursery but I could not take pictures in there because Emma was sleeping... suffice it to say that the nursery is clean so did not really need to be pictured anyway... 

After this, we head all the way down to the basement:

Looks dangerous doesn't it? It is. It's a disaster. Anyway, moving on... we head down into the basement into our rec room:

To the right of the finished portion of the basement is the unfinished portion with the laundry room and crawl space:

Next, we'll hit the last place in our house that you could possibly store all of your junk... the garage:

That concludes our disgusting and hoard-ish house tour. I can't believe what I saw when I took all of these pictures. In our defense, we are trying to clean out the basement and garage and have had a lot of work being done in these areas, despite the picture evidence to the contrary. Everything is in complete disarray and it's awful! I'm sick to my stomach just looking at all of this! How will I ever get this organized??? ugh...

HTCI Update

Today, I actually made progress on my House That Cleans Itself project, and all I have to say is:  WOW

Why? Because I did not realize just how messy, dis-organized and cluttered my home is. What an over abundance of stuff we have been blessed with. When looking at the house as I did my prayer walk and took pictures, I was struck by how much stuff we have and how much God has blessed us in our time in this house. I was struck by my laziness and my lack of willingness to do anything about the clutter and the mess. There have been improvements but man! this house is in need of some serious purging and re-organizing and cleaning.

HTCI Step 4:  Put God at the Center

This step was made up of completing a prayer walk through the house. I started in the basement and made my way up to the bedrooms, taking a grand tour of my own home and taking stock of everything in it. I stopped on the main floor and stood in the center of the play room and prayed for every room on the main floor where we do almost all of our "living". Since we own a split level house, I could cover almost every room. I need to do another more thorough prayer walk but I have decided that as we continue room by room with the next steps, that I will commit to praying while I am working on that room.

It is amazing how many things I was able to praise God for and it also amazed me how shameful I felt for not just having so much stuff (there is nothing Biblically wrong with owning things), but for having so much stuff that we do not use or have never used and have no need of. What a shameful waste of resources, God's money, and space in our home. Now, granted... much of what we have in the toy room was all gifted to Emma so I am not counting that room. We have been fortunate with Emma in that we have only purchased her a few (literally, less than 5) toys and most of that has come from thrift stores. We are SO blessed by the people that God has placed in our lives. Everything else, is our own failure. Purchases made with good intentions most of the time, but things that are just piling up because we are unwilling to part with them.

Today, in my Bible Study group, we were challenged with the thought that if everyone and everything in our life was taken away and we were left completely alone and without our things, would God be enough?

This prayer walk really helped me to see that although, in my heart, I believe that God is enough... I am not portraying that in my daily life and in my home.

Lord willing, I will have a long life with my beloved family and friends... but today I realized that I need to get to a point where God is enough.

Next step:  Gather Tools and Document Evidence.  Stay tuned because you are going to be flabbergasted by the photos that I took today. It may take a day or two to stir up the courage to actually post them on here!

Aprons and Apples: Fitness Freebie - free printable fitness and healthy eating journal

Aprons and Apples: Fitness Freebie - free printable fitness and healthy eating journal

Part of the domestic life that I am struggling with, is not a new challenge to me. It is a constant, daily struggle to create healthy eating habits, a healthy lifestyle and the motivation to accomplish a healthy attitude.

I am lazy. I love food and I love it in every form, for the most part. I crave sweets of any kind and feel happy and emotionally fulfilled when I eat my way through a pan of brownies or make my way through a creamy, sugary frappucino at the Starbucks in my Target store.

When I was growing up, we only ate out at a restaurant on rare occasions and before leaving for college, I could only make my way through half of a quarter pounder meal before feeling so full that I couldn't take one more bite. Now? I can eat and entire quarter pounder meal and still be hungry for more. No exaggeration. My "eating for two" days ended a month ago as my toddler gave up breastfeeding and now my body is going haywire. I've literally gained 9 pounds in 4 weeks. I started drinking pop again and having some concoction of coffee every day. I just eat and eat and eat.

I love food... but it's time to make a change. I want to do everything I can to be here for my husband and my daughter as long as possible and maybe outlive what most would consider an inevitably short life given the track record of the women on my moms side of the family (all died before 60). Eating healthy and exercising is no guarantee that I will live past 50, but it can't hurt.

My goal, is to offer up my lack of self-control and the power that food holds over me, to God.. who created me and knows what my body needs to be nourished and at it's strongest and best capacity for spending a lifetime serving Him and training my daughter to do the same.

I have decided to do this in small steps.

Step # 1- from now until Christmas, record daily my food intake

I need to see what I am eating, how often I am eating and how much of it I am eating. I know that doing this will curb my eating habits if I know I have to write it down and SEE what I am doing to myself. So, this is step #1.

Life of change.

Life lived to the fullest.

All for His Glory.

Newness

Is that even a word? I hope so because I used it... 

This week has been a week of re-doing and making new what was faded, old and untouched. 

• A new set of windows to replace my duct taped, leaking, airy windows in the living room. 
• A set of new screens for all of the windows / screen doors on our house. 
• A new roof to replace our 13-year old hail and sun damaged roof. 
• A fresh coat of paint in the living room to cover up the water marks from our once leaky roof. 
• A fresh coat of paint on our front door and on our shutters which has dramatically changed the appearance of our home.
• A new air blower motor in our furnace to replace a dying and very loud motor before the cold weather is here to stay. 

In all of this newness (I just had to use that word again!), I am reminded of just how important it is as the keeper of my home to maintain a budget, an emergency fund and a mind set of responsibility with money just for times like these that require expensive fixes that come along with a home that is aging and breaking down. 

It also helped me to see that just like this home, I will require fixing and replacing and fresh coats of paint in my heart throughout my life... all with the hope that at the end of the day when the time comes to move out of this house into my new home in Glory, my market value will have increased and I will have many things to take with me to Glory that money could never buy on this earth.

The Truth: The House has not cleaned itself

The truth is that I had to return my HTCI book back to the library.
The truth is that I purchased the book for my Amazon Kindle for PC and have it available to me.
The truth is that I have not finished, or even started, the prayer walk and the next step.

However!

The truth is that the first couple of steps gave me so much inspiration that I have begun to clean out and organize our home a LOT over the past few weeks. I am hoping to jump back into the book and finish it out the way it is supposed to be done, but it has not happened yet.

I am loving being a stay at home mom, but it is so challenging to make sure that I do not fall into a trap of laziness and disregard for my new position within my home. I love all things internet. I love discovering new websites, new blogs, new deal sites, new ways to shop and save. I love emailing, I love catching up on all of my friends and family on facebook. I spend far too much time on the computer and this has creeped into my day with Emma. I am finding that I am not nearly as engaged as I would like to be and need to be.

I am finding myself more and more challenged these days to be the person that I should be. In the past two months, we have passed the 3 and 4 year mark since our mom's lost their battles with Lymphoma and a brain tumor/esophogeal cancer. Sometimes it only takes a thought during the day to remember that life is very short and that we are here for a moment. I need to make my moments count and I need Emma to know that I spent every moment I could with her while I had moments on this earth and while she still was willing to spend time with me :)

My life is in need of a major overhaul... the domestic life is much more challenging than the ins and outs of a career life outside of the home. Time for change. Serious Change.

The House That Cleans Itself - Part 1 & 2

So, as my previous post mentioned, I have been reading the book The House That Cleans Itself. It has produced a lot of change in our house, so I decided to blog my progress as it happens.

Step 1 in the book is to draw a floor plan and determine flow pattern of our home.

I happened upon a website that allows you to lay out the floor plan of your home and fell in love with it. I had so much fun drawing up the floor plan of our home, inside and outside. It really gave me a sense of just how much God has entrusted us with. We have been in our home for 7 years now and it hasn't been until this point that I have really started to look at this house as our home, and not just the place where we sleep and wait for our next house. This is big for me! It made a huge difference in how I view my home.

The website for the floor plan is: floorplanner.com   It took me over a week to finish the floor plans due to many interruptions by a very curious 16-month old and a husband that required a lot of computer time over the last few weeks... but I did it! I printed off two copies of them as the book suggested and set about determining our flow plan. Below is the result:

Step 2 - Decide on your base zone

Step 2 asks us to choose a base zone... one zone in our house that when it is completely clean it makes our whole life better and when it's dirty, it makes me feel irritated or stressed. I asked Chris what he thought this room would be for him. We had different answers! For me, it was the kitchen. If my kitchen is clean, I feel like the whole house is clean. For Chris, it was our master bedroom.. if our bedroom is clean, he sleeps better and feels like he is in the most comfortable and relaxing spot in the house.

Once I chose our base zones (I was kind of hoping they would be the same one... so much for that!), she asks us to purge and clean that zone. For me, this is still a work in progress but I have at least managed to complete this task in our bedroom... it took an entire week of sorting through every single thing in our closet, moving clothes out, putting summer clothes in, re-arranging our hanging clothes, cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom, making the bed EVERY morning, vacuuming as often as possible, washing the dog bed, cleaning the walls, changing the light bulbs... I purged and cleaned like a mad woman. I have also started this in the kitchen but it is a much more difficult and tedious process as we have a lot of things stuffed into a very small space.

I forgot to take before pictures of the bedroom and kitchen... I will do this after Step 3 since she asks us to let things go for 2-3 days without cleaning anything ... that should be fun.

The next step is a prayer walk through the house... I am very interested to see what that's all about!  I will say that this has inspired me a LOT to keep things clean ... I am really enjoying this so far and it has really caused me to see just how blessed we are!

Your mission...should you choose to accept it

 One of the areas I really struggled with (you can read my previous post!) is that of my home and maintaining it. That brings us to this book:

That brings us to today. This book is great! I have only just begun it a week ago and it has already made some very good changes in our home. I am excited to see the differences that will take place through this journey. I have a deadline of 2 months before it has to be returned to the library so that will keep me motivated I hope :)  Anyway, we have been having fun with this and it has continued to improve the mood in our home.

Another big change is that for the last 2 months, my best friend and I have challenged each other to each make a list of goals for the month and each day we are required to send an update of how we did the day before. This has made the BIGGEST difference in our home. My husband made the comment last night that he is proud of me because for the last 2 months, I have been a new woman and he has noticed a lot of changes in my heart, in my life and in our home.

I hope that you will continue to join me on this journey of the domestic life as it applies to me. God is certainly doing a work in me and I am greatful because it means that He can still use me. :)

Mission: Organization

Organization in my home is by far the one area that I lack talent in. My husband prefers a very clean house, as do I... however, two years with each of us furnishing our own apartments and eight years of marriage that now include a tiny 20-pound being that requires ten times more stuff, our house is rarely what I would classify as very clean. Cluttered, messy, dis-array.... these are words I would use to describe our house.

Sure, when you come to visit our house, it appears clean. That is because I have just shoved everything I could into every closed door space that was available.

It is not that I do not care, because I care very much. It is not that I don't have the time, because most of the time I have a little bit of extra time to straighten up and make things look nice. It is that I can't arrange things in my mind and then bring it to life outside of my head. I was not gifted with the talent of being able to look at a corner of my house and come up with some brilliant idea to organize an area that will remain fairly organized. Instead, I just browse the stores and find something that looks like it could create some organization, buy it, and try it. Therefore, my house is not themed, or decorated well enough to invite a Better Homes & Garden tour. In fact, it looks like we are still in college in this house. Concert posters mixed with family pictures, mixed with our own artwork, mixed with rugs that don't match each other or the walls, mixed with furniture that doesn't match anything, mixed with the piles of toys and junk mail and everyday papers that are laid around every day.

If I were made of money, which I am not, I would pay someone to come in and decorate my house and organize it all so that it would be what I desire and leave me with the ability to just have to maintain it all. Coming to the realization that I am not an organizer has been difficult for me, and for my husband. In the work place, I was very organized... but a tiny office is an easy task to keep organized. A large house with two adults, a tiny pack rat and a large hairy dog? Not so much.

So, how do you keep it all together? What are your organizing tips? How do you keep your house organized enough to know where the scissors are and where the light bulbs are? How do you ensure that your children do not get lost in a pile of junk in your home?

Why?

Upon looking for a new swimsuit for my 13-month old daughter, I am shocked and very disheartened at what is available. I mean, seriously.... why do our babies need to dress like 20 year old supermodels? There is SO much pressure to be a certain size and have a certain body type as an adult... why do we have to put that strain on our children?

Who puts their child in these?

I think it is completely inappropriate for my 13-month old to be in a bikini with only a bandana covering her chest. Why does so much skin need to be showing? Is this cute? Is this how I want my daughter to look out in public? What does it say to her when I choose to put her in a swimsuit like this?

I'm just sickened by the way our world has become so de-sensitized to modesty and appropriate clothing for the appropriate age. These swimsuits were available for sale from 3-6 months all the way up to a 5T. It was just another reminder to me of how difficult my job is as the mother of a girl. How do I impress upon her that beauty comes from within when the world is saying the exact opposite? How do I explain to her that God did create us to be beautiful and to care for ourselves but that our motivation should be a pleasant representation of God, who lives in us?

The journey ahead is a long one, of that I am sure. I only hope that I can show E that even though the world is constantly drumming it into her head that she needs to be sexy and attractive to men, that just the opposite is true. I hope that I can successfully show her that even though she may dress very differently from her friends, that she is a beautiful girl inside and out and that she does not need to display as much of her body as possible in order to feel attractive.

Lord help me in this battle between the world and You. Give me strength and wisdom as I train this child to be different from the world in so many ways. Give her such a strong love and desire for you that her focus will not be set on gaining worldly experiences, but that she will seek to serve you and display herself in such a way that she can proud of who she is in You!

All things natural...

I have found that I am slowly becoming what is affectionately known as a "crunchy" mama. Why this term... I have no idea. What does it mean? It means that I am doing my best to be environmentally friendly and live as naturally as possible.

My discovery has been a multitude of cleaning agents and food items that have become a welcome addition into our household and leave me feeling satisfied with what I am putting into our bodies, especially my 1 year-old daughter's body.

This is my newest addition:

Toothpaste for Emma. Why, you ask? Because last night as we were brushing her teeth, I happened to glance at the toddler toothpaste that I had purchased for Emma, which was the only flouride-free toothpaste in the store at the time, and noticed the ingredient list was in some strange language. It was English, but I could not pronounce the majority of the ingredients. On top of that, I saw that it uses fake sugar agents to sweeten it. I am opposed to fake sugar of all kinds because it tends to make me sick, which makes me think that maybe it's not so good for me if my body can't seem to process it.  Anyway, I digress....

A lot of "natural" items on the market are designed based on the extracts from plants. This toothpaste is included in that. I am excited to try it and I hope that it will be a welcome addition to help us prevent cavities and institute good oral hygiene without pouring a lot of man-made chemicals into her body. :) 

*editors note: This is only my personal journey to living healthier and more "naturally", I am not a pushy salesperson for all things natural and have nothing against anyone that does not use "natural" products!*

Loss of time...

A huge part of the domestic life, is the lack of available time for blogging and maintaining a social (media) life. Most of my domestic duties lately have been shifted outdoors now that the weather is finally warm. I will update again with pictures of what we I have been doing to our yard.

This is my first spring/summer at home full time. Last summer, I had a newborn and no time for anything besides nursing and sleeping. This year, I have a one-year old and it is much easier to spend time getting things done during her nap time. This month, it has been the yard. In previous years (7 to be exact) we have tried to throw some mulch and some plants into the landscaping just to make it appear as if we tried to keep it up. However, it always looked like our house was in foreclosure as the weeds sprouted into weed trees and the grass overgrew the mulched areas. Needless to say, it was quite embarrassing to be known on the cul-de-sac as the house that never did anything about their yard.

Since beginning my outdoor project, I have had two neighbors walk over just to thank me for doing something about it and complimented me on how nice it looked. I am definitely not a gardener, nor a landscape designer, so the fact that they would compliment me on how nice it looks only leads me to believe that it looked pretty desolate and trashy to begin with. I love working outdoors, if I could just find a way to make sure no bugs and creepy crawly's (especially spiders) lived in the dirt.... I would love the outdoors even more.

So, this is my current domestic project, with slight delays here and there in order to deal with the ants in my kitchen.... but that is another post for another day.

Life of talent, lack of skills

This is the most sewing that I do.  A needle and thread to put buttons back on my husbands shirts. Recently, I have been approached with two shirts that require more than just a needle and thread, but I am terrified to break out my sewing machine and give it a try.

As a child, I became involved in 4H and my "talent" was crafts and sewing. I sewed my own clothes and then modeled them. I'll admit, I became pretty savvy with a sewing machine, despite the 83-year old lady who insisted that I was doing it incorrectly before I even sewed a stitch! I still remember the smells of the building and the older ladies that were helping us. I remember the feel of the pedal and the sound of the sewing machine and how excited I became when I could finally sew quickly, efficiently, and correctly.

Fast forward. I head off for college and all of my sewing days are done. In December 2003, my mother-in-law bought me my first ever very own sewing machine. It's an amazing machine and I set to work, assuming I had retained my sewing talents, I set to work on a shower curtain. Not just any shower curtain, but a shower curtain with tabs. I also chose a plaid fabric. Oh, and the fabric was like sackcloth. Needless to say, it did not turn out well, but I hung it up anyway because it was a matter of pride. "It's supposed to look like that!"  As my husband of 4 months laughed every time he walked into the bathroom. Since then, I have not attempted to sew. I put the machine away and have not dug it out.

I think it's time to break free of my sewing fears and get back into the sewing business. I loved the stress-relief, the ability to get lost in my sewing and push the world aside for a while. Until that happens, we will all have excellently appointed buttons on our shirts.

A new favorite

Since having our first child in May 2010, it has become increasingly important to us to try to eliminate harsh chemicals and dangerous items from our home but still be able to get the cleaning results that we need. This has been a trial and error, and somewhat expensive, experience for us. Over the past 11 months, we have purchased and tried countless "organic" and "natural" products. Very few work as well as I need them to (and as well as they should).

A few weeks ago, I decided to use my $1.00 off coupon for a Seventh Generation product. Our local Target carries their products and so I decided to give their tub & tile cleaner a try. Why? Because I have NEVER found a product that will clean our shower, chemicals or chemical-free. We have terrible water here that leaves lots of deposits on our shower walls, floors and especially our glass shower door. We had been using a combination of Comet, for the shower floor and walls, and Magic Erasers for the glass shower doors and it was just making it look clean if you happened to glance into the bathroom but it was nowhere near getting rid of all of the soap scum and nastiness.

So, imagine my surprise when I sprayed the 7th Generation tub & tile cleaner all over the shower, walked away for 2 minutes, came back and cleaned as normal and all of the nastiness was gone. ALL of it! I called my husband up to the bathroom to show him how awesome it was and even he was impressed. This coming from the man that usually doesn't notice if the shower has been cleaned or not. I'm pretty sure I heard the hallelujah chorus streaming into our bathroom as I danced in circles and laughed to myself. Yes, it was that amazing. On top of all of that, I was able to rejoice for almost 5 entire minutes IN the bathroom without fainting or passing out from the chemical fumes that usually accompany a shower cleaning.

So, my friends. I highly recommend this product. Coupons are always on the 7th Generation website which makes it no more expensive than the fume-y, chemically enhanced sprays we all have tried at some point in our domestic lives.

Life is full of oops and downs

We are currently trying to sell our home. It has been on the market since October with very little to show for how long it has been on the market.

This past weekend we had an Open House and so Friday was spent doing some serious cleaning to get it ready. I decided to vacuum the blinds in the computer/play room/dining room (can you guess why we are moving?). As I'm vacuuming the blinds with the attachment on the vacuum, I set my arm down to the side in order to use my free hand to pull the blinds up a little bit. As I brought my arm (holding the vacuum attachment) down, I heard a loud sucking noise and what sounded like pieces of something being sucked into the vacuum. As I looked down, to my dismay, I noticed that the bottom of our window (the actual window) had suddenly disappeared.

Apparently, water/moisture was seeping into the windows which we now know are made of wood and have a cheap coating of paint over them. The wood was soaked and there is a hole in which I can see outside through the window frame.

Obviously, I could not have been more displeased and shocked. Windows are not cheap and if we are going to sell the house, any buyer in their right mind is going to require that we replace this window. Not only that, but if we left it like this, it could give the impression that we are hiding other casualties throughout our house.

Why does it always seem like things fall apart when you really need everything to stay together as much as possible?  Seems like it is this way with a lot of things in life...   

Random Post

http://babyhalfoff.com/blog/?p=3022&cpage=27#comment-45448

There is a giveaway for an amazing stroller that ends this Friday. Enter now for your chance to win!

Something fishy

In my efforts to create a healthier home, I have been experimenting with different foods and recipes. One such experiment recently came about after a trip to paradise Target.

That's right... Jif peanut butter with Omega-3.

Now, being the intelligent home-maker that I am, I thought to myself "oh that's neat, they added Omega-3 and DHA to this peanut butter! Excellent!"  Upon returning home and breaking this bad boy out today for lunch, I just happened to glance at the ingredient list. To my dismay, it says that there was sardine oil and tilapia in it! What??  Ew!!! In my peanut butter?? 

Where exactly did I think they would get DHA and Omega-3 from? I don't know... a new breed of peanut maybe?  Sardines and Tilapia? Did not even cross my mind.

Nevertheless, I ventured forward and ate my sandwhich and was pleasantly surprised that it did not taste any different than normal peanut butter. However, my brain knew what was in it and I could not get past it. I have far too many memories of my Grandpa opening up a can of sardines and my horror as he ate little fishies as I gagged over the smell. I could not enjoy my peanut butter.

This healthy venture is one for the books, but not one for the pantry.

Rug malfunction

Have you ever had one of those days where things do not go your way?

Today, is one of those days.

My favorite rug in our house is placed in the kitchen by the sink since I spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink. Surprisingly, the dishes do not obey my commands to get in the dishwasher on their own. Anyway, the dog had just come in from outside with her usual coating of mud and water thanks to the amazing amount of rain/snow/ice we have had over the past month. I immediately, without thinking, sent her to my beloved rug. When she was dried, I let her off of the rug and to my dismay it was covered in mud!

This is when I decided that all of the rugs in our house were going to be washed. I scooped them all up and checked the tags to make sure they were washable and they all were. I threw them in, along with the pads for the steam mop, and started the washer up on the lowest agitation setting possible.

Upon opening the washer to move my rugs from the washer to the dryer, I was met with a strange sight. Strands of what looked just like my favorite kitchen rug were everywhere. I cringed, and then pulled out pieces of my beloved rug. The washer had completely destroyed it.

In my previous life, as an accountant working full-time outside of the home and bringing in a pretty decent second income, I would have shrugged it off and ran out and purchased a new favorite kitchen rug. However, I am now a house-wife, dedicated to saving money to make up for the loss of my income and the ever surmounting items that come with raising a child. "Little" things like my destroyed rug are now big deals and cost money that has to come out of a set budget that never mattered before but is amazingly important now.

And so, with that, I welcome my favorite rug back into its rightful position in the kitchen, only now... it is filled with holes and looks less than beautiful but it will have to do until next month when I can take money out of the budget for a new one. Such is the domestic life...