Sonlight Garden

Mount Neverest

The dryer is fixed. My climb begins.

I Have Reached My Limit!

Well, I am still sick and tired, but I am not as sick or as tired. I am coming to the end of my first trimester and my symptoms are easing up a bit. They are easing up enough so that the chaos around my house has caused me to say "I have had enough!"  So, I have been busy taking care of about 6 weeks worth of neglect. I hired a "Mommy Helper" to help out and I have begged enlisted the children to help out. So far we are on day two of pickup. I will probably finish today and then I can clean. I ordered some Mrs. Myers last week and it arrived on Monday. I ordered some Basil scent and Lemon Verbena. They smell wonderful, which is actually helping me look forward to giving my home a good cleaning!!

 As soon as I am done getting my home in order, I am going to start some planning for the up and coming school year. I am also really looking forward to that. I love a new year, a fresh start. Oh the possibilities!!

Bless My Perseverance

Nothing like reading a little St. Josemaria Escriva to get you out of a rut.

" O blessed perseverance of the donkey that turns the waterwheel! Always the same pace. Always around the circle. One day after another, everyday the same.

Without that there would be no ripeness in the fruit, nor blossom in the orchard, nor scent of flowers in the garden. Carry this thought to your interior life." -St. Josemaria Escriva

Wow. I am doing important work here. I know this, but sometimes I do need a reminder. My day in day out is important. It may seem monotonous, the never ending laundry piles as I think to myself "Didn't I just wash this T-shirt?" The constant meal preparations, as someone is always hungry. Sweeping the always dirty floor. Reading the same book over and over to two little preschoolers. Sometimes it seems never ending but it is valuable. What makes it so valuable is how I do it. How do I handle my day in day out?

I have to tell you, It seems I have been walking around my home lately, not really getting much accomplished. I think a lot of it has to do with the disorder around here. I am not quite sure when or why it happened, but it did. It is not an obvious disorder to the outsider, but it is so to me. It is glaring me in the face and it feels like a huge mountain that I need to climb. I realize I am the one who has to fix this. I am the one who has to restore the order. Why? Because I am a wife and a mom and it is my job. It is my "waterwheel" to turn. It can either be well oiled and my walk will be light; meaning I can have a smooth running orderly household. Or it can be full of dirt and pebbles and hard to turn, it will be hard to keep my pace and be constant. I will surely tire out.

I have started looking at how I spend my days. What do I spend my time doing? The answer? I am basically moving "stuff" around all day, mainly clothes and toys. We have to many. So, I have been purging. I am filling trash bags with things to donate and to throw away. I have gone through all of our clothes and the girls room so far. I started to do the girls room and I was overwhelmed at the number of toys and clothes and shoes. If I am overwhelmed, how must they feel? No wonder they have had a hard time keeping their room picked up. The most surprising thing to me has been the girls reaction when I started to reduce things. They have been very generous in their giving. They want peace and order also. Children need this! I think of this and I persevere.

This "circle" that I "walk" everyday is valuable. I am growing my own "fruit". I want them to blossom and grow and ripen. I want there scent to be beautiful!!

The Details

We are reading Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The children have to write a book report that we send in to Seton. In the book report they want us to focus on the aspects of the Ingall's life as a Christian family, how their faith held them together, how they served each other, how Pa led their family, etc. As I read this book along with the children and I pull out some of the key points to highlight I am amazed. Not by Pa and how he led his family, but by Ma.

Ma paid a great attention to detail in a time when detail didn't really matter. It was all about survival back then. But she took the extra effort to make things pretty. Laura wrote "Ma always liked a pretty table." For instance in the winter when the cows were not able to eat fresh grass the cream in the milk was white, not yellow like in the spring and summer. Well what did Ma do? She went through this big long process of coloring the cream with carrots so she would have nice yellow butter. She would grate the carrots and then cook them down in milk, let the mixture cool, strain the mixture and add the yellow milk to the churn. Not only this, when the butter was ready she put it in pretty little butter molds with a strawberry on it. I ask myself Why? Why would she go through the trouble? She worked hard everyday. She had to or they would not survive. Why did she go above and beyond her duties, the necessities. She wasn't having company. She didn't have any one to impress. However, she did make an impression on her little daughter. She did all of this for them, for her family. All of the little extra touches. The things that make a house a home. This was how she served them. This was how she loved them. This is a Mother.

I also think of my own beautiful mother. My mom was the queen of details. My brothers and I grew up in a beautiful home. Not a pretentious home, but a beautiful, cozy, modest home. She definitely made the extra effort. Picnics outside in the summer evenings. Sunday dinners were always in the dining room with a pressed tablecloth. There were candles and music. The lights were dimmed. My brothers and I  drank our milk out of wine glasses. We talked and laughed and came together as a family. It was special. It was fun. She made us feel special. I could go on and on. I didn't realize then as I do now; now that I have my own family, that the details take a lot of work. Again, why did my mom do all of this, make all of this extra work for herself? Because she loved us! I will never ever forget those details.

Reading about Ma Ingalls and thinking about my own mother make me think about how I serve my family. What little extra touches do I do for them? What are the little things that I do to show my family love? Am I just going through the motions because it is my "job" as wife and mother? Am I to busy to add the extra touches and make the extra effort? Am I giving them all that I have?

Our God is a God of detail and God is in the details!

Before And After-Pantry

I had to get my pantry cleaned out. It looked like a bomb went off  a mess in there. I had to do it because I was getting a co-op monthly grocery delivery, and absolutely nothing else was going to fit in there. OK, I can't believe I am going to do this. I am going to show you before and after pictures. Wow, this is humbling to say the least.

Now there is something very funny in this pantry, do you see it on the second shelf from the bottom. The blue book.

Wait I will give you a closer look....

That would be Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. You can tell I read it all the time can't you? She really has great advice that I follow all the time. That is why my pantry looks like this. should take it off the shelf and sit down and read it. Well I have and it is now in my kitchen at my desk. I just thought that book sitting there was hysterical. Martha would definitely not approve.

OK here is what the pantry looks like now. (two months later)

Yes, I am aware it looks like a grocery store. (that's what the kids said anyway) That's how it is when you buy in bulk. This will last us a month probably (hopefully) longer. I wonder what Peter Walsh would say about this? Is this to much food? Probably. Has he ever had to feed a big family I wonder?  I am reading his book and have not gotten very far. So we will see. I have not bulk shopped in over a year and I am excited to be doing it this way again. When we shopped this way in the past we did save quite a bit of money and we ate a lot healthier.

Now, I am also aware that not every family's pantry looks like this. As I was filling the shelves I was reminded of how abundantly Blessed we are. How Blessed I am that my pantry is filled with food and that I can feed my family.

                     A Thanksgiving Prayer

Oh, God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry;

When I have work, help me to remember the jobless;

When I have a warm home, help me to remember the homeless;

When I am without pain, help me to remember the those who suffer;

And remembering help me to destroy complacency and bestir my compassion.

Make me concerned enough to help, by word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted.

by Samuel F. Pugh

Must Do

Today was one of those days when I was in the kitchen ALL day. It was like a revolving door. One kid would come in and get something and then another and another. I closed the kitchen at 11:30 and told them not to come back until 12:30. I did get 5 loaves of bread started in that hour, and then I had that mess to clean up. But what started me on the wrong foot today was that I woke up to a messy kitchen. UUGGHH. I can't stand that. And it has been happening way to frequently around here lately. I read somewhere (forgive me but I don't remember where) "Don't leave todays work for tomorrow" This is so wise.  So, I am coming up with a list of must do's. Things I must do every day.

1. Start and end the day with quiet prayer.  I am sad to say I don't already do this every single day, not in the morning and the evening. When I do though it makes such a huge difference. That morning offering of my day to God is crucial.
2. Never go to bed with a messy kitchen. As I said above, it just puts me in a foul mood if I wake up and look at that. So I am going to do myself a favor (and everyone else) and make sure I do this. EVERY NIGHT.
3. Do not be on the computer if the kids are awake. This is a tough one for me. I almost hate putting this here. I know there are going to be times when it will be unavoidable, when something will come up and I have to return an e-mail or check on something. But I get in to trouble when I use it as an escape and a way to "visit" with the outside world. My children are then put on the back burner and before you know it an hour has gone by. This does not happen all the time, but it does happen. So, I really have to find some scheduled time to fit this in.
4. Get to bed earlier. As I look at the clock now it is 12:50 am! Yikes. Last night I was up until 2am sewing. (That is a whole other blog post in itself). I really have to work on this, I need more sleep.

So that is what I have come up with so far. I am trying to look at my day and see how I can make it run a little smoother. I am tweaking a "loose" schedule or routine that I think will make a big difference. Do you have any things that you must do every day to make your life a little easier?

Little Homemakers

Tonight after dinner without being asked my almost 9 year old daughter and my 7 year old daughter. Cleared the table, put away leftovers, loaded and ran the dishwasher. Bathed the 3 and 4 yr old and put on their jammies. Changed the babies diaper and put her jammies on also. WOW. And they had fun doing it and working together. I never knew how to do this at their age. Now that is what I call a priceless, precious, education.

Now, to keep this real, I am going to tell you that this doesn't happen every night in our house. (That is probably why it was fun for them) But when it does it feels so wonderful. I am so proud of my girls!

Plan: Command Central

I have a command central! For so long I have wanted a place to organize things. I have a  desk in the kitchen but could never use it because everything seemed to land there. The drawers were stuffed full of EVERYTHING. (most of it junk, which is now gone!) It really was an unusable space. Until I tackled it. It took me quite a few days to organize this space. I wanted to take my time. I have to admit, I usually try to rush through jobs like this, and then towards the end of the project I get very careless and just want the job done. Then items are put away anywhere and then the job is never really complete. So I think the key to organization is to take your time, be thoughtful and purposeful about it. That is what I am going to try to do with the rest of this house. That is what I found so inspiring about Sarah over at Plainsong. Pick one area per month and work on it. No need to rush. This is a year long project.

I had a "before" picture, but now I can not seem to find it. (See I have a lot of work to do!) Well, we will cut to the good stuff. Here are some after pictures.

On the desk part of the counter is my planner. I take this with me everywhere. When I am not on the road driving kids around it will be at this desk. I started keeping a planner last year and this was a big help for me. I write down all of the kids activities, appointments, when husband will be out of town, etc.

 

I have to be honest with you. I have been flying by the seat of my pants as far as managing our household. As the children get older, I am finding I am always scrambling. I feel like I am behind the eight ball.  I saw a number of ladies starting housekeeping binders. I thought this was just the thing to help me, so I just started keeping my own Home Management Companion. I am still tweaking this. If you have not yet started one of these. Do yourself a favor and start one. I keep mine in a pretty basket that I had. I am probably going to end up with more than one binder because I keep thinking of more and more things to add!! The possibilites are endless. It is great having everything in one spot.

So far I have sections for:

important #'s

kids activites- registrations for sign-ups, handouts, schedules, cub scouts,etc.

animals-vaccine schedules, horses coggins paperwork, etc.

appliance manuals

monthly household service contracts- pest control

yearly household services- chimney sweep, septic

gardening- garden layout, when seeds were put in the ground,  Journaling what did well what didn't do well.

homeschooling-fpea #, schoolboard address, yearly eval forms, etc.

Any great ideas I get off of the computer I am going to print out and file those also. I could put in household routines (when I get some! working on this also) Again the possibilities are endless and I am adjusting as I go. At least I now have a place for everything. Before it was all being shoved in different drawers.

And it is pretty. I love it! I look at it and it makes me happy. I have a feeling of peace knowing that all of that "stuff" is put nicely and neatly in this book.

I am on the road to simplicity and organization. I think a "command central" is a good place to start.

Next Up:  my walk in pantry.