She's Come Unplugged

   I have a confession to make.  In this day and age of social media connection I decided to disconnect my Facebook account.  Why you may ask?  I was becoming overly distracted.  I tried only checking it once a week, once a day, once an hour.  I felt like a dog answering Pavlov's bell, constantly checking my phone for each little ping.
 
    I started on Facebook innocently enough.  I actually made my account at the suggestion of updates from Cardio Coach.  Friends found me and it was fun to re-connect.  Soon I was enjoying quizzes, but only after I put the kids to bed.  Then I would check during their naptime.  It's just like taking a little coffee break. Now I am sneaking off to look for just ten minutes (in the bathroom)!

     I think I am only on it 10 minutes a day, but the multiple checks on my phone really add up.    It is great to catch up with everyone, but constantly being plugged in has left me feeling like a spiritually deflated balloon.  I am always wanting more.  I see others vacation pictures and I want to go away again.  I have to remind myself that I did travel with my family this year.

     This year I would like to take that 10 minutes back to really connect with a real person in my life, to call and catch up with my best friend, take a walk or play with my kids.  What can I accomplish or enjoy with my time offline? 

Casual Christmas: 5 Sanity Savers for the Season

Waiting for Christmas can take all month!

     The holidays mean many things to many people.  I shared many of my happy childhood traditions last year in my post Advent-ure.  The holiday time is joyful.  It is also extremely busy.  There are many ways to fill up the month with preparations and parties.

     This year I have a new outlook on the big day.  Would you like to hear it? It is just ONE day.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the wonder of Christmas.  I'm just saying that I am not going to spend every waking moment hustling to create the perfect day.  For one thing, after all that work I'm sure to be disappointed.  No amount of fanfare on the big day is going to satisfy me after all that labor!  So here is what I am keeping in mind:

1. What is really necessary?  

2. What are my limits?

3. Who can help?

4. What do I want from this holiday?

5. Who am I doing this for?

     One way I plan to reduce stress is to knock baking off the to do list.  I am debating about the cards.  I really like to keep in touch with friends and family.  However if the cute family photo shoot doesn't happen it won't be the end of the world.  

   I am shopping local.  In addition to the lack of travel time, I am supporting a wonderful product Save It Bags. They are a practical gift for all the school lunchers on my list. My kids have fun picking out special fabrics for everyone. 

   I will not head to the mall.  We have wonderful small shops in town.  Whatever I can't find there, such as Legos, I can buy online.  I also have an awesome personal shopper.  She calls me whenever she finds something and picks up for me.  Thanks, you are the best!

   I will reduce decorating.  The tree and manger will be featured.  We will cut a big pine from our yard where we planted them over a decade ago. We will decorate together.  Whatever the family wants to do in one afternoon will be enough.

    I will limit our Christmas activities.  We attend an annual children's party featuring a magician, hayrides, sledding and a visit from Santa.  It is a wonderful event that my family enjoys.  Since the big guy will be there, we don't need to visit him anywhere else in town.

   My mother-in-law pulled together an early Christmas within a few days of being in the hospital.  You may be wondering how and so did I.  She shopped for toys and had a simple dinner of a deli platter and side salads.  Instead of focusing on the big meal hubbub, we were able to appreciate the delight as the children opened gifts and had time to talk over the table.  It was a relaxing Christmas gathering and shouldn't we enjoy our holiday time together?  

Mummy's Nightmare: Attack of the Toys

EEK! A CLOSET TO MAKE ME SHRIEK!

     My youngest child looked up at me and declared, "Mommy you aren't afraid of anything!"  Since I didn't run shrieking at the sight of a bug I had won the bravest person in the world award.  I told her that there was one thing that scared Mommy...messes.  Dirt came into my kitchen on sneakers and spread across the house.  Spills happened and toys tripped me like tangled roots. She giggled at the thought of Mommy running from the dirt, mud, and messy monsters in fear.

     Her room held more surprises then a haunted house.  When I opened her closet to get Playdough it was difficult to reach it without turning my ankle. This was not a boo-tiful closet like her brother's room. It made me think of watching a horror movie and shouting to the screen, "Don't open the door!"  I called in reinforcements for this task.  No it wasn't ghostbusters, more like clutterbusters. I waited until my daughter was on the school bus before my friend helped me tackle this beast of a pile.

   First to find the floor we dragged everything into her room.  Then we sorted pieces, removed outgrown toys, and filed miscellaneous drawings under G. My friend smartly brought a garbage bag in before we started. The stuffed animals  relocated to a bin in her room so she can play with them. The outgrown toys were passed down to younger friends. Dress up clothes were moved to the playroom.

 
     We shelved the books.  My friend suggested we use a clear plastic shoe box for small books.  I combed through the books to find the little readers.  It saved a lot of shelf space by turning the box sideways and made it easier to find skinny paperbacks.

I love this space saving books in a box.

Clear boxes make toys easy to find.

      The addition of  a few clear plastic boxes contained the small toys. I normally used baskets, but these were stacked to save room. All the baskets of craft materials were removed from the closet. There is no work space in the bedroom and I've encountered a few surprises with markers and glue lately.  I have a new 3 bin drawer to house all the craft materials near the homework table outside her room.  

   The result was one happy girl.  After school she immediately went for her closet and played with her favorite toys.  She was happy to get into the closet and find her things. Now for what is lurking beneath the bed!  

   

Boo-tiful: A Dream Closet

There's a floor in the closet.

Books on shelves

      Unlike the skeletons in my closet, my son's closet was a fairly simple job. I didn't take a before picture so let me walk you through it.  I set the timer for 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon and got to work.

     The kids had made a habit of making a secret reading area in his closet.  It sounds like fun, but his sister is not fond of the clean up part.  The result was a twisted pile of sheets and books. He helped me put the books up on the shelf.  That was step one. Next we folded up the sheets and put them away.
 
    Now we had a floor.  The next step was to remove a few games from the top shelf.  They were put up there to keep little hands out of reach years ago.  The outgrown games were donated to the church rummage sale.  What a great excuse to get me to clean things out. I put the games immediately in the car and dropped them off the next day.

    The only other thing taking up a lot of closet space was a bucket of stuffed animals.  I wondered if they reproduced while we were sleeping.  There just always seemed to be a pile of them.  I put his favorites on his bed and the overflow in the camouflage sack so they take up less room.  The bin was cracked so I disposed of it.  Then I triple checked for outgrown clothes and his boo-tiful closet was finished!

Skeletons In My Closet: It's Scary In There!

The Secret Stash of Clutter

Ahh...that's much better!

 

      My favorite blogger Barb from Cleaning Up The Clutter inspired me to take a look at my mess.  I worked hard to keep to a daily chore schedule and tidied up the house.  Meanwhile, my closets were a fright worthy of the Halloween line up.  Somehow out of sight out of mind kept it from getting done.
 
    I set a goal this month to work on making the closets more livable.  I worked 20 minutes a day until it was done. First step was the repair/stain pile.  My Mom is the ultimate stainmaster.  Seriously she could get the mud out of a puddle.  She took a look at my pile and marked stains with pins and sewed a blouse with a tear. Thanks Mom you are the best!

  My husband built me this wonderful storage shelving unit for my birthday.  I needed to clear off the top surface. The box held LL Bean items that didn't fit.  Back to the store they went. What was left?  Clothes that didn't fit.  Time for them to get donated.  Now we had the little surprises I had picked up for the children.  They were moved to an undisclosed hiding place where they were more secure and out of the way.

   With the summer clothes stowed away in the cubbies and the fall apparel in the dresser the closet was complete. I wanted to leave the door open so I could admire a job well done!