Bite the Bullet?

To bullet journal, or not to bullet journal? That is the question. I was actually enjoying my bullet journal as a creative outlet and to keep track of my fibromyalgia symptoms and how they correlated to external stimuli like sleep and barometric changes. And then came the nasty depression and bad health pit after the Christmas of 2016. I found myself no longer wanting to write, to track anything, or really do much of anything. Even reading and seeing previous journal and blog entries was too painful, so the bullet journal was put away, only a third full.

Now I'm to the point that I'm finally craving that creative outlet again and missing the organization it brought to my life, but I'm wondering ... was it too involved? Did I actually become a slave to it? Am I able to prioritize my time well enough to put it down and ignore the imperfections?

I'll admit it; I'm scared. I don't want to revert to wasting time on organization when I need to be actually doing what I'm organizing. It's a struggle that seems to get harder to fight when I'm mentally weak. I need to be sure I'm keeping myself strong.

It could help.

Or it could hurt.

Silly, to be afraid of something so mundane as journaling. However, depression seldom makes sense. I don't want to simplify one part of my life only to complicate another, perpetuating a downward spiral I could have prevented.

I'm going to choose to believe that what helped before will probably help again, especially since I'm at a better place now spiritually than I was before I began it last time! I'm going to have faith in God's ability to renew a steadfast spirit within me.

It's time to bite the bullet and get those creative juices flowing again.

So ... How do YOU handle journaling while struggling with your inner self? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Let the holiday planning BEGIN!

I have to admit, I am a Christmas addict. It is really a sickness. Thanksgiving can't get here fast enough for me every year--not just because it is a wonderful time of family togetherness and reflection on our blessings, but it also marks the 'official' countdown to Christmas! I have always watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with wide-eyed anticipation of the end ... Santa's sleigh riding in signaling the beginning of the festivities. I love *almost* everything about Christmas (I'm not real keen on the commercialism of the whole thing--it cheapens it--but for the most part I just ignore it and focus on the good stuff), and while I don't really look forward to the craziness, there's another little bit of excitement found in the organization and planning that adds to the joyful anticipation. In the past I have used Organized Home's Holiday Grand Plan (and the organizer printable pages) to get my holiday merrymaking in order, but I'm always up for a new organizational tool, especially when it's a Christmassy one!

THIS year, I bought the 100 Days to Christmas E-Book for my Nook (also available in Kindle and PDF formats) and I'm LOVING the daily reflection and slow-but-steady planning. Do you realize we have only 97 days till Christmas today? Guess what? I'm NOT stressed about it! Why? 'Cause I've got my PLAN on this year! Do you? NO? Well, by all means, go get yourself an e-book and get to it!

Are you more of a blog-follower? Well, they have that too.

So far, since last Friday (day 100 for those of you who are still not with the program! LOL), we have made planners, gathered calendars and started making wishlists for our family. Today is all about budget planning. Eww, I know ... but as with all plans, if you don't have one, you'll blow it!

Personally, frugality is something I quite enjoy. I've tried to instill in my children a love for things that are made with love instead of just purchased to placate. Hmm ... that sounds bad. I'm all for wishlists and telling the department-store Santa what's at the top of a child's list, but trying to fit everything on those lists under our tree was a rather financially-painful endeavor (and didn't do them any GOOD) when we had just two children. NOW we have seven--plus those two children-by-marriage, and hopefully we'll start being blessed with grandchildren soon, so ....... budget planning is a major necessity. Buying anything for seven children can get VERY expensive.

My own saving grace is clearance sales! LOVE those holiday clearance sales! In fact, I don't think I've paid full price for holiday wrapping paper in ... ten years, maybe? I've also not paid full price for stocking stuffers. My strategy is to have some money set aside for *after* Christmas to stock up on little items that go on clearance to put away for the following year! I've already got quite a stash in the gift closet, but I really do need to get in there and figure out what all I've bought!

This Christmas is going to include a couple of budget-busters, but every few years, that isn't a big deal, really. We don't make a habit of it. Morgan is *really* hoping for an American Girl doll, and Jamie has been BEGGING for her own Game Boy DSI since Morgan got hers for her birthday. We don't usually mind too much spending a little more when we know they are more responsible with their belongings. We do, however, need to figure out how much we plan on spending (and NOT spending) on the rest of the family. Time for a hubby-conference! I do know that Pete and I have pretty much decided that our older children will be getting "couple" gifts instead of individual ones. Since all four of them will be home (okay, not THEIR home, but ours) for this Christmas, we'll probably do stockings for everybody this year too. Not exactly expensive, but with 11 of us, it could be! I think we need to do some tree ornaments in the adult kids' stockings so when they start having their own trees, they will have some special ornaments to put ON them!

Oooooooh, my holiday juices are flowing!

Color-coded children!

I'm asked all the time how I keep my sanity with five little ones at home, how I keep things organized, etc., because all of the STUFF that these little people require certainly must warrant some sort of system, right?

EXACTLY!!!

I have become one of "those" mothers. I color-code my children. For us it works out really well that each of the girls has a DIFFERENT favorite color (YAY!) and that those colors pretty much are available in anything we need. We have color-coded beach towels (yes, seriously), color-coded shoe bins, color-coded school supplies, and color-coded earrings. We tried winter coats, but those get handed down and it really doesn't work to be "off" a color!

Color-coding has solved a lot of challenges for us--especially when it comes to school supplies. I always know at a glance who hasn't put away something. Is it purple? JAMIE!!!! Come get your folder!!!!! We don't even need to put names on their supplies--they all know whose color is whose! The biggest challenge, oddly enough, has been drinking cups. Having all one color is rather dangerous with five girls who are incredibly THIRSTY all the time. "Who drank my juice!!!????" "HEY!!!! I just poured that lemonade! That's MY cup!"

Enter the color-coded cups.

 Pink for Morgan, purple for Jamie, blue for Danica, green (the color of TURTLES!!!!) for Shelby, and orange for Kasey!

We use the smaller cups for juice in the morning, the bigger cups for lemonade, water, and to take with us in the van. By the way, the lidded cups were from Ross for $2.99 a piece!!!! LOVE Ross!

Conquering clutter

I've had an ongoing battle with clutter almost all of my married life.  I'm presently sitting in a room that is actually bigger than our first apartment was (no kidding!), and the thought of all we had shoved into that tiny little space--three people, a bed, dressers, couches, tables, chairs, kitchen stuff, baby stuff, a crib, stroller, plus all those CLOTHES....it makes my head spin.  And it just got worse from there.  Twenty years, we dragged our boxes and bags full of stuff around the world.  Thirteen addresses, two overseas moves, living in five different states (six if you count Pete's six months of training in VA the first year we were married), the junk adds up--and takes over, if you're not careful.

We weren't careful.

And boy, HOWDY have we paid the price.

Yes, folks, there is a price to be paid for letting 'stuff' hang out in your house rent-free for years and years.  It doesn't benefit your life at all, but you still keep it.  Why?  Sentimental reasons, practical reasons, the excuse I heard for way too many years of "It might be worth something someday."  Well guess what?  If it's not worth something to me TODAY, I don't want it around.  The greatest cost I've had to pay toward the rent of keeping clutter around me is in mental energy.  You heard me right.  I've had to invest mental energy into keeping this STUFF.  Why did I do that?  I honestly don't have a clue.  Maybe it's a leftover that was passed down from our Depression-Era forefathers who wasted nothing and kept everything...but even as bad as our economy is, we're not in the dire straits they were in by any means.  We have no valid reason for all this STUFF other than to make us feel like we own something.  Validation that we're "somebody" because we own things.

I don't want that kind of validation.  I'd rather be validated and found worthy because of Whose I am, not what I manage to step over on my way to the door. 

I suppose there is a positive effect from at least some reality shows on TV as of late.  The show "Hoarders" has made me want to hire a cleaning crew and rent a dumpster on several occasions, I must say.  I knew that the clutter was having a profound impact on my standard of living, because I would spend a good 2/3 of my day rearranging and moving stuff and junk just to get to what needed to be done.  Not healthy.  Too much energy spent on worthless things that do not add value to my life. 

Over the five weeks that Pete was gone, I decluttered a LOT of our house.  He truly was shocked at the difference.  We can now walk in our bedroom; while it's still a work in progress (there are still some baby items we have to give away and winter clothes of ours to weed through), the progress is stunning.  Even more shocking to him was the bonus room that we use as our playroom, office, and "guest" room (there's a bed, so it's for guests....LOL) that were, up until just a few short weeks ago, BURIED under all the stuff we had no other place to store.  We have a storage closet in this room, but it was chock FULL of the girls' clothes. 

NOT ANYMORE!!!  In fact, to a large extent, I've even tamed the clothes monster!  I used to have all of the girls' colder weather clothing separated into five Rubbermaid tubs, and even those were overflowing...

Well, it took me about a week, but I emptied those tubs onto the living room floor, took out only what I knew I'd allow them to wear (we've been given a LOT of clothing that is totally inappropriate or even just too old and icky to wear) and literally tossed the rest.  Out of the dressers came the summer clothes, and MOST of that got tossed too.  This is what our living room looked like for almost a week...

It was ugly.  But now, I have a clean closet in their room, all (and I do mean ALL) of their out-of-season clothing fits into ONE of those five tubs, and we filled two huge boxes and four garbage bags with clothing to give away or donate.  Sigh.....

As for the bonus room closet, it's CLEAN, organized, and clutter-free!!!!  I've still got to tackle Pete's filing system (har, har, har...), but it is just wonderful to walk in this room and be able to FIND what I'm looking for--including the computer!  Check it out...this is the before...

And the after.....

There really is something calming in waking up to an uncluttered house.  It's much easier to clean, too!

So who else is doing a Fall-Cleaning?  Care to let down your guard, open your curtains, and share?

Complicated Woman's Daybook

It's not Monday and there is NOTHING simple about my life right now. 

Not.  A.  Thing.

I have felt for the last few days as if my brain is playing a solo game of Rock, Paper, Scissors just to figure out what to do next.  Yes, having a set of grand plans does help time pass faster--especially when you have a deadline set for yourself to get all of it done in.  There is no way on this earth that I am going to be able to accomplish everything I have set before myself.  In fact, I don't think I could even do it with God's help.  Well, okay, maybe if the Lord Himself came down and moved a few boxes, sure.  But ME?  There just isn't enough of me.

That's a lesson I've not learned adequately, I fear.  Perhaps that is why I find myself gasping for breath under the weight of a to-do list that I've burdened my own self with?  I can't even organize a blog post, for crying out loud!  How about if I borrow the format from one of my standard Simple Woman's Daybooks?

What have I been wearing?  Anything that I can dig out of the pile that is clean.
What's it like outside?  The grass is taking over; it's beginning to resemble the African savannahs out there; in fact, I think I heard Simba roar at sunset!
From the kitchen?  Oh my...do NOT go in there.  You may fall into the dishes that don't fit into the dishwasher.
From the learning rooms?  Well, they're learning.  Working daily on math, working daily on reading; Morgan can even sound out a few street signs and Jamie was sorting 87 silly bands that she picked up from the schoolroom floor into groups of ten.  We're reading (thank you, Sonlight, for your "here, read THIS" schedule), but the structured, "this looks like school" lessons just aren't happening.  Thankfully, my kids thrive in the midst of chaos and I think they're learning *more*.  How is that possible?
On my mind?  Way too much.  My hubby's on my mind; my son in Afghanistan is on my mind (did I mention that he told me in a chat the other day that he wasn't sure he wanted to come home on R&R????); my oldest daughter's future is on my mind; STRESS is on my mind.
What am I reading?  I don't even remember.  That's probably not a good thing.

Life has gotten far too complicated lately.  Funny how getting TO the simple requires going through some seriously complex purging processes.  They are not particularly enjoyable processes, I'll say that.  And they are not processes that one should undertake lightly.  These purging processes require ALL of you.

All of me is very tired.  And lonely.  And mentally beaten-down.
I know where I need to go.

"Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on His gentle breast; there by His love o'ertaken, sweetly my soul shall rest."

Picture thought?  How about this one?  No explanation neccessary--it is what it is.



Yikes.

Three days down, 32 to go.

I'm officially pathetic--in my mind, at least.  I have made it through five deployments, an 11-month separation, numerous field exercises, and several month-to-two-month-long schools.  I sailed through all of those with flying colors.  My sanity remained intact; I did not turn into one of those mushy wives who gush over every little thing they miss about their hubby.  Basically, I kept my dignity! 

This time, not so much.  I'm finding myself in a strange situation--I'm lonely.  I don't quite know what to do with that, to tell you the truth.  Believe it or not, it's new.

I'm certainly not lacking in the stuff-to-keep-me-busy department by any stretch of the imagination.  Between the girls' schooling, household tasks, church activities, and now bouncing back and forth between the real and the virtual in my communication both to my husband and my son...I'm definitely not bored. 

In case that wasn't enough, I've added two more projects to my plate--while Pete is gone, I'm going to get the office/guest room/playroom DONE.  Yes, DONE.  I am bound and determined to rid us of the cardboard boxes that have followed us around for, uh...way too long, and they're going to be out of here when he gets back.  Pete has a bit of a pet peeve about organization and everything being "in its place", but it's a love-hate relationship.  He loves to be organized, but hates to be the one to DO the organizing.  So...in the last eight months, as a direct result of his rather haphazard "filing" system, we've had to have not one but TWO copies of his birth certificate made and sent to us from Florida.  That expense has made me all too aware that the poor man really needs a secretary.  I guess that's me, huh? 

Thanks to a clearance sale at Wal-Mart (I have no idea why this stuff is going on clearance, other than maybe it's not selling?), I now have a bunch of nice matching boxes, magazine holders, and filing trays to put in the new metal shelf that I got for his office stuff.  I've got a LOOOOOONG way to go, and a huge part of getting this office space done is getting the 37-gallon fish tank moved from what is now Kelsey's room (where the office used to be) into the bonus room where the office is now.  That is no small task.  I don't look forward to it.  But alas, it still needs to be done.  The fish will be happier, the tank needs a little TLC and some fresh filters, and I might even pick up a few new fish once the job's done!

Ah yes, the *other* task.  The girls' room.  Right now, Morgan and Jamie's bunk beds are separated because I don't have the foggiest idea where the hardware is to stack them (thanks again to Pete's "filing" system), so even though she's sleeping through the night and on the same bedtime schedule as the rest of the girls, Kasey is still sleeping in our bedroom.  She will be evicted as soon as I can find that hardware!  The girls all have Tinkerbell bedding now--even the crib and the two toddler beds (it is SOOO cute, but I'm going to make you wait for pictures!), but they want to paint!  Guess what--we're going to PAINT before that crib goes in there.  Since they all wanted "their" color (Morgan--pink, Jamie--purple, Dani--blue, Shelby--green), I told them that I've decided that the walls need to be a soothing shade of aquamarine that is one of the pretty accent colors in all of their bedding.  They seem to think that's a pretty good idea now!  Yay for Mom and diplomacy!

At any rate, my clock (and the calendar too!) is ticking.  I'm going to do my level best to focus on the positive and remember that while yes, I am lonely and I do miss my hubby, life is just way too short to brood and wallow.  I've got teenagers all around me who are doing far too much of that already!

Oh yes, I just thought I'd include a couple of pictures I snapped (with my new camera) at the airport on Friday.  The one of Kelsey with Dad's carry-on has got to be one of my favorite pictures--I'm not even sure why, but the story it tells, the detail...it's just a great picture!

A dedicated school room, at last!!

As strange as this may sound, I still can't believe we have lived in this house for a full seven months already; it still all feels so new and unbelievable that God would take us from the 900 square foot apartment we (and five children) lived in just two and a half short years ago to THIS.  It is beyond what we ever thought we'd have, to be honest, and it's *just about* everything we've dreamed of for our family.  We just never get tired of saying how absolutely giddy with gratitude we are for the opportunity to set our family's roots down here, and for the provisions God has made not only for Pete's job, but for the desires of our hearts.  It is humbling to think that our piddly little prayers were actually answered with a resounding "Absolutely, and then some"!!

With August only a day and a half away and talk of back-to-school sales, tax holidays, and all manner of things school-related, I am being made ever more aware of a blessing in this house that God really saw fit to shock my socks off with--a space we have never had before--a real, dedicated school room!  FINALLY, a place for all that STUFF!!!!

Our homeschool journey began in yet another one of those 900-square-foot apartments in Germany, twelve years ago.  We only had two children, but that space was still pretty tight; especially when you consider that our dining room doubled as our school room AND our mock-office.  Believe it or not, our current kitchen is bigger than that dining room was.  Yet somehow, we fit a dining room table, four chairs, a computer desk, and four bookshelves in it.  We've not really had much more space for our home school "stuff" since then; we had a wee bit more space in the duplex we lived in on base before we bought this house, but it was still a shared space, combined with the girls' playroom.

Not so anymore.  It used to be a "formal" dining room, but we use what was previously the informal den (with a fireplace) for our dining room, so we have space to spare!  True, I do keep my scrapbooking supplies and some other craft items in our school room, but it's a room I've just fallen in love with, and Pete already knows not to even bother asking if the room will ever serve a "manly" purpose.....I'm going to be just a bit selfish and claim this room as MY territory to use for a library, school room, craft space....oh, all things girly.  He'll be okay; he's got his office space complete with a "me" wall in the bonus room.

I've been working on getting the school room set up in a way that works well for us since we moved in, and I *think* I've finally got it "there".  You'll have to pardon what there is left of a mess; I still have a couple of boxes of books to pass on to homes that can use them--we're not going to have any high school students in our home for a FEW more years.  Oh, and the girls really love to "help" me be sure I've got everything in the appropriate bins and shelves by taking everything out behind me, so I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll find SOMETHING that needs to be put away.  But here's the work in progress, mostly finished and almost ready to begin that first day of first grade--I'm really hoping that nothing monumental comes up this weekend so I can finish my planning session and get started on Monday!

First, the wall that backs up to the living room; to the immediate left are two doorways--to the kitchen and living room.  To the right of the tall bookshelf, a window.  My scrapbook and crafting supplies are in the wall shelf and the tall shelf in this picture.  There is also a "Tell Me About Today" wall hanging, plus a really nifty Crayola dry erase ruled sticky sheet on the wall.  The girls' individual bins are in that little nine-section cube shelf.  Yes, I have my girls color-coded.  Morgan is pink, Jamie purple, Danica blue, Shelby green.  Kasey doesn't have a color yet--probably yellow, though.

Next up, the opposite wall.  Odd, but I don't have our school table in any of these pictures; it's directly below the flag wall hanging.  I guess I'll need better pictures.  Anyway, I lined the top of the room with character-word printouts (I'm sorry, I'll have to do some MAJOR digging to figure out where I printed them out from, but I know it was from an online source....) that have 26 different virtues to study during the year.  I like!

Last for now is the wall opposite the window; this wall has our sign language alphabet chart, Danica and Shelby's table (even though you can't see it down there), plus our duck pond flannelboard for Rod & Staff Math 1.  Let me just say that while it bebuggered Jamie to the Nth degree that I made half of the ducks facing left while the other half face right, I just LOVE our duckies and their pond!!!  I think the flannelboard is just too stinkin' cute, even if I do say so myself!

This was just a little bit of the work I've done in the schoolroom; I've got lots more to blog about as we get going on this school year...but one thing at a time, right?  Shoot, I'm just overwhelmed that I HAVE a schoolroom!

Binder-Based Coupon Organizer is done!

Ok, so I stayed up till WAAAAAY past my bedtime getting this done, but it's DONE, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out! I'm pleased to say I now have a way to tote around my menu plan, shopping list, and coupons all in the same binder--and I'm even more pleased to say that my "brain" is all in one place in my binder now! Yippee!!!

I've blogged about my Home Management Binder before, so I won't bore you with all the details again. Let's just say that this "little" project is an ongoing one, and my current binder is a full three years in the making...or rather, the re-making?

This binder-renovation is in my 'Mealtime Matters' section. I stuck with my menu plan from DonnaYoung.org, and I did away with the printed-out shopping list in favor of just plain old notebook paper. Considering I do my shopping in three places (on base, at Walmart, and at Kroger) usually, with a printout I'd have to label each and every item individually by where I intended to purchase it, and that was just too much tedium for me; I ended up not even bothering with the binder list and made up my own. I like having the paper right next to my menu so as I'm writing out the week's menu, I can jot down my shopping list at the same time. For the record, the menu form is in a clear document protector and I use wet-erase markers to fill in the blanks. To the right of the notebook paper is my stay-up-all-night creation, my custom coupon organizer! I spent not a single dime on this project, as I used cardstock, contact paper, clear mailing tape, and yarn that I already had in my scrapbook stash.

I wanted the pockets holding the coupons to be sturdy, so they're covered in contact paper, and attached on the underside with clear mailing tape. The sides of the pockets (and the center of each pocket except the bottom one on the last page) are attached with yarn. I contemplated stitching with my sewing machine, but eh....too much to drag out. I just poked the needle through and tied. The "stitching" gives the pockets a little wiggle room; using staples or glue or something permanently stationary would have fixed the pockets in place without allowing them to expand a bit. I like it...whaddaya think?
WHEW! I'm glad THAT is done; now on to the next project!

Organizine my shopping--PLEASE!

I've been telling myself for far too long that I really NEED to get my grocery shopping organized, because let's face it...when you live a block from the store that you do the bulk of your shopping at, it's just all too tempting to rely on daily or many-times-a-week trips "just around the corner" to pick up what's needed *right then*. It did not help to live in Europe for three years, where it's common practice to do your grocery shopping DAILY--their teeny little fridges just don't hold a week's worth of food for a whole family of seven, eight, or nine....so we ended up losing our weekly grocery shopping trip--and the organization of having all the shopping done at ONCE and the meals planned out for the week. It stinks, and I'm just really tired of this bad habit.

Oh, and another thing....I got way out of the practice of clipping coupons, because we didn't have the wonderful Sunday paper with all those glorious coupons and sale flyers! THAT part of living overseas I really missed, I'll tell you that! My coupon book dwindled down to nothing...and it's time to right that particular wrong!

While I was in the commisary (one of the four trips) last week, I noticed a lady with a 3-ring binder balanced in the shopping cart and it made me do a double-take! She had coupons organized beautifully in her binder in playingl card display pages! OH MY!!! Pete laughed at me for a good five minutes because I just couldn't contain my newfound obsession; I truly had a "Be still, my heart" moment about a coupon organizer!

men...they just don't get it, do they?

I love my household organizer-binder. Really, I do. But I'm always keeping my eyes out for ways to make it serve me better--and I found it balanced on that shopping cart in the meat section of the commisary! I found it yet again when I did a search for what on earth those pages were (I had no idea they were playing card pages....DUH....I've only seen about two thousand of them between my husband and my son's respective baseball card obsessions) and how to go about getting my coupons organized! I found Mom's Build-It Yourself Coupon Organizer and now I'm bound and determined to get myself going with some more organized shopping trips! I'm off now to get started! Be back when I've got myself a plan, y'all!