Archives for June 2011
New Goal: Wearing Skirts {Thoughts From Me}
Reading this post by Amy at Raising Arrows for the She Wears Skirts series got me thinking about skirt wearing again. I have attempted wearing skirts daily in the past but have always managed to fall back into the ease of throwing on whatever I find to wear. Somehow this always seems to be pants or shorts, instead of skirts and dresses but I’m unsure as to why I don’t go for my skirts first.
Growing up, I always wanted to wear pretty dresses or skirts and my Mom’s high heels. Some of my earliest dress up memories are of dressing this way. Over the years, I somehow lost this idea of pretty dressing = femininity. As I grew up, dressing like a “girl” became less important and dressing quickly became more important.
As a Mom, I see my daughter torn over the ideals of the perfect woman. I see her struggle to figure out whether she is beautiful. I see her question if her teeth look nice, if her breath smells, if her clothes match, if her hair is nice. Many of these questions come out of my own insecurity in beauty. My daughter learns from watching me.
One thing I have learned from her is that I should give skirts a chance again. She, like her Momma of yesterday, loves to dress up in pretty skirts and dresses. She loves to have her nails painted pretty colors and her hair pinned up with sweet bows. She enjoys wearing cute but comfy shoes and already she walks on her toes in prep for the high heels she will some day wear in her future.
My goal for this week is to go through my closet (read clean my closet here) and lay out several dress and skirt outfits I can wear each day. I plan to rid myself of anything I dislike and have never really worn. I want to match my shoes and accessories to these outfits as well, so that they will be complete and ready to go.
I know I won’t completely give up pants and shorts but I do want to make a conscious effort to dress better and dress in skirts more often. My sweetie has more than requested this style of dress from me as well, as he enjoys seeing me dressed to my feminine best each day when he comes home. This encourages me to dress this way even more. Making him happy brings me joy.
So hopefully, I can manage to get my closet under control, get some clothing matches made and start wearing my skirts more often this week. At least that’s my goal for now!
The Art of Chaos {Thoughts From Me}
Today I was out of blog post ideas, but really wanted to write, so I went a-searching for a topic. I finally came across these words: The Art of Chaos. I thought “Wow! This really fits me”.
Chaos surrounds our life. Our days when Daddy is off work, we don’t know what to expect to be doing. When we wake each day we are unsure as to how the girls health will effect us for that day. Our home itself stays chaotic in it’s overly-messy state. Even unschooling, learning with no set plan, brings Chaos for us.
But you know, we LOVE it. We love not knowing what the day is going to bring. We love swimming in rivers, watching turtles in the pond, seeing the unexpected fish jump out of the water, watching the birds fly off when we surprise them. We love reading when we want to, because we love to, not because we have to. We love watching and learning from that unexpected movie that we didn’t plan on watching that day. We love family time, eating the unexpected because we decided to try a new restaurant, learning to hold our breath in water even though we don’t like our faces to get wet. We even love the overly-messy state of our home which often comes from our unexpected experiences in our life.
The ART of Chaos: for we are God’s Art, his Masterpieces living life to the fullest, every day. Enjoying moments that He has granted us and showing our Love of Him by enjoying every minute of it!
Chaotic Art is GOOD and God is too!
June 2011 Update
The month of June has brought out the heat in South Carolina. Hot days, hot temps, simply hot, hot, hot. Not that the kids seem to mind. They are enjoying days filled with water sprinkler fun, swimming in the river, playing outdoors games like kickball, baseball and bike riding. Their only dislike is how hot it already is outside.
Emmalee’s puppy is growing like crazy. He’s already two inches taller than Claire, our Cocker Spaniel. He’s annoyingly loving and lots of fun.
The kids have been getting a lot of hands on nature study with the extra outdoor time. We’ve been watching areas we’re hanging out in for Poison Ivy and Poison Oak and finding it sometimes, thankfully avoiding it. We’ve seen new babies flying, swimming, crawling everywhere. Caught minnows and tadpoles in the river and pond. Even helped clean out the overgrowth surrounding our pond so that we can enjoy time fishing and playing on the banks.
I haven’t been able to go to bed early and sleep through the night because of the puppy’s needs. This is also reflecting on getting up early which I haven’t been able to manage due to not being able to o to sleep early. I have been reading my devotional book daily and reflecting on the things I have read. This is such a blessing since I can’t seem to get much else done while chasing a toddler and a puppy during the day.
I’m hoping to be able to get back to work on my list soon, working on my goals. I have several ideas for new blog posts that I’m hoping to be able to get into writing. We have new curriculum to start working on and the kids are super excited. We have plans for swimming, boating, fishing throughout our summer. July we are heading to Georgia to visit family. It’s going to be a busy month but we are more than ready.
Bring on Summertime in June.
Pine Tree Landing, Black River, SC {Photo Reflection}
Cinderella Story? I think not! {Thoughts from Me}
Somedays I feel like I’m trapped in a bad Cinderella story. The clutter seems to take over and I feel like I’m drowning in mess. No matter how hard I try to overcome the Chaos, I cannot find a way out.
I know I’m not the only one who feels like this. Millions of women fall prey to the clutter overtaking their life. Daily we search for the magic key to find our way out of the mess. We read books and visit websites about cleaning, organizing, and overcoming this part of our lives.
I have read many books myself, frequented websites like Flylady.net, and attempted to put into action tons of plans to help me get organized and learn the important aspects of housekeeping. Each time I have failed. These same things that have worked for tons of women, do not work for me.
So where to start when you are overwhelmed, overworked and overly stressed? Where do you start on the days when it’s just too much to get out of bed and face the mess in your home? What do you do when you don’t know what to do?
I have learned that the first thing I should do is take my mess to the Lord. I pray and ask God for guidance, allow Him to work His magic on my life. While He is healing my clutter on the inside, I work on our home.
Second thing I do is pick a place and just start. For instance, today I cleaned out a cabinet in my bedroom, refolding the clothes inside, threw out the clothes I no longer like, and I went through a file of photos that were stashed in there too. It wasn’t much but it made a big impact on my bedroom.
I find that my time on the computer takes a lot from my day, preventing me from getting things done that I need to. In order to prevent this distraction in my life, I have been limiting how much time I am spending on this time waster. This is allowing me more time to get my housework done.
Small things, like investing in a dishwasher have helped me a lot, too. Instead of washing dishes, I am able to load the dishwasher and then get something else done while the dishes are being washed by the machine. This is something my children are also able to help out with giving me even more time to work on other tasks that need done.
I distribute easier tasks to my children. I have them pick up their own messes as soon as they are done. They help our preschooler put her things where they belong. They are being taught that living in a home requires everyones help to keep it in control and they enjoy the results of their efforts over time.
I am still learning about homekeeping and organizing. It’s been a long hard road for me to travel but I have learned bits and pieces from the materials I have read, though the methods haven’t worked for me. I am taking the bits and pieces and creating my own style of cleaning and organizing that does work for me and my family.
What are some of your best homekeeping and organizing tips? Which tasks do you do yourself and which do you distribute to other family members to do?