Starting Out On the Right Foot

I love the new year because it means a chance to start fresh! A clean slate.....and a great time to reset our homes and change them into a wonderful refuge! If your family is like ours, you've just been inundated with an onslaught of new toys, gizmos, clothes, and gifts that now need new homes. If your home was already feeling crowded and cluttered, these new items may be just the things that finally pushes  you over the edge or being frustrated to overwhelmed with the state of your home!

I'm a firm believer that ever item in a house needs a permanent(uncluttered) home and if homes are at a premium, then the only solution is to evict some items to make room for those items that are really treasured and loved. I want to add here, that sometimes the item that needs to leave may be something you just received. SHOCKING, I know! Many times we receive things that we don't like, enjoy, or need and while we should be thankful for the kindness of the giver, we don't need to keep the item. This is a great opportunity to bless someone less fortunate!

Have nothing in your house

that you do not know to be useful

or believe to be beautiful.

-William Morris

I've always loved this quote and feel that it really is the basic question we should be asking ourselves when we go through items to decide whether they make the cut. If we keep items around that we don't enjoy or use these items are basically sitting their taking up space, causing us stress, and adding work to our already busy schedule. Everyone wants to organize what they have, but the truth is you can only keep organized what you have space for.....clutter and excess cannot be organized.

Photo Credit

There are many ways of getting rid of that excess, but I'm going to share some of my favorites.

• Go big or go home! 
• This one is my favorite, I'm an all or nothing kind of gal! This decluttering method kills two birds with one stone because you are purging and cleaning at the same time. It starts off with taking everything out of the room and placing it in another area, such as the hall. If this seems too overwhelming, use this method on one area within a room, such as a dresser. Take everything out, clean the space, and then only bring back into the room the items your really use and love, and put everything left over in your donate box or trash box! I love doing this method because once you've finished the space, you have a beautifully organized, minimalized, and sanitized space. It's like an entirely fresh start!
• Challenge Purging!
• When I first started my adventure into decluttering and living a minimalized lifestyle, I did the 40 bags in 40 days challenge. Not only was it the encouragement and support I needed but it also gave me an attainable goal to reach. By breaking it into small chunks it didn't overwhelm me or take to much time out of my normal day with my littles. It helped me reach my goal, and once I got started I quickly exceeded it. I got to know the donation place guy by the first name! The bags of things could be trash, donations, or items to sell. Just get stuff into those bags and once you start you see and feel the weight of excess lift and you are inspired to give things away you never thought you would part with.
• Hanger Switcharoo
• Clothes have always been a hard item for me to part with. Because I'm tall it is hard to find items that fit well and when they do, I like to hold onto them. But just because an item fits the body it doesn't mean it looks good on you, that you like it, or that you ever wear it. This is basically the easiest way to purge...ever. Simply turn all your coat hangers around backwards and as you wear an item turn the coat hanger around. At the end of 6 months or a year whatever items are still in there backwards, simply grab them quickly and toss them into a bag. Unless it is a special occasion item or maternity item, if you haven't worn it in that long, there's a very good chance you never will and someone else could benefit from that item.

These are just a few easy techniques I've used and still use yearly to keep my house from feeling full and overwhelmed with stuff. I hope these ideas help you in your quest to start the new year off right!

What are some of your favorite ways to purge your home of unwanted items?

Curriculum: 2014 -2015

Every year before the school year begins, I always sit down and share my curriculum picks for our family. Well this year that never happened. The school year started off with a bang, we got engrossed in our studies, life, the lovely fall weather, and our homeschool co-op and it just slipped out of my mind.

Well, I didn't want to just gloss over our curriculum this year, because, well frankly, we love it! It's been fun, interesting, easy, and enjoyable and the kids have learned so much! Without further ado:

Group Learning:

• Beautiful Feet Early American Study Guide - History, literature, narration, dictation, character studies, journaling
• Because I Said So - Bible Study on Obedience
• We Choose Virtues - Character Training
• Draw-Write-Now books 1-8 - Art/Handwriting
• Count Your Blessings, Gloria, and When I Survey - Hymn Study
• Signing for Kids - Sign Language
• Contenders/Keepers of the Faith - Christian Life Skills & Handicrafts

Grant (age 7): 

• Math - Horizons 2nd, book 1 & 2
• Grammar - Easy Grammar book 3
• Science - Christian Liberty Nature Reader book 4

Morgan (age 5): 

• Math - Horizons K, book 1 & 2
• Phonics/reading/comprehension - Primary Phonics, Readers,& Comprehension book 1-3
• Science - Christian Liberty Nature Reader book K
• Weather, Seasons, and Calendar Studies - Rod and Staff My Calendar Book

Paige (age 3): 

• Preschool - Rod and Staff, About Three, Bigger Steps, Color, Cut, & Count, & Doing My Best

So far we are loving learning as a family and the Beautiful Feet core has worked great for everyone. We enjoy cuddling together every day on the couch as we read great classic books, adventure stories, and other great read alouds as we journey through early American history. Most of the other items we are using in a group setting tie in with our history core. So as we read about history we are also drawing Indians, writing about the Pilgrim's voyage, building log :common houses", coloring maps of England, Holland, and the new world, journaling about the character qualities these brave adventurers displayed, and discussing what we are learned from their success and mistakes. It has taken our learning to such a practical level that allows us to apply what we've learned in our every day lives!

While plans may change, we hope to continue using many of these resources next year and continue learning in such a relaxed and easy format. I hope to review more of what we are using this year and share some things we hope to adventure into in the future! 

What things are you using this year that you just love and want to share? 

Showing Gratitude

While the art of writing a thank you note has mostly gone out of style, in our family taking the time to show gratitude for all the wonderful gifts they received for Christmas is not only in good taste, but is also a practical learning and character building lesson!

 It reminds our children that someone took time, effort, and money to choose a special gift just for them and now they should take time and effort to show how grateful they are in return! Even though we take a short break from formal schooling for Christmas, learning happens every minute of the day. So before we plunge back into our normal routine, we take time to focus on writing thank you notes to teach a practical skill that, I believe, every adult (and child) should have in their arsenal of good manners and habits.

Thank you notes also incorporate the use of handwriting skills, phonics and spelling, using formal greetings and salutations, grammar, punctuation, the art of addressing an envelope, and many more skills that could be taught from a worksheet, but are much more easily taught in this practical form.

Thank you notes in our home greatly change from year to year based on the age of our children and their current skill levels. When my first little guy was 2, I simply had him color and paint on a small piece of cardstock and I wrote the note on top of his masterpiece. As my littles have gotten older I've had them draw a picture of what they were thankful for, had them trace notes that I've "dotted" out, had them fill in the blanks with the item they received and their name, to now writing the note completely themselves.

If you are wanting some thank you notes that your kids can work on today, here are some links to some cute cards you can easily print off, fill out and get in the mail!

SNOWMAN THANK YOU NOTES

FILL IN BLANK THANK YOU NOTES

PENGUIN COLOR SHEET THANK YOU NOTES

HANDWRITING PAPER THANK YOU NOTE

Do you think writing thank you notes is an important and thoughtful skill for kids to learn?

A Resolution for Change

I talk to many women that feel overwhelmed in their jobs as wives, moms, teachers, and homemakers and in most of those discussions their chief complaint boils down to being overloaded with too much stuff, too little space, and not enough time.

For some reason, in this current season of life, God has called this former pack-rat to help other families battle clutter, disorganization, and help return their homes to a place of rest, a haven from the world. It was never anything I planned on doing.  It's not like I grew up neat, organized, or tidy....in fact the exact opposite is true. Ask my mother about the state of my room while growing up and you'll hear things like....bologna peels under her bed, tiny bits of toys being hoarded, and pieces of papers with the most insignificant doodle being saved and treasured. Seriously, I was the poster child for hoarders anonymous!

I'm very thankful that God uses broken people and can turn their weaknesses into strengths! He has enabled me to move away from my dependence on things and the false security they offer, to the never failing, never ending security HE offers. That void that I once filled with stuff and busyness is now filled with His love!

In my casual conversations I hear things like, "My home is a stressful place", "What I do is never enough for my husband, we are always fighting about stuf", "I don't even know where to start with getting my time organized", and "I feel like all I do is clean up". It's hard to hear, but I've also been there, so I know how they are feeling.

People keep things for many reasons. Some are sentimental, some people feel stuff brings security, some people are just not organized or have a creative type of personality. Things (or STUFF as I lovingly call it) are not bad or sinful in themselves. It's when we hold on to them too tightly, hoard them, or turn them into our idol. 1 John 2:15 reminds  us to "not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him". It's a pretty straight forward warning to keep our eyes on our ultimate Home and on laying up our treasure Above, not here where they quickly decay, are lost or broken.....remember you can't take it with you! 

So why are we wasting so much time on cleaning, storing, moving, and organizing items with no eternal value? Why are our days filled with tasks that we don't enjoy, that don't benefit our family, or bring us closer to God? While being a good steward is an important in and of itself, I'm asking why do we have so many things we don't use, need, or even like?  Well that's a personal question we all need to answer for ourselves. 

While the answer will be different for all of us, the solution is usually the same - we need less stuff, fewer commitments, and more time with God.

As we move into the new year I hope we can all focus back on what God has called OUR families to. That we can find a way to drop the excess and get back to the basics of life so that God is in the forefront and the worldly stress quietly fades away.

Blessing Bags

While participating in new and unknown activities throughout the year can be fun, there is nothing like a family tradition to bring joy, happiness, and memories into the lives of our loved ones. Not only is it fun to see our children remember these special times from the past, but it's such a blessing to hear their little voices share the wonderment with younger siblings who have yet to participate in the experience!

One of our family's most loved traditions started about 5 years ago. I don't even know how it officially began, but it was a mix of our family's interest in the reaching out to the "urban outdoors-man" and our love of helping and serving others. For a long time, we had talked about the best way to help homeless people we saw out on the street and allow our children, at a young age, to help others, and to give in a way that didn't enable the homeless to use our gift on negative influences in their lives.

And through this discussion Blessing Bags were born!

 They have changed and grown over the years. Some years many family members have participated in purchasing, assembling and distributing the bags, other years it has only been our immediate family, while other times family has sent money or items to stock the bags. Some years the bags were the size of a gallon ziptop bag, sometimes a huge laundry bag, and sometimes somewhere in between. The beauty of the bag is that it is the heart of giving that determines what the bags look like each year!

After 24+ days of hectic Christmas preparation, filled with shopping, sewing, baking, and cleaning,  our attention is brought back to our amazing Savior and the awesome gift He came to give! It pulls us away from the distractions and the secular things, and focuses us on spreading His love to those who need Him most. It is also a wonderful time for our children to step away from the toys and goodies they've received that day and see how truly blessed they are....there's nothing like the realization that these special people are living on the street to make their "needs" turn into wants and even over abundance!

The fun begins with a shopping trip!! Most of what we need can be found at Dollar Tree (man I like that store! ;).  We start off by picking the bag we want to fill and deciding on how many we want to fill that year. This year we decided on 12 bags. I recommend packing bags in multiples of 6, 12, 18, etc., because most things at Dollar Tree come in multiples of 3 and 4's making it easy to pack bags without leftovers. Once we have the bag, we purchase things that will fit inside them.  Here is our list from this year:

• Christmas card and candy cane
• Bible/Christian literature
• Gloves
• Socks
• Hand warmers
• 3 in 1 shampoo, conditioner, body wash
• Deodorant
• Shaving cream
• Razor
• Lotion
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush and holder
• Comb
• Band aids
• Q-tips
• Wet wipes
• Washrag
• Travel mug
• Hot chocolate packets
• Instant coffee packages(1 cup size)
• Lemonade packages(1 bottle size)
• A water bottle
• Hard candy
• Gum
• Raisins
• Granola bars
• Crackers and chicken salad
• Honey bun
• Cookies
• Popcorn
• Food in a cup
• Mac and Cheese
• Oatmeal
• Noodles

The Kiddos assembling the bags!

The wonderful part about the bags is that they can be given out any time of the year as well. Our goal is not just to teach our children about giving God's love at Christmas time, but through the entire year, throughout their entire life! We make smaller versions of these bags in 2 gallon ziplock bags that we keep in our car all the time. Anytime we run into someone holding a sign on the side of the road that needs help, we have a real, tangible expression of God's free gift that our kiddos can hand out the window with a "God bless you!" to close the deal!

Family traditions are a wonderful way to instill great memories into the lives of our children, but most importantly they are a fantastic way of instilling the love of God into their hearts. Make sure that during this busy season, you are focusing on what is important, what will last.....Jesus, the TRUE Reason for this Season(and every season)!