Day 1: Edie made me do it.

I have followed the 31 Days thing since it started a few years ago.  I knew it was coming again this year.  Nester has been warning us about it… ‘get ready’… ‘do you have your topic’… ’31 Days Housekeeping’…yada yada.  Whatever.  I had no intention of jumping in.  I was just going to enjoy the posts of others as I have in years past.  Maybe next year.

Then I read Edie’s post.  That girl has a special influence on me.  Today she said, ”I’m great at starting things but not such a strong finisher so you’ll have to keep me motivated.”

Yeah, she was talking to me.  It’s true. 

Well, she might as well have been.  All the half-completed projects and dead-end good intentions I have kicking around represent my single biggest frustration with myself.   It’s crazy really.  Could Edie be telling me to use the 31 Days to work on BEING INTENTIONAL like I’ve been trying to do all year? 

Yes, I think she was. 

So, my 31 Days of Intention will be an opportunity to share my thoughts on all things intended ~ where I succeed, places I fail, tricks and tips along the way to motivate me to just. march. on.   We’ll see how that goes. 

Here we go, Day 1: 

Today, I am attempting to be intentional by actually DOING the 31 Days that I originally had no intention of doing. 
See what I did there? 

No really, the idea jumped off Edie’s post and into my brain and here I am.  I decided on this about an hour ago, which is also when I started trying to figure out how to make a button.  Surely, there are other 31ers out there that spent a fair amount of time sorting that out?  Please tell me I’m not the only one. 

   But I didn’t give up.  I have a button (or I should if this works out after the Linky). 

Check mark for Day 1.

Back

There is nothing like a break from something to make you reassess how much (or how little) you need it. 

I gave up blogging for Lent ~a first for me, and I wanted to give it a try.  I honestly found it tricky for the first bit.  I tend to put many early posts in my drafts folder as they come to mind; mostly just a sentence or two to remind me later of the idea I had.   It took some conscious work on my part not to do that, or even open my blog during those days.  I didn’t even list my ideas on paper, though there were a lot of them.  It took some effort to resist the blog, but I did it.  

And after about 2 weeks, the blog felt like a somewhat-distant memory.   Funny, how that happens. 

Now I find myself evaluating the need and desire to have this blog.  I have some subscribers and I get emails from people I’ve never met, and that is a lot of fun.  I also SO enjoy a number of blogs out there, with like-minded women who put Christ first and are crazy and convicted enough to homeschool their kids.      I think there is something incredibly comforting in these web relationships we’ve built over the last few years.  We are here to support, encourage and lift up one another.  We are here to share in each other’s burdens and joys. 

We are here. 

And that makes me want to keep being here.   My break made me realize that although it became easy not to blog, I do miss it a lot. 

And so, I will continue on in blog-land.  After a couple weeks I’m sure I’ll be wondering how I ever managed to take that break. 

I look forward to catching up with y’all.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow…Crazy

David was away for this past week — a full 7 nights.   He travelled on business to Toronto and Regina and then got to spend a couple days in Edmonton with his cousin and her husband and their beautiful baby.  As much as I missed him, I was thrilled for him to be able to take a little down time over the weekend before coming home to the busyness of our lives. 

We’ve been apart many times before, but this time I missed him more.   I went a little CRAZY without my regular dose of David.  I missed his humour and playfulness, his authority in the house, his presence. 

I figure it’s because I’m even more in love with him now than I was last year, more than last week.  I am truly blessed to have such an amazing relationship with my spouse.  We work at it.  We make it a priority.  And it pays dividends. 

Welcome home, Baby.

I’m a Piler, not a Filer

The desire to be more organized is a big item on my list of goals this year.  To be honest, that one’s on my list every year.  The good news is that each year I am a little more organized than the previous, so at least I’m headed in the right direction.   That’s what I’m telling myself anyway.  

Paper is a very big issue in this house.  On top of the regular family papers and papers the mailman brings, my husband is a Town Councillor (part time at least), plus we have papers from our various church initiatives and volunteer organizations.  I also have a business that requires a certain amount of paper.  (Receipts out the wazoo.  Ugh.  I hate receipts.  In a big way.)  However, I think the worst culprit of the paper situation here is the fact that we homeschool.  In addition to using paper every day… lots of it… the kids are almost always here at home to make things messier.  There’s not a lot of kid-free time here at Casa del Wacko, and we know what kind of a mess kids can make! 

Our lovely century home lacks storage, so that’s definitely a barrier and to make matters worse, I’m a piler, not a filer.  So what paper I do have ends up stacked in random piles rather than filed in the manner most people would consider requisite. 

Oh, I’ve tried all the ‘systems.’  I’ve bought colour coded files.  I bought a fancy label maker.  I bought the sticky-uppy tab things.  I’ve had filing cabinets, desk top hanging file systems, divided desktop file sorters, portable systems with handles that I can move as needed.  I’ve had years where I’ve prepared all the files the “right” way, with those fancy labels I mentioned, and have had them hang there, empty.  Indefinitely.  

For whatever reason, I can file my paid bills without a problem.  But all my other ‘active’ project files just suffer miserably.   I guess I don’t like pulling a file when I need it again…?  It’s not for lack of trying.  I just have a problem with it for some strange reason. 

In my season as a business professional, I had one of those vertical letter sorter type of thing that sat on my desk, empty, yet I had piles of paper on my credenza and on the floor all around me. 

The first step is admitting you have a problem. 

The second step is finding a solution.  So, rather than continuing to fail at my standard vertical files, I am embracing the piles.  I’ll be working with a pile system that works for me.  No point fighting it.  I know I’m good with letter trays.  They work for me, so I’m just gonna go with that for this year.   I so want THIS to be the year I get organized, and maybe my piles will help me get there.

Laura, over at Org Junkie has started a new challenge this year: 

It involves tackling one project a week, every week.  It’s what I wanted to do ANYWAY, but giving it a name and linking up with others adds accountability that I just didn’t have in past years, when I failed miserably at my “get organized” goal.  So this is it.  THIS is the year!!!!

For my first project, I have chosen this cute little antique dresser. 

It’s in our sitting room, the room where we do most of our school work.  Its drawers don’t get used anymore because they are crammed full of random bits of this and that.  The top drawer is a junk drawer.  It contains hair clips, makeup, old keys, some pens, loose change, probably lots of little things I’ve been looking for and unable to find.  The bottom two drawers are paper.  ALL paper.

This is the weekend I clean them out.  Just watch me. 

I’ll report back on Monday.  Me, and all my piles. 

Strength in numbers people.  Wanna join me ?  Swing on over to this post  at OrgJunkie to find out more.

Find your Drummer

I’m not a cookie-cutter type of person.  I kinda groove out to the beat of my own bodhran drummer and I am more than good with that.  I make choices based on what I think work for me or my family and that’s the way it is.  Some people may not like it, but I’m good with that too.  It is my drummer, after all. 

My mother would most definitely say that this has always been my approach.  In grade 3, my teacher called my mom to discuss his concern over the things he was reading in my journal.  Things like “Praise the Lord” and “Jesus Loves Me.”  He was concerned about my standing out from the other kids, and not in a good way.   WhatEVer!  He obviously didn’t know that I didn’t really care what the others thought.

When we were expecting our first child about 11 years ago, I had a midwife.  At that time, it was a certain rarity.  My VP of Sales asked me (in front of 50 other people), “How could you be SOOOo irresponsible and risk your baby’s life like that?”   I am sure I saw red, but all it his comment accomplished was that it gave me even more resolve. 

Then a water birth?  Cloth diapers?  And a decision not to vaccinate? And… gasp… HOMEschooling?   We were certainly ‘ruining’ our kids.   Oh yeah, we were a special kind of crazy.

But all along, we made those choices with a whole big bunch of prayer and thought.  They were very big life-altering choices that required their due consideration, and that’s what we gave them.  We have no regrets over the decisions we made.  

My point is:  do what you think is right, especially where your family is concerned.  Make choices because you truly believe in them.  Challenge the status quo, rather than doing things just because it’s what everyone else does.  Find your drummer and follow his beat.  Listen to that still small voice.  

Ask for guidance along the way.  God will never lead you astray. 

He’s the best drummer of all.

Mulligan

January.  

A fresh first page in a brand new book.  

An opportunity to get a do-over.  

It’s silly, really, that we seem to think change happens best at this time of year, but I guess there is something comforting in the fact that so many people around the world are doing hard things right alongside you.  Maybe that’s the attraction; the support of others.

I look back at 2010 with fondness.  We had a wonderful year as a family, as homeschoolers, as Christians, as a church.  My word for last year, ‘contentment,’ was a true focus and my personal desire for it was largely fulfilled.  Joy was there as a sidebar, and was there a very good chunk of the time as well.  It took effort – some days more than others.  But it truly helped to keep those two words at the forefront of my mind as I worked and played through my year.  They really did make the tougher times more palatable.  And they made the easy times that much happier. 

I felt as though last year had me paying a bit more attention to the important things in life.  The priorities.  Clearly, this blog was not one of them, as I really struggled to keep up with it.  I was living life more than I was documenting it.  And I needed that. 

But how ’bout my fresh page? 

Well, I mapped out some Personal, Financial, Family-related, Home-related, Homeschool-related.  I broke them down into bite sized chunks and I am quite optimistic about the coming 12 months.  It’s going to be great.   

As for this blog?  Well, my youngest is now four (oh, the difference a year makes!), Christmas and a few other big things are behind me, and I feel as though I have somewhat more control over things this year.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll hang out here a bit more than I did in the past.  Finding time for my creativity is one of my personal goals, and writing is certainly one of my delights in life, so we’ll see how it goes.    I got that lovely email from the WordPress folks on New Years Day and was astounded by the number of readers that visited my 62 posts during the last 12 months.   I guess you think I have some interesting things to say, and that really makes me want to keep going. 

I should probably start with updating my lovely summer header.  It is wintertime, afterall.  I even skipped right over fall, even though I had taken so many beautiful shots with my amazing new camera.  Ah well, that’s what those fresh pages are for.  Right? 

I have been considering a “word” for this year as well.  I bounced around a bit, but one word kept rising back to the top every time my head tried to push it down.  It ties right in with my list of goals, which all require focus and … well, things to be scheduled.  It’s more a phrase than a word this year:   

Intentional Living. 

I am going to do things more purposefully.  I’m going to give more consideration to things before I do them, think more about what to say before I speak, think more about what to bring into the home, what to teach my children, how to spend my time, what to put on the table.  I thought about these things before, but now I hope to do them now with much more consideration than ever before. 

As part of this, I will attempt to see you around here more often.  In the meantime, my prayer for you is for the year ahead.  May it be filled with love, joy, contentment and intention for you and those you love.

A New Day!

It’s a new day alright!   It’s sunny and glorious and NEW.  (That’s the best part.)

My funk yesterday and resulting desire to put the mood to good use, produced 4 big boxes of books to take to the used book store.   I’d estimate about 300 books in all, about 297 of which are children’s books.  It’s a fantastic feeling!  

Today will be a busy one, as we continue through our Spring Cleaning this morning and I fill my afternoon with some projects for a few clients.  In a couple hours, I’ll have a visit from a friend, and one of his two newly adopted children from Haiti.   What a blessing!   (I hope she lets me give her a squeeze!)

Oh, and I want to leave you with a great post I read first thing this morning, by Sarah over at Clover Lane…  Teenagers These Days.   I love it! 

Have a great day everyone!   (I know I will!)

Note to self: Suck it Up, Buttercup!

Here I am trying to get motivated.

At 2:00 in the afternoon.

I was doing fine this morning but then a conversation with my husband over lunch just caused all my energy and excitement to be sucked rapidly from my being.

Yes, we’re still struggling with that family matter I mentioned a while back.   In most matters of my life, I feel like I can deal.  I really believe that my attitude in any situation greatly impacts the outcome. 

But this time, I’m just not feelin’ it.  This time, I feel chilled, and literally sick to my stomach.  I think that feeling is driven by the sense of the issue being out of my control.  And yes, I know EVERYTHING is technically out of my control, but sometimes that nasty feeling of helplessness takes over.  Sometimes despair starts to creep in.  I don’t like it, but sometimes I want to just wallow a bit and feel sad.  You know what I mean? 

Well, that’s where I am today.

Today, I’m feeling helpless and frustrated, wrapped up in a fleece blanket…

…for another two minutes.

That is when I’ve decided to suck it up.  I’m about to kick my own butt out of this chair and out of this state of poopy-ness.  I think I’m going to use my bad mood to wreak havoc on some stored clutter in anticipation of an upcoming yardsale.  Might as well work it to my advantage. 

Attic or basement?  Attic or basement?

Okay, attic it is! 

Sigh…  Here I go. 

This is me, sucking it up.

25 Random Thoughts About Me

Hi again! 

 

My blog-free week was hugely successful.  It was hard for me not to hop around blog-land to see what was going on, but I resisted!   I did swing by the blogs of my real-life girlfriends, but that doesn’t count…    

 

In the end, my self-imposed restriction was highly motivating.  I missed you guys and couldn’t wait to finish my taxes ! 

 

 

Now I’m back at it and quite behind in lots of other things (as a result of that dreaded paperwork).  So in the interest of getting to know eachother, I thought I’d share this with you.  It was written a year or two ago and because nothing has changed, I’m posting it as-is.   I really didn’t find it hard to write, and could probably go on to list another 25 things…  but not today.

_____________________

1. People say I’m creative. I’m an ideas person. This is why I’m great at starting things and horrible at the follow-through. (Case in point, I started this list over a week ago!)

2. I loathe forms, applications, anything that requires me to fill in the blanks… paperwork of any sort actually. It’s amazing my kids got birth certificates.  (April 2010 addendum:  My taxes are DONE and just awaiting input from my accountant.   Yay for me!)

3. However… I am a compulsive list maker. I make them, sometimes the same ones over and over again, so I can experience the satisfaction of checking things off. (I only made this list once, even though it took me a while.) :S

4. I homeschool my kids because I see so many advantages to it. All the disadvantages have to do with me having less time to do other things I want to do – but so far, it’s a sacrifice I’m prepared to make.

5. I simply adore my husband and I LOVE the way he loves me. Putting him before the kids is really best for our whole family… You can’t build a house on sand.

6. I can’t even look at a picture of a snake, but can pick up spiders or bait a hook without issue.

7. I am frustrated by the level of unnecessary medical intervention that exists today and think that Naturopaths and Midwives are immensely underrated.

8. I don’t care a whole heck of a lot about what other people think of me. Some people find that off-putting. I find it freeing.

9. I love music – all kinds of it (okay, not polka and not speed-metal) and would like to learn piano and guitar someday.

10. I cry at almost anything. A good song, any wedding (fiction or not), a sweet commercial, a golden sunset, a beautiful hymn. Christmas carols put me right over the edge.

11. I try very hard not to over-schedule my kids. I believe they learn, grow and enjoy more when they can just… BE.

12. I used to be more organized and aspire to be organized again… someday. I can’t visit a department store without checking out the latest selection of containers/ baskets/ bins/ sorting/ organization tools in anticipation of this eventual goal.

13. Many moons ago, I loved the New Kids. I’m okay with that. Twenty years later, and now that they’ve resurfaced, I still think Donnie’s the best one.

14. I can’t stand poor table manners, and feel like I’m constantly telling my kids to chew with their mouths closed.

15. I love to get creative in the kitchen, esp. when D and I are cooking in there together with a great bottle of wine. I really appreciate food.

16. I think people who put themselves before others have got it all back-asswards and are missing out on the biggest joys in life. That’s sad.

17. I look forward to retirement so I can spend even more time with D (hopefully sailing and enjoying a dilapidated old farmhouse in the South of France). 

18. I long to live like Western Europeans: Enjoy life. Eat well. Don’t work too hard. Take naps. Celebrate life with a good wine. Slow down. Sigh… this is why we want to spend our retirement there.

19. I have always challenged the status quo because I think God gave us brains and instinct for a reason.

20. I love to camp and want to do more of it now that I’m home with the kids.

21. Mia Farrow is my hero. If I had the resources she did, I’d have a gaggle of kids too! We’ll settle for a half-gaggle instead.

22. I’m fine with my children being a lot of things, but disrespectful is not one of them.

23. My entire childhood and much in to my teens, I wanted to become a writer. After that, I daydreamed about becoming a midwife. But then after G was born, I realized I’d just be an emotional wreck and of absolutely no help to my clients.

24. I have a lot of tools – power tools, hand tools and belt to match. I love home fix-it projects, even though I’m not particularly good at them. When our budget can afford it, I like to hire someone to do the work with me, so I can do parts of the job, stay on top of them to make sure it’s done to my satisfaction, while learning something at the same time.

25. I have an unshakeable work ethic, which is sometimes a good thing – many times not. I always bite off more than I can chew (there’s that “ideas person” again).

And the bonus number, 26: I am grateful to God for all the blessings in my life… and not afraid to say it out loud.

The Procrastination Station: Homeschool Learning Day

It really is true that I work better under pressure.  

Most of the time, I pull out all the stops at the 11th hour and sail through to victory with the added adrenaline and desire to get ‘er done. 

Most of the time.

Today is not one of those days.

Today is really tonight – as in Monday night.  I am leaving the house at 7am tomorrow, driving 90 minutes to another part of our lovely province to attend a Homeschool Learning Day.  It happens quarterly and we LOVE IT!   The kids enjoy doing something a bit different, seeing the friends they’ve made from our other visits.  The atmosphere is extraordinary, and I have fun teaching my couple of classes.  I always come back feeling refreshed and renewed by my homeschool peeps.  Even though these particular peeps are quite some distance away, it’s nice to reconnect a bit and feel the encouragement of other families who are doing this difficult yet ridiculously rewarding thing along with me. 

But this time more than any other, I will be leaving exhausted.  In addition to having an extremely challenging day today (thanks mainly to a 3-year old Grumpasaurus sporting marathon tantrums), I also left everything to the last-minute and have already been up way later than my usual.  It’s now 11:39 pm.  I’m done with the prep for my 9-11 year old class (just need to print the handout) and I still have to whip up a quick craft for the other class. 

Or not. 

The other class is story time with preschoolers.  I had originally wanted to do a related craft, but I wonder if we can just colour springtime pictures and call it a day? 

Yep, I think that’s what we’ll do.   I’m beat and it’s an early start for the Littles tomorrow.     The only thing worse than a grumpy Mom is a TIRED grumpy Mom.  And that wouldn’t be good for anyone in that poor little preschooler class.  

Plus, a tantrum-toting 35-year-old is somewhat unbecoming.

Even procrastinators have their limits.  Coloring it is!