Gosling Input: Spring Cleaning

Hey!  Have you seen the Homeschool Ryan Gosling site yet?  So hilarious.  Some of these pictures just hit far too close to home to not end up laughing hysterically.  I’m not a big fan of his, but I must admit, some of this is funny stuff!

I spent the entire day today — as in ALL of it, cleaning the boys’ room.  It … well… smelled like BOY and needed a serious overhaul.  We cleaned the closet and rearranged the umpteen-thousand books.   We didn’t even do one teensy weensy ounce of book work today.  I had the intention to clean their room until 10am, but well, it didn’t exactly play out in that way.   Sidetracked spring cleaning days offer another great reason to homeschool year round.  We can do this sort of thing when the fancy strikes.  And I have been feeling seriously neglectful in the house cleaning department these days.  Like REALLY.   I have just been dealing these last several months, and that has meant complete ignorance of the less critical areas of home.  Until today.

Oh, I should mention that I found part of the nasty boys smell.  It was a beautiful concoction of rotting apple core and garbage can pee from a poor sleepwalker.

Again.

I wish I was kidding.  That garbage can was just… eeeew.  I had to break out the big guns to clean that puppy.  Lestoil trumped my usual vinegar and baking soda cleaning arsenal.

We worked away all day.  At the end of it:

– the room was tidied, vacuumed and dusted

– the shelves were purged of the “collector’s items” (that really were Caleb’s upcycled packaging from the blue bag)

– there was one long discussion about ‘necessities,’ the ‘special’ things and ‘the rest’

– the trim was as clean as it was going to get without painting (how are they SO hard on trim?)

– I had a half garbage bag of crap to toss, about a dozen clothing items to donate, and a whopping four, yes, FOUR books to pass along.

All were duplicates.

Oh wait!  Make that five books.  There was a Spiderman picture search book in there that I’m sure was never cracked.  It was okay to part with that one.

– I rejigged the “it was supposed to be temporary” shelving on the landing so I could squeeze in Caleb’s new to him encyclopedia collection… (which, by the way he said he would take if the house was burning and he only had 5 things to take with him).    Did you know that 24 great big heavy books count as one item when you’re talking about fire-gathering?   (Yes, this little gem came out of our ‘special items’ discussion.)

– The hallway outside?  Not quite ‘there’ but coming along…

Anyway, dear Ryan had something to say about my day:

Haha!!  Hilarious!  (Only ’cause it’s true.)

The boys will sleep tonight in the freshness of clean.  Ahhhh…

Happy Weekend Everyone!

~T.

Treading Water

My last post (4 weeks ago!) was a sudden drop off from my involvement in the 31 Days series that I very quickly decided to jump into, so it’s no surprise that things have been completely upside down and inside out around here lately.  We’re slowly working our way through our renovations, our Community Christmas dinner planning meetings have picked up, I’m working on fundraising for a Mission to Uganda in 2012, and I’ve got clients out the wazoo.  I try to schedule them appropriately, but sometimes a bottle neck is unavoidable.  

Do you ever feel that there are times when you’re just doing the bare minimum to get by?  That’s where I am now with so many things in my life.  Our meal situation lately has been less than ideal.  The laundry is piling up.  My bedroom has become a household dumping ground rather than the peaceful sanctuary it’s supposed to be.  I’m not spending the time I should with the boys’ school work.  I’m taking the easy road with my Junior Church lessons.  I’m just treading water, trying to get through the long list of things to do.  

Fact is, I’m far too busy and I don’t like it. 

But what can I do about it? 

Well, for starters, I can pray.  Pray for patience and calm and for help in getting me step by step through this mountain I’ve created. 

Secondly, I can pick away at things, bit by bit.  I’ve been painting our new powder room since last week.  It’s something that should take an afternoon, but I don’t HAVE an afternoon.  So instead, I’ve spent 5 days in there, doing little bits with the 20 minutes here and 30 minutes there that I manage to find.  Still, I’m only at the first coat.  It’s not ideal, but it is what it is…  my reality.  Bit by teensy tiny bit is the only way things are able to get done around here. 

I can continue to get up early.  My internal alarm clock has been successfully adjusted to spring me out of bed between 5:30 and 6:00 am each day, and what a difference it makes in the rest of my day!  I get a bit of time to myself to enjoy a coffee and work or read or blog (ha!) before the troops march down the stairs at 7:00.  It’s glorious and I need to keep it up. 

Additionally, I must, must, MUST say ‘no’ more often.  I’ve actually been doing pretty well with it, but I have told myself that in the New Year (after the Community Christmas Dinner and our big New Year’s Eve party is behind us and once I have a few work projects marked off my list), I will reduce the number of simultaneous clients.   I have already told some that I can’t take anything new for 3 months, and I think that’s the way it’s going to have to be if I am to keep some of my sanity. 

For now, I will tread water.  But I won’t tread it in a crazed panic with arms flailing all over the place.   Everyone knows how unproductive that is.  

No, instead I will tread slowly, calmly and steadily, seeking the joy in the warmth of the water, ever with my eye on the shore.

Homeschool Reason # 206: Education in the Day to Day

We recently took on a major overhaul of the kids’ rooms.  It involved moving things around, dumping out  toy boxes, sorting, purging, dusting, moving, folding and sighing a breath of delightful relief when it was all over.  It happened one weekday morning (before our summer schedule).  It happened on a day when we would have normally been stuck with our noses in books but it was perfectly acceptable to me to use that day as a teaching opportunity.  So that’s exactly what we did.

In addition to teaching the kids some great life skills, there were many opportunities for growth.  Here are just a few that I particularly enjoyed:

Teaching Moment #1:  Basic Life Skills  

Kids need life skills and they aren’t always being educated in this area.  My kids can make a wicked omelet, scrub a toilet (even though it requires touch ups from Mom), and plant a garden.  Apparently they can also sort their books, tackle the dust under beds and pick up smelly old socks that get shoved into corners.  And there are jobs for all ages.  Did you see that nicely sorted Lego in a big old under bed storage basket?   (I took that picture today, many weeks after our clean up day, so it seems to be a tool that stuck!  It’s so nice to push the whole thing under the bed when they’re done.)

Teaching Moment #2:  Time Management

It always looks so much worse before it looks better.  Thankfully, the kids were mostly okay in delaying their gratification (play time) in favour of working through the massive clean up.  Keeping our focus helped to push us through the day.  It was a lot of work, but it went by very quickly and we were all very happy with the way it went.   We had snack breaks and a lunch break and were otherwise pretty great about sticking to the challenge. 

Teaching Moment #3:  Stewardship

We have far more ‘stuff’ than we use, need, or want for that matter.  It’s taken a very long time to accumulate all the ‘stuff’ so I anticipate it taking a fair chunk of time to sort through it all as well.   That day, I heard a few comments that went something like:  “We don’t need this Mom, and someone else might really like it.”  Perfect! 

Teaching Moment #4:  Math

We had two big bins of large Duplo blocks that were well-loved and still frequently used (even by the older kids), but took up lots of space.  We also had two drawers under Eden’s bed that would have been perfect for said Duplo.  But would it fit?  I tasked Caleb with figuring it out mathematically.  I loved this one as it was a great way for him to apply his skills in real-time.   There was quite a lot of math involved (calculating volume in inches for both the bins and the drawers, 2×2 digit and 3×2 digit multiplication, followed by addition and subtraction).  The end result?  They would just fit.  Barely.  So we made the switch.  Caleb high-fived me upon completion of that little task.  It was my favourite teaching moment of the day, mainly because he was beside himself with the practicality of math.   

Real life word problems provide way better learning than any book. 

Teaching Moment #5:  Reward

There is satisfaction to be had in doing a job well.   We all stood back and admired our work.  No explanation necessary. 

Now if I could just get them to learn about upkeep, we’d be golden!

This post has been liked to Finer Things Friday. 

Progress Update: 5 & 6/52

When we installed a new kitchen 3 years ago, I had one 13′ wall of drawers installed, because really, you can’t have enough drawers.  The idea of pulling all the contents out toward you (instead of stooping down to reach in and to the back) was just too appealing to pass up.  On top of regular drawers for cutlery, cooking utensils and tea towels, we have them for casserole dishes, mixing bowls, storage containers, little ‘dip’ dishes, plates and bowls, and all the kids cups.  This way, they can empty the dishwasher on their own and get their own dishes without having to climb up on the counter. 

It’s a wonderful system, but it has its flaws. 

Like I said, the kids empty the dishwasher, so their cup drawer usually ends up a mess.  On top of that, I usually save a few recyclable containers for crafts (mostly to hold paint), and this is usually the place they get tossed.  Making this my org project for the week was really more out of necessity than anything else.  That drawer was close to not closing!  It was nice to have a simple project after last week’s closet overhaul. 

Actually, I so enjoyed the result of the cup drawer, I also did my container drawer:  6/52.  Woot!  

I love this challenge because it can include tiny projects too… and really, aren’t our clutter problems just a culmination of a boatload of little ones?   Baby steps eventually cover a lot of territory. 

Here’s what I’ve tackled so far this year:

52.  Sitting room dresser drawers

51.  Foyer armoire

50.  Coffee cupboard

49.  David’s closet

48.  Kids’ Cup drawer

47.  Container drawer

46.  ???

If you want to jump into the challenge, head on over to the Org Junkie where Laura explains the details.

Progress Update: 4/52

Okay, next org project on the list?  A major purge/sort and let’s face it… RE-FOLD of David’s closet.   If I loved the man anymore, I’m quite certain I would burst.  But seriously, where in the world did he acquire such absurd  folding skills?  Actually, it’s not even folding.  It’s more like rolling.  Or something.   I don’t even know. 

Anyway, putting away his laundry was a major issue, as you can see.  Nary a spot for anything:

It’s a small ‘L’ shaped walk-in that will actually store a pretty impressive number of items.  At some point I hope to tear out the shelving and rods and reconfigure it so it makes better use of the space.  At that time I will also paint out that awful pink colour.   (Tip:  I always tell my clients to paint their closets white for that very reason.  It’s a nightmare to have to remove all the items from your closet when your tastes change.  White (or very neutral at least) is just…  practical!) 

Although I have plans to update the closet, this was just about purging, sorting and ‘neatening’ up.  To start, I hauled every single item out and piled it on the bed.  (And yes, although I painted my room this past summer, I still have a small section of wallpaper to peel… so I can paint.  I had hoped to finish it while David was a way last week, but ran out of time.  I’m always running out of time.  If I can finish it in February I’ll be happy.)

I vacuumed, wiped and started sorting.  In the end, I tossed a giant garbage bag of clothing that was rarely worn OR a major surplus item (t-shirts) OR in poor shape.  A few things were saved for ‘work clothes’, two shirts were cut into rags and the rest is being donated.  The items that made the cut were neatly folded or hung up.  In order to minimize opportunity for that little rolling-instead-of-folding issue I mentioned, I thought it would be a pretty good idea to hang all the t-shirts.  Less folding, fewer wrinkles.  Perfect!  I’ve done this with the kids’ shirts since they were about 2, so don’t know what took me so long to clue in to it as a solution for David.   It should be good! 

He came home that night, went into his closet to get changed and was so pleasantly surprised by what he found.  It felt so good to do that for him.  

Doesn’t it feel amazing to do special things for someone you love?  Seriously, I just can’t get enough of it. 

Thankfully, David can’t get enough of it either.  He reciprocated by making a remarkable (homemade save for the noodles) date night meal to celebrate the Chinese New Year.   Delicious orange beef, vegetable lo mein, wontons and wonton soup (which we devoured before the picture). 

But this post is about organizing… right? 

Yeah.

So far, 2011 has seen me organize 4/52 items. 

52.  Sitting room dresser drawers

51.  Foyer armoire

50.  Coffee cupboard

49.  David’s closet

48.  We’ll have to see…

Visit Laura (the Org Junkie) for more on the 52 weeks project.

Progress Update: 52 Weeks of Organizing

Remember that little dresser in my sitting room?  It was filled with paper and odds and ends and it felt SO good to finally take care of it.  

Okay, so I said I’d report back last weekend — like a whole week ago.  Yeah, yeah.  I know.   I did do this way back on Monday.  Whatever.  It’s done so I don’t mind it being a tad late.  We have to be reasonable with our bits of progress. 

Here’s the before:

Just look at the top drawer!  It’s the catch-all.  I see a map, sunglasses, a mini flash light, makeup, hair clips, a tire gauge, pens, pencils, memory verse cards, business cards… a whole big bunch of randomness. 

But now it’s a thing of beauty. 

The top drawer continues to be a junk drawer.  It’s been cleaned out and sorted, but my thinking is that without a junk drawer, I’ll have junk counters and that’s way worse.  So, this will continue to be a catch-all of randomness.  I know they say that all things need a home, but hello…?  Where do you store your whistles?   Or the buttons that have been yanked off of your tufted ottoman?  Yes, I do really like having one go-to spot for all the little bits and pieces that we come across in the course of a day. 

The second and third drawers were all paper. 

There were colouring pages, origami paper and school work that didn’t make it into binders.  There were drawings and special notes to mom and dad.  I sorted through every one of them.  Only a few were kept for ‘archives’, a few others were photographed and the rest were recycled or put in the ‘scrap’ paper tray so we could use the other side. 

Now these drawers now serve to store some of our main craft supplies.  I previously had bins in the basement that I would pull up when needed, but having key materials on hand will make school prep and craft time way easier.  Some things are already in here (construction paper, glue gun, glue sticks, stickers, stencils) and as we pull more out of our basement bins it will be put back in here instead.  This will help us to pull out only what we use (sort of like that ‘turn the hanger’ trick for closets) and will keep the drawers to a reasonable amount of stuff.  The only thing I won’t keep here is paint, since that requires some preparation on my part before the kids break into it.  🙂 

On top of that cute little dresser, I also tore apart our front armoire.  Our home has no front closet, no storage closet, no linen closet, so I got this a couple years ago at a buy & sell place in town for about $200.  I do hope to paint it sometime as it just seems so dark at the end of the hallway.  I’m really digging the interior paint colour, though! 

It’s used for my outer gear and David’s, though you’d never know it from the way it looked before:

NOW look!  It’s thrilling to have bins at the bottom for our snowpants and heavy mitts.  Our big snow boots are down there too.  We have bins up top for hats, scarves and gloves and a little shelf space for our favourite gloves and a few other things we use every day. 

I also screwed two hooks on the left side for my purses.  One big catch-all purse and my running out the door across the shoulder little purse.  This is much better than the kitchen counter or in the puddle of melted snow by the back door!   Now I’m thinking a few key hooks on the inside of the door. 

I also did my coffee cupboard, thanks to Rachel Anne over at Home Sanctuary.  One of her small things this week was to tackle a shelf.  I did all four, plus one shelf in my pantry.  No before picture, but I’m digging the after: 

So far 2011 has seen me organize 3/52 items. 

1.  Sitting room dresser drawers

2.  Foyer armoire

3.  Coffee cupboard

Bit by bit, I’m getting there and it feels GREAT!

Starting Over

I so enjoy being a Company Girl over at Home Sanctuary.  Rachel Anne gives us girls “small things” to do each day and it is really very effective in motivating me to find time to squeeze in one little thing five days a week.  As an added bonus, we award ourselves points during the month based on what we accomplish, and have a chance to win a prize.  I won a prize back in 2009!  What fun that was! 

Most things take just a few minutes, but they are things that make me feel a tiny bit better about the condition of my home.  Case in point:  Last week, I used Q-tips to clean the gunk in the rubber/ magnetic strip around the fridge door.  It needed to be done and took me only two minutes.  Thank you Rachel Anne. 

Friday’s ‘small thing’ was a bit bigger in nature.   It was big enough that we had all weekend to tackle it.  It was ‘starting something over.’   I had to think of something that wasn’t really working well, and start it over again. 

I decided to try a new approach to our ‘non-schedule’ for homeschooling.  I starting plotting out ideas on paper and came up with something that incorporates the main subjects, allows a spot for extra credit as I choose spontaneously, incorporates group time and independent time (language arts and math), and gives me a spot to write the specifics for the week, and mark it for the day it was done.  Then I opened up Excel and messed around with a new plan.  (OOOHHH…  I love making charts!)

Okay, so I haven’t filled it in yet (that will happen this am with my coffee) but… isn’t it purdy? 

We’re giving it a go this week.  Next week, we’ll decide if it’s something we’ll keep, tweak or toss. 

Here’s hoping.  

Here’s to starting something over.  

(And here’s to 50 points!  Woohoo!)

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.

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!)

Spring Cleaning: Laying the Foundation

Anyone who knows me knows I don’t let my kids get away with much in the way of helping around the house and contributing the (preferably smooth) running of the household.  This time of year it gets a bit worse ~ or better, depending on your perspective. 

Spring Cleaning has started here at Casa del Wacko.    Now that the scheduled part of our homeschooling year has ended (whew!), we have several hours a day to dedicate to whipping this place back into shape.  Truth be told, I feel like I won the time lottery!  It’s very odd to have freed up 5 whole mornings a week, and I’m excited for the results. 

But of course, you can’t jump to the results without first laying the foundation.  I wanted buy-in from the kids, I mean real buy-in, so I had to make them realize the need on their own. 

Back in the early spring, on a day when E had some (blissful for me) alone time in her room with her ponies, I got out the white board and asked the boys what they wanted to see happen in our family.   I wasn’t sure they’d be so forthcoming, but they came up with a pretty good list without a single bit of prompting from me.  I didn’t even mention the words ‘spring cleaning’ because I wanted to see if it would surface on its own.  

Here’s the list:

Both boys took turns listing their desires and wrote them out on their own.  They talked it through while I sat (with difficulty) in silent anticipation.  In case you have trouble reading that:

* We want a clean, fight-free, respectful house 

* A non pee-smelling house  (training our new puppy was numero uno for C)

* Good school-time and work

* More fun time

* All the fruits of the spirit

* A good household

* More time with mom

* Good dog

* More food  oy!  oy!  oy!

* No bills

* Taxes done  (this was taking up a lot of my time in a serious way)

* Less butter    (that makes me smile)

* Stronger with faith

* Get more sleep

* Listen more to God

* More pie

* Less sin

 

I found it very interesting to see the things that were coming up on their list.   It didn’t surprise me that C was fixated on food.  He is very health-conscious (eat less butter) and talks food all day long.    G, having an additional 2 years on his brother, seemed to be more focussed on spirit-based goals.  I choose to take that as a sign of maturity.  Recognizing the gaps is the first step. 

Then I asked them to each pick the three things from the list that were most important to them right now — even though all were important to them, I needed to identify the things they most wanted to work on first. 

That’s where the check-marks come in:

* We want a clean, fight-free, respectful house 

* All the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control)

*  More time with Mom

* Stronger with faith

* Listen more to God

* Less sin

They had their list and then both agreed that having a clean, fight-free, respectful house was the best place to start.  So, we erased the white board and they started thinking through the specifics of what that means:

I was impressed.  I let them talk amongst themselves (critical thinking at its best) and figure out how to summarize their thoughts.  When they got stuck, I asked them to form a hypothesis on the subject.  Through some other school work, they had already learned how to hypothesize.  They developed a statement that described what they thought would help achieve their goal of a CLEAN, FIGHT-FREE, RESPECTFUL home. 

Are you ready for it?  It’s my Finer Thing for today:

 

The beauty of it is that his goal will likely also result in some of the other ‘desires’ on their first list.  They immediately saw that there would be more time for Mom in the process, and I helped them along with some of the others:

* Good school-time and work

      (when the place is clean and organized, it will only help our productivity in other areas)

* More fun time

      (when we are on top of neatness and organization, we will have more time for other things)

* All the fruits of the spirit

      (we will likely see evidence of love, joy, peace, goodness and self-control in the process)

* A good household

     (self-explanatory)

* More time with mom

      (to pitch in together means Mom time is freed up to spend more wisely)

* More food  oy!  oy!  oy!

      (if all else is tidy, we can spend more time baking)

* Get more sleep

      (order brings calm and peacefulness, and therefore, better sleep)

And now school is “over” (caveat:  it’s really never over when we’re learning through living, but you know what I mean).  Now we’re in to the process itself.    Room by room, we’re working our way through the house.  We’re sorting and purging and cleaning and regaining control over all the “stuff” which clearly doesn’t matter. 

Hey – did you notice that nowhere on their list did “stuff” enter into the equation??   It was all about time together, joy, order and purity of spirit.

Amen!

Be sure to visit Amy for more Finer Things.  I always enjoy her blog, but Fridays allow for extra hopping around with all the great link-ups…   Happy Weekend Everyone!