10 Reasons to be a Mom Blogger

A few weeks ago I wrote about all the pitfalls of being a children's activity blogger.   All those problems sort of beg the question: "Then why in the world spend so much time doing it?"

It has taken me longer than I expected to get around to writing this post because I really do struggle with blogging and deciding whether or not it is the best decision for my family.  But lately, it has felt like a good choice; so I figured I'd better go ahead and write the post before I change my mind.

Giving Thanks During Preparation

In theory I love Thanksgiving.  But to be perfectly honest, the days and hours leading up to the Thanksgiving meal often find me busy and not terribly thankful (ironically, even a little irritable and grumpy).   This year we had our big meal on Wednesday; so today I decided to try to make a concerted effort to think thankful thoughts while I was making the meal and cleaning.  

I wasn't completely successful (there was that string cheese emergency, for example, when I had to quick eat a piece of string cheese before I bit my husband's head off) but there were some moments of reflective thankfulness.  And what was interesting to me was that I found new things to be thankful for that I probably would not have noticed before.

These were some of the new reasons I found to give thanks to the Lord:

1.  All the interesting textures God has made.  The firm but slightly spongey potato in my hand, the clammy turkey skin, etc. It really is beautiful and amazing.
2.  That none in my immediate family work retail.  We don't have the stress of Black Friday, etc. ahead of us.
3.  Ready access to so much meat when so much of the world struggles to get enough protein.
4.  No family food allergies that I have to work around in my meal preparation.  (What a huge thing that is!)
5.  That all this busyness comes from people.  I'm so glad I have people in my life for this Thanksgiving.  It would be hard to be alone.
6.  For convenience foods.  I feel a little strange being thankful for this because theoretically I'm a bigger fan of cooking from scratch, but what a luxury to be able to choose not to- when time is tight or when one just really doesn't care that much about a particular dish.  It's a boon to live in the age of Stovetop Stuffing!
7.  That if I stopped cooking and cleaning right now, we'd still eat better and in a nicer home than two thirds of the world.  Everything I am doing right now is over-the-top, luxury bonus.  ( Took a little of the pressure off, besides being a reason to be thankful).

Have you found new things to be thankful for this year- maybe things that you've had all along, but have just now struck you in a new way?

A Lesson (Re) Learned on Father's Day

Well, today was Father's Day, and I tackled lots of  little projects to make it memorable and to try honor my wonderful husband.  I attempted so many  things though that I found myself stressed out and a little on the disagreeable side for most of the day.  Some Father's Day present- huh? :-)

Sometimes less definitely is more...a hard lesson for an idea person like me.   Whether it is planning a vacation, entertaining guests, or making dinner, in the end, I'm forced to admit that my family would be better off with a relaxed, happy me than with lots of interesting activities, foods, or presents.

So...if you didn't do that much for Father's Day this year and were feeling a little guilty, maybe wishing you had done more, be comforted:  at least you didn't run yourself ragged and consequently walk around with short nerves toward your poor husband on his special day.

Anybody else have to learn this lesson over and over again?

Things I Don't Do

I spend an awful lot of time on this blog writing about things I do in my home with my family. It occurred to me the other day that some people might get the impression that we do an awful lot. I think though that a stranger spending time in my house might be more struck by the things we don't do than with all our activities.

So...in the interest of honesty and openness, I decided to make a list of some of the surprising activities that don't go on in our home. Some of them are things I'm heartily ashamed of and hope to do better as time goes on, but there are other things in the list that I am content with. Their absence reflects our family values and I'm willing to risk criticism from others for the sake of the time, focus, and energy it buys me. There are also some items that lie somewhere in the middle

I've decided not to tell you which are which. You might be able to guess my feelings on a few, but something inside me makes me feel it is better not to tell. I think partly because it will give me the courage to be more open, but also because the purpose of this post is not to make you feel judged for what you decide is or is not important for your family. I would rather this post serve as a reminder that you don't HAVE to do everything the magazines and parenting books recommend. Also, I think it's nice to hear, just every once in a while, another voice admit they don't have it all together.

Some of the Things We Don't Do at our House:

1. Cook every night. We eat a lot of leftovers.

2. Spend time on holiday traditions that are not personally meaningful to us. It shocks a lot of people that we don't even put up a Christmas tree or set out Easter baskets.

3. Put away laundry right away. It often sits until it is a thoroughly wrinkled, schmushed blob.

4. Baby sign language.

5. Keep a well manicured lawn. In fact right now, because we are experiencing a drought our grass is crispy brown.

6. Bathe my children every day.

7. Keep up with the news.

8. Do many child enrichment activities outside the home. (Baby swim lessons, Kindermusic, library story times, etc)

9. Take great pains to avoid exposure to germs. We don't use a grocery cart seat cover, and I generally only disinfect very dirty things.

10. Keep up with all the latest child health studies.

11. Bake from scratch very frequently- Despite having a great bread machine and a mother who has taught me time and time again her secrets for wonderful pie crusts.

12. Sweep under my toddler's high chair after every meal - despite her less-than-neat habits.

13. Fold my children's dresser clothes. seriously. I hang up all of their dresses in the closet, but everything else ends up in the drawers exactly how I throw them.

14. Take my children to the doctor unless they are due for a check-up or are very, very sick.

Well, those are the things that come to mind...I know there are more. :-)

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

If you have the inclination, I think I would be really interested to hear some of the things you don't do in your home (whether deliberately or not). Please share them in the comments section to give us all comfort and food for thought!

What I love about my home organization notebook

I'm a little afraid to show you my housebook because I've tried other systems before to keep myself domestically organized and they've turned out to be dismal failures. But this one has been in place for about two months now and I'm still excited about it; so I'm going to take the risk.

Things I love about my household binder:

1. I get to cross off a to- do list that includes very small, mundane tasks. I even get the satisfaction of filling in a box for drinking each glass of water and another for wiping down the counters.

2. My daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly to do lists only need to be printed off once. I've stuck them in pocket protectors and use a dry erase marker to fill in the boxes. Each day I wipe off the old marks and start fresh. For the every- other- day and every- other- week tasks, I place a small dot to the left of the box if I did them previously; so I know that they don't need to be done on that day/ week.
3. I can easily add to my to do lists. There is a place on each list where I can use my dry erase pen to write additional one-time tasks. If I don't get to those tasks that day, I just don't erase them when I start out fresh for the next day.

3. It uses the "Papyrus" font throughout and makes me happy every time I look at it. (my favorite font :-)

4. My binder has lots of pockets (in the binder itself and also in the form of pocket protectors) I use these to store all of the random bits of paper that would otherwise accumulate on my counters (That weeks grocery ads, recipes, important letters, etc). It's so great to have everything in one place!
5. I keep an abundance of looseleaf notebook paper in the binder. When an idea/ question pops into my mind I scratch it on one of the sheets and then later file that sheet under the appropriate tab.

6. The system is completely adaptable. If I find that my daily to do list makes unreasonable demands on me or doesn't include something important, I just go to the computer file that has the list, make my edits and slip my new piece of paper into the pocket protector.

I should note that I often don't complete every item on my list, and some days I'm in such a whirlwind of busyness that I completely ignore the lists. But even when I don't physically check off the items there is still something satisfying to me in completing tasks that I know would ALLOW me to check an item off a list if I bothered to do it. I feel a little silly when I realize how vulnerable I am to these little manipulative tricks, but they really have helped keep me on track.

What household organizing tools have you found helpful? Building new good habits is so worthwhile but often so difficult. I need all the help I can get!

Daily Schedule with 2 Little Ones

A while back a reader asked me to do a post describing our daily routine. It seems like things are often changing, but we have been doing what we do now for a few weeks. (I should mention that my girls are roughly 6 months and 2 1/2 years old).

Here is the skeleton of a regular day with the girls:

6:00am- Rise and shower
6:30am Bible reading and prayer
7:00am- G rises, eats, I make breakfast
8:00am- M rises, dresses,
8:30am- Breakfast- M and I work on memorizing bible verses
9:00am- G goes down for morning nap; Morning chores (M's job is to sort the clean silverware into the drawer- when she is done, I continue working while she has free play time)
10:00am- M's "school time"
11:30- G eats followed by errand running about town on some days; on other days this is outdoor play time
12:30pm Lunch
1:15pm- Story time with both girls
1:30pm- M goes down for nap, G's alone play time with me
2:00pm- G goes down for nap, My project/cleaning/napping/emailing time
4:00pm- M and G get up; M gets snack, G eats
5:00pm- I make dinner; M has a "Blanket Time"
6:00pm- Dinner and talk time with husband
7:00pm- Daddy play time with girls
7:15pm- Bible bedtime story with M, get her ready for bed
7:45pm M in bed, G eats and goes to bed

Of course, some days aren't like this at all- either because of unusual circumstances, or because of laziness. Do any of you have any tips or suggestions for arranging daily routines with little ones? I'm really very eager to hear about them. Hearing about other families' days is one of the best ways I have been able to make progress in this area.

Friday Night Pizza Tradition

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From Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver:

Routines save time, and tempers. Like a mother managing a toddler’s mood swings, our family has built some reliable backstops for the times in our week when work-weary, low-blood-sugar blowouts are most likely. Friday nights are always pizza-movie nights. Friends or dates are welcome...We always keep the basic ingredients for pizza on hand- flour and yeast for the dough, mozzarella, and tomatoes (fresh, dried, or canned sauce, depending on the season). All other toppings vary with the garden and personal tastes. Picky children get to control the toppings on their own austere quadrant, while the adventurous may stake out another, piling on anything from smoked eggplant to caramelized onions, fresh herbs, and spinach.

Because it’s a routine, our pizzas come together without any fuss as we gather in the kitchen to decompress...and talk about everybody’s week. I never have to think about what’s for dinner on Fridays.

I like this idea, and have been toying with it for our family lately. It’s cheap (especially if you make your own dough), easy, and fun! Here is a recipe for basic pizza dough that I used the other night. (Turned out great)

Easy Pizza Dough

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Knead in bowl for about 5-10 minutes (until elastic consistency is reached) Sprinkle with flour when needed to keep from sticking to bowl or hands.
2. Allow to rise for 30 minutes to an hour. Knead again and roll out on oiled pizza pan.

Here are some additional tips:

- You can actually skip the kneading, rising step if you need a quick pizza

- For extra flavor, add 1 teaspoon dried basil, oregano, or garlic powder to the dough

- To keep the dough from bubbling, prick with fork

- Bake for 5-10 minutes without the toppings to allow the crust to rise a little

- At the very end, place pizza under the broiler for a couple minutes if you like the charred cheese effect

Edith Schaeffer on Time

Edith Schaeffer writes about finding the time to do all of the creative activities she thought up to do with her children:

"Time? Yes it takes time. But not as much as you might think. Plans are laid while one washes dishes, preparations are made when one is waiting for the cake to finish baking. Notes, ideas, plans can be jotted down and kept ready for the opportune moment. And it is time well spent in really having a family life, in making home more fun than any other place, which makes other 'attractions' seem boring by contrast."

-The Hidden Art of Homemaking