Musings

I just realized it's been over a week since I've written. Sorry! I tend to slow down in the winter. I become quieter, even a little down in the dumps. But, I know it's a phase I go through every winter, and it will pass.
So, what have I been thinking about over the past week? Lots of things...
1) Making soup in a crock pot does not require as much water as when making it on the stove, but it does need a lot more time, especially for the special ingredients added at the end. (My potato soup took way too long tonight!)
2) Parenting is serious business. I need to be more fully present with my kids, and much more patient with them as well. Discipline (NOT to be confused with punishment) is much better received when a relationship is build. Same goes with the students in my class.
3) Keep up with Laundry! The dryer was repaired, but then broke again, this time to be unrepairable. (Don't think that's a word, but it works for me!). I had about a week of trying to figure out how to replace the dryer on a very tight budget, meanwhile the mountain of laundry built up. Fortunately, I had been caught up before all this happened, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
4) Naps are nice. We had a 3 day weekend stretch into 4 days, thanks to some ice and snow. I was able to take it easy, rest, and enjoy the family. Nice.
5) Frequent de-cluttering is much easier than one mad rush. Over these 4 days home, I've been after my kids to pick up when they're done with things, and have also picked up after myself and the hubby quite a bit. It is much easier, and more satisfying to do it as I go, instead of waiting until there's so much stuff everywhere that I'm upset.
6) Sourdough bread is addictive, and therapeutic! In the fall I was given a starter and great recipe for sourdough bread. It requires attention every 3-5 days, which I thought would be a chore. But no, I love fresh bread, and mixing and kneading the bread is a calming, wonderful experience. Especially when it's followed by a warm, soft piece of bread later in the day. I have some in the oven as I type this, and can't wait!

I know 7 is not considered a number to complete a list, but, dinner is waiting, so here goes...

7) God can handle my worries much better than I can. With the winter months here, coming off of Thanksgiving and Christmas with incredibly tight budgets, moving on to a broken dryer, I've been a little stressed lately. I've been doing a lot of reading lately. My Bible, a daily devotional, and another book. All in all, I have not business stressing out. God can handle it. So, for today, I give it to Him.
Better go now. Have a great week! 

Drop Zones

First, a disclosure: My ideas are not original! I like to read and look at other blogs, there's a lot of good stuff out there. I take those ideas, adapt them to my family and what works for me, and share them again to help you, my reader. One blog that I used to read a lot, and still do sometimes, is FlyLady. She gives lots of tips on cleaning and organizing your home and life. It doesn't all work for me, but if you check out that blog, you will see some of what I've posted here. I'll put a link to that site on the side here.

So, that being said, Drop Zones are dangerous! They are those places around your house that you just drop stuff. For me, it's the kitchen table. When the family comes in, we drop stuff off at the kitchen table. Mail, papers, lunch boxes, stuff, stuff, and more stuff. Then, when it's time to eat dinner, we have to clear off the table, and stuff gets piled up in other Drop Zones. And, stuff gets lost. I try to clear off the Drop Zone every day. Some days I do better than other days. Here's a tip. After you do you clean up, dishes, clothes, trash, etc, take time to clear through your Drop Zone, and do the same there that you do around the house. Put STUFF where it goes. Have a box for receipts, bills, etc. Put those there immediately so they don't get lost. Then, when you plow through bills, file them each away as part of your process. Don't delay, or that monster will get huge! I'll put another post about that later. I do have Drop Zones for everyone in my family, that they are responsible for. Generally it's their dresser. Whatever stuff of theirs that I find around the common areas of the house, I deposit there. Then they are all responsible for keeping their own Drop Zones under control. I do teach the young ones how to manage this. So, add to your list, Drop Zone. It needs daily attention!

Fun Day!

I have made a couple of resolutions. They all revolve around Spirit, Body, Mind. Put simply, I will spend more time meditating on God's Word and living for Him. I will be more fit. I will learn more about my job, which I love. I've done all of these for the past 2 days of the new year. Go me. The cool part is, because I got out the Wii-Fit and worked out for 30 minutes this morning, the whole family has now used it today! We've had fun together, working out, cheering each other on, and relaxing. I even tinkered around with Pinterest. Interesting. No Pun intended.
So, perhaps my resolutions will carry over to the whole family. I know having a couple weeks off work has made it much easier. When school get going again, after just one more day off, life will get busy and tough again. It will be hard to stick with what I am resolving to do. But, that's life. We have to work hard for the good stuff. As I tell my students every day, to get good stuff, you have to do good stuff. You have to work hard in this life. That's just the way it goes. We can dread it every day, or we can embrace it and move forward. Either way, life continues on. I choose to enjoy it as much as I can. What about you? 

New Traditions

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I stressed out this year, in the days leading up to Christmas. In the end, I was rushing to have the kids make cookies for Santa, which turned out pretty bad. I was stressed, the dough wasn't right, it just wasn't fun.
Well... we had to change New Year's Eve plans due to a kiddo with an upset stomach. So we ended up staying home and enjoying family time. Instead of going to a party somewhere else, we hung out, played games, and made cookies. Good Cookies. The end result was much more relaxing, and fun for all. So, I'm going to try something new for this year. First, among a couple of other personal resolutions, I'm going to try to not stress over doing things the way I think they should be done, especially involving what should be fun for the kids, but ends up not so much fun. After all, the kids didn't really care about making cookies for Santa. I just thought it was something that had to be done. So, I'm scrapping cookies for Santa, and instead, am thinking we'll do New Years Cookies. More time for fun, more relaxing. Traditions aren't really any good if they don't bring joy to the family. We'll see what comes in 2012, but for now, trying hard to chill out! Here's a few pictures of what we ended up with. Everyone pitched in, from the six year old, all the way up to mom.

The cookie recipe was the hubby's grandmother's, the icing recipe and technique came from a blog, "Pennies on a Platter." Let me know if you'd like me to post them. Happy New Year!