TV=OFF in Our Home

We don't have cable or satellite, we have the free, over-the-air TV and we love it! We love it because it costs us nothing and we don't feel the need to watch it every night because there's not that much on anyways.

About 6 weeks ago I made the decision to keep the TV turned OFF all day while the girls and I are home. I was keeping it on just to have it on. Doesn't everyone do that? Well I decided I didn't want to anymore. Nyla has never been interested in watching it and I never wanted it become a babysitter anyways. So what if she follows me around all day? She helps with the laundry, dishes and some of the cooking and yes she's only 19 months. Is she in my way? Yes, sometimes. But most of the time I'm happy to have her there learning the day-to-day routine I have. And I'm teaching her chores early, which is a goal of ours anyways.

My favorite author, John Rosemond (a Christian psychologist), talks about the evils of TV (my words, not his) and how there's no such thing as a "kid's" show. Why? Because the shots change every 3 to 10 seconds which means their attention span is only for that long. "But my kid can watch TV for hours on end. Doesn't that mean he/she has a good attention span?" That is one of the questions he addresses. His answer in a nutshell, no, it doesn't mean they have a good attention span because the world doesn't change every 10 seconds. That's NOT real-life! When they go to school do they change subjects every 10 seconds? No they don't. So why subject them to that and teach them that when it's not real life? You can read more on this subject in his book, The {New} Six-Point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children. I'm getting off topic, but he's a great reference!

Anyways, I decided to keep the TV off before I even read that book and then when I read it, it cemented what I wanted from each day with my girls. NO TV!!!

For the first 3 days it was a challenge which means I was a bit addicted. Again, I didn't watch particular things or whatever, I just had it on to have it on. Even Nyla would go up to it and say "on" those first few days. That was a wake-up call! I didn't think she was really watching it, but apparently she was. After those first three days I didn't have a hard time keeping it off anymore. And after a couple weeks Nyla quit asking to have it on. Thank goodness!

So here we are, about 6 six weeks later and the TV is still off all day. I lost 3 pounds in 5 weeks because I didn't find myself bored and wanting to snack while the TV was on. I am more productive during the days, I'm reading more and my girls are getting more attention from me. And all these things mean turning the TV OFF has been more than well-worth it!

My goal is to continue this. We watch Jeopardy in the afternoons sometimes. We watch Wheel of Fortune each night and an occasional show but all-in-all the TV stays off. If basketball is on we are usually watching that. We are sports fans in this house after all!

This is a goal I never even put on my 2012 goal list but it has quickly become a top priority. And I want to continue this for years to come. It works for us and who we are and what we want to do as a family.

What are some of your goals?

*The opinions on John Rosemond's book are my own. I was not contacted by him or his affiliates in any way.

Simplify: Kids Clothes

It's been 19 months since our first sweet girl arrived and while we have loved every minute getting to know her we have NOT loved all the clothes we have accumulated with our now 2 baby girls.

I realized last summer that we had WAY more than our girls needed in the clothes department. Yes, Naomi will need the 18-month clothing that Nyla wore but she will not need as much as I have. Nyla wore about 20% of her wardrobe, just like us big people tend to do. When my mom brought over the 18-month clothes I got everything out and see what I had, see what I remembered liking on Nyla and see what she never wore. Let's just say we had a bigger pile of what she never wore and I didn't want all that staying in our house. I'm slowly minimizing our wardrobes and the girls are no different. I wash almost everyday so there's no reason to have 24 dresses, 12 pairs of shorts and 30 tops. Yes we really did have that much for Nyla and more!

When I went through their clothes I decided to not to keep what I didn't love and not have too many of one item. It's just not necessary. I have never sold any clothes to our local kid's consignment shop but decided to try it. So I went through all their clothes and filled up a large plastic tub of clothes and shoes. I hope to make a little money and get rid of clutter in the process. It's win-win all around!

Here's Nyla and Naomi's closet... it's packed! And this is only one side of their closet.

Here's the tub of clothing I'm taking to our local kid's consignment shop. I hope to make a decent amount of money on it. Whatever they don't want is going immediately to Goodwill and NOT back into our home. Can you see that it's packed?!?! I stuffed as much as I could in there. I hope I'll get some good money for some of it. :)

How often do you declutter?

This post is linked to Project: Simplify at Simple Mom.

*Update: I took my full box of clothes to a local kid's shop (not the one I was thinking about when writing this post) and made $21 while getting rid of half the box! I had the choice of $30 in store credit but opted for the cash since I needed to buy a few extra groceries. I will be taking more clothes, shoes and toys back there!

Minimizing: It's A Process!

For the past couple of years I've been reading some pretty amazing blogs about minimizing and simplifying life. I'll tell you that I was just going with the flow, buying what I thought I needed and what would make me happy, but it didn't and sit still doesn't. And all I was left with was a bunch of useless stuff filling up our closets and our floors making life harder than it needed to be. But, thanks to these blogs I saw I could live a different way. I saw that all that stuff that I thought I needed, well I really didn't need it like the world was telling me. So I made a decision and started changing the way I thought about what I brought into our home.

When we started house hunting in April of 2010 and then began packing for the move into our first home I really started paring down what we had. And we had a lot! Or I had a lot. :) Once we got moved in I went through more of our stuff. I realized that 1. we didn't have room and 2. we didn't need it and it hadn't been used and 3. I was tired of it! Being 8 months pregnant when we moved was actually helpful in paring down since I was nesting then. :)

Here we are 2 years later and I'm still de-cluttering. Honestly, it feels like it's been a never-ending process for the past couple of years. But I'm doing a little at a time and I feel accomplished every time I get something done.

In the past 2 months I've gone through our outside closet (this holds decorations and stuff for outside), our laundry room, pantry, both girls closets and our closet. That is all over the place but when the urge comes to minimize I jump at it. Just today I was reading how Rachel is clearing out her boys clothes. She has 2 beautiful boys and while the baby will need the big boys clothes in the next year or so she realized he wouldn't need as much as they have. I have been realizing the same thing, I just haven't been able to figure out what to do exactly. And I kept thinking, "What if Naomi does need more clothes? I don't want to get rid of them just in case." Well that's not the thinking I want to have because then I'll use that every time I start to minimize our things. Nyla didn't wear quite a few items and they were just stored in a box. I have my favorites which means I'll put Naomi in the same clothes I put Nyla in. So I am getting rid of a lot. I went through and filled up a large plastic tub of all kinds of clothes. Next week I'm going to take them to our local kid's consignment store and see if I can get some money for my clothes. What they don't take I'll immediately take to Goodwill so it never comes into my house again. I think it'll be win-win all around!

So, while I am making progress in minimizing, de-cluttering, paring down, getting rid of the excess... whatever you want to call it, I still feel overwhelmed about it all. I am taking it one day at a time, one month at a time and one space at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day! And my house will NOT be the way I want it in a day! This is especially true while I have 2 babies at home who are growing like weeds and they require a certain amount of stuff. What they don't require is a lot of stuff like I originally thought. Nyla is content reading, playing music and playing with her little kitchen. All her other toys are just in the way of her creative self!

Blogs that inspire me:

Frugal and Simple

Small Notebook

I have quite a few other favorite blogs but these two are truly my inspiration for getting rid of the stuff and not be bogged done by it. These are actually two of the first blogs I ran across about 3 years ago. I have no idea how I stumbled upon them but I'm thankful I did. I hope you find inspiration in them as much I have!

Now go out and conquer that pile of stuff that has been getting on your nerves for awhile, you know which one I'm talking about! :)

Dedicating Naomi

Our sweet Naomi got dedicated in church this past Sunday. It was such a sweet time being in front of our church dedicating her to our great God! We have the sweetest Pastor who married us and now has done the dedication for both our girls. It's still mind boggling that we have 2 girls! Here are some pictures of her big day!!

Mommy and Naomi

Daniel was holding Nyla but I had a necklace on so she wanted me, plus she was tired so I was holding both of them for a few minutes. That almost 50 pounds of sweet baby love right there!

We made the switch. :)

Ronnie is praying for our little family.

Our Preschool/Nursery Director, Kathy, saying a few words. So sweet!

I'm thankful Naomi did so well. I left Sunday School a little early to get Naomi dressed and she was NOT happy. She was overtired and needed a nap and she was screaming. I thought it was going to be the loudest baby dedication in the world. Thankfully when we got in there she was quiet and looked out at the congregation and just took it all in. As soon as it was over she was back to screaming. We greatly appreciate her 10 minute break to get dedicated!

Frozen Cherry Salads

I have a fond memory of these growing up. My mom would make them and we'd have them with dinner or as a little sweet dessert after. I have wanted to make them for awhile but just kept forgetting about them. Last week when I went to the grocery store I add the four ingredients needed for this delicious treat. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have over the years.

Frozen Cherry Salad

Serves: 48

Ingredients:

1 can cherry pie filling

1 (20 oz) large can crushed pineapple, undrained

1 (14 oz) can condensed milk

1 (16 oz) cool whip, thawed

1-2 drops red food coloring, optional

Instructions:

Mix all in a large bowl and scoop into paper lined muffin cups, 1/2 to 3/4 full. Freeze for a few hours. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Note: These make a lot! I put 12-16 in a gallon freezer bag and pop one out when I want a sweet treat.

These make a beautiful little treat for a bridal luncheon or baby shower.

48 calories per serving (if you make 48)

Menu Plan Monday-Feb 6

Happy Februray Y'all! It's been a couple of weeks since I posted my menu. Life has been a little crazy around here. Our sweet Nyla had surgery last week so we were preparing for it and not recovering from it. Thankfully she's doing pretty well, as long as we keep tylenol in her!

For January I challenged myself to only buy dairy, produce, fresh bread and anything Nyla ate since she doesn't eat what we eat, unfortunately. For the most part I stuck to that! I'm pretty proud at how I did so I'm calling it a win. I ended up having more meats leftover so we're continuing to eat from those for the month of February which is perfect. Also you'll begin to see more use of the crock pot, leftovers and soups this month. It's so not cold here but I'm making soups anyways. The groundhog saw his shadow this week and predicted 6 more weeks of winter but in Tennessee we're still looking for the first 6 weeks of winter. We need a huge cold snap here, mainly for the bugs! I've already been bitten a few times by mosquito's and I'm not happy about it! Alright, enough jibber jabber. Here's what's for dinner this week.

Monday: Crock pot cheesy chicken spaghetti

Tuesday: Bbq chicken enchiladas

Wednesday: Toasty sandwiches

Thursday: Spicy black bean soup, served over rice {new recipe}

Friday: America's Test Kitchen pepperoni pizza (I'm pretty excited about trying this!)

Saturday: Cheesy chicken and salsa skillet

Sunday: Sandwiches OR leftovers from the week

That's what's happening in our kitchen, how about yours?

Nyla's Surgery

The big girl with her little hospital gown on. So sweet!

On Wednesday Nyla had her first surgery and hopefully one of her last! Mommy was not a horrible wreck but nervous enough about it. She had tubes put in her ears and her adenoids were taken out.

She hasn't had a huge amount of ear infections in the past year and a half it's just the most recent ones have lingered. She had a double ear infection right before Naomi was born that lasted 2 months! We tried 3 different medications and her ears finally cleared up. The bad thing? 1-2 weeks later she had another double ear infection. We were told to get a consult from an ENT and glad we did. It turns out not only she needed tubes for the ear infections but that she wasn't hearing at 100% out of her left ear. We noticed she wasn't finishing her words or pronouncing them clearly and now we knew why. We scheduled her surgery and patiently waited for the 2 weeks to go by so it could get done. It was a tough 2 weeks because Nyla was fussy from not feeling great and Naomi was sick with yet another cold and a little cough. We were more than ready for everyone to get well again!

The days before we had a lot of people asking when her surgery was and all the details. While some said they would pray for us, others said, "Oh that's no big deal." People, it is a big deal, it's surgery! Be sympathetic, especially if you have children that had the surgery. It may not be a big deal to you now, but it was when you were going through it. Don't you remember? I understand why people say that, they're trying to make you feel better but you don't know my feelings on the matter, it's my child, my baby and it's surgery. It's a big deal to me! That's something I have to remember when people tell me their little one is having surgery. Instead I'll try and remember to say, "Yes, Nyla had that when she was around 18 months. It's tough having to see your little one go through that but it's so helpful in the end. We'll be praying for your family." See how much nicer that is? Again, it's something for me to try and remember to do.

Thankfully, we had a super awesome Doctor. My dad has a friend that's a doctor and told him that whenever we needed to see someone let him know and he'd refer us. He referred us to someone he knows and he was great. He was sweet to Nyla, explained things clearly, made us feel comfortable and he loves Jesus; that's a huge deal to us. That's why my dad's friend referred us to him, one of the reasons anyways. And the best thing, he prayed with the three of us before they took her back. I mean really, how great is that? That meant the world to us! And it made it a little easier to let her go.

After the doctor left a nurse came in and asked Nyla if she wanted a warm blanket and Nyla went right to her and away she went. Thankfully they didn't make a big deal about it and just took her. Of course I cried. That's my baby they took away. I thought it would've been harder but I held it together. So out to waiting room we went, hoping it wouldn't be the longest 30 minutes of our lives. Our Pastor came and sat with us while she was in surgery and that helped pass the time. We talked a little about the surgery but more about other things and that helped me not focus so much on what was going on. And before we knew it we were being called back to see our sweet girl!

We were told to be ready for her "thrashing" in recovery and yes she was a thrasher! She scratched the right side of her face a little, was pulling at her iv and when she saw me started yelling, "mamamamama." They got a chair in our little recovery area and once we got her focus off pulling her iv off, she calmed down. I rocked with her and rubbed her head. If I stopped she would say "more" and sign it too. For one hour we sat there so they could get some fluids in her. It was a nice one hour of snuggle time with my baby. Y'all, it's rare for her to sit still for more than 5 minutes so you better believe I soaked up every second!

The hour passed pretty quickly, we got her dressed and were walking back into the waiting room headed for the exit and she threw up on Daniel. Yuck! It wasn't much, it didn't scare her but we went back in to talk to our nurse who had warned us it could happen. She gave us a throw up bag but thought it was probably an isolated incident. We got to the car, buckled her in, Daniel sat in the back with her just in case she got sick and good thing, because she did. She started coughing and then threw up a couple more times but was fine once we got moving. She dozed on the way home and went right to her bed where she was zonked for three hours. That was one of the best naps since she was a baby! When she woke up she had some water, scarfed some noodles and grapes and played as usual. We even went outside for a little while.

These past few days have been pretty good. She gets in her fussy periods but that usually means it's time for some tylenol, her breath is stinky from her adenoids coming out and her throat healing, but she's eating and sleeping well and getting plenty of fluids. She's up 1 or 2 times a night because she's hurting so she gets tylenol and a snuggle in the chair but she'll go right back to sleep after that. All-in-all we had a good experience with our ENT's office, our ENT, the surgery center and recovery.

We're glad she had the surgery and have noticed a difference in her speech already. I noticed it the next day actually. We go back in 2 weeks for her post-operation appointment and hope to have a glowing report. And then maybe we'll finally be able to have her 18-month well check-up, a month late!