31 Days: Giggle Monsters

Naomi, 11 months old and Nyla 2 years and 3 months old

Naomi's crib is where lots of laughing has been heard the last couple of days.

I find them rolling on top of one another, jumping up and down and giggling about whatever little ones giggle about.

These sweet and silly moments help me get through the tough ones. I know moments like these are just around the corner.

31 Days: Minimizing & Organizing

I love the simple life! As if you didn't already know that, right? I'm always looking for ways to make our life even more simple. Yes, I do think it's possible.

Last night while Daniel and Nyla headed to church (Naomi was a mess so she went to bed early) I cleaned out our master closet. It's needed it. I've been putting it off. I don't like clutter. But clutter happens occasionally. Enter our master closet.

Last year when we found out we were having baby number two I quickly went to work in cleaning out our extra third bedroom and closet. It has a spacious closet and it was pretty packed. Daniel paints, I like to craft, extra baby items and just a bunch of stuff that wasn't getting used was in there. I knew I need to minimize quite a bit because what was in that extra closet would be coming into our closet. And no, we didn't have room for ALL of it. Nor was I going to make room for things we weren't even using. I probably got rid of 4 large boxes of stuff. Between extra paint and craft supplies, games, puzzles, baby clothes that we had too many of, and so on, we had a lot. Minimizing our lives has been a work in progress. One I'm still learning.

As I was clearing out our closet last night it felt like all our things had multiplied. Does anyone else feel like that? I'm fairly good about getting rid of stuff immediately if it doesn't go with our way of life. I like the "one in, one out" rule too. I always have a pile going to give to Goodwill. But stuff still gets shoved on top of the fridge or in the back of a closet. It just happens.

I've been minimizing our lives since we got married. We lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with spacious closets and bathrooms and a bigger kitchen than I have now. I knew when we moved in I didn't want to pack every corner of that place. I packed up stuff for Goodwill right after I moved in and took it away and continued doing that every three to six months. Before we moved 2 years later I did that again. When we moved into our home I did it again. I hated that we took over quite a few boxes that eventually went to Goodwill but I've learned I don't want to be spur of the moment in giving away things. I don't want to have any regrets. And minimizing takes time. My rule of thumb is if I haven't used it or worn it in 6 months I think it's time to give it up. (This doesn't include maternity clothes or baby items that are expensive to replace) My rule used to be 1 year but now 6 months is good for me. If I'm unsure about something I'll hang onto it for another 6 months and revisit it. If it rarely got used I let it go. This works for me. It won't work for everyone.

I have people ask me frequently about my minimizing efforts. Here are my tips:

1. Take one room at a time or even one closet at a time. 
Remove everything. If it's clothes, try it on. If you're like most people you wear 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time. Keep that 20% and get rid of the rest. It's so freeing to look in your closet and know you won't spend ten minutes looking for an outfit. If you're unsure hang onto it a bit longer and revisit it. That's okay!
If it's "stuff" (childhood memories, crafts, etc) get out 3 boxes. One for "trash," one for "keep" and one for "Goodwill" (or your choice of place). Go through all the items and put them in a box. If you have a friend in need make a box for them. Once you've completed this process start putting things back in one at a time. And if it doesn't belong in that area, put it where it does go.

2. What do I do with sentimental items? 
This is always a big question. If you have room and you're not sure what to do with it, keep it. If you think someone else in your family will want it, pass it on. If these don't work for you because you don't have the space but you're somewhat attached, take a picture of it. Make an album for things like that. You will always have that picture but not the clutter. For us, we don't have the room for everything. Nor do I want it all. I like taking pictures of the girls in certain clothes or playing with a toy. And I still have a hard time letting go of some things. I don't beat myself up about it. And I keep it for awhile.

3. De-clutter once a month.
Grab a laundry basket or box and start going through your main rooms (kitchen, den, entry hall) and fill that basket up. You'll be surprised how much stuff you accumulate that you don't really need. Just this past week I tackled the top of our refrigerator. I had PILES of pictures, Nyla's school artwork, papers and junk up there. I took everything down, piled it on my counter and went through it over a couple days time. I put our photo books in my closet away from the dust and put the paperwork where it belonged. I feel so relieved that my fridge is cleaned off.

4. Ask for help.
When you first start de-cluttering you may have a hard time letting go of things. Bring in an impartial party to help you. They can help you sort through things and you'll really look at it and decide you haven't worn it, you don't love it and you really need to get rid of it. And then get rid of it.

5. If you have a pile ready to go, get it out of your house immediately!
I can't stress this enough. I think of how many times I've gone through our home, had a huge box of stuff and then it just sits for a month or two. Then when I get ready to put it in the car to take to Goodwill I start looking through it. And then I think I need to keep some of the things I thought I wanted to give away. But wait. Haven't they just been sitting in a box for two months and I haven't touched it? Yes! Get rid of it within a couple days.

That's all the tips I have today. I'm going to tackle our hall bathroom closet now. It's a disaster!

What are your tips for staying organized and having minimal items in your home? 
Or do you struggle with de-cluttering?

31 Days: My Running Journey

This summer I started on a journey. A running journey.

I go go go for my family and make sure they're taken care of everyday. I finally hit a wall and realized while I was busy taking care of everyone else I was neglecting me. I'm not one to always want "me" time. I'm a girl who loves relationships. I love the relationship I have with my husband, girls, family and friends. Because I'm like this, it took me quite a while to relize I needed to do something for myself.

In comes running.

About 15 weeks ago I tried to get back into a workout routing. I was struggling with consistency. What's new with that though? I then looked into running. You have to understand that I'm 70 ish pounds overweight, have plantar fasciitis in both feet and have a bad left knee (high school basketball injury). Running didn't seem possible to me. It never has.

My sister and I were out one night having dinner and she mentioned she liked my watch (the $10 Wal-Mart special). I told her I bought it to be my stopwatch because I wanted to start running. I had done some research and had a running program in mind (this one) and she told me she'd like to help me. I was pumped. My sister is super woman when it comes to working out, in my opinion at least. :) Not only was she a Varsity athlete in high school, she played college basketball. She's run numerous 5k's, a half marathon and training for her second now, goes to kickboxing class and now has a personal trainer two days a week to help with her weight training. See, I told you! Anyways, the thought of going and running by myself didn't sound appealing even though I knew I needed to do something. And I knew I needed to get out of the house, without my girls and do something for me. Daniel leaves for work at 6 a.m. which means I had to either get up at 5 a.m. or wait until after he got home. Since we started running in July running at night didn't make sense because of the high heat and high humidity. Running before the sun started coming up seemed better for a first time runner like myself.

We started running about 10 days later. This gave me time to focus on what I wanted to get out of running and my other goals. So Monday morning 5 a.m. comes around. Y'all, I love to sleep. I love my bed. My parents lovingly gave me the name "The Bog" (bed hog) years ago and I like to live up to that. :) Five in the morning was. not. easy! But I did it. And I still do it. Three days a week we get up and go run together. We don't run if it's raining, the road is wet (I don't want to fall and get hurt) or we're sick. My only goals were to complete the program and run in the 5k. So off we went...

Week one was tough. Thankfully, it involved a lot of walking. The sixty seconds of jogging wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I was glad. For someone who hasn't done anything consistently for 10 years this was the right program for me. I repeated week 1 of the program to help get me stronger. I didn't want to push it and wear myself out. I'm glad I repeated weeks where I needed to. It's been helpful in the long run. I ran week 2 of the program (week 3 of running for my me) and my knees were killing me. My calves were tight and I walked around with bags of ice on me most of the day. I started taking glucosamine pills and a week later my knees started feeling better. I know the pills helped but I also know my body was adjusting to my running. And losing weight didn't hurt either. And people, 90 seconds of running is way harder than 60 seconds of running. You wouldn't think so but it is. I'm glad I repeated week 1 before moving to week 2.

On and on the weeks have gone with running. I repeated weeks 1, 4, 6, 7 and 8. We have missed a few days but get back on track the next week, if not the next running day. We run Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. I like this schedule so I have 2 days to recover over the weekend.

To date I have completed 13 weeks of running and week 8 of the program. The last couple of weeks haven't been great, but it's all me. I've been inconsistent because I'm ready to run the race. I knew from the get-go I'd run my first 5k on November 3rd and now it's so close! I just want to see how I do and go from there. I have just a couple more weeks before I run and I'm getting excited. I have no goals of time or pace. I just want to run the whole time with no walking and finish. Yes, that's it. I've come to realize that setting goals is important to help me stay focused but setting lofty goals isn't helpful. Too many times I've set the bar very high for myself and came crashing down just 4-6 weeks later and then it's months before I do anything else. That's not what I want to do this time around.

Well, that's my running journey. My goals after this race are to keep running. I want to run Monday's and Thursday's. I also want to do pilates 2 days a week and maybe 1 day of weight training. I'll see how my race goes and decide what I want to do. I don't want to burn myself out but find consistency. I know I will pick another race and train toward it otherwise I'll be running just to run and I'm not sure how much I'd like doing that. But we'll see.

I bought these about 4 weeks after I started running.
 I knew I needed a real pair of running shoes. These have been my trusty kicks. :)

31 Days: The Schedule Balancing Act

As you have no doubt noticed (hopefully anyway), I have been rather, um, infrequent non-existent in blogging here lately. It's not that I do not enjoy writing on here (because I do). It's that I have been busy. It's ironic that I am writing this the day after my wife posted an excellent piece on the theme "Race" for her 5-Minute Friday post. Almost a month ago, I began taking a class on Tuesday nights to earn a certificate in financial planning from my alma mater. With this class, I am having to study a lot and keep up with the reading and exercises. (Technically, there is no homework, but I want to earn the certificate and be able to sit for the national exam to become a certified financial planner. So yeah, I need to study a lot.) In other words, between that and my husbandly and fatherly duties, my time now is limited. I'm having to learn a lot more about time management. Between schoolwork, spending time with my family, doing my journaling, and the other stuff during the week, I have learned there are some important things to remember when juggling the various responsibilities.

Be intentional. If you don't commit to it, it won't happen. For instance, I am intentional about studying for 1-2 hours a night once the girls go to sleep. Before that, my attention is on the them and Ginny and being present with them. I've had to be intentional about my schedule and time and resolving to do exactly what I plan on doing. Because if I don't have it planned out, it won't work. A great piece of advice my former manager at work told me was his experience with getting a doctorate. He said he set aside Sunday through Thursday for studying, while Friday and Saturday (and some of Sunday) was to be with his family. That's being intentional, and I have followed that advice.

Be engaged. While I am studying, I am not watching TV. While I am spending time with the girls, I am not thinking about studying. You get the idea. Whatever I am doing, I am not thinking about something else. This one is difficult, because we've all been programmed to multitask or believe we can do two things at once. We can't. Well, you may be able to, but I can't. It doesn't work for me.

Be committed. Now you might think this goes along with being intentional. I separate them just because I can be intentional about blocking out the time, but I have to commit to actually doing what I've blocked out time for. There have been several nights already where I have not wanted to study. It would have been easy to go sit next to Ginny and watch TV. I can't do that though, because I've committed to at least an hour of studying each night (and sometimes 30-45 minutes in the morning before work).

I know the next year is going to be a challenge for me. There will be nights where I just do not want to study. There will be times when a kid is sick and I'm low on sleep, and going to bed early is looking might good. But by being intentional, engaged, and committed, I can manage my time, enjoy my time, and still maintain a balance to my life.

How do you maintain balance in your life? 
 

This post is part of our 31 Days of Writing series. For more posts in this series, click here







-D

31 Days: Race (Five-Minute Friday)

Race.

On and on we race through life. Do we ever stop to enjoy the little moments? You know the ones that come and go so quickly. Those little moments for me are building towers with my girls, snuggling on the couch reading books, having a helper in the kitchen.

This year has been what I call my "Year of Contentment." I've strived to not pursue "things." We have so much and yet the world keeps pulling at me that I need more. But I feel like I've overcome that lie many times this year. I'm proud that I've overcome "the lie" that I need more stuff. I want to enjoy the moments in life. My girls are small and the days sometimes seem sloooooooow but the weeks fly by. Each moment is precious. I don't want to race through life and look back and say, "I wish I had more stuff." I doubt I'll say that. I'll want to say, "I'm happy with what I did in my life. I enjoyed the moments, each experience. I enjoyed my family and the simple things in life."

As I race through each day I try and remember that life is short. The special moments don't last forever. The hard moments don't last forever. I want my girls to see me living and experiencing life.



This post is linked to Five-Minute Friday. Hundreds of women join each week, write for 5 minutes on the same topic. Come join the fun!

31 Days: Fun at the Park

We are frequent visitors at many of our local parks. Thankfully, we live in the Bartlett area and there's a park for almost every neighborhood. We have our pick or busy and bigger parks or quiet and smaller parks. With our girls we usually go for the smaller parks. There's one not too far from our house that has a nice walking track, lots of ducks to look at, swings to swing endlessly on and slides that keep on sliding. Yes, we love being outside!

Naomi LOVES to swing!

At the "big" slide at Shelby Farms

Sitting on the bench at the park

Having lots of fun sliding, as always

Do you have a local park you like to go to?

31 Days: New Appliances (Before & After Pictures)

This weekend I got new appliances! My parents came in and asked about a month ago if we'd like new stove/oven and microwave. Since we don't need anything for Christmas but needed some upgraded appliances, they thought those would be a nice gift. I gave an excited, "yes" and asked if we could get a dishwasher thrown in there too. I was just throwing that out there. And it was okay if they couldn't do it. But my dad said they could probably do that too.

That same week Daniel and I ventured out to H.H. Gregg to see what was out there. The first stove we looked at was the one we ended up with. It has a bunch of different size burners plus a warming unit. I don't know how much I'll actually use it but it's nice to have the option. The oven is bigger than the one we had and there's no heating unit showing on the bottom. It'll be so much easier to clean, to not have to work around that coil! Maybe my oven will actually get cleaned more. ;)

This past weekend a handy man friend of my dad's came and installed everything and I'm in love! He was here most of the day since he had to cut the vent pipe a little and the cabinets to make the microwave fit and get it attached. That was the biggest job. The oven/stove and dishwasher were a "piece of cake," according to him.

We're so happy with our new appliances. I love them and have been doing a lot of cooking the past few days. Daniel will enjoy the food I cook. Or so he says. :)

Dishwasher before

Dishwasher after

Stove and oven before
The duct tape is lovely on the oven handles, isn't it?
See the microwave to the left of the unit? It's tiny compared to our new one.

New microwave, oven/stove combo after!
Sorry it's blurry.