Monday...again?

Ugh, can you tell I'm not too enthusiastic about today? I usually love Mondays, it always feels like a fresh start, but this morning brought with it a not so welcome guest, if you catch my drift...This is not something I care to publicly talk about, however it hasn't wrecked my whole day like this in a very long time. Since weaning Jacob, it seems to have come back with avengence. I would love to curl up with a good book, a cup of tea, my rice heating pad, some good Christian music, country gospel, of course, and lay in bed all day. But we all know that's not going to happen, so I've had my caffiene fix, took some ibprofen, and am waiting for them both to kick in.

This is not my ideal Monday before Thanksgiving, let me tell ya. Today we are supposed to do our weekly home blessing, and quite honestly I just hope I can get my dishes done and meals cooked for today. I really need to get some bread made, and I'd like to go ahead and get some rolls made up ahead for the week. Plus we are doing school through Wednesday, as we have already missed too many days this year. Then we'll take off for Thursday and Friday, then back to school for 3 more weeks before we take off 2 weeks for the holidays.

Okay, so I'm done whining...at least where you can hear me. lol. I really have to get this stuff done, so I'll just do it as I can, we may not get finished before midnight tonight, but at least it will get done, right? Gotta have my house presentable for turkey day. The kids will be quite busy, one of the reasons I LOVE homeschooling, especially when your olders are old enough to do some of the harder jobs you usually have to do, like cleaning the toilet and sweeping. Not that I work them like donkeys, but I see no reason, why they can't help their mom out when she's down, and it's good for them, and quite honestly, my kids actually enjoy helping me clean house. So I'm done on here for now, off to do some work. Have a great day!

A parting shot....

My boy is getting stronger, look at him standing up like such a big guy!

(We had to stand him up like that, but he stayed on his own)

In His Grace,

sara

Pay it forward-What I Sent

Ok, so if you haven't recieved your pay it forward from me, then read no further, but if you have, I'm sharing what I made.



To the right is a picture of my first tatting project, which turned out to be rather easy, and something I hope to do again soon. Below is a photo of all the bookmarks I made. The other two were crocheted, and the corner bookmark has a little teacup charm on it that dangles from a string. All of them were so much fun to make and even more fun to mail them to somebody I've never had the chance to meet in real life.


Thank you ladies for participating in this pay it forward, I hope you were as blessed by it as I was.

In His Grace, sara

Stressed

I have to say, I am stressed out! It's amazing how time has a way of speeding up on you when you really don't want it to. Didn't I just have 3 or 4 months until the holidays took over our lives. Every year I strive for a stress free holiday season, and every year I fail miserably.

I guess this year, for me anyways, I realized TODAY was the day I was failing yet again to have a stress free holiday season, and that Thanksgiving is a week away..at my house, and I'm the only one cooking since my parent's are having their kitchen remodeled. Can you say unprepared!? Yep, that's me!

So what did I do?...I cheated, yes, I can admit it, I cheated, I found an already made Thanksgiving menu and shopping list online and I used it! I printed out the shopping list and checked off what I already had and went to the store and bought what we needed. I felt kind of bad about it at first because even though this menu looks delicious and filling enough, it doesn't have any of those traditional, passed down for generations recipes that my grandmother gave me, etc, etc....however I quickly got over that when I thought about the time and patience it would take me to gather all my recipes, then make my shopping lists, and, honestly, I didn't care. I need simple right now. I really like the menus they had available at Menus for Moms. They are super simple and really easy to follow. No really extravagant ingredients of any kind. Just what I needed.

So now, I am well stocked, with enough food to get us through, Lord willing, to the second week of December. We will be making weekly trips for milk, but that should be it. We have also added to our list of bi-weekly to do's a trip to the next town over for fresh raw goat's milk for little Jacob here. It's so well worth the drive, our store sells pasteurized goat's milk for near $4 a quart, where as we paid $6 for a gallon, which should last us at least a week, if not two for as much as he drinks, this is our first week so, we will have to see how long it will last him.

As to the rest of the holiday season, there is so much going on for us, it's hard for me to wrap my brain around it all....In one week is Thanksgiving, ofcourse, in 2 weeks and 2 days is Jacob's 1st birthday, in 2-1/2 weeks, my husband's family are flying in, they won't be staying with us, thank goodness, but they will be visiting frequently. In about 3 weeks is the kids big Christmas play at church that we are preparing for... throw in a few get togethers for church and family, lots of visitors, time spent homeschooling and making homemade gifts, and the fact that Christmas is in just FIVE short weeks.....and I'm nigh on to a nervous breakdown.

I honestly don't know how I'm going to get it all done. I realize I need a plan...but could somebody please tell me what it is? Flylady is great, the whole system is great, but I need miracles now, not babysteps... ya know what I mean?! So much food to prepare, so much house to clean, so many children to teach, so many gifts to make, and to add to the stress...we are broke...not knocking down the doors of the local Food Pantry broke, but just no money to spare for those things that make the holidays easier, like gifts from a store. I joke, really, I enjoy making gifts, but sometimes the time it demands is too much.

I really don't know what I'm going to do, I'm quite sure sitting here squaking on about it, isn't helping me out any. But it really does feel good to let all the frustration out, I have to say.

The last few days, our new cleaning system (i.e. flylady, as if you didn't know) has been slacking slowly but surely, and not just the kids, it's me too. I don't have much hope to regain control this week, but I will certainly be trying as much as I can. Jumping in where I was, so to speak. I'm guessing Saturday is the magic day to get caught up. Not that I won't do anything throughout the week, but Saturday I will spend the day getting done what I didn't get done during the week. I think some Crisis Cleaning may be in order for that day, as well as some heavy duty projects to work on.

Tomorrow will be especially busy as we have a Keepers of the Faith meeting, and I think a dr's appointment for Jacob, not for sure if it's tomorrow or Monday, so I will call in the morning to find out, I'm hoping it is tomorrow, so I won't have to get out next week, wouldn't that be nice. Well, I'm off to plan out the rest of my week, and next week, we type A's really enjoy the planning part, don't we, it's the doing where we fall flat, eh?

Well, if you don't see me for a while, send help...I've been committed! lol.

In His Grace,
sara

My kids and Goings on

Wow, am I one blessed mama, or what?! These kids are just precious, ornery, yes, but precious. I took these pictures earlier this week, as sort of a present for my mother in law on her birthday Wednesday. Since she's so far away, it's difficult to send her anything, because they are super picky about what we mail (the embassy, not my inlaws). So we saved her real gift until they arrive next month for Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, preperations are well under way at Blessed Simplicity Homestead. I printed out the Holiday Control Journal, and am working on filling it in and making my lists of to do's for the upcoming weeks, including menus, shopping lists, and all that goes along with the holiday season. We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year, and while Christmas is still in the air, as to where we will be exactly, I'm still planning to make lots of goodies.

Also, as you can guess, nearly all of our gifts are either handmade or second hand, so I've got those lists in progress as well. I'm actually hoping to have at least 75% of my Christmas shopping done by the first of December. The homemade gifts will probably take me right up until time to be given, but I have no desire to go shopping any more than I have to during the month of December. As nuts as people are the rest of the year, I don't even want to think of how crazy it will get during the holidays.

So now I'm sure you are all wondering how we're doing on our "flying". Well, truth is, we are still doing really, really good. I'm not saying it's gone perfect all week, but we got more done in this one week, than we have the entire month. We had a lot of days where things were forgotten, but the daily routines, especially the morning routine have been kept up with really well.


Now that we have the basics down, we need to focus on some areas. The first area that needs our attention is our wake up time. We are not morning people, we want to be, but we just aren't. I get up and get my husband off to work about 6am, and then I usually end up going back to sleep until about ....8:30am, which is about what time the kids are all getting up. So our goal for this next week is to continue on in what we're doing, and focusing on getting up at 6am on weekdays, 7am on weekends, and staying up, which means that we also need to work on our bedtime.

The kids bedtime is 9pm, 10pm on the weekends, so mine needs to be within an hour of their bedtime. So 10pm on weeknights, 11pm on weekends. I like to read at night, so I probably won't be asleep until about 30 minutes to an hour afterwards, which still allows me to get at least 7 hours of sleep, which is plenty.


The other areas will fall into place as well, as we get used to these routines a bit more. I'm really excited at how well we've done with keeping up with the kitchen chores. That's one thing that suffered a lot in this house. But now that we're all working together, the kitchen is practically cleaning itself. It's wonderful.

Well, I guess my time is up for now, For today, we've already done school, done most of our daily chores, and have just some laundry and the rest of the day to get through. I'm also working on a painting project. We're planning a big pot of split pea soup, some ice cream, and a good movie for tonight, so I better go get ready for that. Have a blessed weekend!

In His Grace,

sara

Pay it forwards are on their way

Just wanted to let the ladies know who participated in the pay it forward that they are on their way. I hope you all like them! I had a great time making them. I took photos of what I made to share once you get them, so if you can let me know when you've recieved them, that would be great!

In His Grace,
sara

Still plugging away!

We are still diligently working on our new routines and cleaning schedule. It is going great! Yesterday we again completed all of our tasks. Now I will be honest with you, we have not been starting our day off as early as I'd like, but we're still getting it all done. I'll also add that we aren't getting EVERY thing done, for instance, yesterday, we did most of our bedtime routine, but the kids didn't straighten their rooms before bed, namely because little Jacob was already in bed, but the good news with that is that their rooms are in pretty good shape. I'm running a bit late today, so I'm going to make this short, here's my list for today....


~Morning routine
~Homeschool
~Daily chores-
*Clean out fridge
*Make menu and shopping list
*Prepare letters and packages to be mailed
*Prepare bills and review budget
*Homeschool prep for next week
*Zone Work-Kitchen
*Laundry-denim
*Holiday Cruising Mission-again doing 4...
>>Gather wrapping paper and Christmas cards into one place (this is already done and it's all in the attic with the other Christmas stuff, which we will get down the weekend after Thanksgiving.)
>>Write down everybody's clothing sizes
>>Place some of the online orders needed
>>Get rid of some more of the kids toys-(I'm loving these missions, there are so many toys in my kids rooms they just don't need, it's ridiculous)
~Afternoon routine
~Before bed routine

Other than what's listed, we have piano lessons today, and church this evening, plus I have to fit in a haircut for my mom sometime. So we will be busy nonetheless. Have a blessed day!

In His Grace,
sara

I can see the floor!

Ok, so it wasn't THAT bad, but it was bad. We actually managed to accomplish everything on our list yesterday, can you believe that?! I don't think I realized how messy our house had gotten, so truth be told, all of our Monday chores took twice as long to complete, because it was such a mess. I followed the Flylady rules, and didn't do it perfect, I only spent 10 minutes doing each of my home blessing tasks, even though each needed at least an hour of my time...especially the dusting and sweeping.

I tried my best not to keep working when the time was up, but sometimes it was difficult, but now I can see that even though I didn't give each area 100%, overall the house looks 10 times better than it did before we started yesterday. Today is a bit more relaxed, we've already done our morning chores, the kitchen is staying clean, as we keep up with it continually instead of waiting until the end of the day to clean it, and our schooling is done for the day. So here's our list for today...

~Morning Routine
~Homeschool
~Daily Chores-
*Sewing/Handwork
*Zone Work-15 minutes in the kitchen
*Laundry-Darks
*Holiday Cruising Mission-just like yesterday, I'm trying to catch up in this area, so I'm doing 4 missions today, and they are....
>>Print out the Flylady Holiday Control Journal
>>Plan where we are going for the holidays and any guests that we are having over
>>Plan holiday meals
>>Plan table decorations (There's still a little work to do here on the holiday missions, but it's mostly done)
~Afternoon Routine
~Before Bed Routine

Red=completed

Tonight is Ladies Night Out at our church, just a fun time of eating, Bible study, and fellowship with no kids. So I will give baths a bit early today and will have dinner ready for everybody in time for me to leave by 6:30pm. I'm hoping to get the chance to do quite a bit of crocheting. My mom's birthday is in just a few days. So that will be my main focus today, since the main chores are mostly done. So I'm out of here for now, the Lord is really blessing me and I'm so thankful for so many thing right now. Praying you all have a blessed day!

In His Grace,
sara