My actual kitchen sink, clean and empty

I was planning on writing more posts on this topic. I know, I was. Really! But as usual, I have begun several things at the same time, and it looks like the blog writing is suffering right now. Let me tell you how it’s going though.

28 Days. Hope for your home. I do have hope for mine, as I have been working through this handy ebook! Week One’s task was pretty basic, but still one that I struggle with. All. The. Time.  And Week Two? Well she’s added a new task right on Day 8. Not a hard one, but one I am constantly forgetting about or putting off.

I mean really, floors? The only time I notice mine is when I walk across it, barefoot. I’m thinking that’s NOT why FlyLady tells people to get dressed and put shoes on.  Or maybe it is?! No, probably not. Nony knows what’s up. She knows I ignore the floor. She knows that unless company’s coming, the mop is put away. And barefoot? We just don’t want to go there.

The mop is put away. Hurray! At least something is put away!! Wait, probably the wrong thing to cheer for, eh?  

This week I was very intentional about doing the dishes– all of the dishes– every day. I loaded, and unloaded, loaded, and unloaded again, and put it all away. Well okay, I lied. I had the boys unload the dishwasher, either once or twice depending on how many loads I ran each day. I realize that the clutter and mess are on me, but I don’t live alone in this house and darnit, my sons are going to start doing something around here! They might as well start with dishes.

Dinner always brings that extra set of dishes too… you know, the stuff that either doesn’t fit or can’t GO in the dishwasher? Well I managed to tackle those too, every single evening. And it wasn’t even that hard!  I just did them the old fashioned way, with soapy water and a dishrag, then rinsed, dried and put them away. Yes, that was an accomplishment. I’ve been known to leave them drying on a towel on the counter… for a day… or two… but other than one night last week, I haven’t done that at all. And I kept the catch-all counter mostly cleared off too!

I even swept the kitchen floor today after breakfast.

Have I mentioned that I don’t notice floors? I did? Well I sure noticed the huge pile of crap in my dustpan today, let me tell you! Dust, dried mud chunks, dog hair, cereal pieces, some random small torn pieces of paper and an old magnetic business card that fell off the fridge. No idea how long that was there. Maybe tomorrow I’ll even mop it. It looks a lot better but would benefit from some oil soap and a good scrubbing.

On to more de-crapification…

Did you know that Nony’s ebook, 28 Days to Hope For Your Home is on sale for 50% off for this month only? The subtitle is Not for the Mildly Disorganized, and I will attest to that. If you struggle with clutter and cleaning and STUFF, this book will help you start to tackle it all, one baby step at a time, and develop some new (good!) habits over the course of a month.

Dad's ready for anything

How do you beat the early spring cabin fever, or end of summer “I’m bored out of my mind’s”?? How do you get rid of your husband and a house full of teenagers (some of them yours even!), for the day in the process? Send them to play paintball!

We became a paint balling family about ten years ago. Maybe I should rephrase that, since I’ve never played before. My hubby gathers together as many kids as we have guns & masks for (unless they have their own, which several do), and they head up to the hills to go shoot each other with paintballs.

Even girls play! And the boys are surprised, and then impressed. Especially about our daughter J, who has been playing for years. I once overheard a friend of her brother’s tell another kid “Don’t worry about hurting J, she can take care of herself. Watch out for her!” Yep, she can be pretty brutal from what I hear.

Paintball is *NOT* a cheap hobby, but it is one which can get almost the entire family involved. Our younger guys like to shoot the paintball guns at targets in the yard, and D1 has gotten to ride along when they go play in the hills. Daddy made him stay in the truck bed, so he wouldn’t get shot, BUT gave him a paintball gun so he could take shots at everyone if they were close enough. He had a great time, and guess who he got in the shoulder? Daddy!

I feel I must provide another disclaimer: Yes, guns can be dangerous, but only as dangerous as the person handling them. Paintball guns shoot balls of paint, not bullets. Paintball is a relatively safe sport, provided caution is used and safeguards are used correctly. EVERYONE wears a helmet/face mask with eye protection. Even in hot weather they all usually wear long pants and sleeves (camouflage is optional). Yes, if you get hit it hurts. It leaves a paintball sized welt that goes away between a few hours & a few days later. It’s also a LOT of fun and gets the kids out hiking, running, and active.

Paintball welt-affectionately known as a beesting

Even the kids who’d rather sit and exercise their thumbs on the XBox controller. It is a great remedy if you’re a dad who just doesn’t connect with your teenagers, or you aren’t sure WHAT TO DO WITH THEM. This gives you common ground, and fun! I am not sanctioning violence against your children. Just good, clean fun.

Taking your kids out and shooting them could be fun too, but you know what they say about paybacks!  ;)

Read past ABC’s of Homeschooling posts.

This 28 day series I’m doing, using 28 Days to Hope For Your Home, is about recognizing that I have a problem. Okay, I have several problems. I collect clutter, then I don’t want to deal with the clutter, then I don’t know what to do with the clutter. That’s three things but really it boils down to one: I am lazy.

Nony the Slob calls this process “de-slobification”. Some friends (Lynn and Heidi) and I were chatting on Twitter about a month ago, and the term we used was de-crapification. I think I like that term better. (Does this term offend you? I’m sorry, but I call it like I see it. Don’t judge me. I still love Jesus.)

The de-crapification of my life commences now.

Areas that I know I need to work on are all based on my habits:

Housekeeping 

• routine cleaning/pickup daily
• preventing clutter before it starts
• folding and putting away laundry as it comes out of the dryer
• doing all of the dishes rather than waiting to put the extras in the next load

Health

• get back to running 3-5 times a week
• put myself on an elimination diet to find out what foods I am sensitive to, and then
• put myself on a healthy eating plan that excludes those foods!
• keep a daily food and exercise log

Blogging

• set a post schedule in advance and stick to it
• set aside days/times for writing and for social media
• minimize other electronic commitments

Through beginning to work on building good habits in these areas, I should be able to begin to take control of my life! There are just too many areas where I tend to either over-do or ignore, depending on the situation.

And do I think I will actually post every single day for the 28 days? I have no idea. Don’t hold it against me if I’m not able to. My goal is to have a life outside of my computer screen… so maybe, maybe not. We’ll see. And with these lofty goals, I am beginning to think maybe I should start a new blog just for them!

Now through February 28th, 28 Days to Hope For Your Home is 50% off! Get this ebook and give yourself some hope for YOUR home!

28 Days to Hope for Your Home is not a guide to getting your home completely organized in a month.  Based on the experience  I have gained during my personal deslobification process, this e-book is a guide to developing basic habits that other people seem to know (but people like us don’t).

If you follow the instructions for each day, you will learn new habits and change your thinking about your home.  Through personal experience (the best teacher), you will understand the basics of keeping your home out of Disaster Status.

You will have hope.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of this ebook. I will receive a small commission if you click over and make a purchase through one of my links.

4 Months: The length of time this stuff has been on my antique desk.

I hate to admit it. I know most of you would be shocked.

There’s a really good reason I don’t talk much about housework and home making and all that stuff. It’s because I suck at it. I’m a slob. I am lazy. I hate it! But it’s the truth. Something’s got to give, so something’s got to change I’ve got to change. I know I can’t be the only one.

I do some good things around the house. I make my bed when I get up. I hate dirty bathrooms, so mine is usually clean. (The kids’ bathroom on the other hand, is not somewhere I send guests.) That’s pretty much where it ends though.

We have Netflix and I’ve watched at least one whole season of Hoarders. I know what it looks like. A family member was a hoarder and I was the one who used to go in and clean it out, take things to the dump and donation. I get it. I also see that tendency in myself. The lack of decision making ability is one of the things you always see in the Hoarders cases. They just can’t part with it because “it might come in handy”, and can’t decide what else to do with it. That’s me. No, I am not a hoarder. Yet. I am married to a guy who hates clutter, which helps. But not enough.

So I’m admitting I have a problem and I need a little help.  That’s where 28 Days to Hope For Your Home comes in! Dana, also known as Nony of A Slob Comes Clean, has overcome a lot of her own Slob tendencies and developed some new habits that keep her on track. She is the mother of three busy kids, and knows what it’s like to have more than one in diapers at a time. I appreciate that, as I remember my days of having THREE in diapers and nothing got done.

We have lived between chaotic stability and overwhelmed crisis mode cleaning for years. It’s not fun, and I don’t know about you, but new habits are what I need! I had the chance to read her new ebook, and I’m telling you, I need this book. And you might need this book.

28 Days to Hope For Your Home will help you establish some good habits by beginning simply and working up to bigger things. The first habit is so basic, so simple for most people, but even for me it was like a light bulb went off. Nony tells us to do one thing, less impressive than ‘shine your sink’ (for the rest of you Flylady dropouts like me), how about ‘wash the dishes’?

We’re a two dishes loads a day family, because of 1) the sheer number of mouths and meals and 2) one teen’s tendency to bake, a lot. No matter what I try, we still have to do dishes twice a day, which means often I leave a sink of dirty dishes overnight while yet another dishwasher load runs. Lightbulb. Wash the dishes. You’ll feel better about your kitchen when you walk into it! Just one simple habit, not so simple for me or many other women out there.  Nony walks you through the whys of what we do and why we should change it too. She’s real, people.

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From Nony:

28 Days to Hope For Your Home is for people like me. People who dream of an orderly home, but truly don’t understand what happens in the three days between Party Ready and Disaster Status.

That was me.  I’m definitely still not perfect, but I’m no longer bewildered.

I know what it takes to maintain a livable home.

28 Days to Hope for Your Home is not a guide to getting your home completely organized in a month.  Based on the experience  I have gained during my personal deslobification process, this e-book is a guide to developing basic habits that other people seem to know (but people like us don’t).

If you follow the instructions for each day, you will learn new habits and change your thinking about your home.  Through personal experience (the best teacher), you will understand the basics of keeping your home out of Disaster Status.

You will have hope.

**********************************

From now through February 28th, 28 Days to Hope For Your Home is half price!

Marked down from $7.99 to $4, it’s a steal and you can get a jump start on a new outlook on housework (along with me) in February!  Establish four habits in four weeks, and discover hope for your home!

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of this ebook, and was given one copy of it in exchange for my honest review. I will receive a small commission if you click over and make a purchase through one of my links.

Then we have Helga. Yes, ONE of our chickens has a name. Helga is the lovely Americauna featured in the photo above. Helga operates on her own timetable. She often prefers to eat breakfast and do some scratching outdoors before getting down to the business of laying. It’s not unusual to retrieve her egg around lunchtime.

Also, her eggs are… oddly colored. What would you call it? They aren’t blue, green, gray, or brown, but rather a strange mix of green and gray, sort of. She is starting to lay earlier in the day now, but she still has her own way of doing things.

Most days we make the trek out across the frosty grass and come back in with 3 eggs, which is pretty nice! We have gotten some double-yoked eggs too, which was a total surprise but makes for nice omlettes. I don’t know how cost-effective it is to keep chickens for eggs, considering the cost of the organic feed we buy, but you can’t beat FRESH eggs or knowing exactly what’s in them, so we’ll take it.

E does the scales for most of the granaries in Eastern Washington, and that has some benefits too, helping to supplement our chicken feed budget. The chickens are pretty happy with fresh, whole kernel wheat. They get wheat for scratch/treats and we get eggs. It’s a win!