A Challenge

I was challenged again in church this morning. We had a Baby dedication and many families dedicated their little ones.

It made me think. Am I instilling the things of the Lord in my kids? Am I training them in the admonition and ways of the Lord? Am I being the spiritual leader that they need in their lives? Am I being active and serving the Lord and am I letting them see me serve?

I could vs I WILL

I could Whine...and complain about my day

I could Pout and throw a mini tantrum

I could say I'm done and go to bed

I could run out and pick up dinner

BUT INSTEAD

I will look on the positives. Today was a better day than yesterday! Calmer, happier even.

I will smile and give a hug to my kids

I will make good choices and work out and read with the kiddos

I will cook dinner and eat healthy!

Meeting the Goal

I had a REALLY hard day today.

My class was challenging in a way that they typically are not. One student was extra aggressive and loud. Several were very weepy and wanting Mommy or Daddy. It was a long tiring day. I am now home and very tired.

I want to do nothing more than kick up my feet, order a pizza, and relax until I am ready for bed and then sleep until I wake up tomorrow.

However, reality is there is homework to do tonight. Dinner is being cooked...spaghetti with meatsauce. The kitchen will need to be cleaned and I should really do some exercising. So I am not being the sloth but working like the ant. I am striving to continue meeting my goal even if I am quite tired and feeling like I should not have to do it. I feel like I deserve a break when a break isn't really needed.

I really am changing my thinking about the way I treat my home life.

Hip Hip Hooray!

I just got the email confirmation that the new coat rack I had ordered has shipped!

It should get here Tuesday!

No more coats and bags on the floor and a neater hallway!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Weekend Update

It was a busy week.

Yet it was a decent week. I was able to keep up with the goals I had for the week, especially the living room and it wasn't until last night...when all 4 of us were home that the living room wasn't looking good when I went to bed. The kitchen sink is full but that's not a huge detriment since I just loaded the dishwasher this morning and now it's clean again. I have been keeping up with the pots and pans and big stuff so the little stuff is so much easier now. I think I am making progress.

I am making enough progress that I feel like I am ready to start a 3rd weekly goal. Now when I set a new goal I am not giving up the first 2 I am simply adding another layer, flavor to the cleanie stew I am making. I haven't set it yet...that's for Monday...but I think it's going to have something to do with laundry. I really slacked off with the laundry this week and I need to get better. It may also have to do with the bathroom...I just can't decide. I may ask Dan what he thinks I should work on next.

Speaking of Dan, he is noticing my hard work and I think he is appreciating it too. Though he still is unhappy when shoes aren't where he thinks they need to be and so he hides them...I found my favorite pair for work hidden between the front door and the screen this morning...but that's another ball of wax. The kids are also helping more around the house. It's so great to have good little helpers.

So that's this week in a nutshell...progress is being made, progress still needs to happen but I am happy with the changes and looking forward to changing my thinking even more!

That Darn Murphey!

Murphey's Law can be a real downer...I hate Murphey!

Today I called Janea this morning to find out what time she needed to be picked up from her Student Council Meeting and she told me 4:50pm. So I'm running late to get her only to find out I'm basically an hour early...she had gotten the wrong time...that darn Murphey!

We need a big ol calendar to help us keep track of the times for all the stuff that is going on especially now that the kiddos are having activities separate from their Dad and I...I really wasn't prepared for these problems this soon...how's it going to be when they are older???

It's About Being Healthy

The more I think about this journey that I am on this year of changing my thinking I have realized that it really is more than just having a clean house. It's not just changing my thinking about my cleaning processes it's changing the way that I think about my life! I think I have been content for too long to just take life as it comes. To roll with the punches as it were but to always be REACTIVE rather than PROACTIVE.

When you are Reactive you tend to get frustrated easier. You spend your days waiting for the next thing to happen and not to create things that will make your life easier. What's funny for me is that on my working side I work hard at not being reactive but to have meaningful activities that cause me to create the learning environment that I desire for the children in my classroom. Why then can I not seem to do that at home? That's a good question and one that I have been pondering....it seems that since I am good at being Proactive at work I should easily be Proactive at home...but I am not. When I get home I am tired, I am often hungry, I am crabby from the situations that have gone on in the classroom and the last thing I often want to do is doing anything.

So today is Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. I am home from school since its a holiday and working on projects around the house. I need to make a new weekly goal but since I haven't really mastered the first two goals I should get into better habits with them. My desire is to develop GOOD habits but if I rush and take on too much I am afraid that it will be easy to slip back into my really bad habits. I have decided that this will be a Review week...when I teach we have review weeks for the children to reinforce the lessons we have learned. It's a healthy thing to be reviewing...change and learning doesn't happen overnight. It's a process by which we grow and mature...I'm still taking baby steps here...I have a long way to go in my goal and I have a whole year in which to accomplish this goal. We are only 18 days into the new year...I don't have to be perfect or even amazingly better this soon in the process.

I'm a firm believer in the process rather than the product in the classroom. A lot of the art that my students do is not something that I would hang on the walls but it is a skill that they are mastering...they are not going to be great at cuttting with scissors the first day but as time goes by and they master the process of using scissors their cutting skills improve so much. So my process is making sure that I am meeting goals 1 and 2 all this week. If I accomplish some bigger projects as I go along the way that is a benefit but not a neccessity. I will be content with being Proactive in the small things so that I no longer have to Reactive to my life. It's about being healthy in my thinking not just about killing myself for a goal that I think I need to meet quickly.

I Think It's Working

Small bits and little goals...I think its working.

My kitchen is cleaner...every night I am working at making it clean.

The living room is a nice place to relax...the mess and yuck is better...just little easy to fix things now.

I think it's WORKING!!! HOORAY!

Motivation

Do you ever need motivation to begin a job you really don't want to tackle? I know I certainly do.

Well this week I got motivation in the least likely of areas and it has turned into a good thing.

Motivator #1...Jaron

Jaron wanted to help clean the living room on Thursday night...more importantly he wanted to vacuum. So he started vacuuming and that's when I discovered the big bad clog. It was his desire to vacuum that really got me to work on fixing it. And I fixed it...I've actually got some mad skills.

Motivator #2...The Remote

Last night, we had takeout for dinner, and after doing a few things and the 3 hours of Super Mario Bros, I decided that the kids needed a break and Dan and I deserved some TV time. We tape some shows during the week to watch together on the weekends and it was nearing bedtime for the kiddos so it was the grown ups turn. The remote is missing. Gone, can't find it...

So for the next hour and a half we go through the living room, putting things away, cleaning behind furniture, cleaning out crumbs and all the bits that can fall into a couch...all to find the remote. We got 3 of the four walls done last night...it needed to be done and since we were moving furniture it was a good time to do it. Still couldn't find the remote. By this time it's getting late and the kids and I are tired...I had already put in a full day at work and just wanted to relax...so Dan jokingly asks...Did you check the kids backpacks...well, I check Jaron's backpack...not there...go into the black hole which is Janea's backpack and BINGO! The lost remote is in there...she had taken it to school.

So my weekly goal of cleaning the living room daily got an extra large shot in the arm. The living room is further along that it was and the missing item is found...all in all a tiring yet productive evening.

Proper Tools

In order to meet a goal, one needs proper tools.

I have tools to help me clean my living room. I have 2 little people who make messes and get to clean up their stuff. I also have a vacuum cleaner to help me with all the little pieces that fall from our feet, hands, mouths, noses...etc...except my vacuum cleaner wasn't really cleaning all that well. In fact when I turned it off it would spit out dust and dirt and the top was getting really dirty...so I went investigating.

I dismantled the hose...and looked down to a great big pile of yuck...jam packed full, I checked my bag...it's empty...I check where the hole to the hose is and felt in it's full to the end of the vacuum. I start pulling out stuff...yuck, crumbs, dirt and get it unjammed and go to vacuum thinking I have solved the problem...it's still not going up into the bag...what's the deal???

I take apart the area where the vacuum meets the bag...and blow into the hose to see if air is moving...I blow...nothing...I blow harder...still nothing...so I try to reach in...my fingers are too fat! I"m perplexed...how can I fix this...I think, I look for a coat hanger to dismantle but I have no metal ones....I keep thinking...and then it hits me..BAM! I can use the plumbing auger....so I get it and start threading into my vacuum hose...and it gets stuck...I move it around and wrestle it and bang it on the floor and out pops an army man and kleenex...all wadded up in a big pile of yuck...that's what's been clogging my vacuum cleaner...

I reassemble my vacuum, plug it back in and Voila! It's working like a charm! It's amazing what some elbow grease, ingenuity, and just sheer frustration can do for a person. Now my tool to help me meet my goal is working again! Thank Goodness!

Weekly Goal # 2

It's Monday...so here's this weeks goal.

To clean and tidy the living room and have the kids pick up their toys before going to bed each and every night...and vacuum if needed.

I'm good at letting the kids slack off and I am good at leaving a big pile of yuck...makes for unfun mornings...

Plus, I have to keep up with Weekly Goal #1...so it's actually a two stepper this week.

Lets see what progress levels can be made this week!

Making Progress

So one week is done with my challenge of changing my thinking. These baby steps are working.

My first weekly goal was to clean my kitchen every night before going to bed. This is so that in the morning I am greeted with a clean rather than dirty kitchen and my day can start better.

Well, on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best I have ever done and 1 being I didn't even try...I would rate myself at a 7.5. I did well, but I can do better, I did not clean one night due to my stomach hurting and I didn't care. However, I can say that I accomplished something. I stuck to my goal and I forced myself to do it even when I didn't want to. I also felt a real since of yeah, this is working as the week went on. I can't explain it really, it's a feeling of true satisfaction...one I haven't honestly felt in a while. I have kinda just been existing rather than living in the house.

In fact, I am noticing that I am caring more about many more things, and I am working at trying to get the kiddos to care more as well.

On to Weekly Goal #2.

One would Think

Since I have had a snow day for the last 3 days....one would think I would have more done.

Since all of Christmas is put away...one would think the living room would be cleaner.

Since I have all this extra time....one would think my bedroom would be cleaner.

Well, one could think that but that doesn't mean it's happening.

I think I have ADD....I start one thing and before I know it....I'm doing something else.

Need to find some tools to help me stay on task.

Falling Down and Getting Back UP

I didn't complete my goal last night...

I didn't feel good, so I didn't care and didn't clean the counters and sink before bed.

However, I didn't leave alot out since I had put stuff in the dishwasher throughout the day.

Yet, there is still stuff on the counters.

I am going to take care of it this morning before doing anything else.

I can do better, I will do better.

Sigh

My kitchen needs to be cleaned tonight...so I can meet my goal....

I DON't WANT TO CLEAN It.

I have a headache, a backache, it's cold, it's yucky, I'm tired.

It's been a long day and Jaron has been very crabby and upset over something that I can't fix.

The weather is bleak and dreary and we have another storm coming and I am not sure about school tomorrow and the kiddos are off again and it's been a long day and why did I set this goal???
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AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Okay, I'm done whining,....I'm off to the kitchen to work on my goal. I have to do this...it's going to make me a better person in the long run....it's just hard.

Weekly Goal # 1

I have decided that in order to completely change my thinking habits and make myself change from being a "Messy" to more of a "Cleanie" I need to take baby steps...ie a weekly goal.

This weeks Goal:

To not go to bed without cleaning the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, and making the sink clear for the next morning.


I think it doable. This is a major area that needs to be worked on. Daily...and weekly, and monthly, and yearly, and lifely...so we will start with the daily of it all.

Off I go to clean the kitchen...

Wasting Time

I'm good at wasting my time. I'll admit it...I can find 100 things that I would rather do than clean my house or take care of things that need to be taken care. I can easily curl up with a good book under a warm blanket with a cup of hot cocoa in the winter or take the kiddos to the pool and sit on a warm towel next to a pool of sparkling water in the summer instead of gettting my responsibilities done. I have an uncanny knack of overlooking the mess, the chaos of the house and find the one thing that is done...as if to say...see there is a good spot...your good Erin, your good, go have fun.

Well that really isn't good, it's really not working. I will be honest, it's stressful. Very stressful. My marriage suffers for it, my kids suffer for it, my esteem as a wife suffers for it. I don't think that it does but in reality it's true. My husband doesn't like coming home at night after work to a messy house. My kids don't like not being able to find things. My kids also don't like a stressed out mom who is overwhelmed and frustrated all the time.

My pastor talked this morning about Time. Everyone gets the same amount of time every day. It's up to us to use it in a way that is honoring to God, honoring to each other, and fulfilling. I could waste my time and blame others for the way the house looks or is. I often do this...I say well, if Dan helped more, this wouldn't be a problem. Or I say...if I had more space the house would be neater...no, I would just be able to fill it up with more junk. I also say....well, I work at school all day I don't want to work at home too.

Where is my priority? How do I shift my thinking? How do I make Time work for me rather than just wasting my time with a whole lot of nothing that doesn't do me any good or bring me any lasting peace or joy? This is the task that I am embarking on this year. To not waste Time. To make the actions I take to make my house and life better work in a easy, time fulfilling way. So we have more time....together as a family, as a mom in helping with homework, more fun in our life. This is my challenge this year.

So I am off to fill up my time doing things that will help the greater good of the family. That isn't to say that it is the only thing I will focus on but it's on my mind and I Will be more productive with my time.

A New Blog

I've decided that I need a second blog...one just for me.

This is going to be an account of how I am going to change my thinking from being a MESSY person to a person who has her household more under control.

It's going to be a place where I can write my frustrations and joys when I have accomplished a new goal.

It's come out of my New Year's Resolution. My goal for this year is to have my house cleaner, more organized more undercontrol than I did on the first day of 2010. So I have 364 days to accomplish my goal.

I am needing a way to be accountable to this goal and blogging is going to be my tool.

Come and join me on my journey from being an out of Control Messy Person to someone who has her home life undercontrol and her house her true castle and retreat.