Fun tradition.

Note:  I've posted this before but I think that it's worth posting again.  I've added a few things...

Every year at the beginning of December we put together a Christmas chain.  We make a list of all of the things we'd like to do together and for other people and each link gets an activity.  The links count down the days until Christmas and every morning the kids race to see what will be the activity of the day. Each of them wants to be the first to take a link off of the chain.  It's a big part of Christmas for us and the kids look forward to everyday.

So far we have:

Gone to the resuce mission twice.

Gone to a matinee movie.

Eat dinner by the tree while we watch a Christmas movie.

Make gingerbread houses

Go Christmas shopping for each other.

Play a Christmas game (we make a family Christmas game and book each year).

Go get our Christmas tree.

Decorate the Christmas tree.

Ride in the car and look at Christmas lights.

Made little hats for newborn babies in 3rd world countries.

Make toffee for school teachers.

Make a Christmas game.

Go to Salt Lake and meet up with Louis Palos and his sweet family for Temple Square lights, dinner, and hot chocolate.

Take soup to the homeless.

Make a Christmas book.

We've made gingerbread and had a gingerbread making party with each of the kids inviting a friend.

 We've done some of these things this year already and we're going to be doing quite a few things on this list.  After reading "The Soloist" it has renewed my desire to help the homeless in our area.  We've got some plans for doing some work in Charlotte.

 

Here are some other ideas you may want to try:

(Some friends and I came up with a lot of these so I can't take all of the credit.):

Make up survival kits for the homeless. Include things like:  toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, deodorant, bandaids, Neosporin, washcloth, blanket, etc.  Take them around after dark when people are settling in for the night.  They are easier to find.  You can also ask local churches where to find the highest concentration of people who need your help.

Go to McDonald's and buy 100 jr. hamburgers and take them around to people settling in for the night.

Make soup and take it warm on Christmas day with warm bread.  Doing it on the actual holiday is important.  There are a lot of people who give Christmas dinner the day or week before Christmas.  Most organizations aren't able to do anything on the actual days of Christmas and Thanksgiving.  When you arrive on Christmas you'll it will look like Christmas in their eyes.

Discreetly give out cash to those you feel inspired to give it to.

This doesn't even have to be just for homeless people:  Walk around just giving people $5 while you're shopping (or more!  Secret Santas have been going around Charlotte handing out $100 bills.  They've given out over $30,000 now!).  Or keep a $50 or $100 in your bag and pray for the wisdom to know who you  need to walk up and give it to as you're out and about.

Never pass the Salvation Army bell ringer without putting something in the bucket.

I want to hear your suggestions!  Please put them in the comments so we can all benefit!

 

enjoy. LIFE.

junk drawer no more.

In the past, when I've need to find an important paper for the kids or the menu for lunches or some other vital piece of information I've had to rummage through my junk drawer.  It was always stacked high with papers that had no order whatsoever.  I always had pens in there somewhere and could never find one that worked when I would be frantically searching for something to write with while I was on the phone.  Instead I would be quite the sight scurrying around the house on a quest for some scrap of paper to jot a note or phone number on. 

No more.

Thanks to the book Simplfy Your Time I no longer have a messy junk drawer.  I HAVE read this this book before!  But for some weird reason it never occured to me that this system could work for my junk drawer.  I love it!

I've been knowing that I needed a solution for this ridiculous drawer for ages.  It may seem silly but this drawer has caused me plenty of stress.  I'll realize that I've stuck something important in the drawer...a piece of paper that need to be filled out and returned to school, a piece of mail...and I'll desperately be looking for it while the kids tap their toe anxious over making it to the bus.  Not to mention that every time I open the darn drawer I think to myself, "I so need to do something about that mess!"  I'm excited to say the stress and frustration is no longer.

Over the weekend I bought some little metal rectangle shaped bins precisely for my out-of-control drawer...not completely sure what I was going to do with them but knew that I need to corral all of the pens and pencils. 

I read about the amazing filing system and knew that I had everything I needed to be forever rid of my pile of junk drawer. 

Here are the quick and easy steps:

BUY:

1. Containers that will make you smile when you open your drawer but that will be the right size for whatever you want to contain.  (I bought mine in the Wal-Mart -I would have bought them at Target also but they were closed by the time Mike and I were heading home from our date- kitchen aisle next to all of the silverware organizers.).

2. A label maker.  If you don't have one of these yet, you totally need to get one.  I'm in love with mine!!!  They make any organizing that you want to do look fabulous.  I have the DYMO letra tag.

 

HOW TO:

1. Take EVERYTHING out of your junk drawer.

2.  Now be ruthless.  Throw away everything that you don't need any more, any thing that's too old, pictures your kids' have drawn for you and now you don't know who did it or when because you didn't write it on the back (you are not a bad parent if you throw some art work away...), and any thing that doesn't appear important.

3. Divide every piece of paper into a category.  You only need to touch this paper once.  Don't divide all the trash from the stuff you're going to keep and then go through it all again and decide which category it should go into.  Decide both at the same time.  These are the categories that you can use:

Calendar: (school lunches calendar, family calendar, football calendar, etc.)

To do:  This is your list of things that you need to do or permission slips that need to be signed, pictures that need to be paid for, etc.

Our interests:  Coupons for a great place to eat, date ideas, the picture and info of the couch you want to buy, nature center classes, etc.

Information:  School rules and guidelines (we have A LOT of these here!), neigborhood news, etc., restaurant menus

To Decide:  Scholastic book orders, fence company information, projects that you're working on making decisions for

*Homework Projects:  Information for homework projects that are coming up.  I love having them all in one place.

*Menus:  Family weekly dinners menus, list of favorite dinners, grocery lists

*Mike:  Paperwork, school work, and things that Mike needs to look at asap

*Davina:  Paperwork, school work, and things that Davina needs to look at asap

*Job chart:  List of weekly jobs for the kids to do on Saturdays

*Folders that I've added to the mix to help me be more organized.

 

4. Label each of your folders (add some categories to customize your system for you if you need to) with your handy dandy label maker.

5. Put all of the piles of paper (which should be pretty small piles!) into the folder category they belong in.

6. Place pens in one container, post-its in another container, etc.

A couple of notes:

I also keep a tape measure in my drawer in one of my little square blue bins because I'm always needing one around the house and I don't want to go off searching for one all of the time.  I have a container for the little keys that go to the locks around the house.  It seems like someone is always locking the bathroom door behind them...when they come OUT of the bathroom.  I have a pencil bin so that there are always homework pencils handy when the kids sit at the counter working after they get home from school.  I also made room for our phone chargers in a container in my junk drawer so that we're not doing a desperate search for one when our phones are doing the dying beep at us.

 

You would not believe how much this little system will help your life feel more organized and less stressed.  It seems so little and so inconsequential but it little things can make a BIG difference.  I love that I can open the drawer and find anything I need in a second.  I also love opening it just to look at it and admire the fabulous job Mike and I did on it the other night together.  I walk by it and open it and gaze at it just to see how perfect and wonderful it looks.  That makes me happy.

blissful. LIFE.

 

 

what I'm reading.

Every morning, as all of you know, I journal.  These days I get the kids off to school then sit down on the sofa with my journal, scriptures, and a couple of books.  Right now it's "Boys Should Be Boys" and "What Got You Here Won't Get You There".  I usually read a chapter about how to be more in tune to my kids needs from "Boys" and then read about how I can be a better business person from "What Got You Here Won't Get You There".

It's important to me to get the parenting advice I need...and I need it every day.  I love the chance to see my kids from a different perspective and to also be educated on what is facing my children.  I want to know what they are up against and how I can help them to wade through both clear and mucky waters.  The thing I want most for my kids is for them to grow up to be nurturing, helpful, kind, to know how completely amazing they are and how incredible the person is standing next to them.  I want them to understand the value of work and the power of love.  So...I need some daily help with that from a variety of very inspirational sources.

I also know that I can always take steps to become better in my business.  I need it and if I don't get it I know that my business life will become pretty stagnant...not good.  I am loving "What Got You Here Won't Get You There".  It's the perfect book for me to be reading right now as I'm trying to take everything I've been doing to a new place.  It's exciting and perplexing at the same time and I'm grateful to have Marshall Goldsmith to give me some great counsel.

I love to read and without fail I get into a book and I don't want to put it down.  Now, though, I've decided that even a great book can stress me out, get me behind in things that matter, and make me waste away my day.  Sometimes it's the exact way I want to 'waste' my day...just not every day.

I read quite a while ago in "The 4-hour Work Week"  that it was important to read non-fiction...especially self-help (I'm addicted, I admit it) any time but  bedtime.  When you read non-fiction just before bed it typically fills your mind with all kinds of ideas...making it very difficult to fall asleep.  I was totally guilty.  I LOVE ideas.  I loved laying in bed at night with my book and having ideas just come to me like crazy.  I'd lay down and have my notebook by my bed and I'd keep turning the light on with another idea that I thought of and then turn the light off...and then I'd turn the light on again with another idea.  By some kind of miracle Mike didn't kick me out of bed.  I loved the ideas but I didn't love that I would have a hard time falling asleep because the ideas wouldn't stop.

So...now, I read only novels before I go to sleep.  A book as I lay in bed each night after a long day is one of the simple things that I really enjoy.  I love my 2 minutes...or my 20 minutes (depending on how tired I am) hanging out with Bud and Geri, Jack and Claire (the characters in Last Dance at Jitterbug Lounge").  Reading calms my mind and my thoughts before turning off the light and cuddling up with Mike before drifting off to sleep.  

Now I get all of my ideas when my mind is fresh in the morning and at a time when they don't keep me up way too late flipping the light on and off...on and off...on and off...

simple. LOVE.

 

9 loads of laundry.

Yes, really.  Nine (9) loads of laundry.  I do at least nine loads of laundry every Monday.  Some people do laundry all week long....whites on Monday, colors on Tuesday, darks on Wednesday, delicate on Thursday, etc...not me!  I don't want the dirty clothes hanging around all week long. 

Instead, I just make sure everyone has enough underwear and socks to get through a week and then I do the laundry on Monday.  I make it sound like I don't like doing laundry but really I do like to see those big ol' piles of laundry get done through out the day....the piles getting smaller and smaller and the really clean, wonderful smelling clothes coming out of the dryer are such a measured accomplishment.  I also love the way laundry day makes the house and the air outside around the house smell so good. 

All week long the clothes collect in clothes hampers in each of the bedrooms and the upstairs bathrooms.  By the end of the week they are all pretty full.  I gather all of the hampers and dump them all in our hallway upstairs.  From there I make big piles of white, color, dark, and delicate clothes.  I fill one of my hampers with clothes from the white pile.  (The hamper is the perfect size for an extra large load in my washer)  I usually end up doing at least 2 loads of each pile of clothes.  Gracie loves to help find the clothes with stains and stand on her tiptoes to put the clothes in the washer.  She thinks it's funny when I pile wet clothes on top of her for her to put into the dryer.  We laugh a lot and it makes the laundry fun.  When the clothes come out of the dryer they get piled on our loveseat.

I AM NOT A FOLDER...meaning I don't fold clothes and I really don't iron them (sacrilege!).  It needs to be pretty important for me to pull out the ironing board and iron.  So...I have a basket for each room.  I divide the clothes into the basket for the people that belong in the room where the clothes are supposed to be put away.  Everyone is responsible for taking their baskets to their room.   I have some kids who like to fold their clothes and some who take them out of their baskets and stuff them in their drawers.  Everyone gets to choose how they want their clothes to go into their dresser.  the laundry is now done until next Monday.

So...maybe the laundry is something that you could let go a little.  Maybe you don't need to do a load every single day.  Maybe your don't need to be folding all of those clothes that are going to end up in a heap anyway...and maybe your kids can do a little more to help with the laundry.  There are ways to make the chores around your house more fun AND easier on you.  Notice what you love about the things you do around the house, the smell of clean clothes, the laughing 4 year old with wet clothes on her head when she's helping move clothes from the washer to the dryer, and the feeling of getting a big job done.

There's sweetness in everything....

LOVE. LIFE.

real. boy. life.

Last night Emmett had a huge dissappointment...the first loss during a season with his football team.  All of the boys were very sad and all of them knew that they could play better but for some reason just couldn't seem to get their head and their hearts on the same page.  It could have been that the game was a last minute make up for bad weather or it could have been the Goliath boys that were on the other team that would make any mom wonder if her son would come out on the other side of the game or if they will be making another trip to the hospital.  

No matter what the reason was for the performance of their game there really, truly are more important things than winning a game.  

After all of the kids were in bed last night I laid in bed reading "Boys Should Be Boys"  by Meg Meeker.  (If you don't have this book and you have boys you NEED this book!).  Because I was desperate for some help on the matter, of what to say to Emmett after such a devastating game, I knew I had to read before falling off to sleep.  I had started to read from the first page a few weeks ago but hadn't picked it back up since then.  I checked the index for football and disappointment but  didn't find what I needed.  I decided to look at the table of contents and was thrilled to see a chapter called "10 things you need to know to raise a boy".  Yay!. My favorite thing:  LISTS.  And a top 10 list to boot. 

That top 10 list was just what I needed to read.  Emmett is a very sweet boy.  He tries hard, likes to do everything well, he tries to be patient, and he watches out for his sisters (even if he does know how to tease them in just the right way).  He expects a lot of himself and gets pretty bugged when he performs below his own expectations.  He is extremely smart and

is an excellent friend. 

One of the things on the top 10 list is: Raise Him From The Inside Out.  When I read this tip it was the exact help I was looking for.   "He knows that good grades are better than bad, that scoring a touchdown is better than fumbling the ball, that hitting the high note is better than missing it.  But he needs to know what you think of him as a person.  Do you like what you see beneath the stuff he does--his character, the deeper parts of who he is?"

So...this morning as he sat at the counter with his sisters eating his breakfast before catching the bus that comes wayyy to early at 6:50am I told him about the deeper parts of him, about the stuff that really makes me proud of him, the stuff that matters.  I love to see him help his team make a touchdown but what I love seeing even more is that he's nice to the boys on the team that are having a tough time, that he watches out for and protects his sisters, that he loves to learn and works hard to understand things and to help others understand without making them feel less than.  I love that he loves God and that he wants to be good.  I love that the core of him is sweet, understanding, giving and at the same time all boy, exploring, discovering, and making forts out in the woods.

And even though last night out on that field it was an extremely disappointing night and he felt like crying... I'm happy that he held it in but that when he got home he felt safe enough to share his disappointment and loss and sadness. (Another great point that this book makes is that boys have the 'boy code' that you don't cry in front of your peers.  And that's an okay code.  It teaches boys self-control and self-mastery.  However, they need to feel safe enough once they get home to be able to spill that emotion and know that they can talk about whatever sadness they feel.  Reading this last night at midnight and realizing that I have an incredible husband who went in and talked to Emmett in his room and let him feel all the sadness that he was feeling on the field was a gift to me.  I was filled with love and gratitude for being blessed with a man who is a special bit of grace as a dad to our kids.)

Emmett is an amazing boy, full of life, emotion, giving, running, jumping, exploring, reading, learning, and love.  I'm so glad that he is in my life, that he's made it more full, more wonderful, and more real than it ever would have been with out him.

**I made sure that Emmett was okay with this post before I published it.**

boy. LIFE.