Christie, Jordan and Alex in their Christmas outfits.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
pajama date
One of my goals for 2009 is to have more dates with Steven. This can be a challenge with three children, the youngest of whom is only 3 months old and is still nursing every few hours. I came up with the idea of having an "at home" date each month.
Last night was our first date. I changed the name from "at home date" to "pajama date" because I had taken the older children swimming after dinner and we came home just in time for them to get ready for bed. Alex was ready to be fed so I changed into my pajamas and fed him after we had bedtime prayers. Then I put him in the swing where he was quiet for about 30 minutes before falling asleep. Steven also changed into pajamas and we had our date at the kitchen table, playing games and eating popcorn and Oreos. We played Phase 10 (getting through all 10 phases) and 5 rounds of Boggle. We got the game for Christmas from Steven's parents and have played several times--and I have come NOWHERE CLOSE to beating him. I doubt I ever will but we still had fun anyway.
Next month's date will be a movie night. I'm sure I will come up with some other ideas of fun things we can do at home after the children go to bed.
Friday, January 2, 2009
my word for 2009
A friend of mine, Nancy, did something really cool. She chose a word that she would focus on for 2008. Her 2008 word was JOY. She looked for joy in everything she did. She just posted on her blog what her word for 2009 was. Check her out here.
I got to thinking about that. I like the idea of having a single word that sums up what I want to focus on for the year. I will still have a list of projects and goals, but they will tie into that theme word. My word will also help me know what to focus on in daily life.
So, what is my word for 2009? It is ENJOY. Since my little son Alex was born in October, I have tried really hard to enjoy him. I try not to let my never-ending to-do list get in the way of playing with him, holding him, and just enjoying being with him. Even in the middle of the night when he is awake and fussing, I try to remember that all too soon he will be sleeping through the night and that phase will be over. I may not exactly ENJOY it, but remembering my word will help me to not resent it.
My word will also help me to remember my older children. Sometimes I find myself not paying as much attention to them as I should. It's easy to forget, amid the demands of taking care of a baby, that even though they are older and more independent, they still need me.
Even though it seems as though I do the same things every day, remembering my word will help me to keep things in perspective.
What's your word for 2009?
I got to thinking about that. I like the idea of having a single word that sums up what I want to focus on for the year. I will still have a list of projects and goals, but they will tie into that theme word. My word will also help me know what to focus on in daily life.
So, what is my word for 2009? It is ENJOY. Since my little son Alex was born in October, I have tried really hard to enjoy him. I try not to let my never-ending to-do list get in the way of playing with him, holding him, and just enjoying being with him. Even in the middle of the night when he is awake and fussing, I try to remember that all too soon he will be sleeping through the night and that phase will be over. I may not exactly ENJOY it, but remembering my word will help me to not resent it.
My word will also help me to remember my older children. Sometimes I find myself not paying as much attention to them as I should. It's easy to forget, amid the demands of taking care of a baby, that even though they are older and more independent, they still need me.
Even though it seems as though I do the same things every day, remembering my word will help me to keep things in perspective.
What's your word for 2009?
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Laundry
Monday is my laundry day. It always has been. When I was growing up, one of my favorite book series was the "Little House" books. Actually, they are still among my favorites. In the first book, Little House on the Prairie, one chapter talks about the daily lives of Ma, Mary and Laura. They had a specific job for a specific day. The saying went like this,
Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday.
Those pioneer women were smart! Yes, I realize they probably did things that way because some jobs took a long time (laundry) due to not having the convenience appliances that we have today plus they also had other things to do (cook, wash dishes, chores, tend the garden). But the principle is good. Do one major job a day and then you'll have time to do the other things you want and need to do.
So anyway, I channeled my Pioneer Woman and set Monday as my laundry day. I will do laundry on other days if necessary but the Big Laundry Day is Monday. And yes, there's times when I put it off for several days. This week was one of those times. Doing laundry is not my favorite job to do but there is something really satisfying about seeing those baskets of dirty clothes disappear, to be replaced by the clean clothes, and to see previously empty drawers and hangers get filled with clean clothes, and to replace the empty hampers in their respective homes. This state of laundry bliss only lasts a few hours--until the first person changes clothes, but I know that those clothes can (and will!) stay in the hamper until the next laundry day.
Even though there's 5 of us now, laundry's not quite the chore it might be. I've set up a system that works pretty well and gets my two older children doing their fair share of work in the laundry area.
So this is how it goes: I tell my children to gather their dirty clothes and bring their laundry baskets to my room. (Even though they have laundry baskets in their rooms, they still throw things on the floor, in the closet and under the bed). They separate out their own clothing. I'll separate the clothes in the basket in my room and from the hamper in the bathroom and gather up kitchen linens from the kitchen). During the day, I'll wash and dry the loads. Then I'll bring the baskets of clean laundry to my room. At this point what happens next depends. If I've procrastinated and started laundry late, I'll dump everything on my bed and call everyone in for a Laundry Dig. Everyone (me, DH and the two older children) will dig through the pile and gather their own things. DH will hang up/put away his own things. OK (older kids) will dump their stuff in their baskets and cart them back to their own rooms and hang/put away. I'll deal with my own stuff, the baby's stuff and "public" stuff like bath towels and kitchen linens. If I'm a good girl and keep on top of laundry, I will put away my stuff, DH's stuff, baby's stuff and public stuff. As I find the OK's stuff, I will toss it into their baskets. When they get home from school (or when I'm done), they'll cart their baskets to their room and put away their clothes. It works pretty well!
So, I finally got everything done yesterday. I know I only have a few days to enjoy the laundry-less time but I'll enjoy it while I can!
Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday.
Those pioneer women were smart! Yes, I realize they probably did things that way because some jobs took a long time (laundry) due to not having the convenience appliances that we have today plus they also had other things to do (cook, wash dishes, chores, tend the garden). But the principle is good. Do one major job a day and then you'll have time to do the other things you want and need to do.
So anyway, I channeled my Pioneer Woman and set Monday as my laundry day. I will do laundry on other days if necessary but the Big Laundry Day is Monday. And yes, there's times when I put it off for several days. This week was one of those times. Doing laundry is not my favorite job to do but there is something really satisfying about seeing those baskets of dirty clothes disappear, to be replaced by the clean clothes, and to see previously empty drawers and hangers get filled with clean clothes, and to replace the empty hampers in their respective homes. This state of laundry bliss only lasts a few hours--until the first person changes clothes, but I know that those clothes can (and will!) stay in the hamper until the next laundry day.
Even though there's 5 of us now, laundry's not quite the chore it might be. I've set up a system that works pretty well and gets my two older children doing their fair share of work in the laundry area.
So this is how it goes: I tell my children to gather their dirty clothes and bring their laundry baskets to my room. (Even though they have laundry baskets in their rooms, they still throw things on the floor, in the closet and under the bed). They separate out their own clothing. I'll separate the clothes in the basket in my room and from the hamper in the bathroom and gather up kitchen linens from the kitchen). During the day, I'll wash and dry the loads. Then I'll bring the baskets of clean laundry to my room. At this point what happens next depends. If I've procrastinated and started laundry late, I'll dump everything on my bed and call everyone in for a Laundry Dig. Everyone (me, DH and the two older children) will dig through the pile and gather their own things. DH will hang up/put away his own things. OK (older kids) will dump their stuff in their baskets and cart them back to their own rooms and hang/put away. I'll deal with my own stuff, the baby's stuff and "public" stuff like bath towels and kitchen linens. If I'm a good girl and keep on top of laundry, I will put away my stuff, DH's stuff, baby's stuff and public stuff. As I find the OK's stuff, I will toss it into their baskets. When they get home from school (or when I'm done), they'll cart their baskets to their room and put away their clothes. It works pretty well!
So, I finally got everything done yesterday. I know I only have a few days to enjoy the laundry-less time but I'll enjoy it while I can!
long time no blog
Well, it has been forever (it seems) since I last blogged in August. I've had plenty to say and I've written many posts in my head but when it came time to actually type said posts, I thought about it and said, 'forget it'.
What has happened since the last post in August? The biggest thing was that we had a baby boy! Baby Boy was born in early October. He is 2 months old now and is such a joy! Also Older Sister and Big Brother started school. We have also done some house projects. We celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving. And now it's time to think Christmas!
I hope to blog more regularly about what's happening in my life as well as my thoughts on random subjects such as homemaking, scrapbooking, sewing, gardening--in short, all the things I like to do.
What has happened since the last post in August? The biggest thing was that we had a baby boy! Baby Boy was born in early October. He is 2 months old now and is such a joy! Also Older Sister and Big Brother started school. We have also done some house projects. We celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving. And now it's time to think Christmas!
I hope to blog more regularly about what's happening in my life as well as my thoughts on random subjects such as homemaking, scrapbooking, sewing, gardening--in short, all the things I like to do.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Organizing and projects
Well, the "nesting" instinct kicked in this summer. I have been working on various organizing projects around my home.
[ scrapbook stuff ]
I have 8 banker style boxes labeled "scrapbook" of various flavors (mission, wedding, kids, high school, college, etc.) stacked up next to my work table. One day last week I pulled out one of them to see what was in there. I was surprised to see a bunch of hanging folders labeled with different categories and some stuff already in them. I put them in one of my crates and started going through other boxes, filing pictures, cards, letters and other memorabilia in the appropriate category. I have now got 3 empty boxes. The crate with the hanging files is stuffed rather full now but things are organized in a way that when I am ready to start scrapping, everything will be together. Once the organizing is done, the actual scrapping should go pretty quick. I admit I did throw away a lot of stuff. Some of it I couldn't identify and other stuff was old cards and letters. I read through them and didn't feel any particular desire to keep them so out they went after a few moments of enjoying them. Can't keep everything!
I finished the Disney scrapbook and put those pages along with the pages from our 2003 trip to Washington State (for a Swain family reunion) into a new binder that is labeled "Vacations". That really thinned out the Family book--which will get filled right back up soon. Another part of this scrapbook project has been to find pages that are partially done, get them done and put in chronological order by year and now they are ready for page protectors and to be put in the family book. I have a stack of finished pages 3 inches thick ready to go in!
[ cross stitching ]
Another hobby of mine is cross stitching. I had a lot of partially finished projects that I decided I would just buckle down to and get done. Most of them just needed the sort-of-boring part done. For example, one project was a snowman that just needed the white part filled in. Which doesn't sound so bad except that there were large areas of just white and I find that gets boring after awhile. But this time I just did it. I need to go get those finished projects out and count how many I've done. Some I will frame, others I'm going to try my hand at making wall hangings, pillows or other decorations. I'll post pictures later.
[ sewing ]
My third hobby is sewing. Again, I had a lot of partially finished projects. Right now I am working on a Peter Pan costume for Jordan. I originally started it as a dress up costume but Jordan wants to be Peter Pan for Halloween so I am working on that one first. With Baby Swain due 2 weeks before Halloween, I need to get costumes done early! Christie wants to be a witch so as soon as the Halloween fabrics come in, I will go get some to make her a cape and a black dress. I also had a basket full of clothes that needed mending. Mostly replacing missing buttons or fixing hems. I was surprised at how quickly I got those mending projects done. I have a box full of old blue jeans that have been outgrown or worn out that I want to cut into squares and make a blue jean quilt. So that's another sewing project to work on.
As I finish projects and get boxes emptied, those boxes go out! The banker boxes I collapse and bind together with bungee cords and store in a closet for other use. Packing boxes get recycled. And I get more "open space"! There's something very freeing about finishing projects and finding places for them in my home and getting rid of the boxes and opening up space. Same for going through storage boxes that usually are full of junk that gets thrown away/donated.
[ scrapbook stuff ]
I have 8 banker style boxes labeled "scrapbook" of various flavors (mission, wedding, kids, high school, college, etc.) stacked up next to my work table. One day last week I pulled out one of them to see what was in there. I was surprised to see a bunch of hanging folders labeled with different categories and some stuff already in them. I put them in one of my crates and started going through other boxes, filing pictures, cards, letters and other memorabilia in the appropriate category. I have now got 3 empty boxes. The crate with the hanging files is stuffed rather full now but things are organized in a way that when I am ready to start scrapping, everything will be together. Once the organizing is done, the actual scrapping should go pretty quick. I admit I did throw away a lot of stuff. Some of it I couldn't identify and other stuff was old cards and letters. I read through them and didn't feel any particular desire to keep them so out they went after a few moments of enjoying them. Can't keep everything!
I finished the Disney scrapbook and put those pages along with the pages from our 2003 trip to Washington State (for a Swain family reunion) into a new binder that is labeled "Vacations". That really thinned out the Family book--which will get filled right back up soon. Another part of this scrapbook project has been to find pages that are partially done, get them done and put in chronological order by year and now they are ready for page protectors and to be put in the family book. I have a stack of finished pages 3 inches thick ready to go in!
[ cross stitching ]
Another hobby of mine is cross stitching. I had a lot of partially finished projects that I decided I would just buckle down to and get done. Most of them just needed the sort-of-boring part done. For example, one project was a snowman that just needed the white part filled in. Which doesn't sound so bad except that there were large areas of just white and I find that gets boring after awhile. But this time I just did it. I need to go get those finished projects out and count how many I've done. Some I will frame, others I'm going to try my hand at making wall hangings, pillows or other decorations. I'll post pictures later.
[ sewing ]
My third hobby is sewing. Again, I had a lot of partially finished projects. Right now I am working on a Peter Pan costume for Jordan. I originally started it as a dress up costume but Jordan wants to be Peter Pan for Halloween so I am working on that one first. With Baby Swain due 2 weeks before Halloween, I need to get costumes done early! Christie wants to be a witch so as soon as the Halloween fabrics come in, I will go get some to make her a cape and a black dress. I also had a basket full of clothes that needed mending. Mostly replacing missing buttons or fixing hems. I was surprised at how quickly I got those mending projects done. I have a box full of old blue jeans that have been outgrown or worn out that I want to cut into squares and make a blue jean quilt. So that's another sewing project to work on.
As I finish projects and get boxes emptied, those boxes go out! The banker boxes I collapse and bind together with bungee cords and store in a closet for other use. Packing boxes get recycled. And I get more "open space"! There's something very freeing about finishing projects and finding places for them in my home and getting rid of the boxes and opening up space. Same for going through storage boxes that usually are full of junk that gets thrown away/donated.
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