Flylady Day 9

Nothing too exciting today. I added a 5 minute room rescue to my morning and cleaned up high(cobwebs) in living room areas. All in all, I am keeping up with EVERYthing she says to do and its all just becoming very habitual and I love it. I LOVE having a shining sink each day and being up and dressed bright and early and having my work out done and out of the way for the day. My home feels so in control and I can't imagine my sink being constantly full of dishes anymore. Its exciting.

Flylady Day 8

Flylady.com "Here you are; you have been FLYing for a whole week. I am so proud of you. Lets review your new habits. I am going to break them down into what you do each morning and what you do each evening.

Morning Routine
- Get up and get dressed to lace up shoes; fixing your hair and face- Looking at your posted reminders in the kitchen and bathroom- Reading 2 minutes of reminders- Recognizing the negative voices and changing them; YOU ARE FLYing NOW!- Put out your Hot Spots for 2 minutes
Before Bed Routine
- Keep your sink shining- Lay out your clothes for tomorrow- Put out your Hot Spot (I have to do this twice a day) It makes me smile in the morning!
Over the last week we have introduced you to our reminders and the basis of our routines. As you establish these habits it will become easy to add another habit for you to practice.
Today I want you to find an old three ring binder and just put some paper in it. Then at the top of one page write Morning Routine and on the top of another page write Before Bed Routine all in pencil. This is a working document; do not allow your perfectionism to interfere with the process. Now you can write your simple routines on each page. "

So, I added the paper to the front of our unschooling notebook and wrote my new routines. Today was pretty simple, the big job was to go through the living room and dust all the nick knacks and pictures and clean off hard surfaces so I finished that in 10 minutes or so. Its nice to move through the house and do little bits every day that keep your home from ever becoming completely nasty all at once. It is done in little steps each day so you never get totally behind and overwhelmed, though I wish 1 load of laundry a day kept chaos away. In our house 2-3 loads a day will barely keep chaos away so I try to force at least 2, usually 3 and I usually do around 2 loads of dishes each day here too. As for flylady being unschooler friendly??? Well, I do it because I like it so I am not sure why that would jive with our lifestyle?

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We went to two different pumpkin patches over the last week because we just enjoy being outdoors so much and we are so blessed to have two very large pumpkin patches within 5 minutes drive time. I love the pictures we got to take and all the experiences we enjoyed together as a family creating memories. Just wanted to share some of those memories with you all.

FlyLady Day 7

no more toys or ick under the chairs and couches YAY
Awww all clean underneath everything

- "Getting Dressed to lace up shoes

- Keeping our sink shining

- Reading 2 minutes of Reminders

- Looking at our posted reminders in the kitchen and bathroom

- Recognizing the negative voices; change them and FLY!

- Put out your Hot Spot for 2 minutes; just pick one. "

- Get tomorrows clothes picked out tonight before bed. http://www.flylady.com/

So that is where I am now with baby step number 7. For my big job of the day, I cleaned the living room floors, moving all furniture and sweeping and mopping every area. This was a huge almost hour long job, but gosh I am so glad I did it! My hot spot for today was my computer desk drawer and yes its overwhelming so I stuck to the 2 minutes.

FlyLady Day 6

The after! I admit, I cheated and spent about 4 minutes instead of 2. I was on a roll
Before...ICK!

So today was all the baby steps mentioned before, + the 2 minute hotspot. My hotspot is my kitchen counter in the corner. Its a catchall. I am feeling very proud of my efforts thus far. Then, today was clear the clutter from flat surfaces in your living area day. I didnt have much because we just moved in thankfully. Just threw out a few magazines and WALA!

Flylady Day 5

So she says renew your spirit and of course the normal getup and dressed and shining sink bit. I didnt make it to church today, but did have some quiet time which I enjoyed. I also decided that my mountain of laundry needed me to seriously get a handle on it so I am on load number 4 so far and about 8 more to go. So here is baby step 5 from flylady.com:

"Are you hearing any of those nagging negative voices popping into your head? I want you to take a piece of paper and write down what you hear then I want you to turn those ugly words around and say something nice to yourself to negate the ugly words that they said. "

EZ for me, I instead have been kicking laundry through to get rid of that nagging voice lol! Getting work done always helps me feel better about myself. My self worth lies in my housewifery and my relationships with my husband and family. As long as those things are going well, I seriously don't have too many negative voices.

Flylady Day 4

Random lol, but I couldn't resist post this pic of my MaddyMayMay with her bestest stinker face on for me! Oh and she was uber clean does that count lol!

So thankfully its Sat and flylady gave me a break other than the babysteps; get dressed, make sure sink is shining, and then she asked me to post post it notes in areas to remind me of the babysteps. I have a memory like an elephant and I read her emails everyday. I refuse to be one of those people with dorky post it notes all over reminding me to clean. The dirt in the sink is a perfect reminder! No need for post its or control journals here.

Flylady Day 3

A freshly remade bed with my beautiful baby sleepin on it AND my completely organized purse!
bonus: Tyler(Nate's brother) finished putting wood chips in one of the play areas

Up and attem, worked out, showered and ready to rock and roll by 8:45 this morning! WOOO, My sink was shining and waiting for my awakening and this afternoon was change out bedding in master bedroom, clean out purse, and 5 minute car boogie. I DID IT!! All of it and I feel uber good about myself. This is definitely gonna work well for me. It makes cleaning fun and I feel less overwhelmed because I know flylady will tell me when closets need organized and walls need washed.

Flylady Day 2

Flylady would be proud, bonus job*Nate and his brother put up their other play structure finally so now they have 2 in different parts of the property
Maddy and Mama first thing this morning all dressed and ready watching the kids play on the playset

Get dressed from head to toe first thing in the morning. I of course have to work out first so I did and then I was showered and completely dressed, hair and make up(yes I still do these EVERYDAY even with 6 kids in tow) by 8:48 am!!! That was a first for me in a while. I have been so bad about showering around noon each day and it makes me feel really bad about myself. This afternoon I cleaned through and on top of the Master Bedroom nightstands. And tonight, I will shine my sink again before bed.

Because I Can

MaddyMay(her nickname she fell into) and Lexi(my neice) 6 months!
Kenna, Maddy, Lexi playing together on the bed while I babysat for my sis

Flylady Day 1

Day 1: Shine/dry your sink before bed

I know it sounds small, but I feel like I am on the path to getting back control over the cleanliness of my home. I pulled out the comet and scrubbed my beatiful new sink to its brilliant whiteness and I felt proud when I finished drying it and I am excited to wake up to it in the morning! Its a great way to start tomorrow morning.

I cannot get into my groove since the move. My old cleaning routine doesn't work in the new house so since I am too lazy to reinvent myself here, I found flylady and I am trying her out! Follow me on my journey(or don't) to a cleaner and more organized home!

Some Feelings About Unschooling

My kids have been to school a few times and I am so grateful that we are continuing on our unschooling path. I love that my kids don't have conventional parenting or schooling and that they get to grow in their own unique ways and time. I love that we get to love them for exactly who they are today and what we know deep down they will become tomorrow. I love that they aren't lumped into a system that is more worried about tests than humanity or character and like many will attest to, they are best friends. God and family are so important and being home together each day provides plentiful opportunities to learn about God, serve others and grow strong family friendships. I love being able to unconditionally love and parent my kids and that no one at "school" can impose conditional acceptance because there isn't "school." Homeschooling is a HUGE blessing! I am so glad we live in a country free enough to allow it. Amen to that!

God Wants us to Fellowship

Well, I guess my family was not about to give up on going to church just when I was. Nate has been wanting to go to a calvary chapel in another town because there were too many issues in the one is our town. I really threw my hands up in the air. The guy who sleeps at church actually wants to go? WHAT? The kids love going to church(as long as they get to go be with kids and not have to sit quiet in a sanctuary) so we went to that calvary chapel. This place has 3 services and each one I hear is completely packed out and this building is one of the largest church's I have ever been in. I can testify that I know why this church is so large and well liked, its because its amazing! The message was wonderful and Biblical. He goes straight through the Bible week by week, chapter by chapter, adding in his own jokes and stories where they were appropriate. It was great. The atmosphere was one of reverence, but casual. We all really enjoyed ourselves. Hopefully this will become our new church home. It was nice that it was so large also because no one noticed little noises in the back from babies and things so I felt comfortable having my 2 youngest with me in there and that is huge to feel comfortable with babies in most churchs that arent LDS.

Unschooling Religion

I think we are finally able to really call ourselves "whole life unschoolers" or "radical unschoolers" since we are no longer planning to force church(the last aspect we are finally letting go of). I have been reading a lot of books lately, I mean A LOT! They have been all unschooling or peaceful parenting related and the more I read, the more my thoughts have been swayed to believe that religion and radical unschooling really don't go together. This go round at the LDS church hasn't gone like I expected. My kids quickly embraced all their friends, but they have simply not embraced the church part of it. They hate sacrament and show disrespect during it no matter how many pleas I make and really I don't want kids who comply with something like this if they are truly not enjoying it. I am realizing that in order to really continue following unconditional/peaceful/authentic parenting, I cannot force my kids to go to church and if they do not want to go, I don't really have much desire either especially watching their distaste and Nate sleeping in the pew. The next order of business is Nate who has always jokingly called himself a "Natist" when it comes to religion. He is not into the lovey dovey parts of religion and it has always made him uncomfortable. I guess religion is something I have always searched for because its something I feel society expects of us and our homeschool group is uber religious as well, but I just don't know if its right for us at this time. I read my Bible and of course I believe in God, but for us, for our family, I think we need to give up organized religion. It feels wrong even though we are told it is right. Its inspirational and very moving many times, but something deep inside me feels it isn't right for us. Maybe this is why we searched out so many churchs, I was looking for somewhere that made us comfortable when in the end, none of them did because its not right for our family. My kids know who Jesus is and we talk lots and pray lots together, however, I just think our family has had a few interesting/annoying/hilarious/uncomfortable years in and our of different church's and many aspects of the Christian faith. I think my kids have had an amazing experience getting to pick out different church's to try, but ultimately, none of us can stand anywhere we go. The "teaching" for kids in church is so undermining of who my children are and they are smart little cookies because they complain incessantly about how the teachers talk to them like they are their pets or two year olds or something. They are quick to pick up on stuff like this because that isn't how we treat them. My kids are used to being respected as an equal, not some unknowing babies or dogs awaiting training so I believe this part of our lives makes church very hard on the kids. I think radical unschooling and institutional church settings just are not mixing well. Nate says we are naturists and we believe in nature and God and that's it. lol, who knows, but its funny to think about. I hate letting church friends down by not being able to commit to it all, but ultimately our family isn't going to work out in any church I don't think. That's alright though and I have really begun coming to terms with that being a high possibility over the past year. Some good books I have read lately that have helped me in my thinking about anything institutional including church are:

• Unconditional Parenting
• Learning All the Time
• Homeschooling our Children, Unschooling Ourselves
• The Happy Child: Changing the Heart of Education