Monthly Archives: July 2012

Combating Your Lazy Days (Step 2 in the Time Management for the SAHM Series)

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How is everyone doing on the Time Management for the Stay at Home Mom series? In the last post, I talked about establishing a brief morning and evening routine. Something that helps you keep up on the things that tend to get pretty out of control.

If you haven’t done that step yet, it’s worth going to that post and checking it out. Remember, it’s all about taking baby steps.

STEP 2: COMBATING LAZY DAYS

Do you ever have those days where you just want to sit on your couch all day? Maybe you just want to fiddle around on Pinterest or Facebook? In this step, I’ll help you get through those days and turn them into productive days.

This next baby step is learning to fall in love with your timer.  I swear by the timer in my house, it is great about motivating me. There are days when all I want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV or work on the computer. Those days come by most often after a long night with the kids. But I have learned to bargain with that lazy side of myself by using my timer system.

I set a timer for 10 minutes and tackle the most overwhelming task. This could be the messiest room, a thing on my checklist that I have been procrastinating on, or whatever. I just try and spend 10 minutes doing it.

It’s easy to think, “I’m tired and don’t want to do anything, but all I have to do is 10 minutes of ___ and then I can sit back down.” I will often find that after just 10 minutes, I want to keep going, and so I do. But if I want to sit right back down after the timer beeps, I don’t beat myself up. Instead, I set the timer for 10 minutes and allow myself a break. This is a great chance for me to sit and knit while chatting with my daughter. Or we curl up and watch part of a Disney movie. Or I catch up with email or blogging.

I am also notorious for letting my computer be a time suck for me. Checking my email could translate into an hour on the computer, flipping through Facebook pages, chatting with friends, googling recipes, or whatever. And I don’t like that–at all. I don’t want my children to see their mother as a person whose face is always behind a computer. So I find that the timer helps snap me out of it and keep me from losing track of time and spending most of the day wasting time online. Once the buzzer goes off, then it’s back to do a next task.

One note: I found that setting the timer on my phone didn’t work, because I could essentially turn it off right there, which worked moreso like a snooze button for me. I instead use my kitchen timer, which makes me have to get up and separate from the current task.

So Your Challenge: Set your timer to work, and set it to rest/play and let me know how it goes. Did you get more done?

Comment here and let me know how you are doing. If you are a blogger, and are blogging about this, feel fee to link up.

Stay tuned for more steps in this series. You’ll see how I build on top of this timer concept to ensure my children get my attention and that I use it to make sure I accomplish something in all areas of my life.

Time Management Series for the Stay at Home Mom

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In this Baby Steps series, I want to show you how I have been able to tackle on of my biggest issues: TIME.

Actually, this baby step tackles a ton of issues I have had–boredom, fatigue, messy house, full to do lists, etc.

But since I have started this routine, which I will call “My Intervals”, my house is cleaner, my to do list is closer to being checked off, I have been able to give my children my undivided attention, and I don’t have days where I end up in my PJs all day flipping mindlessly through Facebook and Pinterest.

So I am going to walk you through this series and show you how you can create your own time management system to get on top of all the things you are doing. If I give it to you all at once, trust me, it will seem totally overwhelming. So I hope that you can bear with me and do things step by step.

So let’s start with Step 1:

STEP 1: Establish a BRIEF Morning and Evening Routine

The very first thing that I did was I identified the three things that jump start my day. I wrote you guys about this earlier. For me, personally, it is unloading or loading the dishwasher, putting in a load of laundry, and making the bed. The rule is, the routine must take you 20 minutes or fewer, that way it doesn’t seem too overwhelming. And start with it being just 3 things. Now I know mine focuses on the house, and that’s just because the condition of my house has the greatest influence on me. But you can pick anything, whatever you seem to find to have the biggest influence on you.

Now create the same routine for the evening. For me, it is spruce up the living room, do the dishes, and put in a load of laundry.

Remember, keep it at 3. With this series, everything works in 3s so it is easy to remember.

When you plan these routines, think about the things in your life that always seem to get out of control the easiest. It doesn’t even need to pertain to cleanliness. It could be that you are more stressed if you don’t work out in the AM, so you need that. It could be that you need to read, or snuggle with a loved one, or whatever. Just figure out what is stressing you out the most and create a routine that works around it and helps you keep up with it.

Once you start doing this, you’ll find that you start to be on top of things a little bit more. Stay tuned for Step 2: Fall in Love With Your Timer

ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE THE CHALLENGE? IF SO, CLICK “LIKE” BELOW. GOOD LUCK!

Be Your Pinterest Self Project: Baby Step 2

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(Quick note: Please don’t pin the pictures in this, unless you are pinning the additional information I have on it. Pin the original post! I’d hate to take credit for someone else’s genius. I did link up those pins for you)

How is everyone doing on the Be Your Pinterest Self project? I have been having a BLAST doing a bunch of my Pins. It feels so good to actually DO the things that I think are inspiring, rather than sitting on my bum scrolling through the inspiration.

So Baby Step 1 was to do FIVE pins a week. One reader asked me when the end date was on it. My answer? When you want it to be! It is my hope that we can all continue building off of the inspiration on Pinterest and not resort back to just sitting around and scrolling through other people’s awesomeness…make your own! But for those who need and end date..try Baby step 1 for two weeks and then move on to this next Baby Step. Try to keep up the habit of doing Pinterest Pins, but maybe don’t give yourself a strict number to do per week.

Baby Step 2: Create a Board of all You Have Done

So many of the pins on Pinterest are from the original posters. So of COURSE they are going to say their recipe is the best, and kudos to them! But my favorite Pins on Pinterest are ones where someone else has tried it and put up their review. For Baby Step 2, create a board and repin all the things you have done, and write a little note on how it worked. You can see a sample of my own board here. My sis in law calls her board “Been There, Done That.” So cute, right?

Why this Baby Step?

This Baby Step is twofold…1st of all (and most importantly), it shows YOU how much you’ve been up to! Isn’t it neat to see all of your wonderful projects right there? 2nd, it helps add to the Pinterest community by adding to the review of things. Seriously, aren’t comments on pins so much more reliable when someone else said they tried it and loved it?

How Long Do I Do This Step?

I hope this step isn’t too cumbersome to just continue as a habit. But if you find it isn’t working for you..it isn’t inspiring you, encouraging you, etc. then stop! Remember, my philosophy with Baby Steps is that if a Baby Step isn’t working for you, then you just try another. I do that all the time!

Well anyways, let me show you all the things I’ve been up to!

“Best Chicken Ever”?

This pin was dubbed the “Best Chicken Ever” by the pinner. I tried it out. I did find that there was far too much mustard in it. When I read the comments on the site, I noticed that other had the same issue and there’s a possibility that it may depend greatly on the brand of mustard used. I was going to never try this again, but when hubby came home from work, he raved about the smell of the house. So I want to re-try, but with less mustard. If I think about it, I’ll let you know how it goes!

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Plastic Bag Storage

This is genius! I have a wad of plastic bags under my sink and am always pushing them around. I don’t use the bags often, since I use reusable bags, but I like to keep some on hand in the event that I’ve run out of wet bags for diapers or bags for lunches. I found that this has worked GREAT. I am yet to embellish the container, simply because I am actually waiting to empty a Clorox wipes container that’s bit bigger. This only first about 20 bags. Just make sure that only the handles overlap the bag–I had a little more overlap and it made them all come out!

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Award-Winning Lemon Cookies

These cookies were fabulous. The pin said they were award-winning lemon cookies, and after trying them, I sure do believe it. They did get a little firm on the edges, I’d like them a little more chewy, but I think I could have cooked them for less time to accomplish that. My toddler had such a blast rolling the dough in the powdered sugar (which excited me because she NEVER wants to cook with me!).20120718-181009.jpg

Campfire Strawberries

These marshmallow covered strawberries were excellent, but difficult to make. I didn’t put them over a fire, but used a creme brûlée torch instead. I had every intention of drizzling dark chocolate over them, but sadly they made it to my mouth before I could do so. :) 20120718-181032.jpg

Stuffed Southwest Peppers

I made these and they were great. This mix was a bit dry, so I added a full can of diced tomatoes. In the future, I think this needs a little more taco seasoning. It was a little bland. But my picky eater of a husband really liked them!

Marshmallow Craft for Letter “M”

I thought this idea of teaching the letter M was fabulous. I didn’t have glue on hand, so we just used tape and that worked great. Of course the best part was that we ate about 50% of the marshmallows!

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Lemon Chex

I did these lemon chex, but wasn’t too keen on the white chocolate taste. If you like the lemon girl scout cookies and white chocolate, then you’ll love these!

Homemade Goldfish

I made the homemade goldfish and LOVED it. First off, there are only 5 ingredients, so I can rest assured my kids aren’t eating stuff with a ton of preservatives. Although my daughter is not a fan of baking, she LOVED this. We made little molds out of strips of aluminum can tins and she liked pressing them into the dough. I am modifying the recipe quite a bit and will be putting up a tutorial shortly.

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Regrow Lettuce and Celery

I am also excited to try and regrow my lettuce and celery. I saw this pin about the celery and wondered if it worked on lettuce. I then read this tutorial on how to do lettuce. In my research, I have heard mixed opinions on the lettuce, many say it is more bitter, or that it rots before you can plant it. I’ll keep you posted!

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So that’s what I’ve been up to! I’d love to hear about what all of you have been doing!

I Will Go and Do – Family Home Evening Lesson

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CLICK HERE FOR MORE FAMILY HOME EVENING IDEAS

I am a firm believer that everyone needs a reset button. For our family, we use Sunday as a reset button. Our church encourages us to do this once a week and is officially called a “Family Home Evening.” I personally feel like every family, regardless of their spirituality, should consider a family night like this. I’m not a big preaching-my-religion person (I swear!), but I wanted to show this in case there are some of you with toddlers who need Family Home Evening ideas. You could adapt this lesson to your own spirituality. We generally start with a prayer, have a lesson, have an activity, and then eat a treat.

Have a different religion? No problem! I have suggestions at the bottom on how to adapt it to your spiritual background.

We used to have it focus on whatever we felt our family needed at the time, but I felt like it turned too much into us lecturing our daughter and that didn’t feel right to me at all. So now we just focus on stories from the Scriptures.

So here is the lesson:

(Based on scriptures from 1 Nephi 3 and 1 Nephi 17)

I start by explaining the story. Lehi was a prophet who lived in Jerusalem around 600 BC. At the time, people were doing very bad things, so Heavenly Father told him that he will have to leave (he ended up getting in a ship and going to the Americas). But before he left, there were a few things he had to do. First of all, he was told to get the brass plates that Laban, a wealthy man in Jerusalem, had. These plates held the record of Lehi’s family and were very important. So Lehi asked his son, Nephi, to go and get the plates. Here is the first video we showed:

Questions we asked:

Was Nephi happy to do this?

What are some things Heavenly Father wants US to do? (each of us took turns sharing)

We then explained the Nephi was also asked to build a ship, and he had never built a ship before.

We shared this verse: “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” 1 Nephi 3:7

We then showed this video:


We talked about how sometimes we are asked to do something that might seem impossible to do, but if Heavenly Father wants us to do it, then he will provide a way to help us out.

I then challenged the family to build a ship using items around the house and it HAD to float in their bath that night. I thought for sure we’d dig up some carton, put a stick in it for a flag and call it a day, but husband went ALL OUT. We used an empty Marie Calender’s box (a large one from Costco) and cut out our shape. Then we cut brown paper so the boat was brown, and then held it together using black duct tape. We also coated it in press n’ seal to make it waterproof. We put together a sail using pipe cleaners and scrapbooking paper. I was so proud of my daughter, for weeks now I’ve been teaching her to cut, even having her use a spray bottle to spray our plants and mimic the motion of cutting, well tonight she finally got it!

    

The evening ended with ice cream and watching Dumbo. So much fun!

I also felt like this lesson had already helped me. When we talked about that things we are asked to do, I talked about how I am asked to be a Mom and raise the kids. I’ve really struggled with this lately as daughter is in the middle of the terrible, and I mean terrible twos. I’ve been impatient and SO frustrated. So I said a prayer the next day basically saying, “OK, you want me to be a Mom, so I need your help.” I could feel the help I got that day. Daughter was a little less fussy and I was a little more patient. So already I could see the positive influence of this lesson.

How to morph this for your own personal spirituality:

Is there a story in your religion about obedience? If not (or if you don’t have a specified religion) how about a person in history that did something that seemed totally impossible? Share that story. You may want to look on YouTube to see if there are videos for that story. The beauty of the activity is the fun in trying to be creative, so you don’t need to build a SHIP. Whatever your story is, think of an object you can build. You’ll have so much fun trying to come up with stuff!

I hope this helps you come up with your own ideas for a family night!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FAMILY HOME EVENING IDEAS

Did you do a family night this week? Share in the comments or, if you are a blogger, link here:

Be Your Pinterest Self Project

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So my Pinterest self is pretty awesome. She has daily preschool activities for her children. She does clever things like uses a hair straightener to iron clothes or she turns the pant clip from a store clothes hanger into a chip bag closer. She knows 10 make at home cleaning solutions, 13 things your camera wishes you knew,  and 101 ways to use your first sewing machine. She’s pretty fantastic, right?

But the fact is, she isn’t me.

Through pinning a little bit of this and a little bit of that (essentially fragments of bragging moments from several OTHER people), I created this version of an unrealistic, ideal me and often feel that my real self looks rather pathetic compared to her.

And today, while knee-deep in pinning this and pinning that, I came across this beautiful quote:

“Please don’t nag yourself with thoughts of failure. Do not set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. Simply do what you can do, in the best way you know, and the Lord will accept of your effort.”
–Gordon B. Hinckley
My beauty does not come via orchestrating all 101 indoor activities for kids, but instead comes by my desire to try and do the best that I can.
That’s why I decided to take on this “Be Your Pinterest Self” project.
My goal? Do 5 things a week that are on Pinterest. This could be a recipe, an activity for kids, an outfit idea, etc. The point is…if your Pinterest Self looks pretty good, why not emulate her, right? BUT, that is with one caution, don’t envy her to the point where you feel like a failure. Embrace that ideal woman as just that, IDEAL–and you, in your imperfect form, striving to just do your best if far more beautiful.
I want to cherish the giddiness I feel when I do these out of ordinary Pinterest projects that make me feel like I went just a bit above the average effort. I often joke that iI never actually DO anything on my Pinterest page. So why not do those little things that make me feel a little awesome?
I hope you will take the challenge with me. If you have a blog, it would be great if you could link up and share the things you are doing with Pinterest (but please be sure to cite your Pinterest source, no idea copying!).
Have fun everyone! And please check in and tell me all of the fun, inspiring things you are doing!