Finding balance

Life with a newborn is unpredictable.

Life with a newborn is unpredictable.

Life with a newborn is unpredictable.

I'm hoping that if I keep saying that to myself, I'll cut myself a little slack. That somehow, I'll really and truly believe that the above applies to me.

There are going to be messes that I can't get to right away.

I won't always get uninterrupted time to work on lesson plans. I can't keep a spotless house all of the time. My to-do list will not always (or often, or usually) get done. I need to be flexible. I need to bend. I need to, temporarily at least, lower my standards. I am only one human being. I am not imperfect, or invincible.

I must, MUST keep my eyes (and my attention) on what is important. Making memories. Crafting a childhood for my children that is worth remembering. Communicating to them that they - not the housework, or the bill-paying, or the grocery shopping - are important.

It's such a struggle for me. Maybe it's my perfectionism. I like to be able to point to results and say, "I did that." It's easy to look at a clean kitchen floor, or a basket of folded laundry, or a perfectly balanced checkbook and feel that sense of satisfaction. There is a measurable end, a quantifiable result. Not so with the relationships that I'm trying to build with my children. That is more amorphous, less concrete. But so much more important.

I read so many blogs about women who rhapsodize about the afternoons they spend with their children: crafting, adventuring, creating memories. (I know, don't compare the inside of my life to the outside of someone else's. Yeah, yeah.) It seems those women are always bemoaning their lack of housekeeping skills. That they have all these unconquerable messes. Laundry is taking over the house, junk mail is piling up, the kitchen floor hasn't seen the business end of a mop in more than a month, etc. I envy them their ability to let go of their housekeeping expectations. That's never been my problem. I can keep house just fine, thanks. Sure, I get behind every once in a while, but for the most part, my house can be company-ready in five minutes or less. The facet of life I struggle with the most is being present.

I know that I need to slow down, to savor this time in my life, when my littles are are little, when I have a baby to snuggle. I know that I shouldn't beat myself up about the dust that's gathering on my windowsills, or the fingerprints on the TV screen, or the baseboards that desperately need to be painted in the living room. The most important thing is to soak this in. Soak in the sweet smell of a new baby, the enthusiasm of a new reader, the unending riddles of an eight-year-old. I should play princesses more often. I should read Go Dog Go and Old Hat New Hat. I should build forts and play Play-Doh.

should. should. should.

Stop, breathe deep.

Let the housework go.

Hug your kids.

Go outside.

Smile.

Be.

The Lovely Bones

If you're a vegetarian, you'll want to skip this post.

It was a good Thanksgiving. As one of my Facebook friends said, the dessert to main dish ratio was just right. (We had 8 desserts for 15 people.)

Yes, I stocked up on turkeys when they were on sale for 57 cents a pound. Not as good as last year's 44 cents a pound, but I'll take it.

Now that the feast is over, I have picked the bones clean. Literally. After the feast was done yesterday afternoon, I took the turkey carcass (isn't that just a lovely word, carcass? "What are you eating, dear?" "Carcass! It's delicious!") and stuffed half of it into the crock pot with some unpeeled carrots, unpeeled but halved onions, and some celery stalks. It made a lovely broth that will flavor rice and help with casseroles in the coming month. This morning, I took the second half of the carcass (again! That word!) and repeated yesterday's crock pot adventure. For tonight's dinner, we'll have turkey noodle soup, made from the bone broth/stock I made today. YUMMO!

For those of you who are stock-illiterate, let me break down the process:

1. Strip every piece of usable meat from the bones of your leftover turkey.

2. Put said bones in a big stockpot or crock pot, set on low. (If you had a big turkey like we did, you may have to do 2 batches.)

3. Wash some celery and carrots, chop 'em in halves or thirds, and throw them in. Chop a couple of smallish or just one large-ish onion in half, throw it in. (Don't worry about peeling. Really.) Pour in water to cover.

4. Let simmer for a few hours. At least 3, but 6 is better.

5. Put a nice big bowl in your sink with a sieve (or colander lined with cheesecloth) on top. Pour the pot's contents into the bowl, letting the sieve filter out all the solids.

6. Allow your stock to cool. Taste it - you'll need salt! Don't be shy. Like Ina Garten says, "The difference between dishwater and good stock is salt!"

7. Cover and refrigerate. In a few hours (or the next morning) skim off the fat. Some people like to cook with turkey fat. I sometimes give it to the dog on her food. It's too greasy for me, and I'm not afraid of fat!

8. Using a ladle, portion the broth into Ball canning jars and store it in the freezer, with the date on the lid. (I put my jars in the sink while I ladle. Less mess.) Leave an inch/an inch and a half headspace to account for expansion during freezing.

Simple & frugal. All those trace minerals from the turkey bones are in the broth. Enjoy!

The Decline of Western Civilization (or, The Lost Art of Bedmaking)

I know it won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me well, but I like things a certain way. There are multiple tasks, procedures, and methods of which I am absolutely certain that the world would come to a screeching end if there were no one on Earth to do them properly. Folding towels, hanging clothes, and making beds are my top 3.

I cringe when I hear a wife/mother say with a giggle, "Oh, I am a terrible housekeeper. I just can't keep up, so we live with the disorder and chaos!" Would we find it so funny if she were talking about a paying job? As if any profession that paid money could be as pivotal as being a SAHM. Children need order. Our husbands deserve a tidy, well-ordered home. I know that I function better when the house is picked-up. We bless ourselves and our families when we learn how to do our job properly. It isn't helpful to anyone when there are no matching socks in the drawer, or the beds are so untidy and dirty that they're not a comfort at the end of the day. I wholeheartedly believe that keeping house is pivotal to being civilized. It's as necessary as table manners and Great Books.

That brings me to the heart of my post - How To Make a Bed Properly. This is the way civilized people do it. ; )

First, we start with a fitted sheet, with the elastic snug UNDER all four corners, and all four sides pulled down, under the four sides of the mattress.

Next, we put on the flat sheet. The deepest hem goes at the head of the bed. The sides of the sheet that are hanging down on each side of the mattress are equal in length - no lopsided sheets! (A little trick for that: if, when you store your sheets, your first fold is lengthways in half, you'll have a fold-line right down the middle of the flat sheet to guide you when you put your sheets on the bed.) You'll notice that the print on the flat sheet faces the mattress, NOT the ceiling! There's a good reason for that!

Because when you fold your top sheet down over your blankets/comforter/quilt, or you like to turn down the bed to warm the sheets before getting into bed, the attractive side is visible. Also, this is usually the side on which the nap is on a flannel sheet. You'll be warmer this way.

Now that we have the head of the bed tidy, let's look at the foot of the bed. (You've smoothed out all the wrinkles in your sheet, right? Everything's pretty?) At the foot of the bed, you will tuck in your sheet. I don't care if you like to put your feet out at the end of the bed! We are civilized human beings! We tuck in the sheet at the bottom! Stick your feet out the side, if you must, but keep that sheet tucked. We are not bachelors living in squalor. We are the mistresses of households! We are the keepers of civilization!

Now, you'll notice in the picture below, the corner isn't exactly perfect. We can fix that, easy-peasy. I've always called it a hospital corner, the fold I'm about to show you. You call it whatever you like, as long as you do it.

From the foot of the bed, eyeball about a foot or so toward the head of the bed. Grasp the bottom of the sheet there, and ...

flip it up to the top of the bed. Tuck in whatever still hangs below the bottom of the mattress. (Pay no attention to all the bedding on the floor. It was wash-day for linens, and it all ended up in the laundry. I had to take pictures before I was interrupted, so I didn't have time to make things pretty for my pictures. Such is life.)

Now, flip that bit of sheet back down, smooth your sheet again, and do the other corner.

I'm guessing that you don't need me to show you how to put on your top blankets. Just pull the quilt up to right below the top hem of the flat sheet, with both sides of the quilt or blanket hanging down equally on each side of the bed. Tuck in middle-layer blankets, hospital corners and all. No need to tuck in the bottom of a quilt, as it will pull the stitches of the quilt. Besides, we want to see all of the quilt. It's made to be enjoyed for its beauty. (Don't tuck comforters, either, unless you like bending your mattress and sleeping with your feet elevated.) At the head of the bed, fold that deep hem of the top sheet over the edge of the quilt at the head of your bed. It protects the edge of the quilt, and lets you show off your pretty sheets. (And since you put them on the right way, we can see the print, if there is one!) Fluff your pillows, pile them on, and you're done.

A word on daily bed making: I firmly believe in the need to let the bed "air" before making the bed for the day. Some people feel just as firmly that a bed should be made as soon as it's vacant. I like to, weather permitting, open the windows in the bedroom, leaving the bed unmade, while I feed the hordes and take my shower. When I come back to my bedroom (about an hour after I wake), I make the bed. That means I do ONE LAYER AT A TIME. Pull up the sheet, then the blanket, then the quilt. We do not do all the layers at the same time - blankets and sheets shift overnight. Husbands steal bedding and untuck sheets! (True. I've seen it.) It takes me about 3 minutes to make my bed every morning. But I enjoy getting into a made bed at night - smooth, unwrinkled sheets, with flat, pretty blankets. If I just pulled all the covers up together, in about 2 days I'd have a mess that would need more than 3 minutes of attention. If my sons (ages 10, 7, and 5) can make a bed properly, (and they can, because I taught them to) so can you!

There you are. My bed-making manifesto. I feel so much better having gotten that off my chest.

Short cut!

As organized as I like to think I am, sometimes life throws a curve ball. Soccer practice, an unexpected Play-Doh tragedy, sick kids - life happens, and dinner gets pushed back. In response, I'm trying to be a bit more proactive. Thus, this post about beans.

I love black beans, and I refuse to pay for canned beans. Dry beans are so much cheaper and (I think) tastier. The trouble is that I have to think ahead when I want to serve beans. I have to remember to soak them the night before. That doesn't always happen. What's a mom to do?

I cheated.

I cooked two pounds of beans in my crock pot, drained them and allowed them to (mostly) cool.

Then I pulled out some sandwich bags and a big freezer bag, and divided my cooked beans into serving-sized portions. And - this is important - I labeled my freezer bag before I filled it!

See how organized I am? (Actually, I'm just forgetful, so I labeled the outside of the freezer bag with my portion sizes.) I divided each cup of beans into a sandwich bag (cheaper than freezer bags), and then put all my sandwich bags into the big freezer bag. And I tried to get as much air out of each bag as possible to decrease the chance of freezer burn.

So now I have a head-start on dinner on those nights I run late! Next up for the freezer is pre-cooked taco meat!

Hmmm... Feminism

Now that I'm no longer working the insane hours of retail at Christmas (did I mention I had to be at work at 4am?! OUCH!), my brain has started functioning again. As a consequence, I've been throwing around an idea in my head, a little internal argument that I can't solve on my own. Here's the question:

Has modern feminism gone too far? Has it not gone far enough? Has it gone in the wrong direction?

To the last question, I can answer a resounding "YES!" The other two... well, I'm still working on those.

Are we, as women of Western culture, better off because of feminism? Yes and no. I'm glad that I'm not (usually) talked down to because I'm a woman. I'm glad that I can earn a decent wage, that I'm seen as an intelligent, competent person. I'm not anyone's property, I can vote, I can run for office, and I can have and defend my own opinion. Those are all great things. But I think we'd all agree that something has been lost.

First, I think that feminism, in its way, devalues the contributions to society that are (primarily) made by women. So many feminists that I've encountered want to be seen as the same as men. Gosh, I don't. I want to be a woman, but with the same rights as a man. Can I have it both ways?

Did I lose you back in that last paragraph? Feminism devaluing women? Yeppers. Happens all the time. How many times have you heard someone say, "Does your wife work, or does she stay at home with the children?" (Let one of those blockheads stay home with my brood for a day, and they'll see WORK!) or "Girls can be anything at all when they grow up. They can be pilots, or Senators, or mechanics, or doctors." Umm... where is MOTHER in that laundry list? Well, okay, sometimes it gets tacked on those sentences. Usually like this, "Girls can be anything at all when they grow up. They can be pilots, or Senators, or mechanics, or doctors. Or even mothers." Gee, thanks. Even mothers, huh? Wow. What a wonderfully glowing accolade for the job on the planet that keeps the human race alive. You're welcome, by the way.

Oftentimes, feminists discourage femininity. It is implied to be equal with weakness. Subservience. Timidity. How many times do you think of a strong, modern woman, with intelligence and strength - and then picture a woman with a child on her lap, reading a story? Or sewing? Or knitting? Or cooking a meal for her family? Intelligence? Strength? Child-rearing? KNITTING? Oh, the horror of being a feminine feminist!

Shallow-minded feminism (which is the most common kind, I'm afraid) tells women that to be valued, we must be like men. Not "equal to" men. Not "have the same opportunities" as men. But we must be as men.

And how, pray tell, is that feminism?

It's just the same tired devaluing of women, in new clothes. Now women aren't seen as stupid or without ambition, unless they choose to stay home and raise children. Please don't misunderstand my motive, here. I'm not bitter. Not in the least. Just callin' it like I see it.

I feel a bit cheated by feminism. The illusion of "having it all." It's just not possible. I'm not trying to fight another skirmish in the Mommy Wars by pointing this out, but working 40 hours outside the home, raising children, and trying to keep a house (and make it into a home) is not something that can be done well. By anyone. Something has to give. Eventually, that house of cards comes down, either in a big crash, or a slow slide. But come down it does.

There is a widespread idea that feminism created a perceived need for two incomes. As more women started working outside the home, prices rose as a reaction to households having more disposable income. As a consequence, when some families kept to the one-wage-earning-parent model*, it becomes challenging to "keep up," further entrenching each side of the debate of wealth versus family. (Keeping up is another post.)

And we don't even need to talk about reproductive "freedom." How many women have been coerced into abortions? How many women are taking harmful pills or injections that override their bodies' natural functions, in the name of "freedom?" How many women are raising children on their own, because they tried to be like men and see intimacy as no big deal, and just a physical act? (Please understand that I know all men don't think this way, but this is the way society conditions us to see a man's point of view.) How many men and women are living together, with children and without marriage, because marriage is seen as something outdated, only needed by insecure, grasping people who need a piece of paper to seal a commitment?

I'm grateful for feminism. I'm grateful for the opportunities bought for me by the sacrifice and insistent voices of so many women. And I think it's gotten off track. Or maybe it was wrong at its start: I can't tell you, I hadn't been born yet. But I can say, with honesty, that mainstream feminism is broken, and entirely too man-centric. It focuses on making women like men. And I think that subverts what should be the bedrock of feminism: women are valuable as women. Not because we wear dresses or perfume or makeup (though those are very nice perks) but because we are strong, we make unpopular choices (like giving up a career bought by years of education to kiss sticky faces and get stains out of laundry), and we are unique. And we are not men. (Let's face it girls, the men are better men than we'll ever be. Thank God.)

*see, the feminist in me won't even allow that this sentence would be better served by coming out and saying the father works outside the home!

Before & After

Stockpile, before:

And after:

Tomatos, before:

And after:

The garden, before:

And after:

Bread, before:

And after: (see? They are dark!)

So even though I am on an endless gerbil wheel of laundry, dishes, housekeeping, and child-herding, I am making progress.

Keeping inventory

This is a picture that I took just after Thanksgiving, but a comment from my friend Liz made me remember I wanted to post about it! 

On the right is our little white board that Hubby & I use to write little messages to each other. We were both so excited to have Thanksgiving leftovers! I LOVE Thanksgiving leftovers, and so does Hubby. The kids love them, too, because they LOVE turkey, and pumpkin pie. But that's not the point of this post. 

Next to our white board you'll see the freezer inventory. We have a chest freezer in the basement, and I (of course) use it when I stock up on good deals. (In fact, I have a couple of hams in there that I bought for a steal during Holy Week.) 

The freezer inventory works like this: I make a list of what's in the freezer, with a slash mark next to the item, indicating how many of the item I have. (If I have three boxes of stick butter, it gets three slashes.) When I remove an item from the freezer, I make an "X" out of my slash. I lifted this idea from The Tightwad Gazette, when the author writes about keeping track of her garden produce. 

The inventory helps me plan meals, and it keeps me from being wasteful. If I see a good deal coming up on an item, I can check my list to see if it's time to replenish my supply of said item, or wait for the next sale. 

I'm not perfect at remembering to cross off items, and I do make a new inventory list every four to six months (my old one gets messy and inaccurate.) But it does help! 

Struggling

I need to clone myself. 

I do this to myself every spring. After being cooped up all winter with nothing to do, after purposefully sequestering myself in my home, hunkering down with my peeps, I go a little nutty with the volunteering come spring. This year has hit me especially hard. 

Here's my list for the next two weeks: 

• Adam and Luke are both in soccer this year. Practices and games on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
• I've volunteered to take a meal to a mom with a new baby. This is her seventh child.
• I'll be attending my cousin's baby shower next Saturday. (oops! Soccer game! Oh, and I have to shop for a gift...)
• Cub Scouts is winding down its year, but I have six weeks of meetings, alternating Mondays and Thursdays. I still have Adam's health form to fill out for camp, which includes finding his vax record. (FTR, I don't vax my kids anymore - so finding his vax record is a process in itself. It'll involve looking up his ped that I left... four years ago?) 
• I'm in charge of our homeschool group's Mom's Night Out. 
• I'm working on a spreadsheet for a local pro-life group. I help them organize their data. I have January and February of this year to compile. 
• Did I mention I homeschool?
• And that Hubby started a new job, and works Monday - Friday, from about 9am to about 7:30pm, and Saturday mornings? Oh, and still waits tables on Saturday nights? 
• and my dad wants me to help a friend of his file a complicated amendment on his taxes. 

I'm still trying to be frugal with our meals, and hang my laundry to dry (I've really gotten off the wagon, there.) Couponing is still going strong. I think I'm going to have to give up sleeping soon, if someone doesn't stop me from opening my big mouth to say, "Yes! I'll do that!" 

So when I say that I'm going to bring a meal to a mom in our playgroup who's recently been put on bedrest, someone slap me, okay? There's only so much one woman can do! But for some reason, I seem to think that I can change the world, singlehandedly. "Entropy, beware! I have arrived to save us all! I have come to prevent the decline of Western Civilization in my hyper-domesticity!" 

#1 Laundry Mom

Sorry about the poor picture, but it's hard to take a good picture of aluminum foil! 

A few days ago, I was buried in laundry. I had sheets and towels to wash, diapers to send through, and the normal, clothing laundry to keep up on. Seven loads later, I had again conquered the laundry mountain. I joked with Hubby, "Someone should make me a medal. That was an Olympic event!" 

So he did. : D I love my Someone! 

Fluffy and pretty!

It was time to order some new cloth diapers. The last time I had replaced my medium Fuzzi Bunz, Luke was in diapers. That meant that my medium diapers had been in near-constant use since... 2004? With this year's tax return, I ordered a few new FBs from Natural Babies. 

They came in the mail, and OH! They are so soft and pretty! Since this was my first opportunity to order girly-colored Fuzzi Bunz, I took full advantage. (TBH, I also ordered orange and red, but they didn't look as good with the others in the photos, so just imagine them, okay?) 

Why, why, why do people insist on using crinkly, smelly, chemical-laden paper diapers? These are so lovely to the touch. Would you wear paper underwear? Me either! So why make your child wear a trash bag on her bottom all day? 

I admit, I was a bit intimidated by the choices out there on the internet - so many cloth diapers to choose from. So I ordered one. Just one. It was a red Fuzzi Bunz. And I tried it on Luke, who was a year old at the time. And I was hooked. 

I was so concerned about the extra laundry, and washing poop in my washing machine, and all the horror stories (from middle-aged women) about cloth diapers - none of which are accurate about today's cloth diapers, I can tell you! These aren't your momma's plastic pants! These are pretty, and they smell good, and they're EASY! 

• I do not keep a pail full of bleach-water in my house
• I do not dunk dirty diapers in the toilet, and carry them, dripping and nasty to the pail
• I do not touch poop when changing a diaper or taking them to the washing machine
• I have not had to buy a million pieces of special paraphernalia 
• I save money by not throwing away my diapers after every use
• I save the environment by not discarding my diapers, not using a newly manufactured diaper for every diaper change, not buying more trash bags for my diaper-filled trash cans, not wasting gas transporting diapers from factory to warehouse to store to my home and then to the landfill. Yes, I use water and energy to wash my diapers. But how much water and energy does it take to manufacture and transport single-use diapers? And how much room do they take up in the landfill? YUCK! 

And can we just talk about poop for a minute? If you're a parent, poop happens. It's a fact of life, and you get used to it pretty quickly. Once your baby starts solids, poop takes on a life of its own. It needs to be dumped in the toilet after a diaper change - whether you're using cloth or paper diapers. Yep - go check the instructions on the side of your sposie diaper package. You're supposed to be flushing that poo before your sposie hits the trash! If you're not, well, then you're creating a big problem for our groundwater. (Especially if you also vax your kids. Which is an ENTIRELY different post.) So don't use the poop issue as an excuse for using your chemical-laden, crunchy (and not in a good way) diapers. Stop being a weenie and go to cloth. 

One last thought about cloth: I hear a lot of people whine about the upfront cost of cloth. Look at it this way - buying cloth diapers versus using sposies is a lot like buying a car versus renting one week-to-week. Sure, the upfront cost is off-putting, but which is cheaper in the long run? DUH! 

Trio of (frugal) tips

Why do people buy chip clips at the grocery store? At my store, I can buy three chip clips for $2. Or I can buy a bag of 50 clothespins for $2. Sure, I have to actually fold my bag down twice before putting a clothespin on my bag to close it, but I think the savings is worth it. 

This is a little bread tab, that keeps bread fresh. I save many of mine. Recently, Hubby reconfigured all the wires behind our entertainment center, and he used our tabs to label the cords (DVD, TV, etc.) It made it much easier to keep tabs (pun intended) on what each cord was for! 

I saw the cutest little bath toy holder at Target last year: it's a frog, made of plastic. When cleaning up after a bath, a parent can just scoop with this big frog and pick up all the bath toys, where they can drip-dry until needed next time. Personally, I don't need a $30 frog just to hold some squirty ducks and a few cups and squirt bottles. I just used a mesh bag from a bag of oranges. (Ahem. You'll note the free shampoos & conditioner in the photo. Can you believe people actually pay for shampoo?! I love coupons!) 

So, what little frugal tips do you have for me?

Pride goeth before the flu...

Remember in my clothesline post, when I said I rarely get truly behind on laundry? Well, I've been playing catch-up, because a nasty stomach bug is making its way through my house. I've been washing a LOT of bedding, pajamas, and towels. (Oh, and kitchen rugs. Yuck.) Luke had it, then Joey, now Adam has it. (I suspect Gracie has a touch of it, but she's not had quite the same symptoms as the boys. I'll spare you the details.) 

This is really NOT the best week for this to happen, as we're just getting back into school after Christmas Break, and Hubby is interviewing for jobs, studying for his networking certification, and working part-time waiting tables. (Is there ever really a good week for flu?) I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, and I just want our days to settle into a predictable pattern again. Oh well - at least the pantry is stocked from all my recent uber-couponing. 

Normally, our days have a routine. The boys and I are comfortable with it, and it helps keep things running smoothly. The older two boys have their chores, I have mine, we know generally how the day is going to progress. For myself, I have a schedule in my head of what housework gets done on what day, so I'm not running around trying to clean the entire house in one day. It works like this: Monday - kitchen, Tuesday - bathroom, Wednesday - living room, Thursday - bathroom, Friday - bedrooms, Saturday - bathroom. Yes, I clean my ONE bathroom three times a week. I have three boys, remember? 

Laundry is done every day. Luke throws it downstairs, and I sort it into baskets. I know the size of my "sorting" baskets: each basket is equal to one load of laundry. When a basket is full, its contents get thrown in the wash. As per my frugal nature, I only wash full loads. I usually do 2 or 3 loads a day, which is about all my clotheslines can handle. Each load is hung, and when clothes dry, they are folded and put into a basket, dependent on which room they're going in. When the clean-clothes basket is full, I put that basket (room) of laundry away. (So I don't put laundry away every day.) Luke's other chore is folding napkins and kitchen towels, and putting them away. 

Adam vacuums every day. Our house is mostly hardwoods, but we do have area rugs and a German Shepherd. So vacuuming our little space is important. I also bring all our socks to Adam to match and put away. Holey socks go to the rag box, which is used to clean up unmentionable messes (we've used a lot of those this week); unmatched socks go to the mismatch box, where they await their long lost mates! About once every two weeks, we take out the mismatch box and match up socks that have turned up. It's a system that works for us. 

That's a little peek into our housekeeping routine around here. It keeps things running smoothly in our little space. I just wish this stomach bug would pass so that I can get back to my routine! Bleh! 

Craft table - before

This post is to keep me accountable. See my craft table? It's a mess! 

Let's work from left to right, shall we? 

First, you can see the pile of homeschool books. Some are for this year, and some are from last year. Last year's books can be put away. I will do that this week! 

Above the book pile is the pegboard, which is just holding onto things that should go to their homes, instead of being vagabond clutter. 

Next, we have a pile of mending and quilting that should be done. A gift bag that should be put away with the other gift bags. An empty bolt core, to hold some fabric that I haven't ironed yet. A book, some fleece, and a pile of jeans. A picture that wants to go on the wall. Some beans. (Yes, beans. I made draft stoppers last winter, and never took the leftover beans back to the kitchen!) 

And, lastly, we have the walls. UGH. For a brief time, hubby & I traded rooms with the boys. Once we realized that their room couldn't fit our king-sized bed, and that the boys much preferred a room on the main floor, we switched back. That was more than a year ago. The room remains painted as it was when the boys were up here, so I am the Princess in the Castle. We have the paint to repaint the room, and we have the supplies. IT WILL GET DONE THIS WEEK!! 

So I am keeping myself accountable by posting my intentions here. I will clear my craft table this week, and I will help hubby paint the room. I'm going to make a dent in this clutter! 

My clothesline

And now for my long-awaited clothesline post! 

Here it is, in all its glory, my beloved clothesline. This summer, I have managed to discipline myself enough to use my clothesline full time. I only use my dryer to dry diaper inserts and to fluff my towels before taking them to the line. My electric bill is $30 lower this month than the same month last year, so I think my diligence is paying off. 

I love hanging clothes out on the line. I love the way they smell, I love being out in the fresh air, I love saving money! I wish I had more outside clothesline space, but I have a postage-stamp for a backyard, so this little line will have to do. Why don't you have a clothesline? Let me guess... you don't like that it makes your clothes "crunchy," you do too much laundry, you have no space outside, and you don't have the time, right? Ha! Wrong! Read on, spendthrift!

The clothesline makes my clothes too crunchy and stiff

There a few ways around this. Shake your clothes *vigorously* before you put them on the line, and hang on a windy day. Take them down as soon as they're dry, if it's not a humid day. Honestly, the stiffness is something you don't even notice after about a week. The one exception is towels - for towels, I fluff them in the dryer for 10 minutes, then they go on the line to finish. They come out just fine. You may have to experiment a bit to see what works best for you. I actually prefer line-dried jeans. 

I do too much laundry to line-dry

Puh-leez! I have four children. Four, SMALL, children. (read: I wash lots of clothes.)  I can dry four loads a day on my little line. And if I run out of space, then I just use hangers and hang clothes from the tree! 

I have no space outside

Then put a line or two inside. You don't hang out in every room of your house all day, right? How often do you hang out in your bedroom during the day? Put a retractible line in there! I have three lines in my basement for rainy days and winter. (Having a winter line helps humidify the dry indoor air, too. Bonus!) 

I don't have time to hang up laundry

Did I mention I have four small children? Having a line means that I don't have to be a slave to the dryer. You know how it goes: you're knee-deep in some task that can't be interrupted when the darn dryer buzzer goes off. You know that if you don't get to that laundry soon, it's going to be a wrinkled mess. No such problems with the clothesline. It can hang there, dry, all day. Who cares? I'm not listening for the dryer all day. Freeeeeeedooooommmm!!! 

There are, of course, other benefits to having a clothesline. A lower electric bill, from not running the dryer. (Not to mention the dryer isn't generating heat, counteracting the a/c.) It's easier on your clothes, since the heat of the dryer destroys fibers. Less garbage - I don't have to empty the lint trap on my clothesline! And my favorite - it's so much better for the environment! I really, truly like hanging clothes out on the line. It gives me time to think, to pray. It gets me outside, which makes me slow down, and it reminds me to get the boys outside to play. Hanging the clothes creates order. And it looks pretty. It's one of my very favorite things.