The House Smells Like Lemon Pledge

I am exhausted.

I spent all evening yesterday & most of the day today cleaning my house in order to show it to a prospective buyer. I consider myself a somewhat tidy person, but there's nothing like seeing your rooms through someone else's eyes to make you SEE YOUR CLUTTER. I whipped through every single room, trying hard to make it devoid of anything that would draw the eye to a clutter spot. I wanted the rooms to seem open, airy, pleasant and, well, roomy.

Basically, I staged my own house.

And it was hard work!

Now, I just want it to stay this way. The entire house is clean at one time...when does that ever happen? We got a good start on it last weekend when I cracked the whip and I honestly thought it wouldn't take long to get it ready to show. Um, nope.

I'm going to try in the next week or so to be extra attentive to setting aside a time for my kids to pickup. We do after-school jobs and they usually have to pick up their bedroom floors before bed, but the "kid stuff" that is scattered here and there throughout the house starts to accumulate. I think maybe as part of our evening routine, everyone in the family will be in charge of a different room and be responsible for getting back into the state it is now. (Is it obvious that I am feeling tense? I worked fast & furious and I dread tomorrow's breakfast mess.) I did have Mike's help last night--he deep-cleaned while I picked up kid-litter. ("kiddy litter!" ha! a new colloquialism is born!) He also spiffed up the garage and then inside today from 4-6pm. And I think I broke the child labor laws today, ordering all three kids around. But still. I just really want it to stay perfectly clean. It feels so good! I don't know if that's real life, though.

Okay. Enough obsessing. Here is a peek into the master bedroom. I usually keep this door closed because there is laundry being folded or toys on the floor. It's nice not to have to worry about it being cycloned if the door is open & someone arrives unexpectedly.

I did a massive clearing of my desk.
Desk Before:
Desk After:

Somehow, I've got to keep it this way--even though the calendar and school papers will need to come back out of hiding. Also, I need to find a magnet board or something to display the pictures and notes the kids give me; it makes me happy to look at those kid scribblings.

If this house sells, we will move across the street to the new house. And hopefully we will be able to stay there after a disappointing financial year. I love my neighborhood and ward and feel very at home here.

Whooosh-TA!

Today I cracked the whip.

I made everyone a cleaning list and we worked hard for an hour and a half. The sad thing is, the lists mostly consisted of basic pickup. It seems all I can do to just stay on top of the clutter and the put-away. I suspect the days of cleaning baseboards are gone. Max & Sis each had to clean their rooms and one other room really well. Max did the book nook. Sis did the kids' bathroom. Mimi did small jobs in her room and cleaned mirrors and doors. I thoroughly decluttered my room.

Mike also had a long list consisting of the kitchen, office and living room; I ended up with clean gutters, a sprayed driveway, a fixed rain gutter, a yard cleared of tumbleweeds & Christmas lights strung up.

It seems all I have to do to get my outdoor chores done is give my husband indoor chores. Heh, heh. (smirk, cackle, rub hands together.)

Max helped with the tumbleweeds. Here is the huge pile that is almost as tall as he is. He also pushed the baby around in the stroller for close to two hours...up & down the street and all around the park.

As a reward for finishing their long lists with a good attitude, we went to a movie. (I usually don't have the kids do chores on Saturday; they do an after-school job on weekdays and I reserve Saturday for family fun.) Sis' little friend Lauren was working right alongside her, motivating her and keeping her from dawdling, and she came with us to the movie. We saw "Madagascar 2," which was HILARIOUS. How did I miss the first one? I was gut-laughing the entire time.
A little side-note: Look at Mimi's shoes. Atrocious. White high-heeled sandals--totally inappropriate for a 5-yr old--with socks. In winter. My friend Ali handed these down to her and since Mimi worships Ali's 12-yr old daughter...the white shoes go everywhere, are worn with any outfit and are considered the height of fashion. There is no convincing her otherwise.

And in other news, here is my weekly addition to my food storage. At $1/box, how could I pass it up? It's vitamin-fortified, right? Nutritious. (I also added some Shirley J seasoning, a case of tomato sauce, instant yeast & 6 cans of chicken.)
This week's Food Storage Friday occurred on Tuesday, due to Wendi's trip this weekend to New York City. We took a field trip to the Bosch store and priced wheat grinders; we were both a bit surprised at how expensive they are. I plan to tweak Wendi's nose a little and tell her she could have bought a wheat grinder AND a Bosch mixer for the money she spent going to NYC. (yet again...smirk, cackle, rub hands together.)

I think my plan for Food Storage Friday next week is to get serious about listing on a 3 month calendar rotation all the pantry meals my family likes to eat. My goal will be to gather the ingredients for those meals. These meals might include some fresh ingredients, such as lettuce in taco salad, but those ingredients can be left out in an emergency and the meal will still be tasty. Meals like haystacks, taco soup, spaghetti, black bean enchiladas, etc. I will also work on my water storage. Another goal is to print my 72-hour kit checklist and actually put everything together in one place for a grab-&-go kit. I have most everything I need for our 72-hour kits, but it is not compiled into one place. Can you imagine me in an evacuation situation?....running around, willy-nilly grabbing what we need?

* (please note: "evacuation situation" rhymes nicely. Should I compose a rap?)
* (also note: the phrase "willy-nilly" is vastly under-used. I will for sure include it in The Food Storage Rap.)

For anyone who is interested, it is now 3:08am. What the crap am I thinking, being up this late??? Goodnight.

SPT: A New You

"Stop for a minute and take a self-portrait, a snapshot of you in the here and now. What ARE your dreams and goals for 2008? What is your word? What are you thinking about right now as we plunge head-first into the new year?" ~Lelly's SPT Challenge


Do you see it? There's a new little person in there--a "new you!" For me, the first half of 2008 will be dominated by making a human. The second half of the year will be consumed by getting to know this new little person and creating a new family dynamic. This will be a year of changes, physically, spiritually and mentally. What a rush! Some days I feel as if my entire life is about to be turned upside down, and I'm just on the cusp of it all.

Now. As far as resolutions go, I don't make them and this is why: I am in a continual process, all year, of goal-setting and self-assessment. It irritates me to be spiritually or mentally stagnant. It hit me once that this is a result of my youth in the Young Women's program at church, where we were encouraged to make monthly goals in different aspects of life and then record them in our Personal Progress books. Ever after, I was on autopilot! During my college years, I set new goals at the beginning of each semester because those were the points at which I felt I was starting fresh. I stayed in the habit of examining how I lived, day-to-day, from several vantage points and thinking of small things I could do to improve. These perspectives have basically remained fixed from then on. So twice a year I look at my life through these different lenses:
* spiritual
* physical
* intellectual
* emotional

Stephen Covey teaches that each person is multi-faceted; we play many different roles within our one life. Expounding on that, he tells this story in his book First Things First:

I attended a seminar once where the instructor was lecturing on time management. At one point, he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." He reached under the table and pulled out a wide-mouthed gallon jar. He set it on the table next to a platter with some fist-sized rocks on it. "How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?" he asked.

After we made our guess, he said, "Okay. Let's find out." He set one rock in the jar . . . then another . . . then another. I don't remember how many he got in, but he got the jar full. Then he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone looked at the rocks and said, "Yes."

Then he said, "Ahhh" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar and the gravel went in all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Then he grinned and said once more, "Is the jar full?"

By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," we said. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all of the little spaces left by the rocks and the gravel. Once more he looked and said, "Is this jar full?" "No!" we roared.

He said, "Good!" and he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in. He got something like a quart of water in that jar. Then he said, " Well, what's the point?" Somebody said, "Well, there are gaps, and if you work really hard you can always fit some more things into your life."

"No," he said, "that's not the point. The point is this: If you hadn't put these big rocks in first, would you ever have gotten any of them in?"

I like the concept of putting the "big rocks" into our life and making them our first priority, then the other things can be fit in as needed. I've learned from Stephen Covey to identify the BIG ROCKS within each role I play in my life and periodically make goals on how to remain focused on those big rocks.

I am a mother, a wife, a spirit occupying a body who must find my purpose on Earth, a daughter, a teacher, a friend, a sister, and a daughter of God. The goals I make--especially those at the beginning of my "new semester"--help me put the BIG ROCKS in the jar first for each role.

The concept of Big Rocks reminds me of my new all-time favorite conference talk, "Good, Better, Best" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. In his talk, Elder Oaks reminds us that "just because something is good is not a sufficient reason for doing it. The number of good things we can do far exceeds the time available to accomplish them. Some things are better than good, and these are the things that should command priority attention in our lives...As we consider various choices, we should remember that it is not enough that something is good. Other choices are better, and still others are best." This a phenomenal talk and will get you thinking about how to set priorities in your life and strengthen your family. This talk is applicable to everyone and can be helpful no matter your religious affiliaton. Even if you are not LDS, read it and get back to basics!

All this self-assessment I engage in has a downside: I tend to be extremely hard on myself. I'm not sure if this is a twisted little side effect of continual striving and goal-setting, but whatever the reason I tend to never measure up to my own yardstick and am always finding fault with myself. I'm never good enough. I'd like to learn how to be accepting of my efforts for their own sake. I'd like to learn the difference between goal-setting and fault-finding.

So, at the beginning of my "new semester," so to speak, here is what I'm working on:
1) Spiritual (Role: Daughter of God)
* Personal scripture time every day & have the Book of Mormon read by my birthday
* Family prayer each night, without fail

2) Physical (Role: Myself)
* Go to the gym every other day (my intensity has lessened during pregnancy)

3) Intellectual (Role: Myself)
* Read 1 non-fiction book a month

4) Mothering (Role: Mother)
* Watch my tone of voice when I am frustrated. They are just kids and are feeling their way through life--like I am. Focus on teaching instead of yelling in anger.

5) Organizational (Role: Mother & Wife)
* Work a little at a time on organizing my non-digital photos.
* Organize my 72-hr kit into manageable units for each person in the family


My Word for the Year is MOMENTS, which I will have to expand upon in a later post. I'm mentally over-stimulated and need to go detox my brain!

*** Here is a great essay by Stephen R. Covey
*** Here is "Good, Better, Best" talk by Dallin H. Oakes