It's A Crazy Life.....

• Employing a new Household Notebook.  It's still in the works, but I will blog more about it when it is finished and in use so I can report on how well it works.
• Starting a new laundry system.  The days of the week system I was using is not working out well for us at all.  Trying something new.
• New Chore Charts for the kids.  Something a bit more visual for them to see.
• Utilizing my Motivated Moms calendar more for a cleaning system.  When I use it, it works SOO well.  When I don't....well, yeah.
• Joining in two online challenges to help me stay motivated and organized: Mama Jenn's Missons of the Month and the 52 Weeks to an Organized House challenge.
• And of course, continuing with meal planning and linking to the Menu Plan Mondays.

• Eat most meals at the table to together.  Learn and say new meal blessings.  Use manners and practice politeness at mealtimes.
• Have a family day/night each week where we play games or do an activity together.
• Establish a family motto/rules and post them in the house.
• Read.  Alone and to each other.
• Go to church and Sunday School every week (we already do this, but I think it is important to have it as a guideline.)
• Volunteer as a family at least twice this year.
• Personally, to meditate/pray every day.  To read books that will enhance my spiritual growth and connections.
• Celebrate the every day.

• Walk at least three-four times a week.  Adding in running as I feel.
• Do yoga at least three-four times a week.
• Teach dance twice a week (already in progress)
• Work on findng "clean" methods of personal care - shampoos/conditioners/face wash/deoderent/etc
• Eat a bit more heathy

I don't know about anyone else, but I am not a morning person.  I've never been a morning person.  I love my pillow and I love my blankets and I love snuggling into them and hitting the snooze button many, many once or twice in the morning.

Now, don't get me wrong.  Once I'm up - I'm up and moving.  No dwaddling along then.  Up, showered, dressed, and moving along with my day.  I'm not the type who sits around drinking coffee and watching the morning talk shows.

However, lately I've been inspired to get up earlier.  Since school started, I'm the only one up in the mornings and it is so nice.  Quiet.  Peaceful.  Calm.  And with four small children in the house, that doesn't happen very often!  Since Mr. CrazyLife was laid off at the end of the last school year, he gets up with the kids and takes them to school.  I get up about an hour and a half earlier and prepare everyone's "stuff" for the day and get myself organized and out the door to work.

But I still hit the snooze button many, many at least once each morning.  I probably could get up almost an hour earlier if I didn't do that.  Imagine what I could get done!

I've been contemplating this the past couple of weeks.  And then today while doing some blog hopping, I ran across this challenge quite a bit: Maximize Your Mornings Challenge.  What a great idea!  And what inspiration!

I missed the sign-up deadline.  But perhaps I'll start doing it on my own. And I did see that they might start an overflow group sometime soon...I'll be watching for that.  But until then, I'm going to set my alarm a bit earlier for tomorrow morning and maybe I won't hit the snooze button at all more than one time, anyway!

Anyone else interested?

I've decided to join in another little meme . . . hope they don't mind me jumping in!  This one is hosted by another Jenn with 2 N's over at Mama Jenn and is called Mama's Mission of the Month.  She even made some cute little buttons like this one:

1. Walk or Run at least 20 miles.  Since I usually do about 2 miles at a time, that's 10 days of walk/run time in.
2. Work on two preschool units; one for April and one for May.  April - April Showers bring May Flowers/Caterpillers.  May - How Does Your Garden Grow?
3. Have all decisions and decorations and parent volunteers in place for Spring Programs.
4. Clean pantry and Master Bedroom.
5. Finish broadsword choreography and begin work on Esperanza choreography for dance classes.

      34“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. 

Matthew 6:28-34

So how can it be that we're already a week into 2011?  This year is flying by so quickly already!!  So

I admit it.  I had fallen into the rut of doing almost everything for my children.  I picked out their clothes.  I made all their meals, packed their schoolbags, even picked up their dirty clothes off the bedroom and bathroom floors. But there came a point at the beginning of this summer when I said to myself, "Self?  What in the heck are you doing?"  This came after spending almost an hour picking up toys and messes after the children had gone to bed.  Why was I the one doing this?  I didn't make the mess.  If anything, I'd picked up that same exact mess at least three times already that day. Why? Why? Why?

I never intended to become the parent who did everything for their kids.  I wanted my children to be independent.  I wanted them to be able to take care of themselves.  And they were - they just couldnt' or more likely, wouldn't  do it.

So I declared war.  As soon as school was over this summer.  I made up a system to "help" them help themselves.  And it's worked....as long as I keep up on it.

You see, my children are just like myself.  In order to stay accountable to me, to them, to each other, we need a visible checklist, something we can see what needs to be done.  This can't be something you can hide away and forget - it has to stay constant, and you have to be able to physically manipulate it.

I mentioned in my last post about my love of the Motivated Moms system.  I keep the calendar in a 3 ring binder on my kitchen table.  I HAVE to mark things off the list before I feel like I can finish my day.

The kids are the same way.  Through trial and error, we came up with a system that helps them help themselves (and me in the process).  It's worked for the most part - vacation days kind of put us off.  But the biggest thing is that we keep it visible and that the kids are able to physically manipulate their list.

Here's what we do:

I made up a chore chart for each of the children.  I just used Excel, nothing fancy.  Each child has 7 chores per day.  These things include brushing teeth, making beds, picking up bedrooms, picking up toys, picking out clothes.  They also include some "extra" chores - setting the table, clearing the table, sweeping the floor, taking out the trash, putting away laundry.   Many of the basic chores are the same for each child, allowing me to use the same template for all four munchkins.

I post the chore charts on the side of the refridgerator.  That way, the kids can check themselves to see what needs to be done and I can check to see how they are doing.  When they finish a chore and I've checked it, they can put a sticker on the chart for that day.

Each chore is worth 5 cents of "momma money".  At the end of the week they can earn up to $2.45.  This isn't a real allowance.  It's Momma Money.  The wee monsters and I sat down and came up with a list of rewards that they can "buy" with their Momma Money.  The things included, dinner out, a date with mom/dad to the park, swimming at the college, a sleepover wih a friend; all things that are free or reletively free.  Or they can save up or pool their money to "buy" something larger: a trip to the zoo, a movie date, a toy from the dollar store, etc.

It's working pretty well.  The kids are saving up right now to buy a trip to the zoo for the Halloween event and Thing #1 wants a sleepover with 2 friends.  If they start to fall behind, a simple reminder of what they need to do and what they are working towards seems to help.

And we're all staying more accountable!

We've been spending lots and lots of time out in the garden lately.  With warmer weather and lots of rain and more sunshine, we're itching to get that garden growing!

In the last few weeks we've planted raspberry bushes, rhubarb roots, rubarb plants, onions, more radishes, more peas, potatos, carrots, corn and sunflowers, and some herbs.  The herbs are in pots as I've found that otherwise they take over the entire yard ( as my chamoille did last year - it's coming up all over the place!) 

The apple tree has blossomed and bloomed and now has little baby apples started!  The strawberry plants are brimming with little and big berries - not even close to being red, but growing, growing, growing!  One of the blueberry bushes had little flowers on it; the other one is just blossoming leaves.

We harvested a little bit of asparagus.  It was only it's second year, so nothing spectacular.  Only about 10 shoots.  We also plan on adding more plants to that patch.

We've planted a rosebush, some gladiola bulbs, some pansies and columbines.  I got my Mother's Day hanging basket and put that up.  We transplanted a few more lilac bushes.

Last night DH tilled up the big garden.  Next weekend will probably be our big planting weekend when we put up the vines, the peppers, tomatos, more sunflowers, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, more lettuces, more peas and who knows what else?  We'll have to see what the nursery has that looks like fun!

My second update since starting this!!  (I missed the Tuesday update since it's been a crazy week - I'm a day late and a dollar short all week!)

Plant Something
This week we planted some rhubarb that we picked up at Menards.  Also planted a new climbing rosebush.  Put in some onion sets (100 of those - more to be planted in two weeks), and some raspberry bushes.  We transplanted some flowers in the front yard and a lilac bush to the side yard to start a windrow.


Harvest Something
We harvested some asparagus!!  It is in it's second year, so there wasn't a ton or it and it was tiny and super tender.  DH ate it raw, right out of the garden and the kids munched on it too!
Preserve Something
Bought some berries and froze them.  Nothing that is in season here yet.
Waste Not
Reused some seed packs from last year to start new seeds.  Saved plastic bags from various places to use as garbage bags. 

Want Not
Bought freshish berries from the store.  New shoes for the kids.

Build Community Food Systems
Blogging and sharing on a community message board's gardening thread.  Also, the raspberries we planted came from friends at church and some of the rhubarb came from a neighbor at the farm.
Eat the Food
As mentioned above, DH and the kids tried the super fresh right out of the garden asparagus (I cooked the rest of it later).  Also have been eating blueberries, corn, saurkrat and broccoli out of the freezer from last year's garden.

I think I'm going to try to update these on Tuesdays, as I seem to have a bit of time then to do some serial posting!


Plant Something
It's still pre-planting season up here for the most part.  But we've put in some more strawberries.  DH planted some corn (really early for that!) and we got some new rhubarb plants to put in.  Hopefully they will go into tonight if the rain holds off.


Harvest Something
Nothing to harvest quite yet, but it looks like we have one lone asparagus survivor (between DH's overzealous rototilling and the chickens, they were fighting for their lives!) that I'm hoping to get to soon.  We're also bringing in about a dozen eggs a day now.

Preserve Something
Nothing

Waste Not
Reused a gift bag for a birthday party.  Finished a skirt from an old pair of favorite jeans and picked out some too-small overalls to make aprons from.

Want Not
Splurged a little bit on fresh fruit for smoothies

Build Community Food Systems
I guess blogging about it counts, right?

Eat the Food
We had dinner for breakfast twice this week with fresh eggs from the chickens!

I found this challenge on another blog and thought it was interesting.  Here at the CrazyLife we try to live as sustainable as possible, as green as possible and as efficient as possible.  Now we don't always reach that goal, but we do try.  There are times when the craziness of two full time outside the home jobs, four children and all their activities and everything else pile up and we fall out of habit.  But most of the time we do what we try to do.  And when we make an effort it goes well.  I don't know if I'd go as far as to say we're homesteading or living fully sustainbly, but we're doing okay.

So then I found this challenge: Independence Days Challenge and I thought it was great!  I mean, a challenge to help me reach my goals.  Anything to help keep me accountable.  So I'm a little late to the party (only a month and a half or so....), but I'm joining in for the rest of the summer.  Every little thing.....

The challenge has seven basic principles of daily things to do:

1. Plant Something
2. Harvest Something
3. Preserve Something
4. Waste Not
5. Want Not
6. Build Community Food Systems
7. Eat the Food

I'm thinking that I can even carry this over to my decluttering personal challenge I've been doing (although I've been even worse updating that blog than this one!).  Especially with the Waste Not category.  So many things to take to donation centers!

What do you think?  Check it out and join in if it's something that looks interesting to you!

Wikkipedia defines Intentional Living as: a term used in a variety of contexts including religious, ethical and values-oriented contexts as well as coaching, personal transformation, and leadership training practices and programs. In this sense, “intentional” is defined as “done with intention or on purpose; intended” and “living” as “a manner or style of life.” “Intentional life” is a related term used to describe an objective for personal change.




For the past few months, I've been addicted to listening to Family Life radio. The music is great, it's always positive, they have good messages and some great kids' old-fashioned radio shows. I do tend to tune out some of what I call the extreme conservative-ism in the host's comments, but overall I really enjoy it.



There is a show on this channel called Intentional Living. It's hosted by Dr. Randy Calson. Basically it's about taking each day and making it intentional. Living with and through God and letting him run your life. Not doing things just for the sake of doing them - but with purpose. I listen to it quite often and find it inspirational. Their website, Intentional Living, has a lot of great resources on family life, marriage, finances, and more.



Since I started listening to this show, I've been doing more to "live intentionally." To take charge of our lives instead of just watching them go by. Sometimes this is hard - we're so set in the grain of how society says our lives should be. But we're working on it. Doing things with purpose - not just doing them.



Join me on our journey to Intentional Living. I'll update on the movement as I can, but I'm hoping that most of the time, you'll see the intentions in our actions and words and pictures.