Make Me Smile Monday

When I gave birth to our second child and Jason and I discovered we now had two girls, it very quickly became important to me to somehow learn to distinguish both S and R's individuality and try to encourage it within them. I want them to both be appreciated for who they are, to celebrate their shared interests and similarities, as well as those traits that are uniquely theirs. It became even more important to me as S and R both grew and I began to see that while we had to teach S to be brave, try new things and meet new people instead we had to teach R to slow down, take things in and notice what was happening around her. Early on we could see this rather clear distinction and I wanted to make sure that we never sent the message that one was the "good quiet one" while the other the "rambunctious trouble maker". We have two beautiful daughters and I want them to grow up knowing we see it.

When your children are young you know that as they grow you'll discover who they are and what strengths they have, but you have to be patient and wait it out. I began when they were both young to tell them they were beautiful whenever I saw them behaving beautifully instead of just telling them they were beautiful because of their looks. My hope was that it would set me up to recognize their natural strengths as they began to develop. Even though S and R are still quite young I can already see strengths developing within each of them that are uniquely their own.

S is our nurturer. She loves babies, and her instinct is to care for those who are younger than her. Whenever her younger cousins (I who's 11 months and C who's 4 months) are around she goes straight to them. I honestly don't know if I can think of a time when we've visited with either one of them and she hasn't asked to hold them. She sits there for as long as she possibly can and lets them hold her finger. She talks to them gently and tries to make them smile. She's incredibly patient - for the most part, she is only a child after all ;) - with her younger brother and teaches him and explains things to him.

R is our server. The best way to describe it is that she has a heart to serve. It's incredible to see how she recognizes what needs to be done and is always so quick to go and do it. It makes her happy to run and get a bag of milk from the fridge at dinner or pass a napkin if you need one. Anytime I'm baking something and need ingredients she's right there pulling them out of the fridge and the cupboard getting them out for me. At church she helps wash the dishes after the service sometimes simply bacause she wants to help. There's no reward and they don't ask, she simply offers.

It's been such a blessing to begin to see the gifts God has given them and I can already begin to see glimpses of his own unique strength in our little man J. It reminds me that we've all been given these gifts. Maybe if we've neglected them for too long or no one has ever been there to truly nurture them, it will take some time, patience and some relying on God to discover them - but they're there - and the world we live in can only be made more beautiful if we embrace them.

Clean and Tidy - February 2011

I shared my story in December about the shift that's taken place in my approach towards keeping house. The other day I was thinking about my kitchen and the changes that have taken place there. My kitchen counter used to function as a catch-all for the flyers, mail and school papers that came into our house. I always found this frustrating whenever I needed to use the counter or we were having people over (which pretty much translates into being a constant frustration!). Because the changes made have had such a big impact and have eliminated so much stress for me, I thought this would be a fun place to start. :)

Before I get started I just want to say that this is a very humbling thing for me to write about. Being organized is very new to me and I'm sincerely excited about all I've learned. I have to admit there's a fear of being judged (that some might wonder why it took me so long to figure it out), but I'm going to push right past it and share what I've learned anyway. I want to be relateable and in order to do so I've got to throw it all out there!

I'd like to share some pictures I snapped of my kitchen the other night after the kids were put in bed.   My kitchen does not look like this all day long, and it doesn't even look like this at the end of every day so please don't think I'm trying to give that impression! What I am trying to say is that because of a few changes I've made it's no longer overwhelming to get my kitchen looking like this and I no longer have to resort to (think you can handle it?) shoving everything underneath my microwave stand and closing the doors just to give the impression that it was clean (gasp!).

Ok, now that we have that out of the way! ;) Here's my kitchen:



I confess...I was tempted to put the dishes away, but I thought I'd leave them because I always put them away in the morning. I did however clear a few things off the counter - one of the kids toothbrushes and toothpaste, a couple little toys and a couple pencil crayons and a few things I picked up at the store that day) I like to try and do this daily (more realistically though it happens probably 3 or 4 times a week since we do have a pretty busy house) and this usually
happens after the kids are sleeping.

I used to think that having an organized house was just not for me. That it took being superwoman (which I'm not), with super skills (which I don't have) and super speed (because where else would I find the time?) and I just knew I didn't have it in me. What I've learned is that I really just needed to change my approach in a few ways and that it would make all the difference in the world. It takes me less time and less effort to keep my house in better condition and gives me a much greater sense of satisfaction.

I have found two very simple things have helped me keep paper clutter off my counters: 

1) Regularly weeding out the stuff I don't need. Primarily this involves recycling all of the paper I don't need and sorting out what needs to be filed and (actually) filing it. I don't put pressure on myself to file everything right away, as long as it gets done in a reasonable amount of time.  



About a year ago we replaced our old microwave stand (which was missing a door) with this one. It has more room underneath as well as the extra shelf on the top.   

Here's the inside. I'm sure you can imagine what the old one would have looked like crammed full of papers. :) I will point out that I have a pile of stuff to be sorted through and it does need to be done soon (the bottom right on top of some cookbooks). This is on my February to-do list. :) The paper trays hold more cook books and the plastic drawers hold our church directory, waste management calendar, a few restaurant brochures, some dividers and address labels.

Here on top of the microwave, I keep what few flyers we hold on to and my Ikea catalogue, which I will keep until I get the new one. :) (The little white dish I used for storing J's stickers when he was first potty training. Now that he's done I need to put them away. :) )

Again...I was tempted to remove the almonds and the garlic, but this is really how it is. :) In this cupboard I have: my stationary, mailing envelopes, kids scissors and bingo dabbers (they're safer here out of reach), pencil crayons (in the tins in the back), a mason jar for collecting pop tabs for school, mail sorter which holds my stamps, reciepts I want to hold on to for a while or need to filed downstairs, calendar stickers, extra cards for our Accountable Kids peg boards, my recipe keeper (which I'm still working on putting together) and the binders on the left and the baskets up above I will save for another post. :)  

I keep my day planner, address book and star stickers (for S and R's Accountable Kids peg boards which I heard about from Tammara at A Whisper of Grace in this post here) and the pencil I use for my planner in this mail sorter. I love these Brocade office supplies and it makes me happy to store these things in here instead of leaving them in a pile on my counter. It feels more deliberate. It also helps me to not try and push how much stuff I'm keeping on my counter. The egg cup holds my binder clips (reserved for using in my day planner) and the white Ikea Asker jar hold the adaptor for charging our cell phone. My "DIY" charging station. ;)  

2) Finding a home for the kid's school papers and involving them in the process.

The paper filing system I set up to help keep the kids school papers under control (and out of the kitchen), was inspired by Jen from iheartorganizing's mailing station in these two posts here and here.

This magazine file was downstairs sitting on Jason's desk looking pretty but not being used. It was perfect for mounting on the wall and using to hold onto school papers that are not ready to be recycled yet. The top folder is mine, it holds the school calendar for the year which I can refer to if I'm looking ahead to PA days or holidays for planning. The folder in the middle is for S. I keep any information papers in there for upcoming events, field trips  concerts etc. in there. The file underneath is where I keep the similar papers for R. You'll notice January's calendar peeking out from the front. We also keep R's big plastic envelope in there (the teacher uses it to send notes and presmission forms home in).

This is where S and R come and put any papers I need to look at, they store their homework here as well as their libary books. These two trays have saved us so much time and energy searching for things around the house. Once the girls have finished putting their stuff away then I look through their papers and sort through. Some of it gets recycled and then the rest is divided into two piles: papers to be filled out and school work keepsakes to be filed. I save the keepsakes for Jason to admire, together S and R help me pick out a couple of their favourites to be filed away as keepsakes and the rest is recycled.   

Here's what it looks like in the big scheme of things. :)

So, that's it! Not being shy to recycle what I don't need right away, making sure I have a "home" for those things we can't avoid holding onto and involving my kids in the process have made all the difference in keeping the paper clutter off my counter. For those of you who don't have something already on hand you but might be still interested in setting up your own filing system on a budget, I've got an idea you might be interested in on the way!

What about you organizing veterans? I would love to hear any tips you have on keeping your paper clutter under control.

Clean and Tidy

You may remember that I mentioned wanting to start some regular posts about organization - since I've recently fallen in love with it. As it turns out I'm not quite creative enough to come up with a fun title to call my cleaning and organizing inspired posts - but - I'd really like to get started, so I've decided to simply call them "Clean and Tidy". :) For now I'm going to start with simply a monthly post and maybe in time will be able to commit to one post a week. Likely you'll be seeing a lot of links to other blogs where I've discovered ideas for cleaning and organizing that work well for me, along with things I've learned myself along the way. My guess is that what I've gleaned from others will far outwiegh what I've discovered for myself, but together we'll have to simply wait and see!

Sometime within the next few days I will be posting my February post, which will be about the changes that have taken place in my kitchen. Un(?)fortunately I have no befores, but I will have a lot of after pictures for you! I'll be sharing what I have learned about controlling the paper clutter that used to take over my kitchen counters. I'm really excited! I hope you have as much fun with it as I know I will!