Archives | Simplicity: Step Two

The original post can be found here.

"God made man simple; man's complex problems are of his own devising." Ecclesiastes 7:30 JB

Here is a quick recap of the 5 steps from last week: 

Have a morning routine.

Do one load of laundry a day.

Load your dishwasher throughout the day, and wash the dishes at night.

Pick up as you go along.

Do a "Clean Sweep" several times a day.

Today's simplicity point is an extension of last week's points.  

Prep the night before. 

I had gone into this a bit in a post at the beginning of the school year, but here are some other ways that I have worked these into my home.

Make and pack lunches. (most of the time). By packing the non-perishables and putting the sandwich in the fridge, it is one less thing for me to do in the morning. It also gives me a chance to be creative with my husband's lunches, instead of trying to slap a lunch together when I am still groggy.

Hey, ladies, while prepping your husband's and/or your children's lunches, try sticking a little note inside. Brian has kept all of the notes I have put in his lunch box over the years, and it is a blast reading back over the notes. Doing this the night before helps me to really think about what I am writing to him without feeling rushed in the morning.

Get the coffee pot set. Cleaning it out, setting the water, and measuring out the coffee makes the morning very sweet. All I have to do is push the button as soon as I wake up.

Check the calendar to see what dinner is for the following day. Nothing is worse than having a crock pot/slow cooker meal on the schedule, waking up and having a frozen piece of meat to work with. 

Give your house a "Clean Sweep" one last time. I hate waking up and finding a cup or mug here and there. Having everything in its place the night before ensures a smooth morning. There is something to be said about not waking up to clean yesterday's mess. It also helps me sleep better knowing that I do not have anything hanging over my head.

Look over your plan for the following day. Knowing what is on your next day's agenda will help you plan accordingly for meals, dress, lunches, schedules, and diaper bags.

By prepping the night before, I have plenty of time in my morning routine to have my devotions without feeling rushed. I am able to sit and enjoy my quiet time with a cup of coffee (prepped the night before, of course) without the feeling of just doing it to cross it off of my list.

I hope you find these tips helpful for your upcoming week.

From the Archives | Adventures In Homemaking

Sometimes our well laid plans do not work out the way we envision them. That is when an adventure is born!

On our Face Book page, we are looking back at this post from July 2009 called Adventures In Homemaking.

Superwoman Had A Team

I am not Superwoman.

In fact, if I hadn't been her daughter I would have thought she was a myth. 

But when I look at my mother and all that she was able to do within the course of her day, I realize that she was not alone. 

Superwoman had a team!

Her team Leader was The Lord, and her daily quiet times with Him gave her the recharge she needed to attack the challenges in her day.

Her partner and supporter was her husband (my father). He supported her and backed her and provided so that she could do what she did best.

Her two side kicks were my sister and me.

My mother delegated some of the jobs within her home to us so that she could homeschool us, be an assistant to my father who was serving as an associate pastor, lead a women's Bible study, disciple one on one with women in our church, host gatherings in our home as part of my father's ministry responsibilities, and cook and grocery shop and do the other thins that "normal" wives do day in and day out.

My jobs were to keep my room clean, take care of the laundry, and kitchen cleanup after each meal. My sister had her own set of chores and responsibilities. 

I don't remember when our training as sidekicks started because helping was just something we always did. Our jobs were always age appropriate, and the older we got our jobs changed to meet our level of responsibility. 

Now I am the woman of my own home and I am finding that I don't have enough hands (or enough of me) to do all of the jobs that need to be done. Yet I have the same resources at my disposal that my mother had. 

I have The Lord, and my daily time with Him is an absolute must. It recharges me so that I can tackle the daily challenges I face. (A little secret I found is to just get up for a bit when I wake up in the middle of the night and spend my time in the Word. There are no distractions, and there isn't anything that I can scratch off my to do list at that time of night.)

I have a partner as well. My loving, supportive husband who provides for us so that I can be home and do what I do. He encourages me in each and every endeavor, and I in turn want to do the same for him.
 

I also have two little sidekicks in training. Suddenly, Addie has become a huge helper of her own doing.  In addition to the jobs that she was doing in our flashback post from Wednesday, she has begun putting the dishes away that go in the lower kitchen cabinets, she puts away her clothes that I have already folded, she uses our dust buster to vacuum up the crumbs around her and Ian's chair after each meal, and she puts her dirty clothes in the hamper. On occasion, she asks if she can help me while I am dusting. In that case, she gets a damp washcloth and is allowed to wipe down whatever she wants.

The littlest sidekick is learning to put his clothes in the hamper after being changed and putting his toys back in the appropriate bins at clean up time.

With the big help my little sidekicks offer, I already feel the sense of relief that comes with delegating some of the smaller jobs that can put big pressure on me.

Superwoman had a team.

I have a team in training.

Maybe one day Addie will think I was Superwoman. 

But more importantly, I want her to know that she had an important role on our team.

More Lessons From Mom

Today's lesson from Mom is "Keep your home neat and clean."

As early as I can remember, my mother had always taught us about keeping house. Whether it was folding our clothes, dusting, washing dishes, helping with the laundry, cooking, etc., she always taught us to do everything "nice and neatly."

She was famous for that phrase in our home.

"Put this away nice and neatly."

"Fold these nice and neatly."

"Put this in your drawers nice and neatly."

Everything was to be done nice and neatly.

In fact, there were times when Mom would go into our rooms without warning and check the state of our drawers. If they were not up to her standards, she would just dump the contents into the middle of the floor. When we came back from playing or school (I was home-schooled after fifth grade), we would see our little pile in the middle of the floor and knew what we needed to do. Mom didn't even have to tell us. We would just start folding and putting our things back into the drawers "nice and neatly".

When we were moving once, someone had my mom's drawers and was carrying them to the moving van. The person commented to my father that he had never seen someone's drawers so neat and orderly.

My mother practiced what she preached.

If you were to open my drawers right now, you would find that I learned my lesson well. All of my clothes are folded or hung, and everything has been placed in its spot "nice and neatly".

Our rooms were also our responsibility to keep clean. When we were little, Mom would help us make our beds, but as we got older, the job became ours. As with the drawers, if Mom saw that we didn't make our beds to the ability that we were capable of given our ages (my mother was no drill sergeant, but she did expect us to do what we were capable of), she would undo the bed and we would have to start over.

Today, if you were to look at our bed, you would see that I learned my lesson well. The bed is made first thing in the morning, pillows arranged just so, and the bedspread smoothed out "nice and neatly".

You see, my mother was preparing us for the real world- real life.

Her house was always very much lived in (we had no problem walking in and plopping down on the couch or hanging out in the kitchen if that was where she was), but everything was in such order that we could have unexpected guests and no one would be made to feel uncomfortable.

My mother's home was always so comfortable (to us and others) that people used to come over and leave late in the evening. Why? They felt comfortable in her home, and she felt comfortable having them (and, boy, did she know how to feed and serve her guests!). She didn't have to worry about the state of her house, the condition of the bedrooms, or what her bathrooms looked like.

She wanted us to know that feeling when we had homes of our own.

She used to call our bedrooms our "little house". We needed to take care of our little house, because one day, God would bless us with our own houses and we needed to know how to take care of them.

Today, you would see that I learned my lesson well. Anyone could walk up to my front door, ring the bell, and I would be ready to receive them because (almost) everything in my house has been put away "nice and neatly".