Author name: amy

Good morning.  Hope your day is off to a good start.  I am working my way back into some sort of routine after our busy month.  I am staying on track for two days now!  Go me!  As you know, the day after Christmas is my time when I take down every sign of Christmas in my home.  I can’t possibly start organizing new things if I have to work my way around a big ol tree and decorations everywhere?!!?  My predicament this year was how to store my tree.

We have done a live tree over the last few years.  When we moved out of state, that was one thing we were not about to transport.  It was a good thing because there wasn’t much room for storing an item you use once per year.  Myself, I would not do a tree. But I know that my husband and my children enjoy it.  To me its one more thing to store, one more thing to keep picking up the ornaments from, and not the focus of my Christmas.  Every year my friend and I send text back and forth about the heathen practice of going into the forest and cutting down a tree and decorating it with silver and gold.  I’m like there is my reason for NOT having a tree:)      Okay but back to my children’s love of this time of year.

This year, we were looking around for a tree.  We were going to do a real one, but some of the children have been dealing with allergies since moving to this part of the world and I thought it probably wasn’t a good idea to get a real one.  Then looking at the stores they were like $100 for a tree!! Who wants to pay $100 for a tree when that money can go for gifts or some other special treat?  Seemed ridiculous to me.  Then Lauren, who hunts down deals, found a discount store that had tons of Christmas trees. She came home one day with one for our upstairs room.  It was nice and didn’t cost much.  Then the following day, she came home with another tree for the downstairs room of the house!  So now we have two trees to decorate, yeah?!?!?!

The problem with these two trees is that they didn’t come with boxes.  I was thinking that I would go to Walmart and buy a tree box to store them in.  But the more and more I thought about it, the box I was going to get is big.  I didn’t know where I would store it.  My husband was going to put it in the garage, but the garage is his work shop and Collin’s garage to do his cars in.  I didn’t want them to have to finagle a place for a tree box.  I know I didn’t want to store this under our beds or in our closets, been there and done that many years ago.  The reason for having a real tree.  Then I woke up the other day with the idea of using our huge roll of plastic wrap to wrap the tree in.  BINGO!  That was it!

We had bought a huge roll at Sams Club and used it when we did our tailgate markets a couple of years ago.  I don’t use it normally, so to me, it has been sitting in my pantry wasting away.  I used  a bunch for a game at our cookie exchange—Saran wrap gift ball.  Now I could use up some more.

Evan and I went outside and put the tree in sections.  He pushed all the branches one way and then we started wrapping it.  It was working!  It seemed it was easier when I was holding the roll up higher and he was twisting the tree on the ground.

I figured I used about $5 worth of plastic wrap to wrap up two Christmas trees.  We then opened up our attic—which we don’t store anything in and pushed them up over the ledge on the inside.  BANG!  DONE!  Out of sight out of mind.  To me, the best way to store your Christmas tree.  Way less space and protected from dust and dirt.  It works!

Now onto my day…………………….

This is what I have been “forcing” myself to eat every morning.  My coffee—a given:)  and a bowl of oatmeal with some dried Michigan cherries.  I ate the oatmeal when I had lost all my weight a few years ago and then I got slack.  I didn’t put it all back on but a few pounds have been creeping their way back onto my hips and stomach over this last month.  Too many treats and me getting lazy.  I started eating this the day after Christmas.  I made 1/2 cup of oatmeal and then ate about half of that.  Each day I force myself to eat a little bit more.  It honestly has been helping me not to feel that enraged hunger feelings for later in the day when I falter and splurge on junk!  My goal is to continue this every morning—even if I don’t like it.

I am also going to prioritize that my children and I get out at least for 1/2 hour every day. It has been very nice here high 50s and 60s for the past few weeks.  I just need to load them up and drive 4 minutes to the park to ride scooters and walk.  It is all about the drive and motivation and it has to come from someone—-MOM!

I was getting out myself every morning and walking my driveway–which is very steep.  But my children need to see that exercise is important for them as well.  They would be very happy to stay inside all day and play and watch videos.  I need to take the step and initiate it.  It is hard at times, I get it.  I would much rather go do something that I NEED to get done instead of losing what—- a whole half hour out of my day—smile.

This is going to be my priority. If we can’t drive to the park then we will have to get out and walk our driveway—which if we did that two times we would be tired:)  But the park is more fun for them.  It will show them that exercise isn’t drudgery.  It will make all of us feel better. 

Plus it will help lose those few extra pounds put on this month.  We have no school for the rest of the week.  I did get in some of our history books and DVDs from the library, so we are reading those each day.  The rest of our week will be enjoying our new things, getting ready to get back in routine of school next week, and taking care of things that I normally don’t get to do.

Like sit on the hammock.  My brother installed our hammock when he was here visiting.  We used to have this back in Michigan but never had any place to put it at our old house, now we can put it right over the front of our house.  You can lay and look up at the mountain views and enjoy the mountain breezes.  Seems relaxing.  My children love to do it, I haven’t yet.  Maybe this week.   

Today I will make up a batch of caramel corn to snack on.  I know, I know, I said no more treats.  But my husband mentioned to me last night that my caramel corn was delicious and would I make some more?    The good thing about this is that you can make more popcorn and that will help spread out the sugary topping.  Then it isn’t so bad.  It can be a nice treat for us and inexpensive.  Try some.  Very easy to make and tastes so good.

Have a blessed day today.  I hope you get some things done that you have been wanting to.  Take some time with your children.  Make something special for that hubby of yours and enjoy being a Mom!  Love you guys.  Have a great day!

It has been a wonderful month for our family.  We have been very busy with friends and family coming to stay and visit.  The children were involved in their Christmas drama at church and did an excellent job capturing the true meaning of Christmas.  We hosted a cookie exchange.  We shopped and wrapped presents for all of our ten children.  I am thankful for online Amazon and my son Evan, who loves to wrap all of my presents:) Plus getting school done so that we can have a nice Christmas break and taking care of the everyday needs of a household of 12 and keeping it up and running, I am tired!

It seems this whole month was a big food event.  We had guests, we had parties, and we had multiple special days.  By the time Christmas rolled around, I was already tired of food and not feeling the need to have tons of munchie foods.  I can see the effects of sugar on my children.  (Don’t let anyone tell you that sugar does not affect a child:) Our Christmas cookie and treat stash already had been depleted so I didn’t even have any cookies to serve on Christmas—but that was okay.

My girls started making Christmas breakfast for us in the last few years so that is their tradition.

Jadyn, likes to make snowman or people pancakes or whatever else is requested. 

This year they made: eggs, biscuits, gravy, turkey bacon, and pancakes.  It was the first year we did not have to eat before presents, because all of the children are pretty good about not needing food as soon as they get up.

This was very filling and “normally” I would begin making tons of snack type foods to eat for the day, but this year I went simple.  We did poor boy subs.  I got a great deal on sub bread and we made tons of subs and wrapped them up until food time.  I did buy a couple of bags of pizza rolls to have with them because everyone likes those too.  But as far as food prep went, it was very easy.

Then the fun begins……..whoever knows me, knows that I am not a “thing” person.  If I have two of something, I will get rid of one.  I keep only what I use and need.  If it hasn’t been touched in 6 months, it is gone.  Those rules work well until you realize that once a year when you serve a large meal, like say Thanksgiving, and you don’t have enough serving spoons for all of the dishes:)  My reality this year.  I did go buy a few extra so that, it won’t happen again.

Now my family  are not all like me.  Even though I live a minimalist life, others do not.   You can tell the children that are like me.  Their beds are neat, their toys are meticulously placed and organized, and then the others are like dad.  They like to keep “stuff.”  Stuff like rocks, stickers, pieces of paper, toys they no longer play with, and things they may use “one day.”  How do you embrace things like that?

For myself, I did throw away many things of my children’s over the years.  I would sneak in while they were doing something else and try and clean out as much as I could without them knowing.  But they always know.  “Mom, where is that one piece of paper with the pink hearts on it that I made last year in Sunday school class?”  When we had smaller homes, we just had rules that it was one box of toys and whatever fit on  your shelf.  If it got in the way, it was gone.  Then we moved to another state.  We had to get rid of many things because it just would not fit on the moving truck.  I am thankful our first home here was smaller because we did not accumulate much in the two years that we have lived here.

But the story changes….we bought a home this year. A much larger home.  Double the size we were used to.  With that, there is room.  Lots of room.  Room to keep “things.”  My children are much more spread apart now and we have spaces for things and it doesn’t seem that there are as many messes any more.  So the room pickup’s have been fairly easy lately……and then Christmas happened!

My daughter Lauren, bless her heart likes to give.  She had her first “real” job this past year and was able to purchase things because she can.  I am thankful that she likes to shop frugally and will do Goodwill and her Facebook yard list before paying full price at the store.   She bought tons of little things for the children.

Our basement had Littlest Pet Shop pieces spread out over the entire floor.

I mean, as a minimalist Mom, all I could think about was “Where am I going to store all of those tiny pieces?”  The boys got new Lego sets from grandma and the girls got doll and dollhouse pieces.   There were so many “little” things everywhere in the basement on Christmas Eve, it was crazy.  Unfortunately, I did not feel well that day.  I spent the entire day laying on the couch in and out of sleep.   There was mess from all of the toys, the wrapping paper, and food dishes it was crazy.  But not feeling well, I didn’t care.  Finally, later at night, I dragged myself off the couch and started slowly organizing as much as I could with the toys.  I am thankful that I had cube storage containers in that room and most of them were empty:)  In each container were the separate type of toys.  One for dollhouse, one for littlest pet shop, and one for baby things.  It worked.  Now, lets see how the upkeep works!      

Then we had our presents on Christmas morning upstairs.  That wasn’t much of an explosion of little things because those were the gifts that I purchased.  These were the ones that each child had asked for.  This mess wasn’t as bad. 

I still wasn’t feeling that great and spent another day on the couch.  I did get up and clean a few things but I just set toys in the boys room and the girls stuff downstairs.  I would get to it when I felt better. 

Then Christmas came and went.  I felt horrible and relaxed most of the time.  Maybe that was a good thing seeing mom watch Christmas shows all day long and not clean.  We played games, we put Legos together and set up dollhouses.  It worked. I got to watch my children enjoy things and not “think” too much about where I was going to store everything:)

I am so thankful that the day after Christmas I woke up feeling awesome!  I was up and ready to rid myself of clutter, mess, and germs–from the sickness.  I started out and worked my way around all of the house until it was  finished.  I think resting for two days gave me so much energy it was good.  I took down any signs of Christmas and wiped and deep cleaned my house.  I know most may leave their trees up till after the new year, but I can’t organize and put things away until I get the house back in normal mode.

It feels good to wipe everything down, have your bedding all fresh and clean, carpet clean everything, and have things all back to normal.  Now I can relax.  Well, partially relax.  My new mission is to train my children to keep up on their messes.  The boys have a huge container of Legos.  Do you know how long it takes to pick them up when they dump it out?  I am trying to remind them that when they are finished playing with that, pick it up.  Its been working, but it has only been one day:)  We will see.

If this was all about me, they would have a small box of toys and a place for everything.  But it isn’t.  I have to allow my children to enjoy the gifts that they receive.  I know over time as they get older, they will outgrow them.  So for now, I enjoy my nice and neat spaces for my stuff and I gently remind them as I see tiny Lego pieces or Barbie pieces that they left them out and to please pick them up. It will work. I have to bend a little.   I can’t conform everyone around me.  I am thankful for my things being nice and neat but I appreciate a child who truly enjoys the gifts giving to them.  I just have to “help” them figure out how to organize them in some fashion.

This week is a good time to organize and clean through some things in your home.  Don’t throw away everything, instead find a way to organize it.  Enjoy your children, play some games, and read them some stories.  Smile and be thankful for all that you have!