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I hope that you have not forgotten about decluttering your home.  I pray you have stayed with me and kept moving along ridding your home of the excess to create a peaceful haven of a home.  I am not doing this all in one day, I have broken it up into weeks as to not overwhelm you.  If you want to purchase my book and move at your own pace, I recommend you doing so, if not, just keep following along with us.

For those that like a video here it is, if not scroll past and read along

This week we are focusing on our living room.  This should be a room of peace and relaxation.  This is the room that most families come together  and share games and fun times together.  What does your room look like?  Do you have to remove things off the couch before you sit down on it?  Are their piles of paperwork cluttering up all of your tables?  How about dishes and cups that have soon been forgotten to be picked up in this area?  Do I dare ask you what the inside of your couch looks like?? or when the last time you vacuumed it out (gasp!)?

Let’s start with the biggest item in this room—-your couch.  Let’s start by taking off all of the cushions.  Get out your vacuum with the crevice tool, vacuum out all of the cracks and corners in your couch.  Move the couch away from its area and vacuum underneath it.  Have a container for you to put all the miscellaneous items that you found in there.  Have a small trash can for larger pieces that won’t suck up.  Get that whole thing vacuumed out.  If you have larger recliner chairs do the same thing to those.

Now that you have a clean couch, start working on your television center.

Everyone’ collection will be different.  Start by going through your videos and DVD’s.  Put in a pile those that you haven’t watched in years.  If you have little ones and have a surplus of  preschool shows but choose to watch broadcast tv or netflix—get rid of those videos.  No sense holding onto them if they watch whatever is on tv.  You will be putting these into your “out of sight” box.  It will sit in another area of your home and if you really think about that video again you can get it out.  Otherwise donate it to someone who could use it.

Clean up game controller’s and put all those items into a smaller container that fits on a shelf.  Be sure to wipe off your entire entertainment system with a good all natural cleaner.

What else is in your living room?  Do you have coffee tables?  End tables?  Whatever you have, start by taking everything off and going through it.

Magazines!!!!  You probably have a huge collection of magazines.  I would suggest putting these into a pile and later on going through them.  While you are watching tv or some other activity, make it a priority to go through these magazines and tear out what you want to keep.  Recipe magazines???—-Do a quick skim of it and rip out the recipes you “think” you will try and put them in a folder.  Keep this folder in your household binder or in a kitchen cupboard and designate one day each week to trying out new recipes.  Homemaker ones?  I have many of these and decided I really was not going to read them again, I tore out the information and placed it in a folder of things I wanted to keep.  Honestly, I haven’t looked at that folder in years, for future reference I will probably bind up the magazines and pass them along to some other homemaker that could enjoy them.

Bookshelves—homeschoolers usually have acquired many books.  Our family over the years went from having 3 full bookshelves down to about 1/2 of a bookshelf.  Why did I get rid of so many books?  Information changes, our teaching style changes, books are available at our local library, and we moved and got rid of many.

I have kept books that are hard to come by.  Ones with good values and morals.  Ones that my older children enjoyed reading. I weeded out those that were not as exciting or that had one part of questionable material in it.  Our teaching consists of me writing their curriculum with information I find online so I don’t have need to hold onto many books.  I know each family is different and some have textbooks and other workbooks that they must hold onto and I understand that—get rid of the ones you don’t need, the ones that are taking up space.

Have shelves of knickknacks?? Go through those as well.  How many “pretty” things do you need to look at?  Is it taking up space?  Causing you to do more work by having to dust them each week?  Get rid of things that cause you to do more than you have to.  We are in the process of simplifying our homes, not creating more work.

If you store your family games in this room, go through them.  I have decided to take most out of their boxes and store them in plastic bags.  It works better for our household.  We keep only games we enjoy, I don’t usually hold onto ones that “one day” we will play.  I keep those that we will play now.

Extra throw blankets, go through and keep only the ones that aren’t ripped or stained.  Put them in a basket or inside of a piece of furniture.  Even though it is great to have Christmas throws, it is just one more thing that you use for about 2 weeks out of the year, keep them simple.  Find your favorite and get rid of the rest.

Have multiple candles?  Start by working to burn them down.  Instead of lighting 5 different candles and having 5 different used candles, just burn one at a time until it is done. Move onto the next one.

Look at your wall hangings??  Are they something that needs to be thrown away?  Do they collect way to much dust and hard to clean each month?  Think about getting a “cleaner” sleeker item for your walls.

You should be having a feeling of freeness right about now.  Your home is mostly decluttered.  The major areas, that people see, you have gone through.  Keep at it.  Put items that you are going to get rid of into your “out of sight” box.  Just go through your items quickly.  Don’t think too much about things, look at it and your first thought should be ,”do I use this?”  If you don’t, get rid of it.

The book has a few more steps but we will be skipping those and moving onwards to part 6

Work hard this weekend, by going through your room and decluttering it.  Be blessed.

I have been slowly working on improving my diet.  I think I have finally passed over the line of craving salty or sweet foods.  It took awhile.  I had to retrain my body and what I put into it.  I have been really focusing on eating nutrient dense foods lately.  If I am going to put calories into my body,  why not make them worthwhile?  I don’t want to eat something that I have to go exercise an hour for just to burn it off.

I had bought some chia, and raw hemp seeds awhile ago and was intending to put them in smoothies to drink because of their nutritional value.  I unfortunately do not care for yogurt or kefir tasting drinks so it never happened.  Call me crazy but I just started putting a couple tablespoons into my daily kombucha and drank them down?!!?

I was thinking not to share with anyone what I was concocting—because it was odd:)

I realized I like the way that the seeds made me feel and so I decided to come up with a bar to eat.  A much more appetizing treat.

Before I give you my recipe, maybe you don’t know much about chia seeds, raw hemp, or flax seeds and how good they are for you.  Here are some quick facts:

raw hemp seeds:

• excellent source of both fatty acids (good fats)
• great source of protein (3 Tablespoons contain 11 grams protein)
• highest form of protein that is not an animal product
• natural appetite suppressant

chia seeds:

• labeled as a “superfood” which means they are one of the healthiest foods on the planet
• excellent source of Omega 3’s
• excellent source of easily digestible protein
• excellent source of dietary fiber (3 Tablespoons contain 48% of daily fiber)
• contains 500% more calcium than milk
• have the ability to sustain energy for a long period of time

flaxseeds:

• helps lower cholesterol
• high in Omega 3’s which aid in reducing inflammation
• high concentration of lignans which help to inhibit tumor growth
• helps reduce bone loss thanks to concentration of fatty acids

So how do we get all that into something that resembles a food worthwhile to eat?? You make a bar.

I tried a recipe that I found on the internet and went with it. Here is the original recipe I found from wellnessmama

I did most of the same ingredients, in mine I put:

• 6 large dates
• 1/2 cup chia seeds
• 2 T coconut oil
• pinch of cinnamon
• 2 T shredded coconut

 

I put the dates into my food processor and processed them for a few moments.

I added the chia seeds, cinnamon, and coconut.

Then the coconut oil and came up with a mixture.

I put this in a pan lined with parchment paper and froze it. 

I came up with this result.  They were okay, thinner and more seed like.  But not enough for me to keep making them.  So I decided to tweak it and make it more my own.  I wanted something that had more of a chewier texture and taste a little better.

This is what I added:

• 1 1/2 cups dates
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 4 Tablespoons unsweetened coconut
• 1/3 cup each of hemp, flax and chia seeds
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1/2  teaspoon of almond and vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt
• 2 cup oatmeal

I did the same technique by putting in the dates and cranberries into my food processor.  I added all of the rest of the ingredients ending with coconut oil.

I came up with this mixture.  It looked and smelled much better.  As far as taste goes it tastes wonderfully.  It has an almondy, fruity, nutty and chocolatey taste.

I put them in a parchment paper lined baking pan and froze them. I cut them into bars and placed them in a plastic container.  I would recommend keeping them cool otherwise the coconut oil will melt and they will fall apart.Everyday I take out a chunk of a bar and enjoy its taste.  It is actually very good.  I recommend you trying this version.

All of the ingredients added to this are healthy.  The only thing I discredit is the sugar that they put in the dried cranberries to make them sweeter.  You can actually omit this if you want to, but I enjoy the flavor of it and like to keep it.

This made a full 9×13 pan and they are thicker than my first batch.  I will be making these each month and enjoy them as my daily nutrient based food.  I think these are better than the kombucha and seed mixture….agreed???