{phfr} HOT MESS and vlogin' it with Spaghetti Squash, Save-a-Step and Thoughts on Parenthood

Longest title ever, just sayin'.

Linking-up with Dear Auntie Leila and Famous Blythe.

Ok, here we go with the linky and the vlog! Buckle up!

{pretty}
This awesome glider was given to us when the local nursery (plants) was closing.  I know, you thought child nursery, but no, for sooooome strange reason there was a glider and a rocking chair in the small hut for checking-out. I'm so grateful for it! It came sans cushions and a busted bottom, but my parents gifted us, ok Emerson, a new baby gift and we decided to order customized cushions for the glider. Meanwhile my brother cut a board to fit the gaping hole (hidden under cushion) and HOORAY! we are loving the "bee-YOU-ti-ful" chair, as Rita says.
***UPDATE: Carolyn is the genius of the cushion! Visit her Etsy Shop***
Fabric selfie/up-close

Lovin' my fabric choice.

{happy}
Spaghetti. It's such a comfort food and for this former carb loader, well, oink oink but now I eat normal portions and the kids l-o-v-e it. I win. ;) P.S. Save-a-step action in the kitchen!!! DO it! Makes life 1059782342999444270 times easier. Serious.

Ok so spaghetti squash! Yay!
And since we're in the kitchen I just want to say how my husband has been SO amazing with getting the kitchen cleaned every night. Such a gift to this momma!

Without further ramblings I give you…. a little snippet from my kitchen!
***Update: salt pepper and oil inside of squash, after scraping seeds (seeds are delicious roasted), then bake.***


{funny}

Potential hot mess…but he let me clean him up on the double as soon as he took the last bite.

{real}
In which there is a
HOT MESS!!!
and a great great chunk of Catechesis (not! haha!)
So this is where our microwave belongs, and since we don't have one of those suckers it's my spot for all the things that are used and hurriedly thrown back up, away from kitchen messes and potential grubby hands.
Books that need to be taped, cookbooks, vinegar spray in a pathetic over-used bottle, an old egg crate serving to hold pens and pencils. It's just gross. Tyler kinda cringes when he walks past. Kidding. Sorta? sorta kidding. Mostly, cringe.

-----------------------------
Maybe you've done some research on parenthood. I have, um, opted for "real life" experience…until now. And hello. I'm missing some GOOD, real GOOD, like bacon, eggs and grits breakfast, GOOD STUFF.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2223 Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. (BAMMMM! Meteor to my heart.) The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery - the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones." Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, (WHAAAATTTT???!!! Meteor shower…) parents will be better able to guide and correct them:


He who loves his son will not spare the rod. . . . He who disciplines his son will profit by him.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Y'all, seriously, I need to study all parts of the catechism on parenthood.

This really blows me away. I don't have anything earth-shattering to say (yet) about this paragraph, but the goodness of it is just starting to seep in.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eliminating Unnecessary Housework: Laundry

TRUTH!

I'm not a laundry hater. Ok, putting it away is my down-fall but I actually love the sorting, washing and drying.

I read about this mom who stopped folding her cloth diapers and would just throw the clean ones into a basket - and I tried it and loved it. We have since stopped cloth diapering, but the idea of simplifying housework and figuring out necessary vs fluff (can housework be fluff? i'm thinking "yes") tasks has been worth reflection.

I realized that folding bath towels, however wonderfully warm and neat and nice they may be for a whole 1.7 seconds before toddlers descend upon them is a total, utter, waste of time at this point in life.

Enter this image:

Basket on left is all that I need to fold IF I choose not to include bath towels.
Baskets one, two AND three on the right is how much laundry I would have if I kept the bath towels in to be folded.

So, one basket of folding or three....
dooo do dooo do...
easy right?!

One basket, please!

And so all the bath towels are emptied into this large (FREE!) wicker basket some friends of ours demoted from their home. Happy to have it put to use here!

Viola! Less mess, less stress!

What are your tips for eliminating unnecessary work? PLEASE share!! This girl wants to know!

Sweet Dreams and Good Mornings (A Chicken Post)

14 days old

It's funny that you dream, dream, dream as a child.

Then as an adult you chase, chase, chase (for the majority of people).

So, we've been working on living, living, living.

And creating the life that we both dreamt of.

Which leads to the most current event:

Rhode Island Red chicks!

So far I'm enjoying having chicks so very much.

I love (confession of a nerd) order, rules, regularity, etc.

Thus, knowing that every morning we tend to the chicks, and every evening we tend to the chicks, I can sort of order my days.

Taking care of our kitten is so much more simple than a dog (which we haven't had for over a year now).  It doesn't weight my day or alter my schedule.

Keeping chickens (and we are only three days into it) is very helpful in implementing a daily rhythm.

I think I'm starting to see how the larger our family is, the more naturally a schedule will come.

We are keeping chickens mainly for eggs and although my Rhode Island Red chicken-raising relative is doubtful four hens will provide us with enough eggs, I know that starting small works best for me.

Rita delights in these "tiny baby chicks" and Jonah delights in his yelling, running, squealing sister.
It's amazing how life begets life.  And joy begets joy.

What I Learned From an Internet Fast

Sweet people.  God most definitely saw that my internet fasting continued.  Our internet is squashed bananas! Speaking of bananas, Jonah has been eating half a banana for the last five nights (excepting last night because he took a random but much needed very long nap).  Hooray for food! (And then tonight his face started blotching red while we did banana! Time for a little break!)

Note: Eating bananas has not at all affected his nursing marathons at night, which include, burping, belching, coughing, snorting, whining, grunting and other noises that could possibly scare his future wife and prevent me from sleeping while he nurses (i.e. nurses, burps, belches, coughs, snorts, whines, grunts, passes gas, etc.).  Except we would love for him to be a priest! God's will!

Ok so, how was the internet fast?
AWESOME AMAZING FRUITFUL
Just in time for Rita turning two and IMMEDIATELY entering this ultra needy-ultra independent paradoxical age, which probably would have demanded a fast anyway.  God is mighty wise.  I'm much much more attentive, patient, focused, productive, etc., when I'm NOT instagraming, tweeting, reading blogs that drag me around the internet and deep into archives, and other such social media activity.  Cause it's just me, the kids, the kitten, daily chores, food and some outside time.  I've even been spending time outside every day and walking most days (with Jonah in a baby carrier).

Peeps, being two is apparently very hard.  I'm glad it happens early cause this chic is having her fair share of meltdowns, outbursts, etc.  Oh, and my less than desirable qualities are just bursting through her personality.  I've been feeling a little less than, um, momma-ish since my little mirror is showing all the imperfections of my personality.  It's humbling and exasperating and mostly we find the most relief and most peace and unity outside beneath the cold January sky.

The days (like yesterday) where we stay inside most of the day become absolute angry chaos.  Y'all it's like the Fall of the Garden of Eden over and over every minute on those days. I mean, my fallen nature is not pretty.  I'm not even going to pretend I have it all together.  (It should be said: Tyler is in-fi-nite-ly more patient than me.  Infinitely.)

Tyler and I agree that always focusing on simplifying, minimizing and de-cluttering will continue to help us live less chaotic lives.  Which, in turn, will help me to be less stressed.  Many people have advised me to just let the house go, but for real, me and Tyler argue, argue, argue, argue when our house is disordered and cluttered.  Mess isn't an option unless sleepy-time comes before we can get it all together.  Pretty much sleep out-rules everything.  I mean, we go to bed at like 9:30/10:00pm since the internet fast.  Sleep is amazing.  When I wasn't nursing a baby I was my best after six hours of uninterrupted sleep.  Uninterrupted sleep is just a dream of the past, but if I can have nine hours lying down, sleeping as much as I possibly can than I am totally guaranteed to be a much better momma.  Much, much better momma.

So this is what I've learned:
A. fasting from social media is much more of a sacrifice than fasting from food (in so far as I'm not having blood sugar drops and have time easily carved out for prayer/spiritual readings)
B. outside time twice a day is most desirable
C. exercise outside every day is mostly essential
D. a play-date once a week is great
E. going to sleep the same time as my husband really helps our communication
F. incorporating Rita into my daily chores as much as possible is helpful
G. baby-wearing is dynamite and totally sleep/calm inducing
H. reading from tangible books is so satisfying
I. routine (meaning, sequence of events) is more important schedule

So, I'm going to be just taking it easy.  Putting my vocations of wife and mother first and being present virtually as much as I see fit is what I'll be doing.  Check-in when you can.  But let's be Eucharist to our loved ones, together.  Let us be present, pulsing with life, selfless, and the presence of Christ's love.

Year of Faith Meets 2013 Goals

Year of Faith (2013) Goals

Throughout the beginning of the new year, which started early December (shout-out to fellow Catholics!) I spent time praying and discerned that this year will be a year of contentment.

Last year submission was my theme.  This year it is contentment and it is already such a challenge!  But I'm hopeful that I can open my heart to receive the needed grace to embrace this virtue (is contentment really a virtue? i mean, it has be! right?!).

This year I'm not using an acronym, but I am breaking my goals down into tasks again.  Breaking the goals down was much more helpful than the cheesy (but legit) acronym, so keeping the good and tossing the lame!

Continuous Goals

Monthly Confession (Before the 25th of each month)
Attend one weekday mass per month with the children
Night prayer with Tyler every day
Cardio three days per week (Monday-Saturday)
Wake-up with Tyler every weekday
Paint with Rita once a week
Use holy candles at supper, for First Friday, First Saturday, prayer requests, keeping vigil, etc.
Spend at least one hour per day solely playing with the kids (between nursing, diaper changing, meals, meal preparation and daily duties this is truly a difficult task for me, but I want it to be a priority)
Once a month visit out-of-town/out-of-state family

Play-by-Play Goals

1. Read the remaining Gospels (cause Jesus is the best to learn from!)

• December: begin Mark
• April: begin Luke
• August: begin John

2. Read and apply four books on simplifying (including Happy are You Poor and One Thousand Gifts of which I have only ever heard good things)

• December: Tell Your Time
• March: Surrender to Love
• June: Happy are You Poor
• September: One Thousand Gifts

3. Reduce clutter - Jesus obviously encourages this from my reading of Matthew's Gospel this past year

• January: Create and implement filing system
• February: Update hand-me-down organization
• March: Purge files (filing two months in a row would cause my brain to melt, thus the February hiatus)
• April: Eliminate technology clutter
• May: Purge Tyler's shed (Ahhhhhhh! I have SO MUCH STUFF hidden there.  So sad)
• June: Clean out prayer bench drawers
• July: Clean out linen chest
• August: Clean out clothing chest
• September: Cycle thru 31 Days to Living Intentionally Simple
• October: Organize and purge toys
• November: Pair-down Christmas ornaments

4. Sew once a week 

• January: Sew four felt food toys in January
• February: Sew four felt food toys in February
• March: Sew Lucy four felt food toys (Birthday present)
• April, May, June: Sew Rita a dress to wear for Jonah's one year pictures in July
• July: Sew Mom a make-up brush bag (Birthday present)
• August: Sew Nicole a make-up brush bag (Birthday present)
• September: Sew Stephan a harmonica case (Birthday present)
• October: Sew Nanny a make-up brush bag (Christmas present)
• November: Sew Molly a make-up brush bag (Christmas present)

5. Build a Lego Table

• Easter gift to Rita
• Easter 2013: March 31st
• January: price materials
• February: purchase materials
• March: assemble

6. Blueberry Business

• Build raised beds for blueberry bushes, plus room for one more
• Plant blueberry bushes
• Purchase and plant one alternate variety blueberry bush

7. Fence in our front yard

• January: get an estimate
• Save for fence 
• October: have fence installed (if three month emergency savings complete and fence-only funds available, otherwise wait until 2014)

We would love to fence in the front yard, but this isn't our forever home and so we are eliminating this.

8. Pay $500 on principle car debt

• July: $250 (at least that much paid)
• November: total $500 paid

9. Build a three month emergency savings fund

• Use any tax return money for this savings
• Use any Ebates earnings for this savings
• Set-up automatic withdraw

10. Save for a family vacation/wedding in October 

• February - August Save $100 per month
• August possibly purchase plane tickets
• August order visitors guides
• September book/plan accommodations

I think this concludes my Year of Faith goals.

Jesus, into your merciful hands I entrust these goals.  Above all, let me accomplish what You desire, Jesus.  I give you my life.  Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace...

Review of G.O.A.L.S. which were last updated in June (so terrible, I know! but our sweet Jonah has put a new rhythm in our awesome family!)

GOD
Increase in visits to the adoration chapel (weekly, hopefully)
Must be done solo.  
Daily family prayer
Before dinner, and at bedtime most nights.  Tyler and I are also working on saying Night Prayer each night together once the babies (or at least Rita) are sleeping.  That is such a blessed time.
Teaching Rita the traditional Catholic blessing before meals, the Guardian Angel prayer and the Hail Mary
Working on it and we added the "Glory Be."  Rita continues to make the Sign of the Cross and every now and then clasps her hands in prayer.  She also exclaims "A-ben!"  So sweet to read this June update.  ACCOMPLISHED AND MORE! Rita now (23 months old) knows the Hail Mary, Our Father, Prayer Before Meals, Guardian Angel Prayer and the SIgn of the Cross.  We are so blessed to have such a bright and delightful (and sometimes fierce) little girl.  I love you, Rita.
Establishing 15 minutes of conversational prayer time
Challenging.
Saying as much of the Rosary each day as I can (separate from conversation time with Jesus)
I usually manage to start at least one Rosary each week - progress!
Lately it has been about one decade per week.  sigh  More effort and focus needed!
OWE NOTHING*
Decrease vehicle debt by $1200 (at minimum)
We have put $524 towards principle! And that's it for 2012.  Almost 50% of this goal met.  Every dollar has helped!

Take a family vacation with CASH only.  ACCOMPLISHED!

*Currently we owe on one vehicle and on our home, so this won't happen in 2012 but we are at the start of the journey to totally debt free living!
APPRECIATE 
Being a SAHM is the greatest blessing, Lord let my lips not complain!
Become great at pursuing gratitude and expressing it at every opportunity
Appreciate our financial stability and practice frugality as part of my job as wife and mother
A hungry toddler and a nursing momma and a dada that does lots of physical labor has pushed us up. We're happy to eat healthy!  Meal planning quickly strayed from the ideal plan (doesn't it always in this imperfect world?!) but I try to jot notes on the calendar on Saturday or Sunday and have at least four meals planned.  Still working on gratitude via contentment.

LISTEN
I talk way too often
I interrupt even more often 
Lord Jesus Christ, remind me of the simple anatomy of my being - two ears and only one mouth
Always pursuing this.

SAVE

Save, save, save!
Save $6,200 $5,967* for our three month emergency fund  

We have saved $3,033  $3040.55  $3045.99 towards our three month emergency fund (more than half way)! 

*We reevaluated our needs vs wants during a time of financial stress and determined we would truly need $5,967 for three months.  

Savings is drastically reduced.  Sad but true.  But for 2013 we have auto-withdraw!  

Save $400 for photos with our new baby in July and for family Christmas pictures
We haven't saved anything for pictures and being that Jonah is due to arrive anytime in July...looks like I will be calling on my high school photography skills and my black and white manual camera.  Won't be what we thought of but it will be done by me, and that's special!  Still hopeful about Christmas though!

Took Christmas photos with cash! Hooray!

{phfr} master bedroom

We have one dresser in our room.  (Our closet holds another along with other furniture and lots of mess at the moment, but this was supposed to be simple, so easy does it!)  It's a gorgeous functioning antique graciously given to us.  And the top needed de-cluttering.

I love simple!

Sorry for the tremendous glare!

Nice and tidy!  And how's my wedding bouquet for pretty?  Preserved by my mom's neighbor.  A priceless gift!!

Laundry Day: Creating a Rotation So My Husband Has Socks!

Source: via Suzette on Pinterest

People.  A man who works 55 hours a week seriously deserves clean socks.  No matter how many babies under two there are!

My husband rarely has clean socks.

Monday is laundry day and there is a second "floating" laundry day, but this laundry dilemma will  need a little structure to make clean socks happen.  I think the ambiguous laundry day is the reason that on Sunday morning I am hurrying into the laundry room to throw load after load of laundry to wash.  Not quite the best use of our free time with Tyler home from work!

So here is the rotation I will be trying out over the next two weeks.  On November 5th I will let you know how this worked out and any adjustments that were made/will be made at that point.

My ultimate goal is to not have to touch the washer and dryer on Sunday...hmmm...aspiring...and for my husband to always have clean socks (And no it isn't that we have too few.  He has over six pairs of socks!) Maybe I'm just an extremely naive young mother.  Time will tell!

Hopefully having a routine will allow me to line-dry more clothes, as I can plan around knowing what clothing is washed on certain days.  That would be so awesome.  Line drying is freeeeeeeeee!  And we love free. 

In the meantime, let's wash and roll!

Sunday
Retreat from the laundry (Hopefully!)

Monday (An Official Wash Day)
Lights
Darks
Reds (if enough, otherwise put with Darks)
Bath (towels, washcloths, hand towels, etc.)
Kitchen (rags, cloths, etc.)

Tuesday
Uniforms (Tyler's load - this is also any seriously dirty clothes that might not be uniforms)
Special (anything that requires more thought than "dump, wash, dry")

Wednesday
Darks
Bath

Thursday (Unofficial Wash Day)
Lights
Uniforms
Kitchen
Sheets

Friday
Cleaning Rags
Bath

Saturday
Bath
Uniforms

Do you have a washing routine or washing routine tips?  

Please share!  

I would love to know how women maintain peace with this never-ending chore (which I don't hate, just looking for a rhythm).

Frugal Practices that Work/Save For Us: Water

In order to save water, we do a small variety of things (not nearly as extensive as electricity), although as Rita has gotten older and immensely enjoys water play, we aren't quite as careful as we used to be!

Source: via Marisol on Pinterest

1. Hand wash dishes, having wash water and rinse water drawn beforehand so that the water isn't left running. Then we use the water for our plants outside! The suds help to kill aphids, which is a perk!

2. Shower more often than we bathe. I've nearly perfected the five minute shower that I used to jaw-droppingly admire about my husband.

3. Run the dishwasher on "light." It usually does just as good as normal and uses a few gallons less!

These are simple, but maybe they will spark some ideas for you to share with us!

How do you save on water?

Have a blessed First Friday and Saturday! And pray for a special intention I have, please!

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Other posts in this series: How To Save on Electricity

Growing into the Newness of Motherhood (Phil, this one isn't for you!)

I yie yie!  Recently I had a moment. One of those where you gasp because in a fraction of a second you realize that you're married, living in a house and having children and oh-my-when-did-this-happen?!

Lately with two children in-tow I've been feeling like I'm growing into motherhood. With Rita I struggled to enjoy life because I worried and sought to control everything. Really, everything.

Now I just sigh when Rita takes a marker to the walls, eats off of the floor (Sweep? Are you kidding?! We're doing good to have food and clean laundry over here!), and ends up teeteeing on the bathroom floor on the way onto and off of her potty. Not that I don't lose my cool often, but it's decreasing a little bit!

I just can't keep everything together. So instead I'm learning to keep together the most important aspects of a home: food and clothing. Visits to the park now take precedence over vacuuming and dusting. Play dates over dish-washing. Naptime over making the beds. And home cooked meals over cloth diapering.

Yep, after our run with disposables during/after the hurricane I realized I was able to cook supper, have other laundry done (Tyler, my love, I'm sorry for the days you have had to wear my purple-edged ankle socks to work) and just have wiggle room to breathe.

I still ache in my heart and the pit of my stomach when I think of the waste. But, I just couldn't hang with two in cloth diapers. I had to wash diapers everyday: cold rinse, two hot washes (thanks to hard water) and two 70 minute dryer cycles. Needless to say my laundry was bogged down with three-four hours of diaper laundry per day. And that isn't even washing diaper covers!

The final straw was that Jonah didn't seem to agree with cotton diapers...the wet on his skin drove him mad and our hard water made all of our microfiber liners begin to seriously repel urine. Every nap time was a diapering marathon because as he would relax to sleep Jonah would urinate ever so lightly and wake up crying. It was a vicious cycle that was resulting in an exhausted baby and cranky momma!  After two mornings of four diaper changes (for Jonah alone) in one hour and no morning nap, I knew we needed to make a decision.

So Tyler and I talked and prayed and I cried...but it was either stop cooking or stop cloth diapering. 

So I'm hopeful to try cloth diapering again once Rita is potty-trained, but I'm not making promises to myself. I know this is probably disappointing news.  I still believe cloth diapering is awesome, but it just wasn't best for Jonah. And definitely not the best for the sanity of this  cloth diapering momma!

So I'm growing. I'm accepting my limits. Now I'm having time for things like going to farmers market and doing puzzles with Rita.

With more time on my hands I see myself becoming a better wife and momma, and that, dear family, friends and readers, is most important.

What are areas you have had to change in order to accommodate meeting the needs of you and your family?

So long prefolds and flip covers...hoping you'll be back once I have two feet running on the ground.

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Tips to Plan for a Garage Sale

Sometimes I think I try to do wayyyy too much.  I have zillions of small projects started and rarely does anything seem to get finished.  I did this sometimes in early marriage, but now that I have babies I think my scatter brain condition is exasperated!  I'm having to be very intentional with my goals and objectives to be able to achieve these goals.  Lists are my friends!

Thankfully, the Lord has been leading us into simplicity and helping us to see the freedom in owning what we need and not all sorts of excess (which greatly helps scatter-brainness!).

In preparation for Jonah there were at least four or five purges and how we wish we would have stored the car loads of junk (WHERE does it come from???) for a garage sale!

Source: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com via Becky on Pinterest

A garage sale is a cheap and simple way to earn income for your emergency savings, unexpected expenses, debt pay-off or whatever financial category in your budget that you determine could use a boost!

In order to prepare for a garage sale, I know there are a few beforehand jobs that need to be taken care of.  By planning ahead it helps the morning of the garage sale to go smooth.

The checklist I have is based on childhood experience of helping with a couple of garage sales, reading-up on garage sales and having had two in our current home.  Of course, everyone plans differently but I think these tasks are quite general and would aid any garage sale.

Garage Sale Tips

• Run an ad in the local newspaper.  Include date, time, address, zip code and a small description of what you will be offering (ex: books, maternity clothing, mens clothing and knick knacks)
• Keep pricing simple.  Stick to whole dollars and multiples of 25 for change.
• Take-out $70-$100 change.  Make sure to get at least one roll ($10) of quarters if you will be offering items with multiples of 25 cents!
• Set-up the evening before, unless rain is expected.  It wouldn't hurt to borrow a few tarps to cover the majority of your items for sale, even if rain isn't expected.
• Rather than pricing every single item, hang signs for tables or sections of tables where everything is $1 or $5 (for example).
• Price fair.  If your prices are too low people may question your quality of items, but if they are too expensive some people may not even hop out of their vehicles to take a look!  Think about what you would honestly pay for an item.  We don't mark-up higher than $5 or $10 what we would be willing to pay (some people like to haggle, so do give yourself a little wiggle room!)
• Be outside at least 30 minutes before the start time of your sale - you might just have an early bird!  We don't mind early birds because it builds excitement for us.
• Remember the point is to declutter and make money!  We sold our baby swing in the Fall (right before we found-out we were pregnant again!) for $10 less than I wanted to, but it was great to bless the first time couple and really, we just wanted it out!

I know that there are other tips you might have, so feel free to post in the comments.  Experience is the best source of knowledge!

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A Quiet Morning

Nothing is more uplifting for this momma than a quiet morning shared with my husband before he is off to work. Making him breakfast and waving goodbye from our front porch put so much peace in my heart. He is so appreciative of a warm breakfast!


Once Tyler is gone for the day, I eat my breakfast in the quiet, say a prayer or two, and enjoy a generous cup of tea (or like this morning a wee cup of coffee).


I have time to prep supper early, review the day and time to just be me, Suzette, which is so precious amidst raising little ones.


My prayer is that all of you young (and "weathered") mothers can find your special time of day. I'm a young mother myself, but I'm convicted that this is wisdom being whispered to me from my grandmothers.  Stories tell of both of them finding time to nurture their spirits and bodies.  Maybe a soak at night? Or a book while your husband puts the kids to bed? Find your time and allow God to penetrate into your heart so that you may be formed into His precious and holy daughter.

Peace be to you!  From me at the kitchen table.

Have a fantastic weekend. Hoping Jonah holds out on starting labor until Sunday evening or later, so that my doctor (who we just love) can deliver with us!

When do you find momma time?  What's the biggest difference you notice in yourself?  I, for one, am MUCH more patient!  Ideas welcomed!

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Small Space Living: Nursery Decor

Our journey to create a sweet, simple space for Rita has been fun and I'm so grateful that we are finished!


Choosing to decorate Rita's nursery minimally has allowed me the time to create a space that reflects Rita's interests.  Creating something beautiful for my child has been such a rewarding experience.  She thoroughly appreciates the beauty and simplicity of her room.  What a little joy!

Crucifix hangs above books for when Rita recoups.

There are six pieces that we used to decorate.  Four religious pieces and two non-religious pieces.


The crucifix comes from the Holy Land, and is hung at Rita's height for her to admire Jesus and embrace the Cross whenever she needs.  I really support the idea of hanging art and beauty at a child's level.  It does so much for them.  Yes, this means Jesus wanders about the house with Rita during the day, but who's complaining that their child takes delight in carrying Our Lord!?

One of my favorite artists, Sher Chappell, has gifted us with a few pieces of her art.  You should totally check-out her stuff, by clicking on her name - beautiful, made from recycled/repurposed items, made in the USA, and affordable!  Not compensated, just love supporting artists!  All three are religious mixed media pieces and I am so inspired by them. All three hang on one wall in the nursery. They are at a height that is perfect for Rita when she stands in her crib (we reverted from the toddler bed, as she kept asking for bed and would shimmy out of the toddler bed).  At center is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the left is St. Gerard and to the right is St. Rita.  This is a simple and powerful way to invite the spiritual into our everyday.

DIY bird mobile up-close.  Love the shadows!

The long-awaited mobile (on my Pinterest board) is finished and hung!  The tutorial I used as a rough guideline is here. It cost all of $1.50 (for the stars), thanks to my planning during Christmas clearance!  Rita loves to see her "tweet-tweets" when she wakes up.  Tyler hung it smack over her crib and it looks awesome!


Last is a large giraffe done in oil pastel on cotton cloth.  It comes from this photo (on left) I found and put on my Pinterest board.

Source: flickr.com via Suzette on Pinterest

"'raffe!"  A little blurry due to our psychedelic lighting.

The inspirational art piece (above) is done on a small section of a 2 x 4, so ours is substantially larger (around three feet tall) and a bit different, as I used the inspirational pieces as just that, rather than something to copy exactly.  This hangs right near the changing table and serves as a great distraction during diaper changes (a nice surprise!).


We are so elated that the nursery is complete!  It is the perfect reflection of what is important to Rita, and we are so glad that she loves the Lord and His creations!


Thanks for following along as we worked to create the best nursery in our small space living!

How do you decorate?  What is your best decor tip?  Do you find simple decorating to be sparse or clean?

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Check-out our other Small Space Living posts:

Small Space Living: Nursery Inspiration

Small Space Living: Nursery Beginnings

Small Space Living: Furnished Nursery

Small Space Living: Simple Decor

Small Space Living: My Sanctuary 

Small Space Living: Hand-Me-Down Clothing Organization

Recently we have been blessed with a huge amount of hand-me-down clothing.  Embracing gently worn clothing is a great way to reduce waste!  It is also a great way to live frugally.  


Free clothes?  Oh yes.  Free clothes in good condition?  Even better!  


In order to sort through the clothing I made guidelines for myself.  These guidelines made it easy to keep quality pieces that are worth their "wait" in the closet.


The guidelines I have set for sorting hand-me-downs are:

• sort with my spouse (no use keeping something he wouldn't want our kids wearing AND we get rid of excess because there are two people who can say "nah" instead of one)
• no stains allowed
• no fuzzied-up, worn-out or faded clothing
• no poorly sewn/assembled pieces
• rarely keep "play" clothes (unless we both give them a "yea" and they meet all other requirements)
• focus on classic pieces that will mix and match easily (I find this is WAY easier with boy clothes than girl, but it would greatly simplify and minimize a girl's wardrobe)
• store clothes in a labeled sweater-sized clear plastic box (thanks to Rachel who blogs at Intentionally Simple for introducing me to this size storage box!)
• record in my Excel "Kids Clothing" document

So this is how our kids clothing storage (spare bedroom closet) is organized.  It includes other baby items such as Cloth-eez red edge prefold cloth diapers (will be borrowed by a friend soon) and misc. baby items (top left is our shopping cart cover - not necessary but keeps germs at bay!).


In general, the blue lids are the boy clothes and the white lids are the girl clothes.  In the both genders we have through size 4T.  


I'm really excited that in three boxes of each gender we have such a span of sizes.  It was pretty difficult to choose, but I think we have kept the best.  Really?  Who's to say we won't have one girl and six boys!  Rather not have girl clothes invading our house and us have just one - and same possibility for the boy clothes.


The hanging clothes in the bottom right are the clothes that Rita is currently growing into but aren't seasonally appropriate.  

In addition to organizing and storing the clothes for the future, I wanted a system to document what we have and don't have.  This makes it possible to prepare before we sort through a given pile of hand-me-downs.  We pull-up our list and check for areas we are lacking as well as areas we have abundance.  Then, when we sort we can avoid doubles and doing something crazy like storing all long sleeve shirts in one size and only shorts in another.  


Without a system to document, every time we receive hand-me-downs we would have to open the appropriate box, pull everything out, compare with what we have and repack everything.  This seems overwhelming, so I have much preferred being able to have our clothing inventory documented.


Our Boy Clothing Inventory

Using the storage bins that stack well, are clear and labeled, being specific in what we keep and documenting our inventory of clothes helps to keep hand-me-down clothing a blessing instead of a burden.  I am so glad that we have embraced a simple life.  There is so much freedom in being free from the silent stress of a home filled to the brim.

A Note About Organization in General:  When your house (including the front porch) is under 1,100 sq feet anything that you store for future use has to be organized.  Thankfully, we simply don't have room (or time) for disorganization.

When you have chosen to live a simple, uncluttered and minimal lifestyle disorganization really isn't even part of your life.  There are times when possessions seem to accumulate (or sales papers...meal planning mommas you probably hear me!) but for the most part we leave surfaces empty and pick-up every night.  Our closets usually remain neat and clear, storing clothing we wear often (meaning weekly or bi-weekly, minus special occasion clothing).

How do you handle hand-me-down clothing?  Do you find it is easily overwhelming and accumulates other clutter too?  

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Life Without a Rocking Chair

Yep, life without a rocker.  


Potential Box-ish Rocker (Most Expensive Choice)

Source: google.com via Suzette on Pinterest

It's been challenging.   It's been almost eight weeks since we sold our glider and ottoman combo on Craigslist.  We were tired of the maintenance of the oiling and bolts.  We NEVER used the ottoman, so it was this random and clumsy piece of junk that was constantly being moved back and forth between closets.


I'm so glad to know that what we deemed totally necessary really isn't.  Although, it did make nap time and bed time a bit easier at times.


But now we're on a quest for a rocker.  I'm not sure if I want all wood.  I really don't want another glider.  I'm sort of disgusted by rocker-recliners (think Lazy-Boy).  They are just so big and bulky and eesh... so yucky when food ends-up on them.  I love the idea of wiping wood clean and moving on with my day.


So I found one that I really like at a local antique store, but it's a bit box-ish and might leave me feeling squished with two babies in my lap!  There's a spindle rocker that would fit just me and one baby, which might be nice.  It's low to the ground and a nice cream color.  There is a bentwood rocker, but I remember flipping the one my parents had SO many times.


Bentwood rocker.  Lovely.  Dangerous.

Source: chairblog.eu via Suzette on Pinterest

Prices?
Well, the spindle is $55, the bentwood was $65 but is marked down to $50 and the mac-daddy, beautiful but sorta boxy rocker is $150, with 10% (basically tax) off.  Maybe we'll just get the spindle rocker.  Or maybe we'll just wait.  We are bringing cash to purchase our rocker, whichever we choose - so excited about this financial change!


Resembles Potential Spindle Rocker, which might fit "just right..."

Source: google.com via Suzette on Pinterest

I've got time!  (Sort of...antiques stores don't really keep stock...God's will!)

Do you use a rocker with your babies?  Which kind do you prefer?

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Small Space Living: Furnished Nursery

In our quest for simple, minimal, joyous, healthy and frugal living we also try to balance living a "green" lifestyle.  We use soaps, shampoos and conditioners that aren't toxic to our bodies, clean with vinegar and baking soda, grow herbs and a few veggies, among a few other things.


This being said, using low to no VOCs paint is really important to us, especially with me being pregnant and Rita being so tiny.  We have previously used Benjamin Moore's low VOC paint, but when we went to get the paint and found they were closed, I had to find a substitute.  Thankfully, Behr at Home Depot just switched their entire line to low VOC paint!  This was a great find.  For $50 (estimate - can't track down the receipts I saved for this post) we purchased enough paint and tape for the entire nursery, plus a bit remains for touch-ups.  The paint is paint/primer in one as well as low VOC.  Some people thought this was too expensive for a small nursery, but we believe that we have to be good stewards to our bodies as best as we can.

Cozy bed.  The books function as a tool to help Rita relax when she needs a time-out.  We don't use time-out as punishment, but we do use it as a time of gathering wits, taking a breath and removing Rita from a situation where her behavior is not what it should be.

Our little Rita is moved into her new room and we are enjoying being able to sit-up in bed at night and see her next-door, sleeping peacefully.  We have chosen to have two pieces of furniture in her room: toddler bed and dresser.  The toddler bed was her former crib and the dresser top functions as the changing table. There are three drawers on the dresser: one for cloth diaper accessories (wipes, doublers, spray, spare changing pads, etc.), one for Jonah (clothes, burp rags, socks, bibs) and the last drawer for Rita (clothes, shoes, and swimwear).  In addition there are three "baskets" holding various items.  Books are in the white basket next to Rita's bed, diaper covers are to the right of the changing table, and the large woven basket holds diapers on the left of the changing table.

Everything necessary for cloth diapering (minus the diaper pail found in the laundry room) is in the top drawer, woven basket and orange "basket"!

It is so nice having such a clean, simple space for our sweet girl.  We know her sleeping/hygiene area is "baby-proof," pretty-much nontoxic and we have little to worry about if she decides to explore her room at night (but hopefully we hear her!).

Other posts in the Small Space Living Series:
Small Space Living: Nursery Inspiration
Small Space Living: Nursery Beginnings
Small Space Living: My Sanctuary