20 bags in 30 days

Can I do it?  Well I certainly hope so.  So the challenge is on and starting January 1st we will begin our 30 day purge. 

Not our home.... 
but if we don't get to work it could be!

Here is my list.  Feel free to share your goals and lists as well.  Email me and I may feature your pictures, story or blog here on Garden Tenders.  I know I need inspiration to keep going forward and taking the plunge, so please be my inspiration!  So for the next 30 days, beginning January 1, 2012 I will be getting rid of at least 1 bag of junk a day, maybe more.  Much of  the stuff or items will be donated, I hope, but some stuff no one wants.  That's just how the cookie crumbles, you know?  So the challenge is on and I challenge you all as well.  It's time to de-clutter and simplify. 

OUR LIST!!!!

2 bags kitchen

2 bags laundry area

1 bag bathroom

1 bag Sarah's room

2 bags our room

1 bag our closet

2 bags living room

2 bag porch/mud room

5 bags basement

2 bags attic

This is not even including the outside sheds.  That will be a challenge in March.  We have a ton of things to down size with and our hope here is that 2012 is more time spent doing family fun stuff and one way to get there is to have less stuff "junking" up our space. 


Now to keep myself honest I will post pictures and updates periodically.  It will be hard, we are a family of "collectors" and taking this into consideration I am being rather modest in our goals.  Trying to keep it realistic and do able.  I need to, this isn't a want but a NEED, to declutter my home and make things more manageable around me for my sanity, my health and my family.


So here's to 20 bags in 30 days....  Hopefully we can double that bag count! 


Happy Tending!

reality bites but love prevails....

Well the time is here to discuss the goals we have for 2012.  Time to update our education goals a bit and change them up at bit when we start back after a month off (we took a month off of really sitting down and doing a lot, though we still tend to be more holistic and child led at this point and not all book work). 

2012 will see us eating healthier and doing more juicing and eating more homemade grain breads and more homemade meals with less and less prepared ingredients.  Simplifying our eating and lifestyle (tomorrow read the post on our challenge of 20 bags in 30 days in an effort to de-clutter our lives) in an effort to increase health and well being.

We will work more and more on routine in the Homeschool "classroom".  This will entail a lifestyle change I suspect, or at least a change in routines.  As much as we love our small "learn through play" group, for our family we need a bit more structure now.  Not sure how I will broach this subject with the other moms.  The dramatic play we have been doing on those weeks has been lacking from what I thought it would be and while we love the families, I need to change things up a bit I think.  I love and encourage dramatic play but for us it needs to be a bit more guided or it is just a play group, which is fine, but not really educational, if you know what I mean.  We love play time, but we also need to have more guiding.  I am a culprit as well, I was beginning to slack off because so little was expected I guess.  I did begin with good intentions but you know how that goes.  I am hoping our creative kids can take off a bit more, which is a once a month group for 0-7ish yr olds.  This group is really what I envisioned in some ways that creative play and science and nature combined play, etc., could be.  Guided and free all at once, and that is possible, we do it often enough.    LOL

We did break down and buy Sarah a Nintendo DS game system for Christmas.  We were able to get one very inexpensively and our "hooker" helped to enable that.  Thank you again!  I can see some education possibilities with it, and honestly with all the doctor appointments we go to monthly it will help keep someone sitting still while the doctors chat with the grownups.  A big relief for this mommy!  LOL

Sarah also got her Barbie ATV.  :-)  Santa shopped blackfriday deals and was able to get a very good deal.  She was a happy happy girl on Christmas morning!

This December also marked the 10th anniversary of my father being killed.  I no longer have venomous anger and hatred toward the men that robbed him of his life and stole him from us, but I also wasn't prepared for how I would feel this year, 10 years later (December 15).  I think the amount of pain I felt and loss still struck me hard.  I wasn't prepared for it and it literally has knocked me to my knees and robbed me of breath.  I have shed many tears this month for my daddy and missing him so fiercely, even after all this time.  He was tragically taken from us.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him, especially as Sarah gets older and shows some of her grandpa's traits.   Her sense of humor is so much like his and even my dear husband has traits in him that are so lovingly reminiscent of my father.  Both were/are strong family men, both have/had a keen sense of humor and both work/ed hard as providers for the family the love/d.  I am certainly blessed by God to have all these sweet memories to surround myself with and with the love I have been given. 

That being said, as if that pain of remembering and missing my dad wasn't enough, December 23 we lost Uncle Mike, Aunt Cheryl's significant other, after a brief illness.   Part of me was always prepared to get the phone call because of his long battle with alcoholism and leukemia, but I was not prepared for it at this time.  He was very young, just 40 years old.  While my head always knew that one day we would hear the dreaded call my heart was not ready for it. 

Uncle Mike

My cousins, Brandon and Dylan looked to him as the only father they really knew and the only constant male figure in their lives from a very young age (they were together 17+ years off and on, mostly on).  Mike was a kind man always to me and my family.  I know some out there might wonder why I feel such heartache at his passing, but I do.  Despite it all he was a kind man with a gentleness to him.  He always refer to himself as Uncle Mike and he tried.  The cards he was dealt in life were not kind, but he always had a smile and warm hug for Sarah and she will never know him as anything but her dear Uncle Mike.  He will be missed and I can honestly say I have shed tears over his passing and the deep loss my cousins feel.  My heart weeps with them.

Our finite minds can't understand and we shouldn't even try to understand the infinite mind of God the Father in heaven.  We just have to have faith.  It may seem impossible but turning it over to Him and just believing that He had his reasons for allowing it is a release.  It might not make sense now, or ever, but God knows all and works all things to good.  I may never know why my father was taken in such a tragic way, but I know that through prayer and faith it has and will continue to work to good.  God has His reasons.  The same is true of Uncle Mike. 

I know this was kind of heavy.....  sorry.....

Outfit I made Sarah for Christmas-- 
she got many compliments on it!

I am now sewing and doing some crafty items almost daily.  Please remember to check out the web site and the facebook page for that little experiment.  Sarah's Closet & More Facebook Fan Page and  Sarah's Closet & More Blog.  If you are a facebook fan look soon for a special fan code you can use on your next order. 

Until next time,

Happy New Year!  May 2012 be blessed and find you in good health!

Happy Tending!

Active Advent Season



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!



Our Tree of Good Deeds



 We have been moving right along despite everything.  While I haven't been actively teaching site words we are beginning to recognize a few.  I am not convinced sight word reading is best for a child.  But If she is learning them on her own in essence, then so be it.  One thing that is hard is stopping a 4 year old from doing something so you have to kind of weigh the battle.  Is it worth the fight?  It's not like they disobeyed and could have gotten hurt.  LOL

We have also started our Tree of Good Deeds.  She still wants to put what she is thankful for on it, which is cute.  It means the leaves on her thankful tree had an impact on her, even at 4 years old. 



Planting wheat 12/12



Also, while we are not of Hungarian descent we did plant some wheat in honor of St. Lucia.  I am told, by The Little Acorn Education learning activities, that wheat is planted on St Lucia day to symbolize rebirth and our Saviors birth and the new growth being shown in the sprouting of wheat.  So we discussed that and a little bit about how the fable is that Lucia was the daughter of a rich nobleman and that she would travel, much like Santa Claus, from house to house leaving a baked good with each family, returning home by daybreak.  Each village in much of Scandinavian countries had their own Lucia who did good things for those less fortunate. 

All this ties in so well with our theme of good deeds this month and winter as well.   Of course December has been a month also of adventure.  One morning a I found the Bear cracking 5 (five) dozen eggs on the floor.  I felt a kinship with the mom who's toddlers played with a 5 pound bag of flour.  I have discovered during the adventurous journey that all it takes is 5 minutes in another room (less than that really!) and you can come back into chaos.  Literally!  Just this week I found Sarah (who had woken before the rest of the family) had decided she would put our gingerbread house together as a surprise gift for me.  I had bought a kit and was telling her that we were going to be putting it together but she decided having the kit in the house overnight was too much to bear.  Ahhh the joys of Mommyville. 

At the moment, when I first discover her antics, I am distraught, but even just a couple days later I can seriously see the humor in it and how she wa trying to do something to "make mommy happy" or just plain trying to see how something worked or would go together.  What more can a mom ask for than her child to try to make her happy and desire full blown 24/7 learning?  Of course that isn't saying she couldn't try to do it a little more within certain bounds!  LOL  I am sure my friends on Facebook are thinking I am over wrought.  It is overwhelming sometimes but ya know, I am discovering that much of my precocious four-year olds antics are not from meanness, or outright disobedience, but of her little mind just moving at 100 miles an hour.  She is very mechanical and LOVES to see how things work.  She has an imagination that is more than active, it's downright RIPE.  She loves pretending to be animals and she LOVES learning about all living animals and even dead ones like dinosaurs.  Today she pretended to find a dinosaur egg and insisted that we find a cloth to wrap it in to keep it warm.  Yes there is an fascination with eggs.  LOL

This week we experimented with things that  "GO BOUNCE".  We used play dough to see if it would bounce.  It does, once!  We also experimented with how the shape of something effects how it might or might not bounce.  Flat play dough doesn't bounce at all, nor does a flat ball and a foot ball bounces differently than a soccer ball.   We also witnessed that while things like eggs and apples are round they don't bounce (I recommend doing the egg into a bowl or if your child can stand on a stool, into a sink, otherwise it could get messy). 



Mixing up Cinnamon Dough

Sarah said she thought she might bounce and she wanted to jump off the back of the couch to test the theory, but I convinced her that while she might bounce on the cushions (a no-no! by the way) she would not bounce when she hit the floor or ground but would be like the flattened out play dough or egg.  She would just go SPLAT or THUD.  All of this led to us pretending to be kangaroos somehow.

We had another Creative Kids play time today.  Message me if you are local,  for we would love for you to join us.  Even the six month old that came today was fascinated with the Cinnamon  dough we made.  I let the kids make it and work it up themselves and it was a hit as far as texture, smell, etc.  I am not so sure it will make good long lasting ornaments.  The lessons were learned though about measuring (adding) and how you take some of this, some of that and add it together and get a lot of something. 

Of course our new to us car is in the shop, hopefully we will find out what's going on without it breaking the bank.  The bright side, it's keeping me at home.  :-)

Recipe I used for the Cinnamon dough

1 C Applesauce

1/2 cup Glue

1- 1/2 coup of cinnamon or even pumpkin pie spice or add some nut meg (I used cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice)

Also, I am starting to get things up on Sarah's Closet & More.  I am thinking of building up things for a few sales next year to just get my feet wet again in the crafting circles.  Plus I am getting so disappointed with some of the mass produced stuff out there.  Anyway, keep checking it out.  If you see something and want to order it let me know you seen it here on my Blog and you can get a 20% discount (before shipping) off your first order!

Highlights from the past several days and activities. 

Our Tree of Good Deeds/The making of it

Smells like cookies! 

The texture was amazing for little hands. 
All ages present loved this, even the 7 month old.



The youngest Creative Kid made a handprint ornament



Happy Tending!

I am one speechless hooker mommy....

It has been a very trying few months here in Mommyland, and the last few weeks it has been magnified.  Is raising a 4 year old ever easy?  Nope, but that isn't the half of it.  Life in general has just been over whelming.  I have been in Mommy meltdown mode more often than not, something my poor family can attest too. 


Lots of reasons really.  Overwhelmed by all that needs to get done.  Overburdened sometimes by all that has to be done and trying to live up to what everyone else is expecting of me.  Dealing with people that have a very different philosophical idea I guess, and their ideas on how I should raise my child, help my mother, etc.,  etc.,  etc.....  just overwhelmed.

Then last week I read a post on a blog (Rants from Mommyland) and thought hey, I was looking for a way to help, and I knew we could use some help if someone felt led to offer it (I haven't been unable to work since August 09 and Bob has faced cut time several times this year and no over time which in years past has been a nice cushion for winter).  But despite everything we are doing ok, just have had to tighten the belt and stuff.    I never, in a million years expected to hear from a fellow hooker.  I mean, I have gotten rather cynical I guess.  A part of me was even thinking, "can we afford this really" and Bob insisted that we send a gift card to another mom and her family, because really while we have it rough, we still have decent health, can pay our mortgage and have been blessed with working vehicles.  I just felt like the small amount we sent would be not enough to make any difference, and I sincerely hope when my hooker opens her red target envelope that she feels the love like I did when I opened mine. 

To the lady in NY and her family, whom I know I will never meet and will never read this:  I pray, I pray so hard that God blesses you and your family.  You not only have given us the ability to buy a few extra groceries and an extra gift or so for Sarah, but you have restored my faith in people.  I can't begin to repay you for that.  My family can't.  We would have been ok without getting anything, and there are so many others in much greater need, but you have done something very strong, brave, whatever to this hooker in Washington state.  You have restored my faith and made me re see my direction, where I have faltered over the last couple years while dealing with all the crap that has went on.  I have been seeking this need to my very core of reconnecting with compassion but haven't seen it really in action.  I have donated my time in so many ways to so many others and you, sweet blessed NY state hooker has done in one God driven swoop, what I in all my months of seeking have been unable to do.  I don't know that you are a believer, but I know that God knew I needed this and He used you.  I am forever grateful.  My heart overflows with love toward you and your family.  THANK YOU. 

I have been so cynical lately, horribly so and can only trace it back to who I have been around.  I'm odd that way I guess.  If I am around people that rarely have nice things to say I start thinking that way and it really isn't who I am.  Change number 1, as hard as it will be.  Anyway, thank you for reading this.  Thank you to the lady in NY and thank you to all my family and true friends that have stood by me through this trying time in my life.  I am trying very hard to put the last couple years behind me now.  I will work very hard on getting rid of that cynical side that really isn't who I am. 

Happy Tending!