Just Our Thoughts

In January I worked at getting up at a decent hour; I tried for 7 AM. I believe that I was successful and I will continue to try to get up around 7 AM for the rest of the year. It's a habit, right, so that should be easy!

In February I am starting to work through a book called One Year To An Organized Life by Regina Leeds. February's area is the bedroom. This is impeccable timing as DH finished the loft this weekend and we are moved up there. I am so excited. We eliminated a number of items already and have added a few to make our room more ours and more comfortable.

DH moved our books to a bookshelf in our room and we added a table for puzzle-making. We got rid of a very large entertainment center that DH used for his clothes and he is now using a small, nicer-looking pantry cupboard that has doors! Instead of moving the whole crib up for Cutie Boy, we just put his mattress in a corner.

The book has a section for each week of the month. It looks like a lot of mental work before the actual physical changes start. I'm excited about that. The author also has a habit for each month. February's habit is to "return your clothing to where it belongs every single day" so to keep it off the floor or the furniture. I don't have a problem dealing with laundry in the bedroom. My issue is folding and putting away clean laundry. So I have decided that my habit for February is to fold and put away at least one basket daily. I'm not aiming at perfection - to have it all put away - but at one basket a day (as a minimum) I should keep it under control.

I am excited about the coming month. There are tonnes of changes happening in my life. DH gets a new job of some sort. We are continuing to work on the house to reorganize and set up our living room space. We will be working to be more frugal as DH's employment is uncertain. More renovations to help keep DH busy.

I encourage you to join me. Pick a habit or a room and comment about it. Let's encourage one another to live better and simpler in 2009.

February here we come!

One of my favorite country songs. That's all for today.

For more great songs, check out Amy's blog.

I was tagged by Tina over at Our Journey Together.

Here's the game:

find your 5th photo file folder

take the 5th photo and post it

tag 5 people to do the same

Here's my photo:

This is CJ. She is 6 and my second baby and my second girl. She loves to have fun with her sisters. Her favorite things are little - bugs, tiny dolls, pine cones, rocks. This picture was taken in December of 2008.

Now to tag 5 others:

Remembering The Lives

Kathy - Mom of Many

Mom to 3

Shake the Salt

Kirk Thoughts

Off to let them know with a comment on their blogs!!

1. Start and finish bedroom loft. – Although not 100% complete, it is to a point where we can be in it and love it. We’ll work on the bits and pieces that are left – some electrical, flooring, a permanent railing. (01/29/09)

4. Maintain a regular home school schedule – we are starting this by starting a routine for the household. This is going well, most days. The children are loving it. (01/29/09)

9. Place $20/month into savings account for months 4-6. FEB MAR APR

23. Learn, use and teach more sign language to the children. – part of our Letter of the Week curriculum is to learn to sign the alphabet. (01/29/09)

24. Turn computer off by 4 PM 3 nights a week. – I’m working on this by just staying away more over all and especially during bedtime.

30. Have guests from church or the community over for a meal once a month. – This is going well. We had company a few times this month! (01/29/09)

31. Blog about our homeschooling weekly (or more). – This is getting more regular too, as I report with pictures what we do each week. (01/29/09)

40. Read or listen to the Bible daily. – I added this to my morning routine. (01/29/09)

41. Cut TV time for children to two hours of their programming a day. – I’m working on this too; they still watch too much, but we are more selective of what they watch. (01/29/09)

43. Start making my own yogurt. – I found a great recipe for doing this in my crockpot. I have yet to try it. (01/29/09)

67. Set up our homeschool area. This will have to be done after the lofts are done. – Homeschool area has just recently been moved to the stage. This is working. Just have to get it more organized now. (01/29/09)

80. Completely deal with current work issue. – This current work issue (current at the time of writing the list) has been dealt with COMPLETELY!!! (01/29/09)

Last time I said that I was going to take the time to watch a tv program that I wanted to watch. I did that at least twice!

This coming week, I wanna take time to read. I love reading. I don't do enough of hands on hard copy reading. That's this week's moment for me.

Go to Shake the Salt for more moments.

You really should go check out Christy's 800 + dollar giveaway!

It's really incredible!!!

For more photos, you can visit my facebook page.

Guess where I get to sleep tonight???

I'm so excited. Can you tell??

The loft! My loft bedroom is done to the point where we are moving up! We are moved up. Cutie Boy has a little corner for his bed (his clothes are on the main floor still). And it's so nice.

I described it to one friend this way, "It's like a hotel room. Neat. Simple. Clean." I want to keep it that way! I mean we need to live in it, but we need that haven, that place that is just ours! I know we have it. I'll take pictures in the next day or so and post them soon.

What is left to do? The floor is just unfinished OSB tongue and groove flooring. So we will eventually need something else. We need to do electrical stuff. And the railing is not what the finished product will be; we just wanted something to make it a little safer while we figure out what exactly we want it to look like. My clothes aren't up there yet and some books and a chair. Well, we're still moving in, but it was a very productive day! WOO HOO!!!!

I first discovered this book on Simple Mom and now I can't find the post there to link back to, but I ordered the book in from my library and have been browsing through it. I am excited, that although I missed January, February's focus by this author is the bedroom. This is so exciting because DH is almost done the loft bedroom. (Have you heard enough about this loft yet??) I want to use February then as a test month of this concept and book. I'm not up to speed on my Zen stuff, but I want to be more organized, especially in our new space that we've created. Being that my library will not let me have the book for the whole year, I have to either buy it (if I think this Zen Organizer's idea will work for us) or beg/borrow/steal it. LOL.

Note: This is not my Habit of the Month, but in addition to my habit. This is just plain old decluttering / organizing.

I talked about my habit for January in this post. In that post I decided on the following morning routine:

• get dressed to shoes including hair and face
• swish and swipe the bathroom
  
• start the computer
• start the coffee
• start the washer
• read/study Bible

It worked. I didn't keep track of how often I followed through and did the whole routine, but my guess is that probably 5 out of 7 days a week I did those 6 items. I have 7 mornings left in January and I am hoping to finish out the month with 7 out of 7 days completing that routine. Things that throw me off - being sick (me or one of the children), the weekend and DH being home. One thing I need to continue to enforce and work on is the children not getting up until I call them.

So, this should be a habit now. I will continue to get up around seven each morning, follow my morning routine and then get on with my day. Did you pick a habit for January? How did you do?

Well, the end of the month is almost upon us! I can't believe it. Where did January go?? There is one more week left. Only one more week.

So it's time to start thinking about February's habit. I am thinking about February's habit. I'll post about it when I come up with it. And a review of January is in the works too. A little early - probably today or tomorrow.

I've been thinking about renovations too. I am so pleased with the progress we've made in the last few days. I'll post pictures. We should be in the loft tonight! About a month after we started the project. Not bad. It's far from finished but it's finished enough that we can get up there and out of the living room.

I've been thinking about homeschooling. Letter of the Week is working for us! I can't wait to get back to it. DH's work issue has thrown my week off so we will be doing a second week of the letter Bb. I'll write that post at the end of next week.

I've been thinking about decluttering!!! My main room is a disaster. Nothing has a home! I hate it and yet I don't know where to start. I think I'm just going to have to pick a pile and start, but I also have to wait until we start moving things up to the loft. I thought that keeping one room in the house really tidy would work but the house just exploded and every room is a disaster, except for maybe the guest room which I've kept mostly clear of things for my bil and sil and girls that are coming next week for at least an over night.

The girls are good for clothes right now, meaning they have enough and they have the right size. Cutie Boy is growing again! I have been thinking about digging out the boxes and bags of clothes to pull out the next size up for him. What haven't I? See above! Too many messes. Where do I start???

I've been thinking about exercise. Oh goodness! It's time to get back in the saddle again. Just going to take it slow. I've started walking a little more. I'm planning to start with 20 sit ups a day on the Ab King Pro. I am also flipping through a book called Lose Your Mummy Tummy.

Handmade in small villages at the heart of the Himalayas.

Quality and style without parallel.

I didn't know this song's real name until I started searching for it. It's called Adalida. We thought it was Adelina and is the reason for our baby girl's second name. She's Rayna Adeline. And this song is one of my DH's favorite favorites!

Check out Amy's blog for more.

I know that you are not supposed to compare your husband to your father, but I have been the last couple of days. I don't remember my young years when Mom and Dad and I were moving around a lot, but I've been told that we moved tonnes. We never really settled down until we moved to the Yukon Territory in 1989. My parents at that point had been married for almost 12 years and I was almost 11 years old. Here comes some comparisons.

1. DH and I have been married for 8 years. We have moved a gazillion times. See this post.

2. DH and I have 6 children. M&D (Mom and Dad) had 4.

3. DH has had numerous jobs - not only different employers but different kinds of jobs too. M&D had many employers (not sure on the different jobs part).

4. Despite all this moving around, I was well taken care of by M&D. And I am well taken care of now.

5. I remember being told of employee / employer complications in D's work life. And, boy oh boy, have we had trouble with employers!!!

So, I'm beginning to think that it takes about 10 years of adult life, of trying to do it on your own, cutting the apron strings, etc to really settle down in a relationship and in a life together. It doesn't matter about the number of kids or the experiences life throws at you or things like that. It just takes time to learn the ropes. I love looking back and seeing how we've changed and are growing. And comparing my life with my parents to life with my man. Not in a way that defeats us but in a growing and contemplative kind of way.

Is it possible to be thankful for something and yet be thankful for it's opposite as well???

Not long ago I was so very thankful for my man's job. I was thankful that he loved the work, that they were fairly flexible with his hours, etc. I was thankful for the health care benefits and other such things as well.

Today, I'm thankful that he doesn't work there anymore. The politics were very stressful. Every time he turned around the CAO was trying to get him fired. He was reprimanded and written up for silly things like not emptying a trash can. He was supposed to be on call every third weekend and would end up going in for some reason every weekend. He went above and beyond for them and was unappreciated and used. But he loved the work and what the job entailed. Tuesday they terminated him, without cause; they gave him a severance and we are on a very new path, an unknown path.

I am surprisingly thankful for the uncertainty, the adventure. I have my man home for a few days, with no obligations. We will look for more work. He will work again. In the meantime, we'll do things around here - the loft, and other renovations. He'll go on parental leave and maybe work part-time for a while. Who knows. What I do know is that the stress level has dropped.

Matthew 6:25-34

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Check out more thankful posts over at Laurel Wreaths Reflections, who is guest hosting Thankful Thursday this week.

I'm going to try making my own yogurt in my crockpot. Check out this link, it's so easy! I'll try to remember to let you know how it goes.

I wore something so super frumpy in public today!! I took the three big girls to get their hair cut (and I got mine done too) and I wore this:

Okay, I can't believe that I really posted that photo. Did you notice the haircut at all? Bad photo, you can't really see the haircut! Oh well. So just the clothing and the baby weight? LOL. (Oh and that spot on my shirt, it must be on the camera because there is no spot on my shirt.)

My dh got blindsided at work on Tuesday. They terminated his employment!! At first I was really mad and hurt and wanted to fight back. We made some calls and even the labor board couldn't help us because he was offered a severance package. So it was take the severance package and loose the job or file a civil suit! We can't afford the stress or the cost of a civil suit. The severance package was okay and is kind of nice in a way. We are spending some time as a family and working on the loft. We've got a few other plans which include, of course, looking for a new job! But with Baby R being so little still he can also get parental leave.

Baby R is sick. We all have a cold and she got it too! But she's handling it so well, even sleeping lots. She's such a sweetie!

I'm behind on my laundry and dishes again! I gotta get caught up.

I hurt myself. We got the AB King Pro. I had a baby 2.5 months ago. I haven't really worked out since I was pregnant with Cutie Boy 2.5 years ago. I did 180 situps with this machine over two days (100 one day and 80 the next). Saturday I was okay, just a little sore. Sunday I was a wreck! I could hardly move. I was soooooo sore that I wanted to go to the ER for drugs! Strong drugs. I was alternating generic Tylenol and generic Advil every four hours and they were just barely making me kind of comfortable! After a long stretch with the help of my DH Sunday night, I was much better Monday morning. Tuesday afternoon and through the night I got sore again, different muscles this time. I think Tuesday and today's soreness was from the overuse of the muscles that weren't sore from before. Does that make sense?

I am craving coffee, or maybe caffienated whatever! I don't understand why.

I love my new camera!! Well, my new to me camera. Thanks again, S. M.

I very seriously want to lose baby weight, but now I'm scared of that silly machine. Maybe I'll pull out that belly dancing video. I should. I really want to.

I really really dislike doing dishes. It's not so bad if there is NO ONE else around and the children are not fighting in another room. However, this afternoon sucked! lol It was great family time, but I don't like dishes as family time. If I didn't think that buying them was such a waste of my dh's hard earned money, I'd buy disposible dishes and silverware. Not only does that waste our financial resources, but it's not all that great for the environment either.

I want to buy this book.

I consciously made the decision to stay up later and have another cup of coffee while I blog, and watch TV. Does that mean I consciously made the decision to get up later tomorrow morning?

Oh and the kitchen I wrote about yesterday?? It was already spoken for by someone else. Not getting it is kind of saddening but at the same time, I'm really okay with the fact that we didn't get this one.

Well, dear readers! My life is even more chaotic. Most of you know what it's like to renovate. Just after Christmas we started our loft renovation. It's not done yet. We got sick. DH got called into work over and over and over again. Then he hurt his hand and we are all still sick (different sick this time). But he's been forced to work on it some tonight. Why? Because . . . . . .

The kitchen is arriving tomorrow! What kitchen? Did we order a kitchen? I thought we had one in storage that we were getting from a friend??? Now we have two kitchens??? Oh my! What are we going to do???

Currently the kitchen is in the basement, except the fridge which is in the porch because it was too big to get down the stairs (it's an industrial 2 door fridge). The porch holds a lot of stuff! A jet tub that is waiting to be installed in a loft that is not built yet. The porch has also doubled (tripled) as J's work area storing his tools and gardening equipment. Oh, and the wood for the loft J is currently building - it's there too. Oh and so is the shower stall that needs to be put in, in the bathroom that isn't started yet! Oh my oh my! What will we do????

But it's all very exciting isn't it??? New things everywhere! I'm excited, and nervous and overjoyed and did I mention I was excited??

We got a steal of a deal on this kitchen too. Better than the one on the light fixtures! I'll show you pictures when we get to that stage!

Hmmm. Do we take enough moments just to be? Do we take too much "me" time? What is "me time"? Hmmm. Something to think about.

This last week my moments for me - getting up before the crew - went really really well. I loved it. And will continue to do that. Adding to that I have a plan for this coming week. I plan to look for a program a show during the day that I want to watch. I can't sit still through a whole program so I will probably be folding laundry while I watch. Just because I'm working doesn't mean I'm not doing something for me at the same time.

Oh, and I have the show programmed already for tomorrow. Check out the website - Rick Mercer.com

Shake The Salt has a Mr. Linky and a giveaway this week!

Other online resources: Enchanted Learning, Crayola Canada, DLTK. (And maybe more, just not remembering them all.)

Books: "Love Unlimited" from Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories Volume 1, My "a" book, A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes.

What we talked about: Apples, Alligators, Aa.

A poem we memorized: A Little Red Apple

I moved Baby R to size 2 diapers yesterday. After two blowouts in size 1, I decided it was time.

My DH went to our local UFA to get some lights for work and ended up getting a steal of a deal for us too. We got all our light fixtures for our loft bedroom and for our new dining room and bar areas!

• 3 brass 6" globes, hall lights regular $7.69 sale price $2, total $6
• 2 nickle 1 bulb, wall or ceiling mount, regular $11.99, sale price $3.12, total $6.24
• 3 nickle, 2 bulb, ???, regular $17.39 each, sale price $4.75, total $14.25
• 2 track lighting, brass ??, regular $21.79, sale price $5.65, total $11.30
• total bill came to $39.68
  
• total bill should have been $142.80
  

It amazes me how much my 100% support means to my DH and how gigantic of a difference even 1% of un-support makes. I have been supporting him, in the way I thought he needed, and didn't listen to when he told me he needed something different.

His work situation is extremely unfair. They treat him very poorly. He is unappreciated and gets no thanks for going out of his way to help those around him, for going the extra 5 miles and for being nice. He gets reprimanded when others are more in the wrong and when he's done nothing wrong. He is the youngest of the three maintenance guys, but has seniority as he's been there the longest. He has a family to support and can't just walk away from the position. He has looked for work elsewhere and the doors have been firmly closed.

We decided last time things got heated at work, that the mistreatment needed to stop, not only for Jason, but for other current and future employees. At this point, I believe the decision is to formally document each injustice by writing a letter to be put in his personnel file (and we will keep a copy).

The latest issue is over on-call. He gets called every weekend, when they are to be rotating every three weekends! He feels as if they expect him to be available 24/7, no matter what. He has been reprimanded for showing up late (half an hour or so) due to prior obligations - it was his weekend off and he made plans. He's gotten in trouble for not answering his phones, but last weekend the on-call guy didn't answer his phones, so Jason had to go do the job. The on-call guy sort of got a talking to and Jason got no thanks and in fact got talked to about being in a fuss about having to go in.

Please continue to pray. Pray for me that I will support him 100% in the way he needs me to to feel supported by me. Pray that Jason will be willing to allow another couple to come along and support the both of us and that the couple will be willing to do so. Pray that Jason will say and do the right things to continue to be a Christ-like example in an unfair situation, and yet not allow himself to be trampled on. Oh, and that we will make time for the two of us, as we found out last night we need that so especially right now!

We've been through tough things before. We will get through this. But it is very very hard, very stressful and so tough to see your man treated so poorly. I want to fight and be angry!

We are trying hard to give this problem over to God, to allow him to work on the hearts of all involved. This type of behavior at J's workplace has been going on for many years which makes our "job" of changing things that much harder. We don't see the big picture; we want to, we think. And yet, if it's gonna get worse, I don't want to know that, cuz I'd probably quit now.

It's been a very tough week. I haven't done a Thankful Thursday for a while. Blogging anything has been a chore lately. But, whatever, I'm trying to come back. I love to blog.

I am thankful for the safety my DH provides for us, his family. That safety includes him being totally in control of himself, and his emotions.

I am thankful for my dear friends, K.D. and T-L.G. Without them I think that I would go crazy some days. They do so much for me. K. is a shoulder to cry on and a strength I can rely on when I'm muddled and confused and down on myself. T-L. is great! She loves my kids and almost begs to help me out with them. She always wants to hold the baby or wipe a nose or serve a meal.

I am thankful for technology and the money to pay for it. The weather has been uncooperative and not having a vehicle I am finding getting together with friends difficult and the technology keeps me in touch with the world out there beyond these walls. LOL.

For more thankful posts, visit Grace Alone.

First, he is a husband and a father. He has always said to me, "I didn't get married to be single." We do everything we can together. We don't go off to ladies' retreats or mens' seminars. I don't go on vacation without him and he doesn't take a job that requires him to be away from home overnight. We love to be together. We love to work side by side. We are partners always.

He provides for us first and often puts his wants and sometimes his needs aside for us. One thing, that kinda drives me crazy even while it makes me admire him more, is that he waits until the kids and I have dished up our meals. Why? So that we get full first. He waits in case I didn't make enough supper. He wants us full of supper, because if it comes down to it, he can make or find something else to eat.

He protects us. He insists on locked doors and an alarm system. He doesn't want just anyone walking in on us when I'm busy with something and he's not here to protect! And because of the way he sleeps (very very deeply and a slow wake-up time) the alarm system is an added protection. He wants the sick babies or children close to our room at night, so I can tend to them quickly and we can listen to their breathing.

He plays with us. Not in the typical way, but rather he makes work fun. Gardening is such a joy to him that the kids love to be with him and help him every step of the way. (Okay, weeding the garden is never fun, but everything else.) He encourages the children to explore their talents and adventures. He loves to hear their stories and to listen to what we do each day.

J is a fire fighter. For him, that his is ministry and service to his community. This is the job he loves the most. If it would pay enough to sustain us, he would do it full time. The fire pager is the only thing that gets him out of bed in record time. He can be in a deep sleep and be dressed and out the door in less than 2 minutes. The fire hall is not far away, either. He has one of the fastest response times, often being the first one to the hall.

He is a loyal and supportive; he likes to help the underdog. If you treat my man right, he will stick with you and serve you and help you through thick and thin. If you treat him poorly . . . he will fight for his rights and for the rights of others. This could be in a work situation or just a friend. He loves to learn the law and help those in authority measure up.

He loves to have fun and make life easy for those he loves. There was many a night when I was pregnant with our last baby when the air was so hot and he knew I didn't want to cook and he didn't want to cook. He would come home from work and say, "Get the kids dressed and lets go out for supper. I know you are too tired and don't need to cook. Let's bath the kids now so that when we get back, they can just go to bed." WOW! What a blessing to me! There's been talk of hired help (not in the near future, but one day). If a small appliance will make my job easier, and we can afford it, we purchase it. If something is working for me and yet I want to change it, he reminds me that it's working, so why change it. Laughter is a big part of our life. He loves to poke and tease the kids and takes the poking and teasing back from them too.

Happy Birthday, My Love!

My moments for me seem to be far between, but I'm working on a routine and it seems to be working. This routine has me up before everyone else, just a few minutes before, to get up and dressed, to start coffee ad to spend some time listening to the New Testament on my mp3 player. I light candles so the lighting is soft and I don't wake those sleeping and I quietly go about my morning routine. I love my mornings alone.

Tuesday is J's birthday. Because we did not get to go out for supper for our anniversary, we are trying again to go out for his birthday. We'll take Baby R and hope she sleeps.

For more ideas for moments for you, visit Christy's site.