Can you spend 30 days away from social networking?

By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

Ecclesiastes 10:18

I'm sure there are a lot of us out there who have the best of intentions when using social networks like Facebook and other forums. We want to share our lives with our families and friends. It starts off small and then eventually can spiral  into a huge time sucker. I have done it myself, I'll sit down for a minute to check my email, my "friends" updates and read a blog or two; suddenly it's been an hour or more, the kids have messed up the area that was just clean, I haven't showered yet and have to leave for music lessons in 30 minutes. ARGH!! 

I decided to take a 30 day social network fast. I started yesterday the 31st and will continue through February 29th. I will try to blog as I go, but I'm not promising anything. ;) 

I noticed yesterday I reached for my phone a few times without thinking to "check on my friends". I never made it onto the websites because I remembered I'm on a break. Seriously, has it become that much of a habit to want to know what a bunch of people had for lunch? How much can this be affecting my job as a mother, wife, teacher, homemaker?!? I have justified it in the past as needed some type of adult conversations during the day, but are these real conversations? Are they real interactions? It's void of much stimulation because there is no real relationship being built there, yet I can tell you what everyone had for dinner last night. Wouldn't it be better for me to prepare my home for my husband to return and then get my adult conversations from him? Or perhaps actually call someone on the phone? Who does that anymore? 

I'm fairly sure most of my "friends" from Facebook don't read my blog here when it's not posted to Facebook. I  guess that it's a good thing, so I can continue with my break. I've got to get off of the computer now, before I get sucked in. 

Tossing Time Again

We have been in our new home for nearly 6 months. In a few short months we went from 900 sq ft to 800 sq ft and then to 1550 sq ft. The final move was so exciting, almost like moving into a mansion with all of this fantastic space. However, it also has somehow caused our "stuff" to increase. Slowly our extra space is diminishing. As I look around I wonder how on earth we fit all of this stuff in our previous home. It's definitely time to get back to declutter mode. I don’t know about you, but too much stuff around makes me grumpy, full of anxiety and extremely stressed out.

 It was around this time last year that I was blogging about my, Operation Declutter, to rid our home of 500lbs of clutter. I didn't quite meet this goal but I did make a huge dent, and it felt amazingly better. I'm brushing off my declutter skills and attacking our house before it gets too far out of control. I'm not sure if I'll be weighing the clutter this time (I don't have a scale). I do plan to start in the very top corner of the upstairs (my bathroom) and then work my way down to the very bottom opposite side of the downstairs (the bottom bathroom). I will be going through each and every drawer and closet to toss, toss, toss. 

Declutter Plan

• To leave no drawer/closet/under bed untouched
• Sort all items into one of four categories.

1.     Throw away

2.     Give away

3.     Sell

4.     Keep - Reorganize

This is one of the best times of year for me to get rid of a huge quantity of "stuff". Our church holds its annual Christmas in July Rummage Sale on the last Saturday of the month. This is the end of our Missionary Month where the focus is on the Missionaries that our church supports. All of the proceeds (except for the youth snack booth) are divided up and sent to our 10 Missionary Families. I will be donating some things there and also holding a garage sale of my own. I will also be selling some things online through Etsy, Amazon and eBay. 

Today is my starting day, and I'm hoping to just work work work and get this done in a couple of days and not drag it on. The longer it takes the less motivated I become. It also is the kids' summer vacation and I want them to enjoy their time off of school, we have only 4 short weeks left. 

And into the chaos I go....

Kimmie

Hello? Is this thing on?

Where to begin....Have a seat, you may be here a while.....

We've been pushed head first into our  wildly busy summer. It's been a while since I've written anything, of course I know you're all frantically desperate to know what we've been up to. I'm taking a stab at that humor thing again, working? Ha!

Last week was our final week of the school year. We had our final meeting with our ES and were declared DONE with 7th grade. Whew! We have one more lesson in Social Studies/History to finish, but I am holding off until right before school starts. In 8th grade we will be doing Early US History,  our final 7th grade lesson leads us into that. I'd rather it be fresh in their minds. We will continue with math over the summer, math skills seem to be easily forgotten and I don't want to spend the beginning of the year playing catch-up. We have received some of our 8th grade curriculum already, mostly math and the manipulatives for Pre-Algebra and all of our Advanced Physical Science experiments. I am going to scour over the internet this summer to find an acceptable History curriculum. The California Standard text books are boring not very detailed. They try to sum up a range of hundreds of years in just a couple of paragraphs. It'd be nice to find something a little more detailed. I did find an awesome book on the Constitution at my favorite thrift store last week. Score! Oh, and I got a full Strong's Concordance for just $1.00. I was stoked. Anyhoo, I ordered Emily and Julia's unit study curriculum. They will be starting Kindergarten. I will write a blog post on our curriculum once we get closer to the school year. I don't even want to think about most of it for the remainder of the summer vacation.

Last weekend, Adam went on a “roughing it” camping trip with some of his friends. The four of them went to  Indian Valley Reservoir. This is not your Mama's camp ground. They had to 4-wheel in, sleep with huge fanged spiders, and dig latrine holes. There aren't showers or bathrooms. Each day they would pack up the trucks and go on a 4-wheel excursion and camp where ever they ended up.  One of the guys nearly lost his truck in the river. He hit a deep spot and it started to float away, luckily the passenger hopped out and tied it to a tree. They were able to get it out of the water but there was some flooding that killed the stereo and power seats. I'm sure that was scary. They fished, and shot their guns, lassoed lizards and did "man" stuff. It sounded like quite a weekend. I was happy that Adam as able to get away and relax. He works very hard and it’s nice to have a break.

The wives of the men who were camping, and I all went to our girlfriend’s daughter’s 1st birthday party. It was a Hawaiian Luau, with a roasted pig and everything. She had a ton of activities for kids to do; the kids had a great time. I made a wooden initial bow holder for the sweet little girl. She always has the most darling bows in her hair. Here are the pictures:

(click pictures to enlarge)

Our 4H year ended this week. It was quite the feat to finish the girls' record books and get them turned in for judging. They took 12 different projects (classes) this year. Each project has to have a report turned in detailing what they’ve learned at each different  meeting. Most of the projects only have 4 or 5 meetings, others have 7 or more. In addition to the project report pages, they also had to make a Personal Development Report and list all of the other activities and community service acts they participated in. They have to include pictures of activities of their choice and work samples, it all goes into a 4H report folder and has to have 5 divided sections, their picture, a table of contents and a cover page. It's a big deal, they get judged on it. We only submitted ours to be judged at club level this year, next year we may submit it to compete at a county level. The record books were due Wednesday. It was so much work the girls vowed to stay on top of it throughout the year next year so it's not as overwhelming. Kiley and August have several different 4H things they are entering in the County Fair this year. Each has 3 different art projects, and August is also submitting a quilting project and a table setting. I really am enjoying the 4H program, as are the girls. Our particular club has a daytime 4H group; this is the one we belong to. It's all homeschooled kids and their parents. The girls and I have developed some wonderful new friendships. I am grateful we found this group. 4H offers such a wide variety of learning opportunities(our club doesn't do animals). This year the girls' projects were, Healthy Living, Quilting, Physical Science, Educational Games, Mini Mall, Softball, Musical Presentation, Cake Decorating, Fine Arts, Arts and Crafts, Table setting, and Drama. We meet twice a month on Monday's for an entire day. Our club has some wonderfully fantastic kids. There seems to be a different type of maturity in homeschooled kids, I've come to discover. They also participate in various community service projects and competitive areas. Kiley and August both signed up to work at the 4H cake booth at the fair this year and August has signed up to be an official 4H photographer next year. This is all in addition to their regular school subjects. And people think that homeschooled kids have no socialization and stay home all day. *humph*  Actually, our ES Charter School supervisor said my girls do more than any kids she's supervised.

We signed up both sets of twins for city league soccer this year. It will be August and Kiley's 6th season playing, and Emily and Julia's 1st. Kiley and August are fantastic soccer players. Kiley is one of the best goalies I've ever seen. I played soccer for 15 or so years, and loved it. I'm glad my girls share my love. Emily and Julia are thrilled to be playing this year. Haley will be continuing her basketball career, which coincides with the soccer season. Are you starting to see what I mean by our wildly busy summer?

I have no idea when I'll get back on here to write more so I'm just going to put as much as I can now. Aren't you fortunate?

I came across this charming little organic herb box at Trader Joe's. It has Basil, Oregano, and Parsley. Isn't it cute?

Yesterday I baked some snacks up. I have been making my own granola bars for a couple of months. They are so much better than the store bought ones and my family gobbles them up. It's hard to keep them in stock.  I made 36 yesterday, I'm sure they will all be gone by Sunday. I turned my very ripe bananas into two loaves of banana bread for our breakfast this morning. I am NOT a breakfast person. I really am bad at making/eating  breakfast. My poor, poor kids usually fix cereal or eggs. I'd much rather cook lunch and dinner than breakfast.  Oh well, can't be perfect in every area *snort*. 

And I'm about ready to wrap this up. Emily and Julia are going to spend the weekend with my Dad and Step-Mom. They are overly anxious to go. Weekends at Grandma and Grandpa's are ALWAYS great fun. 

Father’s Day is fast approaching June 19^th. I still haven’t figured out what I’m doing for my Husband/Dad/Father-in-law… I have a feeling, with as busy as we are, it’s not going to be as exciting as it could be. I think I may just take the kids to the store to pick out gifts for their Daddy.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone. God bless.

*ETA, I can't figure out why my post is in two different colors. I can't fix it either, oh well.*

Coin Purses

I made the cutest little coin purses for Mother's Day this year; they were so easy to make. I'm planning on doing a tutorial soon. I had found a couple of DIY instructions and changed it to fit my own preferences. Here are a couple of pictures of the ones I made.  

Being Real

Hi, I don't know most of you but welcome to this rare view into my heart.

The last several months have been trying. While still mourning the loss of the baby we will never know, I have to go on everyday just the same. Talking about it seems silly when people consider it a mass of cells, no better than a chicken. For only a few short weeks we were in love with that baby whose heart would never beat. That child was a combination of mine and my husbands love, not a blob of tissue. I think I get lower with each passing month that yields a negative test; I want my baby back! I need to trust God more. 

Often times, I feel alone in the world. I'm surrounded by opposition at every turn. It seems my husband and children are the only ones who are safe. I am regularly feeling invisible, the odd man out. I know people don't like me, including some of my own family. My husband says, "why do you care? We love you". I shouldn't let it bother me, but who enjoys not being liked? It would be so much easier to "fit in".I know this will never happen. I have chosen a life that just doesn't fit in.

I'm solely a woman trying to make the best of what I have; to be able to express my love, beliefs and convictions and raise my girls into, good, honest, loving, caring and godly young women. I feel at times I'm thought of as unloving, uncaring, hateful. It would be nice if everyone saw what my husband and children see. Am I a bit rough around the edges? Perhaps. However, I LOVE my family and my friends, and would do anything for them. I would lay down my own life for my husband and my children. My loyalty is steadfast. 


Still, I feel attacked on every angle these last few months. Most recently an individual has found it amusing to semi-anonymously mock me and then lie about it and cause my integrity to be questionable in front of my own family. This makes my heart break. I'm not a dishonest person. I'm not a crazy person. I have never done anything malicious to this person. I have feelings. I'm a person too. I have found that those who preach words like equality and tolerance are not proponents of either one entirely. Rather, they only want others to be tolerant of what they believe to be true and right. Causing strife, and attempting to defame someone to their own family, is plain callous.


Recently I've found it comforting to stay up late and read my Bible and cry by myself. I really need to pull out of this rut. I should stop feeling sorry for myself. It's stupid. What kind of sappy, inadequate woman am I? Christ suffered so much, more than I ever will,and here Iam being a weak, lame, baby. 


Most days are wonderful. I hope and pray that I can get past this hard part in my life. I hope those who feel the need to poke fun at me will go away. My words don't always come out the way they were supposed to; this can lead to not seeming very smart. I'm pretty sure I've always been above average. I always got put in those smart classes. *sheepish grin* I can still try to be funny can't I?

Thanks for reading my ridiculous post. I have to be up in 2 hours to fix my husband's lunch and coffee. Good night. And if it's not too much to ask, please say a prayer for me. I really need one.

The Little Twins Love Laundry

E and J love to help Mommy with the laundry. Up until last week, their job has been to gather the laundry from their hamper, and Mommy and Daddy's hamper, and bring it downstairs to the laundry room. They have been asking to learn how to run the washer and dryer for a while now. Over the last couple of weeks, they've been learning. Finally, this week they got it down. They can separate the clothes by color, put the load in the washer, add the soap and turn it on. You can tell by their excitement how proud they are of themselves. Moving the clothes to the dryer is a little more difficult. We have a top loader, and they are still small, so they need Mommy to help them. Get the clothes at the bottom of the washer. They have worked it out between them to alternate running the washer and cleaning the lint trap and turning on the dryer.

Folding clothes are a whole different story, and that is reserved for me. I'm a little particular about how things are folded. They do like to put their dresses on the hangers and put them in their closet. I'm so happy that someone in this house is excited about doing laundry. Though I'm sure it will be short lived.

E and J are extremely independent little girls and are constantly trying to do things on their own. They want to be just like their big sisters and their Mommy. They really don't like being told they are too little to do something. At the mention of that phrase sets their determination to do it, only to prove you wrong. I admire this in them but there are times when they really are too little.

Guard your Daughters

This is who our daughters' role models should be: 


Abigail
Ruth
Esther
Sarah : Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. 1 Peter 3:6


Not this: (click the words for the link)
Disgusting, reprobate, blasphemous, satanic, devil worshipping thing

The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Garden Project

Last weekend Adam decided it was time to start our veggie garden. We had a very tiny one last year in our very tiny yard and it really didn't do all that well. We spent most of Sunday afternoon at the home improvement store gathering our soil, extra sprinkler line and plants. I'm a terrible gardener so Adam is the brains of the outfit. Just call me Ms. Blackthumb. It was a very nice day to garden. The two little girls were the only kids with us, the big girls were away with grandparents.

We planted 8 tomato plants. They are 2 different type of tomatoes. Adam put these in 4 large pots that someone had given him. We used a layer of an old compost bin to make a planter for our 5 strawberry plants. These were leftover plants from last spring. He put them in buckets when we moved and finally was able to transfer them to the ground. We also planted 4 zucchini and 1 cantaloupe. I've never grown cantaloupe before, so that will be interesting.

On Tuesday I told Adam I wanted to make the garden area bigger and I was planning on doing some modifying of the area next to the veggies/fruits. One whole side of our backyard (about 1000 sq ft) is gravel and weeds. I have a vision of how I'd like the garden area to look, so I grabbed a few buckets and a couple of shovels and started digging up the gravel and weeds. Adam outlined the area for me so I would have a guideline on where to dig. He was home on my first day working so he helped me. Mostly he dumped my rock/dirt buckets over in another area because they were way too heavy for me. I worked as much as I could to take advantage of his help. I knew on my own I could only fill the buckets halfway to carry myself. He also helped loosen up the gravel and dug up a bunch of the weeds for me. We make a great team when we're working on projects. I'm anticipating that this project will mostly be mine and I'm sort of happy about that. There is a wonderful sense of pride that comes from working hard and seeing the results of it.

Adam told me I need a wheelbarrow. I looked online for one, and they are about $50. Who has an extra $50 lying around for a wheelbarrow? Um, not us. I put a WANTED: post on freecycle for a wheelbarrow. I love freecycle for stuff like this. I quickly received 2 replies for wheelbarrows. I only replied to the 1st figuring if it wasn't a nice one I could then reply to the 2nd. I drove the next morning to the home of the 1st wheelbarrow. The nice lady opened the door with, "I"m sooo sorry". "I went out to get it for you and noticed a hole had been rusted through the bottom, you can come see it if you want". I went out and looked and it was a huge 2"x6" hole. I told her thanks anyway but I'm moving dirt and rocks and they would just fall right through. She was extremely apologetic and felt really bad that I drove over there.  I went ahead and sent a message to the 2nd person with a wheelbarrow. We went on over there as soon as they sent their address. I was pleasantly surprised and how nice this wheelbarrow was, it needed a little air in the tire, but otherwise it was in great condition.

We took it home and started working again. I didn't get as much done this time because the ground is a lot harder and it's taking some time to break into it. I need a picking tool or something like that. I may have to ask freecycle again.

After all of the gravel and weeds are dug up and moved, I'm going to have to go back over again with my shovel to remove the straggler rocks. Then I can till it and build a frame and make a pathway. I'm sure when the previous owner put the rocks down they had good intentions, but it's a big ole pain trying to move them.

I have a few pictures.

Strawberries

Roma and Early Girl Tomatoes

Zucchini and Cantaloupe

The lovely Petunias my husband bought for me

More Petunias and a hanging planter he bought for me also

An idea of the gravel and weeds

The area I'm working in

Day 1's work.
See the little buckets to the left we had to use to move the rocks and dirt?

Rock pile day 1

Day 2
A helping me dig. Look at my new wheelbarrow.

Much easier than buckets

Day 2's work. It's getting there

Day 2 rock pile.