Lightening Online

It does happen that the very thing you hate MOST about something could turn around and become the thing you LOVE most about it.

I usually HATE the way housework can be mind-numbing and repetitive.

Especially after a decade of dealing with not much more than housework and children under 5.

But today I’m very GRATEFUL for it.

I’ve been chopping up vegies to make vegetable soup.

And finding it quite soothing.

You see, my brain seems to have gone on holiday.

Without leaving a date of return for when I can expect it back.

So I’m quite thankful for mind-numbing activities like chopping vegetables and ironing clothing.

The number of posts swirling around my brain begging to be let out is growing.  Some have even gotten as far as drafts.

Hopefully one of these days I’ll successfully spit them out on to the page.

In the meantime, my posts may well be as mind-numbing as housework.

Apologies for that. 

I’ve finally gotten around to going through the boys clothing and seeing what they need for winter. We’ll do some shopping during the school holidays (start at the end of this week here).

I now have 1 very full garbage bag and 3 grocery size bags ready to leave the house (clothing that is too small). Plus another bag of clothing with rips etc that really is past it’s use by date, some of which Farmboy will be able to use for rags.

What an AMAZING feeling. It’s almost like I’ve decluttered some body weight it feels so light and freeing.

I don’t know why, when it feels this good, I don’t do a better job of decluttering more often.

I guess clothing is easy. Once it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.

Paperwork on the other hand…..

And the good news is, I don’t think I’ll need to buy ANYTHING for Trailer Boy. His drawers are now packed full with the next size up (brought down from the top shelf of his cupboard). Leighton on the other hand…. Seems I’m always buying clothing for him. Of course, that has something to do with him being the first baby on either sides of our families I guess.

Hopefully later in the week I’ll have time and energy to go through Singstar Princesses wardrobe and see what she needs.

My biggest downfall with decluttering is actually getting the stuff out of the house once it’s bagged up.  Farmboy has just taken a load of stuff (including a couple of bags of stuff that have been sitting in the laundry for months) into town with him.  So it really is GONE for a change.  Yah!!!! 

It’s no surprise really that Singstar Princess is a lot like her mother when it comes to getting easily overwhelmed by organisational tasks. I often feel quite stressed when I take a glance into her bedroom. If the thought of having to tidy it up makes me feel ill, is it any wonder she feels the same way?

We have quite a dilemma when it comes to her “stuff”. On the one hand, her room gets out of hand because she has TOO MUCH stuff. On the other hand, the fact that she actually PLAYS with all that she has is a big contributing factor also.

Leighton’s room has always been a lot easier to keep under control (either by me OR him). That has a LOT to do with the fact that his toys tend to stay in his cupboard because he doesn’t USE them.

So it somehow feels wrong to take away toys that Singstar Princess is constantly making use of.

Part of her problem is also procrastination. She seems to always leave stuff out. Or she’ll dump something on the floor NEXT to her clothes hamper instead of putting it INTO the hamper (sound familiar??? ).

Keeping kids bedrooms tidy is a dilemma faced by many parents. *sigh* I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to my children’s bedrooms (heck, I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to MY bedroom). But I can’t STAND to walk past and not be able to see the floor. I don’t think it makes for a happy environment for anyone in the family.

At this stage, we only insist that they tidy them up once a week - Saturday mornings. They have to be tidy enough to give them a decent vacuum. Princess Singstar is a bad asthmatic so it’s kind of important.

And you can SEE in their demeanour how much better they feel once their bedrooms are tidy.

This is something that used to be overseen by me. And I would often get into their rooms during the week to make sure they didn’t get *too* out of control in between.

But since my nervous breakdown, Farmboy has had to oversee the kids bedrooms. Which makes life harder on everyone.

1. He’s not quite as soft tolerant as me.

2. He doesn’t seem to understand the “overwhelmed” feeling - he’s a “get in there and get the job done” kind of bloke (but he’s learning).

3. He doesn’t have the time to get in there during the week to keep things under control.

Plus, the kids are getting older now so we expect a little more of them.

Anyway, after months of tears and trying to get Singstar Princess to do her bedroom in 15 minute stints with a break in between, I finally got my brain back into gear and wrote her a nice long list to follow - breaking the whole “tidy your room” down into tiny babysteps.

It would appear that it worked. Farmboy was most impressed this Saturday just passed to see Singstar Princess get stuck into her bedroom without any tears. There were a few by the end of the task but it was a vast improvement.

Basically I broke the room down into 10 steps, although each step has some mini instructions.

So it went something like this:

1. Clothing

* put dirty clothes in the hamper

* put clean clothes in the drawer

* anything you’re not sure of, hang on the end of your bed for mum to check

2. Barbies

* put all barbie things into barbie box

* check there is nothing in the box that doesn’t belong

* put lid on and slide under bed

…. and so on.

I was actually worried the finished length of the list might be overwhelming but she seems to be working her way through it reasonably happily. One of these days I will get in there and do a proper sort out and cull and hopefully that will help too.

It’s not easy being a “part time mother”. But at least we’re making progress on that front.

Wonder if I should write myself a “10 Step List” for cleaning up my bedroom????

For some time now I have had a Homemaking Folder to help me keep track of my daily and weekly routines for keeping our home somewhat under control. I also have a number of articles I keep in there as well as my list of projects (both fun and otherwise).

It’s something similar to Flylady’s Control Journal. I just wasn’t all that keen on the term “control journal” so went with Homemaking Folder.

I can’t say that I follow all of Flylady’s system and never really have. But the overall concept of babysteps and routines have stuck with me and make keeping our home in some semblence of order a lot easier.

Plus I joined the Flying in Australia yahoo group which is an awesome group of supportive women (don’t know if there are blokes as well). Some follow the system better than others but in general we’re about supporting one another and share common traits like perfectionism and procrastination.

Right now I’m doing a bit of a revamp of my homemaking folder. It’s not been used a HUGE amount in the past couple of years. It’s been more a matter of doing what I can when I can.

One thing that has stuck with me though has been my very basic weekly routine which goes something like this:

MONDAY - CLEANING DAY

TUESDAY - OFFICE DAY

WEDNESDAY - TOWN DAY

THURSDAY - KITCHEN DAY

FRIDAY - FUN DAY

SATURDAY - FAMILY DAY

SUNDAY - CHURCH & REST DAY

I find having some kind of basic structure helps me not to get so overwhelmed. There’s nothing worse than starting a day and not having a CLUE where to start. I end up achieving a LOT more by having some kind of guide for each day.

Of course there are also plenty of daily tasks like washing and so forth.

Now the purpose of telling you all of this was really to show you that I’ve revamped my homemaking folder so that it matches my blog. And more importantly makes me SMILE.

Doesn’t it look snazzy? I used some contact that was left over from contacting Princess Singstar’s school books. It sits right next to my computer, subtly reminding me not to spend all day on here (what? I do NOT spend ALL day on the computer…… ).

So maybe over the coming weeks (or months) as I revamp things, I might share bits and pieces from my homemaking folder.

Or maybe I’ll get so busy cleaning, tidying and decluttering that I’ll forget to post…..

Nah! That’ll never happen!

Ever had one of those days where you know you have heaps that needs doing but you spin in circles not knowing where to start? The kind of day where you wish you could just crawl back into bed and the shine of being a stay at home mum and repeating the same tasks over and over has well and truly worn off. I think I’m having one of those days.

I think I’m just a bit weary from the long weekend. Having the kids home 3 days straight (4 days if you count DD being home sick today), visiting extended family (which included travelling 150km each way) and then having other extended family visit us on the Monday. It was all wonderful but quite tiring. And for anyone who doesn’t know I’m recovering from a nervous breakdown I had just over 12 months ago so being around people wears me out even more so than normal. I have one of those personalities that loses energy around people rather than gaining energy - apparently about 20% of the population is like that. So it’s not overly common and yet a lot more common than I ever thought.

Even the thought of pottering today was more than my mind could cope with. Instead I’ve just been deciding on the 2 most important things that need doing (so started with putting tea on and a load of washing). Once that was done and I’d had a break I’d decide on the next 2 most important things that needed doing. Somehow that seems to have broken my day up into teeny tiny little babysteps and I’ve managed to get enough things done that I can finally breathe a little easier.

I really hate days like this where it feels like my rib cage is squeezing the life out of me and no matter how much I try to do - I’m never satisfied. I think it’s my perfectionism coming to the fore. And it’s always worse when I’m tired.

I decided I wanted to find a picture to go with this blog post to make it a little more interesting. When I searched “tired housewife” in google images one of the images it came up with was this one. Now instead of feeling grumpy about my day I’m feeling thankful that I have an electric washing machine - along with all the other mod cons that make life at home that little bit easier. I know our lives are different now - not better or worse or easier or harder, just different. But I’m still glad I don’t have to do the washing by hand!!!