CounterCultural Momma

Now that my kiddo's are getting bigger, I am reading again (oh, books! how I have missed you!) For a few years, I would be so exhausted by the time I put the kids to bed, I would collapse on the couch and fall asleep through a miscellaneous sitcom.

The book I am reading right now is Laura Bush's autobiography. It has brought back so many memories, such as the horror of 9-11, the confusion & fear we lived in as we struggled to understand our "enemy". I am always interested in real life stories...I can't really get excited to read a novel. I think real lives are so much more interesting!

One of my take aways from the book is just thankfulness. I respect the work ethic both she and President Bush put in. They did so much that they really didn't "have to do". Such as visiting the wounded soldiers at   Walter Reed...just in the middle of a regular work day...no cameras, no photo ops...just doing the right thing. I think the things they did were just amazing and I honestly don't know how any president is able to keep up with the workload, much less the stress that each new day brings.

I am thankful for their reliance on God. Whether or not you agree with their politics, must of us can agree that they kept our country safe from further attacks on our soil. I truly believe that their trust in God and their heartfelt love for this country, made them work as hard as they did.

So, thank you Laura Bush - thank you for everything that you did for our country, that was not known or applauded. Thank you for being graceful under fire - I've never seen a president so vilified, yet you never lashed out to hurt those who hurt the one you love. Thank you for giving up your privacy. Thank you for staying in the White House and showing the terrorists they couldn't scare us away.

I hope and pray that you are enjoying the next chapter of your lives. Thank you.

My husband thinks I have officially "gone off the deep end" :) This is what he saw, his wife peeling bananas for  our breakfast, then taking the banana peels and putting them into a freezer bag and then, popping them in the freezer. 

I know, I'm weird. You are probably looking at this title and saying to yourself...who in their right mind loves to clean their house from top to bottom? (ok, honestly, not me...but, I do love the END RESULT!) I am one of those people that loves to rearrange, it makes me feel like I got a bunch of new stuff (without the guilty over-shop, over-spent feeling).

This is the method to my Spring Cleaning madness - first of all, my house looks like a wreck for a month and then miraculously, it all snaps back together and looks fabulous! (at least to me, it does! :)

1.  I go into the room and purge the junk - store, move to another part of house, consign or give away
2. Go through every drawer and get rid of anything that I don't use/wear/broken. Refold &/or rearrange all the drawers. Clean all the cabinetry inside and out.
3. Wash everything that is washable - walls, drapes, baseboards, etc.
4. Rearrange the room moving in furniture or lamps from other parts of the house. Change around colors such as new rugs or hand-towels.
5. Add items that are needed to make that room or area work. First of all, shop your house! I currently have a pile of decorative stuff that I want OUT of the kitchen...it is all lined up next to my banister. While working on other rooms and I have need of something, I shop the lineup first (and then, maybe take a quick spin around the house)...then, and only then, if nothing is found that is right, do I add it to my list of "to-buy" items.

Hope you all are getting invigorated to freshen up your home, so that  you can enjoy the spring and summer season!
Kristen

Ok, so you've read all the blogs about how to get organized...you've read that you need to PURGE, TOSS, DONATE, & FIND A HOME for everything in your home, right? Ok, I agree...that is the best method for getting your home under control. But, maybe you don't have time to do your ENTIRE home in one swoop (who does?)...I still have an attic and an out-of-control closet in my downstairs to tackle. But, I thought I would share a few different tips that I have learned along the way, that has helped me go from CHAOS to CALM.

Purchase a plastic garbage can for every level in your home. Line it with a large garbage bag. BUT, this is NOT for garbage. This I keep filling up as I find things that I want to donate. It is amazing, I usually fill up two bags each week to drop off at a consignment store. HOW!!?? I now see why I was under SO MUCH STUFF. I had to make clearing out a part of my natural routine, so it never gets out of hand again.

ROUTINES - I always make my bed when I am running my bathwater. (amazing how much better a room looks if the bed is made). I always load the dishwasher after supper (as well as sweep and usually mop). I always put my kids clothes away when they are in the bathtub, etc. Just simple routines that you do daily or weekly, that ensures certain tasks get done.

A RETURN BOX - I purchased a plastic crate to have in my mudroom, where I put all returns. This alone has saved me SO MUCH MONEY! It is so easy not to make the effort to make your returns. For example, my husband and I just cleaned out our garage and found tons of extra switch plates, etc that we purchased when building our home. There was a bunch of little things, so we took them back to Home Depot and came away with a $250 gift card (from all the little junk that was cluttering up some high cabinets)! Yea! That will be spent this spring on flowers for our flower boxes.

MAKE THINGS EASY - I hate to mop. I hate, hate, hate to mop. I would rather do anything than mop. So usually, I do. :) So, I purchased a Swiffer Wet Mop - now it is so easy (and almost enjoyable!), that I mop very regularly now. I even whip it out for a quick touch up by the doors and in the kitchen. Another thing I do, keep a set of cleaning supplies in every bathroom. It takes me about 5 minutes to clean my bathroom, if I don't have to hunt down the supplies.

I love organizing and having a SERENE, CLUTTER-FREE home. It is possible! If you had seen my home 5 years ago, you would be amazed at the transformation. All it took was a few extra steps...I will go through and detail what we did in each room to get our home under control and hope that it will help you in the process.

Well, we built our home 6 years ago...we ran out of money by the end, so we couldn't finish our kitchen the way we "dreamed". After saving our pennies for quite awhile, we are finally doing it!

I will add a before and after pic when we are completed. We have beautiful stainless appliances and white cabinets. I love em, but they are a bugger to keep clean...anyway, we are keeping them. So, our plan was, to bump out our existing bar (which essentially made the kitchen feel like a postage stamp) and to extend it into what we were using as the dining room. We moved my office and made that the dining room. Now, I am typing on the computer in my dining room! :) I'm feeling another re-do around the corner. smirk!

Anyhoo...we are changing our countertops. We used the cheapest floor tile and grouted it (because we couldn't afford what I wanted) and instead of going for something cheaper that I wouldn't really like, I decided to do something horrible that would force me to change it as soon as we could afford it. Good reasoning, huh?? It worked!

We have been scouring Granite warehouses throughout Chicago and finally have chosen "RIVER WHITE"...it is so gorgeous, looks similar to white marble, love it!! I am wanting an all-white, sparkly, ultra-crisp kitchen. I can't wait. I found new knobs last night at Anthropologie. Actually, I bought four and decided on one today. That was a MUCH easier decision than the granite.

We are also going to paint the walls (still undecided)...then tile the backsplash with small tiles (that we can do ourselves), white sparkly is what I am going for. Then, we need a hood over the stove (still hunting for that). So, we are probably half-way through our kitchen renovation, but just wanted to share what is happening.

Have a fabulous FIRST DAY OF SPRING! I am so ready for it!!! Spring cleaning, purging, rearranging...here I come!!!

1. Spending time together
2. Teaching my son to read (there was nothing more satisfying than hearing him read his first book!)
3. Being in charge of our families schedule (we do school very regularly - I'm a scheduled person - but, if we are super busy and miss one day...I'm not stressing!)
4. Having the time to take part in extracurricular activities (my son regularly attends basketball, library story time, awana, sunday school, swimming lessons, as well as a one day a week co-op school day) - adding music lessons this summer.
5. Ability to adjust teaching in response to his needs and interests
6. Choosing out of the thousands of wonderful curriculum options (see rainbowresources.com)
7. Beginning to instill a teachable spirit in him
8. Schoolrooms are made for girls (I LOVED THEM!!), but boys learn differently - educators know that, but why is nothing changing?
9. Education that doesn't take a back seat to teachers salaries. (We are in one of the top school districts in America, yet, our school could not take the kids on more than one field trip per year. Why am I paying $3000 to our school district alone? !)
10. My ownership of his education makes me a more "plugged in parent" - I'm not giving this responsibility to someone else. 


ok, ok!! one more... :)
11. SPRING BREAK - we don't have to schedule our vacations or life around school. School revolves around our life.

Have a wonderful day! It's feeling like spring in Chicago, yea!

Counter-cultural momma just went on a 21 day Daniel Fast (mainly vegan with no dairy, meat, sweetners, caffeine, or bread!) I was excited to try it, after the decedance of the holidays but a little nervous too. How could I make it without bread, cookies and coffee? That is pretty much what I live on - my three food groups. And, if in view of my failed attempts at dieting...things weren't looking good.

But this was different, our church did it as a community - with us all helping and encouraging each other. I made it, was never hungry. Lost 10 pounds in the process and felt FABULOUS!

This is what I learned:
1. I had been living to eat instead of eating to live.
2. Sugar is in EVERYTHING!
3. I can make a lot of yummy things with only fruits or veggies!
4. Food isn't worth the unhappiness it brings.
5. I eat super-rich meals continually. When was the last time I made just a pot of soup for supper?
6. I had deadened my taste buds to what sweetness really was - bananas are sweet.
7. I have more energy WITHOUT caffeine and sugar.
8. I have been artificially stimulating myself - for more energy. (coffee, cookies)
9. I can SLEEP again! I get tired at night. Sleep like a rock. Wake up refreshed!
10. Learning how to cook was a challenge but a fun new exploration! Learned about making better choices.





Besides, learning more about myself and self-control...some more personal things also happened. If you are struggling with weight loss, self-control issues, etc. Try this fast...it is extrordinary!

One of my two favorite days of the week. My first, is what we call, "family day at church". Running a close second is...Family Day! Family day is a day where our family purposefully spends the day together. We take the time to work on our chores or on a home project, but we try not to make the day about that either. If we do work, it is only until about noon. Then, it's party time!  (The picture below is one of my favorite family days - we went to the Walnut Room downtown Chicago to celebrate the Christmas season - this pic is the kids looking out the windows at the clouds on the buildings. :)

We don't take work phone calls, read our emails, or other time suckers! Life is about relationships, but too many times we really don't devote any real time to building the relationships. If your kids are small, like mine,  sit on the couch and watch cartoons with your arms around them (instead of frantically cleaning while they are occupied). Or, take some time playing with them in their own rooms. 

I love this idea, my brother-in-laws children are a little older, and he takes his kids on geo-caching expeditions. This is one of the craziest things, but so fun for kids! It is like a scavenger hunt on steroids. If you type in geocaching in google, you will learn more about it. But, in a nutshell, you search your zip code for geocaches in your neighborhood. Then, you choose which one(s) you would like to find. They give you GPS coordinates and clues. If you've got some "middlers", this would be a perfect fun afternoon with them! http://www.geocaching.com/
 
(This picture is a day we went to Day Frog, again, downtown Chicago - it is an indoor play place and the kids have a BLAST! You can tell how worn out they were, this was after 10,000 princess dress try-on's and lots of cars, trucks, scooters, & slides later.)

Take time to eat with them, talk, play, laugh...at least one day a week. Is that too much to ask to spend on the most important people in your lives? And do you know what? You need a rest too! It's good for us mommas to sit down and enjoy the people you shuttle here and there, feed, wash, bath, brush...need I go on? :)

And, if your New Year's resolution is like mine, make that a day you call one family member or write one note, each week. 




Anon Quote: "Life is a journey to be explored, not a trial to be endured."

Hello everyone! This is my first post on "CounterCultural Momma", so I guess I should begin by explaining what I mean by "countercultural". To me, it means, doing things that aren't necessarily the norm. Not just for the sake of BEing different (or difficult), but to realize, we do have choices...even when we don't think we do.

I think many women in our society buy in to the cultural norms of our times. For example, when we built our own home, we had a choice, we could buy as big of a home that we could find, in a subdivision or we could build a smaller home, on an ok street, but within walking distance to many parks and a charming downtown area. Most people don't even consider the option. BIGGER IS BETTER, right?

We couldn't stand the thought of living in a subdivision where every home is a variation of beige. So, we built on an old street, with old homes and new, no curbs, but lots of personality. One of our goals in building our house was not to make it look like a "new home"...but to look as lived in & loved in as possible. We're weird like that! :) So, whenever anyone comes over for a visit and says, "Is your house old or new?"...we feel we are victorious.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not into judgementalism (I've learned that the hard way...whatever you judge, you will end up doing somehow & get judged by someone else). Un-fun! If you buy your bread (instead of bake it at home) and live in a subdivision and that is you...great! But, I just know, It's not me. So, I began this blog to offer women another voice, other than just mainstream... do what everyone does. Instead, be true to the glorious YOU God has made.

And, in this journey, we will learn much. How to live the best possible life for you, your family, & your faith. My only request is to keep an open mind and realize this is just one woman's opinion. Or, as we say in our home, "take the meat and spit out the bones".

I hope you will be blessed, I look forward to getting to know you other "countercultural momma's" out there!