Compacting continues

*The only homeschool stuff we need for DAILY use. the rest is on bookshelves or in the shoe-holders*

We have found so many cute houses online now, I guess nobody wants to move in the fall--so awesome! Places that are 3 or 4 HUNDRED dollars less a month than where we are now, plus smaller newer home means smaller heat bills, which we simply MUST have.

I am doing all kinds of behind the scenes things to prepare to move, things that, even if we didn't move, are of great benefit to our home. I have been downsizing, downsizing, downsizing our clothes and books and toys, getting closer and closer to the goal of having very few things that are beloved and well taken care of, and that have a place where they go. Our linen closet, (which you used to need a hard hat just to risk opening), now looks like this:

There is only soap, towels, and a tupperware of ALL medicines we own. The towel pile is so small because our dryer is broken again and we have to hang them out to dry, but it rains everyday it seems and so my towels are wet wet wet. This pile was washed by my best friend--thank you!!!!!

I have plowed through our toy boxes, baskets, and bags and plucked out all of the good toys, the wooden toys, the complete sets of toys, the long lasting, high quality toys that we love and use, and have displayed them on some of our newly-bare bookshelves, in reach of the children, easy to clean up, and find.

I have gone through our homeschool stuff, and done this: only the curricula that we love and use, only paper and crayons, only the best of our manipulatives and tools are going to clutter up our lives. No more puzzles with missing pieces, no more 80% filled in preschool books from the grocery store from 1999, no more drawings smashed in with white paper, and a big huge outside-type garbage can sits right in the middle of the room now. I even nailed up some of those "shoe organizers" (5 bucks, wal-mart) right to the wall!
Each child has a drawer (not Charlie) for their notebooks and for their "WORK". this can be ongoing projects, special drawings, 1/2 done fingerknitting, etc. It is all there. I cannot see how any parent, even of pone child, let alone 4 homeschooled kids, could live with the constant "Mama!? Where's the Pikachu I drew in the car that one time? Where's my super bracelet I was working on? Where's my chart of the fruits we did? Where's my old list of ideas I did for my birthday party next year?..."

It is in your drawer, because hopefully you put it in there, my dearie, is what I say.

Stuff like super balls and mini yo-yo's and stickers and all other gumball machine types of things that children seem to accumulate even if you haven't yourself put a quarter into a gumball machine since the 1980's--this goes in their "special drawer" in the kids' lounge. Another cheap, cheap find at any store, but of course it could be anything, a cardboard box, anything!

I hope we can find a new smaller home quickly and can easily pick up these things and move. I hope this is the last house that we haul pounds of flim flam to, that's for sure. As I learn more and more about the decluttering movement, the simplicity movement, I am learning tons more and more about what it is that our family really wants and needs.

With lower house payment, lower bills, and me working, maybe we can get back to a place where we are the fun, on the go family that we used to be--with a tidy and simple home, and some actual money, we can have a savings account and go places like we used to almost daily--far away libraries, hands on museums, science centers, nature centers, visiting relatives and friends, --we are so broke right now that the gas and the food alone to do anything is prohibitive. It might sound really cute to say "pack a lunch!" and believe me, we do--but lunch for 5 or 6 people gets pretty tricky to pop into a stroller under-bag, and I think my husband works damn hard enough for me and/or him to get huge hot coffees when we leave the house with 4 little kids by 8 am on an outing, call me exorbitant, but I have spent all of my adult years bringing nasty burnt homemade coffee in leaky spilly "travel mugs" wherever I go, and it just sucks. (For some women its a Prada bag, I just want a fricking coffee from a drive thru, and I don't even want to think it over if I want large or Grande or whatever-- didn't I eat enough kroger macaroni all week to garner this expense?)

Some people want a huge home and to be broke all the time. We are done with that lifestyle. We would like to have a VERY modest home and to feel like we aren't going to die every time we get a flat tire or the kids need shoes. Living without credit cards is a blessing and one that we are very proud of, but it of course, makes the "paycheck to paycheck" a 100% reality, especially since my husband took about a 45% pay cut this past spring unannounced and for no reason.

Wish us luck!

:)

http://www.paperlanternstore.com/

I am going to get some of these someday. So dear.

Gettin started on downsizing

We like to change our rooms around. Through various ages and stages, wants and needs of our four children, through fads and phases and theories, we have made some choices that have ranged from perfect to absurd to weird to impractical to genius.

Well, this is what we did yesterday: We took all four of the kids' beds, and put them into our smallest bedroom. All lined up like a little storybook cottage. Nothing else in there, no dressers, no toys, no flim flam. Just 4 beds, a nightlight and a fan for white noise.

In the other bedroom, our biggest one, we made it into a sort of super fun kids' lounge. 2 TVs, a couch, a little table, video games, lamps, a few toys, open ended stuff like little cars and blocks, and some throw pillows. They got to hang every crazy poster they collectively owned, The Beatles, Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter. Spongebob, and all the drawings they ever wanted to tape up.

Then the third bedroom is for me and my husband.

There are boxes and boxes of flibbety flub for us to go through and to get rid of/sort/and distribute. We told the kids that this is going to be a fun hang out for EVERYONE, and so it cant be all delicately decorated with Charlie on the prowl. I told them they will each get a shelf about 4 feet up to lay out their display items such as jewelry box, little trophies, special trinkets.

The Mom-secret to all of this is that all the stuff that is crazy and hodge podge can be in the their kids lounge, and I can have my nursery-decor urges fulfilled by the sweet and peaceful little sleeping room they share.

I think back to how we used to fret about what "people" thought back when Greta and Mickey--gasp--shared a room when they were little tots. I laugh and shake my head at how much I cared what relatives who came by twice a year (if we were lucky!) thought about our life. Silly old 20-something Joy. I remember how excited Greta was when baby Mickey started sleeping in her room and not with mama anymore, and how much fun they all have had in various room-sharing combos over the years.

Now we have 4 kids sharing a room to sleep happily and we got this amazingly cute and fun kids lounge room out of it. They have proclaimed me to be a genius and were jumping up and down and screaming how much they loved it. Cool!

Maybe it will last and maybe not. But it was fun to do and I think it will solve alot of small issues we were having. For example, Greta likes to stay up later, but me and Steve are kind of "done" by about 8 or 8:30. So, we told her she can stay up in the kids loungey room and read for a while, watch an approved show that her brothers are too young for (she likes Animal Cops, a scary true show about animal rescue squads in different cities: pretty graphic images about abused dogs and such--she also likes Goosebumps, a mildly "scary" show written for her age that is too scary for Mickey that comes on at 8:30-9pm)

So we put Charlie to bed first, around 7:30 and let him fall asleep. Then Casey around 7:45 . then Mickey around 8, then Greta later. It worked last night, hope it continues.

I keep learning so much from these small house people, and this is good practice for us. As Greta put it yesterday when we were setting up all the beds, "Mama, there is room for 4 bunk beds in here! That's 8 people!"

That's my girl! She and I have been pouring over this site for days now, looking for inspiration. We have a tentative plan to declutter, compact, and scale down over the next few months so that we can begin to look for a new more simple and small and cozy and affordable home in the area in January. I must admit I have already been peeking and poking about online on craigslist and realtor.com and there is lots of stuff out there at a fraction of what we pay now. We are looking for something with a small cottage like inside and a fenced yard. Other fantasies include a kitchen with some kind of half-wall so I don't feel so isolated in there (found 3 online already but I'm not supposed to be looking yet!! arg) and just a simple, cheery vibe. I want NO ceiling panels and NO upstairs with dangerous stairs. I also really do not want carpet--too many bad memories of stained crusty grossness at the old house.

Today: going through the schoolroom and leaving ONLY what we use and love.

(This is so fun!!!!!!)

Learning about the Small House Society

I want to move to a teeny, tiny house. Am I crazy? Do I love punishment or suffering? Have I forgotten our old place and how cramped it was?

No, no, and no. You might want to start here, at the small house society

You see, I have been a non-practising admirer of the simple living lifestyle for about 3 or 4 years now. A lurker, if you will, in magazines like Ready Made and Simple Living, a flybaby on http://www.flylady.net/ and contributing somewhat to a few discussion boards on Mothering.com about getting rid of all of our junk and becoming free. I am a huge fan of Walden. I choose a tent over a fancy RV, outdoors over indoors, etc.

I want to simplify. We are getting rid of our things. Each weekend we are giving away clothes to the goodwill and salvation army. We are purging our house as the first step to freedom from our possessions. We are discussing special trips for Christmas instead of more toys. We have pared our schoolroom down and down and down to what we really actually use and need and love. We have been trying to have hearty, simple meals such as just baked potatoes with toppings, soup and crusty bread, granola and milk...We have gotten rid of tons of dishes, and the children each have one special spill proof cup. We each have 2 sets of sheets and one comforter for our beds. (the babies have more sheets)

But its not enough. I want to move to a tiny tiny house someday. Look at this website. Type tiny houses or small house or simplify or declutter into Google and see what you get. I fantasize about being forced to have less stuff.

At our old house, it was a bit of a hellish nightmare. We had a "normal" (American) amount of c-r-a-p, but no garage, no attic, no basement and miniature closets. And so things like sleds in the kitchen and clothes in Rubbermaid containers in the living room made for a home that looked completely filthy and gross and chaotic almost all the time. We werent knowledgeable about simple living and so the smaller house was just a nightmare. We were slaves to the shuffling, cleaning, distributing, resdistributing, arguing about, and "organizing" a giant landfill amount of CLUTTER.

So we moved to this big house, near to Daddy's work, and we love it in many ways (1800 square feet 1950's brick rental, long L-Shaped ranch, one story, garage, no basement, lots of closet space) and it can look really neat and tidy whenever we need it to--company coming, etc. even with four homeschooled kids home all day long. But its a total sham. We still have WAY too much crap. You cant even open our garage door without mystery flim flam spraying down on top of you.

So, here are all the ideas I would want for a tiny tiny house with a family of six. Everything I want to own on this Earth. This is my actual list of what I would want to keep in our lives. (Then I am going to get to work on it!!!) I think being in denial that this is right for us has kept us back all these years.

Bunk beds. Custom made, if necessary, for more than 2 children. (Triple bunk!!) In the tiniest of rooms you can still fit many bunk beds. They are cozy and private and fantastic.

One bike for each person, hung from ceiling or stored somewhere clever.

Basic toiletries: Shampoo, Conditioner, mild soap, mild lotion

Towels+washcloths

Bedding

Big pot

Little pot

Frying pan

Pitcher

2 Mixing bowls

Spatula

Ladle

Tongs

Toaster

Teapot

6 Plates

6 Bowls

6 Cups

Silverware

One container for each person of "special possessions"--jewelry or trinkets.

Drawing Paper

Pens/pencils/crayons

One curriculum box for each child

One computer (laptop would be so cool, and save space but we don't have that)

2 Hampers

One giant garbage can, one little one for the bathroom

Our favorite books, the ones we really want to read and refer to, (not just the ones that seem cool to own or display)

Our favorite DVD's

Portable DVD player

One boombox type radio/CDplayer/Cassette player-recorder

Ipod

One sled for each child

One pair of boots per person

One pair of snow pants per person

One winter coat per person

Seven t shirts apiece

Seven long sleeve shirts apiece

Seven pants or shorts apiece (I don't even have this now)

Seven socks apiece

One pair of tennis shoes

One pair of dress up shoes apiece

One bathing suit apiece

One pajama set

Seven pairs of undies

Seven sweaters or sweatshirts

Full set of cloth diapers (the one size fits all kind would be ideal)

2 hats (baseball and snow)

2 mittens

One scarf

One large Rubbermaid box of old photographs

One couch (possibly a hideabed for mom and dad if it was a one bedroom cabin)

Refrigerator

Stove/Oven

Minimal toys: music toys, wood blocks, multitasking toys such as Lego or a wagon

Large family tool box with hammer nails screws screwdriver drill level pliers wrench and ratchet. Also in here could be magnifying glass, funnel, scissors, flashlights, batteries, tape, stapler,glue, hole punch, needle and thread and buttons, and measuring tape and magnets.

Sewing machine

My makeup and hair elastics

Extreme minimal first aid kit: herbal and regular medicines, bandages, peroxide

Coffee maker (or french press using boiled water from teapot)

Recycling bins (even if I had to take the stuff into a different town)

Kitty+supplies

Bunnies + supplies

Rugged jogging type of stroller for lots of walking and not using cars.

Camera

Lamps and candles

Bleach-vinegar-borax-baking soda-natural washing soap

Mop+bucket

Broom+Dustpan

Beloved board games

Wristwatches and clocks

As far as toys: my older kids love their gameboys and pets, and my littler kids love their traintracks and matchbox cars. We all play with blocks and EVERYTHING else we could go enjoy "in town."

I have left out a few things that I love and use daily but could live without and am actually a bit curious to see how I would do:

TV (Love it/hate it/would rather go outside with my kids)

Washer and Dryer (love it but some tiny houses aren't equipped and would be willing to laundromat as a weekly event)

Microwave(convenient/dangerous and scary)
__________________________________
Well, that's it. That is all I would bring. this list might have been incredibly boring to read, and I apologize--but it was really fun to write and it took me a long time. Tell what you think!

Currently reading: Simplify your life with Kids and Simplify your Christmas, both by Elaine St. James. So far so good, although she she doesn't have kids and doesn't refer to or even seem to know about homeschooling, these are both nice reads so far.


***Mom gets to keep more shoes as a gift for being so fabulous :)

***Mom reserves rights to extraneous undies :)




Please check this page for tons of info and great links and pics!

Click this to see an amazing home that you wont believe the pictures of the square footage :)


I will need to whittle down my list but if I really got to the point where everything we had in this house was that list, then maybe we could look into making some kind of huge amazing life changing move in the future--a few years down the road.

Cool Wife 101

I am happy to say that I am a cool wife. Yep. By this I mean that I am neither a doormat nor an evil shrew. I don't take no abuse and I don't give any. If I ever do by mistake, you had better believe I apologize and I mean it and I make darn sure it doesn't happen again and I expect the exact same from my husband. I try to enjoy life and spread the joy around, and the number one person that I love is my husband, and so, when you love someone, you want them to be happy, and making them happy would feel good and that good vibe would bounce right back at ya and there you'd have it, a happy scene, a happy home. It is totally ok to open yourself up to love giving and love receiving and being COOL to someone! Don't be sucky! Don't allow yourself to be treated wrong! Speak up immediately, immediately, immediately, say HEY! Thats not cool AT ALL! and explain. Be able to hear the same from your partner. BE COOL TO OTHERS!

Allow me to extrapolate: I do not get pleasure by seeing to it that my husband is deprived or beat down or depressed or feeling lower and/or crappier when I am around. I do not degrade him, diss him, hate on him, roll my eyes at his jokes, boss him like an evil substitute teacher, treat him like a servant, rain on his parade, ignore him, berate him, isolate him, control him, embarrass him or do passive aggressive manipulative stuff to him. Sick! Would you like that? YUCK!

Common decency starts from the moment you wake up. Throw everything you ever read in the women's mags and all the demented stuff you learned on MTV and Doctor Drew and Doctor Phil and just start by being a good roommate. Then move up to friend. Then maybe youll get promoted to lover--teehee. Remember who you love and why you love them and above all treat others the way you would like to be (and deserve to be!) treated.

If you do not love them or all you can do is sit there and huff and think "he needs to read this, not me" then you need to go to counseling or consider splitting up. Its 2007, it happens!

I repeat the bit about a decent roommate, because here is what decent roommates do that so many long term couples still cant seem to handle: SHARING and CARING! Yes, people, you are only 50% of the little bubble that is coupledom, and that means 50% of the housework, the back rubbing, the helping, the alone time, the active listening, and the REMOTE!

Work out deals. Constantly. "If you do the dishes Ill do the folding"...negotiate
"If you get that crap put back in the garage I will bring in all that crap from the attic and we can go through it together"...negotiate

"If I do this entire horrible bathroom will you go get us sundaes?"...negotiate

"If I get to sleep in tomorrow, you can on Sunday"...negotiate

"What shows would you want to watch if you had the house all to yourself? This is what I would watch...lets work something out..." negotiate

"I seriously cannot plan one more menu. Please help me think of food to buy and I will help you with your___ that has been driving you nuts"...negotiate

"Can we cut a deal regarding me not doing these dishes tonight?" (sexy wink) LOL

I could go on and on. But seriously! Why and when did being super mean and distant and or/evil and power mongering and controlling and seething become the standard year 2 until death or divorce way of treating each other?

I am a *cool wife* because I see how happy my husband is to be with me, to live with me, to hang out with me--HELLO--what about the fine and simple art of HANGING OUT?

There are no excuses for not trying this. There are no lack of babysitters, because you want to know another secret of me and Steve? We have a special date night almost every night. We celebrate e v e r y t h i n g. We celebrate things such as:

Its the weekend!
I worked late tonight!
Its halfway through the week!
I think my cold is getting better!
We didn't bounce any checks!
I love my new haircut!
I love your new pajamas! Go put them on for me!
We have leftover pizza AND pop AND ice!
I TiVo'ed something ridiculous on VH1 for us!
Lets do a fire in the fireplace!
Survivor is on tonight!


I don't like to reveal quite this much about my private private life. It feels a bit freaky. But what I don't like even more are all these lovebirds who are being so bad to each other. Life's short, folks. Find happiness in yourself, and spread it on. It really is ok to be a cool partner/roommate/spouse. In fact, its totally contagious ;)

His Majesty: The Scarlet Oak

I adore Oak trees, there is simply no other tree that can match its awesomeness. I love the leaf shape, I love the straight trunks, I love the precious, darling, amazing little acorns, I love the history and symbolism of Mighty Oak, King of the Forest. But the Black and White and Pin Oaks around town, as cool as they are, and as much as I appreciate each and every one of them, just do not do much in the way of exciting color display come autumn. The vast majority of our Oaks around here turn a very UPS brown, the poor dears.

But.., there is an Oak tree so awesome, so ridiculously beautiful in the fall time, that if you happen to luck upon one you will be forced to rub your eyes and squint at it, scarcely believing it is real--and that is the Scarlet Oak.

Scarlet Oak leaves turn an absolutely pure, fire, cardinal red. No hues of yellow, no bursts of pink, I am talking R-E-D. It looks fake! The first time I saw one, Casey was a new itty bitty baby, 2 months old, mid October 2003, and we were trying our hand at homeschool outings with three kids--so we went to a nature center about 20 miles north of my house, and we saw these gorgeous red trees. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were Oak leaves, and I was so excited! I started piling them into our car, into the stroller basket, into my bag--there was just not a single one of these trees anywhere in town. I would have noticed for sure. I thought it surely must be a "Red Oak", but when I got home and did a little research, I found out that it was the one and only fabulous SCARLET Oak--a perfect name for this color.

If I ever buy a home where I really am going to stay for years and years, I would immediately plant dozens of Scarlet Oaks around my property. I imagine people coming from miles around to stare at my cinnamon-cherry forest, kids picking up the leaves as fast as they could fall, folks taking photographs of their frolicky dog jumping in the bold red piles....

So, look around for any Scarlet Oaks near you! (And whatever you do, don't call it a Red Oak! Those are lovely too, but they are not the same.)

Red Oak; Not the same.

A few gaming pics

Dada and Charlie, playing Baby Bird Game.















Charlie contemplates his next roll.













Keeping an eye on Dada, so he doesn't try to pull any funny stuff.










Heroquest, the game Greta and Mickey love to play with good old Dada.