Our Simple Life

Working out at the gym

There's a rec center near us that has a great fitness center with elliptical machines, treadmills, bikes, etc. They charge $3 per time or $20 a month. Since no one under 17 is allowed in there I can only go when my husband is home with M & J. Well, this morning I went and started working out at 10:00 and only a few other people were there so I got to do what I like and jump around the machines. I did the elliptical for 25 minutes, the treadmill for 10, then back to the elliptical for another 10, and finally the treadmill for another 15. So, total-one hour of exercise today!

I feel really good and I hope to go again as often as I can (at least a few times a month).

OH! And while I was jogging I happened to look out the window panels along the top of the gym and saw that it was indeed snowing! We've had it all day but only about an inch has stuck. The temperature just isn't cooperating but I know it's supposed to deop into the 20's tonight. : )

Staying home

Today we're not going anywhere and there are many things I need to accomplish here at home.

1. Finish photo albums (almost done!!)

2. Make cookies.

3. Fold/ put away white load of laundry; dry/ fold/put away light load; wash/dry/fold/put away dark load; wash/dry/fold/put away bedding.

4. Vacuum upstairs & downstairs (maybe even the stairs if I have time).

5. Exercise for 60 minutes- 30 min in the morning & 30 in the afternoon or evening.

6. Crochet more on J's blanket.

7. Organize lower kitchen cabinet.

Routine exercising

I am focusing on getting in my workouts every day again. It seems like if I try to just exercise 3-4 times a week, I become unmotivated and it becomes only 1-2 times a week which is not enough. Yesterday I did my strength exercises with my "Ramp It Up" video. It has a lot of lower body work including lunges (reverse and forward) and whoa, my bottom is sore today! Today I am going to aim for 3 miles of walking/jogging and "Fit Kids" with M and J. They really enjoy working out with me to that DVD. :)

Here's to working up a sweat!!

Feeling Thankful

In past thanksgivings I have felt thankful for the normal things...health, family, shelter, etc. but honestly, I felt a sense of entitlement for all those things as well as many others.

This year a true feeling of thankfulness has overcome me. When I drive and I have heat blowing on me so that I'm not freezing, I actually feel thankful for the heat. When we're eating dinner and only have the light on above us and have all other lights turned off, I feel thankful that we aren't in the dark. The clean, running water we use to wash our hands, bodies, and dishes is a blessing. Our flushable toilet? A blessing! The gasoline we use everyday to run our car, no matter the price? A blessing. My 1992 Chevrolet Cavalier is a blessing. Our two bedroom duplex that I used to think was too small? A HUGE blessing. Our two children......blessings.

Thank you, Lord for all that we have.

Back to School

Since we don't take summers off from school we just take breaks throughout the year as we need them. They're not usually planned except in the case of the weeks before and after Christmas. Well, we've just finished an unplanned week and a half break. I have been focusing on our home; organizing and simplifying a LOT so I just decided it was a good time for time off. The weather has been fabulous so M and J have been outside more and I've taken them to a park almost every day in the afternoon.

Speaking of which, I guess they have been doing "school". Autumn changes teach a lot about science. Geese have been flying overhead in their migrating "V"; squirrels have been busy collecting acorns so they can eat throughout the winter; leaves on M and J's favorite climbing trees are changing beautifully and then dropping to the ground. :)

Anyway, today we'll start back having organized school in addition to "real life" school.

Born To Buy

The other night I was reading an article about consumerism online and a book was recommended called Born To Buy by Juliet B. Schor. I picked it up today at the library. From what I've read so far, it is frightening how much focus there is on advertising to children and the materialistic view children now have.

While reading today, I started to realize one of the reasons I have always struggled with "things", wanting more and the desire to be like "the Jones'" has to do with the decade that I was a child. I am 27 years old, born in 1980. During that decade, channels exclusively for children were first introduced on cable. It didn't take long before channels like Nickelodeon were huge advertisers. I remember feeling deprived at times because my mom wouldn't buy certain cereals that she thought were unhealthy (but that I'd seen a commercial for and just HAD to have). 

There were also other forms of advertising geared toward children that came out when I was a child like the Sears Toy Book. It seriously was a book and I remember every Nov/Dec my older sister and I would go through that thing over and over, circling things we wanted and making side-notes for our parents (you know, to make it easier on them!)  How unhealthy and self-satisfying is that stuff?

Anyway, more once I've read more....

Allowance

M gets $5 a week as her allowance. We link it with chores and it makes it nice that she doesn't ask for us to buy her extra things because she knows that if she wants something she has to use her money. Now, that doesn't mean that she can choose whatever she wants to buy-we still have to approve it first.

Before September when she'd get her $5 we had her save $2.50 in her monthly spending bank (to be used on the last Saturday of the month), $2 in her long-term savings bank (to be used for a larger purchase saved over time), and then she'd have $.50 to spend each week. This worked pretty well. She wasn't buying dolar store junk each week or begging for a $10 item because she knew she could get it at the end of the month.

In September she started saving all of her allowance so she can buy birthday and Christmas presents (In our family there are four birthdays from the end of Nov. through December). For Christmas she is making extended family and friends ornaments. Another reason we had/are having her save all of her allowance is so that on Christmas it will have been a long time since she got anything new.

O.k., so after two and half months of no spending, M is surprisingly MORE content and LESS materialistic than before even though she's getting less. It seems like her play has gotten more imaginative as well. I'm sure my attitude about "stuff" has made a big difference and my including her in donating our excess to the women's and children's shelter has helped too. I think the biggest factor in her newfound gratefulness is the no money thing, though. 

So, come January, rather than going back to giving her some to spend each week, we're going to keep the no spending thing in place and let her save for something large (like admission to the Georgia aquarium). I love that she is changing how she feels about "stuff" right along with me! 

Home Movies

Today I worked on transferring our home videos to VHS tapes. Once I'm done I'll begin transferring those to DVD and we'll be up to date. I will then need to keep doing that every time we fill a 8 mm tape and not wait because thins is very time consuming to do catch-up!

I also need to finish organizing out photographs. I've already labeled all the negatives and CDs. I still need to put old photos where they go in the albums and put in order the newer photos into the current albums. And again, each time I bring a new pack home I need to immediately file them.

It will feel really good to finish all of this.

Christmas presents

I already know basically what we're getting the children for Christmas. A few weeks ago I started shopping because it's easier financially to spend a little each weekend than all at once in December. I hope to be done near the beginning of December.

M(our seven yr old daughter) is getting a rock polisher (she's always had a thing for collecting pebbles, rocks, and stones and this year mentioned she'd like a polisher); Season 1 of the Brady Bunch on DVD (It has 27 episodes! I got it at Target for $19.99!); a remote control car (identical to the one that J is also getting except a different color), and a gold cross necklace. I am still debating about what to get as the last one or two gifts. I don't want to buy anything that will be cast aside quickly after receiving.

J (our almost four yr old son) is getting the remote control car I mentioned above; a Buzz Lightyear; two new 24 piece puzzles, and an addition to his wooden train set (I'm thinking about maybe a roundhouse or a tunnel of some sort). Again, the last one or two things are still undecided.

Together their getting a new pogo stick that has a large base which makes it eaisier to stay on.

J's birthday is Christmas Eve but normally we celebrate it the weekend before. This year the Saturday before is only two days before so we're doing it on the previous one which is the fifteenth. For his birthday gifts from us he's getting a soccer goal (LOVES soccer but he's never used a goal ) and a Hot Wheels tractor trailer "car carrier". (So cute! I may even have to play with that one a little ;)

Simplifying

We have too much stuff. I've been busy going through things and evaluating what we really need and have used in the recent past vs. the "stuff". Most of it I bought because it was a good deal, and some I had intentions of using but didn't put enough thought into beforehand. Also, there are a good amount of toys and play things which are overlooked all the time which need to go. Things we don't need I've either donated to a thrift store whose proceeds go to a women's and children's shelter or to our library. It's been a long process but I'm getting it done and it feels great!

I went through our computer games and found about ten that don't get used on any regular basis or they are similiar to others we have. I took them to the library we go to weekly and donated them so the library can check them out to others (they're all educational). I also took several videos to the library that they can checkout.

My homeschool cabinet in the living room got a good going-through last week, let me tell you! I donated probably 50 workbooks and teacher lesson plan books to the library (to sell at their booksale). I didn't get rid of these because they're not great resources or because I didn't like them. I let them go because they don't fit my teaching style and they've just sat there and collected dust and will continue to do so no matter our children's ages.

I emptied our files in the file cabinets this morning and chucked anything that wasn't necessary to keep. Old medical directories and healthplan BOOKS! I'll take those to be recycled in a few days. It also reminded me to get the old phonebooks out to be recycled. Other things I threw away were all the printouts from sick visits for the kids and misc. medical paperwork I don't even know why I ever kept. LOL

The other day M (our 7 yr old daughter) asked me if I'd show her what was in my two Rubbermaid "keepsake" containers while J (our almost 4 yr old son) was napping. So on Wednesday we spent an hour going through them together. I used the time to really look at the stuff I was keeping and decide if I really needed things in those containers. I kept anything that belonged to someone else (my great grandmother's apron, my great grandfather's zippo, etc.) as well as things like my baby book and quilt. I went from two containers to one, I am happy to say! Some things were things others might enjoy so I'll donate them to the thrift store but a lot of it was thrown away.

M and J were styling my husband's and my hair the other night and he mentioned the excess of hairclips, headbands and the other hair accessories. I totally agreed! I didn't even realize how much we had until he said something, though. It's crazy how we get used to things and they don't strike us as being too much after a while. Anyway, yesterday morning I asked M to go through the 3 baskets of hair accessories and choose out the ones she wears on a regular basis and get rid of any she didn't. She's getting very good at letting things go. I was really proud of her that she didn't argue with me about how she needed all of them. She also did the same with her Barbies. She had eleven to begin with and now has six. :) They were ones that she never plays with and we both think six is plenty, don't you? 

Yesterday I went through their blocks. They have tiny-size Legos in a case which I kept and the next size up Legos which I also left alone in their original container. In addition to those, they also have some preschool size blocks which I down-sized into a smaller container (I donated what didn't fit). Last but not least they have those connecting pattern blocks which I halved into another small-size container and again donated the excess.

I feel on top of it at this point. The only area that stands out to me that we have an abundance is children's books and we'll tackle that next, but there's no rush as we do have two small bookshelves neatly holding them (one in their room and one in ours). It's not that having a LOT of books is a bad thing, but in our case, we visit the library once a week and check out around ten books per child so they're reading new books all the time and don't enjoy many from our home library. I'll be very selective, though, about which ones we do donate to the library and have M and J as my little consultants.