Is it type A, or the old way?

I've been thinking about this amazing woman the past couple of days. She's one of the most organized people I know. She's a full time working (outside the home) single mother to soon to be 12, 14, and 15 year old girls. She drives 25 miles one way to work each day, round tripping over 50 miles each day after taking and picking up the girls from school- add another twenty if the youngest has softball practice. She travels every weekend for travel (soft) ball, and is in her third season now doing this. Aside from the working and traveling, her house is always amazing. A classy flair for decorating, but not overboard about it. Everything has a place, and everything is in it. "Clean lines", no clutter.

She's my best friend.

You would think I was the same way, but I'm not. I have always admired her neatness. We vacationed together, her and the girls, Jay, myself and our kids, last summer. I saw why her house is always neat. She never sits down. She is always moving, doing something. We have loosely established she has a "Type A" personality (quiz). Her world is a routine of getting things done and fighting clutter: Kate Gosselin has nothing on her! However, she's not a hostile person. No really. Unless she's late. (No I'm just joking! and I don't believe Kate is, either, for the record.)

She's on vacation right now and yesterday I went to water her flowers for her. She's so independent- on the way to her house (27 miles from my door to hers) I got to thinking, she's only asked me to do something for her three times, counting yesterday, in the last five years. Dad went with me because he'd been wanting to see her new house (she moved back before Christmas, we've been best friends since we were 14, known each other longer than that!). Dad, by habit always makes note of whether a person could benefit from his house cleaning services. We got into a conversation about how clean her house was as he peeked through the windows (and shes going to die laughing when she reads this!) and it made me think about something I wrote on Saturday.

On Saturday I mentioned Jays grandmother:
"You can eat off her floors- she's one who doesn't go to bed until every dish is cleaned and put in it's place- nothing left in the dishwasher."
There's no difference between my best friend and Jays grandmother. I got to thinking about how people tend to look at ladies of grandmama's generation and lift them up to "heavenly homemaker" status, and they look at my generation, like at my best friend and attribute her same homemaking success to "survival".

Is there really a difference? The older generation had to survive, too. The necessity for neatness was the same when grandmama was our age, as it is now. Her habits of having a clean house and no dishes left (at the end of the day) started when she was our age. The difference is, she's had the drive to keep it going. I look at grandmama and her specific ways of doing things, and can easily see my best friend in fifty years. Why am I different? In grandmama's generation, if a homemakers house looked like mine, they might be silently accused of drinking during the day while their husband was at work! That's the change in our society. Sin has become explainable.

Yes, I said sin. How many excuses do we make for sin each day? It's not that we don't have time to do something: it's that we won't. The bible says:
1 Corinthians 10:31
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

How does wasting an excess of time to the detriment of our homes, fit into "whatsoever ye do"? It doesn't, really, does it? Our society has become so acceptable of sin, it actually encourages laziness to a degree, would you agree? All too often you'll see moms online telling each other "go ahead and ______, you deserve it!", but do we really? Does that mom actually know, that we truly deserve anything? I'm willing to bet in grandmama's time, if they were on the phone talking and mentioned wanting to do something, the friend's response would like be "well when you finish ____ maybe you will have time this evening"- the priority was the home, the job. I'll be the first to admit, right now, the way my house looks, if I was my housekeeper, I would be FIRED.

Excuses. They are so easy to make. This brings me back to my best friend. I said earlier we established she was a "Type A" personality. Some people call it OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which often is identified first by a strong desire for things to be neat and orderly). We see these neat, organized, orderly women and excuse OURSELVES by saying "Oh she's Type A ...." "She must have OCD ....". Maybe she has it right, and we need to start acknowledging "Wow, I need to get a move on!" "I need tips from her!" "I need to get more sleep so I can have more energy!". She is really no different than grandmama, except that way of handling life and home has become the exception instead of the norm.

The bottom line is, we can have a neat and orderly house if we choose to have one. It might just be the feeling of inability we have is really months and possibly years of our excusing our sin for something else and not addressing the issue at hand: our own natural tendency to laziness. Some people can quit smoking and have no problem with it- others (like myself) have to fight a serious spiritual battle to overcome that problem. Some people tend to not struggle with the sin of laziness (or distraction), while others of us do. {Distraction in and of its self is not a sin, but the result of distraction can be.}

So what do we do about it as Christians? Confess your faults (and sin) to the Lord and get it right. Pray about it. If you are comfortable, ask a trusted friend to pray for you concerning this.
James 5:16
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

If you would like, leave me a comment and I will pray for you- we can pray for each other :-)

The ants go marching one by one ...

You won't hear a "hurrah" from me when they're in my kitchen!! Every summer without fail, we get a critter problem in the kitchen. I used to have such a complex about it thinking I was not cleaning good enough because "obviously" if you have ants or gnats you have a dirty house. They might be in dirty houses, but they're in clean houses, too. I learned that a few summers ago when we visited Jay's grandmother in Alabama. You can eat off her floors- she's one who doesn't go to bed until every dish is cleaned and put in it's place- nothing left in the dishwasher. That summer, she had ants too. By the time we left, Jay had found the root and taken care of it.

Ants are looking for food. So naturally if you have any sweet residue on your counters (think wiping up chocolate syrup from making a glass of milk) and you didn't get the counter good enough because you were being stretched in four different directions- all it takes is ONE ant to find it. (I've witnessed this, but if you have a "garbage bowl" from cooking, that's an obvious culprit!). The ant knows how to get back to the food, and it lets out a pheromone for the rest of the ants to come along and get the food. All it takes is ONE. They follow ant #1's trail and voila! There's your infestation.

So how do you stop it? Stop the trail. Jay went out the other day and sprayed air freshener (that's what was within reach) around the window seal to the kitchen, and on the ground for good keeping- and the ants are GONE. He interrupted the trail outside- now they're looking elsewhere for food. Anything to throw the scent off- I'm sure vinegar water will work, too.

He said he'd leave the cut up lemons I had strategically placed outside the window seal up so the next time we had friends from church over he could mention that was my plan to ward the evil spirits away. Hey, I read in an article citrus was supposed to work- I was on the right path!

Frugal Friday 4-10

I found a post of Stephanie's about the cooking-with-dried vs. cooking-with-canned-beans debate. I personally have found the dried beans in the crockpot thing to be great. It saves you money and gives you more options for meals since beans covers a wide variety of dishes, am I not right? Last night we had Stephanie's (black) beans and rice, it was great!

Wouldn't you know, Stephanie from Keeper of the Home posted about this very thing, and mentioned a BROWNIE made with black beans?! Seriously! It's the neatest looking blog to, and it says "... most recipes here are gluten-free, many are dairy-free, and almost all are suitable for hypoglycemics and diabetics.", which is great!!

Making your home a haven: 3-23

I just found this meme through Crystal at Biblical Womanhood, and I'm so glad she mentioned it because this is something I need right now. At this point, my home is my biggest weakness. I've started reading my Flylady emails again, and actually, just this morning, made the bed and swished and swiped. It amazes me how at one time, when Jackson was little, I was incredibly, Kate Gosselin-like organized and structured, and all that is out the window these days, and has been for a good while now! So this kind of accountability-slash-challenge is good for me personally. If you'd like to join me, I'd love to encourage you! Just leave me a link to your blog or if you don't blog, comment and let me know ho you're progressing.

Today she is talking about morning routines. I'm babystepping the routine thing right now but am following loosely the FLYlady morning routine though in no particular order:

Morning Routine:
-Get Dressed to Shoes including Hair/Face, Brush Teeth
- Make Bed
-Swish & Swipe
-Empty Dishwasher
-Reboot Laundry (a Load a Day Keeps CHAOS Away cause it's neverending)
-Check Your Calendar
-Check Your Control Journal

Hey, I said babysteps, right? So the challenge is to have five things for a routine, so let me see how I can customize Marla's idea to make it my own-

1. Get up, make coffee, swish and swipe.
2. Go wake up the kids.
3. Start getting Dressed to Shoes including Hair/Face (I'm running low in foundation so face might not get done some days until I can reorder- Everyday Minerals, ya know .. Oh! check out their specials!! Note to self- order this weekend. Oh, what was I doing ... the list! ok ...)
4. Go wake up the kids again. Get some coffee.
5. Reboot laundry (if previous day's loads are folded, hung up, and put up)
6. Start breakfast.
7. Make sure the kids are getting ready and not back asleep on my bed.
   Ideally the rest of the monring would be something like:
8. Breakfast.
9. Take kids to school.
10. Come home, do bible reading.
11. Work out if it's Monday, Wednesday or Friday.
12. Blog (reading, writing) and email.
13. 15 minutes decluttering.
14. Reboot laundry.

Oh I'm tired juts thinking of it. I need all the help I can get!!

added: Talking about routines, SimpleMom has an article up with 20 tips of finding your routine- even with kids. It's simple great! I like her perspective.

A Cheesy Imposter

I'm for some reason attracted to gluten free recipes. Caesin free, the better. However, I've not had much experience with cooking this way, but the concept is very interesting for me. I love Carrie's blog Ginger Lemon Girl. She is very inventive with her recipes and has lots of good looking things on there.

If you are interested in this way of cooking, this is definitely a good place to "jump off", from. I'm very interested in trying this recipe she's posted about:

Ginger Lemon Girl: A Cheesy Imposter (Gluten Free, Casein Free, and Soy Free "Cheese" Sauce)

I asked what garlic granules were because I had never heard of them. Jay likes to cook with garlic salt, for the garlic flavor without dealing with actual garlic. I am SO going to order some of these granules- at $2.49 a container that's a steal! The fact that Carrie cares enough about her readers to go back and insert links into her articles is very telling of her generosity and willingness to help people through her blog, I believe. (Thank you Carrie!)

Speaking of new recipes, I recently bought the book Deceptively Delicious, and it's so great! A friend of mine posted about her recent brownie experience, and it made me think of this brownie recipe I want to try. Jackson thinks the concept is awesome and that we shouldn't tell Hannah until she's been eating some of the recipes :p

What do you think? Is that a concept that interests you? Would you try something like that?

added:
Speaking of food, I just went by Tara's and she has a yummy looking broccoli, cheese, and rice casserole recipe posted. Check it out!

raising foodies 3-19

This week, we're highlighting the night we made tuna pasta salad. That's a dish that is welcomed in our home, and Hannah enjoys making it. It's very easy, and frugal. I always make a big batch of it because it reheats well (for us weirdos) and you can eat it cool for lunch the next day.

We start out with half a bag of yolk free egg noodles, though probably any pasta will work- the texture of this pasta works well for our family. While you're boiling your noodles, boil some eggs- we usually boil six, because one will get eaten before it reaches the pot.

While the pasta and the eggs are boiling, chop some sweet gerkin pickles up. We like these pickles, so we usually use eight or ten of them (eating some along the way too). I leave some bigger chunks, and chop some smaller as well. When the eggs are ready, peel them, and chop them up in the manner you choose to chop. I love my egg slicer- I slice egg whites one way, then I turn them around and slice them again for a "chopped" size.

Put everything together after the pasta is drained back in the same pot- the pasta, eggs, pickles, tuna ....

Mix everything together with mayonaise. Jay likes a lot of mayo, but in my attempt to watch calories, I use less than what he would. You add as much as or less as you want for your own family. For those watching cholesterol, I've used Veganaise with this too and it was equally delicious.

Finished product-

Salt and pepper individual servings to taste.

Life

Categories pertaining to the "Life of CalvaryGirl"

New year is killing me

Well, not really, but still. I got a rather interesting revelation last week. When I had went to the doctor for the strep, when they handed me my printout thingy I just folded it and put it in my jacket pocket. When Jay and I were headed out the other night, I pulled it out and happened to glance at it and got "the suprise". I've said for years, to family and friends, yes, I am overweight. I feel awful. and YES, there are reasons why I cannot just simply "eat better". I want to, I desperately WANT to, but am not afforded this luxury. It has been a struggle in my house for quite some time and frankly, I've just been doing the best I could with what I have been given to work with. I look at the paper, and you know how in the corner it says your "diagnosis for the day"? #1- strep throat ... #2- obesity. Well no, they didn't say anything about my weight at that visit (I figure they assumed I'd get the hint from the sheet?).

So there you have it. There's the reality. This is what happens when you refuse to support your loved ones with their burdens because it would cause you to get out of your own comfort zones. Great, my life insurance premiums will probably go up, as well as health insurance when we reapply this month or next :o/

HOWEVER~ now I'm not "crazy"! It's on paper! I really AM as big as I have been saying I was for quite some time now! So it can finally make sense to people that when I say my feet hurt, they are hurting from the arthitis that has formed in them and the fact they are bearing the brunt of an obese woman. No wonder I can't stand on my feet for long amounts of time any more!! No wonder my back and hips flare up not along after my feet start tingling! It's on paper now, can we PLEASE start eating healthy now? Naysayers- NO- you CANNOT lose weight by exercising alone! You make things worse in some cases :o/

I got out of bed optimistic yesterday. After Jay left with the kids I done a one mile walk, stayed on the low impact end because I needed to do other things around the house. After that I got ready, even put on makeup. Cleaned out the fridge down to condiments- spent over an hour between the fridge and washing dishes, rinsing jars, etc for the recycling bin, and making trips out to the woods to throw everything out.
I completed four or five loads of laundry- though mainly blankets except for two loads of clothes. So count the back and forth to the laundry room, standing to fold, walking around the house putting everything up. I was able to rest for a little bit before mom and dad brought the kids home, and they stayed the evening with us for dinner. Before I started dinner my cousin came by to give Jackson a belated bday present, and while she was visiting with mom and dad I cooked dinner (spaghetti with deer meat in the sauce, YUM!). That was about another hour on my feet moving about. (I love cooking though! don't get me wrong!)

It was a good, accomplished day. Sidenote, the blessing of the day was my cousin had a HUGE bag of daffodils she brought home from work (with permission, lol) and she gave me about five pounds of bulbs before she left. I'm so excited! I want to build a "cut garden" right out of the back door, that will be so nice!
I hurt SO bad by the time nine o'clock come, I could not stand it!
I'm so tired of this! I don't want to be a 33 year old disabled person!
Please pray the Lord would work out the hinderances to my health, I'd really appreciate it.

Oh! and speaking of health- my migraines. I was back to having them on a regular, somewhat frequent basis. You know over Christmas break I started back drinking coffee at home (instead of having a cup a day from McD's and that was it) ... and the migraines are not NEAR as frequent as they were? I can't win for losing ;o)

Catching up on Laundry; Ebay

Laundry has to be my most dreaded chore of all. I have the hardest time keeping up with it. I am hoping since we're getting into more solid routines now that I'll gain the ability to stay diligent with laundry. But for now, I'm behind.

I went to a new laundromat today called "Laundra Bright". It's a really neat system they have there. They have these HUGE washers along with smaller ones. A 2 load, a 4 load, and the huge one is a 5/6 load. I had a regular sized storage tote overflowing with Jackson's clothes that I put in the 5/6 load machine, and an overflowing round basket of Hannah's clothes that went into the 4 load washer. I literally done what would have equivalated to an easy 6 loads, packed in the washer today in the same time as one wash / dry cycle! and I still have a hallway full of clothes to go! LOL! But all that today for the bargain price of $11. Can't beat it.

I'm thinking of opening up a Ebay store. I have tried to find consignment shops that I liked the clothes that would do trades and have been unsuccessful. I figure Ebay would be a good option to sell our gently used items. What do you think? Any Ebay'ers out there?

I'm really gonna do it this time

I'm going to conquer Mt Washmore that's sitting in my bedroom. Yep, the bedroom. Everything is clean, smells good, etc-- except it's in a mountain on my bed (or beside). I'm dedicating today to laundry- sorting the seasonal, moving new seasons in, freecycling, potential-ebay choices, who knows ;o) I'll check in as I reach milestones.

and for safe keeping, I've moved the computer chair into the kitchen to avoid temptation :p~~~~

1pm: Well, I have found the floor in my bedroom for the most part. It was getting pretty bad in here. Still have some totes with stuff in it but I'm getting a good pile of stuff in the hallway that will need washing. Apparently this last "funk" of depression made a harder hit than I realized. Uhg. No more, I tell ya! I have everything sorted as far as mine, Jay's, Jackson, & Hannah's. That's getting somewhere!!

3:20: I just finished going through a tote of Hannah's clothes from last year, weeding some freecycle stuff out. Put the summer stuff in that, and got half of her winter stuff hung up. I went through a tote of hand-me-downs last night and paired the outfits together. I'll hang those up when we get back. For now, it's time to go get Jackson :)

My accountability

This is my make-shift "ta da" thread, LOL As I finish chores I will post them here. This will be my motivation to get some things done around here. Actually, I will edit this particular post :p

So far today, I have:

Washed three loads of clothes, and two of them are on my bed waiting to be folded.

Picked up trash around the kitchen, and took out one bag of trash.

Made three sigs for one of my friends...I thought it was cool ;o)
I had to reduce the original size by 75% because the file size was sooo big. This is still pretty big but much better than what it was before. This took me around an hour from beginning to finish to complete. Of course that's from, coming up with the idea, thinking about how I would make it, and actually doing it :p

Lets go fold some clothes now .... and take a nap, lol

---

Okay, it's 5:20: I have swept the front porch, moved some things around in there;

hung up some jeans and blankets I washed on the balcony;

washed / dried another load of clothes.

We're headed to my parents now for dinner so I'll fold tonight when we get home ;o)

---

9:25: Jackson and I cleaned the livingroom tonight. Got all the "stuff" out of the way, I vaccumed, couch cleared off- it looks nice. Jay had to work late tonight so I thought it would be a nice thing for him to come home to instead of the normal CHAOS that ensues in the LR.

I'm about to take my shower, and fold/hang/put away a BUNCH of clothes. The washer and dryer are 'down' for the evening *g*