One Bite at a Time: Bite #23 - Regularly turn off your tv

I sort of chose a gimme task for this past week's project, regularly turn off your tv. It's something we already do, but since it's not that intentional, I realize it has the potential to get out of hand. When we're all at my in-laws, the tv is almost always on. That's really the place I need to enforce this one.

The thing that is intentional, though, is the lack of satellite tv at our house. My husband made a promise that he would never pay for television and so far, he's kept his promise. I've noticed that when I'm at my in-laws there are so many options, some of them very educational, it's easy to pick something that seems harmless and waste a couple of hours. It is harmless if that happens only occasionally, but if we had that many options at our house, it would be a regular thing. Especially with my need to get what I pay for.

So, in our home, where we have about 5 channels of less than mediocre programming, we are content with a regular movie night, provided by Netflix. My husband and I have complete control over what our kids are watching and have the freedom to be intentional about it. Sometimes, it's something fun, and sometimes we have a hidden agenda to educate. No matter, we are all together, popcorn in hand, enjoying something that was a planned event.

Regularly turn off your tv - check. What does your family's tv habit look like?

One Bite at a Time: Bite #3, Establish a morning routine

Get it here

Since I'm only 3 weeks into this 52 Bites thing, it seemed pretty natural to me what project I should complete this week. Project number 3 is "Establish a morning routine." Lord knows my mornings are usually a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of affair unless I have something in my schedule that requires a plan. Schedules, let alone a specific morning one, have never really been on my radar, but I realize if I'm wanting some different results in my life, I have to change some things.

I am not a morning person, per se, but I can easily adapt to something that's required of me over a period of time. That's what happened when I started having kids 13 years ago. Even after all these years, I still wake up a hot, groggy mess, but I can function when I need to. Thank you, coffee. My current schedule requires that I wake one child at 7, fix breakfast for that child and either send him off to school with my husband or take him myself. While I'm doing that, my other 3 sleep until I wake them up.

And that, folks, is about the only schedule I have. It's a little more hurried when I have someplace to be or Tuesdays when I'm hosting coffee, and a little more laid back when it's just a regular day. And on the weekends, I sleep in. Period. Granted, I can't sleep much past 8 anymore, but that one precious extra hour has become golden to me.

When I read over the section about establishing a morning routine, I started to dread it. I know my day will go a lot smoother if I have some time to myself every morning, but I've just never done it so I can't imagine being able to establish a habit in that area.

Here are some suggestions, from the book, to include in a morning routine:

Take a shower
Pray
Exercise
Drink a glass of water
Stretch
Make your bed
Read your Bible
Meditate
Journal
Take Vitamins
Read encouraging quotes or a devotional
Review your family purpose statement
Listen to a particular song
Sit outside for a few minutes with a cup of coffee
Dump your brain

Hmmm, I can see I'm going to have to wing it. Which is what I should be doing anyway because no one can make a morning schedule for another person. It has to be personal. The only thing I do regularly is drink a cup of coffee so that has to be in there somewhere. And a list. I love making lists so maybe I'll sit with my coffee and make a list for the day. I guess that would be considered dumping my brain. I do remember a time when I used to sit on the edge of my bed in the morning for about 10 minutes doing nothing. My husband used to call it 'sitting', but I think all that was was me waiting for my brain to wake up so I could actually function. Eventually, with the increasing needs of my children, I didn't even have 10 extra minutes to sit on the edge of my bed. Things have calmed down a bit since then and now my kids are more predictable sleepers so maybe I'll revisit the sitting. I'll just have a cup of coffee in my hand and I'll make a list for the day.

So here's my new morning routine:

6:45 Get up, wake John up, sit, drink my coffee and make a list until John comes in for breakfast at 7. (He takes a shower every morning)

Since this morning routine just involves me, it seems pretty simple. Fifteen minutes of me time may not sound like much, but I think it might be just what I need. Then, when everyone else wakes up, I'll  start my regular chores and things that involve everyone else. I'm not very good at keeping to a routine so I guess having a simple one to begin with is the way to go. If I can keep it up, and it helps, maybe I'll add some things to it. We'll see.

I guess I should change this week's project to 'come up with a morning routine'. I can't really say I've established it yet, but it's written down. Now, to do it.

What is your morning routine?

One Bite at a Time: Bite #6, Create a family purpose statement

Get it here

After last week's haircare post, I wasn't sure where I wanted to go next in the 52 Bites book. There's no set format for doing the projects. There are 52 of them, but they can be done in whatever order and at whatever pace you prefer. I like that flexibility, but I also have a hard time making decisions when faced with a lot of options. I was still undecided during church yesterday when we stood up to do our declarations. After saying them out loud again, I realized they had become more of an empty mantra rather than something I was intentionally living by. I remembered that there was a project in the book about creating a family mission/purpose statement and decided that that would be a good place to start this week.

In the book, there's a link to a mission statement builder on Franklin Covey's website. I went through it and came up with a rough statement, but wanted to start our family with something more foundational. I'll be working on a more practical, day-to-day statement, but this is where we're going to put our focus for now. I've listed the point, and then expanded on how I've interpreted it's meaning and how that will apply to our family.

1. We experience love daily.

In our home, there will be an atmosphere of love. Love will be something we can always count on. My children can be confident that they will feel loved every day.

 2. We give love on all occasions.

In our interactions with each other, we will make love our highest priority. We won't be controlled by fear or anger. We will let love dictate how we should handle situations.

3. We open ourselves to be fully known.

Our home will be a safe place to be completely open and honest. We won't hold things back because of the pain it might cause to share it. We will trust each other with every part of ourselves.

4. We see others through the lens of love and destiny, not condemnation and judgement.

In our family, we will do and say what's best for each other in a loving way so that we can be the people God created us to be. We will not condemn or judge each other, but speak truth so that we can overcome the areas that are holding us back.

5. We value family, no matter the cost.

Our family will be our top priority. We will do what it takes to know each other fully and be intentional about our time with each other. Even if that means sacrificing things like lots of extracurricular activities.

6. We are free from the weight of performance.

In our family, love is not based on how well you perform. There will be freedom to try new things and explore what we are passionate about, knowing that if we fail, that will not determine our worth. Each one of us is a valuable member of the family based on who they are, not what they do.  

7. We value people over purpose.

We will pursue our dreams, but not at the expense of our relationships. Success can only be achieved if we can go after the things we are passionate about, while maintaining full and healthy relationships with the people around us.

This year, I will be going through all the projects in the One Bite at a Time book and sharing my experience on Mondays. You can keep track of my progress here.


Linking up here:

One Bite at a Time: Bite #29, Switch to gentle, eco-friendly haircare

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up. We had a city-wide power outage this morning that slowed everything down. And this is a small town so things already run a little slow.

I mentioned last week that I'd be doing a weekly post on the One Bite at a Time project. You can still get the e-book by going here. It's only $5 and you can print it out or keep it on your computer's desktop, however you roll. I've got mine in a trusty binder because I have a love affair with binders.

The bite I'm starting with is #29, Switch to gentle, eco-friendly hair care. This was the perfect place to start for me because I haven't been happy with my current hair care regime for some time now. When I was single, I had a roommate who was a hair dresser and I got Aveda products at cost so I was a little spoiled. Now that I live with 5 other people, we're on more of a Pert Plus budget. The problem with most shampoos, from cheap to expensive, is that they are full of chemicals. And with skin being our largest organ, and extremely porous, all those chemicals can enter the bloodstream and stay there for quite a while.

There's a lot more you can read on the subject here. It's the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep site and it has loads of information on all the products we use on our skin from day to day. You can even look up the products you're currently using and see how they rate.

So, at the beginning of December, I stopped using shampoo. Yep, I quit cold turkey. I figured with the holidays being just around the corner, I wouldn't be going out as much so I could try it out and see what kind of results I got. I don't get out much anyway. I started by using baking soda and water mixed in a squirt bottle. I can't remember the amounts I used, I just poured a couple of spoonfuls of baking soda, added water to the top and started squirting it on my head. Be warned, there are no suds. That was hard for me to get used to because I've been programmed to think suds=clean. I couldn't really tell if it was doing anything so I rinsed with a mixture of vinegar and water that I had poured into another bottle. That was it. I had read on some sites that your hair can easily become dry while you find the perfect amounts for your hair type. Well, mine stayed a little oily for a while. No matter, I kept going. I didn't leave the house for a few days unless my hair was up in a pony tail and I washed it again about 4 days later. I gotta tell ya, even after those 4 days, it wasn't much oilier than the day I washed it. Not near as bad as when I let my hair go an extra day on regular shampoo and conditioner.

This was my hair before I washed it.

This is after I dried and straightened it. I'm obviously not all that impressed yet.

Over the next few weeks, I kept at it, tweaking my recipe each time until I found the perfect combo for me. I researched a lot of sites and YouTube videos to see what others had done. There's a lot of advice out there. Eventually, I settled on what this girl does.

It's been over a month and I have to say, I feel like my hair has adjusted and I've settled into a routine. In case you didn't watch the video linked above, I'll share what I'm currently doing.

I have a bottle with a small squirt spout that I use for the baking soda mixture. I add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and fill the rest with warm water. Then, for the vinegar rinse, I fill it about a third with apple cider vinegar and the rest with water. I marked my bottle so I wouldn't have to measure every time.

 

When I first started, I was washing my hair in the sink. This got to be pretty messy because the baking soda mixture splatters everywhere. And you can't tell where it's splashed until it dries.

Little white water spots on everything around the kitchen sink.

Plus, I knew I wanted to eventually do this while I was already taking a shower. So this is how I do it. I get in the shower and instead of wetting my hair down, I use the baking soda mixture to wet my hair completely. That way, I know that when it's wet all over, I've got the baking soda everywhere. Then I start scrubbing. I do this for a few minutes and then squirt the vinegar mixture all over my scalp. That part is actually kind of nice. The vinegar acts with the baking soda and creates a fizzy sensation all over the scalp. Once that's all worked in, I just rinse with water and continue with my shower.

Here's Mr. Park feeling my hair to see if it's too oily. He's a pretty health conscious  guy, but he doesn't get the shampoo thing. And he's a little afraid if you start telling people you don't use shampoo anymore, they'll think you're one of those people. Too late. When I told my sister what I was doing, she rolled her eyes at me as if to say, "You're always doing something weird." She's right about that.

Yesterday morning was the first day I was really satisfied with the way my hair felt. They say that it takes several weeks for your hair to adjust to this new method. You won't be stripping away every bit of oil on your hair every time you wash it so your body won't need to produce extra oil to compensate. I curled my hair before church, got a few compliments and it felt great. I will say that the squeaky clean feeling you get after you wash your hair in shampoo is long gone. That took a little getting used to. I would say that washing your hair this way takes it to a 2nd day feel. You know, the first day your hair is squeaky clean and then the next day it has a little oil in it. I could never get my hair to cooperate with me until the 2nd day anyway, so this works perfect for me.

 

 

 

My hair really is soft and manageable and all the things you want it to be while being healthy for my skin. I'm sold. One bite down, 51 more to go!

52 Bites: A schedule

Alright, I've made a decision. In keeping with my 'fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants' theme for this blog,  I've decided that starting this coming Monday, I'll be posting the current 'bite' I'm working on for the 52 Bites project. This all started back in November when I discovered this wonderful guide to simplifying your life. I love the idea of working on something for 52 weeks and hopefully, at the end of the year, I'll have a completely transformed and simpler life. You can read more about the e-book here.

If you want to follow along with my progress and maybe even do a little simplifying yourself, you can get the book for a whole dollar off until next Tuesday, January 10th. Click here and enter the coupon code HAPPYNEWYEAR and get it for $4! Your copy will arrive in your inbox and all you have to do is download it, print it out and put it in a binder or read it on your desktop. What could be easier?

Get it here!

On Monday, I'll be starting with bite #29. This bite has been quite an experience so come back Monday for all the gory details!

On going paperless...

One of the items in the 52 Bites list I've been working on is going paperless in the kitchen. This is one of those things that I figured I'd do eventually anyway, so I went ahead and decided to be intentional about it. In other words, I ran out of paper towels and forgot to buy more. Again.

The first to notice was Mr. Park. He was helping me clean up the kitchen one night and he asked where the paper towels were. I told him to just use a rag. That wasn't hard for me because I don't usually clean up my kitchen with paper towels. I'm a dishrag kind of girl. I like to have lots of them on hand and I like a clean one every day. Sometimes twice a day if someone else has been in my kitchen. He rolled his eyes and got a rag out of the drawer.

A few nights later, we had friends over for dinner and one of them asked if I had a paper towel to wipe her daughter's mouth. I sheepishly told her we were sort of trying to go paperless in the kitchen and sorry but I don't have any and here's a clean dishrag. That one was a little harder, but I'd say I was still feeling pretty confident with my new lifestyle decision. Until last night.

Here's the list of events that took place. I assure you, none of this was made up.

1. I awoke at 2:45 am to go to the bathroom. 
2. I went into the living room to check on my daughter who had asked if she could fall asleep to a movie on the couch. 
3. She was out cold and the Highschool Musical menu page was still playing that familiar Wildcat anthem for the one hundredth time so I turned it and the tv off. 
4. I turned off all the lights she had left on because she doesn't like to sleep in the dark. 
5. I heard a noise near the back door that I couldn't put my finger on so I went to check it out. 
6. But first, I turned all the lights back on. (I know you're not supposed to turn on all the lights when you think you hear a noise, but I'm a girl and I forget things my husband has told me when I get scared.)
7. On my way, our cat came around the corner and I realized it was just her using the litter box. 
8. I picked her up. 
9. I smelled something awful. 
10. I felt something moist on my side where I had held her on my hip. 
11. I immediately dropped the cat and looked at my night shirt. Stained. With cat poop. 
12. I know that's not normal so I go over to the litter box and simultaneously discover the source of the horrific smell and that my cat has diarrhea AND had unknowingly backed her rear up over the edge of the litter box and missed it completely. 
13. At that point I asked myself, "Where are those !@#$% paper towels?"
14. I tore my kitchen apart until I found a stack of napkins from Subway and cleaned up the mess before it had a chance to harden on the floor.
15. Changed my shirt.
16. Crawled back in bed.

I think I'm going to "half cross-off" item #15. I will still purchase paper towels, BUT I will stash them in a place that I alone know about. While you're hiding Christmas presents, I'll be hiding paper towels. That way, in emergencies, like the one mentioned above, I'll have access to them, but for everyday things like wiping sticky hands and cleaning kitchen counters, we'll stick to rags.

Then I'll feel better about being a little less wasteful, but in the event that I need to clean up cat diarrhea, or vomit or anything else where I want to clean it up, toss it in the trash and be done with it,  I'll have a stash of paper towels for that purpose.

Baby steps, Bob. It's all about the baby steps.

Note: This post is dedicated to my hardcore, cat-loving friend, Leilani. I'm sure her highly intelligent cat-children would never misjudge the edge of the litter box and make a mess for their momma. You can read more about them here.

52 Bites

Not long ago, I was reading a post by Jules about her life list. I love the idea of a life list, and I've started composing my own as I think of things, but as I was reading her list, I noticed a link beside a couple of the items that said 'inspired by 52 Bites'. Since those items were organizational in nature, I followed the rabbit trail, as I often do, and found something great.


What I found was a source of inspiration and motivation to my somewhat lazy soul. Tsh Oxenreider is the creator of SimpleMom.net and over the years, she has written lots of posts about simplifying life. She took her most favorite ideas and rewrote and compiled them into an e-book called One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler.

Click here to get it!

When I saw the list of projects and read the sample chapter, Project 5: Start Menu Planning, I was hooked. Not to mention that it was only $5. I promptly downloaded it, printed it double-sided and inserted it in a binder. Then I sat down and started to read. Here's the list of projects:


1. Eat your frog

2. Make a debt-free plan

3. Establish a morning routine

4. Establish an evening routine

5. Start menu planning

6. Create a family purpose statement

7. Downsize your book and magazine collection

8. Streamline your mail

9. Streamline your receipt system

10. Take an annual vacation (or staycation)

11. Clean as you go

12. Clean your kitchen as you cook

13. Plan weekly meetings with your spouse

14. Eat whole foods (on a budget)

15. Make your kitchen paperless

16. Schedule regular date nights

17. Create an essential papers file

18. Get more sleep

19. Dump your brain

20. Plan in advance for holidays

21. Organize your files

22. Declutter (and rotate) your children's toys

23. Regularly turn off your TV

24. Switch to non-toxic cleaners

25. Organize your photo collection

26. Cook staples from scratch

27. Streamline your email

28. Create a regular monthly budget

29. Switch to gentle, eco-friendly hair care

30. Switch to gentle, eco-friendly skin care

31. Give

32. Go on dates with your kids

33. Streamline your kids' art collection

34. Drink more water

35. Declutter your wardrobe

36. Start a garden

37. Streamline your entertainment sources

38. Carve out intentional down time

39. Create a daily to-do list

40. Set up sinking funds

41. Create a chore system that works for the whole family

42. Make a compost bin

43. Eat locally

44. Find a hobby (and become a lifelong learner)

45. Make annual goals

46. Create a family tradition

47. Wake up earlier (and use kaizen)

48. Use the envelope system

49. Switch to gentle, eco-friendly beauty products

50. Evaluate your home

51. Get help

52. Say no


Am I the only one guilty of putting Make a list as the first item on all my lists so I'll be sure to have one thing crossed off at the end of the day? That was kind of my thinking when I wrote out this list and found that some of these items I had already done. Crossing them off was motivating and made me feel like I already had a little bit of a head start on such a daunting project. 


I also found that some of the items I can't wait to focus on (16,18,32,44) and some I'm dreading (21,22,25,41).


So for a while, I'll be posting about my progress along with the other randomness you'll find here. I've been feeling the need to simplify my life for as long as I can remember, so I feel like, for me, it's kind of a precursor to the life list. Maybe it's just the most important item on that list. 


Wish me luck and if you want to get the book, you can click the link above and I'll get a little portion for being an affiliate.