I really do want to blog more often, but I need to learn to make it short (and probably to get up earlier). The time before 7:30am is so precious! It's 7am and my kids have been up for about 20 minutes doing what all kids love to do in the early hours of the morning: make clothes for their stuffed animals out of old socks. I need to ban these early rising habits.
I really do need to qualify and say that I put off reading this book for months, even though a friend gave it to me for Christmas. I read the section on preparing for babies, and then put it aside. I guess I had some preconceived ideas that this would be the run-of-the-mill organization book, and I've read so many of those (not that I'm practicing all those ideas...). My mom is the organizational queen. I read Organized Simplicity, and while I thought it was a beautiful book, and well laid out, it was a little disappointing in how little it offered me.
Even though I love charts, and schedules, and anything that makes life more peaceful, I think a teeny tiny part of me was worried this book would make me want to be an organizational robot, or that it would only "work" if I did everything exactly the way they recommended. And that didn't sound very appealing.
But this baby girl, as much as I love her, has rocked my world (and not necessarily in the slang way). After five months, I still did not have a regular laundry day, grocery time, etc. I just could NOT get into any kind of groove. It might not be her as much as adding number four. She hasn't taken well to much of a schedule (well, at least she doesn't want to follow one!) and while I'm okay with that, it made life tricky. Throw in homeschooling, starting a new business, raising animals, gardening...most days I just wanted to throw up my hands and say "it's too much!" I went to bed almost every night wishing I could race to sleep so I could wake up and start my never-ending to-do list before it ate me. Ministry and hospitality? That was sort of a dream because everything else was piling up and slowing down enough to enjoy company was hard to justify. Work first, then play, right?
And while my work load hasn't changed at all (in fact the opposite is true...love the fresh milk!) :) it all seems much more manageable. I was working so hard, but overlooking some obvious ways in which to bring order to our home. Most of the information could be gleaned from my Mom, or other friends in similar stages of life, but the great thing about this book is that it's all in one place. No need to call your mentor at 11pm wondering how to get the mending done when you can barely get your laundry folded.
So, my ten minutes are up, but I'll try to add more tomorrow:
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4 comments:
yay!! thank you!! have heard of that before, but now i really want to read it. :)
Thanks for your quick response. I guess you don't have a cruel streak after all :) I think I would add one thing, which perhaps you were going to say in Part 2, and this is only based on the Large Family Logistics blog that I used to devour when our family first 'exploded' from 7 to 13. I think the author's ideas and systematic approach to her week is not just for large families. I have often recommended it to moms of 1-2 who need to regain some structure and aren't sure where to start.
(You're such a good blogger. Nothing like your 'organizational queen' mother who can't/doesn't update hers months on end. Although when you get Part 2 up, I think I'll blog again just to link to you :)
Love!
MOM
Mom, I'm glad you added that and you are right- it is not just for large families. I think that was another reason I avoided it: I didn't think of us as a "large family." I think some of her ideas could be helpful for a single person, too!
Brite!
I'm not sure I knew that you had a blog, but I'm glad I found it. :-) I know exactly what you mean: adding Joshua to the family rocked us for about ten months - TEN MONTHS! - before we felt like we were back on our feet. That means we literally started feeling normal again about eight weeks ago. In the meantime, another friend recommended Large Family Logistics, and (although I am not actually all the way through it yet), I have found some of her tips to be immensely helpful. The one thing she doesn't address, which we deal with in our life, is shift work and adapting to a constantly-changing schedule. If I could figure THAT out, then I think I'd be totally set.
Did you make a Household Management Book?
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