Empty Fridge, Oh Bliss! No Unnecessary Organizing Part 3

When you go to your fridge to have look, you open the door, see it packed with tons of jars and bags of something, a few tupperware containers with something in them, left overs, bit and bats, but there's nothing for you to eat, or you cannot see anything you can cook with? You know, your door is filled with small jars, quarter empty, bottles of dressings and what not, but you can't see the wood for the trees? Not only that, but you see pieces of dried up onion peel in nooks and crannies? a sticky spill?

Here me out! This is the time for you to start fresh! No need to plan your next week's meals according to the random ingredients which have lingered in your fridge for months, ( really would you want to cook with a food" which doesn't go bad? ) Get rid of it, toss it out, start fresh! I am going to give you a few rules of thumb of what to chuck out and a recipe for a non toxic fridge cleaner!

Rules of thumb:

• If you haven't used it for a few months, chuck it out. When and IF you really really need it, make fresh or spend the penny to buy "fresh"... you don't want to store jars of random pickles and salsas for months. You'll end up with a hall of fame jar-landia.
• read the ingredients, if there is more than 2 ingredients that you cannot pronounce or know what they are, toss it, just toss it! Go back to basics, to ingredients which won't "cause cancer". Natural.
• If the food product has it own TV commercial, toss it, just get rid of the devil! 

Recycle the jars and containers according to your local recycling instuctions. Empty the fridge, Categorize in the simplest way that you can really, in all honestly, follow through with. Keep the meat away from your fresh produce. Make sure your fridge looks more colourful than "beige", this way you know you're eating healthy(er). Store in glass containers, see this blog post for why you ought to! 

Fridge Cleaner Spray

•  warm water
• 1 tbsp bicarb (baking, washing soda)
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 drops of cinnamon oil (lovely scent, super bug killer, antifungal etc)

1. mix the oil and vinegar first in a spray bottle
2. add the bicarb
3. then fill up with water

Empty your fridge, spray scrub, wipe down. Fill up your fridge. Be picky, think twice. Cut a lemon in half and place it in the back of your fridge for freshness.

Enjoy!

Oh My Laundry! No Unnecessary Organizing (Part II)

I am so very happy to share this new "Ahaa!" experience with you! Finally, finally, after years of laundry torture, I got it!

Now picture this, some of you might deeply relate to what I am about to share with you:

You've done several loads of laundry, folded everything neatly and put them into dressers, wardobes and cupboards. After you have re-organized EVERYONES wardrobe. Finally, everything is perfectly organized and in it's place. Haa, not for long! As you walk into one of your kids' rooms, for one reason or another, you notice random CLEAN clothes pulled out of the wardrobe and on their floor. Hmmm... this is not new to you, oh no. It happens often. No worries, you "smell through them" sorting out the clean from the used clothes, and regardless clean or not, if they have been on the floor too long- they all need to go back into the washer. This is one vicous cycle!

But I got it! After reading Michelle Duggar's well put sentence in their book "20 and Counting"

..." all the trips made to carry our clean clothes from the laundry room back to the bedrooms and put them away neatly in the right closet or drawer. The "neatly" part would last until one of the children needed something out of that closet or drawer, then things got stirred up, moved around, and strewn all over the place. A lot of the time, clean, never-worn clothes ended up back int the laundry again..."... 


and walking into my childrens' rooms and witnessing this annoying habit, it solidified it for me! No more clothes in anyone's room! All of the clothes must be in one place. I figured out, if the clothes would be next to the washer and dryer, (they would not get moved from washer to floor, to being folded, onto chair to the wardrobes and back on to the floor- to the washer again,) they would stay put, hung and well, be tidy. What a liberating "Ahaa!" experience for me. Why did I not think of this sooner?!

 I know this looks like a horrid laundry room. Well, it is.

 idea + hubby + tools =

 half way there!

and 

finally done!

 realistic and complete!

yes, honest mess in a REAL home.

So,  my husband and I agreed on it,  I had it planned out and my husband made it happen! You gotta love him! Always trying to make my ideas come true.

Ruby Slippers - Book Review

Currently reading :  

Ruby Slippers

By Jonalyn Grace Fincher.

I wish I could read it in one go but, with 3 small kids to care for, I am taking small bits at a time. So far, this book is very liberating in many ways. 

This Book Review is written by the President of the Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society.

I hope that you get to read the book for yourself!

Personalize Your Living Room - Mural

I have a "habit" of getting bored quick when it comes to the home. So I've been told (my my better half). One thing I have done in every home we have lived in, is paint a wall or two. I have a "thing" for bamboos. I love painting them; there is something elegant about them and they fit in every "era". (Lots of "" going on in this paragraph!?)

I used the gold paint to give our evenings shimmer! In indoor lighting, the gold really sticks out and gives the painting a whole new look. I am not a good enough photographer to capture that, sorry.

Paint your very own mural, which is personal and no one else has! Go on! Be creative!

Homeschool -Science Project

 The Solar System!

We used:

• crayons
• glue
• string
• scrapbook paper
• stick
• cardboard 

We improvized. 

 Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars...

This is a fun craft project with kids, try it out!

Sleep On It Curls Part 2

A few weeks ago we tried THIS. 

Last night, I tried it differently and got this look! Here is what I did. I used 5 rags instead of 20. First, I washed my hair, waited for it to feel "touch-dry" and seperated my hair into 5 sections. Then I curled up each section the same way and slept on it!

This is a simple-simple way of curling your hair and getting fab results!

Savour the Valentine's Day Season part 5

Savour the season by giving tulips for your sister, daughter, mother, friend or /and grandmothers...

 -Make their day!

Savour the Valentine's Day Season Part 4

  This morning, we savoured the season by making and eating heart shaped omelettes! yummy!

I don't have a heart shaped cookie cutter, so I had to improvize....

For my two oldest monkeys...

Savour the Valentine's Day Season Part 3

Savour the Season by making your own personalized valentine's cards! These fantastic cards however, were not made by me, but by a talented photographer and mother of two Christine Jordan. Here is her blog - ChristineJordanPhotography - 

Aren't they cute!?

Savour the Valentine's Day Season Part 2

 DIY  "I love you Day!" Shoe box gifts!

Have your kids decorate the boxes as they wish, encourage them to decorate with pink, red, hearts, you know... with all of those LoveLove colour and theme :)

 Fill the boxes up with rice paper, sweets and the gifts they have bought for each other. 

 Let them be creative! Finish it off with "I love you day!" self made cards.

You don't have to spend much money to fill up the boxes. For example, i found a jar of bubble gum in my pantry. I seperated the pink and red gum balls from the rest and put them in zip lock bags. Voilá. Be creative!

-Enjoy!

Savour the Valentine's Season Part 1

I'm trying something very new here. We don't normally celebrate Valentine's day, since we know it as 'Friends Day' back home. However, now we live in North America and it is a BIG thing here, - we'll embrace it! We'll welcome it into our home and we will call it "I love you Day!". (Thank you Bates Family for the title idea!)

How can we make this "I love you day" last? Here's an idea!

Write letters to your loved ones and tell them how much they mean to you!

These letters ofcourse are given to them on the day. Hence, the last paragraph. Show your children how much you as parents love them by serving them for example, sweets/popcorn, dvd, their favourite blanky, and really go "all out" for them. Pretend your waiters and it's a V.I.P Movie Theatre ;) in your own home!

I'm declaring my love for him!

Sleep On It -Curlers!

I've been wanting a perm for so long. This desire goes against everything I thought- I thought about "good" hairdressing. I've never been a fan on perms! Since my 3rd child was 3 months old, my hair has been falling out. This isn't new, happens after each pregnancy and I am not very keen on my thin, droopy looking hair. I went to a "perm expert" for a consultation but I wasn't sold. I said "God, there has to be a cheaper and better way to get natural looking curls/body for my hair??" So I googled, and on my first try I came across this blog with this CLICK HERE method.

HOWEVER, as a hairdresser and the knowledge I have, I realised that there was a faster method to achieve curls. There is actually no need to wet your hair completely and then wait 18 hours for super sweet curls. You can do it that way if you find it easier, and really there is no RIGHT way to go about it, but there IS a more time-saving approach!

I'm glad I came across the blog, since it's a good one! Families with many kids or families wanting to have many kids can really get good advice from this blog.

Okay back to the curls, in the evening before bed time is the best time to curl your hair.

• Cut 1" x 8" cotton fabric strips (20-30 depending on the thickness of the hair)

• Wet the strips in warm water and squeeze the excess water out

• Optional! You can spritz each section of hair with a styling spray before rolling up your hair

           around the pencil which has the strip of fabric running along its length.. 

• after rolling all the way up, tie a not, pull pen out and complete the not.   

  **BETTER & PERFECT instructions for rolling your hair are on her blog!**

• cover the head with a shower cap/hair cover/ etc

• sleep on it! And voilá!

 I "combed" it through with my fingers...

...here is K's version below.

I first tried this on myself, then on my daughter K. We love them! They last and wave out eventually (after a few days). 

I am sold! Thanks Erika Shupe for this!

Financial Freedom

We recently went through an online seminar on the topic of financial freedom. There are 20 individual lectures. This 7 biblical principle based seminar unveils God's purposes for money in our lives. As we watched each of the video seminars, we were more and more convicted in various areas of our finances. The most impacting of all, was on the topic of debt or should I say, no debt. Jim Sammons, the speaker gave a number of scriptual reasons for living debt free and gave some amazing real life examples of how this was and can be done. Bare in mind that this seminar is somewhat "dated" from around the mid to late 80's. However, the underlying principles are still very relevant today. 

We have decided to pursue a debt free life style and have purposed to clear off any debt in our lives. Yes this means NO mortagages, NO car loans or financing, NO maxed out credit cards etc.

Here is the link to the seminar. -- Embassy Institute --To watch all of the seminar, you need to register. We highly recommend everybody to do it and at only a minimal cost of 9 bucks.

Enjoy!

Flu Repel Foods and Recipes

In reference to my previous post - healthy smoothie, here are some food stuffs you can add to that recipe to repel or fight the seasonal flu and colds

• half an avocado
• spinach (organic!)
• replace boxed orange juice with fresh
• a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed)
• another tomato, organic

For a power shot: (good for strept throats, too)

Juice ginger and keep in a well sealed container. Add only a few drops or drizzle to fresh apple/orange juice and gurgle. Drink it in small sips if you find it hard to gurgle. Ginger is a powerful anti-viral and anti-bacterial root. It has great anti-inflammatory effect and treats the mucus membranes. It also will clear your head and sinuses too! Ginger is also a natural painkiller.

Garlic:

Cut garlic into capsule sizes and swallow them. Garlic also has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effects. Garlic cleans your blood from all those nasty bugs!

Olive Oil:
Imagine 'teflon surface' for the bacteria and viruses.

Probiotics: Boost immunity.

NO sugar! NO NO sugar:

Sugar is a vital surface for bacteria to multiply fast. Bacteria thrive on sugar. No sugar during cold season! Sugar is the "best friend" of colds.


Dodge the cold:

When  the first cold symptoms appear: Tackle it a.s.a.p with ESBERITOX! Even if you are suffering in the midst of it all, take this supplement to prevent any "after shocks". Studies have shown reductions in any following ailments, such as sinus infections etc.

for more info look at their website www.esberitox.fi all I can say is, I tried it and it works!!

Zinc: take a triple dose of the recommended daily allowence for two days. You need Zinc more that ever when your immunity is under attack.
Vitamin D: triple or quadruble RDA* for 3 days during symptoms. Don't take the pills (D and zinc) all at one time, spread the doses throughout the day.

"Starve the cold and starve the fever" by not eating anything cooked. Eat fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, smoothies, raw and live food. Your bodies enzymes that are currently fighting the viruses, do not need to be disturbed because your food has its own enzymes to digest itself for the most part = no extra energy used to digest your Big Macs = all the energy is being used to make you better!

Water: Drink plenty of water. Your body needs water to flush out toxins and your cells work way better with enough fluids.
Bug Killing-Soup!
Into a blender put:

• tomatoes 3-4
• garlic (cut into pieces) 1-2 cloves
• avocado ½-1
• olive oil 1-2tbsp
• dash of salt and pepper
• spinach -handful
• basil- handful
• dash of cayenne pepper

puree and if you want to, warm up to 37-40 degree celsius, don't let it boil!

Bug Killer Tea:

Place fresh ginger and honey into semi-boiling water and let it brew. Keep drinking tea and plenty of water.

Blessings, Cathy

Cinnamon-Apple Snacks

This is pretty healthy and yummy, I should say. The kids love it and it really is healthy. It tastes like healthy apple pie.

Ingredients:

• 2 Apples, I prefer Fuji by far!
• 2 T Xylitol or  0.5tsp Stevia (koivusokeri tms.)
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• Lemon juice

Instructions: 

in a bowl or zip lock bag

1. peel and chop up the apples
2. drizzle a tblsp or two of lemon juice
3. sprinkle the cinnamon and "sugar"
4. mix
5. eat.
6. repeat :)

Bookmark Jewelry Crafts -For kids!

 This was a fun craft project for my kids. I had them decorate two pieces of narrow paper and which they glued together, I then laminated and which they made beads for. Pretty simple yet rewarding. The kids think they look fab! It was almost mess free too, done and dusted in 15 minutes! 

Empty House -No Unnecessary Organizing (Part I)

What I am dreaming about is an "empty house".

Empty of what? Well, empty of junk, clutter, stuff I might want, posessions and well, EXTRA. I want my home empty of anything and everything that takes my mind and my time away from my family.

I don't want to feel guilty about drawers and cupboards that have been neglected. I don't want to carry stress and guilt over unfinished "one day" projects. I don't want to be afraid of living in regret for giving away books and "sentimental" belongings that I might want to keep, but honestly probably wont ever read or use.

I don't want to continuously pick stuff up, maintain order, dust, reorganize cluttered surfaces and feel like "heck sake! i just knocked something over!" I don't want to nag at my kids to watch out, they might knock off a pile of papers and magazines.

I don't want to carry anymore baggage!

I don't really want to create boxes and label them for the sake of organizing. I don't need my home to be a shop with isles and isles of labelled 'goods'. Even if I had labelled boxes, I would need to pick stuff up and find a place for them. Labelling might make things easier but I am still tidying up junk and that has not changed.

What if my home was as simple as it gets? What if we woke up in the morning and the day was about relationships instead of stuff. For instance, instead of having a swing, sitter, play mat and a musical play mat for my baby that are in the way on the living room floor, which are obstacles for me, we would have only one of them? Will the baby miss out on the stuff. What could we gain from owning a little less- just one thing? The baby is more bothered about the faces than the gadgets on the swing. Which will the baby learn more from? What will I gain from it? I can BE. I can enjoy. I can hold.

I am known for my laminating desire. I used to find any reason to laminate anything... like my cousin K.D once put it, "I would laminate my toothbrushes if I could". Come to think of it, why laminate? Better yet, why NOT to laminate. I have several reasons why NOT to; extra plastic covered paper clutter. How will laminating affect the earth? I know, pretty deep stuff right? But seriously, how will I recycle it? Life changes EVERYDAY! I change everyday. My teaching skills change and so do my ideas. Are my pieces of paper worth toxic build up? Besides, laminating paper tricks us to believe that they are important and eventually just piles up.

 These are my 2 rules of thumb (for now)

• Only laminate important documents/craft projects i.e diploma or hand made bookmarks which need protecting
• In homeschool or at work, instead of laminating words to place on the wall temporarely, use a marker/chalk and a board. 

I browse a ton of "organizing" blogs and sites on how to be organized. I find myself motivated and inspired in so many ways and feel that I want to get started immediately in tackling my home. Hold on! I've been down this road before and I'm perhaps on it again as we speak. Okay, so I have bought my supplies to help us to be more organized. I've labelled, stacked and made it look pretty. I am on a roll! I do a great job for about say, 2 weeks. One day I am overwhelmed with the day and pile stuff "to put away later" into my organized shelves, cupboards and wardrobes. This is forgotten and the piles get bigger and spread. See, those piles are unnecessary stuff, stuff we dont need and never get used. The piles keep on growing and one day when I do finally get to go through them, I store the items like I would need them, but I dont! I didn't even know I had most of it. Don't you get it, stuff in your home is clutter! What if those piles never appeared and you didnt have to store away stuff in colour coordinated cupboards to look perfect and then get overwhelmed and upset because they end up looking imperfect? Give it up.

NOW I KNOW I AM GOING TO GET A LOT OF HATE MAIL FOR THIS ONE please bare with me...

-BINDERS. Oh yes, I said it. I almost fell for that. I almost created myself an "excel sheets" in a personal binder to remind myself to drink water, scrub my sink and hug my husband... Where is the freedom in this? How about the spontinuety? Where in this do I "live"? If my days are filled with tasks to be done (tasks that someone thought were so important) where do I just 'BE' as we were MADE by our creator, to BE? Now if we need reminding of some things, can it not be done by having an accountability partner or friend?

Bad News Regarding Organized Home in 30 Days

My grand plans in organizing my home has stalled. As previously written HERE I had great plans for our outdoor shed. However, after cleaning it out, stripping it down and while painting it from the inside, we noticed mice droppings and dampness damaged walls. My grand idea of an extension to the house is not going to happen after all. 

More posts on the rest  of the house coming up soon!

DIY Toy Boxes (Organized Home in 30 Days)

We cannot afford to buy proper toy boxes for the kids right now. I wasn't going to look at their unorganized toy boxes either. They were in a mess. It made me itch. Yuck. I bought contact paper from Walmart (surprise! surprise!) and Simon got some empty shoe boxes. Ask from your local shoe shops.

 Yes, simple. Yes, cheap. And yes, ORGANIZED!

 Contact paper and FREE boxes

We piled their toys into categories and took a look which needed their own boxes. The ones left, random individuals ended up in one box labelled as BITS and BATS a.k.a bits and bobs, bits and pieces to some of you.

 Labelled and pretty

 Organized room and a happy kids (mum!)

 Organized! 

 My son's toy boxes ended up looking something like this; "GORMITS", "ACTION FIGURES", "SOLDIERS" etc

My daughter's toy boxes were more like this; "BARBIES, "DOLLS", "PONIES" etc

 Before

After

A Beautiful Notice Board

With me homeschooling a lot and Simon at work even more, communication is probably one of the most challenging things facing the family. If I tell Simon something verbally, within moments he's forgotten it (in his own words!). Not even latest technology seems to work. So, we have opted for a very functional, and dare I say, very pretty a way of communicating. A white board. I know what you are thinking, " what's so special about a white board!?" but this is no ordinary white board. I found this white board at Bed Bath&Beyond for 20 bucks. It is, essentially, a giant sticker. It's our very own family giant "post it note". I use the board for messages, brain storming, lists, grocery lists and most importantly a "Simon to-do list" :)

Lesson Record Diary for Homeschool

As a homeschooling mum, one of the biggest challenges I have had to face is knowing where we are and what we've done in the large number of subjects, books and activities that we have to do. So, therefore, we have implemented a lesson record diary. For sure, this is NOTHING new for those teachers of you out there, but this certainly helps a new teacher, like me. Each day we record each activity, subject and learning outcome that takes place. The diary really helps to keep on track, to check our progress and to help in reporting back to the moderator. Any diary that allows enough space for detailed notes will do. I got mine from Walmart and the Dollar Store.

Reward Chart

 If you need to motivate your child to do right, a reward chart is a good start. However, it would be good to teach the child to do right from the heart and not just because she/he will "get something out of it". There is a saying though, "what gets rewarded, gets repeated". I have created a Reward Chart for my kids with the areas that they are currently struggeling in. There are many areas they struggle in that I put on the chart, but I don't want to overwhelm them. So I choose the 'worst' that need dealing with a.s.a.p as in, bad attitude, ungratefulness, selfishness, disrespect, disobidience etc and then turn those into ' happy heart, sharing is caring, no back-chatting, instant obidience'... So far so good!