Tuesday's dress

Here I am folding all of that laundry, I gotta go, baby neeeds me.

Monday's dress

Once again I am showcasing my imperfections, Here I am quickly loading up the diaper bag so the boys and I can take a quick run to the grocery store. I realize the house is not quite tidy. You can see our "library" behind me. I used to have three times that amount of books, but found new homes for the ones I don't read thru as often. This isn't the best shot of it but I love this dress. It is a very "late 50's" style, makes me happy to wear it. That is my youngest in the background, trying to get at the toys big brother left on the table. We went to the store, only after I wore them out at the indoor playground that happens to be in our local Mall building. We often frequent it when it is raining or too hot for outside play. Did you kow that you can run, jump and crawl in a dress with out much trouble at all? The boys certianally love it when I make a fool out of myself to play with them. I have to go now, the laundry calls.

Dresses--most-of-the-time

As those of you who see me every week, you may have noticed that I have been wearing dresses with greater frequency. It was a long and winding road getting to the conclusion that I should probably change the way I dress. Here is the journey in a nutshell. I love sweatpants (in fact, I am wearing some now, as I wait for the hot water heater to do its job so I can shower) I love t-shirts. They are quite modest and comfy. With two little boys and a home to care for I would simply roll out of bed and pull the nearest thing on and jump into my day. I was the poster child of the harried mom, complete with unwashed hair hidden under a bandanna and spit-up stains on her shirt. I came to realize that this was NOT ok---for several reasons. I appeared lazy and slovenly to those around me. As a full time homemaker I quite often feel that I am in a constant struggle with society to value and respect what I do....but I was not dressing for success. My darling husband, who loves me and thinks I am beautiful even in his castoffs, would practically cheer when I would dress up a little. I also was not very confident, and felt like I was hiding, and in turn others around me ignored me. and Finally, as a follower of the teachings of Jesus, I realized I was making Christianity/motherhood/homemaking/femininity look unattractive. The very things I held in highest esteem I was dishonoring! I am NOT going to quote the typical scriptures used for the wearing of dresses, I am not trying to convince anybody what they should do in their own walk with God. This is just where I am.

For the past 6 (?) months I have been a "Dresses-most-of-the-time" lady, and I have noticed a marked difference in my life! A skirt and blouse automatically look nicer than an old pair of sweats. And, amazingly, are just as easy to pull on in a sleep induced haze! My wonderful husband quite likes the way I look now...though I suspect it has something to do with seeing my bare legs, and the added spring in my step from confidence. I am no longer ashamed of my appearance in public, and I am comfortable feeling that I can walk into any situation and be dressed appropriately. People treat me differently now. Since I have added dresses to my head-coverings (which I had been doing for about a year previously, but that is another topic) I feel that people treat me with greater respect. I have had strange teenage boys in their baggy pants run ahead to doors and open them for me, older gentlemen now look me in the eye and compliment my well-behaved (sometimes) children. Young ladies call me Ma'am, and Older ones smile in appreciation (the really older non-feminist ones anyway). I have been complimented on my "great faith" and find that people simply assume you must be very spiritual if you go about town wearing dresses with your head covered. Actually, If you look at the "big-three monotheistic religions" Modesty, feminine clothing and head covering at different times is a common theme. On a side note, if you pay attention you can actually tell what religious sect a woman belongs to by the way she dresses...but I digress.

Now to the point of this post....I loved reading blogs where the ladies posted their "week in feminine dress" so, here is mine I will post every day this week, even if It is just a quick photo and one-line caption.

SUNDAY: Catch-up and Projects day. Today I had a pretty lazy day, just kept up with the dishes and laundry for chores. I spent the greater part of the morning building and re-building a fort for my little ones to play in. I also snuggled with my hubby and watched a couple of movies. Here I am hanging my laundry hoping it will dry in this newly fall weather:

This is one of my favorite skirts for casual work. it's denim, and a nice length. I won this head covering on a give away hosted by "domestic Tranquility" I received a wonderful grab-bag of headscarves from "cover your hair" woo hoo!

More hanging of laundry. Please ignore the large spider plant that fell down and I haven't made time to thin it out and re-hang it. it's on my list for nap time today. You can see our upstairs balcony and the common area downstairs in this shot.

More to come later!

My Home Management binder

One of these days I will really figure out all this technology...sorry about the blurred pictures. I'll just have to "talk" more.

I love my Home Management Binder. When I actually use the thing I seem to get so much more done during the day. As of this moment, I have cleaned my entire house, finished lunch and have both the babies down for a nap. I am now in my "free time" allotment in my schedule...and boy am i being predictive! I am currently uploading any pics we have onto Shutterfly as well as blogging! Woo hoo!

Basically the idea of a HMB is to organize yourself, and to have everything we need to run a home in one convenient location! I have schedules and routines as well as cleaning tips and meal plans all in one spot. I have a different binder for all our financial stuff. So, here are a few of my "sections" I chose artwork I have long admired for my section dividers, It makes me happy to look at them. Here are the pics of the ones I have finished.


This is my schedules and routines section...it contains all of my schedules and routines, Go figure. I do have a master schedule for days at home, it reminds me of what we are supposed to do and at what time. the boys routines are there too. I am currently trying to get them both on the same nap schedule. It worked today. I also list all my cleaning routines in here. I focus on a different room each day. Today was the kitchen. I am happy to say it is tidy and even mopped!

Meal plans and menus: I love this section. I was the head cook at a school for my last paid job, and therefore delight in planning ahead my food. We have very little waste now, I try and vary the meals enough that we don't get bored. I even have a section to hold new recipes to try. I do a new one at least twice a month.

Projects! whoo hoo! I keep a nice long list here of projects to do and goals I have for my home so when I am bored (ha!) I can work to a goal. I tend to forget what It is i wanted to do in the first place so this helps.

I also have sections for Personal Contacts, Homeschooling/child training, Cleaning Tips and a Prayer List section. There is no pretty artwork yet. I will be searching for some as soon as I finish this up!

After?

I have been terribly excited and anxious to post the before and after photos of my house....only to realize that I was missing several "befores" So, I have a few afters. This is my Kitchen...just try and imagine it stacked up with boxes and every surface cluttered with things. I had planned on finishing my living room first, but in typical me style this is what got done first. Every cabinet was emptied, scrubbed out and re-organised, after a major purge of course. I doubled my food storage area and now have quite a stockpile built up. I even re-bottled my spices in order to keep the ones I use most in the little rack. the most painful part was going through the china hutch and removing items. I know have one whole area cleaned out that the boys like to put their things in. The under-sink area is also re-vamped. I re-located our cereal boxes down into a lower cabinet. I also learned why you need to pre-shrink fabrics.....I washed my homemade curtains...and now they are about 1 1/2 in. too short. Garrett likes them that way, easier to clean off the sill...maybe I will just leave them. I hung a basket for my veggies, and also got a few tiny crates to hold our vitamins and a basket to hold coffee making supplies. So far the new system is working pretty efficiently.

Here is the new "de-cluttered" counter space, there is only a single "layer" of items on the counter top...please forgive the dishes in the sink. I just can't seem to keep up with them.

See what I mean about the curtains? But you can also see the really nifty shelf my wonderful hubby built for me out of the broken bookshelf. Now all my paperwork and my current projects have a landing place...other than the table.

The re-organized china hutch...never mind the cluttered family room area and the box of sewing supplies. You can also see the very edge of the ironing board Dad and Garrett hung for me. I must say I have done more ironing in the last month than the previous 5 years of marriage.

Hooray for baskets and containers! The pink box will find another home as soon as we consume all the foodstuffs in it, but I must say it looks tidier than the 15 cereal boxes we used to have stacked there.