Small House Q & A

I have enjoyed everyone's comments about living in smaller houses or at least massively simplifying their lives. There seems to be a growing trend toward this. Very interesting. Crazy For Boys/Heather raised some good questions. What are those things that we think are essential that others have learned are not? For so long there were certain things that I thought were essential in a well ordered house and now I have learned I can live without them! Who knew? I have learned that just because I would call myself a queen at organization it doesn't mean I'm a queen in simplicity. There is a difference. Simplicity is a much grander, fuller life than I ever dreamed and I still see many, many ways that I can improve on.

For this blog post I want everyone's ideas on minimizing/simplicity/order to speak out. Let's all learn together. So here are some questions to get those creative juices going. Please give your answers to one or all of the questions. You may also add a new question too!  (I will do a Q & A on Headgates and books with this same style in a couple of days).

1. What things in your kitchen have you realized you really don't need and you now realize you can live without?
2. What are things in your bathroom that you have realized you don't need and you can live without?
3. Where do you put your food storage?
4. What do you still have left in storage that you can't bear to part with yet?
5. What, if any, Christmas decorations (or other holidays) do you still have?
6. How many wall hangings/decorations/pictures to you have in your house now? How did you choose what to put up?
7. How much clothing/shoes does each family member have?
8. How have you organized your computer/desk area?
9. What do you do with the little junks and paper your children get from primary?
10. How many baby clothes and blankets do you really need?

Our Little House

We have a little house. Most of you know this. Some of you have seen pictures of my little house. I know some have smaller houses than mine, but as a general rule most people have much, much bigger houses than ours. It has been six months since we sold our previous home and we moved into our little rental house that is right across the street from our "land of inheritance" as Misfit Cygnet taught me it was.

We only have about two or three months and then we be moving to another little house (but still bigger) than the one we have now. We have decided to postpone building for another two or so years and move a "manufactured home" aka a single wide on our 80 acres and live debt free for a couple of years. Then we will build our house. Not having a house payment has been too enjoyable to go back too. So we have simply decided not to.

Blah, blah, blah. This post is about what I've learned in six months of small.

760 sq feet. That's the size. I LOVE IT!

There are a couple of little things that I would like different, but it's a rental and we are fine.

I have learned that I can live without a microwave. I have also decided that I don't want a microwave in any other house we get either.

I have learned that I like not having a dishwasher. I don't want to go back to having that appliance either. If not for any other reason than having my children have more work to do. I know they would disagree with me on that one though!

I like having only one room to congregate in. I only want a family room now in our new house. I no longer want a library room, office, music room, living room, parlor, and whatever, whatever. I've realized that these rooms separated our family. We are around each other more now. That means we talk, play, laugh, sing, read and interact with each other. Another good lesson learned.

I've learned we only need one bathroom. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get over ruled on only having one bathroom in our new house however. We won't have three or four now for sure though!

Having a big backyard, with trees a plenty and acres of free roaming space (complete with water flowing through it) is absolutely lovely for an awesome core phase!

We don't really miss our dressers. Everyone has rolling cubbies under their beds with their clothes in it. I want to get hooks/pegs for hanging up some clothing and old fashioned trunks for the rest of our clothing when we have more room in our 1200 sq foot house (the single wide). Dressers mean owning more clothing.
We got rid of a lot of clothing when we down sized and I realize we still have too much clothing. So I don't miss the clothing we got rid of.

This goes along with the previous thought. We don't need big closets. We won't be building a master closet in our new house and we will only put a small one in each room. Just enough for church clothes and three pairs of shoes (church shoes, tennis shoes and flip flops). In fact if I can get away with it I only want one bedroom closet for the whole house and have everyone's church clothes/shoes in that closet. So probably our bedroom because my husband needs some closet space for his business clothes. I'll just put the flip flops and tennis shoes in the mudroom. Yes, I like that idea quite a bit.

We want a big mud room! We will store our "weapons," laundry stuff, winter clothing, our Boggs (snow/mud/rain/irrigation boots), etc in this room. Liberty said she would give up square footage in her room to ensure a bigger mud room.

We are definitely glad that we brought the piano into the house (instead of putting it in storage). It's a little squishy in the living room, but two of the children have taken off on their piano since we moved here.
I do miss my/our books. We only have one bookshelf with books right now in the house. I did get rid of A LOT of books when we moved. I only left the classics. I got rid of Scholastic books, cartoony books, pop fiction, public school looking books/workbooks, and other twaddle. I haven't missed them. There is always the library to borrow from. I still have three bookshelves worth of books in boxes in the garage. I can access them and they've been gone through regularly. I look forward to having room for the bookshelves again. I don't waste my money at the thrift store on books anymore unless I know the book will be cherished and read and reread (a classic).

I like having less stuff in the kitchen. I think I am going to get rid of most of the extra kitchen stuff I saved just in case. More dishes and stuff just means more stuff to get dirty before you wash-pretty soon you just have a mess and it depresses you. I like washing as I go and always being caught up.

I love that all the art projects/crafts are gone. What a waste of resources with the glue, the markers, papers, crayons, glitter, paints, etc. etc! I am so glad they are gone!!!!!! I have found my children have learned to be creative in real ways. They make real things now like sewing, knitting, carving, etc. Their free-time play is also very, very creative. I think their creative juices flow on a much, much higher level now than ever before.
Really, I think they are doing just fine with no glitter and tubs of glue! I feel much better myself. I should post pictures of Liberty's quilts-very creative and beautiful. She has some pictures up on her blog for those who know her blog address.

We also downsized to one notebook and a sketch book for each child. They can get a new book anytime they have finished their old ones. They draw neater, they write neater and they do not waste. Amazing. I admit I was a little disbelieving with the whole concept, but it's awesome.

I like having a little house because since I am striving to have "family work" for several hours a day we definitely can deep clean the house and keep it clean always.

I have thrived in having less stuff around me in general. I will be getting rid of lots of stray boxes in the garage. If I didn't want it in the last six months I don't think I will need it now. I feel the freedom to live my life now instead of feeling like I needed to organize, clean and dust all of the time.

I will miss this house. Everyone always acts like I should be miserable living here though. However, it has totally changed my thought process and will impact the rest of my life.

Small is good. Simplicity is good. Having less "stuff" is very good!

The Headgate Revisited

About a month ago I realized that I hadn't read "The Headgate" article in quite a long while. Somehow in my move it had been misplaced. I emailed and received a new copy. It was the one thing I did read while on our latest trip. I have been pondering it this last month.

So just what are my thoughts now after a year of first being introduced to it? Still love it! I came away with a strong impression again about how true the principles are. These principles aren't new, they've been around a long time, but I respond to the way she articulated the principles in her article.

Through rereading it I was able to review and look back over the changes we had made the last year and say we grew and changed significantly in our family. What a year of growth we had. I didn't do wonderful with all the principles but there was a great awareness and application that took place. Below are the five aspects of The Headgate. I have "scored" how I thought I did this past year. I will then talk about each principle.

1. Create a House of Order Score: Good
2. Require Work Score: Okay
3. Inspire Daily Score: Good
4. Understand Lessons and Daily Application Score: Fair
5. Close the Headgates Score: Great
   

Create a House of Order. I gave myself a good on this. Most of this step was something that I thought that I already knew, understood and applied. I didn't really focus on this step and so I think I missed some application that I now understand.

I did learn a lot about this subject this past year in other readings I pursued. I learned about gender roles, modesty and submission. There were some examples of this step on her website that at the time (a year ago) I didn't accept. I don't know now that I agree with here absoluteness on those situations, but I am much, much more in agreement with her now. I realize that I need to embrace my role of wife and mother and not pawn it off on my husband because I'm tired, etc.

Another thought I had while striving to do a better job of letting my husband preside and protect me was that often I tend to jump in and "man-handle" the situation since I felt my husband couldn't. Upon reflecting I thought about the word "man-handle." That was exactly what I have been doing, and that is very wrong. I am now striving to submit and embrace my gender role. In that process I have seen more order in my home as well as finding that I am finding greater happiness personally.

I am rereading this step again now with more understanding. More thoughts have come on how I can improve.

Require Work. I only gave myself an okay on this step. I was asked recently by a reader how I have done with requiring work in our little house. We have really improved overall from where we were at a year ago, but still we haven't done so hot. This is a powerful principle that has been the very hardest for me to apply. When I'm not focused it's easy to just end up doing school work in the morning instead of working. I have long since jumped off of the conveyor belt but sometimes I can see traces of it still popping up in random places. When we buckle down and work we get an amazing amount accomplished and we all feel great (despite sometimes an initial grouchy attitude). I see instant results when I refocus on work in our home. The kids cherish their free time and use it very wisely.

At least half of the boys' free time they choose to spend learning. They read a tremendous amount, but they also play hard outside. (Right now they are building a fort like the Sackett fort). Since rereading the Headgates I have reapplied this principle and again seen tremendous results.

The hard step in this is figuring out what to clean after you've cleaned everything very well. This is especially hard in this little house. There are only so many walls to clean! I strive for about two hours (hopefully in the morning) of work. If we have to go somewhere in the afternoon and they won't get their free time I usually let up on the morning work a little. As I've struggled to figure out work to assign the simple answer has been to pray for help to know what they should do. As always when I knock the Lord will give an answer. He cares what they do for work also! Involving Him in the daily work plan helps motivate me to stay on this path and not deviate back to old tendencies.

Another principle that I relearned was her way to teach work (which comes from Lara Gallagher).  First they work with, then near and then independently of you.

To recap: We did okay this past year, but I have a strong testimony that requiring work is vital. I am recommitted to this step!

Inspire Daily. We scored a good on this. This principle I have learned and studied about in great detail through TJEd. Since reading this article I have limited my momschool time with them to just reading the current read a loud. By this I mean that my momschool/kidschool does not include a long or short list of things to read, practice and get through with them. Usually after dinner (at noon) I read a couple of chapters to whoever wants to listen. This is most often just the middle two. My read a louds are targeted to them as they need the most inspiring. Liberty has no problem going off and reading by herself. The last couple of books we have read are the first two Sackett books by Louis L'Amour, The Red Scarf Girl, The Hiding Place and now we are reading The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. We have had great discussions and they have been inspired by these stories. My simple goal has been to have them reading hundreds of books on their own. While they haven't read anywhere close to hundreds of books they have read a great many.

My husband and I have discussed how that the last couple of weeks we really feel that we are seeing a tremendous fruit of our labors with our children. They have an amazing breath of knowledge and are very well behaved. (The 8 year old sometimes has a problem with the wiggles and giggles in Primary and Cubscouts. He is doing a lot better though). The fruits we have seen I believe can be traced back to the hours we have spent in the classics together. I also attribute their compressive knowledge of gospel doctrine and scripture events to the hours upon hours we have studied together in daily family scripture study. They have been inspired not only in the classics but in the scriptures and all of them read the scriptures daily on their own with often no prompting.

Understand Lessons and Daily Application. I gave myself a fair on this one. In all fairness my children already know how to read and write and so there weren't necessarily lessons that needed to be learned from a 3R's standpoint. So here again is a step I sort of glossed over thinking I had it down. In hindsight I realize that I did miss out on some things. I did hold some writing lessons a year ago, but I was bored and they were bored and we dropped it.

Some important principles in this step are the "return and report" model which I already had a testimony in. This is an important model to adapt to my life.

Another important part of this step is to only teach them information that they need right them. Her example of not vomiting all the phonics rules on the them in first reading lesson is very valid.

I have also agreed with her point of teaching them things that are the most practical and things they can get daily application out of. I have refocused on this and noticed that there are basics things that my kids didn't know. A simple, silly example of this is during family prayer. We sing a hymn every time we have family prayer and sometimes we need hymnals for the hymn that is chosen. We realized through a couple of events that our children didn't not know how to share a hymn book. It usually broke out into a fight. At church the pews we sit on hold four hymnals. One for each child and one for me to share with whoever is sitting by me. (Hubby is on the stand). Because of this I hadn't ever realized that they couldn't (or wouldn't) share. So we had a "How to share the hymnal properly with your neighbor-whoever that may be" lesson. Since then they apply that regularly when we sing for family prayer. Another silly lesson is that we also noticed they were putting their scriptures away while a speaker was bearing their testimony at the end of a FHE lesson or a talk at church. We taught them how rude this is and that etiquette required them to wait until after the meeting was over to organize their belongings. These are simple lessons that they apply on an almost daily basis now and so these lessons are understood.

There are many lessons I realize that I need to teach my children that have nothing to do with math and science, but are important for life. This is another step that I realize that there are many things I can still be working on with my family.

Close the Headgates. We did so fantastic at this! This was my focus the entire year. The concept was talked about continually in our family and also among our friends. It is a regularly understood term. We not only removed 75% of our personal belongs, but we also put up the TV and the Wii.  We do still have them though. In the 9 months or so since we put up the Wii we have gotten it out once and we didn't even really play with it.  (I think we will probably get rid of it soon?) We have gotten out the TV/DVD more than that, but it's a chore to get it and we have it narrowed down to a very select list of movies we watch. I'd say we average a movie once a month.

Are children really don't have any toys now. They don't even care. They have some army men. They play with those occasionally. Maybe once a month. Lego's? We still have them, but they are put up also. In the fall they got them out a couple of times but didn't play with them very long and asked if we could put them away. I think they'll want to get rid of them soon.

So what do they play with? They have their "high impact battle swords" (I think that name is funny and I always say it. Sorry). They also bought fowling pieces at Valley Forge a couple of weeks ago. They also play with sticks, rope, yarn (when they ask permission) and metal junk they find on our land in the old barns. They play hard and make forts and fight in wars together. Their weapons get "checked" at the door in the mud room because chivalry says you don't come into a home armed.

Gone are the electronic toys, gone are the art supplies, gone are the costumes, gone are the puzzles and gone is the junk! It has been so liberating and wonderful.

I can't neglect to add that I removed personal headgates from my life that I was "busy" with and it has allowed me to focus on learning, inspiring and living my gender roles. I can't begin to describe how life changing these concepts have been for our family
In Conclusion, The Headgate article has truly brought amazing changes to our family. We have seen wonderful growth. The principles that I applied have helped me understand the principles of Zion and it prepared me to receive so much further light and knowledge that I would not have received had I not closed my own personal headgates. Once I allowed our family to be released of some of society's trappings I found growth. I look forward to better applying the other principles that I skipped over before.

Serving Others

When Mr. Patriot lost the election I knew there had to be a reason.  What was suppose to be the point of our life now?  We weren't moving to our state's capitol, we were moving into a tiny house and we would be there all week long, all winter long.  What in the world was our new focus to be?

I felt strongly to simplify our life done to the barest of bare bones.  Like I mentioned we did not bring the Internet with us, we dropped our land line, we got rid of lots and lots of "stuff," and we even stopped piano lessons. We opted out of starting in on some "scholar" classes and "love of learning" classes for the children also.  Very little remained standing!  Now what?

I felt strongly again that we were to keep our life in this very simple state of existence and only add one thing: service.  We do a lot of service generally speaking, but where exactly was I suppose to go with that? 

I called all the local organizations around and found out what our options were.  There were food banks, hospitals, soup kitchens, poor people, sad people, old people and young people.  I waded through the options and I discovered what WE, our very own family, was suppose to do.  We were to visit the elderly as often as possible at the local care center.

We have been visiting them for well over a month now.  It is our week's highlight.  We have been added to their list of activities every Monday afternoon.  We come in and we sing to them and they sing with us. We do random projects for  them.  One day Liberty rolled yarn with a resident, another time we went through books on a bookshelf and this past week we decorated their Christmas tree.  We go to the rooms and we visit the residents.  We talk to them about their lives.  We encourage them and we love them.

Most are sad.  Most are extremely lonely.  We have been coming now regularly and so we are welcomed with happiness.  It is just a small nursing home-there are only 35 residents.  Not only are we making a difference in their lives, but many of the workers notice that our family is different from others.  Our kids talk to the residents.  They hug them.  They smile with them.  They seem happy to be there. (And they are!)

There is one resident who is very sad.  As soon as she sees the kids though she lights up and they just hug her and hug her.  She usually gets teary eyed.  She just hugs them over and over.  My little angel kids just hug her back with out a thought.  They've hugged her solid for minutes at a time.

I say that we are making a difference, and we are.  I know this is what the Lord wants us to do.  But where is the real difference being made?  In our family's heart.  They have become our dearest friends.  We love them.  We need them. They are making us who we need to be.  They are teaching us.  They are lifting us.  They are helping me raise my children to be "the youth of the noble birthright" who will usher in the Savior's reign. 

It may sound overly simplistic to say this is changing our lives, but it is.  All of the other things we've given up were great activities for our family, however we have found that holding someone's hand who is sad and lonely is a best activity for our family.

So when it comes time to think what we will do for Christmas the answer is simple.  We will see our dearest friends.  We will sing with them and love them and be with them since the Savior can not.

Imagination (9) has a birthday shortly after Christmas.  When he was asked what he wanted to do on his birthday he said he wanted to go to the nursing home.  Yes, we are finding that love and that peace that comes when we reach out to those that need help.

As part of our efforts to make a difference we organized our first humanitarian drive.  We requested lap quilts from the community to present to these sweet spirits on Christmas Day.  We have received a great response.  Liberty and I were able to make 15 lap quilts of our own in less than 5 work days.  We had an amazing experience.  We felt truly blessed to make and finish them.  Of course we could because we didn't have things going on in the afternoon!

I know that your lives and missions are different than mine.  You may feel strongly that you should focus on music in your family, maybe you feel strongly that your mission is to blog and connect with the outside world on a regular basis, or perhaps you feel that pursuing your own classical education is what must encompass your time.  Whatever we feel drawn to do we must to it so we can progress as individuals and as families.  As we do we will become like the Savior, so when he comes we will see Him and we will be like Him.  Also know/remember that we will have seasons for doing things.  Our family had a 9 month season of intense focus on American History, Government and public spotlight, and then it was over-we were called to another field.

I have a testimony that the Lord is always molding us.  He is reaching out to us and hearkening to us saying "learn of me and listen to my words and walk in the meekness of my Spirit."

May you each go forward empowered in your sphere, in your mission, and make impact.

The Christmas Season

The last several months I've spent a lot of time thinking how we can make Christmas special.  We've talked and talked and talked about it.  We've discussed it with our children at length also.  I won't share everything we are doing for the sake of surprise.  Liberty will probably find a way to get on the Internet once she knows I've posted so I don't want to spoil anything for her.  Here are some things we've decided to do:

1. We are only getting one present this year.  (That's from our immediate family).
2. We've spent a lot more time signing the Christmas hymns than ever before.
3. We are putting up a tree (we haven't yet), but the kids only want white lights and a popcorn strand on it.
4. They don't want to hang up their old Santa socks, they want to hang up some wool socks on Christmas Eve.  Leader (8) said, "Don't give us any candy in it either mom."
5. We are spending Christmas afternoon in a Convalescent Center passing out gifts and singing.
6. We actually put up lights on the outside of the house and fence.  So fun.  We've never had lights up before.  (It's easier to put them up when the house is so small, it doesn't take very long at all!)

Like I mentioned we are doing some other things, but I'm not going to share them yet.

We also started the Christmas Season off with another (30th) viewing of Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration right before the lights came on at Temple Square on the 26th of November.  What a wonderful way to remind us of how to live our life and truly honor Christ.  Christ wants as a gift a "broken heart and a contrite spirit."  That's what Joseph gave Him, we must learn from Joseph.

Our family has never "practiced" Santa Claus and so he is not missed.  A long time ago I had an impression that I shouldn't lie to Liberty (12) about Santa Claus.  So they've never believed in Easter bunnies, tooth fairies or Santa and his reindeer.  Despite what others may think they don't seem emotionally disturbed having missed out on Santa.  In the past though we have had some tree ornaments, stockings, watched the silly old cartoon holiday movies and sang the silly Santa songs.  This year we've just sort of skipped those things all together. 

For their one present they are getting something they want as opposed to something they need.  However it is something that fits in our very strict "whole recreational activity" department.  No Wii games, no MP3 players, no whatever gadgets are out there.

Our Christmas season as truly been a season of joy so far.  We have done a tremendous amount of service, which I will talk about in another post.  There has been no rushing to the store to beat the crowds or catch a sale.  It's been peaceful, it's been holy.


Side note:  We have also changed our birthday's around also.  The children get one gift and then we go to a family activity and eat dinner out wherever they want.  Determination celebrated his 11th birthday in this manner a couple of weeks ago and it was "his best birthday ever" and he was crying at the end of the day with happiness.  Their presents will be something practical yet something they want.  For example, Determination received a Leatherman.  We live in a situation where he uses it regularly, so this might not be ideal for some families living in suburbia.

I'm Alive

Quick update: I'm alive and well!  We are moved and settled in.  Life is truly wonderful.  We feel so blessed.  I have had so many thoughts that I have wanted to pass along. However....

Due to unusual circumstances we have not been able to acquire internet access and it doesn't look like we will either.  We could get satellite internet, but have chosen not to.  So for the time being it looks like I will be off-line.  Thanks to Joyful Saint for letting me post this from her house. : )

Here is what I would love to talk to you about:

• Making your house a home
• Joys of washing dishes by hand
• Science Charlotte Mason style
• Review all the conference talks and my a-ha's
• The Art of Lying among LDS youth (perhaps Misfit will write that for me)
• Campaign updates-defending the Constitution
• All the a-ha's from our inspiring trip that I didn't write

Those are a couple that come to mind.  They may never be realized. Sigh...

I want to catch up on reading everyones posts.  I'm two weeks behind. Ughh!

The Great Debate/Discussion is going on without me!  I have had extreme withdrawals.  However, I have found that our house has become more holy since we pulled all the plugs.... 

I most go, but cheerio for now.  I am thinking of you. : )

P.S.  I received a lovely letter via the pony express from Mrs. Smith.  It made my day.  I have since set the goal of rediscovering this lost art.  I have written several of you letters, I just need addresses now.  So if you would like snail mail from me please send me your mailing address via my email address.  I'll have to figure out how to get my emails then though huh?  I'll check them on my husband's phone.

Keep up the discussion I'm with you in spirit.

760 Sq. Feet

....That's the size of the ity bity house we are moving into in three very short weeks. Did I mention that we will be gone for two of those weeks on vacation? Maybe I should start at the beginning.


For years we have been trying to sell our house. We haven't tried really hard, but it has been on the market for six years. Last year we bought 80 beautiful acres of land so that we could build our inheritance house and have room to be self-sufficient from the cares of the world. Now that we have our land we have really wanted to sell our house so we can get going on this beautiful plan.

So Monday night out of the blue we were able to sell it. It was sudden and it was a surprise. Imagination and I cried. We've lived here for almost 10 years. This is the only house my kids have ever know. We didn't sleep much. We weren't so much sad as we were nostalgic. We all know it's what we are suppose to do. We all know it's time to move forward. Imagination's goal this week is to not cry.

So after finding we had sold our house we needed to find a rental quick. We live in a little town of 400 people. There's not a lot of rentals. Pretty much ZERO. And if there is one you really do want to run away fast, because they are nasty. However, the Lord loves us and had a plan all ready prepared. All 760 sq feet of it that is. Across the street from our land sits a charming (not really) old house. Every time I have worked at our land I saw it sitting vacant and the thought always came, "When you sell your house you need to move in there." The whole time however every one in town thought the bank owned it. So we check on it. NEGATIVE the bank does not own it. Mr. Patriot is a pro at whipping up deals. He bargained with the lady. (Our family will do well when we go back to the barter system). There is work to be done on the house. (Surprise!) We agreed to put in all new flooring and make it livable for renters. We've spent $950 so far with $250-600 more to go. What's our rent for our 10 month lease? Priceless. That's right free rent.

It looks like some where between October 1 and 10 is our move in date. That's not a lot of time when we'll be out of town for the last two weeks of this month. AND Mr. Patriot is staging a massive campaign against an incumbent for November 2. (That's going VERY well by the way). Yes, we are craZ-y. But we feel a call to move on and we do much better when we can just work fast and furious and get it done. We've had a lot of spiritual experiences confirming this is what we are suppose to do. It's been amazing!

So how do you go from 2400 sq feet to 760 sq feet? The Lord has prepared me already though because the last 6 months I have dejunked and dejunked and dejunked. In fact I had spent all of Monday (before I even had a clue we'd sold our house) getting rid of more stuff. Yes, we will put some in storage, but I am tired of having excess. Excess in food is good and other necessities, but not in stuff. I feel that I have taken too much of my allotment from the world and I must now give it all back. We are minimizing around here. Every drawer and box will be gone through. We are not moving anything extra. Period. The End. I'm not packing it around.

One blessing of not having our TV idols is that we don't to fit our furniture around them.  It's so nice to have them not apart of this.

So I have my list, pile whatever of what I'm taking. (The rest being put in storage: extra beds, furniture, desks, bookshelves, etc). I feel like the pioneers loading up their handcarts or wagons. I have packed the essentials only to find out that I am still very much over the weight requirements. Gasp! Now what? Do you dump the piano, the 72 hour kits or the food storage? Yeah, wish me luck. We are debating on whether to have the piano or a second couch in the living room. We'll store either one we don't use, but mmm? Not having to deal with piano for a year does sound a little appealing?

We will not have a printer, dishwasher or a microwave.  We are contemplating a land line still?  I've wanted to live without some of these things anyway; to see how we did with out them.  Guess I'm getting my wish.  I'll share more of the joy later. : )

Simplfying my Life

Since I found Headgates I have massively dejunked my house.   Since I never was a pack rat before and I was a queen of organization I was very surprised to see how many things we had that we really didn't need.  Too much stuff!!

The first thing I did was I got rid of all our extra stuff.  Everything from movies, spatulas, plastic plants, sheets, clothes to lots and lots of books and toys. Why did I have so much stuff?

Once I started getting rid of  our stuff I was finally able to give up so many things that I had emotionally been holding onto. In that process I learned to think about things in a whole new way.  I finally began to understand what it meant to simplify my life (which didn't mean reorganize my stuff) and I began to love it.

Some of the things I things I've learned include:

• We aren't going to spend Christmas/birthdays on the accumulation of more things.
• I don't want to spend my time dusting and cleaning. Read here.
• I don't want to spend my time reorganizing my organized clutter.
• We wasted too much time watching movies.
• We had too many books that weren't good books. They were mindless books that brought no value.  Abridged books were the first too go.
• I only want to buy quality products now that have lasting value.  I want appliances that I will take to a repair shop because they are worth repairing.  This contrasts my previous view of buying cheap stuff and throwing it away when it ceased to operate.
• We only need one or two extra pair of sheets not a dozen.
• We only need four of five pairs of pants and no more than a dozen shirts for everyday.
• We only need a minimum amount of shoes.
• We don't need a thousand paper clips.
• We spent too much on junk from the grocery store.
• Walmart is a temptation to buy things you don't need and are low in quality. Avoid unless needing the necessary things.  But then are those things really necessary?
• We waste too much paper.  We now only use the minimum. Read here.
• My kids are happier playing with their two or three remaining toys and playing outside than they were before with too many to count and pick up.
• We don't need a play room any more.
• My kids really do choose to read and learn in their free time now.
• I study and am happier more now that I don't feel overwhelmed about organizing my stuff.
• We spent more time together as a family.  We interact, we play and we talk.

I've learned a lot.  Who knew we could live with so few things?  I continue to get rid of more and more things on a weekly basis.  It's amazing to me how many things keep showing up.  I have definately learned to rethink my choices with what I spend Mr. Patriot's hard earned money on.  I ask myself things like, "Is this item worth one or two hours (or five, six....) of my husband's life working so I can buy this?"  "Is this something I really need?"  "What purpose will it serve?" "Will it help us come closer to Christ and to each other as a family?"  "Is it an item of quality or will it break easily?" "Is it easy to clean?"  These things have helped me to pare down what we have.

I can't not begin to really state how amazing it is to be free of so many idols, time-wasters, space-wasters, energy-drainers, and money-wasers.

Challenge: Take inventory of the things in your house. Do you really need it? Get rid of it all! That's what I did.  I learned I could live without so many things.  You'll find that it's all just stuff anyway!

The Six Month No

It has become time to think about the "Six Month No" again.  It's my least favorite ingredient in some ways and my favorite in other ways.  I don't like it because I have to give up things that I like.  It is my favorite because I feel liberated when I finally give myself permission to stop doing some things and I have more time to do what I feel is the most important for that six months.

(The "six month no" is a part of the Thomas Jefferson Education program.  The idea is that every six months every one evaluates the things they are doing.  They decide if they should stop doing something.  It helps to keep us focused and to choose to do things that are no longer productive and helpful for our current situation).

This time around this is what got axed:

• Writing on four blogs. I only have my private family blog and this one now.
• On-line BYU classes.  I learned a fabulous amount of history in the last three years though.
• 4-H Cloverbud Leader.  No sorrow there.
• Our state's Distance Education Academy.  Lots of reports and testing.  I did enjoy it while we did it.  Great people.  Great resources.  But time to move on.

There's a time for everything though right?  Maybe some day I'll start my classes up again and I'll be able to write for all sorts of blogs and magazines?  For now life is good.  I feel in control again.

Have any of you done a six month no lately?

Mothers Who Know Do Less....Dusting

About four months ago we had a major dejunking party. We got rid of so many things. Why did I have so much stuff? It is really embarrassing. I realized quickly that our family lives WAY WAY WAY beyond our needs and wants. I wondered how many spatulas do I really need?


So we got rid of our stuff. My husband says we got rid of 50 lawn and leaf garbage bags of stuff. I think it was closer to 35, but I stopped counting at 25. That's a lot of stuff. That's too much stuff. Again I ask, why did I have so much stuff? Stuff, stuff, stuff.....

Not only did I come to see that we had way to much stuff, but we were emotionally attached to so very many items in our home. It was almost as if they were on own little idols. Not good.

Another thing I noticed about all our stuff was that I had to clean it and organize it and look at it and ...... I don't need more things to do. Really I don't.

I've implemented a new cleaning schedule for family work and the first day we did the living room we quickly realized how much we needed to dust. This was after 35+ bags of extra treasures went out. Since I wanted to focus on teaching my kids how to deep clean we were cleaning all of our plastic plants. How did I end up with so many plastic plants? Half way through a really big plant dusting job Determination said, "Mom, are we going to have to dust these every week?" I looked at him and he looked at me and I got it. No we were not going to spend our lives dusting plastic plants. I started laughing and said, "Let's get rid of them!" So they picked one plant to keep (surprisingly it was the very smallest and they put it on top of the piano). Why do we have so many plastic plants I ask again?

Then came the picture frames. Why do I have so many picture frames cluttering up the wall? I don't want to dust them all either. So we took almost all of them down and we are going to put them in a book and put them on our 'prayer table' (also commonly known as a coffee table). We still have pictures up but we surly didn't need that many!

So I ask you what 'plastic plants' do you have that are cluttering up your life? I want to be a mother who knows that does less.

The Sketchbook

There are so many good discussions going on here and on several other blogs I follow regarding the ebook Headgates! It is so fun to hear what you all have to say.

I've greatly reduced the art supplies and so they are no longer overwhelming. We no longer have a huge box of crayons-we have a little box of crayons! How many yellow crayons to we really need? My kids have never been much into art projects anyways. (Gee, I wonder why? Could it be because I loathe them? I've never found value in worthless crafts.) They do however thoroughly enjoy drawing one stick figure on a piece a paper with: "To Mom: I love you. Love, Creativity" written on a hundred pages.

So to solve this bunch of wasted papers and satisfy their desire to give me a love note I recently bought sketch pads for the kids. I told them how much I enjoyed all their love notes, but I kept loosing them and they were all over the place. So I said I wanted them to draw them in the sketch book. I wanted their best work and then when they were done they could give me the sketch book and this way I would be able to keep them always! I told them that whenever there was one they really wanted me to see all they had to do was show it to me. They were so excited. They all have enjoyed drawing pictures for me that I will get to keep forever. Creativity told me he was excited that I wouldn't be able to loose them this way. He also said he liked just having one place to keep everything. Determination also has made nice little drawings that he wasn't interested in before. So simplifying our craft supplies as made them focus on real projects that are nice. Success!

We put up all their extra notebooks. They still have their names on them they are just in our empty closet so they are still here. They only get to have one notebook out to keep notes in and write whatever they want. They have really liked knowing where their books are and not feeling overwhelmed with all the paper.

I have found that has I've gotten rid of things that they are actually becoming happier, more productive, and better behaved. It's all really amazing.