Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Refrigerator

I know you're all going to just love me for today's challenge, but it must be done sometime, right?  And if we're not going to procrastinate, it needs to be done now, right?

That's what my husband and I decided right before bed last night.  The nasty refrigerator was just bugging us way too much, and really, when are we ever going to find a good time to clean it out?

So, last night it was.  It took an hour.  Honestly, I didn't think it was that bad (and chances are it wasn't); you just have to know my husband.  He says he's not a perfectionist, but I don't really know what else to call it.

Every single shelf was wiped down, and the old food was thrown away, which is fine.  That's the way most people clean out their fridge.  But, he wasn't content to stop there.  He wanted to use up any food that was about to go bad…now.  As in, let's make a gigantic fruit salad at bedtime.  As in, “Honey, you might as well wash up these blackberries and get them in the freezer.”

I'm always like, “I will.  Tomorrow.”  Which I guess is why I realized that I needed this Anti-Procrastination challenge this year.  And which I guess is why there was food in the fridge that already had to be thrown out.  It must have all been stuff I said I was going to use up…tomorrow.  Apparently, “tomorrow” was too late.

Sigh.  So, I guess know I'll be glad tonight at supper when we get to eat this wonderful fruit salad that I didn't feel like making last night.

Anyway, enough of my rambling about my woes of late-night fruit salad making.

It's time for you to get busy cleaning out your fridge!  And I don't want to hear you saying that it's not that bad!  You'll be sorry when you're throwing out food at bedtime one night.  And, ahem, if you really need to –  go ahead and make that fruit salad.  Just don't tell my husband I suggested that.  He'll think I thought it was a good idea.

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Being Intentional

One thing I really want to do better with is being intentional in my mothering.  I want to plan ahead more to spend time with the kids.  Sure, there is a place for spontaneous time together, but that honestly doesn't happen very often.  There are always dishes to wash, clothes to fold, and floors to sweep.  The work is never ending, and the time to spend with these little ones doesn't often just happen by accident.

I decided that since I'm all about Anti-Procrastination this year, that I was going to purposely make time to spend with the kids today.  Instead of waiting until everything magically fell into place (which it never would), I purposely cleared my schedule and gave my undivided attention to them.

And guess what?  I think I had more fun than they did!  Granted, I'll need to stay up a little longer tonight and finish folding the laundry, but what is more important?  Claiming my children's hearts as they grow up right before my eyes, or folding the laundry that will always be there?

One of several activites we did together today

What about you?  Is there something about which you need to purposely be more intentional?  Maybe it's not your kids; maybe it's being a better wife, a better nieghbor, church member, or friend.  It's time to stop planning to do better and just do it!

Have you been challenged to be more intentional about a certain area of your life?  Leave a comment and tell me about it!

If you’re just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. Be sure you’re subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each new challenge!

Excellent Christian Book Resource

My mother-in-law passed down the Lost in the Woods book to us, and I've been reading the short stories to the kids as they eat their lunch every day.

The stories are excellent – each short story contains a gospel message.  The language is a little bit old-fashioned, which I like because it is helping my kids build their vocabulary.  I don't think kids are as dumb as we make them out to be.  My two year old understands these stories, and she is learning lots of new words as she listens too.

I didn't know where the book came from, so I googled the publisher, and I was pleasantly surprised at what came up!  It was a treasure trove of quality Christian books for all ages!  There are missionary biographies, Christian historical fiction and non-fiction, devotional books, short story compilations like the ones pictured, reference books, and more!

I have this particular book, and it is excellent.

I could spend a small fortune if I were to purchase everything that I wanted.  I will be frequenting this site often.

Anyway, I was just excited to find so many great looking books all in one place, so I thought I'd share.

Here's the site:

Bible Truth Publishers

Anyone else have any good recommendations for quality Christian books?

How to Have More Energy {Plus a Giveaway!}

Since I've still been struggling with extreme fatigue, I've been doing lots of research on what the problem could possibly be, and what I can do to help myself.  Many of you have left comments and written emails giving various advice, and I appreciate it so much.  I have tried lots of different things that you all have suggested.

At this point I'm really hoping that my hormones are just out of balance.  I'm biding my time until the baby is weaned before I seek any more professional medical advice.  If things don't settle down a while after I'm done nursing then I will assume there is something else that needs to be addressed and go back to the doctor.

But in the meantime, I have a household to run and three little ones to take care of.  That's not so easily done when my energy level is basically at zero.

I came across a number of sources that stated that the glucose in honey absorbs into your body very quickly and turns to energy.  It is recommended that you take a tablespoon in a glass of water in the afternoon every day for optimum energy.  I can't honestly say that I know it works yet because I just tried it for the first time today, but I'm all for trying anything that will help me feel a little more like a human being!

My favorite honey in the whole world comes from Tropical Traditions.

This organic raw honey is honestly the best honey I have ever tasted in my life!  I generally like to eat local honey, but there is something so sweet about the honey from Tropical Traditions that blows away the taste of even local honey.  Plus, I love that fact that it is truly organic, meaning that the bees do not gather their pollen from any flowers that are grown with pesticides or fertilizers.  Instead, they gather from wild vegetation in the frontiers of Canada.  The beehives are located far from any type of city and its pollution from traffic and industry.   After harvesting, it is left completely unprocessed.

You can purchase some here.  (And as of this posting, it's on sale too!)

And don't forget, that Tropical Traditions is also the best place to purchase coconut oil.  Check out my post on 30 Uses for Coconut Oil and my favorite ever and oh-so-easy homemade granola using coconut oil.

You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil?

Now, for the fun part!

The Giveaway!

One of you will win some organic raw honey, thanks to the generosity of Tropical Traditions.  To enter, just follow the directions on the form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• This post contains affiliate links.

• I am not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site. All information is provided on an as-is basis. Please use your discretion before making any decisions based on the information in this blog. Author will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss, inconvenience, or damage because of/while making use of information in this blog
  

15 Independent Activities for One Year Olds

I have been preparing for the coming homeschool year, and it dawned on me that I will have a one year old to keep busy during homeschool hours!  He is a busy guy too – always into everything.  I went on the hunt for some activities that will be safe for him to do without supervision.  I'm hoping these will be exciting enough to him that he will keep himself occupied for a while.  If the pictures are not self-explanatory, you can check out the link under each one to find tutorials on how to make these activities.

New! If you like this post, you will love my brand new eBook, 101 Independent Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers!

Make your own texture book

Peek-a-boo tray from shoebox lid

Baby Play Bottle

Buckle clipping toy

Treasure baskets

Tissue box stuffed with fabric squares

Muffin tin sorting

Putting balls through a tissue box

Velcro board

Tearing Paper

Playing with magnets

Placing objects in a large container

Tactile exploration cards

Pipe cleaners in a bottle

Don't forget to check out 101 Independent Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers!  

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Gettin’ Messy!

This probably makes me a horrible mom, but I am always hesitant to let my kids do certain things because I dread the mess it will create.  (Let me clarify, I dread cleaning up the mess it will create!)  My list of I-rarely-say-yes-to-doing-this activities includes play-dough, playing in the rain, playing in the dirt/mud, painting, and more.  I realize that all of these activities are some of the best memories I have of my own childhood.  How much fun can a kid have without doing those things?  I keep telling myself that I will let them do more of it when they're older and can help more with clean-up.

But, seeing as how this is anti-procrastination year and all, I decided that today was the day I was going to surprise the socks flip-flops off the kids by telling them I would get the kiddie pool out for them.  Last year I kept putting them off because I “didn't have time” to clean the dirt off from storage, blow it up, and ultimately clean up dripping wet kids.  The whole summer ended up going by and we never got the pool out one time.  Shameful, isn't it?  But you have time for what you make time for, right?  And there's nobody more important that I should be making time for than my kids, even if that means it's not totally convenient for me.

So here we are getting things set up.  It wasn't too bad yet at this point.  I put the baby in his inflatable bath tub because I was afraid the older kids were going to get too wild and hurt him if I put him in with them.

But he saw how much fun they were having, crawled out of his tub, across the grass, and into the pool with them.  What did I say about the other kids being too wild?  See the bottles of water in their hands?  They were headed straight for the baby's head, and landed there about a second after I snapped this picture!  (Oh, and don't you just love the shirt I drew on my oldest?  My artistic abilities are amazing, I know!)

   
Did they make a mess?  Most definitely!  It was interesting trying to figure out what to do with three soaking wet kids when I could only bathe and dry one of them at a time.  Leaving them outside by themselves is not an option in the house where we currently live.  I ended up making them stand in the laundry room while I took them in one by one and bathed them as fast as I could.  Then there was the fun part of draining the pool and rinsing out all the dirt and grass, setting it out to dry, cleaning up all the toys, and washing wet towels and clothes. 

Did they have fun?  Absolutely!  Of course the first thing they asked when we came in was, “Can we go swimming again tomorrow?”

We just might, little ones.  Mommy had a whole lot of fun out there too.  I think the mess was worth watching your happy faces!

Your turn!  What is it that you've been putting off because you don't want to deal with the mess?  Whether it's something fun with the kids, a household project, cooking supper (ha!) or whatever else, it's time to get it done.

If you're just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. Be sure you're subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each new challenge!