This blog and my other blog www.lendefamilyfive.blogspot.com will be on hold for now.  Life is wonderfully busy right now.  I feel like my BLOG’s have been looming above my head as yet another task to complete.  Add that to major extended family issues on both sides of our family.  I just feel as though keeping life as calm as possible right now is the best thing.  If you want to continue to get updates on our family, on our compacting journey or just be able to keep intouch with us, please email me lendefamily@gmail.com

Thanks for understanding.

I am a mom of four and get asked that quite frequently.  Most commonly I answer, I am not sure, I just do.  Then I will go on to say that life with four little ones seems almost easier than when I had one or two.  Now that sounds like crazy talk.  But I assure you its not.  I am not crazy, although I believe that each day I do struggle with staying on this side of sanity   I am more organized and less uptight with four as opposed to two.  I have bigger children to help with littler ones.  Even if the bigger ones aren’t “playing” with the little ones, the little ones have someone to watch and parallel play with.

With that said about a week ago I needed the answer to a “how do you do it”?  So I asked two friends of mine, who happen to homeschool, have more children than I do and I look up to greatly.  My how do you do it was on the topic of the dreaded “L” word…LAUNDRY.  I am so bad at it, I have tried so many different ways, two loads a day, different types of laundry each day and the worst system of all, just ignoring the laundry until I have so much I must go to the laundromat and spend almost $40 to complete it all, only to have it piled high in a week or so.  My two friends gave me great advice, actually they gave me the same advice (it could be because they are sisters).  They helped me to realize that my first problem lies in the amount of laundry we produce and then they recommended the once a week “Laundry Day”.  I loved the idea.  Mondays are a stay at home day anyway, so why not do all the laundry on that one and be done with it for the next 7 days.

So this is how LAUNDRY is dealt with in our home now:

-If it is not covered in dirt or food and doesn’t smell too bad, it is to be worn again.

-Laundry is done one day a week, MONDAY, with the exception of cloth diapers and “wet” things, such as peed in underwear, smelly wet kitchen towels, which are done as needed throughout the week.

-Again I say if it is not really dirty, it is not to be found in the hamper.  And I have been know to scavenge through the hamper for “clean” clothes. 

-We now have a LARGE Rubbermaid container in the laundry room, instead of the basket or two that use to be there.  Dirty clothes may be put in the Rubbermaid or in the hamper in the bathroom, wet things go in the small basket that is on top of the Rubbermaid lid.

Before this new laundry plan I was doing about 12-15 loads of laundry a week, plus cloth diapers.  This past Monday I was 6 loads!!  FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK, SIX LOADS!!  YIPPEE!!  I was only consumed by laundry on Monday, not everyday of the week.  I love that the dirty clothes are nicely concealed in a container with a lid, so I do not have to see them all week.   I also love that I can spend less time worrying about laundry and more time doing things that I enjoy with the people that I love.

And the best thing yet, Nick enjoys are new found Laundry plan so much that he has vowed to put all the laundry away.  I wash, dry and fold.  It waits nicely on our bed for him to put it away after dinner.  What an awesome hubby

As of now we have completed seven whole months of Compacting.  First off let me just get this off my chest…we have slipped here and there :/.  Don’t quit reading, PLEASE.  I am trying to not have guilt over the purchases we have made, knowing that there would have been many more if we were not on the COMPACT.  Dang it.  I guess I am just too much of a perfectionist.  I only want to do things if I can do them to the highest of standards, and if I don’t I think I have failed, I treat myself as though I have failed.  And in this situation slipping up a few times does not deem me or my family failures in the Compacting department.

We have grown so much due to Compacting, more than I ever could have dreamed and the year isn’t nearly over.  We spend more time together, less time shopping and just all in all a lot more mindful of our consumption.  We have been recycling everything we can, buying food and household goods in bulk and have cut our “garbage” down by about half.  We started a garden and have seen the fruits of our labor through the likes of carrots, beans, tomatoes, strawberries, plums and we are still waiting on a bell pepper.  I went from a clothing shop-o-holic to actually not knowing what is “in style”.  My kids are wearing hand me down or used clothing store bathing suits this year and they all look cute at the river, can you believe it.  I have been spending a lot less time online, even though Nick thinks I am still addicted.  I have been blogging less and selling less tie dye.  My kids have been enjoying the outdoors and I have been enjoying it with them.

A few months ago I spoke at to my MOPS group about our journey into Compacting, beginning at my insane desire to declutter.  I had such an awesome response, ladies wanted to know more about it and more about natural and simple living in general.

We have begun to pray about and talk about how we are going to handle Christmas.  Honestly, I want to pack my little family of six and go somewhere, escape it all and just focus on Jesus.  However, I think that would be considered running away.  I knew Christmas would one of the hardest parts about Compacting.  I also knew I had all year to figure out how we were going to handle it.  I mean, I am totally comfortable in yelling from the mountaintops that we are Compacting, but when it comes to Christmas (gifts) it affects so many more people than just our little family.  If you know me at all, I hate confrontation.  I hate to tell people things that might not be what they are expecting to hear.  (Thank God for email, hehe)  SO pray for me, for us as we embark on the next stage of Compacting.

for the worst blogger goes to…..

(envelope slowly opens)

ME!!

It is summer.  We’ve been spending lots of time outdoors, at swimming lessons and out of town.  I have close to ten blogs that have been started but not finished.  My goal this week is to not start anymore and tie off the loose ends of those in the works.  So here’s to redeeming myself.  Hopefully.

Over a year ago I was turned onto Sara’s blog Walk Slowly, Live Wildly…I love reading her blog, feeling so warm by her words, enjoying reading another like-minded bloggers thoughts.  Then she announced that her and her fam would be taking to the road in a veggie-oil powered RV.  I was more than intrigued.  I offered a somewhat flat piece of concrete in front of my home for them to park for a few days, little did I know they would actually take me up on my offer.  Their tour the Live Lightly Tour is traveling the country spreading the word about veggie-oil powered vehicles and sustainable living…

Last week they came our way, stayed for a few days and our lives were changed forever.  Matt and Sara are amazing creation-loving Christians.  From the second they arrived Nick and I felt like we had known them forever.  (We continue to wonder if they have that affect on everyone they meet or if we were *special*, I would like to think we are *special*, but I think maybe not.)  We had an amazing weekend of laughter, scooters, redwoods, photography, raw food eating, veggie buying, worshiping, jammin’ (as in Matt and Nick playing music), girl-time, where we squeezed as much into as little time as possible, Thai food, coffee and Borders all before bedtime (thank you Daddy’s).  We had such a wonderful time with the Janssen’s and we would welcome them back anytime, absolutely anytime!

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I had some major spamming problems, which got me down, then I thought “why the heck do I blog anyway?”, so I went private and now I’m back….

Stay tuned for updates.

On Wednesday night @ 10:33pm Elijah Joseph was born and I there. My best friend Kristy was so amazingly strong during the whole labor and birth. I am so blessed to have been able to be there from start to finish, only sneaking away a few times to nurse Dillon. Thank you Kristy and Greg for allowing me to be a part of Elijah’s birth

We have been strong these days, here are a few things we have done in the past few weeks:

-Dillon and I went to Santa Rosa for my best friend Kristy’s baby shower, Nick stayed home with the other three

-Soaked up the nearly 70degree weather in Humboldt County

-Planted seeds indoors

-Spent many hours “spring cleaning” the yard, still in process

-Rearranged the living room

-Spent time dreaming of adding onto this tiny house

-Found out that two family-ish members are pregnant, both have had losses, so lots of prayers going their way

-Dillon started walking, YIPEE!

-Aidan can read pretty much anything that is 6 letters or less, it is kind of crazy

-Téadora is compleltly day time potty trained

-Aidan is completely diaper free, he was day time potty trained at 2 1/2 but has worn a diaper to bed for until now

-We are still COMPACTING and going strong

Alright, I promise I am going to be better about blogging

Today he turns four. Weird though, he doesn’t seem four, I mean he acts four, does things a four year old would do, but then he looks at me and he is a baby in my arms. Only its better now, he doesn’t scream all the time.

Coda loves being outdoors, loves digging, hammering (he can hammer a nail in better than I can), is obsessed with tools and I mean OBSESSED. He does not love sitting still, reading, watching tv, however his attention span is lengthening. Coda has the most amazing dimples and smile, he has a passion for life and when something doesn’t go his way he will let you know.

For his birthday he wanted to go to the beach and fly kites. So we did. He was interested in flying kites on his birthday for FOUR months leading up to the day, the 10 minute drive to the beach and about .2 seconds once we arrived, then he was on to something else…finding rocks and throwing them in the ocean and digging.

After the beach we came home and had a family party. Coda is on a gluten-free, casein-free diet, so everything at the party followed his diet, even the cake and frosting. It was mighty yummy indeed.