Living room liberation

How to make a room look 90% tidier in less than 10 minutes
Here are a few tricks to improving the look of a bedroom or living room in just a few minutes.

1. Focus first on the largest piece of furniture in the room, either the bed if it is a bedroom, the sofa in the living room or the dining table, for example. Clear all clutter onto the floor and straighten the furniture. A bed takes up about 60% of the floor space in a room so the simple act of making the bed when you rise in the morning will do wonders for your perception of your bedroom!
   

Pox party anyone?!

Well, after what seems like numerous viral imposters, our eldest has finally come down with the dreaded pox!  Bless him.  He's quite unwell with a high temperature.  He never does well when he's "hot" as he calls it.

"Do the ear thing," he tells me many times a day, meaning take his temperature with our thermometer that you poke into their ear.

Artists impression of what we all might look like with pox

It won't be long before Number Two and Number Three come down with it.  Number Two had a slight temperature this evening and we can make out the vague beginnings of the rash.  Number Three has been moaning incessantly all day (although I was only around for an hour or so to verify, having been at work, mercifully!).  This has got to be a sign of the virus festering in his body too.

We've always been pretty keen for them to get chicken pox and get it over with.  Yes, your worst fears are confirmed!  I am one of those mothers!

New Year's Resolution Number 1: Parenting

I. Am. Tired.  So many things to do and so little time as always.  Before I had kids I thought I was busy but now I juggle so much that I now realise that I must have been supremely bored before!

The issue at the forefront of my mind lately has been parenting.  My kids are at such different stages at the moment, but the eldest two are definitely trying very hard to get the better of me these days!  And I am doing my utmost to not lose the plot every 10 minutes... um, seconds! 

There is just so much emphasis on building a good marriage in the church: marriage preparation classes, marriage improvement classes, etc etc.  But one thing I have found lacking is the preparation for parenting.  I was speaking with a friend last night and we both realised we have never been on a parenting course.  Plenty of marriage classes but no parenting.

If we were to adopt, we would have to go through so many procedures to ensure we would be suitable, effective parents.  But bring a child into the world yourself, and you need absolutely no qualifications at all!  What on earth possesses us to think that we could raise a bunch of independent, selfabsorbed, needy, individual humans with no training or advice?  The hormones start racing round your body and you feel the need to procreate, but when that little baby arrives, what do you do with it?

Our first child was born at home and when the midwives left, Matt and I just stared at this baby, wondering what we should do with him.  How did the nappy work again?  Why was he crying? Which way was up?

With parenting it feels the same.  Why is he stamping his feet?  How do I stop his screaming?  Why is he lying down on the aisle floor in the supermarket waving his arms and legs and turning red?  And how can something so small emit such an intensely loud wailing sound?

'Scuze me for just a minute, gotta go wipe a little person's bottom...

If you need a job done...

Lucille Ball said "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it."

I would like to clarify this: If you want something done, ask a busy mom.  Well, I'd like to think so anyway.  In reality, our house is a study in chaos!

Last night I spent a few hours looking at my schedule and trying to find a way to fit everything in.  There is too much to do: exercise, laundry, time with Matt, reading with Number One child, studying, my own reading, writing, brushing the kids' teeth, painting Number Two child's toes, brushing my teeth, having a shower, planning for next year's kids' ministry, painting the wall where Number Three child just drew his first masterpiece, and on and on.

There is so much I want to do and I'm struggling to find the time to even give myself quality time or to have space to listen to my Daddy's plans for the next year or even to carve out a bit of time to write.