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Justin and Jessica

Day 86: Five Buck Fridays

There is a weekly offer at our local flower shop, each friday, called a "five buck friday."  It is a simple arrangement of flowers.  My sweet husband likes to spoil me about every two weeks with one of these:

In this act he is supporting a local business, making me feel loved and appreciated, being smart by not buying me expensive roses (in which I don't even like), and helping our home feel more inviting by the presence of fresh flowers.

I love the idea of the five buck friday.  And as much as I say that I don't like flowers (because they are not thoughtful and don't last more than a week or two), I most definitely love getting them from my husband :)

Call me old fashioned.

(what should be) Day 85: Project #3 - Dryer Balls

I have been wanting to do dryer balls for quite awhile now, and finally decided to make them for a friend's bridal shower!

They were relatively cheap and very simple.

 

For one skein of yarn I was able to make three balls (one large, one medium and one small).

I have yet to make some for our family...

Why wool dryer balls?
-To replace dryer sheets
-They are reusable (last from 5-10 YEARS!)
-Chemical free
-Safe for cloth diapers
-Reduce static cling
-Reduce drying time by 25-45%

uh....SO BEHIND

Instead of beating myself up daily over not posting all the things we've done throughout the year so far, I am going to start now.

I will, at some point, go back and fill in all the missed days, but I have gotten so far behind that it is better for me to just start now, from today on.

And. It. Is. Okay.

Our goal may not have been accomplished completely, but we have not failed at striving for simplicity.

So, here goes.

Apologies

We would like to apologize for our lack of consistency.

Sorry!

We found it extremely difficult to keep up with the blog, not having Internet access at home.
We have returned to being customers/slaves of Cox Communications - we traded our previous Internet speed in for the slowest possible.  It still works quite well.

This week, starting with a glorious snow-day today, I am going to attempt to post all the missing days!
I will most likely do about two per day...if you care.

Anyway, we are still keeping up with our year-challenge - just having a hard time keeping up with pictures and writing. 

Something about having two-kiddos-under-two, battling tax season while being a full-time college student, getting involved in the community and church hunting takes a lot of one's free time :)

Happy Snow Day to those of you experiencing it!!

"Snow Outside" Dave Matthews Band
You should listen to this song today!

Day 34: Our bath/shower area

This one sort of speaks for itself.
We simplified our shower/bath area by eliminating products we don't use and organizing what we had a little better.

You can see, this is before we have switched to any natural products what-so-ever...

Day 33: We bought a scale

We've been trying to eat better, eat less and exercise more.

In order to push ourselves a little bit, we have bought a scale to keep track of our weight!

 

I do need to be careful though - I am nursing two little nurslings and noticed myself getting dizzy the other day as I was counting calories...

My goal is to eat healthier - not necessarily less - but, less junk.

AND to drink more water, instead of other sugar filled beverages.

Both of us have lost a few pounds this week and I am feeling a lot better about my body already!  Just getting a little more active each day helps a whole lot!

Day 32: My reading list

At this very moment, I am "reading" about ten different books.

"reading"= have read at least one chapter and have the book sitting out in a random place for me to pick up whenever I get the time/urge to read it; OR am continually turning to it when I decide I need advice.

+ two e-books

This is not simple.  This is too many.

What's my plan of action?  How am I going to simplify my reading? 

I DON'T KNOW.

But I think I should.


What do you suggest?  I clearly don't have enough time to get through a book quickly; I rarely sit down to actually read more than one chapter at a time.  I want to read all of these.  I need to read some of these. 

help.

Day 31: Quickbooks

As a family, we do a pretty decent job of keeping track of our finances and setting up a realistic spending plan.  Thanks to my wonderfully-smart-accountant-of-a-husband, we have our moneys set.  Recently, he set us up as a company in quickbooks!  Instead of telling you about quickbooks or the why and how of what we are doing, I am going to allow him to do the talking.  He is very passionate about it, and pretty good at explaining things. 

Go ahead honey.

((This blog post is on its way.  Justin is smack-dab-in-the-middle of tax season and finishing up his last semester at LSU...he will write when he has time.))

Day 30: Garage

The garage at our house is normally referred to as "Justin's garage."  It has become more of a storage space than a place to park a car.  It isn't very big, but we can squeeze our van into it if it is going to hail or something. 

Recently, as we have been clearing our living spaces of "stuff," we have been boxing that stuff and setting it in the garage to be delivered to an organization on a later date.  That stuff has been PILING up. 

Plus, Justin's work bench area has been filled with projects that need to be done.

One night, after we put the kiddos in bed, we decided to clean the garage out.  It only took us about two hours.

((some fun things to notice as you look at these pictures:
My husband's collection of hot wheels (as well as bottled water and can goods in case of catastrophe.) The toddler bed that needs re-finishing that we bought at a second-hand-furniture-store.  The street sign above the work bench... The graffiti wall.  Our bikes up-top!  The little pink riding car Jane got for Christmas.  The riding lawn-mower that we are storing for Justin's parents.  [Top right photo] My cutesie husband sitting on said mower.))

So, there you have it.  Justin's garage is clean and somewhat organized.  We moved a lot of the un-used stuff to the shed.  We took the boxes of donations to our van (which later ended back up in the garage because we didn't have time to deliver them.)  There is now room to work on "the toddler bed project." I am beyond excited to grab those bikes down for a stroll once springtime hits!

Day 29: Gardening Chat

Justin and I would like to start a vegetable garden as part of our goal to be self-sufficient.  Neither of us have ever done this, so we are tapping into some of our resources.  I have a friend who grew up Amish and knows everything about gardening, and Justin works with a lady who loves to plant things.

Today, in addition to catching up with my friend, I asked lots of questions about gardening.  How to start one? Where to put it? What to plant? When to start?

The recommended time to plant is after the ground is no longer frozen (end of April/beginning of May). 

Unfortunately, we have a sticker-full yard...I think they are actually called sand burs. Therefore, we will need to get rid of those before we set up our gardening area.
Thankfully, April/May is after Justin is done with tax season (he is an accountant) and he should be done with school by then as well!  He has got quite a task in front of him!

I would love to hear any advice you may have on gardening.  As I said before, we are NOVICES.  Clueless ones at that!  Please share any useful tools, information, reading, etc!

Day 28: Cleaning out our vehicle

Every family with kids has a messy car at some point.  Ours gets messy daily.  I allow Jane to have a drink in the car – I usually limit it to water, otherwise we could end up with a nasty milk situation – therefore, those cups end up on the floor immediately after she is finished with them.  We eat out and our trash ends up on the floor.  I do my makeup in the car and my used-mascara-ridden-q-tips end up on the floor.  Mail is occasionally opened in the car, and you guessed it, the junk mail ends up on the floor of our van.

All that to say, our van gets messy quickly.  A smart way to combat this would be to carry a trash item in with each return to home.  Well, let me tell you, my hands are a bit preoccupied.  Between carrying Jack (2 months), trying to hold a disobedient tiny Jane (16 months) hand and carrying in the (sometimes) two diaper bags, there is no room for trash in these two hands of mine. 

It makes me crazy to see stuff all over the van. 

My new goal is to clean our van once per week.  I don’t have a set time or day, it is more on an as-needed basis. 

Day 27: Research Day

Part of our year of less is focused on researching and supporting ethical companies.  To us, ethical = natural products and Christian companies or people making those products.  I talked about my friend Jenny’s Products (sunflowersundays.blogspot.com) and how we were going to try CalBen Shampoo.  We have kind of decided against the shampoo, strictly based on price. 

I googled, “natural shampoo Christian,” to start my search for a company and product that we want to support.  The one that I came across that sounds spot on with what we are looking for is Apple Valley.  They are a family company, owned and operated by Christians.  They offer “shampoo bars” along with many other products.  I really wanted to try this shampoo bar, but unfortunately it does not work with hard water…which we have!  They suggest using a filtered shower head, but that equals a higher cost.  Once more, we are not sure what to replace our “chemical cocktail” shampoo with…

Any ideas friends?

I also went to a local store called "Back to Nature" to look at their shampoo options. As I read on the backs of the bottles, they seemed to have just as many ingredients as the ones I already buy, and I know nothing about all the companies - not to mention, the cost was much more than what I am looking to spend. We need help!

Day 26: Kid's Drawer

Along with that shelf in the hallway closet, the rest of the hall closet, and every single drawer in our house, the second drawer down in our hallway tends to get messy.  I call it the Jane/Jack drawer.  It contains their bath wash and lotion (of which we have not ever had to buy), towels and random baby stuff. 

Here is the disaster area:

 

 

 

And here is the organized drawer:

 

I threw away some stuff, but mostly just folded the towels and set stuff up nicely.  And there were even items that just didn’t belong in there.

My next task is consolidating towels…that will be in a while.  I haven’t decided how many towels I think is a good number for our family.  The year of less blog decided they only needed one towel per family member.  I am thinking about this one.  I’ll get back with you.  I think mostly I don’t want to do laundry that often, but I also feel bad getting rid of towels that people just bought us for the kiddos.  Maybe two towels per baby is okay?  Again, I will get back with you when we decide!

 

Day 25: Project #2

I have been planning this one for awhile. 

 

I needed a place to hang my necklaces in an orderly fashion, so one day I began perusing pinterest for some crafty ideas.  I found a few little ways to hang hooks from wood that looked relatively cheap and cute.  Then I had an epiphany when I was sitting on the toilet one day! (TMI...perhaps.)

 

We have this pretty painting in our bathroom that is canvas and pretty deep.  There was plenty of room to add some hooks on the inside of it!  So, I told my handy-man husband my idea.  We would grab some little hooks to put on the inside of it and then hinges to attach it to the wall for easy access.

He bought the hooks one day, but bless his poor soul, he is TOO BUSY to do anything handy-manish these days.  So, I decided I could probably do half of it.

 

Here it is!

Here's the painting

The inside of the back

...with hooks!

and now furnished with necklaces :)

 

Look how great it looks on the wall! You would NEVER know there were necklaces there!  If I ever have any valuable jewelry, that is where it will be hanging...to protect it from burglars ;)

 

Day 24: Hallway Shelf #1

Our hallway, like our dining room, has built in shelves/closets/drawers.  It is so nice to have these areas to store things like towels and beauty products!  The problem is, we have an abundance of all of those things...

Instead of a nice orderly space of storage, it has become a conglomeration of stuff strewn about.

Our bottom shelf is the worst.  It contains our everyday use things like deoderant, shaving cream and hair gel, along with a thermometer and some tylenol and things of that sort.  I spend about thirty minutes each week straightening it up and re-setting-up tipped over bottles and cups.  Then, as the week goes on we just start throwing things in there after each use and it becomes a shelf of junk.  There is nothing orderly about it.

So, I decided it was time for a change.  I would only allow things on this shelf that we use frequently and they are only allowed if it still looks relatively simple and clean.

Here are the results:

This is a photo of the rest of the closet - to be worked on very soon:

As you can see there are mainly towels and toilet paper.
There are also random table linens and sheets tucked away in there. 

Day 23: Matthew 7



Click the picture for link to the song "Words to Build a Life On" by Mike Crawford and His Secret Siblings



Once more – my interpretation of the verses in Matthew chapter 7, and some of my thoughts along the way J

v. 1-6

Don’t judge others, but when you do judge you will be judged as you judge others.  “Sweep off your own porch before you go out sweeping others” – take care of the junk in your own life before you go worrying about the junk in someone else’s life.  Don’t be hypocritical.

I remember a time when I was really struggling with gossip and judging others.  I found that the more I talked about other people, the more I either heard or suspected of others speaking poorly of me.  I know this is referencing the judgment of God and not of others, but it really struck me hard at that time. 
I also find that if I ever try to place judgment on someone else’s life or relationships, etc., God is quick to show me some things that need work in my own life. 

Keep what is sacred, sacred. 

When I was in high-school youth group, our small group of girls did a purity study through the book, “And the Bride wore white.”  I distinctly remember this verse about throwing your pearls to pigs – the book talked about how your bodies belong to the Lord and how you are to keep them pure and holy, not giving into any lustful temptations before the day you are united with your husband.  (At least that is how I am remembering it.)

v. 7-12

Live by the golden rule: Do unto others what you would have them do to you.  Your Father will take care of you, ask, seek and knock; you will be given what you ask, find what you are seeking and the door in which you knock will be opened (perhaps, not in exactly the way you think it should be).

The golden rule seems pretty simple, yet it is a constant struggle.  These verses are a good reminder to be always very thoughtful of and graceful with people, because that is what I desire them to do to me.  I love how simple the following verses are as well.  Ask and you will receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.  I think this is a good reminder that God desires human action.

v. 13-23

Narrow is the gate that leads to eternity, but wide is the gate that leads to destruction – enter through the narrow gate, you few who will find it.

Watch out for false teachers, you can tell they are false by the way they bear bad fruit. 

True vs. false disciples – Not everyone who talks to the Lord will enter into heaven – but those who do God’s will, will enter.  Many will do many things in the Lord’s name, but have never known Him personally; they will be rejected just as they have rejected our Savior.

I’m reading Radical by David Platt right now and the chapter I just finished talked a lot about how we, as Americans, have glamorized the gospel and made it so comfortable and easy.  In response to verses 22 and 23, Platt reminds us that Jesus was speaking to religious people, not pagans or atheists, who were convinced they were on the narrow path but were instead on the road to hell.  Jesus speaks of a time when people, lots of people, will be shocked to find out they never even knew God.  “[T]he gospel demands and enables us to turn from our sin, to take up our cross, to die to ourselves, and to follow Jesus,” NOT to make a “one-time decision, maybe even mere intellectual assent to Jesus, but after that we need not worry about his commands, his standards, or his glory.”  “We are saved from our sins by a free gift of grace, something that only God can do in us and that we cannot manufacture ourselves.  But that gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart.  New desires.  New longings.  For the first time, we want God.  We see our need for him, and we love him.  We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation.   We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we are saved to know God.  So we yearn for him.  We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him.  This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel.”  Amen brother!

Platt  also states that we “cannot settle for anything less than a God-centered, Christ-exalting, self-denying gospel.”  I love that.

v. 24-29

When you hear God’s words and put them into practice, you have set up for yourself a firm foundation; when you don’t put them into practice, your foundation will crumble like a house built on sand. 

Jesus amazed the crowds with His teachings because he spoke with much authority.

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living.  They are foundational words, words to build a life on.  If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock…but if you use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on a sandy beach.” – The Message

Day 22: Library vs. Bookstore

Part of our year of less is borrowing when we can.  The library comes in very handy in the area of borrowing books.

 

I had heard of a book called “7: An experimental mutiny against excess” by Jen Hatmaker.  I heard from a few people that it was really good and a great challenge.  Since beginning the year of less, a few friends recommended I read it.  Well, I don’t have the book; instead of grabbing it from a local (not so local) bookstore, I decided to see if our library either has it or could get it on interlibrary loan.  Upon requesting the book, the library decided to buy it and put me at the top of the list of people waiting to check it out J So, I am currently waiting to begin this book – which is probably good, because I am currently reading through another book.

 



I also checked to see if they had (or could get) that Baby Signing Time: Potty video I spoke about in this post.  They were supposed to get back to me after doing a little research on that one; it has been a week and I haven’t heard anything, so this ones a little "up in the air."

In regard to this post, my husband stated, “I hate the bookstore, however, I always seem to be paying them both.  Charges to buy a book at the store or late fees for not returning a book in time to the library.” Haha.

Day 21: Project #1

Our dining room closet that we cleaned out now has a “project shelf”.  This is where we set stuff that we need to fix, make or do.  One of the things on that shelf was a box full of frames.  With the pictures I hung for Jack’s Baby Shower, I decided to create a frame collage for a wall in our living room.

I started by framing the pictures and rearranging them on our bed to form a frame collage that I thought looked good.

Then I took them to the wall:

 

It looks a little cheap…but that’s alright with me J

I got a project done, a wall decorated and 13 unused frames out of our project closet!

***Note from husband: I came home to my wife standing 4 feet in the air on a chair.  Had she fallen, I may have been a widow with two cute babies.  Another woman would have fallen in love with me and the kids and then she would have regretted this for life.  Please do not attempt this at your home unless your children are capable of calling 911 while blood is spewing from your head.  I know you think you will land like a Siamese cat, but it is called an accident because no one expects it or wants it to happen!***

Day 20: Cloth Diapers

As mentioned in the previous post, we cloth diaper our children.  This is not a new thing for the year, I just wanted to use this space/time to go into a little bit more detail and tell you why we do it.  It is also my personal challenge to be less slothful and continue using them on a regular basis. (You see, sometimes we get lazy and go a few days using disposables.)

We began cloth diapering shortly after we bought our first home when our oldest daughter was 3 months old.  My cousin first told me about cloth diapering, as she cloth diapers her children.  She also began my stash and helped me learn all the ins and outs of the CD (cloth diaper) world.  If it weren’t for her letting us borrow all she did, we never would have started.

We aren’t huge environmentalists or anything – we just like to save money. 

We started out using some prefolds with snaps and covers.  Then Aimee (my cousin) sent us some all-in-ones and we were in love.  Our favorites were bumgenius!  My husband only likes all-in-ones.  Then we learned about pockets.  They are similar to all-in-ones.  Once we had a little stash, I began searching on the local facebook swap/sell/trade site.  Gross, right.  Wrong.  Second hand diapers are the best.  They are so cheap!  So I bought a few of my own.  We also invested in a huge stash of prefolds, two wet bags and some cloth wipes from a friend of ours.  We now have a pretty wide collection of all sizes of diapers. 

I LOVE cloth diapering.  It is rewarding.  Not only to know that I am helping save our family money, but it is also nicer to know that less chemicals are on my baby’s behind, less trash is being sent to the dump, they are super-duper cute, and they are a bit addicting.  I also find it rewarding to fold them and organize them nicely in the kids’ room.  It’s okay, you can call me a freak.

What don’t I like about cloth diapering?  Poop.  Baby poop changes a lot.  If it is pebble-poop, I get excited because it drops nicely into the toilet.  If it is runny-poop, I cringe.  And when it is poop-five-times-a-day-poop, I cry…and then I use disposables for a while.  Seriously though, all the contact with poop is worth it.

Here are some photos of our cloth diaper collection: