FLYing High - Week One Update!

So how did my first week being "back on the wagon" with the FlyLady go?

Something like this:

Day One (Monday)
Baby Step One - DONE . . . Until everyone started putting their dirty dishes in the sink. And I had no place to put them because the dishwasher was full.
Flylady challenge of the day - DONE And the counters I scrubbed even got cleared . . .

Day Two (Tuesday)
Baby Step Two - DONE . . . Dressed to tennis shoes and did my hair. Even washed my face and put on lip gloss!
Flylady challenge of the day - This one did NOT get done. Frankly because I didn't have any storage containers that I needed to toss. Also, I ended up going out of town on a doctor's appointment that day.

Day Three (Wednesday)
Baby Step Three - DONE . . . It's easy to do the same thing over again!
Flylady challenge of the day - DONE - This one actually inspired me to organize my coffee area!

Day Four (Thursday)
Baby Step Four - DONE . . . Sticky notes are cheap. Why not utilize them?
Flylady challenge of the day - DONE - Already done when I shined my sink on Day one!

Day Five (Friday)
Baby Step Five - DONE! In fact, I did this twice - once on paper and once in my head!
Flylady Challenge of the day -I didn't do this one - I was out of town with my mom on a surprise outing!

Day Six (Saturday)
Baby Step Six - Done! I found several "hot spots". I didn't put them all out, because honestly, we have way too many! But I did take stock of where they are and why they're hot spots!
Flylady Challenge of the day - There was none.

Day Seven (Sunday)
Baby Step Seven - DONE! Actually, I did this on Saturday night too! Picking out what I'm wearing the next day sure helps things in the morning.
Flylady Challenge of the day - There wasn't one.

Other things I accomplished:
I got back on my morning routine.
I got caught up on laundry (this was no easy feat!!!)
I got my kitchen clean!

This week I am linking up with my friend Nan at Mom's The Word for her weekly link up Making Your Home Sing Monday! Want to join the fun? Hop over there and find out how!

FLYing High!

Have you heard of the Fly Lady?
Her REAL name is Marla Cilley and she runs this amazing website.
Why is she so cool?
Well . . . Remember this post a few days ago?
She's going to help me get over it.
Again.

Once upon a time I was a "Fly Baby" - I shined my sink, did the challenges daily, the whole works.
Where did I go wrong?

So many places.
First of all I never finished all of her Beginner Baby Steps.
Second, I didn't wear shoes every day (does this REALLY matter? I don't know, but it MIGHT!)
Third, I never got around to doing a household binder.
Finally . . . I just never kept my motivation going.

So I'm starting over. From Baby Step 1 (yes, my sink is SHINY!)
I invite you to join me! Each week I will update how I did the week before - what days I had problems and why.
Today I shined my sink.
Who knows what tomorrow may bring!

Linking up today with my friend Nan over at Mom's The Word for her weekly link up "Making Your Home Sing Monday"! Go check her out!

Cleaning Rant

So, it's no secret that I'm not exactly the most organized person on the planet.
Maybe "really messy" would be a better way to describe me.
Sadly, it's not just me.
It's my whole family.
And that's not a joke.
So what's a mom to do?
I mean, seriously, what AM I to do?
I'd like to make my home inviting, but it's next to impossible when I have everyone's stuff lying around all over the place. Or I have 50,000 things that need a home, but don't have one. Or the dog rips up someone's stuff, and said person doesn't want to clean it up.
I would LOVE to be the world's most organized person, and if I had the money and about a week without my kids, it could be done!
But, I don't. And that will never happen.
So . . . There you have it.
So that's our home.
Lots of mess, and no one that wants to clean up after themselves.
It is extremely frustrating.
I've tried everything:
Throwing stuff away doesn't work. Because "what if we need it someday?"
Selling things or giving them away doesn't work because they never seem to make it out of the house.
And when I DO get a room clean, it's messy again in no time.
So, this is a plea to all my readers out there.
HELP. MY HOUSE IS TAKING OVER MY SANITY!!!!
Seriously, any advice?

Sadness, The Nation Throughout

This week has been filled with so much heartache, sadness, fear, and loss.

There are many things that have happened that will never hit the news.
Like the death of two people caused by a drunk driver. These two were friends and bandmates of one of my personal favorite bands, Tartanic - who I try to go see every time I hit a renaissance festival.

Some things graced the news for only a few moments, then were forgotten and overshadowed by more prominent events.
Like the murder of a pregnant woman by the hands of her boyfriend in Dallas which was shortly overshadowed by a much larger tragedy:

The Bombing in Boston
Which caused much confusion and speculation across the nation.

And then there was the explosion in West, Texas.
This one especially hit home with me, as West is a destination my husband and I take every year. On our way to the Texas Renaissance Festival in Todd Mission, Tx, we stop in West for Kolaches - on the way there and back. I love this town and everything that it stands for. At one time, Qeelin and I pondered over the idea of moving that direction.

They say that these things happen in three's - both locally and nationally. It makes me wonder which of these was number three and which was starting over with a new count.

It also makes me think of our Nation as a whole. I have witnessesed the power of community through these tragedies. Throughout history we have proven time and again to overcome any adversity that comes our way. We survived the Revolution. We survived the Civil War. We survived Pearl Harbor and two world wars. We survived Mt. Rushmore, the earthquake in San Francisco, space shuttle deaths, and numerous hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. We survived Oklahoma City and Timothy McVey. We survived Waco and the Branch Davidians. We survived 9/11, the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, and many, many more terrorist attacks. We survived every single president ever elected including two Bushes, a Clinton and a Nixon. Chances are good that we will not only survive, we will overcome.

The United States, as a Nation, is a fighter. We may go down a few times, but we come back swinging. We ALWAYS come back. And in reality, it doesn't even matter who's sitting in the Oval Office. The president does nothing to help us overcome - he never has. We have done that on our own.

Together we stand. Together we fall.
This week has been a tough one for our country, and there will probably be more.
But we will overcome.
We will come back swinging.
Because we are AMERICANS. And that's how we roll.

God bless America.
God bless us, EveryOne.

A Conservative for Marriage Equality

I am conservative.
I believe in small government.
I believe that abortion is murder.
I believe that God is real, and that Christians have every right to express themselves.
But I also believe in marriage equality.

Many of my Christian friends balk at this. In their minds, marriage is between a man and a woman, period.
I respectfully disagree with this. Because Facebook is a terrible place to get in an argument, and people tend to not fully read or understand what's being said, I felt that a blog post was the best place to explain my stance and my viewpoint.

The main debate about marriage equality surrounds the biblical definition on marriage. The term "marriage" is never actually defined in the bible. Anywhere. It talks about husbands and wives, it describes weddings, and it goes into "sexual immorality", but it doesn't ever talk about the word "marriage".

In fact, marriage is never given a clear definition until Karl Marx defined it in his manifesto. Yes. I said Karl Marx. You know, the communist? His definition is what has been used since the 1800's. I don't know about my other conservative friends, but I sort of shy away from ANYTHING that has a communistic history. And THAT is what the United States has used to define marriage. Not the Bible. Not the Constitution. The Communist Manifesto. Scary, isn't it?

My second reason for supporting marriage equality is this: marriage in the United States is a legally binding contract between two adults. A contract. Two people of the same gender can enter into business contracts, property ownership contracts, and can adopt children together. How is a marriage licence any different, legally speaking?

My next reason is this: we don't want government involvement in our religion, we don't like it in our education (which is why so many are turning to homeschooling), and we don't like it in other very important aspects of our lives. Why are we allowing it to regulate marriage? If we allow the government to regulate who we can marry, what's stopping them from regulating where and how we can worship, where and how we can educate our children, and what we can and can't do for a living?

My final thoughts: Marriage equality is not, and should not be, a religious issues. Religion has nothing to do with a legal contract and should not. That's one of the points of our founding fathers when they created the constitution - separation of church and state. I am not going to go into how I feel about homosexuality in and of itself - that's another issue all together and really has no bearing on the marriage issue in my mind. The two are completely separate for me.

Yes. I am a conservative.
Yes. I am for marriage equality.
And yes, I hope I just made you think.
God bless us, everyone.

Great Giveaway You Don't Want To Miss!

Do you homeschool? Do you like science? Are you a big nerd? Then this is the giveaway for you!!
My good friend Jennifer over at Shoe Nation: The Fashion Hungry Mommy is giving away three - THREE - science kits!! I don't know about you, but I am JUMPING on this one!!

Run over there and check out this AMAZING GIVEAWAY!
Trust me, you DON'T want to miss out!!
Go! NOW!

Homeschooling: Teaching Spelling: Is It THAT Important?

There is a raging debate among homeschoolers. Weather or not to formally teach your kids spelling.
There are to sides to this debate, and both sides have very logical reasonable stats to back up their claims.
As a new homeschooler who's child absolutely hates spelling, this topic has been a very important one for me. What are the pros of formal spelling? What are the cons? So I did my research (as I always recommend you do!). Here's what I found (Please remember that my personal beliefs do not necessarily coincide with some of the beliefs here.):

Why Formal Spelling Isn't Important:
Aside from the fact that we now have technological advances such as spell check and auto correct, there are other reasons why formal instruction in spelling is not as important as you might think.
First of all, if your child is an avid reader, they will learn words through repetition. If your child loves to write, going over words that they misspelled in their writing and showing them the correct spelling of it is usually sufficient.


Why Formal Spelling IS Important
While we have special technologies now to assist us with spelling, we have to be able to be close enough to a word for spell-check to catch it. Some words are so "out there" on their spellings, that autocorrect and spell check can (and do, sometimes) turn it into an entirely different word altogether. Additionally, the time will come someday - weather it's in our lifetime or not - that technology will be obsolete. When that time comes, there will be no more spell check or autocorrect. In order to be able to get their message across clearly, people will have to know how to spell.

Here are my thoughts
Some children need formal spelling, some don't. The entire point of homeschooling our children is to step away from the cookie-cutter views society has for education. Like the TV theme song states: "What right be right for you, might not be right for some . . ." For some children, spelling comes naturally. They just "get it" without ever having to be taught how to do it. For others, no amount of training will ever get their spelling "on par". There's a t-shirt we like that says "bad spellers UNTIE!" (yes, it's supposed to say that.) It just goes to show you that sometimes, it just doesn't work.

I am an amazing speller. I can spell like no other. I can spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious without blinking an eye. My husband, on the other hand, is not an awesome speller. Here's the ironic thing - I passed very few spelling tests in my life. What does THAT tell you?

The point I'm trying to make here is this:
If YOU feel that teaching your child spelling is right for them and for your family, then you should do it!
If YOU feel that it's just "not that important" and that they will learn spelling in other ways, then you should NOT do it!
Am I taking a wishy-washy stance on this? Not at all. I am vehemently AGAINST formal spelling instruction for my children for many reasons. But I admit that I am not the majority.

For more thoughts on spelling instruction and homeschooling check out these links:

http://unschoolers.org/unschooling-thoughts/unschooling-yes-spelling-counts/
http://sandradodd.com/spelling
http://www.spellingcity.com/importance-of-spelling.html
https://www.zaner-bloser.com/news/five-questions-teachers-ask-about-spelling