My Review of Mom Connection: creating vibrant relationships in the midst of motherhood

I feel like I have made a new friend after reading this book.  A friend who can stop over for a cup of coffee while our kids play,  who will not judge me for having a laundry basket with clean clothes sitting in the middle of the living room, but who will listen to me and offer the support and friendship that is needed.  From reading Tracey Bianchi's written words, I have felt encouraged, supported, challenged, and reminded that I am not alone in this motherhood thing.  Throughout this book, she shares personal stories about her life, her friendships, and how she shares God with others through her relationships.  She encourages and strengthens us, the reader, to find the rhythm in our lives and to make meaningful, vibrant relationships with other mothers/friends, our spouses, our families, and our extended families (while setting and keeping boundaries!).  She challenges and encourages us to pursue these relationships not only for our benefit and because God made us to have relationships, but to help, encourage, support, and share our rhythm and faith with others.  She reminds us that we, as mothers, need to take time for ourselves so that we can explore and discover our gifts and talents.  She believes that connecting and creating deep relationships with others, while making time for ourselves to pursue our gifts and talents, will help and strengthen us to become better mothers.  I have to say that I agree with this sentiment. She provides helpful tips and resources at the end of each chapter, which are helpful, practical, and worth doing.  I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and did not want to put this book down when the kids woke up from nap. Thank you Tracey for writing an entertaining, encouraging, soul strengthening book to let us moms know that we are not alone, and that we can develop deep, meaningful relationships while rearing our young children.  I just have one question for you...may I please have the recipe for that wonderful looking cake on the cover of your book?








 I shared this book with our MOPS group today, and I feel like I did not represent this book well enough.  It truly is the best MOPS book that I have ever read, and I am so excited that we will be using this book for our "curriculum" next year.  I think many of the moms in our group will enjoy reading this book (it really is quite entertaining), and hearing from Tracey on how to connect and create deep relationships with other moms who need the same encouragement, support, and friendship that we do. If you are not a part of a MOPS group, I hope you will consider picking up this book, especially if you feel like you are alone in this motherhood thing.

And the winner of this book is.....Kay Giddings (it's close to midnight, does this constitute for the 15th?)!!!  I will send you a message on Facebook and see how you would like to get your book. :)

New Rules in the House

So, in my attempt to simplify my life, I have created new rules in my house.  These rules help me keep my house clean and clutter free, which in the end simplifies my life and makes me feel calm at home.  I thought I would share my rules with you because it truly was like an epiphany when I made these rules up, and maybe these rules would help simplify your life in some way. 

Rule #1...Only do one load of laundry at a time.  I know what you are thinking.  Doesn't that waste time?  I mean you could have one load in the washer and one load in the dryer to get the laundry done faster, right?  Very true.  This simply does not work for me.  I am very good at putting laundry in the washing machine and in the dryer, BUT I am very bad at actually putting away the clean clothes.  I finally had to make up this rule when the five piles of clean laundry in the living room, and the two piles of clean laundry in our bedroom sat in their places for almost a week.  Let me mention that my kids thought the piles of laundry were fun to jump into,but it seemed more fun to scatter all the clothes around the room as if a tornado had touched down right in our living room!  I, on the other hand, felt "stressed" and bogged down by all the laundry piles.  Now don't judge!  For those of you that have kids, you know that when you have little ones parading through your house it is simply hard to get anything done, and when they are in bed you are just too tired to do one more thing.  At least that seems to be my case.  Unfortunately, I am not "supermom" (does one actually exist?) nor do I have more than two arms to get more done (sometimes I wish I did).  So, after a cry session and feeling sorry for myself because I do not have a housekeeper, I decided to make up the rule of only doing one load of laundry at a time.  This rule means that I have to wash the load of laundry, dry it, and immediately put it all away before starting a new load.  This rule works well for me, and alleviates the "stress" of having clean laundry piles all over the house.  I think that my kids miss their "jumping" piles though. 

Rule #2...Do at least one load of laundry a day (if needed).  I never realized how much laundry one tiny little baby can make until the birth of my first child.  With two kids in the house, it is easy for the laundry to pile up (Can you imagine the Duggar's laundry piles?).  In fact, until I started this rule, my husband would jokingly state (well, the obvious) that "Mt. Laundry has erupted again."  Since I established this rule a couple of weeks ago, I have not had to worry about Mt. Laundry erupting.  And with two little ones, I easily have enough dirty clothes or towels to wash a load per day. 

Rule #3...Follow a household cleaning routine/schedule.  Before the birth of my second child I had the cleaning down to a "T" (well so I thought).  I followed the Real Simple cleaning schedule from their cleaning book, and was able to keep up with weekly cleaning and deep cleaning of our house.  Before my second child was born (I was literally 8 months 2 weeks pregnant when we moved), we moved to a new city.  I only had 4 days to "set-up" my house before our induction day (thank God for fabulous mother-in-laws!).  After her birth, following a cleaning schedule was the furthest thing from my mind.  I was focused on taking care of her and a toddler at the same time, and was in "survival" mode (mommas you know what I am talking about!).  Making sure they were fed and alive at the end of the day was a pretty great accomplishment at that time (a shower for mom was a 15 on a 10 rating scale).  Slowly, as we all settled into a routine together, I attempted to develop a type of cleaning schedule but was never quit successful.  I then tried to get all my cleaning done on my husband's days off, but then I was missing out on time when we were all together.  I recently found a cleaning routine from the e-Meals blog ( I used to follow this meal plan but now use Sunday Set-up, which I will blog about very soon) that was posted on Facebook.  It is a weekly cleaning schedule that is super easy to follow, and allows you to check off what you have done.  I laminated it with clear contact paper, and posted it on my fridge so that I can easily view what needs to be accomplished each day during the week.  I did adjust the schedule to work for me and my family (for example I do not usually grocery shop on Thursday), but this is a great tool to see that by the end of the week I have cleaned the whole house.  Yea!   :)  In addition to this weekly cleaning schedule, I do follow the Real Simple spring and fall cleaning schedule (you can find these on their website).  Here is a link to e-Meals weekly cleaning schedule. 

 
http://blog.emeals.com/2012/04/daily-housekeeping-schedule/

Rule #4...Try to keep dishes out of the kitchen sink.  Did you notice the word try?  I really do try to avoid having any dishes in the sink before I go to bed.  However, I am comfortable having a few dishes in the sink if the dishwasher is full and is running a cycle.  I am not comfortable in having a sink full of dishes or pots and pans left out at the end of the day.  It makes my morning overwhelming because I feel like I started the day behind with my list of things to do, which can make me a bit grumpy.  I feel better when I do not have dishes in the sink, and it makes me feel accomplished at the end of the day.  For the most part, I am able to keep up with this rule but there are times when I go to bed with a few dishes in my sink. 

I am sure you have rules similar to these that you live by in your household.  When we choose to follow these rules it helps us to simplify our daily life, and allows us create a peaceful, clutter free environment for our family.  I hope that in sharing my rules with you, you may either be able to use them within your own home or be inspired to create ones that will work for you and your family to simplify your life. Blessings!