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In the old house, we didn't have a dining room. We had an eat-in breakfast nook that could seat all five of us if we moved the table out from the wall enough to fit one of the girls there. It has worked perfectly fine for us, but one of the things that was really exciting to me about the farmhouse is that there will be a separate dining room for us to spend time in, eating as a family or entertaining. Of course, the farmhouse table I bought on Craigslist was the perfect focal point for the gathering room. I also found these chairs on www.target.com, but they were unavailable online.
We decided that Mr. Farmhouse's grandma's China cabinet would fit nicely in the gathering room, but instead of filling it with his great-grandma's dishes that we had been storing at the old house, we decided to use those dishes! The beautiful dishes his great-grandma had left us had been sitting in the China cabinet for ten years, collecting dust. They are beautiful and special and we decided that there is no reason to keep them there taking up space and not being lovingly used by our family! And now, it has all come together.  The farmhouse table and chairs make a stunning centerpiece. The China cabinet is now a display case and will be admired and enjoyed, instead of overlooked. The piano now has a home in a room away from the hustle & bustle of the main living room. The dining room leads directly into my office nook, which I'll be working on this week. I also have plans to build a sliding barn door to close off the laundry room when needed. I'm still missing a few prints of the kids to put on the wall and need to hang this cool old window I found from a friend's garage sale. But for now...it's beautiful. I could not love it more.
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Let's be honest. It's not always a big fun event to get the kids to do chores or help out around the house. However, I really feel like it's necessary. I can't always get everything done that needs to be done without help. Mr. Farmhouse is a great help-mate and helps inside and outside of the house, but sometimes (during hay season...or calving season...or bean-planting season...or...), we need to have a big marathon cleaning day and I need help from the girls. Over the years, I've realized that the more fun we can make this process, the quicker it gets done and the less likely I am to scream like a crazy person by the end of the day. A few winters ago, over Christmas break, when I was trying to get the house back in order to get ready for third quarter at school, I had a breakthrough. I started to make cleaning a game...for all of us. I started to think about ways we could make our mundane housekeeping tasks a competition, a team event, a game. Over the last few years, I've come up with several of these "cleaning games". I usually let the girls decide which one we do for the day. I thought today I would share them with you so maybe those cleaning days can be a little more enjoyable for everyone involved!
The Disappearing Post-it Notes is one that the girls really like because you can watch the amount of post-it notes dwindle down to those last few tasks and then BOOM...the fridge is empty! The rule is that the right side of notes has to be empty before they start on the left door. The left door includes what I call "finishing" tasks. They are all somehow dependent on the ones on the other door. For example, on the right door is "clean out refrigerator" and "load dirty dishes from sink". So on the left door is "run dishwasher". In other words, they need to gather up all the dirty dishes from anywhere in the house before we run the dishwasher. Other "finishing" tasks would include dusting the flat surfaces in the house, sweeping the floors, putting all the clean clothes away that they have folded on some of the other post-it notes. 2. Note Card Flip Another task-oriented game that we play sometimes is what I have called "Note Card Flip". Again, I put all of the tasks on note cards. I have a whole set of these that I created a few summers ago that include basically every task that it would take to do a quick deep-clean of the house. I add anything that needs to be done that day specifically and then I make some bonus "fun" cards.
I always end with a "last card" that is something fun. Almost always, it involves a slush or shake Sonic. Basically for me. Because Sonic's unsweetened raspberry tea is my favorite beverage EVER. 3. 30/30 There is an iPad and iPhone app called 30/30 created by Binary Hammer. I cannot believe how much it helps our productivity level by keeping us on task and focused when we need to get some serious work done. I use it in my classroom, when I am working on photography edits, and the girls and I use it when we clean.
When the five minutes is up, the app starts the timer for the next task. We take our list of things we have to get done and add them to the app. After every 30-40 minutes, we add a 10-minute break right into the app. So our whole cleaning spree is timed there. Sometimes, to keep us on task, we add our "lunch break" and anything else that we know will be taking our time that day.
4. Task Competition
The last one we use at our house is one I've never really named until just now. And "Task Competition" is probably a boring name...you can rename it at your house if you so desire! I make a list of tasks in black pen. There is always an uneven number of tasks. Beside each task, I draw a box. Each of the older girls picks her own color of marker and I say "go". They work until the list is completely done. Every task they get finished with gets the task's box colored in using their individual color. When all the boxes get colored, the girl with the most boxes colored gets some silly little prize. Maybe a popsicle, a piece of candy, or a medium drink instead of a small at Sonic (I told you...I have a problem). These are all ideas of how we try to make cleaning fun at the Newkirk house. I hope you've gotten some ideas to use in your own homes! I'd love to hear any other ideas you have for getting kids involved in the home management process! Feel free to comment below so others can learn from your knowledge! Thanks for reading, friends! Happy Friday! ❤️ Last night, we finished our fourth night of Vacation Bible School 2017. I am tired. We all are. There's no tired like "VBS week" tired. We used the Maker Fun Factory curriculum from Group Publishing.
We learned a Bible point each day. 1. God made me. I was built for a purpose. This Bible point goes hand-in-hand with the current book I'm reading, Love Does, by Bob Goff. In his book, Goff talks about the creative whimsy of Christ. He talks about how God pursues us daily through things that happen, places we go, and people we meet. God created each one of us with specific interests and unique talents to be Kingdom Workers. He puts us in certain places with our unique talents and desires for a reason. We just need to listen and act. 2. God is for me. If God is for us, who can be against us? I am an overthinker. So many times, I find myself worrying or stewing or just overthinking about certain situations. The Bible tells us that there is no reason to worry or fret. If God is for us, no enemy can come against us. If we feel insecure, or afraid, or unqualified...we only need to remember that He is for us. 3. God is always with me. We are not alone. Joshua 1:9 tells us that "God is with us wherever we go." And He is. Even in the depths of our despair and sorrow. In the midst of anxiety and insecurities. When we are feeling lost and alone. He is with us. He will carry us. He will hold us. God is always with us. 4. God made me for a reason. God has a plan for our lives. Like I mentioned earlier, God's plan for my life is very specific to me. His plan for your life is specific to you. He knows the number of hairs on my head. And the number of hairs on Mr. Farmhouse's head. And each of our three girls. He keeps the earth spinning perfectly on its axis. He controls so many things on this earth and in the galaxies beyond ours. And yet, He is able and ready to work in our lives. He is able and ready to give us opportunities to see His hands work like nothing we have ever seen. God built us for a purpose. He is for us. He is not against us. God is always with us. Sometimes, I feel like once we outgrow that childlike faith that the Bible talks about, we have a hard time remembering these simple truths. Maybe it's time we take a step back from "adulting" and get back to the basics. I once was lost, but now am found. Count your blessings. Trust and obey. God is still God. And He is ready to work. All we have to do is let him.
I am always blessed to see young people following through with the commitment of marriage and pray nothing but joy and contentment for this couple, as they grow together and serve one another.
Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Dodds. ❤️
One thing that we try to really impress upon our girls' hearts is that it is always important to be kind.
Harlee and my niece Riley are at basketball church camp this week. When we dropped them off, I made sure to have my teacher-y moment with them about how to treat other people. "Girls, you're very lucky to have each other here, but not everyone will have a friend. Include those people. Invite them into your group. Be kind to them."
Kids just want to be seen.
Adults just want to be seen. People just want to be seen. And heard. And loved. Friends, we have a great opportunity to "be the good" in this broken and scary world.
We had another "first" here at the farmhouse today. I did my first photography session in the living room. You might remember that I moved out of my studio in June. We were planning to be all closed and moved by now, but that didn't exactly happen. Instead, I am still unpacking boxes (getting closer!) each day and trying to get our lives put back together. However, I had scheduled this session a while back, fully expecting to be moved in and ready to roll! So this morning, I went to find my backdrops and equipment where we had stored them in town. I found them and came home to start setting up. My plan is to have the closet at the bottom of the stairs be where I store all of my photography equipment in the future. It will be organized and easily accessible for sessions, yet stored away and hidden for every day living.
But I think it worked.
We had fun. We got the inside half of a senior session done. And the first Newkirk Photography session has now been completed in the farmhouse. Yesterday, Matthew and a buddy of his started to bring the "outside" belongings to the farmhouse. The outside list would include anything in the detached garage, the 30'x40' shop, the pole barn, and other various areas "around the house". They started in the detached garage and brought a load that included lots of things Matthew and I had already gone through over the last month or so. Out-of-season clothes, tools, cleaning supplies, Christmas decorations, and more. We had already emptied one side of the garage so the buyers could store a few things there and we had organized the other side in preparation to move. When they went back for the second load, they decided to go ahead and empty the attic in the garage. Of course, here in Missouri this week, it's been like 900º Fahrenheit. So they climbed into the hottest part of the property and emptied everything we have been storing up there for the last eleven years. They brought the trailer over here to the farmhouse and had me go through the pile of attic treasures.
Ten years ago, in 2007, we had a tornado go through and pick up our pole barn, tear tin off of our shop, and throw Santa across the highway. Even though we haven't plugged Santa in for the last few years, I just cannot let him go. He still sparks joy for me. He reminds me of that time when God spared our home and kept us safe during that storm. He reminds me of my dear ol' dad "rescuing Santa" from his landing spot after the tornado.
That old Santa is a joy-sparker for me.
And for Mattie. So Santa stays. And the other 95% of attic "treasures" go into the trash. Moving really makes you think about what you hold on to through the years.
Since moving into the farmhouse and sharing our journey online, I've had so many people contact me wanting a fresh start.
"I am so jealous that you get to start over." "Seeing you put the new house together makes me want a fresh start for my house." "I wish I could empty out our house and start again." This opportunity to go through every single thing we own and make a decision about whether or not to keep it has been pretty amazing. Add to it the fact that I get to decide exactly where it goes in the farmhouse, and I am feeling pretty good about our "fresh start".
For now, just hold off on bringing anything new into your home.
Deal with what you have. There will be plenty of time to buy new things after you've gotten rid of everything you don't love. 2. Set an end date. This one is something that many people don't think about, but it helped me immensely last summer when I went through and did my big house purge and it's helping now as I put the house together. Find a date to work towards and mark it on the calendar. For me, this year, that date is July 25th. We are hoping to take the girls on a little lake vacation starting on the 26th and I don't want to leave one thing in the house undone. I want to leave the house all peaceful and put together so when we come home from vacation, it's still all peaceful and put together. 3. Tidy by category. This phrase is taken directly out of Marie Kondo's book called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". By the way, I just looked and the book is on sale on Amazon right now for $9.89!
As I came across any photography-related items in the rest of my tidying endeavors, I put them into a box labeled as such.
I did this with all of my miscellaneous categories and dealt with those boxes when I got to that category on my list. I left a few blank boxes for you to fill in your own random categories, but if you're like me, you'll need more than a few boxes! Feel free to start your own list on another piece of paper or the back! Don't overthink it! 4. Don't start organizing until you're done with several categories. The temptation is there to start putting everything away before you're done with the discarding process. From personal experience...don't do it. Purge first...then organize. Otherwise, you'll get one area completely organized and find something later that would have fit there so much better. 5. Think in "stations". I have started to think about my house in terms of where certain things happen. This has really helped me to get organized and to stay organized (for the most part).
When you begin to think like this, your house starts to organize itself.
Out in the mud room, our beach towels are now housed with the sunscreen & goggles...far away from the bath towels that they used to be stored with in the old house. It just made sense to have them there, instead of taking up valuable room in the bathroom. When you've done enough categories that you feel like it's time to start some organizing, make sure to keep this "station" mindset. 6. Go quickly! Don't think too much! When you pick up an item, ask yourself, "Does this spark joy?" If it does, keep it! No questions asked! If it doesn't spark joy, but it's something you need...keep those things too. Toothpaste doesn't really spark joy for me, but I would sure like my family to continue brushing their teeth! Go with your gut instinct about things. Try not to think in terms of what you "might need someday". If it's something you could borrow or replace pretty inexpensively if you ever "need" it again...throw it out! Donate it, trash it, or give it away to a friend. Get it out of your house, as soon as possible! 7. Decorate intentionally. Put your belongings into categories and go through each category, ruthlessly purging items that you don't love or need. Organize the leftover items into functional stations throughout the house. Then...decorate! Keep the decorations you love and start to think about what other items you might add to your decor collection. This isn't something you have to do immediately. I prefer to check Hobby Lobby every month or so and scour their clearance aisle for things that spark joy for me. I hardly ever spend over $5 on any sort of decoration for my home. And when I do, it must be a joy-sparking item that I know will fit perfectly into my home!
These two items were joy-sparkers the moment I laid eyes on them!
The United States map that now hangs in the playroom cost me $39.99 on our mini-vacation to Pawhuska, Oklahoma and it was so worth that price! Every time I look at it, my heart leaps for joy! In fact, yesterday when I hung it in it's home up in the girls' playroom, I couldn't stop smiling! I feel the same way about my Farmhouse sign from Hobby Lobby. It's $22.50 now on Hobby Lobby's website! I spent $27.00 on it because it was originally $45.00 and I had a 40% off coupon. Again...so worth the price!
Today, the front door of the farmhouse opened and two high school kids were standing there with a buffet that has been sitting in my parents' dining room for the last several years.
Earlier this morning, before the buffet was delivered, this old pie safe was dropped off at my house. This one belonged to an older man that lived out by my grandparents' farm for over fifty years. He recently passed away and his son & daughter-in-law contacted us to see if we would be interested in any furniture. I feel like this piece was just made for this wall in my gathering room.
I had big plans to work late into the night on the house.
I made a list of things to accomplish last night and things to accomplish today. The girls were not here. Harlee was at a friend's house and the younger two stayed with Gramps & Grams. It was my opportunity to get a lot done. Sometimes it just takes a big empty house to motivate you to push through and get a lot done. And sometimes the clock hits 11:30 and you can't keep your eyes open, so you move the tasks on your "to do list" for tonight over to the "to do list" for the following day. That's what happened to me. I thought the empty house would be a good opportunity to tie up all the loose ends that comes with moving. Instead, I went to sleep. And now I'm going to work to accomplish the tasks from TWO "to do lists" today. I'll let you know how that works out for me! |
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