Minimalist Update- Konmari Method

As you all know, this year has been a year of trying to live with less. We have learned a lot about what minimalism is and what it means to me a minimalist. We also learned about the methods people use to become minimalists and to get stuff out of their house, one of them is the Konmari Method. This method is used to focus on a group of things you want to clear out instead of one room. We tried that method and quickly realized it was not going to work for us. Going through everyone's clothes at once was not easy, especially with using hand me downs-it got way too confusing and I felt overwhelmed. It resulted in almost everyone crying and a lot of fighting between my children. We decided to go back to how we were already doing it and focus on one room at a time, it was so much easier this way. I am in no way saying we are nearly as minimal as I want to be, we are still far from it, but I now look at things a lot differently. We were actually in our favorite thrift store recently and we only went for clothes for Ryker and Skyler and I am very proud to say we left with clothes for only those two. No toys, no knick knacks, no random purchases that we didn't need! It was so refreshing, oh and the fact we donated five bags full of random stuff from our house in the same day helped too! We are to the point that I think the thrift store should sponsor us! I am finally starting to feel like our house might actually become a house instead of a storage unit like it has felt like for the passed year. The fact all our bedrooms are finally done being worked on also helps with this journey, as I put things back into the correct bedrooms I will be looking at them closely and making sure we actually need the item! If we ever finish cleaning out everything I will proudly either do a house tour on our Youtube channel or post pictures here, maybe both who knows I have a lot of time on my hands!

I Started College!

Because our lives aren't crazy enough, I decided to make life even crazier. I started college classes online! My church runs a program that allows us to attend BYU-Idaho classes online for an amazing deal all we have to do is complete a course that honestly resembles a community college. The deal was so amazing that I couldn't pass it up! I started my classes on September 11th, what a day to start an exciting part of your life. So far my college experience has been insane, but so fun. I love learning and I also love teaching and with the school I go to they feel that the best way to learn is to teach so it's combining two of my biggest loves and it's amazing. It is a lot more work than I expected, just because most of my friends who are in college seem like they never have homework where as mine is mostly all on me! Luckily my parents never made me do homework when I reached a certain age it was all on me to get it done so if I didn't do it, it was my fault. I'm actually very glad they gave me that mentality because it's helped me so much-so shout out to my mom and dad! I do have to say, my ankle injury may be helping me with my work ethic. When I wake up I have two choices, watch a TV show I've seen a million times or work towards my degree that I've already paid for. I'm poor, so my answer is very clear. As for having school aged children while in school, it's weird but kind of awesome. We can all just sit down and do homework together, it's a very calm and surreal moment. I want to just capture and keep this moment in my heart forever. I think for my kids it's a really good example to have their mom want something and work for it, even if it did take awhile. I want my kids to take what they see and apply it to their lives one day. I am also really hoping that this all pays off and we all get something amazing out of it.

Kindness of Children

Sometimes my kids drive me crazy, but a lot of the time they are so sweet that it makes my heart hurt. So just a little back story first; we have been having the youngest twos bedroom renovated for about three months now due to mold and leaking issues. Because of those issues we had to get rid of a lot of their toys and other belongings, the ones we kept we put in boxes and pushed aside while the people were working. Apparently boxing them up and out of their way wasn't enough because a lot of the toys still got broken. I'm not huge on putting emphasis on NEEDING toys because tons of kids grow up perfectly fine without any, but if it's a toy that my kid plays with every single day I get just as attached as they do. With that being said, Skyler's favorite toy was the toy they broke during this occasion. It was nothing too fancy, just a little My Little Pony caste that Santa brought. But, to my little toddler it was the world. She played with princesses on it, her ponies, cars-you name it she played with it! So when I told my older kids about this accident they were just as heart broken! Estella was especially heart broken because she loves My Little Pony just as much if not more than Skyler does. Though she was upset, it still shocked me when she came down with her own castle in her hands and said "Mama, I want Sky to have this." She did this without us telling her to, without Skyler asking, and just honestly out of the kindness in her heart. I made sure Stella was very clear that she wasn't going to be paid for this and wouldn't get a replacement toy until Christmas, she said she knew that but Skyler needed it more than she did. So, we told her to go right ahead and give it to her, but Stella has a better idea. When the renovation of our youngest kids is done Stella told me she wants to help us put the room back together and put the castle in the room with some of her old ponies as a surprise. Part of me wants to hug Stella and buy her a new castle and new ponies, but a large part of me wants to just sit and watch her enjoy giving to her younger sister. This is just the beginning of seeing what I've been trying to teach them take effect, I am so proud of this little girl.

Jason is back!

If you have read our last few posts you already know this, but here is the official update-JASON IS HOME!! We are so excited to all be back together. It was a very long three months without him, filled with every emotion we could come up with. His homecoming wasn't exactly what we planned-but it was still just as perfect. We wanted the house renovations done by the time he got back-didn't happen, I wanted to not be injured when he got home-didn't happen, but he was home and at the end of the day that's all that matters. Adjusting to this huge change has been very weird to say the least. There have been many days of me realizing I actually have another person to lean on and I don't have to do this all by myself. I kind of love the fact that I now wake up to breakfast again-I am not known for my breakfast making skills! The kids were all super excited and couldn't wait to tell dad about all the things he missed. It was such an amazing moment to witness. I'm so excited to have this guy back especially now that I'm injured not able to do pretty much anything. He has already been such a great help and hopefully he can figure out how to make other foods other than pancakes in the next few weeks! Welcome home Jason, we missed you!

I Killed My Ankle!

Oy. This passed week was insane, if you know us in person you know why! To catch everyone else up, Labor Day was not fun in our house. Because Jason was coming home last Tuesday I was rushing to get the house cleaned, right now our five bedroom house is a two bedroom house(don't get me started). A good portion of our stuff is in the living room because where the heck else am I supposed to put it?! Well I decided to go through clothes and get rid of what we weren't using and basically just clean out most of our stuff since it was all in one spot. It was going great! Our house still looked crazy, but I knew what was going on and that's all that mattered to me. I was able to find a nice little drop off spot right around the corner of our house! How convenient is that?! So I was taking one of the bags to the drop off location and everything was going fine. That was until I stepped on what apparently was a broken sidewalk. I heard a HUGE popping noise! It honestly sounded like someone used a popping toy next to me, I didn't know what it was and put my foot down and realized I couldn't stand on my foot. That caused me to fall and I scrapped my left knee and held my right leg to my chest while screaming for help-shout out to my neighbors for straight up ignoring me! I realized I had a choice, sit there and pray someone finds me or try walking home, so I tried walking home. I wasn't able to walk, so I hopped across the street and fell down when I got to the other side. Thank God, my one neighbor saw me and asked if I was ok. Poor guy probably thought I was insane, I couldn't come up with words and almost threw up on him. So, he carried me home and then went back for the bag I was carrying-I couldn't get the words "I'm donating this bag" to come out so I hope he doesn't think I was running away and failed miserably. Anyway, he took me home, I screamed until someone came downstairs in my house. We went to the ER and I cried for every single person I could imagine-of course starting with my sister and ending with a baby(just any baby I want to cuddle a baby!). Life hack, if you need emergency care and don't like paperwork scream REALLY loudly and they just skip over the paperwork and give you drugs right away! The ER was pretty helpful, except for the fact when we asked if it could be a ligament their response was "Go to a specialist.". So, I went to a specialist and my leg was too hurt to tell so he's treating it like a torn ligament and I need four weeks off my leg and then we'll figure out if I need surgery or anything. So to sum up, no good deed goes unpunished! My first week off my foot has been so boring and I've realized that stores aren't wheelchair friendly. Hopefully someone gets the hint that I need some good movies to watch and will bring some over! Please keep us in your prayers right now as we are now an one income family for who knows how long! Love you guys!

HUGE FAMILY UPDATE!

We finally have a reliable Internet provider so I can make blog posts again! Yay! Since the last time we talked two kids turned 7, four turned 6, Jason came home, I tore a few ligaments, and we almost finished our home remodel!! It's been a crazy month and a half in this house and I'm so excited about almost everything that's happening. The kids are all in school now, Zayden and Tyson are in second grade, Callie, Hunter, Brooke, and Stella are in first grade, Savannah is in four year old preschool, and Ryker and Skyler are in the "older toddler" class at preschool! That alone was exhausting! Getting everyone to school on time was a little challenging at first, but we finally have a system down. All of our birthdays shockingly went over very well, despite the "no gift" rule I made for family and friends invited to parties, they still made out with tons of gift cards and candy(because apparently those don't count as gifts?). Jason finally came home to us after a very long three months away, but not before I could injure my ankle beyond belief(there will be another blog post for that!)Our home remodel is FINALLY almost done after three months of work(yup! Jason's entire time gone!)That means we finally get our bedroom back and the youngest two can have their bedroom back as well as our downstairs bathroom-thank God cause I need that right now! I can promise you guys over the next 4-6 weeks you will be hearing a lot more from me. I will see you guys later this week!