Simple, Fun Workouts for the Unmotivated Mom (Part 1)

Dear Mom Who Hates to Exercise,

I know exactly how you feel. I am right there with you. It's kind of hard to fathom that some people actually enjoy working out. Isn't it? Seriously?! Who actually likes spandex and sports bras and sweat (ick!) and shoes you have to lace? Not to mention expensive gym memberships, child care arrangements, etc. Talk about a pain in the you-know-what!

I don't know about you, but I've tried it all. Step aerobics, Zumba, jogging (well...sorta!), spinning, yoga, weight training, Pilates...I have yet to fall in love with anything that involves sweat. Or effort. And don't even suggest that water aerobics would help me avoid sweating. Because I hate bathing suits. (Which I might hate less if I exercised more. Ugh.)

Anyway, the point is--I know exactly where you are coming from. I can promise you that this is NOT a post from a crazy, exercise-loving mom. This is a post from a desperate-to-get-in-shape-but-hating-every-stinking-minute-of-it mom. I was born without an "exercise gene". In its place, I was gifted with a "lazy gene". Maybe you have one, too? Let's redefine the term "exercise" and instead, you and I will just strive to stay active, be good role models for our kids and have a bunch of fun. Okay?

Ashley

The Card Game Workout

The idea for this workout was stolen from fitness guru, Jillian Michaels, herself. It works like this:

1. Remove all of the face cards from a deck of playing cards (We use something fun like Angry Birds Star Wars cards or whatever is handy--Jillian probably doesn't.).

2. Leave the ACES in the deck and the numbers 2-10 for each suit. If you have a couple JOKER cards, throw those in there too!

3. Decide which FOUR exercises you and your kiddos want to do. There are some suggestions below. It works best if you chose a variety of body parts to work with. Trust me--you don't want to pick all ab exercises or all leg moves! I would recommend choosing at least one cardio-type exercise to really get your heart pumping. The jumping jacks are a favorite here, but if you're up for the challenge try burpees.

(Some of these you may have to Google if you don't know what they are. And odds are if you have to look it up, it isn't a beginner move. Haha!)

• Jumping Jacks
• Crunches or Sit-ups
• Push-ups (Make this super fun by putting a bowl of popcorn down and picking up a piece with your tongue as you get near the floor!)
• Squats
• Lunges
• Calf Raises
• Burpees
• Superman

4. Assign each exercise to a suit. For example, you might choose to do HEARTS as Jumping Jacks, DIAMONDS as Crunches, SPADES as Squats and CLUBS as Push-ups. Write the exercises and the symbols on a large piece of paper, like the one above, and post it somewhere visible to you and the kiddos.

5. The ACES will be a one-minute rest and the JOKERS can either be a 2 minute dance party or a 30 second plank, whichever you prefer. My kids live for the dance party! It's their favorite part!

6. Jillian thinks you are going to do this ENTIRE. DECK. OF. CARDS. Now that is some funny stuff right there!! Good luck with that. Ha! We usually do about half the deck. I just eyeball it. I do fan through the half we are doing and make sure there is at least one ACE (rest) and one JOKER (dance party) in the half we choose.

7. Grab some water and a clock with a timer. Turn on some fun, upbeat music and get moving! Flip the first card and do the number of reps and the corresponding exercise it goes along with. For example, a 10 of SPADES would be 10 squats using our chart above. Move onto the next card as quickly as possible. 

8. Try to keep going until you get through all the cards. Jillian has nothing on my 7 year old. Nothing. That boy is one TOUGH trainer! Make sure you don't take yourself too seriously. Laugh! Be silly! Worry about your own form and let them do goofy push-ups if they want.


 **WARNING!! Your kids will make you do this EVERY. STINKING. DAY. They will not forget. They will beg. They will nag. Who needs a trainer when you have kids?!

The Jenga Workout

This is a fun workout that you can make as challenging as you like. There are 2 variations of this game. The first will be a little more game and a little less exercise. The second will definitely give you a fun workout! 

Grab a Sharpie marker and at least HALF of your Jenga pieces. Write simple exercises on one side of the Jenga piece. Some should be a little easier and some a little more difficult. Don't be afraid to vary the repetition number and duplicate the exercise if you start running out of creativity. (So 10 Push-ups on one piece and 5 Push-ups on another.) Here are a few ideas for you. 

• 30 sec. Plank
• 20 Jumping Jacks
• 30 sec. High Knees
• 20 Crunches
• 10 Push-ups
• Jog in place for 1 min.
• 10 Lunges
• 5 Squats
• 10 Calf Raises
• 10 Karate Kicks
• Hop on one foot for 15 sec. then the other for 15 sec.

Easy Version: Play the game as usual, having everyone do the exercise challenge on the Jenga piece when it is taken from the tower. Replace the piece somewhere in/on the tower and continue playing until the tower falls.

Challenge Version: Play the game as usual, having everyone do the activity on the Jenga piece when it is taken from the tower. If a piece is blank, or blank on one side, grab your marker and write a new exercise challenge on the piece. Replace the piece somewhere on/in the tower and continue playing until the tower falls. (If a piece has an exercise challenge on both sides, the person who removed the piece will choose which exercise the group completes.)

Have fun!

Don't miss the other 2 upcoming posts in this series. Get new posts delivered directly to your inbox by entering your e-mail address at the top, right under the blog header. (Mobile users will need to click "View Web Version".) You can find me on Facebook HERE.

Better Off Broken

Notice the broken mug. And that is chai
tea with cream and honey--not coffee.

"Do not compare yourself with others, who seem to skip along their life-paths with ease. Their journeys have been different from yours, and I have gifted them with abundant energy. I have gifted you with fragility, providing opportunities for your spirit to blossom in My Presence. Accept this gift as a sacred treasure: delicate, yet glowing with brilliant Light. Rather than struggling to disguise or deny your weakness, allow me to bless you richly through it."  Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

I read this quote yesterday during my morning devotion time. It has been quite awhile since I've read anything that spoke to me quite as clearly as this passage. You see...I struggle. I have struggled from the time my parents divorced at the age of 4. I can't remember a time when life wasn't hard. Sometimes excruciatingly hard. Those people who "skip along their life-paths with ease" and the ones blessed with "abundant energy"--I have a difficult time with those folks. 

I can be honest with you, right? I have dealt with insecurity and jealousy long before I knew what those words even meant. I try (really I do!) to be happy for people who have been handed an easier lot than me. But the truth is...I am incredibly envious of the ones who were raised by godly and encouraging parents. I often resent the ones who have had smooth, happy and loving marriages. I feel the sting of injustice about the ones who've never lost a baby through miscarriage. There are times when I am bitter about the ones who have a dad who simply shows up and who wants nothing more than to be a grandpa to their kiddos.  I am jealous of the ones who haven't had to endure putting a spouse's parent, a precious surrogate father, in the grave. I envy the ones who have lifelong friends--the kind who didn't move away or just plain move on. 

And how could I forget the ones with "abundant energy"? Oh, some days it is those people with whom I have the hardest time not comparing myself. Because let me tell you...when you are running a race with huge boulders in your path, you are going to fall down. A lot. And you get tired. Depressed, in fact. Life leaves you flat out worn out. Unlike those who are running on that smooth, easy path. They can run faster--get farther. Plus, they have fewer bruises. No visible chips, cracks or scars. 

But this passage--it caused me to consider something for the very first time. Maybe, just maybe, this fragility I have always deemed a curse is actually a gift. Perhaps being easily broken is what brings me the "opportunities for my spirit to blossom" that the others, the ones who are too busy skipping along, don't always get. Since I gave my life over to Jesus my sophomore year of high school, I have done my very best to obey His leading and call. I let the Lord choose my college and major. I even let Him choose my husband. I allowed Him to move me from one job to another, providing lessons and growth along the way. I listen when He asks me to give up something I love (like Facebook or coffee) in exchange for something better. When I break, I give God the chance to put the pieces back together in such a way that I am better off for having been broken. 

"I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other, and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we should reach them. I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other, and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower, and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts."  The Cultivation of Humility by G. B. F. Hallock, 1919

Why am I lying on the ground munching gravel, as everyone around me seems to be skipping past me? Why am I always broken and shattered and just plain beat up by this life? Why do I find myself flat on my face every single time I turn around? 

Seriously, God...Why?!

Because the lower I get, the higher He lifts me up. And maybe this gift of fragility really is a sacred treasure after all. Indeed, I am richly blessed.

Ashley 

P.S. I am completely in love with this song from We Are Human, called We Fall Apart. Go listen to it!

"Isn't it beautiful? The way we fall apart. It's magical and tragic all the ways we break our hearts. It's so unpredicatable. We're comfortably miserable. We think we're invincable, completely unbreakable, and maybe we are. But isn't it beautiful the way we fall apart?"

Living the Lutz Life: Jackson's Surprise Party, Easter and the Midwest Homeschool Convention

We are in the middle of April and I feel like I am just now recovering from the whirlwind of a month we had in March. I lost my camera for a few weeks and my husband just recently found it hiding in our van. (Love that man!!) Needless to say, there wasn't a lot of picture taking going on there for awhile. 

I fell into a bit of a "funk" at the beginning of April (or was I simply recovering from March?) and my motivation, even for blogging, completely tanked. I got the Fresh Food Deals posted each week, but that's about it. I am finally back in the game and I've been posting up a storm this week. Here's what our family was up to during the last half of March and the beginning of April. 

For kindergarten, Jackson did a unit on colors and learned that "God makes our world beautiful". We sorted Crayola crayons by color families and graphed them, made our own recycled rainbow crayons, learned about the colors of the rainbow, mixed colored water in glass jars (on the dishwasher door) and measured/cut strips of paper to make construction paper rainbows. We continued to work on reading and writing short vowel words, addition and telling time.



Jackson wanted a surprise party for his 6th birthday, so that's exactly what he got! We invited family to come and surprise Jackson and he was so shocked that he almost cried. He had a great time with his cousins, loved the Bowser's castle cake that I made for him and was thrilled with all of his new gifts. It's hard to believe he is already 6 years old. Time seems to fly by more quickly with each passing year.

Our church held an amazing Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter and the kids had a BLAST! 50,000 plastic eggs stuffed with 100,000 pieces of candy...let's just say we had more candy from the egg hunt than we got last Halloween!

The kids helped me make a resurrection garden for our dining room table and Bill and I tried to put the Easter focus on Jesus as much as we could (and minimize the bunny). One night we made resurrection rolls out of jumbo marshmallows and some leftover pizza dough. I got the biggest giggle out of Charlotte biting into hers and exclaming, "Oh NO!! Where my marshmallow go? We need make new ones!"

Bill and I were able to get away by ourselves a couple weeks ago and went to the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati. We sat in on a few workshops, including one from Ruth at The Better Mom and another from Crystal at Money Saving Mom. It was extremely nice to have two whole days where we could be Bill and Ashley instead of "Daddy" and "Mommy". I enjoyed browsing the gigantic vendor hall--filled with every homeschool curriculum, manipulative, workbook, game or supply you could imagine. It was fun running into a few friends from church while we were there, too!

What has your family been doing now that spring has finally arrived?

What Failure Feels Like

Today, not unlike many other days, I feel like a colossal failure. As a wife, a mom, a daughter and a friend. I realize that I am my own worst critic. I replay past mistakes over and over and over again. I cannot seem to cut myself any slack whatsoever. I know in my head that Jesus has forgiven my failures. Thrown them into the Sea of Forgetfulness. Like they never existed. Gone. Yet in my heart, I still feel like the world's biggest screw-up.

Here is merely a small sampling of my "Geez, can you believe this chick?" moments from the past week. It's okay--you can laugh at with me. Really!

What failure sounds like...

• Me yelling at my kids for yelling at each other. Duh!
• The constant television noise that entertains my children so I can Facebook, blog, cook, talk on the phone or shower in peace. If only it were effective.
• My five-year old son telling me that my room is a gigantic mess. Sadly, he's right.

What failure looks like...

• Having to continuously get clothes and pajamas out of the dryer for my kids to wear, because they never manage to get folded and put away. As if the dryer is now functioning as a dresser.
• The floor underneath my dining room table. I should think about getting a dog. On second thought...no.
• My husband's face when dinner isn't ready until 7:00. Again.
• The clock, displaying 5:02, when we pull into the church parking lot for 5 pm worship. Late as usual.

What failure smells like...

• My two-year old's diaper, every time I change it and remind myself that she is still not potty trained.
• The fridge. Something in there would make one heck of a science experiment.
• My van when I finally found the missing fish fillet I bought at the grocery, mistakenly assumed the bagger forgot to put into my cart, and discovered had actually slid under the seat. Three days later. Uggh!

What failure tastes like...

• Salty tears shed in private because the role of "mom" seems far too overwhelming at times.
• My foot, each time I open my mouth and have to put it in there. Which happens multiple times a week day. When will I learn to keep it shut?!
• Candy. I honestly think my kids have eaten more candy than vegetables this week and that just doesn't happen around here. Not on my watch, anyways. 

What failure feels like...

• A warm bed when I should have gotten up instead of turning off the alarm.
• The couch. Shouldn't I be at the Y on a treadmill doing a Couch to 5K program today?
• The emotional and physical distance that is present in a marriage that has been put on the back burner for far too long.
• A blog post, that I worked so hard to write, with no comments and barely any page views.

What about you? What does failure feel like to you? Can you relate to any of these?

Hope and Help for the
"Time-Challenged" Mom

Living the Lutz Life: Fun with Friends, Sparkly Snow Dough & Our Jumpy House

This is a new weekend feature for 2013, giving you a peek into our day-to-day life and serving as a digital journal for me and my family. Take time to savor these precious days and don't forget to take LOTS of pictures!

 

 

We had a really great time playing with some of our homeschooling friends on Wednesday. Jackson and his buddy, Noah, always have a blast! My friend, Emily, has such sweet kiddos and my gang loves to hang out and play with them. I was thinking about it the other day and between the two of us, we have kids who are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9. Pretty cool, huh?! Of course by the time Jackson's birthday rolls around in March that will all change--but it's certainly fun for the moment.

 

 

For school this past week (and the week ahead), we are talking about Water and the letter "W". Our words to remember this week are, "Jesus gives my spirit living water to drink." So far, we have talked about the three states of water--solid, liquid and gas--and created a list of items that fit into those categories. We made some Sparkly Snow Dough (new blog post coming on Wednesday!) and filled balloons with air, water and ice. To create the ice balloon, I just filled with water the night before and stuck it in the freezer.

 

 

We invited my parents over for lasagna on Thursday night, which we haven't done in forever. Bill and I are really not the world's most hospitable people. Hahaha! One of my goals in 2013 is to be more intentional about inviting family over for meals and to just spend time together. My parents had a great evening and really enjoyed seeing the kids' bedrooms, our school room, etc.

 

 

Friday night we busted out the inflatable jumpy house in the living room to burn off some post-dinner energy. I bought the inflatable, used, as a gift for Charlotte's 2nd birthday in August and it has been worth every penny. They LOVE it!

 

 

Bill's grandma had a mild stroke right after Christmas and has been in a rehab center for the past couple weeks. On Saturdays, between soccer practice and church, we have been going to visit her. We let the kids take their new Sparkly Snow Dough and build snowmen (and snow cakes!) with Great-Grandma this week.

 

The next few days are supposed to be downright frigid! Any plans for fun indoor activities with your favorite people?

 

Ashley

Living the Lutz Life: Swimming in January and Octopus Hot Dogs

This is a new weekend feature for 2013, giving you a peek into our day-to-day life and serving as a digital journal for me and my family. Take time to savor these precious days and don't forget to take LOTS of pictures! 

 

 

This was our first full week with a regular school routine since before Christmas. It was nice to have a sense of order back to the day and I feel like we made a lot of great progress with Jackson's reading this week. I take so much joy in listening to him read and decode new words. I wouldn't trade this job for anything. :)

 

On Wednesday, the kids and I headed to the Vandalia Recreation Center for this month's homeschool gym day. (Next month is roller skating! Fun!!) Charlotte had been wearing her new swimsuit around the house since Monday, and asking 100 times a day if we "go 'wimming now". Needless to say, by the time Wednesday rolled around she was one excited little girl!

 

Jackson had so much fun visiting with his buddies at the pool and it was great to talk to some mom friends I hadn't seen since before the holidays. There was a big turnout for our outing even though it looks as if we are at the pool alone. Haha! I try very hard when taking pics of my kids to omit other children who are in the background--especially when I know I will be sharing pictures on the web. I think that's only fair. I wouldn't want pictures of my kids (in their swimsuits) on the Internet without my knowledge, would you?

 

For school this week, we worked on the letter O and did some research on oceans and octopuses. Yes, "octopuses" is an acceptable plural of "octopus"...it sounded strange to me but I looked it up! Our words to remember this week were, "Even the octopus praises the Lord." All week long, Charlotte referred to any octopus she saw in books, ocean DVDs, etc. as "applesauce". Jackson and I got a big kick out of hearing her say it, so we kept pointing to pictures and asking her to say what it was. It was always an "applesauce"!

 

We learned many interesting facts about octopuses this week, including what they eat (fish, crabs, shrimp, etc.), where they live (caves mainly), how they protect themselves from enemies (squirting ink to hide) and even how they can regrow tentacles. We did an experiment, seen on the bottom row of the photo above, showing how an octopus uses its ink (black food coloring) to hide from a "wolf eel"--or snake finger puppet, because that's all we could find! :)

 

The kids enjoyed making and eating octopus hot dogs in a ketchup ocean. Leaving the top 1/3 of the hot dog uncut, slice the bottom portion lengthwise into 8 sections and place into boiling water. The legs will curl up and create an edible "octopus". (In case you are wondering what kind of hot dogs we buy, I prefer the Applegate Farms variety because they are grass-fed, all beef and made without added hormones or nitrates.)

 

 

The weather this week was completely wacky! Here's a picture of the kids with a snowman at my grandparents' house on Thursday. The other pictures below are from Friday and Saturday, when it got up to 60+ degrees--in January!! Weather that warm makes me begin thinking about planting our garden. Jackson is still talking about the sledding we did a couple weeks ago, so I think he's itching for more winter weather. I'm pretty sure he will be getting his wish for more snow.

 

 

 

What kinds of exciting things did your family do to enjoy this unseasonably warm week? I look forward to reading about your adventures in the comments below!

 

Ashley

Living the Lutz Life: Boonshoft Museum, Mario Preschool & Milk Art

This is a new weekend feature for 2013, giving you a peek into our day-to-day life and serving as a digital journal for me and my family. Take time to savor these precious days and don't forget to take LOTS of pictures!

We started back in with some low-key homeschooling on Wednesday this week. Getting back into a routine again is proving to be a bit challenging. A friend tipped me off to this cool milk art activity and the kids LOVED it! You pour a thin layer of milk into a shallow dish and add several drops of food coloring. Then you carefully put a couple drops of dish soap into the dish and watch the magic happen. Jackson and Charlotte were fascinated with watching the colors mix together and Charlotte even needed the magnifying glass to get a closer look. We dumped these out and did it again because they had so much fun.

Later that day we went outdoors to look for animal tracks in the snow. We have a family of cardinals living in our side yard and have a great view of the birds and squirrels from our side window, where we do school. The kids and I put birdseed out in the only snowless patch of ground and had a blast watching the critters snack on it. As we were looking at tracks, I asked Jackson what kind of animal he thought left the "hopping" sort of tracks that led to the tree. "Well, probably a kangaroo!" he replied! Hahaha!

 

On Thursday, my sister and niece joined us on a trip to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, OH. We packed a lunch and stayed for a few hours in hopes of burning off some of their boundless energy. The kids had a great time, as usual. Some of the highlights included Jackson and his cousin dressing as police officers and putting Charlotte in "jail", and watching the river otters. They got the biggest kick out of the otters running right over to the glass and standing on their hind legs! We are so thankful to my mother-in-law for our museum membership and look forward to using it at many area museums throughout the coming year.

 

 

Jackson and Bill have resurrected an old "game" that they used to play called "Cars Preschool", except the cars have been replaced by stuffed Mario characters. This new thing they play is now called, of course, "Mario Preschool". It is highly entertaining (well, not to Charlotte!) and Jackson would play for hours if Bill would go along with it for that long. Mario is usually the teacher and the rest of the cast of characters are the students. Bowser typically gets into trouble and Mario puts him in time out or calls his mom to come get him from school. Haha!

 

 

Charlotte has quickly become a little fashion plate and strives to make each day memorable by dressing up in the wackiest outfits possible for a princess to wear. She received a boatload of dress-up clothes for Christmas and has endless fun mixing and matching the dresses and accessories. Be prepared for multiple photos each week of Charlotte's entertaining ensembles! One night this week, after putting her to bed, she yelled for me to come back to her room. When I got there, she insisted that she needed a "princess sleeper" to wear to bed. Oh my goodness, she is such a diva!

 





 

 
I took a stab at making some homemade thin mint cookies this week, after seeing the 346 Facebook posts from friends who have daughters taking orders for Girl Scout cookies. They turned out fab.u.lous and I can't wait to share the recipe with all of you! I made some pretty stellar gluten free cookies and hope to make some less healthy ones this coming week to compare. As you can see from Charlotte's face, she was a fan! My husband gave the healthy version an 8 out of 10, so I can only imagine what the ones made with plain ol' white flour and regular sugar would earn. You will be seeing this recipe very soon...promise!

Did your family do anything exciting this week? Any big plans, new recipes, or fun kids' activities in the works for the upcoming week? I'd love to hear from you!

Ashley

Hope and Help for the "Time-Challenged" Mom

I was born late. About 2 weeks late, to be exact. Being late runs in my family, too. My father has always been habitually late, and even though we didn't live with him for the majority of our growing-up years--I believe I inherited a "tardy gene". When I was in high school and drove myself to school, I was one tardy away from serving a Saturday school. In college, I was on "chapel probation" because I would habitually get to the weekly chapel service at my Christian college about 30 seconds after they had passed out the attendance slips where you wrote your student ID #. Now, at almost 34 years old, I have two little kids who are constantly creating last minute drama that keeps me from getting to where I need to be on time. Sound familiar to anyone?


Seriously though, wouldn't it be easier if we could just "pass the buck" and blame someone or something else for our poor choices? Let's be honest for a second. I am totally and completely self-responsible for being late to everything. Every. single. time! Yep, you heard me right...it's not genetics or really long trains, or car trouble, or my kids, or even getting up too late that causes me to be chronically tardy for every appointment, meeting, playdate or family event. I've been thinking long and hard lately about why I do what I do and more importantly, what punctual people do to get places on time. Here are the top 3 reasons I am always, always late--and what I've decided to do about the problem. 

#1  I try to squeeze in "just one more quick thing" before leaving the house.
This wouldn't be such a big deal for people who aren't time-challenged . If you have 30 minutes to spare and want to throw in a load of laundry, that's just plain smart! However, because I have absolutely NO concept of how long it takes to do things--I usually underestimate projects by half the amount of time required. For example, this past Sunday I had sprayed down the shower with my new homemade shower cleaner and was planning on hopping in the shower and cleaning it out before doing my usual shower routine. I figured it would only take about 5 minutes or so and I had "plenty of time" before we had to leave for church. My five minute project turned into a 15 minute project and I had to leave my hair halfway dried in order to get out the door to the van, where Bill and the kids were waiting for me. 


There have been multiple times when I have been out running errands, looked the clock and thought, "Hmmm....I have 30 minutes before I have to pick up Jackson at preschool. I have "plenty of time" to run into Meijer for a few things before I go get him."  Deduct the 10 minute drive time to the school, the extra 5 minutes to load up Charlotte and the groceries in the van and the 5 minutes it takes to check-out/pay and you've got yourself 10 minutes left to "pick up a couple of things."  This would totally be possible for someone with a watch or a charged up cell phone to keep track of those precious 10 shopping minutes....have I mentioned I don't own a watch and I rarely charge my phone? Ha ha ha! 


Trying to use up every last second may sound like a good time management technique; however, I'm learning that not allowing any padding in the schedule for unexpected dirty diapers, red lights, or long check-out lanes will almost guarantee that I am late. 

#2  I subconsciously believe we can teleport ourselves places without actually having to drive somewhere.
Somewhere along the line, I have developed this horrible habit of thinking the time I need to be somewhere is the time I need to leave the house. It makes no difference if the appointment or event is 5 blocks from my house or several counties away...I never account for travel time. Ever! Before children came along, there was never really any "loading time". Unless you have to scrape snow off the windows, you just go out and get in the vehicle and drive away. Easy peasy! However, the process of buckling my kids, loading up the diaper bag and my purse, returning to the house for forgotten sippy cups, rounding up library books that need to be returned, remembering the casserole for Mom2Mom, or locating my keys (ugh...lost keys are the biggest time suck!) takes at least 10 minutes. In spite of  knowing this process takes time, I allow zero minutes for loading OR travel time. And yet I wonder why I am chronically late....Beam me up Scotty!


Here's a great example for you. A friend invited me to a playdate a few days ago and said it started at 11:00 am. When I looked at the clock at 10:45 am, never once did it cross my mind that I should have the kids loaded in the van and be en route to her house. Wanna know what I thought when I looked at the clock? "Oh good! I still have 15 minutes to take a quick shower." (See #3 for why showering is the last thing I do instead of the first.) Needless to say, I arrived about 45 minutes late--again! My brain does not automatically deduct time for getting places like most people do without thinking about it. The time I need to BE somewhere is the time I plan to LEAVE my house. (Inevitably, I will leave 10 minutes later than that because I forgot to account for the time required to physically get loaded into the van!)


Most of the places I drive are fairly local and I am there in 15 min. or less. Very rarely do I go anywhere more than 30 min. away. I need to plan on 30 minutes of drive time for every destination--regardless of actual distance. I read somewhere that you should plan 5 minutes of "loading time" per child. For me, that would be 10 minutes--which seems about right. Adding together the 30 minutes of travel time and the 10 minutes of loading time means when a friend says her playdate is at 11:00--my brain needs to say 10:15 and my body needs to be walking out the door at 10:20. Wow! Do punctual people really have to do this kind of math every time they need to go someplace?! Ha ha ha!

#3  I do the least important things first and the most important things last.
Ugh...this one is a killer!! In addition to being "time challenged", I am also terrible at prioritizing! I have never been able to determine what order things should be done for the most efficiency. I do the most enjoyable things first and save the most difficult or dreaded tasks for last. I underestimate how long things take and procrastinate on the important things--like showering for instance. I get wrapped up in the little things and the next thing I know, I look up at the clock and realize I need to be two towns away in 25 minutes and haven't even begun getting myself ready. Panic sets in as I rush around like a mad woman and treat my kiddos like a jerk, just because I didn't use my time well.


I have always gotten myself ready at the last possible second. I perfected the art of putting my make up on while driving when I was in high school. Like many teenagers, I slept too late, didn't leave myself enough time to get ready, and spent way too long trying to fix my hair. I realized one day that I had 10 minutes of driving time to school that I could easily use to put on my make up. This is habit that has continued for the past 15+ years. (I am totally embarrassed to be admitting this fact, but at least now I am smart enough to wait until I am parked someplace before applying it! I have to tell the kids to wait for a second while I slap on some mascara and lip gloss before going into the store.) This topic came up a few years ago, when I was talking to a co-worker who was in her early 40s. She volunteered that she always put on her make up while driving because the lighting is better in her car than in her house. Sometimes it helps to know you aren't alone in your quirkiness!


On mornings I have to be somewhere--I will type blog posts, check Facebook, feed the kids and myself breakfast, dress the kids and occasionally fold some laundry before I finally make the time to shower or get myself ready. I think putting myself last has deeper roots than I want to deal with in this post, but the fact is that I don't do the important things first (like getting clothes on!) and I don't allow adequate time for necessary tasks--which leads to me being late time and time again. 


I recall a friend with three small children showing up frazzled to our weekly moms' group a couple years ago. Her youngest daughter, who was old enough to be walking, was in her pjs. I kind of chuckled about it and she said something I will never forget, "Some days there is only enough time for one of us to get dressed and it's as sure as heck going to be me!"  Man, if I that had been me that day instead of her...my daughter would have been dressed head-to-toe (probably with a matching bow and shoes) and I would have been the one decked out in my pajamas! 


4 Ideas for the Time-Challenged Mom 
1. Sometimes less is more. Why not skip the "one last thing" and just be 10 or 15 minutes early for that appointment or school pick-up, thereby eliminating the mad dash to get somewhere and lowering my stress level in the process? I won't be as likely to snap at my kids for being kids (spilling milk on the floor as we're walking out the door, having to go to the restroom after getting into the van, etc.) if I am not acting like a crazy woman trying to get from Point A to Point B. I could use the extra minutes to sit in the waiting room and read a book, clean out my purse in the car line at preschool or just listen to a favorite CD. What if I were the first one to arrive at a playdate, instead of the last? What would it be like to hear the opening song at church because we were in our seats when the worship celebration started? 


2. Begin tracking how long things take (such as unloading the dishwasher, stopping to get gas, folding a load of laundry, etc.) to have a more accurate idea of the time involved in completing those little tasks that we try to squeeze into our "spare time". Or go ahead and guess how long you think it will take to do the task/errand and then double or even triple that amount of time to come up with a realistic figure to work with. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not nearly as quick as I think I am!


3. Plan ahead by deducting both travel time (30 minutes will be my standard) and loading time (5 minutes per child) from the time you need to arrive someplace. Set a kitchen timer to go off 10 minutes before you need to be heading out the door to give everyone in the house a warning to put on shoes, go to the bathroom and gather up last minute items for the road (library books, sippy cups, grocery list, KEYS!!).


4. Last but not least (Am I the only one who finds it ironic that I put this tip last?), put the most important things first. People are more forgiving of kids with bedhead who are still in their pajamas, than they are of adults. Save unloading the dishwasher, checking social media and even dressing the little ones until YOU are ready (make up and shoes, too!). If there is extra time, feel free to do the less important tasks--but keep tip #1 in mind and don't try to squeeze in too much and end up in a mad rush. 


Are you "time-challenged"? What part of this post really spoke to your heart? Maybe you are naturally organized and punctual. If so, I would love for you to share what goes through the mind of an "on time" person and what secrets you use to get places with time to spare. 

Home Reboot Challenge #9 ~ Become a Cleaning Tornado

If you could peek in my windows and watch me clean, you would laugh...hard! I clean like a butterfly. I flit from one room to another, one project to another, stopping to read magazines or check Facebook statuses on my way from this task to that. What would take an average person 10 minutes (like unloading the dishwasher, for example) typically takes me about 4 times as long. Just ask my mother or my husband. I am S...L...O...W... 

I envy those moms who get up an hour before their kids and can shower, get dressed, make the bed, drink coffee, unload the dishwasher, throw in some laundry, do a quick workout and start breakfast in UNDER 60 MINUTES. Seriously? Seriously!     I am lucky to be dressed an hour after I'm up (sometimes it's more like noon) and then there are other people who look like a tornado--a cleaning tornado. They move like an angry wind, hurrying from one task to the next, never stopping until the entire to-do list is done. My husband is like that. Some Saturdays I just scratch my head at all the things he has accomplished before I've even made coffee or gotten dressed. 


I'm not sure if I dislike cleaning so much that I do it incredibly slow, or if it is because I am so ridiculously slow at it that I tend to hate doing it. Do I poke around and get distracted, struggling to anything done, because I just don't like doing it? Or am I overwhelmed that it has taken me 45 minutes to fold one load of clothes and I have 5 more to wash, dry, fold & put away? Either way, I need to learn how to be a tornado instead of a butterfly. Sarah Mae shared some tips today  HERE on her blog about how to clean like a tornado. Here they are!

How to Be a Cleaning Tornado
Give Yourself a Challenge and Do It in a Set Amount of Time
There is something about a challenge and a time limit that makes you focus and move. It is incredibly effective to go into cleaning mode and just do the work as fast as you can. One of the inspirations I have is from this 31 Days to Clean Mamas of Little Ones Facebook group. They give each other challenges and you have to do them within a set time frame. They hustle and do whatever they can in that 10 or 15 minutes span of time, and then they encourage one another and do proverbial high-fives before moving on with their day. Which brings me to this…
Don’t Clean Alone
The women in the group above live all over the U.S. and yet they clean together and encourage each other daily. They’ve been doing this for about a year now. These women have not only come up with a system (Task #1,2,3,4), but they jump on when they have the time and just ask, “anyone up for a challenge?” Within a few minutes someone else jumps on and they pick a task and go for it, together even though they are miles a part. I love it. Here are some of the quotes I’ve seen in the group:
“ I am SO THANKFUL to have ladies to work with today! I need to encouragement and motivation!”
“Ok lovely ladies! onto #1!!! WE can do this!!!”
“BREAK!! What did you get done so far?” “I got started on the kitchen and took a phone call from my doctor…. Second half will be stronger!” “I got all the dirty laundry moved to the laundry room, sorted, and a load started, and I exercised for 10 min!” 
This reminds me, live cleaning on Wednesday! Stay tuned for details!
Get Hyper-Focused
If I have to clean fast, I’v got to get focused. No music, no organizing, no emails, no nothing. Just hone in on the task at hand and go, go, go! I see my sister do this and it works wonders! Once I finish the task at hand, then I can listen to my music and slow clean or organize something else that doesn’t take priority.
Get the Babes Involved
It’s amazing what a child can do when there is a clear focus about attaining a goal together, quickly. I couldn’t believe all that my children got done as my sister was no-nonsense. They had no option but to clean, and so clean they did! I get too slack about making the children help me, I either move to slow myself which doesn’t motivate them, or I get upset that they are not cleaning fast enough…they get distracted so easily (hmmm…wonder where that comes from?)
Watching my sister, it helped me to realize that I just need to say, “okay loves, we’re a family, a team, and we’re going to get this done in this amount of time and then we can play.” I find that when I give my children specific, age-appropriate tasks, they do the work. It also helps if they know they have a reward when they’re done: they can play, go outside, watch a movie, get a treat, etc.

Today's Challenges from Sarah Mae

Mary Challenge: Practice focusing. Pick one verse and take about 10 minutes to focus on it alone. Let it roll through your mind, let it marinate, and ask God to speak to you through it. See if you can set it to memory by just meditating on it.

Martha Challenge: Give yourself a 15 minute challenge. Pick something that needs done in your house, perhaps just a main space clean, and set your time for 15 minutes and get all hyper-focused and get as much done in that time frame as you can. See if you can get your babes to help as well!

If you want to find a 31 Days to Clean Facebook group, look here.

What is your best tip for cleaning like a tornado? What strategies work for you? Please share your ideas in the comment section below, or head over to my Facebook page to chat about today's post.

Home "Reboot" Challenge #8 ~ Home is Where You Dump Your Crap

I read this story over at Sarah Mae's blog this morning and I got several things out of it that I want to share with you.

Finally, at 10:00, thinking about falling into bed just to stay alive, did I say, beyond weary to the bone, if possible,

when I passed Joy’s bedroom. (She was out at her very last speech party, with friends and comrades.)

Piles everywhere–strewn clothes on chairs, floor; shoes, speech ballots and paper all over the floor, dirty tea cups, plates with crumbs in them, and unmade bed with stuff here and there…….an overall mess…….

She was not being irresponsible, she had given her all–practicing, writing, dressing, running from room for room for giving over 30 speeches, adrenalin spilled, energy expended. Her bedroom was a reflection of our weeks.

If I were her, I would not want to come home to such a mess.

I know what it is like to return from conference weekends to a messy bedroom when you are beyond tired. It oppresses one to think of more work and more effort……

And so with one last weary push, I hung clothes, stacked papers into neat piles, picked up all the dishes, folded her sheets and covers into a straight and welcome turn down for needed sleep, placed shoes in the closet, picked up random things off the floor and placed beloved stuffed animals in the proper place of old, when she as a child loved their welcome.

When she returned at midnight, she would see love all over her bedroom, a little more ordered place, where rest would come more easily, because I needed to do unto her as I would have her do unto me–if I had been so weary and in need of an angel to straighten my room.

Please read the whole post over at Sally’s blog, I Take Joy.

I can totally relate to this story. Not from the perspective of the mom, who lovingly serves her daughter, but from the perspective of the daughter who had "given her all" to a project/task and her bedroom was "a reflection of our weeks". When I am focused on a big thing (working on a presentation, leading a Bible study at church, a holiday season or birthday party, preparing for a trip, etc.) I let my home go. I get so absorbed in the task at hand that I literally walk in the door, dump my crap and my kids' crap and walk back out the door. I just don't have time to to deal with it all until the "one big thing" (or lots and lots of small things!) is over and done with. After several days of this routine...it becomes utterly painful to come home and look at the filth and disorder. Overwhelming. Uncomfortable. Exhausting. 

The other thought that I had after reading Sally's story, above, is "Wow....I want to be that kind of mom!"  Jesus demonstrated his love for us through His sacrifice on the cross, giving up His own life on our behalf. Am I demonstrating love to my family by choosing to lay down my selfishness and serve them?  I need to look at my "chores" not as sacrifice of my own time and interests but as service to those I love. The laundry...an act of love. Mopping the floors...serving the littlest ones who play down there. Doing the dishes...showing a visible heart of gratitude for the food we are blessed with eating.

I don't know about you, but I need to CHOOSE to love my family well. To share a quote from Sarah Mae, "I want to be that, I want to be the woman who loses herself in Jesus, who lays down her life to give life to others. And in losing myself, I can find  reason to clean and to write about cleaning. It is just another gate through which to show people Jesus; it is another way to love."

______________________________________________

Today's Challenges (from Sarah Mae)

Mary Challenge: Take a few moments and write down all the ways you have felt loved in someone else’s home – what were the little touches that warmed your spirit? Think about how you can implement those kind of things into your own home. Write down some ideas of how you can really make your family feel loved and special in their home.

Martha Challenge: Move on to the next task in a bedroom. Today I’m cleaning my son's room!

Can you relate to my post today? In those busy weeks or months, does your home become a place to dump your crap and sleep at night so you can start over again the next day? I would love to hear from you in the comment section below!