Organization

Our pastor introduced a concept to me long before I was even thinking about having kids. But to this day I constantly have it running in the back of my mind. Living a life with margin. It's a problem we encounter in today's world of over-scheduling, multi-tasking, and not being able to say "no." We have no margin. There is no wiggle room, spontaneity, or just good old downtime. And as a parent, it can be an even bigger problem as our kids enter the school system, play sports, or have play dates. But it is something that I constantly fight for. Part of me enjoys being busy. Sometimes it makes me feel like I am providing a fun life for...

Let me start by saying that there are two versions of me. There is the version that exists in my head, and there is the version that actually lives my life. The version in my head is mildly obsessive. I walk through the house,  I see that something is out of place, and it triggers discontent. I have a plan in my head of how the pantry should be organized. And I understand that if I do all the dishes at night, I will have a better morning. But the version of me that lives this life is at war with the other me. The me that lives in reality is often completely exhausted by 9:00pm, even if the clothes...

It's a battle every mom fights daily, no matter how many children she has in the home. The sorting, the stain treating, the washing, and remembering to dry before the wet clothes mold. The folding, the putting away, the hanging. And then there is always that one kid -uh hum, my seven-year-old- that will put clean clothes into the dirty clothes hamper to keep from putting them away. There is no denying that laundry is a BEAST. Over the years, I've used a few different methods for taming the Beast, based on my family size and routine at the time. These methods are not fail proof for every family, and by no means the only ways to fight the battle. 1....

I love to read. Deep in my soul. I've been known to stay up all night because I can't find a stopping point in a book (the end is the only stopping point!). I've also been known to go into a short term funk after finishing a great book or series.  Serious readers will understand exactly what I mean. When Brene Brown talks about the importance of "play" for adults, she is describing reading for me.  I come by it honestly.  My aunt is a librarian, my cousin a teacher, and my mom is a regular at the public library.  When we go on vacation, we spend more time planning who will bring which books than we do packing...

Hello. My name is Kristen and I have a problem: my phone is filled with pictures. Filled. I'm the default family historian and I love my job. It is a slippery slope though - it's dangerously easy to let the cataloguing of my life get in the way of living it (or to let the "I'm taking the picture" get in the way of being in the picture). Before my phone became my primary camera, I had memory cards upon memory cards of photos... just sitting there or uploaded in the back-up hard drive, in some file...waiting. Every now and then, a coupon from some photo site would catch my eye and it would prompt a momentary (and fleeting) resolve to PRINT...