Far from perfect...

This blog is not about having a perfect home, its about reality.  My reality for the last few months has not been pretty.  In fact, it has been rather embarrassing.  If I were to post pictures of what my home looked like now, you would not only call me homemaking challenged but most likely a homemaking disaster, beyond hope.  I really do want to get back on track, to be able to actually improve my home for my family.  I have been doing a lot of thinking as to what falls under the category of homemaking.

Here are some things that I feel very strongly are a big part of it:
1. Managing the home (things like keeping a calender, cleaning, laundry, anything that needs keeps your family going)
2. Feeding the family (cooking, shopping and what not)
3. Improving the home (organizing, decorating, home improvements etc)
4. Crafting and creating (Making gifts, and usable home items for yourself and/or others, DIY projects)
5. Home finances (the unfun stuff like paying bills, budget, and finding ways to save money.

Bonus things: Hostessing, apron wearing, flawless decorating, pearl and high heal wearing, always put together, puts the "wow" factor into everything.  (I could go on, but the list would just get longer and sillier). 

I feel like these are five key areas, all of which I need to improve on.  As a working mom, it is unrealistic in my home for me to do all of these five things, all of the time perfectly.  Then again, this isn't about perfection.  This is the journey of one woman, attempting to overcome being homemaking challenged.  I am striving to improve these five areas of my life, find new friends in the blogging world to learn from, and possibly as I show my life on this blog show other moms, that it is OK to fail, it is OK for your home to not be perfect all the time.  There others out there struggling trying to make our homes better, with out a huge budget or a ton of time.  I hope that this journey will inspire others (and keep me inspired) to become less homemaking challenged.

Ashley

Home making Fail

I have been failing in many areas of my life of late one main area has been in my duties as a homemaker.  For the past month (up until this past week) I have had the worst case of lazies and procrastination I think I have EVER had.  It didn't help that I was feeling not so great, but that is really no excuse.  I have been able to spend some amazing time with my sweet bundle of joy, who is getting way to big and starting to walk now, but that is another story.

I have learned this past month, that with out a purpose or reason for you to do what you do, it is very easy to see it as unimportant and allow it to go by the wayside.  However, it is important to me to have a welcoming home, to have a place where we can feel good about inviting people over randomly with out me frantically cleaning the hour before they show up.  I want to be able to walk in from a day way to a home that is inviting for my family that doesn't have laundry piles, and dishes for me to do.  I want to come home and feel like I can RELAX and not just see my overloaded to do list.

Two weeks ago, I found out that as of October 1, I am loosing 8 hours of work per week from my job.  Besides the fact that we need the money, I was heart broken, because I love my job, and I love working full time.  I now have to figure out how to cram the things I normally do in 40+ to exactly 32 hours per week.  I have been frantically looking for alternative ways for me to bring income into my home, as my hubby's job is VERY unstable currently (his company is doing worse than mine, and mine is a non-profit!)  However, I think for now I will take this time, as a blessing and use it as some time to focus on me, and becoming a better homemaker. 

I have so many ideas, and projects to share with you that I have been working on the past few months.  I sincerely apologize for my lack of posting.  No internet at home, and no more laptop makes things rather difficult in that area, however as of Oct 1st (not next week but the following) I will have an extra day to work on my postings and set them up for the week.  I think I'm going to have a Sunday - Wednesday work week now, but I may do Sunday & Tuesday - Thursday w/ Monday's off on occasion as well.  Honestly financially we will be ok, as long as my hubby continues to work 25-30 hours per week on average (with no less than 53 in a pay period).  We live as cheap as possible, so I'm hoping that I will be able to use some of my extra time off to figure out more ways to save money.  However, if things get really tight, I will have to go back to substitute teaching again on my days "off" from my regular job.  All of this is in God's hands and a new adventure for me.

I am really excited to be sharing again with all of my readers (is anyone left?) of some of my adventures (and some mishaps) of attempting to no longer be homemaking challenged.  So stay tuned for a new kick off, and perhaps a give away or two in the near future.

Back

I have an alive computer.  Not my original one, but a working one never the less.  I am very excited to be back, and I have some great things to show you all that I have been up to.    Some fun, some no so great, but this blog is all about learning and my process.  Here is a little tease for today: