Hope For Your Home

I have a friend that  always has her door open to visitors. “Drop by anytime” is her motto. And she means it.

I can’t bring myself to do that. I call first, give her a heads up that we are on our way, schedule our visit a day or two in advance…

Why? Because it terrifies me to think someone might just ‘drop by’ sometime. My friend has a gift of hospitality, but she also knows that I don’t and she knows that I’m not comfortable with anyone just dropping by. I’m so thankful for family and friends that love me regardless of my shortcomings, but that doesn’t mean I want them to see my house in its full glory.

I’ve had lots of excuses – some of them truly legitimate – my biggest problem with having people over is our unfinished house. I don’t have upper cabinets (or sufficient lower ones), so storage is at a minimum and the kitchen counter becomes a repository for stuff. The floors are not finished, so sweeping has to suffice because mopping is not the best idea for bare wood. But the biggest problem in this house is really ‘ME’. And I have no idea how to fix me.

Can you identify? I’m not asking for a show of hands – I know that the best thing about the internet is your ability to be who you want the world to see. But I know I’m not the only one with dishes on the counter from last night (and possibly the night before…).  

If you are still reading – this may be the hope you need. Dana White, aka Nony the Slob from A Slob Comes Clean has written:

28 Days to Hope for Your Home

{not for the mildly disorganized}

Develop four habits over four weeks.

Discover hope for real change in your home.

This is where I am beginning. I’ve read tons of books about how to clean, organize, vacuum while wearing heels and pearls … but none of them explained how to get started. I can do the big glorious jobs of completely reorganizing my craft room or the office, but after a day of organizing I am still faced with the dishes and laundry. It is the everyday stuff that gets me every time!

28 Days to Hope for Your Home includes:

• Twenty-eight days of specific instructions to help you develop four basic (but essential) home management habits.
• Insights into why these concepts seem foreign to you.
• Practical tips to keep you from giving up.
• Bonus sections with realistic strategies for laundry management, meal prep, and decluttering.
• More than 45 pages of all new, exclusive content!

I’ve been reading Nony’s blog: A Slob Comes Clean for a few months now. I don’t have all the same issues that she has, but that’s ok. This book will walk you through a day by day routine for 28 days. It is the simple starting place you have been looking for. This book isn’t designed to give you a fully organized, spotless home in 28 days, it will help you develop good habits for doing the everyday stuff – like dishes, and sweeping. You know, that stuff that has to be done again and again and again, day after day.

Nony is funny and honest about her own continuing journey to ‘deslobification’, and the eBook is easy to read and follow. You can read it straight from your computer or your Nook or Kindle.

Download this e-book for 7.99 4.00!

That’s right! Through the end of February . . . 28 Days to Hope for Your Home is on sale for Half Price!

After you purchase the e-book through e-junkie (payment is made through Paypal), you will immediately receive a link to download the e-book and save it to your computer.



This is an affliate link. I will receive compensation for any purchase you make through my blog.

School in "The Place for Boats"

It’s a beautiful, balmy 70 degree winter day here in East Texas. I’m sitting on the front porch, working on a few projects while awaiting the all important call. Yep, any minute now I’ll hear it – “Mom! There’s a leak! Turn the water off!” I’ll jump up, turn off the hose and wait for the go ahead to turn the water back on.

No, we aren’t working on the plumbing – it’s just another ‘Water in the Place for Boats’ kinda day. Oh, I know, you’ve probably read a dozen posts like this if you’ve read my blog for long. We are a mud loving, outside playing, dig in the dirt, kind of family. But today as I watch the little boys and work on the projects I need to get done, I’m thinking about school.

It's a breach in the dam! Call in the heavy equipment!

Sometimes I have a hard time differentiating between school and life, because we’ve chosen to live a life of learning. I’m not completely sure how we started on this way of life, but I’m so thankful we did. I’ve read a number of blog posts in recent months that have me thinking about the value of a lifestyle of learning.

One blog post by a homeschooling mom of two young boys (both under 6 years) mentioned that although they like to play outside, they rarely get time, due to homeschool. What a sad thought! In the state of Texas, children are not required to attend school until the school year after their 6^th birthday. For MT, that will be September 2013. So, I do not do any school with MT. FRitW is of legal school age, so I do meet the state’s requirements for him. But, I feel that outside, unstructured, creative play has much more value than a worksheet!

A new idea: create an overflow pond in the area most likely to leak.

What value could mud play possibly have? Permit me a moment to share. Our ‘Place for Boats’ as the dirt hole is affectionately called, is a grassless space on a slight incline. This means water does not want to stay in the hole. So each time they decide to have a water day, they have to build some sort of dam to hold the water. This requires some serious planning, teamwork, and hard physical labor. They have learned to come up with new ideas to contain the water and reroute the water. Essentially, they are learning basic engineering skills and putting them into practice. They are seeing, touching, and thinking through problems, and finding a solution. And when it fails? Well they try again. The mud hole is something they want to succeed and they receive a direct benefit when their plans work. The incentive to keep trying, thinking, and creating is tangible and they never give up.

It works! It works!

In addition to these skills, they have encountered several toads hibernating in this hole. When they uncover a toad, the discussions flow. They have learned much about habitat, seasons, and respect for creatures and the environment from this mud hole. I keep a variety of insect and reptile guides available and those guides are in frequent use. They are learning that the ability to read is a valued and desirable goal.

 Finally, FRitW and MT are comfortable in the outdoors and they are strong and healthy.

I write this post, not because I think everyone should choose this life, but because sometimes I need a reminder that it’s best for our family. Out in public, I get asked if my children are on grade level, or what textbooks we use for homeschooling. I don’t have ‘acceptable’ answers to either of these. I can’t speak to the grade level, because that depends on the school I compare them with, and we don’t use textbooks. In fact we don’t have any curriculum with a grade number on it. Aaack! Then are my children behind in their learning???!!! Umm, well that depends. Since we are a homeschooling family, I feel they are right on track. They have mastered skills at different ages, and have different strengths than each other. None of them learned to read extremely early and one has simply atrocious handwriting. But, they are all intelligent, creative, hard working, loving, trustworthy people -  and that makes me smile.

I'm so glad they're washable!

Texas History: Sam Houston’s Statue

After completing our Passports to Texas History, we continued exploring some Historical sites along our route. As we drove and chatted about places we’d been, I realized that many of these trips had taken place before FRitW and MT were born. How in the world did time pass that quickly?! It was about time that the little guys got to experience some of these historical site too.

First one on the list? Sam Houston’s Statue. This statue is visible for several miles from Interstate 45, but when you approach him from the visitor’s center – this is what you see:

Walk a little farther though – and surprise!

In real life, Sam Houston was 6 foot, 6 inches – a rather tall man - and the creator of his statue, David Adickes, made sure his statue emphasized his stature! The statue is 67 feet tall and stands on a 10 foot base. It is not an easy task to get a photo that includes the entire stature (especially with only a cell phone for a camera – remember the chickens?)

If you want a better look at his face, you're in luck:

Texas History Sidetrip: Blue Bell Creameries

Texas History didn’t stop with independence from Mexico, so this stop on our trip encompasses some more modern Texas history! Blue Bell Ice Cream  is a favorite in our home – it is simply the best ice cream we’ve tasted and it is made right here in Texas. The factory was opened in Brenham Texas in 1907 and remains open today. They have factories in a couple of other states now too.

Blue Bell Creameries uses ingredients from within about a 200 mile radius of their factory when available and bakes all of the cookies, cones, and  other baked goods used right in their own factory. The Blue Bell Ice Cream is handled only by their own employees from the beginning to the shelves of the grocery store. Besides the fact that it is so delicious – I love that the company uses local American products as often as possible. I’m even willing to pay the little bit more it costs to purchase their delicious ice cream – as long as it keeps jobs here in America and supports local farmers.

We had the tour to ourselves this trip and had another wonderful tour guide (we’ve had fabulous tour guides throughout this trip!). The tour takes you through windowed hallways overlooking production lines. We watched strawberries and bananas (washed and cut here in the factory) get added to Banana Split Ice Cream. We saw Ice Cream Sandwiches made and wrapped (cookies baked here in the factory and ice cream made as we watched!). We even saw employees assembling the large ice cream cartons for ice cream shop cases then filling them with 3 gallons of creamy ice cream! Our guide explained the daily (yes, I said daily) cleaning operation. They complete disassemble each and every production line and wash, sanitize and reassemble the lines every single day. The cleaning process takes longer than the production day!

Unfortunately, they do not allow any photography during the tour, so all you get is this:

Kirk had Banana Pudding, Maggie ate Chocolate Covered Cherries

FRitW had Krazy Kookie Dough, MT had Strawberry, and Mom (not pictured) had Spiced Pumpkin Pecan

Then end of the tour and the free, very generous dips of ice cream we enjoyed. What I’m not showing is how many free samples we tried before deciding on a flavor! Even after we finished our ice cream, our guide continued to encourage us to taste another flavor and another. She said she really enjoyed having our family as her tour!

Texas History Sidetrip: Barrington Living History Farm

While in the Washington on the Brazos State Park, we also visited the Barrington Living History Farm. The Barrington Living History Farm is a working farm representing a farm of the 1840’s. It consists of some original buildings from Anson Jones’ Barrington Farm. Anson Jones was the fourth and final president of the Republic of Texas. After his presidency he farmed near the Washington on the Brazos area. His farm was named after his family’s estate in Massachusetts. Jones farmed cotton and corn, and raised pigs, cattle, chickens, and ducks on his farm.  The farm supported him, his wife and four children, his sister, sister-in-law, and 5 slaves. During his time farming, he kept a journal. This has enabled interpreters to reenact his daily life for visitors to the farm.

 It is truly a living history farm in that the employees operate it as it would have been run in the mid 1800’s. Our guide was wonderful. She was dressed as an 1840’s woman would dress – she (modestly, of course) showed us her pantaloons and petticoats to prove it. It was windy and cool today so she was grateful for all the layers, but mentioned that this summer was pretty miserable. She and another guide had been seated in the dogtrot of the home while waiting for visitors, but once we arrived she accompanied us throughout the home and yard, explaining, demonstrating, and sharing stories. It was truly delightful!

Since it was Monday and a woman’s work on Monday would be laundry, they had washboard and buckets set up. We washed the scraps of fabric they had for that purpose and hung them on the line. Maggie and I laughed that we would have had good helpers from FRitW and MT if we were back in 1840. By the time we left, the lines were almost full of drying fabric scraps. Our guide apologized for the lack of soap to wash with. Since it is a living history farm, they actually make their own lye soap and with the burn bans in effect, they were unable to make soap and had run out. They don’t just dress up for a day or special events – this is their everyday life. Someone has to come to the farm everyday to let the chickens out or water the vegetables and feed the pigs.

Speaking of animals – we visited the chickens and fed them over the fence. The chickens they keep are varieties that would have been common in Texas in 1850. Their rooster is a funny looking fellow – he is a Crested Polish Rooster. The guide said that the lady of the house would have an elegant, fussy looking rooster – it was a source of pride. Most of these chickens are young and they are looking forward to seeing what the baby chicks will look like.

The farm butchers a couple of pigs each year and smokes the meat in their smokehouse – boy did those hams smell good! There is a kitchen garden and a large garden – all hand dug, watered, and maintained. Herbs are grown next to the kitchen, and large Lamb’s Ear plants were scattered here and there. The Lamb’s Ear leaves were a much nicer alternative to toilet paper than the oft used corn cob – ugh!

Inside the house, our guide spun some of the cotton grown here on the farm into yarn and showed us the corn husk mattresses. We saw where the children would have done their lessons and learned about the many chores the children were responsible for, like picking cotton, cleaning chamber pots, and fanning the cook to help her stay cool. Then we went back and let MT and FRitW do more laundry.

We did wander over the now bare cotton and corn fields and through the workshop/barn, but there were no attendants to tell us about them. We did not visit the slave cabins because there was a sheriff’s deputy guarding some prisoners at work in those buildings.

There were two pig pens made of wood and when we got close, we found a mother pig and her piglet in one and what must have been the daddy pig in the other. He was huge and those stick fences were not too strong looking, so we moved on rather quickly!

Passport to Texas History San Jacinto

We were almost to the final site necessary for our Passport to Texas History and it was pouring rain. Pouring! There was lightning and thunder, oh, and did I mention it was pouring rain? The weather was absolutely awful!

All day we had managed to stay just a few minutes ahead of the storms, but the wait to cross by ferry allowed those nasty storms to catch up with us. We left the ferry and pulled into the parking lot of The Monument Inn where we had planned to eat lunch. We ran through the rain and settled in the restaurant on the second floor of the building just in time to watch the storm unleash it’s fury right on top of us.  We were so grateful to be across the ferry, because when the rain lifted we could see it had crossed during the worst of the storm and was now on its way back across. Whooo! Wouldn’t that have been an interesting ride? The restaurant lost power twice as we ate and we were thankful for the light offered by the large windows overlooking the Houston Shipping Channel.

With a drizzly sky, but no thunder and lightning, we drove on to the San Jacinto Monument. Funny thing about that monument – you can not park anywhere near the doors. The building is designed so you have to walk up a series of steps to a platform, then another series of steps, then a platform. Then if you are me, you realize you parked on the wrong side of the monument and have to circle the building searching for the door. Naturally, the rain had begun to fall again.

This is what the monument looks like. (Photo from a previous trip)

We cheated at this point. Sorry, but it is true. We didn’t ride the elevator to the top (None of us were too keen on being caught at the top when the next storm descended – we’d already been through the electricity failing at the restaurant), we didn’t view the educational film, and we didn’t pay to enter the special exhibit area. We simply walked to the gift shop, got our Passports stamped, checked out the weapons and memorabilia in the main (free) part of the museum and headed back to the car.

The boardwalk over the bayou. (photo from previous trip)

This is a really neat site on a warm, dry, day. The views from the top are spectacular and there is a beautiful little wooden walkway into the bayou. During this trip we learned that the ferry we cross to reach San Jacinto – Lynchburg’s Ferry was used by the Texans in their desperate run for safety  known as  the Runaway Scrape  as well as by Santa Anna’s forces in preparation for the Battle at San Jacinto.

FRitW loved this reflection of the monument in the bayou. (photo from same previous trip!)

Sam Houston destroyed the ferry and the bridge that gave access to the San Jacinto area – leaving Santa Anna (and his own army) no opportunity for retreat or escape. San Jacinto was the battle that ended the fight for freedom. Santa Anna was captured and history was made! Oh, and our Passports were complete!!!!

Passport to Texas History, San Felipe de Austin

San Felipe de Austin is a small collection of buildings dedicated to the memory of Stephen F. Austin. Austin was an Impresario or land agent. The original contract for land in Texas was given to his father, Moses Austin. Moses traveled to Spanish owned Texas and received authority to bring legal settlers into Texas. As he traveled back to his home in Missouri, he was attacked and eventually died as a result of pneumonia that set in while he recovered from the attack.

 Stephen F. Austin obtained permission to take over his father’s contract, but between the time he set out and the time he arrived in Texas with 300 families (‘The Old 300”) Mexico had declared independence from Spain. This rendered his contract null and void, both because it was a Spanish contract and because it was in his father’s name. Austin headed to San Antonio and managed to get a new contract issued to him from the Mexican government. Thus began the legal settlement of Texas by American citizens.  

At the time, all of Texas and portions of what is today New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma were owned by Mexico. The southern portion (what is currently still Mexico) was well settled, but most Mexicans did not want to move north to settle in the Texas portion of Mexico. There were many reasons for this, but a huge drawback to settling in Texas was the threat of Indian attacks.

Posing in front of the statue. It was windy!

The missions in Texas, begun by Spanish priests, had converted and ‘civilized’ many of the local Indian tribes. But, these tribes were willing to be under the protection of the priests because they were being attacked by more violent tribes moving in to their hunting areas. The problem now was finding someone willing to brave the Indian attacks long enough to establish ownership of the land for Mexico. Mexico decided to open up settlement to non-Mexican citizens.

Josey General Store - now the Visitor's Center

We had never been to San Felipe de Austin and were pleasantly surprised. There isn’t a lot to do or see, but you could spend a pleasant hour on the grounds. The visitor’s center is an old general store – its history much more recent and completely unrelated to Stephen F. Austin. The attendant was friendly and knowledgeable and we enjoyed visiting with her while we waited for a rain shower to subside. She told a story about Austin and the building of a town using a Jacob’s ladder – it was really cute!

Replica of Stephen F. Austin's cabin

In addition to the General Store/Visitor’s Center, the park includes a statue of Mr. Austin, a replica of his cabin, and a well. The cabin was a traditional dogtrot cabin and one room had wooden toys to play with. FRitW and MT are getting pretty familiar with dogtrot cabins at this point – we saw a total of 4 on this trip.

Thunderstorms were headed our way and we had another stop to make today, so we said good-bye to San Felipe de Austin and headed toward Houston.