WISDOM IN A WINK

“Our lives are frittered away by detail. . . simplify! Simplify!
Henry David Thoreau
Our mission is to provide an informative, upbeat website for the exchange of creative ideas and insights on how to learn God’s laws and live them, experience gratitude for the events in our lives, obtain abundance, provide better for ourselves and our families, and attain our dreams. We want to encourage ourselves and others to discover treasures in the commonplace.

In this issue:
A PLETHORA OF PITHY POETIC PENSIVENESS
FOR YOUR PERUSAL
In writing verse, I think you’ll find
That I am quite a pundit.
I’ll pen a poem, per your request
If you will kindly fund it!

Need a great verse for your Valentine? A clever quip that rhymes? A romantic poem or thank-you message that says it all? My services are available! I’m fast and I guarantee you will be delighted, or your poetry is free! If you’d like more information, simply click on this link, enter your name and address (which I will keep confidential), and let me know what kind of poem you would like me to write: wisdominawink@gmail.com I will get back to you within 24 hours. Happy Valentine’s Day!

TEN TIME-SAVING TIPS
FOR CONQUERING CHAOS
By Cristie B. Gardner, the Co-Creative Coach

When I was a weary mother of eight active children, my journal entries often seemed to contain the word “overwhelmed.” Laundry was mountainous, clutter crept into every part of the house, dishes piled higher and deeper until the kitchen territory seemed off limits—even to me! So in desperation, I created some little techniques that turned torturous tasks into fun family activities. These work even if you’re a family of one. They make a game out of the mundane. Here are ten of them:

1. Turn on the music! Blast the house with a rousing song and everyone dashes, seeing how many things they can put away before the song ends. Alternate song choices so that everyone gets to pick their favorite (yes, even the stuff you don’t like, as long as the lyrics are appropriate). You can do this until everyone has picked a song, and then you’re done.
2. Oh ye mountains high! Starting early in the morning, when you first get up, tackle the laundry room chaos by putting in a load to wash (unless you can’t take a shower with the washer on because of the streams of alternately blazing and freezing water! In that case you’ll have to be more creative at keeping the laundry going). Throughout the day, keep the loads going, washing and drying, until dinnertime. Then have “movie night.” Pile the clean laundry onto the freshly vacuumed carpet and fold furiously while the movie is on. At periodic intervals (i.e., when there is a good-sized stack for each family member, announce a “commercial break” so that everyone can run and put their stack away. When everything’s done, pop some popcorn and enjoy the rest of the show.
3. Unannounced visits by the Housekeeping Fairy. My sister and I started this one. I dressed up as a fairy (sort of), put on outrageous makeup and did a strange number on my hair, grabbed a magic wand from the dollar store, and showed up on my sister’s porch step (unfortunately, a neighbor gentleman was fetching his morning paper and got a huge chuckle out of it). As her kids opened the door, I told their astonished faces in my high, lilting voice, “Good morning, Dears! I am the Housekeeping Fairy. I have come to check your rooms. If you have a tidy room, I have a lovely surprise for you.” Then I checked, clucking disapprovingly at the mess, and told them I would return in one hour, giving them a second chance “this time” so they could win a prize. The results were a speedy race to a clean house. My sister dressed as the “housekeeping honcho” a few weeks later, with the same results at our house.
4. Clean up by the numbers. When clutter overwhelms, everyone picks up and puts away a designated number of items. 10 to 50 work best.
5. Clean up by the clock. This is similar to #4, except you set the alarm on your cell phone and race for ten minutes. If you can’t get anyone motivated to go full blast for ten minutes, try five—or two. Vary it so that no one expects the same all the time.
6. Everyone who eats does dishes. This one might possibly be my favorite, and I think I invented it! The idea came about when we realized that our teens were too busy with outside commitments to take their turn at doing the dishes. I certainly wasn’t going to tackle that pile by myself, and the pots and pans always seemed to be a big matter for one person. So we set a rule: After our dinner, everyone who eats helps until the dishes are done. It always turned into a fun activity. We worked on beating our best time and got pretty good at it. If someone is at a school activity and can’t be there for the meal, they are excused from doing dishes. You’ll learn to circumvent the clever techniques to avoid working—like sudden trips to the bathroom. Just wait until the offender returns to resume the race.
7. Nightly Tidy. As a part of the “getting ready for bed” routine of pajamas, tooth brushing, getting drinks, prayers, include “nightly tidy time.” Everyone picks up and puts away twenty things. You’ll be amazed how much better it looks (and YOU will sleep better with a cleaner house).
8. Mega Money. I admit it freely: I resorted to bribery! But I also helped the kids to earn their way to things they wanted. I bought giant fake money at the dollar store (usually these come in notepads and you can tear the bills off). I created a chart of projects that needed to be done and how much “mega money” could be earned with the project. Then I created a prize pile of what the money could be exchanged for and made it into a “store.” Prizes included new school clothes that I had bought on sale, notebooks, pens and pencils, fun toys, snack items that were special. I bought everything on sale for the prize pile, and the children could use their money to buy the things they needed and wanted. It was a good lesson in working for what you get.
9. Begin breakfast with dinner in mind. This little trick set my mind to work early in the day. When breakfast is over, set the table for dinner! Then throughout the day, started mixing the casserole, roasting the meat, frying the hamburger, rinsing the salad greens—whatever steps there are to creating the meal. By dinnertime you will have put together a healthy selection of food, and you have tidied the kitchen up as you went throughout the day. This technique also allows you time to stop at the grocery store if a needed ingredient is missing.
10. Charge around between chapters. Now that the children are grown, I still play games when it comes to getting unpleasant or mundane tasks completed. With just my husband and me making the messes, however, the cleanup is simpler. So I grab my latest book I’ve been excited to read, read a chapter, and then make myself do a task: either pick up and put away 10 things, or dust a room, or vacuum a room or write a thank-you note—you get the idea. I make the list up at the beginning of the day, and keep at it while I’m reading my book. Wow! Talk about motivation to move fast! It always makes me feel good to celebrate the small victories!

Which reminds me—make sure that you celebrate the victories. We usually enjoyed a reward when we all worked together to accomplish a task. A good family flick, a trip to the store for ice cream cones, a game of ball in the back yard—we rewarded our family with more family fun time. Sometimes the reward included inviting a friend to come along; more often, we just enjoyed doing another thing together. If it’s done in the spirit of fun, you can create memory-making moments, even out of the commonplace jobs around the house.

(If you are interested in learning more about Co-Creative Coaching, you can email me at wisdominawink@gmail.com. Please leave your contact information and I’ll get back to you promptly)

Finding and Fulfilling Your Life’s Purpose

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Family Coaching Programs
also available from Cristie Gardner
at Co-Creative Coaching

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Tidbits of Wisdom,

Gleaned from Personal Experience and Wise People

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