Simple Home – Page 11

My Favorite Benefit From The Tummy Team

This post contains an affiliate link. Sadly, it does not contain cookies. It is my (and the government’s) policy that I disclose this information—the link, not the cookies.

I have already told you a couple times about The Tummy Team I participated in, and I hinted at a result of the core strengthening that was exciting for me. It begins with a loooooong story. I’d keep it short, but where’s the fun in that?

When my sixth baby was about three months old, I was doing a Pilates video that had me stick my big toes in my opposite ears while pointing my derriere up to the north star and scratching the back of my knees with my teeth. At least, that’s what it felt like. Something tweaked on my body, so I stopped, because I’m smart like that…but obviously not smart enough to not do the whole toe-in-ear thing in the first place.The next morning, after nursing my baby lying down, I rolled over and a severe pain shot through my ribcage.

I’m not a short term pain wimp, People. I’ve had seven children naturally. I can handle temporary discomfort. This pain was intense! And it was anything but temporary.

I sought chiropractic care. I took refuge in a bottle of Advil ( and I don’t do drugs). I paced the floor every night, unable to rest or get comfortable or control the pain until the medication dulled it enough that I could give into my exhausted stupor for three or four hours. I slept in another room with just baby (instead of the three other people that shared my room at the time) so nobody would touch me. I wouldn’t accept hugs, which, for this mama of seven, was a big deal. I became best buds with ice packs and hot water bottles. I could barely sit down, and lying down was out of the question. I was a mess, a great big in-pain sniveling grumpy mess. I wasn’t really sniveling, but I like that word.

I couldn’t even let these beautiful babies hug me! I was one miserable mama.

About five weeks later, it gradually went away. The chiropractor said it was likely a dislocated rib. Who knows? The point is that it hurt, and I never wanted to feel like that without getting a baby out of it ever again. Yeah, it was that bad.

It went away, and I never did Pilates again, but it didn’t completely heal. I had to be careful about the angles I nursed lying down, careful not to twist too far, careful to only get up certain ways, careful not to sit wrong in the van. That was five years of being careful and aware—I was on careful and aware overload, People!

I would still feel twinges like those I felt before the big BANG happened in my ribcage. I would feel the warning and I would carefully adjust my position or lie completely still and try to relax while internally freaking out like a crazy mama with no cookies in the cookie jar. I did not wanna go there again!

So here’s the exciting part of this story. I realized five weeks into The Tummy Team that I had shifted my awareness to engaging my abs the way Kelly taught me. I also realized that the warning twinges that had become a part of my life were g-o-n-e, gone! They took a hike to the Himalayas, a trip to Timbuktu, a trek to Tibet. Wherever they were, they were not a part of my life anymore, and that’s exactly how I wanted it.

Trekking through the national parks with 20 pounds of love strapped to my chest.

It makes sense. Kelly teaches that one of the various sets of abdominal muscles wraps around the ribcage. As you practice with Kelly over the weeks, you start to feel these muscles and control them. They’re like a big ol’ Gramma hug that holds everything together and makes your world feel just right.

I know you’re not as excited about this as I am, but, People, it was like my cookie jar was broken with huge gaping cracks and I was still required to fill it for hungry hands every day. I was holding it together with masking tape, when a perfectionist suddenly grabbed my cookie jar when I wasn’t paying attention and seamlessly gorilla-glued it back together so you can barely if at all see the once-gaping cracks. That’s what it’s like. I can do what needs to be done without the masking tape. It’s wonderful!

I want a cookie.

This is what my life demands of me, and it helps to have a strong core to live as pain-free and fancy-free as possible. What is fancy-free anyway?

Coming up: what happened when I fell off the wagon, why I’m gorilla-gluing myself back on the wagon, and a special surprise for you!

To hear more of my thoughts on The Tummy Team, check out these posts:

Click here to learn more about The Tummy Team from Kelly. Just do it.

Christy’s Simple Tips: Capturing Ideas in the Shower

I have all my best, most brilliant ideas in the shower. I used to write my brilliant ideas in the steam on the shower door with my finger. That worked great, until I got out of the shower and the steam disappeared, along with my brilliance. I needed a better option to capture my brilliance, one that didn’t involve running naked through the house looking for a pen and paper and scarring my children for life. For life!

Enter the bath crayon. These handy little bath crayons are perfect for writing on bathtubs, shower walls, even bathroom mirrors, so you can capture your brilliant moments without scarring your kids.

They don’t rinse away, so you have time to transfer your brilliance to something a little more permanent. After you’ve recorded your brilliance elsewhere, you can wash off the crayon with a little soap and water, which, conveniently, you have right there in the shower. It’s almost like someone planned that or something.

Bath markers and crayons are available at craft stores, department stores, discount stores, drug stores, grocery stores…just about everywhere. They are also available online at Amazon. (This is an affiliate link. If you purchase through this affiliate link, Amazon shares a bit of its profits with me, so I can buy therapy for the children I scarred before discovering bath crayons.)

Contact me with your simple tips for future publication in Christy’s Simple Tips and for a link to your blog or website.

10 Questions to Help You Manage Your Online Subscriptions

Simplifying is not confined to the brick and mortar world. A simplified life can be sabotaged by how we spend our online time. To free up time and e-space, it may be time to evaluate the online subscriptions cluttering up your inbox and RSS reader.

The last time I estimated, there were about 8 kazillion websites competing for subscribers. (That’s a number I made up because I’m too lazy to research, but it feels right, doesn’t it?) How do you decide which sites deserve your precious time and which don’t?

First and foremost, if being online is hurting your family, your budget, or your marriage, get off now…and stay off!

If you simply need to be a better manager of your online time, here are ten questions to ask yourself before subscribing to or unsubscribing from a blog or website:

Ten Questions to Help You Manage Your Online Subscriptions

1) Does it offer relevant value to my life right now? Sure, someday I might like a little place in the country with some chickens and horses, but subscribing to chicken-raising blogs and saddle sale alerts is not getting me there. Hello irrelevant!

2) Do I read almost every post? Regardless of how amazing the site may be, if I delete or skip over the majority of the posts, it is not worth the five-second delete time and the e-space it’s cluttering up.

3) Do the posts offer gentle encouragement instead of debilitating fear or guilt? Just like my blog, my inbox is a no-guilt, no-fear zone. Period.

4) Am I able to read deal posts and promotion notifications without being tempted to exceed my budget? In other words, can I pass up deals that are too good to pass up?

5) Are the posts reasonable, rather than overwhelming, in their frequency? One of the very few blogs to which I am subscribed sends out one highly relevant Crohn’s-friendly recipe about every two weeks. That’s my speed. A deal site I subscribe to sends out a bundled compilation email once a day so I can quickly scan it for ~~free Redbox codes~~ relevant deals.

6) Is each subscription unique? Back before I decided that actively trying to grow my blog was like actively trying to grow a third arm, I was subscribed to several blogging sites. I spent so much time reading them, I didn’t get around to working on my blog. Now I occasionally subscribe to one here and there while they run a series, and when the series ends, I reevaluate.

7) Is the site encouraging me in my craft, parenting, faith, or marriage? If my writing site subscription makes me read and dream about writing, but hinders me from ever doing the kind of writing I love to do, how is that benefiting me? Let me help you on that one. It’s not! If a site contains husband bashing, it’s o-u-t, out! If it focuses on materialism or clutters my mind with too many thoughts of what the world says I should be doing, it’s so outta here.

8) Is the site promoting contentment? I totally unsubscribed from DreamHorse.com. ‘Nuf said.

9) Is it just plain fun for me? If a site gives me a good ol’ fashioned G-rated endorphin-releasing ab-toning hee haw, I just might have to keep that subscription. If it’s uplifting, encouraging, or in any other way like a virtual fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie, it’s fine in moderation…but the kids and hubby still come first.

10) Does the site belong to a family member? When a family member lets us know they keep up on our travels, our music mission, The Simple Homemaker, or our teens’ (Hannah and Marissa’s) sites, it’s encouraging. When we learn that a cousin or niece or sibling starts a site, we jump on board.

If you answered yes (or not applicable) to most of these questions, then the site may be worthy of your valuable time. If most of them received a resounding NO, then it’s time to mercilessly hit the unsubscribe button, even if it’s my site.

So…now what?

If you have hundreds of subscriptions, I feel your pain. I had over 150 after simplifying my online life. I’ve knocked it down to the 60s, and I still chisel away as needed. Instead of receiving upwards of 100 subscription emails a day, I receive about 8-12.

Try these three tips:

unsubscribe from one or two each day, or
attack it faster with my ridiculously simple “Ten Things” strategy, and
check out Unroll.me, a free service that helps me manage my subscriptions. It bundles those 8-12 emails into one message and makes unsubscribing a snap! I love you, Unroll.me!

From now on, add no newbies—not even me—that don’t score exceptionally well on the test above. Deal? Deal!

So, ‘fess up. How many online subscriptions do you have? And how do you decide what’s a keeper and what isn’t?

Too Many Emails, One Simple Solution

My email inbox used to be OOC–out of control. I didn’t think I had many subscriptions, but with our on-again, off-again internet access as we travel the country, I couldn’t consistently check, answer, and delete. The emails were multiplying like rabbits, even though I was manually unsubscribing and deleting as fast as I could. Like rabbits, people!

That’s when I discovered Unroll Me. (It’s FREE, so keep reading.) My email inbox was full of ads, alerts, Simple Homemaker contacts, Travel Bags contacts, business, and personal messages. I couldn’t find the good stuff amongst all the ads! Now my email inbox contains this:

Simple Homemaker emails (comments, questions, contact form)
Personal emails from family and friends
The Travel Bags emails (our family’s travel blog)
Stephen Bautista Music emails (my husband’s music)
One daily email containing all my subscriptions and advertisements

It’s no longer overwhelming, so I can manage it on a daily or bi-weekly basis. And if I don’t have time to read the Unroll Me daily email, I delete it, knowing I haven’t lost any personal emails or messages from you terrific people. Oh, so happy!

Here’s how Unroll Me works:

When Unroll Me and I first hooked up, UM scanned my inbox. It then listed all my subscriptions and gave me a simple option for each: roll it up, unsubscribe, or leave in inbox.

Here’s what that means:

For the sake of example, let’s say I’m subscribed to my family’s travel blog, The Travel Bags…which I am. I like to know what we’ve been up to.

Roll it up: If I choose this option, my messages from The Travel Bags will show up with all my other rolled up subscriptions in one email a day. ONE, people. Not 10. Not 100. One. I scan the single daily email and click on whatever I want to read. When I’m finished, I delete ONE email. If I get behind and, for example, don’t read emails throughout the entire month of December (oops), I can go in and delete 31 emails, not 310, not 3,100, 31.

Unsubscribe: If I don’t really care about the Bagasao family’s music missionary travels throughout the country and I don’t want to be subscribed to The Travel Bags anymore (heaven forbid!), I click unsubscribe and UM unsubscribes for me. This alone is well worth setting up a UM account. No more pesky unsubscribing! No more, people! Imagine the freedom! I thought I didn’t have very many subscriptions, but UM has unsubbed me from over 150 lists. Insanity.

Leave in inbox: If I want to make absolutely sure I get each and every update from The Travel Bags as soon as it comes out, I leave it in my inbox. All subscriptions left in the inbox continue exactly as they always have. Of course, that’s what I do with my subscription to The Travel Bags. Grin.

Are you afraid of committing to an unsubscribe or roll-up? UM keeps track of all your unsubs, roll-ups, and inbox emails and lets you change your mind at the click of a button. No commitment necessary!

Every day (you choose morning, afternoon, or evening) Unroll Me sends me the collection of the day in one email. At the top, it shares how many new subscriptions it has found. If it finds new subscriptions and you haven’t subscribed to anything new, it’s because it’s finding emails from addresses it hasn’t yet seen since you hooked up with Unroll Me. It encourages you to quickly tidy your inbox by rolling up or unsubscribing right away, and gives you an easy link for doing so.

Oh Unroll Me. I love your efficient, tidy ways!

One quick note on Unroll Me that may confuse you. My UM account states that I have well over 100 subscriptions. I absolutely do not. Many companies will send emails from numerous different addresses. Each one is considered a subscription and needs to be rolled up. That’s why you may have to roll something up more than once. I’ve never had to unsubscribe more than once, however.

There is an itsy bitsy teeny tiny learning curve–really tiny. Give it a go for a couple weeks and see if you love Unroll Me as much as I do. If you don’t, we can still be friends.

By the way, I don’t get paid for telling you this. Your clean inbox is my reward. Grin!

Click here to get started on your clean inbox.

Now that I have a clean inbox, I love reading your comments! Share your tips for managing emails.

Making the Most of The Weeks Before Christmas

It’s the final hour. The big day is practically here. Are you ready? How’s your sanity? How’s your family?

It’s tempting every year to turn these final weeks of what is intended to be a joyous celebration into a major push to get everything done–presents under the tree, hair tied in rags for Christmas Eve curls, fudge made, elaborate dinner perfected, house spotlessly cleaned and decorated, shoes shined, choir music rehearsed to perfection, Advent devotions pushed through, and kids…oh, what about the kids?

What about the kids? What about that man you married? What about the mama that birthed you and the grandmother that loved you before her baby was even old enough to have you?

Today I’m over at Your Thriving Family talking about making the most of Christmas by focusing on what matters. Pop on over. There might be cookies!

Read more here!

10 Tips for Sticking to Your Budget at Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner. While your kids are enjoying sweet dreams of stuffed stockings and presents under the tree, you’re suffering through nightmares about your budget shattering like Humpty Dumpty on an off day. It’s a legitimate fear. Through some strange twist of cosmic irony, people who are religiously responsible with their finances eleven months out of the year, often ditch reason and overspend when Christmas temptations roll around.

Not this year!

Today I’m over at Stacy Makes Cents sharing ten money-saving principles for the holidays (and all those other days) to help ward off holiday-induced budgetary dementia and financial frazzle.

Pop on over to Stacy Makes Cents to read more.

A Simple Stain Solution: Fels Naptha Stain Remover and Laundry Bar

I have seven children. To cut back on laundry, my children wear their play clothes to death before we wash them. It’s like the zombie apocalypse of laundry, which means there are some serious stains. I don’t usually care much about the stains on their play clothes, but sometimes they accidentally wear their church clothes to death, too.

Like this adorable top my sister-in-law gave our littlest love:

Before a mustard splotch, grape jello, unidentifiable food byproducts, and a bloody finger, this was a white shirt. Ohhhh, poor shirt. You are doomed.

Enter the age-old Fels Naptha laundry bar and stain remover.

It looks like a great big bar of English toffee…

but it doesn’t taste like one.

We wet the shirt, rubbed the bar on the abundant stains, and tossed it…in the laundry basket and forgot about it.

The directions say to let it rest for a minute and then wash it.

Directions shmirshmections. I finally washed the shirt after a few days, threw it in the drier, and SHAZAAM! Stains gone!

So I put the shirt on my little model, ran to get my camera for an after shot, and SHAZAAM! Grape juice spill all over the shirt! Who gave the baby grape juice?! Oh…I did…well…not my smartest parenting move. Zombie apocalypse laundry:1, parental foresight: 0.

Option 1 was to wash the shirt again and take an after shot.

Option 2 was to embrace reality and just tell you people what happened.

I’m an option 2 sort of person. Who’s with me? It’s anti-climactic this way, but it offers more scope for the imagination. I mean, a picture? What’s that all about?

You’ll just have to believe me. The Fels Naptha bar worked. Another daughter used the stain bar on a white skirt and it came out looking like new. You’ll just have to believe her, too, because she doesn’t generally take pictures of her laundry. Crazy, messed-up kid. If you’re really set on seeing a before and after, check out this blog who did a similar experiment…but whose kids seem a bit tidier than mine. Ahem.

The bar did not take out our old stains that were already set in the drier, the kind that we sort of bonded with and which have become almost a part of the family. As far as I know, the best way to take out ancient stains is a pair of scissors. Do you have a better method?

I love products that have withstood the test of time, and this is one of them. It’s from 1894. How’s your math? That’s…uhhh…a long time! People use it as a laundry booster, stain remover, and ingredient in homemade laundry detergent, and I just read of people using to wash their dogs, dishes, floors, and furniture. Whoa.

If I were to change something, I would take out the fragrance. I always buy unscented, but that’s just me! Just me. It’s totally fine if that’s not you. It’s just me. Actually, it’s not me–it’s my husband.

Don’t eat it. It’s not English toffee.

Purex gave me this bar to test. The fact that it was free did not affect my opinion. It did, however, affect my household budget slightly. They also gave me a few free coupons for some of you, which will be part of an upcoming mega-giveaway. Sweet!

Category: Simple Home