Day 8: Toys and Board Games!

Surprise! A post about the 30-Day Power Purge! YAY!! You thought I'd finally given up, didn't you? Not me! I'm back again to show you that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." (Book of Mormon, Alma 37:6)

Lesson learned: Taking little baby steps moves you forward, no matter how slow of a pace you take, and no matter how many times you fall down. "Just take two steps forward and one step back, and you'll go a long, long way." (see the music values series for children: "Standin' Tall by Janeen Brady") But enough philosophizing. . . 

I know your next question: "Why is there a picture of the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" at the beginning of this blog post? Answer: Read on to find out!! Isn't that fun? A mystery! hee hee.

I will be honest about this - I have been avoiding the Power Purge: Day 8 Challenge like the plague! And yet at the same time, I was really excited about the day that I would finally have the COURAGE to tackle it! Now, luckily for me, I didn't have to worry about TOYS, because at my house, well, we really just don't have a lot of toys left. Since my kids range in age from 8 to 20, we don't have a toy room anymore, just a little basket of preschool-type toys for kids who visit, plus a few miscellaneous toys in the rooms of my two youngest. 

So - my focus has been, and still is, THE GAMES. "May the odds be always in your favor!" (random thought, sorry!) So anyway, this "week" is the "day" to re-organize the board games! I say "week" instead of "day" because, you see, after 20 years of buying, gathering, playing, organizing, storing, putting away, scattering, destroying, fixing, re-organizing, and playing some more, our board games have gotten a little rough around the edges! But I knew we needed to organize them again - we've needed to ever since our last move. We've made a few attempts at getting them organized again, but never back into good shape in a place that really makes sense. 

Now in my defense, here's what happened: Years ago, I got all the board games really well organized with these little containers according to the system taught in Christy Youd's "Organize Your Home in 10 Minutes A Day" (see "Board Game Organization System" below), but then the when we moved to California in 2008, the games cabinet they were all stored in literally fell apart! Yeah. Really. (It was one of those cheap fiber-board cabinets that looks really great on display at the store, but cracks if you slide it wrong across the floor - you know the type.) 

Anyway, when we moved back to Utah in 2009 (yeah, I know it was only one year, that is a long story for another day), I put all the game containers in a closet in the basement that I thought would be relatively convenient, but apparently it wasn't, because the games rarely got used, except just enough to get taken out a couple dozen times and completely mixed up. And due to a multitude of health issues over the next several years (another long story for another day), I just never had the energy to even walk down the stairs, much less think about re-organizing the games. SO - that's my excuse. 

Enough about the excuse! On to victory!!

Content Filtering Using Your Wireless Router

This is such great information. I found out that just using the wireless router that I already have installed in my home, I can login to the settings and block certain categories to keep my kids safe from pornography and other harmful stuff! And it works not just on one computer, but all ALL the devices in your home that use the wireless internet through that router. devices! 


It's a little techie to set up, but not too bad. The hardest part is figuring out how to login to your router. I learned how to do mine from my brother-in-law, you basically enter the "URL" of your router into your address bar, then put in your password and open it up.

Once you get into your router settings, everything else is pretty easy to figure out. If you don't get it right away, do a little googling to figure it out, or send me a note and I'll see if I can help you. 

It's SO worth it to find this out - you can actually see every website opened by anyone using your wireless router, in real time. So you can make sure no one is browsing in the middle of the night, or see if your teen is really doing their chores or watching Netflix on their phone, hee hee (not that any of my kids would ever do that of course. . . .) 

Now remember, my jumbled friends, that with authority and power comes responsibility. As parents we need to balance our desire to keep our children safe with our respect for them as individuals, and trust as much as we can, only checking up when they give us reason to not trust them. And let them know you are doing it. That's my philosophy - be open with the kids about why you are restricting certain things and then LISTEN to their feedback. Depending on the age and maturity level of your child, there may be some things that you would automatically restrict without realizing that they are actually quite enjoyable for your child and not harmful like you assumed. So - LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN!

Here's some great counsel on the subject:

"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. . . . No power or influence can or ought to be maintained . . . only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile— Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death." 
~ (Doctrine and Covenants 121:39-44)

It Runs in the Family. . .

Conversation between my 19yo daughter and I at midnight . . .

ugh! you're still awake too! tsk tsk!

hee hee....I was just trying to post this "Little Shop of Horrors" story I'd written awhile ago onto FB....

but I had to quickly edit/add some errors....

it took longer than I thought....

Yeah, I was doing the same thing. . . on jumbled sunshine

haha! It runs in the family!

There's your post for later.

Huh?? It's my post for right now. . .
OH. . . I get it. . . this needs to be on Jumbled Sunshine!

I don't think this needs too much more explanation. :D



To check out my daughter Jessica's current blog, visit: healthyhabitsjourneyofalifetime.blogspot.com

[Update 10/29/14 - Visit Jessica's newest role-playing site (still in progress) here: http://roleplaycafe.blogspot.com/]

The Joy of Finding Yourself

Source: upwardgaze.tumblr.com via Erika on Pinterest

And sometimes it hits you out of nowhere,

That you love being Jumbled Sunshine!

And you're so glad you didn't succeed,

At changing yourself into someone else,

Despite many years of trying.

Follow Jumbled Sunshine on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/jumbledsunshine

Day 10: Family Entertainment

Okay, for Power Purge Day 10, the challenge was to take care of the DVD's, videos, CD's and computer games in your home and get them organized. I did a little bit on this, but not too much, because this is an area that was in pretty good shape already (yay!) Over the years, our family has used various systems for organizing our family entertainment paraphernalia - some with more success than others, lol - so here's a quick overview of a couple of the things we've tried - plus what is working for us right now.

Luckily for me, the videos have been done several times over the past couple of years, because one of my daughters got really motivated one weekend and labeled everything. So - she arranged them with typed labels right on the side of the videos so we didn't need to mess with cases (more on that later) - so the videos were all ready pretty much done. Yay!

Christianna's  Labeling system - no cases to worry about! So nice for little ones. 

But here's the funny part: We don't have a working VCR in our house. hahahaha! Yes, it's true! So we have all these neatly organized videos and no way to watch them! Because of this, I have decluttered quite a few more, especially because with Netflix and YouTube and Dish Network, we don't have much need for videos anymore, so I tend to just keep our very most favorites. Each time we re-organize, I get rid of more and more of them. All the preschool types have been given to my niece who lives nearby, and many others have been sent to the local donation place.

I know your next question - if I don't have a working VCR, why am I keeping any videos at all? I guess I just can't quite let them go - too many memories of my family when everyone was little. :) And honestly, I am planning to get a VCR just for watching these few precious videos - I thought we could probably find a decent one on Ebay or something - do they even sell VCR's in the stores anymore? I guess they probably do, but I assume it's not super common, because I never see them anymore. Just another thing to add to the to-do list. :P

Enough about videos. On to the DVD's, CD's, and computer games! This task was mostly part of our Day 11: Office challenge as well, since we had a lot of the computer & audio CD's stored in there and we decluttered them when we were moving things out for my nephew to use that room.

I have a bunch of different organizing systems for discs, so here's how I handled it - I put all the computer games in a CD organizer that I purchased a few years ago, it's a pretty neat idea by "Discgear" - here's a link & picture:

Discgear 3700-09M Selector 100 - Silver
This is a pretty awesome little organizer, you will have to check it out. You can even keep an inventory of all your CD's/DVD's on the internet with their program. However, I decided not to do that. Why?

Consistency May Not Be the Rule - But it Does Have a Place

Okay, so up until now I've mostly written about my tendency to jump from one project or idea to another, but I haven't given many details about the things that I'm either naturally consistent on, or that I've learned to be consistent on because they are so important.

Especially with a mind that loves to think of new things and maybe has trouble focusing for long on one thing, I've found it's so important to create little rules, routines & schedules for myself, even if I don't follow them perfectly. Because of my hard efforts over several decades, there are a handful of things that I have become very consistent on that I believe are the foundation from which my family and I can thrive. This is despite the undisciplined periods in between!

• Family Scripture Study - Early morning before school and each evening before bed
• Family Prayer - Morning and night
• Christmas Traditions - I could go on and on about these, but I'll do that next winter. :)
• Family Meal Time - We try to eat dinner together at least half the time, even with crazy schedules
• Be at the Crossroads - This to me means being there when the kids are leaving and coming each day, so I am there to greet them and send them off. (See "To the Mothers in Zion" by Ezra Taft Benson)
• Supporting Clubs and Organizations - like Cub Scouts - these types of organizations help us in the challenging job of raising our families and teaching them how to be good citizens.

These are just a couple of ideas that I've listed - there are hundreds of little things that could be mentioned that are valuable for keeping a family on track. What are some of the traditions and routines your family follows to make sure you keep your life manageable?

Jumbled Sunshine to the Rescue!

Thanks to Jessica for becoming my personal artist! This is just what this blog needed. . . yay! 

My personality captured brilliantly by Jessica Ward. :)

Day 17: Shoes!

Okay so I know I haven't written for a few days - but here's the important part - I did another decluttering challenge! Yep, that's right. I did it on. . . Thursday I think? Wow I feel so ridiculous admitting to my inconsistency. But hey, if no one ever admits to it, we'll all feel like we're alone, right? So guess what - YOU ARE NOT ALONE! No one is perfect, we are all just doing our best and we have successes and failures - that's OKAY.

So here's the challenge I did - my shoes! Here's my picture just to prove what I did:

GORGEOUS! Right?? hahaha! Yes! And *all* the other shoes have been sent to D.I. (or they are lost under a bed somewhere. . . ) But truly, every shoe that was tossed on the floor in this closet was either decluttered into a donation box, or lined up neatly on this lovely little shoe shelf thingie that my most awesome hubby Lonny made for me a couple years ago. Nice.

And it was really fun because I got a bonus out of it! I'll give you a clue - it's in the picture!!

Read on to find out what it was. . .

Great Quote: "Setbacks Happen"

"Setbacks happen. But you've got to stay positive and learn to roll in another direction. Understand that success is never a straight curve going up a graph. It's got plenty of dips in it. True success is not measured by how well you stay on task, but by how you act when you get off task and how quickly you can pull yourself back." ~Hannah Keeley

Day 11: Home Office (Part 2)

Okay, so today I DID do something on my decluttering challenge! See, I *can* be dependable and consistent! Thought you had me there, didn't ya? Not a chance! Ah-hahahahaha. . . (don't know how to write it, so imagine a wicked cackling sound there, lol . . . )

Here's what I did: I went through all the challenges that I haven't done over the past 10 days or so and organized my to-do's for each challenge day so far onto my Kanban Flow chart. If you are interested in being invited to this board so you can use my check-off lists, send me your email address here: jumbledsunshine@gmail.com and I will be happy to add you. You just have to promise to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS in the left column before you copy any of the challenges to your own color/name. (This will all make sense after you join and read the instructions!)

Anyway, the reason I did this was because I'm a visual person and I need a way to check off what I've done and keep track of what I haven't done. I found Kanban Flow several weeks ago when I was on my quest to find the best time management software. I really like it for something like this - a major project that has a lot of different parts) - it's been very handy! Oh and did I mention the best part about Kanban Flow? It is combined with the Pomodoro method! So you have a timer that you connect to each task as you are doing it. So awesome!

Day 23. . . er. . . Day 11. . . er. . .

So I had to laugh when I opened up the Day 13 Challenge and read this:

"Here we go...We're almost halfway through the 30-DAY POWER PURGE and this is crunch time. This is the time that most people say, 'Aw, forget it. I'm tired and way too far behind.' Well, I'm telling you to silence those voices! You CAN do this. Don't look at what you haven't done. Look at what you are going to do. Set your sights on these next couple of weeks and let's make it happen!"

Hahahahahaha. . . why am I laughing? Because it's very tempting to think that way, and I have heard some of those exact words in my mind several times the last few weeks. And so, I finally decide to be re-committed and I open up the challenge to see where I'm at and what I need to do next. Then what do I read? A reminder to not give up!! Not only that, but that woman actually PREDICTED what I was thinking! Ha! How do you think she did that? Hmmm, probably because I am NOT alone - lots of people are in the same boat! So - that's just one big giant reason to not get discouraged.

Not to mention, I have already determined that this time I am seriously going to finish no matter what, even if it takes me months to do this, because after all, the point is to get through all 30 challenges and make a difference in my home. Of course, I would prefer that I had actually stayed on target and done them every day in order. . . but I didn't, so, that's not an option. Can't look backwards, only forwards!

So here's where I'm at: I basically did NONE of the challenges last week, so they are on like Day 23 and I am still trying to finish up Day 11: Office. Yeah. Really. So. . . how many of you give up when you get to this point? Huh? Yeah, that's what I thought. Been there, done that.

And you know what? Sometimes it's fine to give up. Why? Because sometimes the goal you made just isn't important anymore. Life changes, goals change. That's okay. And you shouldn't beat yourself up about it. As long as you make a conscious choice that you feel good about, you can (and should) let it go.