Goldman Family Principles

My husband and I have been spending some time articulating the values and principles that we feel are most important for our family to live by.  As the parents of two young children, we thought it was a timely conversation; as a non-religious family, we want to solidify our core values and begin to think about how best to impart those to our youngsters.

We started with a list from Donna Skeels Cygan's book The Joy of Financial Security.  After individually narrowing down the checklist to our top 20 values, my husband and I went through them together to develop a common list.  We found that many items on the list could be grouped together, like Public Service with Charity, Volunteering, Giving Back, and Generosity, which made it easier to keep our list at 20 values.  Here's our combined list, in no particular order:

Service
Appreciation of Beauty
Equality
Willingness
Honesty
Curiosity
Serenity
Creativity
Optimism
Open-Mindedness
Humility
Financial Responsibility
Kindness
Patience
Courage
Cooperation
Acceptance
Tolerance
Clarity of Communication
Healthy Living

We then wanted to unpack those values, defining what they each mean for our family and how we can incorporate each one into our lives.  At first I thought that some sort of hierarchy flowchart in Word or PowerPoint would work well, but after playing around a bit, I found Prezi to be the best tool.  You can take a look at my work in progress here.  Then I decided to make a Wordle as a handy and pretty reference sheet for our values (see image above).  I plan to print it in color and hang it somewhere in our house--maybe the upstairs hallway?

First Snow day of the Season

Eating icicles

Journey Toward an Organized Home

"Keeping House" is a term I always thought was quite old-fashioned.  Certainly not something with which I needed to concern myself.  But as I find myself growing into more of an adult in many areas of my life, I find that my expectations for my home are maturing as well.  I don't want miscellany strewn across every flat surface, collections of never-used utensils crowding the kitchen drawers, or colored pencils mixed in with the markers.

It's not as though I qualify for the show Hoarders.  In the six years we've lived in our three-level townhome, we've done multiple closet cleanouts and trips to Goodwill or one of those funny donation boxes on the side of the road.  But I often feel as if I'm playing Whack-a-Mole:  one pile of clutter gets cleaned and two more pop up. I launched a search for help de-cluttering my home and came across Home Storage Solutions 101's 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge, which instantly appealed to my competitive nature.  Fifty-two weeks? Pshaw!  I could probably complete the challenge in 52 days!  Or maybe even less!

And with that, the challenge began.  Week One was certainly a success.  According to the challenge, my focus this week (day) was to be on de-cluttering the kitchen counters and sink.  I didn't take "before" pictures for this one, but will for the coming projects.  The most helpful advice from the challenge website was to broaden my definition of "clutter," specifically to remove all appliances, etc. from the counters that aren't used at least on a weekly basis.  That suggestion helped me justify moving the food processor to our shelving unit.  I also pulled out all duplicate and never/rarely-used utensils and appliances and put them all in a box to freecycle.  These two simple moves created enough space on the counters for the cutting boards to lay directly under the knives (why hadn't I thought of that before?!) and for a few "pretty" touches that make me feel so peaceful and happy whenever I walk into the kitchen now.  I used a china pot for our basil and some porcelain wedding gift bowls to hold our fruit, garlic, and onions.

The other finishing touch that I love is the hook and dishrag hanging next to the sink.  We don't have a dishrack, so drying pots and pans are often all over the counter.  Now, I just lay the dishtowel on the counter while I wash, dry the dishes immediately, and put them away.  It's such a simple change, but it keeps the kitchen clutter-free.

German Christmas in South Riding: Part 1

Now five months in to our first year with an au pair from Bavaria, our family is practicing some popular German traditions.  For the first Advent Sunday, we invited friends over for sweets, coffee, and hot chocolate.  Hannah, our au pair, shared some German cookies sent from home, which paired nicely with the Candied Pecans shared with me by another fledgling blogger.  Chocolate-covered pretzels and wedges of a Toblerone bar rounded out the spread. After lighting one of the four candles symbolic of the four Sundays of Advent, we spent a few hours of our Sunday afternoon visiting with our back-alley neighbors the O'Neills while their son and our daughter ran around the kitchen with boxes on their heads.