Author: Deby Ciui (Chewy)

I am a wife and a mother to 2 beautiful girls. I want to share my experiences with anyone willing to listen...
Conquer Household Chaos with Micro Lists
Life

Conquer Household Chaos with Micro Lists

Deby Ciui (Chewy)Leave a comment

I was thinking today about everything that I needed to do, and was debating making a list of it all. After all there’s a lot to get done. We’re behind on laundry and no matter how much we clean, little 5 and 7 year old feet track in more and more mess immediately after; seriously I have leaves on my kitchen floor that I have no idea where they came from. Life is hectic and chaotic. But every time I have made a to-do list in the past, it never seemed to work. In fact I would find myself more stressed and overwhelmed. Even if I would check off one of the items at the top of the list the sheer amount remaining on the list would be daunting and have me feel like I would never get it all done anyways, so why bother? I don’t know, maybe it’s just my brain that works that way. If I were to write down everything that needs to get done right now, I would fill up a page or two, front and back. I don’t know about you, but that’s the reality at our house. We both work full time and we both have our own lists of things that need to get done. Throw in kids, pets, and homeschooling and it just keeps piling on.

Today an idea popped in my head to make a micro list. Companies, when working on big projects, will actually break it down into smaller, attainable(key word here), goals. This way you have something smaller to focus on, once you finish the smaller goals you move on to the next one, next thing you know you are done and the project is finished. Why shouldn’t we use this same concept in our own lives? Being parents and maintaining your house is hard enough. Being parents and maintaining your house while you both work full time and one of you is in school while the other homeschools the kids? That feels impossible. So why shouldn’t we use the same ideas that big companies use regularly to accomplish their own goals? Instead of letting everything pile up until the weekend, your only 2 days off, why not break it up into smaller, micro goals? Imagine getting to a point where you reach the weekend and actually get to enjoy it instead of catching up on everything you’ve fallen behind on? I don’t know about you but I’m really looking forward to being able to do that one day.

If this sounds like your life then I challenge you to start your own micro lists with me today. I’m starting with 3 things on the list.

  • Finish all of the adults’ laundry (kids’ laundry will be a different day)
  • Wipe down all of the counter tops and put dishes away
  • Sweep kitchen/dining floor

Three items that I believe I can attain after work, before the end of the day. I don’t know about you but looking at a small list like this actually makes me feel hopeful, like I can get this done. I know there’s more that needs to be done in the background, decluttering, organizing, you name it. But for today, lets focus on our micro list and see how we feel about it afterwards.

Back from Hiatus
Christian Momma · Life

Back from Hiatus

Deby Ciui (Chewy)1 Comment

I’m going to be perfectly honest. I completely forgot about the existence of this blog… I’ve still been paying for it, but totally forgot about it. Until today.

While spending time praying with my sisters, a regular phone occurrence that my mom started when she was still alive, during that prayer God reminded me of the existence of this blog and I wondered if I could give it new life (again).

Why did I forget you may ask? Well, because life got in the way. It has been almost 1.5 years since my last post. Since then so much has happened, among which: I have graduated with my bachelors degree, my husband got a new job and went back to school, and I am working on getting started with my 3rd year of homeschooling my two girls. Did I mention I still work full time? I have so much to do, and only 24 hours in the day to do it and I need divine help to get me through it all.

If you’re a tired, overwhelmed, and overstimulated mom trying to figure out how to get things done and finally have a little bit of quiet, stick around. We can share in our struggles together and maybe even learn from each other. It’s a roller coaster of a ride, being a mother, and you might feel like you will never get ahead or that no one sees all that you do. But you’re not alone. None of us are.

image with bible verse on it that says Her children rise up and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praises her: "Many daughters have done well. but you excel them all." Proverbs 31:28-29
Adventure into the World of Books
Life · Quotes

Adventure into the World of Books

Deby Ciui (Chewy)Leave a comment

Perhaps one of my favorite ways to unwind, to detach myself from the chaos of the world, is to escape on an adventure into a new one. I have always been a lover of books. Ever since I first learned how to read I was hooked. I even remember my very first book report that I made (If You Give A Mouse a Cookie) and have purchased the complete set for my own children. I was a regular customer of the school library and one of the very first things I did after getting a drivers license was getting a library card at the nearest public library.

But that only lasted until I got my first job, at which point I traded in public libraries for used bookstores and have been growing my personal collection over the years. I’ll admit, after getting married and having children, the amount of time I spent reading had dwindled. It seemed as if I never had the time to do it. But now the girls are older and I have grown as well and with that personal growth came the realization that with the time I spent getting lost in the black hole known as social media reels, I could instead take that time and put it back into a hobby I had let fall to the wayside. That’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve rekindled that love to adventure into a good book. I’m finding myself trade in my phone for my book more and more and that’s honestly how I’d prefer it. Although I’ll admit that now, when I do end up going on social media, I find myself inundated with bookstagrammers posts and have a wish-list that is forever growing longer.

Strangely enough though, what I have found to love the most is that I can now enjoy reading with my husband. We may not read all of the same books, after all we definitely have different interests but we do have some overlapping categories. When I was younger, having a husband who enjoyed reading was not something I really thought about. Sure I loved to read but I didn’t mind if he did not, honestly I hadn’t even considered the alternative. But now we have been reading the Wheel of Time series together (you’ve likely seen them featured in pictures on other posts) and to be honest it feels great to have something we can do together and enjoy. If I think about it, I probably have to give him the credit for getting me back into reading in the first place.

What a blessing it is to love books.

Elizabeth von Arnim