Welcome to Classy Family!

Welcome to the Classy Family website. It is an honor to have you stop by and visit. We would like to bring to you articles, tips, and encouragement in every aspect of your life. Whether you are married or single, with or without children, live in the city or the country, no matter who you are, we want to inspire you to live Classy.

The Classy Family is brought to you from a real person, Roxanne G. with 30+ years of classy experience. As a child I was raised in a very classy home. My parents has always set the example of being classy, all the way from love and honor to work ethics and homemaking.

Surviving the First Year of Marriage

The wedding was just beautiful and the honeymoon was awesome. The two newly weds are excited to rush home and get started with their new lives and  building the perfect little family, picket fence and all.
Everything is new and fresh with a new start.
The first few weeks is remarkable. Even going to the grocery store to stock the sweet little kitchen is a moment to treasure. As the two love birds are pushing the buggy through the grocery store they carefully select only the best of products for the new home. Using some of the wedding money they are excited to visit the housewares department to select the perfect towels and shower curtain. Life just couldn't be better. Or Not.
Making it through the first year of marriage can be difficult and challenging even for couples deeply in love. Once the honeymoon is over and everyday life sets in things get back to normal. The difficulty is, normal for one spouse may not be so normal for the other. Your do no wrong tall dark and handsome begins to kick his socks and shoes off in the middle of the living room floor for his sweet little darling to pick up later. His beautiful princess begins to leave her curling irons and hair spray all over the bathroom counter. At first these little thorns are kinda cute and we gladly do our duty and ignore them. We then realize this is going to happen EVERYDAY for the rest of our lives. The cuteness soon fades away...
With all of the new dishes and cookbooks from the wedding shower your Mrs decides to cook the perfect meal carefully following the recipes in the book. The dining room table is meticulously set with each plate, fork, spoon, knife and napkin in it's proper place. All of the food is on the stove waiting to be placed in it's carefully selected serving bowls. Time goes by and the Mr. hasn't made it in yet. No problem he's only fifteen minutes late, so the sweet Mrs anxiously looks out the window at every sound. Hoping for the love of her life to get home. An hour later she's looking at the meal thinking it will surely be cold and unfit to eat. Finally the phone rings and it's her Mr letting her know he will be running by a friends house to see his new stereo. A couple of hours later her man finally makes it home. She places the shriveled green beans and dried out potato's and cold steak on the table. Not a word is spoken at dinner and you could even hear a pin drop. Oh no something is wrong, but nothing is said about the lateness or the food.
Unfortunately this starts to happen three or five times a week and finally the straw breaks the camels back and the Mrs is sick of it. BOOM the fight starts. Not only do they fight about the lateness but the socks and shoes, the curling irons and hair spray, and every other thing that is ridiculously wrong.

After the first major big fight the newly weds feel just awful. So they decide to make up. That is the best part about fighting is the making up right? So after many apologies, hugs and kisses the air is clean between them, each vowing to change their wrong doings.
Once again life is blissfully wonderful for the honeymooners, or so they thought. After several weeks the bills starts to pile in. It seems like everyday for about two weeks a new bill would come in and you think will they ever stop.
The inexperienced couple throws them all in the desk drawer to look at them in a few days. After a couple of weeks go by they start getting more bills but this time in the form of late notices and disconnects. Finally they figure out it's time to pay some bills. So they faithfully open the check book and start writing out bills. Unfortunately the balance isn't accurate due to debit card transactions that were not recorded and a couple of overdraft items are returned. Another fight breaks out as to whose fault it was that all of this happened. The "IF YOU's" begin. Finally they work through it buying very little until all the checks are cleared and fee's are paid. When money is tight, tensions are high. It seems both parties are a walking time bomb, but they manage to just work around it and vow to do better next time.
Several months pass by with fights happening off and on over any and everything. Eventually the thriving couple starts to see a pattern and begins to make adjustments in their actions as well as their way of thinking. Some things just aren't worth the fight and some things are just too important to ignore. Eventually they come to a consensus and a compromise.
When building a classy family from the foundation up the new family will have to work through their differences and compromise. It's best not to sweat the little stuff and to overlook little faults, because we all have them. The newly wed couples must realize it's OK to have arguments as long as it resolves the issue in a constructive manner. It's never OK to name call or physically fight.
In my home I have always taught my children that a person has to give 100% to the marriage, not 50/50. If each person gives a full 100% then EVERYTHING will work out to the best.

Classy Family Pet

 The Classy Family Pet

Our Classy family has owned many pets through the years.
Some I love to remember and some I would just as soon forget. Our top family pet has always been mans best friend the infamous dog. They are just sooo cute when they are puppies. Every time you see one you just want to huggie and snuggie them. When we finally pick out the perfect little addition to the family we always make a run to the local Wal-mart or pet store and flood our little baby with gifts. The perfect collar and leash (they gotta match too), the perfect puppy food, and the perfect little bed and crate.

   Our little furry friends are just so adorable and cute. There is nothing they can do that will hardly upset us.
We take them to the vet for a well baby visit and for shots and worming. We look around the waiting room to see if everyone is adoring our pooch. I have found that most people who take their pets to the vet usually adores EVERYBODY'S pets. So the ahhhs how cute.....go up. Then we look around and ohhh their pets.

After the new starts wearing off and our poochy get's bigger, he starts getting into mischief. We notice our shoes are getting chewed, and paper get's chewed, and everything starts to get chewed. I think that is where the phrase "my dog ate my homework" came from. They get so bold and daring we wonder if they wouldn't try to high jack the family car or something.

So we try to work through the problems and think, well maybe he's not getting enough exercise or maybe we should take them with us when we go places. We grab the leash, get into the car and head to the park. Nothing like a nice little afternoon out at the park.
I don't know what it is about the outdoors and dogs but they always need a bath when they've been outside. The first bath can be very challenging but hopefully by this time they are used to it by now.
 

      

Along with keeping our pet's clean we've always tried to keep our house fresh and clean as well. If we are not careful our carpets will smell like a dog kennel and our furniture will have stains. I have recently discovered The Fuller Brush products and had I known about them years sooner I could have saved myself a lot of hard work. The Fuller Brush products specializes in tough odors and stains. 

No matter what kind of pet you own you should always keep a classy home and a classy pet. 

No Housework Day April 7th

No Housework Day



When : Always April 7th

No Housework Day is your chance to do anything, except housework. Better still, have someone else do the chores for a day. Housework is a daily, seemingly endless and repetitive groups of tasks. It often goes unrecognized and worst of all..... taken for granted. But, watch out! If the dishes aren't done, or there's no clean towels, somebody takes note.


There's two ways to celebrate this day:

If you normally do the housework around the house, cease and desist for this day. Instead, kick back and enjoy the day. Relax and do anything, except housework.

If you are a spouse or significant other, do the housework for your mate. It gives her (or him) a break from the housework. And, you just might get an appreciation of how much work it takes to keep up the house.


Origin of No Housework Day:

Our research did not uncover a particular person who started this day, or when it was first celebrated.

We're pretty sure it originated by someone who was a wee bit tired of doing the daily chores, and just needed a day off. Most likely, they threw up their hands and said something like "That's it! I'm taking a day off from all of this work".

Whoever the genius was who first created this day, we salute you!

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Classy Attitude

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.
 "I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
"Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room .... just wait."
 "That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged...it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.  It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away ... just for this time in my life."
Old age is like a bank account ... you withdraw from it what you've put in.
So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in your bank account of memories. Thank you Nana for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing. Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

I found this article on my team newsletter.

Classy Home Office

At my house I have a spare bedroom that is now my home office. Once you have located where you want to put your office, you will need to acquire the furniture and equipment you will need. This will depend on what kind of work will be done in the office, how many hours a day will be spent there, and how much you want to spend to get it set up.

For starters, I would recommend using what you already have or purchase things inexpensively priced. As you grow your business and start earning an income you can always upgrade later. Most offices will have a desk, calculator, filing cabinet, desk chair, printer/copier, telephone, and all the little extra's like paper clips, stapler, pens, pencils, dividers, file folders etc.

After you have set up your home office, you may have to make adjustments as you find better working methods. The important thing is for you to feel comfortable. Just remember when setting up your office not to spend too much time making it perfect. Decorating and arranging your office doesn't bring in the customers or make any sales for you. You won't want to take too much time away from actually working your business.

Handling Difficult Situations with Class

As a little girl raised just outside of Houston I was adapted to city living. City living has it's benefits but it also has it's problems. All through my school days we had to ride the school bus. Now, things haven't changed much since I rode the school bus. Unfortunately there were, still is, and always will be those bullies, and mean kids that  has to be dealt with on a daily basis. As hard as it was, I was taught to just ignore the name calling and bullying. For children that can be hard to do sometimes, but if they ever master the concept it will be their best friend throughout their whole life. We were taught the reason those bullies would keep picking on us was because we got angry. That is what they were trying to do and so they would keep it up. When we would simply ignore them, they would get no satisfaction and would move on to the next poor kid. That was a CLASSY way to handle the bullies, and it worked every time.

The art of ignoring bullies as a child has been beneficial to me since I've become an adult. Believe it or not there are adults who have never stopped bullying. You will find them on the job, in the department stores, at the beach, at the ball games, at school events, in restaurants, in airports, in doctors offices, anywhere there are people and crowds you will find a bully.

To sum it up, my tip for anyone who wants to live a classy lifestyle is to lift your head up and just ignore people who are intentionally trying to get under your skin. You can walk away from an undesirable situation knowing you had the control over your own emotions by simply ignoring.

Classy Kitchen 101

For most women (and some men) the favorite room in the house is HER kitchen. The fastest way to get in trouble is to step out of line in her kitchen. The classy cook in the house will keep a well stocked pantry, a sparkling shiny sink, and a well rounded refrigerator. 

Dream on…. Now let’s come back to the reality of everyday living.

I’m not sure if it’s fate or destiny but 99% of the time after I’ve cleaned the kitchen and swept and mopped the floor, someone comes through and spills a glass of milk or tea. The old saying "don’t cry over spilt milk" comes to mind. Many times you might just feel like crying over that spilled milk.

A good way to keep a well stocked pantry and a well rounded refrigerator is to check the sale papers weekly at your local grocery stores. Basically you stock up on the foods you eat while they are on sale. This past week our local store had Top Sirloin Steak on sale and I purchased 4 or 5 packages. This week they had pot roast and pork chops, again I stocked up. So now I have about 2 weeks’ worth of meat. Another great item to stay stocked up on is can veggies. Watch your store sales and purchase them when they are on sale for a good price. Their shelf life makes them a smart item to stock up on.

Now to keep a fresh, clean kitchen and sparkly sink I follow moms’ favorite advice… “It’s easier to clean a little mess than a big one”.  To get a sparkly shiny sink, I scrub it with Clorox powder. Not only does it shine my sink but it also kills any germs and bacteria.

Many times, especially with larger families, it is a real challenge to stay stocked up and keep the kitchen sparkly. The Classy Family will do the best they can, with the time they have, with what they have. In my own classy family, I’ve learned not to stress over every little thing. Life is more than keeping a perfect house. We just prioritize and do the best we can.