January Goal Review – February Goals

So apparently I need to ease myself back into this whole public monthly goal setting thing. Because, well, I did not do so great this month. I blame Pretty Little Liars. I got hooked. So hooked. As in, I watched every single episode in less than three weeks. I’m now finally caught up so life can resume as normal. Also, you are all now free to post spoilers without ruining my life. (Immalookingat YOU!)

In my defense, however, for every goal on this list I did not complete, I did get some other things around the house done that I had not intended... I (finally) unpacked the remaining boxes from the basement, got out more every day decor and reorganized our bathroom cupboards. So that counts, right?! RIGHT!?

Put away and ORGANIZE Christmas – done and dusted. Everything was purged, reorganized and put away during the first week of January. I win.

Select photo book photos: I rocked this one as well. Along with picking all the photos, I got them uploaded to Shutterfly as well. That there is half the battle. I find the actual making of the book to be super quick and easy. So much so that I finished uploading my pics yesterday, started the book last night and am already up to Gwen’s birth.

Blog about our holidays, Gwen’s 6 month update and two house before/afters: Here’s where things got dicey. I didn’t blog about the holidays. I decided to forego it and just include my blurbs in the photo book. I did get Gwen’s 6monther done and posted one home reno post (our entryway). I failed at getting a second one posted. I was going to post about the $5 and 5 minute bathroom reorganization but, well, who wants to see pics of lady products and my toothbrush?

Organize and purge toys:  I can only say this was half accomplished. I did get rid of a lot. And I started organization. The girls got organizational stuff for Christmas. This is what I have set up so far …

Evan’s working on the playroom so that will be a big job this month.

Deliver donation pile to Goodwill: Fail. Triple fail fail. There are 2 garbage bags and one large box sitting on the pool table downstairs waiting to go. That darn pool table!

So … on to this month:

1. Reorganize pantry/food cupboards. Seeing as we’ve lived in our home less than 6 months, this really shouldn’t need to be done but seriously, I cannot believe how quickly these areas get overrun! Plus, now that I’m in my groove in my new home and I have a second little person who is eating and has food to be stored, I can better decide where things should go.

2. Clean Fridge. All I will say is yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

3. Finish 2012 Family Photobook. Really, as I said before, the biggest task is done. The pictures are selected, organized and uploaded. I started actually assembling the book last night and completed up until June 2012. This should definitely be attainable. What’s best is that my motivation is that I will get to eat Chipotle when it’s done and ordered and I go pick it up.

4. Set up playroom. Throughout January Ev has been hard at work. He’s replaced the floor and has been building permanent shelving and storage. If you follow me on IG you will have probably seen some of the progress. Soon he’ll be done his portion and it will be my turn to take the reins. Here is where the super crazy toy organization will happen. I also have some ideas for wall art, craft storage and a small office space.

5. Blog House Tour. The truth is, I’ve sucked at before/after photos. Mostly, because there are no afters yet. Everything is still a work in progress. So, I’m planning to showcasing our house in a Before and NOW series. Showing you what it was and how far it’s come – despite the remaining imperfections and lack of final products.

6. Decorate sofa table. In our apartment, I had a nice sofa table set up in the kitchen that housed my cookbooks, decorative platters and recipe box. Now, it’s in the living room and is sitting fairly empty. I have many ideas in my head. As always. So we shall see how it goes.

That sounds like enough for now. Stay tuned. And cross your fingers I don’t get sucked into any new shows.

this month, i will (or at least, i will try to)…

Hi again. It’s me. I’m back. From a big long vacation*. In total, we were gone for 11 nights over the holidays. It was a break from reality and although it was filled with much sickness and little sleep and although we were all quite ready to be in the comforts of our own home, it was nice. Really nice. More on that later, of course.

We’ve entered a new year. 2013. And, for me,  a new year always comes with a sense of hope, motivation, planning and goals. Surprisingly, I’m not much of a resolutioner. I don’t like them. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I feel like they are too broad. Too big. Too scary. I’m not one to say “I wan to be healthier this year” or “I want to be a better wife and mom” or “I want to learn a new skill”. I mean, all of those things are fabulous and great things to aim for – but they just don’t do it for me. I am, however, a very goal oriented person. I set goals. I write lists. I cross things off lists. I evaluate my accomplishments. I guess I just do it on a much smaller scale than the whole new year’s resolution thing brings to mind.

With all of this being said, I’ve decided – instead of writing about resolutions – to resurrect something I used to do here on this blog all the time. My monthly goals. I used to sit down at the beginning of each month and write out a list of things I hoped to accomplish that month and then at the end of the month I’d sit down again and evaluate how far I got. It helped keep me motivated and on track. And it was also eye opening and helped me learn how much I could push myself. How much was too much. How much was not enough. So, I think I’ll give it a go once again.

So, this month I will:

Put away and ORGANIZE Christmas: at this point about 80% of my Christmas decor is taken down. The tree came down on Christmas day before we left. Hello, I’m not crazy enough to leave for 11 days with a real live Christmas tree in my house. I’ll be cleaning up pine needles for fifty five months as it is. Since we got home yesterday morning, I’ve gradually gathered up most of the rest of the decor. The problem is, it’s all sprawled out across the pool table downstairs. The full, unfinished basement is both my best friend and my worst enemy. It’s awesome that I don’t have to be sitting on top of all the disorganization but it’s also dangerous. Don’t want to deal with this today? BASEMENT. Don’t want to sort through this pile of toys? BASEMENT. Don’t want to put my decorations away? BASEMENT. You get the idea. So, I will get my decorations not only taken down, but organized and put back into place on the shelves downstairs. Last year when I packed them up I was pregnant and nauseous and exhausted. I knew I would be in a new home the next time I saw them and did not do a stellar job organizing it all at that point. So, this time? I am going through it all and purging stuff I no longer want.

Select photo book photos: I recently finished Gwen’s birth book and so next on the agenda is a 2012 family book. I was hoping to get a good chunk of this done while we were away and I didn’t have housework looming over my head but that didn’t happen. My laptop bit the dust for good at the end of December and so all of my photos were stuck at home on my external HD rather than on my laptop. I was totally kicking myself for not having an online storage backup! So, this month I will at least get the photos selected and organized.

Blog about our holidays, Gwen’s 6 month update and two house before/afters: I know writing about our holidays could very easily get skipped over since the festivities from the days leading up to Christmas already seem a lifetime away but this here blog is a scrapbook of our life for my kids to see someday so I do want to go back and write about it. Even if it bores you all to death. Also, my Gwennie turned six months a few days ago (!!!!). Don’t think I forgot. I’ve just got to snap some pics and then her update will be ready to go. I’ve also got so many houses pictures to share. So, two posts devoted to house before/afters is on the list for this month.

Organize and purge toys:  I’ve already picked through and started a pile (downstairs, on the pool table, are we surprised?) of things to donate. My aim is for every toy in, one goes out. So, after the Christmas we just had? I guess that means approximately 895438599804358 toys are going out.

Deliver donation pile to Goodwill: There is another pile on the pool table (I’m telling you, it’s a bad situation) of random things that I’ve tossed down here and there to be donated. So, by the time I have the toys sorted through, I will have a good chunk of stuff to send to Goodwill. The goal here is to actually deliver it. Instead of just making a bigger pile. Sidenote: Remember how I made about 456 trips to Goodwill in the months leading up to our move? And donated something like 16 garbage bags and 11 boxes? HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THERE IS MORE STUFF TO GET RID OF?

I have a few more ideas of things I’d like to add to the list as goals, but let’s face it, we’re already one week in to the month and I’m not about to get too crazy here. I think that this is enough to deal with as it is and I don’t want to have to hang my head in complete shame at the end of the month when I come back to report.

What’s on your ‘to-do’ list this month?

*Does the word vacation even exist when you have small children in tow?

Messy Mom Monday

Today I’m linking up with Brittany and Jess for Messy Mom Monday. They had the genius idea of doing a link up where we can all show off just what our houses really look like on a Monday morning. Because here’s the truth. Kids are messy. They make houses messy. And as moms, sometimes we forget that every other mom is in the same boat.

So here’s we go. I’m coming clean. Or, um, messy.

First up, we’ve got the blankets that are constantly strewn from the blanket box in an effort to make a bed for the babies. If you look closely, you may see one baby sleeping on the blankets. If I had of timed the picture better, you may have even been able to see a busy toddler having a rest in the blanket box, itself. Next, the kitchen counter. Oh, the counter. At any given time there are clean dishes waiting to be put away, piles of recyclables waiting to get carried to the garage and possibly dirty dishes waiting to be washed. Our dishwasher is broken right now, so the dirty dishes appear more regularly than often. And then, the “toy room”. Which should be more accurately described as the “toy corner”, which is located in the dining room. You might look at the photo and think it doesn’t look so bad but let me assure you, this is CLEAN. I took this photo at 8:30 a.m., before she had time to totally destroy everything. By 8:35 a.m.? Totally different story. And yes, Daddy’s lunch box is in the toy corner. Why? Who knows.

Moving on, we’ve got the Christmas decorations. Uh huh. That’s right. I put all of my Christmas stuff away on December 30th. Except, apparently, these two angels and a sleigh full of potpourri on the back of the toilet. And I didn’t even notice until earlier this week. And yes, they’re still out.

And now. The dresser. Oh my goodness. The dresser. My dresser always used to be clean. And tidy. Without random books, bags, paperwork, lonely socks, pants that need to be hemmed, birthday cards and other random junk haphazardly tossed there, only to be forgotten and ignored for months. But, those days disappeared. Long ago. Right about the time when the spare room/office was transformed into a nursery, to be exact. Because now? There is just no where else to stash this stuff. No where. So there it sits. Forever.

And finally, the piece du resistance: the pantry and fridge top. I have been ‘meaning’ to clean out and organize the pantry for weeks. You know. Good intentions. The good thing about using an iPhone to-do list app is how easy it is to send something on today’s to-do list to tomorrow’s to-do list. The bad thing about using an iPhone to-do list app is how easy it is to send something on today’s to-do list to tomorrow’s to-do list. The worst thing about using an iPhoe to-do list app is how easy it is to delete it all together, sit down on the couch and watch Friday Night Lights. So, basically, what I’m saying is, the next time this pantry gets cleaned out and organized will probably be when I’m packing up to move. As Brittany so kindly pointed out, that’s why pantry’s have doors!

There, there. I know you’re all surprised. You thought I was perfect and my house was immaculate. I’m sorry to burst your bubble. Now go on, link up with your own dirty little secrets!

This Month I Will…

*go on a date with my husband*

*get a babysitter and have someone other than hubby or I put Eva to bed (see above)*

*get out and walk on days that are Spring-ish*

*spend less money*

*sweep more often*

*take my baby swimming at least two more times*

*make E’s lunch for him more often*

*read the book of Ephesians*

*clean out our closets*

I will. I will. I will.

Calling All Christmas Fairies!

This is the part of Christmas that I don’t like.

The cleanup.

Ick. Blech.

I am currently sitting in my house staring at a pile of cardboard from boxes of toys that Evalyn for for Christmas, a billion piles of Christmas decorations waiting to be boxed up and put back into the storage room, a cupboard full of Christmas dishes that need to be swapped for our regular dishes, two piles of gifts that are looking for a home, and floors that are in desperate need of a good vacuum, swiffer and mop.

And yet, here I sit.

Looking at it all.

Wishing that it would clean itself up.

I was (not so) secretly hoping that if I gathered everything into tidy piles, the Dude would get the hint and box everything up and help it all find the way to it’s home. But, much to my chagrin, he got home from work last night feeling as though a truck ran over him, so I clearly could not bring myself to ask him to do it.

And now here we are, nearing the end of Eva’s first nap of the day and none of the piles have been touched.

Granted, I haven’t been entirely lazy this morning. I did make some phone calls, reorganize the baby’s armoire, make my bed, and sip away at a cafe mocha – but I have not even begun to tackle the daunting task of putting away.

I’m calling ALL Christmas Fairies to sweep in and put my house back in order.

An Over-Planner's (Two) Problems

I have a secret to tell you.

I am an extreme over-planner.

I am a Type A, organized, control freakish, over planner.

What? You're surprised?

Every Sunday night I have my week laid out in writing, complete with check boxes indicating each and every thing that I have to do each day. In fact, if the day comes and I end up doing something that was not on the original list, I have been known to add it to the list and check it off, just so that I feel as though I accomplished more in the day.

A few weeks ago, the Dude and I purchased a new laptop and on it we have a sticky note program. Seriously, folks - these sticky notes are my favorite. The pen and paper daily to do lists have been replaced by 5 different colored sticky notes that reside on my desktop each week and tell me just what I have to do each day.

So, what are the two big problems that I, the ultimate over-planner, am having?

Well ... you see, I'm having a kid.

And I am fairly certain that this kid is going to rock my over planned world out of the water.

Because something tells me you can't be an over planner with a newborn baby.

My first problem is that I cannot plan (or over plan for that matter) when my baby will arrive in this world. I have most definitely spoken to him or her a time or two about when the most convenient and inconvenient times would be to make the grand entrance but I know that, in reality, The Monkey could choose to come at any time between now and the end of the month. That is a large window for an over planner.

The second problem I am having is that we are sitting here, 9 days before my due date, and I have absoultely nothing to do.

I have over planned the heck out of this expectant mother thing. The nursery has been done for weeks, the clothes have been washed and put away, the freezer has been stocked, the toes have been pedicured.

And here I sit twiddling my thumbs, poking my ever protruding belly button, and wondering just how to fill my days until The Monkey is born.

Of course, I don't regret having everything done and in order by this point because, goodness gracious, the Monkey could have arrived early and then, gulp, what would have happened if I wasn't 100% ready? Then what would I have done?

Instead here I am, trying my darndest to relax and enjoy the last few days of my pregnancy while wishing in the back of my mind that I had just one more thing left to get in order.

Before Baby Nesting Projects

First things first, I must mention that today is a SPECIAL day. Today, my mumma turns 50!!! Everyone give a great big shout out and a Happy Birthday to the Old Girl! Love you Mumma.

Now that my thesis defense is all done and over with, I have the next 3 months or so to prepare for the arrival of the Bambino. I am going to be working a little bit but I will have quite a lot of downtime. I am hoping to maximize the time off, avoid boredom and keep myself organized and actually doing something, so I have prepared a fairly lengthy list of tasks that I hope to accomplish in our home before the big event. Most of these relate to transforming our space to accommodate the baby. I am planning on keep track of this list on my sidebar so I can cross off each job as it gets finished. I'm sure many of the tasks will be blogged about. Some of the jobs are just for me to do, some are just for the FD, and some will be a joint effort. I'm committed to getting a lot done over the next three months so that when the baby comes I won't feel like there are tons of jobs left unfinished that may never get done.

• Empty and clean/reorganize all drawers in kitchen
• Organize laundry room: including pulling out everything and replacing the floor, clearing off and organizing shelves, re-purposing plastic storage drawers
  
• Transform 2nd room from spare bedroom/office to baby's room - definitely the biggest job!
  
• Replace flooring in baby's room
• Purge and condense scrapbooking supplies
• Empty desk and sort through what needs to be kept and what needs to go
  
• Find a new home for filing cabinet
• Organize books on bookshelf into books to keep out, books to pack away, books to give away
• Possibly find new home for bookshelf
• Organize top shelf of both of our closets
• Clean out and organize junk drawer in FD's dresser, and drawers of our bedside tables
• Go on a short and sweet "babymoon" together - already done! Maybe we'll get to sneak in another one.
  
• Transform shelves in armoire to a "closet" for baby's room
• Build baby's change table
• Stock freezer with pre-made meals so we can survive the first few weeks postpartum without starving to death
  
• Make a baby wrap using Jen's instructions
  
• Get armoire and change table painted (we were going to do this ourselves but we got the hook ups for some free professional painting)
  
• Pick strawberries and blueberries (freeze and preserve some)
  
• Do some canning: bbq onions, salsa, jam, diced tomatoes, pickled beets, dill pickles, red pepper relish

What do you think? Can we get it all done?

Ready ... set ... GO!

Space Repurposing

A few weeks ago, I had a sudden burst of energy which resulted in a lot of spring cleaning around the house. If this is what they refer to as nesting, I sure hope there's a lot more where that came from! One of the tasks I tackled was to clear out one area of organizational space that has jut not been used to it's fullest potential to this point and get it ready to be re-purposed. If you were around here way back when when I featured the House a Home challenge, you may remember that one of my favorite pieces in my home is the deacon's bench that my grandfather built for us as a wedding gift.

To say that this piece of storage/organizational space was not being used to it's fullest potential is a huge understatement. When I decided to open it up and do something about it ... this is what I found.

Yes, that's right. The bench was entirely full, to the brim, with bags. Big bags, little bags, plastic bags, paper bags. Bags, bags, bags. Gee, I guess I really need to stop making fun of my grandmother for the insane collection of grocery bags that was found hidden in the drop ceiling when we moved her out of her house (shh, no one tell Grandma I said that). I guess I'm just as bad!

For a family that uses reusable bags for grocery shopping and whenever else possible, there is definitely no need to have an entire bench full of plastic bags. So, I unloaded it all and was left with this...

A giant pile of bags. And an empty bench.

I decided to bunch up a few to keep for the times when I really do need a plastic bag. Only, this time, I promised myself I would keep this collection under control and store it hanging on a shelf in the laundry room. So, I packed up all the bags and had one large pile to go out to the garbage** and one small pile to keep.

Now, I am left with the task of deciding how to re-purpose this space. It seems to me like the perfect place to store hats, gloves, scarves and mitts for the winter. I know as the baby grows up and as (hopefully) more babies enter our lives, we'll soon have a giant collection of these items, but for now, we don't have that many of those things - and we also have a great space for them in the entryway "closet".

Right now, I have begun using the bench as a temporary location for the few baby items that I have started collecting. These were all stashed on the top shelf of my closet, but let's face it - that's another space that needs an overhaul - so I thought this would be a great place. Now they are all together and ready to be moved as soon as we get the spare room/office transformed into the baby's room.

When that time comes, and the bench finds itself empty again, I will need to come up with another use for it - something more useful and productive than an old bag holder. I know it would be a perfect place for extra pillows and blankets but I don't need that because I've got a blanket box in the living room and my hope chest in our room. What about a makeshift toy box for when the baby comes? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

And don't you worry - I have a feeling this will be the first of many many space re-purposing posts as I attempt to transform this wee apartment into a home ready for baby.

**After receiving two comments scolding me for throwing these bags away, I thought I should add a little snippet here to clarify - I didn't put them in the trash trash. They are in the garage in the blue bin (recycling bin) ready to be taken out on garbage day because we have road side recycle pick up! Don't anyone worry - we recycle like crazy around here :) I just refer to everything that goes out to the road as garbage, even though it's sorted into recyclables and non-recyclables .... but thanks girls for keeping me accountable for doing my part :)

Friday's Bullet List

Here are some random tidbits that I want to share with you on this fine, sunny Friday morning...

• Pregnancy hormones and country music do not mix. On my way to school the other day, Alan Jackson's song "Remember When" came on the radio. Now, let me admit, this song can get to me at the best of times. But, folks, I was a blubbering fool! When he sang the line "Remember when old ones died and new were born, And life was changed, disassembled, rearranged" I nearly had to pull over! Seriously folks, not cool.
  

• We have absolutely no plans for this weekend. This, my friends, is perfection and something that has not happened in a long, long time.

• To answer a few of your questions about the laundry detergent post - I haven't really had any major stains to deal with since I started using it, so I cannot really speak to how well it would do. As Taryn mentioned in her reply in the comment section, she still pre-treats stains, just as she would with regular detergent. Washing soda is not hard to find. It should be available in the cleaning section at any store. I shred the soap with a fine cheese grater. I will definitely be investing in a cheese grater that is for this purpose and this purpose alone. It is kind of hard to get the soap residue off the grater. I do not like soap flavored cheese.

• I haven't been able to get into Idol this season. I think because the contestants are, um, not so good. But, I did tune in for the last 15 minutes last night just to see who was getting sent home. Am I the only one who felt super super bad for Haeley during her goodbye song? Seriously ... "The Climb" ... could there be a worse song to have to sing right after you got kicked off of American Idol? I think contestants should avoid those types of songs just for the sheer fact of how hideous it will be if they get kicked off and have to sing it. Evan was laughing at her while I was nearly in tears and wanted to wrap her up in my arms and tell her it would be okay.
  

• Remember in my post yesterday how I told you I have been having some crazy dreams? They just don't stop. Last night I dreamed that I was in my high school auditorium with MckMama's husband during a piano recital. MckMama was playing a song she wrote for her unborn baby and when she was done they announced that I would now be playing a song I composed for my unborn baby. Please note: I have not played the piano in over a decade. MckMama's hubby had to help me waddle onto the stage (because I was very pregnant and also very nervous), where I sat at the piano and played the 'song I had composed', which sounded to me an awful lot like Hot Cross Buns. Then, I got up from the piano, gave birth to my baby on the stage, stood up, took a bow and walked off the stage??? This is the second dream I have had about giving birth in a very strange location. However, neither of these dreams were quite as whacked up as the one where my baby became an alien inside of me and transferred some unknown disease to me causing me to be quarantined to solitary confinement lest I pass the disease to other pregnant women. I'm wondering what it is about pregnancy that makes my dreams so crazy. Or, does it have anything to do with pregnancy at all? Does anyone remember the hippos flying on celery dream?

The weather is beautiful here. I hope it's beautiful where you are also. I am planning on getting outside for a big walk later today and tomorrow and Sunday as well! My fingers are crossed that spring has really sprung! Happy Friday my sweet friends!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

A long, long time ago I started making homemade fabric softener. I am still using this, although I don't use it as fabric softener - I use it as dryer sheets, by dipping a rag into it, wringing it out and tossing it in the dryer with each load. Ever since I made that, I had planned on making homemade laundry detergent when I ran out of the store bought stuff that I had. I had all the supplies on hand to make it, but I didn't need to start until a few weeks ago because first my mom bought a high efficiency set and gave me a few containers of detergent that she couldn't use and then my aunt did the same. I ended up with about a year's worth of free laundry detergent, which was great. Thanks Mom and Shelley!

A few months ago, though, I came to the end of this supply so I decided it would be a great time to try making my own. I put together a small batch, so I could see how I liked it. I made enough to last about a month and was quite pleased with the results, so this time, I made four times as much, so that it will last me quite a bit longer in between making batches. It is so cheap and easy to make. The only tedious part is grating the soup. But, I just do it while watching TV (or better yet, ask the FD to do it for me) and it's no problem at all!

It cost me between $10-15 to buy all the ingredients (a large box of borax, a large box of washing soda, and a bulk package of Ivory soap) and this will give me enough to make at least 5 batches of detergent (based on 2 bars of ivory per batch, 10 bars in the package). At that point, I will still have lots of borax and washing soda left but I will need to restock on bar soap.

What you will need:

Homemade Laundry Detergent - from Tereasa and Taryn
2 cups Borax
2 cups Washing Soda
4 cups finely shredded gentle soap - I use Ivory (One shredded bar equals approx. two cups)

Mix all ingredients together in a large air tight container and store in your laundry room.

I use two tablespoons of the mixture per large load and one tablespoon for a small load.

February Goal Review and March Goals

Welcome, March! Please bring Spring with you. Thank you.

February was a big month here in our household! Now it's time to go back and see how I did with my goals amidst the excitement of telling all our loved ones that we're on our way to becoming parents.

1. School goals: Mark my student's first assignment in a timely fashion (i.e. within one week). Mark their presentations within 24 hours of seeing them. Complete analysis and begin writing discussion chapter. Mark midterms. Wow, busy month!

First assignment has been marked, recorded and handing back. Presentations are marked and results given. My analysis is complete and a draft of my discussion chapter will be e-mailed to my advisor this afternoon. Midterms were marked over reading week (last week). I will record their marks and give them back to the Prof. to hand back to students later this week.

2. Travel to Ohio to stand up in our dear friend's wedding. And do some other super fun exciting stuff while we're there. ;) ....you'll have to wait and see what we've got planned.

We sure did! Check out this post to see a recap on the wedding weekend which also included A SUPER FANTASTICAL BLOGGY MEET UP WITH SHAINA AND JENNY!

3. Get back on track with menu planning. And not only planning, but menu plan following. January has been weird. And crazy. And my menu plan following and organized grocery shopping has suffered as a result.

I have done pretty good with this this month. I haven't been posting my menu plans as I normally do but I have been making them and trying to stick with them. The reason I got off track in January was because in the early weeks of my pregnancy, cooking was the absolute least appealing activity. That, combined with the tired factor, and I was not in the mood to whip up any amazing meals. I have gotten back into the swing of meal planning, organized shopping and cooking, although our meals have been more subdued than normal.

4. Spend a weekend with Little H while his parents go on vacation.

We had a great time!

5. Continue to exercise at least 3 times per week (usually more).
Hmm ... well ... ugh. Okay, so major fail. The weather has been my excuse. I like to be outside. Snowy weather does not bode well for that. So, therefore, my exercising has suffered. I will get back on track in March!

6. Complete bathroom renovation (I will be posting more about this soon).
Done, done, done. Although this really should not have been on my goal list as I did basically nothing, except watch. The Fabulous Dude did an amazing job with it! Check it out here.

7. BEGIN WATCHING SEASON 6 OF LOST! WOOT WOOT!

I have been watching each episode with my friend, T. She moved last Friday, though, so starting tomorrow, the dude and I will be watching at home. I am so excited that we seem to finally be getting some answers ... kind of?

8. Organize our bedroom closets and dresser drawers.

Wow. The last time I thought about this goal was probably on February 1st when I wrote it. I definitely did not do this. Except I did clean out and rearrange E's tshirt drawer. At this point, I think I will probably wait to do the complete overhaul until when I need to revamp my wardrobe and swap out my regular clothes for maternity wear.

What's up For March:

1. School goals: Finalize discussion chapter, begin conclusion chapter, mark 3 presentations, mark student's second assignment, complete and finalize thesis reference page (for someone as organized as I normally am - I have done a horrible job keeping my reference page up to date as I have worked my way through writing the chapters of my thesis. This is going to be a messy, messy job.)

2. Finish the book of Acts and begin the book of Romans through the Text Project to stay up to date with my through the new testament in a year goal.

3. Welcome a new niece or nephew into our lives ... any day now!

4. Spend a weekend with my mom, sister, SIL, and many girlfriends from church being uplifted at the Beth Moore conference.

5. Begin preparations and planning for our 2010 garden.

What have you got going on in the month of March?

Responsibilty Chart

When I was shopping at Chapter's last night, I stumbled across the Melissa & Doug Magnetic Responsibility Chart. I always knew that Melissa & Doug had a great line of resourceful and fun toys. I have to admit, this isn't the first time that I found myself lured in by a Melissa & Doug toy. But this ... this is the best there is!

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I have to admit, it took pretty much all that I had within me not to buy the responsibility chart for the fabulous dude. He would probably really appreciate me tracking his responsibility with these fun little magnets, no?

I could give him a "Well Done" every time he said please and thank you, or an "Excellent" when he took out the trash!

Oh well ... I guess I will just have to wait until I have little ones. I am fairly certain they will be as interested in organization, lists, and check boxes that I am. Right? RIGHT?

Or ... maybe I could just get it for myself?

The Words I Never Thought I'd Hear

This past week was very busy for me. As the week drew to a close on Thursday night, FD and I were sitting on the couch relaxing after cleaning the house and finishing most of the prep for the weekend (which I am hopefully now enjoying - since this is a scheduled post).

I had submitted my marked papers that day and had finished transcribing my data. All of the official school goals I had set to complete by Christmas were done. The shopping was done, the presents were wrapped. And we were ready to head into Cramp Family Christmas Weekend relaxed and ready to enjoy time with his family.

And then a conversation I never thought possible took place.

Me: "Wow. Looks like we made it through this week."
FD: "Yes. We did. And you did a great job."
Me: "Thanks. I think I handled the week okay."
FD: "You handled everything really well and were so organized. You hardly got stressed at all."
Me: "Thanks."

.... and then ... the words I never thought I'd hear ....

Him: "And I think your lists really helped this week."

Um, yeah they did. They always do.

Monica Who?

Over the past week there have been three distinct and completely separate times that three distinct and completely separate people have referred to me as Monica Geller.

Hmm ... is this a compliment?

A Valuable Lesson

I learned this morning that if your husband gets up at 6 am to brave the freezing cold and enter the wilderness in search of a wild beast to harvest and you cannot get back to sleep that the result may be a very productive Saturday morning.

After a week of gloominess, sickness and all together blah-ness, it was wonderful to get some productivity in my system and get something accomplished!

It's 10:44 am and so far I have:

• Narrowed down the possibilities for our Christmas cards
  
• Baked bread to put in the freezer for hubby to take when he goes hunting for a week
• Done dishes
• Cleaned and disinfected the entire kitchen (including pulling out the stove and cleaning the sides of it and the floor behind it - um, yuck)
• Cleaned our room
• Cleaned the spare room
• Dusted the whole apartment
• Planned the next two week's menus

It feels GOOD to be productive ... even if it was at the expense of sleeping in on a Saturday morning.

What are you up to this beautiful Saturday? I'm heading out to enjoy the sunshine and babysit some sweet kiddos soon!

Cleaning Up ... Literally

I have a few "cleaning" questions that I want to ask you and I would greatly appreciate any advice you may have to give.

1. Do any of you have leather furniture? If so, what do you use to clean it? We bought a leather living room set shortly after we got married and then when we got our puppy, I caved into her cute-littleness and always let her snuggle on the couch with me. Now that she is not so little anymore, she still thinks the couch and love seat are her territory. She is usually pretty good at only going on it when her blanket's on there, but I often wake up in the morning to find dusty paw prints from where she had been. Right now I am using Weiman Leather Wipes. They are like wet wipes that you can just wipe the furniture with. They work great but are a wee bit pricey so I'm wondering if there's something else I can use that's either cheaper or possible to make at home.

2. Does anyone have a good dish soap and/or dishwasher soap recipe? I tried making my own dish soap a few weeks ago and it was an epic fail. The stuff did not sud up, and although it cleaned my dishes I had to use a LOT of soap to get the desired effect. Therefore, I went through an entire bottle in less than a week. Not cool.

3. I'm going to try homemade laundry detergent soon. I had fully intended to start making my own way back when I started making my own fabric softener/dryer sheets (which I am still making and using all the time, by the way), but then my mom got a new HE set and had a bunch of detergent left over from before that she couldn't use and passed on to me. I am just now coming to the end of it and am planning on making my own. I've seen a lot of posts about this and I've gathered a few different recipes but I am wondering from those of you who do use homemade laundry detergent, do you prefer liquid or powder? What's better? I've always used liquid detergent but I'm wondering if powder is better for the homemade stuff? Any tips?

4. Lastly, I'm interested in knowing if you have a daily chore list or if you like to do all your house cleaning in one go or if you just don't clean at all. I tend to do all my cleaning all at once because if I do little jobs on a day to day basis, I find that by the time I'm through the cycle, it's all dirty again. However, if I do it all in one shot it takes up a bigger chunk of time and it doesn't last long either. While it's nice to have a fully clean house, I do get frustrated when I spend a whole Saturday morning cleaning and then the house looks like a disaster zone again by Monday. The thing is this - I am a neat freak but I'm not that cleanly.

If you popped by unexpectedly (please please please don't do it because I would be embarrassed) you probably would not find piles of papers scattered throughout the house, dirty dishes piled in the sink, an unmade bed or unfolded laundry. What you would find, however, is a layer of dog hair 6 inches thick on the floor, my hubby's whiskers left over from shaving on the sink and counter and soap scum in the shower. I am not sure why it is that I can't turn a blind eye to the slightest thing out of place in my home but I can ignore a mounting mess of dirt and disustingness. If I know I have company coming later in the week, I just figure there's no point in cleaning two days before or else I will just have to do it again when they come. Clearly, my cleaning "schedule" is not working so well for me and I need to figure something else out. So what works for you?

Holiday Planning

Preface: Thank you all so much for the sweet wishes on our anniversary. You are all so kind and sweet to me (us). We had an absolutely wonderful day today, which I will share more about on Friday. Right now (Wednesday PM), I am super duper tired and have a billion pictures to sort through so in the meantime, I decided to schedule a post I had written and planned for next week to be posted in the morning (i.e. now - if you are reading this). Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway.

It has been a long long while since I have posted anything related to Thrifty Thursday. Somewhere along the line, I began to steer away from posting about how to save money and be an organized budgeter. Due to some comments and e-mails I've recently received from readers, I am going to attempt to focus on these topics a little bit more.

Did you know that there are exactly 133 sleeps until the guy in the big red suit will be jumping down our chimneys? You might think it is rather early to begin thinking about Christmas but if the picture below depicts how you feel about the holiday season, you may want to keep reading.

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I love the Christmas season and all that brings. I begin to think about Christmas on, let's see, December 26th. Usually mid-way through the summer I start to get really excited about what will take place during the next holiday season. However, at the same time, I find that Christmas can be a financially, and in turn, emotionally draining time. Even more than that, I often experience a mild case of the post-Christmas blues in January and February. Therefore, for me, there is nothing worse than trying to figure out how to pay off all the Christmas expenses as I enter the new year, seeing as I am already somewhat gloomy about Christmas being over.

In order to ensure that the financial burden of Christmas does not overwhelm me, I have to prepare early. In this post, I am going to share with you how I go about doing this. Please remember that what I do to budget for Christmas may be very different than what you do because each of our our financial and employment situations are different. Perhaps what I do won't work for you but I hope that you can find at least something helpful in this post.

So, last week when I sat down to start getting ready for Christmas this is what I did.

1. Make a budget - Begin by writing down all the expenses you anticipate having at Christmas. My categories were as follows: hospitality (includes: food, baking, decorations, Christmas cards and postage, wrapping expenses), gifts for my family, gifts for FD's family, gifts for others and traveling expenses.

After compiling the list of expenses, I prepared an excel spreadsheet to keep track of them. I set a limit for each category and then broke them down further. For example, there is a total limit for gifts for each family and this is further broken down into a limit for each individual. There is a total for the hospitality budget and then a limit for each category.

In my spreadsheet, I have it set so that as I enter each purchase it will adjust the amount I have left in that area, the category and the total Christmas budget. For example, when I buy the postage for my Christmas cards, I will enter that amount onto the proper line and my spreadsheet will calculate how much I have left for postage/Cards, how much I have left in the hospitality category and how much I have left in total. This way, there is a bit of wiggle room in case I need to go over or under in some categories. The main goal is that the overall budget will always balance.

2. Be realistic - Think back to previous years when estimating how much money you will need to allot for each category. Be realistic. If you know you will be doing a lot of entertaining, then add more to the food category. If you know you love to have beautiful wrapping paper, bows and tags, give yourself room here. Think back to what you already have. For example, last Christmas I bought a lot of wrapping supplies on boxing day clearance. Therefore, I knew I didn't need to allot much here but I did not get Christmas cards on clearance so I needed to plan for that.

3. Overestimate - Be generous. If you are unsure of how much you will need in a specific category, it is better to overestimate than to underestimate. When all is said and done, you will be better to have allotted more for holiday food and have money leftover than to have budgeted too little and be scrambling to find the money to cover your expenses.

I budgeted quite high in the food and baking category. Since it is only August, I have no idea how many events/dinners/parties and so on I will be hosting so I ensured that I left myself enough wiggle room. In the event that I do less hosting than I anticipate, I will have money leftover to cover unforeseen expenses or to go back into savings.

4. Figure out how you can make it happen - Once you have your budget and/or spreadsheet set up, you will see how much money you need to have available to you when the holidays roll around. Figure out how you can make that happen in the months left before Christmas.

For us, this looks a little something like this (remember: each of our situations is unique and what works for me may not work for you)...

Our bank was recently offering as Easy Save program where a set amount of money will be transferred to a savings account each time you use your debit card and/or ATM machine. We set it up so that 2.00 will be transferred each time we use debit or ATM. Each time we reach $100 in the account, the bank will give us $10. The savings account that it is being transferred to is not our normal savings account, but one that is being used solely for this purpose. We set up the program so that we do not have access to this savings account through our debit card or ATM machine (i.e., we have to actually go into the bank if we want to access this money). Having the inconvenient access to the money decreases the likelihood of us dipping into it "just because".

Secondly, in September, when school begins, my contract will be renewed and I will start working again. Since we become accustomed to living on one income through the summer, the majority of my paycheck goes into our pre-existing savings account. This year, when I go back to work, I will transfer the first few paychecks to the Easy Save account instead.

From the accumulation of each $2.00 transfer, the $10 gifts from the bank, and one or two of my paychecks, we will have more than enough money in that account to cover our Christmas expenses by mid-September.

This account will become our "Christmas Account". When the time comes for holiday purchases to begin, we will go into the bank and ask them to set up debit card access on the account. Then, whenever we are making Christmas purchases, we will use that account rather than our normal day-to-day account. Knowing the money will already be sitting there waiting for us will take an enormous amount of Christmas stress off of our shoulders!

5. Stick to it. When you are doing Christmas shopping, take a few minutes when you get home to sit down with your receipts and enter the purchases into your spreadsheet so you know where you stand with your budget. Don't fret if you go over budget in one or two categories, just look through and determine where you can cut expenses. Sometimes if I get a bit off track on a budget, I end up throwing the entire thing out the window. Not this time! The main goal is to ensure that your total budget is balanced.

Another thing I am going to try hard to do this year is to keep Christmas purchases and regular purchases separate. Considering we are using a specific account for all of our Christmas purchases, this shouldn't be hard. Budgeting can be difficult if you don't know where you are spending your money and you have to sift through receipt upon receipt to figure out how much you are spending in any given category. This year, if I am shopping and have a cart that is half full of Christmas purchases and half full of regular household purchases, I am going to ask the teller to ring them through separately. I don't really care if this makes me a pain in the butt, it will help me stick to my budget because it will be so much easier to input the purchases into my spreadsheet if all the Christmas purchases are organized.

6. My last suggestion is to find what works. Maybe nothing I said here is helpful to you due to your own personal situation. If that is the case, find a system that works for you. If you already have a system, I'd love to hear about it. The important part is finding something that works for you and your family.

To recap, here are my steps to ensure that Christmastime stress will be minimized and that we will not be paying for Christmas 2009 in March 2010!
1. Budget 2. Be realistic 3. Overestimate 4. Make it happen
5. Stick to it 6. Find what works

Turn this ....

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Into this....

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Any other tips on how to ease the financial stress of the holiday season?

Mission Accomplished

After spending Friday working on the bathroom cupboards and kitchen pantry, I spent Saturday doing the real work .... the closets and spare room/office/craft room.

First I tackled the bedroom. I am ashamed, embarrassed and disgusted to admit that I was able to get rid of as much as I did while still having clothes on our backs, let alone still having two closets and two dressers full. As I was in midst of this task, the fabulous dude came in and said, "I'm not going to let you shop as much". Umm, ya think?

There isn't much explaining to do except to tell you that I went through every single thing we own and held nothing back.

So, here goes nothing.

The before...

The during (this was a must-get-worse-before-it-gets-better project)...

The after...

Now, to show you exactly how much of a difference there is I am going to show you the stuff that I got rid of. Again, as I said at the outset of this post, I am embarrassed that it was even possible for me to get rid of this much stuff. Please don't judge. This picture includes the stuff that I am giving away. It does NOT include the stuff that I just threw out. There wasn't much that was garbage worthy, but some stuff like socks, underwear, old work clothes was tossed.

Are you ready? Everything on the bed is what is being given away...

Here it is all packed up and labeled according to who/where it is going to...

The coolest part about this is that after writing my first post indicating that I was going to be purging my closets, someone contacted me and let me know of an individual who is really in need of clothing who is about the same size as me. So, the majority of my clothes were packed up for her with the exception of a few things that I'm sending to my sister. The FD's stuff was packed up for either my BIL or to be donated. One bag is trash and the box has housewares and other items that are to be donated.

Above and beyond clothes I got rid of a bunch of stuff that had been hanging out on the shelves of the closets. When I was sorting through these items (most were sentimental in some way) I asked myself, "If this belonged to my mom, would I want to have it now?" If the answer was yes, then I kept it for my future children. The rest was placed in the to-go pile if I have no purpose for it.

I feel so great after completing this task. First of all, I am thrilled to know that I will be able to bless someone else with the items that I no longer need. Second, this task has given me a renewed appreciation for all that I have! I am certainly not in want.

After the bedroom was done, I headed to the spare room.

Before

After

Not much to say except there was a lot of junk kicking around that is now gone. The only problem? Lots of stuff was just placed inside the craft cabinet instead of around it.

I guess I know what I'm doing this afternoon...

This post is being linked up to Organizing Junkie's Surface and Shelf Organizing post!

Spring Cleaning Part One - Bathroom Cupboards and Kitchen Pantry

Here we go!! After I wrote the post about the organizing that I was planning to do this weekend, I got straight to work. Yesterday I was able to tackle the bathroom cupboards, the pantry and the spice cupboard. And then to celebrate hubby and I went on a lovely date last night for fish and chips. Has anyone else noticed that I tend to grab every and any possible chance to "celebrate" something by eating? Hmmm...

Anyway, I'm going to let you know and how and what I did with these two spaces.

If I am supposed to be the neat freak in our family and the fabulous dude is supposed to be the slob then can somebody please explain to me why his side of the bathroom cupboard looks like this...
And mine looks like this?

(This photo was taken on a good day and I realize that it does not really demonstrate how bad it can be sometimes).

The truth is, I might be a neat freak but only so far as people can see. Yes, behind closed doors ... oh if you only knew. I am messy, disorganized and a clutter bug. When I packed for Scotland I decided that any makeup I did not take was going in the garbage. If I was able to manage without something for nearly two weeks then I probably don't need it. So, aside from one compact that I did not take because it was too large, everything that was still in my cupboard when I got home went out. So much of this stuff was old and gross anyway. It was it's time.

Here is a long view of my side of the cupboard so you can see that not only my bottom shelf (which holds the stuff I use the most) is cluttered.

Apparently I didn't take a full before shot of FD's side of the cupboard. But, let's just say that his stuff resides only on the bottom shelf and I have all but taken over the middle and top shelf. So, while his bottom shelf looked neat and tidy the top two shelves had a little touch of me on them. It looks like I only took a photo of the top shelf of his side (and not a very good one at that).

I began by emptying my side of the cupboard....

And got to work. I was ruthless. I got rid of anything that I hadn't used in a long time, bottles that were nearly empty but still in the cupboard for some reason, and stuff that was just plain old. I don't like throwing things away. I feel wasteful. There were a few things I kept that would be okay to give away, but for the most part, the stuff I was getting rid of is stuff that you just can't give away to someone. So, I ended up with a box with a few "possibly donatable items" and a bag of trash. Unfortunately, more items made it into the trash. I will have you know, however, that the bottles of hair products, lotions etc., that I was getting rid of, I emptied so that the containers could be recycled. I felt like I was high from all the fruity smells of bubble bath and shampoo! This is what I ended up with...

The bottom shelf on his side looks essentially the same but there is a vast difference in the amount of junk on the next two shelves. I organized the shelves in this way: the bottom shelves contain the items that we use on a daily, or at least weekly basis. The middle shelves contain items that we use less frequently such as "special occasion" hair products, nail care and lotion on my side and medicine, band aids, and Q-tips on his side. The top shelves are reserved for overflow. Any items that were unopened went up there. I discovered that my family and friends must think I am stinky because I have not purchased body wash in over a year and I still have THREE varieties that are unopened in the top cupboard along with two in the shower. So, anything like toothpaste, unopened hair products and extra razor blades are stored up there. That way, when we run out of something, we can take a look on the top shelf to see if we have another one before running out to buy more unnecessary STUFF.

Here are some close up views of the shelves ...

I also cleaned out and re-organized the cupboards under the sink. It was mostly a matter of re-folding and re-stacking towels. I didn't take any photos of that because towels are boring and I don't want you all to see my stash of feminine products. Seriously, a little privacy, please?

After I finished up in the bathroom, I was on a roll so I moved on to the kitchen to tackle the food spaces. Here is what I was looking at:

A close up view of the top shelf so you can see how lovely it really is.

My pantry was bad! Things were stacked anywhere and everywhere and I had no idea what was actually in there. As you can see in the next picture, the pantry is quite deep and so it's often quite difficult to keep track of things as they get pushed to the back all the time.


So I pulled it all out and this is what I found....

See those boxes on the stool? Yup, all pasta. That's right, this lady went ahead and bought SIX boxes of pasta last week. Not because I forgot that I had some already, just because the sale was good. I have a problem.

I organized into categories and got started. First I tackled the baking supplies and the grains/pastas because that is what I have the most of and those are the things that were most sporadically placed in the pantry as I was cleaning it out. Once I got these two categories organized in a way that seems reasonable, this is what I had:

And I was left with the rest of this to find a spot for...

Once I organized the cans into categories, it was not difficult. Here is the finished product:

Grains and pastas on the top shelf. The tall canisters hold pasta to be used and the boxes are in the back. When the canisters are empty, then I will open a box and fill it back up. The other containers behind the peanut butter hold dried goods such as beans, lentils and peas. In the middle, there is a plastic container that is holding the odds and ends such as bags of rice, Kraft Dinner, Mr. Noodles, Side Kicks and so on.

The next two shelves hold the canned goods. Soup, vegetables and beverages (teas, hot chocolates) on the second shelf. The third shelf has beans, tomatoes, sauces, dog treats and powdered packages in the little white container.

The bottom two shelves are baking supplies, which I felt needed the most attention. The very bottom shelf holds my large tubs of flour, specialty flour and seeds/nuts. The large tubs of flour are not big enough to hold an entire bag of flour when I buy it so here's what I do with the excess...


All other baking supplies are on the next shelf up. I re-purposed this basket to hold the baking odds and ends. It used to hold noodles and pasta packages but when I cleaned out the pantry it was holding one package of Mr. Noodles. Not very efficient. I'm sure everything will end up getting lost in there in but it is the best solution I could find for all of those things that are odd shapes and sizes.

Next I moved on to the spice cupboard, which you saw earlier.


The main spices that are used are held on the fridge in magnetic containers. I love these containers but the problem is, I have far more than 12 spices. And, when I buy a spice, the whole package does not fit into these containers so there is always some left over.

So what I did was refill all of these containers and then place the excess of them in a container to go at the back of the cupboard. That way, I know I never need to touch that container when I'm looking for a spice, unless the one in the magnetic container is empty.

The rest of the spice jars were placed back into the white basket and the bags were lined up neatly in the middle. I also made a list (which you can sort of see on the side of the cupboard) of all the spices I have. As well, there is an indication if they are in a jar or bag so when I need to find something, I can quickly tell if a) I have it and b) where to find it. I also straightened up the snack shelf above the spices.


So there you have it. In total this took me about 3 hours to do and I am quite happy with my results. It was calling for rain so the hubby decided to postpone his trip to his folks house until later this evening as roofing would not be in the cards for today anyway. Admittedly, I was very happy with that because it has been months (no exaggeration) since we have had a Friday evening-Saturday morning without any plans. We got take out fish and chips for dinner, ate on a bench at the beach and then went for a walk. This morning, we slept in and now he's going to make me some pancakes for breakfast. He just doesn't know that yet. I'm hoping to be able to commission his help for the clothing purge, but we'll see how that goes. I'll let you know how the next two steps of the spring cleaning go! Happy Saturday!

This post is being linked up to Organizing Junkie's Surface and Shelf Organizing post!