Side Tracked

Well, I have not been doing much household organizing lately, but I have been trying to organize me! The inside first. I have been using myfitnesspal.com to help me with my weight loss. I am doing so well with it too! The website allowed me to put my information in and then it set my ideal caloric intake and the like. Now, I just try to stay under that number and dong some form of movement at least 4 days a week. Fridays do not count, and I can eat whatever I want and do nothing if I feel so inclined. In three weeks I have lost 8lbs!!! My weekly weigh in is tomorrow and I am hoping that I will see the 2lbs loss that I have been seeing. I feel really good and I want to keep going. Today, I went for a walk, despite the harsh wind that was blowing! I managed to do 1.5 miles in 30 minutes before my face felt too wind burned. I feel good about that and I am proud of me:-) I feel as though if i can get the inside me "organized" then I shall be better prepared for the World outside of me!

Slow and Steady

So this week I began going through the 15 boxes of books that I had packed away in our attic cubby hole. I am about 1/3 the way through them and have thrown out two boxes of trash and filled three boxes for donations. The vets come right to the house and pick them up from our doorstep which makes it super easy for me to do! I had been putting this project off for a LONG time as it seemed too big to tackle. But, this week I decided that I had a few minutes here and there, and that I would just pull out a box and go through it. The next thing I knew, I was pulling out another box and then another. On Monday, I had gone through 4 boxes when I had only planned on going through 1!!! Those 4 boxes only took 20 minutes. Today, I did a few more... who knows, I might be done this "impossible" task in about a week!

I also found my old college things and among them I found a story that one of my third graders from student teaching in 2002 wrote for me. She names it "Miss Janney the Best Student Teacher." It was a two page typed single spaced 12 point font story all about the class planning my going away party. It was the sweetest thing to read! It's funny to think she is now in 11th grade!! So not only did I clear up some valuable storage space, I got a sweet reminder of the awesomeness that is teaching... I'd say that is a winning combo:-) I still have boxes to go through and after this, I am heading pack upstairs to work on some more, but with only 20 minutes here and there, I have made a good dent so far!

This Saturday was the monthly poker game for my husband and I always try to find something to do that will bring me joy and if at all possible, be something that my husband can appreciate too. This time, I decided to stencil my kitchen. I have an apple theme and bought this adorable apple stencil over a year ago with the idea of doing the entire perimeter of my kitchen. I decided that this would be overkill, so instead I choose to only stencil over the outside door frame, the entrance to the dinning room and over the side window. It looks great and added some wonderful color to my white kitchen! I also had a wonderful time doing it and as my husband said "I love when you pretty up the place!" I have some pictures that I will post once I find my silly camera cord!

As for the laundry that I am working on this month, this week was a great week! I kept up with it and it seems like it is less work:-) I just may have this habit down before the end of the month after all!

This week I learned that even a big job can be done... if you take is one small bit at a time!

Don't let perfect stop you!

This weekend I decided to tackle my utensil drawer in my kitchen. This is the drawer filled with all the little kitchen toys, big knives, rolling pins and serving spoons. Needless to say this drawer was not only difficult to navigate, but dangerous to boot! So I went through it and took EVERYTHING out. I then sorted the items and tossed the ones that I have not used in the more than a year we have lived here and the ones I had way too many of. I then put all of the cooking and serving spoons in a plastic container on my counter where they will be MUCH easier to locate. I almost did not do the entire project because I didn't have a "neat" container to hold these items, but I talked myself into doing it anyway and promised to pick up that container later on. Next, I returned the remaining items to the drawer. 3/4ths of the items no longer go in that drawer, so it was MUCH easier to find things. I still have not figured out the knives, but I will keep my eyes out for something while I hit the thrift stores looking for that container.

This week's lesson: Don't let perfect stop you from doing what must be done. Get it done and THEN find the "perfect" later.

Snow day organizing!

So one of the perks to being a teacher is that when school is called off for snow, you get to stay home as well (I have to make the day up in the summer, but I choose to enjoy now anyway!) So after I did all of the shoveling since my wonderful husband is at work, I decided to do some basic chores which do not take me as long since I have been flying with the Flylady so it's 2pm and I am done! I am going to be organizing my recipes in the box and then making a list of all of the foods I like to prepare and the ingredients needed to make each. I am thinking that this will make it easier when I do my meal planning and grocery shopping. I am putting it in a three ring binder so that more can be added at anytime. This week I found a great fish recipe that I am now in love with, so that was the first thing I am writing down. For anyone interested in the recipe...

white fish fillets (I used flounder as it was on sale this week, but talipa would also work and I bet even chicken!)
fresh dill (only 99 cents for a bunch!)
fresh lemon
green onions
butter (I use I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)

In a fry pan over med-low heat, add three tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons of chopped dill, the juice of one lemon, and one green onion chopped thinly. Allow the butter to melt as you stir. Place the fish in the mixture and baste. Allow to cook for 8-10 minutes and ENJOY!

Today's lesson: Seize every minute that is given to you. Today was a surprise day, but I found a job that would make my life easier and got it done!

A Storage Dream!

So my loving, wonderful, amazing husband as a flaw... he LOVES DVDs. Now I am not talking about enjoying them, but he seems to think that he must own every flipping movie that has ever been made. Many of his DVDs have never been removed from the wrapping. Now I think this is hording, but he doesn't see it that way. My big issue with it is that all of these DVDs (well over 500) are on open racks in our living room gathering dust and cluttering this nice space. After realizing that I would never win the battle of getting rid or at least cutting back, I decided to look for better storage. Storage that would "hide" them from view. This week I got my storage. I ordered a DVD storage cabinet from Amazon. It is black to go with the other furniture in our living room and has doors so you can no longer see the mess within. It is also tall and narrow therefore it takes up WAY WAY WAY less space than those short wide racks. Now that it is up and filled to the brim, there is extra space in my once filled living room!! It's a storage dream:-)



I did OK with my laundry this week... attacked it twice during the week (not quite the 5 times I should have,) but I only have one load to run through this weekend, so that's a good start. Plus, I have three more weeks to make it work correctly!



This weeks lesson... if you can't get rid of it, hide it in beautiful storage!!!!

New year... New habits

A friend of mine recently said "if you want to stop seeing the same old things, stop doing the same old things. If you want to do more, do more. If you want change, you change first." With this in mind, the flylady's monthly habit, and my grad school education I decided that each month I must come up with something to change about what I do in my house. In grad school, I learned that it takes 30 days for something to become a habit, so for each month of the new year, I am going to work on one new habit. This month, I am working on the laundry. The Flylady always says a load a day keeps the chaos away. At this point, I do not have enough laundry to do one load a day, and for this to become a habit, it must be done daily. So, I decided that will do something laundry related each day. This means one day run the laundry through the washer and dryer and the next day fold and put it away. This is what I shall be doing all January long. Feel free ti give it a try your self.

Don't forget the break!!!

So yesterday I hit a wall... i kinda forgot that I had not left the house since Sunday morning and it suddenly got to me. I was miserable! Well my wonderful husband and I decided that it was time then to go spend our Lowe's gift card from Chirstmas on curtains for our bedroom. We had a blast picking them out and then went to the chinese buffet for dinner. I felt so much better and lesson learned... LEAVE the house even when you are in full-on clean the house mode!

Today I started again refreshed! I hit our bedroom... that is one scarey place. I felt so overwhelmed when I first got in there. There were piles of "stuff" in every corner and I did not know where to start. I decided to grab a trash bag and a box. Bag to toss and the box to donate. I then plopped myself in the corner right by the door and started stifting through the piles. I found so many things from our wedding in there it was unreal. We got married in July and after all the fuss, there is all this STUFF left over. I found the markers from the sign mat (now how many purple thin sharpies does one person need? Not four,) ribbon (which I am giving to a coworker who is a big crafter,) the old programs (these were hard for me to part with as my husband designed them, but after much thought I decided to pop two in my memory box and toss the rest,) picture frames (we got like 20 as gifts between the two showers and the actual wedding day so I saved about 5 that I know we will use and decided to donate the rest,) and more of this and that. I worked my way around the room like this and then hit the closet. Oh my! I have all of these awesome sweaters that have the wide necks (cow necks) and they just do not stay on the hangers. Well I must of had about 15 that had fallen to the floor and I never picked up. So, I picked up each one and decided wheather it should be kept or not and slowly put them away. Then to the flat surfaces. Now I have a problem with flat surfaces... I cover them almost instantly. I went through all of them and cleaned them with my green clean and the reorganized them in a much more meaningful way. My plan is to do this every Saturday from now on. In hopes that with a once a week run over they will remain clean and orderly.

When all was said and done, I had two bags of trash and a box of items to donate. I also had a beautiful room that is all ready for my husband to hang our brand new curtains in! I feel good about it:-)

Today's lesson.... don't forget the breaks! No matter how hard you are working, nonstop work will end in misary. I quick break and run out of the hosue will fix it and you will accomplish more!

Success is in the eye of the beholder

Yesterday was my dinning room and living room day. In all honesty, I did not finish them, but I did wipe all of the walls, windows and baseboards with green clean and warm water. This took longer than I had expected. But, wow was it worth it! I didn't think my walls and whatnots were that dirty, but when I was done, the water was black and so was the white rag that I had started with! Now I could look at this as a failure over the past year, but I choose to see the success in the now clean walls! Just depends on how you look at things. I also did not complete the rooms yesterday, but I got a very good start and will be working on them today.

I am not able to get a ton done today as I got the emergency call from the sister saying that she needed someone to watch my 2 year old nephew. Now being a kindergarten teacher, you can probably guess that I love kids, so I jumped at the chance! He is napping now and as soon as I am done here, I am going to finsih these last two rooms. Tomorrow moving on to zone 1, the front porch and dinning room (hey I thought the dinning room was in zone 5... oh well, looks like I am still on track!) Go me! Just looked up the zones and I had all the numbers wrong, but whatever, that is so NOT the important thing. For anyone who is wondering though...
zone 1 Entrance, porch, dinning room
zone 2 Kitchen
zone 3 The bathroom and one other room (I do the laundry room at this time)
zone 4 Master bedroom
zone 5 Living room

My words of wisdom (not that I am all knowing or anything) from today... look for where you did succeed and not at where you didn't. If you can look for the positives, life is just so MUCH happier! Plus, we have our first follower... didn't think ANYONE would follow, but yea!

Getting a start on the right foot

So if I am going to be the best most organized working wife in 2011, I must start on the right foot. This means that since I am off from work this week, I am going to take on the amazing task of cleaning my house from top to bottom. My thinking is that if I start out on the "right" clean foot, that I will have a better chance of success... we shall see.
To help guide me along my giant task, I have called on the wonderful guidance of the Flylady. If you have not heard of her, you must look her up! Her main point is that cleaning need not be an all day horriable task, but instead a simple task that is taken care of each day for only a few minutes. Now, for the past year or so, I have dabbled in her teachings, but my new goal is to follow her to a T! To get my jump start, I am modifing her concepts. The Flylady has your house broken in to five zones or sections and has a detailed cleaning list of how to clean each zone. Now, she has you work on one zone for an etire week every 5 weeks. I am going to use this as a guide and complete each list for an entire zone in one day. This means that by the time I go back to work on Monday, my entire house will be clean!
Yesterday I went to town on the kitchen. I blared my lively pop music and started cleaning area after area. I would take a small section and remove EVERYTHING. After the area was cleared, I would scrub with warm soapy water and if anything was not coming up, I would go at it with an old toothbrush. After the area was cleaned, I would return the items in a more organized manner. The biggest change was to a shelf that is above my sink. This shelf was orginally slated to hold my cookbooks, notepads, and pens. As time went on it became the dumping ground for anything tiny. I found a ton of batteries, scrunchies, a necklace, and about 5 of my husbands little pocket knives. I returned all of these objects to their "homes" and reorganized the cookbooks. It looks wonderful and I was amazed at what a difference this one little shelf made to the look of my entire kitchen!
Yesterday was obviously a huge success and I hope that today will be too! Today I am working in zone 5 the living and dinning rooms. My plan is to wash all of the walls, switch plates and base boards with warm soapy water, dust and wash (if needed) all of the kickknacks, clean the windows, remove clutter, and vaccum (not just the middle of the room, but move the furniture, and even hit the corners. Wish me luck!!!!

So we begin...

I bought my first home last October and got married on July 17th, 2010. I want to be the best wife and a more organized person in general. This blog is a diary of my efforts to be just that... an organized wife! Now as a full-time kindergarten teacher, that can be a tricky feat for most of the year, but I am going to try and you get to come along with me on the ride...