April Goals Update

When I declared way back when what my goals were for the month of April, I had blinders on. I admit it. They are really, really big blinders and when I held my head exactly straight, they worked. They worked so that I could totally ignore my daughter's bedroom.

She has serious, serious bedroom issues. Mostly in that she has too much stuff. Then she has less organizational storage and third she is a little tornado. By the time pick up night comes on Wednesday, all her stuff tends to get stuffed in big plastic bins and shoved off to the side.

Then AB vigorously and ruthlessly whipped my blinders off when I happily announced I was going to orgnize the coat closet and laundry room.

"What really needs to be done is Skadi's room," he mumbled.

"But I was going to wait until an Ikea trip so that I could organize at the same time!" I argued truthfully. I had actually been browsing the Ikea website to get ahead of the game for the yet to be planned trip to an Ikea.

He then pointed out that a ton of stuff in her room could be thrown away, pulled out and donated or whatever. She doesn't need it, he said while referring mostly to the stacks upon stacks of books.

"But she likes the board books," I argued.

"She likes EVERY book. If the board books aren't there she will happily choose some of the others here that actually tell a story," he argued.

I sighed. Apparent that an Ikea trip was not in my immediate future and that my blinders were now broken. AB knows me well, once he breaks my blinders, I can no longer tell myself there is no problem.

So this weekend AFTER I took care of the coat closet, I started in one corner of Skadi's bedroom and worked through her room systematically through it and even tackled portions of her closet. We moved the big soft rocker out of her room, that we use to rock her to sleep in (before Skadi, it was Leif's, sigh... ). Well then it just served as the time out chair. Then it housed a mountain of stuffed animals. Not that the time outs went by the wayside of course...

We did it. I pulled out a huge stack of board books. I hauled off a full garbage bag full of c.r.a.p. We now have a plastic bucket overflowing with stuffed animals, a new small toybox from Target that will double as a bench and a treasure chest of dress up clothes.

Phew! Two for one weekend. My house is well on its way to an organized bliss!

Winding down the month

As typical for most resolutioners, my first of the year goals are filled with lots of spunk and promise. Promises of an organized house, followed by a beautiful and elegant new half guest bathroom and lots of ideas to follow for the months after. Then by summer I am talking about taking months off because we are too busy. And goals over the holidays? Yeah right.

I wandered the Target aisles over lunch yesterday with AB… and no kids. He doesn’t work on Fridays and I met him for a quick and easy lunch and then to grab a few things.

I have been coveting some cute desk organizers for our office. I didn’t find much.

I haven’t found much online either.

The desk organization part of my January goals is not flying. I bought a little square caddy thing that can either lie on its side for cds, or sit upwards to hold – what I am thinking – pads of paper and midsize desk stuff. I bought a couple magazine storage containers. But I don’t need an In box or an Out box or alphabetical storage. We walk in the house through the garage and everything lands on the surface in the opposite corner of the house. Office type stuff often gets stored and organized in the kitchen first instead because of this. If I am looking for a piece of paper, I don’t go straight to my office. The kitchen is the first stop.

Our computer desk just raises a big question mark for me.

I think I did my shopping for organizing items prematurely. I think I should have cleaned off the desk, figured out what really needs to be there and then gone shopping. I knew we needed a pens container and I bought that. But it isn’t cute. In fact, I am already wondering if it would be better suited for Leif’s room and wondering if I would be better suited for a trip to Hobby Lobby?

Oh well. It’s on my list for the weekend, clear off the desk and organize. (Maybe go to Hobby Lobby…)

Today I worked on Leif’s mess of a closet. (A trip to Hobby Lobby would definitely serve as reward that effort…) Done. Finished. Whew. Not fun. Skadi has already started back to destroying it now that she can see all the fun things.

I am trying to finish out my January organization tactics before getting too amped about the downstairs half bath. But I found these… and I fell in love with them:



I love irises. Always have. There was an iris field in Boulder near my apartment in college that I loved. Irises were my wedding flower.

And oh, they were on sale. I got one for $36 and the other for $41. Yay me!

They are going to look spectacular in my bathroom! And now I have color inspiration for the lackluster room!

January Goals Update

It is almost halfway through January, so I figured it was time to update my goals!

Goal #1 – Organization Needs

I have addressed a few of my organization needs throughout the house.

Recycling Bin – Done – I bought a neat big basket from Target that seems to be doing the job – as long as I continually remind the occupants of the house to RINSE out the containers and BREAK DOWN the cardboard.

Dog Food – Purchased today! Who knew that Amazon was THE place to go? I have had a horrible time lately finding anything I need on Amazon and with Prime shipping. (Leif ski gloves, hello? Hello?) Anyways, I got a nice rolling bin AND a scoop. The rolling bin will be super because I have two dogs who cannot eat together. Unless you want to listen to growling. I mean you each have your own bowl, what is the big deal? Fill one bowl, roll the bin over and fill the other. And for $21.

Stairs – Did these. Found some cute leather containers that sit at the foot of the stairs. Now if I could just get some small people to empty them…

The Wii stuff – I bought an el cheapo storage ottoman. Ottoman for someone who has small feet or butt – whatever you are supposed to put on an ottoman. Anyways, it actually looks halfway decent and fits perfectly save for the Wii lightsabers – which are never used. For some reason Leif doesn’t actually like them, go figure.

Shelves in the kids’ room – Done and I am thinking both kids might need a few more shelves since I really only addressed the stuff that was sitting out in their rooms and not the box of breakable stuff still packed up in Leif’s closet.

The desk in the office - it is a nice big open flat space with stacks of stuff. Seriously in need of some pen holders and desk organizers and the like. This is still pending. And it is pending me finding some NEAT and in the colors I have selected for the paint accessories. So, this is pending…

SO this was the stuff I set out to tackle in December. I did a few more things too – we got a Hobby Lobby recently. Yay us! Anyways, I bought a nice, large leather tray for my peninsula in the kitchen. It is the stacking place, the landing place. I have tried tactics to minimize this and I have finally just embraced it. The tray at least makes it look a little nicer. Or better yet, when I need it to look nice quickly, it can be done.

I have additional organizational needs. They just keep popping up.

The tops of my and AB’s dressers in our rooms. And the area next to our nightstands. Our nightstands actually hold a lot. But we still have stuff stacked. I am halfway wondering though if I don’t need to devote an entire month to the needs of our Master bedroom… I am not sure 2 weeks can do it justice and I fear I really need a more functional piece of furniture there. AB tonight told me it didn't just need a piece of furniture, it needs all new furniture and by the way, why have we never had a bed frame?

Leif’s closet. The poor child can’t even walk into it – the largest closet in the house. Now it is his fault for dumping his stuff in the doorway. But we need to fix this. THIS IS on the schedule for one of the last two weekends of the month. It shouldn’t really take purchasing anything, just some organization time.

My closet. Specifically my clothes. I have a thing with buying more. I just bought a boatload on after Christmas uber-clearance. Like seriously a sweater originally priced for $150 that I bought for $24. I hate to even admit that last week, I found a pair of really cute cords. Found them. As in forgot I even bought them last year. I need to ruthlessly purge my closet. Who knows what treasures I will find.

Goal #2 Paint Colors

We are working the paint thing. Working and working it. AB and I have narrowed into a color scheme, now it is just a matter of testing said colors and then deciding where to put them - and where to stop. Very difficult in a foyer that is two stories tall. And if you know AB you will not be surprised to hear that the word "scaffold" has come up with enthusiasm. I know. Scary.

Staring down the 2011 goals

Last night we went for a nice walk around the neighborhood and up on the ridge above town. The kids and dogs ran ahead playing, giving AB and me a change to talk about the upcoming monthly goals.

The past few years, instead of annual New Year's resolutions I have undertaken monthly goals. It is easy for me to see changes by focusing one thing or set of things each month and then at the end of the month - regardless of doneness levels - I try to move on to something else. I like progress and doing goals this way enables me to see progress easily. AB used to give me a hard time about my monthly goals, but he has jumped on board recently. Most of the time lately we discuss the goals and work on them together. Except when it involves the garage and then I make myself scarce...

I haven't spent much time thinking about specifics of my 2011 goals until now. And I was actually looking for AB's input.

He announced straight away that he had a goal in mind - starting a boat. He has wanted to build a boat for awhile... ok, years. And he is thinking that January is the perfect time to do this.

He went on to suggest that going along with this it would be nice to get the garage cleaned out so that we can both park on one side and have the third bay to devote to the boat.

I reminded him that cleaning and organizing the garage - a non-heated garage - in January wasn't exactly my idea of a fun goal. But that he could have at it.

During 2011, we would like to tackle our dining room floor, the office floor and paint the walls. I would like to paint our half bath on the first floor. And we would like to renovate the back yard/porch area so that we have an outdoor living area like we did at the other house. However, I am feeling a bit miserly right now after a big vacation, Christmas and AB's last employer screwing up his last paycheck - which we have yet to receive.

AB suggested that it will probably be awhile before we get to the floors and that if I would like to paint either the dining room or half bath... I can.

This is where my mental block comes in. I am still not sold on a color scheme. And I want to be sure. Entirely sure. Way sure. 100% sold. And excited about a new color scheme too. And I am not at this point.

January 2011... seems that January according to the home magazines is all about organization. And I have spots in my house that could use some organization.

I have a list started so far:

Recycling Bins - right now our recycling gets stacked on the counter until one of us head towards the big bin - and remembers to take recycling with. We intend to continue to recycle now that the program is in full force in our region. Why not make this permanent and get some recycling bins?

Dog Food - the dog's food is presently in a trash can that is missing a lid and is ugly. We need a new dog food holder.

Stairs - I toss stuff on the stairs that needs to go up. Then when *I* go up, *I* take the items with me and sort to the rooms at the top of the stairs. I am going to get some bins of some sort to put on the stairs with handles. Something I can put each of our names on. Stuff goes in the bins and here is the really novel concept... the KIDS can take their own bins up!

The Wii stuff - I need some organization method for all the Wii accessories. Seriously need this.

The desk in the office - it is a nice big open flat space with stacks of stuff. Seriously in need of some pen holders and desk organizers and the like.

Shelves for Leif's room - he has so many trophies from participating in sports and I haven't even unpacked a few boxes in his closet that contain breakable things because he doesn't have a good, safe place to put stuff. Shelves for his room would help with that.

And the last task for January that AB has encouraged. Let's decide once and for all on a color scheme for the dining room, office and half bath.

February (provided we have time - February may be a month off since I have a big client visit and then we are going to Palm Springs for a number of days) or March will be for painting.

Stacker? Stuffer? Or other?

When you live with someone you get to know their habits. Habits are most often connotated as negative, yet we all have them.

My mom learned to deal with the one that, as an adult I realize, was probably very difficult for her. My mom was one of those very organized people. Not only in her work (I am organized from a work perspective), but also home. My home isn't horrible wrt to organization, but it needs help on occasion.

Anyways, the thing that drove my mom nearly insane is that I am a stacker. I have stacks of stuff. If I pick up something and am not sure what to do with it, I put it in a stack. And there is organization to my madness, I have stacks of books, stacks of bills, stacks of kids' papers from school... And at work I have a stack of lab notebooks, stack of stuff to go up to my lab, stacks of post-it notes.

I do go through my stacks. But this is a side effect of my type of multi-tasking. I generate stacks and then at some point I sit down and deal with my stacks. I have a bit of pack-rat to me though. At first glance, I can't get rid of anything. But give me a little time and distance and I am much more brutal with what goes to the trash.

Stacking works for me.

And it doesn't bother my husband. And in fact, he is probably a stacker too and contributes to my systems.

I have recently discovered a new system that was foreign to me. Stuffers.

A "stuffer" by my definition, instead of making stacks (like me) or putting stuff in a proper spot (like my mom) stuffs things in random drawers, containers, pockets and nooks.

I was working on my holiday vacation to do list and clearing off my desk area when I discovered random stuff (coins, paper clips, note pads, pens, pencil sharpeners) stuffed in random and IMO, just wrong places. My rationalle with stacking is that eventually, the items will get to the right places. It may be tomorrow, or three months from now, but it gets there.

With stuffing, not only will I never ever find said item I might be looking for, but you have to remove it from the stored spot and then find a new spot.

Ah well.

It's what makes us all individuals.

And I will try really, really hard not to steam when I find handfuls of change dropped in my phone charging station. Or paper clips in my remote caddy. Or Lego pieces in my pencil jar. Or spare keys stuck in my bamboo notepad holder. Or my notepads in the fruit bowl...

Homebound weekend

It is incredible how productive a person can be when they are stuck at home. That would be me this past weekend.

Friday night Skadi fell asleep early saying she wasn't feeling well. By 11:30pm, she was up. Every 30 minutes she was up. Until 4am.

We would just start to fall asleep when she would yell again, "MOMMY I FREWUP!"

And AB and I would start the routine all over, AB swapping out towels under her head or changing sheets as necessary, me pulling off her jammies, wiping off her face, getting her a drink of water and comforting her. It was a long night.

We aren't used to this routine. My daughter, like me, gets carsick. But viral stomach stuff isn't a common visitor in our house. I read on Facebook updates from friends whose kids are sick, once again, with the stomach flu and I give thanks that it isn't us. Now, viral respiratory crud knows our address well.

I felt awful for my daughter, but figured I might as well make the most of the weekend stuck at home by actually doing some of the things I have been talking about tackling.

My October goal is to organize spaces. Namely, the kids' drawers and closets, their toys (I am itching to get rid of lots of plastic things that reside in the bottoms of toy buckets - I can't watch Toy Story right now, it might ruin my mojo). I also have stacks upon stacks of things to go back into the pretty play room. I need to go through all that stuff first. I refuse to put things back that we won't use or will just be clutter. I am not getting rid of the kids' Geotrax, the play kitchen and play food or the Little People things. Those items got a free pass back into the playroom. Everything else has had to prove its worthiness. Also on the reorg list is the garage... AB and his sister have been working that.

Accomplished? Skadi's dresser, her closet, her bedroom toys and 80% of the toys sorted for the playroom. Four large Rubbermaid bins were filled with size 2T clothes and baby/toddler toys. Not to mention the garage was worked to the just over 50% point. (Can you tell I am in earned value mode? Percent completes. I deem this project to be on schedule with a positive cost variance... I haven't spent any money on this project... yet.)

On top of the reorg going on in the house we also tackled spaghetti sauce this weekend and ended Saturday with 19 containers of fresh (now frozen) sauce. AB and I started this ritual either before or after Leif was born. We can't really remember. But in the 6 or so years we have perfected our recipe and even the kids don't care for the bottled stuff. We eat a lot of spaghetti sauce throughout the year - this should last us about 6 months we figure. I like knowing that this staple of ours all fresh at the peak vegies and no sugar.

I think it was Alice Waters who said, "if you have to add sugar to your spaghetti sauce then make pesto".

On Sunday we started the morning with homemade pumpkin pie (described yesterday) and load after load of laundry.

Of course the downside to this extreme productivity in a germ laden house is that come Monday night child #2 started vomiting. AB and I felt the nausea worm over us that evening and both woke up and told respective employers we would see them Wednesday.

As I am feeling much better I am thinking I can attempt continued organization efforts upstairs.

Or I could just go watch Glee instead.

Decisions

I am guessing that I am right on par with my goals as most resolutioners right now given the state of the parking lot at the health club. It's still packed. And for me? January has been amazingly productive.

I don't mean to harp on it, but I think I got more done around my house this month than I did the entire last six months. Master closet cleaned, linen closet cleaned, deep freeze cleaned out and organized, the boxes in the Master bedroom emptied (not saying much has a place yet...) and as of today, Leif's closet has been cleaned out and organized. Phew.

And I still have another weekend left! Though I may suggest we take a break and go do something fun, like ski, or take the kids bowling, or something.

I have been giving thought to what I want to tackle in February and I have narrowed it down to two things. AB wants me to pick the least expensive, preferable no expense option since we are trying to save money for any number of things (mini vacation for our 10th anniversary, travel trailer, new TV...).

I am leaning towards fixing up our wine closet. I had picked out some inexpensive storage options totaling about $200. Then today I went to get baking decorations out of the spice cabinet and waffled when little glass jars came tumbling. Maybe I want the pull outs.

Pull outs, or wine storage? Pull outs or wine storage?

Have I mentioned that I suck at making decisions? And AB is NO help at all because he immediatly says, "they both cost money!"

I went in to count wine bottles and immediately arrived at the fact that the inexpensive storage options I had initially targeted may not work since we are within a case of that capacity.

I suppose we just need to work harder at drinking our wine!

Reveling

For the first time since we moved in, my closet is organized.

Truly I had huge plans for this closet with shoe cubbies and shelves galore when we moved in. But stuff got stuffed in there and forgotten about. Yes, sad to say, for nearly 10 months.

Like I said before, life just kept moving on, not paying any attention to the fact that my closet was unorganized.

I spent about an hour and a half on Sunday. Really, I know, that was all it took! I had anticipated 6-8 hours.

Now that it is done I kind of just want to hang out in there.

I take my time getting my clothes out in the morning because I am not worried about what I might be stepping on or what might fall on me.

Organization, once finished, is a serious destresser. A nearly cathartic feeling comes over me when I walk in my organized closet.

I am thinking the linen closet can be tackled in two evenings while the kids bathe.

The purge urge

I don't think I am a packrat. Or I tell myself I am not.

My grandmother, she is a packrat.

My mom is not.

I think I fall somewhere in between the two. I keep a big plastic bin in each of the kids' closet and I put special things in there. Their class pictures, copies of their school pictures, milestone momentos (first name printed for the first time, first shoes, going home outfits...). I toss things in on a not terribly regular basis.

The other day my husband commented that we needed more book shelves. We kind of do. But his idea is to LINE the office.

Umm what? So that all our creased back, mass market books are on exhibit to everyone?

I like having SOME books out. I have a good sized stack that is unread, I want those out. We have a few hardbacks that are nice to display. I have a few that mean something to me (like Hans Blix's book with a nice sentiment to me and his autograph in the front). My favorite books are up there and so are AB's.

But every single book I have ever read? Please don't make me put them out. I could use more bookshelfs for stuff... not books. Not to mention that I want to impart some sense of style into our home and lining one wall with cheap bookshelfs is not my way to achieve that. Sorry honey.

We have been hauling boxes from storage and unpacking them.

You might guess that a recent load was boxes upon boxes of books. I actually started making a stack of books to get rid of through either exchange at the used book store or donating to Goodwill.

It hasn't stopped there.

I wore a pair of shoes to work the other day that I have owned for about a year. They are cute, but kill my feet. I avoid wearing them because they hurt. This has prompted me to put a box in my closet and to start putting stuff in the box for Goodwill.

AB came home the other day with tales of a coworkers highly successful garage sale. That might work too.

The next goal is to put a box in every room of the house, particularly as I unpack boxes. Stuff that doesn't work, we don't like, doesn't have a function? Goes in the box. Those lamps with no lampshades? In the box. Ancient camera equipment? Box. Books that were bad the first time around? See that box over there?

Then the boxes, once full. (Or mostly full.) They will go away in search of new homes.

A chilly weekend

It was the perfect weekend to stay in and get stuff done. And that was exactly what we did!

After being gone last week there was a ton of laundry to do, lots of Ikea goodies to assemble and set up somewhere and lots of food to catch up on preparing.

There isn't much need, in this day and age, to "put up food for the winter". But it seems to be a fall ritual that AB and I have fallen into. Every fall we make buckets of spaghetti sauce. The goal is to get about 50 cups prepared and frozen, which gives us about enough for a dinner use every other week. There are a ton of varieties of spaghetti sauce out there, some very inexpensive. So some people probably wonder why we would spend a weekend making spaghetti sauce?

Because it tastes so much better. And I know exactly what I put in it.

Green chili isn't so easy to find. But AB started making green chili every fall long before we even lived together. In fact, I remember his first batch when he lived in Spanish Towers in Boulder with his roommate. It was so freakin' hot.

And I think it gets hotter every year. And every year he swears to control it. And every year I sweat through it. And many unsuspecting green chili tasters have come to despise AB at his annual chili cook off at work.

This weekend was no exception. He swore he was going to make a "medium" and a "hot" version. There was nothing "medium" about the chili that resulted this evening.

I made a big pot of red chili on Saturday night. Mine isn't nearly so involved since this is one staple I make that is based off of cans.

Still on our list for this fall is our second batch of spaghetti sauce, pumpkin breads and chicken pot pies. Nectarine pies have been done, 20 cups of spaghetti sauce complete, a few GALLONS of green chili and a couple dinner servings of red chili.

This weekend has been one of my most productive weekends in a long time. I told AB that I look forward to being moved in and settled so that I don't feel as though I have to work on that every weekend. But he asked me if that would ever happen. Would I ever feel as though my house was decorated and each room complete?

Maybe, but I don't envision it happening terribly soon.

I jumped off course on my monthly tasks to address each room. September was to be the garage. And it has been, and still is. And because the garage isn't terribly fun, I haven't been a rallying force behind AB on this one.

I also had planned to paint Skadi's room. And I really would like to pick out colors in the next week and then maybe tackle that either next weekend or the weekend after that. Skadi is excited for it, she asks for her walls to be painted "pink, pink, pink, pink and blue" (the ceiling is the blue one). The time has just been short though. Still I would like to get to this sooner rather than later as things start amassing in her room.

This morning Leif (since he had lost Wii privileges) spent a good portion of the morning helping me put together our new dining room table. He is getting to that age where he can be a real help. And he even seemes to enjoy it. It took us about an hour and AB's assistance at one point to lift the table tops and flip the table over, but we did it.

The table came from Ikea and addresses me "need" for a table where I can seat more than 4 people. You never know what you are going to get from Ikea. Some stuff is super and some is utter crap. Must to my amazement, the table (despite not being my first choice in stain) is super. AB even likes it and I admitted that ignoring the price, it is probably nearly exactly what I would have aimed to buy had I had 5x this much to spend.

"No tablecloths," AB said. "I like the wood. I want one of those runner things too before you put anything in the middle, I don't want it getting scratched up."

Fully extended it would have to sit diagonal in our dining room. With the leaves it seats "10 people", though I suspect it is more like 12-14. I also bought a bench to go on one side instead of chairs. In fact, I haven't purchased chairs yet because for now I can seat 4 on the bench if need be (ok, four kids or four of my friends with skinny butts), three of anyone else. Then I can walk the four dining room chairs from the other table over. The matching Ikea chairs weren't terribly comfortable and emitted an air of cheapness that the table did not. I hope to buy some chairs that might dress it up a little and blend the style of the table with the rest of the furniture in the front two rooms.

Piles of laundrey done, table put together, a few boxes unpacked, Skadi's room organized and summer clothes put away, food made... it was an eventful weekend!

So very sad

Tonight AB was rifling around in the pantry looking for something. As he slid stuff back and walked off a most terrible thing happened.

A bottle of Rum and a bottle of Kahlua took a dive.

If you have seen our pantry I am sure you are wondering how this hasn't happened to this point. And truly, it isn't for lack of organizing skills that my pantry looks the way it does. It is the very flawed design. It is a very deep, dark closet. Even my mom has given up hopes of finding the organization key to it. My next house WILL have a walk in pantry. That is non-negotiable.

AB spent over an hour cleaning up the mess while I kept the kids occupied (picking up the house) and away from the mess.

Any idea what a mess that stuff is? Icky, sticky, glass ladened mess.

An hour later AB's mood lifted a little and he could finally sit down and eat dinner.

We agreed, at least it was the rum and kahlua. This post would have a different tone had it been the Jack.

Weekend wrap up

This weekend flew by. AB poured Pinot Noir on Friday and Saturday and enjoyed that.

I took Leif to swimming and wrestled with Skadi while we watched. Just did not want to sit still. I think we will put her back in swimming starting next session. She loves the water and is just getting to that point where she recognizes the pool and really wants to be in it.

We came home and Leif had quiet time in his tent in the dining room. He has been begging for a week now to "go camping" and talks about building fires, sleeping in the tent with the dog and mommy and daddy, gathering firewood and saving C from any monsters that might invade the campground.

I told Leif he had to be quiet in his tent for quiet time, otherwise it was off to his bed for quiet time. He took me seriously. He was quiet and layed still in there for about 45 minutes, relaxing. No nap, but lately we are at about 50-50 with naps.

We headed out for a playdate with sibling friends where it dawned on Skadi that L was doing something she doesn't do. (L is two months older.)

Walking.

SO since that playdate Skadi has been striving to stand on her own.

Without holding on.

Just the other day I was saying Skadi was a long ways from walking. I am taking that back. I think she will take her first unassisted steps in the next 2-3 weeks.

We all got home and AB and I looked at each other and about the same time asked, "where are we ordering food?" PF Changs it was.

After the kids went to bed, AB and I finished "3:10 to Yuma", which wasn't half bad. AB enjoyed it "allright" for a Western. And since I never care for Westerns I really liked it comparatively. I am sure that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Nope, not one bit...

This morning we ate Swedies (crepes). Skadi actually ate more than Leif did... she loves her daddy's crepes. Then we hung around the house doing chores and such for the most part. AB made a quick trip to the grocery store and then to retrieve Sonic limeades, but that was about it - other than our morning walk.

I tackled the scary closet and have hit the motherlode with respect to garage sale fodder. And trash.

I pulled out my wedding dress and AB told me to put it on. I argued, but finally gave in. I couldn't zip it all the way (after 8 years), but I got it on. Leif looked at me and said, "you look like a butterfly! No an angel, you look like and angel mommy." Awww!

I made my way through about 1/3 of the closet while AB hung the Ikea animal hanger and herded the cats. I mean kids.

The closet still needs some serious attention, but it is started. I will admit that a few times I found myself just standing there looking, not sure what to tackle next.

At one point I pulled out a pair of leggings from my high school gymnastics team. AB laughed at them and said, "what did you wear those when you were 8?" He joked they might fit Skadi now.

Nope, I told him, I used to wear these when I was 16. Oh those were the days when I, like every other teenaged girl, complained about being fat at 104 lbs.

I threw the leggings away.

They only served to remind me of "those days". And well, I will never weigh 104 again, nor do I want to. I don't need the momento leggings from team.

Fish tacos and pinot noir for dinner. (Not the best match in the world.)

And that does it for our weekend. How was yours?

The goal... my library. I need your help.

My goal for the year is to organize and work on one room a month. This first month I tackled one that is in bad need of organization, will require minimal $$ input and because of its location - next to the foyer - I have found to be a necessity since people walk in and see it first. My weakness is books and my dislike is to deal with papers, making this room in sore need of attention.

I started tackling it this weekend and was fairly pleased. I sorted through the small, chintsy, ugly bookshelf, throwing stuff away and making a garage sale stack. Then I tackled my big bookshelf. Both are done to my satisfaction. That still leaves the desk, the few kids toys in the room and the file cabinet (i.e. aside from the kids toys - dealing with paper. Not my fun task.)

AB has jumped on board and has agreed to go through his stack of school papers (so I don't just dump them all in the trash).

So far for this room I have discovered the need for more photo archival boxes (Michaels next weekend) since I have lots of packages of photographs that I may never get to organizing. And since many don't have kids in them and are pre-kids, I am fine with boxes and not albums. I asked AB what we needed for the room and his response was a new bookshelf (to replace the chintsy ugly one from grad school days) and a lamp.

I nixed the bookshelf because that is a pricey item that I can't justify right now, but he is right, we are sorely in need of a lamp.

Here is my dilemma... ok, I will bare my library to the world. See... I told you, the file cabinet and desk are next on the list. Help me with a lamp... floor lamp, desk lamp, wall lamp? (Notice the one light we have in this room is on the file cabinet behind the box of stuff - a cheap desk lamp that doesn't put out much for light. And we have no overhead light in here either.)

And if you know of any inexpensive bookshelfs that could replace the little, overloaded with books one, let me know.

New Years

I have never been a big "resolution" person. The few resolutions I have made were quickly neglected. For example, last year while AB was unemployed and finishing school I resolved to start using coupons and working hard to save money, particularly at the grocery store which is somewhat like the fabric store. I like going there and I like trying new things. (Which is a huge change from when I was a kid and wouldn't try hardly anything new.)

The coupons went by the wayside and now I just aim to get my phone number entered in the kiosk to get my preferred customer benefits and maybe fish a store coupon for $6 off an $80 purchase out of my purse, hoping it isn't going to be returned to me for a long passed expiration date.

So if I call them goals for the year will it make it easier to fulfill? And if I limit it to two will it not seem so daunting? Goals don't HAVE to be accomplished, do they?

Goal #1
-Tackle dinners. I have been hit or miss this year with menu planning. It is amazing how we can come home from a long days work and stand in front of a full pantry, fridge and deep freeze (like I said, I like the grocery store) and not find a single thing for dinner. I like organization, it just takes time, time I rarely have. I am going to find time to organize our dinner menus and grocery list. Oh and did I mention with a focus on being healthy?

Now anyone have any idea what I should fix for dinner tonight? (I am off to a roaring start I tell you.)

Goal #2
-Organize my house and purge unwanted stuff. This may sound like a resolution you hear every January 1st. But it isn't. It is actually a plan someone on my discussion board posted and the logistics have slowly taken hold of my head.

My plan is that I will focus on one room a month. I can do that can't I? That doesn't sound too daunting. It should, in theory, be lighter on the pocketbook too. So over the course of a month I will clean out the room, putting stuff in the garage for a spring garage sale, putting stuff in the trash (bye bye four years of National Geographic... I mean really, why?), and not only organizing things, but BUYING the items I need to organize. If I need some nice fabric covered boxes (since I don't like baskets) I am going to go buy them and use them.

10 rooms (Master suite, Master bath and closet, living room, library, kitchen, formal dining/playroom, kids bathroom, Skadi's room, Leif's room and utility room), 10 months. (The garage is AB's territory though I might throw painting the hallway into slot #11... it has taken a beating over the years.) Some rooms will be "gimmes" - like Leif's room... although the closet in his room really isn't "his" yet.

AB thinks he might be sitting quietly by and "letting" me do this, but I have plans for him. Most of these rooms also have little things that need to be done - example, Master bath has some trim that needs to be replaced and the little patch of linoleum in there needs repaired or replaced... jobs like this also need to be done in preparation for selling our house sometime in the next 1-2 years (hopefully?).

(Don't ask me where we plan to move in 1-2 years... I don't know. That could be goal #3... figure out what we are doing, where we are heading.)

The weekend continues

Sort of, at least.

I am home with Skadi today. While in Portland last weekend Skadi's reddish crease on her neck decided to take on a life of its own. Things got worse and we got her into the doctor on Thursday with a raging yeast infection of the neck. After a day on the antifungal/steroid cream, things were looking up. Then this weekend it went the other way again and started looking worse. Apparently we upset the delicate fungal/bacterial balance and allowed the bacteria to run amuck. Staph that is. A call to the doctor Sunday morning confirmed this when she told us the cultures returned a positive for staph. (Yes, we were slightly irritated to find out she knew this already and hadn't passed the info on.)

After 15 hours on the antibiotic this morning things are looking substantially better. Because of the bacterial/contagious nature of this new diagnosis, Skadi is home, with me.

Leif had a playdate this Sunday. I have to say I love the fact that most of our friends are scientists. Because when I told J's mom right off the bat that I completely understood if they wanted to cancel the playdate for the staph on Skaders, she suggested we just meet at the park instead and keep the babies on seperate blankets. Thus, I didn't have to break the news to Leif that he wasn't in fact going to get to play with J this weekend.

We had a busy weekend as usual. Swimming on Saturday. Then AB's company picnic, where Leif had a fantastic time in the three bounce houses and we had a great lunch. Oh and to top it off AB won a gift certificate for Outback. I was a little bummed his was for the Outback and the one after his name was called was for Anthony's... though at least with the Outback, I have no hesitation in taking the kids. So it will get used sooner.

AB cleaned out and inventoried the freezers in the house, mowed the lawns and pureed about 4 big bowls of tomatoes and cooked it down for spaghetti sauce (which was my task that I didn't get to). I did however get our closet about 2/3 organized with the new shoe hangers from Ikea and sorting out some clothes. The floor is clear (save for 6 pairs of shoes... I really needed the 5th shoe hanger that I didn't buy). I still have the sweater organizers to put into use and a little more organization of shelf items, but we are well on our way there.

When Skadi goes down for her afternoon (long) nap I plan to do some cooking and get Leif's organizer put together. Yay me!

OCD?

I bought a little notebook to keep track of blog topics now that I have a professional blogging gig. It wasn't hard for me to come up with a few posts a week on my personal blog, but there are times I need more inspiration now. Or at least somewhere to catch those fleeting thoughts until they could be penned permanently.

That notebook has since become my lifeline. It has a vinyl front and back (so it doesn't tear in my purse), it is about 3"x5" and has 5 sections.

I left it on my desk last night and actually felt a little anxiety about not having my notebook. The loose piece of paper I resorted to just seemed inadequate.

The first section is for blog ideas, barely legible to most people.

The second section contains important notes, like to remember that today was water day for Leif and he needed a swimsuit, towel, water shoes and a bag. Or that I really need to stop and buy a new badge lanyard on my way in or out of work one day soon.

The third section houses information about upcoming events. Last week it was multiple lists about the camping trip, now it is birthday party planning. I also have a list of proposal ideas and topics in here since they seem to come to me at 10pm when I am headed to bed.

The fourth section is grocery lists because for some reason things I need from the grocery store come to me about 2pm when I am feeling that early afternoon lull.

And the fifth section is a neatly written out list of dinner ideas. I hope to keep adding to that list with regularity. (Have any to share?) It is the section I can flip to at lunch when I run into Safeway for a sandwich (they make the best sandwiches around) and look to for ideas and things I need. Or when AB calls, sounding hungry and says, "any ideas for dinner I don't have any do you want to order pizza?" Yes, all in one sentence.

I have become freakishly anal about this notebook. And truly, I actually find it kind of funny because I have always prided myself on my super brain that remembers everything. Apparently though I have a limited capacity and remembering everything for myself, my husband and two kids is just plain impossible.

Hello, my name is NM and I am a compulsive list maker.

(Thank you mom... "make a list!")