"Duhs"

I've made a lot of lists in the past few weeks. Making lists helps me cut down on stress because if I have something important to do, but don't write it down, it plays in may head repeated until I do. Worse than having Rebecca Black's "Friday" stuck in your head. To help me hone in on what's most important, I've been making even more extensive lists than usual so I have less things floating around my brain and distracting me. Shopping Lists, Wish Lists, To-Do Lists, To-Don't Lists, etc. All kind of like Dumbledore's Pensieve. Once I get something out of my brain, it's easier to decipher and deal with.

One of my lists ended up with the title "Duhs" at the top of it. This was a list of things that I should be doing regularly (if not every day). The list includes but is not limited to:
Mommy/Son therapy time
Mommy/Son snuggle/giggle time
Mommy cooking practice
Exercise
Weekday Cleaning Schedule

The list doesn't actually contain that many lofty goals if I were to really focus on what's most important and not let bad habits and laziness run my life. Some of the items I'm already good at and some I'm not. Some of them are really vital and others could be skipped, but I'm learning that I'd rather not suffer the consequences that come from letting them go completely.

FlyBaby

Lately I've been working on refocusing my energies on my family and our house. I still need to be able to take time and recharge my own batteries and cultivate some "non-essential" talents. But I'm trying to go about daily life more on purpose than I used to. Basically I was miserable for about two months after we got Alexander's diagnosis. Then I realized that a lot of my old habits just aren't sustainable amidst these new challenges (ex. sitting on facebook for extended periods of time does not give me a boost of energy or help me feel motivated to "get back to the day." It sucks me in and I'm lucky if I resurface before the boys have added 25 more things to my cleaning list.) I simply have to grow or I'm going to be crushed by the onslaught of "stuff I have to do" and suffocated by my own feelings and reactions. This does not mean that all of the sudden, two weeks ago, I became a perfect, glorified being. Everybody else, even Kevin, may not have noticed that big a difference in me from February to March. But I've noticed a difference. I'm not "happier than I've ever been" but I'm definitely happier than I was a month ago.

I signed up at FlyLady.net and diligently implemented the first two baby steps (Shine Your Sink and Dress to Shoes). Since then I haven't even visited the site again but I also haven't needed to. I have NOT kept my sink shiny-clean the way she says to but I have embraced the Getting Dressed to Shoes concept. It really is just like she says, I think twice before laying down for a snooze on the couch if I have my lace up shoes on. And I don't have any excuse for not going outside to play with the kids, or running to the store, or walking the trash can to the curb. Once again, people may not notice a difference when they come to my house in the level of its cleanliness, but I feel like there's a difference. I've gotten several Spring Cleaning/Organization projects done and I really feel like I owe it to my shoes. The dishes and laundry still pile up a bit but I feel slightly more empowered to handle it. And let me just tell you, spiders don't give me quite the same panic attack when I'm wearing my sneaks.

There's also a different mindset that comes with getting fully dressed as if I was really going to work (teeth brushed, makeup and deodorant on, the whole nine yards). I get in a groove, I put on my Hilary Weeks or Josh Groban Pandora station. I'm better at plowing through the chores and minutia and just getting it over with instead of letting it take up the whole day. This obviously leaves more time for other more pleasant endeavors. I've played outside with my kids more in the past couple of weeks than I ever have before. The early arrival of Spring, I'm sure, has also contributed to this development, but I'm just more motivated in myself than I've been in a while.

I guess you could say I look at all of this as evolution. My to-do lists have changed, my goals have changed, even my prayers have changed. They kind of just had to. And I'm grateful for the grace I know I've been given. I couldn't have gotten even to this point on my own.

"I ain't as good as I'm gonna get, but I'm better than I used to be."

Pass me the snow shovel

I saw this saying hanging on someone's wall when I was a kid. I remember being amused but now I really get it. I actually think a snow shovel would be a handy piece of equipment to have when picking up around my house. So here's a printable, free as always. You can edit the frame part out if you don't like it and put it your own frame. 

Click. Save. 

Share.

Enjoy.

My "Done List"

I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately. (I know I'm not the only one!) That site has got to be one of the most addictive things ever! At least for an OCD *nut* like me. I finally decided that I needed to make some "rules" for myself to channel my pinning obsession. My main rule includes the use of my "To-Do List" board. It's a board where I repin things I've pinned onto my other boards that I would like to actually do or make in the immediate future. This gives me easy access to my immediate goals so when I'm in a productive mood, I can cut right to the chase instead of getting lost in an endless sea of pins. The "rule" I've been trying to live by is that I'm not allowed to pin anything new unless I've done something off my "To-Do" board in the last week. In other words, if I go a whole week without actually USING the resources I'm pinning, I'm not allowed to waste time adding more. 

This is an exclusively self-imposed rule. I really can't say if I've been officially sticking to the week time frame or not, but having this goal in the back of my head has helped at least some. The only real documentation I have so far of the things I've done is moving them from the To-Do board to my Tried It and Loved It or Experiences Worth Having boards. So I wanted to post more about it on here and motivate myself to keep going. So here are the things I've done since I started this goal-oriented approach to pinning. :-)

Recipes Cooked (with Kevin's help):

    

Long-term Project Begun:

Ingredients Purchased:

     

Family Activities Done:

(Link to pictures on family blog)

If any one happens to read this and is inspired to make a similar board (or just set more goals), I do have a piece of advice: start small. It's GOOD to put recipes on your "To-do" list that won't require major shopping trips; ones that use stuff you have on hand already. Pin things you're already planning on doing anyway, like I did with the Corn Dawgs family activity. This is NOT "cheating". This is just a way to find motivation by having linked resources handy and to aid in making your inner awesomeness an outer reality. The awesomeness is something you already have, the list is just a way to remind yourself. As my old buddy C.S. Lewis always says, "Do not mistake it for the thing itself: and if it does not help you, drop it."

Organization Efforts

I want to be like this lady when I "grow up."

I really want to start this 52 weeks of organizing thing but I haven't been organized enough to do it yet. :-) As I've said before, I actually like organizing, I just don't like cleaning. The day to day "picking up" is just no fun. Occasionally I'll get in a groove and go on a cleaning spree, but it's never really done is it? There will always be laundry and dishes and toys that aren't put away. But then there's the stuff that has no place to be put away. I think that if all these things actually had a home, it wouldn't bug me so much.

Lately I've been obsessed with getting a storage ottoman (or two). My husband and I are looking at new furniture sets for our living room and every time we see an ottoman I'm like "is it a storage ottoman?" Kevin has started to laugh at me even before the words come out of my mouth because he knows they're coming. Regardless however, I've decided something, I don't need "a place for everything, and everything in its place", I just want the first part. When things are just floating around homeless in my house I feel a strong desire to throw them in the trash. And since Kevin doesn't like just throwing things away (I think it's a "man thing"...or maybe a sane thing, I dunno) I figure the answer is more places for those things to hide.

That's right random homeless junk, flee before me! You can run and you'd better hide! Fear my wrath and rejoice in my mercy in giving you a probation.

Org Junkie Inspiration

I want to add this article to my inspiration collection. It has a nice twist on the "don't look down" idea. Instead "Don't look up!"

Preview of Coming Attractions

My sister has been in town for the past week and we've been having a lot of fun working on different projects. She's helping me at least make some decorating choices before she leaves so I don't have to start from scratch on my own. I probably won't be able to go into detail about all of them until after she goes home on Wednesday so here are some photos of things to come.

Guest room before I cleaned it up for her to come to visit.

Guest room decor concepts (Gotta get something on those blank walls!)

Tissue paper canvas art 

(link to my sister's tutorial)

Stay tuned here for tips! (aka: learn from my mistakes)

 Three main reasons we haven't gotten more done this week.
Pretty heck-a-cute reasons, no? 

Lined up

I enjoy organizing, but I hate cleaning. Anyone else know what I mean? Organizing is fun because it’s creating a pattern, almost like art. You can line things up by size or color or frequency of use. You can create cute little boxes or baskets to put odds and ends in so they’re not just an eye sore. Fun times. Cleaning, on the other hand, is not like art. It’s like work. Pain in the butt work. Dishes, laundry, toys: piles and piles of stuff that multiply and never end. I’ve found that I can happily clean while I organize but I can’t organize while I clean. This is because the cleaning will never get done. Meaning, if my goal is to organize, a good deal of cleaning will obviously happen in the process. But if my goal is to get everything clean, stopping to look something over and decide whether or not to keep it and where it should go and then moving other things around to better locations to accommodate my new system: doesn’t work.

Just ask my mom.

I used to drive her nuts when I was supposed to be cleaning my room and I would spend a solid 5 minutes starting at each individual item I had picked up, reminiscing about where and when I got it, etc., before moving it all of 6 inches to the left. She also used to hate taking me shopping for clothes. I always had a definite picture in my head of what I wanted to get and we never could find a store that could read my mind.

But I digress.

My awesome SIL spent the past few days organizing most of the closets in her house. She posted pictures of the before and after this morning and suddenly I remembered how much I like organizing. So after half a morning in our master bedroom closet, here is a before and after of my own.

Before

      

My heck-a-cute kids

After

A couple weeks ago I did some work on my side (the garbage bag in the first picture has a bunch of my clothes in it to donate.) So today I did Kevin’s side, which included sorting through all the baby clothes I’d thrown in there as the boys grew out of them. See how pretty?

All color sequenced  

Told you I love a good pattern. Of course, most of these shirts had been in that pile on the floor for a while. But wrinkled is the new ironed right?

I don’t think you can see very well in these pictures but I have only white hangers for my side and only blue hangers for Kevin’s side. I did that last year and I think it really helps make things look nicer when there aren’t 15 different types and colors of hangers floating around the closet. Only problem is, if I ever need to jimmy the lock on my car; no wire coat hangers to be found. Ah, well, c’est la vie.

Morning

I'm sitting here, waiting for the sun to come up. By the time it goes back down, my house will be cleaner. I hope.

Wishful Thinking (Can't hurt to try)

Disney knows what I like!

Housekeeping

Oprah and I may not agree on some things (presidential candidates for example) but I still love her show. Information and inspiration is what I need in my quest to be "That Woman" and she and her producers know how to deliver that like no other.

So! Here to be added to our collage of  "things to work on" is:

I stink at housekeeping. Which means that, on occasion, my house stinks, too. So this is a big thing for me. And Oprah's organizational expert Peter Walsh breaks things down nicely. It's all about the proper mind set. What is the vision we have for our home? Hmmm...Good question. :-)

5 Year Plan

Last year all the way back in March I started a list that I called my 5 Year Plan. I didn't get very far on it before I decided I wanted another baby and morning sickness was reintroduced into my life. But I wanted to put that list on here as a jumping off point for this new blog. So here it is all nice and linked for future reference.