Organizing Challenge, Week 5

Time Management

Let's see, I'm still a mess. ;-) Every day is different and I'm trying to learn from my successes and failures. Yesterday, for example, I succeeded in showering and taking T with me to Walmart. But by mid-afternoon, I felt like crap (IBS cramps) so I napped. {Then I was able to buck up and make lasagna for dinner so it wasn't a total loss.} Therefore, today I planned to nap first thing this morning because that seems to be less disrupting. (Yes, I'm learning I need a daily nap. How pathetic is that? I'm getting 8 hours of sleep per night, pretty religiously going to bed by 10:30. Sort of.) But T was clingy and it was 9:15 by the time I laid down. And when the timer went off at 10:00 (I have also scientifically figured out I need 45 minutes of rest or I won't get up), I couldn't get out of bed. 15 minutes later I did rise, thanks to T screaming for me to start a new show. I had been debating which errand to run (the choices were post office-grocery combo or Target) but I got up feeling like the morning was wasted and said "screw it--no errand." And then I decided to run through my whole To Do List. Which I did and was mostly done in 45 minutes.

I started laundry before my nap, so I switched it to the dryer. Unloaded then reloaded the dishwasher. Changed the sheets on both kids' beds. And wrote and mailed a bday card to my sis. I took a quick break (yes, I kept it quick) then started writing thank you notes. Finished 4 out of 8--yeehaw!

Great, so in order to be productive, I must ignore my kids and not go anywhere. Yeah, that's not a super duper plan. Thus, time management continues to be a huge work in progress.

Decluttering

Last week, I did do some organizing of my desk. I'll post before and after pics soon. Basically, we'd been using a basket to corral our various pieces of paper (junk) and it was overflowing, so I had an idea to get a desktop file box. I bought one for the desk and for the foyer table (a future project) and I went through the basket of crap paper, threw out (recycled) a ton and filed the rest. Yea! I can't wait to tackle the foyer table. (I also have more junk on the desk to corral, but it's much better.) {Can I just say, I'm loving my files, so easy to find things!!!}

And my BFF and I have decided to tackle organizing projects together, one per month, since we both happened to work on our home office in the month of January (in fact, I was inspired to do my desk after seeing pictures of her revamped desk). So this month is entryways--she's working on her backdoor dumping ground and I'll be working on my front entry (including messy disaster foyer table). Great to have another source of support and accountability!!!

Worksheets

I attempted to do the pie chart activity, but I couldn't wrap my head around percentages or fractions (don't get me wrong, I can do math, I just couldn't visualize my time and priorities in that way) so here's what I came up with instead:

What I spend enough time on:
-spiritual (it would be great to increase this down the road, but I'm okay right now saying my prayers in bed at night)
-relaxing with Hubby (once the kids are in bed and I make the formula and sometimes shower, we watch Netflix together till 10:15--this is good for my marriage and my sanity, it stays)
-cooking (I handle 3 meals a day, whether Hubby or I do the actual cooking, this is a good system)

What I don't spend enough time on:
-cleaning
-projects
-playing with the kids

What I spend too much time on:
-the internet
-procrastinating
-relaxing/napping

From this exercise, I've learned that I need to take time from the relaxing/internet time and put it toward neglected things like my kids and cleaning and if I'm ever going to accomplish projects like decluttering or making photo books. As I said above, this time-management thing is a work in progress, but this gives me a good guideline.

For this week, we were to cut, combine and delegate tasks. I can't cut anything, I already do less than the minimum. And I can't really delegate anything--my Hubby does a ton of work and right now we have a good division of labor going on that works for both of us. {Although, I would LOVE to have a cleaning service come once per month, that would be awesome, but currently that is not in our finances.} I'm thinking that combining could be a good thing for me (music while I organize, letting the kids sort laundry with me) to help me combine playing with cleaning, and relaxing with projects, from those categories above.

Okay, that's where I'm at this week. Tons of work left to do. Oh another thing I did was buy an extra toilet brush so it can stay in our upstairs bathroom, so I can clean the toilet whenever I notice a ring, without having to make a big plan of when to clean and drag my bucket of supplies upstairs. Haha, baby steps!

This post is linked to the wonderful One Year to a {More} Organized Life on Unsolicited Advice. Go over and join in!

Organizing Challenge, Weeks 3 & 4

For Week 3, Brenda gave us a printout to brainstorm all our tasks: daily, weekly, yearly etc. Ugh, I am nowhere on this list. Seriously, my page is blank except under weekly I've written "one bathroom" and "sort toys" (that means a real clean-up of the living room, where the toys go back into the armoire). I dream big, my friends! Yes, I have a long way to go, I will probably have to steal someone else's list. I'm creative like that. ;-)

For this week (Week 4), Brenda has challenged us to look at our work like pieces of a pie and prioritize. I think this is an excellent idea and certainly it goes along with my desire to improve my time-management. What's important and how should I divide up my time?

As an aside, I read this post at Amy's Finer Things, which is a nice post in and of itself (here's a totally-together mom admitting she struggles with time-management too, hallelujah), but what I noticed were some of the comments. Like from "Frenchy" who basically says "I hang out with my family, make dinner, and the rest I don't care about." Wow! Or "Gwen" says she keeps her eyes on the important stuff--time with God, with the kids, with her husband--and the rest falls into place. Bravo! Now clearly I've learned that I can't fly by the seat of my pants and expect everything to fall into place, if that works for you, that's awesome. But I'm hoping that examining my time and labeling my priorities will put me in the right direction.

Progress Report

Not making much progress. I'm even having trouble conquering my Bare Minimum. But I do like having that guide for what I'm supposed to be doing, and if I could just have a normal week, there might be some hope, but it's just been one thing after the other. (I know: excuses, excuses.) My one organizing bright point last week was that after I folded the kids' clean laundry, I went through each kid's basket {this is a post for another day, each kid has a laundry basket of clean clothes--it's my system and it works} and cleared out the stuff that shouldn't be there (such as out-of-season) so those are back to good working order. Also, I am way (like years) behind on cleaning the kids' humidifiers (one in each kid's room), because I have a pathological fear of bleach {another post for another day}... anyway, we were at a baby store the other day and they had a display of humidifiers and there were these bottles of humidifier cleaner. Brilliant! I thought the $7 (yes, way more than the cost of a jug of bleach) was worth it if it means I actually Get The Job Done. So I bought the overpriced cleaner and washed L's humidifier. Yea me! Then it turns out his humidifier isn't working and he'll need a new one anyway. Oh well. Next up: T's humidifier. And I wrote "humidifiers" on the calendar a month from now, so it should be a monthly date to stay on top of it.

How and How Often do you clean your humidifiers?

Also, on Sunday T woke up sick (she vomited twice) so I spent all morning in the living room with the kids (to keep an eye on her), mostly zoning out in the recliner. By lunchtime, I knew I had to get some stuff done and I did an interesting thing: I asked myself, what's the highest priority? First, it was give T a bath (duh, she'd been puking). Later it was make the grocery list, then run the dishwasher, etc. When I had a pocket of time to do a chore, I asked what's the priority. And it worked! Despite a "wasted" morning, I ended up having a pretty darn productive day (gave 2 baths, did laundry and dishes, even played a game with L, and of course spot cleaned the carpet). Not sure that's how I want to handle every day (I'd prefer some sort of plan, I think?), but it's a tool in my arsenal, right?

Week Ahead

I want to keep up with my Bare Minimum daily list. I want to work on last week's brainstorming chore list and this week's prioritizing assigment. And I want to continue reading the Tell Your Time e-book. My project for this week (if I can make the time) is to finally write Christmas thank you notes. (Hello, it's almost February!)

How are you doing on your organizing or other New Years Resolutions?

To read more about the One Year to a More Organized Life challenge and to participate yourself, go here.

Resolutions 2011

Okay, so new year, new you. Yeah, not so much. I have no resolutions this year other than to keep working on everything I was trying to work on last year. Because I still have a long way to go. First, I'll review last year's goals:

-Thank you notes. I started off okay, but got behind at Easter. That's right, this month I will be writing lumped-together notes thanking people for all the gifts they gave us for Easter, L's birthday, T's bday, my bday, Hubby's bday and Christmas. And Halloween and our anniversary if you sent anything for those. Eek! But that will give me a clean slate for 2011. My plan for improving in 2011 includes me writing on my new calendar "deal w/ thanx" two weeks after gift-receiving holidays/birthdays in the year ahead. Fingers crossed.

-Be more friendly. Oy this could be a post in itself--I seem to have lost all my local friends in 2010. Sigh. But I was friendlier with strangers and acquaintances. And in recent weeks, I've given my mommy "business" card {like a business card but my job title is "L's mom" and it has my contact info} to 4, count 'em 4, moms. I'm hoping at least one of these will be new friends for me and the kids. This is way out of my comfort zone to put myself out there like this, so yea me, we'll see if anything comes of it.

-Go to church. This was really tough and we just weren't great about it. We'd have a good stretch but then not go for several weeks and then kind of gave up altoghether. But then my parents moved to town in November and we're Back In Action. ;-) My parents watch T while Hubby, L and I go to church (well, sometimes L stays home too, I don't care at this point). This new system should work to keep us attending church weekly. Yea!

-Make the bed. I lapsed on this one, but recently got back in the habit when my parents moved in (peer pressure). It's worth it for me to try to keep up with this one in the new year.

So obviously, I've got plenty of progress left to make on the above goals. I talked a little about my blogging goals yesterday, mostly to just follow through when I have post ideas, but I'd also like to comment more on other blogs, not just because it's often reciprocated but just for the golden rule of it--I know how much I like comments, I want to know if people have visited here, so as long as I'm there, I should leave a note.



On weight/appearance/healthy lifestyle (again this could be its own post)--always a challenge. I've gone back and forth the past few months about whether or not I care about these extra 10 pounds I'm carrying around and whether or not to try to do something about them. Where I usually come down is I need to try to be healthier--make better food choices (quality and quantity) and move more--and the weight will follow. Of course the last month, between Thanksgiving and New Year's, was a fiesta of bad food choices and I still haven't figured out way to fit in exercise--so it's a vague, ongoing goal.


And of course there's all the other stuff I need to work on--play with my kids more, read more, be more patient, do more housework, get organized! There was a point last year when I had a list of 4 things on a note in my kitchen--what were they? I know one was to drink less Coke--I succeeded in that, I went from 3 cans to 2 per day {baby steps}. Another was "no groaning"--I have gotten a lot better on that score, though as with yelling, I have my weak moments. Work in progress. What were the other two?! I can't believe I can't remember--oh one was to make L drink his sips--that was a project from a long time ago, no longer relevant. I'll try to remember the last one and report back. Anyway, I'll finish with the general goal of better time management--a huge weakness of mine. If I could be more intentional with my time, then all of the above would fit in, right? Playing with the kids, cleaning, organizing, reading. So that's the big goal of 2011.

Example: this morning I had time. It was about 10:30 am. L was at school. I'd already done breakfast, checked all my usual blogs, and played with T. So now what? I had a ton of choices--sort mail, play online, clean--but there was no guide book, no one to tell me what to do. No wonder I get depressed, I'm floundering here. In the end, I started a load of laundry, spent a few minutes online, then called my BFF. Pretty good choices (though cleaning or organizing would have been better choices). It was only after all that plus lunch that I realized I really need to put the Christmas gifts away (they are in various piles in my foyer), but by then it was time to pick up L and do afternoon stuff. So yeah, time management is a big ol' Work In Progress. ;-)

There you have it, my resolution-related ramblings for the new year.

What are your resolutions for 2011? And do you have any suggestions to help with my goals?!

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to say a quick hello and Happy 2011. We had a wonderful Christmas, well mostly it was good, my husband had a little too much of my family. But we made it to mass on Christmas Eve for the first time in YEARS so that was super. L went with us (my sister babysat T). He does really well in church, I can't believe it, this kid who has boundless energy, perpetual motion, whom we often wonder if he has ADHD, is calm in church. Amazing. (So probably no on the ADHD, yea.) But he was a little extra fidgety at Christmas mass because we had to get there half an hour before it began in order to get a seat, so by the end he was surely bored. {A special thank you to the people behind us who engaged him in conversation while communion was lasting forever.}


I have in mind to do some sort of resolutions post--I'm still working on last year's goals so I'll do an update on those but I'll have to go through some old posts to even remember all the various things I was working on. {That speaks well of my progress, doesn't it?}

So is 2011 going to be the year my blog takes off? Haha, not even close. I've realized that as much as I LOVE comments and followers (keep 'em coming), I will never be a big blog. Because I would rather read blogs than write my own. {Is that horrible?} I started this blog to join the conversation and to have a place to say what I have to say, but when I don't have something to say or time to say it or the energy to write in my limited free time, then I'm not going to worry about it. That said, I do wish that more of those times when I do think of something to say, that I will follow through and write it. Whether or not people will see it or comment on it. Just as an outlet. Because that's the whole point really. Another goal is that when I do have free time and I've checked all my favorite blogs, that I will make content rather than just read others' content.

What will that content be, you ask? The same hodgepodge as ever--books, movies, life as a harried mom of 2, attempts to cook and organize. I enjoyed writing my memories in the two sessions of Mommy' Piggy Tales and I've thought of various other memories I'd like to chronicle on here for posterity (and perhaps a few laughs). I'd also like to comment on pop culture/current events--because I have all sorts of opinions on a wide variety of crazy topics and I've often thought "I should blog about that"--so again I need to work on that follow-through.

Wow, this actually turned into a decent sized post--once I decided to go make content. Thanks for reading, best wishes for a happy, healthy 2011!

Week in Review

I thought I'd try something different today, a little Week in Review, don't expect this to be a consistent feature, since nothing I do is consistent, but here goes. I am also inviting the Company Girls over for coffee for the first time. Welcome!
Successes
-Went to the library on Sunday and finally returned the 3 children's books we've had out since January.
-Called a potential preschool for next year.
-Scheduled a speech evaluation for T (I'd been procrastinating).
-Whole family went to church on Sunday.


Failures
-The usual poor time manangement. Got sucked into the internet and failed to play with my children. :-(
-Still haven't written Easter thank you notes.
-Forgot to defrost the beef for today's crockpot beef stew so I'll be scrambling to make something else for dinner instead.
-No exercise. None, zilch, nada. :-(

Feeding therapy
We've been doing feeding therapy for a few months to try to expand L's diet. We have sticker charts for a bunch of foods. So far, he's added chicken nuggets, american cheese, and ham (dipped in ketchup, yum); we're working on rice, mac 'n' cheese, french fry/tater tots, and guacamole/avocado.
-This week he got stickers for eating chicken, rice, and tater tots, earning a prize for the tater tots.
-Yesterday I sent cheese ravioli and chicken breast. L wouldn't eat the ravioli, but apparently he enjoyed eating the chicken dunked in marinara sauce. (We tried to replicate that success at dinner and he grudgingly ate one bite.)


Movies, tv, media
-Last weekend we watched The Squid & The Whale. It was awful--bad, disturbing, kids in trouble but not getting help. Bad.
-Finally saw The Blind Side. Loved it! Want to own it.
-Started watching Moon. Weird, but intriguing.
-Project Runway finale (I know it aired last week, but it took me till the weekend to watch it)--I think Seth Aaron's win was totally deserved, he had the best collection. Although Emilio rocked throughout the season, I didn't like his collection. Mila did a great job and I thought she had a better attitude during the final episodes than she had during the season. (On the other hand, I think Emilio's head swelled to enormous proportions, I didn't like that.)
-Glee this week--I didn't love the songs (except for the Beautiful number, which was awesome), but I LOVE Kristin Chenowith and I liked that Mercedes and Kurt both got to shine. Love Kurt's voice but didn't love his song. Kinda bummed that Sue got credit for doing the Beautiful thing, but whatever.
-I love that Sandra Bullock adopted a child in January. It makes me happy to know that through all the ugly divorce and tabloid stuff, she had this little boy to love and focus on. Congratulations to her.

Resolution Progress Report

I didn't intend to use my blog to keep me accountable to my resolutions, but the boys are camping out in the living room tonight and I'm blowing off steam before I hit the hay so here goes....

Making the bed. I'm doing okay with this one, to my surprise. I have never in my life been a consistent bed-maker. Even though it was one of my assigned chores growing up--my poor mother was constantly nagging about it--yet I never made it a habit. But these days compared to all the hard work I do, it's been pretty easy to pull the blankets up and call it good. It's not every day, but I'd say the bed gets made 75% of the time.

Highchair tray. I'm not any better at cleaning it off after each meal. Fact is, meals are really tough for me. I make food my food, T's food, and L's food--not much of it overlaps--and then T makes an enormous mess and L fights me over what, when, how much to eat. It's exhausting. So when we're done, I want to run screaming from the kitchen, not stick around and clean. However, when I'm in the kitchen between meals (to grab a snack, load the dishwasher, or whatever) and I notice the messy tray, I'm likely to wash it then rather than leave it for the next meal. That's progress, right? In any event, I like when it does come time to prepare the next meal and the tray is ready to go. So I'll keep at it.

Thank yous. It took nearly two months (no thanks to two weeks of stomach virus going around our house (excuses excuses)), but Christmas thank-you-notes are done! Obviously, there's much room for improvement, but it's progress.

Friendliness. Okay, this one I'm trying, I'm pushing myself, and hopefully I'm nodding and smiling more at strangers and greeting my fellow preschool parents. However, there have been several incidents where in hindsight I've realized I missed an opportunity to be friendlier, to speak out and help my fellow man. Work in progress.

Church. I'm happy to say the 4 of us made it to church as a family a couple weeks ago and it was a success. We sat in the "cry room" and L had fun interacting with the boy in the pew in front of us (staying quiet and within our row) and T lasted a good long stretch before I had to put her on my lap. Unfortunately, mass went on forever and the kids got restless and we weren't able to stay to the end. We left after an hour and fifteen minutes and Communion wasn't even over. Then we got the stomach bug and, based on its timing, I have to wonder if that's where we picked up the germs. So we haven't been back. We may try another parish, it has a smaller cry room but a shorter mass.

So that's where I am mid-February. How are your resolutions/goals going so far?

Resolution Stuff Continued

You can see my previous Resolution ramblings here. I considered just editing that post, but decided why not do a whole new post. Oh the creativity!

Okay, first I wanted to mention that 2009 was supposed to be my Year To Get Organized!!! Well, I tried hard and made progress (see my organizing tag in the sidebar), but I get such small bursts of time, it will be more like a Decade or Century To Get Organized. So this year I will continue on that journey. But, I would also like to add a little decorating this year. I threw up some art on my kitchen walls after Xmas (hopefully I'll post about that soon) and hubby did a great job hanging up our backlog of children's portraits on another wall, and it just makes everything perkier, happier, more of a home.

I am also trying to add two new (tiny) habits as this new year begins, inspired by all the new-year-posts around blogland. I don't know, they go against my lazy tendencies, I'm not sure how either will get off the ground, but here goes:

(1) make my bed every day
(2) wash the high chair tray after each meal (rather than before the next one as is my current habit)

I thought (1) would be a good model for L, who should start making his bed as a chore soon. Plus that's what normal people do. And then we don't have to remake the whole bed every few nights when the sheets and blankets have fallen completely off the bed and it's 11pm and we're exhausted. And (2) is just logical--wash it immediately and food doesn't stick and the tray is always ready if I need it in a hurry.

Finally, I'm not loving my word of the year: aspire. It's vague and ultimately uninspiring. I'm now thinking about the word grace. I need to give myself grace, extend grace to others, ask for and rejoice in God's grace, etc. So I'll be trying that word on for size for awhile.

Resolution Post

It's that time of year again, everybody's thinking about Resolutions. Well, all of mine last year failed miserably, so I've only got a couple small aspirations this year.

1) I am going to try to be friendlier. I think I'm a pretty kind and caring friend, but I tend not to be friendly to strangers, acquaintances, fellow preschool moms, whatever. I'm not rude or anything, just introverted and shy. So I'm going to push myself to be more outgoing and hopefully I'll start to notice moments where I could be more friendly and I'll go that extra mile.

2) This past year I was horrendous about thank-you-notes. I got an entire year behind! So I'm going to try very hard to be prompt with thank-yous so I don't get behind and thus overwhelmed. (Not off to a great start, I've yet to write a single Christmas note.)

3) I want to try to figure out a way to get back to church. It's very hard with two kids and there are various "issues" with the churches around here, but number one we just have to make it a priority again--we got out of the habit and we need to fix this!!!

Meanwhile, inspired by Tip Junkie, I've been thinking about a "word of the year" and think I've finally decided on ASPIRE. I was thinking about goals like: do better, try your best, make better choices, be deliberate with my time, work with purpose, be a better wife, be a better mom. S0 I think "aspire" sums up this goal to try to do better and be better in 2010. There you have it, Happy New Year!