I actually feel a lot less overwhelmed seeing it down on paper.
Category Archives: Money & Organization
Friday Bullets
I’m thinking this might be a trend I go with for the new year. I kinda like the idea of Friday bullets — easy way to organize my thoughts as I wrap up the week.
- Today has been crazy busy at the shop. People have been either incredibly nice or incredibly nasty. Luckily the nice people have outnumber the nasties.
- I’ve just finished making up my grocery shopping list for Christmas Day. Remember my big dilemma? Well, turns out I’m going with finger foods and I scrapped brunch altogether. I think it will be a fun change. I just hope Stop & Shop won’t be too crowded. Yikes.
- News this week has been pretty eventful, and if I had the time there was a lot I could have commented on. Though I’m not a big sports fan, I’ve found the report on steroids in baseball quite fascinating. Wondering if other muscle-building compounds like creatine ethyl ester are allowed or if they fall into the same category.
- I feel like my house is a disaster. The snow has really made all the floors messy and I can’t stand it. I am kind of interested in this Making Your Home a Haven Challenge (minus morning devotionals, because that’s just not really my thing). Kind of like a more do-able version of FlyLady to get my house back into shape and help keep me organized. I don’t know… I always seem to fall off the wagon with those kinds of things, but the baby steps is good. Need to do some more purging too. I wish Salvation Army picked up more than just once a month in our area. If I forget to call on the day they schedule, I’m screwed until the next month. At any rate, first of the year I need to get on track.
- My friend had knee surgery today. I don’t know if he ever really reads my blog, but just in case — Rest up, kiddo, and heal quick!
- Disappointed that one (well, two) of the gifts I bought for Drew won’t be delivered until the 27th.
- Really unhappy with FedEx. My friend sent me a package for the boys and it was never delivered. FedEx told her that the house was empty and phone disconnected. She gave them the correct phone number. Yesterday it was delivered, but my husband found it when he got home around 9:30 — it was thrown onto a snowbank between our mailbox and driveway! Now, I got home from picking up Jake around 4 and it wasn’t there. I had the front light on, and there was a clear path to the door. I can’t believe they didn’t even bring it up to the stairs! It was in a thin plastic bag. Luckily, the contents were fine, but how infuriating.
- Busy weekend ahead, and I hope you have a good one!
To Market, To Market…
For several months our grocery store has been selling inexpensive canvas totes emblazoned with the shop’s logo that shoppers can buy and use instead of plastic bags. I love the idea, but I don’t really want to be advertising the grocery store everywhere I go, especially if I choose to shop somewhere else. And so, while examining my ridiculous stash of kitchen cotton, it struck me that I should just knit my own. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? I searched online and found a few patterns. I love MagKnits’ Saturday Market Bag, but I just don’t have the patience to screw around with the lace pattern. Then I found this pattern (“Market Bag, V. 2”). Seemed perfect!
And so, yesterday morning I started knitting and worked on it in between chores and playing with the boys. If I didn’t go to bed early, I would certainly have finished it. So trust me: it’s a super quick project if even I finish it in one day. The only thing that confused me was the instructions on how to make the handles. I could not figure out what she meant by “cable knit on 13” so I just modified it slightly and worked them out on my own. Otherwise, I loved this knit and plan to make several of them to use when I shop instead of the plastic grocery bags. (Much prettier than the ones offered by the store!). I like that the bag isn’t too huge and that there are two handles. I also chose to make shorter handles because I think it’s easier to carry. I might make one with longer handles to carry over my shoulder for the farmer’s market, but for the bag’s main purpose, the shorter handles work well. I was suprised how much stuff fit into it, and there was room for more. I’m very pleased!
Review: Life Balance CD Set
Although I am not typically one for self-help books or tapes, I had an opportunity to review a three-CD set by life coach Clay Nelson. I will give most things a shot at least once, and I have to say that I enjoyed listening to these CDs. Even though I am quite happy where I currently am, and I have a pretty clear idea of when I am hoping to be in 5, 10, 15 years, I still found “Life Balance” beneficial. We all find ourselves in ruts from time to time, and I’ll probably come back and listen to this again when I’m not feeling up to snuff.
The first disk is entitled Creating Your Purpose. Mr. Nelson guides you through an exercise that is designed to help you identify some of your goals, and then write a purpose statement. The second disk is called How To Let Fear Serve You and I think this was the best of the three. Why do people fail? They let fear get in the way. You need to take chances. He challenges us to do something every days that scares us. I actually started doing this (though not every day) this summer! And it really does help. The final disk is Commitment, and as you might guess he discusses the importance of giving yourself over 100 percent — committing yourself to your projects, your family, your goals. No one else is going to do it. You need to be the one.
The set was inspiring, I have to say. Mr. Nelson also has a radio show that I’d like to try to catch at some point. You can read more about his Getting Started Series on PRWeb.
Moving on up
Well, we now have the bedframe, headboard, and boxspring for Noah’s “big boy” bed and Drew’s going to get the mattress on Friday. They’re totally excited about sharing a room. I’m a little nervous that they’ll wake each other up, but… enough people have kids who share rooms, so I’m sure it will work itself out.
While we’re moving the boys in together (Noah’s crib is currently in this “sitting area” at the top of the stairs between the two bedrooms), we’re going to be moving our room upstairs too. The two upstairs bedrooms are huge. I mean HUGE. We decided that it’s crazy to have a designated “guest room” when we only have overnight guests once or twice a year. So that will be our room (oooh, and that means we’ll each have our OWN closet!!!). We’re converting the current master on the first floor to a den. (That sounds like such a big project, LOL! All it really entails is moving furniture.) All the boys’ toys will be in there and we’re probably going to get a futon because that will be harder for them to destroy than a couch, and it will also be a place for overnight guests to sleep. We’re working on all the small steps now and planning on doing the “big” move over Labor Day weekend. I’m so excited! I think it’s going to be awesome.
Cleaning and organizing spree
Maybe it’s the chilly weather we’re having, or the idea that “back to school” is just around the corner, but I have totally been in Suzy Homemaker mode lately. Of course, the birthdays are always a good time to purge old clothes and toys, so that was inspiration too. I currently have two large bags of donations just from the boys, and it feels so good to be cleaning this stuff out! I sorted all the 3T clothes in a tote and this time did it in such a way that made sense (e.g., all the turtlenecks together, all the sweatpants together, etc.) Previously I’d been so pressed for time that I just threw all same-sized clothes in together. The 4T stuff I put in a Space Bag (I kid you not — those things are awesome!) and I’ll probably stash that in the attic. The fall 2T stuff is also in a tote and ready for me to get into. Jake was already wearing 3T stuff at this age! I think because Noah started walking so early he never got chubby. I still have to go through all of Jake’s 5T and 6T stuff and assess the wear and tear, but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far. The sheer amount of clothing is just crazy, though, and I’m thankful they are the same “season” and Noah is able to make good use of hand-me-downs!
What’s In My Bag
I decided to clean out my purse this morning. It was stuffed with old receipts, coupons, notes, wrappers, and loose change. And, of course, I have decided to blog about what is now in there:
- My wallet (obviously) containing cash along with a couple credit cards, health insurance cards, and discount cards.
- Three different lipglosses, all shades of pink.
- Deposit slips. I keep meaning to put these in the desk!
- Hand lotion and hand sanitzier.
- Three pony tail holders.
- Two rubber bands. (Why and how these got in there, I have no idea.)
- My iPod. (Long drives are so much better with my MP3 player.)
- Spearmint gum. I chew gum when I am stressed or nervous. Did you know that?
- Silver hoop earrings. In case I forget to put some on when I leave the house, this pair goes with pretty much everything.
- Cell phone.
- Four pens. Why four? I think that when I see them around the house I just throw them into my purse so Noah doesn’t get them and write all over the furniture.
- Calendar. I don’t really use it, but I have it just in case I need to look up a date.
- My keys. I really have to scale down the keychains. While I adore the keyless entry features on our vehicles, I hate how bulky the keychains are. Plus, there’s the new one I got from the Toyota dealership, the cute sheep I got from the last dishcloth swap, and my tried-and-true key fob from Sommer Designs that I got in The Sampler way back when.
When I am out with the kids I throw in a couple bags of fruit snacks, a bag of crackers, a diaper or two, and a zipper bag with some wipes. Good to go!
Guy Stuff
I pretty much consider the garage Drew’s territory, mostly because when I was a kid (and heck, even now), that’s where my Dad had his workshop. (Though now my dad also has his own tool annex out back!). Anyway… due to this whole idea that someone would buy our house, half of our garage was repurposed into storage for things that we wanted to donate, or baby things that would be given away to people we know. But now that we’re not sure a sale will happen, Drew’s been looking at workbenches and trying to figure out how he wants to organize the workshop area of the garage. We looked at some benches yesterday at Sam’s and they were decent, but he could also use a good garage storage system, too. Something like this workbench with drawers and cabinets would be exactly what he wants, I bet. (Though it’s priced way above our budget!). Still, as much as I dream about furnishing my house from high-end retailers, I’m sure guys would drool over the stuff at Car Guy Garage.
Thanks and another request
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who chimed in on my recipe storage post. I think that a binder really is the best solution (obviously it’s the one everyone seems to use!). But I like Christina‘s method of using recipe cards for quick reference. I received a cute recipe box as a gift and I would really like to use it. Seems like this might be a good way. After our vacation I’m going to start putting my recipe binder together. I have a feeling this will be a large undertaking; I have lots of recipes (as you might imagine).
And my request… I am desprately seeking a Lock & Lock lunch set like this one (which I prefer because of the insulated bag), but this one would do fine, as well. I have exhausted the Internet and just cannot find either of these for sale online. I will keep checking Ebay, but if anyone has seen either of these sets I would most happily pay you to buy and ship it and I will even include some extra surprises!
Recipe storage
Help me here, dear readers. I’m trying to figure out recipe storage. I’ve been half-heartedly keeping my recipes online for a while, but after my laptop went kerplooey, I realized that maybe it’s better to have a binder or a box or something hard-copy that can resist spills, is easy to access, and doesn’t take up a lot of space. I’ve been searching and searching for some kind of 4×6 recipe card that you can download and type your recipe on, but the few I’ve found have really ugly cutesy country type graphics. Or else you have to print the cards out and then write on them and really, if I’m going to do that, I’d prefer to buy recipe cards that are on heavier cardstock than I have.
So what do you do? How do you organize your recipes?