My Chalk Board

Here is a picture of one of my organization tools.  It is my chalk board.  It hangs in my kitchen as that is where I spend the majority of my time.  It reminds this stay at home mom what day of the week it is, which I often forget.  I put the weather forecast so everyone knows how to dress for the day.  Then I put the activities for the day.

I have updating this board as part of my before bed routine.  It helps me prepare the night before for the day ahead.  

Do you have anything like this that you use.  I am always up for ways to be better organized.

Bathroom Cabinet Fling

Here is what it looks like under my bathroom cabinet.  It is a little more organized than it was earlier today.  As you can see I am well stocked.  Most everything you see here I got for free!  Check out my money saving tips over at CarriesCooking to see how I use The Grocery Game to save money (please use CarriesCooking@gmail.com as referral).  You can also check out Mommy Snacks, to see great deals I am also getting at CVS and Walgreens.

A Cold Wednesday

It is very cold here in Ohio.  That makes it a good day to catch up on my ironing.  (Silver lining?)  I also need to get my errand day prep done and pay bills.  Then there are the projects I want to work on.  I don't know where my time goes during the day.  I know the fact that my daughter hasn't been napping again has slowed me down.  She is alway running up to me asking me to play.  How can you not stop working when that happens?  But, I am ready to tackle the day.  My brain feels a little cloudy, not organized at all.  I will take a stab at a list of things to get done today.

Wednesday Routine

Exercise
Shower and Dress to Shoes
Dishes out of dishwasher - Done
Check Calendar - Done
What's For dinner - Done

Post Blog Entry - Done
Eat Breakfast - Done
Swish and Swipe Bathrooms
Put Laundry in wash
Make Bed
Put Laundry in Dryer
Clean Kitchen and Bathroom Floors
Put Laundry away
Pay Bills (and paperwork)
Ebay work
Shine Sink
Empty Trash
Check Calendar & Weather for tomorrow
Wash Face
5 minute house rescue
Lay out cloths for tomorrow

Other chores

Organize bathroom cabinet and makeup

Ironing (since I didn't do it yesterday)

Prep room for son

Now it is time to try to get these things done.

Tuesday School Day

Tuesday is a school day in my household.  I got up early and worked to get things done.  Mostly a shower for myself.  

I didn't get nearly everything done yesterday.  But, got some good adoption news so I don't feel too bad about it.  Although, some of what I wanted to get done makes us more ready for our son.  

Still need to get done today:

Ironing

paperwork (prep for shopping)

picture downloads

big job of week (prep son's room)

Post to personal blog and to www.carriescooking.com

I will let you know how it goes.

Oh, and for many details towards my imperfect days follow me on twitter.

Monday ToDo Routine

ToDo (Monday routine)
Exercise
Shower and Dress to Shoes
Dishes out of dishwasher
Check Calendar
What's For dinner
Post Blog Entry
Eat Breakfast
Swish and Swipe Bathrooms
Put Laundry in wash
Make Bed (Change out sheets and towels)
Put Laundry in Dryer
Clean Living room
Eat Lunch
Put Laundry away
Download Pictures from camera

Big Job of Week

Eat Dinner
Shine Sink
Empty Trash

Work out Shopping Lists for week
Check Calendar & Weather for tomorrow
Wash Face
5 minute house rescue
Lay out cloths for tomorrow

I'm Back

Here I am again, ready to put myself out there for everyone to see my struggles with getting everything done.  I have a number of things that I would like to get done today.  They include:

• Revamp Monday Routine
• Monday Routine
• Medical Form for Adoption
• Call Alex about possible court date for adoption
• Organize my bathroom cabinet
• Post Big Job of Week

I am feeling odd today.  I think I am stressed and a little down.  No reason for being down.  That makes me sound like my mom.  She would and I guess sometimes still gets that way.  I gave my husband a big hug before he left for work and that helped.  Then when my daughter got up she let me cuttle with her a little while.  Hugs help when you are feeling down for no reason.

I am sure I am stressed because I hope to hear a travel date for court so we can adopt our baby boy.  I have so much to get done to be ready for our son.  I am feeling overwhelmed.  I must remind myself that I can take it in small parts.  I must try to ask for help when I need it.  (I have a bad habit of taking on everything myself.)

I am glad that I am having a slow cooker meal for dinner tonight, Baked Turkey Breast.  Check out my website www.CarriesCooking.com or click here for the recipe. 

Self: Reach Your Goal! (Run 3 Miles With Ease)

Well, I am going to try to start exercising again. I am still doing pretty well with the writing out by the minute what needs to get done. I feel tired at the end of the day, but I feel good about what I have gotten done. Today's list is:

5:30 - 6:00 (Shower and dress, let hair dry on own)
6:00 - 7 (Clean kitchen) Wake up family
7 - 7:30 Make bed/ change out sheets and towels
7:30 - 8 (make pancakes with Elena and eat)
8 - 8:30 Laundry
8:30 - 9:30 Clean living room
9:30 - 10 Clean Kitchen
10 - 1:30 Play and eat lunch
1:30 - 2 Put Elena down for nap
2 - 3 Website work
3-4 Work on pictures
4 - 4:30 dinner prep
4:30 - 5 House Rescue
5 - 5:30 Eat dinner
5:30 - 6 Get Ready for Ballet (Elena's)
6 - 8 Ballet (includes driving time)
8 - 8:30 Play
8:30 - 9 Put Elena to bed
9 - 10 Watch TV (Includes Computer time)
10 - Shower, wash face, brush teeth, prep for tomorrow, read

Where am I going to fit in exercise? I am working my way up to getting up at 5 and then 4:30. 4:30 is a very doable get up time for me.

I am going to try Self Magazines, www.self.com, Run 3 miles with Ease program. I think this is funny because, I don't think I could run 3 miles in High School when I was trying to run track. I tell people that my Junior year in High School I decided to try running for our track team, but I only ended up jogging it. I will try to fit in the first 23 minute session tomorrow.

Check out www.self.com for one of their many Reach Your Goal! challenges.

Getting Things Done & Being Realistic

If you are like me, you have a huge list of things you want to get done and then are discouraged when you find few if any get checked off. You feel tired from all the work you did but don't feel like you have anything to show for it.

I have decided to do something that I used to do back in College and at work when I was feeling overwhelmed. I have decided to start planning out my day by the minute. I often find there isn't enough time in the day to do it all. This helps me be realistic in what I can get done, thus I feel less discouraged when I get into bed. Here is today's list for example:

• 5:30 - 6:30 Get up, shower, Dress (I actually didn't make it out of bed until 5:45 but was able to make myself presentable)
• 6:30 - 7 Check Email, Weather, calendar, wake family
• 7 - 8 Breakfast and Laundry
• 8 - 9 Clean Bathrooms
• 9 - 10:30 Play and get daughter ready for day
• 10:30 - 11 Drive to Storytime (I was able to pick up gas for 3.61 a gallon on the way)
• 11-12 Storytime
• 12 - 12:30 CVS run and drive home
• 12:30 - 1:30 Eat and play (lost electricity, daughter not hungry for lunch)
• 1:30 - 2 Put Elena down for nap
• 2 - 3 Work on Websites
• 3 -4 Pay bills / Ebay
• 4 - 4:30 Pre dinner prep
• 4:30 - 5 House rescue
• 5 - 6:30 Cook and eat dinner
• 6:30 -7 Clean Kitchen
• 7 - 7:30 Laundry
• 7:30 - 8:30 Play
• 8:30 - 9 Put Elena to bed
• 9 - 10 Watch TV (computer time too)
• 10 - Shower, Write out tomorrow's tasks, Read, Bed

So far I can stay pretty much on task. Everything takes longer than it would without a child running around. But, that only makes things more interesting!

Here are a couple of tips from Women's Day Magazine that I liked. http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Shelter/Lifestyle-Tip-Time-Management.html

Pampering Yourself (Do you?)

One of FlyLady's rules of thumb is to Pamper Yourself at least once a week. Before I became a mom I was pretty good at doing this. I would try to take a bath every Sunday evening. Well, now that I am a mom, things like that, or even things that I didn't really consider pampering myself don't get done.

Example, the last time I got my hair cut (by someone other than myself) was July '07. Yes! What is that 14 months! I do have long hair, and never really got it cut that often before. But, now I would consider that trip to the salon a great pamper.

I need to find time, or rather make time, to pamper myself a little bit. On a rare occasion I actually take an evening shower by candle light. I need to start doing that more often and take a bath on the rare occasion.

Why do we need to make time for such things? Well, Sunday evening a big wind storm came through Ohio. (I live in Ohio) We had damage to our house and to my daughters swing set, which blew over. We like many in the state (I heard 2 million at one point) lost our power. We are lucky that we were only without power for about 7 to 8 hours. Most people I know are over 48 hours and counting now. But, without power, I couldn't wash dishes or laundry, iron, vacuum, or cook. These are things I had planned to do. After getting my daughter to bed, I sat in bed with my husband, who was watching a hand held, battery powered, TV and knitted by oil lamp. We both curled up and slept at 9:30.

I felt great on Monday. Having taken that break I had more energy to get things done on Monday. I got so much done during the day. Now, I am planning, hoping, praying, that I make the time in the future to pamper myself. I hope this isn't another one of those brilliant plans that don't happen because I convince myself that I don't have the time.

What do you do, or wish you made time for, to pamper yourself?

How did I spend my morning

I am trying to save some fresh fruits and veggies from making their way to the trash. I have great neighbors that have gardens. They have been dropping off tomatoes and bell peppers. I hadn't gotten to all of them yet and I don't want them to go bad. So, I cut up the peppers and sauteed them and put them in the freezer. I then cooked up the tomatoes and put them in the freezer to make sauces later. I wanted to make some banana bread with the three bananas that are too ripe. But, that didn't happen.

Morning has come a gone now. My parents came over for a visit so we played and had lunch. Then when my daughter was napping I did some more pricing for the garage sale.

We have plans for the evening with friends. It should be fun. I kind of wish I had some more time to work on things around the house. Tomorrow is a busy day so I can't get anything done then. I guess you can only do as much as you can.

All Over The Place

Right now I feel all over the place. There are so many little things I want to get done that I can't keep my mind wrapped around one to even start it.

I did go grocery shopping while my daughter was at school. Tada for Saturday. But, I want to move it to Thursday since I am without child during that time and Saturdays are going to start getting busy.

I recently read you will be more productive if you get two little things done quickly before tackling any bigger jobs. The act of getting them done, and that sense of accomplishment helps motivate you to get more done. That makes sense to me. So I am going to find my daughters monitor, she is napping, and clean her bathroom before tackling the kitchen.

I will let you know how it goes.

Memories and Garage Sale Pricing

I just finished pricing two more large bags of clothes for our garage sale. Yeah! Still so much more to do.

I got a little sad while pricing this morning. The clothes are so small, just like my baby girl used to be. Now when shopping for new clothes for Elena I pick out clothes that are too small. When I hold up the clothes that are the right size I can't believe how big they are. I know she has gotten so big. And I know that my just turned 3 year old is still small. But, she is growing so quickly.

I have never been one to look towards the past and miss it. I generally spend most of my time looking towards the future and the fun to be had. Becoming a mom seems to have changed that. I don't miss a day of being a single woman out on my own. Or a day of my fun college or high school years. I don't miss the care free days of my youth. But, I am going to miss helping my daughter with every single thing that she can now do on her own. And every year that passes of her youth. But, I still have the ability to look towards the future and see many great years of learning and teaching, in both of our lives, together.

Who knew that garage sale prep could bring a girl to tears?

Bill Paying TaDa

I just got done paying my bills. I try to do this every Wednesday. Yeah, only one bill to pay this week and it was just a water bill.

Have you noticed that some credit card companies are getting their bills to you just in time for you to pay them. We basically use two cards in our home, Discover and one Visa. Luckily, we have always been in the habit of paying off the whole balance every month. (If you find this habit hard to do, I highly suggest not using credit cards.) Our Discover card bill comes about 3 weeks before it is due. This is great. If I get to the bill on Friday instead of Wednesday, not a big deal.

Our Visa bill on the other hand generally gives us less than 2 weeks to pay. That means that if it comes on a Thursday I might have to get on my electronic bill payer (through my bank) by Tuesday to give it the 5 business days to get the bill there in time to not get hit by late and interest fees. I think that is crazy.

Four ways I know to combat what I consider to be an unethical practice of some credit card companies are:

1. Set up an automatic payment of an average credit card amount through your electronic bill payer. This way you just have to go in and change the amount when the bill comes. And, if something comes up in the short time they give you to pay the bill at least they got some money.
2. Keep track of your purchases and when the credit card bill is generally due and send the amount due. (I use http://www.mint.com/ to keep track of my spending. It is super easy to use.)
3. Call or get online to check your credit card amount and send when due.
4. Cancel the card. I would make sure that you explain why you are canceling. The only way to curb this practice is to hurt the company where it matters, their business. (Note: I recently learned from Clark Howard that you can hurt your credit score by cancelling credit cards. Can you believe that? I need to check into that more, but keep that in mind before canceling any cards.)

Do your credit card companies send their bills to you in what you would consider at timely manner? Let me know.

Crayola.com

I just recently learned that at the Crayola website www.crayola.com you can print free coloring pages. Since yesterday I have printed two different pages. One is to help my daughter learn her letters with her preschool class. Tomorrow they are going over the letter A. My daughter knows the letter A already. But, to help reinforce the learning I went out to the website and printed out a coloring page.

The website has many other fun things to check out. Go to www.crayola.com to see what you can find.

Productive Preschool Time

I had two hours to myself in my home while my daughter was in preschool today. I am working on getting ready for a well over due garage sale. It was great. Although, the house was still a wreck when it was time to go pick up my daughter. I had decided not to pick up and just continue when my daughter went down for a nap. The only problem, my daughter would not go down for her nap.

I am thinking that I am going to need to revamp my routines now that school has started. I have been having productive days but they haven't been going to plan. I am going to worry about that later.

Mondays (A fresh start)

When I was a 9 to 5 worker (actually 7:30 to 5:30 worker) I used to dread Mondays. It meant back to the grind of my desk job. It isn't that I didn't like my job. It is just that I liked the weekends that much better.

Now that I am a stay at home Mom, I enjoy Mondays. With everyday being a work day now, or none work day depending on your perspective, Mondays feel like a chance to start fresh. I almost feel like it is a new year. January 1 and a chance to start a whole new year without the baggage of the last one. Of course, it is all in my mind. This week is impacted by the last one. But, it feels good to get that fresh start.

Today, I go to my Mom's Group. It has been out for the summer. I am looking forward to a chance to sit with other Mom's and just be. My daughter will, hopefully, enjoy the time too. She will be in a room with many toys and children to play with. (Although, her friend Ava will be in school and I am sure will be missed by Elena.)

The load of laundry I put in this morning just beeped. Time to move it to the drier. Today is off to a good start!

Action Scrubber - Scrubbing Bubbles Review

I bought one of these Action Scrubbers from Scrubbing Bubbles last month. There was a coupon in the newspaper for a rebate that covered the cost of a starters kit. I also had a coupon so I made a little money trying out this product.

I have made it a habit to scrub the shower at the end of my own shower in the morning. I scrub one wall each time, moving around the shower and then the floor. I find that the shower wets the walls and steams them up to make it easier to clean. So, for the 4 or 5 last showers I have been using this product.

What do I think of it? I was not impressed. While I agree that it likely cleans better than a sponge, as it does have an abrasive surface, I disliked the Action Scrubber.

Things I disliked about the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber:

• It is a throw away item. (I find it very wasteful that it is a one time use item.)
• There didn't seem to be much cleaning product in the scrubber. (While the picture shows what looks like bubbles doing cleaning, I didn't have any bubbles.)
• I wasn't impressed with the sponge that held the scrubber. (While it was easy on my hand, it felt like it was absorbing all of my elbow grease. It didn't have enough structure to it to actually transfer the pressure I was placing to scrub to the surface I wanted to scrub.)

Things I liked about the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber:

• It was nice not to have to take a scrub brush and bottle of bathroom cleaner into the shower. (I just wish it would have worked as well.)

If you have used the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber please leave a comment and let me and others know what you think of it.

Friday TaDa 8/29/08

I felt very good today, and had the energy to show for it. I am hopefully not done with all I am going to get done but I am going to post what I have gotten done so far today.

-Made bed
-dressed shoes
-1 load of laundry (washed, dried, put away)
-1 load of dishes in dishwasher (washed, put away)
-cleaned bedroom (dusted, cleaned mirrors, vacuumed)
-cleaned dining room (dusted, vacuumed)
-cleaned living room (put away toys, dusted, washed little finger prints off windows and TV, vacuumed out couch and love seat, vacuumed carpet)
-made dinner
-changed out belt in vacuum
-posted about Elena and Christmas in personal blog

My husband rented some videos from our library. I hope that I can get some ironing done while we watch movies. I had him pick up the Disney movie "Enchanted" for me. I have a feeling he won't be interested in it, but that is the one that I really want to watch.

I also need to post a menu and shopping list at my other blog www.carriescooking.com. It would be good if I could work up my own shopping list too. Saturday I normally run my errands. My husband wants to do some mowing and we are having visitors tomorrow.

My brother and his wife should be stopping over for lunch. They live in the state but not close. They are going to be in the area so I invited them to stop over and promised them food. My husband is also having some friends over to watch a football game.

We love having people over so it will be a fun time.

Changed the Belt in My Vacuum Today

I have been noticing that the brush on my vacuum wasn't turning like it used to. So, I got out the extra belt that came with my vacuum and the manual and changed it out. It was very easy. So easy that my daughter, who just turned 3, did half of the work for me. (She used my screw driver to remove and replace all of the necessary screws.)

Wow, what a difference it makes. I have vague memories of reading how often the belt should be changed for my vacuum. I can't remember if it said every 6 or 12 months. (The manual doesn't say.) I know it has been about a year.

If you haven't changed the belt to your vacuum's brush roll in some time you should check the quality of the belt, or the rotation of the brush roll. According to my manual the belt is only about $3 to order and it was very easy to change.

Where Have I Been

Ugh! I wish I could explain it all. I feel like I am drowning in things to get done. And on top of it all I have this stomach bug that just won't stay gone. I think I need to scrub down the house or something to keep it gone. I thought after this past weekend, feeling good, I was fine. Then I wake up Monday night feeling bad and spent Tuesday eating nothing but two slices of bread and that was late in the day.

Of course, yesterday I had to play supermom and run errands like I had planned. I end up with my daughter just finished having her hair cut and me feeling over heated and ready to pass out at the salon. I had to call my husband to come from work to get us. Luckily I didn't pass out. I just ran to the bathroom where my stomach rejected the maybe 8 ounces of water I had that day. (Sorry for being so graphic.) I felt much better after that. I drove my husbands car home and he drove our daughter home. He worked from home the remainder of the day.

I am feeling better today. Of course, I am nervous to eat anything. After days like yesterday I wish I could swear off food all together. It is never very long before my body reminds me that it is not possible. But, I think I will limit my food to bread, chicken noodle soup, and maybe a banana.

Surprisingly, I feel like I have the energy needed to take on a day with a long list of things to get done. I will let you know how it goes.