Simplify

I've been seeing this flying around the blogoshpere. People are choosing their word to live by for the upcoming year. I've seen a few, Focus, Purpose, Happiness. My choice for this 2009...SIMPLIFY.

My life is far too complicated and I need to simplify. I need to de clutter I need to learn how to schedule well and say no to the rest. I need to assign some responsibilities to my wonderful spouse and try to to care how he gets them done.

I need to work a deal with my employer to cut my time at work. I need to clear out old clothes, I need to give away our double appliances, I need to clear out the cobwebs, I need to fix those things that need fixing, the towel rack, the receptacle cover the kids book shelf. All of these things will help me limit the self talk that says "why can't you just get it together"

I have been saying that to myself all year and it is just time to STOP. I am a busy woman and I like it that way. that is the way I am most productive. I have to learn to delegate and deal with it. I have to learn to let some things go. there is no reason I can't have things just the way I want. There has got to be a way to get it to all work together and I tell in 2009 I am going to find out!

I'm doing much better this year for Christmas than last Christmas I have a few t-shirts to pick up and a gift for my 7 year old nephew (if you have any ideas let me know)but other than that I am almost done!

I will be mailing out my out of town gifts tomorrow. Unbelievable! I'm feeling pretty good. And best of all I'm not even out of money yet which is awesome since this is where I usually have to perform some creative financing to get everything paid for. then I go crazy getting everything ready for our taxes so I can pay a few things back.

NOT THIS YEAR WOOT.

SIMPLIFY

To do List

So many things to do.

-Finish loading software on new laptop and upload some photo cards so I can clear them up
-Laundry (ugh)
-Paperwork from last 3 scrapbooking workshops I have hosted
-Start packing for big workshop next weekend
-finishing touches to CP blog post series for next week (?)
-Up load some photos to share with you guys
-Buy Food
-Clean up office
-Finishing touches on Design Team submissions for 2 Scrapbook Friends
-prepare for busy week next week

:)

Faaaccckkkk! A Friday Post

I think I blew the whole life balance thing this week. First things first I forgot to post a poll for a Friday post topic. So therefore, no Fucking Friday Post! Doink!

It's been a whirl wind week around here not made any better by my fourteen yearold neice who is babysitting. I swear to GOD that girl! She is super with the kids however she a SMALL (read HUGE FUCKING) problem cleaning up after.

SUPER FANTASTIC Bugaloo you re-created Mr. maker's house FABULOUS. Why is there a big fucking orange puddle of paint on my Goddamn carpet! ( I hate the green carpet but that is beside the point. ) OH LOVELY you recreated Mr.Makers couch out of homemade playdough..SUPER! Yes I can see that ground into the chairs in the dining room SWEET. I'm so glad you used food coloring because that won't stain their clothes at all. Now where is the leftover pladough and the containers you made it in. GREAT didn't find those until the next day all hardened in to the containers and I will have to pry out with a chisel. SUPER FUN. You used a TONNE of sitckers to decorate Mr. Maker's Doodle Drawers? I can tell the paper backing of the stickers are ALL OVER the floor. AWESOME!

I can also tell that you had juice boxes, yogurt, granola bars, raisins, gum, and something else that turned in to a BIG ASS pile of crumbs. GOOD GOD!

Whew! Now I have to admit we only pay her 20 bucks for the day so it's alittle over 2bucks an hour But HOLY SHIT! I don't want to hire a restoration crew everyday she babysits.

I don't know how a 14yr can get through life being such a disaster honestly. I don't want to crush her self esteem, I just don't know how to make it clear to her that this is a job she is supposed to be helping me. Not turning my hosue into a disaster zone. I offered her the opportunity to babysit because she was applying to Tim Horton's this would impead her family from travelling to their cottage if she had to work the weekend. So this solved two problems, gave her some spending money and allowed her family to travel on the weekend. How did being nice backfire so badly?

So I am thankful that next week is the last week she is babysitting. Only 2 more days to go. Then I get my cleaning helper back (the neat cousin,too bad she can't babysit).

oohhmmmm!

Don't forget to vote!

Don't forget to vote for a post topic for tomorrow!

Clutter and Organizing

The votes are in and it looks like this will be a post about clutter and organizing.

What the Key? - Throw some SHIT away! kidding....

What is clutter? Everything that doesn't have a home. All the crap that you have no where to put. Ity Bity treasures that your kids find outside, gifts your kids get from the doctor or the dentist for being good patient. Magazines, flyers (ugh), the shoes, the bag of hand-me-downs that you haven't gone through yet or given away yet.

It all just piles up. After reading Peter Walsh's book It's all too much I realized that it really is a mind set. You need to deal with clutter as it happens, get rid of the flyers that you are never going to look at, for example for us right now in our lives we never look at the Nevada Bob's Golf store flyer, neither one of us are going golfing anytime soon, even if we had to play tomorrow we have all the equipment we need to get us through 1 or 2 tournaments there is no need to read that flyer. Same goes for grocery stores that I just won't go to. For me the Price Chopper is just not convenient- EVER. So I turf that flyer too even if they have cheese on sale for 50 cents I know I will never go there so forget it.

Another tip I have read from Marilu Henner is "Never leave a room empty handed" I think that has proved very useful. You would be amazed what gets picked up one handful at a time.

In our household we have found that the family calendar with a to do list and grocery list attached or posted in close proximity is a life saver. All activities nights out, etc get put on the calendar as they are booked. Items used up or requested get put on the grocery list. Anything I notice around the house that needs to get done goes on the to do list ie sweep the floor,vaccumming, laundry, dishwasher, oil change on the car. Then when me or hubby has a few minutes we review that list and prioritize those little things that keep the house running.

We try to chat once or twice a week to check in and see if we have any scheduling conflicts or if one or the other is feeling too rushed or worn out and then we may have to make some choices to cancel some engagements, this also happens if we notice the kids are getting a little out of sorts and need some down time.

When I put away laundry which is about once every 10 days I go through each child's clothes to see what fits what they haven't worn and I keep a bag going on the back of the bedroom or closet door, when this bag is full it goes to the donation holding area in our garage to be picked up with the next donation day.

A great resource for tips is Peter Walsh's website which has a Tip of the Day.

I find the best way to deal with clutter and organizing is little steps at a time. Start with the daily stuff, picking up after yourselves and organizing your family activities and time when you have that under control you will be able to carve out an hour here or there to deal with one pile at a time.

With just a little bit at a time you will begin to feel the weight lifting and the air starting to move again which will motivate you to keep going one hour one pile at a time.

Have a great long weekend! Till next time! don't forget to vote for next week's topic.

Home office

I have been trying to get my home office/studio organized. I put up shelves, I brought in a few dressers with drawers. I just plain don't have room for everything that I want to do in this room. It's 10 x 12 for crying out loud, it should be okay. But When I put two 6 foot tables in there I effectively cut the space to 7x9 Damn Throw in a desk in one corner and suddenly things are getting kinda cramped.

I would post some photos but I don't have my computer up and running in there yet.

ahhhhh!

Here is an article I found on MSNBC on clutter. Maybe I will try some of those tips to get organized.

Wow

Geez, I finally had more than a few minutes to look at my blog today and realized how out dated it is so I hope I can spend more than a few minutes here to update a few things.

I took the Bug to Vacation Bible School. So updating photos will have to wait but maybe I can get at a few other things. I am on vacation today but I had my niece come to babysit anyways so I would have time to catch up on a few things. IE the blog, laundry (pooh), and some business stuff because some people owe me money.

I totally missed a crop opportunity last night and I forgot all about it until I climbed into bed. I am so pissed. Sorry L.

So today the peanut was up at.....wait for it.....5:30 AM crazy kid. Then her darling father put her in our room at 6AM ASSHAT! So she messed around in our bed for a 1/2 hour and then I couldn't take it anymore so I got and drank alot of coffee.

So now I have three loads of laundry out of the way - check
Cleaned out some small clothes out of kids room and boxes up - check
Started putting laundry away - check
Posting on blog - check
update a few things on blog - check

Soon I have to go pick up the Bug, then lunch and then this afternoon, we have our meeting with the social worker to discuss promoting self confidence and self esteem and how to help him answers questions that he gets from other kids, adults, teachers and family members.

After that I get to take a quick detour and see my sister for a badly needed haircut!

Whew busy day.

AAAck!

My house is such a god damned mess I don't know where to start.

So instead I have come here to the non judgemental place of procrastination!

My office/scraproom/creative centre is a fucking mess.

I have two workshops to prepare for and I am BEEEHIND! Luckily I am taking two holidays next week on Thursday and Friday and hopefully I can clear out some of the crap.

Why oh why do we hang on to these things!??

I finally got the kids down for a quick nap because I have been hoping to get at this all weekend and now I just don't want to face it!

Does anybody have some words of inspiration??

Well I had better get my ass in gear as I only have another 20 mins left of nap time.

Creative Life/ Working Hell/Life Balance

I am so busy at work today I can't even breath.

I wish I could be at home in my nice sunny craft/work space creating something beautiful with my hands.

Instead I have to grind out the copious amounts of paperwork that cross my desk daily, where my email bleeps at a new arrival every minute or so.

I'm feeling totally overwhelmed today. So much for my massage yesterday.

I wish I could comment more on my post from yesterday but I am just too damn busy to come up with it quickly.

Maybe I will post tonight again after yoga with the BUG.

Running - Sucks!

As some of you know I have been attempting to move my FAT ASS more in an attempt lose a few LBs of the old caboose.

I cleaned up my eating habits and dropped a few pounds but I can't live on what I have been eating and NOT drinking. HOLY Give a girl a BEER will ya!

So.... In order to partake in the occasional beverage I have started moving. I hooked up with a girl that I work with who used to be part of the running club that we had a work. We are both whiners and complainers but we don't take that shit from anyone else, so it works... we whine, we complain and then we call each other sissys, and nancy pants (no offence to the Nancy's out there)and tell each other to move your ASS.
We decided that we would walk and then attempt a running program as it is the only way we feel we can cancel out the BEER.

So I went to the Running Room and bought these. Well not exactly, mine are Wave Rider 10's which is probably why I was able to get them for $96.00 instead of 149.99.

I hate to admit it but I do feel better since we have started our little program. The running really does clear the clutter from my head and I feel stronger and the 3 flights of stairs at work are no longer my arch nemisis.

We run at lunch so it doesn't impact the rest of my day to much.

I hate to say it but it seems like it is working.

Saturday Morning

Coffee ahhhh!

Hubby is out this morning helping a buddy with some electrical work. So it's just me and the kidlets. Bug must be feeling better because her requested Bob the Builder noodles for breakfast and he ate the whole bowl.

So we are getting caught up on our laundry, cleaning out our closets and preparing bags to donate to my sister and girlfriend for their kids.

I always feel so much better when I clear out their closets (and mine) like I can find stuff again and somehow my life is easier.

If only I could get going on the basement! Although hubby has committed to clearing out the garage on the first nice day we get and if we do that it will be easier to clean out the basement since some of the stuff from the basement needs to be kept in the garage.

I don't feel like cooking this weekend. I spent the last two weekends cooking like crazy to put stuff in the freezer for dinners this week. Since we were all sick I didn't go through all that stuff so I think I will take this weekend off and use up the stuff in the freezer.

Still tired.... luckily Bug was only up 2-3 times last night so I got a bit more sleep then previous nights so I am thankful for that. No explosions, no changing sheets in the middle of the night.

Yup I would have to say that's a pretty good night.

Sunday! Sunday ! Sunday!

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, it's a beautiful day!

We are all going outside today. I just sent hubby off to fetch Bugaloo's shoes and AFOs that we managed to leave at a friends house last night, where we had dinner and a great visit. I also asked him to pick up a few things that I forgot at the grocery store yesterday when I ventured out with 2 children on Saturday morning to the grocery store. (silly me)

So I will do a few things to prep for dinner and then it will be outside for some fun in the snow and sun.

I realized at my scrapbooking weekend that I didn't have any photos of the kids playing in the snow this year. It has been so cold we haven't played outside much.

So to day is the day.

Clutter and organizing will have to wait one more day, because we are out for some family fun.

Oh Oh a little munchie just cam to see me at my desk and something smells a little FUNKY.

Time to go change somebody's pants.

Have a great sunday!

Organic Housekeeping

I was hoping this title may inspire me to get some housekeeping done.

You know, if I write about it, it will happen.?

Since my return to full time work, my cousin, Ka (who has a learning disability) has been helping me out by coming once a week to do the vacuuming of our main living area, changing the sheets on the beds and cleaning the bathroom, plus 2-3 loads of laundry while she's here. I can't even begin to tell you how helpful it has been to know that the basics are being covered.

I don't have to worry about cleaning the tub BEFORE bathing my children. NICE!

However, this still leaves the dusting, vacuuming the rest of the house, and the other 10 loads of laundry that my family of four manages to produce in a week.And picking up all the CRAP that we have in our house.

Now that's ORGANIC.

Anyway, I guess I just needed to complain a little before I suck it up and get started on the laundry.

I have been using this new Organic Laundry Detergent and fabric softner called Nature Clean, well I'm not sure if it's new to the marketplace, but it is new to me. I found it in our local healthfood store and two weeks later it was available in my grocery store. So I am sure they have been around for a while. I am minimally ahead of the trend you know.
I quite like it and no one in my family has noticed a difference in their clothes.

I also use their all purpose cleaner for mirrors and windows and counter tops, and the toilet bowl cleaner (which smells like pine) All work just as well as the brands I was using before.

Well, that laundry is NOT going away! I have to get groceries (cereal milk bread) and it has started snowing again.

Have a great Saturday!

S

Clutter ahhh!

As I am packing for the weekend I am realizing that I have some clutter that I need to get rid of.

Why do we hang on to these things? I sheet of stickers with 2 stickers left on it, I don't even like the stickers! So not wanting to waste anything I quickly made a little love note to stick in Hubby's lunch pail and managed to feel good about myself and getting rid of a piece of clutter.

Now what about the other 50lbs of crap in my house. Baby Steps!

I found a couple of sites that may help me out.

http://www.clutterdietblog.com/ and http://www.changeyourlifechallenge.com/

I also picked up the book, It's All too Much by Peter Walsh.

One tip that makes sense to me is going through each room and deciding what it's purpose is, what you want out of the room. then you get rid of what does not belong and lend itself to this purpose. Great Idea! But at some point you have a load of shit left over and that's the scary part for me.

Hubby already thinks I am trying to get rid of all his "stuff" he has a hard time realizing that I am getting rid of stuff too.

When you don't get married and settle down until your in your 30's you just don't realize how much crap you have to get rid of.

So next week I will post some photos of our crap so you can feel my pain and travel on the journey.