My Own Personal Weirdness – Page 14

Around the House, Books, Music, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Writing

More organizing

I promised more organizing for the next day’s post and many days have gone by and I can’t remember any more what I organized, so I’m looking through my pictures to help me remember:

See, now my three-tiered shelf can be for pretties again! (Temporary display for now; first things my hands came to)

010 — This is our new art storage cart. I like that it has many drawers, so pens in one, markers, crayons, pencils, etc… I also like that it’s on wheels so it can live there in peace during regular life, or move to the kids room when Greg is on an art spree, or move into my room when we have guests over for dinner. 🙂

009 — This doesn’t look as tidy as I’d like, but for a $3 over-the-door tie-and-belt rack, it does the job. No more lost belts & ties! Woo hoo!

008 — Shoes are always going missing in this house, but NO MORE. Bottom two rows are Greg’s, next two are Ben’s, and next two are next-size-up for each of them (for those days when Daddy is impatient).

Honestly, I’ve gotten nothing else done since then, except a tiny bit in my makeup & hair boxes. Steph and I did a writer’s retreat this weekend, which I posted about here(from a writing standpoint) and here (from an RA standpoint). Since I’m still working on last month’s holidays, I brought her her family’s gifts, and she sent some home with me for the boys as well.

There were cards & gifts from another friend in there as well. :) — There were cards & gifts from another friend in there as well. 🙂

The kids were out of school on Monday, so we had a quiet, fun day:

Greg pulled out his science kit and we spent quite a while trying out all its tricks.

I remember playing on this with them when they were all babies!

This sign on the door of the bathroom at the park cracked me up!

and worked in the garden. Ben had scouts in the evening. I don’t know that we should call it that anymore, as he’s the only one that ever shows up any more. *sigh*

Yesterday I didn’t have to work, but I did have a bunch of errands to run: a Goodwill drop-off where I spoke to a man named Ram about how God changed his life, a grocery store run to buy lunch makings since the kids had eaten them all up over the weekend, and then my book study on Raising Resilient Kids over at the PDC. After school Ben had dance, so Greg and I hit the dollar store so he could use some of his Christmas money. Then off to piano lessons, where we got a lesson on what goes on inside the piano and how all the pedals work. It was awesome!

Our teacher is super interesting! :) We love her! — Our teacher is super interesting! 🙂 We love her!

Today I was hoping to sub, but haven’t gotten a call, so I’m going to go off and work on some stuff in my bedroom, which has all the boxes of “doesn’t live here” from David’s room cleaning last week. It’s pretty scary and I’m tired of looking at them! Once I get done with that, it’s time for fun stuff: writing! 🙂

Around the House, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Parenting

Working life is full of fullness!

I was talking to a friend today over “coffee” (I had chai tea and she had lemonade, actually, but we will still call it “coffee” because I can’t think of anything better right now) about the challenges of working a non-specific schedule. I had had all these plans to organize the whole house this week, but got called in to substitute three half days this week in Kindergarten-land (which is more tiring than a whole day of other grades, let me tell you). It was good to get back to work, as I didn’t work at all in December, but it was still hard because I’d had all these mental plans and didn’t get to most of them.

Here’s what I did get done, though. David’s room, before:

This is the desk after D "cleaned it off" for me. Hahahah — This is the desk after D “cleaned it off” for me. Hahahah

Bed area (which sadly looks the same today)

Bookshelves of messiness (I wish you could see the bottom shelf better, it was scary!)

The closet of doom. I don't know if those clothes down there at the bottom are dirty or clean. — The closet of doom. I don’t know if those clothes down there at the bottom are dirty or clean.

During:

I sorted everything into categories: Rocks, Office, Ships game, Lego instructions, Nerf Darts, Things Which Do Not Belong To Me, etc.

Again with the Flylady process. I filled everything at least once and took it out. The trash went out three times.

Currently, I’m still not done, but we’re getting there:

The bookshelves now hold books! They're not organized yet, but they are all on there now. :) And no, I have no idea why he's collecting root beer & cream soda bottles. None. — The bookshelves now hold books! They’re not organized yet, but they are all on there now. 🙂 And no, I have no idea why he’s collecting root beer & cream soda bottles. None.

I put up the art he brought home from Art Camp (his teacher sketched these). They've lived in a pile on the floor since July. — I put up the art he brought home from Art Camp (his teacher sketched these). They’ve lived in a pile on the floor since July.

I found school work in EVERY SINGLE DRAWER. No wonder he never can find anything. I bought him an expanding file, sorted his work into classes, and have sent him off to make labels and shove things into the sections. Now he has no excuse not to be organized. — I found school work in EVERY SINGLE DRAWER. No wonder he never can find anything. I bought him an expanding file, sorted his work into classes, and have sent him off to make labels and shove things into the sections. Now that he has been taught to use it he has no excuse not to be organized.

Drawers labeled: Small Toys, Lego Instructions, Memory Stuff, Organized bits of Lego, Office supplies, School stuff, Art supplies.

A place for everything and everything in its place, part one

A place for everything and everything in its place, part two.

I also got some more things organized elsewhere in the house, but that’s a post for tomorrow! 🙂

Around the House, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Parenting

January Projects

As you know, I go crazy in January and start cleaning and organizing everything in sight. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the cold, rainy weather.

Yesterday I tackled my hallway bathroom closet, which I guess could also be called my linen closet.

Before:

Okay, so it doesn't look quite so bad as my brain says it does, but it was making me crazy. — Okay, so it doesn’t look quite so bad as my brain says it does, but it was making me crazy.

During:

There's a method to the madness. One box is labeled "Another Room," one is "Keep," one is "Donate," and one is "Toss." The "Keep" box is the giant pile in the middle. — There’s a method to the madness. One box is labeled “Another Room,” one is “Keep,” one is “Donate,” and one is “Toss.” The “Keep” box is the giant pile in the middle.

After several hours and possibly a billion interruptions (Next time I’m putting a Do Not Enter if You Value Your Life sign up.):

Done! I filled one of each other above labeled boxes (except "Keep" which was the stuff that went back in). — Done! I filled one of each other above labeled boxes (except “Keep” which was the stuff that went back in). I took this photo before I labeled the shelves, but they are labeled by what’s in each bin.

Secret surprise if you look in my linen closet: preschool graduation photos of each of my kids!

Today I’m tackling David’s room as part of my Flylady plan. It won’t be done in 15 minutes for sure, but today the desk is getting organized. I’ve been at it an hour now and it’s finally empty. I’ve filled one trash can, one keep box, and one another-room box already. Now I can see why he can’t ever find his school papers. There were a few papers in each messy drawer. AIE!

Around the House, Computers and Internet, Exercise, health, My Own Personal Weirdness

Quantifiable things

1. I have exercised this week. I’m stretching each morning and trying not to fall on my face. I’m following the Workout Trainer App on my Android and while I’m not in love with it, it’s better than nothing for a free exercise course to get me started. Also, my friend Monaca and I agreed that we’re not getting any skinnier meeting for sweet rolls and floofy drinks, so we’re going to try walking in the future around Rose Rudman trails instead.

This is not Rose Rudman, but a walking trail close to home that I can use in the evenings. And these are the sweet kids playing there.

2. I have figured out a better daily schedule, but it includes me getting up at 5am. Umm. I’m not getting ahead on that plan, so I re-revised it and now I’m getting up at 5:30 and doing the aforementioned exercising in the comfort of my own room. Whee! I’m also writing a bit more, not fiction yet, but daily stuff and a little poetry that’s rattling around in my brain lately. Also taking care of the kids and trying to make life more sane.

3. I’m doing a Bible study off the YouVersion app and answering its questions. Not as good as going to one with other people, but way better for scheduling. For real people, I’m going to a weekly book study on Raising Resilient Children (that’s the authors website). It’s a really good book and has challenged me to respond better to my children.

4. Today I’m booking our trip to the UK for June. Thursday night Nick and I are discussing our hotel options and more detailed itinerary. Whee! (Two goals for the price of one?)

5. I downloaded the My Fitness Pal app for the iPhone, since the SparkPeople app cost a ridiculous amount of money for the update (it used to be free). So now I have two fitness pals (one a very skinny lady indeed and one person who I don’t remember at the moment) and I can track my food weirdnesses. Whee!

See, we're eating healthier already! :) — See, we’re eating healthier already! 🙂

6. There is never going to be a #6.

7. Scaling back on the internet, I figured out how to add people to my acquaintances list on Facebook, so they practically never show up. It even suggested people. Some of them I didn’t acquantintize. Yeah, not a word. Whatever. Also, set all my newsreader subscriptions to Mark All Read so I’m not tempted to try to catch up and so am just starting over. I may dump some, we shall see. I also set my FB notifications to archive immediately so I’m not having to see them all the time.

Computers and Internet, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Writing

Greetings world!

I’m working on the blog over the next day or so. I got some really icky comments from some really icky seeming people this week and I’m rethinking the blog format and how to keep my little family safe and secure while still sharing with y’all some of the fun and crafty and book reading that goes on here. So for now, my posts are mostly private. Come on back in a week or so and I’ll have a big unveiling. 🙂

-L

Around the House, health, My Own Personal Weirdness, Parenting, Writing

Another day in vacation

We decided yesterday that it was going to be our play-in-pajamas-stay-indoors kind of day because we needed one and hadn’t really had a chance to have a day alone, so we spent the morning inside doing practically nothing productive (like watching movies and playing video games and reading magazines), but halfway through that we got a text from a friend begging us to meet her and her kids at the playground, as they’d been sick all break and could use a day outside in the fresh air (what’s that?). So we spent the afternoon at the school playground, playing football and soccer and keep-away and climbing things. It was great fun! 🙂

Then that night I got to go out with several of my favorite “local” people. I put that in quotes because one lives a few blocks from me and another a few miles, and then one lives 20 miles outside of town and the last one 45 miles away. I think it’s funny that they all are “local” even in our small town. We last got together on my birthday last year, what with one thing and another. It was a weird meeting even then. I thought I was mixing up my friend groups and that only a couple people knew each other (there were 6 of us then), but everyone turned out to know everyone else and it was fabulous. So one of the gals mentioned meeting up again and we made it happen and it was, indeed fabulous again! 🙂 We’re already planning another night out together. 🙂 I’m very pleased because these are some of my oldest friends in town. 🙂 Others have requested an “in” with the group…we shall see, we shall see. 🙂 I think our real common core is our ability to laugh at ourselves. 🙂

Today we got up, late, as is the course of things this week. Today it caused a bit of panic. I needed to have gotten up early to tidy for the babysitter, who was coming in unreasonably early to watch the boys while I got my RA infusion. I went out to pick up donuts while 2/3rds of the kids were asleep, but I couldn’t find my debit card once I got there, so I came home empty handed and dreading identity theft and called around to make sure that wasn’t the case and made a quick casserole, which no one really ate. Had my infusion, which was awkward due to several issues, and came home and “rested” which means got-crawled-on-by-boys-while-playing-on-facebook-and-reading-to-boys-and-feeding-them-occasionally. Whee!

Nick eventually came home and we got things ready for church tomorrow and ate dinner. Now everyone is asleep except for me and Greg. He says he’s having nightmares. Ha. He hasn’t slept a full night in his own bed (it’s like musical beds around here) since Halloween, not that I blame him. I haven’t slept or had a crying-free day since his friend’s mom (my friend Jelena) was murdered and her brother kidnapped either. We should probably seek therapy or something. I just keep telling myself that it could be worse and that really I should get over it. It’s not that easy, though. I’ve been writing sad poetry again. That seems to help. I guess 6-year-olds don’t really do sad poetry. They sleep with their mamas. Ah well.

I’ve run out of things to say today. Good night, people!

My Own Personal Weirdness, Parenting

NY Resolutions and 2013 Family Motto

Yesterday my little family took a tour of the house and looked around. I mean REALLY looked at things: the socks on the floors, the fingerprints on the walls, the dishes on the coffee table, the unmade beds, etc, etc.

Then we had a little refresher talk about kindness. We’d talked at church about ways to be kind to others at church (holding doors, handing out hymnals, bringing water to the disabled during fellowship time) and out in public (again holding doors, giving someone with less stuff the first turn in line at the grocery, etc). We needed to think about how to be kind to each other at home. We talked about things like putting away items (clothes, dishes, toys, towels) when we are done with them so other people don’t have to, cleaning up our messes as we make them so they don’t get stuck on so someone has to scrub (rather than wipe) later, and wearing headphones when we’re with our personal electronics so we’re not disturbing the people around us. Then we talked about our 2013 Family Motto. We’ve never really had one before, but as I was reading FlyLady and trying to get back on my cleaning schedule, I’d really liked hers and thought we’d co-opt something like it. “Be as Kind as can be in 2013”

My resolution this year is simply to take a bit better care of myself. To choose ME this year instead of others more often. Because I haven’t done that in a long time and when I look at myself and pay attention, I see that I am another year older, another 20 pounds heavier, and stressed out beyond belief. So I’m going to just be good to myself this year and see where that takes me. 🙂 My best friend mentioned that I need to break that down into a list of Things To Do, so I can check things off at years-end, which is not something I’m very good at remembering to do. In fact, looking back, I fulfilled NONE of mine this year and didn’t appear to make any resolutions at all the several years before that (at least on the computer. I might’ve on paper, now that I’m thinking about it).

Resolutions as Things To Do:

1. Exercise a couple or three times a week. This can include, but is not limited to: walking, swimming, yoga, some kind of Wii sports, whatever gets my heart rate up, actually.

2. Drop a couple of my less-than-enjoyable obligations. I already have two in mind, but I’m not sharing those here yet. 🙂

3. Investigate the idea of going back to school to be a media specialist for schools. I’ve been asked about doing that a lot lately and while I don’t know if I am interested enough yet to go through with going back to school, I’d at least like to look into it.

4. Plan our trip to the UK. Go there. Enjoy ourselves as a couple, rather than as parents.

5. Date my husband more this year. By more, I mean at least once a month go somewhere not chore related on our own and smile at each other. Whee!

6. There is no #6.

7. Figure out a better daily schedule, so each day doesn’t feel like a crisis situation.

8. Pay attention to what I’m eating and drinking so I don’t eat a billion pieces of chocolate or all the french onion dip in just two sittings. I don’t know how to make this one quantifiable yet, as the last two programs I tried that kept track of that stressed me out more than helped me.

9. Scale back on my internet time somehow. I think this will involve dropping some of my newsreader subscriptions and the facebook friends I am not terribly close to will go to unchecked for updates. I’m also turning off a bunch of notifications, as I spend half my time these days seeing double updates, as facebook sends them to my inbox and the phone posts them twice. So that will be done, too.

So that’s quite a lot for now. Some steps have more than one step. So exciting. I’ll set myself a phone reminder to check the list midyear and see how I’m doing. 🙂

My Own Personal Weirdness

AIE

So…I would like a day where I am at home. SAHM implies homeyness, right? It’s four weeks into school and I’ve had just two days where I haven’t had a billion outside-the-home meetings. I know I spent one of those days doing PTA stuff all day at home. The other day I ran school related errands and joined the gym. Who knew that having all your kids in school would be this busy?! Overwhelmed and tired. BLEH.

Around the House, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Saving Money

Don’t Just Talk About It, Round Up

Yesterday was the last day of my personal challenge. I will admit that I was a little sad that no one joined me on it. Oh well, moving on.

Here’s a round up of areas that I worked on that I somehow managed not to post photos of earlier in the process. Some were places I didn’t have finished on time and others were places I didn’t have on the list but did anyway.

The hallway bathroom I didn’t take any before photos of. It didn’t look a whole lot different. Here it is with its new Reveille:

Here are the handsome new towels my mom got the boys:

And here are the tags for the boys. David is the crocodile, Ben is the love animals, and Greg is the cat.

The desk area hasn’t changed a lot since the middle of things, but it’s still a work in progress, here it is mid process:

The desk area now:

(the main change: I sent away the paper file box and brought back in the plastic box because it’s sturdier in the long run, then piled up the stuff over there while I’m working on sorting through it all. The sorting is taking forever because I haven’t had enough time to dedicate to it yet.)

The shelving units in my room before: super crowded.

The shelving units after:

(I have actually only gotten rid of a small pile of papers and four books. The rest just got re-sorted back to the places they were meant to be living in the first place.)

David’s room, mid process. Ah, it looked so clean. Too bad you couldn’t see all the stuff on his bed.

David’s room now: His aunt April donated an old computer for his use. It doesn’t have wireless access to the internet, so unless a parent gives him the super-long ethernet cable, there’s no internet in his bedroom. But still, he can write papers, play a certain subset of his computer games, use iTunes, and draw lots and lots of weird stuff with the mouse. Plus there’s an awesome outer space screen saver. The other half of his desk is covered in his current Lego battle.

Ben & Greg’s room mid-process:

Greg and Ben’s room now: The matching chairs came FREE from the garage, much to my happiness. Greg decided he was finally tired of the Moon Sand mess, so out that went. One of the teachers at school, who is mom to 2 ladies that have taught Ben & Greg, overheard of my yearning for a second computer for the house for boy use, and showed up one day during my volunteer hours up there with a computer very, very similar to the one April had given us for the big boy. (I know this sounds confusing “second computer.” When I had been talking about it, April hadn’t given us the one in D’s room yet. And then once she did he rejected it because of the lack of internet issue. BUT, once the little kids got and enthusiastically embraced their new-to-them computer, he was all “whatever happened to that other one?” and so now both rooms have one. Little kids room has one that’s more disabled for little kid use, chock full of educational games. Big kids room has a regular one that we’ll put big kid stuff on.)

The top of the dryer wasn’t on the list, but it should have been. Before: mess, mess, mess.

The top of the dryer, now: nice! (sorry for the angle change there!)

The other side of the laundry room has new labels for things (soap & different recycling bins), printed for free from my computer on regular computer paper and laminated with clear contact paper I had on hand as well.

The piano area before: mess, mess, mess.

The piano area after: I showed you where the books ended up, but not how the piano area looks now. I just added a stack off boxes from elsewhere, the snow dragon, and a strand of music garland from my first Homecoming mum (what, don’t look at me like that. Yes, it’s 22 years old. It’s plastic. Whee!)

And that’s all folks. I am done! Well, not really, as there’s always more to do, but I am done having a project a day all week long. It’ll be nice to just take things slowly again.

Around the House, health, I Am Traveling, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Television & Film

Don’t Just Talk About It, Days 13,14, & 15

When I first made my list earlier this month, I had no idea that I’d end up having the kind of week I have scheduled ahead of me. Monday I have a two-hour webinar for scouts, Tuesday I’m going to spend all day driving to and from Dallas with David, getting his back checked for scoliosis, Wednesday I have a half day playdate (planned for two weeks ago, then rescheduled) to catch up with a friend that I haven’t seen since my birthday last April, Thursday I’m going in to the hospital to have an EEG done to see if I’m having mini seizures, and Friday I’m having another catch-up playdate with a different friend (also rescheduled) who I thought I’d seen this month, but apparently haven’t yet.

Fortunately I’ve already done days 16 & 17. YAY. So today I’m going to try to get 13, 14, & 15 all done. Watch for updates. There should be some. You know, unless I fall over and hit my head or something. *sigh*

Update 1:

BEFORE:

Two hours later, I have emptied the entire desk-that-was-my-grandmothers (now referred to as the craft desk because that’s a less unwieldy phrase), taken stuff out, looked at it, pitched some of it in the trash, designated other bits -one entire drawer actually- for sale on ebay (anyone interested in some Stampin’ Up?), and moved another whole drawer over to another area, where I feel like I might feel more compelled to write notes & cards (since I won’t have to dig through the scary deep drawer to find them). I have also dug through the entire cart, following the same process as above, a drawer in the other cart, and the small three drawered cubby as well. I watched episode 1 & 2 of the first season of the UK version of Being Human while doing so. I say “watched” but listened was more like it. I wanted to see it because I liked the werewolf from when he was on Little Dorrit. I liked him here, too, which was unfortunate because the show is too bloody for me. 😦

Now the children are home, it’s lunch time, and we’re digging through drawer 2 of the second cart. We may have to stop to do tie-dye before we move on, since it takes up a lot of space and the children would rather we tie-dye today than throw it out unused. I agree with them. If only we had some white t-shirts. Off to check for shirt availability.

Update 2:

An hour later, Nick has gone off to work and I have finished emptying the second cart. Another trash can has been added, as the first one is FULL. The tie-dye did not pan out, as only one kid has a shirt available for it. The top of the desk is left to do, as is finding a home off the floor for all the paper products (which do not fit into the desk).

MIDWAY:

However, the day is still rain-free, the kids are awake and at liberty, so they are being drafted into “Day 15” and will help me carry heavy stuff in the garage. I can hear them discussing it amongst themselves right now. “We have to help her because she’s TIRED.” “We’ll carry the heavy stuff and then she’ll be happy and let us have screen time later.” They are SO RIGHT on both counts. (In other news, my bff read my earlier update & called & excused me from coming to her house this weekend, which was a relief because I was fairly certain I’d be dead by then. Two trips to DFW in one week do not make for a happy Lisa. On the other hand, I had wanted to see the Harry Potter party leftovers and love on her and her kids. Ah well, there will be time for that next month.)

Update 3:

Another hour later, because I’m about to pass out and this may be the last update of the day. The two younger kids have been very good helpers, as evidenced by the quotes above (you all knew that was Ben & Greg, right?). David got mad about 3 minutes in because I wouldn’t let him keep his large supply of sticks in the garage any longer. He left to take a giant bag of Lego bricks inside (why was it in the garage? no idea) and never came back out again. Greg and Ben helped me break down boxes, sort things into recycling bins (certain things can go in the one that goes out to the street that can’t go directly to the recycle center and vice versa) and the dumpster, and sort other things into whose room in the house they belonged to for once they go back inside. Now we have a couple bins of things that go back in the house, which worries me a bit. But the garage has been tidied up a reasonable amount, my trunk is full of more stuff for Goodwill, and in a few minutes it’ll also have been swept. And then I’m going to go lie down on the couch and watch The Secret of Moonacre again with Greg because it is a delightful movie and I am exhausted.

Update 4:

(Are you shocked?)

Well, another hour has gone by and I haven’t passed out yet. The kids didn’t want to watch a movie just yet. “It’s a lovely day, Mama!” And it is. Breezy, warm. Non-standard January weather. They wanted to ride bikes in front of the house. Sure, why not. Well, here’s why: we tidied the bikes into a figurative corner and couldn’t get them out without getting the van out of the garage. As long as the van was out and there was more space to move around in, why not reconfigure the garage so the bikes are easy to get to and the van seats (which rarely leave the garage these days) are less open to the elements? So the kids got their bikes out, I shifted the other stuff while they were riding, et voila! Now they can get to their bikes & helmets & padding on their own and I, thanks to some hooks hung on the wall to contain their never-used golf sets, have comfy seats inside the garage to watch the festivities from, out of the sun and elements. Wahoo!

BEFORE:

messy, hard to get around stuff

AFTER:

stuff we like to use front and center by the door, tidied up & purged of extras (except that small desk, which is destined for my in-laws house once their remodeling is complete, which will be soon)

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