Surgery Preparations

So two days ago I underwent a total hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. This is a fancy way of saying they've removed my uterus, cervix, ovaries, and fallopian tubes.
(I'm writing this before surgery and setting it to post later, just in case you were reading for an update!)

I've been delaying this surgery for a few years, but it was time to do it now for several reasons. I'm hoping my iron levels start to go up. This should help prevent a cancer recurrence. And stop all the issues I've been having with ovarian cysts.

And still, I'm not quite thrilled about having another surgery and going under the knife again. But I'm smart and trust my doctors and recognize that it's time. And if there's anything I know about, it's getting ready for surgery.

So I thought, I'd share with you what I did to prepare for this upcoming surgery. Most of which I've done before my other surgeries.

Around the house:

• I cleaned what I could and tried to get as much laundry done as possible.
• Since I usually drive the kids to their things, I left a list of regularly scheduled things for the husband to drive.
• They have a few things coming up that are one-time events. I have already lined up rides for the kids with other (very helpful and kind) parents.
• We have temporarily set up the room on the first floor for me so I won't have to do stairs for a few days. 
• Left the husband with a list of important passwords, not that I think he'll need them, but just in case. 
• I took care of things on my to do list that I've been procrastinating on (it's amazing what surgery prompts you to do!)

In the bedroom:

• Fresh sheets on the bed because that's just nice any time! 
• I've pulled out some clothes from the dresser drawers/closet. 
• The clothes are now folded and sitting on the top of the dresser so I have easy access to them (sometimes after surgeries, it's hard to pull those drawers open - this was an issue after my mastectomy and with some of my reconstruction so I just do it now with every surgery and it just makes things easier).
• I bought a paper holder and did not put paper in it, but it perfectly holds the tablet, the kindle, and my cell phone.
• I got a holder for my phone cord so it won't fall to the floor on me.
• I have a special wrap light so that if I need light in the middle of the night, it's right there for me.

Random things:

• Clipped my nails so I won't have to worry about it later
• Bought some pajamas that are wicking fabric in case the hot flashes kick in really badly
• Bought some button down shirts - I used these after my mastectomy and it was so nice. Someone suggested that I might want to do that for the first few days after this surgery as well. I had already gotten rid of my other button downs (as I don't normally wear them)

Things I didn't do this time that I normally do:

• Make some dinners in advance
• Line up dinners from friends
• Line up some activities for the kids 
• Get a haircut so I wouldn't have to deal with my long hair - which I will now. Bummer.

For relaxing and passing time as my body heals:

• I splurged and purchased kindle unlimited and got my 10 book limit.
• I used my library's on-line site and downloaded my 5 book limit.
• I was gifted the Texture app and it's all ready to go.
• (Side note: the texture app gives you access to a lot of magazines and you can read whichever ones you want, whichever articles you want for a monthly fee. It's pretty amazing and I am already in love with it and have read so many interesting things. It's great for those moments you have 10  minutes to read, or when you aren't feeling well and you don't want to have to remember details from a book!)
• I stacked a few actual books in case my eyes are bothering me and I can't look at screens.
• I stacked a few videos in case I want to watch something. 
• Have some games ready to play on the tablet along with netflix, amazon prime, and on demand app. 
• And of course, I have some knitting ready to go

This surgery is a bit different than the others because my husband will be able to work from home for a while - which will make things so very much easier. And while this means that he will be working, without a commute time, he'll have more freedom to do things like cook, help with cleaning, and being the taxi for our children.

I know I have a lot of things listed to help pass the time, but I am definitely using this time to just let my body heal. I have been feeling so unhealthy lately. So not only will this be forced time to heal from surgery, but to just heal my body in general. Especially with my husband getting to work from home, I'm trying to frame it in my mind that this is really just a vacation for me and a time to relax. Not that I'll do nothing, but I'll take it as easy as I can.

Anyway, I think I prepared well before surgery. In fact, I'm positive I over prepared by a lot! I suppose I'd rather be over-prepared and not under-prepared!

2016 Goals

Last week I sat down and thought about the goals I wanted to set for 2016. Many of them, as I mentioned in a previous post, are just continuations of last year's goals. That might seem like I'm being lazy or not pushing myself, but that is not the case at all!

I'm working hard towards some really big goals (to get ALL the digital photos edited/organized/arranged), to finish some really labor-intensive projects, and to read almost every book on a list of over 300.

To try to complete all of that, in the span of one year, would be, well, it might make me explode. It would be setting myself up for failure - and who thinks that sounds like fun? Definitely not me. So over a year ago, I broke everything up into year increments, hence, why so many will seem the same. The good news is that today I'm one year closer to completing everything than I was a year ago. And hopefully, in a year, I'll be another year closer.

With all of that said, I present to you my 2016 Goals!

1. Organize 36 folders of digital photos - last year I got through 2008. So I get to start this year in the Jan 2009 folder (by the way, can I insert here that I'm SO thankfully when we first started using digital photography I sorted pictures into monthly photos). You might be wondering, if they are already in their monthly folder, what am I doing? Well, I'm deleting the bad ones, the duplicates, the blurry photos, the photos you accidentally take of the ground while you're walking (oh, is that last one just me?) I'm also tagging faces, tagging locations, and putting in captions where necessary. This is quite a bit of work, but it's already come in handy many times: people asking if I have pictures of them, or of a certain location, etc, etc. So I'll keep plugging alone. 36 folders will probably be about 2-2 1/2 years of pictures, which means this will be an ongoing project for 5ish years, but better to do it a little at a time then not do it at all!

2. Read 50 books, with a minimum of 30 from the Rory Gilmore Reading list - yep, another carry-over from last year. But, this goal pushed me to read more last year than I have in quite some time. And with over 300 books on the Rory Gilmore list, only about 9 years to finish that huge list! But it's good. I like reading. And I need a reminder to turn off the tv more often. Of course, some of these will be audio books - which I can listen to while driving, walking, or working on some projects. Which leads me to the next goal ...

3. Finish the train needlepoint project - I'm not going to lie, I'm so mad I didn't finish last year like I wanted. Even though I was happy that I worked on it so much, I wanted it to be done so I could give it to me son, who has been waiting since late 2011 to get it. So, it would be nice to be done with it! IF, a big if, I finish it earlier enough in the year, I have another cross stitch project that I'll throw in it's place and start to work on (that also needs several years of work at my pace to get finished) BUT nothing new until this is done.

4. Make three things for myself - sew one, knit one, sew three, knit three, however it works out. I want to make myself three things this coming year. I'm not sure quite yet what those three things will be, but I think at least one will be a skirt I've been wanting to make for a few years now. I just need to force myself to sit at the machine and sew!

5. Blog twice per week - I got pretty close to this goal last year, and I think if I just push a bit harder, I'll make it this year. The trick will be to keep doing it next year and the next year!

6. Comment on other blogs three times per week - That's not that much really. And I read a lot of blogs - but usually on my phone where commenting is a pain. So I just need to get on the computer and read and let other bloggers know that hey, I'm here, and I'm reading, and I love your words always. I know how much a comment means to me. I imagine it is just as nice for others to get them too!

7. Cook a new cookbook recipe twice a month - Okay, I love cookbooks. I own a ton. But I don't hardly use them. Mostly because I hate cooking. So I'm going to try to reach into the cookbook collection more often and make keeping the cookbooks on a shelf worth while. Plus, many of them have great baking recipes I should try ;-)

8. Complete organizational tasks - I have 7 tasks spread out through the year that I want to make sure I do this year. This includes organizing the kitchen (due to a much welcomed influx of items over the holiday season), organizing the Christmas items, going through the bathrooms and chucking all the expired medicines, etc. The things that need to get done, but tend to be forgotten about.

9. Organize 6 Stupid Cancer meet-ups in my area - that's one every other month. We have a facebook group, but don't get together for face-to-face meet ups. But I've been attending a Young Survivor Coalition meet up over most of last year and it's a good thing. So I'm going to make it my mission to set up some face-to-face meetings because I think it will be a good thing. Plus, aside from setting goals this year, I did pick a guiding word and the word I picked was Connection. So this fits in nicely with that. I figure, I can have too many connections to others in my life, so here's one way to make them happen!

10. Well, ten is a secret. I mean probably not for you, but maybe for somebody reading this. If I finish it, I'll unveil it at Christmas time. And that's all you get to know about that! ;-)


10 Goals to complete this year. Not too shabby I think. I'll diligently work on them throughout the year, since most will require a lot of time to finish! I'm ready though. I want to get these projects completed because I know it will feel SO SO SO SO SO good. So I'm ready to rock another year!

Goals, To Do Lists, and Fatigue

my to-do list on a good day.

Every month I sit down and make a calendar/to-do list for myself. It's based on the bullet journal method and I really like it.

First I start by setting the month up and writing down any of the goals I have for that month.

Many of these goals are based on the goals I set up for the whole year - just broken down into small bits.

Of course, there are always new things coming up, new events to add, different things that need to happen - like birthdays, parties to plan, etc.

After I set things up on a month level, I go through and break things down by day.

Do I need to edit three months worth of pictures? Well, I'll throw it on the calendar for 30 minutes a few times a week.

Each day I list the things on my to-do list for that day, I write down any appointments I need to be at, or classes for the kids, or special events (birthdays, holidays, etc).

As things come up, I shuffle things around. If I have a day where I'm going to be out of the house almost all day, I will put fewer things on the to-do list.

This method mostly works for me. Things are broken down. I can split things up each week as needed according to other things going on. And at a glance, I can see all the things for the day.

The problem is, as almost always, even when I pull back to the necessities, I'm so dang tired.

Too many days hardly any boxes get checked off as accomplished. A few days, nothing gets checked off.

Same old story. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The fatigue and exhaustion I feel are sometimes crushing. Combine this with chronic pain issues? on those days, I'd kill to feel crushing exhaustion.

It's hard to get to the end of the day and not see things get done. It's hard to know that my husband has to come home from work and pick up the slack that I couldn't do (side note: he does this without complaint. I still feel bad).

Because it seems like every day I fall a bit farther behind. But that little bit builds and builds and suddenly it's November and my to-do list for the year seems quite lacking. And it's not like December is a quiet month that will give me a lot of time to catch up! In an ideal world, I'd reach my yearly goals this month and have December to focus on holidays and birthdays.

So here I sit, knowing things will be unfinished come December 31.

But I also sit her knowing things did get done. And that next year, it will be better to set the bar lower.

That's what I have to remind myself a lot of these days. Patience with myself. Kindness to myself. Knowing that any step forward - even if it wasn't as far as I wanted it to be - is a good thing. I may not have finished many of my goals, but I did make a lot of progress.

I know this isn't the first time I've written similar thoughts. It's probably not even the second or the third time.

Honestly, I'm still trying to convince myself that what I can get done is enough. If I type it enough. If I read it enough. I'll start to believe it.

Or so I'm told.

I hope that starts to happen soon. I often end the day feeling like a sloth and feeling badly about all I didn't do - instead of happy for the things I did do.

But I keep trying.

And next year, I'll set smaller goals for the year, while still trying to push myself to get things done. It's a fine line, right? Because I don't want goals that are too easy or don't require effort. But I don't want goals set so high that there just isn't a chance.

It's kind of how I try to educate my kids - there's a band where things are not quite easy, but not too hard. It's just in that sweet spot of learning, getting things done, and feeling good about it because it required just the right amount of work.

It all just comes down to balance.

Someday I will figure the balance puzzle out. And I will come here and share my wisdom with you!

But for now, I'm here scratching my head, trying to figure out the best way to get close to proper balance all while not feeling too bad when I don't achieve it.

2015 Goals: February Update

Since it's the last day of the month, that means that it's time to go over the goals I've set for myself this year!

This is really more for me than for you. It's a great way to help keep me on track and good motivation to get things done!

1. Make a granny square every weekday of 2015: Still going. The pile of squares is getting bigger and bigger!

2. Read 40 books, with 30 of them being from the Rory Gilmore Reading List: Four books this month, and three were off of the RGRL. That puts me at 10 books with 6 of them from RGRL!

3. Organize three years worth of digital pictures: Yep, still working on the pictures. It's been fun to look back and see them. I got through 4 months of picture, which is good, because some of the months coming up have a LOT of pictures in them

5. Finish a train embroidery project: Still chugging a long on this one! I stitch and stitch and I only get small sections done at a time, but I'm working on it!

6. Make money from my knitting: Not this month, but I have finished a LOT of projects on my to do list, and once those are done, I'm hoping to get some jobs!

7. On the blogging side of things, it's to blog twice a week: Still not doing two a week on a regular basis! But I think there less days between posts and I'm posting more regularly than last year, so forward progress? Also, I have 17 posts in 8 weeks. So technically I'm averaging twice a week, even if I'm not actually posting twice a week, so that still counts, right?

8. Also related to blogging, I need to be a better commenter on other blogs: Yep, still doing a good job on this!

Overall, I'm pleased with what I'm doing. In addition to this, I've been doing a much better job of not letting laundry pile up, and I've got a pretty good schedule with the cleaning down. I've also worked on organizing the kitchen and feel like it's in pretty good shape. Which is good. I've never been so organized in my life. I still don't have the energy to accomplish a million things each day, but it's amazing how much I can get done just by doing 3-5 things each day!

How about you? Still going with your 2015 goals and resolutions?

2015 Goals: January Update

So I set some goals for 2015, and I thought, more to help keep me on track than anything else, I would post a monthly update to see where things stand. Since it's the last day of the month, it seems like a good time to see how it's going, so here we go!

1. Make a granny square every weekday of 2015: So far, so good! I've managed to make one each day. One day it was made minutes before midnight, but done, so it counts!

2. Read 40 books, with 30 of them being from the Rory Gilmore Reading List: I've read 6 books already total and 3 from the RGRL, so I think that's a pretty good pace!

3. Organize three years worth of digital pictures: I've been through three months this month. I figure if I can do 3 months of pictures each month this year, I'll get my three years of pictures done! I started with September 2006, so we'll see where I end!

4. Organize scrapbooking items/keepsakes: Done and done! Everything is done already. I thought it would take more time, but once I jumped in, I just kept going. Plus everything was all spread out and a big mess. Since I finished that, I went ahead and worked on organizing some other areas too and it's gorgeous and I love it and I hope we can keep it that way!

5. Finish a train embroidery project: I've spent quite some time stitching. I can tell that work has been done ... however, there's still so much to do. I will keep pushing though!

6. Make money from my knitting: I have one crochet "job" that I won't finish for a while, but it can count, right? And here's to hoping it opens some more doors?

7. On the blogging side of things, it's to blog twice a week: Nope, right now I'm averaging once a week. But I figure that's okay. At the end of the year, I hope the average will be twice a week!

8. Also related to blogging, I need to be a better commenter on other blogs: Yep, I've upped the comments I'm leaving and it feels good to do so!


Overall, things are going well. I'd like to blog more, but, also given my progress on the other goals (with one already done!) I'm not going to sweat it for now.

In general I'm also trying to stay on top of chores and just being more organized in general. This does not come naturally to me, so it's not always easy! I'm trying though. And really that's all I can do! And I've finally found a system that is helping me more than any other thing I've tried has helped. I've been using it for a few months now, so it's well tested.

Of course, I need to blog about that, and the books I've read, and share pictures of my granny-square-a-weekday, and of my embroidery. Wait, why aren't I blogging twice a week? I've got a lot to catch up on! 

The Kitchen

I've been working on some organization around these parts over the last few weeks.

I made a good dent in my scrapbooking things. No, scratch that, I finished with all of that, which was a huge weight off my shoulders. I've got more things to get in order in the basement, but for now my eyes have turned to the kitchen.

When we moved here, the kitchen already had things in it. It wasn't a full kitchen with everything you needed, but it had a good amount of things (for those who have forgotten, we moved in with husband's grandmother who has lived her for a very long time!) So I kind of came in and just threw all my stuff in with her stuff and called it a day.

Except that left the kitchen a mess. And no one could put things away correctly.

So before Christmas, the husband and I spent a day and basically reorganized the locations of things in the kitchen. Not everything got moved to a new location, but we did move around some things, and we did the whole wipe down shelves, toss anything we didn't think we needed anymore (or we had doubles of that we didn't need doubles of).

That was so good!

Now, the issue becomes organizing certain spots in the kitchen. We moved all the spices from one spot to another. No spice rack, so I went out right away and got two of them to hold it all.

I'm slowly working my way through.

All of this to say, I have an idea to share with you today.

One wide mouth canning jar and all the leftover cupcake liners that are floating around your cabinet. If it's like mine was (prior to all of 3 hours ago) those darn liners tip over, roll around, and just get in the way. I try to save the boxes they come in if I can, but sometimes they just come in a plastic bag.

So I shoved (yes, shoved) then into this jar. They are easier coming out than going on. I know because a) I literally shoved them in and b) I pulled them in and out and in and out and in and out many times to make sure I wouldn't regret this when I went to actually use them.

Actually, I should say, they are easy to get in, but they want to go in sideways. So I had to fidget with them to get them in not sideways. You can't stack them all together and just push a large stack in. I put some in, then some more, then some more.

It works, they are in my cabinet, out of the way, and ready to be used again!

2015 Goals

In years past I've set resolutions.

I've picked words to guide my year.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Because sometimes I'm more motivated and sometimes I'm not. And sometimes things happen that change plans.

And yet, this year, I'm ready to go again. So I've set a few goals for the year. We'll see how it goes. I want these goals to be fun, help me grow, etc. So if they become a burden, then I shall re-evaluate.

1. Make a granny square every weekday of 2015 - yes, I said every weekday. The weekend will be a break or a time to catch up should I need it.

2. Read 40 books, with 30 of them being from the Rory Gilmore Reading List

3. Organize three years worth of digital pictures - bonus if I can get through more, but I'll be happy with just three years. Basically this means I delete the bad ones, tag faces, tag locations and leave any stories behind the picture if it needs to be

4. Organize scrapbooking items/keepsakes - I have boxes of scrapbooking things and of keepsakes. I need to get things organized and in proper boxes. I also need to weed through things and probably get rid of things. When we moved, this part of looking through things was just too daunting, so all of these boxes were just stacked and moved. It's time to delve in. Since there is no move this upcoming year and a lot of other things were done before the move, I should be able to focus on this.

5. Finish a train embroidery project - I've been working on this for too long. It's time to finish! Of course, once it's finished, I have other projects waiting in the wings ready to be worked on too. But, for now, I'll focus on this one and call it a day.

6. Make money from my knitting - I don't know how this will work or if it will. But I'd love to bring in an income, even a tiny one. And I love to knit so it seems like a good fit? We'll see.

7. On the blogging side of things, it's to blog twice a week. I feel like that should be doable, though I don't always average that. Though I want to make sure I'm not blogging nothing just to get a post up.

8. Also related to blogging, I need to be a better commenter on other blogs. I love getting comments. I assume others do as well. So I shall try to spread the love better and make sure I'm not just writing here, but reading other blogs as well.

8 goals. It may not seem like much, but there it is! I'm ready to go and tackle things. I've got quite a few plans in place to get things done. I've got the month of January done in my bullet journal and most of February done as well. Many of these goals are in the book already - nothing will get done in month one, but I should make some good progress in January. And hopefully in December I can come back to this list and say yep, finished that; yep, finished that; oh, cross that one off too!

What about you? Have you set any goals or resolutions or picked a word (or a few) to help guide your 2015? Share! 

Why I Can't be Organized

I am not a very organized person.

I forget things. Often. I lose things. Often.

I frequently do things last minute.

It's not on purpose. I swear. And I don't enjoy those moments of panic, where I'm frantically trying to find something or finish something or when I have to say "hey, I can't finish this on time!"

So last week, I decided I was going to get organized.

I pulled out a notebook, a pen, got myself an app (pen/paper and apps can be used together).

I sat down and wrote all the things I needed to do on a regular basis. I wrote down all the things I wanted to do on a regular basis. {yes, things I wanted to do - like time to read or knit or other things. because I love myself enough to know that I need some time to just be on a regular basis, and if putting it on the to do list is how I get it, then so be it}. I wrote down some long term projects that I had going on. Things that would need a lot of little sessions to finish. I wrote down all the occasional must do's (i.e. cleaning that only needed to happen once a month). And then I made a list of all the one-time things I had looming on my list of things to do.

Basically I made a lot of lists! Several pages of several columns of lists

I looked this over and thought about the average week and tried to figure out the best day to do certain tasks. Weekly tasks were added first. Long term projects added to the days weekly tasks weren't taking up every spot. Occasional tasks added to the most empty day of the week. And then I figured every day I would try to knock off 1-3 things from the one-time to-do list.

Are you following all of this? It sounds complicated. It wasn't. I just had to spread tasks around over 7 days.

Then I pulled the app out. I'm using any.do right now and I'm happy with it so far. But I added a folder for each day of the week, and then I put my tasks in under each day.

I looked it all over and added in a few more things where I could. I started a folder for my one daughter who struggles to organize like me because with any.do you can share lists with people. Win-win. I can share a list and not have to nag. (okay, we're still working on this, but I see a bit of progress).

And let me tell you, I was feeling all puffed up and proud of myself. I was crossing things off the list. I was all "yeah. I rock."

For about 36 hours.

Then. Then I left the house to run errands on my list. So I could cross them off.

Except I did something not on my list. I lost my cell phone. And I panicked. I panicked like I've never panicked before. I walked around the store I was in when I lost it for 90 minutes.

Then I gave up. Admitted it was gone. Moved on. Without my to-do list. Without my phone. Feeling like I was Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I came home, defeated, but ready to keep moving. I'd just consult the paper version.

That's about the time I stepped on a nail in the garage. Oh yeah. That was fun. And by fun I mean a lot of pain.

Then I got a migraine. Or probably a bad stress headache.

And boom. Just like that. Organization gone. Out the window. Forgotten about.

Okay, not entirely. I'm trying to keep up with it. I've got my replacement phone, I've got my notebook and pen. But life is rarely like an average week. So I'm trying to do the best I can. And forgive myself when things are left not crossed off at the end of the day.

A brand new room!

When we moved into the house 3 1/3 years ago we didn't really have all the furniture to properly fill this house. Nor did we really find a good place for everything. Mostly the kids toys were the biggest issue. They didn't all fit in the kids' rooms. So first we put them in the basement:

But that didn't last, so then the toys ended up in my living room by the fireplace:

I know, not the best picture, but I tried to avoid getting shots of them because I honestly hated the toys there. And also, if we did want to light the fire place, we had to move everything out of the way and more often than not, I decided to just not use the fireplace!

At the same time, I had a front room that looked a bit like this:

Again, not a great picture. Apparently I never just took pictures of this room. And usually the card table with the puzzle wasn't there. And it's hard to tell, but there is a coffee table hiding under those blankets!

At one point, I got tired of the toys in the living room, and moved them to the front room. I think we just did it this year after taking the Christmas tree down. And so my front room looked like this:

Which was fine because it was all out of the living room (where we spend most of our time) but it also bothered me because this is the first room you see when you walk into our house. The front door is right there and the room didn't look all that nice most of the time!

So in short the toys have moved several times. I've never been happy with where they end up. And I was just done with it. So I mentioned to husband that we needed to do something to the front room and maybe could we save up and do it right after Christmas? And he agreed but said we had a little something we could use to do it now. And with that I was off! Looking, planning, deciding what to do. We completely changed it to be all for the kids (instead of toys mixed in with nicer furniture that was made for more of a sitting room situation). But I still wanted it to look nice, and yet be functional - so here's what we ended up with:



Let me just say right now - I LOVE it. I just love it. Well, I have a few more finishing touches I want to add, but it's perfect for us right now!



This desk area has already been used so much by all three kids



This little mini-bookcase is mine though



It holds some of our homeschooling things - mostly what we are currently using (or might use). The top though is for the kids to decorate and we want it to be a nature table (which I first heard about over at Soule Mama and have always wanted to find a spot to do that at our house!!)

I just think the room is lovely overall. And when you walk in I think it's much nicer to come through the door and see this



than what you saw before. And the toys are much nicer in these boxes than in the plastic containers they were in before I think too



But the truth is, the best part of remaking the room was that we were all excited to do this and everyone pitched in and helped put it all together:


(yes, he was very serious about working on this! He pounded those pegs in so perfectly too!)



=)

Thanks Twitter!

So, per usual, I have spent too much time on-line so far this week.
And yesterday, there was much twitter chatter about oamc (once a month cooking - and yes I had to look it up before I knew! LOL). And I kept reading about it and hearing what people were making, and then darn-it, I wanted to do it too! LOL!

So I packed the kids up and went to Target. I do NOT recommend this to anyone. I had a vague idea of what I would make and just went shopping. Adding this, and that, and some of this, and oh! If I buy that, I can make this too. Which, is completely unwise and again, I do not recommend doing it this way.

Last night I made some broth thanks to thanksgiving leftovers with plans to wake up and do lots of things today.

I decided to start with breads because they had to rise. I think that actually worked well.

And I also rounded up some help, because I knew this was going to be a long day!





We measured, mixed, laughed, and at lunch time we had all the bread dough done.

Which, I might add, almost made me cry. Because I thought we'd be farther. I thought it would be easier - a couple hours and wa-la, dinner for a lot of nights! Um, no. It does not work that way. Which probably most people would have known, but I always have really unrealistic estimates of how long things will take!


But it was okay, we pressed on (after eating lunch! And started in on some chili and some homemade mac and cheese. And bread was in the oven (and the rolls and pizza dough I let rise, then shaped and threw in the freezer LOL)

The kitchen was hot and on fire. We ended up sort of getting slowed down during all of this - too many pots to watch out for, things going in and out of the oven, little people running all over the place. It sort of got a bit chaotic in there, but we pressed on (seriously, let me pause for a moment and tell you how incredibly amazing my 10 year old and just how much she completely helped me out!! She rocks!)

We then did a second batch of both chili and mac and cheese. Then I made some meatloaf (using a recipe found on-line that I'm nervous about so I won't link it, but I tweaked it a bit because it just didn't look right when we mixed it up!). Then mixed up a different batch of meatloaf that we rolled into meatballs. At this point (roughly 4:15) I remember I forgot to cook the chicken in the crock pot. So I tossed that in.

I had promised my daughter we would without a doubt make pancakes that they could heat for breakfasts. And so at 5 we started pancakes. I ended up doing 8 batches of it - which sounds like a lot, but really, each batch didn't make that much. We did half plain and half chocolate chip - and this ended up being dinner (with scrambled eggs and toast).

After dinner I did a huge pot of turkey and rice soup (that I just make up as I go!). The chicken is now cooked, but I'm not doing anything with it until tomorrow (in which I have some more big plans).

And now - well now I'm sitting and not cooking LOL! All told, we made:
2 loaves wheat bread
2 loaves white bread
40 wheat rolls
28 buttermilk rolls
4 batches chili
2 batches mac and cheese
2 meatloaves
48 meatballs
2 batches turkey and rice soup
a lot of pancakes!

That gives us at least 12 meals. Not bad for a day's work! If, however, I do this again, I will have more of a plan!

New Art Gallery!

Our house got a new art gallery installed today.

The kids love it as well!

I've been wanting to do this for a while. We've been thinking of ideas on how to display the kids' art work. First I thought about frames, but, those are really expensive and plus, you never know what size art work they will produce! Then we thought about getting some cork board. But most of them were too thin, the pins would have gone right through and made marks on the wall behind it (which dh was opposed to doing because he doesn't want to patch a million holes LOL!) I asked around for ideas - and heard lots of great ones, but none I could make work in our house.

Finally, this morning I told dh, forget it looking "nice." We are not a real gallery. All that is important to me is that we hang up some of the kids stuff because they make so much and I feel like we display so little of it. So go buy 4 eye hooks and some wire and even if it doesn't look "professional" it will be awesome!

So, he did. And we hung it up tonight. And I have to say, I LOVE it. I absolutely love it. I just keep walking by and looking at it. The kids, they love it too. It may not look professional, it may not look like a real gallery, but you know what, it's our gallery. And that makes it wonderful in my eyes! =)

Clutter Challenge!

I hope you'll come over and join us. And I'm also praying and hoping I can round up a few give-aways or something for the people who are a part of the challenge - so if you have something to donate or offer, that would be beyond fabulous! =)

Cleaning

There has been much cleaning going on here lately.

Thanks to the party we hosted on Sunday for the big game, my house is cleaner than it has been in a while. Nothing like a dozen people coming over to motivate you to scrub and clean every nook and cranny.

I reorganized my kitchen today. Switched up a few cabinets, found a few things to get rid of, and organized things so well that I was able to move a few things out of the pantry and into the kitchen (I only wish I could have moved more! LOL)

And I've been cleaning up my bloglines - making sure things I saved I still want to save and as much as I hate to do it, I've been unsubscribing from some blogs. I feel bad :-( But I just don't have the time to read them all anymore. I've only cut 10 so far, but I plan on cutting about half of them by the end of the week. And they are all lovely blogs and I wish I had more time to read them all. But I don't.

Anyway, in knitting news, I finished the shawl I was knitting, but I can't show you it yet =) I need to block and then give it to the bride-to-be and let her see it first. I'm trying to start a new knitting project. Except I'm having lots of trouble with gauge and might just end up giving up. I'm supposed to get 26 rows and 20 sts on a size 7 needle. A size 6 needle is giving me 25.5 rows and 16 sts. That would be a problem. :::sigh:: I think to get the right number of stitches I need to drop to a size 4 needle. But then I'll have too many rows. Grrr ... kind of frustrating. I might have to drop the project and change gears. Which bums me out because I really wanted to make this (simple, cute) hoodie for my 6 year old.

And aside from that, I need to really clean my office before I do anything else. It's a big mess again. :::sigh::: I'm starting to think I can't ever keep it clean. Really it's because it has become the dumping grounds for everything else in the house that doesn't fit anywhere else. So really, until I get the entire house organized, it will continue to be the dumping grounds. On the plus side, my kitchen is nice and tidy and organized now =)

Do I know how to have fun on Friday night or what?

(If you are reading in bloglines/google reader/etc, I'm sorry but you'll have to open my blog to hear my post!)



Yep. You'll be jealous and wish you had spent your friday night the same way ROFL!!

My cleaners ...

I use a WIDE variety of cleaners - I took a sample shot of them today to show you:

You can see Method, Burt's Bees, Palmolive, Scrubbing Bubbles, Seventh Generation, Shaklee and Clean Well. This does not include the water, vinegar, lemon, baking powder that I use either! Because I also use lots of those things too!

As you can see, I don't have a favorite brand or much brand loyalty - I look at the amount of chemicals, how well it works, are there alternatives, the price, and then look at the brand. So we end up with a wide variety. And we switch as things go on sale or special. I did not buy the Shaklee though. I won that. I use it. And I love it. However, that we won't buy unless the company changes their policies because we don't want to be locked in to buy a certain amount each month - which stinks, because I would probably buy from them otherwise. Also, I won't be buying scrubbing bubbles anymore, but the frugal part of me needs to finish the spray before replacing it - although maybe not so much anymore - it might be gone very soon - more on that later.

Anyway, my point is, I use lots of products and it doesn't bother me that I do that. I will say that right now we are trying to use less chemicals in our house - I have a child with neurological issues and a child with asthma - both of which are documented to be irritated by lots of chemicals in the products we use. My house is not chemical free - we have nonstick pans, some of our furniture has been treated with the fireproof agent, I'm sure my carpet is releasing VOC's into the air (along with our paint, furniture, and other things). We are not eliminating them completely to be sure, but we are trying to make small changes that can help a lot - and cleaners is one area it's been easy to do that with.

I'm sure you are scratching your head right now - it's okay ... this post will make a lot more sense once I make my next post. But it's a way for me to give you background without creating the longest post in the history of this blog! LOL

Why I'm planning ahead ...

aka I'm going to whine about my evening!

So my goal is get 175 wedding invitations (and I think I'm doing everything from scratch except the envelopes) done, finished, ready to give to the bride October 31. Which I think is good, since the wedding is mid-February.
Last night I measured the sample, figured out how much paper I will need to get and estimated the amount of tape, ribbon, ink, embossing powder, etc, etc to buy. I'm going to a craft night on Thursday and thought it would be the perfect time to begin cutting paper, so ideally I want to start printing tomorrow.
The best laid plans ... there was not enough paper - in either color that I need. I don't think I have enough ribbon either, but I bought what they had. I bought all the red paper they had that I needed - which was a whole 20 sheets and I need 100. No one there could tell me if they'd even get more in or not which is bad, because if more doens't get in stock soon, well, I don't want to start and have to switch 20% of the way through. I didn't buy any white because they only had small packs (50 packs) when I need to buy roughly 800-1000 pieces of cardstock. Someone told me hobby lobby will let me order a large quantity and discount the price me - I sure hope so, because tonight it was 4.00 for 50 pages of white paper. Which means it would be approximately $80 just for the white paper.

[FTR I would pay that much if there is no alternative because I so want to make everything perfect for the bride, but if I can get it cheaper, I'm going to definitely try!]

The good news is that I have time to make all of this come together. So even though I won't get started tomorrow and will bring knitting with me on Thursday, I'm glad that I went shopping for materials tonight instead of waiting! Because in general, I procrastinate as much as possible. But I knew I could not screw this up. These are wedding invitations! And I'm not going to be the person who pisses off the bride and sends her into a fit of hysteria for not having them ready on time! No, I want to be the person who she loves and adores and is happy with thank you very much!!

So, I'm glad that I didn't go my usual route (which would have had me buying supplies approximately Oct. 30) and that I planned ahead. Also, in an effort to be more organized - something I struggle with way too much, I bought a pocket calendar/planner to go into my purse. And the only thing to be said about that is about time!

Getting serious ...

Okay, we are getting serious over here!!!
Operation Purge is a go in our house!

Right where the entire family will see it multiple times a day - on the door leading to the garage. Because I am serious about this now. I know, it does seem strange to count the number of things, but it seems more fun to get the kids to help get rid of 1000 things than to say get rid of lots of stuff. Because, what is "lots"?
Anyway, if you can see it, it stands at 150 right now (but the tick marks below the number are the things we've purged since making that sign earlier today!).
Anyway, we are all excited about the thought of getting rid of things, but I had to explain to the kids that getting rid of everyday garbage does not count for this! LOL!

Also, I made more jam tonight -

Some yummy strawberry-kiwi jam!! I can't wait to eat it - which I might add we have almost polished off one of the strawberry rhubarb jam jars! LOL I think the family likes it =)

And just to prove exactly how weird I am to you all - this was my dinner tonight:

Potatoes and meatloaf, both cooked inside my grill!! And you should know, the meatloaf was SOOOOO good!! And I love meatloaf, but I hardly ever make it in the summer because it heats up the house way too much. Ha!! Now I can have my meatloaf without heating up the house. This surprised my dh a bit because I have NEVER grilled before in my life. I figured today was a good day to learn though, and much to my relief, it worked! It's exciting to be trying and doing all these new things (well, new to me anyway!).

This summer in general just might go down as one of my most fun/memorable summers ever. The kids and I are exploring more places - mostly around town and close to home. I am getting out of the house and hanging out with other people. I am trying new things and just enjoying a lot of it. And to make it worth it all - the kids are saying how much fun they are having this summer as well. Which is music to this mama's ears!

Kids Clean Up and Clean Out!

**This is a post originally from April 13, 2007. It used to be posted on another blog I had, but I wanted to move it over here so that it can be seen. And also, I need to do it again, so it's good motivation LOL!



This, my dear readers, is how my front room looked this afternoon.

Today, at my house, we did a toy sort. Now, this was completed today for a variety of reasons:

1. We have more toys than this house can hold without looking messy and uncluttered.
2. I feel extremely motivated to thin the toys because most of them will be housed in the basement and since I am organizing my basement for the 30 Day Organizational Challenge, this went a long way to help for that
3. My dh has been requesting I take time to do this for, oh, a month now?

I know it looks scary. I promise, it's even scarier in person, however this is the most effective way I have found to clean house with the toys so to speak. Is to start by creating a large pile of junk somewhere in the house. Preferable a place with space and room to walk around and spread out. You get the toys in a pile and you get boxes to help with the sort. You also get a garbage bag and a box for donations.



Essentially after we create the pile I say:
Okay, go through and find all the books! And they do.
Then I say "Now look for all the Barbie things" And they do.
Common things we search for: stuffed animals, books, polly pockets, barbie dolls, Little Man's toys, kitchen things, things that should really be in their room, the blocks, the cars, etc ...

It works quite effectively actually because when they see how much they have of, oh say, barbies, we can decide to throw away all the mismatched shoes, half of the brushes, dolls that have been broken, clothes that have ripped. I found if we just do this randomly they argue to keep things more. This way it's all there, in front of them, easy for them to see that they do have 15 brushes might be a bit much and really they could live with about 5.

Trying to get them to part with things just here and there when I see it tends to cause them to say "No! You can't get rid of it! It's my favorite!" or I hear "It's the only one I have." or the ever-used "No! It's very special to me!" Now, I still hear that when we do it this way .. however I can say "No, it's not the only one you have. We just made a pile of 23." or I can say "Well, this other one was your favorite too. So look hard, which one is really your favorite?" or I can say "This, this is special to you? I haven't seen you play with it in months and it sat at the bottom of the box for a long time. Is it really special? If it is you can keep it, but maybe it's not as special as the ones you've already decided to keep" Usually that gets them to part with things with less whining.


And then when you are all done, you can step back and admire: The finished product! How nice does that look? We have have a few empty boxes, which is amazing as all boxes were over-flowing when we started and they brought down toys from their room that weren't in boxes. The only thing that is not shown or the books which were taken to the book case straight away.
[Although, I must admit, we are not fully done. The one box on the floor next to the blue finger puppet stage, actually has the last bits we need to sort through. However, they did such a good job and Little Man was starting to make it hard, that when I saw how little was left, we put it into a box and will sort through it tomorrow and hopefully with daddy home, Little Man can be taken to another room!]

The bins with their items






And here, is our donation pile. That's a lot of toys we decided to part with today. We also had one bag of garbage, broken toys, or toys that were not in any condition to be donated!

And there is my toy sort. And it feels good to get it done. I have found homes for about half of it so far. Dh and I will be looking at other furniture soon and hopefully will buy a nice home for the rest of it! Most of them came from the basement area I am working on, and doing this goes a long way to helping me get the basement organized!

My craft room!

I gladly present to you, my office! I am in love with this room. I was able, between yesterday and today, to get it in pretty decent shape! I doubt it will look this clean until we have a party or something like that here! LOL!



The door to the office!




The corner ... (you can see the hinges to the door on the left edge there).




My ribbon holder ... dh made it for me. I have to say, I do love it. Mostly because he made it and I think that is sweet. There is also under cabinet lighting there that he put in for me =)



moving down the counter ...




close-up of the fabric stash ... they should all be ironed and refolded, but well, I'm a bit lazy!




Embroidery corner!
The machine fits perfectly in this space and the thread for it hangs right behind it!




The other sewing machine. Not nearly as great of a spot, but a workable spot. Some more thread hanging on the wall (again, dh did that for me). And you can't see the cabinets above this counter, but he also put under-cabinet lighting on these as well. It really made a huge difference in the room truthfully. It was on the dark side before he did it all.




Another corner. The little tv is actually sitting in a corner designed for a computer, but I like my little tv there. I watch a lot of hgtv down there, but I also watch mtv and other shows I wouldn't watch with the kids around LOL!
Also, the cabinets/lights show up in this picture that I was talking about before ...




The other wall .... I think the picture makes it look cluttered, but when I am in the room, it doesn't feel cluttered to me. There is the one window in the room. It does let in some light, but not much as it's a window well.
That's the only bummer about being in the basement - lack of sunlight, but I am so excited to have my own space and get it all organized, that I'm not complaining just yet lol!




Secret knitting hide-out! LOL!
This is just a small sample of knitting yarns ... mostly the yarn is stuff I have projects in progress on. Most of my yarn is in 3 containers in the laundry room. But I did want some of it to be a bit more easy access, so hence this idea.