I know it’s a little late in the month to be pondering New Year’s Resolutions. I’m not a big resolution maker, so it’s not usually on my radar. I’ve already blown two of the three resolutions. Getting up at 7am every weekday??? Ha! That is a bit unrealistic for me (a non-morning person) while I have a baby who likes to wake up a couple of times a night to nurse. Procrastination??? I’ll tackle that one later. Perhaps next year.
The biggie for me presently, is being uncharacteristically disorganized. In light of the new addition to our family, I have gotten way behind in a number of things. So my resolution is to be better organized and restructure our days to run more smoothly. Yeah, right…I hear ya…the same resolution has been made and broken many, many times by many, many people.
Having a baby has somewhat muddled up our school day, so I had some work to do there. We’re covering still the same amount of stuff, just in different ways. So far it’s working. Also, a couple times per week, I’ve been doing our read-alouds at night before bedtime, so that frees us up during the daytime when I don’t have anyone home to help with a fussy baby during reading time. We’ve added a clay class at the rec center and we’re taking the next Circus class too. So we’re pretty busy.
As far as my household chores go, I’ve made an effort to make a menu and go grocery shopping every Sunday for the ingredients. Once a week shopping instead of every couple of days because I forgot we were out of eggs. Keeping a white-board list of stuff I run out of during the week has been the best time saver ever! When I use the last bit of peanut butter, I just put it on the white board on the fridge, so I don’t even have to think about it when I make the grocery list. Then just add the ingredients from the menu items I came up with on a list to take to the grocery store. After a one month trial, dinner has been a cinch and worry free.
I’ve divided my house into zones in order to stay on top of the housework, which has fallen waaaaay behind. Much like the Flylady system, but not exactly. So every week, I work on the zone for that week, for example, the kitchen. That week, I make an effort to concentrate on one or two really yucky tasks in that particular area or zone that would never get done otherwise. Like cleaning the microwave or wiping down the cabinet doors. Plus the normal kitchen chores, just done a little more thoroughly.
I did the bathroom recently. My yucky task was to de-junk the mysterious stuff in the cabinet under the sink. You know, the bottle of shampoo that turned out to be really stinky and nobody used it. Or ancient soaps and lotions, things of that nature. Here’s what I was dealing with:
The biggie for me presently, is being uncharacteristically disorganized. In light of the new addition to our family, I have gotten way behind in a number of things. So my resolution is to be better organized and restructure our days to run more smoothly. Yeah, right…I hear ya…the same resolution has been made and broken many, many times by many, many people.
Having a baby has somewhat muddled up our school day, so I had some work to do there. We’re covering still the same amount of stuff, just in different ways. So far it’s working. Also, a couple times per week, I’ve been doing our read-alouds at night before bedtime, so that frees us up during the daytime when I don’t have anyone home to help with a fussy baby during reading time. We’ve added a clay class at the rec center and we’re taking the next Circus class too. So we’re pretty busy.
As far as my household chores go, I’ve made an effort to make a menu and go grocery shopping every Sunday for the ingredients. Once a week shopping instead of every couple of days because I forgot we were out of eggs. Keeping a white-board list of stuff I run out of during the week has been the best time saver ever! When I use the last bit of peanut butter, I just put it on the white board on the fridge, so I don’t even have to think about it when I make the grocery list. Then just add the ingredients from the menu items I came up with on a list to take to the grocery store. After a one month trial, dinner has been a cinch and worry free.
I’ve divided my house into zones in order to stay on top of the housework, which has fallen waaaaay behind. Much like the Flylady system, but not exactly. So every week, I work on the zone for that week, for example, the kitchen. That week, I make an effort to concentrate on one or two really yucky tasks in that particular area or zone that would never get done otherwise. Like cleaning the microwave or wiping down the cabinet doors. Plus the normal kitchen chores, just done a little more thoroughly.
I did the bathroom recently. My yucky task was to de-junk the mysterious stuff in the cabinet under the sink. You know, the bottle of shampoo that turned out to be really stinky and nobody used it. Or ancient soaps and lotions, things of that nature. Here’s what I was dealing with:
Where does all this crap come from? Fortunately we moved here only two years ago. If we had logged years and years, there would be stuff that was years and years old. Now, looking at the picture, I notice that a box of Fizzies is taking a prominent position in my bathroom cabinet. Front and center! I’m not sure why, because Fizzies are an abomination as a candy or kid commodity. My Mom bought them for nostalgia’s sake summer before last when they visited. Here is a link to our Fizzie experience: Fizzies--When Nostalgia Goes Terribly Awry So it’s a good thing I got around to this before too many more years passed!
This next picture is a collection of Archie’s toothbrushes. For a kid who hates to brush his teeth (it’s our every-day battle), he sure has a lot of toothbrushes! And the three tubes of toothpaste we have…what’s up with that?
And the biggest ‘treasure’ of all…The Sand and Stable perfume! It has quite an amusing family history behind it, but suffice it to say that it will be properly re-gifted at the next family gathering! Julie: Count yourself lucky your birthday already passed. Hmmm…
So I’ve taken a long time to say so far, so good on my reorganizational skills. While I still don’t have a whole lot of time to write my blog stuff or do too many ‘me’ type things, life is running a little more smoothly. One month down…eleven more to go to keep this up.
4 comments:
Summer hates to brush her teeth too. She wakes up every morning and brushes her hair without fail, but acts like brushing her teeth is torture. I think I would rather have clean teeth than brushed hair..
Yea, I could use some motivation too. I find that when the house becomes overwhelming, it's easier to just ignore it...that is until Auntie Flo visits and sends my hatred for clutter through the roof.
Kaitlyn brushes her teeth with no problem...it's the dang hair that drives me insane!
Maybe Fizzies is better for cleaning stuff than for drinking.
Mom
funny...my kiddos love brushing teeth but hate brushing hair :) your toothpaste collection looks a lot like ours...i could go a month without buying new stuff. i've been trying the "fridge method" of menu planning, too, and it has been working out well for me. I just grab the paper from the fridge and go to town.... :)
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