Clean Home Challenge, Week 1

Well, I think the sticky note pretty much says it all doesn't it? And honestly, my dresser could use a major overhaul. For some reason, things have been stacked up there and piled high. I have a mirror on the back of my dresser and I'm not even sure if I could see myself in it. I have a vision of what this space should look like and today is the day to make that happen! So here goes...

This is my dresser before doing anything to it. Please don't mind the crappy cell phone pic. If I knew where my camera was at the moment, I'd have used that instead. Maybe while working on my projects today, I will find it and be able to take my after pic with that instead.

I can't wait to get this done and to show you the after pic. I have plans to get a jewelry box in the future because I think it would look so nice sitting there on my dresser and it would also be nice to have a place to put my few pieces of jewelry. But for now, I would be happy to just have a cleared off dresser and maybe to even add a few decorative touches to it.

Complete Living Area Makeover

There are some HUGE changes in store for my house this month. Hubby and I were talking tonight about some options for the furniture arrangement that we have and what we would like it to look like and how we want it all to be laid out. You see, we have some very odd spaces in our home that don't seem so odd until you want to place furniture. Then it becomes a big issue. We have a number of not-functioning-as-well-as-it-could issues here at our place and we are working on fixing it.

This is the current layout of the front room and living room.


As you can see, when you first walk into our house, you are immediately bottle-necked or outright blocked from getting into the house because of Hubby's desk/chair and the cedar chest. Not to mention that when Hubby is sitting in his chair (and therefore has it out further than currently shown) there isn't much of a walkway between his chair and the train table.

What we talked about doing was getting rid of the big couch in the living room (it really is a must-do item) and then moving the loveseat to the living room to take the place of the couch. It only has two seats but we don't really watch TV all that much. The TV is generally used for Wii, which the kids stand to play and then sometimes for Hubby and I to watch TV together (and we don't mind sharing the loveseat!) or for our Saturday Night Movie Night. But even then, when there are five of us watching TV, at least three are usually on the floor with pillows and blankets anyhow. So I really don't see it as an issue of losing seating in that area.

Once the loveseat is moved, then Hubby's desk will go to where the loveseat was. Then the bookshelf that was in the living room will go to where the desk was. Then the cedar chest will be moved to where the bookshelf was. And then the little side table next to the entertainment center right now will go between the loveseat and the wall. Then to end it all, the train table will go out to the shed until later this year when the kids have bunk beds and have room in their bedroom for it.

Having a hard time picturing it? Good thing for you that I rather like Microsoft Paint. So here it is:

So, what do you think? Does that look okay? I know that the front room looks really sparse and as much as I tried to get it fairly accurate on scale, I have to admit that it isn't 100% on scale. There is quite a bit more empty space in the room, but I rather think that I like that. And if it turns out that we want to bring pieces back in or whatever, that is always an option. But I doubt that we will want to.

Plus, the last time we had the floor area of the front room all open the way it is in the second picture, the kids LOVED it. I can't remember why we changed it up and decided to put the train table there, but I think going back to the openness will be better for everyone!

So that is our project for today. Whew! What a job! But it will be so worth it when it is all done! I cannot wait!!!

I am linking this up to 5 minutes for mom. You should go check them out and see the tackles that other people are doing too!

Organized Home Challenge - Week 1 prep

So I started this up last year and then completely dropped the ball and since it is something that I am passionate about accomplishing this year, I am going to really strive to make it happen this time.

This week's focus is: Kitchen Organization: Countertops & Sink.

Step 1: Think About the Functions of Your Kitchen.

• Cooking (and food preparation)
• Food storage (both cold storage and pantry)

That's actually about it. Our kitchen is off at one end of our home and therefore, we don't use it in the additional ways that a lot of other families use theirs. We have a separate dining room although we do have a bar in the kitchen that separates it from the living room.

Step 2: Create Usable Counter Space and Clear Your Kitchen Table (mostly).

Well, as I said, we don't have a table in here but we do have the bar, so I will use that to accomplish this part of the goal, as it does tend to pile up with miscellaneous things. I also do not have a lot of counter space and with our current configuration, I have even less than I could have. I have a few ideas that I plan to implement to use our space more efficiently.

Within this step, she recommends that we put away things that do not fit in with the intended purpose that we have for our kitchens. This part is really easy for me because I can quickly and easily see things that do not belong in here at all but for whatever reason landed here.

The next step within a step is that we put away things that actually do fit in with intended purpose of our kitchen. Yikes! This is the hard part for me because I also do not have a lot of cupboard space. This should be interesting.

She then recommends that we declutter gadgets and appliances. This is going to be crucial to be able to utilize the space that I actually have available. I can even think of a few appliances that I have in my cupboards that could maybe be switched out to longer-term storage or even get rid of it (like my bread maker since I generally make bread by hand, not by machine) and my blender (which I do use from time to time - which should stay in the kitchen area at least). The only things on my counters that are honestly used every day is the microwave, the dish drainer (although I really would love to change out the style of mine so that I can fold it and tuck it away when not in use) and my cooking utensils and knives and our spices, though I have some ideas for those things as well (thinking vertically here - wall storage space - spice rack, magnetic knife strip) but other than that, I don't use my toaster every day or my coffeemaker. And I actually have room to put both of those items in my dining room where they would be more likely to be used more frequently.

Step 3: Consider These Kitchen Storage Solutions To Help Clear Counter Space.

Heh, I already started this on the last step. (Can you tell that I didn't read ahead?) But some of the suggestions that she has that I plan to maybe implement are:

Magnetic knife storage for the wall (as mentioned above!)
Shelves for spices (as mentioned above!)

Then we are on to Step 4: Create The Habit Of Keeping Your Sink Clear Of Dishes At Least Two Times Per Day.

The idea behind this is to make sure that the sink is clear so that we don't clutter up the counters with other stuff since the kitchen already appears to be messy. I like this idea and plan to implement it for the morning after breakfast and in the evening after dinner. It would be even better if I were able to just unload the dishwasher in the morning and put all the dishes away and then as the dishes come in throughout the day (breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner) that I would be able to simply rinse them and put them in the dishwasher, which I could start at bedtime. Meh, maybe that is just what I'll work toward. I like that idea better anyway and I do believe that we have enough plates to get through the day just fine without running short (unless we are having company over)

That completes this week's challenge preparations. I will add in some before and after photos at the end of the week as well as some commentary to show you how I changed things to be able to gain back usable counters and also to keep the sink clear!

2012 Resolutions

Yesterday, while the kids were working on their chores (and they did a very nice job on them for the most part) Cephas came up to me and was asking about resolutions. He said that he wants to make some for this year. Miss Lil Oralee already did make two, which she shared with me, and it got me to thinking that I should make some as well. I have my goals for Organizing My Life and a number of those goals actually directly correspond with some of my resolutions.

But without further ado, here are (some of) my resolutions:

1. Improve my health.
a. I plan to do this by getting into a consistent sleep schedule. I want to be able to have more energy to spend on the things that really matter and that requires me to get adequate sleep. It would also improve my health and wellness.
b. Another way that I plan to do improve my overall health is to start exercising on a more consistent basis. Sadly, I do not even walk on a daily basis.
c. I also plan to eat balanced meals, at home, at the right time of day, so that it has the best possible effects for my body.
d. I would like to lose 90 pounds by this time next year. I bought a scale yesterday. That is the first step. (Get it, step?! I crack myself up!)

2. Improve my spiritual life.
a. I plan to pray specifically and to journal those prayers and answers on a regular basis.
b. I plan to read my Scriptures daily and to continue to journal about the things that I am covering in my reading.
c. I have also accepted a teaching position at church and will be spending time once a month (at minimum) teaching others and being there for them.
d. Attend church every week.
e. Read the Bible with my children daily.

3. Improve my homemaking skills.
a. The kids have their regular chores and they are fairly good about doing them. I need to be better about doing my own personal chores though as well.
b. I need to be able to say no to things that would interfere with my own goals of what I want my house to be. My home needs to be a higher priority.
c. Continue to teach my children how to thoroughly clean a home so that they are able to do this when they become adults and don't have to struggle with it the way that Hubby had to.
d. I need to develop a regular cleaning schedule that works for me and for my house and my life.
e. I have a vision and a goal of what I want my house to look and feel like and I will know that this has been accomplished when my house feels and looks the way it does in my head.

4. Continue to build new relationships.
a. I have started building new relationships and have been rebuilding some current relationships. I have found this to be most pleasing overall and really want to be purposeful about this.

5. Improve my education.
a. Ideally, I would love to continue to work on a degree, but honestly, I don't foresee that happening at this stage in my life. I am okay with that though. Or mostly okay with that at least.
b. There is a plethora of online resources for learning and I plan to utilize these to increase my education this year.

6. Improve our financial well-being.
a. This is an interesting thing for me to list in here, as I have actually stopped working regular hours and am just on PRN status with two different families, but maybe that is also while it is even more important.
b. I want to get all of our bills caught up and current within the first 3 months of this year.
c. Beginning in March, I want to pay off every bill IN FULL that we receive every month.
d. Beginning now, I do not want to accumulate any additional debt this year.
e. I also want to start putting money aside every paycheck (maybe 10%) to begin building a nest egg for a rainy day.
f. I want to get rid of our storage unit by March as well. That is money that we are spending each and every month that serves no real purpose for our lives. I do need to go through it and make it work into the space that we have available for long-term storage or make some tough decisions.

7. Get rid of 2012 items in 2012.
a. I have seen this on people's blogs this year and I would like to do that this year. It goes along perfectly with Resolution #6, part F, don't you think? I love it when things work together like that!

I think that is it for this year. I may come back and add more or even do a new post in which I change them or add to them or whatever, but I feel good about this list. I expanded on general goals and clearly defined what I want to happen. I will check back in with you all and let you know how they are going.

Organizing My Life - Week 1

You all might remember when I first introduced this idea here and if so, you can see here and now that I remembered this and am still planning to stick to it. And for day numero uno, I have succeeded. I am awake and present and accounted for by 7am. It feels good to accomplish this goal already this morning! Yay for a good start to the year!

New Year's Eve!

I began the early part of today in the hospital with Jeriah. Last night when we went to pick the kids up from a day at Grandma's house, I noticed that Jeriah didn't seem like himself, was warm to the touch and had a scratchy voice. Once I began observing him, we noticed that his lungs sounded off as well. It sounded quite a bit like he was growling from deep within his chest with each inhalation. I took his temp (axillary) and I know it wasn't on there for long enough because I was using an old-school mercury thermometer (both of MIL's digital thermometers were in need of new batteries) but even still, his temp read at 100.2, which I am quite certain was a full degree less than his actual temp.

I called our doctor's office to get the procedure rolling so that I could get a first thing in the morning sick appointment set up with our pediatrician. The office uses a nurse line so I called that and after the nurse had gotten my information from me and then also listened to Jeriah's breathing over the phone, recommended that we call an ambulance to have him transported to the nearest emergency room. I declined the ambulance and told her that we weren't far from "West" (the nickname for one of our three hospitals) and she then suggested that we go to "East" instead because "West" doesn't have a pediatrics ward should he be admitted.

So, I drove him in. The wait was FOREVER long but they were very friendly and even gave Jeriah his own crayons and coloring book to color in and take home with him. In Triage, we discovered his temperature was actually 102.5. Shortly thereafter, we were taken back to a room and they were pretty prompt at getting him checked out. The P.A. who saw him was AMAZING. She doesn't like to use antibiotics unless absolutely necessary. We have a lot of the same beliefs regarding medical care and what/how to treat/not treat certain things. For instance, we don't generally medicate for fevers unless they are greater than 102. We are more likely to medicate for a child's comfort and ability to sleep while sick than for fever. And we also generally take a "wait and see" approach before using antibiotics.

They gave him a dose of Motrin since it is also an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) to reduce his fever and also because of it being an NSAID to reduce any potential swelling that he might have had going on. They also gave him an oral steroid to help out with his lungs and his breathing situation. His oxygen saturation level was 94% following that, which was an improvement over what it had been when we first got there (around 92%) and he was just laying there sleeping soundly. His fever actually went up even more before they got it to go down. They ended up giving him a dose of Tylenol as well and when we left, his temperature had dropped down to 101. Normally, they keep kids there until their fevers are down to less than 100* but I was comfortable with his fever so we were able to leave prior to their standard protocol.

And then it was one of Hubby's bosses last day at work, so after dropping a sleeping Jeriah off with Hubby, I went over to the restaurant and spent some time with the staff and management and got to say goodbye. Hubby had already had an opportunity to do so while he was at work.

I got home, went to bed and then got up with the kids in the morning when they got up. They actually all slept in until 8:30, which is unheard of around these parts.

We had plans for the day but most of them were cancelled with Jeriah being sick so we just had a low-key day. I let the kids just do their own thing with playing video games and watching movies. It's not something that they get to do very often, so they thoroughly enjoyed it. And after the LONG, LATE night I had, I needed the time as well.

Tonight, they are watching a movie for our regular "Saturday Night Movie Night" and Hubby is also watching it with them. We rented Kung Fu Panda 2 (I believe) and they all seem to be enjoying it.

Tomorrow begins our new chore chart and rewards system that I spent WAY too long today working on. The kids actually requested to go back to this system again because it is by far their favorite chore system. I'm definitely okay with it as well.

Tomorrow is also the day that we will be spending with my mom and brother for Christmas. We were going to do it today but since I had a long night and Jeriah isn't feeling very well and my mom and my brother both smoke (though not inside my house), we felt it was best for his lungs to have a chance to recuperate for an extra day before being exposed to that.

Tomorrow is also the day that I begin my new plan that I started <a href="http://catalina-at-home-at-work-at-play.blogspot.com/2011/11/organizing-my-life-intro.html">here</a> back in November. I cannot wait! Although, admittedly, I would prefer to sleep in a little bit tomorrow. Ah well, it'll be okay.

You can see some of my New Year's Resolutions in that link there.

Oh - and my new favorite hardware store has an AMAZING sale going on tomorrow as well, which I fully plan to stop by and take part in. There are a number of things that I am planning on picking up and it will be so wonderful to get some much needed items to do household projects with.

Speaking of household projects, when we moved to this house, the previous owner, Allison, had these really nice sheer chocolate drapes hanging up in the living room and front room. I found out where she got them and they are SO much cheaper than I had anticipated. They are definitely in the budget now, so that is one item on my to-do list for this first week of 2012.

I have also decided that I want to do a couple of things this year in addition to the other blog post. I want to get rid of (minimum) 2012 items this year through donation, consignment, gifting or trashing those items that need it.

I also want to do a household task each week, whether it is decorating, cooking, cleaning, whatever the case may be.

Week #1 - Buy and hang new sheer drapery panels for the front room and living room.

Last Company Coffee of 2011

Today is the day for the last Company Coffee for the year and I am so excited about Rachel's Small Things coming up this year. And also for the big things that we will be doing as well! Yay! I haven't really tried to create as much Sanctuary here at our new place as I did the at old one. And we moved in July. Yeah. I think that pretty much sums it all up.

As it is right now, my house is in major need of a thorough deep clean, I have window treatments that need to go up. I finally did find some that are in our budget and much like the ones that were already here when we moved in, so that is exciting for me. Now I just have to wait til Hubby gets home after work today to show him.

Although the Sanctuary aspect of our home is missing lately, the kids have definitely enjoyed our little projects and work times together this semester break. We have made and decorated Rice Krispie treats (as opposed to cookies) and we have plans to make and decorate sugar cookies and gingerbread houses. These are projects that we work on while Hubby is at work because they stress him out and the kids and I would prefer to not stress him out.

We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all did as well. We have had three Christmas celebrations so far. One for Hubby's mom's side of the family, one for Hubby's dad's side of the family, and then our own little family. Tomorrow, we have one more with my mom and brother. I don't know yet if we are going to my mom's house or if they are coming over here but either way, it should be a great time as well.

We have a very full month. Four family Christmas celebrations, two violin performances, one piano performance, Wolf Scouts, Webelo Scouts, Daisy Scouts, working in the classrooms, field trips, illnesses, company in from out of town, you name it. And I love it!

So without further ado, I will turn you over to the other ladies at Company Coffee! Go check them all out and maybe link up yourself! It's a great chance to get to know some great ladies! Have a very Happy New Year!