My Messy House!

So rearranging and purging in our library/school room inspired me to do some cleaning in the other rooms. I, honestly, can't remember the last time I dusted. I feel like I straighten ALL the time and never ever find the bottom and therefore never dust. My school room and desk is a LITTLE TINY bit better. I don't really understand how people have a clean house (by clean I mean that you can walk through a room without tripping or stubbing your toe on stuff) ALL the time!

I feel like I am closer to "zero" than I have been in a long time. By "Zero" I mean a point where my house doesn't stress me out and we can live in it and find things and be happy.

So I decided to join FLYlady again. I signed up for the daily emails and am doing ok with them. They used to be a BOATLOAD of reminders that overwhelmed me. But that doesn't seem to be the case now....but maybe I signed up differently. Since I have used her before, I am implementing a few things at once (which she does not recommend)...but I don't really follow rules well!

So this is what I am doing.
1. Starting a SMALL morning routine
2. Starting a small evening routine. (this is hard since I typically collapse into bed at night-HA!)
3. Keeping my sink shiny (I signed up Sunday and am already failing at this). :(
4. Working in the "zone" of the week. This week is the bathroom and stash -n- dash area (your dumping ground for clutter)
5. The boys and I are doing 2 "15 minute flings" daily.

Number 4 and 5 involve a timer. I set the timer for 15 minutes and we do whatever it is. So this morning I set my timer and decluttered in my bathrooms. I got the drawers in the main bathroom all decluttered (one is completely empty and another is close) and everything picked up. I also got the big "garden tub" (that we never use) in the master bath emptied of all the junk that had been thrown in there (bath toys, etc). I feel good about it. In the 15 minute fling, I set the timer and the boys and I pick up toys and the main areas (mostly the floor) and put everything where it belongs.

I hope I can maintain some level of order with this. I don't want a magazine ready house. We live here. There are three small children here and I want them to be able to play and have fun and that involves messes. But I need to do SOMEthing....I looked ahead and next week's zone is the master bedroom...I can't wait to start pitching stuff in there. Unfortunately, it is my "stash n dash" (or dumping ground) area...It is so messy in there.

So anyway, I am going to make the effort...I am afraid I am setting myself up to fail...but the 15 minutes and timer thing really appeals to me. 15 minutes isn't that long, but it is long enough to get a lot done. Please don't laugh or make not nice comments when I fail and you witness it when you come to my house!

Monthly Meal Plans!

So I posted about planning my meals out before I go grocery shopping this month on facebook...and quite a conversation followed. So I am going to TRY to include my monthly meal ideas and then my weekly plan as I narrow it all down! I make NO promises though! LOL I plan for a month worth of meals on a calendar (that I print from www.donnayoung.org or www.calendarsthatwork.com). Although I plan them for specific dates, the reason the meal plan works is that it is flexible!!! For the first time, I am also planning lunches. I am not doing lunches on a dated calendar. I am using this one because I think it is cute! :)

For our dinners this month, we will be having:

• pork chops & sweet potatoes
• BLT pasta
• tacos
• fried fish, corn and hushpuppies
• meatloaf burgers & grilled veggies
• homemade corndogs and oven fries
• breakfast for dinner
• crockpot pizza
• mexican stirfry
• tuna burgers
  
• crockpot chicken lickin & rice
• grilled hotdogs & baked beans
• swedish meatballs & mashed potatoes
• spaghetti
• Roast, potatoes, corn
  
• black beans burgers & slaw
• porkburgers & grilled veggies
• BBQ
• tuna casserole
• rotisserie chicken
• grilled shrimp with garlic butter pasta
  
• nachos
• Finger foods (sausage, cheese, crackers, vegs, fruit--everything is eaten with fingers or a toothpick)- I should add some kind of fondue to make this more fun...any ideas?
  
• "Ponderosa night" = I take all the leftovers out of the fridge and put them on the bar...everybody eats what they want...and I clean out the fridge. It's a win-win...and when I don't call it "leftovers" there is much less complaining! :)
  

Some of these meals will repeat within the 1 month (or more) time. We have pizza frequently. Tunas burgers and tuna casserole are both quick and easy and the kids eat them well. And throwing stuff on the grill is always an easy go-to meal for us. :) I also keep frozen and canned veggies to round out a meal.

Also, the boys want to EAT lunch. What I consider a good lunch and what they consider a good lunch are vastly different. They are growing boys and I need to make them more to eat at noon. I don't want to make two full meals each day but it is time that I bulked up lunch a bit. So these are my ideas...we'll see how they go. There will be fruit (either canned, fresh, or frozen), and either chips or veggies and dip. I would love to get another blender so we could have smoothies...but after breaking 2 of them I'm not sure if blenders and I really get along well enough to live in the same house. Of course, we use leftovers often as lunch. They work best when I can make them as unlike the previous nights supper as possible. (Roast turned into BBQ or Tacos turned into nachos or spaghetti sauce on a little pizzas, etc)

• pb & j sandwiches, chips, fruit
• finger foods (same as dinner finger foods)
• turkey pinwheels, yogurt, fruit, vegs n dip
• scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, yogurt
• tuna turnovers
  
• mini pizzas
• grilled cheese
• nachos, black bean dip
• egg mcmuffins, yogurt
• quesadillas
• chicken turnovers
• banana dog
• pb & apple Quesadilla
• sandwich of their choice
• pizza pockets
• bagel sandwich
• PB & J sushi rolls
  
• tortilla pizza
• nachos
• hot dogs

PS- If anyone knows how to spell Quesadilla I would love to learn. I know it is spelled wrong but I can't figure out how to spell it. Anybody???

PSS- I'm still looking for more ideas...as always!! (especially for lunches) :)

If this lunch plan thing goes well...I think I will do the same thing for breakfast

Organizationally Challenged!!

I love to plan! I like to have nice, neat organized spaces. I, unfortunately, am not good at keeping them that way. I try, I really do...but it seems like someone is always messing it up. Take my desk for instance. I clean it off and make myself a bunch of great workspace and within the day it is cluttered with papers, writing utensils, paper airplanes, books, legos, etc. It drives me crazy! How do people keep a space neat ALL the time!? Anyway, I try all the time to find ways to make my space neater. It is a work in progress! And if you see a picture that is all neat and tidy...don't feel guilty if your space isn't neat and tidy...know that I most likely cleaned it up just for that picture and it is messy by the time you see the photo. :)

Now for our "school closet." and the new and improved way I've got it organized. (Did I mention I am FOREVER trying to find ways to keep things neat and tidy?!?!)

So this is the school closet. It is actually a pantry that I don't use for food. I keep arts & craft supplies and supplies for our tot trays in there. I also keep tot trays ready to use in there. The hanging buckets store crayons, markers, colored pencils, and glue. I got them at the dollar tree. They are hanging from the wire shelves with "S" hooks from the hardware store (or maybe I got those at IKEA).


Our art supplies were getting out of control and were hard to find in the big bins I was storing them in. So I got an over the door shoe holder thing at Walmart for $10. It is PERFECT! It stores random craft supplies and containers for sorting. I love it!

The bottom shelves are for tot trays and puzzles. We use these only during school time. These are 4 tot trays the boys have for this week of school Those will change each week to practice different skills.

OK, so now you've seen it all organized....I wonder how long it will last!