Organization and Well Intentions

How often I bite off more than I can chew. BUT..... I find that IF I'm organized, I can somehow manage! So in an effort to blog, I've decided to create a system. That goes along perfectly with my type A nature! I've decided to have each day dedicated to a different "theme". This will hopefully keep me motivated AND accomplish a few of the things that are tugging at my heart.

I will break the days into the areas I WANT to talk about - hopefully this will make it less of a chore. Because I am NOT a writer, it sometimes feels "chore like" to stare at a blank page and come up with something! SO - the categories are...... (drum roll, please..)

Mondays Menu: Another attempt to post my meal planning, links to recipes, and share a few of my favorite foods :D

Tuesdays Top 5: whether it is organizing tips, books I've read, things I'm learning, disasters that have happened in our home JK, something that might inspire or at least commit to my memory through this blog, I will come up with 5 things!

Wednesdays Worship: I need to read and ponder the Bible more often than I am doing. This is an attempt to look at a piece of scripture, commit a portion to memory, use it in my life, see how big our amazing God is, and share.

Thankful Thursday: This is the day I want to share about my household. What I'm thankful for, what we've been up to, keep a journal of happenings to look back on when I'm old and gray. What a minute, I am old and gray. Well, highlighted and middle aged at least.

Fun Friday: Here I want to highlight Kalie's wedding process. We are having so much fun planning for her big day! I've decided that if God so chooses, I would trade out teaching for wedding planning as a full time occupation. I'll share my journey of how I have approached each vendor, thought, commitment, and idea related to this magical time!

WEEKENDS OFF unless otherwise inspired!

SOOOOO..... Because I want to be diligent, I will start today!

TUESDAYS TOP 5: How to stay organized!

1) A place for everything. I am forever harping on my children to pick up things and "put them in there place!". I have designated every spot in my house for something: pleasure, work, cooking, more formal gatherings, more casual hanging out. I've bought furniture and accessories that help in this process. We have organizers in our drawers to help declutter the utensils.


Because this is my philosophy, and not shared by all (ahem, Todd), I decided to move out of "our office" and create my own office in my daughter Ashley's old room. She moved out last summer (but still somehow shows up here regularly for meals and a night on the couch!), and now I have my own clean, organized space. IF you do anything for yourself: I implore you, make a spot just for you!

2) Time Management. Need I say more. I'm a list maker. Surprise! I'm also a control freak! Surprise! On my classroom white board I have a large area designated "Daily Routine". Under this title lists the day's activities - complete with times! Every student looks at that board several times a day. I watch their eyes move over it to see what's coming next!

I plan my time at home the same way! I make of list of "things to do" and then I go back and assign a "time frame" for each item. I then re-write the list so it is in chronological order from the beginning of the day until the end! If it's on the list, there is a 99% chance it will be accomplished. If it floats around in my head, 99% chance it won't! Because mom's have so much to think about, thoughts and ideas get lost all the time. By having it in writing, I can release my brain from storing that little piece of information. By assigning times, I can navigate my day to maximize accomplishment and minimize wasted time.

3) Meal Planning. The truth is - if I don't plan for it, it won't get done. This includes eating in my house. This is primarily due to the fact that I don't just throw together ingredients to create a fabulous dish. I'm a recipe reader. I love reading recipes and following along. I can throw in a few substitutions or change out meats to create new dishes, but I need a foundation in which to springboard from. On Saturdays, I plan my meals for the week. Once I have my plan (cooking at least 4 days with room for left overs), I make two lists. One list is the day with the designated dish ie Monday: Stir Fry with rice. The second list is the grocery list! I do this as I pick each meal. I jot down on a separate piece of paper all the items I need to pick up at the market to complete the meal.

Now whether we end up having a dish on that particular night (things do come up!), at least I know I have all the ingredients I need to prepare the meal. That is the part that makes eating possible in my house! This said, every kitchen does need staples. I will make that my next Tuesdays top 5: Staples every kitchen should have!

4)A Family Calendar! A place where everything is written down for every member of the family! This is the whole reason I bought my IPAD! A color coded calendar. Each member of the household has a color! Now I glance at my calendar and know exactly who needs to be where at what time! Now that my girls are in college, I rarely need to check on them. They still give me their semester schedule and any important dates that need my attention. The trick to this happening: Make sure you check in with your husband at least weekly to input any of his up coming activities! There's nothing worse than planning a family movie, only to find out he's sailing that day. Just saying.

5)Create alone time. Whether you are an early riser, a late to bed person, or find breaks in the day, you will need time to create lists, mentally go over schedules, or just sit before God quietly. We all need alone time to decompress and organize! This time is precious and only leads to positive outcomes!

Happy Organizing!

Chocolate Cake

What's wrong with having a piece of chocolate cake for breakfast. Nothing! Austin and I just finished off a delicious treat my mom just brought by. Chocolate Molten Cake! Yum. And, yes, I gave him orange juice to make it a balanced breakfast.

Potty Training

In an effort to record some memories, I will try and blog at least once a month. Maybe then I'll be proud of myself if I pump out two blogs in the same amount of time...

Austin: The most precious little man ever. I LOVE that little guy soooo much. He is fun, innocent, helpful, compliant, sweet, interested, and completely absorbed in his DS at the present moment. I know that I sound like a biased mom, but truly, I complain about my kids when warranted!

This is day 3 of potty training.

PROS: He has only had 2 accidents today. He has only worn pull ups at night, cutting down the cost of that expensive item! He only cries for about 20 seconds now when I put on the toilet. He doesn't need any stimulus to pee.
CONS: I'm tired. He doesn't tell me when he needs to go. I still have to pick him up and carry him to the potty kicking and objecting. I'm tired. He hasn't pooped in a day. Did I mention that I'm tired.

Ashley: Ashley who? Oh, yeah, my second daughter. She is 20 and living everywhere at the present time. This year she moved to her dad's house, but she prefers sleeping at all of her friends' houses! She is in her 3rd year of college, and excelling in Art, her major. She also just got hired at UPS. Ashley - come home! I miss you. Even though I saw you this morning -

Kalie - Getting married June 11, 2011. I am most anxious to blog about her wedding, so I can keep these memories fresh. So far we have the venue - a beachy restaurant with a BEAUTIFUL ballroom upstairs. We have hired the photographer, DJ, florist, cake decorator, and bought the invitations. I will post more detail as we advance towards the day!

It has finally stopped raining here in Southern California! Todd had to replace 3 sump pumps and THANK GOD we had no flooding in the house. Christmas is approaching quickly - we will have Christmas morning here with the family. Todd's family will arrive on Sunday.

I bought myself a camera for Christmas. It is wrapped and ready to go under the tree. I can't wait to open it! Maybe then, I'll even post a few pictures!! Yahoo!!!

Time on my hands...

It looks like I might be able to bring my blog site up to date! Currently, I have a terrific student teacher in my classroom. One that needs little inspiration, correction, or modeling. She picks things up quickly and is very organized. Because of this, I have time on my hands. Not such a great thing for a classroom teacher.
My files have been cleaned out, all the kids are tested and up to speed, bulletin boards are beautiful, even the closets are clean. Did I mention that I am a special education teacher with 5 absolutely amazing aides as well. Everyone has their job to do, so we really do run like clockwork in here! Hate to say it, but I could actually work myself out of a job training all these fantastic men and women! Besides the fact that my students are pretty terrific as well.

On the home front, Todd brought home a camper that we could say needs a little work! Last weekend we scrubbed the walls, sprayed the counters because of an ant invasion, and shook out all the seat cushions. It looks much better, but we still have lots to do! When Todd noticed a crack in the ceiling, he poked his finger at it and water drizzled down. Now we need to take the ceiling panels off and dry it out. Once we assess that problem, we will move forward to all the other areas needing our attention. This will be a one step at a time process I believe!

Austin is doing great in school (knock on wood). I have come to believe that whenever I praise my kids, the opposite will happen within a day or two.... this has made me very leery of saying anything good. Isn't that sad! Anyway, school seems to be getting better all the time. He sat in Circle Time yesterday and actually got up and danced and sang. We've gone from him running around the room, screaming to be outside to sitting on a lap involuntarily. He wouldn't let Todd participate at all with singing and dancing. He resigned himself to sitting on his daddy's lap, but that was all. Now he participated for the first time yesterday! Hooray!

Kalie made the TNT sorority at school. She performed in the Spring Sing on Friday night and her group won two awards: Most Ticket Sales & Women's Division. They did a song/skit based on Alice in Wonderland. It was fun to see her so happy and involved! She has an interview today. She wants to be selected as the Queen for the Mini Grand Prix; this is the largest school event which brings in much needed funds for the school.

Ashley is doing great in school as well. She is receiving A's on her projects in Art which encourages her and strengthens her belief that her future is somehow in this industry.

Since I am posting at school, I will try to bring in a CD of recent pics to share. Hopefully, I will be consistent with the updates since I am not chronically Austin's upbringing in any other way!

Pictures from Big Bear..... Austin & Ashley

Home, Mommy

This past weekend we spent in Big Bear. All I can do is pray that I actually download pictures from the past 4 fabulous days. Snow was pushed to the sides of the road in 4 foot walls. The playground was covered up to the top of the slide with packed white powder. The lake, the beautiful lake, was covered in ice. A gigantic sheet of ice. Beauty was everywhere.

From Tuesday to Thursday prior to us leaving for Big Bear Friday afternoon, Todd took Austin on an impromptu trip up to Sacramento. Many things happened on the trip:
Todd and Austin were able to celebrate Granny Ruth's 92nd birthday, Austin was able to play with his cousins, aunt, uncle, grandparents (unfortunately, he never warmed up to anyone except his cousin, Colin), Austin was able to see horses and chickens all over the ranch (except he never warmed up to any of the animals), and Todd brought home a camper. Fun! Now we can plan a camping trip! All we need to do is fumigate the darn thing and hope all the ants go and live somewhere else. It's old and feeble, but with some TLC we are hoping to bring it back to life!

And the other thing that happened was that Austin became a recording of, "Home, Mamma, Home". Even in Big Bear with me, he continually said, "Home, Mamma, Home"

I'll blog later about our trip! Austin is here now asking to play Thomas videos on the computer. Home, sweet, Home!

A Perfect Angel

Triumph.

I called my girlfriend the other day to ask for help. She's known in these parts as Preschool Super Nanny. She's even thinking about creating a hotline for hopeless preschool moms. Like me.

Todd took Austin to preschool on Monday. The report to me went something like....

Me: How was school today? Did Austin sit in Circle Time?

T: Maybe for a minute or two. Then he got up and ran to the middle of the circle and started clowning around. When I went to get him, he ran out the other side of the circle. As I came around the outside of the circle, he ran back through the middle.

Me: OMG. Did you catch him???

T: Well, then he saw a trash truck drive by the window and he started yelling, "Twash twuk, Twash, twuk" as he ran for the door to go outside.

Me: I'm sorry.

T: Helpless.

I called my friend. She started asking me all kinds of questions about his social situations, etc.... and I realized - He is perfectly fine, just a silly, outgoing, at times non-compliant boy. But he is so sweet. And it didn't help that Carmen gave him doughnut holes for breakfast.

So, today, I went with Todd and Austin to preschool. Santa was coming today. Santa had a present for Austin. We walked in the room, straight over to the circle and I sat down. I put Austin on my lap and told him Santa was coming. We sang the first song, danced the dance and then sat again as Santa arrived. Austin sat on my lap until his name was called to go up and get his gift. He looked at his book while Santa handed out the rest of the presents. Then we made a bag to hold all the other treats Austin was going to receive this morning. We decorated a picture frame with our picture in it (which will go in Todd's stocking), and made one other craft. Outside Austin listened and played on the bikes. We came in for the last circle time, and Austin participated. He did great today! Yeah!!