Tackle it Tuesday #15

One of the things that I realized on my little mini retreat was that I had lost something.  I had lost a place in my house where I could go to retreat daily... children and their clutter had invaded every area of my home.  And my bedroom had become, once again, a catch all for everything... wedding stuff, Christmas stuff, hair styling stuff, clean clothes that needed put away, decorations that were out of season... FlyLady is right about that, it is hard to rest in a mess. 

So, I decided to clean my room.  Yes.  My room was as bad as the kids.  Then I decided to switch out the uncomfortable rocking chair with a recliner from the basement.  I bought a new lampshade for an old lamp, that was also in the basement, and wa-lah...  I now have my retreat place...

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

Oh, and I also bought two bottles of bubble bath!

In order to avoid being dubbed "super-mom", I'll keep the rest of my tackle to myself!  ;)

Pam

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Tackle it Tuesday #9

This week I’ve been tackling all over the place!  Starting with the progress on the kitchen cabinet project… 

Before, 5 Tackles ago:

After, TODAY:

The other 2/3 of the kitchen is still in progress… but this section is DONE!!  DONE!!  DONE!!  YIPPEE!!!!  DONE!! 

My brother in law painted our handles and hinges for me…

Before:                                               After:

I am extremely pleased with the progress, and with the results!

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Then I tackled this drawer in the bathroom:

Before:

After:

The final straw, making this drawer unbearable, came when little rubber bands got dumped all over it!

What did the Family Circus call that 6th (?)… “notme”?  Notme did that.

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This morning I decided that I was going to do Jadon’s birthday with my family. TONIGHT… along with one of my other nephew’s and my sister.  They were planning to have the party and I was going to wait and celebrate his with the end of October birthdays.  Well… Zach, supposedly, assumably, isn’t playing in the game tonight.  So, I guess going there to watch the back of his head and missing the party is a little silly.  Don’t ask me why he’s not playing… it’s not his thumb… and he has no other physically injury… grrrr… teenagers…  not gonna miss this!

So I threw together this cake for Jadon…

Jadon is now officially… a handful.  (well, on Sunday)

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Add to that some laundry folding, and walking around the track at the school for an hour for a PTO fundraiser…  why am I blogging instead of napping… oh yes, I’m just crazy that way.

My shoes for my sister's wedding came in the mail today!!  I won them on E-Bay!!  Who knew!!!   $23, never worn, dyed Truffle Shoes, size 6.5, from David's Bridal!

Click here to read more tackles or to play along with Tackle it Tuesday!

Pam

Tackle it Tuesday #2

It was hard to decide what to put my hand to today.  There are so many things screaming at me to tackle them!

These two in particular…  had to stop myself, regroup, spend time pushing them on the swings and reading books.  They are board with the older kids gone all day.  And things don’t go well when Jadon is bored.

They will both start preschool after Labor Day.  Kiahna was awarded a full scholarship, to attend!  We are really excited about that, and will attend an award ceremony Wednesday night.

An update on last week's Tackle it Tuesday…

My WONDERFUL, AWESOME dad came and hung the hooks and some support boards!  Doesn’t it look great!  Lucas came right home and hung up his bag and kicked off his shoes in the closet!  He was the only one who brought home a bag last night, and of course we aren’t dealing with the coats yet… I’ll report to you our long term progress!

Another organization tool I have found to work well for us is this…

I got these heavy duty clips at Bed, Bath, and Beyond last year.  They are big enough to hold lots of papers, without sliding down the fridge from the weight.  Then I just wrote each of their names on them in permanent marker.  I am in need of 2 more heavy duty ones eventually, I have some smaller ones that I am using for the two preschoolers right now. 

Now for this week’s big tackle… I used the FLY LADY guideline and set my timer for 15 minutes and tackled this today…

It’s an abyss.  We use it as a pantry (the shelves), trash closet, cleaning supply storage, and WAY TOO MUCH OTHER JUNK is also stuffed in there.   There is no lighting in there, so the pictures are not the best.  Today, in just a little over 15 minutes I got it looking like this…

Next week, if not before, I'll work on the top two shelves.  It is a real hard one for me to figure out how to utilize the space.  It is the top of the stair case (underneath) and leads to the attic, which we never use.  I have boxes up on those shelves that are empty, and things that I hardly use because I can't get to them most of the time anyway!  When I clean it up, most of it will be throw out or gotten rid of. 

I would welcome suggestions on how to make space like this usable!

I also tackled 6 more braids on Kiahna's head! 

I should probably panic and try to get it all done-up for her scholarship pictures tomorrow night!  After all, it will be in the newspaper!  But, then again, it will be a grainy black and white and no one but me will know I busted my butt to get it done!  Not to mention, I bought 1.5 lb walking weights and used them last night and the braiding showed me how sore I am from that!  (if I am going to wear a sleeveless dress in a wedding in 3 months I need to get these upper arms toned up!!)

I put in another 15 minutes in my back room.  I'll do pictures of that after it is done. 

Of course there is that mountian of laundry that needs tackled daily… click to play along with Tackle it Tuesday!

Dinner isn't started, but thanks to my handy-dandy menus, I know what we are having! 

Life is good.

Pam

 

Tackle it Tuesday #1

Well, can’t say how many days I’ll do this but I did accomplish some things to post on here today!

First I finally ditched that old dead plant and replanted a new one in it’s place!

Jadon told me tonight that he watered my plant for me. Thanks bud, I guess the over watering mystery is finally solved. I now have pots with holes in the bottom, so not to worry!

I also tackled the entry way issue. Despite your great ideas for trying the garage, and I agreed, until I remembered the part about trying to park two cars in there in the winter. (very tightly) and the part about the gravel road in the winter and how hard it is to keep that garage clean in those conditions. I had a hard time envisioning my kids going out to the garage to hang up their bag on a cold winter night after they had finished their homework.

So, I’ve chosen to work on the little closet that is the most practical right inside the front door. It is only 28 inches wide and has two very high shelves.

Before:

After:

I’ve even replaced the light bulb! I purchased 6 coat hooks today to hang inside the closet. 2 on each wall one at the top and one in the center. It will not help the shoe invasion, but at least if their bags are on the hooks they can throw their shoes on the floor of the closet and it won’t bug me! That would be so much better than all over the house like they normally are!

I also managed to do FLYLADY ‘s daily mission today! So all three bathrooms have clean floors and the rugs are washed!

To do your own Tackle it Tuesday click here.

Pam

Last week of summer vacation…

This is the last week my kids will be home for this summer.  With two boys playing football this fall it doesn’t feel like we are really on vacation anymore anyway.

James started two-a-days last week already, and Zach will begin practicing with the 8th grade team on Wednesday.

This morning I was feeling like we needed to do something more yet this summer.  That somehow just being busy around the house with projects, laundry, and organizing was a waste of these last days.  It probably is, but it is also probably how we will end our summer vacation anyway.

Today is pretty much history.  Tomorrow we have counseling appointments in the late afternoon.  Wednesday and Thursday Zach will have practice at 3.  Maybe Friday, weather cooperating, we will get in one more swim day.  Friday evening James has a scrimmage game.  Saturday the football Mother’s Club is sponsoring a Chicken BBQ and I will work.  Sunday Lucas has a Sunday School party after church. 

Yeah, I think our carefree summer days are pretty much over.

Depending on whether James makes the varsity team or not, we may have 3 football games a week by September. 

See why I needed to start menu planning!  See why I desperately want to try to organize my whole house in the next week?

Sticking to FLY LADY ‘s motto of 15 minutes at a time though.  I have put in about 45 minutes in my backroom (which was not even walkable) this weekend and today.  And I threw out 2 trash bags of stuff, and have 2 trash bags to give away!  (yes, in only 45 minutes!)

One thing that I have really stuck to that I learned from FLY LADY, is a morning routine.  It gives me a place to start in a home that is most of the time overwhelmingly messy.  If I do my routine it really does make me feel like I have more control over everything. 

My morning routine is:

1.  Make my bed.

2.  Deal with dishes. (empty or run dishwasher)

3.  Swish and Swipe bathrooms.

4.  Start a load of laundry.

5.  Get dressed to the shoes (really that is #1 but I won’t go back and fix it!)

Swish and Swipe bathroom is the one that may have you questioning.  It has been such a blessing, especially in a home with 4 boys in it!  I buy those pre-soaked Clorox disinfecting wipes.  (totally awesome home essential with boys around)  I use one to wipe off the sink (toothpaste and grime) and then I use one to wipe off the toilet seat!  WA-LA CLEAN bathroom in 1 minute and NO sitting in pee!  (at least for 5 minutes! maybe)  At any rate it sure helps!

The other thing I really like about FLYLADY are the zones and KELLY's missions.  Spending one week working on one area of the house.  It really does keep things from becoming overwhelming if you can keep it up over time!  (which seems to be my problem)

When I cleaned out my hutch to paint it back in June, I found my Control Journal I had created and used before HSSH left.  Back when we used to Home School and life was SO much different than it is now!  It was of no use to me now that is for sure, nothing is the same as it was back then.

Finding balance in this new normal we live in.  I know we’ve been living in it for a long while now, but just starting to LIVE again.

A project I would really like to take on is organizing our entryway.  Laura from I'm and Organizing Junkie brought up the subject, and I am trying to come up with a solution to this dilemma in my house.  The dilemma is 6 bookbags.  6 coats.  12 shoes.  2 gym bags.  A multitude of papers.  And a partridge in a pear tree.

So, help me with this… here is what I have to work with.

This is a tiny coat closet that is right inside my front door.  This is choice #1 to put the “stuff”, but is always just seems to get “stuffed” in and there is no organization. 

Another option is the hall closet.  Around the corner from this one.  Still accessible to the family and much larger space to work with.  Not sure I want to give this up for the storage space though.

A third option is to use the space right outside of my garage door.  This would require keeping it much cleaner than it is right now, and is as a norm, and I am not sure that they would really use it.  It would take much retraining, and I am not sure I am up for that.

Okay, give me suggestions.  How do I keep my house from becoming insta-cluttered at 3:30 each day of this school year?  How do I utilize the space I have and the options I have the best?  I don’t know, maybe the garage idea would work.  New hooks, some cubbies, and some carpet? 

Headed to make dinner.  Not using my new menus this week yet, cleaning out some of the ready made things I had in the pantry instead.  Next week though, that is the goal! 

Happy Monday!

Pam