WHAT?!

O.M.G. people. OMG. I did not realize it had been over a month since my last post!!! My most sincere apologies and gratitude to those of you who still check periodically. Life has been crazy busy what with school winding down, buckling down seriously with job searching, and taking a couple weekend trips. I really haven't done much interesting by way of cleaning or organizing because I haven't had the time or energy to do it. Which is kind of unfortunate because our house could use it at the moment - especially our dining room table. It has been sorely abused and neglected for the past several weeks. Never fear, table of ours, Monday is my last full day (bonus: no kids that day) and after that I have some projects lined up.

Here are some things to look forward to in coming weeks:

1. Deeper clean than usual (likely to include tips, reviews of tips read in magazines, and things gone horribly but hysterically wrong)
2. Finally pulling together a cleaning/organizing calendar
3. Baking projects, as it's been far too long since I've done this thing I love so much
4. Sewing!!!! Can't share all of them, as some will be gifts, but will be sure to document the processes, as I tend to do things more creatively than necessary

I probably need to channel the energy of one of my students who last week, upon being told that she would be a kindergartener when she came back to school after summer break, leaped to her feet, threw her hands in the air, and exclaimed, "I'm SO ready for kindergarten!! I can do anything!!!!" Maybe with that can-do attitude rooms in our house will look like the ones in the magazines. Maybe. Though I'm starting to believe the only people whose rooms actually look like that are 1) people with waaaaay too much time on their hands, or 2) people with waaaay too much money to pay lots of other people to make their rooms look (and stay) that way. Or maybe both.  

What do you think?

~Ms. S

A small dose of reality

Today, my friends, marked the first day since finishing summer classes that I have really had anything of importance to do during the day. I began training for the job I'll be doing for the upcoming academic year. So upon completing my shift at the child development center (my summer job), I came home, got cleaned up, had a quick bite to eat, and it was off to a windowless room for 4.5 hours. Needless to say, it was good to have this experience now. Why? Because I did not get any cleaning done today. In fact, all I did was contribute to the mess of dishes.

Though today was busy, it was nothing like life will be come the second week of September. Not only will I be working 40 hours/week, I will have 6.5 hours of class/week, plus church choir and a church committee. Therefore, today was an excellent learning experience.

Lists are important, like I said in a previous post, because they hold you accountable. If I am going to be successful in this endeavor, I must create lists. And I must make the lists at least the night before I want to do them - a key point. My biggest problem with organization/cleaning lists tends to be that I'm over-ambitious. And let's be honest, it feel so much better to cross everything off of your list and feel like you really accomplished something, than to have even one item remaining. Knowing that I'll have about an hour - an hour and a half of time to devote to cleaning and organizing each day, my goals should be realistic.

So, for practice, my day tomorrow is even more full than today. Here is my list:

1. Do dishes

2. Unpack remaining boxes in living room and/or put them in storage (get them out of living room)

3. Sweep & mop kitchen and bathroom (because this is a very doable task that makes me feel good)

4. If time, clean and organize top of desk in living room

We'll see how tomorrow goes!

~Ms. S