kellicrowe

If only thinking about blogging were the same as blogging...

...I'd be set.

I spent the last 24 hours planning out posts for both my blog (fingers crossed that I remember I am doing this again) and for David's blog Laughing With Aspergers.

Now. If I just can keep up with this list....

Kelli Crowe Jone's Diary

I WILL

Exercise 5 3 days a week 

Take my vitamins

Read (ok, am already doing that but must give myself accomplishable goals...probably not the best attitude to have only 3 items into list)

Give up soda

Not wear shoes in the house

Write thank you notes

Finish the plethora of projects half done and/or started in my head

De-clutter the house room by room

Meal plan 

Start scrapbook project: 53 Saturdays

Plan out each day with some sort of strategy

Pray / Bible study daily

Not be a victim to technology

Keep up with this list every Sunday in format of Bridget Jone's Dairy in an effort to:

1) Entertain myself (always paramount in any activity)

2) Keep myself on track with my word of the year: PLAN (not to be confused with the word of last year that I seemed to have forgotten mid February which was plan.  Capital letter PLAN is as different from lower case plan as ER was from e.r.....although George CLooney was in both.)

3) To live a simpler life chock full of time freed up by:

being healthier

spending less time wondering where things are and what we will eat

to not be continually surprised when meal time arrives that people are looking at me as if I should have seen this moment coming all day

to be less stressed

What I will do with that extra, stress freed up time: nap or learn Italian.  

 

Organizing: Clothes

Dear Clothes,

Beware.  I am done with clothes that bunch, scratch and shimmie into places they have no business being in the first place.  So all of you t-shirts that bite under the arms: Outta here.  Things that are hand wash AND have to be ironed : See ya.  Too thick sweaters that feel like they are attacking me when I am driving the car: hasta la vista.  

Now, some of you have been around for a while.  Like since I stopped growing around 6th grade.  We've had some good times.  But seriously, loyalty aside, I have no business wearing some of you anymore. (Maybe except for the suede vest...because you never know when you'll be invited to a rodeo last minute.)

So while you all are still in good shape - someone else might be able to benefit from having you.  If things aren't comfortable and easy between us, off you go. Thanks for the support.  Literally.

Sincerely,

Kelli
 

Organizing: 3 little things that work for me

As with most of my good ideas,

these are not really my ideas at all.

 

#1 Each person has their own laundry basket for clean clothes in the laundry room.

I got this idea from another home school mom.

I do a load or two a day and just toss the clean clothes into each person's basket.

My kids now get dressed IN the laundry room most mornings.  

Nice because their dirty clothes go right into 1 of the 2 baskets at the bottom (darks and lights)

and they get dressed from the newly clean stuff.

On Thursdays, everyone folds and puts away their own laundry.

We built some shelves for the baskets because we had this little cut out place that seemed just right for it. However, we used this idea back when I just had a row of laundry baskets on the floor.

 #2. Using containers for little stuff in my cabinets.

Top shelf - glass container for candles.

Second shelf - Container Store plastic, woven baskets to house small appliances like the coffee grinder. And the mini food chopper.  And the electric turkey slicing knife thing....that I think has only ever been used for slicing craft items.  

Third shelf - Ceramic, woven bread bowl (a wedding gift) keeps all of our measuring cups.  The Star Trek mug keeps all the measuring spoons.

Fourth shelf - Cook books.  Arranged not by use or topic...but how pretty the spine looks.

 

#3 In the afternoon, I flip on the TV and clean during the commercials. 

I get pretty wiped out doing school with the kids and house work.  So in the afternoon, when my energy is lulling...I flip on an episode of Iron chef or 9 by Design or Star Trek and speed clean during the commercials.  This works great for me on the loading the dishwasher and general tidying up.  

This just happens to have been one of the winning tips in Real Simple magazine this month.  I am so ahead of things.  I have been using commercial breaks for ages. I think it comes form back when I tried to do my homework during them.  

Anything SIMPLE that works for you?

 

Organizing: If you give me a container, I'm going to have to make a label...

If I start to put away Christmas decorations

then surely it makes sense to pull out ALL the Christmas decorations

from years past

even those undisplayed this year

and resort, re-containerize and relabel them all.

(Repairing and purging along the way).

And to take all the ribbons from packaging this year 

and wrap them carefully around clothes pins.

 

(Yes, camouflage ribbon does indeed work for all seasons).

And as long as the Christmas decorations are out...

really

it was only logical to pull out the Halloween and Easter items as well

to give them equal time for resorting and relabeling.

And as long as all the containers were out of the closet, 

well, it would have been foolish not to take this time to vacuum it out and move things around in there.

I did resist the urge

(strong though it was)

to repaint the inside of the closet.

And this is why it took me the better part of a week to de-Christmas our house.

Because if you give me a container....

I'm going to have to make a label...

(Thankfully I didn't run out of containers that matched or out of label making tape....because that would have brought the whole process to a screeching halt until rectified...)

 

 

New Year, New Word: Plan

 

I have a New Year.

And a New Word.

(Well...I didn't actually have a word before...)

My word for the year is PLAN.

(See Ali Edward's inspiration for one little word here)

Most people seem to have more feeling words like

Nurture

Faith

Knowledge

Encourage

I'd like those.

But I know me.

I better get a plan.

I have nice ideas.

But crummy follow through.

I could be on the "olympic sitting there team."*

This year, I don't want to end up in the kitchen with a hungry family and no idea what to have for dinner.

This year, I don't want to have run my self so ragged that I am bitter by the time my guests arrive.

This year, I want to get a grip on my technology that is supposed to make my life easier...but really is just frustrating me.

This year, I want to be that person who writes thank you notes again.  

This year, I want to create exciting learning environments for the kids.

SO - I need to plan.

Because I know me.

I like to think and dream but the doing...

not so much.

I need a plan.

And I need to make things simple and realistic.

Plan. Plan. Plan.

I got a notebook to keep ideas & lists in.

I started writing in it this morning.

I was on a role.

By noon I had lost the book in my house.

I know it is close by.

Somewhere.

In the morning, I plan on finding that notebook.

Do you have a word?

**Quote from Friends.  Do you know who said it?

my containerized life, part 1

Ahhh. I just need a few more containters and it will be perfect. There are still a few items not in there. Like the giant tub of Play-Doh items that goes on the floor. Isn't it pretty? It makes me happy to just go and look at it. The pantry had a few moths living in it - so unlike the critters at Stacey Kingman's home who all get Biblical names and love - we killed...I mean "took care" of the moths that were there. They like cardboard...a lot. So no more card board in the pantry. All containers from nirvana...I mean, The Container Store. The moths also seemed to like rice and ziplock bags and nuts. But just by putting all 6 boxes of my Jiffy Cornbread mix into these containters - it feels a little more "home made" when I serve it up to the fam. After all, it is not from a box. It is from a lovely container in my pantry and was baked. See how containers can change you life? I am just the kind of person that needs to open a closet, cabinet etc and see order. You would think I'm a very neat person. Not so. I am messy. Really - place a paper on the counter and I suddenly have 20 things on top of it. Visual is how I like to refer to it. So I am neat behind closed doors and drawers in my home and messy in the general living are. I'm a puzzel all right. Actually - I need to know that there is a PLACE for things to go. A home to return them to. And that home should be rightly labeled. Did I mention all the containers have to match? Yeah, that will be part 2...the toy closet. Speaking of things being visually all over the floor..... k ps. So I am cleaning out the Pantry this week. SO, I felt the urge to clean out every area of my house all at once. It was a need. All at once. John David, I am sure, has a swollen lip from biting it. I went through some of the toys and pulled out stuff to give away. Max has played with the give away toys for over an hour BY HIMSELF (huge). Here he is, diaper clad, dumping the toys out of their containers all over the floor. Maybe he is gonna be visual too.