Day 151--Back to Square One

So, I look around my house and I see that I'm back where I started. Well, mostly anyway. Papers piled high around my desk; I literally cannot find anything I'm looking for lately. Sticky floors, unmade beds, baskets of laundry, unpaid bills, unfinished projects... There is no organized bliss here. Nor has there been for a long, long time. I look back on day 60--organized and CLEAN bath toys. It's been a long time and, believe it or not, they are in dire need of a fresh clean again. I'm in survival mode, for the most part, and it's really a place that I don't like to be.

True, some good things have come out of the last 91 days. Just one week ago, I pulled together an enormous garage sale and got rid of about 20 boxes of old toys, clothing and knick-knacks, plus some large pieces of crappy furniture. And I made around $600 bucks in the process! I've also been dabbling with some healthy, sneaky cooking techniques and have learned some great, new recipes for my family. And I've planted a garden...twice...maybe thrice. (My two-year old LOVES to dig in the dirt and I think he's tampered with most of my seeds...I'm hoping the plants I planted yesterday will be big enough to emit a DO NOT TOUCH message when he wanders near the garden from now on.) So, all in all, I haven't been a complete loser/slacker/basket case over the last 3 months.

Yet, there you have it...3 months. 3 months since my last post and I don't feel like I have much to show for it. Even though my garage is a lot less full, you wouldn't know it to look at it, because it's still as unorganized as ever. (Except for this one little sweet area near the family "lockers" where I set up a little bench for taking off shoes, etc.) Tomorrow is June 1st and I'm petrified, because, not only does that mean that the year is almost half over, but, much more critically, it means summer is on me and summer is my ultimate non-productive season. Usually too hot to do much of anything but hide out in the basement or lounge around, trying my hardest not to work or do anything physical where I'll be working up a sweat. And my kids are home...surrounding me with their bickering and teasing and running and screeching. Me, with very good intentions at having a productive summer full of participation in programs at the library and lots of good old fashioned WORK WORK WORK. Me, always giving in around mid-morning of some mid-June day and shooing Davis off to play somewhere, anywhere, even though his jobs aren't done and probably never will be, just to retain some little kernel of that sacred thing called sanity.

8 days...It all begins in 8 days. And my expectations are no different than they ever are, you know. I'm already envisioning what skills we should learn, what kind of rewards program to instigate, how to motivate my kids into getting a move on in their day. How quickly will I be disappointed this year?

Well, no need to dwell on the inevitable. Just hang in there, Sara. One day at a time. That's the whole point of this blog, isn't it? So, I have one goal for today and only 30 minutes to complete it. I want to see my desk again. I want papers filed in their files and the excess thrown away or dealt with. Davis gets home from school in 30 minutes, and you know it's all downhill from there...Ready, Set, Go!

Day Sixty--Organized and CLEAN bath toys

One trick that I have learned in keeping belongings manageable is by creating "boundaries" within your space and learning how to stay inside those limits. For example, I have one bookcase in my house that is designated to children's books. When the shelves on the bookcase start to overflow (I have a tendency to acquire quite a number when it's garage sale season,) I know it's time to discard and condense, so that I stay within the boundaries I have created specific to children's books. This is great, because, not only does it give limitations on the amounts of books we bring into the house, but it also allows us to cycle through more books than we would have otherwise.

So, the same goes for almost every other space in my house, including the one designated to bath toys. I have a medium-sized plastic basin under the bathroom sink that holds all bath toys. It's amazing how quickly they accumulate--birthday presents from grandparents, Christmas stocking stuffers, cute little novelties in Easter baskets, McDonald Happy Meal toys that kids are dying to take in the water. My bin is often overflowing and toys are scattered in the cabinet, because they do tend to accumulate, even without you knowing it. However, the size of my basin and the rule I follow in limiting space allows me to keep my bath toys from taking over my life.

So, today, I went through the basin, washing everything thoroughly, including the basin. I used bleach-water to clean the toys. This is especially effective at cleaning mold out of the little squeeze toys that start to look black on the inside. I also discarded a few foam toys that were starting to break and looking pretty old. After I put everything back in the basin, looking very fresh and clean, and my daughter came upstairs and said, "Hmmm....it smells like a swimming pool up here."

Day Twenty--Organized Birthday Cards

Snail Mail is starting to become a thing of the past. It's a little sad, but it's hard not to be caught up in the instant accessibility of email, instant messaging, posting with facebook, texting, buying (and sending) gifts online, etc. etc. However, as a kid, there was something magical about going to the mailbox on your birthday. It was usually the only time you were allowed to and really the only time you even cared to. It was the only time you could expect there to be something for you! And, oh, the joy if there was more than one! A card? Maybe even a package? If it was a card, you felt to see how bulky it was. Kids have a sixth sense if there is a few dollars folded up inside a mysterious envelope. It was exciting, but most importantly, you felt loved. To this day, the family members I am closest to are the ones who made the extra effort, such as sending a card or making a call on my birthday.

And so, years later I desire to create the same kind of relationships with my own family members. Especially my nieces and nephews. We are miles apart and see each other about once a year. I want them to know that their Aunt Sara thinks of them and cares about them. I especially want them to know that their cousins care about them and that we are thinking of them on their birthday. And so today, I made some quick little birthday note cards, using a set of pre-made blank cards and then stamping an image of a birthday present on the front of it with the word "happy!" I made enough for each of my nieces and nephews. I already have their birthdays written down on the calendar, although it would be smarter of me to have them alerted to my phone. One baby step at a time, here...

I also decided that an easy gift to give is a Target giftcard, which is right around the corner from me. And what kid doesn't like shopping at Target? My kids would spend forever in the $1 section if they could. I bought a bunch of $5 gift cards, enough to cover me for the next six months, at least. All I need to do now is addresses and stamps and they're ready to be filled out by my kids and sent off in time for each of their big days.

I love giving and I often feel bad that I can't be around for each of their birthdays. I know it's not important to everyone, but it's important to me to do this little thing and let them know we are remembering them on their special day...

Day Nineteen--An Organized Car Kit

With an upcoming trip to Utah this weekend, I took the opportunity today of cleaning up and organizing my car kit. My car kit consists of all the basics I need to keep me and my rugrats sane and happy, whether we're in the car for six minutes or six hours. When I took it out today, it was a complete disaster. Mostly it consisted of wadded up trash, papers from school, and discarded coupons I'd never gotten around to using.

I keep my car kit in a black canvas box-like container made specifically for organizing things in cars. It has a strap on the back so it can actually hang from a seat and make things more accessible. I just keep mine down on the ground and it works out great. Here are some of the items I try and keep it stocked with:

• Snacks. I always try to have some kind of a carb (crackers), a protein (beef jerky), and a treat (usually candy used for bribes.)
• Bottled water. I always try and have one or two in my car for those times I forget to bring along my regular bottle of water.
• Wipes and diapers. Can never have too many of those, right?
• Books and cds. My kids love audiobooks, especially if there is a book to go along with the cd. I keep several in the car with me at all times and we rotate through them frequently, bringing out a new batch. I also keep a little booklet in the car that contains easy travel games to do with the kids, to help keep things interesting.
• Hand lotion, hand sanitizer, and sunscreen, if it's that season. I also keep a separate, well-stocked first aid container under my passenger seat.
• Notepaper and oodles of pens. Let's face it. Pens disappear in cars the same way socks disappear in the dryer. I always stock my kit with too many pens, knowing eventually, I'll end up with zero.
• Restaurant gift cards and coupons. If you're going to use them, this is where you'll want to keep them and not back at home, tucked away safely in a file or drawer, miles and miles away from the restaurant where you are currently pulling up to the drive-through.
• Last but not least, a mini clipboard. My clipboard is the perfect size for attaching coupons, letters that need to be mailed, checks that need to be deposited, plus it makes a great writing surface when you have to write something. It's nice to have the things you need to do all clumped together in one spot.

I also took the opportunity to revamp my car's emergency kit. This kit is NOT complete, and is currently lacking in most of the real emergency type equipment, such as road flares, ready made meals, adequate water and a fire extinguisher. I pray I never have to really use any of those things in an actual emergency; at least not until I get my emergency kit up to par. However, I do participate in a number of other real emergencies of a more mild manner. "Mommy, I'm starving!" "Mom, I have to go to the bathroom NOW!" "Uhm...mom, I didn't bring any shoes..." "Mom, I'm bored..." I think you get the picture.

Aside from my everyday car kit that contains a lot of necessities within arm's reach, I designate another bag to things of an urgent, yes less frequent, nature. Extra socks, flipflops, underwear, more diapers and wipes (because you never want to be without those), extra snacks, candy, and water, plus an extra set of coloring books or activities, just in case they happen to get bored with the ones they brought. Like that is ever going to happen, right? I use an old freebie diaper bag, which is great because it is a compact size, yet has lots of pockets for separation. I throw it all in there and then roll up a compact blanket on top. Voila! Who's ready for a road trip!?!

Day Eighteen--An Organized Photo Shoot

One of the things that challenges me to no end is getting the kids' pictures taken on their birthday. I avoid it like the plague and then, of course, feel extremely guilty when I look back and find a big 3-year gap between pictures and I find myself trying to remember what they looked like during that time. All right, it's not really that bad, but it is something that stresses me out. It's not the actual picture-taking itself that I find worrisome, it's the aftermath of trying to sift through forty or so pictures with a salesperson breathing down your neck, trying to get you to purchase the $90 package, while juggling a hungry, ornery, active toddler that all of a sudden is no longer interested in any of the toys he was trying to get at the whole time he was supposed to be smiling and charming for the camera.

So, I took Tyler to the Target Portrait Studio to get his 2-year old pictures taken today. (I can't believe my baby is turning two!) Of course I took coupons and I decided I needed a plan of action before I got in there, so I would know exactly what I was after and wouldn't get sucked into buying more than I needed by the sheer pressure and confusion of that critical decision-making moment. I pulled the whole thing off pretty well, although I wish I had taken a few more things into consideration that I will definitely keep in mind for next time. These are the tips I would suggest:

1. Decide what you are going to be using the photos for. Who are you buying them for? Will they be hung on the wall or in albums? What sizes do you need? For me, I typically buy an 8x10 for my mom, a couple 5x7s for my in-laws, and a 5x7 or 8x10 for myself, depending on how much I liked the photo. Maybe I'm weird, but I don't usually put their photos on the wall (unless I LOVE the photo), but keep them in a book, so a 5x7 is just fine with me.
2. Decide what your favorite background preferences are. Some times too many choices are just that--too much. The photographer asked me today which 3 backgrounds I wanted. I made the mistake of going along with it and picking three, even though the brown is my favorite. I love the way it warms up the skin and it looks so much better in my house. Plus it was a nice compliment to the blue and gray shirt he was wearing. As it was, I ended up picking a couple of pictures with a gray background, because they were the ones of him smiling, but, oh, how I wished they had been against the brown background. Know what you like before you get in the photo studio (you might research your options on the studio's website first) and don't let the photographer talk you into something you really don't want.
3. Come with a budget in mind. For me, I come in with two figures. The bottom number is my budgeted amount--I know how many pictures I need and what sizes and I figure out the actual cost. But I also go in with a higher number of what I'm willing to spend if, for some reason, the pictures are phenomenal and I can't live without them. As it was, today I actually came in lower than my bottom number, because, unfortunately, the pictures weren't the greatest and I just wanted a couple copies for his birthday and the grandparents.
4. In actually choosing the pictures, first find your favorite two, if possible. I like to do that first thing, if it's actually obvious, because then the final decision just seems to go a lot quicker for me. If there's more than two, great! Count yourself lucky and go from there. However, like today, I didn't have any favorites, so I had to try and choose the best ones and then whittle them down from there. As it was, I ended up choosing the only one where he was smiling (with the boring gray background) and another with him peeking through a number 2 (just to show that it was for his second birthday.)
5. As far as timing goes, if it's for a birthday, I suggest making the appointment for 2-4 weeks before the birthday. If you do it at least 2 weeks in advance, most photo studios will have your pictures back by the birthday so you can frame them and show them off for the big day, which is kind of fun. But more importantly, I have found, I am more likely to get them done if I do them in anticipation for the big day, rather than as an afterthought when I lose much of my momentum and it becomes easier and easier to procrastinate.

Someday, it is my hope to pull off a photo session with one of my kids with near perfect organization. I know I don't have the ultimate control, especially when it comes to their particular performance, but the more I know what I want, the closer I think I can come to getting it, so that, at least, is a start.

Day Eleven--Organized CD's

I wish I could say I took on the mountain of a task of organizing ALL our family's cds today, but I took on the much smaller task of organizing just one person's--my daughter's. For Christmas we gave her a cd player. Her old one broke a couple of years ago, long before she even knew how to operate one, and it has been so much fun watching her choose a cd and know just what buttons to push to make things happen. Curious George and James and the Giant Peach are coming alive to her and music just makes her so happy, she'll stay and play in her room for hours now. Unfortunately, all our kid cds were scattered throughout the house in different locations, so she was feeling a little limited (I was feeling a little limited) to the particular cds she was listening to.

First, she and I went around the house and collected all the different kid cds--some were in the kitchen, some in the basement, and lots had ended up out in the car. We then sat down and went through them all, me explaining what each one was, and she choosing the ones she wanted for her very own. I gave her her own cd case and showed her how to put each one in the sleeves, explaining how the case protected the cds from getting broken and scratched and instructing her to keep it out of her baby brother's reach. (Of course after listening to her tonight play about 30 seconds of each cd, I was not surprised to go in after she was asleep and find the majority of them stacked around the player and the rest scattered on the ground. I can see I will have to reiterate the lesson of cd protection tomorrow!)

The last thing I wish I had had time to do, and would like to do in the near future, is personalize her little cd case somehow. Put some cute paper with her initial on it and just make it a bit more girly. It won't matter--she's already so happy with all the music and story possibilities already at her fingertips--but it will make me happy.

Day Nine--An Organized Church Bag

Today while my husband took a trip down memory lane, cataloging and posting old pictures, I decided to use my organizing task for something urgent for the day--organizing my church bag. I'm not talking about the kids' bag with all the toys and goodies that get pulled out, but never played with, and strewn across our entire pew and all pews within a 10 ' radius. That bag is beyond my control at this point in time. But since I was called as a Miamaid advisor 2 months ago and I actually teach every couple of weeks now, I thought it would be appropriate to have a bag packed and at the ready.

The first thing I chose was an appropriate bag--something just big enough for my binder, manual, scriptures and a few other things, but not too big, since, unfortunately, it is not the only thing I have to haul around each week. (I would probably eventually prefer a bag just slightly larger so that it can fit larger prints in it, but for now this one will suffice.) I then filled it with the goodies one always needs when giving a lesson--pens, pencils, extra paper, a highlighter for marking the lesson. I even made myself an eraser out of some heavy duty foam and put it in a bag with a couple pieces of chalk. Voila! The bag is ready! (There's even room for a few crayons and a bag of cheerios in there!) The last thing I decided was to print off the lesson each time I teach, rather than hauling my manual to church, both freeing up space and allowing me to mark up the lesson as much as I want. A simple thing, but it's ready for the rest of the year!