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!

Day Five--Taming the Junk Collection Monster

We all have them--junk baskets, junk bins, junk drawers. A place to collect all the miscellaneous treasures that we're just not sure what to do with it at the moment. Good organizers go through them frequently and "dejunk," eliminating the unwanted and assigning homes for the homeless.

One tip suggested by most organizing gurus is to take around a "collection basket" as you clean from room to room. They suggest putting anything that doesn't belong in that room in the basket and then putting it away when you come to the room it does belong in. The image I have in my head is one of a pretty girl skipping from room to room, a small basket dangling from her arm as she carefully picks up a few wayward socks and unmentionables, tosses them in a laundry basket, and then skips off to enjoy a nice afternoon out with her friends. It is nothing like the reality of the two ginormous laundry baskets now leering at me from the counter, daring me to just try and take them on this afternoon. Junk Collection Basket Monsters, you're on!

Now, in all fairness to the baskets, I should mention that they were not originally intended for the collection, examination, and eventual distribution of JUNK. Last year, I asked my husband for new laundry baskets, thinking that with more baskets for holding laundry, I would have an easier time of folding and getting it put away. Wrong! I ended up having 4 baskets instead of 1 that camped out in my bedroom, clothes molding slowly into a wrinkled, decrepit state until I'd desperately need something like socks or clean underwear and I'd violently dig through them, tossing half the pile onto the floor where it would resids until next laundry day when, not knowing what's clean and what's dirty, I'd pull it all into the hamper and start the vicious cycle once again. I came to the realization that, in the case of laundry, less is definitely more, and went back to the one basket routine, storing my wonderful big baskets out in the garage until I need them for such special occasions as this one.

One of the frantic little tricks I have come up with is the collection of wayward items right before company comes. No matter how scheduled I am and how hard I try to get all the final cleaning done before a special event or someone comes to visit, there is always a pile of papers that didn't get looked at, a bunch of receipts I'm not sure what to do with, socks that don't match, things that need fixing, items that need to be returned, recipes I want to make, toys that are missing a piece (and I know I just saw it around here somewhere!), and all the usual odds and ends that don't have a home yet. One of the main reasons I started this whole organizing crusade was to learn how to make more appropriate homes for things preemptively, thus making the junk basket unnecessary; but for the moment, it's really the best strategy I have, 20 minutes before my mom and brother show up for the holidays and the place looks like a tornado swept through the area. I collect all the casualties and debris in the basket, the place ends up looking immaculate (seriously, the difference is astonishing) and no one is the wiser that a big, scary monster is lurking up in my closet, just waiting for my guilt and the New Year to kick in.

So, now two weeks later, this is what I'm faced with. Two monstrosities full of at least a hundred random items. My strategy is this: divide and conquer. I make sure I have plenty of clean counter space--anything on the counters, I either put away or I throw into the collection baskets. I designate certain areas of the counter to certain rooms--basement, garage, office, my room--and I begin to pull out items and assign them to a room. For my kids' stuff I have small, colored baskets that I purchased specifically for the collection of their wayward belongings. Periodically, I take the baskets around (nightly would be ideal, if I could ever get my act together) and then I give it to them to put away. These little baskets have come in handy, especially on occasions like this one. I also keep a waste basket and a garage sale box nearby, because at times like these, I become aware that my family owns way too much stuff and I become hyper-critical of the things I decide to keep. I start evaluating why something doesn't have a home in the first place and if I'm really as committed to owning that particular treasure as I think am. If I feel myself waver in the slightest, I toss it. (One of the perks in having an annual garage sale, by the way, is that, if you have the space to collect and box things up during the year, you have a second chance at reclaiming something you tossed. Just knowing that makes me more courageous to eliminate things and, when garage sale season comes around and I get out all those tossed treasures, more often than not, I'm happy with the original decision.)

It ended up taking me just over an hour to completely clean out those two baskets, by the way, and put all the stuff away. I hung one basket, now empty, out in the garage and the other one is sitting pretty for me in the laundry room, just waiting for a nice fresh load of laundry tomorrow. Hurray!

Day Four--Organized Cleaning Supplies

Today challenges me. Still under the weather from a Christmas cold and playing catch-up from the holidays, I waffle back and forth among several potential tasks and try not to succumb to the temptation of just bagging the whole dang project. It's Tuesday, and already I'm seeing all the little things--stray socks, dirty dishes, toy cars, baskets full of Eden's many collections that "collect" anywhere but up in her room--creep in around the house, adding up to chaos and potential catastrophe. My schedule is in place. I know what I should be doing, but somehow I can't pull myself together. I can feel it in me--the desire to ignore it all, stick a frozen pizza in the oven, put my feet up on the couch and play angry birds for the next hour. Well, I'm not going to give in! I'm not going to let it all fall apart at this point, (although, now that I think about it, the frozen pizza idea is really not a bad one tonight.)

So, I picked something fairly simple to organize today, based on an inexpensive purchase I made at Target. Cheap towels and washcloths were made even cheaper by being clearanced at 50% off. I bought a set of 4 hand towels and 12 wash cloths for $3. They're not the kind of plush towels I like to use in the bathroom, but terry cloth makes great cleaning cloths as they soak up moisture really well. I put them in a basket with several microfiber cloths that I use for dusting and I now have a whole bunch of new "rags" ready for cleaning in the new year.

After I finished that, I figured I ought to get the whole job done, so I got out all my cleaners and made sure they were all full and in good condition. I make most of my own cleaners, so I also made sure they were labelled correctly and the bottles in working order. With children in the house, I prefer using cleaning products such as baking soda, white vinegar, and plain ol' dish soap, so the cleaners are pretty safe and chemical-free. My favorite all-purpose cleaner is warm water and 1-2 T. dish soap. (I also add 8-10 drops of an anti-bacterial essential oil, such as tea tree oil.) The dish soap is diluted enough, so that it doesn't foam up, but still has the wonderful degreasing powers it is meant to have. I use it every day on my counters, quick spills on the floor, smudges on the wall, and a quick spritz on dirty dishes makes them easier to scour before loading in the dishwasher.

I keep all of my weekly cleaning supplies in a caddy in my laundry room. I would LOVE to be at the point of keeping a small stash in every bathroom, but with young kids--one in particular who loves to spritz things--I'm not quite there. I have very limited space, so my caddy is small and I try to keep to using basic cleaners.

I also made sure my kids cleaning supplies were in order. A while ago, as I was researching better ways of getting my kids to do their jobs, I came across an idea that really made sense to me. One lady said that kids take more responsibility for their chores when they have their own set of tools. So I tried it. I went out and bought each of my kids a plastic bucket at the dollar store. We filled it with their own spray bottle (they get to make their own "potion" which they love,) a sponge, rubber gloves, a scrubby brush, and a rag. I was amazed at the immediate results. They actually enjoyed chore time after dinner. My son was busy spritzing away and wiping down the kitchen table. My daughter was busy spritzing away and wiping down the little bathroom (I had to touch it up a bit afterward, but, hey, it got done!) Afterwards, I gave them each a reward sticker and they got to decorate their bucket with it. Voila! Clean table and bathroom and about 15 minutes of relative peace.

So, cleaning supplies are organized and ready to go...(when I actually get around to cleaning something...ha ha ha.) It was relatively easy, but, hey, it had to be done. And hopefully by choosing a simple task, I've saved up a bit of energy to pick myself up off this chair and go get that pizza in the oven now. Here's to a more challenging task tomorrow...