The Eagle's Nest: organizing

Showing posts with label organizing. Show all posts

1.14.2013

2 weeks late...

Today is my January 1st. I'm a lover of new beginnings, of fresh starts, of schedules and to-do lists. I'm not a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions per se, but I do think it's good to periodically (maybe not JUST once a year) evaluate where you are, what you're doing, and what goals you have made for yourself. The last two weeks of "laying low" with my daughter provided lots of opportunity to think about the goals and plans I wanted to make for this year...realizing that God may have others in mind for me...but we'll start with this and see where we end up.

So, I took a little "planning retreat" on Saturday morning to our local Panera, and got my home management binder in order for 2013 and made some revised schedules and lists and charts. (Can you hear the giddiness?)

One new thing that I am trying for this year is setting goals for myself and (gasp) I'm planning to list them here every Monday along with the previous week's progress report... I've never been good at keeping goals (of this sort before) but I think making them public might encourage me to do it. (Especially since I regularly see a lot of my readers face-to-face and realize that they could ask me about it!) If I suddenly stop posting them, you'll know I didn't like it or chickened out! This idea comes from Crystal Paine of Money Saving Mom, so I can't take credit for it. Her goals are inspiring to me. She provided a free blank printable for making weekly goals, and I downloaded that and will be using it each week.

SO...without any further rambling...here's some of what I hope to accomplish this week...

(insert deep breath here)

Personal

~ Complete 5 days worth of Luke study and Proverbs study (each)

~ Finish The Ministry of Motherhood

~ Get halfway (or more) through Made to Crave

~ Record 3 gifts each day and take pictures where applicable

Health & Well Being

~ Meet water quota every day

~ Exercise at least 4 times this week

~ Track calories every day

~ Lose at least 2 pounds this week

~ Do something outside

~ Meet a friend for coffee

Home Projects

~ Finish planning for 2013

~ Complete reading lists for me and C (for now...)

~ "Homeschool" plan for remainder of January

~ Complete at least one other project from to-do list

~ Begin using coupons again and plan shopping list

Marriage/Parenting

~ Limit screen time to one hour each day for C (sickness creates BAD habits)

~ Reduce C's sugar intake (recovery from Christmas)

~ Play board game and read with C every day (not counting before nap/bedtime)

~ Develop reading/walking plans with G

~ Discuss vacation and yearly scheduling plans with G

Blog

~ 5 posts this week

So there ya have it! I hope to be back tomorrow for "Time to Read Tuesday"......

8.21.2012

Scheduling...

While we're not officially done with summer yet, everyone else is getting ready to go or already started back to school. And, while I've thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing summer (pool days in abundance!), I've found myself craving structure, organization, and yes, even a schedule. While there are many days when I throw the schedule out the window and just "go with the flow," there are also a good many days that we do try to adhere to a schedule for the most part...at this stage of life it's a "loose" schedule, but it mostly keeps me focused and accountable for being a good steward of my time (or at least that's my intention...). SO, over the course of a few evenings last week and a few hours on Saturday afternoon, I was able to put together a daily schedule for us and on it I have just about every hour from 6am-11pm assigned. Yesterday was our first day "following" it and I have to say that we both seemed to be much happier campers.

C is three...as she is quick to tell anyone who will listen. :) She loves to learn. She is a sponge. I love watching her learn and I love the gift I've been given to be able to teach her about God's world. At this age, she needs SO. MUCH. TIME to play, pretend, imagine, and explore, but she also enjoys more structured learning times too. So, as part of our schedule, we are starting some pre-school type work, both in worksheet form and of course LOTS of hands on. I hope to spend some time planning for each month and working around a theme. I'm not sure who is more excited about this...me, or her. :)

You know I have a love affair/addiction with Pinterest, but I'm happy to say that I have found so many helpful resources from that site and it really is helping me to improve in many of my responsibilities. Time management NOT being one of them. Ahem. The point being -- I discovered some scheduling tools from pinterest that I wanted to share...

This cleaning agenda is what I'm hoping to stick with on normal weeks

when I can just clean a little bit each day.

If I decide to clean the house all in one day, I'll probably follow this method.

And I love this deep cleaning schedule,

I just wonder if some of these things need to be cleaned more than once a year!

All of these schedules are kept in my home management binder, and I found lots of helpful (and FREE) printables HERE.

And, THIS is a fun daily schedule printable that I use sometimes, and other times I just use a more boring gray/white one.

4.26.2012

Rosemary Potatoes (and my newly organized closet!)

Mouth-watering. Om, nom, nom. I kinda have a "thing" for Rosemary Potatoes...kinda. So, I tried a new recipe last night. The original recipe is actually for Thyme Potatoes, but I rarely have Thyme (pun intended), so we go with Rosemary since we seem to have that in abundance right now.

BUT....before I get to more lovely pictures of potatoes and rosemary, let me show you what I've been working on this morning...

You see, my daughter had a stomach bug (that apparently decided to infest MANY in our church) on Tuesday, and this morning I woke up feeling not quite myself. This was probably due to the fact that it seems to take about 2 days for the bug to transfer and today would be day 2 since she had it, and I had definitely been exposed to it. I needed something to occupy my mind so that I wouldn't sit around and think about how sick I was feeling. Power of suggestion is a powerful thing, y'all. So, naturally, I started cleaning out and reorganizing some closets. I forgot to take a picture of the first one before, and after pictures just aren't any fun without the before pictures. So, you just get to see one -- mine.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Mmm, love me some order. I keep going back to my room and peeking in just to make sure it still looks the same and my clothes haven't disorganized themselves in some sort of revolt while I'm busy doing other things.

Okay...on to the "recipe" - which it really isn't -- no exact measurements on this one.

Wash potatoes...

Pat dry...

Cut into quarters (or smaller if you're using giant potatoes...)

Toss them in your best stockpot and cover about 1" with cold water

Add in a splash of white vinegar and a healthy amount of kosher salt. (ahem)

Bring potatoes to a good boil, and cook for about 5 minutes.

Drain Potatoes. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over potatoes, and sprinkle with pepper and more kosher salt; toss until all potatoes are covered.

I love pictures of food. I really do. (thus the reason for tomorrow's post)

Lay freshly snipped (and washed) sprigs of rosemary on top of potatoes (which have been transferred to a baking sheet)

Bake at 500* -- yes, 500*, for about 15 minutes; stir, and cook for 15 more minutes.

Discard rosemary, and serve those delectables...

Seriously, people...I was eating them off the pan. yum.

(Oh...and I'm feeling fine...but that's all I'm going to say about that, because those bugs have a way of listening and just when you say, "I think I'm in the clear" - they come out and GET YOU!)

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