My List of Future Accomplishments

Since my Mister deployed, I have come up with quite a few ideas for how to keep busy, as well as some things that I want to do for him while he is gone. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the 101 in 1001 project idea, but I first came across it in 2009 and promptly made myself a list. Basically, you make a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, and as you complete each item you cross it off the list. Now, back then I was even less motivated than I am now, so I didn't get far on my list before I lost it, and then just gave up on the whole idea.

My Mister will be gone for about 9 months which equals to about 274 days, and while I may feel like I have a laundry list of things I want to do, when I write it down it turns out to be pretty short. Well, short enough to accomplish in around 9 months.

So, without further ado:

Keeping Busy:

1. Attend FRG meetings when possible
2. Bring clothes to Platos Closet, Once Upon a Child, or Goodwill
3. Do at least one lesson for school a day.
4. Help my sister get her website up and running Success!

Feeding My Inner Interior Decorator:

5. Paint the closets: Master Bedroom, Caden's room, Bathroom, hall closet, front closet
6. Decide on paint colors and general 'themes' for rooms:
Master Bedroom:
Cadens Room:
Dining Room:
Living Room:
Bathroom:
Kitchen:
7. Paint every room: Master bedroom, Cadens room, Dining Room, Living Room, Bathroom, Kitchen

Craftyness:

8. Make bedding for the Master Bedroom
9. Pillows or pillow covers for the livingroom couch
10. Make some kind of countdown to count the days until Chaz gets home [Completed 10/25/12]
11. Finish making storage bins out of diaper boxes

For My Soldier:

12. Send one care package for each holiday Chaz isn't home for: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/New years, Valentines Day, Saint Patrick's Day, Easter, Fathers Day.
13. Send one care package a month
14. Plan an awesome homecoming

For the House:

15. General Declutter - Donate or trash
16. Hang blinds in the Master Bedroom
17. Create a household binder
18. Get organized and stay organized

For Me:

19. Blog at least once a week
20. Make an appointment to get contacts
21. Put Little Mister in daycare at least once a month for a 'Mommy Day'
22. Work out, Gym or home, doesn't matter

For the Baby:

23. Enroll in CYS for Hourly Daycare
24. Swap out the crib rail for a toddler bed
25. Start potty training

Finances

26. Get at least $1000 into savings for emergencies
27. Pay off as much debt as possible
28. Spend less on groceries - save the extra for a 'rainy day'

So there it is. That rounds out to about one thing every ten days? I see no reason why that shouldn't be doable. I'll do my best to photograph the items that are photograph-able and post them on here so you all can see my progress!I look forward to sharing my accomplishments with you!

Accomplishing Order

I guess the first step to getting organized is creating order. So many things on my to do list have been put aside and forgotten because I didn't write them down, or I did write them down, and I put them in a 'smart place'. For me, it's always the 'smart places' that I can never remember... I can't tell you how many projects I have started planning for on some scrap piece of paper that ended up getting moved or thrown away in some hasty attempt to clean up before the Mister gets home. The more important it is, the smarter of a place I put it, the less likely I am to ever find it again.

My first goal was to make myself one solid place for all those thoughts, ideas, and bits of information that eventually need to be stored somewhere permanent. As it turns out, it takes me more than one try to figure out exactly what that means. I've seen hundreds of 'house binders' floating around, and thought maybe that would work for me. The only problem was that half of the dividers in all these house binders had no relevance in my life. I am a stay at home mom with a two year old, a husband who is getting ready to deploy, and no solid schedule to speak of. Still, I knew I had to start somewhere, so I took a few ideas and threw them around.

Binder attempt #1

I started with recipes. My wonderful sister gave me a recipe box for Christmas last year, but I have found so many recipes online, mostly through Pinterest, and it would be more than a little difficult and time consuming to put all those recipes onto the recipe cards, especially with my Little Mister running around constantly. Don't worry, Megan, I will do it eventually!

I decided the next best thing would be to take all my online recipes, print them out, then put them into a binder. I made a list of our favorite recipes, as well as a few recipes for things I knew I was planning on trying soon, and copied, pasted, and re-formatted them so they were all uniform, then printed them. It's really been a nice thing to have around the house, but I bought myself a 2.5 inch three ring binder, thinking it would be more useful because it can hold more.

It has been useful, and I can store a lot of things in it, but it's really inconvenient to lug around the kitchen or take up space on one of the whopping two counter tops we have. I did learn, however, that while having a binder was an excellent idea, this one just wasn't going to cut it for me. Onto attempt two!

Binder attempt #2

There is this small old binder that I have had for ages. It has moved with me since I graduated High School for sentimental reasons,  but it's never really served a purposed.  I though it might be perfect for my new house binder. I took the binder off the shelf and started looking online for free home management binder printables. I found a few I liked well enough, but when I went to print them, I ran into a really big problem. One that I should have thought about, because it's obvious. The binder is too small. The pages are only 5.5 x 8, so I had to re-size every page I printed off, which worked, but left very little room to write anything, let alone make a list.

I had a general idea for what categories I was going to have in this binder, so I decided to just make the pages myself. I started with some basic lists, things we want for the house, things we need for the house, projects I want to complete, and general home improvement information. I made up all the pages, printed them out, hole punched them, and ran into the living room excitedly to show the Mister.

He politely paid attention while I explained what it was, very proud of myself for all the work I had put into it, and he even helped me think of a few ideas for each section which I diligently wrote in. Seriously, he is so supportive of my crazy, spazzy moments! Over the next couple days I would think of another random item and write it down in the notebook, and I felt so happy that I finally had an organized place for all my ideas!

And then I stopped writing in it. 

Once the ideas were out of my head, in the notebook, and the notebook was put away, I hardly thought about it again. Not really ideal for something I was planning on using constantly, definitely not a good fate for such a pretty binder! I guess it was time for attempt three, and time to find a new plan for the mini-binder.

Binder attempt #3

I basically set this binder thing out of my head for a few weeks. I wasn't thrilled with any of the options I could buy from my local stores, and I didn't want to buy anything online in case the image was different than the actual item. Eventually, we went to visit my dad over a long weekend, and one thing I love about visiting my dad, aside from obviously seeing my dad, is that he lives in an area where there is tons of variety. Shopping, food, entertainment, whatever you want to do, there are multiple options. There are three targets within 15 miles, Office Max, Office Depot, and Staples, whereas the town I live in has one office supply store, one target, and a whole lotta not much else.

Needless to say, I planned a trip for me and my Misters to Staples. I'll admit, I am a sucker for Martha Stewarts collections, and Staples carries them! I knew I would find something there.

Well I wasn't wrong! I fell in love with these binders the second I saw them. Unfortunately, the price sticker I saw said they were $14.99, which is ridiculous, but I knew it was something that I wanted, and I would use it if I loved it, right? so I bit the bullet and grabbed the blue one. Thank goodness when I got to the checkout counter I found out that the price sticker had been misplaced, and they were only $5.99. That is much more acceptable. I should have grabbed a black one too, but the Little Mister was getting very tired, so we decided it wasn't worth testing his patience.

I can't tell you how excited I was to get back home! I didn't want to leave, because I love my dad, but I was seriously excited to get working on my new binder inserts!! I got online, looked on every page I've seen offering free printables, and found a few that I liked, but none that I loved. Don't get me wrong, there are some excellent  free printables out there, I just couldn't find any that I was going to be 100% happy with, so I decided to go ahead and make my own again.

It is still a work in progress, and some of the pages still need a little work, but I am ready to show this puppy off.

I am truly sorry about these pictures... All I have right now is my phone, and no photo editing software on this computer.





The first thing is a calendar I found at the $ store, which just makes me so happy. Saving money, and finding something that has colors that will match my binder? Win win. :)


After my calendar, I have Birthdays and Anniversaries. [not pictured]





Followed by my Cleaning Schedule



My Weekly To-do List



A list of our favorite meals - I always try to have the ingredients for these in the house, that way if I don't have any ideas for dinner, I can just whip one of these up.



My Goal Sheet, which I changed from 'Weekly Goals' to 'Goals' because most of mine are longer term than just a week.



My favorite page: The Project Planner

And that is followed by my Bills sheet. [also not pictured]

I laminated a few of the pages so I could take a wet-erase marker (dry erase wouldn't come off for me) and check things off, write things in, etc, which really makes life easier, and saves some paper! It is still a work in progress, but so far I am so happy with how it has turned out, and I have been able to keep working with it now for more than just a week, so I have hope that this one will actually stick!

 I hope to keep using this binder, and as I use it, I plan to figure out exactly what it is that will help me to stay organized in each of these categories, and I would love to share my success with you! I would also love to share the pages I have created, so if you are interested in them, please view or download them! Here are the links again:

Birthdays and Anniversaries
Cleaning Schedule
Weekly To-do List
Goal Sheet
Project Planner
Bills

Do any of you use a binder to organize your lives? Have any ideas on what a truly useful binder should contain? I would love to hear your thoughts!

The biggest accomplishment of the new house!

Before my Mister got deployed, he really wanted to do some work on our den. It's basically going to be our 'rec room', which he will be calling his man cave. Unfortunately, it is also where our laundry is, and it's the door we use to come in and out of the house, so it still had to be functional for every-day life. He basically told me when we moved here that I could do anything I wanted to the rest of the house, as long as he could decorate the man cave, pick paint colors, approve or disapprove photos, furniture, etc.

I grudgingly agreed. I am a bit of a control freak, but I figure, what's one room when that gives me free reign over the whole house!! He picked out paint colors and told me his ideas: Tan walls, dark brown trim, and our folding doors would be the same with the inset tan and the border dark brown. I've never seen that combination before, so I was very nervous, and really wasn't into the idea... At all. We went to the home improvement store, looking for colors, and he made his choices. Holmes cream for the main walls, and  Cowboy Boots for the trim. I still was not sold on the idea. I am much more into the cool colors, blues, greens, etc. Both of these colors were very... yellow. But I had agreed to his choosing the colors, so I bit my tongue and said "okay, lets do this."

We also decided to take out the carpet, because let me tell you, the previous owner had dogs, and those carpets did not smell like roses.

Here are the 'before' pictures. PLEASE excuse the mess... We really didn't like the room, so we used it more as storage than anything else, so... yeah... Mess. :)

Our first step was to prime the walls: (My brother in law came to visit. He was 'helping')

Then we started in on the painting:

Little Mister trying to figure out what I was taking pictures of...

Then the carpet got ripped up and new floors put down:

And finally, the trim got painted, the doors got put back, and the room got cleaned!

It turned out WAY better than I thought it was going to. :) I actually kind of love it.

We still have some work to do on it. Mister wants to put a rug down, get rid of our blue couch and replace it with some recliners, and change the fans to something a little more... manly. All in due time, I suppose. I also want to do something to the fireplace and mantle, but I have no idea what, so it'll have to wait.

How about you? Have you had any projects that you weren't crazy about in the beginning, but turned out to be great? I would love to hear about it!

The First Accomplishment

I'm a slob. I'm a slob, I'm a slob slob slob!

The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one, right? Well I admit, I have never been one to clean much. Ever since I was little, I always cut corners and did the bare minimum, so I never really learned good cleaning habits. My husband was in for a nice surprise when we moved in together, and ever since then, I have been trying my best to make the house look like I've been cleaning, when in reality, I just move the mess from one area to the other. [FYI: He has never been fooled]

When I was pregnant, I literally accomplished nothing but eating, napping, and watching TV. Bones, I think was the kick I was on at the time, but that is neither here nor there! I didn't have a job, I didn't cook, the Mister would get off work, and I would just then start thinking about dinner plans, most of the time we wouldn't have ingredients anyway. I made absolutely zero effort to make our apartment a home. My habits really hadn't changed much from then to now.

Recently however, it's really started to hit me. I don't know if it's because we bought our first house this past year [*celebrate!*] or the fact that my little bundle went from making only the messes that I allowed, to throwing toys and food anywhere and everywhere, all the time, but I had a revelation!

I need to get clean!

Not just clean, I need to get organized, I need to get motivated, I need to accomplish something! Not just for my sake, but for my husband and my child! If I am sitting at home all day and the only thing I get done is finish another season of something on Netflix, what could I possibly say for myself? What kind of habits am I teaching my brilliant little man? Nothing worth repeating, that's for sure. On the days that I do accomplish some small task, who do I have to share it with? Of course my husband will listen to me and be proud, but really, how many times can can I expect him to tell me he's glad I got the house clean when we would rather that just be the normal state of things, not a special occasion!

On top of that, my husband is just about to leave for a deployment, and I am going to need a nice, streamlined system in place in order to keep my head. I am going to need projects to keep me busy, and I am going to rely on those moments of pride and success when I see another project I have been meaning to do for months finally crossed off my list. I want letters to my husband to be filled with things like, "Guess what I accomplished today!" and "Remember how I wanted to do this forever? Well guess what, It's finally done!!!" Unfortunately, while I can send letters every day, I know he won't be able to read them right away, and I can't expect a constant stream of letters back. I know better than to expect that much communication. As much as I would love it, it's just not practical.

That, my new friends, is where you come in. I want to share my accomplishments with you! I want to hear about your accomplishments! A new recipe you tried that everyone loved, a new way to clean your windows that really didn't leave streaks! Anything and everything that makes you feel good, no matter how tiny! In return, I will tell you all about the transformation I am undergoing! From clueless new mom, to house-wife extraordinaire!

I look forward to sharing more with you!