Menu Plan Monday: January 14-20

We are beginning the third week of the new year and around here we are working at getting back to a more 'normal' and regular routine. Aaaahhhhhhhh --  big breath in, big breath out. Feeling good! 

Getting back to my printed menu plan is one of the things that is helping me get back on track. For several different reasons, I'm doing my planning and shopping once a week. Yikes! I've been a once-a-monther for so long I'm really out of practice. Not sure I like it much, but it is forcing me to focus in on using what I have on hand and making deliberate choices about what I purchase each week. That's not a bad thing. Next month, I'm going back to monthly planning for sure!

On the menu for this week:

Monday
b'fast - cereal, banana
lunch - tuna salad sandwiches, carrot sticks, pretzels & potato chips
supper - mexican casserole (rice, beans, burger, cheese - topped with cornbread)

Tuesday
b'fast - breakfast burritos 
lunch - minestrone, Mama's wholewheat bread
supper - chicken pot pie
 
Wednesday
b'fast - oatmeal
lunch - sandwiches, fruit, pretzels & chips 
supper - Pizza Hut (redeeming BookIt coupons)

Thursday
b'fast - toast (made from mom's whole wheat bread)
lunch - mac & cheese, fruit
supper - sloppy joes (date night so Esther's in charge!), veggie tray, apple slices

Friday
b'fast - muffins and fruit
lunch - chicken wraps
supper - pizza night

Saturday
b'fast - pancakes
lunch - leftovers
supper - hamburgers, homemade fries, baked beans

Sunday
b'fast - bagels and fruit
dinner - crock pot lasagne, salad, garlic bread, green beans
supper - popcorn, apples, leftovers, every man for himself

looking ahead, you may see these dishes on next week's menu:  fajitas, meatloaf, french dip sandwiches, chicken caeser pasta salad.

Now that I have my menu planned out, I can dig into my closet project! This week's challenge in the Organizing Revolution is 'Closets'.  We are going to empty out the broom closet and coat closet and put things back in a neat and orderly manner. 

Thanks so much to all of you who have cheered me on this month. It helps so much! And a HUGE thank you to all that took time to vote for me.  First week I came in 15th out 150. Last week I place 13th out 119. Not bad, eh?   Best thing is we are enjoying our newly organized and efficient spaces. 

I'll be back in a day or two with my next organizing post so stay tuned!

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com.

Organizing Revolution - The Kitchen

Last week I took on the challenge of organizing up my office area. This week it's on to the kitchen!

During this first month of 2013, I've taken the New Year's Organizing Revolution challenge put out there by Laura at OrgJunkie.com and 6 other bloggers.

Last year I cleaned out and organized my junk drawer and a couple of other drawers in my kitchen and wonders of wonders they are STILL clean and organized! So let's build on this terrific foundation, I say!!!! (please excuse all the exclamation marks - a girl has to do whatever it takes to psych herself up for a job like this)

I have once again been following the PROCESS for cleaning out and organizing. It really is a most amazing help. I stay focused and on-task when I work through each step.

As I walk you through all that I've done, you'll see pictures of the amazing transformation of my kitchen cupboards. Soooo, grab a cup of your favorite cuppa and get comfy and enjoy the show!

I used items that were sitting around, like random organizers (this one became a plate rack).  Only purchase for this project was new shelf liner

I Planned out my project -- get rid of items we do not use/need, make items in cabinets more accessible, give shelves and cupboards a good cleaning, change shelf liner, etc. Do the easy jobs first, then tackle those that are driving me bonkers. The rest can wait.

My "Special Pieces" Before (left) and After (right)

Then I Removed ev.er.y.thi.ng. and sorted what was to stay and purged what needed to go. I was in such a hurry I didn't take pictures of any totally blank spaces. But trust me, each cabinet was a blank slate before moving things back in. You can see in the photo above I started cleaning out before taking my 'before' shot.

Coffee Mugs (can a girl have too many? um, ye-es!) Before (left) and After (right)

Under the Baking counter (Before, top. After, bottom)

Baking Pans - I just love the red/cream checks - makes me smile everytime I open up the doors!

Organizing like things with like was pretty easy with this project once I finished the purging. My spices were pretty much in all the same area, breakfast foods and snack crackers were all together. Hot drinks and vitamins and baking pans each had their homes all ready. Mugs were all in same cabinet, specialty pieces were together behind glass doors. 

PURGE!!! I threw out empty and expired vitamin containers, combined half-empty boxes, got rid of my absolute favorite teapot (the one with the broken-haven't-fixed-it-in-10-years handle, sniff sniff), tossed various bottles and crazy amounts of who-knows-why-I-stuffed-that-up-there items.

Next, Containerizing!!! (Love this part!) But with very little $$$ available for this project, I had to utilize containers I already had around and/or get creative. I consolidated as much as possible and assigned space for everything.

Cracker/Cereal/Snack Cabinet (Before on left, After on right)

Spice/Coffee/Tea/Etc Cabinet - top photos show Before and After as you peek in the corner door. Bottom photos show before and after The Great Spice Purge and Reorganization. I keep most spice bottles on 2 lazy suzans, alphabetized (in general) with A-L on the left one and N-Z on the right one.

Gotta love containers!  Above you see coffee and tea condiments in a plastic bin, vitamins and other 'health' products in baskets. The photo on bottom shows how I corralled peanut butter and honey jars in a plastic bin--easy cleanup for those sticky messes now! See also how I re-purposed a large cardboard package as our snack bin. I (usually) keep this stocked with granola bars, snack cracker sandwiches, small raisin packs, etc.

 Once that fun part if finished (oh, yeah, right. this it's ALL fun!), it's time for an Evaluation of the plan. Since my kitchen space has already been working pretty well for me, I do not see any major problems. Except to convince police retrain the family as we build new habits putting things back into their designated containers.

This cabinet is above my double oven - I called it 'The Abyss' because it was so high, deep cavern. A plastic coated wired shelf to utilize some of the vertical space and a wire organizer (meant to be attached to a door/wall) turned on its side to keep serving trays at-the-ready leave plenty of space for bulky pitchers.

Do I have any issues to Solve/simplify? We'll see. Anything that doesn't seem to be working will be addressed over the next couple of weeks as we work in the kitchen and prep/clean up meals.

Smile, relax and enjoy! That's easy when you look around at a job well done.

What!? Could it be!? Empty Space!? Loving It!

If you've made it all the way to this point, and if you've enjoyed your tour through my newly transformed kitchen cabinets, please consider popping over to the Organizing Revolution and voting for me (#102 - hsmominmo) beginning Friday morning (Jan 11) and ending Sunday afternoon (Jan 13). 

Newlywed Cooking Story

An article posted recently by my friend Amy at Raising Arrows inspired this  little story from my past for today's post. You can hop on over to read her version of Newlywed Cooking when you are finished reading here.)

With our two oldest children already living a life of wedded bliss, and number three jumping into Holy Matrimony in just a few weeks, memories from our early newlywed days come to mind regularly. The kids always often sometimes enjoy tolerate these stories from The Old Days. At least, they smile and nod and share encouraging comments like "uh-huh" "really?" and "oh".

 

Thrilling little stories, with lessons to learn. 
Stories such as . . .

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a young and happy bride. Eager to please her strong and handsome husband she vowed to fix a delicious, home-cooked, country breakfast every weekend. A breakfast that would be sure to win the heart of this farm-boy. Bacon and eggs and toast and juice and, well, you get the picture.
Several weekends in a row she cheerfully fried those eggs and toasted that bread. But then, one Sunday morning, as the love-birds were donning their coats to head for church services, this fine young man turned to his sweet wife and said . . .

"Ummm, it's ok with me if you don't cook breakfast like that anymore."

The bride was crushed. So many thoughts went through her head. "What?! He doesn't like my cooking? He'd rather have his mother's cooking? I've been to their house many weekends. His mother ALWAYS makes breakfast like this. A good old-fashioned, hearty breakfast is what EVERY country boy wants! I must be a terrible cook. He hates my cooking!"

Fast forward 15 years. The still young and happy bride relays the account to newly married couple in hearing range of her still strong and handsome groom. Funny thing is, he recalls the incident very differently. 

"That is what you thought?" says he. "I only meant that I've NEVER liked a big, heavy breakfast. Fried, greasy foods have never set well on my stomach. I think you are a wonderful cook!"

Moral of the story --  do not take off-hand comments personally, be ready to quickly extend grace and love, and you are never too old or married too long to learn something new about each other.

And on another note - Have you voted yet? You have until noon on Sunday, Jan 6 to click on over to see the entries in the Office edition of the New Years Organization Revolution. You can find my Office Space at #125 - hsmominmo. 

Opportunity

It's time for Five Minute Friday with Lisa-Jo Baker, The Gypsy Mama. 
She took a break from her weekly writing challenge, but she's back!
It's really a wonderful exercise, tapping out my thoughts unedited. 
You can see what it's all about and read what others have written in their free-for-all-five-minutes.

OPPORTUNITY

GO!

I read just this morning that the difficulties in life bring about opportunity (or something to that effect). That little statement grabbed my attention and set me to thinking about a conversation with a friend recently. 
"I see the glass has half empty." That's what I told her. 
Ugh! It's one of the things I hate most about myself, that I see the negative so much more clearly than the positive. You store up regret that way. At least I do. And the missed opportunities, I can only imagine all that I've missed.
As I sit on Wednesday nights and soak in all that others share about Jesus and Who He is, as I read through the words penned by John and inspired by the Holy Spirit, I think about Hope and Peace and Love.
And then I read about Difficulties and Opportunity. It's all about my frame of mind, the state of my heart. I so badly want to face the difficulties, the challenges with an attitude that asks "what opportunity is presenting itself here?"
I've heard it said that opportunity presents itself, so do I just wait around until it shows up?
Or do I make opportunity happen by opening my eyes, my heart because it's always there and all I have to do is see it?

STOP.

Speaking of opportunity -- if you have not yet taken the opportunity to read about my office organization project this week, would you please do so? And then, if you like what you see could you hop on over the OrgJunkie.com and vote for me? You can find my space is you scroll on down to #125 (hsmominmo - The Office).

Organizing Revolution - The Office

 

I spent this first week of the New Year cleaning out, sprucing up and organizing our office space, thanks to Laura at OrgJunkie.com (and 6 other terrific organizing bloggers).

Are you ready?  Heeeeeeeeere's The Office!

This is what it looks like today.

This is what it looked like at the beginning of the week.

Keep reading to appreciate all the changes that took place this week.
You can learn more about how I went about getting started in the BEFORE post with an introduction and pictures. 

And then you can see how things came together DURING the whole process in the next post.

And now, let's take a look at some close-up-and-personal photos showing the Befores and Afters.

Cabinet under the Aquarium

On the top shelves, I weeded out the fish supplies, moved the printer paper to the file drawer and replaced it with a file box where I store business cards and misc. contact info.
Bottom shelves hold stationery and greeting cards on the left (purged and re-ordered) and phone books and directories (purged and contained in a magazine holder)

Cords! Cables! Connections!

I coiled the cables and used twisty-ties to keep them that way and then stored them in a magazine holder (turned on its side) - they have not totally disappeared, but oh, so much better!

The desktop - Before on the left, After on the right (just in case you couldn't see for yourself)

Just look at how nice and clear all this space is now. I threw out the trash and outdated papers, loaded the kids up with their toys and treasures and sent them off the find proper homes. I cleared out the bulletin board and gave it a new look, adding a little basket to hold notepaper for those inspirational thoughts that pop into my head at the oddest moments.
You can see my "new" Landing Pad on the wall in the bottom right photo. We had this clear acrylic file box sitting behind the printer, but now it's up and accessible and ready to receive incoming mail and hold the bills until payday.

My 3 Drawers (to the left of the computer), BEFORE

There was a mess of office supplies and a jumble of techy-type attachments in these drawers. The main problem was they were not contained, and we had made habit of tossing things in amongst everything else that was already there.

My 3 Drawers, AFTER

 So. Much. Better. Now everything has a place, and a container, and you can easily see and access whatever item you are wanting to use or needing to put away.

File Drawers (under printer)

Top file drawer houses copy paper and cardstock. There is also a tray at the back to hold my sunglasses, gloves, etc. and space for my purse.
Bottom file drawer is where we keep household files and important papers. Hubby will spend some time purging the banking folder this weekend, but I condensed the others. More work is needed here, but we are off to a good start.  The extra copy paper fits nicely at the back.

This task was undertaken with a budget of $0 and a little planning. Thanks to Laura's PROCESS, it was a breeze do-able.

One Last Look

Aaaaahhhhhhhhh! A job well done! I think I'll kick back with a Caramel Macchiato and watch a movie with the family and bask in the glow of all this relaxing, well-organized, ready to use space. And rest up for next week's challenge, The Kitchen!

If you've been encouraged or inspired, please click over to the Organizing Revolution Party and cast a vote (beginning tomorrow morning) - for me (#125 - hsmominmo) or anyone that has made an impact on you. There are tons of ideas and motivation there if you'll take a little time this weekend to browse around.

Office Update

A picture is worth a thousand words - so I'll share a couple of photos with you right off the bat so you can see my progress on Week 1 of the 2013 Organizing Revolution.

During the Make-Over process - making progress!

And Lord willing, I'll be posting After pictures tomorrow evening! 

(if you'd like to read about the beginning of this project and see the before pictures click HERE)

Now, Let me walk you through the PROCESS:

Plan of attack --  I needed to clear the clutter, especially on the flat surfaces, find homes for some odds and ends, organize some of the drawer spaces.  I need a "landing pad" for incoming and outgoing mail, I need to consolidate and revamp my household files, I need to corral all the cords and cables and get them out of sight. Budget=$0 on this project, so I'll have to be creative with some of my solutions.

Remove items -- On Tuesday I emptied out the spaces. As I cleared things out, I immediately threw away anything that obviously was destined for the trash.

After everything was cleared I chased out all the dust bunnies and pulled down all the cobwebs, Esther vaccumed out the drawers and cabinets. Whew! The almost-blank canvas is invigorating! 

Organize into piles --  As I cleared things out I quickly categorized things on the kitchen table as I moved them (papers in a pile, office supplies grouped together, techy gadgets and cable corralled in one spot, etc.) This was a preliminary sorting, didn't really thing about any of it, just placed like things with like as best I could as I set them down. 

Now that is done, I took my worksheet and tackled the area that has bothered me most longest - the computer cords/cables.  With everything out of the way I pulled out the twisty ties and paper clips and looped and draped and found a solution to get them mostly out of sight.  

I bent back a paper clip and hooked up cords then tucked the end into the baseboard to keep them up off the floor.

I'm continuing through my list one area at a time, sorting and purging items going back into the desk, so I end up with only things that are useful and necessary and important. 

Containerize --love this part!  You can see above that I took a magazine holder, laid it on its side and tucked coils of cable into it. WaHoo! I think this is my favorite most clever solution in this project! (I know, it doesn't take much to get me excited, maybe I should get out more?) You'll see more in my final post.

The cables are not totally out of sight, but oh-so-much-improved!

Evaluate --  Once I get things back together, and use the space daily, we will see what is working and not working with the set up.  I do not foresee much tweaking, since we have been using this space for a couple of years now and have a good idea what to expect.

Solve/Simplify any remaining issues --  I imagine I'll have more idea tomorrow where I've simplified and how I'll solve some storage issues.  I still need to solve the techy-cable-gadget problem in my drawer, and my filing system needs attention, as well as creating my landing pad.

Smile, relax, enjoy!  Yep, smiling already, having fun, and doing my best to relax throughout this little make-over.

Be sure to pop in tomorrow evening when I post and link up with my final organized office space.  And remember, voting begins on Friday, so you'll want to have a look over at OrgJunkie.com to see all the other amazing transformations going on.

Time to Tackle the Office

If you checked in here at the beginning of the week, you read about the Organizing Revolution challenge I am taking on to get this New Year off with a bang.

Each week in January 7 terrific bloggers are sponsoring/challenging the rest of us to get organized, each week focusing on a different area in our homes. Week 1 finds us in our office/desk area.

Almost 2 years ago my amazing husband and talented son custom-built for me a desk unit to fit into our office corner. I love it! But I have not been utilizing it and taking care of it as I should. So, I'm taking this opportunity to get things in order, put a system in place, so life runs more smoothly around here.

While this may not be the worst shape my office area has ever been in, splashing pictures of its 'Before' state is definitely a hard thing to do. But it will get me motivated, so, here you go - take a look:

The obvious areas that need attention are:

1. Piles, and piles, and more piles of papers and books and toys and hairbobs and you name it.
2. Window sill clutter, and more clutter that needs to be put away or thrown away or given away.
3. The bulletin board is overflowing with outdated pictures and invitations to events in the past and reminders for appointments that have come and gone. Time for a whole new look here, I'm thinking.
4. Cords and Cables - here and there and everywhere!
5. Purses and totes. It is oh so easy to drop things as we I come, and then get busy and never come back to put them away properly.

I'm Queen of Clutter

or Princess of Piles - ugh!

  










And there's more! Would you like to have a look-see at what's behind those doors and drawers?

 In the cabinet to the left of the computer monitor, below the aquarium:

1.  fish food & supplies and printer paper on the top shelves. Greeting cards and telephone books & directories on the bottom shelves
2. office supplies - including pens, stapler, paperclips, stamps, check refills, etc.
3. envelopes, cords, memory cards, plastic containers filled with 3 sets of state quarters (really?! good grief!)
4. recordable cd and dvds, and what's that? the old satellite modem for the service we no longer use? whatever!
5. and under the desk, on the floor, a myriad of cords and cables and techy-box-thingies.   

Add caption

 To the right of the computer monitor, under the window and printer:

1. large top drawer houses colored printer paper and cardstock, and assundry items that had no home anywhere else once we switched from the old desk to the new
2. large bottom  drawer holds household files
3. small top drawer is where we keep various cd's for computer, and kitty socks. ALRIGHT! WHO LEFT THEIR KITTY SOCKS IN MY CD DRAWER!!! 

 You now know what I'll be doing today --  rolling up my sleeves and digging in to make this space functional, organized and beautiful. I'm following Laura's PROCESS - it helped me so much last year.

In tomorrow's post  I'll share my progress, and then on Thursday I'll post the Big Reveal. Friday, the voting begins! Please stop by any of the bloggers hosting this New Year's Organizing Revolution and check out what others have posted showing their office areas. You are sure to pick up a few pointers and plenty of inspiration. Then on Friday, stop back and vote for your favorite entry. Each week the three with the most votes win fabulous prizes.