Starting Over

I posted a while back about needing to get back into some kind a routine and I have still not taken the time to get in that routine.  I found a blog today called Home Sanctuary and wouldn't you know it, she's an organizational genius (my words, not hers)!  She has this group called Company Girls that do Small Things together.  It sounded interesting to me, and the three posts I read about getting a schedule that works for you was music to this girl's ears.  I tried the Flylady routine once and it stressed me out.  I know that it's great to go to bed with a clean kitchen sink (her main sticking point), but oddly enough some days I prefer to wash the dishes from the night before while I'm making dinner for the current day.  Weird and maybe lazy, but it works for me.  She's failed the Flylady routine herself and I found that rather cool in a bonding sort of way.  What really grabbed me though, was Rachel has sample plans for both Stay at Home Moms AND Work Outside the Home Moms.  This is wonderful because most of what I've ever seen is aimed towards Stay at Home Moms and it's not anywhere close to workable for the others.

I'm going to try it.  Today I won't get a lot done since I've spent the morning cuddling with my little one watching DVR'd NCIS: Los Angeles and we've got to get cleaned up for volleyball games this afternoon.  I am going to at least get the list she suggested together and tomorrow I'll work on the schedule while I'm sitting at volleyball practice.   Since I LOVE lists and charts, I should do good with this setup.  I'll have to be sure to set time for my plants too.  This morning I went out to turn the heater off in the greenhouse during a commercial and ended up back out there with my camera and scissors.  I have blooms starting on an unnamed Sedum to be share and needed to trim back the dead stems on the Vick's Plant.  While I was out there, I went ahead and pulled the cover off of the succulent tub and pulled a few of the baby 'Mother of Millions' out to bring in the house.  I'm worried they're going to die and that would not make me happy.  I think I need daily time for the plants!! 

The last two weeks have been spent trying to figure out why our oldest was experiencing severe stomach pains.  Finally after missing ten days of school right after the Christmas break, we got an answer and she's back to her normal self!  Hallelujah!!!!!  It's hard to get into any kind of a schedule when your normal routine's been run a muck, so now we should be able to make some progress.  I suppose I don't have an excuse not to get back on the treadmill now, do I?  Darn!

Now to those blooms...

Happy Saturday!!

Readying for a New Year

I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions.  It's not that I don't like the idea of committment, but New Year's Resolutions are notoriously broken, and I personally feel it's a waste of time.  I do like challenges though, and think I'm up to a few.  This past year, the only thing I stuck to was reading my Bible in a year plan.  While I'm a bit behind, I'll be caught up by the end of the week.  I used Max Lucado's Grace for the Moment Bible, and I think I'm going to go through it again this coming year.  The only thing I want to do differently is to read everyday instead of getting behind and having to read several days at once.  With that, here are my goals. 

1.  Read through the Bible...everyday this go round. 

2.  I'm "borrowing" this idea from A Not So Angry Redhead.  She did a post about a brilliant idea of tracking all her plants using index cards.  This was music to my sometime overly anal ears!!  Not only can you categorize them, but you can take the labels and stick them onto the index cards...talk about cutting down on writing time. 

3.  Same concept, different hobby.  I have wanted to catalogue my books for years now.  I stumbled on this idea from another blog too.  I'm going to subscribe to Library Thing and catalogue my library.  What's so great about this you wonder?  Well, once it's done I'll have access to it on my home computer and on my mobile.  That's huge because now instead of calling home and having one of the girls go in to "look on the second bookcase, about the 3rd/4th shelf and look for this author", I can just pull it up on my phone!  That and my mother will have access to mine and I'll have access to hers...that should cut down on buying duplicates. 

4.  Going to restart the C25K Running Plan again and finish it this time!  Along with that should come some much needed weight loss and toning for this little body of mine.   

5.  Our family does much better with menus, so this year I'm going to go back to putting them on the calendar and maybe, just maybe we'll eat more routinely.  We eat alright, but it's gotten to be really just junk because we're always running from one thing to the next.  That is a sorry excuse, so out comes the menu!

I think this is a good place to start, and I'm pretty confident that I can accomplish all of these early on in the year.  The succulents, plants and books will be ongoing, but I'm looking forward to a bit more organization. 

If you can't tell, I like lists!  I also enjoy research and all of these except the running involve research.  I like facts and facts are best kept organized so that they can be shared with others.

Mandy