Organized Home Challenge

I actually pinned this to Pinterest and forgot all about it til one of my online friends told me she was doing it too. Then I was all "oh yeah, I guess I should get off my butt" LOL! Pinterest is a beautiful thing that I discovered in my blogging hiatus and I'm sure I will refer to it often as I get back to blogging.

So I joined this Organized Home Challenge and hope that it will be a little easier since I just moved so *hopefully* I got rid of most of the stuff I need to get rid of and this is going to really be just an organizing the rest type of deal (even the back of my own head is laughing at me on this one!).

Week 1 is Kitchen Counter Tops. Mine are totally unorganized as a lot of it just just crap we haven't figured out where it goes yet.

We currently have a radio on the counter. My excuse was I wanted to be able to listen to the Christmas music on the radio even if the kids were watching tv. Well the radio stations stopped playing Christmas music 10 days ago and it's still there. It even has a planned place to go (my office), yet it still sits there.

There's also a box of some sort of kitchen stuff in a corner that's been there since the day we moved. I have no idea what is in it. We moved 45 days ago.

My spice rack is over by the fridge even though my stove is at the opposite end of the kitchen. This just now occurred to me as being dumb.

There's 3 boxes of cereal on it that really need to find a permanent home. I hate cereal sitting on the counter. They belong in the lower cupboards. Then again, the week we're supposed to sort through those lower cupboards will be a total surprise to me since Lee unpacked the stuff for them and other than the pot/pan cupboard I really haven't gone through them yet lol

There's still Christmas junk on them. As posted above, Christmas was 16 days ago *sigh*

Pardon the cat

First thing to go was the recipe box on my first window sill. I don't know why this was such a big deal to me, but it seemed like such an accomplishment! The radio stays while cleaning cause tunes are necessary while cleaning.

Got the microwave and toaster moved away from the window and WOW! There's so much more light coming in and I actually have counter space!

Ahhhhh... it feels all spacious and clean again!

31 Days to Clean

As usual I'm running late, but there's still some time left to get this FREE e-book! Go to Sarah Mae's blog to find out more info.

I'm pretty excited to check it out. I'm great at the planning to clean part, but really suck at the actual cleaning part. Maybe this will give me a kick in the teeth!

Random Tuesday

Come check out other Random Tuesday-ness at The Un Mom!

We have 5 people here... 3 adults, 2 children. WHY do we have 23 pairs of gloves, 16 toques, 10 scarves, ect???? I mean, I know things get lost over the winter, but some of this stuff was never touched the whole season!!!

This Shopaholic series kinda sucks. I thought it would be super exciting since it's got so many books in it. The main character just pisses me off.

I spent the day cleaning my kitchen/school room. Yet my desk looks like a bomb went off *sigh*

New System for Brianna

On Wednesday I hit rock bottom with Brianna. Nothing major happened, she didn't do anything super terrible, I just had enough. Nothing has been working. So I asked my girls for advice and here's what one came up with... Dr. Phil-ing her. I guess it's a matter of stripping her to nothing and making her earn everything.

So I started with her room. All the posters and such came off the walls, no stuffies on her bed, only one pillow, ect... The radio and night light stayed, but only cause I can't punish Olivia. Then the toy room... the only things in it now is the two booksheves (empty) and the vacuum. Everything else is in Isaac's room with the door locked.

All choices have been removed from her. She will eat a only certain times and only what I tell her. No more do I want an apple or an orange? She will wear whatever I put out for her, no pink or blue shirt choice.

She was very upset by this of course. Especially the prospect of no stuffie to sleep with and no choice over snacks. All was explained to her, how she could earn her things back, ect....

Wednesday and Thursday were a LOT better, but still full of the little things that she knows she can't do. Today was a great surprise. She listened well, finished her schoolwork and chores in a timely manner and so on. So I rewarded her with some Leapster time while Olivia napped. I went upstairs to hang with Lee. Brianna asked if she could get Olivia out of her crib to play with her. I thought sure! I was so happy with the sudden good girl behaviour. Then I went downstairs.... She was ignoring Olivia, watching tv and she had eaten a chocolate bar. *sigh*

So she got her mouth washed out with soap for lying about the chocolate bar (which she then admitted) and grounded to her room for the rest of the day. She was very remorseful this evening. Hopefully we'll get the good behaviour back now!

Sorting Clothes Again....

Got to go through my fall-ish clothes to sort between listing on my Cornwall boards on Facebook or bringing them to my awesome consignment store Echo Trends. I got an offer on my crib set, $30. Not terribly happy with it but will take it if she doesn't bite the $35 I counter-offered.

I also need to go through the toy room again and go through all Brianna's craft stuff with her. Obviously the craft stuff isn't for selling but then I'd know what to be replacing. The toy room though.... we went through the whole toy room and got rid of bunches of stuff and there's still sooooo much that hasn't been moved all summer = not being played with.

I went through Olivia's toys last night. Put away all the baby-baby toys in the basement and got rid of a few toys for selling. I wish stuffed animals sold better.... I've got loads of those!

Moving to the Basement

Last night I started clearing out the basement. Got bunches of stuff garbaged, donate-abled and sellable. Did more tonight and majority of it was garbage :( Why on earth did I keep this crap for so long?!?! Well no more! My packrat days are OVER! It'll take a lot longer than the closet but I am tearing apart that entire basement! So sick of all the junk! Hopefully I'll have lots of sellable stuff and be able to make lots of money too!

Brianna had a rock bottom crappy evening. *sigh* I'm so sick of it. I just don't know what to do about her anymore....

Sick Day

My head cold has moved to my chest. Ewww. However, it seems to want to hang around in my head longer. Thankfully I have a fresh prescription for my asthma pumps. Feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest :(

Brianna was home sick today too. We started walking to school and she was walking like a hunchback cause her stomach hurt. I kept asking if she wanted to stay home. Nope, she wanted to go to school. Finally when we were almost there she says maybe she should stay home. Silly girl, in love with school! She took a nap at the same time as Olivia and seemed much better when she got up.

Lee got home at like 1:30pm today! I couldn't believe it! Kinda sucks cause it means he only got 7 hrs today. Hopefully he at least works til 2pm tomorrow.

Started sorting through crap in the basement. Got another bag of garbage and 3 bags of donate-ables! I am soooo sick of keeping crap in hopes of *maybe* using it a zillion years from now. So out if goes! I've been putting aside stuff I'm actually keeping and stuff to sell but otherwise the rest of it can get out of my house!

A Little Behind

So I'm almost a week behind here! Oops!

New landlord says we don't get to use the porch AT ALL anymore. No chairs out there, no more cross stitching, no more reading, nothing. He wants it empty. WTF?!

Did Brianna's hair up in 32 braids. She loved it! The next morning we took her hair out and she's in love with the waviness of it! I'm guessing we'll be doing that hair style often lol

Olivia is walking around more than ever now. Getting really good at standing from a seated position without anything to hang on to. Got pigtails into her hair several times now. Trying to get better pics though.

Lee's still working crazy hours. He did get off before 5pm 2 days last week. It was so nice to have him home! But, I'll admit, this overtime is certainly helping with the bills!

Cleaning out the bedroom closet.... what a job! I've been working on it for the last 3-4 days. I've already got 2 bags of garbage and 1 bag of donate-ables out of it. But I'm getting there! I'm about 3/4 done and there is SOOOOO much more space in there! I'm hoping to be able to get all my for sale stuff in there rather than having it our in the bedroom.

Speaking of... my selling is going pretty good. Already got money in the savings account and putting more in this week. I'm finding new stuff to add to the selling pile everyday!

Another Day, Another Dollar

Lee's back to work after the weekend. At least he got some sleep though... the 3 of us napped yesterday afternoon while Brianna played in Isaac's room. Supposedly he'll be home by 5:30pm... I doubt it :(

Even though Lee said he'd do the dishes over the weekend he didn't get any done so today has been a cleaning day for me. I've got 2 loads of laundry done, 2 loads of dishes done (and the 3rd soaking) and 75% of the porch done.

I've really got to get the pictures of clothes taken and list everything on the Cornwall selling board. I got pictures of everything else at least. I really wanna make some $ off this stuff. We're supposed to be yard sale-ing this weekend too.

The day started off bad with Brianna getting up at 2am to eat a peanut butter sandwich. Dead giveaway was that she "wasn't hungry" at breakfast. Let's hope we can get chores done and the rest of the day through without picking fights. She's finally earned enough stars to go to the park for an hour so it would be nice for her not to be grounded tomorrow so we could do that after school!

GOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!

Wooooooooooooo me! I hit an surpassed my 10lb goal by .4lbs! I am sooooooooo excited! So now I'm set up with my new goal of 5lbs by Father's Day.

Lee installed the new washer and dryer today. The washer actually has a working hot water hose so I can once again separate my clothes and wash my whites in HOT! Woooooooo! And even though it was a nice day I had to do one load in the dryer just to see how it works. Lee started calling it a piece of junk cause the cycle was almost over and the clothes were still wet and it seemed there was very little heat. Crap. So I fiddled with the settings and found one that works! Lots of heat and perfectly dry clothes YAY!

Brianna had a fairly decent day. Picked a stupid fight with Lee over wiping up a mess she made. Why do kids pick the hard way?! It would have been sooooo much easier just to clean up the mess she made, properly, the first time! She's having a sleep over with Grandma tonight. I know, I know, she hasn't hit 50 stars yet, but it was a planned event.

Lee's on vacation! I get him for a whole week now! We can't really afford for him to take time off, but I do love when he's here. Where's that winning lotto ticket?

I finally got around to cleaning out the toy room. Got rid of 1 big bag of garbage and to big bags of stuff for the Agape. Looks soooo nice in there now! Tomorrow when we get home from Ottawa I'm getting Brianna to go through the stuff I left behind and take out anything she's not playing with. We're also getting rid of the air hockey table. She loved/s playing with the one at our visits with Isaac but so rarely plays with ours so GONE! It'll be nice to have that space. It's not huge but it would be an extra 4x3 feet! YAY!