SHEs Organized

Who knows with these weird weather patterns? Other predicted storms have gone around us. But we just had one that wasn't supposed to be anywhere near us that ended up hitting us hard and dumping several inches of snow in my driveway. I'm getting all kinds of Emails now about the meeting tomorrow night, and all I can say is that we have to wait until morning to see which way the wind is blowing.

I'm s2s and have cleaned our bathroom. Also cleaned 3/4 of our cabinets above the sink (1/4 has a pile of dh's little things and I don't want to mess with that.) Dejunked a whack of stuff but they are still pretty full and since we have at least 2x what 'normal' bathrooms offer, I'm worried about where I'll keep stuff when I move.

Of course, I guess a lot of people keep toothpaste and brushes on the counter (I moved them into the cabinets years ago because it made cleaning the sinks and counter really quick.)

Next challenge will be to have some lunch. Oh, and to plan dinner since I still haven't made up the meal plans for March.

Morning y'all..

Harriet, my kitchen is just like your ddil's...open to all my living area. And yes you can see all the counter tops and sink. I love the way my kitchen looks and functions with it's openness. I hated an enclosed kitchen. I always felt left out when everyone else was gathered in the family room. I am much better at keeping up with my kitchen as I can cook and clean while still connected with everyone else. I made sure I bought the quietest dishwasher I could find, so the sound wouldn't interfer while we watched tv...it works so well I have to feel the front of the dishwasher to make sure its on. The other is when I get noisey cooking the sound on the tv usually gets turned up....I can live with that. Wish I had had this arrangement when my ds was growing up...especially when he was small...then I wouldn't have had to spend so much time darting from kitchen to familyroom to make sure he was alright while he played and watched tv.

I cleaned out our shed at the other house and brought the containers home with me. I am reboxing everything in smaller banker boxes. Yesterday I did two small loads of my ds's baby clothes...been 31 years since I've done that kind of laundry and it felt so strange when I started folding them. I weeded out items that I hadn't meant to save and put the rest in space saver bags. Then I went through a box of books he had. My ds wanted me to save them for his kids, so I have. Its a small box with 30-40 golden books so that doesn't take up much room either. I try very hard to be a minimalist. Living in hurricane alley has taught me what is important to me. As long as I could grab my box of pictures and my jewelry, I could walk away and let the rest go.

I can't vacuum cause the belt is stretched. I've ordered another one and am waiting for it to come. I have not picked up my footprints in several days and it shows...but my kitchen is clean. Need to take care of some loose ends around here. Thats my plan for today. I've done my exercise, drank coffee, fed doggies and gotten dressed. Then while sitting here doing some desk stuff I got really cold. Made some breakfast, put on my yoga pants and am sitting here with my big bathroom on. I'm about to go outside and sit in the sun so I can warm up. ..

Lynlee...I particularly liked your first quote because I did follow my dream. We were very well off when I divorced my dexh and went back to school. My ds went to live with his father...he was 7...and while I pursued my dream. People thought I was crazy..nuts...to do it, but besides giving birth to my ds...it was the crowning glory of my life. I took no support from my dexh...that way he couldn't control me ...and I followed my dream and accomplished more than I ever thought possible. The only worry I had was how the divorce effected my son...mother's guilt ya know... but there were many positive that came out of it for both of us. Yesterday we had a great phone conversation. He told me by watching what I had done with my life while "we" were growing up he knew he made the right decision to get his MBA. He also said how proud he was of me for what I had the courage to do. While we were going through all of that it was a hope he would learn certain life lessons and his words yesterday helped to convince me that he had.

Hope y'all are having a good day...I'll be back later...

I'm SO glad I spiffed up the kitchen last night before bed and got the coffee ready to turn on it made my morning to get up and see the counters were not piled full of stuff. I got the kit. trash outside as well. That was 20 min. of time well spent!

Today I still need to clean out the chicks tub, and have grand kids here today to help with that.

So we are up and going today it's nearly time for lunch.
I've done the morning stuff and I've done my ex. time on the stationary bike this is great when the kids are ill and not able to be outside much.
Thinking of you all.

We watched one skippable movie the new one with Denzel Wa. not at all enjoyable for me; then we rented a diff. one Alex Cross; it had so much on the move filming made me nearly sea sick to watch it, was okay but gets a thumbs down because of the filming and no what I call "pretty scenes like lights at night or focus on a flower in a garden etc. creative stuff was missing for me it was a miss not a hit, hoping the get a better camera crew and better at editing before the next one comes out. This is from a series of books.

Helia....I have 9' of counter, not including my island which is 2.5' x 5. All I have on my counter tops are 2 decretive plants, a small bowl to keep dog toys in...I would keep these under the counter but Sweetie has other ideas... A banana holder... My first gift to sweetie ....and my coffee pot. And there's nothing on the top of my island. All of my kitchen counter have looked like this. Like someone said about their bathroom...it's way easier for me to keep clean like this.

Still cold.. Forget it's a side effect of my blood pressure meds... Still folding clothes

~~~waving Hi to all~~~~

I've been consumed with setting up new software. I have focused on it every time I got near the computer over the past couple of days. If I would just take the default settings, it would be a no-brainer. However, I always want to tweak it in about a bazillion different ways.

Yesterday after church the elders had an unscheduled meeting. They have been discussing (nice way of saying disagreeing) for several month on a financial issue. The time for a decision was overdue. The meeting lasted a couple hours. That left several of us (family members of elders) entertaining ourselves outside (beautiful day). It turned out okay because we got to catch up (aka visiting) on several subjects. LO got to drive a gator which TOTALLY made his day. The rest of the day was a wash with multiple phone calls discussing the decision made. The aftermath of the decision continues today.....one of the elders is following DH as he works so they can talk. I suspect very few people who are not in volunteer positions realize how much time, effort, prayer, etc goes into making decisions for an organization.

LO woke up ready to go to school this morning. There was one brief moment when I thought he wasn't going to stay, but he got past the moment and had a smile on his face when I last saw him. The school hasn't called so hopefully HOPEFULLY this phase is headed in the right direction. I'm still keeping the appt with his counselor this week to get her advice/input/suggestion.

I have been busy this morning but don't have a feeling of being productive. I haven't been using my SHE cards today and I miss the feedback of seeing the # of CCCC. Time to get them going!

My kitchen counters are quite cluttered - I think that is a function of my being able to see things. Appliances: counter-top oven (used daily), mixer (doesn't fit in cupboard but does tuck back under the upper cupboards so makes use of 'wasted space', toaster, hot water pot/kettle (depends on time of year.) It's the other stuff that's the killer:

I have a bread box (that has other clutter in it, not bread!) and a basket with our napkins, tea pot on a tea warmer (used daily), two large ceramic 'house' cookie jars, (one with large utensils, one with crackers), dish soap (in a glass bottle), another container with scrub brushes, soap dish, hand lotion, knife block, vitamin dispenser, two other bottles of vitamins that are too large to go into the dispenser, sugar, butter, tissues, pen holder. Oh, and a waterproof keyboard for the media center computer so it can be controlled from the kitchen (the monitor is on a turntable so can be aimed into the kitchen or family room and is a TV as well as computer screen.) The kitchen bar sticks over my counter by a few inches on that list, from the vitamin dispenser onwards, everything is tucked under that lip but it is visual clutter.

Don't get me started on the other end of the kitchen which is where my office stuff is. I keep losing things here because they are under piles of paper!

I had a nice chat with dd. And had my lunch. Meal plan is done for the month (and into April a bit since turkey leftovers will be around after Easter!)

Next challenge: empty and declutter the suitcase cupboard. This one might be easier than usual since I'm offering the excess to dfs and his fiance for their honeymoon.