I had a list of ten things that I posted just before Christmas that I had hoped to get to while the kids were all home on Winter Break. What I didn't know when I wrote the list and shared it with all of you was that my husband was going to be on vacation during the entire time the kids were home. I had initially thought that I would have some time to do things like work on my scrapbooking sketches because the kids would be sleeping in and Larry would be at work. However, there is a different energy when he is home and we ended up tackling other small "home" projects in addition to spending A LOT OF DOWNTIME doing absolutely nothing but reading, watching our DVR shows, and watching movies with the kids (and my Gawd, it was GLORIOUS!).
That being said, I managed to get 5.5 of the ten finished. Not bad.
Here are the results:
1. Jennifer's Room. If you remember, her bedroom was a freakin mess! She had toys and trash and way too much of just...stuff and CRAP. I walked in there one night determined to get to this task and walked out immediately overwhelmed. The next day I took a deep breath walked back into her room and emptied EVERYTHING in one big heap on the floor. Her and I sat down on the floor and sorted piece by agonizing piece.
We made three piles: To Keep, To Donate, and To Put Away (for those items that she isn't playing with but have some sentimental purpose that I put high on a shelf in a tote).
Before: Oh. My. Gawd. The. Mess.
Before: The Pile.
After. Ah, glorious.
After.
2. Craft cabinets in the laundry room. Oh, the intentions! If I had had one more day...maybe this one would have gotten done. I have hope, still. One winter Saturday morning I WILL get these cabinets-of-mess completed.
3. File Folders Filing. One word: FILING. Another word: UGH. Another, not so pretty word is coming to my mind right now. Okay, filing I hate and therefore this one I almost KNEW wasn't going to get done but I had hoped that by writing it out for all of you to read would give me the needed push. Yeah, it didn't. However, I did buy a new 2012 3-ring binder so I can start fresh this year along with some plain white labels and more dividers because while I hate filing I do love me some office supplies.
4. Recipe Filing. Another filing task, sigh, but recipes thrill me much more than school paperwork, bills, and receipts. Of course, I sat down one morning with a cup of coffee and two days later, endless cups of coffee, and many meals LATER...I finally finished and vowed to never tear out another recipe from a magazine again! Oy. But, at least now ALL the recipes are ORGANIZED BY THEME and in ONE 3-ring binder instead of the binders, the file folders (holding cell), AND the basket because I was too lazy to even put them in the holding cell folders on a regular basis. I have issues, stop judging me!
Before: the file folders, aka: holding cell, filled (duh) with loose recipes that need to be filed into the 3-ring binder, by theme/subject.
After: empty file folders. Of course, I won't show you the small (it IS small, dammit) pile NEXT to the file folders on the nook desk that I refused to put into the file folders where they will stay most likely until Christmas vacation 2012 so I want to file them immediately into the 3-ring binders. Ah, the dreams of the foolish...
After: Here is the drawer where I keep my current month menu and the corresponding recipes. I also FILL the basket with all the used up recipes that need to then go into the file folders while it holds still until I can manage to pop them into a 3-ring binder. Oh my god, suddenly I know for a fact that I am fucking nuts.
5. Read at least a couple of books. Check. I read a book called, The Kitchen Daughter. Then, I ordered myself the newest book by Stephen King, 11/22/63 and so far I'm about 500 pages in...out of 850.
Larry and I both reading ginormous Stephen King books. Of course he finished his 1100 page book in less than a week and I still have a few hundred pages left going on 8 days. Whatever...
6. Scrapbooking. I wanted to sketch and get my scrapbooking organized and ready for the new year. Didn't hardly WALK INTO MY OFFICE let alone do anything productive in here.
7. Christmas planner. See above. My notes are sorted and in file folders on my desk...if I'm going to get to it I gotta do it before I start planting my garden.
8. Embroider tea towels for myself. I did one. Hey, it is one more in my drawer than I had before. My basket is near the couch and when we watch our DVRed shows or movies I have the option to whip out the embroidery. Sometimes I feel like it and sometimes I don't. I did go through my huge stack of towels with ironed on patterns on them already and put the ones I hope to complete soon in my basket.
After: my one finished tea towel.
9. Upstairs hall closet. Larry and I tackled this together (I forgot to take a picture though) putting the matching fitted and flat sheets into the pillowcase and then stacking the sets that way on the shelf. We folded towels and blankets as well and discovered a lot more room in an otherwise fairly small hall closet!
10. Butler's pantry. This is where my half point comes in. The napkin drawer got organized and cleaned out but the cabinet below didn't. Hey, it's something!
Before: The napkin drawer of mess.
After: The napkin drawer is clean but now I need to go through the two drawers in my dining room hutch because a lot of the Christmas napkins landed in there and they had to be...um...shoved in there. Oh shut up.
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