Organizing Itch

The two things I love most - besides my family - is sewing and writing. Lately, however, I've had the organzing itch.

Whether your a mom with three kids, like me, or just have a hetic schedule in general, it pays to be organized.

Today, I organzied my kitchen. I got rid of the piles of completed school work from my oldest that had started to tilt off the water cooler and threaten to spill across the floor. I sorted them into piles of keep and toss. The toss pile went straight into the garbage. The keep pile, I sorted again. I put things in order ofwhere they needed to go and filed them.

Then I moved on to my cupboards. I'm quite proud, I arranged my pantry and set up my lazy susan in an order where things were easy to find, even for my youngest, who will most likely mess up my organized lazy susan before supper time tomorrow.

What didn't need to be on my countertop I put away. If it didn't have a place I made one for it repectfull of how often I use it. Most things just went into the laundry room cupboard.

When I was finished I wiped my kitchen down. I didn't scrub, but wiped it down. It took less than an hour.

Tomorrow, I'm up for organizing my office. I have piles of writings that need files and put in some order that I can find them as I proceed from project to project. It would be nice to have everything pertaining to one manuscript, planner, or journal in a binder of file rather than the piles on the floor and over my desk.

I'll let you know howit turns out. Baby steps, but I may just find I have more time for the things I love- like family, writing, and sewing if I could find what I'm looking for rather than swiming in the footnotes with my kids searching for a quote.

The Slug Bug

For the past several days I have been infected by "the slug bug". That's what I like to call it, when you don't have enough energy to do anything, nor the ambition to want to do something, so you become a slug.

Other's may just call it the symptoms of the common cold. Fatigue, stuffy nose, head ache. Yep, all comes with the slug bug. But it has been great for writing these past few days. Too stuffed up to sleep, so I've been reading while my eyes will allow me, and writing when my mind isn't throbbing from a headache Because,as any parent of small children knows, rest and slumber during the day are just not possible.

I've managed to add two new chapters to the novel I'm working on and submit two new articles to my website. So all is not lost to the slug bug after all.

My oldest was sweet enough to offer to make me breakfast this morning, instead of the other way around, I was touched, and even though I couldn't phantom having an appetite I ate the bannana she gave me anyway.

It's nice to be taken care of some times. My oldest has even been trying every night for me to spend time on the wii fit just doing yoga or walking to keep active.

So until the slug bug passes, I shall stay warm, in good company of my kids, and await the burst of energy that comes when the common cold dispurst from my body.

Hip To Be Fit

It has been seventeen days now since Christmas passed. I did'nt bother making any New Year's resolution. I didn't want to look back at the end of 2009 and depress myself by not reaching the goal. Alot of us do that, we set goals we are never able to attain.

I have one life goal yet I hope to accomplish, and it will take more than all of 2009 to fullfill it, but perhaps 2010 will be the year of completion. I talk of writing a book, but while that is still in progress. This year I'm simpling working on getting a little healthier, a little more fit, and a little more organized.

For Christmas, Santa was quite generous to us. The whole family got a Nintendo Wii. I got a Wii Fit. At first, I thought okay, it's just a game I'll play and pretend to exercise. Boy, was I wrong. I say it has been seventeen days since Christmas, because everyday I step onto my Wii Fit and do my Body Test. Wii Fit keeps track of my BMI, Weight, activities (game play), and time spent each day. It's become addicting. In a good way.

I've gone from being Obese to Overweight in those sevendays. That and with a little help from my health insurances' weight management program. To give you and idea of what shape I really am, I have lost about 7 lbs to date.

Whoo Wee.... the baby fat is finally starting to dwindle after three babies. It is actually energizing and refreshing to look at my chart each morning and see the changes I have been making. My kids don't realize they too are excersing and just not playing a game, but I won't tell them if you won't.

In all the snow and blistering cold temperatures it is nice to have a home gym at our disposal. Now, I have simply to just wait my turn.

Along Came A Deer

All summer long we have had unusual visitors to our back yard. Living in the mist of town, you wouldn't think to find these wild creatures living amongst our homes, but they do. They terrorized our garden, and left us barely a tomato to spare.

In the warm days of June, a pair of deer would come venturing into our yard most evenings, or early morning. Along with the dozen rabbits, uncountable number of squirels, and numerous birds, but it was always the deer that struck me with the most amazement.

Yesterday started deer season for the hunters. This afternoon, as I was in the middle of waiting for dinner to cook, and tossing a load of laundery in the dry, I looked up and out the window of our back door. There she was, a lone doe, standing in our back yard. I almost felt sad and happy a the same time. Sad, because I wondered what happened to her mate. Happy, because to see a deer living in town just brings a smile to your face. It makes you wonder how they got there in the first place and keep managing to come back all this time without being hit by a car, let alone the fear of being hunted.

I didn't even care the deer was eating leaves from my farthest bush behind the house. It was good to see, to recognize, and watch the same doe I had seen in the summer return to our yard, as if it called the place home, just as much as I did.

When darkness fell, the deer was no longer in view, but I have hope it will return. I miss living in the country setting of our old home. It has been one year since we moved to the place we live now, and awaken each morning to the sounds of buses, and morning traffice. Then I think of the deer and I think about how we live in town, then I don't think it's as bad as I first thought, especially if the deer can find refuge in my back yard.

40 Days

For the past six weeks our church has doing 40 days of community. We've been attending small group meetings, and through those groups we've gotten to know a few more people in our church, but not only that - there's been alot of prayer, support, and bounding.

In 40 days, our church completed 32 outreach projects. Yeah, 32! We've collected clothes for the needy and food for the hungry. We've cleaned store rooms and toys. We've scrubbed, sandeded, and painted hallways the size of a football field. All for our community.

It's inspiring isn't it? For once nobody asked, what can my community do for me. No, they were saying just the opposite, and then they went out and did it.

Many hands make light work. (That just might be the title of my next blog.)

I'm currently working on writing an article for my local newspaper on the good deeds our church has done, not as brag list, but as an encouragement to others to do the same.

In a time when gas prices fluxate daily, food prices never drop, and warm blankets are always needed to wait out the cold of winter, the most important thing our community needs is the people within it striving to help one another.

That's not easy. Since moving to this town, all I've heard is about the way it used to be, before the drug dealers and the crime came in by the bus loads. Everyone's dewelling on the past, but I think it's time we all start making a future. Together.

40 days made me realize that we all have so much more to give, and I'm not talking about possessions, I'm talking about our time.

Thanksgiving will soon be upon us. It's a time for celebrateing the many blessing in our lives. As the days follow up towards this holiday, I challenge each one of you, to go out and become a blessing to others. It doesn't have to be huge. It can be small. Perhaps you can start by saying hello to your neighbor, and if you have never met your neighbor before - then it's a good time to get acquiented. A name, at the very least is better than waving each morning in the driveway to a stranger.

40 days doesn't end, as long as we keep it going. How long can it last? We'll just see won't we?

A long climb up.

This morning while I stood at my back door sipping a cup of tea I watched a squirrel sit in our tree. We only have one. The squirrel seemed to be awaking with the morning. It rubbed little saucer eyes and stretched where it had laid huddled for a long night nap. It scuttled up a branch, tasted the fattening buds, and proceeded to the whole way to the top most place it could be in the tree.

At that moment, I felt I had a lot in common with that squirrel. We are all just climbing a tree, and just like that squirrel I find myself still sitting at the base where the tree splits and extendeds many different ways. We've all got a goal, we've got to get to the top.

But at that serene moment, my three year old screamed and my five year old yelled "MOM!". A saw a flash of red go up the stairs and very unhappy five year old chasing after. I looked back at the split of the base of the tree. Above on the hanging branch the squirrel sampled his new found fare. I sighed, put my tea and trodded off to bring peace back to the house.

Life is like a thousand branches, some thick, some thin, some snap at the slightess pressure. Whethere we are hanging by a limb in our career, climbing to reach further in our social ranking, or lounging between splits, our base continues to be our foundation. My base is my family, and my branches have become my many interest. I'm learning to prune them and rake away the dead leaves.

This week I realized my accounting degree may be great for doing the family finances, but writing has really more of whom I am. Details bore me, creativity adores me, and clocks just don't like me. But I manage to arrive, late, to everything. Perhaps that is why it took me until now, the last few months of being twenty - something, to realize what I am supposed to be when I grow up.

Not that being a mother and a wife, isn't three full time jobs and the center of my life already, mind you. I signed up this week to go back to school. I'm going to start by taking an english class. You'll probably make a few notices by end of summer that some of my grammer and puntuation, and spelling will have improved. Now only if I could get the arrive fifteen minutes early routine down. LOL, I guess we'll just have to see.

The past few months I've spent putting our new home in order, and continue to do so. So far I have painted my office, green, and my bedroom, blue and silver for my wedding colors. There is so much more to do, and along the way I have been decluttering. By May I expect to have a grand yard sale. I met a woman today who has no tv, and lives without it in harmony. I grew envious for I shall miss my WILDFIRE series soon when it ends this season. With that being said I probably don't need a tv once it's not on anymore. It may give me more time to write.

Part of living "green" is decluttering our homes. What can you live without? What can't you part with? When my kids toys seem to be everywhere, too many for the box they are stashed, I sort them. I hide away the excess and after two months if a particular toy is not requested, then I donate the excess toys to my local thrift shop. What can you hide away for a month or two? Then go back to it and decide if you really need it after all? I think my closet needs a little more cleaning this week. I'll let you know.

This Little Light of Mine

There's an old saying about good things which come in small packages. My postman brought me such a package not long ago from a surprising source. Who would have thought my local electric company could make me feel like a kid again?

But then your asking yourself, who in their right mind, gets excited about receiving a light bulb? Yep, that's right, they sent me a light bulb, two actually, and not just any ordinary light bulbs - Compact Florescent Light Bulbs.

I found myself humming the lyrics to This little light of mine all afternoon.

While my children may be too young to understand the significance of a light bulb, as a mother I appreciate a single light bulb as much as I do as saving a few dollars on my grocery bill each month. Of course, who can refuse something when its FREE!!

The light bulbs were the result of responding to a flyer sent to us after signing on as new customers at www.pplelectric.com. I opened them immediately and swapped out two of my regular incandescent bulbs and put in my new ones. The light was the same, bright, steady, 60 watts like we've always used. Except the difference I can't see looking at the shining light will come on my electic bill over the life time of use of the bulbs.

Who would have thought one little bulb could save me so much money, and create so much light using so little energy. CFL's (Compact Florescent Lights) use50-80% less energy than our regular incandescent bulbs making them enviromentally freindly. Just one bulb will keep 1/2 ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere. Doesn't really seem like a lot does it?

So what do you suppose would happen if we all ran out and bought just two energy saving light bulbs and swapped them with two of our old lights in our homes? We'd be able to power a city with 3 million people for a year or the equivlant to 2.6 million cars taken off the road. Even one bulb swapped out would save enough energy to turn off two power plants!

I immediately went out to Walmart. Just one little light, actually they came in a four packs, cost me $7.58. One little light bulb cost me just $1.90, and I won't have to change any of my light bulbs again for 7-10 years. YEARS!!! No more teetering on a chair with arm outstretched in the dark trying to replace a blown out globe at inappropriate moments of the day. Not only that, that little bulb is going to save me an estimated $38 during it's life time of use. Broken down, it's about fifty cents a day. Gosh, if you think of it like my kids do - a candy bar or a can of soda per day. But as a mother of three, I find there's another reward much greater than a candy bar, the money saved per year, is the energy savings it also produced.

But if your a mathmatician, like my husband, think of it this way. We have 22 lights in our home, and all have been replaced with new CFL's. 22 x $.50 a day is $11 a day, $33 a month, $ 396 a year. If each light is good for 10 years that's a total savings of $3,960 for my household.

How many lights are in your home?

It only takes one to start saving - saving money, and saving our environment to secure the future of our children for another generation to come.

So this little light of mine, well let's just say, I'm gonna let it shine!!