Category Archives: Getting Organized

Whats New With Me

Getting Organized
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Well, that’s a good question ;) So I’ll just give the rundown of what’s been going the last few months.

First of all, I was so busy with my candle business over the holdays that I just didn’t have much time for blogging or even working on my websites much, except to make a new one for my brother’s espresso business Coffee In Motion and then working on my husbands new Christian Music site that Tate Music Group made for him (I made him one from scratch, but they were going to make him one for free anyway with WordPress so we decided to just go with theirs and I’d just continue adding to it and optimising it).

So anyway, I just about went crazy over the holidays and then we ended up seriously neglecting the home schooling. So, to make a long story short, I decided to quit the candle business! I closed the doors on candle sales from my website in January and I’m happy to say, we are getting caught up on school work and I’m able to work on my websites and I actually feel like blogging more!! Imagine that :)

Not that the candle business couldn’t have been profitable, because it was definitely growing, but I got to where I just was not enjoying +it at all. I love working on websites and doing the candles the past few years and trying to build that up, had seriously slowed me down in other areas because a lot of my focus was on that when it really was just something I thought I could do to help make some extra money and I did enjoy it at first, when things were slower. Turned out to be a lot more work than I could really do on my own in order to make enough to even break even.  Maybe if I didn’t have kids it could have worked, but I still just didn’t enjoy having to make the candles and pack them up to ship them out to people, and it just got to be such a drudgery, not to mention trying to keep up with the orders and try to get them out at a decent time.

I know you can’t always just quit something just because you have a bad day or 2, but when a business gets to be where you just dread working at it all the time, I think it’s time to find something else to do! lol  And my first love has always been painting and web design/seo anyway, so I just decided I should go back to putting all my effort into that and keeping up with the home schooling of my kids too.

So I’m hoping to at least post one recipe per week here and a personal blog post once a week too. I know I’ve said that before, but things have started to settle down now that I don’t have candles weighing on my mind constantly and I can focus more!

I hope you’ll continue to follow me in this mom journey and leave comments to let me know you’re here! ;)

Always an interruption!

Getting Organized
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Well, I just got over being sick for a week, felt so much better Wednesday, and then Wednesday night my tooth that has a crown on it starts hurting. Now the dentist told me just a little while ago when I was in for my cleaning that I needed to get that tooth fixed and a new crown put on, but it wasn’t inflamed or infected or anything. It has hurt a bit before, but always stopped after a few hours, or overnight. Well, this time it was worse when I woke up yesterday morning! I call the dentist, only to be told that they are closing early and they’ll be closed on Friday as well, so I have to wait till Monday to come in. Of course I can call the on call dentist if it gets unbearable.

So anyway, I didn’t get hardly anything done yesterday due to being online half the time trying to find pain remedies for my throbbing tooth, since the Ibuprofen and Tylenol didn’t seem to be doing much for it. Very frustrating when you’re on a roll with getting organized and finally getting some routines down, and then you get sick for a week and then a toothache that makes it hard to focus on anything!

I did read that clove oil, or cloves can help a toothache. I didn’t have clove oil, or whole cloves, but I did have some ground cloves. I just mixed a little water with some to make a paste and then applied it around the bottom of the crown, trying to get it directly on the tooth itself as much as I could(kinda difficult with the crown in the way!). Nasty, nasty nasty tasting, and it burned my tongue and cheek, but it did seem to work some. I imagine if I’d been able to get a good amount directly on the tooth and into the cavity, it would have worked even better.

So then I went the store and bought some Orajel severe toothache cream and tried that, and it does work ok too. Again, it’s probably best if you can actually get it onto the tooth, but I think I got some on there at the bottom of the crown. Also bought some Aleve to try. Not sure that that did any good either, but then I did notice a difference when I also took some Tylenol an hour later. Then back to Ibuprofen 8 hours after taking the Aleve (DO NOT take Ibuprofen and Aleve together since they are both NSAIDs). That’s when I started to really feel a difference. Then took some more Tylenol an hour after taking the Ibuprofen. Now I’m not sure if the pain is just subsiding on it’s own or what, but it almost felt like it was gone a few times when I was putting the kids to bed. It’s definitely not as sharp of a pain as it was earlier when I touch it now, so that’s good!! I’m hoping and praying it will be gone or at least stay at this level tomorrow.

So that was my wonderful day today. The upside: I got to go to Nboy’s flag football practice (I missed the last two due to being sick) and took lots of pictures and got some video footage. I made a really yummy dinner, that everyone enjoyed(well, I was only able to partially enjoy it since I had to chew very carefully due to the pain!)(I’ll share the recipe later), and I made chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. I got my dishes washed and my sink shiny just a little bit ago while watching a couple episodes of Monk (detective tv show) on Netflix (I love the streaming movies and tv shows!), and that’s about it. Didn’t get to do any homeschooling or zone cleaning yesterday, but I’ll hopefully be able to pick it back up today!

 

brought to you by- the unorganized mom blog ;)

Tips on getting organized-from someone who isn’t….

Getting Organized, Working At Home
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I am not an organized person(if you hadn’t guessed from the title of this blog). My name is Melissa, and I am
organizationally challenged, maybe even impaired mom, but I am working on that! It’s almost hard to believe that right at this very moment, my sink is empty and shiny…..my living room is vacuumed and almost completely clutter free. The area in the corner of the living room, behind the recliner, is all cleaned out where boxes of maternity clothes and baby clothes used to be stacked (now all put away neatly in the closet, and the baby clothes ready to go to someone else). Our bedroom is pretty much as clutter free as can be, and the dining room and kitchen are slowly looking cleaner and cleaner!


I’ve always been afraid to invite people to my house, or for anyone to show up unannounced for that matter. I’ve never been a neat freak by any stretch, although I envy those who are(to a certain extent anyway). But once we started having kids, things got even harder to deal with. We now have 3 boys, ages 7, 4, and 2 in a very small house with only 2 bedrooms, so you can imagine how quickly things can get out of control. Add to that homeschooling, a soy candle business (I make the candles myself in my kitchen) and working on websites (my own and for a couple other people), and the hope of someday starting up painting again, and it makes things that much more critical that I really focus on getting organized…..my home, my time and my priorities!

Tip #1   Start out by visiting the Flylady. She is awesome. Her strategies, baby steps and routines help you so you can stay focused and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel by trying to come up with your own organizational plan. She kind of takes the thinking out of it, which really helps because I know once I get to “thinking” about getting organized, then that’s usually all that happens and then I get so worn out just “thinking” about how to do it and it just doesn’t get done!!

So I found out about the Flylady a week before my oldest boys 5th birthday, in November 2008(wow, I can’t believe it’s been almost 3 years now!). I had to get ready for his birthday party, so I decided I would do the crisis cleaning that she outlines on her website, and then start the baby steps after the party. It was stressful getting ready for the party because my house was in pretty bad shape, but it got done, and every room except our bedroom was clean and clutter free! After the party, I started the baby steps and a month went by. Then I started doing some of the zone missions, and another month went by. 2 full months of  a wonderfully clean home! Fresh towels in the bathroom on a regular basis, all neatly folded. A shiny sink every morning with all clean dishes air drying in the rack waiting to be put away. It was great!

Then I got pregnant with our 3rd child…..duduh duduh……. Yeah, you guessed it….all that organizational bliss just flew right out the window once the morning sickness and fatigue set in about a week later.

So I’ve been trying to get back on the bandwagon ever since and I think I’ve finally done it!  We started homeschooling again after labor day, and I’ve been able to get up early and start on my morning routine again. I’ve been having fun doing the zone cleaning tasks and some detail cleaning in the current zone, which for this week is the living room. I shined my sink and have been keeping it dish free and shiny every night for the past week!

Everything just seems so much clearer to me as long as I stop “thinking” about it so much and just look at my list and “DO IT”. The list helps take the thinking out of the equation. Ever since having multiple kids, I often feel like I just need somebody to tell me what I need to do, because there is just too much stuff going on in my brain that it’s hard to stay focused on one thing ( I do not have ADD, I just get sidetracked easily with all the things I have on my plate lol).

So here is what my daily routine has been looking like. Some of these things I get done every day, and some of them I am working on implementing on a daily basis. The cool thing is that I had been sick for a week and just started feeling much better late last night, yet my house didn’t go back into chaos like it normally would have!

Morning routine

    1. Get up at 7am
    2. Study/Prayer time
    3. Get fully dressed
    4. Make bed
    5. Get kids up at 8am
    6. Eat breakfast
    7. Swish and Swipe (see the Flylady for this one)
    8. 2 min. hot spot (set timer for 2 min. and clear of a place that tends to collect clutter)
    9. put dishes away
    10. reset laundry

Evening routine

  1. Shine sink
  2. Put out clothes for the next day
  3. 2 min. hot spot
  4. 5 min. room rescue
  5. Set things in launch pad (stuff I may need to take with me somewhere the next day)
  6. Get to bed at a decent hour(working on this one! Obviously 2am is not a decent hour!)

Other daily routines:

  1. Homeschooling
  2. 10 min. pickup in each room. (living room, dining area, kitchen, bathroom) I’ll be changing this to a 5 min. room rescue in each room once they are all decluttered.
  3. do 2 loads of laundry in washer and dryer (this and #4 will be changing to 1 load a day once I’m all caught up)
  4. Put away 2 loads of laundry
  5. Do Zone Mission
  6. Do 1 detailed cleaning task in current zone
  7. Declutter an area for 15min.
  8. Work on websites
  9. Work on candles

Okay, so that’s my list of to do’s. I know it seems like a lot, but really, much of it does not take very long to accomplish. Plus, like I stated on some of them, once I get things completely decluttered and under control, I won’t need to spend as much time on them. Getting organized is a process, but if you just take it one baby step at a time, you can get there. As the Flylady says ” it didn’t get messy in a day, and it’s not going to get clean in a day”  Well, it could probably get cleaned in a day, but you would burn yourself out, and you wouldn’t be creating life long daily habits to keep it organized on a daily basis!

So these are some tips on getting organized, and I’ll keep you all posted with my progress and share more organizational tips that I find here and there! Now I need to get ready for bed !

 

 

brought to you by- the unorganized mom blog ;)

Life goes on…even when you’re sick…

Children, Getting Organized
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So I have to say I was doing pretty well the last couple weeks. Keeping up with homeschooling, getting the house cleaner and more organized each day, and this week I’ve actually been getting back to doing my routines and zone cleaning with the Flylady.

Then I started feeling sick Wednesday….and it escalated to a full on head cold. Stuffy nose, headache, runny nose, sneezing, slightly dizzy…..you get the picture.  But I have 3 kids to take care of…..soooooo……life has to go on.  We had taken a day off from school on Wednesday anyway because I had some pressing things that needed to get done that day, but now we’ve had 2 days off because today I just was not going to be able to function dragging out of bed at 7 or even 8am. I felt horrible…and still do, though since I took some childrens Sudafed(that’s all we had in the house for cold medicine) and Ibuprofen a couple times today, I can tell the difference, so it must be working.

So thankfully, since I was on a pretty short fuse today(or should I say yesterday, since it is after 1am), my husband took all 3 boys to Nboy’s 2nd flag football practice. It was nice to have some quiet time. I wish I could say that I relaxed, but I had to pick up the mess in the livingroom, and then work on getting some candles ready to ship, and by the time I was done with that, it was almost time for them to be home.  Then I wish I could say that the kids all went to bed at a decent hour and I was able to relax for awhile before heading to bed, but that didn’t happen either. First of all, they all got into bed late since I had to run to the store to get some necessities after the football practice. Then, Ekid and Nboy were playing with a plastic sword on their bed, and Nboy got poked right in the eye. So it was bleeding a little, and it hurt pretty bad, so I had Nboy stay out on the couch while I put Baby and Ekid to sleep. Ekid went to sleep fairly quickly(this is now around 10:45pm) but Baby was not going to go down so easily. I tried working on my computer right by their door where he can see me, but eventually he starts saying “mommy, sit. Mommy sit” and then starts crying because he wants me to sit by his bed.  So finally, after also getting him some more water, I sit next to his bed, but heaven forbid I bring my laptop with me! (he starts crying if I try to sit by his bed and work on my laptop at the same time) Eventually he did go to sleep right at about Midnight. Nboy had also come in to go to bed just before that. Then Nboy starts complaining about a stuffy nose! Great….here we go again!

So that was my day today. I guess you just have to wrestle your way through when you’re sick and everyone else is still depending on you.  It kinda stinks, but I guess it will pass, and hopefully next week will be smooth sailing again :)

Baby’s 2 year birthday!

Getting Organized,
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My baby turned 2 on Sunday. It’s hard to believe. Doesn’t it always seem like it was just yesterday that they were born? Why do we always remember things as if they had just happened? “It seems like just yesterday……”

We didn’t have a birthday party for him today, but I am up half the night tonight trying to get my house in shape, so we can have a few family members over tomorrow night for cake and icecream. Tomorrow I will be making his Thomas the Tank Engine cake from scratch. I always love making the boys their cakes for their birthdays. I always ask them what kind of cake they want and this year both Nboy and Ekid want Sonic the Hedgehog cakes, so that will be interesting!

But, last night Baby’s grandma and great grandma on my husbands side, stopped by and brought him a present. A little washable marker set with lots of little coloring pictures! Now that was the perfect gift for Baby because he LOVES markers and pens! He will not color with crayons. I don’t know what is wrong with crayons or why kids tend to think that markers are more sophisticated, but they all do at some point in their little lives…..Baby just started early. Problem is, he likes to draw on EVERYTHING. Himself, mostly, but other things will do too, like the wall occasionally, or his clothes, toys, floor, brothers….you name it lol.

So anyway, my littlest guy is growing up, just like the others! I just hope he never grows out of his willingness to give tons of kisses and hugs. He is such a little cuddle bug, and just so stinkin’ cute!
Baby pointing at flowers

Back to Homeschool, Schedule and an Awesome Desk!!

Getting Organized, Homeschooling,
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Our New Homeschooling Wall Desk
Our new homeschooling wall desk

I’m back!! I’m up late working on a website for my brother so I thought I might as well write a little and tell you all what’s been going on lately. :)

So we started back to homeschooling this week! Being a disorganized mom of 3, plus trying to run a home business…or several….and take care of the house, hubby and so on…. I have my work cut out for me trying to stay on a schedule this year. We are going on day 4 of homeschooling and so far I have been able to stick to the schooling schedule at least. Everything else has been in disarray , but hopefully things will smooth out in another week or so…hopefully(sigh).

So this is what our schedule looks like this week. Nboy is homeschooling 2nd grade this year. Ekid is doing preschool/kindergarten and Baby(who is having his 2nd birthday this Sunday on 9/11 ) will be working on keeping out of trouble, and potty training :) hehe

So back to the schedule!
7am I wake up, get dressed, do some Flylady routines, study my Bible, prayer, and then maybe work on a website or get a batch of candles started.

8am wake the boys up, get them breakfast.

8:30 start school time. Nboy starts with math, then reading/writing/spelling,

then exercise time around 10am-10:30, then at

10:30 we work on his website(he wanted me to teach him how to make a website!)

Ekid works in his workbooks doing whatever his little heart desires, so he skips around to different pages and does ones that catch his eye LOL.

Then usually around 9am I do one lesson out of the “Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons” So far I’m very impressed with the method used in the book! I have to be careful, though, because Ekid does become bored easily, so sometimes we’ve had to kind of hurry through the lesson and not go over things as many times as it says to. But he seems to be doing fine with it so far nonetheless.

So for now, we are getting done with school around 11am. I plan on adding some Science a couple times a week, and History too. We’ll probably do those in the afternoon, so that will fill in some down time when they are normally getting bored.

I’m excited for this year, but this week has been frustrating because I haven’t been able to do much else but schooling and trying to clean the house. I have candle orders that need to get done and shipped, and a couple websites that need to be worked on and finished! Hoping next week will go more smoothly.

2:32 am and I need to get up at 7! Oye!

P.S. The picture below is of our new-to-us wall desk thingy(?). It is absolutely wonderful!! We got it from the church my uncle is a pastor of. I love it and the kids do too! Love that it can fold up too :D