Making plans

So, I have done nothing towards organizing for weeks.  Between having a sick family, feeling miserable myself, and trying to survive Christmas I have just had no energy.  The more that I feel this little person moving inside of me, the more I am feeling motivated to get stuff done before his arrival.  I am not setting any actual organizing goals for this week because I am still feeling pretty crummy and we are preparing to go out of town.  My goal for this week is to make an organizing plan and schedule.  I have been trying to find some good books or other resources on simple living, but I am not having a lot of luck.  I think that most proponents of simple living are unrealistic.  Does anyone know of any good resources in this area?

Priorities

I did not get any organizing done today.  But I did get to see this:

We are having a third boy! 

After my appointment this morning I spent two and a half hours waiting for an oil change (and that was with an appointment).  Then I got to spend a few minutes with my boys before we got ready to go to have a movie night with some friends. 

I do not feel guilty about not getting any organizing done today.  Except for the marathon oil change, I got to do more important things today.

Baby steps

I didn't make much progress today, but I did get some stuff organized in my kids' closet.  I put away some things that we won't need for a while (like Easter baskets and a back pack and lunch box that are for when Cade starts kindergarten in August).  I also sorted and organized my diaper stockpile by size.  The size we need now are front and center, and the ones I am saving for the new baby are put up. 

As far as I am concerned the most important thing that I got done today was taking a nap.  I am still trying to get back to "normal," and the nap helped a lot.  I also took the boys out to enjoy the beautiful weather and run off some energy.

I'm Back!

I am finally back.  Our house is now 48 hours vomit free.  We have had a rough week, but it seems to be getting better now.  Throughout the last week things have just been piling up while we were all sick, so I spent today trying to get things back in order.  I did 6 loads of laundry (including all of the bedding from every bed), threw away a ridiculous number of used tissues that were piled around my house, cleaned out the refrigerator, and tried to get things back where they belong.  I also discreetly recycled the 14 get well cards (and get well puppets) that Cade made me on Saturday.  I am hoping to be able to get back to organizing tomorrow.

Excuses

This will be short tonight.  Here are the top 5 reasons I have not accomplished anything this week:
1.  I have a bad cough, I feel miserable, and I am tired.
2.  I spent a lot of time cleaning up vomit (along with the help of my WONDERFUL husband).
3.  I am lacking motivation this week.
4.  A child with an ear infection woke me up at 4 this morning, cried for the following 3 and a half hours, and then had to go to the pediatrician.
5.  Cleaning up more vomit.

I really am going to accomplish more when my family is feeling better.  Right now I am struggling to maintain the minimum that has to be done (like making sure we have food to eat, clean dishes from which to eat, and everything that has been puked on has been washed).  I hope this will be over soon.

Maybe tomorrow

I completely forgot to do my post last night, not that I had anything new to report anyway.  After running errands and doing laundry I had no energy left to get anything else done.  I probably won't get anything done today either because I still feel pretty crummy.  I expect that after working all day I will not want to do anything.  I have high hopes for tomorrow.

Nothing done today

With a sick husband and everyone in the family dealing with seasonal allergies, nothing got done today. 

Christmas decorations

We have now put up our Christmas tree.  Tomorrow we will probably get out the stockings and other decorations.  We don't have a lot in the way of Christmas stuff because we have always lived in apartments, but we do have more than I think we need.  I went through our box of decorations and chose several things that I am going to get rid of.  I mostly chose to get rid of little decorative things that just sit out on shelves (like little snowmen).  I have also had to be careful in choosing how I want to decorate this year, because my toddler is destructive.  For example, I have chosen to leave an ornament that my Grandma gave me before she died (the only ornament that she got from her mother's Christmas tree) off of our tree this year.  I would be so sad if Kyler pulled the tree over and that ornament got broken. 

The more time I spend organizing and simplifying, the easier it is getting to let things go.  I still have a long way to go, but things are already getting under control.  I am having to make a real effort to keep things simple during the holidays.  My main goal for this month is to keep our commitments to a minimum so that we can have more family time and not just be rushing around the entire month.  How do you keep sane in December?

Setting a good example

Over the last couple of weeks my kids have seen me sorting through stuff and getting rid of a lot.  Today I realized that this example has been seen by my four year old.  Cade has a plastic shoe box that he keeps cards and drawings in.  He likes to keep Birthday cards and any others he gets, plus various postcards and some drawings that he has been unable to part with.  Our rule is that he can't keep anything that he can't fit in the box.  Today (by his own choice) he sat in the floor and spent 20 minutes sorting his cards and papers.  He made piles to separate his favorites, the ones he is ready to get rid of, and "maybes."  When he was done he had put over half of what was in his box in the recycling.  I am so proud.  Now when I am tempted to let stuff pile up or keep things that we don't need I can remind myself that little eyes are watching me.

Also, I finally finished sorting the mountain of receipts that had stacked up.  Yay!

Made some progress

I am glad that I didn't post any goals yesterday for what I hoped to get done today.  If I had I am pretty sure I would not have gotten any of them done.  That being said, I did get a few things done that I hadn't expected to.  I worked on some mending that needed to be done.  There was a laundry basket in my room full of stuff that had small holes or buttons that needed sewn back on.  I got about half of that taken care of today.  I would not normally consider that as organizing, but it got some stuff put away.  Today I will take what I can get.  I also sorted through a bunch of papers and organized them by category (medical/insurance, cell phone, auto, etc.).  Does everyone else get eight million pieces of mail a week from their health insurance company?  Anyway, I have a lot to shred and recycle.  We are well on our way to having an organized home filing system.