Thursday, March 3, 2011

One Step At A Time

My last post gained me a couple of comments that I wanted to to talk about.  My friend Nicole seriously recommended that I check out the Flylady website.  The unfortunate thing about this is I already have checked out her website, joined her group on facebook and bigtent, and get e-mails from the website.  The issue is that I have to follow through and actually read and put into practice some of the things that she recommends.  Actually my husband mentioned this site to me when he was talking with someone about getting organized at work.  I also have the Sidetracked Home Executives (S.H.E.) book, which would be great once I actually put it into practice.  The funny part about this book is that it is how my mom trained us to clean house.  As soon as I started reading it, I knew exactly what it was.  It's really funny how the things that I am looking at implementing in my life as an adult are the things that I was used to as a kid.

The other comment that I got was about taking it easy on myself.  I understand the thought behind the comment and I so appreciate the reminder.  I just so have to get myself in a place where I am comfortable with how my house looks.  That means that I want things to be put away and have things look neat and orderly, but I don't need to have things immaculate.  I have 3 kids that are actually still all 2 for another week.  I know not to expect too much from myself, but I still need to have some expectations from me and the kids and even my husband (who is really good, sometimes better than I am at keeping things neat).

I have one week completed for my meal plan.  I have a bunch of recipes to plug into other days so that I get the rest of the month complete.  I still need to get a calendar to hang up on te fridge that I can reuse and erase if things change.

I need to get a little bit better of a handle on my laundry.  I know that it will never be fully completed, but I just want to look at my hamper and feel like I am in control not my laundry.

What I really need to do is just start.  It does not need to be perfect right away.  I need to start with one room and get that completed and maintain it and then I can move on to other rooms and maintain them.  Once I have things clean and orgainzied, I just need to maintain and that is the hardest part for me (you would think it would be the easiest).  I know once I get to the maintainence stage, I am golden as long as I actually maintain.

Here's to menu planning and organizing my house so that I can actually enjoy my house and not be stressed by it.

Amy

3 comments:

  1. Ugh! I typed up a long response and then an "error" occurred and it is gone. I'll try to come back later and try again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe tackling a monthly meal plan is too much to start. I know some people have great success with a single monthly meal plan that they use over again every month but that doesn't really work for us. We like to eat seasonally and plan around weekly sales for fresh produce and meat. In the summer, we get our CSA share weekly and need to maximize Instead, I keep a master list of all the meals and foods we like to eat and use the master list and the weekly grocery ads to plan a week at a time. I also just make a list of seven meals on a sticky note and stick it to fridge with my printed monthly calendar and weekly cleaning plan. That way we have the flexibility to pick and choose depending on what the day brings and how much time we have.

    I don't actively participate in Meal Plan Monday (http://orgjunkie.com/menu-plan-monday) but I use that schedule for my planning. I plan over the weekend or Monday if the weekend was too busy and shop on Tuesdays since that fits my schedule. I pull out my master list and the ads, check the fridge for food that needs to be used up because it on its last legs and go from there.

    So for this week, we roasted a small turkey on Saturday. So I have leftovers to use. That means we'll be making turkey pot pie and turkey quesadillas. We always include a "quick and easy" day which means pasta, breakfast for dinner, or maybe takeout. We usually have small amounts of various leftovers by the end of the week, so we also include a day for just pulling out leftovers. That gives me 4 meals without even sitting down to plan anything, yet. So now, I just have to figure out 3 more meals and my shopping list. That seems a lot less intimidating to me.

    Good luck with your meal planning and home organizing. It's a contant battle for me, too. Every time I think I've got a handle on it all, something comes up and all my efforts fall apart. Then I feel like I'm right back where I started. If I keep up with meal planning, do one load of laundry every day, and keep the kitchen clean on a daily basis, then I never feel completely overwhelmed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Rhonda- I am going to check out that site. My husband said a month is too much at first too. I think you are both right. I'm on to week 2 now and I think I will jsut do a week at a time unless I get ambitious!

    ReplyDelete