I've lost it!

I went to 9 hours of professional meetings at the end of last week. So, here is what I learned. I am just not that into audiology anymore. There I have said it, and I feel better. Actually, maybe it was just the particular topics of this meeting- Tele-Health and Ethics. I really was fighting the urge to play with my iphone for much of the meeting. I loved my patients when I was working, and my friends at work were some of the best I have ever had, and I still like to hear how things are going in the workplace for them. I think I could even jump back into work at my former place of employment and enjoy it, but this meeting just didn't ignite that particular interest in me.

Now, if this meeting had been a homeschooling conference, I could have listened attentively for hours on how to help emergent readers. We have a new schedule this semester for dance, choir and my cooking co-op. I like the new schedule because I am at home for longer periods of the day before we venture out for said events. This means I get more done at home- cha ching!! I have started working out to some videos (Chalean Extreme) at home, too. One of my friends recently said of me that she would not be surprised to hear me comment that I had re-worked the new schedule so we never have to leave the house. Is it that obvious that I struggle with how to balance things?

I just love having blocks of time to accomplish things. How can you get things done if you are constantly running around? I guess I am just not wired that way. Well, I have more to say, but I am out of time.

New Year, New Habits!

In an effort to be more organized, I spent last week decluttering and organizing as many rooms as I could reasonably tackle. I am also borrowing several ideas from FLYLady.net for the new year. I am going to try zone cleaning. Basically, you break up your home into zones and focus on one area each week. For example, zone 1 is the entrance/dining room/porch, zone 2 is the kitchen, and zone 3 is bathroom/children's rooms/spare room or office, etc. In the beginning, you set your timer for 15 minutes and declutter (or clean) if you have already decluttered for the alloted time in the zone for the week. You do this for the week, and then move on to the next zone. She says in several months, your house stays cleaner this way. Oh, you also do some basic daily cleaning in the kitchen and bathrooms plus schedluled pick up times for "hot" spots in the house. I'm going to try it!

Above is a shelf in our pantry all organized. The pantry was a mess before, but I am proud to report it is still nice and neat 2-3 weeks later. Also, I have switched to a new planner (Beautiful Life Management) that has helpful cleaning hints for each day (the lady who designed them was a former FLY-baby herself). So far so good, but it does take time to make changes and planning to be organized is much harder now than it was when I was single.

I have always been good with time management, but organizing stuff is another story. Last week, we threw away A LOT of unused or broken stuff- shhh- Ed doesn't know becasue our neighbor let me put the trash in her can! I am also going to more diligent in having the girls help me each day, and I'm working on a chore system for them.

Now, for fun, I am beginning to sew my living room drapes as soon as the buckram arrives. I am ready for that room to be finished- maybe even by my birthday! So, if you are reading this here's to you in 2010! P.S. Maybe I'll even be better about posting on my blog.