SHS Winner

And the winner of the fabulous Organizing Bag and The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me is....


Lucy!!!

Yes we documented the whole thing just like we did last month and it was all going well until the final moment when someone (I won't name names) picked their nose on camera and ATE IT!!! I'm so disgusted that I cannot even admit to being related to said video-wrecker.

I didn't want Lucy to miss out on her moment of fame and glory here at The Lazy Organizer so we did a re-tape. I know its not as good as the real thing (Not even close!) but as we don't want to gross anyone out, it will have to do.

Thank you to everyone who inspired me by working so hard on their habits this month! I hope you'll stick around with us again in May. I am even working on a secret Smart Habit this week which I will unveil on Saturday. Be sure to hold your breath until then!

Smart Habit Saturday

Ok, it's time for the drawing this month! Try to get your links up by Sunday night and I will do the drawing on Monday. Just to let any new readers know, anyone who participated in SHS for 3 weeks in April will be entered in a drawing for a copy of The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me, signed just for them along with their very own Organizing Bag to put it in!

I haven't planned anything for the drawing next month but I'm sure it will be fabulous so you don't want to miss it!

If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

I did a lot better with my paperwork this week but I know I can do better now that I'm about finished with the closets. I also did better with my crock pot meals. I used it four times this week and let me tell you, it was so nice!!! My kids especially loved it.

I realize now that I totally messed up my habits this last month. If my habit for April had been to build or paint something every day I would have been a huge success and felt so accomplished! Instead I was struggling with dumb paperwork! Now I know for next time. In fact I am looking at next week and what I want to get done and planning my habit accordingly.

My kids have been very envious with all this "fun" I've been having with their closets. They have several little projects that they've made in the kids workshops at Home Depot so I promised I would make time to supervise while they painted and decorated them. Funny how their mom won't let them help her paint the dressers and closets she's working on. Actually I discovered a little trick. Since I was using the wall color for the closets, every time they came in and wanted to help paint I just had them paint a spot on the wall. That usually satisfied them enough to skip off and play in another room for a while.

For my new habit I am going to help my kids with a craft every single day. Yes, I know I should already be doing that! But this is where I bare all my deepest darkest secrets about how my kids want me to do crafts with them and I always say we will do it later, later, but later never comes. Well, this week is going to be later! Do you hear me?

My kids and I used to sew together every single day. Yes, we were fabulous! Unfortunately, a year and a half ago we got really busy building this house so we stopped and never started again. I am very excited to renew this old habit!

Here are the rest of the habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life!

Using Crock Pot - Doing better.
Paperwork, again, and again - Doing better.
Have lunch ready by Noon - Ok
Turn Off Computer during chores - Surprisingly I am doing this really well.
Become a Dresser, Playing games with my kids and reading my Church Magazine - I am doing really well with these except playing games with the kids. We seem to keep forgetting about the games.
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Good
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - Good

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

No New Junk

I seriously hate gift giving and I think I have stumbled upon the reason why. I always thought it was just because I was cheap and selfish but I am ready to face the truth. I hate wasting money on stuff that people don't really need. Gift cards are boring and giving money to people who didn't come out of your body is just plain weird.

I live for E-Bay, garage sales, antique and thrift stores. If you would invite me over I would like to rummage around in your basement as well. I bet there is some really cool stuff down there that I could take my tools to. From now on that's where all your Christmas and holiday gifts are coming from. I mean the other places, not your own basement.

If you don't like your gift just think of it as my contribution to your next garage sale which I am totally coming to. I won't get my feelings hurt when I see that you're selling if for a quarter. I will just buy it back and sell it on E-bay for $1,000.

If that doesn't get me in the spirit of gift giving then you can go back to thinking I was cheap and selfish like you always did, or just plain lazy which you could totally forgive me for, right?

Surprise!

I made you a present! An Organizing Bag for the book I am giving away for the Smart Habit Saturday Drawing this month. We absolutely love these book bags around here. Now you will be able to take your latest read anywhere without worrying about it getting wet or crumpled. P.S. It also makes a great little diaper bag if you have a baby.

It's the girls' closet all painted, as of tonight, and ready to go! I'll hang the closet rods tomorrow when it's dry and have a wild time stuffing it full. I can't wait!

This is just one corner of their walk-in closet but it gives them plenty of storage space for now so I'm going to take a break from closet building for a while. I still have some finishing touches to put on Victor's closet before the contest is over so I need to get to work on them.

Sensibly Elinor

You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

It's a lie. I'll let anyone see my deeply disturbing emotional side. All you have to do is ask! I thought I would have more in common with the impatient, selfish little know-it-all, Emma Woodhouse but maybe inside I am a bit of an Elinor. I needn't feel too bad because she has some dashing faults as well. Now that I think about it. They are both know-it-alls. It's just that in the end, one was right and one was wrong and I get to be right!

I want to show you the girls' closet so far but I can't seem to remember to take a photo while the sun is out. Our organizing project for the day was to go through the Foster Drawer. (Daddy started it.) The kids sorted everything and put it away while I did handwork on a quilt. It was the only way I could keep myself calm while they moved as slow as turtles, each hoping the other would pick up the pieces they didn't want to put away themselves.

They eventually cleared out the drawer and after a few laps around the farm I herded them back in for another round with two big baskets of junk that I stashed in the Guest Room slash Junk that I don't want to think about Room. (So that's where the baby's missing socks and sipper cups were!) If it were any later I might admit that Lovely has grown out of some of the clothes we found but it's not so I won't.

Also I made you something today. I'll show it to you tomorrow too. Closet. Present. Don't let me forget.

Thanks for the quiz Sweet Feet!

I'm Almost Speechless

Look at what we are getting next month. Could I BE more excited??? Well maybe I could if it were one of these but I'll take what I can get. Too bad it's an hour drive but I'm sure that won't stop me.

The first thing I am going to buy is this and then I think I will get a bunch of these and stick them on every metal thing I can find in the house just because they are so cool. And then I'll throw in whatever else I can cram into the back of my van after I take all the seats out and make the children walk home. If we take their bikes it will be a much faster trip for them.

Smart Habit Saturday

If you participate in SHS for 3 weeks in April you will be entered in my drawing for the month. I am giving away a copy of The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me, signed just for you. Who knows, you may even get an Organizing Bag to put it in!

If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

I did a little bit better with my paperwork habit this week but still not great because I've been sick with a cold all week . Are you sick of hearing that? I know I am sick of saying it. Luckily I already have some great habits that carry me through times like these. My kids are a great help too and today I got the whole day off while Stranger dealt with the kids, made dinner and commited several more unspeakable acts around the house that would only make you feel bad about your own husbands if I told you. That's how amazing they were. Speaking of dinner I only made two meals in the crockpot this week so I'll work on this again. No new habits for me as I continue to do paperwork and crockpot meals!

Here are the rest of the habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life!

Using Crock Pot - Working on it.
Paperwork, again, and again - Working on it.
Have lunch ready by Noon - Ok
Turn Off Computer during chores - Surprisingly I am doing this really well.
Become a Dresser, Playing games with my kids and reading my Church Magazine - I am doing really well with these except playing games with the kids. We seem to keep forgetting about the games.
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Good
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - Good

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

TV Turn-Off

Turn off is right! I despise television! Head over to Unplug Your Kids and join the challenge. Except that I want you to turn it off and leave it off! If your family is watching television it just may save your lives.

Turning off the T.V. will make you thinner, smarter, richer, and best of all, MORE ORGANIZED!!! That is my promise to you. Just try to prove me wrong!

Go to The Simple Dollar to see how much money you can save by turning off the T.V.

We turned off the T.V. exactly nine years. Stranger agreed before we got married that we wouldn't have T.V. in our home. What can I say? He was love sick! His opinions changed a bit after the wedding however so we continued to let ourselves get sucked into it's evil world for two years until we moved into our last house. Being so strategically placed behind a hill, we couldn't get one fuzzy channel without paying for cable. (Coincidence?) Anyone who knows Bruno the Bargain Slayer will not be surprised that it was a good enough reason for him to start going without.

We had a slight relapse in 2002 when I was stuck at home with two little babies and I thought I couldn't live without watching the Winter Olympics at home if I was going to miss going to miss all of the action. Of course we had to sign up for a whole year. We didn't have to watch it for a whole year but we did. Picture me with unlimited access to HGTV and TLC! That was pretty much a wasted year of my life but brighter things came when our subscription wore out and we didn't renew it. We have been T.V. free ever since.

If you are wondering how I have time to do all the things I do, I'll tell you my secret. I turned off the brain-sucking T.V. and you can do it too!

Happy Birthday to the Funnest Daddy in the Whole World

Touring soon in a city near you.

Teach Your Kids to Work

Teach Your Kids to Work, Part V

That's all I have to say about that.

All Done and Just Beginning

My son's closet is all painted and ready to go. The only thing I have left to do is paint the dresser. This is all you get to see until the final reveal for the Organizing Challenge. Are you so bummed? I knew you would be but don't think we are done with closet photos yet! I got started on the girls' closet last week. Here is one corner of it.

Three whole boards put up before I came down with the flu of death over the weekend. Thankfully I am still alive to finish the job.

Remember last Monday when I said I thought I might be getting sick? Apparently I was getting sick and that's why my brain hurt so much when I was working on the closet. All I had was a sore throat all week though so it didn't hold me back too much. Then on Sunday I got hit with the flu that my kids had two weeks ago. I haven't gotten the flu for years so it was a great refresher course in how horrible it can be.

I'm back on the computer today so I must be feeling better right? Time to get back to work!

Smart Habit Saturday

If you participate in SHS for 3 weeks in April you will be entered in my drawing for the month. I am giving away a copy of The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me, signed just for you. Who knows, you may even get an Organizing Bag to put it in!

If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

I am embarrassed to show my face around here because I have been a Smart Habit Slacker. It's been two weeks now and I still haven't done any paperwork! Not unless piling everything together in one spot counts as paperwork.

It's not like I haven't done anything this week but still!!! Apparently I don't like going through papers. Apparently I need a more specific plan. First of all I'm going to simplify my habit from 15 minutes a day to only picking up three pieces of paper a day and filing them. Do you think I can handle that? Let's hope I can. Next I am going to make myself do it before I have breakfast in the morning. Since breakfast is over for the day I'm going to go file my three papers right now!

The thing that is weird about these habits we are making is that they are things we should have been doing all along but haven't. Why have we put them off for so long? What else are we doing that is so important that we ignore the basics like getting enough rest, making time for scripture study or keeping track of our finances?

I have decided I need to make some major changes in my schedule. If I cannot fit necessities, like cooking two proper meals a day for my family, into my life then I am ashamed of myself. There is really no excuse for me neglecting my family like that. I don't care if they are an ungrateful bunch of picky complainers. I love'em anyway and if they don't eat what I make then at least I will know I did my duty.

I know I am making meals harder than they need to be because the crockpot is my friend. For my new habit this week I am going to use my crockpot every single day. At the very least we will have one hot meal waiting for us in our busy day!

Here are the rest of the habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life!

Paperwork, Again - Terrible!
Have lunch ready by Noon - Not the greatest this week since I started construction.
Turn Off Computer during chores - Surprisingly I am doing this really well.
Become a Dresser, Playing games with my kids and reading my Church Magazine - I am doing really well with these except playing games with the kids. We seem to keep forgetting about the games.
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Major improvement but not perfect yet.
Clear Counters - Good
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Great
Daily Prayer - Great
Clean Toilet - I'm not even trying to do this every day anymore but I do it two to three times a week. That's better than three times a year right?

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

I Know

"Look what I did yesterday!"

Yes, Lara. We just can't get enough of these exciting closet photos.

Please post more.

We hope they never end.

Closets, closets, closets.

Post them every day.

Forever.

"Thank you. I will."

Teach Your Kids to Work, Part V

How many times should you beat a child for refusing to do chores before you give up on them and kick them out to the barn? I recommend one spank for every year of age. If you have a 27 year old mooch living on your sofa he is going to have one sore bottom. Maybe by that point you have realized the beatings aren't working and you should try something else.



Before its too late, try reading my articles at GNMParents on teaching your children to work. This series is turning out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be. I guess I have a lot to say! Read my latest installment, "If Momma's working, everyone's working!"

German Pancakes

Strawberry Syrup

Add a big handful of frozen or fresh strawberries and enough water in your blender to equal one cup. Add 2 cups sugar and blend. Microwave for five minutes in a large glass measuring bowl so it doesn't boil over. If you want thicker syrup boil it a couple minutes longer. Just watch it or it will boil over. (Do you think maybe this has happened to me before?)

German Pancakes

5 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
6 eggs
pinch salt

Add butter to a 9X13 pan, melt in pre-heating oven. Mix eggs in blender, add flour and milk and salt. Pour batter into melted butter in pan. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 345 bake another 10 minutes. Do not open oven door until it's finished cooking. Top with syrup, powdered sugar or fruit.

Closet Update

This is how far I got yesterday and let me tell you how painful it was! It hurt my head to put up every board!!! I hate figuring this stuff out and it took me forever to do just this much but I took my time and I think it is going to turn out ok. I hope I can get all the boards put up today so I can work on caulking tomorrow. Who knows. Maybe I will get the closet finished this week and have time to start on Persistence's closet before the challenge is over!!!

Chickens Are a Wonderful Bird

Victor- "Did you know chickens are a wonderful bird because you can eat it before it’s born and you can eat it after it’s dead?"

Look at our wonderful baby Easter presents! No, we are not going to eat them but hopefully they will all be good little girls that will make us lots of eggs to eat and none of them will have to be sent to foster homes this year for being big bad roosters.

We went to the Baby Animals Days that we love so much except that there were about 15,000 people too many this year so this is a tradition that has come to an end. Next year we will have our own baby animal days and you are invited!



We went home with a box of clothes for Lovely from my SIL. She picked this outfit out all by herself. Doesn't she have style? Of course I let her wear it to the store because that's what homeschooling farmers do but mostly because she looked so adorable!

I Want Candy

Today did not go exactly as planned. Instead of working on my closet project we went horseback riding and to the local children's museum. I came home so exhausted that I laid on the couch surfing the web for closet ideas. I really hope I am not getting sick!

I have gotten so many questions through the years of how to divide up closet shelves so that stacks of clothes don't tumble into one another. One solution is to use a wooden or plastic crate turned on its side and stack clothing inside. You could even use a cardboard box if you don't want to spend money.

I think this solution is adorable however and you can buy these corbels at home improvement stores for a few bucks. If you had the right tools you could build your own. Click on the photo to follow the link to the story at BHG.com. You can skip most of their closet stories because they are so unrealistic for the average home owner. How many people have an entire dressing room in their home? Its great eye candy though!

I did spend the morning measuring and planning Victor's closet and I stopped by the lumber store to buy the type of rods I wanted that I couldn't find at the big stores last week. I didn't find anything particularly useful on line for my project so I'm going to stick with my original plans. I'm hoping it rains tomorrow so we can skip park day to work on it. The kids think I am just so rude!

A Trip To Home Depot

We have gone our separate ways lately but I used to live at that store! When we were at our old house I was constantly in and out of it, buying plants or paint or lumber for projects. When Persistence was tiny she was playing house one day, threw her purse over her shoulder and announced to all her dollies, "I'll be back. I'm going shopping at Home Depot." Yep, I taught her everything she knows. No hair salons or shopping malls for the women in this family!

She spent a few hours shopping the great isles with me today and it was not fun but she didn't complain. I told her that when I finish Victor's closet I would start working on hers and she believed me. Kids are so gullible!

No, just kidding. I really will, I promise. You'll make sure I do right? I may have to have my own organizing challenge where you all challenge me to organize her closet and then you send me prizes when I'm finished. Sound fun???

So, don't tell Stranger that I came home with a couple hundred dollars worth of supplies. You think you're going to go spend a couple bucks on lumber and you leave with a $200 receipt in your purse. It's weird because I thought this stuff grew on trees.

I plan to make a big dent in this project on Monday so I will keep you updated on the DIY.

Organizing Bags

It's official. I am out of the Large Organizing Bags! Yay! When I ordered one thousand bags I didn't think I would sell even half of them. The day I picked them up the man helping me asked how long they would last me until I needed to re-order and I said FOREVER!

Well, thanks to you they are all gone and I just dropped off samples tonight to get prices for five new styles. I can't wait to get them so you can start using them!!! It may take 4 months before they arrive but at least now I'm working on getting them here. For a while I wasn't sure if I was going to keep doing this but I decided to go for it and I think it will be fun!

Just call me the Bag Lady, my sister did when we met with the kids over the weekend. I didn't know what she was talking about until I turned around and sure enough...

The orange one in back is the Sweet Tomato of course. The black one is my computer bag. The purple one was for clothes, the red one for toiletries, a brown one for sewing projects to work on while we watched Conference and another brown one for books even though I knew I wouldn't get to read any of them. Heaven forbid I go anywhere without my books!

That was just one night out of town. You should have seen us when we went to California for two weeks!

Smart Habit Saturday

If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

Congratulations to Michelle who won the SHS drawing for March! Watch it live! For April I am giving away a copy of The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me, signed just for you, you Lazy Organizer! Find out more about the drawing here.

I had such a great week last time that I had to have a terrible week this time to make up for it! No, it wasn't really terrible but I didn't do my paperwork habit one single time so guess what? I'll be trying it again this week. I do really well in the mornings. I get dressed, pickup and straighten my bedroom and bathroom and laundry room. Then I head into the kitchen and do any cleaning in there that I need to do. Then that is theoretically when I would head into my studio and do paperwork but somehow I get sidetracked by kid's stuff before then and never make it. I'm lucky if I can get the vacuuming done once I get the baby down for a nap. I suspect the real problem is just that I don't want to do it but I'm not officially admitting to anything.

Here are the habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life!

15 Minutes of paperwork a day
Have lunch ready by Noon
Turn Off Computer during chores
Become a Dresser, Playing games with my kids and reading my Church Magazine
Kitchen and studio clutter free
Clear Counters
Clear Desk
Review Planner
Daily Prayer
Clean Toilet

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Teach Your Kids to Work

Life is messy. Did you know? And the messes are never as easy to clean up as they are to make. Hmmm, I wonder if there is a reason for that? We spend hours cleaning every day so you would think our home would be spotless wouldn't you? I don't want you to be disappointed when you stop by for a visit and see dead bugs sitting on the window sill so I will tell you right now that it is not. Not even close!!!

But we keep working on it and look how much fun we're having! Can you think of anything more fun than doing laundry? How about watching someone else doing laundry?



In case you haven't read enough of my controversial opinions (you can't get enough, can you?) I offer my latest article at GNMParents, It Takes Time.

30 Day Challenge

I am honored that Laura has asked me to help with the judging of her Spring Organizing Challenge! I'm excited to see so many of you participating. It's going to be fun to watch what you come up with this time. The projects that you tackled last time were amazing and I'm sure we will see even better stuff this time around!

I'm not competing for prizes but her last challenge was so motivating that I have to play along again. I am going to build my son's closet. We've lived in this new house for a year so it's about time don't you think? I've got about four more rooms to go after this one so I'd better get started!

I decorated his room in December so all I've got left in there is his closet. You can see the photos here. That is an unfinished dresser that I am going to build into the design and there will be hanging bars and shelves in various places. I guess it's time to rev up the power tools and hit the home improvement stores.

Ready?
Set?