A Little Pink and A Spelling Lesson

I got this funny idea today that if we were all trying to get more organized we should also learn how to spell it. According to my spell checker, and my American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster 1828, it is "organiZed" not "organiSed".

OrganiZe
OrganiZed
OrganiZing
OrganiZer

Of course if you spell it differently in your country then you are still welcome to visit. We believe in multiculturalism here at The Lazy Organizer.

If you're just spelling it wrong then you are especially welcome because I am a horrible speller too.

And by the way, it's Chinese Chicken Salad RECIPE not RECEIPT. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of searches I get every week for some food receipt instead of recipe! But that's ok. It doesn't matter how you found my blog, just that you pick up after yourself while you're here.

Before I forget. Have you met Pinkie? He looked like he was on a mission, stomping around the park in a very determined manner, never stopping to ride the rides or sit down. He obviously reads my blog.

Look Closely.

There he is!

Yes, that is pink hair you're seeing. And stretchy pink track pants that he bought when he was 13. See how he's grown since then?

Seeing him made our day at Lagoon so much more enjoyable than it might otherwise have been. How could it not? I was sitting by a girl at one point who told me that she works at the Zoo which he also frequents and he is always in pink. Not the same pink clothes but always pink.

See? I told you it was a good idea.

Now that I think about it, only cowards take pictures of people when they're not looking. I should have stopped him and interviewed him for my blog. I think I will find interesting people wherever I go and ask to interview them for my blog. Doesn't that sound fun? We could get all kinds of good organiZing tips that way. Since I don't know anything about interviewing people could you help me out with some questions to use? If I have them prepared in advance I don't think I would be so nervous. For example, what kinds of questions could I have asked Pinkie?

"I noticed you like pink. Is it a color you wear often?"

"Do you organiZe your closet by style or by color?"

And just one more thought. How does it look to go into a store wearing all pink and then to fill your shopping cart up with pink clothes to buy? You can be pretty certain that everyone is thinking, "Like pink lately?" I for one couldn't do it. If I find myself in an Old Navy store, with my kids and I all dressed in Old Navy clothes, I have to turn around and get out of there as fast as I can because you can't buy your Old Navy and wear it too. Is it just me or is this a universal rule?

Smart Habit Saturday

I'm posting this early because I'll be busy later and I know I'll forget about it. Don't forget, if you don't have a blog just post your habit in the comments. That means you Becky!


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.

"one of the great functions of the educator is to secure that actions will be so regularly, purposefully, and methodically sown (in the brain) that the child will reap the habits of the good life, in thinking and doing, with a minimum of conscious effort." by Charlotte Mason found in A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola.

Are your actions sown so that you are reaping the benefit of habit with a minimum of conscious effort? If not then get busy and get SMART!

I did great on my habit this week. I straightened and de-cluttered my bedroom/bathroom/laundry room every single day. They look fabulous! If you walk in my front door the house doesn't always look so great but the master rooms sure do.

This is kind of scary but I think I'm going to make a goal to work on paperwork next week at least two times. I have boxes of it waiting on the kitchen table for Persistence and I to go through. Yes I am a such a complete failure at paperwork that I have to have Persistence, my seven year old helper, do it with me. How sad is that.

Here are the other habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are already habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life. I think my greatest habit of all is my habit of making new habits!
Bed/Bath/Laundry - So great!
Using Habit Chart - Loving it!
Using Chap stick - Great! Oh yes. My life has been greatly improved by chap stick people.
Reading scriptures with kids - Not very good this week.
Getting to bed early, again - Nadda.
Crafts with kids - Working on it.
Using Crock Pot - Still eating salads!
Paperwork, again, and again - Working on it this week.
Have lunch ready by Noon - Ok
Turn Off Computer during chores - Habit
Become a Dresser - Habit
Playing games with my kids - Not great
Reading my Church Magazine - Habit
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Great
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - I have three toilets and I'm doing one every day.

*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'm Famous!

Guess what happened this week? Michelle at Scribbit interviewed me for her blog! Can you believe it?? She is amazing and so sweet and we all know she is taking over the world one blog at a time! I am not kidding about that either. When she runs for president I am going to vote for her. Do you think she'll let me come and be the official White House Organizer?

Last month Michelle asked me to be the guest judge for her Write Away contest in June, which is the coolest name ever for a writing contest, don't you think? She is an amazing writer by the way. People are always asking me if I am a writer or if I want to be a writer which always makes me snort but if I could write like Scribbit then I would be starting my fifth book by now. Have you Michelle? Let us know where we can buy your next volume.

So go read how Michelle and I "met" and all about my craziest organizing philosophy. Can you tell from my photo what a goof I am? Probably not. See how I have you all fooled?

Thank you for the interview Michelle and thanks to all you kind commenters over at Scribbit.blogspot.com.

I also have an article up at GNMParents today. It's all about how people should stop moving so much, especially people I know because it is too much work! Let's all just stay put and be happy where we are. Deal? Let's say it together, "We are never moving again!" Deal.

In case you were wondering that was not a Couch Potato Pact we were just making. Be sure to leave me a comment and tell me how many times you have moved in your life. I was going to make a poll but I'm feeling too lazy tonight so now you have to do all the work.

FYI

If you hold your thumb up to a stapler and squeeze the trigger, it WILL put a staple through your thumb. Just in case you were wondering. Now you know.

And it won't really hurt either but you may turn white and almost pass out from the fear of discovery and having said staple removed.

And later when your Mom asks you if you would mind putting another staple through your thumb so she can take a picture of it you will say, "No way! Do you think I'm stupid???"

Disclaimers:
Do not try this at home.
Any resemblance to actual persons or events are purely coincidental.
No thumbs were harmed in the taking of this picture.

Well If You Would Read The Manual

Heard frequently at our house, "Yes Dear. I know you have been telling me that for years but I do read manuals. I just don't memorize them like you want me to."

I got out my camera manual again because I was determined to learn some new things about it. I cannot be photo illiterate forever can I? No! I didn't figure out what I set out to learn but I learned some other cool stuff while I was at it. I'm so excited about it that I have to share a few of them with you today and I hope I can make some sense with my limited photography knowledge and vocabulary.

Remember this photo of my kid's bathroom?

When I took the same photo on the Auto setting it looked like this. A huge difference!

The camera reads the light from the window and makes the rest of the photo too dark.

This is how I fixed that on my Fuji FinePix F30. You might have to get your manual out (gasp!) to find out how to do it on your camera. I turned my camera to the Manual setting, pushed the menu button and found a little thing called Photometry. I can only guess that this reads the light coming into the camera. Pretty smart, eh? I have three choices, Multi, Spot, and Average. I like to pick the Spot setting which makes the lighting just right for whatever I focus the camera on.

In this next photo I focused directly on the window. (To focus you push the button down half way and hold it, then position the photo the way you want it and push the button all the way down to take the picture.) This would be fine if I wanted a picture of the window but I didn't.

In the first photo I focused on a spot on the wall to the left. The camera didn't read as much light there so it lightened up the photo quite a bit and gave the details of the bathroom the way I wanted. The window is a blur of light but that's ok and actually looks kind of cool.

So play around with your Photometry button to see what you can do with it. It also works great for taking photos in the shade or of people with their backs to the sun. It brightens their faces instead of making them too dark.

Another little option I have started using is the timer button. I don't like using my flash so that means the shutter has to slow way down when I am indoors in order to get enough light. The slower the shutter speed, the blurrier your picture will be. You can try to hold as still as you can but every time you push that button to take the photo you are moving the camera.

This isn't such a great options with kids who can't hold still but it works great for still photos. I set up my camera the way I want it and then push the 2 second timer button. That way when the photo is taken two seconds later the camera and I are holding as still as we possibly can.

I took this photo without using the timer. See how fuzzy the beads are?

I took this next photo using the timer button. It's a lot more in focus.

In this photo I used the Sharpen option in my editing program.

So there are a few ideas for your next photo shoot. Let me know if they work for you and head over to Rocks In My Dryer for more WFMW tips.

More On My Persistent Assistant

I mentioned several days ago that I have a new helper around the house. I took her on board as an experiment but it has worked out lovely so I've decided to keep her. She's a very hard worker and the best part is she's free! Sometimes I have to give her a Dumdum to keep her happy but it's a very small price to pay for her quality of work.

In case you don't know her already, she's my seven year old, Persistent, and she showed amazing organizing superpowers at a very early age but she tends to be just like her Mom most of the time, too lazy to put anything away! We have been fighting about her bedroom for years and even though I have taken some drastic measures it is still a challenge keeping her focused long enough to clean her room.



As most of you know, I have been working very hard this last year to teach my kids how to work and help around the house. My nine year old son has been doing his jobs amazingly well but I was still struggling to keep my daughter working long enough to accomplish anything. I was frustrated by how much supervision she required and I felt like I was spending so much time checking up on her that I couldn't get my own jobs done.

I finally came up with a new plan that I thought would solve all our problems and it has. Since she works well with constant supervision I would give it to her by making her my own personal assistant. Together we are getting so much more accomplished than we did alone and there is no fighting, no reminding. I am loving it!

Victor washes all the dishes every day, takes out the garbage and cleans out the car once a week. That leaves laundry and the rest of the house for Persistence and I to clean. We go through every room together until the whole house is neat. I straighten and she picks up toys and items that don't belong and puts them away. She picks up garbage and moves chairs while I vacuum. While I'm mopping she has a scrubber to get the sticky spots as I go. We fold laundry together and she puts it away while I iron or start another load. Once we are done making the whole house look presentable we focus our efforts on one room for organizing and deep cleaning. You should see us, we are amazing! Seriously, I should sell tickets.

When I explained this new arrangement to Persistence she was not excited. She thought she was going to be doing more jobs and working a lot harder and she was right! But little did she know how much she would enjoy working with me and I enjoy it too. It's fun being a team and seeing what we can accomplish together. The other morning when Persistence woke up she came to me and excitedly asked what room we would be organizing that day. I think I shed a few tears of happiness at that moment.

The moral of this story is to keep trying new things with your kids until you find a system that works. Don't give up!

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.

Welcome to SHS! It's amazing how fast the weeks fly by isn't it? What's more amazing are the changes we are all seeing in our lives from our hard work at developing new habits. It doesn't even matter how your habits are going. Just keep working on them. Do you think I went to bed on time even once this last week? Yes actually, it happened one time! But that's not a bad thing. I am working on creating an entire life style that promotes early bedtimes for the whole family and that takes time. Progress! That's all I'm say'in.

I am still loving my new Habit chart. What a fun little toy to pull out and use throughout the day! And my kids are charting up a storm with theirs.

I haven't even thought about what my new habit is going to be for this week. I have been working on straightening my bedroom, bathroom and laundry room every morning when I get up so I think I will work especially hard on that this week. It feels great to walk in there and see everything neat and tidy. That includes all the stray toys picked up, my bed made, the washer and dryer cleared off as well as all the laundry put away which has never been a problem for me but now that Persistence is helping with laundry it has become an issue.

Here are the other habits I have been working on this year. Some of them are already habits and some of them still need a lot of work but all of them have improved my life. I think my greatest habit of all is my habit of making new habits! How awesome is that???

Using Habit Chart - Loving it!
Using Chapstick - Great! Oh yes. My life has been greatly improved by chapstick people.
Reading scriptures with kids - Great!
Getting to bed early, again - Only twice this week
Crafts with kids - Working on it.
Using Crock Pot - Not so much this week. I have been eating salads every day instead which my kids aren't thrilled about.
Paperwork, again, and again - On hold
Have lunch ready by Noon - Ok
Turn Off Computer during chores - Habit
Become a Dresser - Habit
Playing games with my kids - Not great
Reading my Church Magazine - Habit
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Great
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - I have three toilets and I'm doing one every day.

*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.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Visit GNMParents to find out how organized I am in the kitchen and then use the poll below to tell me how organized you are.

1. My kitchen is perfectly organized. I iron my dish towels every Thursday and the veggies in my crisper are not only alphabetized but they are also crisp.

2. My kitchen is pretty organized although it's true that I may own one to many sets of Christmas dishes but who can resist that festive Rudolph and all his cute little holiday antics?

3. My kitchen is partly organized. I can always find the eggs when I need them (unlike some people I know) but I regularly stash dirty dishes in the oven when company comes.

4. My kitchen is hardly organized. I know I own a blender but I haven't seen it since the great liquid diet of the 1970's and I think I would have to take a one-year sabbatical to locate it.

5. My kitchen is so unorganized that I have keep the blinds shut and pretend I'm not home when I hear the door bell or someone might report it as a biochemical hazard. The most we can hope for is a vigorous grease fire.

How organized is your kitchen?
My kitchen is perfectly organized.
My kitchen is pretty organized.
My kitchen is partly organized.
My kitchen is hardly organized.
My kitchen is very unorganized.
Poll starter: Lazy See Results

Organize Your Pots and Pans

My sister was visiting last week and she helped me decide where to build the shelves in my pantry and also where to hang my pot rack that's been sitting in a box in the corner for a year and a half. I had it hung in the kitchen in my old house but I got tired of the eye clutter so I wanted it in my pantry this time.

Well, look at that! I finally got it hung up!

I keep the pots we use every day in a drawer under my stove and the pot rack now holds the pots that I use less often.

Organizing never fails to make my heart race.

Sometimes for reasons it shouldn't.

When you are organizing the pots on your pot rack its probably not a good idea to let your toddler sit directly under it and play with her dollies. You know. In case you were to accidentally knock one of the pots off.

It might not actually fall on her and crush the life out of her but it would definitely give you and her a proper scare.

Fun Family Activity

Well we couldn't wait. We had to find out what that smell was in the pantry today.

You know when you come home from the grocery store and your 7 and 9 year old carry all the groceries in and put them away while you're unloading the toddler and getting dinner started?

And you know when you're certain you bought a carton of eggs but no one can find them so you decide you must have left them in the cart so you call the store and they tell you to bring your receipt in with you next time to pick up a free carton of eggs?

Except that you never do because your husband gives you the receipt but you keep forgetting to take it in until you eventually lose it?

And then you know when your pantry starts smelling funny so you go in there to do some organizing and you find a carton of eggs in the bottom of a grocery bag under the marshmallows and when you open the carton they look more like big blue speckled robins eggs instead of white chicken eggs?

Oh, that's never happened to you?

Well, if it ever did then when you were going to throw the eggs outside in the garbage can your husband would say, "Wait! Don't throw those away! Let's pitch them at the kids playing outside!" and he would be talking about his own kids.

You can pretty much figure then that he is planning on someone else cleaning the kids up after they are covered with rotten egg slime.

And that someone else would be you.

Write Away

Michelle at Scribbit asked me to judge her Write Away contest this month and it was so fun! Thanks for asking Michelle! I have been too intimidated by the words "writing contest" to enter it in the past but after participating as a judge I want to join in the festivities again as a writer. We'll see what the theme is for next time and if I have anything profound to say about it.


Here is my own little blog entry about traditions: Look Out Christmas! If you haven't yet, read it to find out why my motto is, "Put your name on all the good stuff. Make Santa look like the cheap jerk.”

A Recipe for a Relaxing Sabbath

Sometimes you just have to lick the bowl clean.

First of all I would like to know when my seven year old is going to figure out the difference between a fridge and a freezer because when I ask her to put the chicken in the fridge and I find it frozen solid three hours later when I'm ready to cook it I have to think we have a problem.

This is also a reminder not to cook with both of your kids at the same time. Just because it's Father's Day doesn't mean you should help one child make blank while helping the other child make blank. Everyone will dance around, fight and destroy the entire kitchen while the screaming two year old pokes her fingers into everything that she has to have "RIGHT NOW" but you keep telling her is for later.

At some point when the flour is flying and the butter is melting all over the bottom of the microwave you will say, "This is why people don't cook with their children. It is just too frustrating! I should get some kind of award for doing this today."

Then your kids will say, "What kind of award do you want?"

"Oh, Mother of the Year or Greatest Mother in the World or something like that."

"Ok, I'm going to make you one!"

"No I am!"

"No, we'll make it together and then I'll give it to her."

"No, I'll give it to her!"

"No I will and stop telling her what we're doing or it won't be a surprise!"

"She doesn't know what we're talking about! You don't know what we're talking about do you Mom?"

"No, of course not. I can't hear a single word of your yelling at each other. Whatever you're planning will be a big surprise and as long as you make a big mess and argue during the whole process I will be sure to love it," you will say.

And then the fighting will continue as you make everyone clean up the mess and send them to bed except that when they smell bedtime coming they start acting nice and cute and cuddling and reading to each other and then they know they have you right where they want you and you will let them stay up as late as they want and they are right.

Persistent Assistant

I had to organize this fun little puzzle the other day because there were just too many pieces.

I separated the big words from the little words to make the puzzle more manageable for Lovely. We'll save the bigger words for when she's older.

Don't you just love these quick little organizing projects?

My little helper and I have worked so hard the last couple of days. She has been persistent in her attempts to escape my organizing clutches but she was never able to get very far since she doesn't have a driver's license and her bike has a flat tire.

Our mission is to clean and organize every room in the house and today we worked in my studio. It took us two hours just to finish one corner! It was the corner full of the kid's art supplies and sewing projects and it was a mess.

I'm breathing a sigh of relief as I work in here now. With the worst part behind us we should be able to finish the rest of the room next week but we have to hurry because Persistence cannot wait to get started in the pantry to find out what that funny smell is. You know how seven year olds can be. One minute they're crying because you gave them the wrong color plate and the next minute they're shoving you out of the way at the store so they can get the groceries unloaded and paid for, "Just stand over there out of the way please."

Ok but will you buy me a treat if I'm good?

Smart Habit Saturday

Updated with my Habit document below.

We had 22 Smart Habit Saturday'ers last week! I'm excited to have so many of you who are willing to make the huge effort it takes to participate with me. It is not easy but I can't even tell you what a difference it has made in my life this year. Thank you!

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.

Recipe for the formation of a habit from Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andereola :

"Let a mother discipline herself to establish a particular habit in her children that would be to her favor and theirs. With devotion she focuses on forming one habit at a time, doing no more than watch over those already formed. She strives to be faithfully consistent. Tact, watchfulness, and perseverance are needed, especially during the first week or so, but when the habit is formed, there is not much fear of its being broken. Patience does its perfect work too, for it may take several months for even one small habit to stick. This is when many a mother makes it her supplication to ask for more patience, as she may sense it running out. She prays she will not fall into the temptation to be discouraged, inconsistent, or complacent. The dangerous time to run out of determination is just before the habit is formed."

I have been working on a new way to keep track of my habits and chores. I loved using Joes Goals but it was too big of a distraction to get on the computer every time I wanted to check something off so I gave up on it. I think it would work great for someone with just a couple goals or someone using it for goals in the office since you're already on the computer.

Last week I made my own chart and printed it on a 4X6 card to keep in my planner. I use my planner continually all day long so it's easy to check things off as I complete them and there is no danger of being sucking into blogging while I'm at it! I have a week printed on my card and I'm going to print a new card every week according to my chores, goals, and habits for that week. I love this new system and I'm going to keep working on it this week for my new habit.

Smart Habits Here is the document if you want to add your own habits and print it out. I have it formatted for a 4X6 card so I hope that works for you. Let me know if you have to change your program formatting or if it works the way it is. It has some lists for the kids but it doesn't have my entire list on it. I print both sides of one card and I am working on getting my list the way I want it.

How are you doing on your habits now that summer is here and kids are out of school?

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

I think my greatest habit of all is my habit of making new habits! How awesome is that???

Using Chapstick - Great! Oh yes. My life has been greatly improved by chapstick people.
Reading scriptures with kids - Great!
Getting to bed early, again - Only twice this week
Crafts with kids - Working on it.
Using Crock Pot - Great and loving it!
Paperwork, again, and again - I like how other people are saying "on hold". That's what this one is!
Have lunch ready by Noon - Ok
Turn Off Computer during chores - Habit
Become a Dresser - Habit
Playing games with my kids - Not great
Reading my Church Magazine - Habit, I lost my new magazine this week so I had to go buy another one because I couldn't live without it!
Kitchen and studio clutter free - Good
Clear Counters - Great
Clear Desk - Good
Review Planner - Habit
Daily Prayer - Habit
Clean Toilet - I have three toilets and I'm doing one every day.

*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.

It's a Beautiful Thing

In a "This is the first time its been clean in a year," kind of way.

We finally hooked up the water in this bathroom so I figured it was time to clean it. I'm so excited to have one more room to clean every day.

Sometimes I Try to be Nice

"Who said that? Did you say that?" a man asked his wife the other night at book club. She was sitting right by me so I had to confess that the rude remark had come out of my mouth and not hers. I'm much too nice to let someone else take the blame for my rudeness. Of course I am.

Stranger has been trying to teach me the subtleties of niceness. According to him it is sometimes nice to lie to people and rude to tell them the truth. I don't get it.

I always choose friends who can handle the hard cold facts. "No, I didn't listen to that book on tape you lent me. It was so nauseatingly cute and boring that I couldn't make it through the first chapter." And then when you tell me things like, "This salad is disgusting. Did the dressing call for dish soap?" I totally still love you because it just means more dish soap salad for me.

I'm not sure if it is possible for me to get my feelings hurt by someone who loves me. If you are married to me then I will remember every rude thing you have ever said and use it against you at every possible future moment but it won't hurt my feelings.

Of course if you are rude to me and it is obvious that you hate my guts then I will go home and cry my eyes out. For the rest of my life. Because who can live knowing there is even one single person on this earth who doesn't like them?

I am trying to learn to be nice though, really I am and I am already nice in my own little ways like, if you have food on your face I will tell you about it. But I warn you if I tell you once and then I see face food again I won't say anything the second time. I will just continue our conversation while being completely fascinated by the seagulls eating garbage outside the window. Boogers are another matter however. If I see boogers I go straight for the garbage. I can't even look at you long enough to ask you to wipe them away. If I didn't give birth to you then I really can't be held responsible for your boogers, ok?

And I'm nice in other ways too. I always return my shopping cart at the store. That's nice right? Not only that but I always take a shopping cart into the store with me so that it's one less cart that the shopping cart employee of the month has to retrieve. In fact I usually make my kids do it too. I know I won't be getting away with that very long because they are going to figure out that a family train of shopping carts going into the store doesn't look very cool. Even for home schoolers. Even for people who wear cowboy boots with shorts.

I hope you never get tired of the home schooling jokes because I never will. They always make me laugh because they are so true. I was just mentioning to my nine year old the other day, "That is exactly the kind of thing that makes home schoolers weird!" He decided to memorize a short poem and then the whole family re-wrote the poem using modern language except that it came out "rappy" and that's exactly how he was reciting it to us. In a white boy kind of way. I really should get that on video because that's not going to be cool in a few more years either and now that I've witnessed it I don't know if I can go the rest of my life without it.

Anyway. More about my niceness.

I always hang up all the clothes I try on in dressing rooms. Sometimes I have been tempted to leave the clothes sitting in a heap on the bench but then I sigh and hang them up anyway. Every single time I have felt tempted I have found something under the heap. Just little stuff like, oh, my sunglasses or my belt or my PURSE! See how you can be rewarded for doing the right thing? Or we can also learn that it pays to be organized even if we're lazy. Especially if we're lazy.

Some of you might be happy to hear of another nice thing I do. I click on your blog ads. Aren't I sweet? I figure you are making money according to how many clicks you get and it only takes a second so I do it. Tell me if I'm wrong ok? Maybe you get paid just from people looking at them. In that case I'm going to feel really stupid about all the clicking I've been doing. Stupid and nice.

Things I've Organized Lately

Can you see all the photos now?

It was time to re-organize the toy cupboard again. It didn't look as bad as it started out last time but Lovely has been getting into all the games and puzzles so I had to move everything out of her reach except the things she is allowed to play with.

Yes, there is an empty container in there but I'm sure it won't take us long to fill it up. There are also

Empty drawers!!! Since I ran out of toys, I guess they will stay empty until Lovely is a little older. I'll spend the next few months (years?) dreaming about what I will put in them when the time comes.

The bottom drawers are for her books and stuffed animals. I like baby books in drawers or baskets because they would never stay organized on a shelf. She used to only have access to the board books but she doesn't tear books apart anymore so I have added to her reading pleasure.

I keep all her toys in the living room since that is where we are always working and studying. It doesn't make sense to drag things back and for from her bedroom. And since they are right were I can see them I know what she is getting in to.

I am working really hard with her to help her pick up one mess before she makes another one. I am determined she won't turn out like my older messies! Oh yes, they are great at cleaning up their messes after they have destroyed the entire house but that is not exactly the skill I am going for. I'm hoping for more preventitive maintainence with my third child.

Now that Lovely is potty trained I have another empty drawer in my house. This is what my bathroom drawer looked like before. It was a great spot to organize diapers. I kept a changing mat on the counter to make diaper changes convenient. I have never been one to change diapers on the bed or the floor like I see other people do. It seems easier just to take babies into the bathroom where it's easy to wash up afterwards and also easy on the back.

Now I'm just waiting for the inspiration to fill it.

Oh, it just hit me. Hand towels and wash cloths! Now they'll be closer to the sink instead of across the room which works great for lazy people. And wet people.

I have a new plan for Persistence that I will tell you more about another day but she is my new cleaning buddy. We spent the morning cleaning her closet and bedroom, tossing out clothes, toys and a very impressive garbage collection. The old adage is really true. You can give a girl a garbage can but you cannot make her throw her garbage in it.

It's refreshing to see a clean floor in there again. Our plan is to do a different room every day until the whole house is spic and span. Although I don't know what spic and span means. I don't even know if I'm spelling it right so how are we going to know if we are doing it right?

I Wish I Had Thought of That

Kids - "Mmmmm, it smells good in here! Did you make bread?"

Mom - "Yes, wash your hands and you can have some."

Victor - "Mom, I have an idea. We should make a new rule that everyone has to wash their hands before they eat."

Mom - "I thought we already had that rule."

Victor - "Well, we should make it a real rule and everyone should follow it."