Talk About Butter Making

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Since this is the Gallagher year of learning to eat healthy foods (healthy according to ?) and learning new things I present butter making!

First of all I'm learning that anything fast, easy and processed is evil. Well, I'm learning just HOW evil since I always knew processed foods were bad for us. Now we are making the switch from evil pasteurized/homogenized/hormone laden milk to raw milk fresh from the dairy. Doesn't it sound lovely? If you're looking for raw milk in your area you can try this website: realmilk.com

Our local dairy sells raw cows milk for $4 a gallon which I think is much cheaper and easier than keeping our own dairy cow which was our other option. Stranger wasn't very excited about that option for some reason.

I sent Stranger to buy milk at 3:00 in the morning on his way home from work yesterday. I had called ahead and ordered two gallons of milk and a quart of cream. When he got there there was only one gallon left in the fridge so he came home with that and the cream. But he gets home and realizes that it wasn't a gallon of milk. He had picked up a gallon of cream! What do you do with a gallon of cream??? I guess we will be making ice cream, fettuccine alfredo and lots of butter this week. Now doesn't that sound healthy?

To make our butter we started with a quart of fresh cream in our mixer. You could use pasteurized cream from the store and I'm sure it would work just as well. We used our cookie dough paddles so the butter wouldn't get caught in the wire whisks. You can't see them very well because they are white.

It took quite a while to get to the stage where it started separating, 10-15 minutes maybe. Next time we might turn it on high and see if it goes any quicker.

Then only a couple more minutes and it was done!

We got about a cup and a half of butter out of the buttermilk that was left over.

This buttermilk isn't cultured of course. It just tastes like regular milk except that you have to strain the floating butter bits through your teeth when you drink it. That's attractive.

And there's our fresh butter, washed with a little salt added.

It's pretty expensive to make but you know exactly what you're getting. If you don't want to make your own butter from now on at least it's a fun project to do with your kids. Persistence thinks she's going to make cute shapes next time. Wouldn't little cow butter pats be so cute?

Ok, maybe things getting a little too country/crunchy/homeschool/weird around here. I promise some organizing for tomorrow ok? Promise.

Here is some more information on butter making. Have fun!

What are you talking about this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday 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.

Chicken Teriyaki

This is one of my favorite recipes but we don't make it very often because it's more difficult than throwing all the ingredients into a crock pot and turning it on. It's worth a little extra work though and a lot cheaper than eating out at your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Chicken Teriyaki

4 chicken breasts
1 egg, beaten
cornstarch
oil
carrots
purple onion
green pepper

Sauce: (I don't measure any of this. I just throw it in.)
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup

Cut up boneless, skinless chicken breasts into pieces. Coat in beaten egg, then roll in cornstarch. Brown each piece of chicken in hot oil. Put chicken in baking dish and cover with sauce. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Add the vegetables half way through cooking time. Serve over rice.

We love making Thai sticky rice with it. It's different from what most people call sticky rice. It's steamed in a basket over boiling water. You can find the rice and the basket and steamer for a few dollars at your local Asian market. There are directions and photos here but we don't wrap ours in cheese cloth. We just steam it in the basket for 15 minutes, turn and steam 10 more minutes. Then you roll it into balls and eat it with your hands. Except I don't because I like utensils. I don't even eat pizza or French fries with my hands if I can help it. There. Now you know one more weird thing about me.

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! 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've been plowing through paperwork all week and have unearthed some interesting treasures; overdue bills, baby growth charts, my voter registration card and last but not least a $2,000 check that is now too old to cash. You would think we didn't like money or something by the way we just leave our mail piled in the corner (and the floor and the table...). But really how often do you get $2,000 in the mail?

I also took care of an insurance request for copies of our birth certificates that Stranger handed me two weeks before it was due. It's not like it was that difficult a task or anything. I'm organized right? I could go right to my file folders, pull them out and fax them right? Right. Expect that I never ordered a birth certificate for my now THREE YEAR OLD BABY! Is that so shocking when it took us two years just to name her? It shouldn't be.

Guess what I do when I get the mail now? Pile it? NO, file it!!! Well, at least that's my new motto. Like I said before, my files are organized. They're perfect. They're flawless. My system for getting the papers into the files is not so perfect. In fact it's so flawed that it doesn't actually exist.

But that is all changing and it's changing now. I'm just glad I have one more week to get my paperwork under control before I have to start working on a new habit.

Have a great week!

If you are new and you want to catch up on last year - Smart Habit Saturday 2007

*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.

Take a Look

A dream house for kids. And that would include husbands.

Quiet Please!

I'm sick to death of kids slamming doors around here. Lovely, especially, is a professional door slammer and no matter how many times I tell her she doesn't have to shut EVERY door behind her she just can't stop herself.

We have wood doors so I don't know if they shut a lot louder than other doors or if I'm just imagining it but they are LOUD! With a husband and a three year old that sleep during the day and a mother who is pregnant and likes to sleep in (that would be me), we just can't have any more of it.

I tried to get Stranger to buy some little vinyl bumper sticker things (I think that's the technical name) to put in the door frame but he suggested using sticky felt pads which I already had so I cut them up into little pieces and they are working great! Of course I can still hear every door opening and shutting and little feet running up and down the hall every morning but it doesn't make me grumpy like the slamming did.

I love my new quiet house! And I promise not to be so lazy after this baby is born. I will actually start getting up before my children again. In a year or so. I promise.

Talk About Sprouting

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Daring had a great idea on one of her posts to plant wheat grass for Easter. I thought it would be too late when we planted ours on the 14th but look how tall it is after only 9 days! I've planted grass seed before and it took forever to grow. This was much easier.

Now we get to start eating the healthy stuff!

Doesn't those look tasty? One of my goals this year was to learn how to grow my own sprouts. We all love sprouts around here and watching these little babies grow is so much fun for all of us. They take a little bit of tender loving care because the seeds have to be soaked and then rinsed several times a day. Our first batch of alfalfa sprouts grew perfectly.

But the next batch went moldy for some unknown reason. One of the kids might have rinsed them and not drained the water out properly. I don't know. In the mean time we were also sprouting mung beans. Their little tails just kept getting longer and longer and they tasted so good when we snuck a few here and there.

Then one day they turned purple, sprouted wings (leaves) and that was the end of the fun. Hello nasty and bitter! I guess it's on to round two with the mungs.

So I broke down and bought new doodads. Sprouting trays. We will soon find out if it was a good investment in my family's health and future or if we'll find them in the donation box after I've stored them for a sufficient amount of years without using them.

Two sprout trays aren't enough for all the sprouting we want to do so I am going to make my own sprouting bags. You can buy them at sproutman.com but of course I'm too thrifty for that. I have to order my own fabric, spend time sewing them up, ruin a bunch of seeds finding out that mine don't work for some reason, and then order the bags from Sproutman. That's just how I like to do things around here. Or I'll buy the automatic sprouter. That thing is cool!

Another note: After buying my sprouting seeds I ordered a new book called Nourishing Traditions which says eating too many raw sprouts is not good for you. They should be cooked before eaten. Also,

There is only one seed we do not recommend in sprouted form (or in any form) and that is - surprisingly - alfalfa! After mung beans, alfalfa is the variety of sprout that has caught on in the health food world. Unfortunately, it seems that all the praise heaped on the alfalfa sprout was ill advised. Tests have shown that alfalfa sprouts inhibit the immune system and can contribute to inflammatory arthritis and lupus. Alfalfa seeds contain an amino acid called canavanine that can be toxic to man and animals when taken in quantity.

See what I mean? How are you supposed to eat healthy when you don't know what healthy is? Who are you supposed to believe? I am needing some direct revelation from God here.

What are you talking about this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday 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.

Out Of My Unorganized Mind

Well, I've done it again. I've waited too long to re-order Lazy Organizing Bags and now I am out and waiting to receive a new shipment that should be here in about six weeks (hopefully sooner). I'm only out of the small bags at the moment though so you can still get all the other wonderful sizes. At least... until they are gone too. Can you ever forgive me?

I would promise to be a good girl from now on and keep everything in stock but I don't dare. All I can say is I have hired a new book keeper that is going to try to keep me organized so it won't happen again. HA!!!

If you would like to be notified when the small bags are back in stock please e-mail me at thelazyorganizer@yahoo.com. Thank you for your patience!

Click here to place an order.

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! 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.

Act when you think.

People who are able to do great, large works do not say tedious things like, "Let us do it if there is time." If something is thought of, it is disposed of at once. This is a very important thing in life.

by Shiniki Suzuki in Ability Development from Age Zero

Do you want to be someone who does great things? Getting organized and learning new habits builds a strong foundation and leaves you more time and energy for action. I try every day to act on my thoughts. Using my planner I write things down that I want to act on and then I do everything I can to follow through. It's a difficult habit to form but it's something we all need to work on. We can do it!

I'm still working on getting and keeping my studio organized every day. It looks so much better and I have been able to keep the clutter cleared off my desk. I never thought it possible! I'm getting excited about getting cabinets in here so I have a place for everything but they won't do me any good without good habits.

Guess what? My island is finally cleared off too! Man, that was painful. Now I can pile my paperwork on it and start getting it filed away in my perfectly organized files that I never use.

I hope you had a great week!

If you are new and you want to catch up on last year - Smart Habit Saturday 2007

*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.

Recycled Notecards

Tell me if you think this is weird. It probably is because I do so many weird things. But I cannot write in a notecard. I always write on a piece of paper and stick it inside the notecard so the person I'm giving it to can use the card again. I think of it like a little present. I'm sending the note and the card is the present that they can use and give to someone else. Thoughtful? Or weird?

Now if everyone did this then I would never have to buy or make another card. It would be like the gift bag phonomenon. People give them to you. You give them to other people. No one is actually buying any new gift bags. They are just going around and around. Right? I'm not the only one participating in this wonderful gift bag exchange program am I?

By the way, I don't actually make notecards. That was something I did in my past life and I just happen to have a few left over. That shows you how often I send notes to people. Isn't that what e-mail is for?

I am turning over a new leaf though. I'm going to start sending notes. I don't know why but it seems like the right thing to do. Right after I get my studio organized. Start holding your breath and checking your mailbox.

The Book Plan

We are being overrun by books! They are unorganized and they are everywhere.

I'm not sorry about my mission to buy all these books. I'm just sorry I don't have anywhere to put them.



Some day we will have beautiful and organized bookshelves to house them all but I'm too worried about food storage and getting my studio organized to think about bookshelves right now. In the mean time I need a plan.

Here's my plan. Watch out because it's really complicated. I have asked my kids to write their name and their age in the back of every book they read. Then when a book has both of their names in the back it will get boxed away either until we get new book shelves or Lovely starts reading chapter books. Is that an amazing plan or what? I think it will be fun to look back and see how old they were when they read all these books.

Homeschoolers tend to be weird about books. I go into their homes and they have rows of assorted bookshelves lining every wall. I don't have very much wall space in my home that doesn't have a window or a door in the way so I need to come up with something different.

My dream is to have Louis L'Amour bookshelves, 17 feet tall and two deep. He talked about his library in one of his books, Education of a Wandering Man, and I knew that was the secret to an organized library, bookshelves behind bookshelves. I would love to see a picture of them but Google didn't come up with anything for me. I've been designing some for our house (in my head) ever since. Of course we don't have 17 foot tall ceilings so we will have to work with what we have. I may have to turn the play room into a library in a few more years.

I wonder what I will do with all these books after my kids are grown and gone. I'm getting sad just thinking about it so I'd better stop. Having my kids gone today has made me a bit emotional. Not because I miss them or anything. I'm sure it's because I have gotten so much done that I wish they would stay gone for a couple more days. Not too long. Just long enough that I could actually start missing them. Is that too much to ask? To miss my kids once in a while?

My Thoughts, My Day

...these are my humors and opinions; I offer them as what I believe, not what is to be believed. I aim here only at revealing myself, who will perhaps be different tomorrow, if I learn something new which changes me. I have no authority to be believed, nor do I want it, feeling myself too ill-instructed to instruct others.

Montaigne 1579

Just a reminder not to believe anything I say because I will probably change my mind tomorrow.



Stranger came home tonight and packed some wheat into buckets with dry ice. (instructions) This is just the beginning. There is a lot left to go.



We're doing pretty good with our food storage list. We only have a few more items to check off.

The more I get into this food storage stuff, the more I'm reading about cooking with grains and eating healthy. It's starting to scare me. We are using the wrong pans and the wrong deodorant. We're drinking the wrong milk and eating all the wrong foods. Are we doing anything right? I didn't know this was going to be such a slippery slope to go down but we'll keep plugging away, doing what we can a little bit at a time.

I spent the morning putting away stuff that didn't belong in my pantry. It was all sitting in the hall so I could take these photos. No, I'm not finished. I just added the rest to the pile on my kitchen island. I work and work on that pile but somehow it doesn't seem to be getting any smaller.

Have I told you lately how tired I am? I really have to start pacing myself.

I have good news though. I signed my kids up to go the the zoo for free homeschool day tomorrow but I'm too pregnant for all the walking. This looks like a job for the grandparents so I get the whole day off! To myself! In my own house! To do whatever I want!!!

Talk About An Organized Pantry

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My pantry is finally finished! Well... I might have one more itsy bitsy project I want to do in there but that can wait. For now it is finished.

When Stranger installed the cabinets we realized we didn't have the right shelves (or enough shelves) for the tall cabinets so I couldn't put anything away in them until we finally made the long trek back to Ikea six weeks later. It was pure torture for me having stuff piled everywhere for that long.

We bought the new shelves on Thursday so of course I had to spend 8 hours on Friday organizing and getting everything put away. I learned something that day. When you are 7 months pregnant you don't have the energy you normally have and it's probably best not to try to work yourself to death just for an organizing thrill.

Now for the big reveal...

What looked like this for two years (except not usually that clean.)

Now looks like this!



The tall cabinets were supposed to stand on the ground but I had Stranger install them all the way up to the ceiling for two reasons. The first is so my grain buckets would fit under them, giving me more storage space, and the second is so I wouldn't have to clean dust off the top of them. Love it.





I got tired of wrestling with a small recycling container for our plastics so now that I have the space I hauled that big garbage can in from the garage. It is working so much better. Apparently we go through a lot of plastic containers around here.

I'll save the boring details of all the cupboards for another day but here are just a couple of my favorites.

My organized baking dishes. Notice how (except for the muffin tins) none of them are nested and they are only stacked two high on each shelf? That's why I needed lots of shelves. It makes it so much easier for us to pull out the pan we want and then to put it away again. I also store containers with the lids on so I never have to hunt for a lid.

I'm also in love with my Grain Station. We bought those square containers last week to organize all our various grains. I put the wheat in a bigger bucket because we go through it so much faster. This week I will treat myself to making labels for them. Fun!

I have my wheat grinder right there along with my nut and seed grinder. From now on it will be so much easier for us to cook healthy food. Stop by some time and we will whip up a batch of whole grain pancakes or freshly baked bread for you.

Sadly, now it's back to organizing paperwork for me.

I forgot I get to cross this off my Mom's Mission Impossible list!

What are you talking about this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday 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.

Mom's First Credit Union

I've been trying to teach my kids to budget money by giving them allowances and responsibilities to go along with it. It's called Mom's First Credit Union and you can read more about it here. The trouble is that I have trouble letting them spend the money on anything but what they are supposed to be spending it on. The result is that they have never run out and therefore aren't really learning anything.

My ten year old son loves to save but has been spending more and more money the past several months (I was very brave let it happen!) until now we finally have results. He is not only out of cash but he is in debt $9 because we just realized he forgot to total in the $50 that he spent on his basketball league this year. He's going to have to take money out of his savings account to cover it and it's just about killing him.

When we go places he will sadly say, " I guess I'm not buying anything since I don't have any money." I am very sympathetic, "Ya, that's too bad," but secretly rejoicing inside. Poor kid!

The other day he was moping about it again so I told him to look through his checkbook and tell me where he might have wasted his money. After studying it for a few minutes he sadly read me the list: junk food, socks (because he ruins his he has to buy more), too much on Christmas presents, library fines, etc. He even had to spend $16.00 filling a cavity at the dentist!

Now if that doesn't make me the meanest Mom in the world I don't know what does. I got tired of nagging my kids to brush and floss their teeth (when I asked them if they had brushed they would lie to me) so I told them six months ago that they were their teeth and if they didn't want to take care of them then there was nothing I could do about it but they were going to start paying for their own dental work. They have been doing a pretty good job brushing ever since but Victor still had to have a cavity fixed. I hope it helps them both learn that taking care of their teeth is a serious business.

So Victor is finally learning what I intended all along. Money (teeth too!) doesn't last forever and he has to make difficult choices. At this point I still help them with those choices but when my kids are twelve they will be on their own. They will be in charge of their own finances and I am staying out of it, come what may. I would rather they learn with a few pennies and dollars when they're young than wait till they are adults and waste thousands like I did.

Designing My Studio

*Updated below

This is almost exactly what I am going to be doing in my studio. Thanks for posting the photos just for me Angela!

I will have a long counter along the back wall like that and a desk sitting on the left wall. I will probably do the upper cabinets all the way across the wall though. And underneath my counter you will find drawers, drawers, drawers. There is almost nothing better than drawers for organizing.

On the right side of the room I have an industrial sewing machine and an industrial serger. Think big. Very big. I love them both and couldn't live without them. I don't have room for a big table in here but I have a kitchen island three feet away that I can use to spread out on.

I need your help with something though. Should I give up some of those drawers to have a space to push a stool under the cabinet? It would make a nice spot to sit and work at the counter but I would lose some storage space in a very tiny room and I could always just drag my projects out to the kitchen island if I want to sit down. What do you think?

Are you ready for another trip to Ikea Stranger?

*I also wanted to show you a digital garden makeover that Angela did for one of her readers. I would like to send her a photo of every room in my house to see what she could do with it!

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! 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.

Can you believe I've been working on my studio for two weeks now and it's still not done? It's not the fun sort of organizing project that we all love. It hurts my brain! I working on it a little bit at a time though and it looks and feels really good.

When I dumped all the clutter into boxes I stacked them on my kitchen island. That has been a great incentive to get it all put away. I still have one more box to go through and then I will finish up the paperwork.

A Smart Habit studio. It's a good thing.

I'm not working in my studio today though. I'm organizing in another room and it's fun! I will tell you all about the excitment next week for Talk About Tuesday.

If you are new and you want to catch up on last year - Smart Habit Saturday 2007

*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.

How to Find a Husband if You're Persistant

Persistence - "I just don't know how I'm going to decide who to marry." (She's eight.)

Me - "It can be a tough decision when you're eight." (Did I mention that she's eight?)

Persentence - "I think what I'll do is find twenty boys and bring them to my house and line them up. Then I'll pick the best one and marry him."

Me - "Good plan." (Seriously. Can you think of a better one?)

The kids and I went to the opera last week. Cinderella. Persistence wore what she now calls her opera dress and the audience was full of Cinderellas in ball gowns and crowns. It was so fun!

I love opera and I'm so excited that my kids are old enough to go because I haven't been since having them. Not only are they old enough for the opera but in January we went to a Ririe Woodbury Dance production and in a couple weeks we're seeing Shakespeare. I can't wait!

At the dance production Lovely climbed up on her chair to whisper in my ear every time a new group of dancers came out on stage, "That's my new favowite Mommy! That's my new sparkly!" She was so impressed that over a month later she is still talking about it.



Poor Cinderella. She works her fingers to the bone but she tries to have fun doing it. Isn't defrosting the freezer one of your favorite jobs?



It would be a lot more fun if people would think of doing it BEFORE they bought a half a beef that had to be moved into coolers and drug out onto the front porch. You'll remember that for next time won't you sweetie?

It's a good idea to do your defrosting now while it's still cold outside. I don't really know what came over me but I had that thought before falling asleep one night so of course I couldn't wait till Stranger was home to help. I guess that's what professional meat movers (kids) are for.

Get Me To The Church On Time

I got another fabulous idea from a friend last week. I know. I have brilliant friends. What this friend has started doing is having a devotional with her family 30 minutes before Church starts.

She makes a treat like muffins or banana bread and anyone who is ready for the devotional on time gets to participate in scriptures and prayer and the treat. I know. It's bribery. I don't think my kids would necessarily care about the treat as much as spending that time with the family instead of getting yelled at to hurry up already. Not that I ever yell. Especially not on the Sabbath. Heavens no.

I haven't quite figured out how finding time to make a special treat makes Sunday mornings easier but we all know the real truth behind the matter of the devotional deadline. It is not about the children getting ready on time. It's about the Mom getting herself and the meals ready and getting the girl's hair done and changing diapers, and packing everything up, etc. on time. Maybe I need to assign the treat to one of the kids to make. Now look how brilliant I am!

We go to Church from 11:00-2:00 so we've eaten breakfast but it's too early for lunch before we leave so everyone is starving to death by the time we get home. Not to mention that Church is also in the middle of Lovely's nap time. It makes that last hour very difficult. And yes, I think getting through three hours of Church with children of any age is meant to be a trial of every Mother's faith. Obviously. What else could it be for?

So I thought I would try the devotional last Sunday. I got the muffins made and lunch and meals in crock pots and everyone was ready for the devotional by 10:31. Except me. That's when I realized that actually telling everyone about the devotional might have helped things along but oh well. Can we blame it on the time change?

I was ready a few minutes later, we ate our muffins and ran out the door without a devotional but on time for Church! That was the important part. We will try the devotional thing again next week because I'm determined to make it work, with or without treats.

P.S. I was so organized that I had oatmeal in the crock pot Saturday night set on a timer so we would have breakfast all ready in the morning except that the crock pot never turned on. No problem. I just turned it on the next morning and we ate it for lunch.

I also put dinner in a different crock pot Sunday morning except that somehow it mysteriously got unplugged so we also didn't have any dinner. That's when you wonder why you even try and you fry up some bacon and eggs and everyone is deliriously happy anyway because they can't remember the last time they ate such wonderfully exotic food.

Talk About Attachment Planning

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Really big candy bar anyone?


You know how lazy I am right? It says so right up there. I am also very forgetful. I'm so forgetful that I can't remember if I'm organized or not.

I was on my way to a meeting a couple weeks ago and I started having a panic attack because I had forgotten to write down the address of the meeting before I left. I pulled out my planner to see if there was any hope for me and low and behold not only had I previously written down the address but I had googled detailed directions and I had a phone number in case I still got lost (which can happen because Google maps is not all knowing). I was prepared and didn't even know it!

I can't even tell you how many times my compulsive organizing has saved my lazy, forgetful behind. Many.

Question from a reader:

How long did it take you to become attached to your planner? I've
been trying for over a year, and I just can't seem to keep track of it, or
regularly turn to it.

I'm so over scheduled right now, and not
surprisingly, overwhelmed. I really need to keep organized so I don't forget and
regret.

Dawn

Let me start by saying it was not easy and it took years so don't lose hope.

I use a method I call Attachment Planning; wearing your planner, co-sleeping with your planner, and spending every minute of every day with your planner. The two of you cannot ever be separated by time or space. This will help create an unbreakable bond with your planner that will foster healthy dependence and security. I write everything in my planner that I can think of. Everything. I keep my planner in my purse and it goes everywhere with me; to the store, to the gym and even to bed. I wouldn't be able to do that if I had a big full sized planner. Which brings me to my next point.

Find a planner that will work for you. I'm sure most planners out there are good but I believe the most important feature of a planner is the size. Whether paper or electronic, if your planner is too small or too big for your needs then you won't use it. I have tried electronic planners and as much as I like gadgets and computers, paper works better for me. The number one reason is probably because it is cheap. Or I'm cheap. Whatever. Meet my old planner. Meet my new planner. My old one worked great but I like my new one even better and it's oh so pretty too.

You need quality and quantity time with your planner. Every day. Make it a habit. I did that over a year ago in January with Smart Habit Saturday and haven't looked back. I have a longer planning session with my planner every morning and every night and then I consult with it again several times a day as I make needed notes.

I need to address a very important issue regarding planners. According to the Gospel of Lazy, Thou shalt have no other planners above your ONE and ONLY planner. If you are trying to juggle five different calendars you are just asking for trouble. If you want to keep a calendar on the wall for your family to look at that is fine but things must be scheduled into your personal planner first and then transfered onto the family calendar, not vice versa. If you are a person with different planners for home and office and kids and it's working for you then just ignore me. Most people are not that talented.

Additionally - Thou shalt NEVER make plans with anyone without checking thy planner first. Though shalt NEVER leave thy home or office without looking at thy planner first. Thou shalt NEVER read thy e-mails or talk on the phone without thy planner right beside thee. Thou shalt NEVER overschedule thyself. If you are married then thou might also want to apply Stranger's Law in thy life.

Ok, enough of that.

I feel like a different person since I have finally made Attachment Planning work for me. Take the time to make it work for you too and watch it change your life!

An additional note.

My ten year old is obsessive compulsive about our schedule. He wants a repeated, detailed, play-by-play of every upcoming moment of our lives. This has always been annoying for me to say the least but it is getting worse as he gets older. Finally I had him (made him) buy a small planner this year where he can write everything down so I don't have to repeat myself fifty times. The added benefit is that he tells me fifty times a day what we are supposed to be doing and when. I'm not sure if I am contributing to his obsessive complusiveness or if I am helping it but we haven't missed a dang thing since.

Oh, and how do I get him to write things in his planner because he is as lazy as his Mom and doesn't naturally want to take the time to do it on his own? When he asks me questions about our activities I won't answer him unless he has his planner in his hands and is ready to write.

I know. I'm mean and I like to torture him like that.

What are you talking about this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual Talk About Tuesday 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.

Mother's Who Know

I was re-reading an article today by Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, entitled Mother's Who Know.

I was particularly struck this time by one point. She is speaking of, "Mothers who know who they are and who God is and have made covenants with Him, will have great power and influence for good on their children." Then she goes on to say,

"Mother's who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world's goods in order to spend more time with their children - more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing and exemplifying."

Notice how she didn't say that Mothers should live on less and consume less of the world's goods in order to save the environment and save money? No. Making money to buy Stuff takes time away from our families. Shopping for Stuff takes time away from our families. Taking care of and organizing Stuff takes time away from our families. Wading through all that extra Stuff to get to our families takes time away from our families.

Stop buying STUFF!

Oh and please don't stop by this week until I finish getting all the extra Stuff from my studio cleared out because it is spread all over my kitchen island. And don't ask me how so much Stuff fit into this tiny little room.

Thanks.

Smart Habit Saturday