About Home Schooling

The results of my last poll on kitchen organization really surprised me. What is the deal with all you organized people reading my blog??? Are you just here to laugh at how unorganized I am? Or maybe you're organized but you struggle with it like I do. Either way we're all into getting (and staying) organized so I guess we can stay friends.

I'm continually shocked by how many home schoolers read my blog so this time I'm curious to know how many of you aren't sending kids off to school this fall...

What kind of education are your children receiving?

Public School

Charter School

Private School

Home School

Some combination of the above including home schooling

Some combination of the above excluding home schooling

Poll starter: Lazy See Results

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

About Hair

I have been working on re-organizing my sidebar again and have been running across some old posts. If you see them show up in your feed reader it's because I did a little editing. Just check the date to see if it's current. Of course I still love comments on old posts but the content is outdated. Like I have not started my garden this year. I don't even had a driveway or a yard, let alone a garden!

I want to add a post to my sidebar with links to people who have been so kind to link to me. Again, I have to make this easy on myself so if you have linked to me and you want to be included (and why wouldn't you!) then please e-mail me your blog address so I can add it.

I thought I would do another poll since it's been so long. I have long hair right now and it is a huge pain to take care of. (This photo was taken six months ago so it's even longer now.) The good part about it is I can wear it in a ponytail every single day of my life. (Very organized don't you think?) I know some day I will get sick of it, chop it off with a pocket knife, and donate it to Locks of Love but I'm enjoying it while I can. Love you Kimberly! I really like my hair short or long. I don't like it in between. It's sad because short and long are both hard to take care of. In between is the easiest.

I just talked persistence into cutting her hair even shorter than we did In December. I'm sure I'll post a photo soon. It's so cute! She has thin hair so keeping it short makes it much easier. Mine is too thick so short=more work.

What is your hair story?

Updated to say, I thought the bald thing was funny until I added Locks of Love and now it is not so funny. Sorry about my rudeness! Can you just ignore me please? Unless you shave your head on purpose. Then we can laugh at your organized head right?

How long is your hair?
I have short hair and love it.
I have short hair and hate it.
I have medium length hair and love it.
I have medium length hair and hate it.
I have long hair and love it.
I have long hair and hate it.
I have a very organized head. I'm bald.
Poll starter: Lazy See Results

About Entertaining

A Juggling Mum has some ideas to make your morning run smoother. Personally I think it’s more fun to stay in my jammies till 3:30 and then rush around at the last minute to get ready to go to the gym. Oh my hectic schedule!

Laura has a return shelf, I used to have a return cupboard and now I have a return drawer. If you don’t have one for yourself, get one!

Kimberly has been on an organizing frenzy that has been fun to watch. Check out her posts for the last few weeks. Don’t we all love organizing photos? Now I want all of you to be nice and share yours with me too.

I have never intended for my blog to be a complete organizing tip resource. I just write about what I’m doing and I hope that it inspires you to get more organized and discover solutions that work for your own family. Fortunately there are people out there who have the energy to create such a resource for you. And not just about organizing. Check out Tipnut. Her sight is amazing! This post is especially good don’t you think?

Go support Thoroughly Mormon Millie at her Hopeful Housewife Support Blog. Just be careful that you don't snort your soda out your nose because she's funny.

Check out the results from my last poll About Blogging. I was surprised by how many of you spend less than an hour a day blogging. Either you don't have your own blogs or you are all a bunch of liars! Or maybe you're in recovery. I hadn't thought of that. Is it possible to be an unaddicted blogger?

This week you get two polls for the price of one.

About Blogging

The poll and some blogging business.

I re-wrote an old post, Organize Your Sibling Rivalry, to publish in my newspaper column.

I want to thank Julie for nominating me for a blog award. Isn't she so sweet? She's also very talented and I was pleased to see that she was nominated for an award as well, Best Writing. So please go vote for her. While you're there if you want to vote for me too I wouldn't feel terribly bad about it. Julie nominated my blog for Most Inspirational and another kind but nameless person nominated me for Blog You'll Never Stop Reading.

A lot of you have been nominated too. I can't wait to vote for you and I'm looking forward to finding lots of fun new blogs to read!


Here is a new poll to add to your voting pleasure and by blogging I mean writing, posting, visiting and commenting on blogs. You could even count the time you spend take bizarre photos of the inside of your fridge to post on your blog!

Check out my last poll About Exercise. I expected that most people would work out in the morning but I was surprised to see how many of you are allergic to exercise! I wonder if there is a cure for that. I've heard it is fatal.

About Shoes; most of you have your shoes pretty well under control. For the rest of you, I'm going to start a support group on letting go of the shoes. I'm going to name it Shoe Crossing and we'll let our unworn shoes out into the wild to track their travels. My goal is to make the whole world a shoe store.

As you can see, I have switched to the new Blogger. I would have done it sooner but I tried my template on a test blog and it wouldn't load. Then one day I lost my head with label envy and clicked the Switch button anyway and it worked! I don't get all the fancy features that the rest of you get but I love the labels. I have added them to a few posts but it will take me a while to get to them all. I was happy to find out I can add labels to several posts all at once instead of editing each individual post. Yay for the new blogger!

Is there anyone out there who wants to fix my template to work with the new blogger and would be willing to trade for some Organizing Bags? I would love it!

About Exercise

Do you apologize about your home every time someone stops by for a visit? Check out my article at GNMParents and see what others have to say about it.

A lot of you have chosen exercise as as one of your Smart Habits. The best way to stick with an exericise program is to do something you enjoy, start off slowly, do it with friends, and find a time that works with your schedule. If you haven't already, check out my review of The Ultimate Fit or Fat. It's a wonderful book to get you started with an exercise program.

I enjoy almost any kind of workout but I will continue working out at the gym until my kids are older and we can get outside more. They have a wonderful nursery and a Junior Lounge with movies, games and art projects for the older kids. Or they can play basketball, raquetball, tennis, golf, run or swim. The kids never get tired of going to the gym so if I don't feel like going then they make me! If you want your kids to learn to exercise then you need to start now by setting a good example. My Mother always did.

I have found that the best time for me to exercise is right before dinner. Since I homeschool and my husband is always out of town it's a nice time for the kids and I to get a break from each other and let off steam. We work out, come home to eat dinner and then get ready to read and go to bed. Working out in the morning just makes me tired for the rest of the day.



For those of you who have inquired about my health I will fill you in. I spent many high school and college years as an athlete. I never once injured myself although I watched my fellow teammates dropping like flies around me with their injuries. I think the secret to my success was that I was very lazy and I didn't push myself too hard! I try to listen to my body and push it as far as I can without pushing it too far.

In spite of my great care to work out safely, I found myself injured last weekend. Did I trip over a bar bell and break my foot? Did I tear a muscle doing dead lifts? Did I sprain my ankle falling off a stair machine? No, nothing like that. I woke up Sunday morning with a stiff neck that worsened until I couldn't even turn my head or stand up without agonizing pain!

Apparently I am at risk of injury if I hold still for too long. Seriously! Six years ago I had major problems with my neck because I decided to take up piano and all those hours sitting at the piano practicing were just too much for me. I spent weeks in physical therapy and finally had to give up my dreams of becoming a concert pianist. Isn't that a sad story? Even now I have to be careful to do stretching exercises when I'm sitting at the computer or my sewing machine.

A couple sessions with my physical therapist fixed me back up this time. I think my neck problems really go back to my years of high jumping and repeatedly landing on my back, neck, and head. It looks something like this. Sometimes I wonder if it may have caused a little brain damage too.

About Shoes

Thanks to everyone who joined me in my new SMART Habit Saturday. Everyone had such wonderful goals and habits to work on and even my seven year old joined in! It's been three whole days and I've already had some ups and downs with my habit. More about that on Saturday. Keep up the good work Smarties!

I've been spending some quality time organizing my side links. I hope you'll find something helpful there.

My good Organizing friend Laura posted a very kind review about my Organizing Bags last week. She always has so many great ideas! Go check it out and tell me what you think. Laura also has a wonderful Menu Plan Monday that everyone should join in. Then read this inspiring post and get your junk drawer organized. It will stay that way for at least three days, I promise. Mine always does!

I have wanted to post a poll on my site for some time. That's what that "Question" link is for over there in my sidebar. You were wondering about that weren't you? I love polls. They are so fun! Go ahead and tell me your deepest darkest shoe secret.

Updated - My husband informs me that there is no zero on my shoe poll for him. The only reason he has zero extra shoes is that he wears each pair until they disintegrate into dust. If anyone else has zero pairs of shoes they don't wear then please leave a comment about the organized miracle that is your life! Confess!