Life is a Journey not a Destination

Aren’t these just the cutest? When I was ordering my Flylady calender this year I saw these decluttering kits and thought I’d buy them and see how they went. I used them for the first time with Christy. We were sorting through her toys hoping to find her DS. Plus it’s her birthday on Thursday so she wanted to make room for all the toys she thinks she’s getting (hope she’s not too disappointed).

Anyway, she loved the baskets and had a lot of fun working out which one to put everything in. As you can see the giveaway was the most popular. When Amy saw them she wanted to know if we could leave them where they are (in between the girls bedrooms). I don’t so but they are nice enough that you could. I’ll probably just store them in our spare room/study but they do collapse to be put away easily. Such a clever idea!!!

This is a job I’ve been wanting to tackle for a few weeks now. I’m pretty good and do go through our wardrobes on a regular basis. But this time I was ruthless. If something didn’t look good or is never going to look good, out it went. Some were thing I bought as I was losing weight and actually never wore cause they didn’t really do much for me. Amy was off school today (sick) so I got her to look through her wardrobe and we got rid of anything she doesn’t like (later we and go through and check what’s left actually fits). I also went through bins of Amy’s old clothes to see what might fit Christy for Summer, so she has a pile of clothes to try on. Later I’ll do a list of what I need to buy for the girls. I think all I need is some dressier pants (have plenty of casual ones). Oh, that bottom row of clothes are clothes that “almost” fit.

This is what I got rid of. I love those red shoes but they are NOT comfortable.

And this is from the girls

I also tidied and cleaned all the bedrooms so I’m feeling VERY tired now. It took from 9am till about 2pm.

I’ve been feeling a bit strange the last week or so. Not depressed or down in the dumps, not terribly tired. I’ve decided I feel flat - whatever that means. I just don’t seem to have any ompf…. any get up and go. I still haven’t been to the gym - must be over 3 weeks now (and I LOVE going working out). This week it’s been raining so I haven’t even been walking. I’m not making the most healthy choices with my snacks. I don’t want to go anywhere or do much of anything. As I said… no ompf.

Lucky for me my Mum has come over the last few days and helped me sort out, organize and clean quite a few rooms in the house - so at least I’ve been doing something productive.

We’ve done the wardrobe…

the bathroom…

the laundry… (look baskets, empty shelves and new place for the girls school bags)

the family room and the loungeroom.

So what’s the plan? Today I’m going to spend some time in the scrapbook room (after doing reading at school). I need to tidy, then do some layouts. I’m debating going to the gym - and will try to make myself go - I know I’m be happy once I do! We’ve got a long weekend here in Australia so I plan to get a few more rooms organised (with Kevin’s help), spend some time with the family, spend some time thinking about my diet and exercise plan (or current lack thereof) and hopefully find my ompf. If anyone’s seen please send it back!

Well, ME day went quite well - though wasn’t really very long as once I leave to get the kids from school at 2.30pm it’s kind of over. I ended up cleaning out the doll nursery under the stairs after getting inspired watching Perfect Housewife. Later I watched another episode while doing some knitting. That was it really. It’s 6pm and I’m off to finish off dinner then will watch a bit of TV once Kevin gets home. Tomorrow I’m on Canteen so I won’t have any ME time. Still have not opened the Strength for Life book…..

Here the nursery before

And after. Christy helped me sort through which clothes to keep in the drawers when she got from school.

Well, as many of you know I’m rather into organising, and baskets, so how could I not join in Laura’s basket carnival. Many of the picture regular blog readers will have seen before. I DID NOT tidy before taking the photos - as you can tell. One thing I realized while doing this is that I really do need MORE baskets.

Firstly my desk cupboards, which I reorganised last week.

Our coffee table baskets - one has magazines, the other has knitting. On the other side are another 2 baskets for the girls stuff.

Our medicine cupboard - which needs reorganising and labels

Some of my baskets in the pantry

The tupperware drawer

Other kitchen drawers organised with little baskets

Baskets in the family room for kids stuff, blankets and things for the guinea pigs (whose cage is right beside this)

The scrapbook room

These baskets are under our bird cage. The left one is full of Rosies toys, the other two are for the girls school stuff.

Baskets/tubs in Christy’s wardrobe - obviously needs another going through.

And finally baskets in the spare room with presents/ wrapping paper/stationary. Again, I could use some labels.

It’s funny, you’d think with the girls home from school (there was a teacher’s strike) I wouldn’t get as much done as normal, but I was in fact more productive (though I missed going to the gym). I did my usual Thursday cleaning the bathrooms, then worked on a PROPER tidy up of my desk - prompted by having to find some paperwork so Amy can apply to go to a class for gifted children next year.

Here the before and after of the desk-top. I even cleaned my keyboard and mouse.

The overhead cupboard

And finally the two bottom drawers (I did bother with the top drawer as that had been done a few week ago)

I threw out some magazines I’d been keeping. Usually I just tear out bits as I go but I kept whole fitness magazines. I was going to go through them all but decided just to toss them. I also moved out some books to the upstairs bookcase and put some of the kids food books on the open shelf so I remember to read/refer to them.

While I was busy doing this the girls made this terrific train track. Not sure why it always has to be in bed/bath room - I think they like making it go under my bed.

Okay, how is it that I did not know about the Craftainers website before? I mean it is a website all about scrapbooking and organising - two of my favourite things. And the subject of the online class I’m taking with Big Picture Scrapbooking. Which is how I came to find this website. I was searching for some boxes that I thought I could put on my computer desk to gain more vertical storage on this wall (the only spare wall space I have in the room).

However, now having fallen in love with Craftainers I might have a new idea. The Lisa and Becky rail system.

Just not quite sure how it would work though since it’s not my actually scrapbooking area but I can put things like stamps, stamp pads, paints,etc on it. Something to consider anyway.

This website could be a VERY dangerous discovery as it also has the Memory Dock system I have eyeing for a long time - and didn’t know I could buy in Australia. Hmm…. how long till my birthday…

PLEASE NOTE… I am back getting e-mail - HURRAY!!!

Well, I’ve been slowly recovering from Christmas, and this cold that I’ve had (not to mention the sore knee). I took the girls to the beach on Friday - had a great time - went swimming again and decided I want to get a boogie board (not that I’ve been on one since I was a teenager). I got it today - mine is the green one and the pink one is a new one for Christy.

I spent yesterday putting away all our Christmas decorations (and returning the house to normal) and then cleaning up the fridge, which I restocked today. We’re having friends for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so it will no doubt be empty again in a few days. I’m being pretty lazy with the food this time around - having a BBQ, a couple of home made dishes and a REAL easy desert. If you click on the second photo you can read what’s currently in our fridge.

My Perfect Housewife DVDs turned up so Amy and I have been watching them when time permits - she’s decided she’s going to be the perfect housechild - we’ll see…. so far so good. Even if your house is tidy and organised (mine is pretty much) I still find the show very inspiring. What I still need to work on is the detailed cleaning. I certainly wouldn’t pass her white glove test…..

Took the girls to see Enchanted - what a wonderful movie - we all loved it and it was first movie that Christy has actually sat through without getting bored.

but I love Mondays. After dropping the girls at school I come home and clean my home from top to bottom, then I sit and watch for a WHOLE hour the British show Perfect Housewife. I just LOVE it. I look forward to it all week. I find it so motivating and inspiring. So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered I can order the book and series 1 & 2 on DVD from Amazon.co.uk. Can you guess what I’m getting for Christmas???? Gee am I sad or what?

Okay, so I just couldn’t resist buying one (okay, two) of these gorgeous canvas bags. For my fellow Aussies I got it in Big W.

On Sat I cleaned and tidied much of the kitchen - including re-organising the ever messy tupperware drawer. Looks great now doesn’t it. Well, this is one of the drawers anyway - the one with all the lunch containers.

Yesterday we took the girls to see “The Game Plan”.  I really enjoyed it and it was a good way to spend a few hours (especially when you can’t eat :-)). While we were out I spotted, and bought, this fabulous book.

Today I’ve cleaned all of downstairs so that house is lovely, clean and tidy. I would have to have done upstairs as well but wanted to get a workout in at the gym. Also spent some time in the veggie garden. I picked some strawberries and the first (very little) zucchini. The tomatoes are cute small green things and the cucumber is just starting to flower.  Here’s some of my pickings from last week.