Flylady round 5,895

OK not really but I have done Flylady more times than I count. It is a wonderful program that does do wonders for you if you stick with it. I just have issues sticking to anything for more than a couple of weeks. But with a little poking from a friend who is starting Flylady for the first time I decided to give it another go. I need structure and a plan for my house so I'm looking forward to getting started. I have held on to some of the ideas from Flylady even during the time I wasn't following her program so I should be able to just fall right back into place without too much trouble.

And since it's Day 1, it means my first task was shining my sink.


All done :-)

Planning for next year

Christmas isn't even over for us yet, we celebrate Old Christmas with my parents on Jan 6th, but already I'm getting in gear to plan for next year. Christmas comes on Dec 25th every single year, so why aren't we all better prepared for it? Did you know that if you set just $5 a week aside until the first week of November starting the first week in January you'll have $215. That's a nice little chunk of money set aside to your Christmas shopping. If you can spare $10-$20 a week instead of just $5 you can double or even quadruple your Christmas budget. You can also start with the after Christmas sales to start your shopping for next year. Get a plastic tote and set it in your closet, spare room or somewhere else in your house where you have an empty corner. As you pick up little things put them in your tote and come Christmas you have a nice stockpile of gifts already! Make a list of all the people you normally buy for and keep it in your household binder, Holiday notebook, etc so you can jot down gift ideas, gifts that you pick up for them, etc.

Remember, gift sets on clearance now can be taken out of the packages and put in a nice basket or other container next Christmas and you have a super cheap gift that looks expensive.

You can also buy your Christmas cards on clearance this year so you're prepared for next Christmas. Same goes for wrapping paper, tape, gift tags, etc. It takes a little organization but with some planning you'll be on top of the Holiday season before it even gets here. And don't forget about those stamps! Purchase a couple books of forever stamps throughout the year so you'll be ready to mail those cards without having to make a special trip to the Post Office.

What else can you do now to get ready for Christmas 2011?

Commercial Breaks

In our roles as moms we sometimes have periods of time where we just get burnt out and unmotivated to do anything other than laze around spending time online, watching cartoons with our kids or mindless TV while the kids play and playing cars or tea party. There is nothing wrong with that and we all need breaks from the housework. But let's face it, when you're the only one taking care of the house we can't take but so many days off. And after 1 day off, it's easier to turn it into 2 days, then a week and that just can't happen if we want to be able to find our way out of one room and into another. LOL So like anything we need to find a way to get our toe back in the water to get motivated again.

So that's what this blog post is all about. Dipping our toe back in the water with Commercial Break houseworks. The average commercial break is what? maybe 3-4minutes long. Imagine all you can get done during the commercial breaks of a 1 hour TV show. I've made a short list of chores for each of the "public" rooms in the house to start with. Do 1 or 2 chores during a commercial break and before you know it you have a whole room clean!

Bathroom-
Wipe down toilet
Wipe down sink, counter and mirrors
Wipe down bathroom
Sweep & mop (I use a Swiffer type mop so it only takes a second to mop the floors)
Empty trash

Living room-
Dust surfaces & knick-knacks
Vacuum
clean the TV screen and inside the windows
Tidy up the room

Kitchen-
Wash a sink full of dishes
Dry & put away the dishes
Wipe down counters
Wipe down stove
Wipe down Fridge/freezer
Sweep
Mop (again I use the Swiffer mop)
Clean off the table
Wipe down small appliances
Take out trash

Laundry-
Sort the dirty laudry
Put on a load of laundry
Switch the laundry in washer/dryer
Wipe down the tops of w/d
Fold & put away laundry

You could also get a quick workout in by walking in place, jumping jacks, crunches, etc or get the kids involved by having them pick up their toys or put away their clothes. The possibilities are endless!!

Next time we'll talk about my cleaning bucket. It makes my housework so much easier!

Christmas to-dos

I know I know. I'm back to posting and it's all about Christmas. What can I say? This is really my favorite time of the year. I still have lots to do to get ready for Christmas. I have lists in my Holiday binder of all the things I want/need to do and get so I thought I would share them.

Houseworks-
Clean spare room
move corner storage unit from Boo's room to spare room
switch dressers from our room and spare room
take any donation items to thrift store
hang garland on porch
clean walls

Food-
Sugar cookies 10 dozen
Double layer pumpkin pie
Cupcakes/Cake
Plan Christmas morning breakfast
Plan Christmas Eve supper

Other Christmas-y Stuff-
Order Christmas pictures
Sign Christmas cards
Address Christmas cards

Christmas Traditions

I just love all the traditions that come with the holiday season. Over the past few days I've really been thinking about the traditions that my little family has and the new traditions I want to start. From cookies and milk for Santa to staying up late and wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve to looking at Christmas lights all the way. It all just makes me so giddy and feel like a child again. I remember when my husband and I were engaged, it was our first Christmas together and he said "you know I don't really like Christmas that much". I just thought Are you kidding me? How can someone go through the holiday season without feeling all the love and magic that comes with the holidays? Lucky for him I stuck it out even though he was a Scrooge. And over the last couple of years since our son has been born I've noticed every Christmas he gets into the Christmas Spirit just a little bit more than the year before. It feels my heart with joy. And then there is our little one. This year all the magic is really alive for him. Even though this is his 4th Christmas, this is the first one that everything is starting to come together for him and he really GETS Christmas this year. Every morning he is so excited to open the next window in the Advent calender. Even though I know it's only because he wants the chocolate it's still so cute to watch him get excited about it. Next year I plan to start earlier and make our own Advent calender with activities in the windows rather than candy but I didn't think about it until too late this year.

When we happen to be out past dark his eyes light up at all the Christmas lights. I can't wait to take him out riding just to look at lights closer to Christmas. It's going to be awesome.

So until next time..
Happy Holidays!

25 Days of Christmas

The 25 Days of Christmas start today! This is my favorite time of year and this year is especially fun because CJ is REALLY into the holidays this year. Christmas morning is going to be such fun and I can't wait. Yesterday we made a foam gingerbread ornament together to hang on the tree. It is proudly hanging front and center, though if it's anything like the rest of the ornaments it will have a new home on the tree shortly.

I've been burning the Glade Winter collection candle in Sugarplum. I got it at Dollar General for $0.67. Totally worth full price though, it smells so yummy and really scents up the whole house.

Today we also started our Christmas countdown calender. It's a chocolate Advent calender that we found at the Christmas Shop at the beach. CJ was so excited to open up the first window and get the chocolate out of it. He wanted to open all the windows to get all the chocolate out of it though. LOL

The 25 Days of Christmas start tonight on ABC Family tonight. Even though we've already been watching Christmas movies for a couple of weeks, ok all year, I can't wait to curl up at the end of each day with my little family to watch the featured movies.

I'm anxiously planning out holiday parties and activities in my Holiday notebook and looking forward to all the family time in the weeks to come.