Three posts in one week! We're all going to get spoiled if I keep this up! It's been a while since I posted here about the house and what it's been like so I decided that it might be time to give y'all a bit of an update.

I'm not going to lie. I haven't done much over the past couple of weeks. I had hopes of a massive kitchen clean up over the boys' spring break, but life just plain got in the way. Their grandparents were in town (at their dad's house) and then I went out of town for the convention at the end of that week. In the middle, it was just plain busy. Then, when I got back from the convention, I had a bit of an emotional crash that took a bit to recover from.

That all sounds super negative, doesn't it? I promise that I'm not writing this post to bring you all down because absolutely nothing got done. Things have, just slower than I had hoped. Ben went into the kitchen one day and just did 5 minutes of tidying up. Both boys made a conscious effort to make sure that trash went into the trash and that things got put away. I've been incredibly proud of them for how they've jumped on board and are working with me to keep things going.

As for me? Well, I have a tiny bit of news. Tomorrow we have a plumber coming to look at the kitchen drain. It hasn't drained properly at all for over 2 years and not at all for the past 6 months or so. Some of you may recall that I was doing dishes in my bathtub. Then, the hot water stopped working a few months ago. I've been snagging showers at the community center and we've gone to all paper products for eating. It's also meant that I haven't been able to properly cook because I couldn't do dishes afterwards. It's been rough on all of us, but there hasn't been anything that we could really do about it due to finances and the state that the house was in.

Well, two days ago, Justin called and found a plumber who could come out to the house tomorrow. For me, that meant that the living room, kitchen, and laundry room had to be in good enough states
that the plumber could come in and access anything that he needed to and that I wouldn't have a complete meltdown over having him in the house. I'll admit it. I looked around and had a minor panic attack. Everywhere I looked, I saw something that needed to be done. The living room needed cleaning, the laundry room needed to be swept and to have the litter boxes changed and on and on and on the list went in my head.

But, guess what! It's just before 2pm the day before the plumber will be here (between 8 and 10am) and I'm relaxed on my couch, a candle lit, and Deadliest Catch running off the dvr. Why? Because I walked into the kitchen and in 5 minutes had the left side sink cleared and the new bookshelf box moved out of the way. I walked into the living room and in 20 minutes had everything tidied up and the floor swept. I walked into the laundry room and in 15 minutes or so had the floor swept, the litter boxes changed, and any/all litter mess cleaned up. I even cracked open the window in there and lit a candle to help with that icky cat litter smell that happens sometimes.

Did you do the math? In less than an hour, I had those three rooms at a level that I don't care if he walks into them. Sure, the dining alcove is still a disaster and we haven't touched the office/studio.
Oh well. I will. This is a journey..and each and every step counts. Each and every step is a step towards reclaiming this house, reclaiming my life and making a better world for myself and my boys. The best part? I've proven to myself that the work I started 4 months ago has been mostly maintained. I didn't backslide to a point where I wasn't 15-20 minutes from clean.

Earlier today I told a friend that I was ashamed to say that I hadn't been properly cooking for my family because of how I'd let the house get. I realize now that I was looking at things from my as usual skewed bipolar lens... Even when things are at their worst, nobody went hungry around here. It may not have been the healthiest food, but I made sure there was food and even if it was just throwing it on a cookie sheet, I "cooked". Two days ago, I looked around this living room and felt horrible about the way it looked. Turns out that it really wasn't all that bad. I need to remember the hours that I've put in and the changes that I've made. I'm happy to report that I'm doing okay and to give you a little sneak peek at my upcoming house plans...

Upcoming Goals:
1. Finish the dining alcove
2. Build/get the new bookshelf into place
3. Put the old bookshelf out by the curb for trash (unless someone snags it)
4. Clear the front porch & paint it
5. Repaint the front porch benches
6. Mow/trim the lawn and pick up any brush/trash that has arrived during the winter (this weekend!)
7. Repaint the tire planters
8. Refill the tire planters
9. Reclaim one flower bed
10. Start my seeds
11. Get a start on the "wall" aka the office/studio

Those are my goals for between now and the start of June. Will they all get done? Maybe, maybe not but we'll be doing them as we're able and before you know it, I'll have some new pictures to share with everyone! Keep your fingers crossed that the plumber can get the work done for $300 because that's the budget! If so, dishes will be on the agenda for this weekend too!



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Marie Kondo’s unique KonMari Method of tidying up is nothing short of life-changing—and her first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, has become a worldwide sensation. In Spark Joy, Kondo presents an in-depth, illustrated manual on how to declutter and organize specific items throughout the house, from kitchen and bathroom items to work-related papers and hobby collections. User-friendly line drawings illustrate Kondo’s patented folding method as it applies to shirts, pants, socks, and jackets, as well as images of properly organized drawers, closets, and cabinets. This book is perfect for anyone who wants a home—and life—that sparks joy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you read my post Reclaiming Me, you'll know that one of the things that I'm working on as part of reclaiming me and my life is reclaiming my house. So, it should be no surprise that when this book became available for review, my curiosity got the better of me. I'm a pretty good organizer but nobody is perfect and new ideas are always welcome!

Let me start out by saying that if you haven't read the first book, you may have difficulty with this one. Over all though, I found this one to be handy. I really love her theme of keeping things that only bring you joy. That's one of the things that I've talked to others about and something I truly believe in. Your home should be your sanctuary and if it's filled with things that make you unhappy then you won't be able to relax in it. This book is more in-depth and while it may seem repetitive at times, it does give a lot of great information. Granted, if you're like me, you won't consider your belongings to have human emotions and such, but if you can look past that, there's a lot of good information to be found.



I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments, and opinions are my own.

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This New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

========================
Achieve strikes again! Achieving a tidier and healthier living space.

Okay, I'm a sucker for certain types of books. Organization is on the top of that list. By nature, I'm a natural organizer, but I'm always looking for new ideas. I didn't necessarily find any in this book, but she does have a simple method that I've been telling folks for years... Does it bring you joy? If not, let it go. It's a method that I talk about in my own Organization group on Facebook and it's one that I think everyone should employ. Obviously, this doesn't work for certain things like necessary cooking or cleaning products, but it does in nearly every other scenario. There are certain things that don't work in every home (such as placing bookshelves into closets), but I think that this is a book that everyone can take something from and make it work for you. No plan is perfect for everyone, but everyone can tweak.



I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review.  All thoughts, comments, and opinions are my own.
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It's actually been close to seven weeks since my birthday, but for one reason or another...or one excuse or another, I never sat down to write this post. Now, I am..it's time to recap, recover and roll out the goals for the coming year.

I'm happy to say that this past year brought no physical deaths to my doorstep. Sadly, it did bring the deaths of some friendships. As life changes, it seems that sometimes people do too. People move on and I'm learning to deal with the aftermath of that. I won't say it's been easy, but it's not knocked me down as hard as it may have in the past.

There have been good things, as well. Both of my boys are happy and healthy. Ben is up in high school now and though he's struggling with the amount of work and how not to become overwhelmed, he's doing well. He was even the girls' swim team manager, which I know that he loved. Roger is busy being Roger. He's a straight A student, was on the football team and is now doing basketball. Did I mention he's in band and jazz band, as well? As a mom, I do a lot of running around these days. While it can be exhausting, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

One of the not so great things that has happened has happened with me. I've really struggled with the bipolar side of things over the past year or so. I'm on new medication now so I'm really hoping that it helps. While I've come to terms that this is something I will always have to deal with, I haven't done so well in setting up routines and such to help keep the house functional. If I'm honest, the house is in pretty rotten shape right now. It's not as bad as it has been, but it needs to be a lot better.

Which brings us to the list...This year's goals:

Outside of the House:
1. Clear out all of the flower beds - They're overgrown and some even have trees in them!
2. Finish spray painting the tires and get new roses planted in them.
3. Clear the front porch and make it look inviting.
4. Paint the front door - It's time to give this house some character.
5. Finish clearing the back deck.
6. Get the front porch roof repaired/replaced. - This is a job for the owners and may include the entire roof.
7. Create a third composter for all of the after garden soil.
8. Complete barn re-organization.
9. Clear out any trash that has blown/been dragged under the front porch.
10. Get cable re-hooked up to the barn.
11. Clear out pile of rubble from in front of barn.

Inside of the House:
1. Replace living room flooring.
2. Complete wall redecorating (clean, new shelving, organizing, purging)
3. Complete living room redecorating (clean, paint, organizing, purging)
4. Get everything hung up in boys' room.
5. Complete master bedroom redecorating (clean, paint, organizing, purging, light repaired)
6. Purge until we're only surrounded by the things we need and the things we love.
7. Get dryer repaired - owner job
8. Get water repaired - owner job
9. Get heating repaired - owner job
10. Get living room ceiling repaired - owner job
11. Maintain what I've already accomplished.

In Life:
1. Continue to build up the websites, this one and Geek-o-Rama
2. Focus on true friendships ...quality over quantity
3. Travel
4. Spend as much time with the boys, doing things we love.
5. Learn Irish (again) on my own.
6. Take time for me.
7. Take care of me - mental health and physical health
8. Work on finding more writing and editing jobs.
9. Remember what's really important in life.
10. Build routines to help manage life.
11. Be someone that I can be proud of, no matter what others may think.

Whew..that's some list but instead of being overwhelmed or intimidated, I'm excited to see it down in writing. Now, to pick an area and get to work!



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 Ok, I admit it. I totally dropped the ball on posting the weekly challenges here on the site. I hope that you can forgive me. If you're ever wondering what they are (because I yet again forgot to post them), they all are up on the Facebook group. It's pretty quiet over there but don't let that put you off. Just jump right in!

This week's challenge was to tackle our hobby supplies. Since I feel like the queen of hobbies, I chose just one and decided to tackle it. Since it's going to be getting cold here soon, I decided I ought to try to make some sense of our barn/garage. It's a total disaster and you're lucky if you can find a path through it. Don't believe me? Here's the corner that I decided to turn into our gardening/tool area before I started:

See what I mean? Things are stacked everywhere! Right after I took this picture, I spent about 20 minutes just rearranging things and throwing some stuff out.  This got it to here:


It's amazing what a mere 20 minutes can do to a space, isn't it? I created a path and discovered that there really was a workbench under all of that, just like I remembered! The next steps required three..yes, three trips into Lowes. I decided to tear down the old peg board (it was cheap and filthy and badly hung) and replace it with some new and improved peg board. Then, I decided I didn't want it to be brown...and here's where I made my mistake. For some unknown reason, I thought it would be easiest to spray paint it. So, I bought one can of spray paint...yep, just one...now you see where this is going right? One can got me this far:



Another trip into town and 4 more cans of spray paint later and I had this :



Yep, this required a 3rd trip into town and 2.5 cans of spray paint more and finally all of the peg board was painted :


Then, I grabbed the gallon of yellow paint that we had bought for the kitchen (right before I decided I wanted to paint it red!) and I painted the top of the work bench. It took 3 coats and needed a 4th but since it's a workbench, I don't mind it looking a bit scruffy.

Today, I headed back out to the barn and after...well, we won't say how long or repeat a few of the words I may/may not have said...I managed to get the peg board hung up.  It's not the prettiest job but my nails kept bending and I was trying to hammer and hold at the same time :


Ta da! Badly seamed peg board! That's ok because I promptly went to work covering all that up. First, I added this cabinet that I picked up on the side of the road last summer. It was missing an interior shelf, but a quick look around the barn/garage and I came up with a scrap that fit perfectly!


Up next was sorting out the tools and getting things onto the workbench itself.

Last but certainly not least, I hung up the tools that I saw laying around (I'm sure there are more somewhere!) and put those pretty flowers into a larger vase. They probably won't survive too much longer but I'll enjoy them while they do.  When it was all said and done, here's the final look:



Oh! I forgot to mention that I did do one little side project while I was doing this. I had 2 partial and 1 full bag of potting soil laying around. Since nobody has invented a bucket on wheels, I bought a 5 gallon paint bucket, wrote potting soil on it and put it on top of a plant dolly. Now, whenever I need potting soil, I can just pull it out. I filled it with both of the partial bags. The full bag is going to end up in my composter as soon as I drag it out back.


My thanks go out to the guys at Lowes who good naturedly teased me every time I walked back in the door to buy just a few more cans of spray paint. I hope y'all enjoyed this little step by step walk through of the first but certainly not the last of the home improvement projects I have scheduled for around here!



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One of the biggest challenges that I face when I go through a depressive period is making an attempt at keeping our home clean. For me, when I'm caught up in the mental chaos, my home quickly turns into physical chaos. That's why I'm so thankful that we live in a period where finding good cleaning products is as simple as walking to any store.

Recently, I received a bottle of Soft Scrub Total Bath & Bowl to try out. I have to say that I like this product. It works upside down, which is great for those tight areas. It can be used  not only on the counter tops and outside of the toilet, but also inside the toilet. Plus, it has a handy dandy flippy thing on the nozzle so that you can switch it from spray to foam.

Today has been a good day around here. I'm feeling mostly healthy and completing one project yesterday inspired me to start tackling my bathroom today. I won't get into the details of how icky it was..let's just say I have two boys and one of the cats had a field day knocking things over in there. Enter this product. Quite literally within about two minutes, I had my bathroom counter shining and happy again. The smell isn't overpowering and my lungs don't feel as if I spent ages inhaling chemicals. All in all, a happy counter makes for a smiling me. Up next....the toilet....

But, before I go and tackle that, I want to share a couple of things with you! Soft Scrub is currently holding a sweepstakes with $3000 in prizes. First place gets a lovely $1000 plus they're giving away 50 other prizes where the winners will receive $40 each. If you'd like to enter The Tough & Gentle Sweepstakes, simply click this link and fill out the form.

But wait, there's more! (Haven't y'all always wanted to say that like a cool infomercial person?) Not only are they doing a sweepstakes, but I'm doing a giveaway! That's right! Two lucky readers will receive a coupon that will allow them to get their own Soft Scrub product for free!

To enter, simply check out the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Soft Scrub provided me with a bottle of their Total Bath & Bowl for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are 100% mine.
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I have to say a serious shout out to Kate because now that she's sucked me into the artist chat, I'm becoming far more productive online. I sit there in a virtual room, watching artists work and feel like a slacker, so I pull out a project and get to work.

Of course, it keeps me sitting here at the computer so not much else gets done during that time. Although, it's so late at night that nothing else would get done anyway so it balances out!

Last week, I was camping all week long though I did manage to add half a dozen more items to our Goodwill clothing bag. This week is going to be totally insane, as well. Roger starts football camp tomorrow and that runs until Thursday night. Then, on Friday, I fly to Phoenix for 10 days! I'm going to do my best to actually write up next week's challenge ahead of time and schedule it to post for y'all on time. We'll see how successful I am, though. The best of intentions and all that...

This week, the challenge is to head back to your living/family rooms and check out those dvd/video game racks. Do you have any that you never watch or never play? Pass them on to someone who might love to have them. How about those that have scratches or don't play? If you want to replace them, add them to something like an Amazon wishlist to remind yourself and get rid of the broken ones. There's no reason to hold onto them. Clear the space and smile at the organization!



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I know we're an entire day early and that I could have just scheduled this, but nah...I'm taking my kids camping tomorrow so let's just give y'all a sneak peak and then you can start tomorrow.

Last week was a make up week and I was going to tackle that top dresser drawer. Instead, I ended up tackling my top 4 dresser drawers! I collected half a trash bag of clothes that I'll be donating.  I know it's mostly empty at this point (we're doing a massive laundry catch up right now!), but here is my after picture:



It's nice to actually be able to see what's in there and know that there's plenty of room for when I track down the rest of my underclothes!

This week, the challenge is clothing and I swear I didn't remember that so I could work ahead! I just thought it'd be a good thing to do since we have a ton of clothes that are getting washed up and needed homes.

So, for all of you..pick a drawer, pick a closet, pick a kid and go through the clothes. Toss what can't be salvaged, donate what's still in good condition and put back only what you love and what fits!

Since I already did my dressers, I'll be purging as more loads of laundry get caught up on and only putting away what I really love and will actually wear.



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Wow, I am so totally still getting used to this new format for writing posts. I hope it becomes second nature sometime soon! So, we're back for another Monday. Did anyone else's weekend go by in a flash? I could swear it was just Friday. No matter. The days change whether or not we're ready and here it is Monday again and I'm back with a new challenge.

Sadly, there will be no before/after pictures this week because to be honest, Monday snuck up on me and I forgot to take before pictures of my van to show you..so yeah, way to go me! I refuse to feel too bad though because the back of my van is now unloaded! Woo!

This week, we're all back in our living rooms (or wherever this piece of furniture exists) and we're clearing off the tops of our entertainment centers. Mine was lovely for quite a while but as I started cleaning and painting in other rooms, somehow it became the catch all again. Time to clear it off and wipe it down! Next week, I'm hoping to actually have some pictures to show you!

Until then..happy cleaning, organizing and creating yay spots in your home!



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Oh holy canoles. I went to bed and when I came back, the blog software I use to blog has gone all weird with a new look. I don't like new looks. I like old looks that I know how to do things and where to find things. Eek!

Ok, deep breath...I can do this. I can still post. Now, y'all may have noticed that we lost a couple of weeks on our challenge. I'm so sorry for that. I swear I haven't abandoned you. Life got tough and for a bit I was unable to post. I'm back now and I have a new challenge for all of you! I will confess right off the top that I wont' be doing this challenge because I have to finish handling boxes from my grandma's house. However, this challenge is for you and I know you'll get right on it!

For this week, head to wherever you store your bed linens. How many sets of sheets do you have for your bed? For me, it's 4 for each of the boys and 5 for me. We each get 2 sets of flannels (remember we have no heat in our bedrooms!) and 2 sets of regular light weight sheets. For mom (aka me), I also get one set of sexy feel really good against your skin sheets. Yep, mama gets sexy sheets (even if she's not..well..nevermind.).

If you're unsure of what to do with any extra sheets you may have, here's a quick list of places you can donate them to:

• Animal Shelter
• Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc.
• Women's Shelter
• Young person moving into their first place

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I'm so glad that I wrote the other night. It's helped me pull things back into perspective and to focus more on what I can do. Things are still going to be rocky around here and chaotic but as long as I keep going and don't give up, it will be ok. So, in the spirit of just keep swimming..or in my case, just keep organizing...I have our very first challenge. Some of you may recall me doing a similar challenge last year before life swallowed me up.  The rules are really simple.

1. Come here each Tuesday and check out the challenge for that week.
2. Take a before picture of your area.
3. Post that each Tuesday with your post along with an after picture of the previous week's challenge.
4. Stop back here (or do this along with step 1) and in the comments section, leave a link to your post.

If I get enough interest, I'll put up a more official linky. Don't worry if your area doesn't look perfect. We're working on baby stepping our way to clean and tidy spaces. I bet you can finish this phrase just like my kids do...Progress not ...Perfection. They hate when I say that but they understand the concept.

Now that we've covered the rules, let's jump right into our first challenge! This week, I want you to go to your bedroom and look at the top of your dresser. If it's anything like mine, it's piled high and covered in dust. Don't believe me? Here's mine:


I do want to point out that my house isn't on fire. I have a small lamp that sets below where that doll is and I had it on when I snapped this photo. Combine that with the pink walls and you get the illusion of fire. See how messy that is? Eww!

I am so ready to tackle that area! In fact, it might even get tackled tonight. Make sure you come back next week for a new challenge and to see what oddities I found lurking on the top of my dresser!



PS Challenge posts will (hopefully) go up on Monday nights so that everyone has a chance to see the challenge before the day before pictures are "due."

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Ta Da! Please ignore the mess to the left. That's the remainder of the boxes I'm going through in that room. I'm happy to say that I'm down to about 8 boxes and once I do some re-organizing in "The Wall", a lot of those will be gone. Woo!


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Sheesh! Sometimes I swear technology plots and plans to work against me. I was in the middle of working on something and the laptop just locked up! Then, it took over 20 minutes for the poor thing to get itself back up and running. Hopefully it's feeling better now.

So, how is everyone doing on their cleaning and organizing? Is it coming along loverly? Mine is coming along pretty well. I'm hoping that by the end of Friday I'll be able to see floor in the middle of the room. Wouldn't that be nice? I think I only have 2 or 3 more boxes in there that haven't been gone through at all. Not bad, I say. I just hope having to take the van into the shop on Friday doesn't interfere too much. I'll have to post more about that later.

For now, let me tell you what I'm doing for me today. Like I mentioned yesterday, one of the things that I've found tons of are photos. Today, I'm going to relax for a little while and flip through my scrapbooks. I can't wait until I have a useable crafting space again!

Now, let me tell you what your challenge is. Since today is all about spoiling and pampering and doing something for you, I want you to go into your bathroom and...you were thinking I was going to say take a bubble bath, weren't you? Well, I hope you do that to but since this is an organizational challenge, I want you to go through all of your lotions, body washes and things that you use to pamper yourself with. Smell them, try them and if you don't love it, send it on to someone who does. Keep only the ones that you love and then find a pretty basket or something to store them all in.

That's it for me for now! I'm off to let this poor laptop take a little nap before I make him wake up and get back to work!

Ugh..It feels like a Monday. *grins* I can't even say that with a straight face because we all know, that for some unknown most likely chemical imbalanced reason, I love Mondays. I know..I know...there's just no making sense of some people.

Today is going to be one of those days. You know the kind, the ones where everything could go wrong but you're still determined to make it a good day. That's how today could be.

So, let's see..what is there to catch people up on? Well, I guess the big thing is that darned van of mine. I took the boys to lunch for Roger's birthday on Saturday and the darned thing stalled on me and I ended up coasting into the restaurant parking lot. Now, having a problem vehicle is stressful but having a problem vehicle when it's your own vehicle and you live 21 miles from a decent grocery store and your kids is head exploding stressful. I called the mechanic this morning and he said I can bring it in tomorrow and they'll check it out and give me an estimate for free. Free is good. Free is very good. He also thinks it's just a problem sensor which is a quick, cheap fix. Now cheap for him might be different than cheap for me, but I'm hopeful. So, keep your fingers crossed for me folks.

Other than that, life is pretty much same old same old. The boys were here this weekend and we had a great time together. Roger and I played a bunch of games while Ben was thrilled to find one of his missing video games. All of us hung out together, watched movies together and ate delicious (in their words, the best food!) together. We made homemade pizza on Friday and homemade lasagna on Saturday. mmmmm...so good...hehe. Roger helped me fix the PC and they both helped with some more deboxing.

Speaking of deboxing, have you guys seen that orgjunkie is doing a 28 day organizing challenge? She's even giving away prizes for the best before/after pictures at the end of the month. You know I have to participate in this and I'm going to even go one step further by trying to give everyone here an organizing challenge each day. I say try because well, you know, sometimes I get forgetful. I'm going to be working on "The Wall" and can't wait to post the before and after pictures at the end of the month. It may take me an entire month to beat that room into shape. I feel like a lion tamer with a chair sometimes, telling the stuff in there, "Back..back..stop spilling out. Get back with you, I say!" I'd love for all of you to participate.

Now, on to the very reason I signed in to post today! It's Monday and that means Menu Planning! Yaaaayyy! Ahem. Right, menu planning. So, here we go:

Monday - Crock Pot Chicken & Dumplings (already cooking! Plus, the recipe was posted here on Saturday!)
Tuesday - Steak w/ Broccoli & Tatos (need to use up that delicious broccoli)
Wednesday - Chili
Thursday - Leftover Night
Friday - Hamburgers w/ Steamed Veggies
Saturday - Breakfast Night - Eggs or French Toast
Sunday - Wrap Night - Chicken Ranch Wraps

Man, this weeks looks good and it's making me hungry! Thank goodness it's almost lunchtime.

Oooh..and remember how I said 28 days of organizing challenges right here? Did you think I'd already forgotten? Admit it, I know you did..hehe...but I didn't! So, here's your first challenge. If you're anything like me, you have tons and tons of cookbooks. I want you to go to wherever you keep them and look down the shelf. Are there any there that you just never use? If so, I want you to take them right off the shelf and get them right out of your house. You could freecycle them, donate them somewhere or if you know someone who will be moving into their first place or getting married soon, why not help them get started with what I'm sure is a fabulous cookbook. It just doesn't work fabulously for you!

Look...it's a post! and it's on time! It's Thursday and I've been pondering what to do for me today because it really is super important that as women and caretakers, we take good care of ourselves first. If we take care of ourselves, we have more to give those in our lives. So, what am I doing today for me?

I'm going to "start" a project that I started a long, long time ago. Those of you who know me, know that I'm a bit of a music whore. If you have music, I want it. *grins* So, needless to say, I have tons of music. A few years ago, I started organizing it on an external hard drive. I never, ever finished that project. Today, I'm going to do some work on starting it over again. Jim, as an early Christmas present, got me a 1 tb drive! Woo! I'm so excited. It means that I can finally put all of my music on one drive. My plan for today is to take the music from 2 of the drives and move it onto the new drive. Then, once I find the power cords to the other drives, I'll move all of that music over too. Then, the organizing it by genres can continue. Then, it will leave me with drives that I can have for specific purposes. I'll have one as a backup drive for important files, one for photo backups, one as a traveling drive and so on and so on.

Now, I want to know what all of you are doing for yourselves today? I know that this time of year is so stressful for so many people and that honestly, instead of finding alternatives or solutions, they just give up so I want to be sure that you're all taking care of yourselves.

*hugs and kisses!*