and the list continues to shrink…

i wish all my life’s to-do list would shrink like this one. even though it’s a slow process, i’m just glad it’s moving forward.

sadly, i haven’t touched this list since a year ago. not that i’ve left it alone – i just forgot to cross things off as i did the tasks.

today, i ended up tackling the horrible storage space just outside our kitchen. we mainly keep things like serving plates, small appliances (that we don’t regularly – like our waffle maker) and other things like our punch bowl. but it was so messy – chaotically stuffed with little things. some things that i dug out went to the trash. others, we will most likely donate to the thrift store.

anyway, it was one of those ‘i don’t want to have to do it’ sort of deals. but today, as i was looking for something, a small bowl slipped off the shelf and broke to a billion pieces. the problem was that it was so jammed pack that anything could of easily fallen out if the ‘pile’ was disturbed.

yes – it was that bad.

so, i’m relieved to say it’s just one more thing to cross off! yeay!

phase I:

• front closet
• guest powder room – medicine cabinet and under sink
• chaeli’s bathroom – medicine cabinet and under sink
• under master bathroom sink
• linen closet
• wine cabinet
• revisit the shelves of chaeli’s closet
• fridge
• kitchen sink storage space
• kitchen cabinets – one cabinet and one drawer to go
  
• revisit my walk-in closet
• sort through some drawers in our master bedroom that’s gone a tad crazy

phase II:

• storage closet by kitchen
• office – like all of it
• laundry room – doug has started this process
• revist basement & storage space – doug is working on some
• ice box

the italicized ones are tasks done in 2011.

the end of my four-day weekend

even though i didn't really have that much time to rest, it was a nice four-days away from the office. though – i'm itching to go back (i know, i'm sick). i am pleased to have gotten so much done in the past two days, though.

as mentioned, i finished re-organizing the linen closet. there were sheets that use to be used on doug's single mattress form his bachelor days. well, none of our beds are singles anyway. so into the garbage bags they went, including any tattered linen and towels.

i now can go into the closet and not have to dig around anywhere. i cleared out enough linen to make an extra empty shelf so i moved all the cleaning products up to a level where i won't have to bend over to reach (since i need access to the cleaning products frequency).

i also loved that i was able to attend a bodyflow class today. it's not easy but it's definitely a great way to cool down after a bodypump class. it's all about balance and inner calmness. there's a lot of stretching, twisting, opening of the hips and breath work – as with any yoga class. loved the music, too. so calmning. even though i was sweating while holding some of those poses.

for sure, i will be sore tomorrow. i'm already feeling it now. and it's not from bodypump or bodyflow. it was from the p90x plus' upper body plus workout.

i got a chance to skype with both rita/harry from the states and ada/hoa from vancouver. so happy to chat with good friends! gotta love skype. plus – no long distance charges.

current list:

phase I:

• front closet
• guest powder room – medicine cabinet and under sink
• chaeli's bathroom – medicine cabinet and under sink
• under master bathroom sink
• linen closet
• wine cabinet
• revisit the shelves of chaeli's closet
• fridge
• kitchen sink storage space
• kitchen cabinets – did some
• revisit my walk-in closet
• sort through some drawers in our master bedroom that's gone a tad crazy

phase II:

• storage closet by kitchen
• office – like all of it
• laundry room
• revist basement & storage space
• ice box

 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

back to my sorting, chucking and re-organizing…

i took both today and tomorrow off, mainly because chaeli starts her first day today at a new school (summer camp where she will be attending grade one in the fall) and i didn't want to rush this morning. it gave me a chance to learn what needs to be done once i got there (not much – that school is ORGANIZED! totally after my own heart.) and it gave me an idea how long it takes to commute there from home in the morning rush hour.

i figured i'd take two days off so i could get back to my cleaning and organizing project. i've done what i wanted to get done for today – the lower two shelves of our linen closet (to make room for extra soap, kleenex boxes, paper towels, toilette paper, cleaning products, etc.) and our entire storage area under the sink of our master bathroom – that's two sinks plus the three drawers inbetween.

tomorrow, i attack the 3 upper shelves of the linen closet. there's some linen and towels that need to go – and everything needs to be re-folded and organized better.

my list has not only grown but changed into two phases.

phase I:

• front closet
• guest powder room – medicine cabinet and under sink
• chaeli's bathroom – medicine cabinet and under sink
• under master bathroom sink
• linen closet – half done
• storage closet by kitchen
• wine cabinet
• revisit the shelves of chaeli's closet
• fridge
• kitchen sink storage space
• kitchen cabinets – did some
• revisit my walk-in closet
• sort through some drawers in our master bedroom that's gone a tad crazy

phase II:

• office – like all of it
• laundry room
• revist basement & storage space
• ice box

if i have time, i'll also tackle under the kitchen sink. but i will see. after all, i deserve a couple of hours just to myself. i'm tempted to go see eclipse. :p

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

a simple weekend

we are having another simple weekend – nothing was planned and for the most part, we just did whatever came naturally…

• chaeli had her final soccor class. after they warmed up and did some exercise, we were invited to watch a game. wow – 4-6 year old soccor games are interest. for one thing, it's mostly just a bunch of chaos. and a soccor ball – which is spastically kicked around and going out of bounds a lot. but sometimes a team scores. and when that happens, it's very excitingt. chaeli was the goalie during the 3rd part of the game. at one point, doug and i heard her say to one of her team mates, "hey! why are you kicking the ball here???" about five minutes later, the same team mate cost them the game because he scored into their own net. oh well – at least they were having fun.

• friday was a weird day. i had very little sleep and ended up sleeping pass the time i would normally wake up. but i find that because i was scheduled to do the last workout dvd of p90x on friday, it's easy for me not to be motivated. and why this is is because the last workout is always kenpo-x. this martial art segment. it was fun at the beginning but i got real bored of it. i made up by doing a killer running segment during my lunch break after completing ab-ripper-x. and then after cleaning the house, i went to the basement and did a 40 minute yoga workout with crunch – fat burning yoga. not anywhere as challenging as p90x yoga-x, but enough to work up a light sweat with a great cool-down, stretch segment.

• i managed to tackle another storage section of my house so my list is now the following (my next area is more kitchen cabinets as well as the right shelves in chaeli's closet):
1. 

   Lolita

   front closet

2. guest powder room – medicine cabinet and under sink
3. chaeli's bathroom – medicine cabinet and under sink
4. under master bathroom sink
5. linen closet
6. storage closet by kitchen
7. wine cabinet
8. revisit the shelves of chaeli's closet
9. office – like all of it
10. kitchen sink storage space
11. kitchen cabinets - did some
• finally watched all of 'lolita' and must admit that while all the characters graded on my nerves (but i got the sense this was intentional), overall, i did enjoy the movie. way better then the re-make of it. the only part that the re-make had that was missing from the orginal was how humbert went to visit lolita years later and found her not to be the young teen anymore. and how his attraction towards her immediately disappeared.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

a dent in the to-do list

even though it's the victoria holiday today, doug still had to work. and me? i'm still in the sorting, chucking and organizing mode. i got to do my yoga at 5:30 this morning and chaeli woke up two hours later. after breakfast, i was happy to find that i had plenty of time to continue cleaning until lunch time. i'm taking a short break and also, to update my list:

1. front closet
2. guest powder room – medicine cabinet and under sink
3. chaeli's bathroom – medicine cabinet and under sink
4. under master bathroom sink
5. linen closet
6. storage closet by kitchen
7. revisit the shelves of chaeli's closet
8. office – like all of it
9. kitchen sink storage space
10. kitchen cabinets

i added the last two to do with the kitchen and it might actually be before the office – simply because it's driving me crazy!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

cleaning, sorting, chucking

so on top of my ritualistic every-two-week cleaning of the house, i've just finished sorting, chucking and cleaning chaeli's room. it took all afternoon. with just one break, i started sometime around 2:30pm. it's now almost 6pm. anyone who has kids will know how much knick-knack they can collect over several years.

people constantly giving her presents outside of birthdays and christmas time do NOT help.

i managed to collect two boxes of things she's out-grown. we'll give them to the thrift store or charity. i explained to chaeli three things: 1) if she wants new presents for christmas and her birthday, she has to make room for them; 2) space does not grow in our house – we get what we get and we have to live with it; 3) there are plenty of children who hardly get any toys so we're going to do a good deed by giving it too them.

i'm not done organizing, either. over the winter, i only managed to do my closet. but i haven't gone through the other closets of her house (well, a good  chunk of chaeli's closet gets done with each season).

so here's my list to tackle:

1. front closet
2. guest powder room – medicine cabinet and under sink
3. chaeli's bathroom – medicine cabinet and under sink
4. under master bathroom sink
5. linen closet
6. storage closet by kitchen
7. revisit the shelves of chaeli's closet
8. office – like all of it

i'm embarrassed to say that we've been so negligent in those areas that i don't even know what's at the back of them. and a great reason to this is because when we bought this place from my parents, my mom didn't bother cleaning up most of those areas. we've been just adding our stuff to the mess.

this is mainly a job for me to do. i can't rely on doug. all he does is try to save most of what i want to chuck (yeah – doug hasn't watched 'hoarders' yet. he should. it will nip his pack rat tendencies in the bud!) that's why i am leaving the office to the end. most of it is his junk. i can't even both thinking about it until then, but i promise myself not to add anything else to the office. whatever we can't keep in the other areas i'm about to clean will be tossed.

i'm not sure how long this is going to take. my goal is to get through half of it before july.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

tacos, U2 and window sill herb kit

• it was by far the best two year old birthday party i have ever been to. cathy's little boy, seemed like he was having fun too. i hope so, since it was all for him. though, i have to admit, the party was also very much for the adults. i think i realized this as i made my way to my 2nd bottle of beer (which is a lot for me considering how little i can drink in one sitting these days – especially as i hardly drink beer anymore). anyway, i had been waiting for this party all week. i had especially been waiting just to be in a social atmosphere with good friends and wonderful conversation. i laughed quite a bit last night which was a great release, considering all the tension and stress i have been feeling for the last couple of weeks.

• as usual, one type of conversation came up last night and it's the same conversation we usually end up having, though it's always disguised through various different ways and topics… but the underlying meaning always persists. and that's simply as to realize how old we really all are. this time, it was in reference to U2 and doug's partner whom he worked with last week – she's only 19 years of age. the radio was pumping out the tunes of U2's single from their joshua tree album, 'with or without you.' it dawned on doug that his partner wasn't even born when this album made it's debut. we sat there and basically counted back the years as to how old we were… and realized, with no real surprise but still horrifically, that we were talking about more then 20 years ago. of course, there's a tiny bit of depression that goes along with this reality, but i have to admit, mostly, i am simply just proud that we've come as far as we have in life. it's a true testiment of not just our own accomplishments, but of our friendships.

• 

  U2 by U2

  while i'll probably always be a fan of amazon, i still enjoy going into chapters just so i can hold the books in my hand and physically leaf through the pages in order to make a decision of whether or not i actually like the book i am looking at. i always go to the bargain section – the area with all the non-fiction books. keeping in line with last night's U2 topic, i bought the "U2 by U2" book for our small coffee table book collection. it's a beautifully crafted book with great photography of the band throughout their entire career (up to their achtung baby tour). the photo on the right is the paperback version. i got the hardback instead – for only $17.99.

• i also started to shop for my SIL's birthday present, as well as some bargain books for babies/toddlers for my niece's upcoming first birthday. for my SIL, i bought her this beautiful italian herb kit in which you start by planting the seeds in this nice planter it comes with and leaving it at the window sill before transferring it outside when the weather becomes nice enough (which is a tad later then the warmer weather we get here, since they live in t-bay). i also picked up these really cute cat and dog, mini-note pads (<- the link is to ecojet's pdf catalogue) for her.

Italian_herb

Dog_notebook

Cat_notebook

• we went grocery shopping and well, what the hey… i picked up some of those instant chocolate chip cookie batter. we're about to make some right now. yup.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

random tidbits

• heroes is back after a nearly 2 months break. i had almost forgotten that last night was the first episode for 2009. something made me decide to double-check the starting date. thankfully, i found out 13 minutes before it started. i loved it last night. LOVED IT! and i'm sure a crap load of people will disagree as they say, "but… what happened between then and now? what's going on? why is he all of the sudden bad?"

• as we enter february, i'm starting to get mildly impatient for spring. it's always this time of the year in which i start to day dream about wearing sandals or not needing accessories like a hat, scarf or pair of gloves. i start to fantasize about wearing a light jacket or no jacket at all and being able to walk around without having to try and avoid ice and salted-slushy-grey-crap that stains my boots and my car. i will, however, miss winter fashion. taking off the thick jacket and other outwear necessities, it's nice to wear a sweater and dress pants made of thicker material.

• chaeli's birthday part is now just a week and a half away. i have everything almost ready, including the kid's napkin and paper plates which i ordered online because it took me months in finding a canadian distributor that sells wall-e products for parties. yes, this is going to be a wall-e theme party. it's also on valentines day so the whole wall-e hearts eve thing goes well together. i have everything for the lootbags though i still have to put them together. the helium balloons will be prepared by the party place. the cake is ordered – a friend of mine is making it (she runs a cake business). food is being helped by my aunt, my mom is doing one dish and we'll be providing a dish/platter or two as well (once i decide what to do – the party isn't during a meal-time so as long as we have appropriate snacks, it should do).

• i'm wearing my new pair of black, pin-striped dress pants which had to be shortened. i don't get it. i'm 5'7" – a considerably average height for a woman. and yet, when i buy regular-sized pants, i have to always get the hems taken in because otherwise, they just drag on the floor – even with my highest of heels! i can't buy petites because they are too short for me. why is shopping for pants becoming more and more difficult? argh! i suppose, though, that with the multitude of footwear, it's hard for the manufacturers to decide on what the right length is these days. but my heels are not on the low side. i'm wearing 2 3/4 inches at work. i just don't get it.

• my sims2 have been totally neglected. i haven't touched the game since christmas time. i thought i would be able to play them once a week but sadly, i've just been too busy. same with watching dvd's. i had time during the holiday which i took advantage of, and went through a mad-dash of dvd's. since then? i've managed to watch a third of 'get smart'. it's not just not having the time. but when you have to divide up your time for various things, certain activities just don't make it up the priority list. it's gotten to the point where i'm not even all that interested in watching a movie because it allocates too much of my time at once. but i do miss playing with my sims2.

• today is chaeli's birthday. we'll have a mini-celebration tonight at my aunt's and uncle's house, since my parents are still in florida. we'll be having hot pot and then chocolate truffle cake.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

awful-shopping-spree-mode

it's horrible because i should be saving. but i so want to shop. especially in the area of shoes and jewellery. some cloths would be nice, too, but i did some already over the holiday so my need for new clothes has been tamed for the time-being.

but shoes… oh shoes.

and jewellery – what girl can resist a bit of bling-bing?

i'm actually going to go out and hunt for some sterling siver hoops and faux-gold ring this weekend.

as for the shoes, i'll hold out. once they start to get ready for the spring line, i can swoop in and hopefully get some good deals with their boots.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

guilty pleasures no. 29

Music from the Coffee Lands

putumayo presents cd’s

true, i bought this for doug for christmas (well, santa, actually, bought it for him since it was one of his stocking stuffers).

Dance Dance Dance

but as we sit in the living room together, chaeli playing with her littlest pet shop toys, doug reading the paper and me reading my group of sevens coffee table book and dance, dance, dance by haruki murakami (i stopped reading it for awhile and am now picking it up again), music from the coffee lands is playing next to us and it fits our mood completely.

it’s like the missing piece from our saturday morning coffee and reading.

in fact, a lot of the music from putumayo presents seems to fit that kind of mood. i am starting a rather impressive list of cd’s i hope to collect from putumayo. and it’s money i don’t mind splurging from time to time as portions of the money raised from buying these cd’s goes towards a good cause – the charity ranges but concentrates on the regions the music comes from.

i’m hoping to get, for example, music from the tea lands and gypsy caravan next.

i haven’t been exposed to a lot of world music and i find that putumayo is a great for any enthuisiasts of world music as the collection is of a good variety (even within the region(s) it represents as they vary in artists). i would think that even those that are well exposed to such music would enjoy these compilations.