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.

solitude vacation

last week, i took four days off (five days really, since it was attached to our thanksgiving monday).

it’s amazing how fast the week goes, though. and believe me, if i had more vacation time left, i would have done two weeks. one week is too short. i wanted to rest, which i did, but i also wanted to get some things done. which i did:

• cleaned house
• extra load of towels for the laundry
• re-organize front closet
• go through chaeli’s old winter coats/jackets
• take hobbes for his vaccination and annual check-up

i did get all the above done – only two things on the list never got touched:

• go to toys ‘r us to get some christmas presents (yes, i plan to start and finish early)
• go shopping for my wardrobe

the wardrobe part really was more important but i slacked off. why? i’m just not that into shopping. some one said to me that i might feel differently if money wasn’t the object. true – it cuts down on all the decision making since a good portion of my shopping is adding up the price tags in my head and trying to justify buying anything that isn’t on a sale (or a good enough sale). but even still… i could come up with a list of many other things i would much rather do then go shopping.

in fact, let me shop online if money wasn’t an object – i could do it at anytime of the day without leaving my house.

anyway, point is, last year, i used a sad belt to hold up most of my pants. it worked – sort of. but this year, that belt is sadder and while i’m tempted to just go out and replace that belt, doug’s voice rings true in my conscience, “it’s not the belt – GO BUY NEW CLOTHES!”

it’s true – the pants are now bigger even and there’s no way i can get away with cinching them up with a belt anymore. i do plan to get at least two of them taken in only because they are very nice dress pants and i’m not at all sure if i can find ones like them anymore. still, that’s just two pairs of pants. plus, i’m now needing new tops – most of the ones that i own are just getting too baggy – making my fashion statement, “the frumpy look.” which… well… doesn’t exactly spell out ‘professional’. ugh.

i did attempt to go shopping a couple of weekends ago. really, i did! i spent what felt like forever looking for more professional wear. and what did all that shopping amount to? one pair of pants and one blouse. that’s it! which brings me up to 2.5 wearable work pants for winter.

the 0.5 is for a pair of new-ish black slacks i bought the end of last winter that are starting to get loose on me. i can pull it off but for how long, i’m not sure.

what i need is a personal shopper.

no… wait. i don’t know if i would like that. to have some one so intimately close to my body which would include every curve and dreadful bulge. no thanks.

as for the rest of the week, i watched three movies, got together with a good friend for a girls’ night in, read a bit, worked out everyday and then on saturday, while chaeli was with my parents, doug and i had a belated 8th wedding anniversary celebration. we went to niagara on the lake and visited five wineries. i packed a lunch and we came back for a steak dinner at home – that way, the money was splurged on the wine we purchased. photos to come…

a walk by the creek

lazy sunday

aside from all the organizing, sorting and chucking that i did this past weekend, we did manage to head out for a quick hike sunday morning.

which turned out to be more of a lazy stroll and hanging out by the creek, throwing rocks and basically just being out for some fresh air. the trail ended up being only 250m. not at all a true hiking trail – more of a scenic outing. still… it was fun and the weather was quite amazing.

a short 250m

when we found our way to the creek, hobbes jumped into the water immediately and frolicked over to the other side. all was fine until he looked back and realized we were still on the other side. panic set in as he paced side to side nervously, looking down at the water and then back at us.

it took us a good 5 minutes of verbal encouragement to get him to cut back across the same way he did going out.

he finally figured it out and headed back – though in a more frantic state. silly dog.

“ah ha! i CAN go back the same way!”

the secluded area was quite enchanting in it’s own humble way. i took care to look at all the different wild flowers and plants, knowing they would be withered and dried up in the next few weeks.

a view of the creek

tall medeow flowers

chaeli has a few sunglasses – everytime we go out hiking, she tries to pick one that matches her outfit. yes – it starts that early. anyway, i was able to snap a lot of photos of chaeli (seen here) and just had to post this photo. it sums up her personality pretty well.

autographs, anyone?

near the end, we found a cool tree with some very low branches jutting out sideways. chaeli wasn’t too thrilled at first but once doug hoisted her up to a secure, thick branch, she laughed and thought it was pretty awesome. later, her and hobbes found some fallen trunks to crawl around on.

nature

the closet monster

i spent the majority of my afternoon cleaning out and reorganizing my walk-in closet.

thankfully, i don’t have a very large one. but it was looking pretty sad. in fact, there wasn’t much space to actually ‘walk in’ so yeah. it was that time again.

i made a little over one garbage bag of old clothes that were either too worn out or oo big for me. and i made about 1.5 bags of junk to toss. i do still need to go through a few small drawers of my bedroom while i’m on a roll.

next… switching seasonal wardrobe for chaeli.

when it’s all done, i can enjoy the beautiful autumn weather!

grade two – thus far…

alright. i know i’m about to jinx myself big time. but comparing this time to last year, it’s so far the complete opposite. as in around this time last year, i was having an anxiety attack everyday with the big changes into grade one. last year, i desperately wanted to invent a time machine to relive preschool and JK because i didn’t know how good we had it in those easy-peasy years.

grade two isn’t necessarily easier but it’s going a lot smoother. way more then i expected. i don’t know why exactly.

maybe because we are now familiar with the system. or maybe we’re just more relaxed about – rather then feeling like we had to get everything in all at once.

i know one thing, grade two is way more organized. which is saying a lot because i honestly thought grade one was extremely organized. i mean, it seemed SO organized that i wanted to marry it. so of course, i couldn’t imagine a more organized system.

enter grade two. the superior or superiors of awesome organization. this is as good as it gets.

last year, all home work was done on loose-leaf print outs, stapled together. i would get it back after the teachers checked it off and the paper would pile up. of course, when i saw that if i didn’t do something soon, our house would be covered in homework paper. so i scrounged around the house for binders so that there were one binder for each core subject and all the other subjects shared a binder – two secondary subjects per binder.

the binders were small though so by the end of the year, it was getting pretty tough to open/close the three-rings in the middle.

this year, i was ready. i set out to walmart and picked up bigger binders. a different colour for each one but of the same style, making sure to pick up extra dividers and some lined notepads for chaeli to use when studying for tests and/or working out her math problems.

what i miss about school the most? binders!

but i didn’t know that the teachers would give her exercise books and workbooks for everything. math is still on loose leaf but they haven’t handed any of it back (maybe they do collectively). and they even send these loose-leaf homework assignments in a clear plastic cover with her name clearly printed on the front to protect it during the commute.

when i get to school, rather then having her academic planner, workbook and/or exercise book crammed into her cubby, they have a low but long shelf against one wall where everything can be distributed into a neat and organized pile. when i pick her up, the essentials of what is needed to be brought home is in the cubby, ready to go.

those binders that i bought sit empty in her closet shelf, waiting to be filled. and they will be filled as we start to collect past homework and assignments back.

but for now, i’m totally enjoying my time letting some one else do that extra work for me.

return from vacation, grade two and 3am wake-up calls

• we arrived back from our trip to thunder bay and lake superior late sunday night. yesterday was a mad rush to do laundry, clean my dad’s van (which we borrowed), bring our new, old little trailer to the storage place and prepare for chaeli’s first day of grade two.

• managed to upload photos of which i will highlight here soon – we had beautiful scenery. i edited the almost 500 photos i took down to just over 100.

• dropped chaeli off this morning after finding her new home room. exciting! she was nervous leading up to the first day but as she quickly learned, there was nothing to be nervous about. she had some friends in her class that were in her class in grade 1. and the teacher (one of them we met this morning – the other starts at 9am) was very warm and bubbly. always the characteristic trait you want for the younger grades.

• this week might be hard to do a full workout routine but i’ll be back at the gym starting tomorrow to ease my way into it. i’m sure i gained 5 lbs on our trip. but that’s not much to lose.

• i’m really tired. not just because of the trip and all the work unpacking yesterday, but at 3am, hobbes decided to let me know that he wasn’t well by throwing up on my back while i was sleeping. why do they ALL go to mommy when they are sick?

the art of one-night camping trips

there’s definitely an art to it. mainly, the goal is to create a system where packing and then unpacking is smooth and easy. which is hard to do and to be honest, i haven’t figured it all out just yet but i’ve made it my project to find out how to do it.

friends of mine use to have in their trunk a box of equipment and some clothing (older stuff they don’t mind getting worn and dirty) all set in their trunk. maybe even a sleeping bag or two as well. when the mood hit, they would just toss in the tent and some food, keeping the meals really easy.

returning from their weekend trip, all it took was to store any leftover food and do the laundry.

easier said then done when it comes to just taking care of yourself. throw in a kid, a dog and a husband who likes to over-pack, and you’ve got yourself quite a handful.

still, i’m determined to make it easier because while there is still work involved, i loved camping this weekend. and i really want to do more of it.

i made some mental notes this time around in areas we can cut back on and improve on. when we unpacked, i asked doug to keep this one box out with supplies we have at home, that we can keep for future camping trips. i’ll be building on that box. at the moment, we’re still borrowing some utensils we have at home and then having to unpack them and store them away for daily use. so, i’ll be looking at keeping a set just for camping, along with other supplies.

food is an area we need to improve on. we always created ‘gourmet’ meal plans and we have to let go of that when we’re just going for a night or two. it might mean sandwiches, ramen noodles and/or kraft mac ‘n cheese with chopped hot dogs. and while there’s nothing like fried eggs and bacon/sausage in the morning, the time it takes to make and clean up forces us to not get a chance to explore the park until closer to noon when the day is starting to get hot. cereal, milk and fruit will have to do.

and a bag of rain gear should always be packed with some fleece for unexpected cold nights – all just left in the trunk. picnic blankets can be left in the trunk as well.

there’s a lot we can do that doesn’t need repacking each time.

anyway, we did have a great weekend regardless of how short it was. i will write a separate post about it with photos later on this week.

and now there’s room for hobbes’ food…

with hobbes at doggy daycare today – trial for a 3-hour period – i’ve had the chance to get back to some of my sorting and chucking.

finally – the storage space under our kitchen sink is all cleaned up! which means ALL storages spaces under every sink in this house is now neat and organized.

i also had time to go through one kitchen cabinet. the upper part is mainly for cereal and the lower part is now devoted to hobbes’ stuff (mainly food and treats).

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 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

 

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dipping my toes into p90x plus

so far today…

5:30am – upper body plus from p90x +

7:50am – drive chaeli to summer camp

8:25am – toasted multi-grain bagel w/ butter and coffee at starbucks

9:30am – bodypump

10:30am – bodyflow

12:00pm – shopping for aqua socks and new pair of runners for chaeli

12:45pm – shopping for me

1:30pm – turkey sandwhich and club soda at home

and now – the linen closet awaits for me to… what else? sort, chuck and reorganize.

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