Mission Organization Laundry

Here's a goal for me in the next 10 or so days. By Thanksgiving I want to have all the laundry washed, dried, folded/hung, put away, sorted for giveaways/throwaways, and taken to the salvation army. This includes going through Monster's baby clothes for giveaways, keepers, lending, and throwing away. Think I/we can do it?? God, i hope so. This whole laundry situation has gotten completely out of control.

For Us parental-types
Step 1 -- Sort clean and dirty clothes.
Steps 2,3 -- Wash, dry, and lug clothes back upstairs.
Step 4 -- sort for giveaways, etc.
Step 5 -- fold/hang clothes
Step 6 -- put away keepers and bag up others
Step 7 -- take others out of house -- to garbage, friends, or Salvation Army.
Step 8 -- Stay on top of laundry pile.

For the monster
Step 1 -- Wash, dry, fold all clothes
Step 2 -- Sort by sizes/types (newborn girl vs neutral) and giveaways, etc
Step 3 -- Containerize by size/type
Step 4 -- Put all keepers in storage and take others out of monster's room.

When you type it all out like that, it doesn't seem too bad. I have 10 days to do this (counting today, not counting thanksgiving day). I think I can, I think I can... And get the husband to help with his clothing...

PS Anyone have a good stain remover recommendation? Baby food stains like a b*@$%.

so much for that...

My plan to do the mud run has been foiled. Apparently, they got a lot of people signed up for it and closed registration. I feel pretty stupid for not signing up early enough. I guess I just didn't think they would get as many people as they did. that. sucks.

Half-year report

Update... I have not done much in the last 3 months. This list looks eerily similar to the one I posted in May. This summer was not much in the way of my goals, but I am hopeful that will change in the upcoming months.

30 before 30.

Health--Body

1.  Run a 5K with decent finish time (60 minutes or less).  DONE April 28
2.  Do a mud run. 
3.  Give up Diet Pepsi.
4.  Lose 10 pounds. DONE April 14
5.  Try a yoga class.
6.  Do water aerobics.
7.  Learn something new (physical).

Health--Mental

8.  Get off all meds and feel good about it. **I am off all meds and feel mostly good about it... only time will tell. In the next 6 months I plan that I will feel good about it!**
9.  Learn something new (intelligence).
10.  Learn to grow something (flowers or veggies).
11.  Finish Audrey’s baby book/scrapbook/calendar.

Food

12.  Bake a cake from scratch. DONE 04/25/2012
13.  Make homemade peanut butter cups with cookie crust.

House

14.  Go through closet and simplify wardrobe (use it or lose it). 
15.  Clean out and organize office. **started working on this, will take a while**
16.  Paint office and trim.
17.  Paint front porch and garage door.
18.  Decorate the dining room.
19.  Solve the coats and shoes dilemma **mostly finished**
20.  Get new sheets/pillows for bed.  **Still need pillows but sheets are done**
21.  Frame some family pictures (gallery wall). **Have some but not all framed, need an IKEA trip! and some spray paint**
22.  Go through knickknack box/get rid of/put out/store things.**partially started**
23.  Make/hang curtains in living room/dining room.

Travel

24.  Take a trip somewhere I haven’t been.
25.  Visit Monmouth.
26.  Check out city of Madison. DONE 06/15 and 06/16
27.  Go to Duluth for a weekend. DONE O5/13 thru 05/15/2012
28.  Spend a weekend camping out of town.

Other

29.  Finally change name on passport.
30.  Watch the Lethal Weapon movies.

#1

So I did it. I finished the Get in Gear 5K in less than 60 minutes. My finish time was 51:01. Whoo. It was cold, rainy, and I never want to do it again.

5 down 25 to go

Before

Crowd shot

Crossing the finish line

After

Race finishers

#12

I forgot to take any pictures during the process but I made a cake from scratch last week for my mom's birthday. I found this orange chocolate chunk cake recipe from Annie's Eats and it was great. I was really proud of how it turned out.

Here's the cake with the birthday girl :)

I made a few changes to the recipe. I used semisweet chocolate chips for the chocolate, didn't add the glaze, and made a different chocolate topping. Oh, and I made it all in one big bundt pan instead of minis.


Happy birthday mom!


4 down 26 to go

I'm on the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge...

My big 5K race is tomorrow.

Here's my playlist.

Tik tok -- Ke$ha
Domino -- Jessie J
Drive By -- Train
Edge of Glory -- Lady Gaga
Fallen Angels -- Black Veil Brides
We are Young -- Fun
Hot N Cold -- Katy Perry
Kids in America -- The Muffs
DJ's Got Us Falling in Love Tonight -- Usher
Medicate -- AFI
Oxford Comma -- Vampire Weekend
Someday -- Nickelback
A Thousand Years -- Christina Perri
Young -- Hollywood Undead
Eye of the Tiger -- Survivor
Alright -- Supergrass
Gonna Fly Now -- Rocky II
So Far Away -- Avenged Sevenfold


Wish me luck! My goal is under 60 minutes! I hate running :)


**UPDATE after the race. I finished with 4.5 songs left on my playlist... didn't make it to the Rocky songs, I was kind of bummed but I'm glad I didn't have to run any longer.**

#4

As of Saturday, April 14, 2012... I have met my goal for #4 on the 30b430 list. I have lost 10 pounds!!! YAY. Now lets see how many times I can meet this goal. :)

 this was actually taken on easter, so a week before i met my goal but its a good picture.

3 down, 27 to go

#12 preview

My mom's birthday is next Friday and I've decided to make her a cake. Since I've never made a cake from scratch, only from a box, I am going to do just that. And, I'll knock out my #12 on 30b430 also.

My mom always asks for an orange cake with chocolate frosting but since I could never find a box mix of orange cake I will have to do it from scratch. I'm going to try this recipe from Annie's Eats. Her food always seems amazing but I've never made any of her recipes because she does all her baking from scratch and I'm intimidated... but no time like the present and my  mom needs a birthday cake!

#19

Remember when I was talking about what a disaster my coats and shoes were? And how they made my whole house a huge mess? Well, I think I've finally taken care of the front door problem.


Started with this hung up mass of coats...

I had just found this new blog, iheartorganizing. Jen over there had been posting about her dressing room where she was using armoires as closets for herself and her husband.
So we got this armoire in order to hide the coats and to take the place of the closet we did not have.
 

Good idea in theory... not as much in execution.

 

We had this mess just behind the doors and every time I opened it something would fall out or bulge out and keep the door from closing all the way. I tried to corral some of the littler things (monster's coat and my gloves, etc) in the baskets on top but I couldn't figure out what to do with the pile at the bottom. Until today! I was at Target and found these perfect baskets. They even stack on top of each other, in case we ever want to get more. Such a pretty color, really perks up and gives this space some character. Love it!

There you have it, a solution to my coat/shoe dilemma in my living room. I have an idea for the kitchen but it involves another trip to Ikea because they didn't have what I wanted the last time I was there. Can't wait to go and get this house in shape!

2 down, 28 to go

 

One month update

As of Saturday (my weigh-in day), April 7, I have lost ... 6 pounds toward my #4 goal for 30b430. Yay for me!!!

as for my other 30b430 goals, i am slowly but surely working on them and eventually I will post about them. :) I hope.

Wardrobe essentials.

This is me at work, before 7 a.m. Eeesh. Early. I never realized the light shined off my face/head like that. (taken with my iPhone on the flipped side)

BTW -- What color is fuchsia and what color is magenta? We were trying to figure that out this morning because of my shirt. Apparently they are the same color but I've always thought magenta is a little more pink and fuchsia is a little more purple. Any thoughts out there?

I've been thinking about my #14 on the 30 b4 30 list, go through closet and simplify wardrobe. I have promised myself that I WILL NOT buy clothes until I am at a size that I am more comfortable with, so I have to make due with what I've got. Which is okay because I have a ton, TON of clothes in my drawers and closet that I don't even wear. Some of which is too small, but some I just don't wear. I need to start this organizing and get rid of the things I don't wear and all the things I've been hanging onto because I'm hoping to be that size again. It will be more fun to get new clothes when I am smaller anyway!!

My first task to begin organizing my closet is to make a list of wardrobe essentials for work/play/workout/DIY/dress up and then do all my laundry so that all my clothing is available for me to sort through. Here are the facts: I am a mom of a baby, I work 4-5 days a week and our dress code is "business casual ", I don't workout much but I want to, and I need some slob around clothes for cleaning and doing projects like painting. Also, I live in MN and have about 6 different seasons to account for with outerwear... Any suggestions on essentials?

monday morning brain dump

Well I finally did it. Took a big step toward one of my 2012 challenges and one of my 30b430 goals. I joined Weight Watchers on Saturday. I had done Weight Watchers once before and it worked really well but then I got pregnant, let myself go, and gained back every one of the pounds I had worked so hard to lose. I'll admit, I haven't really, really tried to lose the weight again, just kind of thought about it but now, I am determined to do it! And since I'm paying for it, I will be more likely to actually do it because I am more accountable. Plus going to the meetings really helps me.

Is it too much to ask that when you see a mother carrying a baby in a car seat carrier, a purse, and trying to balance a pizza box and her keys to open the damn door for her? What happened to Minnesota nice??

I hate daylight savings time. Saving? saving's? I don't know. Any way. Losing an hour totally sucks. Especially come Monday morning. This morning was rough getting up but at least monster was still sleeping because she thought it was only 5 a.m. instead of 6. yay for small victories. But, putting her to bed was not so good last night because she doesn't sleep well unless it is really dark and now that it is light at bedtime it's harder to get her to go down right away. We have "room darkening" blinds but they don't seem to be that dark. I'm on the lookout for curtains now. And, hopefully it will help with naps too. :) Happy spring though. :) 60 degrees yesterday and sunny. very nice.

Have been getting ready for baptism this upcoming weekend. I know most kids are done with this before they are a couple of months old but with the holidays and such, we didn't do it until now. Plus, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to go to all the trouble for it anyway. But, now that we are it seems like a good idea. I like the idea of being a member of a church and the tradition of going to mass on Sundays, but I just have problems with the execution of it. I haven't yet gotten the motivation to actually attend a service but maybe I will.

# 20

Before:






And After...






i didn't get new pillows but these work well :-)

1 down, 29 to go.

sneak peek

can you guess what this is for?

construction!?!

We went to Ikea on Saturday (I always feel really weird saying Ikea, Like I'll be judged for shopping there or something) in order to pick up some stuff to help with my organization ideas. However, once we got there we found out the marketplace was under construction. As in they were moving everything and nothing was where it should have been. There were things in 2 or 3 different locations and a lot of things seemed to be completely missing. It was no fun. Because of that, we missed out on a bunch of things that I wanted and was going to use over the weekend in order to clean up the piles of junk around the house. Hopefully, we'll be able to go back sometime soon and the place will be finished.

but, we did get a nice place to store coats and get them off of the banister/hooks. Once I get the shoes thing figured out, I'll be back to share it all. I promise.

30 before 30

I hate getting older. I love my birthday, any birthday for that matter, but I hate getting older. The thought that I am one year closer to 30 makes me cringe... In that thought I've been trying to come up with something to make this year better and to take my mind off of turning 30. Hence my 30 before 30 list. I challenge myself to do these 30 things between now and February 23, 2013. Here goes nothing.

30 before 30.

Health--Body
1. Run a 5K with decent finish time (60 minutes or less).
2. Do a mud run.
3. Give up Diet Pepsi.
4. Lose 10 pounds.
5. Try a yoga class.
6. Do water aerobics.
7. Learn something new (physical).

Health--Mental
8. Get off all meds and feel good about it.
9. Learn something new (intelligence).
10. Learn to grow something (flowers or veggies).
11. Finish Audrey’s baby book/scrapbook/calendar.

Food
12. Bake a cake from scratch.
13. Make homemade peanut butter cups with cookie crust.

House
14. Go through closet and simplify wardrobe (use it or lose it).
15. Clean out and organize office.
16. Paint office and trim.
17. Paint front porch and garage door.
18. Decorate the dining room.
19. Solve the coats/shoes dilemma.
20. Get new sheets/pillows for bed.
21. Frame some family pictures (gallery wall).
22. Go through knickknack box/get rid of/put out/store things.
23. Make/hang curtains in living room/dining room.

Travel
24. Take a trip somewhere I haven’t been.
25. Visit Monmouth.
26. Check out city of Madison.
27. Go to Duluth for a weekend.
28. Spend a weekend camping out of town.

Other
29. Finally change name on passport.
30. Watch the Lethal Weapon movies.

My plan is to post about each one of these things with pictures and to update the list as it happens (hopefully in real time). Wish me luck!! Here I come 30!

...

For anyone who watches How I Met Your Mother, I am going to make a sweeping declaration... (I love that show!)

My sweeping declaration is that I am going to come up with a 30 before 30 list. I have just over a year before I turn the big 3-0 and am not looking forward to it. So, in order to give myself something else to think about, besides getting old, I am creating this "bucket list." It's part bucket list and part get off my ass and get these things done list.

Stay tuned for the actual list. I'm at about 27 things...

***UPDATE***
I have finished the list. I have 30 things that are completely accomplishable (is that a word?) if I just get up and do them. Can't wait to get started!! Stay tuned :)