{this moment} – A [Sunday] ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. As inspired by Collecting the Moments … One by One and SouleMama
Author Archives: nochaosnoorder_lkd0dk
I’ve tried to keep up several blogs in the past, but I’ve always lost momentum and interest and I finally began actively ignoring them. What I am considering a success with this one is that I’ve kept at it! I’m not counting readers, or outside links. Just the fact that I’ve taken the time, 3 times a week, to contemplate my chaos and solutions.
So, what made my last blogs so hard to keep up? Photos. Taking a good picture on my camera isn’t hard. It’s the downloading the photos later and doing my blog AFTER I’ve done the project. It’s the finding time to go into the office and sit at my computer and try to remember the past to write a whole post. I am not successful that way!
What seems to be working is using my tablet for taking notes directly in a WordPress app as I’m working and also getting pictures with the tablet which are immediately available for posting into WordPress, too. I do some last minute touch ups on my desktop and then publish from there. But that means I use ugly pictures. And I’ve decided that that’s ok for now. I need less chaos and more success right now and, since ugly pictures make that happen, it’s ugly pictures we’ll be using. 🙂
On another topic, my Auntie came by yesterday and gave me some time and help in cleaning and inventorying the fridge and some cupboards! Yay!
We mostly just rearranged stuff. The lower right cupboard is full of stuff its ok for Robin to play with when he’s crawling and getting into things. I’m going to put in wooden spoons and some other good-to-play-with kitchen stuff.
Here’s the “before”:
Here’s the “so far” (there’s more to be done!):
I promise, that really is more organized!
While I was organizing my and Robin’s important personal documentation and health summary sheets, two things occurred to me: having Robin’s health info in a locked box won’t help babysitters and I have gained a lot of weight again and am not healthy. So I am adding two things to my to-do list: 1) create a household notebook and 2) start planning and preparing for a month of healthy meals. There are so many free, attractive, and useful templates for household notebooks out there! I’ve been having fun searching and downloading.
An ugly notebook (and photo)
I either don’t do some of the things many others do (I don’t send cards to people) or I do a lot on my computer (we use mint.com for our finances) so my notebook has:
1) Menu Planning
* In season produce, foraging, and when-to-buy lists
* Recipe list
* Pantry, cupboards, freezer, fridge inventory lists
* calendar and shopping lists
2) Emergency Information
* Medical history and contacts for each family member, including pets
* Emergency kits inventory lists and procedures
3) Chores and Checklists
* Seasonal chores
* Children’s chores (eventually)
* Traveling checklists
4) Restaurants (menus)
5) Manuals
I printed some divider sheets and used clear sheet protectors with stick on labels for my section dividers. I used a free border and text editor to make my dividers at least moderately interesting. They turned out better than I thought they would!!
Here are the sources for the templates I downloaded:
Simple Mom blog
Organized Home
Life as MOM blog
Money Saving Mom
Mom’s Toolbelt
I found some pretty fabric in my stash, so I’m hoping to sew a binder cover sometime this week. Then the whole thing will be functional AND attractive!
Some of the odd-sized things to go in the box.
So, Robin is 7 months old and he already has two albums, a baby book, and a medium sized basket full of memorabilia. I can imagine letting myself try to document every aspect of his life like an archaeologist — I’m pretty sure the Smithsonian will be ecstatic when they are presented with his cataloged life! OR, I could try to be more reasonable for my own sanity and his. I did some internet searching (what else is there to do when you’re tethered one-handed to a pump?) and was inspired by/used ideas from several organizing divas. I used an accordion file in preparation for his entire school experience as DaNita did and printed Jen’s free photo sheets and labels. HINT: Jen’s grade-level labels encompass 14 years, not 12, so you may consider getting a 16-tab divider or use separate files like she does if you want to use them all. I also used an idea from Laurel to put it all into a single plastic tub for each child.
THAT was a shopping experience! At my baby shower my hostess and guests created a lovely album with advice and extra pages for baby memories. A 12 x 14 inch lovely album. It was hard finding a lidded container that was big enough, but not too big. Staples, Office Max, Target and the Container Store’s webpages didn’t have just the right tub. I was delighted when I found this at Fred Meyers! The 50 quart, Sterilite Shelftotes are a little taller and longer than anything else I saw in my area. They aren’t super cute, but they were on sale!
Things are already getting crowded in the tub, though. I am going to get a legal sized archive box to hold the preemie and hospital things I’m not ready to part with (mainly a teeny-tiny diaper and his first “micro” sized outfit). But there’s enough vertical space I could put it at the bottom of the bin maybe.
Now my only conundrum is: Should I go buy two more, in case we go ahead and have more kids?! O.o
{this moment} – A [Sunday] ritual. A single photo – … – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. As inspired by Collecting the Moments … One by One and SouleMama
Meaning an intelligently organized counter is important!
Here are some before photos of my counter:
What doesn’t work for me:
1) biggest workspace is covered with stuff
2) too much stuff
3) Robin’s medical stuff too separate (3 more tubs elsewhere)
4) canned goods out
I haven’t finished my organizing (I’m looking for just the right thing for all of the medical supplies) but, with a little reshuffling of the toaster oven and coffee maker, I’ve opened a lot of counter space already. I can even create a beverage station! My Mother-in-law will like knowing where to look to make tea. This helps take the beverage packages out of the cupboard, too. A dual benefit!
a break from tubes
{this moment} – A [Sunday] ritual. A single photo – … – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
As inspired by Collecting the Moments … One by One and SouleMama
My goals this week were to finish a friend’s height chart and start on Robin’s hospital memory book. But I was diverted by an ant incursion! They came busting out all over our counters and in the main food cupboard! They were teeming over Robin’s medicines! Ick, Eew, GROSS! I abandoned all other activities in favor of CLEANING! It’s not that we’ve been super messy or anything… I think their nest was being drowned in the heavy rain and they had a higher demand for food or something.
Anyhow! I expose my amature blogger skills by forgetting a before picture and by taking too dark, ugly photos. But hey, I’m transforming chaos here! So, I’m cutting myself some slack! 😀
After clearing off the counter, I emptied the cabinet and wiped it down really well. I made my husband very nervous the whole time because I stood on the counter and bent over to rinse my rag off in the sink.
Here’s a closeup of some of the things that needed sorting and cleaning.
Everything got wiped down. I also got to bust out my new label maker and identify my bulk containers with the item name and with the empty container’s tare weight. That will be handy when I go get them filled up again!
While I was putting things away, I took the time to create an inventory list of what I had. This will be useful in my month of meal planning, but also because the storage in this kitchen is so awkward and my food will be in some not-so-intuitive spots, the list will help my husband and I find our food!
Even though it wasn’t part of my plan to start cleaning my kitchen yet, I have made a good start. And, now that it’s started, I feel compelled to keep at it! Remember how I said I cleared off the counter at the very beginning of this post? Well, what I cleared off is spread all over the rest of the kitchen! I need to organize all of that next…
In a previous post (A Whole Lotta Not Much), I mentioned briefly that I like to make height charts for baby shower gifts. When I first started, guests (and sometimes the receiving mom) were perplexed and underwhelmed and I felt a bit disappointed. Especially amongst the adorable baby clothes and accessories! But, after repeatedly hearing from moms 3, 5 and 8 years later how much they and their kids love them, I am satisfied with this great gift.
I’ve always used wooden boards, but I now have some friends in other states and I don’t want to ship a board to them – particularly to Alaska! So I have experimented with one that should travel better. I used marine vinyl as the base and Sharpies to decorate it. Cutting the vinyl was easy, but I’m not sure if I think it looks cheap and tacky. And I did not realize that the Sharpie ink can transfer to other parts of the vinyl if you over lap them when they aren’t completely dry. O.o
Here is my first one!
I like painting better than drawing…
Robin sitting and playing with props
{this moment} – A [Sunday] ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
As inspired by Collecting the Moments … One by One and SouleMama