No Chaos No Order

Taming the chaos 6, 7 and 8

Posted on by Posted in heart, home .

I have finished chapters 6-8 in Organize Now!, which coincides well with the blog-iverse trend of organizing our paperwork and/or offices this month.   Chapter 6 was regarding Finances (see my previous post), 7 is Bill Paying Systems (also taken care of along with 6), and 8 is Receipts & Taxes.  We are fortunate in that our taxes are pretty straight forward.  We have taken care to track and keep the paperwork the last few years for our free lance work, but neither one of us has made any significant money to be taxed or to exceed our standard deductions.  Even last year won’t be too bad with my and Robin’s hospital stay since we spent less than the minimum needed.  So, from reviewing last years taxes, I think this year we’ll only need three folders:

  1. Expenses – for items that might be deductible (medical bills, child care) and insurance explanation of benefits
  2. Income – to verify against our W2s, etc).
  3. To Pay – for those bills that are still mailed to us (everything else is automated).

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I keep these in a Longaberger Sort and Store desktop basket (Which is being retired soon.) along with my notepad for letter drafts (I write a rough draft of all my letters and notes because my spelling and handwriting are horrible!!); note cards, stamps, and (coming soon!) Project Life cards.

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Next up in the Organize Now! book are:

Week 9: Organize Your Files – I am working on it! I have a lot of weird miscellaneous stuff to go through and scan or just finally DO, but I have the bulk of it taken care of.

Week 10: Organize Your Magazines and Newspapers – We don’t get newspapers at all and we get three magazines total and they are all organized already (my two magazines are on my scrapbooking shelf and the husband passes his off to his father).

Week 11: Organize Your Email and Social Media – This is also done already.  I keep these things in check pretty constantly.

Week 12: Organize Your Mail – Also done! We don’t get much mail and I am very good at opening, sorting and dealing with the mail right away.

SO, after taking care of my files, I’ll be moving on to the section “Organize Your Things” where I’ll be working on organizing Robin’s toys, then my crafts and photographs.  There are other “Things”, but these three things alone are going to take me a LOOOONNNGG time.  Heck, the scrapbooking shelf has already been a big project for some time now…  But, I’m excited to be able to mark it off!!

Other scrapbook shelf plans

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I thought I’d jot down my plans for the scrapbooking shelf reorganizing!
I’d like these photo boxes to go with the green notebooks, etc, or come up with a complementary color. I’m also not thrilled with how my off sized albums are fitting.
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This is the “big sized paper” shelf and I’d like to cover a box to put it all in. Then an open paper divider for the papers one shelf down can sit on top of it.

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I’d like the pen drawers to be white, but … meh. Those papers on the left will go up a shelf.

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Paper labels are going to cover the drawer fronts and that’s all that’s changing here!

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Prettier boxes will store my vintage articulation card collection and stamps and supplies.

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And then I’ll put up some framed photos and be all done! 🙂

Food town planning

Posted on by Posted in health, home .

Last month I made the following meals and here’s what I thought about them:

  1. Beef and Cabbage (my own ‘recipe’) – a tasty and simple concoction. I’m not sure how it would freeze… maybe after it’s baked? But we eat it pretty quickly once it’s cooked, so that’s sort of moot.
  2. Amazing Lentils and Kale from (allrecipes.com) – (what I said in the previous post) “It really is amazing. Easy to make and my carnivorous husband ate it and the leftovers readily. He did mention ham at some point, but it wasn’t too important to him.  Serving it with rice or bread may have made it last longer, but it already fed us for three meals, so I’m cool with that.” Again, it did not get frozen.  I’m not sure how well it would work if it was frozen pre- or post-cooking.
  3. Meatloaf with Rosemary Potatoes (from Baked in the South) Didn’t care for the taste, the loaf was squishy, and there was (relatively) significant preparation before freezing.
  4. Honey Sesame Chicken (from Baked in the South) Tasted alright, but not stellar. Loved how easy it was to bag, freeze, and cook.  I may do this again, but change the seasonings.
  5. White Chicken Chili (from Baked in the South) Another one that only tasted alright.  The husband liked it more than I did. Pre-cooking the chicken was a pain (says the super lazy girl).
  6. Beef Stroganoff (from Baked in the South) Bleh. I really didn’t care for this one, either, but the husband liked it.
  7. Thai Chicken Wings with Peanut Sauce (from Baked in the South) We ate it, but thought it could be a little more ‘thai’. Also, I’m not going to use drumsticks next time, maybe healthier chicken filets.
  8. Indian Chicken Curry (from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen) – (from my previous post) “although it was a “cook everything now and freeze your leftovers” type of meal it was pretty good.  I felt there was way too much cinnamon in it and would have easily benefited from onions, peppers, and carrots too.”
  9. Salsa Chicken (for Quesadillas) (from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen) – Dude, shredding chicken is a pain! But it tasted alright in Quesadillas.
  10. Pho (which isn’t a freeze-ahead kind of meal, I just wanted to use some rice noodles and my husband loves Pho!) – I never made it. Didn’t find any marrow in the one store I asked at.
  11. Spinach and Feta Oven Omelet Breakfast Bagel Sandwich (from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen) pretty good. I still often chose cereal or pb&j over these, though.
  12. Blueberry and Banana smoothie packs as inspired (from Skinny Mom’s Kitchen) ended up making very large or two servings!  Otherwise, same thing – cereal or pb&j trumped! I think because it was so big, you had to pound on the frozen lump to get it to break up enough for the blender to blend it.

What I learned:

  • I preferred the “no prep other than chop and measure” and “open, pour, and heat” meals.
  • I am incredibly lazy.
  • Raw and frozen potatoes don’t cook very well. They turned black and had a grainy texture.  I wonder if they would work better if submerged in a sauce?
  • Frozen and reheated mashed potatoes do work well, though! At first, after the mashed potatoes were thawed, it looked watery and gross, but as soon as you heat it up it was fine!

Planning for this time!!

ON HAND:

  • 3 lbs lentils
  • 1 lb small red beans
  • 1 lb brown rice
  • 2 cups parsnips
  • 1 cup beets
  • 1 cup potatoes
  • 3 carnival squash
  • 1 lb cheddar cheese
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 1 large cabbage

SALES:

  • BOGO Free meat sale!
  • Baby carrots
  • Jackson sausages (digital coupon)
  • Eating Right Meals (digital coupon)

Organize Now! chapter 6

Posted on by Posted in home .

Organizing our finances. Bleck.

I discovered how frivolously we have been living the last few years. Sure, we’re not decadent, but we had both been working decent jobs and now have nothing to show for it! We’re scrambling, now, trying to figure out how to live off one income. Trying to accept that we should supposedly be able to buy groceries for $100/month/person when we were spending $600. Accepting that our individual “fun” money each month is $30 and includes magazine subscriptions, domain names, and clothes. Thinking ahead to save for fixing the heater in the car, a chest freezer, and putting off the fancy touch-screen computer. The scariest part? It’s totally do-able! It’ll be tight, but possible. There’s not enough (yet) to save for a down payment on a home or a new car, but once we get caught up on the medical bills we’ll be able to. I also know, once we get used to our new frugality, we’ll be able to cut back a little more here and there and that amount will be able to be squirreled away. AND, once I go back to work, all that income will go towards those big savings goals! Yay!

So, for our finances, we gave a budget and a way to easily track it (we’re using www.mint.com and it’s accompanying apps). And we have started using my Ing Direct checking account for bill paying. Nearly everything has been automated and set to paperless. I move the monthly bill-budget from checking (earning .015% interest) to the savings account (earning .8% interest). The day before a bill is set to be paid, the allotted amount is transferred from savings to checking. We used the largest bill in the year to budget the power and gas bills, so, when the bill is less, the “extra” money is left in the savings account along with the semi-annual bill savings. I’m pleased with the set up. We’ll only earn a few cents off the interest, but keeping it not-so-visible is the key.

I don’t have a pretty picture for you, but my mind is a little easier knowing I have those essentials taken care of.

{this moment}

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Photo by Alan Winston

{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

Fun and wonderful!

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While I was out, galavanting about the country on my Epic Summer Train Trip a few years ago, I colored a piece of butcher paper on the train with crayons. It sparked many conversations and kept me entertained for many hours. But, I didn’t know what to do with it once I got home. I thought it was sort of dorky looking to put up, but too big for my scrapbook.

My husband decided to frame it. Instead of using the cardboard baking, though, he used a piece of plexiglass. We hung it in the kitchen window. It’s been transformed! I love looking at it and thinking about my travels and, especially, my thoughtful husband!

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Scrapbooking bookshelf prettification

Spinning lamp attempt

Posted on by Posted in Random .

I wanted one of those lamps that spin around and cast light against the wall (like the lantern in Sleepy Hollow), but I didn’t like anything I saw online so I decided to make my own.

Bought a lamp at Goodwill:

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Took it apart:

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Put it back together with the light directly against the base:

2012-08-24 13.51.32Made a top with vents to allow for spinning:

First try-

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Second try, which worked (this photo does not have the vents cut).  I also found that I couldn’t screw it down like one might do with a normal lamp shade. Instead, I taped a thumb tack to the vent and balanced the pin tip on the lampshade post-

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Made a shade out of foamie. I thought paper would be too flammable and any metal would get too hot and burn little fingers-

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This turned out to also be a poor choice – the foamie got hot, soft, and smelly with in seconds of the light being turned on, it was too heavy for the spinning action to happen, and light did not show on the walls in clear shapes (the rocket was too big and the bottom needed to be enclosed).

And, by now I have gotten tired and bored with this project, so it’s going to Goodwill!

 

 

 

 

 

{this moment}

Posted on by Posted in heart .

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{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

Notebook covers

Posted on by Posted in Sewing .

I needed to prettify some notebooks so I used some fabric and sewed them up. I did not use a pattern, but I used the notebook to fit it.

1) Tear strips of 45″ wide fabric the height of the note book plus two to three inches.
2) Fold the salvage edge to the wrong side of the fabric and stitch down.

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3) Use the notebook and wrap the fabric around it how you’d like it to fit, pin. If you’re using a binder withe the rings on the center, wrap your fabric wrong side out so your pins are where they need to be to just sew them together. If your rings are on the back of the binder, wrap with your fabric right side out, pin, and then mark the pins so you can take them out and turn the fabric to wrong sides together and pin again.
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4) Clip the center panel seam allowance nearly to the stitch line.
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5) Sew your seam, folding the center clipped seam allowance to the wrong side.
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6) Clip corners, turn to right side, top stitch as close to seam as possible.
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7) Turn wrong side out and cut the seam allowance as close to seam as possible.
8) Repeat steps 3 – 7 with bottom.

To add a vinyl label pocket:
1) Cut vinyl. Be sure to allow 1/4 inch on three sides for stitching.
2) Measure or use a template and measure up from the bottom to place your vinyl.
3) Use painters tape to tape three sides down on fabric. I taped it down while on the notebook because I thought it was easier and more accurate. Remove the cover from the notebook again.
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4) Tape along the edge of the vinyl the side you are stitching so the presser foot will not stick. Alternatively, tape the bottom of the presser foot! (Hindsight is great!)
5) Stitch, being careful to not sew through both layers of your cover. I used an invisible hem stitch. As you turn each corner, pause to reposition the tape to just the edge of the vinyl (or remove completely if you taped your presser foot).
6) Pull thread ends to back, tie off, and clip.
7) Put your cover on your notebook!

Check out the finished notebooks here!

UPDATE: Only use the vinyl along the spine – it sticks to itself on the bookshelf or in stacks and makes it a pain putting them back on the shelf!