Tag Archives: ORGANIZE

2015 Goals

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It’s been quite the month around here! I’ve been really contemplating this blog and where I want it to go now that I’m back at work and don’t have as much time at home.

One thing I know: I love writing and I love this blog so I don’t want it to become something on the back burner. I’m going to try my best to get onto a better schedule.  Forgive my absence and bear with me as I continue to transition into this working momma role.  It’s amazing to me how long it’s taking me to get to a “normal” place in this new role I find myself in.  Of course starting a new job has made it even more difficult for life to feel “normal” because my transition in a new job has also had it’s challenges.

Anyways, more on all that later!

I promised a list of goals in my last post and I’m about to make good on that promise.

GoalsSo here they are!

Office : Our office is the bane of my existence! The thought of the disorganization and clutter in that room drives me batty, but it also overwhelms me to the point of paralyzing me.  This year I will conquer and finish that room if it kills me! I’ve already cleared out the closet and organized it.  Next up is the filing.

Monthly Dates : Carlos and I hadn’t been on a date since before Ezekiel was born! Now that I’m back to work and life is busier than ever and finances are a bit more stable we are making it a point to go on one date a month.  That might mean staying home and watching a movie.  It’s more about the intentional act of spending time together just us.  Marriage needs to be a priority, and this year we are making it that way.

Home Binder : This will be our finances, cleaning and maintenance, warranties and other things.  Just another way to organize our lives.

Gluten Free : After going back to work in November I let my diet go and eating gluten again has wreaked havoc on how I’ve been feeling.  So I’m making it a point to maintain a gluten free diet to allow my physical body to thrive.

No Credit Card Debt : while on maternity leave I was forced to use my credit cards for various things and was never able to pay them down.  This year I will pay them off and leave them locked up and put away to use only for emergencies.  I’m already over half way to this goal! I’m excited to thrive financially this year.

Past Years Picture Books : for years I’ve had pictures printed and stored in a box, and pictures stored on my computer.  Just sitting there, forgotten.  I wanted to get those printed pictures into photo books and also create digital books for the digital pictures.  Last year I found an online deal for digital photo books and bought five of them for $5 each and I finally got them made! I’m so happy to say I am all caught up on my photo documentation!

2015 Project Life : I realized last year while documenting Ezekiel’s first year of life that I really dislike digital photo books.  So I’m committing this years documentation to Project Life.  I have to be careful about the amount of supplies I buy.  I was drawn to Project Life because it can be as extravagant or as minimalist as you like and of course I’m going for more of a minimalist look.  The problem is that it’s just so tempting to buy all the cute supplies! So far I’ve almost completed January and I’m quite pleased with it!

So those are the big goals for this year.  I’m confident that they are all achievable and I’m ready as ever to thrive in 2015!

Back to Work Food Prep

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Wow! I have been away for a while and I’ve missed you!  It’s been a busy week, and I’ve successfully completed my first day away from Ezekiel.

In short, we all had a good day – I’ll expand on my thoughts/feelings/stresses later on. For now let’s focus on how I prepared last week.

Last week my parents came to visit before their departure to the US for the winter.  It was so so so fantastic to have them here, and Ezekiel was over the moon.  He is smitten with them and that makes my heart so happy.  It goes without saying that they are equally or even more so smitten with him.  So with them being here it was easy for me to keep my promise to myself.  I did very minimal things (but I did learn how to hem pants thanks to my mom!), but the day they left I went into full fledged preparation/stress mode.

Honestly, preparing and organizing three people is like a full time job in itself! I spent the weekend doing laundry, cleaning the house, organizing meals, prepping Ezekiel’s food (in another post I’ll explain this), getting bottles ready, preparing my work bag and Ezekiel’s dayhome bag.  I thought I’d share the food portion of my organizing.

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I’ve been using my Erin Condren Life Planner to plan our suppers (this week looks like a huge mess!) we are just finishing up our last bulk order of meat so it’s been hard to plan original meals! Anyways on the days I’m working I’ve planned to use our freezer meals.

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After planning our suppers I decided I needed to plan mine and Ezekiel’s full days of meals, that way I don’t have to think about food on the days I’m working.  Since I work 12 hour days I have to plan every meal from breakfast to supper.  We’ve had to start pureeing Ezekiel’s food again so I’ve left his blank for this week as I get used to it.  For my dinners I’ll just eat what I’ve already planned for suppers at home.  Snacks at work are essential to save me money and calories, otherwise I’ll be wandering to the coffee shop on my breaks and spending too much money on unnecessary things.

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Although I didn’t plan specifics for Ezekiel’s meals I did spend Saturday morning prepping all this food for him.  I mix and match for his lunches and suppers.  So far he’s enjoyed each of my concoctions. It’s been great to be able to just grab the containers, and throw some stuff into the blender.

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I reorganized our fridge to help with the planning.  The top left shelf is all of Ezekiel’s food.  the top right is beverages and dairy.  The middle left is yogurt and fruit.  Middle right is leftovers and miscellaneous.  The bottom shelf I’ve placed our planned food.

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The left is a bin for my lunches. All previously frozen into individual portions, I just pull them out of the freezer and put them in the bin.  The middle is a bin for snacks I’ve prepared and frozen (granola bars/scones etc.) again I just have to pull them out of the freezer and place them in the bin.  On the right is the meats I’ll be using for the week when I’m not working.  I take them out of the freezer and put them in the bowl to thaw.

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Behind the bowl I put the freezer meals that Carlos can grab and heat for suppers when I’m working.

I’ve only been back to work for a day but so far I’m loving this planning and prepping.  It’s taken a lot of stress off of going back to work.

Purging The Kitchen

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I’ve been on a roll lately.  I’ve been checking tasks off my to-do list daily and being very productive!  I’m working up to the dreaded office, and I’ve decided that I’m completely ok if it doesn’t get done.  In the meantime I’ve been doing things here and there.  One of those things is cleaning out my junk cupboard and collecting items around the house for next years garage sale.

Yep, you read that right.  I’m already planning next years garage sale and as I go through the year I’m packing things away to sell next year.  I’m anticipating that whenever I do get through my office, that I will have quite a lot of things to sell.

I thought I’d give you a glimpse of the process.

These were the two cupboards before I started (iPhone pictures so not great quality but you get the idea).

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In the top cupboard you’ll notice an abundance of coffee cups, wine glasses, water bottles and travel mugs.  We use maybe 5 of those coffee cups, two of those travel mugs, and a couple water bottles.  As for the wine glasses, we don’t drink at all and really only have them for guests and never use that many at one time.

The bottom cupboard is a bit of a catch all.  It has our serving platters, and anything I didn’t have a place for, including Ezekiel’s dishes and cutlery.  This cupboard was driving me insane.

Now here’s the after photos.

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What a difference! We are starting Ezekiel on bottles in anticipation of me going back to work so I needed a place to store them and ended up with much more room than I thought! I may even move some things from my pantry into the bottom shelf, I haven’t decided yet.

Here’s the box of stuff I cleaned out ready for the garage sale.

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Not bad right?

Have you been organizing and decluttering this fall?