Goals For The Week Of 8/20

Wow!  Goals!  Those are something I haven't had in while.  Like, all summer long!   Having my husband home a bit instead of working two jobs has been FABULOUS!  However, we've gotten a little bit too much into this laid back mindset, and it needs to STOP.  NOW!

His inservice started back up last Friday, and he has meeting all this week, and then school starts back up next Monday, and I'm going to have a First grader!

Most of my goals for this week just involve getting back into a routine, and figuring out a daily schedule.

My sleep goals are to go to bed by 10:30 (I have never gone to bed this early in my adult life, so this is going to be a challenge!  I'm such a night person.), and get up by 6, and NO NAPS!  I will also be slowly easing my daughter's wake up time back until she's getting up at school time - 6:30.   They've been sleeping until 8ish all summer and she was quite grumpy when I woke up up at 7:20 this morning.

I'm going to continue to keep up with my reading goal I set at the beginning of the year to read 30 books this year.  I'm actually 3 books ahead of schedule and have only 9 more to go.  I've done a lot of late night novel reading during this lazy summer.

I've started the Little House series reading aloud to my girls, so I will continue (hopefully finish) Little House In The Big Woods this week, and I've been reading the Junie B. Jones series with my oldest.  We're on # 19 (since the beginning of summer!) and it's due back to the library Saturday, so we've got to get finished with that.

I found some 5lb. bags of potatoes at the $0.99 store for $0.60, so I am going to mash them all with dinner tomorrow and freeze what we don't use.  I'm going to use some of the biscuits I got at Albertsons today to make some PB&J freezer pockets for the lunch box.  I hope to also get at least one freezer breakfast made.

My cleaning goals are to continue to keep up with the laundry and dishes, and to get the master bedroom and bathroom cleaned up this week.  I've had a steady stream of house guests the past few weeks, so my time was focused on the rest of the house and these two got neglected.

If I have time, I'd like to also get some seeds planted for a fall garden.


What will you be up to this week?

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Goals For The Week Of 5/14

Last week I had a pretty big list of goals, and I didn't quite get them all done, but I made a good dent in it!

Here are last weeks goals:

• Clip/Reorganize Coupons  (not done)
• Continue Working On Kitchen Tasks  (finished the very last one this morning)
• Follow along with the FlyLady's Daily Missions (I'm not crossing this one off because even though I did them all, I did them on in one day instead of spread throughout the week!)
• Continue to keep up with email/laundry/dishes (I caught back up with the others today)
• Move plants to bigger pots
• Finish organizing book
• Select another organizing book and a novel and begin both 
• Be in bed by 11:30 each night and up by 6:20 each morning.  (Yeah...not so much!)
• Tidy up toys after dinner each night (having the kids help and learn the habit).  It's a work in progress!
• Reorganize small freezer over fridge. 

Here's what I hope to accomplish this week:

• Follow along with the Flylady  (she's doing master bath and guest room this week--which she assumes will be our worst room.   I'm choosing my kids play room instead because its a wreck and I've got to get it cleaned up so I can move a top bunk bed into there because this sharing the room business is just NOT working!  I'm also going to try to do both of my bathrooms, but favor my guest bath since I have guest coming next week.
• Catch back up with dishes and laundry (done!) and keep up with them.
• Continue to keep up with E-mail.
• 15 minute tidy each evening  (I'm letting the girls help with the Flylady tasks since it's their playroom we're tackling. They went in with grocery bags tonight and found 27 pieces of trash--pretty sure the little one ripped out a few coloring book pages and called them trash, but hey, its progress!)
• Bed by 11:30 (may try to go earlier with this one since I was able to manage this most nights)/ up by 6:20  (definitely needs some work!)
• Reorganize/clip coupons
• Read organizing book.   My list also says to pick out a novel, but I've been too busy to do this the past two weeks, and I'm not sure it will happen this week either.

I think that this list is looking much more manageable than last week's list.

Tomorrow is my oldest's 6th birthday, so it's going to be a busy one....bringing lunch and cookies to school, bringing her out to dinner and a movie tomorrow evening, and Thursday my little doggy has a neuter appointment, so I'll have to drop him off early and pick him up late.   This is just a busy, busy, time of year it seems.  And the next week will be Kindergarten graduation!  Didn't Kindergarten just start???!!!???

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Goals For The Week Of 5/7

Last week I had a HUGE to do list:

• Clean Carpets 
• Clean floor under little box 
• Bathe cats 
• Get ready for exterminator
• Continue To Keep Up With Email 
• Continue to keep up with laundry/dishes. 
• Finish up a few organizing tasks in the kitchen
• Get up by 6:25 each morning
• Go to bed by 11:45 each night.
• Pick out a new novel  and begin reading it.

I am happy to say that I got it all done, except for starting a new novel (though I did read a great deal of the household organization book I've been reading).  I also only accomplished about half of the kitchen organization tasks that I wanted to get to, so I'm going to continue working on that this week.  I even did fairly well sticking to the sleep pattern, so I'm going to try to go earlier on both times (did not work so well today!)

Here are the things I plan to accomplish this week:

• Clip/Reorganize Coupons
• Continue Working On Kitchen Tasks
• Follow along with the FlyLady's Daily Missions (just so happens she's working in the kitchen this week!, and last week she was in the entry way that I needed to put back together after the steamcleaning!  I've tried to follow along with her multiple times in the past and just could not keep up, but I'm feeling much more organized these days, and I feel I just might be up to the task--already scrubbed my stove today!)
• Continue to keep up with email/laundry/dishes  (the laundry and dishes got a little behind last week, but I worked hard over the weekend to get back on top of them!)
• Move plants to bigger pots yet again (Done, and I think it just might be the last time I have to do this!)
• Finish organizing book
• Select another organizing book and a novel and begin both  (I read the organizing books on my cell phone Kindle app while waiting for the bus in the afternoons).
• Be in bed by 11:30 each night and up by 6:20 each morning.
• Tidy up toys after dinner each night (having the kids help and learn the habit).
• Reorganize small freezer over fridge.  That thing is packed from all the freezer cooking, and I need to see what's in there!

Well, it didn't seem like I was going to have as busy of a week, but this looks like a pretty long list, too!  But, you know what?  I've learned something about myself (at least this is making me remember something I'd forgotten)...the more things I have to do, the more I am able to do!  If I keep busy, I get stuff done, but if I think I don't have things to do, nothing gets done.   That's why making these lists has been ever so helpful to me!  It's always right there in front of my face so I can see what's still on my agenda!

Also this week, I will be blogging daily about my $1.50/day Live Below The Line Challenge and attempting to keep up with Money Saving Mom's second week of her freezer cooking challenge (I'm really excited about lunch recipes).  Lot's of challenges!  It is also teacher appreciation week, and my daughter has her class poetry recital Thursday night.

What's on your agenda for the week?

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Weekly Goals

Last week I shared my list of goals for the week:

• Organize my recipe binder.
• Finish going through my clothes.
• Clean my desk. 
• Keep up with the laundry/dishes. 
• Keep up with email. 
• Use up all cooked ham and chicken.

I am very pleased to say that I was able to accomplish ALL of these things.   I did toss one bag of ham into the freezer all by itself, but it can be made into sandwiches later, so it's all good.

This week is a little bit different for making goals, as there are things that I *have* to get done as opposed to things that I'd like to get done.

Our pets are causing some major grief around here right now.  The kitties have been using the carpet instead of the little box, and it's flea season!

Yesterday, my husband steam cleaned the carpet in question and we applied various odor and urine removing treatments.  I continued this process today trying to remove all the smell, and I also crawled under my desk on my hand and and knees with Simple Green and wet rags and scrub brushes and CLEANED the floor underneath the litter box.  That was not a pleasant task, but it is over, and I've laid paper down under it for future "spills".  BLEH!

On Wednesay morning, the exterminator is coming.   We have them on a 3 month rotation, so it happened to be time.   I asked for the flea treatment, but that will involve picking up all items off of the floors, including closets (we tackled my girls room tonight--playroom tomorrow!), and vacuuming the whole house beforehand, plus leaving the house for 2-4 hours.  I'm very glad that I participated in the 4 Weeks To A More Organized Home Challenge this past month because I don't have nearly as much work to do since most of the cleaning has recently been taken care of.

So here is my list of goals for the week:

• Clean Carpets  (done, and drying)
• Clean floor under little box  (done)
• Bathe cats  (my husbands job!  HAHA)
• Get ready for exterminator  (working on it!)
• Continue To Keep Up With Email  (I've added cleaning out my facebook newsfeed to this goal.  I've unliked a ton of pages that were just taking up space in my newsfeed, and I can actually see my friends again!  Seriously you guys...I was following well over 500 blog pages on my facebook.   That is simply not necessary!  Of course I have my favorites that I would never abandon, but I had to say enough is enough!)
• Continue to keep up with laundry/dishes.  (Still doing well with this one--doing one load of each per day).
• Finish up a few organizing tasks in the kitchen--will schedule myself one per day after Mr. Exterminator is over with.
• Get up 5 minutes before my daughter's alarm each morning.   (She's been poking me going MOMMY GET UP!  Your alarm is going off!...Sad times!)  This will be 6:25 and I plan to shave 5 minutes off of that each week until I'm getting up by 6.
• Go to bed at a decent time each night.   (Hmmm....what is decent these days?)   I've been past midnight going to bed most nights, and when I've gone to bed I've had trouble sleeping, so I am tired and grumpy.  Yes, I am.   I want to be in bed by 10pm each night.  As it is currently 10:52, obviously, that is not happening tonight.   My goal this week is to bed by 11:45, and I intend to shave 15 minutes off of that each week until I am going to bed by 10.   Knowing me, I'll never make it before 10:30, but I'm being optimistic.  ;)
• Pick out a new novel  (I've got a TON of Kindle downloads--all FREE of course!) and begin reading it.  --Obviously this will wreak havoc on the previous goal....but I do so love to read!

Wow...that looks like a much longer list typed than it does on my little notebook paper here...But I'll be positive and say that I am up for it!

Also, Money Saving Mom announced a new challenge for May that I'm super excited about--freezer cooking!  =D

I'm not sure I'll be participating everyday, but I have been wanting to do more freezer cooking posts, so I'm going to try my best to follow along as I am able!

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Weekly Goals: 4/16

I sort of feel like a failure in not getting all of my weekly goals from last week accomplished, but some of them were really just out of my control...

Here was my list:

• Clear out blog email   Got that done Monday, but it needs to be done *again*
• Move plants to bigger pots.   This has yet to be done, but I did get potting soil....only it's in my husband's vehicle with him at work....and it has been rainy and muddy this week, so not really ideal yard work conditions.    
• Keep up with dishes and laundry!   Woohoo!
• Organize recipe binder....nope, not yet.
• Clear out my clothes.   Well, I did take care of my drawers, but I have the closet yet to tackle.  It's scary in there.

So, I bet you can guess what my goals for this week are:   move the plants, organize the recipes, and go through the closet!  I also want to do a real good clean up of my bedroom because it's the only room that hasn't had a good clean-up and vacuum done recently.

I realize that this looks like a really small list, but I'm learning (slowly) that I accomplish more when I don't try to pile so much on and overwhelm myself.  I also have books that I'm reading and projects for my daughter's classwork that she needs help with, and still with the houseguests!  One is leaving tomorrow, and another is coming Thursday, so next week things get back to normal around here.  It's been hectic, but enjoyable!  I just love visitors.

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Weekly Goals

I've been blogging nightly following along with Money Saving Mom's 4 weeks to a more organized home challenge, and it's been helping me out a lot around here, I think.

One of the things she does each week is to set goals for her week, and they break them down into smaller daily tasks.  I made daily goals each day last week, and I already feel like things are running more smoothly around here, but since I've got two more houseguests coming in succession after the current one leaves (I love it!), I thought having a weekly big picture of my goals would be quite helpful.

Here they are (and I've already been working on some of them today):

• Clear out blog email  (DONE!)  --I thought I was going to have to do this a little bit here and there, but I got through deleting all the unneeded stuff in the time span of one cartoon!  Then I moved on to my "junk" email and cleared that out completely as well once my daughter was napping!  Now I intended to keep up with those two and clear out my Outlook this week (personal account shared with my husband).
• Move plants to bigger pots.  --My plants are growing!  I'm so excited!  (I will post a garden update soon!)  I need to transplant some of them into larger pots, and will likely need more soil to do that, so a trip to Lowe's is likely in my future.
• Keep up with dishes and laundry.--I usually do one load of each per day.  Somehow, when I skipped washing clothes for two days over the weekend...I ended up with 4 loads to wash, and somehow, with one more mouth to feed I've been having to do two loads of dishes each day.  It makes NO sense, I tell you!  I've already washed three loads of clothes today and done the dishes, so now I just need to maintain that.
• Organize Recipe Binder.--This task has been on my to-do list forever!  Ok, well maybe not quite that long, but long enough!  I've got random printed papers tossed loose into a binder and I have to flip through them all looking for the one I want until I give up and just go google it and print another and then add it to the pile.  ENOUGH!  It's madness.  They will be in plastic sleeves, and organized with divider tabs by protein, like they were in the distant past.
• My closet--I have too many clothes in there...many of them are from college and most of those don't fit.  They need to GO!

Sounds like a lot to do this week, but I have help!  Even if help is just entertaining the kiddo while I work in the other room, that's help!

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Weekly Goals 3/19

I didn't post any goals last week, since we were not home.

This week, I have a single goal:  Unpack EVERYTHING!

I have a very bad habit of just dragging suitcases to the rooms they belong in and then them sitting there for a long time, out of sight, out of mind.  Or, I will slowly did my way through them, wearing what I need from my suitcase instead of my drawers, but then the toiletries never get unpacked, and they take up valuable space on my floor and act as cat beds.

No more!  I vow to unpack every single bag before the week in through!  To make myself do it, I'm not moving them from the front room where we dropped them when we took them out of the van.  That way, I SEE THEM!

It may be a little bit tacky and unconventional, but if it bugs me, its more likely to get done, to be honest.

Of course, I will still be sticking to my normal weekly goals of keeping up with the dishes and laundry (I've got quite a bit to fold and put away after the trip).

I got some seeds planted over the weekend, so if they sprout I may be preparing and moving them to bigger pots, but that is a "we'll see" goal at this point.

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Weekly Goals

Next week my family is going to be flying out of town, so most of my goals for this week have that in mind.

I've found that my mind can't have things written in different places, or something gets forgotten about, so I've made myself some word documents to list my goals and also a weekly schedule (made that last week, but I left some things off) that have several different categories listed all on one sheet so I can see them all with a quick glance.

This week I have goals in a few categories:  cleaning, cooking, blogging, and reading.  I've also listed a parenting and other category on my goal sheet.

This week under cleaning, I've listed:

• keep up with dishes/laundry
• PACK

Under cooking I've listed:

• Use up produce before we leave.   --Tonight I cooked down a few apples and some aging kiwis and a few strawberries with some water, sugar, and honey and made a jam of sorts.  It was good.  My kids wouldn't touch it.  Oh well...more for me! 

Under Blogging I've listed:

• Schedule posts for next week.  I want the normal schedule to stay as much intact as possible.  I won't be able to bring you the grocery posts on Wednesday, but with a little work, I can get most of the other things ready to post.   I'm also going to be sharing some guest posts from some friends of mine throughout the week I'm gone, so that will be different and fun!

Under reading I've listed:

• Return all library books.  A non-goal, really, but a necessary reminder. ;)

For parenting, I've not listed anything, but I've got an ongoing goal of figuring out which foods and additives are triggering my daughters hyperactivity and continuing to remove them from our diets.  I've determined red dyes to be a MAJOR culprit, but I'm always looking for more and reading and learning more about that.  (Book recommendations greatly appreciated!)

I've got a busy week ahead of me, but I'm determined to make it all happen! =)

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Weekly Goals 2/27

I was actually able to come up with what I think is a workable daily schedule for myself, not last week like I'd hoped, but this morning.  It is still a work in progress, but I'm hoping I can stick to it.  That is going to involve a daily load of dishes and laundry, and well as daily organizing tasks for a specific room each day of the week.  I didn't not do my kitchen task today because I was I busy making the schedule, so we'll let that count. =)

I've got a lot of exciting giveaways coming up shortly on the blog, so one of my goals for the week is to manage my time wisely so that I can keep up with all of those.

One of them involves a bit of gardening as well, so I can't wait to get that started.  I have some reading to finish first.  And yes, I'm aware I'm being purposely vague. ;)

Another goal for the week is going through my emails that have built up over the past few weeks.  I was able to get to the bottom of my "junk" email account today, so that was a huge accomplishment for me.  Just two more accounts to go!

Looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time with my computer this week!

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Weekly Goals

I have missed a couple of weeks posting my weekly goals.  I had things that I wanted to get accomplished, and I did accomplish many of them, but honestly when the time came to make a list and post it, I felt that my time was better spent actually getting things done.

I've really been struggling with getting around to the things that I need to do in a timely manner.

My main goal this week is going to be making a weekly cleaning schedule that works for me, and stick to it!  I'm already a day behind it seems with school out yesterday.

As I go through the rooms and do my maintenance cleaning throughout the week, I am going to make a list of larger projects that need to be tackled.  If I write them down, I won't forget about them (unless I lose my list), but then I can easily pick an item off the list to tackle on the appropriate day of the week.  I hope to make some better progress around here this way!

Last week was a very busy one for me.  The only day I was home was Friday, and I spent the whole day cleaning.  I discovered the beauty of timers that day.  I decided what task to tackle, and put 15 minutes on the timer.  I was always just finishing up whatever I was working on when the timer went off, and then I took a short break and prepared for the next task.

Other things I need to get done:

• Catch up on the laundry.
• Clean the backyard.

I know I will do more this week, but until I get better at this planning stuff, I tend to do whatever is bugging me most at the moment. ;)

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Weekly Goals 1/30

I'm still not doing very great accomplishing my goals for the week, but I suppose I'm about halfway there.

Last week I said my goals would be:

Must get done:

• Freeze spaghetti
• Put meatballs, etc. in freezer bags (I left them on the baking sheets to freeze overnight.  It helps them hold their shape).
• Finalize our budget  (work in progress)

Would like to get done:

• Put Christmas items up in the attic
• Clean master bathroom/bedroom
• Organize Under Bathroom Cabinets

Trying to form habits:

• Wash/dry/put away one complete load of laundry each day  (yes that means I have a huge basket awaiting me in the garage)
• Wash/dry/put away one load of dishes each day 
• Go to bed/wake up earlier (HA!)

So you can see I'm still working on getting to everything on my list.  I will say that I'm doing a good job of maintaining the cleanliness of the house that I worked so hard to achieve the week after Christmas, so that is encouraging to me!  I've also been able to get a little bit ahead on pre-scheduling blog posts for you guys, so that's saving me some stress.

This week....

Must Be Done:

• Clean Betta Fish Tank
• Use Up Sweet Potatoes  (I intend to attempt to make chips).
• Put Christmas Stuff Away/Tidy Up Garage

Would Like To Get Done:

• Clean Our Bedroom
• Organize/Inventory Under Bathroom Cabinets
• Organize/Inventory Under Kitchen Cabinets
• Organize Cups
• Continue Working On Finalizing Budget
• Continue Pre-writing posts

Habits:

• One load of laundry each day (and put away)
• One load of dishes each day
• Go To Bed/Get Up Early
• Yoga at least one night a week  (Wii or netflix)

I'm easing myself into this whole exercise thing...

I'm sure I will once again come up with a million other things that are more pressing, but I suppose there's no harm in that if they truly are!

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Weekly Goals

Last week, I planned on getting a lot of things done, but I should have recalled that each time there is one day off of school that disrupts our routine, it takes us three days to recover from it.  I do not know how or why that happens, but it does.   Also, my husband was very very busy trying to plan his lessons and grade papers this week, and since many of my planned projects involved his help, they didn't happen.

This was my small list:

• Put Christmas Away  (it has been moved into the garage...my husband simply lifted the decorated tree and carried it out there....so I need to box up and put away the ornaments and he needs to put it all up in the attic.
• Deep Clean Master Bathroom/Straighten Our Bedroom
• Clean Up Backyard
• Organize Clipped Coupons  (I have cut out my printed ones, but I need to put them away.)

Yes, that means that my Christmas tree is still standing decorated in my garage, my yard is still covered with dead leaves, and my bathroom is still a mess.  But I'm ok with that.  I did actually get a more pressing task accomplished!

You see when I made that list last week, I did not know that I would find an incredible sale on ground beef, which we were out of, and run off to the store that very morning to purchase 10lbs of it.  That was Wednesday.  Sunday morning, I decided that I had to either do something with it right away, or freeze it.  So, I made a big pot of spaghetti sauce with half, and turned the other half into meatballs/meatloaf/hamburger patties.

I even turned a big corner in kitchen help:

She wanted to "do something she had never done before" so I decided she was mature enough to help with this task while I was browning the rest of the meat in the pot.  She shaped 24 meatballs, 8 hamburger patties and a meatloaf, and she did a wonderful job.  I believe her exact words were "I'm swishing the insides of a cow!  That's so cool!"  *shakes head*  She must get that from her father. ;)

This week, today my major task was to find a working dishwasher, because ours went out this morning.  I'm going to cut myself some slack because I've got a lot of dishes to catch up on tomorrow.  Here are a few things that I need/want to get done this week.  (I'm trying to better prioritize things, and hoping that doesn't aid in my procrastination.)

Must get done:

• Freeze spaghetti
• Put meatballs, etc. in freezer bags (I left them on the baking sheets to freeze overnight.  It helps them hold their shape).
• Finalize our budget

Would like to get done:

• Put Christmas items up in the attic
• Clean master bathroom/bedroom
• Organize Under Bathroom Cabinets

Trying to form habits:

• Wash/dry/put away one complete load of laundry each day  (caught up on these Sunday)
• Wash/dry/put away one load of dishes each day (once I catch up on these)
• Go to bed/wake up earlier

So there you have it, these are the things that I'm working on right now.  I've left it slim as not to overwhelm myself, and also because I have a few evening commitments this week.

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