It has not been a great month for reading. I guess there is too much else going on right now.
I did try to read "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School" by Kathleen Flinn. It wasn't what I was looking for. It turned out to be more of a story than a how-to book. That's what I was looking for so I've decided not to read this right now.
I did, however, read an ebook, "Dave Ramsey's Guide to Budgeting". That was very good. It made me actually want to start budgeting. We're small business owners so we never know how much money we are going to have coming in (or going out) but he had suggestions for that also. I don't see us doing the envelope system but if we start with the budgeting, maybe that will make more sense down the road.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
The Flu, Skiing, and Cleaning
Told ya this month was going to be hectic...
Two weeks ago about half the family (the boys) had the flu. The younger girl got it a little bit but the older one and I did not. Yay!
Everyone was better in time to go on our vacation though. We went skiing last week.
This week has been a blur of trying to get everyone caught up on homework that was missed due to illness and/or vacation. I think just the little guy is left. We did quite a bit last night but then he just was fed up with it so, hopefully, we'll get it finished tonight. Or maybe not since I'm working. Maybe this weekend then.
Next week my husband and I are going out of town again for a business conference and the Grandmas will be running the place. So I need to get to the store this weekend and stock up for them.
The good news is: We got home late last Friday from skiing and I got everything out of the suitcases and in laundry piles or in the kids' baskets to be put away on Saturday. I did not get the laundry all done as I still had to go get the dog from boarding and take the older girl to her basketball game. Then Sunday I had to work. I did get the laundry done on Monday but just getting everything unpacked and the bags put away the next day counts as a SUCCESS for me!
Also, my mother-in-law's tv quit working on her. The only reason this is good is that meant we brought the one up from downstairs (which really hadn't been used for months) and that left the entertainment center down there free for us to bring to our living room. So Monday I also transferred all our electronic components from our old, crappy entertainment stand to the nicer, bigger one! Apparently, I even got all the speakers hooked up correctly! What a pain in the tushy, that was. All total, it took me a couple of hours. That includes vacuuming and revacuuming and dusting and moving. Then I even went thru all our dvd's and rearranged those and dusted the shelves and vacuumed under those shelves. It looks nice now though. Except I have a small pile of dvd's that we've replaced with BluRays just sitting on the top of one of the shelves. I don't like to just get rid of those without my husband's ok since he is the dvd person.
Tuesday I finished vacuuming the rest of the place. Which wouldn't be newsworthy except I had to change the bag in the middle of doing that and while I was changing the bag, something came up that I had to go take care of right away. When I went back to the vacuum I just turned it on and ~POOF~ all the dust shot out at me because I had forgotten to put another bag on first so I got to vacuum that area again. That was lovely. The dog just sat and looked at me like I was a moron.
Wednesday, I worked in my downstairs office all day. I cleared off the desk, scanned just a few things, uploaded a couple of cd's onto the computer. But the main thing I did was set up a mail center. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. I'm very proud. It's not pretty but I'm HOPING it works. I despise mail and I need this to work!
Two weeks ago about half the family (the boys) had the flu. The younger girl got it a little bit but the older one and I did not. Yay!
Everyone was better in time to go on our vacation though. We went skiing last week.
This week has been a blur of trying to get everyone caught up on homework that was missed due to illness and/or vacation. I think just the little guy is left. We did quite a bit last night but then he just was fed up with it so, hopefully, we'll get it finished tonight. Or maybe not since I'm working. Maybe this weekend then.
Next week my husband and I are going out of town again for a business conference and the Grandmas will be running the place. So I need to get to the store this weekend and stock up for them.
The good news is: We got home late last Friday from skiing and I got everything out of the suitcases and in laundry piles or in the kids' baskets to be put away on Saturday. I did not get the laundry all done as I still had to go get the dog from boarding and take the older girl to her basketball game. Then Sunday I had to work. I did get the laundry done on Monday but just getting everything unpacked and the bags put away the next day counts as a SUCCESS for me!
Also, my mother-in-law's tv quit working on her. The only reason this is good is that meant we brought the one up from downstairs (which really hadn't been used for months) and that left the entertainment center down there free for us to bring to our living room. So Monday I also transferred all our electronic components from our old, crappy entertainment stand to the nicer, bigger one! Apparently, I even got all the speakers hooked up correctly! What a pain in the tushy, that was. All total, it took me a couple of hours. That includes vacuuming and revacuuming and dusting and moving. Then I even went thru all our dvd's and rearranged those and dusted the shelves and vacuumed under those shelves. It looks nice now though. Except I have a small pile of dvd's that we've replaced with BluRays just sitting on the top of one of the shelves. I don't like to just get rid of those without my husband's ok since he is the dvd person.
Tuesday I finished vacuuming the rest of the place. Which wouldn't be newsworthy except I had to change the bag in the middle of doing that and while I was changing the bag, something came up that I had to go take care of right away. When I went back to the vacuum I just turned it on and ~POOF~ all the dust shot out at me because I had forgotten to put another bag on first so I got to vacuum that area again. That was lovely. The dog just sat and looked at me like I was a moron.
Wednesday, I worked in my downstairs office all day. I cleared off the desk, scanned just a few things, uploaded a couple of cd's onto the computer. But the main thing I did was set up a mail center. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. I'm very proud. It's not pretty but I'm HOPING it works. I despise mail and I need this to work!
Monday, January 7, 2013
Check the Dates!
Last night I made grilled cheese sandwiches. I was going to have tomato soup (out of a can ~ sorry!) for one of the kids and me and chicken noodle soup for the others. Unfortunately, when I opened the can of tomato soup and poured it into the bowl, the soup was a brownish color. Yuck! Not at all what I was hoping for.
So I looked at the date stamped on the can - "2008!" What! I knew we didn't eat canned soup all that often, but I swear I've cleaned out the pantry many, many times! I just don't think I thought to look at the dates on the soup cans. Normally, I'm just organizing what I have.
So cleaning out the pantry just got moved up to a higher priority! I'm also going to inventory everything and do a freezer/pantry challenge to get things eaten up. You know ~ BEFORE they go bad.
So I looked at the date stamped on the can - "2008!" What! I knew we didn't eat canned soup all that often, but I swear I've cleaned out the pantry many, many times! I just don't think I thought to look at the dates on the soup cans. Normally, I'm just organizing what I have.
So cleaning out the pantry just got moved up to a higher priority! I'm also going to inventory everything and do a freezer/pantry challenge to get things eaten up. You know ~ BEFORE they go bad.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
January
It seems as though January is going to be more of a holding pattern for me than a time to get much done. I had high hopes of doing some of the organizing challenges I see on other blogs but it seems that is not to be. I am getting ideas though and, hopefully!, in February I can start working on these things.
This January will be spent traveling or, in the case of this week, running the store while my husband travels to help out his mother.
I did get the Christmas tree down last week and the kids and I managed to get all the Christmas clutter and other toys out of the living room. The girls and I rearranged their room by taking the bunk beds apart. Now they desperately need some storage solutions in there because I had to remove a bookshelf to make room for the second bed. I've got the plans drawn up for that ~ I just need some time to actually work on getting it done! But, for now, I am working at the store every day until 7pm, then putting the kids to bed, and probably will just have the energy to keep the house from getting crazy messy. In fact, that is my goal for these 4 days my hubby will be gone ~ just maintain. I am not going to start on any projects now because I know I will not have the time required or the energy/patience to do it right. I will just want to get it done and over with. And I really want to do it well so I will grant myself some slack right now and just maintain until this month is over. Hopefully, February will not be quite so busy for us.
This January will be spent traveling or, in the case of this week, running the store while my husband travels to help out his mother.
I did get the Christmas tree down last week and the kids and I managed to get all the Christmas clutter and other toys out of the living room. The girls and I rearranged their room by taking the bunk beds apart. Now they desperately need some storage solutions in there because I had to remove a bookshelf to make room for the second bed. I've got the plans drawn up for that ~ I just need some time to actually work on getting it done! But, for now, I am working at the store every day until 7pm, then putting the kids to bed, and probably will just have the energy to keep the house from getting crazy messy. In fact, that is my goal for these 4 days my hubby will be gone ~ just maintain. I am not going to start on any projects now because I know I will not have the time required or the energy/patience to do it right. I will just want to get it done and over with. And I really want to do it well so I will grant myself some slack right now and just maintain until this month is over. Hopefully, February will not be quite so busy for us.
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