January 25

Today, I cooked up Paul's lunch stuff for the week. It's something I should probably do every week, but haven't quite gotten there yet. Basically, I bake up some chicken and turkey breasts, and grill some turkey burgers, and steam some veggies. I also cut up celery sticks and bell peppers, and tomatoes for the burgers. Then I put it all in individual containers. It makes it easy for him to put his lunch together each morning and means I'm not in the kitchenb every night.

January 23 & 24

I had a scrapbooking crop this weekend, so I got a lot of pages done between Friday and Saturday. A few years ago I offered to do take some of my sisters older pictures and scrapbook them for her. I have completed a couple of albums already, but still have a few more to do. This weekend, I finished 2001 and have most of 2002 completed as well. This is my favorite layout of the weekend.

January 22B

This is really more Wrangler's accomplishment than mine, but I drove him so I'll take credit.

Wrangler officially graduated training. Technically, he did it last week, but we didn't get the certificate until today. I borrowed the hat from school. We'll still be attending training session, but he has moved up to more advanced stuff.

January 22A

So, I have figured out that on school/work days completing a project just might not happen. Since I'm usually off the day after, I've just decided that I'll do 2 that day. So here is the first for today.

I should have done this before my dad painted, but...
I cleaned the baseboards and vacuumed the carpet in the nursery. I still want to use the steam vac in there before the furniture comes, but I was too tired to haul it out today.

January 20

Today I labeled. I went around the house and put a label on just about everything. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but still...If it was in a plastic container it probably got a label. I also labeled the shelves in the cabinet in the garage. I'm toying with the idea of labeling the shelves in the kitchen cabinets, but think that may be a bit too much, don't ya think?

January 18

My sister brought me some of her maternity clothes that don't fit, so I went through those today. I also have clothes from my sister-in-law, so I made sure everything was marked so I can get it back to the original owner. There is a box full of stuff that is either too big (for now at least), or something I'd never wear (like white pants, I'm way too messy to try those). Getting everything in this one box (on the floor of the closet) freed up some shelf space on top (which immediately got used).

January 19

This morning I finished labeling my shoe boxes. I keep most of my shoes in semi-clear plastic boxes in the closet. So I got out the label maker and labeled them all. Since I was in the closet with the label maker, I decided to label my drawers of clothes. I know where everything goes, but this might help Paul or others who come to help.

I counted and I have 45 pairs of shoes. But don't think badly of me, I don't spend a lot on my shoes. Payless is about the only place I can find that carries my size.

January 17

Yesterday's project led me to today's. This drawer set used to be part of my scrapbooking desk, but when I needed to make room for baby, it become a stand-alone piece. After organizing the gift bags I decided to tackle the rest of the wrapping stuff. So the bottom drawer holds gifts I accumulate throughout the year. Above that is tissue paper, and then another drawer for gift boxes and bows.

I have made a list of different projects, I'd like to get done. It did make me realize that I'm not nearly as unorganized as I thought I was.

January 16

Mom gave me this great present to organize your gift bags. That was my project for the day. Amazingly, I didn't have as many bags as I thought.

January 15

I actually got 2 things accomplished. Paul had a doctor's appointmentt this morning so he helped me get some of the bike stuff out of the office beforehand. I cleared a shelf in the garage for his stuff. This box is some stuff he is selling. I hope he gets it shipped off soon.


Later, I worked on my stationary stuff. I had cards and envelopes and stuff in a drawer and in 3 boxes on a shelf. I consolidated some of it, gave some to my mom and threw some stuff away. Now it all fits on one shelf in the office. I even had room for the file box I use to put stuff for all the kiddos (little books, stickers, stuff from kids meals). I periodically send everyone an envelope of stuff. (And, yes, you can be on the lookout for one in the next week.) By the way if you need an envelop for anything, just ask. I probably have 500 in various sizes.

January 14

Today was a long day at work. I had a meeting this evening so I decided to just stay instead of spending an hour driving back and forth. The only projects I got done were work related (except for the hour I watched a TV show on the computer while waiting for the meeting). I did get a tip to actually right down a list of potential projects to complete, so I will work on that. I also need to remember that no project is too small. An accomplishment is an accomplishment!

January 13

I'm still trying to get the office in better shape, but it will take one shelf at a time. Baby steps (pun intended, since this is all about nesting). So today I tackled several containers that had stuff from when I was a Creative Memories consultant. It was a bunch of freebies I gave out to my customers. I went through it all and divided it into 7 piles, one each for family and friends I know who scrapbook. I then put it in envelopes to mail to the recipients. The big box is for the Dyer's, and everything will go to the post office on Thursday (my next day off).

January 12

I am going out on a limb and saying right now at 6:34pm that I am not going to get any special project accomplished today. So I will just update you on where I am with my other "resolutions".
1. Paul and I have been reading a bedtime book every night. If you go to our other blog, you can view the books we've read on the bookshelf.
2. Wrangler and I have been to one training session and have another scheduled for this week. Unless I have a conflict we will go on Thursday mornings each week, until we start group time.
3. I have also started walking with Wrangler each day. It's a short walk (about 20 minutes), but we haven't missed many days since we started.
4. I finished reading a book I had started around Thanksgiving time. Nothing too heavy or long, just a little light reading. I am trying to get caught up on the pregnancy books I have.
5. Paul and I used one of our gift cards and had a nice dinner at the Olive Garden. We tried to get in a movie for our date night as well, but I was too tired.

Although, I didn't get anything accomplished at home, I did at work. I am trying to get ahead so that my assistant won't have so much to do when I leave for maternity. I was also taking care of my mom today. She got the stomache bug my sister's family had, so I fixed her jello before I left this morning, stopped by the store to get other clear fluids, and fixed her some soup for dinner. She is doing a good job of avoiding me and I appreciate that. i don't want tomorrow's accomplishment to be "making to the bathroom in time"!

January 11

I actually didn't think I had accomplished anything today except the regular stuff that has to be done (like laundry, cleaning, feeding the cats). I was telling Paul about my day that night when I remembered that I had emptied out the last piece of furniture still in the nursery. All I did for now was move what had been on this bookshelf to a different bookshelf in the office. I will eventually go through all the stuff, and organize it, but for now this empty shelf will get a coat of stain and a new home. So now the nursery is ready for paint and furniture!

January 10

Paul and I decided on a color and bought the paint today. Dad is coming on the 19th to paint the room, then the furniture comes. I have less than 9 days to finish emptying out the room.

January 9

Up until about 7pm, the only thing I accomplished was eating an entire medium pizza. I really didn't want to take a picture of an empty pizza box so decided to do a little scrapbooking while the kitties ate. I created about 12 pages to complete these small albums for my nieces.

January 8

Wrangler and I had our first training session of the year. He did very well. It's actually kind of frustrating because he does great with the trainer and when he's on his leash, but at home and off leash is a whole other story. The trainer thinks we should be able to take care of all our behaviour problems with time and patience.

January 7

I finished my Christmas thank you notes tonight while catching up on some TV. I usually like to have these done before the year starts but didn't quite make it this time.

January 6

Today's goal was to get paint swatches for the nursery. Mom and I were out running errands so we stopped at Home Depot. Below is a picture of the bedding with the swatches we picked. It looks like we will probably go with the lighter color since our furniture is darker wood tones.

January 5

Today's project was really a continuationof what I've been working on since we started putting up the Christmas decorations. Because my scrapbooking stuff was in what will now be the nursery, I had to find a new home for everything. So I have been moving everything to the dining room hutch (and some to the office closet). I realized when I started that it would take several stages to get it all done and in a manner that I could use. To day I tackled a specific album project. I have taken all my mother-in-law's albums (you know those old fashion magnetic, sticky kind) and started creating books for her. I had completed one, but realized I had the rest of her stuff in several places. So this afternoon I gathered it all and got it all to fit in these 3 boxes. I'd like to say it's all organized but that would be way too ambitious. But it looks neat and tidy!

January 4

Today's project was kind of small and I had it finished before 8am. I woke up at my regular time which was too early to get ready for church so I decided to create a master grocery list since we were going to the store after church. Paul has been on this diet for the last few weeks, nothing too extreme but it does have some fairly standard meals. I used the menu to create the grocery list adding in the few other items we usually need each week. I posted it to the fridge so Paul can check check off when he finishes something and I even left blanks to add things as they come up. It worked pretty well at the store especially since I tried to group like items together. Of course Paul tells me tonight that if he doesn't see real results in the next 2 weeks he's trying something new. Oh well, I have my list for at least 2 more weeks!

January 3

I finished the 2007 album. Yea!!! I completed 6 more pages (not as many as yesterday, but still great). I also created this blog today so really I accomplished 2 things today.

January 2

I spent most of the day scrapbooling. I am trying to get caught up before the baby gets here, so the first step is completing 2007 Yearbook. I completed 18 pages (that's front and back), and only have 7 more pages to finish the year. (I ran out of pagesm but Mom has some for me.) This is my favorite layout of the day. It's from the Baking Party last Christmas.

January 1

Today I cleared out the back shelves in the nursery closet. It originally housed all our board games, poker set, and jigsaw puzzles. They were moved to the office closet (with a little rearranging). In it's place you can now see all the wonderful gifts we've acquired for the new baby.

Happy New Years!

I got this idea from a friend of mine. She is going to try to accomplish something each day of 2009. Something that goes beyond the basics of showering, feeding her kids, etc. She is also going to try to take a picture of the finished project. So far she is 2 for 2, not bad for a new years resolution! I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up but maybe she'll be my motivation. If she can do it with 2 kids surely I can.

I also saw another blogger who was going to take and post a picture of her children each day. I love that idea too. So once our baby is born in May, I will start the same thing. I guess I could do that for the bird, dog, and 5 cats we currently have, but that would be overkill, don't you think?

Aside from the daily accomplishments, I will also try to keep myself motivated on other new years resolutions. I hate the word resolutions because it really is just an "out" to not accomplish anything. Who ever really keeps their resolutions? So I just have a few ideas of things I'd like to do this year regularly and I'll keep track of them here.

So, here are are my New Year Celebrations (I'll add more as I think of them):
1. Read to the baby every night. We've done this one so far.
2. Finish at least one book a month (okay that might be too ambitions so let's try one a quarter). It can be fiction or not, but the baby's bedtime story doesn't count.
3. Get Wrangler back into a training program (that's the dog). He needs to start with private training first , but then can go to the group sessions.
4. Get back to scheduled Date Nights with Paul. I know how important these will be once the baby comes and we'll be able to give the grandparents the opportunity to spoil her while we go to dinner and a movie.