I have shredder, hear me squeal.

4 bags of shredded paperwork in my garage. And I haven't even opened the filing cabinet(s) yet. (Blush. I'm a paper packrat, admittedly.) But - WOO! - no more! The shredder has changed my life, tell ya what. My closet has never looked better, I'm fluttering around with the glee that always cheers me when my home is organized and in order. I know, it's a sickness!

After a week "off", I am satisfied. We spent days doing much. And days doing very little. It was all good.

The things on the list that I/we did/were better at/focused on:

• Sew - Pillows, Reconstructed Denim Skirts for the girl.
• Make yogurt. YUM. Granola. Double YUM.
• Try once a month (once every two weeks?) cooking.
• Try new recipes.
• Read more. Frequent the library. Filled up my hold queue!
• Spend more time with each of the kids individually every day.
• Play WITH the kids more. Stop telling them to "go play", and GO. Play.
• Eat healthy consistently. Plan meals. Eat out less.
• DAILY devotions. Pray more.
• Go to the gym consistently.

Decluttering progress: Red spaces are undone as yet...

• Kitchen (pantry, cookware, serveware, pots and pans, fridge - everything)
• Upstairs Bath storage
• Chickie's Closet
• Downstairs Bath storage
• Bug and Monkey's Closet
• Playroom Closet
• Master Closet

Things I still want to work on:

• Take the kids to the park, gymnastics center, Bouncin' Bears regularly.
• Spend more time with each of the kids individually every day. (Yes this one is in both categories. On purpose.)
• Do more crafts. (I loathe most kid's crafts. Bug LOVES crafts. It's a worthy sacrifice.)
• Read to the kids more often.
• Just hanging out with the Papa in the silence. We fill it up too much. TV, internet, movies...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have a barbecue planned here tomorrow night. I think we've got a total of 18 adults and 10 kids coming over to grill and chill. I'm looking forward to seeing some family who just flew in from Outside, along with good friends. =)

Yogurt "cooking" in a thermos on the counter...

if this works, tastes good, and is really so simple -- well, I'm just gonna kick myself for having waited so long to try it. *Smacking forehead* It's ridiculously easy.

And considering that I added it up and discovered that we go through about $14 worth of yogurt cups every two weeks, and that's when they're on SALE... well, my grocery bill might enjoy the benefits as well as our bellies!

Next up for today - decluttering the boy's bedroom and playroom closets.
Next cooking project - granola. Also feeding the freezer some baked goods.

Now how did that get there?

I'm decluttering.

Room by room, closet by cranny, old out, fresh clean space in. I'm decluttering our home, only keeping what we need and use. Sounds easy, right?

Lord help me.

If you stopped by unexpectedly, you would think I was one of those totally organized freakishly neat people. A place for everything, and everything in it's place... Yeah. My closets and crannies, the areas you wouldn't ever see? They're pitiful. Full of odds and ends, pieces of who-knows-what put here and there. I can't stand it! I was going to get all deep here and explore the meaning behind my messy hidden spaces (and maybe someday I will!), but honestly, I think I'm mostly just tired. It's hard enough to keep the high traffic areas up to my admittedly high standard, much less the stuff behind closed doors!

But it ends this week. I'm getting brutal; pitching, donating, sorting and selling.

The areas I'm working on:

• Kitchen (pantry, cookware, serveware, pots and pans, fridge - everything) DONE
• Upstairs Bath storage DONE
• Chickie's Closet [CURRENTLY WORKING ON]
• Downstairs Bath storage
• Bug and Monkey's Closet
• Playroom Closet
• Master Closet [UGH. Dread.]

Inspiration:

Organize Me

Organized Home

Unclutterer

I'll post after pics. You can just close your eyes and imagine the befores. It's not "Clean Home" status, but it's not pretty. =)