Warning: This is a very long post, but there are pictures to enjoy at the end!!
I posted over a month ago and had set some pretty simple goals for myself. In working toward those goals, I've gotten a bit distracted!
Let me explain:
1. I wanted to post 4 times a month. I did not meet that goal in January, however, I did post once which is more that I have some months in the past! January got busy with back to school after break and then a lot of snow and then more breaks because of that snow. I was busy, but not working on my set goals. I started a bulletin journal (love it by the way!!) and kept writing down that I needed to do a blog post, but never filled in that circle. I'm not exactly sure why I chose to avoid that, but that's something I will have to figure out another time!
2. I wanted to scrapbook more, but instead, I have spent some extra days out in my building working on sorting and cleaning. We had a mouse issue out there and instead of enjoying time scrapbooking, I was cleaning up after the dirty little rodents! I'm still cleaning out drawers, but that is helping me organize out there which was my goal #5! So, I have to give myself a little credit there. I will be more successful on scrapbooking if I have that area all organized first!
3. Weight loss. This area does not make me happy right now. Being snowed in for 5 days in a row does not help! I thought I would work on sorting some of my kitchen items. We are remodeling and my husband put a ton of stuff on our dining room table from a cupboard that he tore out. So, I started with the first item: a mini donut maker. I tried to decide if I wanted to keep it or not. I had never used it and so I got out the instructions to see how difficult it would be. So, instead of putting it aside in a "maybe" pile, I ended up making, glazing and decorating 4 dozen mini donuts. They were easy to snack on therefore not helping me out in the weight loss department. Plus, when not at work, I tend to snack a lot more. Let's just say, I have some weight loss readjustments to make! (Also, this was the only item I sorted on the table from the cupboard!)
4. I wanted to make my bed every day. I am almost a winner here! I think there were only 2, maybe 3 days in the month of January, that I did not make my bed! I'm celebrating that one because that is pretty darn good!
5. So I mentioned that we are remodeling... When redoing our flooring through the main part of our house and painting the walls, we took everything, besides the furniture, and put it all in one of the bedrooms. We are going to be taking that bedroom and turning it into a bathroom and a hallway to the garage. We had another snow day on Thursday and I knew my husband was getting close to wanting to start on that hallway and bathroom, so I decided to be pro-active and get everything back out of that room. I laid a big flannel sheet on the floor and starting hauling stuff out. I opened every box and sorted the items into piles: books, scrapbooking stuff that shouldn't be in here, home decor, office supply items, papers (mail, receipts, ads, etc.), clothes, Boy Scout items, and odds & ends. I set my timer for 30 minutes and worked on carrying and sorting. When the timer went off, I did laundry and then reset my timer for 30 minutes and read. I decided if I had to do something I dreaded, I was going to reward myself by doing something I don't get to do very often. This continued into Friday and today. We have everything out of the spare bedroom, my husband has torn out the carpet, put the door in to the garage, cut part of the opening into the kitchen, is laying down the underlayment as I type and I have finished 4 books and am on my 5th one! That is more than I read the entire year last year!
While I may not have been successful on my January goals, I was successful in a lot of areas and I'm pretty proud about that! I feel good about it and that is all that mattered!
And I do have to say a huge thanks to Marie Kondo! Even though I haven't been able to follow her order of tidying up, due to remodeling and schedules, I have learned how to say, "This does not bring me joy!" to a lot of items that I hauled out of that room!! I am letting go of things that were taking up space in my house and life!
Here are some pictures of what I've been sorting through and some things I have completed while having some snow days!
Toys are at least sorted in one area. Now to get my son off of his games to help me go through this!!
This was the first pile! Looks overwhelming, but sorting into the categories really helped!
Empty boxes, boxes for burnable garbage, garbage that can't be burned, empty bags, a bag for magazines and a box of "Can I sell this or should I just give it away?!!"
Purses, bags, gift bags (that was just the beginning)!
Kitchen cupboard items to go through yet.
Had 1/2 of the first pile done and then brought the rest out so you can't even tell I did anything!
One book shelf organized! One of those shelves is 2 books deep!! I will read a book and then get rid of it!! #bookgoals
I can fold my washcloths the way Marie Kondo does it, but my hand towels are too tall for the drawer if I fold them this way.
I got almost all of my son's jeans to fit in just one drawer by folding them this way! Works for now, until he grows again!
This thing killed my diet! I was snowed in too many days, got cabin fever and went crazy making these delicious mini donuts!!
Snow days are great for watching the birds flock to the bird feeders in the back yard!
And this is why we didn't have school for a couple of days! Everything was coated in ice!
2 of the 4 books that I read. These are books from school. The Nest is for a book talk with one of my students and Ghost Hawk sounded interesting. I love historical fiction! It was a very good book! I also finished The River by Gary Paulsen (because that was also for a book read with a student) and then I read a book at my level! The Stalinski Sisters. Now I'm reading Motivating Students Who Don't Care. I figured I'd better get one educator's book in there too!
