Craft things and playroom

I finally managed yesterday to finish sorting out the playroom. I'm proud to say that it no longer looks like those terrible before photos! I've 'decanted' if you like, the craft supplies into smaller ziplock bags, and stored those in a small box (I think once upon a time D bought me flowers in it...). The excess stuff, beads, sequins, googly eyes, pom poms, and the like, are in their own larger bags in a box that my veggies used to come in when I was working. ( www.aussiefarmers.com.au ) I miss my veggie man. He always brought such yummy things. Unfortunately it's not an expense we can justify right now, not when I've got seven days a week to go and buy fresh veggies and fruit from the greengrocer 5 minutes away..

Anyway, the whole area has had an overhaul, so it now looks much more organised, and there's a spot for 'toy time-out' - Thanks to one of the lovely EB mummies who suggested it on her blog (can't remember who, if it was you, please say so!), so when the toys aren't put away when they need to be, I can put them into toy time-out and they don't get played with again until I put them back, which may not be that day, depending on how cross I am hehe. Will post photos once the kids have packed their things away.

So far today I've been doing five minute blocks in each room, I'm now on my 15minute internet break LOL. I've got lots of things I've been procrastinating, so today, I am going to tackle one! For me, it's the kids' clothes. Their wardrobe, to be specific. There's just no order in it. What I want to acheive is a system, whereby they can go there, pick an outfit, and be done with it in 5 minutes (they are girls though, so this could take longer..). So the plan of attack is this:

1. Take out all the clothes, hangers, etc.
2. Assign one rail per season
3. Place clothes back on hangers, putting outfits together (ie pants hanging with the jumper, little shawls with their appropriate dresses, and school uniforms together on one hanger)
4. Place all back in wardrobe.

Will let you know how I go! Who's with me? All you have to do is pick one room, cupboard, or drawer, or anything else you've been putting off, list the steps to acheive it, and then give yourself a treat for doing so well (mine will be chocolate)

Playroom

I need ideas.

My playroom is a constant bombsite. It stays clean for maybe a day or 2, but then turns to complete chaos in just a few minutes. Where am I going wrong? J (my stepson) sleeps there too, hence the bed, but he just doesn't clean up after himself, and the girls are just as bad at putting things back where they belong. All the tubs are labelled, with pictures too, so they know what should be going where, they just don't seem to get it.

I haven't done anything at all in there today, so please excuse the mess everywhere, and the fact that the curtains are still closed...

ANY ideas at all would be hugely awesome, so thanks in advance everyone :D

Living Room (again)

So I've managed to get the living room back under control. It didn't take too long this time, which is encouraging! Here are my before and afters...

Kichen (again!)

Fell off the wagon a little bit there, but have woken today with a fresh burst of energy, and the weather has cooled down, so very happy about that!

Here are some before and afters of my kitchen. I washed the dishes before I took the first photos as they were everywhere... too embarrassing!

Kitchen before...

Kitchen after (I've since moved the broom and the containers on the side of the bench, just too lazy to take new pictures.. And the cupboard door is closed now too LOL!!!

Meal Planning and organising Food!

Someone on the EB forum asked what sort of meals I have on the meal plan, so I thought I would share it here in case anyone else is interested in how I did it. So here is a step by step how-to :)

• The first thing I did was to work out what meals we'll eat, not necessarily pleasing everyone all the time, and allowing for fussy children who may just want salad (we eat a lot of salad here)
• I then went through that list and categorised it, so meals from the freezer got an F, meals that everyone loves got a red star, and meals that can be taken to work as leftovers got a black circle.
• I've made wednesday my baking day, so I also chose 4 relatively easy recipes for baking, one was new, the others tried and tested.
• Once that was done, I put the days next to the meals. I had managed 28, but culled some as I was doing this that I realised are too messy/fussy/time consuming.
• Then all I did was rule some lines on 2 sheets of A4 paper, wrote the days, numbered the weeks, and did a legend down the bottom (I've allocated D one night a week to cook, and he needs to know what to grab for lunch too hehehe). Obviously I wrote in each box too, and it's now on my fridge where it can't be lost/forgotten about.

Some of the meals we have are as follows..

Gnocchi with garlic cream sauce

Fried Rice

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken

Macaroni Cheese with corn on the Cob

Chicken and asparagus Quiche and salad

Homemade pizzas

Tuna Bake

Lemon Chicken Pasta

Lemon and Lime Tuna Spaghetti

And a lot of other things such as Tacos, and your standard meat and 3 veg meals.

I always try to do at least one cooked lunch during the week, and a cooked breakfast each weekend, usually when D is home from work, so I've factored those in as well.

Another tip I found useful when I was working is to work out which night (or nights) are the worst for cooking, the ones you're likely to rely on takeaway or cereal for, and plan for those first, get something that is easy and quick to prepare, or better yet, prepare it the night before (which will be easy as you will have a plan). When I do the shopping, I try to cut up any meat and veg that I know won't be used before it goes off, and freeze it. for example, if we're doing a stirfry, I will cut the meat in advance, and freeze it with the marinade over it, so it's all done for when I want to cook it. Same with things like broccoli and pumpkin. We eat a lot of those in risottos, and we have mashed pumpkin and potato sometimes, but otherwise it just ends up getting thrown out, so I discovered that cutting it up, dunking in boiling water and then icy water, and freezing, cuts down on a lot of food and time wastage..

The trick is definately to make sure you've got your meal plan where everyone can see it, that way you're accountable. I find K gets really excited when she sees we'll be having corned beef or mashed potato, so she's reading and holding me accountable as we speak.

The next timesaver I've put in place was to work out when you do your grocery shopping, (mondays here) and divide the weeks up into 'shopping weeks'. I've written shopping lists for each week of the meal plan. Obviously there are some double ups, so I will need to check the pantry, and I'll still need fruit and snacks, but it's going to save a lot of time and money buying things we don't need or already have!

Happy planning!

A New Concept...

So after stalking quite a few blogs, I have decided to organise my own. Instead of rambling along, I'm going to pick a room and do it, and blog about that. Unfortunately its stupidly hot, so I haven't done much organising lately, though tonight I did manage to do a one month meal plan. It's meant to cool down on Tuesday, so I'll be getting stuck back in then.

The idea with the meal plan is that I currently do it once a week, and often don't feel like cooking the meal I have planned, or we end up going to a bbq, or I forget about the meal plan and just pull something out of the cupboard. So hopefully this way, even if we do happen to go to a bbq on a Monday (which is when we usually go), I'll still be able to get all the meals in for that week. I've designated Wednesdays as my baking day, so each week we'll have a batch of fresh muffins or scrolls to snack on, and Mondays as my freezer day, so whatever we eat comes out of the freezer. Some examples are frozen fish fillets, chips and frozen veggies, and homemade pizzas as they just use up leftover veggies and meat anyway. Basically meals that can be postponed or cancelled if we need to skip a meal through the week. I've also made Sunday the takeout/do whatever day, and tried to allocate leftovers where possible for D to take to work.

I also need to make myself a list of things that need doing daily, weekly, and monthly so I can keep being organised once it's all done... Will be doing that tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get it posted here too.

Bookshelf, Not perfect but done, and as good as it's going to get till I get some more assorted organisey stuff.

Living room

Front door. With In and Out trays and a spot for keys and D's wallet (that light brown boxy thing), inside this cupboard are shoes, hats, and my handbag.

Living area and front entrance... done! Bookshelf - reorganised! Now on to the kitchen while the kids are still out of the house..

Since my last idea of breaking everything up seems to have worked so well, I will do the same for the kitchen, though there isn't too much to do as it seems to have stayed reasonably tidy from my last blitz..
1. Countertop shelves - remove everything, sort through and replace only what is needed
2. Tea towel drawer - remove everything, get rid of the ugly ones, make note if needed to buy more
3. Benches (one at a time)- sort everything. EVERYTHING!! Refill coffee and sugar containers, make note to replace with ones that will fit on the countertop shelves (remember to measure). Wipe benches
4. Wipe down cupboard doors, put dishes away and clean sink.
5. Make cuppa, take photos, and blog away LOL.

This is actually becoming quite addictive..

And while I'm at it, tonight when the kids are in bed and D is watching cricket, I need to:
1. Do some filing
2. Sort through recipes and magazines, keeping only the articles I will need
3. Sort the drawers in the bedroom

I'm also kidlet free tomorrow as I have my driving test, so may get started on the girls room.. Just so they can have the chance to trash it again....will post photos later of what it actually looks like now, and maybe get some ideas of how to make it work better!

Under sink cupboard Before...

And after.

Also the area under the microwave before..

And the whole kitchen after. Only took around 20 minutes

Linen cupboard done

Linen Cupboard before.... Ugh, I'm so very embarrassed!

And Linen Cupboard ten minutes later.. I've got the sheet sets in their pillowcases, and the spares are folded neatly..More towels to be added once they dry, but at least there's some form of organisation there. :)

Can't seem to stop getting sidetracked...

Ok, so I started on the living area (again, since K & B followed me around taking things back out!), and now I have an organised junk drawer in the kitchen, a load of washing on, a reasonably tidy bedroom, and not much done in the living area at all!
It seems that I'm finding reasons not to do it, as I HATE tidying in there. Girls are at Nannas and creche, so it really is the perfect time to do it, but no. Can't get motivated!

So here's what I'm going to do, I'll break it down into smaller parts, since the living room is actually a combined living, dining, playing area and is very very big. So here goes nothing
1. Move box full of toys from middle of floor. Put toys in Playroom.
2. Fold washing, and put away
3. Do ironing, and put away
4. Finish painting wall
5. Put shoes and clothes to be given away in bedroom wardrobe. Make note to deal with them on Saturday
6. Put baby carseat in hallway cupboard until needed
7. Vacuum couches and put cushions back on
8. Clean dining table, including placemats. stack neatly. Make note to find a nice, low fruit bowl for the middle of the table. Also to check out bigger tables and pricing.
9. Move rug to cover change in the floor
10. Remove everything from mantlepiece, and dust
11. Move ugly hated mirror, replace with large photo frame.

Must..Get..Up..And Clean...

Finding it really hard to get motivated again today. I've decided to do half an hour on the living room today, and then spend another half hour outside as I'm sick and tired of the mess out there too. It must be horrible for people coming to visit, even when the inside is relatively clean, the outside makes us all look like slobs, NOT nice at all!

As you can see, the photos shown there are my BEFORE pics of the living area...Will be back with after shots soon :-)

So far so good..

Hi again :)
Today I've managed to clean our ensuite, the shower hadn't had a good scrub for quite some time, so now I can actually see through the glass. The toilet, vanity and mirror also got a good clean..
It's not as hot as I thought it was meant to be today, so no water play unfortunately. Instead we did some digging and messy outside play. If it heats up later on I'll fill their pool though.
Managed a home cooked lunch too, and about to start on the ten minute blitzes. I've also got some washing done, and even ironed the stuff that is already dry and put it away. Still have a lot of folding to do, but that can wait till a bit later when it's all dry and I'll make D help.

To be honest I'm feeling very overwhelmed by the whole thing today. I think I'll start by listing the rooms to be blitzed here, and when I'm finished I'm going to have some chocolate (for the baby, der!)

Kids Bathroom/Loo
Hallway
Living Area
Girls Room
Master Bedroom
Kitchen
Playroom
Laundry

Will be back soon with an updated list of what has been done. Am also going to take some before shots to share..
Will also spend another 20 minutes decluttering the bedroom, so check back soon for before and after shots :)

Hi!

Hi everyone :)

So, this is me. I'm Lia. I'm a mummy to 2 beautiful little girls (K and B), I have a little boy on the way (C), and I'm trying to sort out the mess that is currently my house...and my brain. Maybe along the way I can sort out the other half (D)
I figure this way I'm accountable to the world, even if the world is only one person lol

I'm going to use this space to post about my plans for the day, which may sound incredibly boring, but hopefully other mums can get some ideas and maybe some motivation, which has been something I really lack, as my girls play so nicely with each other and it's really tempting sometimes to just sit down with a good book for a couple of hours.

First things first...These are my New Years Resolutions, the first ones I've really made, as I'm not very good at keeping to them. Again with the accountability.

• Make time every single day for an activity with the kids. This means actually DOING the activity, not just setting it up and spending a few minutes showing them how to do it.
• Get organised. No more missed free-dress days, or last minute trips to the shops for something to take to a party. Or forgetting the party altogether..
• Become 'domesticated'. Keep a clean and clutter free home, spend the extra time making muffins, cooking things from scratch (which I love to do anyway), and involve everyone.

Basically, this year I want to become supermum.

So far we're not doing too badly. I started getting the house sorted out before the New Year started, and I've got myself an awesome organiser to hopefully help with all the stuff I generally forget. It's called a Baby Brain and has entire sections dedicated to baby routines, cleaning, immunisations, and a section each day for meal planning, reminders, and the like. It just arrived today, so still a novelty, but so far... LOVE it!

I've fallen off the wagon a little the last couple of days due to being busy and not being at home, but tomorrow is a new day, and the plan is to keep up at the pace I started, and have an organised home by the end of January. they say it takes 21 days to break a habit, so here's counting!

Tomorrow I'm going to focus my energy on little bits of cleaning throughout the whole house. Starting with 10 minutes in each room, no more, no less, and writing notes of other things I'd like to achieve if I have time. I also need to clean the bathrooms. I'll post later a daily routine when I've actually worked one out. I find I spend a lot of time wandering around doing not a lot of anything, so this may be a good thing!

The activity of the day for tomorrow will be water play, since it's going to be hot. I'm going to freeze a couple of balloons tonight, and add them to the shell wading pool so the girls can play. I'm going to aim to spend at least 15 minutes in there with them, playing with food dye so they can see any patterns, etc that may appear. Here's hoping it works.

I'm having Pumpkin and Broccoli Risotto for dinner. For those interested, here is the recipe. It serves 2 adults, 2 growing girls, and there's usually enough leftover for D to take some to work for lunch.

Ingredients

• 1 large chicken breast fillet, skin removed and diced
• 2 tbsp butter/margarine
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets
• 3/4 cup frozen peas and corn
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1L chicken stock
• 1 tsp chicken seasoning (any brand will do the trick)
• grated cheese (optional, but yummy)

Method

• Toss the chicken and seasoning together in a bowl until the chicken is coated
• In a large frypan or heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter. Add the chicken, and cook stirring for around 4 minutes
• Add the garlic and onion, and cook until the onion is translucent
• Add the rice, and stir for 1 minute or until the rice is coated in the butter
• At this point, add the stock, gradually and stir.
• I usually add the pumpkin and broccoli at this point as well, but it depends how well cooked you like it (I like mine almost dissolved as it hides the veg from the kids)
• Once you've added about 1 cup of stock, pour in the rest, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally
• Keep a kettle handy as you may need more water depending on the rice. Add as needed.
• Once the rice is almost cooked, add the frozen veggies, and stir well.
• Continue to cook for about 3 minutes, and then remove from heat and stir in the cheese.
• Serve! It may look like a dogs breakfast, but is at the top of our list for favourite dinners

I've also been known to add zucchini, capsicum, celery, carrot, and eggplant to the onion and garlic mix.

So that's dinner.

As for de-cluttering, tomorrow I'm going to continue my efforts in my bedroom. We've recently switched rooms, and I need to organise C's baby clothes, pack my hospital bag just in case, and move all the assorted stuff that's been tossed around, and find a home for it all.

Hoping to get my license on Friday as well, which will make taking clothes etc to the Salvos a whole lot easier.

Well that's it from me for now.. I must try and work out this routine, if I succeed it may be up later tonight or tomorrow.

Hope to see you back soon!