Well, sometimes good intentions have to be revised along the way. I was doing a little research into the art of Feng Shui and the deeper I got into it, the more I realized that it did not jive with my Christianity. So I have revised my #17 on the bucket list. Originally it read "Learn about and start using the art of Feng Shui". While I don't plan on using all of the steps, the first step of using Feng Shui resonated with me. Declutter your life first. I come from a long line of borderline hoarders. About the only reason I am not a true hoarder is because I move so much. It also helps that I am married to a semi neat freak. But even he has his cluttered areas.
I think my biggest problem in this area is that I go all gung-ho in the beginning, but I burn out quickly. I forget that once it's done, it has to be kept up on a regular basis. Clutter doesn't just take care of itself if you don't have a symptom. So starting today, I'm going to make a list of all of the areas of clutter in my house and slowly work my way around to decluttering each space a little at a time.
Paper
This is a given. I mean, who doesn't have paper clutter, right? It comes into the house daily. Mail, kids backpacks, receipts, magazines, newspapers, etc, etc. I have a catch all area where most of the paper clutter goes and I have already done some decluttering in the area in the last few months. But, I haven't found a really good system for controlling it yet. I will have to continue working with this area and hopefully find a good system.
Toys
I have a 7 year old with developmental delays and a 3 year old who is almost on track developmentally. Basically, A (the 7 year old)'s idea of playing is to load up a whole bunch of toys into a box (or most recently the laundry basket) and dump them out against a wall. Repeat a thousand times. His other obsession right now is kicking the kick ball in the hallway against the doors. We live in the rainy northwest so we let him. K's at least playing appropriately with her toys when A doesn't take them from her. She wraps her babies in blankets and "puts them to bed". She is also into "reading" books and likes to lay on the floor and turn the pages. The problem with that is if you don't monitor the amount of time, she eventually starts tearing pages in the books.
So the toy situation is really a headache. There are toys and books that have been taken from the children when they start playing inappropriately so now K's room is a catch all where there are toys in the closet, on top of her dresser and on top of two rows of shelves which were originally installed for my scrapbooking stuff (up high so they can't get to it). It's a mess.
Clothes
Part of the issue with clothing is that I refuse to buy more clothes for myself until I lose enough weight to fit into the ones I have. However, the longer it takes for me to really get off my butt and start losing weight, the more the clothes I have will go out of style. I just can't bring myself to get rid of them though. I have boxes of the kids outgrown clothes to go to the consignment store and just haven't done it yet.
Crafting Supplies
This is another area where I want to really get rid of stuff but I have that mentality of "what if I need this some day?". I just need to be ruthless in this area. And while I do still scrapbook occasionally, I find that I'm not even using most of my "old" stuff when I do. Time to purge.
Other Areas
I am sure as I begin this project, I will find more areas that need to be decluttered. I wan to have a home that is full of energy and welcoming and inviting. Right now, I just cringe when I see my house. I keep it relatively "neat" but the clutter screams at me and makes me uncomfortable. Just like my classroom. I have decluttered a few areas and everyone tells me my classroom looks so organized. But to me, I just feel the stress of the cluttered areas (even though they're hidden). This will be a long journey.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
40 By 40 Friday (a Day Late)
Ok, I know it's Saturday so I'm a day late. I have no excuse except that I was lazy yesterday. Point blank. No other reason. So my progress was spotty but at least existent this week.
#16 : Read or get rid of all unread books in my current collection.
#34 : Read 50 New York Times Best Sellers
This week I read my first Stephen King novel ever. EVER! I can't believe I haven't read anything by him yet. I've seen just about all the movies that have been made based on his books and love them, but I've never actually read any of his books. About a year ago, I was having a conversation with a fellow waitress (when I was working as a waitress) and we got to talking about books we've read that we like. She suggested The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. So I picked up the book but never read it until this week. It started off kind of slow, but the more I got into it, the more I was sucked in. The setting reminded me a lot of some of the setting in "The Stand" movie, especially the desert parts. Some of the characters in this book were quite confusing which just drew me in further instead of turning me off. I think the hardest part about reading this book is some of the language. Stephen has created a new dialect of the English language and while I was able to figure out what some words meant by context clues, others just sat on the page rotting while my brain tried to decipher them. I have the feeling that the more I get into the series, the better I'll understand both the characters and the language.
So that brings me up to 6 NYTBS out of the 50 I want to read for my list. I never really set a number for #16 because I'm really not sure at this stage in the game which ones I will eventually read and which ones I will end up getting rid of. Sometimes it just takes reading a couple of pages or chapters before I give up on the book altogether. I am, however determined NOT to buy any more books or even check out any from the library until I have read all the ones that are currently in my bookcase right now. The fact that most of them fall into one of the other two categories (Classics or Best Sellers) just helps me get closer to my other goals faster.
Update: I forgot that I also read Water for Elephants earlier this year so my list is now at 7 out of 50! Woohoo!
#21 : Submit my book for publishing.
Ok, so I probably jumped the gun on this one a little so I'm not going to cross this one off the list just quite yet. I have been dabbling on the Internet for the last 3 or 4 years trying to figure out the publishing business. Some places say non-fiction doesn't have to be complete before you submit it to a publisher. So, since my book is a memoir, I assumed that it was classified as non-fiction. Last Saturday morning, I started searching the Internet for publishers who look for first time authors and stumbled upon Tate Publishing. They had a form right on their web page where you can submit a manuscript so I filled it out and submitted the couple of chapters I have written so far. A few minutes later, I received a standard form letter in my inbox "Thank you for submitting. We'll be in touch". The kind that basically says don't call us, we'll call you. So I tried not to think about it and figured IF I did hear something, it may be weeks.
Sunday afternoon, on my way to the grocery store, I got a call from the acquisitions director who said she was interested in the book. She said she thought it would be a great book and was one that would be marketed well with interviews on talk shows and such. At first I was elated. I couldn't believe she called so soon and that she was interested in the book so much. But then the bomb dropped. I would have to pay a $4000 retainer for a publicist up front! Yeah, don't think this is going to happen after all. She did say that they would break it up into payments for me and that it's refundable after 1000 copies are sold, but even broken up that would be like $500 a month. Money we just don't have right now to pay out when we aren't even caught up on our regular monthly bills.
So instead, I talked to my librarian at school who knows a few local published authors. She's going to get in touch with some of them and try to get us connected so I can pick their brains about the publishing process. I also did some more research about memoirs in particular and found quite a few helpful sites. The more I read about memoirs, the more I learned that usually they are treated like a fiction novel in that they have to be finished before you submit them to the publisher. So back to the writing process itself. Time to get that baby finished.
#16 : Read or get rid of all unread books in my current collection.
#34 : Read 50 New York Times Best Sellers
This week I read my first Stephen King novel ever. EVER! I can't believe I haven't read anything by him yet. I've seen just about all the movies that have been made based on his books and love them, but I've never actually read any of his books. About a year ago, I was having a conversation with a fellow waitress (when I was working as a waitress) and we got to talking about books we've read that we like. She suggested The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. So I picked up the book but never read it until this week. It started off kind of slow, but the more I got into it, the more I was sucked in. The setting reminded me a lot of some of the setting in "The Stand" movie, especially the desert parts. Some of the characters in this book were quite confusing which just drew me in further instead of turning me off. I think the hardest part about reading this book is some of the language. Stephen has created a new dialect of the English language and while I was able to figure out what some words meant by context clues, others just sat on the page rotting while my brain tried to decipher them. I have the feeling that the more I get into the series, the better I'll understand both the characters and the language.
So that brings me up to 6 NYTBS out of the 50 I want to read for my list. I never really set a number for #16 because I'm really not sure at this stage in the game which ones I will eventually read and which ones I will end up getting rid of. Sometimes it just takes reading a couple of pages or chapters before I give up on the book altogether. I am, however determined NOT to buy any more books or even check out any from the library until I have read all the ones that are currently in my bookcase right now. The fact that most of them fall into one of the other two categories (Classics or Best Sellers) just helps me get closer to my other goals faster.
Update: I forgot that I also read Water for Elephants earlier this year so my list is now at 7 out of 50! Woohoo!
#21 : Submit my book for publishing.
Ok, so I probably jumped the gun on this one a little so I'm not going to cross this one off the list just quite yet. I have been dabbling on the Internet for the last 3 or 4 years trying to figure out the publishing business. Some places say non-fiction doesn't have to be complete before you submit it to a publisher. So, since my book is a memoir, I assumed that it was classified as non-fiction. Last Saturday morning, I started searching the Internet for publishers who look for first time authors and stumbled upon Tate Publishing. They had a form right on their web page where you can submit a manuscript so I filled it out and submitted the couple of chapters I have written so far. A few minutes later, I received a standard form letter in my inbox "Thank you for submitting. We'll be in touch". The kind that basically says don't call us, we'll call you. So I tried not to think about it and figured IF I did hear something, it may be weeks.
Sunday afternoon, on my way to the grocery store, I got a call from the acquisitions director who said she was interested in the book. She said she thought it would be a great book and was one that would be marketed well with interviews on talk shows and such. At first I was elated. I couldn't believe she called so soon and that she was interested in the book so much. But then the bomb dropped. I would have to pay a $4000 retainer for a publicist up front! Yeah, don't think this is going to happen after all. She did say that they would break it up into payments for me and that it's refundable after 1000 copies are sold, but even broken up that would be like $500 a month. Money we just don't have right now to pay out when we aren't even caught up on our regular monthly bills.
So instead, I talked to my librarian at school who knows a few local published authors. She's going to get in touch with some of them and try to get us connected so I can pick their brains about the publishing process. I also did some more research about memoirs in particular and found quite a few helpful sites. The more I read about memoirs, the more I learned that usually they are treated like a fiction novel in that they have to be finished before you submit them to the publisher. So back to the writing process itself. Time to get that baby finished.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
40 by 40 Friday: Crossing Off The List
I did it! After almost a full year of staring at my 40 things I want to get done before I turn 40, I have finally done it! I am officially crossing off my first item! Yay me!
Item #14 - Learn how to make the perfect pie crust. Over. Done with. I finally was able to feel like I had accomplished this one. Like I said in my Thanksgiving post, I did make a pie crust that turned out pretty good, but I wasn't happy with the rolling out process. I felt like it was still too hard and crumbled just a little too much as I was working with it. So after getting some hints from friends and FaceBook friends and watching some YouTube videos, I pulled all of those tips together and made it. I made a pumpkin pie and brought it to school for all the teachers and administrators to try. I received rave reviews. I heard things like "the crust is so flaky", "the crust tastes wonderful", and "can I get your recipe?"!
So without further ado, I will attempt to give you the perfect pie crust recipe by pulling together all of those tips I found and piling them up here for you. I'm not going to reprint the recipe itself as I found that part on pinterest.
Item #14 - Learn how to make the perfect pie crust. Over. Done with. I finally was able to feel like I had accomplished this one. Like I said in my Thanksgiving post, I did make a pie crust that turned out pretty good, but I wasn't happy with the rolling out process. I felt like it was still too hard and crumbled just a little too much as I was working with it. So after getting some hints from friends and FaceBook friends and watching some YouTube videos, I pulled all of those tips together and made it. I made a pumpkin pie and brought it to school for all the teachers and administrators to try. I received rave reviews. I heard things like "the crust is so flaky", "the crust tastes wonderful", and "can I get your recipe?"!
So without further ado, I will attempt to give you the perfect pie crust recipe by pulling together all of those tips I found and piling them up here for you. I'm not going to reprint the recipe itself as I found that part on pinterest.
The Recipe
How to Roll Out Pie Crust
In addition to the recipe and the video, I also had a hint to add a tsp of vinegar to help break down the gluten and make the dough easier to roll out. I'm sure I will revisit this over and over again as I incorporate new hints and try new recipes, but for the purpose of crossing it off my list, i think the reviews on Thursday are enough for me to pass this test.
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