Category Archives: Home Life

Lots of changes

My life and my home has changed so much since I last wrote. Mom was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, and due to inadequate health care locally, Mom had her treatment here with me. Since Mom and Dad were going to be spending a lot of time at my house, I had to make changes, and quickly. Now I’ve wanted to do these changes for a long time, and this was the incentive needed.

I cleaned my bonus room of clutter, rid many unused items from my life, and down-sized my belongings. This allowed me to maintain control of my house while cherishing every moment with my parents when they were here.

The biggest change, the office. We gave up the guest room to an office when my son gave up his toddler bed for a big boy bed. My parents still had a place to sleep, but it was no longer a room they could call their own. This has worked well for many years, but as Curtis has gotten older, it has become harder for him getting kicked out of his room.

So the major change in my house, I turned the office into a guest room with an office space. We’ve decided to call it the “pink” room since Curtis and I argue if it is a guest room or office. I already made another office space in our bedroom, so Jeremy had a place to work.

So the work began. I took down Jeremy’s desk (great reason to have folding tables as desks) and consolidated my cubes. I moved Curtis’ bed into the guest room and got him a new bed. He loves the extra floor space, and I love the pink room.

The pink room is my happy place. I love my kitchen. I love my bedroom. The pink room makes me happy. This room describes me. I have what I love in this room–a place for my parents, and a place to work on journaling, Project Life, or any other activities that when I need alone time.

Sadly, I lost my mom January 4th. I love the pink room even more because of the wonderful memories I made there with my mom. Mom and I would go into the pink room and watch “girlie” TV and talk while the boys watched “boy” TV. I am so fortunate to have a place that allowed me to share this time with Mom. Isn’t that what a home is for, a place to foster beautiful memories that we carry with us always?

Planning 2015

I’ve accomplished a lot in the last three months that I will write about in the future. I’m going to be a little out-of-order, because I’m going to write about what I will be doing different in 2015. I don’t usually do New Year’s Resolutions, and I won’t this year either. However, my goals are constant, continue working on my relationship with God, my relationship with my family, record my family’s memories, and improve my mental and physical health. Nearly everything I do is because of one of these areas.

I have a Pinterest board called Calendar Pages and Planning. This is where I keep all my ideas to improve my use of my planner. While looking at ideas, I discovered bullet journaling (see bulletjournal.com). What I realized about this system is this is what I do at work already to organize my work life, and it works.

I’ve been a lung transplant coordinator for 14 years. I’ve spent 13 years trying to figure out how to remember to do all that I need to do. I can’t begin to think of the number of methods I tried, both paper and digital. A system only works though if you use it. All of the other systems I felt I spent more time doing the system than the work.

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Erin Condren Life Planner, Mochi Things Notes case, Moleskine large ruled journal (soft cover)

For 2014, I tried something new, and it works! I bought a Moleskin weekly planner with the week calendar on the left and a blank notes page on the right. For the days I wrote down the tests that I needed to obtain results for each patient. The notes page is where I recorded all my patient calls. At the top of the notes page I would write down anything that would need done at that time (i.e. schedule labs in 3 weeks). After reviewing the bullet journal method, I realized this is what I was doing at work, and it works. Why does it work, it is easy, flexible, and portable.

So I decided to incorporate this method with my Erin Condren planner. I bought a separate Moleskine ruled journal to use as my personal bullet journal. My main goal for this journal is a dedicated space to dump my thoughts. I have a lot of random thoughts at inopportune times. I have sticky notes, electronic notes, and notes pages of thoughts that occurred that I actually wrote down. I don’t write down all my thoughts because I didn’t have a method to organize them. That is where the bullet journal index became an “ah ha” moment for me. So I’ve created my journal for next year and it is ready to go.

As I said, I don’t want to stop using my Erin Condren planner because this is an important tool when I work on my Project Life pages. The bullet journal I hope will allow me to record all my thoughts and To Dos so I can be more effective. I will give my review after I’ve used it awhile. I will also discuss the changes I made for me, which is the real beauty of this system.

My own personal bully

I read a post by HandsFreeMama earlier this week about the bully close to home.  I realized as I read her story, I am my own personal bully.  I bully myself in believing perfection is possible.  It is difficult for me to not be the best in all things, so when I decided to take it easy this Christmas, I’ve had a difficult time forgiving myself.

I love Christmas and everything that involves Christmas.  However this year Christmas is different.  Don’t get me wrong, I still love the decorations, food, and music that celebrates the precious gift of Jesus.  This year I am not doing all of these things.  I have a tree, but it is a small tree.  I normally decorate a tree in several rooms of my house, each worthy to be displayed in Macy’s.  Each room is fully decorated with a theme for each room.  I am still baking, but I am fine with the simple snickerdoodles.  I still enjoy listening to the Christmas music, but I’m not singing in the choir.

After reading this article, I am reminded that all of these activities are lovely, but they are not important if they separate me in anyway from  my boys (my husband and my son).  So instead of spending a weekend decorating, I am watching a movie with my boys.  Instead of choir practice I am catching up on the day.  Snickerdoodles are Jeremy’s favorite, so that is hardly a loss.

What I need to do, is give myself the permission to not be perfect.  I need to remember that it isn’t perfection Curtis will remember when he leaves our home, but how he felt when he was at home.

 

HandsFreeMama http://www.handsfreemama.com/2013/12/10/the-bully-too-close-to-home

Starting Fresh

Freedom Filer

Freedom Filer

Well, paper continues to be my nemesis.  Last July I purchased the Freedom Filer system.  Though it is expensive, it is well worth the money.  Since July 2012, I have minimized the amount of paper that takes over my space.  Many of the tips and tricks I’ve learned are really common sense.  I keep a recycling basket in my bonus room for paper.  As soon as I get the mail I sort mail into three categories: keep, recycle, and shred.  It is amazing that if you sort the mail that is brought in, the paper pile doesn’t overtake the desk or table.  Other paper that comes in from work, doctor visits, car maintenance, tax documents, etc: I stack them in one location and file every 1-2 weeks.  Since I have been using the Freedom Filer system, I have an organized method of keeping the paper I want or need to keep.  Even my son’s artwork and school work.

Visual Clutter

Mess, that is really what gets me. When my space is cluttered and a mess I become paralyzed. I lose the ability to think or function. So now you understand why paper and the paper monster are my nemesis. Whether it is at home or work, I cannot tolerate paper on my desk. When I have paper sprawled on my desk, my productivity decreases. 

I do have a lot of decorative items and functional storage pieces on my desk, but I need the surface clear to work.  Not only do I want my space clean, but I want it to be beautiful, so I decorate my work space in a way to make me happy and creative.

The Paper Monster

Paper is my nemesis.  If there is one thing I do not manage well, it is paper. I have a system that works, a filing cabinet with all life’s papers organized by subject. When I need a paper, if it has been filed, I can find it easily.  The problem is getting paper filed.  

So much paper comes into my life. I love mail, but the daily delivery of paper adds the the disorganized heap that lays on various furniture pieces. I need to find a way to manage the incoming mail. Don’t worry, I sort immediately when mail comes in, mine, my husband’s, and I place junk mail directly to the recycling bin.   The problem is: I am either not disciplined or I don’t have enough time to manage paper weekly. Beyond a week of management, and then a paper monster is created, creating a sense of overwhelming mess. 

I have seen a few ideas to try and manage paper that comes in, but honestly I haven’t tried any of them.  I am not really sure why.  So my goal over the next month, try a system and see if it works.  Below I have attached a few links that shares tips on managing the monster.

So after doing some research I am going to try to implement an action file and the Freedom Filer system.  Hopefully this will be the year I tame the paper monster.

Organized Home–Paper Management

The Clutter Wizard

Simplified Living Solutions

One of those annoying people

I am one of those annoying people, naturally organized.  Life has taught me something though, most people are organized, it just isn’t pretty. What is organization?  Organization is the ability to find something the moment you want it or need it. If you can’t find it, then the organization system isn’t working for you. 

There is no right or wrong system for organizing.  I have tried several options for various parts of my life.  Sometimes I am lucky and find the perfect system for me right away, other parts i am still working on finding my perfect system.

It is okay to try and fail when organizing.  Pay attention to why the system didn’t work when you fail, usually that will give you the greatest insight into what works.   

Normalcy? Routine?

The first week of school is completed and we are back into somewhat of a normal schedule.  This summer has been crazy.  We have had something scheduled every weekend since April.  This past weekend we didn’t have anything scheduled except for fun.  I guess the activities of this summer have been fun, we just didn’t HAVE to be anywhere at ANY specific time. This was pure bliss.

Curtis is enjoyed his first week of school.  He has a couple of his friends in his class, so I think that helps.  He likes his teacher this year too.  Right now we only have soccer.  In a couple of weeks piano resumes, then a couple of weeks after that, Cub Scouts and youth choir.  I worry about Curtis being over-booked, but he seems to enjoy the different activities.  This may be his last season of soccer though, so we need to live it up.  In the Spring he will have baseball and next Fall he really wants to play football.  For the past three years we have tried two sports in the Spring, and I do not recommend it.  Curtis was exhausted and we were stressed by his constant schedule.