A-Z of organising.

I'm going to totally show my blogging ignorance here and just paste this for my own reference later.

Someone else's tips A-Z style for organising their lives.

Chore Wars - Inspired idea!

I feel that I'm a bit slow to things this year. First I discover that the 'pretty good' Bruce Springsteen is actually an amazing inspirational artist who has a remarkably loyal and incredible group of fans. And now I have encountered 'Chore Wars' - the absolute must-have for house work and household management for the gamer family!

My family's motivations are transformed! I have my elder child battling it out with me for the most XP (experience points for the unfortunate non-gamer readers) and my boy competing fiercely with Daddy for the most male XP in the household. Pretty soon the two big ones will have to watch out as the toddler gets her own share of XP thanks to her helpful nature!

You can start out with the pre-generated jobs like washing up, putting on laundry, cooking dinner, but it is very simple to add your own household full of duties and to give them funky D&D style names such as "Storing Armour for the Morrow" which is Chore Wars speak for "putting away your clean clothes".

I am loving it!  The downside is as the local Dungeon Master (DM) for my party, I am the one who is creating all the jobs, so I'm falling behind on my own personal XP, spending a lot of time micro-managing every little job in the household.

I'm hoping this is a transformative experience for all of us, so far the children have been very enthusiastic and time will tell if it shames hubby into lifting his game!

Personally I am looking forward to exploring Quests - they sound promising.

At the moment the 14 days of household deep cleaning has been derailed by Chore Wars, but I'm ok with that. I think when I have Chore Wars functioning, I will re-start the 14 day deep cleaning as a 14 week project as it was meant to be.

If you like online games, or roleplaying, go check it out, Chore Wars. Excellent stuff.

Health & Happiness Challenge Day 1

I have started two new blog posts tonight, as well as a spreadsheet to help me keep track of my challenges for the week.

Today was an extra work day for me while the children saw cousins with their Nana and Pop. So it didn't leave a LOT of time for exercise (I did a quick 10 minute walk before being picked up from work), or for reaching out to friends (so I emailed photos of the children to the family).

My Bruce time was mostly during the walk, although I did have my mindful Bruce attitude all day, holding my head up higher, and being happy in myself.

I'm grateful for another 2 hour drive home without tears and wailing from the little children. I'm grateful my cat survived a second day without his midday medication.

My diet could have been better as I had iced coffeee (yum!); but I also have had 1/3 of my water and I've eaten plenty of Kale today.

I phoned my father, it was lovely to speak with him after a busy day yesterday, and to hear that the private physiotherapist I have in to see him weekly was a highlight of his day as she took him for a longer walk than the staff usually do.

My excel spreadsheet looks a little like this:

 

Regaining Happiness, starting good habits over again - Gratitude

It has been a challenge fitting in the new routine again since the great week of illness and gastro. Most of the family have come down with a bad cold that is lingering this week also. Money is not where we were expecting it to be and we've been looking with alarm at our budget for next year.  This past week I would have to say I've reverted almost wholly to the way I was before Bruce Springsteen. Which, by comparison to the interim period, isn't a great place, and certainly not where I want to be.

A chat this week with my concert going friend revealed that she was also losing the effect of the excitement, she's been sick too, so who knows whether it's a post-concert high wearing off or it's just about how unwell we're feeling. Regardless, between us we came up with the solution.

Get back to the basics. What made me so happy in the first place?  What was I doing when I was happy? How was I thinking about things, and what things was I thinking about?

The strategy I've used for the past couple of days has four elements. Bruce, Blogging, Gratitude and Exercise.  Between those three things at the forefront, other factors such as being solutions focused, improving my eating habits and sleeping seem to be falling into place as a natural consequence.

Gratitude and Exercise are known to improve life expectancy and quality.  I'd love to see links you come up with about this research, but in the meantime, here is my perspective.

Gratitude

"Being grateful is also associated with improved immune system function, fewer aches and pains, and lower blood pressure"

Wise words to listen to for someone with an autoimmune disease, arthritis and high blood pressure!!!!

Although it seems like such an insignificant thing, being grateful appears to have an uplifting and soothing affect. Simply finding one thing to be glad about this morning seemed to be the salve that calmed my entire day.  The more gratitude, the more excitingly happy I was.  I remember when I was at the dizzy peak of my happiness post-Springsteen and I found joy in every part of the day. I was positively buzzing with gratefulness. Being thankful seems to be the first step  to being very happy indeed.

Plus I think it turns around a bad attitude!  I found this link about how to develop an attitude of gratitude.

I know that today I've been calmer and less bad-tempered since being sent a text first thing this morning with my friend's list of gratefulness, and replying to her with mine. I only had one thing to begin with, I sent her this "I'm grateful that hubby has taken the time to get the boy off to school today"

The rest of my day was calm. 

Household madness and other cleaning conundrums

Has three months of blogging helped me to keep the house cleaner? If I look at the question critically, then the answer would be not a great deal.  The state of the house is still very chaotic, my 'hot spots' where junk collects appear to have grown in size and number.  However overall there are a few positive differences that would not have happened without blogging.  These make the optimist in me say YES, blogging has made a difference!

The most obvious change is my entry. Having followed "Inspirational Thursday"  and taken the advice of my friend, I 'made over' the entry over a month ago.  And it is still looking pretty spiffy compared to the mess of bags and shoes on the floor that I had previously.

I am happy with that result!   The second change is more subtle, but possibly has a much greater affect on our household. Since blogging, and my Bruce Springsteen experience, I have been much calmer and happier. My husband has  therefore been calmer and happier, we have better routines and it has become unusual for the chaos to get as out of hand as it used to when we were under pressure.  Now that I think about it, I think I've achieved a little glimmer of 'being prepared', something I so admired in my mother in law during my first week of blogging.

The more time I take to contemplate my household management and cleaning, the more I realise that the progress I'm making has everything to do with my positive attitude.  It is amazing what can get done when you stop finding excuses and simply begin doing!  This is particularly inspirational to me today, as yesterday I was feeling a bit unwell, I felt my positive attitude and energy had left me, yet I managed to cook 3 meals for a weekly cook-up with my hubby, and still went for a 20 minute walk for exercise.  Pre-Bruce, pre-blog, neither of those things would have been achieved on a 'bad day'.  I would highly recommend blogging, or journaling to anyone who is struggling with progressing in any aspect of life. Writing things down and practising self reflection are incredibly powerful tools for positive change!

3 months of bloggy goodness - Exercise Update

I am reading that heading and I'm thinking 'soggy' goodness, like cereal when it’s been sitting long enough to lose its crunch! Certainly the first half or more of my time blogging has been 'soggy' here; it even rained again today, though thankfully only a light shower!

I'm not having a lot of new thoughts to share at the moment, but I am thinking quite a lot about my progress or lack thereof. And thus this post is born, a bit of a recap of all the things. As it turned out, my recap was quite extensive, so here is the exercise instalment! More to follow!

Exercise and health

Why?
The last time I was a healthy weight was about 7 years ago, since then I was plagued with mostly auto-immune health concerns. Two years ago while pregnant it was discovered that I had high blood pressure. Everything turned out fine with the pregnancy, and my blood pressure did the expected dropping after bub was born, however my Dad was re-admitted to hospital three months later and my blood pressure hasn't recovered!

What?
I have spent the last 18 months or so concentrating on improving my health. In February 2012 I began Tai Chi classes to assist my pain from psoriatic arthritis and my hypertension. Tai Chi was brilliant, and still is, however I managed to gain 10kgs in December while sitting at Dad's hospital bedside, which prompted a visit to my GP and a renewed effort specifically for weight loss to improve my blood pressure. I did excellently for the first few weeks, losing 5kgs and getting a cholesterol reading of 3.5. The next few weeks proved harder and I was feeling a little bit desperate, when along came my first Bruce Springsteen concert! Especially since seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Melbourne last month I have been a woman possessed with a need to get on with my life as healthily as I possibly could, with no excuses. I was inspired to reach my goal of weighing 90kgs by the end of this month (today). While this goal appears to have eluded me, the scales are stubbornly saying I've lost only 2 of the required 5kgs in the past 6 weeks, I have continued to exercise, walking almost every day for half an hour.

What I've learned!
The benefits I’ve noticed are simply terrific, and I've learnt some things along the way too. For starters, I've always hated runners or joggers, and preferred to walk in sandals than in a closed in shoe. That is until I bought a pair of 'reef boots' on the cheap. I am now firmly of the belief, that regardless of whether they're designer expensive trendy new 'ultra-thin-sole' runners or cheapies like mine, that the best shoes in the world are the 'barely there' variety. Of course your mileage may vary, but they're worth checking out!

It really helps to get a decent song mix for the time you spend exercising, obviously at the moment I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen, but anything you find uplifting that gets you inspired to lift your feet higher, move faster and generally pump out that energy! Speaking of which, today marked the latest instalment of Bruce Springsteen concerts in Oslo.  This seems to have made me a little bit lighter on my feet, even though I am not going to any of them!

I've also learned that exercise affects a whole lot more than your body size and shape. The changes I've noticed in myself go across the whole spectrum of being human! And they're all beneficial!

Benefits of Exercise

• I am much happier and calmer. It is considerably easier to be calmer now that I exercise regularly. I am surprised at how much easier it is for me to be polite and reasonable in stressful situations, and how I am far less ruffled than usual! Exercise really seems to help with keeping cool emotionally.
• Many people seem to think I've lost weight, so I'll take that. It seems that either muscle really does weigh more than fat, or I'm simply a nicer shape for the walking.
• I have more energy for playing with my children
• I can now run, jog and jump - I couldn't do those things at the beginning of the year
• My arthritis is far less inhibiting. The joints that are severely affected (right Achilles and left wrist) are still agonising frequently, but I just carry on through the pain, take the occasional paracetamol and don't give in to the temptation to feel disabled.
• My psoriasis is far less present. I've had psoriasis for 5 years now, and it is quite extensive, all over my arms and legs mostly. The psoriasis on my arms is now almost gone (just scarring) and on my legs is quite mild compared to just a few months ago. It leads me to wonder if exercise plays a significant part in maintaining a healthy immune system. It’s certainly not something my rheumatologist mentioned, but perhaps something as simple as exercise does not pay for her contribution to scientific research with drug trials!
• Gone are the excuses for not exercising! There are no 'reasons' for not exercising, only excuses! If you are injured, seek rehab, if you have limitations, set out to break them or at least bend them with professional help! I am finding I am also slowly eradicating excuses from other areas of my life, in fact I feel another Jedi post coming up based on Yoda's "Do or do not, there is not TRY"
• Much as I lament the brown snakes, hills and crooked footpaths, I really do love my neighbourhood and walking under the stars in my streets is a precious gift, that I am fortunate enough to live somewhere so nice, safe and friendly. I'm not so sure about the reptilian population though.

Where to from here?
I am going to keep up the walking, increase the Tai Chi, and spend some of my effort on consulting a personal trainer to make sure I'm doing everything I can and should to get as healthy as possible, as quickly as possible. I still have the goal of 80kgs before the end of winter. Apparently healthy weight for me is ten more kilos lighter again, but I'll see how I go getting to that first goal. If we could afford it, I'd be taking the family skiing this year, so that might yet happen, we will see how budgeting fares!

 

Add in what you want ... in life!

A wise friend once said this to me regarding changing my dietary habits for the better.  I was concerned with how to manage the daunting prospect of attempting a raw food based diet.  She simply said "Don't focus on taking out the wrong foods, just add in the good foods."

It occurs to me that this is a terrific motto for all aspects of life.  Forget what isn't working, ignore it.  Focus on what does work, what nourishes, inspires and leaves you feeling good. Do that more. And things will naturally improve. 

I have been following this advice with my diet for over a year and for the most part, despite many difficult circumstances, including times when I felt like we lived off takeaway food, I still would make the effort to add in my leafy green Kale (super leaf for my arthritis) and Cos and other salad.  Overall, with the exception of 6 weeks when Dad was in hospital over summer, my improvements to diet have been consistent, so much so that as I snack now I automatically go to add Kale! I almost made myself a jam sandwich twice today (normally I don't even eat bread) and both times have stopped myself and grabbed Kale instead. Sure, I buttered the bread (another thing that I almost never do), but at least along with the bad food, I've given myself two serves of vitamin goodness.

While advocating for my Dad over and over again with new nurses, new doctors, and then repeating the entire process upon his return to the nursing home, I realise now that the technique I've learnt is much the same.  There is only a limited time when you have these healthcare providers ear, before their other demands take them away. I've learnt to focus on what I want most during that tiny window of opportunity, and to hell with other, small issues. Most of all, I try to refrain from comment about what I do not like. It just doesn't wash.  If they have been lax in looking after his hygiene, but there is a much greater concern about whether he needs oxygen assistance, then I stick to querying his breathing.  Eventually the other factors are resolved.  Its the biggest, most important and critical stuff I want them to pay attention to first.

I know it has worked in my household cleaning. As long as I'm realistic and remember that I need to pay attention to the whole house sometimes, there has been some real consistency happening in the last couple of years with making new habits around the kitchen, laundry and floors.

This doing more of what you want to see more of works for exercise too, particulary with me now that I've been inspired by the workout of dancing at a concert for 3 hours (twice!) I am finding it very easy to get out there and get more exercise with walking, jumping, jogging, whatever I can fit into the busy days.

Most of all, I think that seeing as I am dreaming of a beach holiday, I should make the most of the beach that is nearby and visit more often.  Perhaps  that will help manifest one further afield.  If not, at least I'll have enjoyed the local beaches!

I challenge you to this month, and until the end of May, find one area of your life where you can 'add in' something you desire, simply by prioritising it and adding it in right now! 

Setting Achievable Goals - Life lesson Day 3

I've been very pleased with myself since the great Thursday of happiness (aka motivational Thursday) Since then, less than a month ago, I have managed to transform the look of 2 rooms that we use every day, the entry and E's space.

This week I've started on a third project, the 'Front Room'. This room used to be the living room. At one stage, when our roof was leaking and yet to be repaired, it was our bedroom and living room, many years ago. Now it has given itself over the main residence of the decrepit cat of all blindness. He hangs on in this little spot, we've kicked the children out of the room, so the TV went back upstairs and its no longer the living room. In a stroke of opportunistic genius, I've decided to transform it into my husband's 'cave', alongside the cat :)

However before I can get carried away with the idea of a home to put the thousand screwdrivers, nuts, bolts and other man-stuff that hubby leaves lying around all over the house; the whole room needs a thorough cleanup. A daunting task, as its been allowed to turn into a bit of a cesspit in recent months.

I spent a few days pottering, using the simple principle of leaving the room better than I found it, and not achieving a great deal. I really had no idea where to start. The solution came to me more as a desperate idea than a full-blown certainty. In order to give myself somewhere to simply BEGIN, I decided to break the cleaning down into sections. Normally I'd clean the floors first, but in this situation that seemed pointless as the floors were basically acquiring flotsam from the junk falling off the piled up surfaces. So I took my phone and photographed every surface area that was junked up. Sadly on its last legs (like the cat), my phone managed to make every photo a hazy milky tone. Here's an example:

It does a wonderful job of highlighting the junk, even with the surreal effect.

Surprisingly, as soon as I'd taken the photos, I was resolved to tackle all the surfaces first, and to finish as many as possible today. I remarked that it would be a miracle if I got through them all.

I should have had more faith because as I write this, all 5 areas of the room that were the same and worse than this have been totally cleaned off. The Wrecking Ball soundtrack helped, and it took the entire album to get through it all. I have one tiny nemesis of paperwork and fiddly rubbish in the bottom of the green 'Trofast' drawer in this picture. After finishing this blog, I'll be working on that till bedtime!

I've exceeded my expectations for the day, all by simply breaking down the job into smaller pieces that were not so daunting. There were still hurdles along the way, and plenty of interruptions and breaks. Having the photographs helped to keep me focussed on how I'd progressed, and finishing off one discreet area at a time was terrific motivation to move on to the next area and the next. I even did a lot of bargaining with myself, deciding I was going to stop when I finished the top of the bookcase, and was so inspired by finishing that I kept going and started on the couch, then moved on to everywhere else!

Even the deep freezer had a mountain of stuff piled on it.

Now I'm feeling invincible and ready to have the whole room spick and span tomorrow, ready for its new life as the 'cave'!

 

We put up these little storage racks in a random spot temporarily as having them in use somewhere was better than all the component parts lying around :) Plus they are now filled with things, mostly all the tiny bits of Lego lying around.

And the most wonderful bonus of the exercise was that I found the first ring hubby ever bought me, it is more sentimental than my wedding and engagement rings and had been missing for over a year!

I haven't set the goals for tomorrow's instalment yet, but I'm sure that making the job smaller with manageable sections will be the backbone of how I get through it!

Motivational Thursday (Bruce!) - the results

I was surprised at how easy it was to get stuck into the Entry just the way my friend suggested!

Here are the results of what I called The Motivational Thursday Project.  For anyone who missed it, this was motivational Thursday.

Part way through. Still quite a bit of chaos.

This was moved from the main wall to make room for the new Expedit shelves.

Wall waiting for shelving.

Front corner less chaotic, and with temporary curtain!

Voila! New shelves filled with all our stuff! (and a bag packed ready for  the trip to Melbourne!)

Today I steam cleaned the rug and tidied the last junk off the pine hutch. It feels great! Inspirational music today was Shackled and Drawn.

The Clean Floor Game

One of the jobs for the weekend was to do a cleanup of the floors all around  the house. On a whim this morning, I decided to turn that into a game, to keep things interesting. I'm a big fan of UFYH (Unfuck Your Habitat) and enjoy their phone ap - I find the randomness of the suggestions really suits me.

So I found a container to use as a 'jar' and wrote the names of all the rooms /areas of my house on scraps of paper and tossed them in.  The idea being that I would draw out a room, clean the floor in that room, and then take a break doing some jigsaw puzzle in between rooms.  I get tired quickly from bending over jigsaws, so the break would be self-limiting automatically.  This is the jigsaw:

It worked beautifully. The first room I drew was the kitchen, so the whole floor had toys and random stuff picked up and was swept.  Then my break was a little bit of jigsaw and some X-box games with my son. My daughter got caught up in the enthusiasm, and did her own little bit of cleaning of a junk room upstairs (she lucked out and drew a hard spot to clean).  Here's the extremely simple 'pot luck' container:

Many interuptions later, the front verandah got thoroughly cleaned up, cat litter changed and swept. Then the stairs which in my house tend to collect things at the bottom that need to go up, plus other random flotsam were cleared off all the clutter.

Sadly my cleaning spree was not to be however, and I spent most of the day visiting and caring for my Dad.  I finished this special something for a friend while with him.

In the end, I am tempted to keep up this game as a way of getting through the tidying up more often.  I can see me using it on floors, but it might work for other things, like '27 fling boogie'. In such a big, cluttered house with a husband who tends to leave things on the floor, I find it difficult to be in 10 places at once to pick up after him and the children. This little game will make it easier, particularly if I'm lucky enough to have a day at home when we are both able to play it, in 2 different rooms at once.

I hope that your weekend has been as productive as mine. (and that you are more prepared for Monday than me - thats my job before bedtime - getting lunchboxes ready and uniforms ironed)!

Cleaning habits, Challenge week works!

I've come to a realisation about the creation of good habits. Small good habits, or small efforts made repeatedly, lead to a self-regulating habit. Just like this post on "Habit V's Guilt" I am discovering that baby steps do indeed make cleaning progress. Not only do baby steps eventually lead to real changes, but the slow creation of habits over time creep in.

There is something about confidence that makes a contribution here too. The entire theme for this post started out when I happily noticed that the laundry has managed to stay in a state of what I'd call controlled chaos since the great laundry challenge week (updates found here, here and here).

The state of the laundry looks pretty awful at the moment, but the reality is that I'm getting through my 1-2 loads a day from beginning to end and for the most part, everything is where it should be. The same kind of thing is happening in the kitchen. Sure the hard-to-wash-up stuff sometime lingers, and there always seems to be leftover washing up, but its not the same dirty pot sitting here on Thursday that was there last weekend. Its a new pot, replacing the cake tin.  I think when I am more confident, and my habits are even better, I can raise the expectation that no dirty dishes will be there from one day to the next.

I think I'm getting all my concepts mushed up in a mess here, but what I'm figuring out is that by giving myself permission not to be perfect in my habits, while simultaneously keeping up some confidence that I'll get these things done, I'm managing to keep on top of some routines.

All I need to do now is keep up with the decluttering and slowly add in more routine cleaning.  Seems so simple but I suspect it will be a slow road.

Something also seems to be brewing in the wider family as this evening my husband has swept the floor without any prompting. 

Motivation to Clean - its out there!

The list is here! My top 7 motivators to get up and get cleaning! For me personally the overall motivation is to live in a clean, tidy environment. However finding the daily motivation to make sure that happens is another matter entirely.

Here are some of the best tips I've found so far:

1. Invite someone over! Now I've spent some time adjusting my attitude that I want my house clean for ME, not for visitors. That still doesn't stop me from cleaning more when I know someone is coming. And while that in grained habit exists, keeping a regular stream of visitors through your house can be a terrific motivator.

2. I also found this article about dust mites disturbing enough to prompt the motivation up a gear.

3. Visit someone with a clean house! I will admit that jealousy of someone else's clean domain really gets me going in terms of motivation to do the best with what I have!

4. Get some alone time with your mess. I find that one of the biggest motivators for me is having the time when I'm not going to be interrupted by a toddler to really get into the swing of cleaning up.

5. Finish something. Anything. It could be the washing up, or it could be something like posting a letter that you just haven't gotten around to doing. Whatever it is doesn't matter, as long as you finish one thing. It is inspiration to keep going.

6. Set a timer and just start with a de-junking / rubbish collection / 27-fling Boogie and throw out as much rubbish and recycling as you can. If that doesn't motivate you to keep going, well at least you've done 15 minutes of cleaning already! Fill up your bin!




7. Get dressed up - Right now, when you're attempting to get motivated, start out by getting dressed up - whatever that means to you, whether it is Flylady's lace up shoes or your own personal 'ready' look. Mine is hair and teeth, I discovered here.

And if you are so stuck, that you can't face any of these tips, feeling overwhelmed, then try my magic 4 - have a glass of water, do some exercise, take a long view (how much does it matter right now?) and get started, anywhere. Do not panic.

Cleanup Challenge Update #1

The first evening of the cleanup challenge was a roaring success! I'm amazed at the range of things I got cleaned up in just 30 minutes, all around the house. Its been a long time coming but this week's challenge is going to be good for me! First I threw out rubbish from the kitchen, picked up random washing, put away groceries that had been left on the floor in bags. Then tidied all the random shoes to the front door, cleaned cat food bowls and left in sink to soak, fed cat and turned on his heater! Cat did well from this effort! Swept up cat feeding area, plus a random muffin spillage from earlier in the evening. Also while I had the dustpan and brush, swept the traffic area of the stairs, boy was there build up of random flotsam, including what seemed to be the entire contents of a packet of raw nuts! Upstairs I put away some clean laundry, then in the living room I put toys in the toybin and tidied up the xbox controllers and games. Rearranged furniture a bit to suit my liking and swept a little of a styrofoam disaster! I also swept up where my husband had thoughtfully used a broom to make one huge pile of muck in the hallway, all in the bin now! Tossed out a great deal of recycling, empty packaging mainly! Turned off 3 lights that didn't need to be on, tidied away a few toys from the hallway and all of a sudden, 30 minutes is gone by!

My blind moggie is happy to have his warm heater :) The update from my morning's efforts is that last night both getting the laundry finished and tidying so much around the house has inspired me in the house today. I have caught up on washing up, swept the floor, installed a temporary vanity unit in the new laundry/bathroom. Next I'm off to tackle a couple of problem areas in the house that have been bugging me for ages.

Unfinished business ....

Todays thoughts are about never finishing anything or being prepared in advance with something so that I can get it completed properly. This is an increasing problem for me, 2 years ago when I started homeschooling my eldest I found it easier to work through things, now it seems impossible even getting simple tasks done. And this needs to change, it's been 2 weeks and my daughters 2nd school shoe is still missing. I am beginning to think I threw it out! But it's a sign of my scattered mind that until now I haven't cared! Yet it affects how she does at school (well it doesn't but soon I'll get a 'please explain' from the principal). I think to boost my spirits I need to plan and execute something simple but big enough to give me a sense of accomplishment. To get me over that line no matter what!

Incredible achievement of Steve Bradbury, to be the one who finished! Back to my more mundane unfinished business, I originally wanted to decorate one room as undersea theme. At the moment that seems daunting. I think instead I'll make an autumn theme and re-new our autumn wall - actually I'll do all 4 seasons and put them on a new wall in the house - with the craft all prepared before I start so kids get 4 days craft out of it with confidence that it will be completed not just a half arsed job. My TO DO list for this project looks roughly like this: Words - print out words and take to be laminated Craft - collect season craft ingredients in one box Location - find a location and make sure there is sufficient space - consider all seasons on one wall for practicality such as behind TV? Share - send to friends with children a care package ready to go; sell premade packages online Project complete! Autumn leaves, still have plus Pinterest Winter - Snowflakes doilies Spring - flowers Summer - sun craft, check Pinterest and pool theme or beach theme? I'll update with progress on the seasonal crafts later, but in the meantime, an update after today. I am shocked at how effective just thinking about things in a new light can be. Today, looking for an opportunity to finish a project, I came home from settling my father back at his nursing home, grabbed the pre-cooked potatoes from the fridge and set out making 'Tuna Beach Balls' from the recipe my daughter picked for her school lunches 2 weeks ago. Fiddly and annoying cooking, but a real hit with her, she wants 4 for morning tea! I am so glad I took the opportunity and time to make them, instead of catching up with washing up tonight. And I'm painfully aware my work isn't done as it is still laundry week and I'm heading back in there to see what I can get done tonight before bed! Please share any of your 'unfinished business'; I'd love to hear what you get stuck on.

Getting dressed up in the morning

The amazing Flylady (www.flylady.net)suggests that every day we get dressed up all the way to lace-up shoes. I understand the theory of her logic, that being all dressed including shoes would trigger a sense of purpose. Only for me, that just didn't happen. I put shoes on and felt no different to being comfortably barefoot in my home. Except less comfortable.

But this week, as I tackled a particularly difficult knot in my very long hair, I had a lightbulb moment! For flylady, putting on her shoes is the ultimate symbol of her readiness for the world. For flylady, getting those shoes on was what made her feel 'fully prepared' to meet the world head on. I live in the subtropics. Shoes to me mean stinky feet and dull office jobs. They mean the opposite of comfortable, and are a reminder of how I prefer to be barefoot. However there are two things that symbolise my readiness to meet the world head-on. For me, having my hair recently fully brushed, and brushing my teeth mean that I'm ready for anything and feeling good about my level of preparation. Sometimes I go out without doing my hair properly, I give it a quick flick with the hairbrush and hide it all in a bun. I still go out, but I feel less perfect, less ready for the world. I know I'm hiding several knots in the bun! And brushing my teeth properly is much the same. The longer I take on my teeth, the more 'world ready' I am. So my version of 'getting dressed to lace up shoes' is 'brush my hair fully and clean my teeth thoroughly'. If I've done that at the beginning of the day, I feel more ready for what the day might bring, even ready for unexpected visitors, because I feel good about how I'm presenting myself, even if I'm barefoot! So if lace-up shoes don't resonate with you, maybe the shoes aren't your trigger for 'readiness' - maybe its wearing a bra, or putting on lipstick, or wearing your favourite jewelry. Maybe its starting the day with washing your hair. If you stop and think, you'll know what it is. That part of getting 'ready' that you wouldn't dream of leaving out when going somewhere important like a wedding or party or work, but you might not do every time you go to the corner store. That part of getting ready that might be difficult or annoying, or not seem important to do every day, but when you think about it, makes you feel good, even if there is no wedding to go to! I'm going to make an effort with my hair and teeth and let you know the results.

Getting started

I often find that getting started is what undoes my energy. I'm too busy conserving energy (sitting on facebook) or simply avoiding taking action on the things that simply have to be done. Then I find myself wasting considerable time THINKING about what needs doing, whilst making no progress whatsoever. This is an almost daily occurrence with me and it has the most crazy simple solution. On every occasion I've found myself suffering from inertia, procrastination, or totally overwhelmed, the ONLY solution is to just get on with it and GET STARTED.

Sometimes its as simple as reminding myself to just start moving. Other times I need prompts, like my list above the sink that outlines the kitchen and laundry hour of work that theoretically gets done daily. Sometimes I really need baby steps, and I use the 'Unfuck your habitat" App onthe iphone to get me started using random 5 minute 'unfucking' jobs. The app can be bought from http://unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/ Breaking down the work into teeny tiny manageable pieces sees me get started, and begin to get through things. It also helps to be able to do things quickly between interruptions the more important work of children :) Speaking of getting started, today is one of the days where I'm struggling with getting momentum going, so I'm leaving the blog to get back to tidying the house and attempting to make it presentable. I'd love to hear your tips and tricks for getting started!

Day 2 - Unravelling!

Something I'm learning about this blog thing already is that I need to strike while the words are there. So many little thoughts since yesterdays blog and not one of them to be found now! This morning was one of those mornings where it all goes wrong. So its 11:30am and I'm feeling like I've nothing to add to the world about energy organising, as mine isn't! But I suppose I do have some thoughts about what I do even when its all going wrong, and what I'd like to remember to do. Firstly, drink water. I haven't had any today,so I'm going to get myself a glass right now. It'll improve my mood, my health, my skin and hair. Can't go wrong with extra water.

Then there is taking a long view. In the big scheme of things, is the current crisis actually ginormous? Usually not. Taking the long view helps me chill out and relax about whatever seems to be wrong. Refusing to stay at school? Big deal, it'll work out. It just takes a bit of thinking and time and calm. Also I do Tai Chi. When it all seems too much, I rely on my 'walking meditation' to restore a sense of balance. Whatever style of meditation, or just a short walk (even around the outside of the house) can bring on some soothing feelings and a nice rush of oxytocin. And lastly, do something about it. Thats the last thought for today. Bad morning? well when it stops being a crisis and you've calmed down with a drink of water and a few laps in the pool (whatever exercise or meditation you prefer) then pick up and keep going. Thats what I'm doing right now, tackling the dishes. Start the morning at 11:45, but at least it'll be started :)