There’s nothing like touring NYC with teens.  They were thrilled with all the sites, sounds and smells of the city.  Times square was an amazing display of what the media can do with lights and images.  How do they do all those video type light advertisements?  Times square at night was so cool for them that they didn’t want to leave.  We saw Rockefeller center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ground zero, Trinity Church, Wall St., Stock Exchange, Chelsea Market, and so many others.  Still more to see another time.

What I liked the most was reconnecting a with my daughters.  They wanted be near us again, touch us, rough house with us and we did.  I’ll take it any day over competing with an ipod, itouch, or whatever other electronic devise teens have.

When we left NYC and headed back to NJ we were able to relax, visit with family and friends and still be affectionate with each other.  Now that’s a vacation!

Time with your kids goes by so fast.  I’ll continue to plan vacations that entice my kids to want to go.  We can rest later in life.  Seize the moment.

Mom

We are now in NJ visiting all the places that connect me to both parents.  I can keep my memories alive by all the sites, sounds, tastes, and smells of my childhood growing up here.  It’s a lot of fun telling my kids all the wonderful things I remember about my parents and how I grew up.

It was the best childhood anyone could want.

Thanks Mom & Dad

Even tougher is watching the confusion on his face as he tries to figure out where he’s lost those two weeks and why everything has changed like the tv programing, schedules, and his whereabouts.

There was progress during my short stay.  Let’s hope it continues.  He now has home health care to assist.

Tough decisions to make and they all carry emotions, sadness at times, and uneasy feelings.  Here’s what I did today on the phone with my father before I told him I would be coming for a visit.  Let me just say first that my father is still sharp mentally.  He knows what going on and is still capable of understanding.  Physically he’s having trouble walking, standing up and moving because of an L4 compression fracture in his spine.

Dad, I said, the purpose of my visit is to see you and spend time with you for the holidays.  Secondly, I want to help my two brothers a little by allowing them to get out for an hour or two.  Finally, I asked him for permission to review all his paper work, insurance papers and talk about a next step should the need arise.  After 80 years of self reliance it’s really hard for him to trust his care to anyone but himself. I think I would be that way too.  It went well.

Now I don’t have to walk in there on eggshells and figure out how to bring the subject up for discussion.  I set the table, made the bed, and prepared his heart and mind for that discussion.  Prayerfully it’ll go well.

What do you do to handle your aging parents?  I’m especially interested in how you handle them if they are mentally all there.  Let me know.

Happy New Year!

Our well intentioned organizing time had to be rescheduled until mid November.  Why?  We both are just too busy.  Dawn’s organizing works in 4 hours chunks of time and I don’t have 4 hour chunks of time only 2-3 hours segments of time.  We hit the ball back over the fence several times to find a good fit but finally I said let’s just push it back and try in November. On the same day my other friend asked me how it was going with the organizing.  I told her what was going on and she suggested the two of us work together in alternating fashion to help each other put a dent in our organizing woes.

Win, win I’d say.  Karen and I will work together and try to put a dent in each others organizing situations.  Once November comes around I’ll have Dawn from Ultra Organized back to help me fine tune our efforts.  I have been working on little things here and there to eliminate some of my clutter and will be working on this long term.  The job is big but my desire to eliminate the stress of disorganization is bigger.

Next week when Karen is here I’ll have to come up with a plan of attack.  Don’t know what that will be yet but I’ll figure it out over the next few days.  In the meantime I’ve worked on my own bedroom, the place where I’ll find the greatest amount of rest and relaxation.  At least then I can retreat to my room and not have to perform any Olympic events to move around in it.  Until next time.

Diane the MTM

This week I had some time to attack my desk area…on my own.  It was a special moment.  After working with Dawn for three hours I realized that I don’t have to tackle everything all at once or complete everything today.  As I began I noticed that I had a renewed energy and desire to want it organized.  I can’t put enough emphasis on just start the job!  For me just starting was a huge monumental move in the right direction.  I must keep at it though cause even though it doesn’t rank as one of my favorite things to do, if I stop doing it the creepy disorganization monster will take over once more.

When I started cleaning my desk area I made piles of stuff.  I’ve discovered that I have four areas of my life that need to somehow be separated and organized.  Those areas are personal stuff which is doctors records, kids school papers, recipes and things that only involve my kids lives or my home life.  The second major area of my life is church.  Since I’m a ministry leader, I have additional paper work that most church goers may not.  This can easily get out of control so I need to find a way to tame the paper giant.  The third area that I have a huge amount of paper work is my business development.  This area is probably the worse.  It consists of receipts, samples, booklets of products, and many  many other things that can’t be filed like box samples, candle container samples, bags, ribbons, labels, and supporting materials.  The fourth and final area that keeps finding it’s way onto my desk is my personal hobbies.  This can be quilt books and magazines, reading material, actual craft stuff and items that may be bulky and hard to store.  I’m looking forward to finding ways to weed out all of this stuff and store it more successfully in a neat, presentable, easy to find area that’s not my bedroom.

Do you have trouble keeping your many hats organized.  Tell me about it here.  I’d love to hear what you do to keep yourself organized in such a way that you can easily multitask or single task as needed.

Diane, MTM

I can’t believe it!  I’ve done one session with Dawn from Ultra Organized and I made it through without too much damage.  It was hard for me.  I think the hardest part was just starting.  Overwhelming was an understatement.  Every room effected by years of busy schedules, neglect and just plain old not doing it. As much as I enjoy seeing a clean and organized house, it’s not really on the top of my most fun things to do list.  Oh I can think of a million things I’d rather be doing like sharing a meal with friends, quilting, shopping, cooking even basket weaving is more fun than organizing.

So what was the goal?  The goal is to find a good solid working place for my business.  That means that other things have to be sorted through first.  The goal was in one part of the house but the work started in another area.  That meant that your ultimate goal was not realized…yet.

Dawn help me get right to work.  Right by my side to motivate, cheer and to ask me those tough questions like how long has it been since you used or touched this?  I can’t remember I said.  Dawn said, Ok then let’s get rid of it.  I said, Alright let’s chuck it.  So I did.  It became easier and easier to toss, throw, discard and heave anything that got in my way.  With each toss of the junk my stress level went up and down as I pondered the memories, what would family say if they saw this in the can and how I’m gonna feel after this is all done.  Whoa mom, don’t ever do this again!  A whole lot of life gets stored for the day you might need this or that.  It never really comes does it?  Nope.

We made three piles, one for trash, one for giving away and one for things that need to be put elsewhere and in their proper places.  I now have a little less junk, an itemized list of Good Will donated items, some homework to do and some more cleaning to work on.  I feel a tad bit lighter but still not quite seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or the other end of the basement.

I have some new strategies for keeping my kids from leaving things all over the house.  I’m calling it the black bag process.  Basically you put everything they leave around the spaces you want to keep clean in a black bag.  They are giving maybe two weeks to buy  the bag back but they are not allowed to look in the bag to itemize it’s importance.  If they don’t care to buy it back the whole bag goes to Good Will.  Works for me.  I can already see that a little panic and questions began to surface when we announced this plan.  Already some stuff found it’s way to their own rooms.

Don’t quit she said.  No, I’m not going to quit.  This is the beginning of the end of my household disorganization and stress.  An organized clean house to me is a deep breath of fresh air and a place to exhale and call HOME.

If my challenges to find the time to schedule an organizer are any indication that my life is very hectic and seemingly unorganized I don’t know what is.  Since moms wear so many different hats changing them in flight is difficult.

When I signed up things were somewhat predictable and have quickly become more unpredictable for a little while at least.  My part time job has had an emergency situation that requires more hours of me.  Additionally, I’m trying to learn quick books so I can support my own business that I’m developing.  This will require some hours that I wouldn’t normally be putting towards that.  The bonus with that is that I’m reconnecting with an old friend who will be teaching me.  Also, my church is about to move to a newly constructed building of which my ministry of First Impressions where I serve will become a key position to welcoming new guests.  Grrr…

What is your pace Mom?  When I try to think how to slow down my pace I find myself stumped as to where to cut back.  This is a problem.  That equates to running home from one thing, dropping the stuff from that and grabbing the stuff for the next thing then doing that all over again with the next thing.

Being honest with myself is key to moving forward with organizing.  I’ll find my happy place.  What I’m hoping for is once I rid myself of some clutter I’ll be able to more easily transition from one hat to another.

Stay in touch with me, let’s encourage each other.  Let’s share insight and helpful hints you’ve used to stay ahead of the organization monster!

Diane, the MTM

I did it!  Yes, I took the first step…making the call, talking with Dawn my organizer and getting the supplies for my first project, the paperwork.  How many of you just love paper work, tons of bills, school forms, and junk mail that needs to be sorted every day but never does?

Dawn picked up some basic hanging folders, you know the green ones that just hang from a plain old crate type of container.  I don’t need fancy right now I need function and an easy & effective quick plan to get to keep my papers in order.  The system has to be easy.  It feels like I’m climbing Mount Everest in the wrong season.

How do others do it?  How do they keep the val pak’s, Sunday inserts and those envelopes that you just know are non convincing insurance plans that you can’t do without and bank related pitches for more of your money.  I heard a line once, “touch it once”.  I wonder if Dawn will tell me that.  I’m ready.

Now to clear my calender and get her in here to begin our journey.  Sometime next week will be our first session.  Down and dirty, I’ll keep you posted.

Do you have any tips for keeping paperwork in order?  Share it here.

That’s it for now.  What was I so worried about?  Well it hasn’t started yet.

Diane, the MTM

Since I saw the recent movie Julie & Julia I’ve decided to document my journey the same way but not with cooking but with organizing.  Why?  I think it’ll be a way to overcome my fears of STARTING, being accountable and staying the course!

My history with getting and staying organized go way back to childhood.  I’m very creative and as I moved from one creative thing to another I didn’t really leave time to clean up one mess before beginning another.  I suppose every child goes through this before they settle into what their normal is.  I’ve always had the desire to be neat and organized and admittedly I’m better at it now then I used to be …sort of.  Not saying much though.

The problem is that life gets so busy.  I have three girls, one married, one 17, and one nearly 13.  You might think that having all girls would help in my quest to keep things just so.  Sometimes it works and sometimes, especially with schedules of tweener’s and teens it doesn’t.  So much depends on how I feel, how I choose to push through schedules, fatigue and arguments over cleaning and chores, and how my example of organizational priorities take shape.  I’ve noticed when Momma is living stress free (and who does that any more) I can keep my house and life almost organized or in a place where I feel ok about it, but I always want to improve.

There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about being or getting more organized.  Honestly, I’m almost consumed by it and always fall short of starting and keeping it neat and tidy.  I’m overwhelmed. I fall victim to the schedule and the most attention seeking thing at the time or just plain ‘ol lazyness.

Since I’ve been thinking so much about getting organized I’ve finally decided to hire a professional to do it along side me.    That kind of accountability works for me.  It was really hard to admit that I needed it to help me and take that first step.

I live in the North Georgia area and I met Dawn from Ultra Organized at a networking group.  That was three years ago!  I’ve thought about her service for 3 years!  Why did it take me so long to finally take the plunge and hire her?  Pride, ego, do it myself attitude, is it really necessary, embarrassment, humility, would my husband think I’m a quack or a slacker?  I’ve got a problem.  In my life, I’ve got stuff to do.  I NEED to reduce clutter and stress.

Just thinking about having Dawn come in I can feel the stress leaving me.  I did it, took the first step!  My first scheduled appt. isn’t until next week…maybe.  I’ve got to block out 4 hours of time.  Now Mom, I know you know this sounds easy right?  Not for me and probably not for you.

My life in a nutshell…busy.  I’m 49 years old, married to a wonderful man, have two girls at home, one that works and needs to be transported to and from work, and one that wants to get involved in sports.  Both our girls are heavily involved in church activities.  Both my husband and I are heavily involved in church also and I have a part time job at Edible Arrangements working 24 hours per week, and I’m starting my own business called Gratitude Goodies.  This involves all the things you might imagine a new start up might need to do like business plans, product research, vendor meetings, product evaluations, working with my artisan people like pastry chefs, chocolatiers, artists, single origin coffee roasters, soap makers, candle makers…you get the idea.  Let’s not forget ongoing business coach training, a most important piece.

So how am I gonna find the time, energy, and confidence to move forward?  I don’t know but tune in next time to find out how I’m getting along with my organizing coach and if you have precious time in your schedule to comment, encourage, motivate or root for me the organizing underdog  I’d be most grateful.

I hope to include before and after pictures if I can get up the nerve.  Would that be helpful to you?  Let me know.

Diane, the MTM