You've Got to Trust Me on This One

I think it's time to get that crazy picture of Britney Spears off of the front page of my blog. :0)

Did you all have a great holiday? I hope so. Mine was busy and full of family. It was wonderful. I was very spoiled this year, as was the rest of my family. We got OODLES of yucky snow that made it miserable to drive around in. But, "thankfully" it rained for an entire day and now we just have mounds of slush all over the roads to deal with. {BTW...trying to keep kids from splashing in the slush puddles that have formed in store parking lots is maddening!}

I have begun the massive process of decluttering my house and re-organizing everything. With no school to worry about I have been able to let my OCD run free. It's great. :0) I got some awesome new dishes for Christmas from my mom and so yesterday I had to reorganize my kitchen cupboards to make everything fit. My junk drawer has been compartmentalized. {don't you love that word?} My laundry room is sparkling. The movies have been re-alphabetized. Christmas decorations are almost put away. And.....

I have watched 16 episodes of '24'. You know... the television series? Yeah...that one. The hubby started watching it at the beginning of season 5 but felt like he was missing out on some important information. He's been wanting to start at season 1 and get through all of the episodes before season 6 starts. Santa must have heard his cry for help because he brought season 1 and season 2 to our house this year. And every night since, the two of us have lazily sat in front of the television for HOURS trying to get through the first season. It's now 4:00 pm...so that means we still have about 8 hours {or 8 episodes} to go. Ok...without commercials it takes way less time than the normal hour tv block, but still. I don't hardly ever watch tv anymore so I'm feeling kind of naughty. :0)

BTW...for those of you who watch the show...have you ever counted how many times Jack Bauer actually says "You've got to trust me on this one" each episode? For a guy who basically trusts no one...he expects an awful lot of trust from everyone else around him. :0)

Potentially Dangerous...

Do you remember when Britney Spears went crazy and shaved her head....and then attacked a car with an umbrella. Sometimes....

I get it.

You know...a string of frustrations and you just need to scream. Or talk with a British accent for no apparent reason.....

Thankfully....I tend to resort to coloring my hair rather than shaving it all off. And instead of smashing in a car window with an umbrella I eat chocolate. {I don't have to worry about all those papparazzi taking pictures of me stuffing my face like poor Britney}

Why am I talking about Britney Spears you ask? Good question.

I have been going to school full time, non-stop since February. One set of classes ends on a Sunday and the next set begins the very next day. My brain is on overload. Just as I finish up my final projects for one set of classes, I have to hurry and get familiar with the information for the next set. After this last change up I thought I was going to go crazy. Understandably, as I get further along in school, my classes keep getting harder. Want to know what else changes with each new rotation of classes?

The level of cleanliness in my home....it's scary.
The amount of time I sit in front of this computer.....can you say blood shot eyes?
My ability to stay organized in other areas.....freakishly erratic.
My extra time for me.....almost non-existent.
The quality of the meals I make for my family....it's almost a form of neglect.
The time I have for hanging out with my family....NOT ENOUGH.

My OCD tendencies are screaming for attention. I can't block out the clutter in my home any longer. I can't cram one more piece of random information into my head. My kids and my hubby need some quality time with dear old me. My son wanted to know how much longer I was going to have to do this. He went bug-eyed when I told him I had at least 2 1/2 years before I could actually get a position in the field of psychology. What I didn't tell him was that I would have a couple more years after that in order to get my master's degree.

So, hallelujah! Today is day one of fourteen where I have NO schoolwork. I've got two weeks of holiday time where I don't even have to crack open a book. AND....when holiday break is over, I only have one week of school left in this block before I am taking a personal break for another week. That will give me time before I have to jump into more deep thinking. :0)

And....I won't have to worry about ending up like Miss Britney Spears. I don't think I would look good with a shaved head...it's kind of bumpy. :0)

I Can't Help Myself

Today was a long day. My dresser is in the dining room. :0) The bedrooms are torn apart as we try to rearrange things for the carpet layers to come and do the bedrooms of Friday. The were pre-booked for today and tomorrow, so they can't come back and finish up until the end of the week. I'm not complaining. It will give us {or rather me} enough time to re-situate things to make way for that phase of the complete destruction of my home. :0) I mean...re-construction. Did I mention I love my new carpet? It's beautiful. It's like a whole other house. I can't wait to ditch it in the bedrooms too.
Anyway...back to my long day. I came home from my PTA meeting last night to Jaysen telling me he decided to haul the Air Hockey table downstairs. It's all set up. What? Brandon...I am so sorry. I know I already told you that three times today...but I'm repeating myself. In writing. The hubby can't help himself. It's his "man space" and he's dying to set it all up. Though I realize the table is completely in the way, he is oblivious to this fact. Sigh. Did I mention that I'm sorry?

The electrician was here today finishing up his work down in the basement. {I can't explain that one, but there has been frustrations in that area.} But...he did finish! And look at my pretty new lights!

I went to do one of my assignments, but realized it was not possible because when we moved the computer out of the bedroom last night and put it back into the dining room {This desk has some SERIOUS miles on it!} until we can then move it into the basement, the speakers were not hooked back up. I couldn't find them. Needed the speakers to listen to the presentation that I was supposed to critique. Sigh. It's not due yet, but I like to have all of my assignments done by Thursday so I have the weekend to rest and play. {Hubby is lovingly hooking up said speakers as I type this. He's such an awesome guy.}
So, I decided to go to Lowe's {NOT HOME DEPOT. LOVE YOU MONTAY!} and purchase the slab of wood I will be turning into my desk workspace in my new craft room. It will fit in my car right? I can just lay down the seats all the way up to the front and they'll slide right in. I had it all figured out. So, off Kenzee and I go to Lowes. The nice man there cuts it for me to just the right measurements and another nice gentleman helps me out to the car with it. Wood is heavy! He begins to slide it in the car...and guess what? Today is the day I realize my front passenger side seat DOES NOT fold forward. Nope. Not even a little bit. The wood does not fit. Good thing I live in Idaho, where it is perfectly acceptable to use twine to tie something inside of a car {I drive a Pacifica} and even more twine to tie the hatchback down. They actually have a big box of it inside the exit door for people just like me. The guy loading my car was a pro at it. The wood didn't even budge the entire way home. Of course I drove like an old lady the whole way {15 miles per hour}. I wasn't about to have that wood fly out the back of my car. That's the last thing I needed. And yes, there was a pile of cars behind me for quite some time. I think several of them turned down side streets to find an alternate route. :0) For you locals...no, I did not take Blue Lakes. I'm not that stupid.
And, finally....to indulge my inner OCD...I began the process of going through Landon's "mess" to see what will be going in his new room and what will be going into the play room {and what ended up in the garbage. But SH! Don't tell him!} The poor kid is sleeping on the floor right now. His bed has been moved downstairs, but downstairs isn't ready for him. So, he's camping out in his bedroom. Thankfully, he thinks it's fun. :0) I don't think I could say the same.
As part of this indulging, I began organizing his puzzles. Landon started putting those 100 piece puzzles together when he was 3. He loves puzzles. He amazes me. He doesn't even have to look at the picture to be able to put the puzzle together. {that's what I have to do.} He just starts matching them up like it's a piece of cake. It's crazy. Anyway...needless to say, he has OODLES of them because of this. But the boxes can only be taped back together so many times. And, they take up a lot of space. So, I solved that problem tonight as I watched Jason Castro get booted off American Idol. :0)

I cut the picture off the top of the puzzle box and dumped the puzzle pieces as well as the picture of what the puzzle was into a ziploc bag. I can now put these in ONE tupperware {see through of course} and save SO much space. And, there is no longer the worry of another box breaking open and puzzle pieces spilling everywhere.

This re-organizing stuff is almost naughty for me. :0) I can't help myself. I truly love it. I know...I'm crazy. But I get some serious satisfaction out of organization. Yes, I have OCD. So sue me! :0)

OCD alert! I need help!

I'm not kidding! The chaos that is my home is about to drive me batty. We moved into this house the first weekend of August. 8 months ago. Though this house is bigger than our last {because of the basement}, the upstairs level we are currently living on is smaller than the single level home we came from. Does that make sense? If not, let me spell it out for you....We came from a four bedroom house and crammed us into 1300 sq ft and three bedrooms.

We were already crammed into our last house, because when we got married, the hubby had a three bedroom house full of stuff, and I had a three bedroom apartment FULL of stuff. Yeah....Though we did get rid of a lot of stuff, we added another kid to our happy little family, which added her stuff to our mix. Again...does this make sense? My brain is on overload here.

So, we moved in, and everything we didn't "NEED" we kept in boxes and put it in the garage.

Yes, this means we have not been able to park in our garage. Or walk in it. Or get to anything in those boxes.

Life was "manageable". Sure, the computer desk had to be put in the dining room. Sure, there was no room for my scrapbooking supplies {I have a lot!}. But, we would manage, right? Sigh.

As I have previously explained, I have OCD tendencies. I can't handle chaos and clutter. It drives me insane. For four months, I did ok. But then I needed to get into my scrap supplies for Christmas projects. And half of my crafty supplies ended up being stacked along the wall in my dining room.

Don't even ask how we managed to find a place for a Christmas tree. But, it was only for one month right?

Then we started construction on the basement. Hallelujah! The end was in sight. We started the end of January. All of the things that we had stored in the basement {because the garage was full} had to be moved upstairs. Those items now line the wall in my dining room along with the rest of my stuff. {are you picturing this?}

So, we are crammed up to our noses in our own "stuff". There is a continual layering of sheet rock dust all over my furniture. I dust, and it magically reappears just like that *snapping fingers*.

We are almost three months into this whole construction thing. Next week we get texture and paint. We are near the end! But, we have been near the end for weeks now. I am frustrated. And, more than that...I am on the edge of insanity! It hasn't helped that all of this has taken place in the middle of winter and then our fabulous winter/spring we've got going on. Cold weather means we are stuck inside this hole.

I need to put everything away. You don't understand. My brain has tried to shut it all out. But, it's screaming at me now. My brain....won't be quiet. So, today....instead of working on my final projects like a good little student {I have to have them done by tomorrow} I got out the carpet cleaner.....and scrubbed. My couches, my carpet....for two hours. The couches made sense. Except that I have visiting teachers coming in about 45 minutes and my couches are still wet. Where are they going to sit? My brain didn't care! AND...we are replacing ALL of the carpet in the house when we put in the carpet for downstairs. We figured we'd just go all the way up the stairs and finish the house. The carpet here is b-a-d BAD. Gross! Not kidding. So, why did I clean the carpets? My brain told me to. Nothing is coming out of this carpet. We had them cleaned before we even moved in. Nothing is coming out of these fibers. Yet....I scrubbed. On my hands and knees because just pushing the vacuum part wasn't good enough. I used the upholstery attachment for couches....on the carpet.

Now, I know most of you are shaking your heads at this. You are thinking....she is INSANE. She is looney! You're right! But I can't help it. Things have to be JUST SO, and for 8 months THEY HAVEN'T BEEN! I can only take so much.

The hubby laughs at me. He walked in as I was scrubbing on the couches and just shook his head. He knew I had finally broke.

To make matters worse....tomorrow night he is tearing apart my kitchen and dining room so we can install hard wood floors on Saturday. Can I tell you how much I am freaking out over this? More chaos! More mess! I think I might just explode. And I'm not kidding. I told him I might just need to leave the house for the weekend. He asked where I was going....not a clue. Seriuosly...not a clue. But I don't know that I will be able to handle being here.

Let me further explain this one....

All of those things I told you were crammed into my dining room? Yeah....they will have to be moved somewhere else...along with the dining room table and six chairs, china cabinet, refrigerator and stove. Where will they be put? In my living room. Which means there will be nowhere to "be". My living room is tiny. Just enough room for couches and a coffee table. And since the family room is currently being built in the basement...we have crammed the tv into the living room. So, there will just be stacks of all our stuff...in the living room. While he destroys my kitchen and attempts to reassemble it.

So, this is an OCD alert! I need help. Talk me down! I'm not even kidding just a little bit. I can't even go and eat a tub of oreo cookie ice cream to make me feel better because I'm on an 8 week challenge!

This is my story. My story of chaos, clutter, construction, finals week, and....my OCD.

help.

OCD and me....

Yes, just another glimpse into the world of OCD that I live in.

Actually...Sister Sassy requested my menu planning strategies as she says she is struggling in this area. So, I'm accomodating her here. You can just read for enjoyment. :0)

First of all...I'm going to put a big DISCLAIMER here:

I am not a chef. I am not a dietician. My friend Holly is...but I am not. I would never profess that all of my meals are well balanced, though I do attempt to feed my children "healthy" meals for the MOST part. {We have our moments of pizza/chicken nugget madness. :0)} Back to the disclaimer here....I do not cook gourmet meals. On rare occasions I get creative, but for the most part I stick with quick and simple using as few ingredients as possible. Also...it usually has to be kid friendly. I DETEST throwing away platefuls of food.

OK! So now that I've gotten that out of the way...we can move on!

Here's what I do.

At the end of every month I begin planning the menus for the next month. Sometimes I do it two weeks at a time, this last month I did it for the entire month of February. Just depends on how much planning time I've got. As I knew mid-February would be hectic for me, I opted for the whole month so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

To begin the planning, I look through my cupboards to get an idea of what I've already got on hand, and then pull out my handy refrigerator calendar. Using this I can quickly determine which nights will need to be super quick, super easy meals. Like the first two Tuesdays of every month I've got piano lessons and PTA meetings. This leaves me 1 1/2 hours to whip something up and have my family sit down together to eat it. {Which is a MUST in my house}

After figuring that out...it's time to figure out what's for dinner.

I admit I've got quite a collection of recipe books. I LOVE finding new, great recipes and trying them out. The ones I find to be share worthy I post on my recipe blog here. I have also found some really yummy ones here at my friend Alicia's family recipe blog. For those of you in need of some really great quick/easy recipes you can find oodles of them online. My favorite sites for these types of recipes are Kraft Foods, Pillsbury {I don't know if you can see them in the pictures, but I've got a couple of the Pillsbury cookbooks because I used so many of these recipes}, and of course...Food Network. I absolutely love Paula Deen. I have four of her cookbooks. She is fabulous!

Anyway...I have a few staple menu items that I rotate throughout EVERY SINGLE MONTH. Family favorites such as tacos {Jaysen's favorite}, spaghetti and meatballs {Landon's favorite}, and pizza for weekends. We cook a lot of Mexican food in this house as Jaysen loves it so much. And a lot of things I grew up on as well. Stuff like Shepherds Pie, Beef Stroganoff, and Tater Tot Casserole. My mom is an amazing cook and so is my grandma. I've learned to make a casserole out of just about anything. Seriously. Throw it all in a pot and there's dinner. :0)

Back to menu planning.

This handy little chart is my Febraury menu list. The first column shows my busy nights. Then, the day of the week, the actual date of the month, and then the menu for each night. I fill in the busy nights first with the quick and easy recipes. Stuff like spaghetti, or broccoli soup, sometimes Hamburger Helper {Jaysen is cringing}, Hamburger Gravy, etc. Weekends usually get the fun meals like pizza. Then I start searching through recipes to fill in the rest of the days. Where I've been doing this for so long, it usually only takes me about an hour to get through all of this. Especially when I print out, clip out, etc. recipes that I've found throughout the month that look yummy and put them on my desk to save for the next menu planning day. If you go to the Kraft Foods website, you can sign up and get a free magazine from them that has oodles of yummy recipes in it.

The main thing to remember once you've got this all filled in is to set out the meat the night before so it has thaw time. It's much safer {bacteria wise} to let meat thaw in the refrigerator.

Some other handy cooking tips I've found:

1. Buy chicken tenders instead of chicken breasts. My kids can't ever eat an entire breast anyway, and when you are needing to chop and cook for other things it takes a lot less time.
2. Cream soups, though fattening {I buy the fat free kind} are my best friend. I use them in almost all of my quick easy recipes. Stroganoff, hamburger gravy, shepherds pie, chicken enchiladas.....oh yeah. By mixing the soup with sour cream and onion soup mix you've got an instant "gravy" base on which to build WHATEVER you want. Good stuff.
3. Crock pots are your friend. I have trouble remembering this one. But there are some really great recipes out there for "Set it and forget it" meals.

Also, while you are getting together your list of recipes you are using, make sure that you make a separate list of all the ingredients you DO NOT have on hand. This you take to the grocery store so that when you are ready to whip up that nights dinner, you've got everything on hand.

There you have it. It probably doesn't sound easy to anyone but me. It's a system I've used for a while now and it works great for me. The key is to find a system that works for you. If you know what you are cooking and you've already got the ingredients on hand, then dinner will be quick and simple and healthy. More importantly, you won't be prone to ordering out. I've been known to just throw up my hands and grab Chili's To Go if I'm caught without a menu planned for the night. I also love making things the kids can help with too. More time to spend with them. Like when we made homemade stuffed crust pizza and Landon got to help stuff the crusts with string cheese. Good times.

I hope this helps you out Sassy. If not, at least you got to see another one of my OCD areas. :0) Happy meal planning!

This Is Why...

My house is never perfectly clean. I am pretty OCD when it comes to clutter and chaos. Can't handle it. Things HAVE to be JUST SO. I can't help it. And then....I had my daughter. She is beautiful. I love her with all my heart. But she drives me crazy. Most days I just give up. As I've said before...my motto has become "Pick and choose your battles". I clean up and she follows behind me like a tornado. So, unless you show up at my house during nap time {which is also my mad dash to clean up before she wakes up and dirties it up all over again} my house will NOT be clean. It is one of the main reasons I am SO excited to have the basement done. The mess will be down there and when people show up they will think I am AMAZING because my house will "appear" to be clean. :0)

Let me share with you an example...I was recently mocked about the "art" I have all over my house. Very "modern".

This is my dear, dear daughter coloring. She LOVES to color. She does it almost all day long {when she isn't dumping bags of Doritos on the floor, bringing EVERY toy out into the living room, or changing her clothes for the 12th time}. This was just this morning. She isn't allowed to color with markers anymore. I found her in the back corner of my house with ALL of Landon's markers. Notice how all of the lids have been put back on to prevent them from drying out. And yes...she is in a t-shirt and diaper. She didn't want to wear her pants anymore. {pick and choose your battles...}This is the light switch that is in my stairwell. The ONLY one she is tall enough to reach. Notice the red swirls. Sigh....This is Landon's bedroom door. Though it is red crayon, this was done on a DIFFERENT day than the light switch. I'm picturing her in a rage, scribbling madly, as she was probably {once again} shut out of her big brothers room because she was getting into his things. Now, this is Mackenzee's dresser. Aren't the little butterfly knobs adorable? But apparently the dresser wasn't quite finished with just changing out the boring old knobs. It needed a splash of color. Like blue crayon.

Now, these beautiful marks are on about 5 layers of paint. Several Magic Erasers have been used on this window ledge as well. She just keeps going. And going. And going. It does not matter how many times I clean it up.

Now I know what you are thinking...just take the darn crayons away from her! I've tried. She still finds them. She has secret spots for them. Or, she'll manage to get into Landon's crayons no matter how high or how hidden they are. It's no use. So, I give up. I throw my hands in the air in defeat. She has beaten me. Again. It's not worth it. I can always go and get more Magic Erasers.

And this is why....my house is never "perfectly" clean. OCD and all. There are some things you just have to let go of. Just don't think to poorly of me when you stop by. I think I might do some coloring of my own tomorrow. :0)

Basement Update!

Just thought I would share my excitement with you over the last week's progress. We started construction last week on our unfinished basement and in one week we've got almost all of the framing done. My one man crew down there is doing a great job and it's so fun to see the rooms starting to take shape.

This is the view from the doorway at the foot of the stairs. The board on the ground midway through the room is not a divider. It's just a board lying on the ground. It'll be used on the floor in the room that's just to the left of this picture.

This shows the room that's to the left of the first picture. That nook is where the tv will go. Jaysen's "man room". Beyond these walls are a bedroom, bathroom, and another small room which will become the playroom. Or as I will probably refer to it...the disaster area.

Best of all....

this is a closer shot of the rooms we will be adding on to the main part of the basement. The doorway to the left is going to be a small storage room with shelving and what not. BUT! The door to the right is the doorway to sanity...freedom...and relaxation. It's MY room. Yes, you heard it. When we planned out what we wanted to do with the basement after we bought the house last year we had wanted to keep this main room completely open. Put in the storage and leave the rest open. But one day, Jaysen came up with the most BRILLIANT idea to create my OWN craft room. Once we finish the basement, Landon will move his bedroom downstairs leaving his current bedroom empty. We were going to turn that into our "office". The computer/craft room. We had one in the old house and it was always so cramped and full of stuff that you never wanted to go in there. So, for him to give up his precious "man space" and give me my very own girly room downstairs is SO very exciting. We can put the computer in the other bedroom upstairs and keep the office type stuff up there, and I can have my own working space for scrapbooking, crafting, sewing {which I am still attempting to learn}, you name it! The sky is the limit! I can have a special place of honor for my Cricut if I want to! :0) {as a side note here...I do realize that he offered this up mostly because he was tired of my girly stuff in his office. but I don't care!}

Anyway...to see the framework go up means we are THIS much closer to getting it all done. If you remember from my previous post on OCD...I hate clutter. And my house has been full of it for over 6 months, and before that in our old house we never had enough storage space, so there were piles in the garage and office that drove me CRAZY! My garage is currently full of half of our belongings because there is no room for them in our house as it is right now. It will truly be a beautiful day when the basement is finished and I can put EVERYTHING away. No more clutter! And then I'll actually be able to park in the garage. Crazy idea! I think I might end up in hysteric giggles after it's all done. Wow...I'm starting to remind myself of Monica from Friends. Excitement over organizing. I would do it professionally if people would pay me. Seriously. Is that sad?

I should probably end now. But you can all come over and play in my room when it's done! We'll have a huge party! And you all need to come in formal wear {refer to previous post}.

OCD

On another blog that I go to often, I believe I have found a soul sister. She posted about her OCD complex. (Not for real!) But about the things that HAVE to be JUST SO. It was like reading about myself. ;0) So, I thought perhaps I should post as she did so that maybe you will understand why I do some of the things that I do. I'm not really crazy....I just can't help it! My grandma gets me....we've decided I get this from her. ;0)

1. Bins....tupperware containers....I have a lot of these. The containers must be see through. My children have a set for each of their bedrooms. The toys can't be mixed. Dress up clothes in one, Littly Tykes characters in another....army guys in one, legos in another...you get the idea. They have a proper place. Put them in the proper bin.
2. When I load the dishwasher....the silverware have to go in their proper slots. Forks cannot go in the spoon slot. Just because. It's the way it has to be.
3. I must sleep with three pillows. Two for my head (one horizontal, one vertical) and one between my knees. I haven't been able to break that habit since I had Mackenzee two years ago. 4. Being late is not an option. We must be five minutes early AT LEAST. That way nobody will have to wait on us. Time and clocks...big obsession.
5. I hate it when people spell words wrong. Lyke thay deedn't gow tu skool er sumfing. I know that's really bad of me. The occasional mistake...I can look past. It could have just been a typo. I do it at times in my own writing. Though I hate it when I catch myself doing it. But seriously...they have spell check for a reason. Use it!
6. Going with #5....when people write and don't use the correct there, their, they're OR its, it's, its'...stuff like that. I realize this is petty. But my 6th grade English teacher ground this stuff into my brain permanently...so I notice it.
7. Pictures for scrapbooking can only be cut into squares. I have been able to slide in a few circles here and there if it fits the layout, but it is really hard for me. I'm trying! But I just can't do it. And not only square....but straight up and down. Crooked pictures on my page...wow. Again...I've been able to do a page here or there where I've been able to stretch my wings and get "crazy"...but it is TRULY hard. I can't help it!
8. My check register must have all the little boxes checked off within three days. If not, I stress. If I have written you a check...please cash it quickly. I have literally called my mom and told her to get to the bank NOW.
9. My movies must be alphabetized. The clothes in my closet must be hung up in rainbow order....except for my dresses and skirts. Those are lined up in order of length.

I could seriously go on....but you are all probably scared of me now. But perhaps you will understand me a little better when I say something. You won't get caught off guard. You will just be able to shake your head at me like the rest of my family does.
Now, I used to be this way with my house. With EVERYTHING for that matter....but since having Mackenzee...I've just had to let go of a few things. I would seriously be in the looney bin otherwise. But I can assure you that I am close to being there now as my house has been in permanent clutter mode since we moved in. I am so ready for my basement to be done! We should be done in March! Hallelujah! Then things can really get organized around here!