DONE, DONE, and DONE!

Christmas shopping that is! :) I'm one of the crazies that heads out on Black Friday and got EVERYTHING checked off my list...that makes me happy, now to start wrapping it all!

AND my Santa got me my gift early, a JVC HD camcorder...I'm SO friggin excited! Our old one hasn't worked for a while so we've missed a few months of Ryan which makes me sad but now I'm going to be following that kid around like her own personal papparazzi! :)

YAHOOOOO!!!

So I managed to bring over all of my "super duper ridiculously old" blog entries from one blog and dump them all here! YAY! So now all of my infrequently visited blog posts are in one home!

Ok, that is all...return to your lives...

RESURRECTED!!!!

Can you hear the angels singing? The Hallelujah Chorus in stereo? Since I'm now a stay-at-home-mom/domestic goddess I have a bit more time and can hopefully keep up on this again...we'll see how long that lasts!

Lots has happened since I last visited blogger-land...quit my job, packed up our house, 3000 mile road trip and we're now happily ensconced in southern Maryland! Our neighborhood is amazing; there are kids everywhere, something we didn't have in California and Vince and I have been welcomed into the fold very quickly. We love it! I'm enjoying staying at home much more than I thought I would, but ask me again when it's February and I've been cooped up in the house for days on end unable to go outside :) But for now I love it and am enjoying the time I have with the kids.

Speaking of my little monsters...an updated picture!


Ok, so that's all from here...hopefully I'll be back tomorrow? Or maybe the next day...

JAMAICA BABY!!!!!!!!!

I am soooooooooo excited, Vince and I finally booked our vacation! We will be spending a WHOLE WEEK in Jamaica, just the two of us! Of course after we booked it I had a mini panic attack over leaving the kids for a week (of course picturing Armageddon, earthquakes, fires, kidnappers...you name it...) but they'll be fine and have a blast with grandma and grandpa (although I'm not loving the idea of them in my house that long w/o me...lord knows what my mil will do to it while I'm gone)

SO with a week long vacation on the beach comes the dire need to get myself "bathing suit ready" I WILL be wearing a two piece bathing suit on this trip...now to get myself looking decent enough to pull that off....anyone wanna motivate me?

What is ONE thing...

You've always wanted to do and STILL hope to do before you die? Morbid, right? Yeah, a little bit but I deal with 12 year olds all day so I sometimes have to fight off the horrible, random thoughts that pop into my head (keeps me sane...or something...)I think everyone should have their own "Bucket List"....

One thing I've always wanted to do and would really really really like to do in the near future is write a book....I'm not talking Nora Roberts smut-style or create an uber-literary empire a la JK Rowling (although how f-ing awesome would THAT be???) But Vince and I have actually talked about writing a children's book together, we've even kind of come up with a little series. AND recently my sister and I are talking about delving into the world of writing together....I sure hope it can happen, but like anything BIG, how the hell do you start??? We're not even sure WHERE to start, WHAT to do first, WHO to talk to, etc...but I hope that doesn't stop us!

So, what is on YOUR bucket list that you honestly think you will accomplish? (and if you know anyone in the publishing world let me know...lol)

Super fun!

A friend on babycenter directed me to this super fun site where you can customize a cutesy background for your blog....I may be changing it damn near every day now, cuz I've got so much free time on my hands!!!  If you've got a blog, go check it out:   The Cutest Blog on the Block

So is it a BAD thing???

That we had a cleaning lady come today?  I mean, I do a pretty decent job of keeping things relatively-semi-kind of-partially-for the most part cleaned up so paying someone who is WILLING to scrub my toilets and vacuum Goldfish crackers out of my couch is acceptable RIGHT?  I mean, honestly...who can manage to keep their house "welcome to my spotless-eat off of my toilet seat-take your f-ing shoes off or I'll kick your ass" kind of clean ALL THE TIME???  Shit ain't happenin' at my house.  Dishes are done, everyone has clean clothes, everything has it's place...that's MORE than acceptable as far as I'm concerned...ok, so the fact that everything has it's place doesn't mean it always FINDS it's way there but I'm not perfect dammit...

So come on over to my house, you can keep your shoes on and I won't kick your ass (Vince might though) and you may trip over a pair of shoes or a stray toy but I'll keep you entertained and I may even feed you (although I don't recommend eating off of my toilet seats...)

System went to crap....

So Vince is out of town for the next two weeks and that means I'm 100% on my own with the three kids (and everything else I normally do)  Well, last night's dinner consisted of cereal, yesterday's laundry is in a pile (an UNFOLDED pile) in the middle of the loft, beds were left unmade, Lord knows what shitstorm hit my kitchen this morning in my rush to get all 3 out the door by 6:15....so I'm off to a stellar start at attempting to do everything on my own for the next 2 weeks....

Hopefully I'll have a better report tomorrow, I'm just so tired that I know I'm going to want to ignore it all when I get home tonight but all that will do is create MORE work for the next day and the next day...etc...anyone have any good tips for motivating oneself at the end of an exhausting day to do your "other" job????

General "pick up"

Most households are like mine, when you're FINALLY ready to call it a night and collapse into bed, you look around and realize there is still crap EVERYWHERE.  I try very hard to maintain it throughout the day but it doesn't always work out that way.  So what I've done is purchased some cute little wicker baskets from Walmart that are under my console table in my family room.  They aren't as tacky looking as plastic bins (which I USED to have out but prefer to have something cuter out in plain sight) and serve the same purpose.

SO under this table I have lined up 3 baskets, one for each child.  And as I sweep through the house at night (mainly the downstairs as I get the upstairs picked up as kids are getting into jammies and brushing teeth) I pick up what belongs to each child and put it in the appropriate basket.  So it's not all "technically" put away but it's at least not laying on the floor (ever stepped on a lego or Matchbox car before???) or cluttering up the couch.  Then the next day when we get home from school the kids are responsible for putting those things away if they're not going to be used.  

Most days I try to avoid having anything in the basket and as long as I'm on the kids about bringing toys upstairs before bed, it works out...but some nights Alex can only carry so many Star Wars guys and cars in his little arms :)  Hence...the baskets, the lazy moms way of keeping the house "clutter free"

Bathrooms....

YUCK...especially if you have boys...even bigger YUCK.  Some odd laws of physics dictate that they CANNOT hit the bowl...it's huge, how can they miss?  But somehow they do...YUCK.

I have a can of lysol wipes under the sink in all four of my bathrooms.  My kids have now made it a habit to wipe down the counter at night after they have brushed their teeth; they each get a wipe for their sink then they do the counter and it's not spotless but at least cleaner than before they started!  Then I use one to go around the toilet...YUCK

I also use those "self cleaning" tablets in my toilet tanks.  It's not a substitute for the scrubbing that does take place eventually but it keeps them relatively clean in the mean time!

But I like my lysol wipes...it's becoming a habit to swipe one across the counter when I'm done in there in the morning...lysol wipes make my bathroom a happy place...

Laundry...

Everyone has it and most people I know DREAD it...if you don't dread at least one aspect of laundry, I'm pretty sure something is wrong with you, please go get checked out...

Ok, so of the many "2 dimensional" (aka online) friends I have who have wandered over to my probably relatively useless blog...the majority of them want to know my "tips" on laundry...

I didn't used to do these things, I used to be that mom who geared up every weekend with stretching exercises, hydration, and warm-ups just to climb "Mount Laundry"  I'd drag it out by the armload, dump it into a pile, and dive in...it sucked, I hated it, it took forever and then I had the even more daunting task of putting it away.  I hate putting laundry away, detest it, loathe it with the white-hot intensity of a thousand burning suns.  It would take forever to put away and I'd get so sick of it, I could have cared less if Vince's boxers ended up in Sam's dresser...she could totally wear them to school, it could be a new fashion statement!

So now that we are a family of five and the amount of laundry seems to multiply daily (I swear dirty clothes somehow mate and reproduce while in the hamper) I HAD to figure out a way to make it easier on myself.  The separating is a given...so I don't need to go there, especially since it's counter-productive to my whole "time saving" thing...

1. FOLDING...I fold EVERY load as it's coming out of the dryer, no more dragging piles out of the laundry room.  Nary a bit of clothing leaves my laundry room unfolded (try using the word "nary" in conversation today...)

2. SOCKS...I hate the damn things, I never wear them myself but for whatever reason my family does, therefore some poor sucker has to wash and fold them.  Since I fold each load as it comes out of the dryer, folding socks has become much easier...their "mate" was already in the wash with them.  So the socks get folded last and DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT get thrown in a basket to be "folded later" while you're watching Grey's Anatomy on DVR.  Remember, NOTHING leaves the room unfolded!  A girlfriend puts her family's socks into a lingerie bag so they get washed and dried together, making it much easier when it comes time to fold...I may try that, especially since I still have so many little socks to deal with.

3. PUTTING AWAY....again, it happens IMMEDIATELY upon departure from the laundry room.  For hanging clothes, I keep a stockpile of hangers in my laundry room.  Things that need to be hung are put on hangers right away, no need to fold them only to unfold them and hang them upon getting them to their destination.

4. CHILD LABOR....one thing I love about kids is that they get older...as they get older, they become useful :)  My oldest is 7 and PUTS HER OWN LAUNDRY AWAY.  You read that right people, I only fold her clothes, she is fully responsible for putting them away.  My son isn't that great at it yet, but if I hand him one stack at a time (ie: shirts, then jammies) they make it into the right drawer relatively unscathed and semi-folded.  This is a HUGE time saver for me, of my 3 kids I really only have to put laundry away for 1 of them!

Now, again you may be thinking "duh, does she think I'm stupid?"  Why does she keep posting these "tips" as if I didn't already know them...But seriously this saves me SO MUCH TIME I can't even believe it.  An entire load of laundry takes me 15 minutes, from folding to putting away.  It used to take me 2-3 hours on a Sunday to rotate everything from washer to dryer to folding to putting away.  15 minutes a day vs. 3 hours in one day?  You do the math...and the laundry... :)

SGSO Tip #1

Ok, so even though most of these are probably basic and a no-brainer for most, I thought I'd start to share the things I'm doing/going to be doing and maybe they'll help someone...or they'll just encourage conversation about what a moron I am for not doing this stuff sooner :)

SGSO (semper gumby semi-organized) Tip #1: pack bags the night before

DUH right?  Something so simple and so very basic, but something that saves me a huge headache in the morning and eliminates rushing around looking for whatever is missing....

Again, DUH... :)

And so it begins...

Heading back to school tomorrow, back to reality, back to the chaos that is our everyday life...but HOPEFULLY with some of the new "efficiency tricks" I am trying out our mornings will run much more smoothly...

*Backpacks are by the front door, just waiting for Sam's snack and lunch box

*My lunch and Sam's lunch are both ready to go in the fridge

*Clothes for everyone are laid out for tomorrow morning

*My Wii Fit disc is in the Wii ready for me to fire it up in the am (that's IF I manage to drag my butt out of bed)

*dinner is pretty much set for tomorrow night, just need to make the gravy, boil and mash the potatoes and that's it!

Some of these may sound pretty basic to some, but to me they're things I've tried in the past but have never really made a habit...so I'm hoping by putting all of this in writing, it makes me more likely to stick to it!

Feeling motivated...

So let's hope it lasts!  Granted it's only day 4 of the new year, I'm hoping that if I get into enough of a routine with becoming organized the things I do will become second nature and I'll wonder how I ever got along without them!!  

Today's goal is to figure out how to organize the girls' closet to accommodate Ryan's clothes...I have a tiny little dresser in there for her but now that she's getting bigger, her clothes are getting bigger and her dresser is exploding.  Right now I just shove crap in there with no rhyme or reason (and I REALLY mean shove...it's tight in there!)  So I'm thinking I need to hang stuff at this point because there is NO room in either bedroom for another dresser...And once her clothes are organized better, putting laundry away will be easier, picking clothes out for each day will be easier...etc...

I'm also taking a look at my menu for the week to determine what I can do TODAY to prep myself for easier dinner during the week:

SUNDAY:  roasted chicken with vegetables  (chicken is defrosted ready to go)

MONDAY: leftover chicken with gravy over mashed potatoes (I'll just chop extra potatoes tonight for tomorrow too)

TUESDAY: "kids choice" meaning Vince is working late so if they want cereal for dinner, have at it!  :)

WEDNESDAY: a quiche of some sort and salad, I have a pie crust and a dozen eggs to use up...

THURSDAY: steak lo mein (will just pull the steak strips out of the freezer on Wednesday)

FRIDAY: spaghetti...no brainer :)

Ok, off to feed the monsters so I can figure out my plan of attack for Ryan's clothes...

Ideally...

I would like this blog to be a running list of organizational ideas/tips, recipes (because another goal is to become more consistent w/menu planning)...stuff like that, any other suggestions for me?

Here's to 2009...

So, my ultimate goal for 2009 is to become SLIGHTLY more organized in many aspects of my life...hence the name of this blog.  I'd like to think that I'm "semi organized" already but just need to brush up on some things (yeah, right...who am I kidding?)  As for the Semper Gumby part, anyone who is familiar with the Marine Corps knows that the USMC motto is "Semper Fidelis" or "always faithful"  Well, many Marine wives joke that OUR motto is "Semper Gumby" or "always flexible"...ready to deal with anything that life throws our way with grace, tenacity, and flexibility...we'll see how that works out for me :)

I'd love for you to join me in my quest for ultimate organization and prioritization as a wife, mom, teacher, housekeeper, chauffeur, chef, laundry-doer...etc...