Weekend In Review/ May Goals & April Goal Re-Cap

Well, since today is the last day of the month, I decided to post my Weekend in Review with my traditional goals post. Hope my readers don't mind! :)

 Most of you know that I love a good, thrifty find. Something useful, tasteful and which has a purpose. Well, the first picture here is of a brand new set of 6 dessert plates and a cute stand for them, complete with a ribbon! I got that at Value Village for $5.60 This weekend!

 The next picture is kind of strange, so I'll explain it. It's also a Value Village find, for $7.99! I am always looking out for a fun, simple way to enhance our cozy little nook where we eat. I saw this piece, and thought that it would be great on the table! I was right - it goes very, very well with it! (The pitcher, sugar and creamer dishes are just in there to show how big the piece is). I put tea lights in the candle holders, but they were too small. I put votives in, and they just looked silly. I went to our cousin's garage sale and got some plain white votive/ tealight holders for free that compliment it perfectly! (Picture to come tomorrow, I promise!)

 I also found some great buys for Robert! I love finding stuff my husband would like, since he never really likes to spend money on himself. :) I was thrilled when I found two cookbooks ($3.19 and $2.39 for both) that I knew he'd love. The book on the left is about chocolate, and the book on the right is actually from Williams Sonoma! Awesome! He was really happy that I found those for him, which made my day. I would love to get this book as well for him someday:

Strawberry Mascarpone Filled cupcakes!

 The lighting in these last two pictures is terrible, I know. But on Friday night, our CYC meeting was held at Mom & Dad Crombie's house. We planned to have a dinner, dessert and discuss our goals for the upcoming year, our budget and everything. I offered to help Mom out by taking care of dessert. I did splurge quite a bit for it, but it was totally worth it! This is a Giada recipe, which can be found here. I love Giada! I bet you could do this with any fruit, really. I added some lemon zest to the strawberry-mascarpone mixture for added zing. Also, when I spread the frosting, I did purposefully incorporate some of the filling on the top for look and taste (I had Robert fill these from the top down, rather than the bottom up, as the recipe suggests).

If you ever watch Sandra Lee, you know she does a lot of "round 2" recipes. I borrowed that idea and used some of the remaining cupcake filling for crepes for lunch today! (Homemade crepes are SUPER easy, BTW!) It was delicious! Only took about 15 minutes, too.

I'm still drooling over this crepe pan: Oh, someday....


Anyway, my goal update for April is as follows:

Keep making the bed - Yes. As much as I could, yes. 

Stay caught up on laundry - I say no. It got washed, dried and folded, but due to the very painful burn on my left forearm I got on Friday the 13th from ironing sheets (you'd think I'd learn!), I put the ironing aside for a bit, and yeah - some of the laundry kind of hung out on our floor. 

Get caught up on all Bible reading - HA! If only! I'm re-purposing this goal now...

Get rid of old TV - It's going this weekend. I say yes. 

Plant pansies out front - Yep! 18!

Don't worry about other people so much - I have no comment. I'm not even marking this as a pass/ fail.

Find 3 hours per week for myself - Yep! (Organizing counts....right? :) ) 

Pick one book to read and start it - Yes! 

Clean off desk in my office - Yes! Bigtime!

Buy a new shower curtain liner for the guest bathroom - Oops! I forgot about it....even though I did think about it several times!

So, here are my goals for May:

Get caught up on ironing
Have a garage sale
Get back into listing on eBay again
Practice piano 1/2 hour each day
Keep flower beds looking sharp (we've been doing so good!)
Find 4 recipes for dinner and 4 for dessert to incorporate my homegrown herbs & veggies into
Pick one organizational and one cleaning task per day to achieve
Finish my one book and start another
Keep desk cleaned off in office
Buy that shower curtain liner for the guest bathroom
Organize shelves in office
Find a home for our bobbleheads (i.e., not in stacks, as they are now!)
Work on getting to bed by 10:30 Sun.-Weds.
Schedule 3 coffee dates or lunch meetings with friends
Learn how to knit! (Barbara, you have GOT to help me with this one!)
Post Spring Cleaning/ Amitions & Goals lists (yes, this is coming!)
Make the Info board at church beautiful for May
Stay caught up in Bible studies (Including Sunday School, I've got 4! 2 Ladies' Bible Studies, a small group study, and Sunday School).
Work the floor cleaning into my week more often (like, more than twice a month!)
Make my office (at work; not home) more beautiful
Organize pantry/ cupboards in the kitchen with my hubby
Take a bubblebath when I need to relax (I probably should have done that today!)


I realize this is a long list! But I know that I can do it all if I just set my mind to it. (Phil. 4:13!) I really want to aim to be the best steward I can be of the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon me. (I know my husband is probably sick of hearing me say that!)

Help keep me accountable, friends! What are your goals for the month? I'd love to hear about them so I can encourage you!

Spring Cleaning Mastermind Notes part 4

This post is going to be more detailed and less of an overview.

Here are the topics I'm going to cover in this post:

• Start at the beginning, and finish fully
• Cleaning before company
• Practice makes progress
• Cleaning schedules
• Convictions on keeping a clean home

So, without further introduction, I'll dig right in with my first topic: Start at the beginning, and finish fully. 

This topic was first introduced to me by one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth George. She delves into the depths of this in her Proverbs 31 Bible Study.

Basically, it's the idea of not only starting something with every intention to finish it, but to finish whatever it is you're endeavoring to do completely and with finality.

For example, if you walk into a common area of your home, and discover a mess - how do you deal with that? I addressed some of that topic yesterday in my post about how to get started. But now, we're going to look at getting through it and finishing - fully. What's involved in that mess in your common area? Whether it's your front entry way, dining room table, or some other surface, it's not just stuff. Really think about this! Ask yourself some questions before you start:

Items out of place that need to be put away!

Lots out of place, but easy to fix if I do it right the first time!

• What is out of place?
• Why are these items out of place? (I.e., what is it that makes you think of this?)
• What needs to happen to put the mess away, clean it up, throw it away, etc.? 
• Is there anything here I don't need to keep?
• Is this a top priority?

There is no order, really, to those questions. But once you ask yourself all of those questions (like reading a recipe all the way through before you start baking or cooking),  it's time to get moving. Ignore the phone, the computer, and any other distractions! Just dig in. Your motto should never be "I do it nice because I do it twice."

The way I usually tackle a project like this is to first determine what can be tossed - whether that's recycle or garbage. Just take care of it. Do it fast, and do it now! This does a couple of things that I find very important when you're cleaning: gets rid of stuff you don't have to sort later, and if that's the only thing you get done, you'll never have to do it again!

Which brings me to a slight rabbit trail - what do I mean by "if that's the only thing you get done?" Well, let's say unexpected company drops by. It happens! Worse than that, let's say you're expecting company, and you've got stuff to get done. If someone shows up early, you're done. Stop what you're doing, and turn your focus to your guest. No matter what stage you are at your cleaning.

And that is a nice segue to my next point: cleaning before company. To be blunt, don't do it. Period. There's never really a reason for it! Now, please don't misunderstand me; there is a difference between picking up or wiping off a counter and actually cleaning. 

I believe cleaning is scrubbing toilets, cleaning floors, vacuuming, etc. But minimal picking up, tossing out, and simple straightening up tasks - those are fine to do before company comes over. Just remember - your home does not need to perfect. Ever. I struggle with this daily! It's not about being perfect. "Practice makes progress," as Michelle Duggar says. If there's no room for improvement, there's a problem.

Precisely what I'm going to focus on next. Practice does not make perfect. But any positive reading or information you do about good habit-formation and changing how you do things will reflect that it takes 30 days to form a habit. 30 days. That's not breaking it for 30 entire days, but sticking with it! (Hence, my goal to do specific Bible reading every day for a month!) Pick one or two things to focus on for 30 days, and just go. You won't be sorry. It might be humbling, but that's okay. Humble attitudes = room for growth.

To talk about my next point - cleaning schedules - is a bit tricky. Some of my readers, friends, and family think this is a silly notion. Some think it's a necessity. For me, I could never make things happen around our house without a cleaning schedule!

If you've never made one before, do not overwhelm yourself! It's not meant to be difficult! I simply use a few household chores on my schedule: vacuuming, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, and cleaning floors. That's it. Maybe your chores look different, but that's the stuff that I need to be done on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. I chose a few, put them on a schedule that repeats itself every week or every other week.You choose how often you need to do the chores, and then get them written down. Keep yourself accountable. Ask your family to help you remember your schedule by posting it somewhere in a common area of your home. If I don't have a laundry day (or days), or a vacuuming day (or days), those things don't get done. It seems odd to have me say that, I'm sure, but it's true. I have to have my schedule. I'm a structure-thriving person.

Here are some of the tools I use to get the jobs done efficiently:


For dusting:





 

For vacuuming: (I'm not sure if this is the exact Roomba that we have, but it's close!)


We don't use the Roomba for everything; just spot-cleaning a couple times a week. 

For hard-to-get areas, walls, doors and light switches:


And finally, convictions on keeping a clean home. This is something that you have to decide on for yourself. Ladies, ask your husbands what their priorities are. My husband truly doesn't care, but he likes a clean home. He's come to expect it, and rightfully so. It's not a demand; it's an expectation he has based on my convictions regarding how I keep the home. For those young ladies who aren't married, maybe you could ask your moms, aunts, grandmas, friends and other family (these women should be older than you, and who have been on their own for at least a couple of years), what they do to keep their homes nice. Job-shadow them a bit! Ladies who are in a position to allow for a job-shadow? Please do it! There's no better investment you could make than in the life of a young woman!


My convictions begin and end with how I feel about my home. If things are out of place, I'm not comfortable. But that's just me. That's not my husband, my friends or even my family. I'm not critical of other peoples' homes; just my own. Again, this is a daily struggle that I have to overcome. Trust me; I don't like my perfectionist qualities. But it's part of what makes me who I am. So, I just have to deal with it. Figure out what works for you and go with it.

A picture of my office when it was clean...once upon a time!

I encourage all of you to pray about your convictions regarding your homes and keeping them clean, talk to your husbands (ladies), and if you're not married, you can still put a lot of this into practice!

Again, please stay tuned for more in this series! My lists are still yet to be posted, and I'm excited to share them with you all. :)

Roomba Cleaning Tutorial

This is for Keri, who asked me to post a Roomba Cleaning Tutorial for her! :)