So much to do...

And so little time... I was very proud of myself on Sunday. I took 15 minutes out of my busy day and made out to-do lists for each day this week and I even prioritized. When I made them, they seemed pretty reasonable. Ha!! Um.. no way! Monday, I only got through about three things on that list (mind you, each list has no more than 9 tasks on it and most days not even that!). Tuesday I finished up Monday's and did like two things off of the actual days list. Yesterday was a complete bust with only one thing getting done, but it was the major task that needed to be done like yesterday so I wasn't as upset about not completing the other tasks. So I guess my lesson learned is that I need to figure out what absolutely must be finished each and every day like homework, cleaning the room of the day, and business work. Everything else after that will be goals for completion but if they don't get finished, eh.. oh well! Moving on...

Yesterday was a great fun-filled family day. Kris and I spent the morning hanging out watching some TV and chatting. We played outside and made two snowmen.

Our very sad looking mini-man

The Steelers snowman

We had a snowball fight and made snow angels.

Mommy angel

Baby angel

So before we had our outside endeavor, Kris kept herself occupied for a little while allowing me to paint her closet doors. We finished painting her walls a couple of months ago but never got the closet doors finished. They've been sitting in the spare room waiting to be completed and when I was making my to-do lists on Sunday, I got a burr up my butt and decided that I was going to get them finished this week. In an attempt to keep the house more clean and organized (especially the living room), I had the idea of making the extra bedroom a guest/craft/homework room. At the moment, my books for school, syllabuses, and bills are all in the living room. They're making it uber cluttered and driving me crazy! I have my office set-up downstairs with 2 desks (one for the desktop and one for my laptop) and because it feels like the arctic down there my hands tend to start feeling the frostbite after an hour. So I decided to bring up my extra desk for homework and bills and such which is what it's supposed to be for anyway. I think it'll really help me keep the living room more organized.

I have so many things I want to do this year to help keep the house less cluttered, more organized, and generally just down-size some stuff we don't need or use. One thing I have an abundance of is magazines. I subscribe to a couple of different magazines like Better Homes and Gardens and Parents. I keep almost all of them because I find so many articles of ideas that I like and/or want to try. The problem is they're taking up too much room. I think a better idea would be to rip out each article and put them in page protectors within a 3-ring binder. That way they'll always be on hand but not take up so much room. Another area where our household struggles with organization is the kitchen. We don't have the cabinet room like we did in Biglerville and there are so many places that have unused space, like the island. It has a small shelf in the back with a nothing in the front portion so I was thinking I could keep items that aren't used as often on that shelf and put a free-standing shelf in front to hold items used more often. I think it would really help give us not only extra storage space but also better organization. I'm thinking of doing the same thing with the bathroom cabinets. Idk... we'll see how it goes.

You know, I started this post yesterday. As I sit here and finish writing this today, I realize that life is too short to really get upset about things. I mean sure, it drives me crazy that my house is messy but why? I shouldn't let it get to me. There's so much in my life that I need to be thankful for because God has blessed me incredibly. Yesterday evening I found out that a friend of mine passed away. It was a very sobering moment when I found out because I've been so stressed about keeping the house cleaner and more organized and school. I realized that I need to take time and enjoy the little things like beautiful snow, a book, my knitting, spending time with my family, and watching Kristi grow up. I'm going to live every moment of every day as if it's my last because we never really know when it truly will be.