Organization Rocks!

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Planners, All manners of Calendars, Phone reminders and computer software. All help to get you organized and bring structure to your life. Who wouldn't want that?

I often find myself surrounded by papers and note pads that remind me of things I need to do, but not until I have one tucked in my purse that I actually feel organized.

I collect coupons, save receipts, remember numbers and come up with dishes on the fly, but the actual feeling of being organized is more my New Year's resolution more than losing weight. (I know, I'm nuts!)

So, here I am, sharing with you how grateful I am that I feel organized this Fall-all because I found a planner small enough to fit in most of my purses and big enough to write down all info I need to keep me on top of things. And a wall calendar for my family.

FHE: Twice A Year...

We've all heard of daily, weekly, bi-weekly and even the often forgotten monthly chores. I have those, too. But I'm sure most of us also have those "would rather not but very helpful "TWICE A YEAR" rituals. (don't deny it, you know it's key to your sanity; especially if you are *whispering* a M-O-M, MOM!)

Tonight, our FHE was making sure that the kiddos know we're back to "back to school" mode which meant that there are certain errands to be done like buying and portioning our meat for the first few weeks of school. Their treat, "Race to Witch Mountain" movie and a bowl of ice cream for enduring our other errands today. We also treated them to Wendy's for lunch (saved $10!)

So here are mine: (indulge me, plz...)
- Wash and sort my children's clothes according to size and wear damage. (Aug & Apr)
- Change out bedroom sheets and curtains completely for seasonal purpose (Apr & Oct)
- Sort through the children's library for books to donate or continue to collect
- Reassess our family's budget (yes folks, spending is seasonal, too!)
- Go to Costco for pantry refill (except the last 4 years in AZ, I had Coupon Sense) (Sep & Mar)
- Arrange a reading list for each of my children (Oct & May)
- Rearrange or "refresh" all my main living spaces (Mar & Oct)
- Get a lot of meat, cut and portion them for upcoming meals (Aug & Mar)

So, that means, I'm almost done with my August errands. *fingers crossed* I was so proud of myself, between the B1G1F and B1G2F deals on meat at Albertson's this week, I was able to get 15 lbs of steak, roast and chops for only $37.00! And... and... I was able to cut and portion them into 31 different meal ideas! That's a whole month baby! And since you can't eat red meat everyday, I also have chicken and tilapia fillets to further stretch our meal selection! *woot woot*

My friend Heather dropped off something for me and so she got to witness this ritual. She said, looking at the big pieces of meat, it doesn't seem like it can feed a family of five for a month. But I showed her different small cuts and simple recipes and she realized that it works. It helps that my fam was there to vouch for me. (hee hee)

Sample Meal:
Dinner:
1.25 lb of Beef Sirloin Tip Steak- 3 steaks bbq'd
Steamed rice
Tossed salad with grapes
Grapes
Ice Water

When Mr. Man cut meat for everyone, he started out with about 5-6 bite sized cubes. By the time we were all done, we still had a whole steak left and salad for leftovers.

Lunch:
BBQ Steak- cut into thin strips
Bread
Salad
Lemonade

or (if no bread):
Bbq beef fried rice with peas and carrots /bananas/ice water

I have been feeding my FAMILY OF FIVE this way since March 2002, when I-Dude was born. Most of my recipes, even the ones I get online, I reduce the meat to only about 1/2 or 1/3 lb; and just be generous on veggies/fruits, starches, grains and beverage! And they're still alive... ;-)

Don't get me wrong, because of our crazy schedule, I indulge up to 1 lb of meat for the fam when Mr. Man wants to grill so I don't have to cook anything the next day or have cooked meat to whip up a quick dish. I also, do often fumble and resort to deli fried chicken or Panda; and get the occasional run to McD's or BK. But most of the year, I cook 3x a day and even all day during the major feasting holidays. (We never really eat a whole pound of meat between the five of us. It just works out like that. Thank goodness the fam loves leftovers or "redos".) Now that I also know how to bake sandwich and french breads, I will start making one every three days for this school year. (wish me luck, I can sooooo use it!)

Ok, what are some of your "twice a year" errands? Do you even have any? (I hope so, I don't want to find that I'm odd or anything.)

Dare I Say Yummy?

Here are more pictures of our newly reorganized and rather clean kitchen! Yay, me!!!

Here's the stove area...

And here's across the way to where the cutting boards are- next to the sink!

Tonight, we discovered that we have so many sugars and flour packages opened that they interfered with my new clean baking area! We can't have that, right? ;-)

Here's some cakey sugar cookies... (I didn't want them cakey, but the kids loved them)

This is called "Easy Crab Supreme". A recipe that I got from a Clabber Girl Baking Mix tub label. It's supposed to be on a small pizza pan, but I used my $3 Goodwill Quiche dish and now my fam calls it, "Easy Crab Bread Quiche".


These thin cookies are my own recipe. Its base is sugar cookies but I added cocoa and baking powder instead of cream of tartar. I call them... "Slim Cocoas"! That's three fairly big but quite thin chocolate cookies! Dare I say it, it was an instant hit!


I don't like making all these sweet stuff for my kids as desserts, but until all the flour, sugar and cocoa have been spent, I guess I'm stuck with sweets a day! One thing for sure, my next door neighbor's kids are lovin' them, too! ;-)

While The Diva Relaxes...

... in the humid, warm window sill,
dreaming of happy things...
I took on my spice rack! I just cleaned it a few days ago, but realized
I'm missing some and I could use the counter space, so
I grabbed a cupboard door helper, asked Mr. Man for his help and he...

Put them on the wall!
I also consolidated and wrote down what spices I ran out of.
I love how it looks under the microwave!

Mr. Man's about to graduate from his training on the 21st, I'm graduating next week and we're off to Phoenix for the commencement ceremony, but until then, I have time to tackle one room at a time. I chose the kitchen and dining area. I guess that swine flu alert gave me a few days with the kids and they helped me with a lot of the grunt work called cleaning. I guess this is my first ever Spring Cleaning, huh?

More photos to come!

Organization Pictures!

As promised, pictures of my "organization" adventures!

This is my new baking center... Just a little corner of the kitchen but it works well. My first trial, devil's food cupcakes!



And my newly reconfigured dining area! Imagine the table the other way. It just didn't work well for us when we had company and the backwall wasn't holding much since the sofa table was made of glass.

Now, that's the IKEA bookshelf turned dish cubbies! I'm so happy with it!



How do you like my new spaces?

How We Did Tonight

Well, we got the pantry organized tonight. Thanks to my great hubby Charlie!

Some befores:

This is just right before we got started in reinforcing some shelves... We had to take stuff out as you can see...

This is my "oh-so" gorgeous hubby making sure those shelves will stay put. There he is testing out the new layout... Almost done!


And the afters! Doesn't my pantry look ready for a 10-day raid? Charlie did such a great job, "thank you, Mahal!"
Above is the left side where we put the cans and heavy stuff, and below is the right side where the lighter stuff now resides! And look, an empty container! Yay!

I'm off to tweak the menu for the week as we found a lot of goodies we'd rather eat! We're off to a good start with our family project!