My New Title

It's Friday already?  Jeesh - this week has flown.

I just hung up from my discussion with the bus director - things didn't really go in my favor. While he was incredibly nice and understanding, he wasn't willing to alter his route.  Dang! And since my husband has no sympathy for long bus rides (ya ya ya when he was a kid he rode the bus uphill 3 hours both ways, whatever).  I'm going to see how the next few bus rides go, and take it from there.  Short of committing to driving them to either school or a bus stop - we're stuck.

On other news - I got a new job!  Ha, not really -  but I gave myself a new title.  Whenever someone asks 'what do you do?' - I usually say 'I stay home with my boys'.  I never say 'I'm a homemaker' or 'I'm a stay-at-home mom'.  I don't know why - I just don't. When I think 'Homemaker', I think Beaver Cleaver.  I can't help it! Anyway, in my new quest to organize myself and our household, I ran across this nifty website: www.organizedhome.com - it's filled with all kinds of tips and tricks to keep a neat and organized home. It has tons of print-outs, schedules and articles for the 'HOME MANAGER' :-)  The first practice I put into place is shown below:  

What's so special about a cleaning bucket, right?  Well I'll tell you what! One article gave cleaning tips from pro cleaners, one of which being this: 'professionals' tote their tools around from room to room - doing everything in one room before heading to the next.  This hit home for me.  I'm more of a 'dust everything in the house' and then 'go from bathroom to bathroom and clean counters' - depending on what cleaning spray I have in my hand, I go to all the places in the house that need it.  HO HO HO is that ever backwards.  Yesterday, I put all my cleaning stuff in the above bucket and headed into the master bath - completing the whole thing, before I moved on to the next.  Having all the supplies in one bucket was really a time saver for me, as I usually spend time hunting around the house looking for the last place I used what I needed. No longer!  The article even suggested trying to use TWO SPONGES AT ONCE to clean surfaces. I did try it.  I can't say my left hand did much besides go back and forth in one spot, or keep my balance (while gripping the sponge), but it did make me feel 2x more productive.

The other thing I spent time doing yesterday was making a household notebook:

I'm fairly good about making meal plans and grocery lists etc, but after reading stuff on the web - I decided to make my organizational efforts official.  I took all my school stuff, library stuff, (new and improved) meal planning stuff and yes - HOUSEWORK stuff - and put it neatly into a three-ring binder.  I included a notebook and a new planner as well. I even made a rough schedule for the daily/weekly things that need to be done around the house. I'm hoping with somewhat of a schedule and structure here, I can get things accomplished more efficiently - not to mention it's very satisfying when completed! Soooo we'll see how this goes. OK let me see... I have to go now and start on laundry and... vacuuming.  Later!