Day 4 of Money Saving Mom's Organizing Challenge

There wasn't much to take pictures of today. Which was pretty sweet, cause that meant there wasn't much to do in the first place. So, I made my list. I cleaned up my bathrooms, and swiffered under all the furniture.  Nothing much else even happened today. But I am working on getting about 4 loads of laundry done. And I'm going to spend my night with Billy, instead of the computer. Cause that's what's more important. <3

Tomorrow will be a bigger post, cause I have quite a bit planned for tomorrow :)

Organizing challenge, day THREE!

Welcome back,


Today's 5 things to accomplish are:
1. clean bedroom (which is the 15 minute blitz challenge)
2. Pack up newspaper to be recycled
3. clean up downstairs living room, cause it's already a mess again
4. vacuum downstairs
5. respond to my FB messages
The main challenge for the day was cleaning the freezer, I did that when I cleaned the fridge yesterday, so I chose to clean out my upstairs living room closet :)

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Bedroom
You might laugh at me, all I really needed to do was make my bed, and organize the shoes on my closet floor. So I used the time I had to switch over the sheets to my spring/summer sheets :)

Closet floor-yuck. I didn't even know which pairs of shoes were in there!

Bed-that's nothing new, but it sure doesn't make a good picture :(

Now I see the shoes!

Bedding courtesy of Walmart Gift Registry :)

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Then I packed up the newspaper, which was in the closet I needed to clean. Check it out..

There must be a shelf under there SOMEWHERE!

Little side story for this photo. When we moved here, I couldn't find 3 things, my LOVE coasters, my spoon rest, and my photo box full of cards. 3 things, from 3 separate rooms, there was no way they were all packed together. Needless to say, I found them all, together, in a box I never fully unpacked-WIN!

And here's the after. I was able to put everything in a new home, and I displayed some of Billy and I's photos. I eventually plan on moving the shelf up into a desk for myself :)

And first thing this morning, I cleaned up downstairs, cause it was BAD. And I was able to respond to my FB messages. I didn't vacuum downstairs, because Billy was watching TV when I got home, and now OTH is on, so I'll be in front of the TV the rest of the night for the series finale <3

This challenge is great, and I'm especially excited about finding those things I've been missing so much!

Hope everyone else joining in this challenge is having a successful time so far, YOU CAN DO IT! :)

A Quick Note

So I was telling my dad yesterday about how there is this annoying bird outside my window at 7 AM everyday that chirps loudly for 5 minutes and goes away. I try really hard to sleep through it, but it's hard. I said if only the bird would come a little later, it would have perfect timing.

Thank you God, for sending that bird a little later this morning, it was wonderful to wake up to birds chirping, rather than my alarm :)

#beautyinthelittlethings

Four weeks to an organized life, Day TWO!

Thanks to Money Saving Mom I received my goals for today, and I certainly tried my best. Although it was a very hectic day, I got quite a bit done that I wanted to do.

One of the goals was to list 5-7 goals I wanted to acheive TODAY!

Here's what I came up with:
1. e-mail the people I wanted to about the salt n light youth rally. DONE!
2. Blog today's progress. I'd say by the time you read this, that's DONE!
3. Message Lori, Sam and Sarah. DONE!
4. Adjust my budget. I'm going to go with 1/2 done. There's more I need to do.
5. Tackle the downstairs closet. See Below.

Before- We pretty much threw everything in there to get it out of sight, and well, out of sight-out of mind. It was gross. And dirty. And yucky to look at.

Then there's After, below, that makes me happy to look at. I put wrapping paper on some of the shelves, and vacuumed the floor. A lot of Billy's stuff got moved to the garage. *bliss*

Next on the list was to take 15 minutes and clean up the kitchen. Crystal mentions doing the dishes, wiping the counter tops, and wiping off the cupboards. I did not wipe off my cupboards, but I did get my counters looking pretty, and the dishes are all done :)

Before. Dishes on stove, Dishes on counter, odds and ends everywhere.

I opened this drawer and cringed. Clearly we like Taco Bell's sauce. It's now in a bowl in my food cabinet.

Now I have a place for my oven mitts/hot pads!

*BLISS*

I did clean out my refrigerator. I'll spare you the pictures of that, there wasn't much of a difference. We don't have much food, I threw out 3 things that had expired, and I wiped down the shelves. Under 5 minutes total.

And finally, to get rid of 7 things. I went through our books/movies, and then checked Amazon to see if I could trade any in for credit. For about 8 DVDs, they offered me $2.00 and nothing for the books. Billy said to save it for a yard sale, so that's what we are doing. They are now all stored on a shelf in the newly clean closet! :)

I really am enjoying this blog challenge. It's letting me see how much time I'm spending on things, how much "junk" I have, and how simple it is to organize bit by bit. Thanks Money Saving Mom!

The Four Week Organizing Challenge!

Money Saving Mom Challenge 

I'm going to attempt my first-ever blog challenge. It may be completely un-interesting to most, but we shall see. Organizing is one of my favorite things :)

Day 1 Assignment

::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great 

::make a list of 5-10 goals for this week.

::Complete your morning routine 

::Set the timer for 15 minutes and quickly pick up the main living areas of your home.

::Clean out your purse and/or diaper bag.

::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.

**********

I work full time. But I did choose to put on my favorite black pants, and a pretty pink scarf. It's dressy enough for work, but oh so comfy, and that makes me feel great.

Goals for this week::

1. Set up a Facebook page for the youth group

2. Watch Groundswell

3. E-mail some people about the Salt n Light Youth Rally

4. Blog each day

5. Make plans with Lori, Sam, and Sarah :)

I have a simple morning routine, which is to sleep in as late as possible, shower, and get ready for work. I'm following the WeighDown program, and I'm never hungry for breakfast, so that saves quite a bit of time.

I did not set a timer, I did however take the 45 minutes I had before Billy got home to clean up the entire house. I put away the folded clothes, threw a load of laundry in, cleaned up the bathroom, scrubbed the stove and counters in the kitchen, and cleaned up/vacuumed the downstairs living room. Billy walked in and said "whoa, it's cleaner" <3

I did not need to clean out my purse too much, because I did yesterday when my mom commented about how overly full/messy it was. I did however take some odds and ends out that I don't ever use.

Not going to lie, I didn't do the 7 items to get rid of. I have a basket in my closet I add to as I find things I no longer need. It's full. I see a trip to Salvation Army in my near future.

Sorry there are NO pictures today. I will try my best to improve on that for tomorrow :)

Hypocrites.

From today's She Seeks (found on Crosswalk )


What if, instead of wearing that plastic "everything is okay" mask, we actually shared our lives with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?


What if, rather than trying to fix everything ourselves, we reached out to our loved ones when we were in need of help?


What if, in place of pride, we confessed our sins and humbly asked for prayer?


What if we were real?


Here's what I think would happen: we'd live in true community, like the church we read about in the book of Acts. We would grow in relationship with one another AND with our heavenly Father, because our walls would come down and God would be able to penetrate our hearts with His grace. We would learn from each other's struggles and triumphs.


People wouldn't see a bunch of hypocrites trying to look perfect. They would see a family pointing to the only perfect Man there ever was. The body of Christ would grow, both in number, and in maturity.
But it starts with us being real. It can be frightening, but I promise you this—the risk of showing people who we truly are, will be rewarded. Only with our masks off can we clearly see what our God wants to reveal to us.


I could not agree more. I encourage each and every one of you to check out the full article, found HERE. 

Shopping Trip Results

Target:::

Not such a great trip, after review of the receipt, it appears not all the coupons I handed over were scanned in, so I will need to watch more closely next time. 

The cat litter sign in store said they were still on price cut for $7.99, however I was charged $8.99. 

The store was out of Chutes and Ladders, and Candyland, on the first day of the sale-should have been stocked better.

I was able to get travel sized renu at $1.57 with a $2 off coupon, so that was free at least.

Walmart:::

They had the large size head and shoulders for $6.97 with included travel deoderant, so I picked up two of those, with the BOGO Free coupon from Sunday's paper, YAY! 

And I price-matched for the first time, and that worked wonderfully! I had attempted buying 2 Ragu for $.99 each at Thomas' with 2 $.50 off coupons, but they don't accept printed coupons, so walmart price-matched Thomas' and accepted the coupons so 2 Ragu sauces for $.98!

Maybe I will start just price matching Target at walmart....I've been getting frustrated with Target lately.