Unstuck

It's a sad fact that four weeks into the school year, I found myself feeling a bit stuck.

So I gutted the school room and rearranged. I cleaned it within an inch of its life and put it all back together.

[To the reality police: no, I didn't take photos. I don't want to remember what that mess looked like. Plus, I was too busy trying to get the fan to follow me around. It was eleventy hundred stinkin' degrees up in that room. In September. In International Falls. It's unheard of. I shudder to think about what winter will bring, but I digress...]

Having reorganized the school half of the room (the other half looks like a bomb went off), I felt slightly better.

And I also realized that having a teacher's plan book is a habit I can't do without for the time being. I feel all discombobulated without it. So I made my own form which I will subsequently copy eleventy hundred times - if it works.

So now I'm all revved up for another week. Sometimes, change is a good thing.

Notebooks

Before Pinterest...I know it's in there somewhere. Now which notebook? I wasted tons of time flipping pages looking for whatever it was that I halfway remembered instead of being productive.

After Pinterest...my ideas are organized by category and so very visually appealing. Sigh. But now I waste tons of time looking at beautiful pictures instead of being productive.

Well, at least I'm consistent.

I Am the Queen of Procrastination

How's that workin' for me, you ask?

Not so much.

This winter, I've been trying to edit the stuff crammed into this house like a teacher edits a bad term paper with a red sharpie. Except I get totally overwhelmed by the amount of work that's going to take, and find other WAY more interesting things to do. Like take an online sketch class. Or make fun projects with the girls. Or pluck my eyebrows...you get the picture.

On one of my more optimistic, "I will never procrastinate again" days, I found a little website called I'm An Organizing Junkie. Let's just say that I signed up for an online grocery list service. If you click on any of the few recipes I have actually posted on my Recipes page, you'll be directed to that blog post. At the end of the recipe, there is a link to the grocery list at Say Mmm. It's a really neat concept, and if I ever get an ipad I'll probably take complete and total advantage of the fact that I can load it all in there and shop with that list.

I dream of the day. Sigh. In the mean time, I'll be going crazy with my free copy of Clutter Rehab. I have purchased several organizing books in my life time. They were all full of great advice, and I would think to myself, "I really need to do that!" Then I'd get sidetracked and forget about it. I sent them out the door as the first items in subsequent decluttering phases.

I don't think that's going to happen this time around. Laura speaks my language. It's all short, sweet and to the point. With pictures! Some of the tips will take more time to accomplish, but others are five minute fixes that could become habits around here with a little effort.

One of my favorite quotes? 

"I told myself that there was always tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that. The longer I procrastinated, the more stressed I was; the more stressed I was, the more chaotic my household was."

See? She speaks my language! I'm cautiously optimistic.