July 14, 2010

Early in my IT career I was working for a home builder.  It was then I first heard of something called a mudroom.  It came up again when my husband and I were looking for a house.  We found a perfect one that had this GREAT mudroom (we eventually had to give up our claim on that house as our house in CA didn’t sell quickly enough).  So now we do not have a mudroom, but I’ve recently decided to create one! 

What a mudroom is, is a place to sit down and put your shoes on, or take them off.  Basically it’s a “runway”.  A place where people take off and land at the house.  It’s really essential to have this staging area to help you keep all of the things you need in one spot so you don’t forget things on  your way out the door.

You too can have a mudroom no matter what your home situation is (as long as you at least have a garage).  Pick a space in your garage for your “mudroom”.  Get some shelving or build some into the wall of the garage, make sure there are enough shelves for each person to keep their things.  A really good way to do this is to get some lockers (one per person).  I have a friend who said that she once found out about a school they were tearing down or rebuilding in her area, and she went to the construction site and asked if she could have some of the lockers.  They gave them to her for free!

Once you have shelves in place, then get a bench for people to sit on.  You can place all of the shoes everyone needs under the bench.

Finally, get some hooks to keep jackets, scarves, hats, etc. on. 

Now you have your very own mudroom runway!

July 9, 2010

I apologize about the lighting issues. I blame the fact I’m trying to clean a window right in the path of the sun.

July 8, 2010

My to do list is an ever changing creature.  I am really good about using one type for a while, then it falters (usually as soon as my to do list grows too large and too broad to be useful anymore).  Here’s some of the methods I’ve used, and maybe you can find one in here that works for you!

1. Daily Home Planner- Of course I’ve used my own program to keep track of my tasks.  Once I got my Pre and become much more mobile, this solution didn’t really work for me any more.  Plus Daily Home Planner is VERY simple, and I needed a lot more functionality in my to do list.

2. Small Franklin Planner- Next I went with a pocket size Franklin Planner with the binder and everything.  The problem here was the pain of changing out the months in the notebook every few months.  The size of the planner also didn’t allow me to add as many tasks as I typically have in a day.  Also, I didn’t like carrying around the notebook, I stopped using this one when I got my Pre. 

3. Palm Pre Basic Functions – The native task list on the pre left a lot to be desired, and I downloaded several different task list apps, none of which I was thrilled with.  I finally went with Pocket Mirror which would just allow me to sync my tasks with my Outlook tasks.  The problem with this method was also that it wasn’t QUITE what I wanted in a to do list (it was definitely the closest thing so far though).  I also tend to flag several emails to follow up on, but they aren’t necessarily to do items that need to be done in a certain time frame (some are though), but when it would add it to the to do list, the task name was always really long and hard to tell exactly what the task is referring to.  I installed a little widget on my computer so that I could see the to do list on the desktop, on my Pre and within my Outlook.  What I didn’t expect though was how much I hated having to sync when I had my computer on and was on the wireless network at my home with my Pre.  Usually when I wanted an updated task list on my Pre I was already out the door.  So with the Outlook email “tasks” cluttering up my task list, and the lack of true synchronization with the “cloud” instead of a physical workstation, this method no longer worked for me.

4. Franklin Covey Balanced Life Planner by Julie Morgenstern – Since I’ve been feeling pretty disorganized again lately, and forgetting tasks, I needed another solution, and FAST.  My sister has been using this system for over a year now, and is loving it.  I purchased the system, and immediately started getting back on track with my daily routines, and the tasks that I need to accomplish each day.  I am able to sit down each night, forward tasks that did not get accomplished, check off things I did, and write down the tasks I need to accomplish tomorrow.  It’s been working great, but there’s a problem… it’s PAPER!  One of the things I hate having, carrying, writing on.  Now with things getting done though it would be hard to get rid of it…. until I found…..

5. Done! by Tiger Country Software - So today I was browsing around my Pre’s App Catalog, and saw “Done!”  I was definitely interested (hey anything with a task list gets my attention no matter what)  Here are the things I like about it.  I can “repeat” tasks on different time frames, so I can put “Change Air Filter” and schedule the task for every 3 months!  I can add “Clean Kitchen” and repeat the task every week so it will automatically appear on my to do list every week on Monday.  It’s got priorities, folders (categories), etc etc etc.  For now I think it’s fantastic!  I’m going to use it for now, and see if I can keep on top of it the same way I have been getting things done with my paper planners!

July 7, 2010

It seems like every time I have a super productive day, a day/night comes along right behind it to try and derail me.  On Monday I had a super productive day!  I woke up before the kids, exercised, read scriptures, said a prayer, checked the backups on all of our client servers for my job, fixed a virus on one of my client’s computers, and brought my daughter to swim class (all before 10:30 AM!).  The day continued on in a similar fashion.  I was able to get the database updated for my church job, cleaned all the bathrooms in the house, played with my kids, and finally did something for a website project for my brother!  I seriously felt on top of the world.  I was ready to take on the entire week.  I stayed on track with my diet, and really felt like I could wake up early and be that productive every day.

This is when the law of “equal and opposite reaction” comes into play.  In the middle of the night my 5 year old comes in and wants to sleep in our bed.  I let her for a little bit, cause I”m tired.  As soon as I get sick of the tossing and turning I send her back to her bed.  Then at 5:30 AM the 1 year old decides to wake up crying.  He very rarely wakes up before about 7:30.  I get him a bottle and try and put him back to sleep.  So now I’m awake and the kids are asleep, so it sounds like a great time to try and workout.  WRONG.  I try and eject the DVD from the DVD Player.  It’s stuck.  So after a little while I finally get it to peek out a little bit.  I grab some tweezers and extract the offending DVD.  Now I put in my workout DVD.  The player freezes up!  At this point I’m thinking to myself that I should just give up, and go to bed.  Clearly the world is working against me.  My kids AND my electronics are all telling me that I’m clearly not going to get anything done today, so I just need to give up now.

I decided to proceed with the rest of my tasks.  I refuse to be derailed today after such a great productive day the day before!  After my husband woke up I was able to go for a run (I’m hoping the DVD player will have had time to think about what it’s done before my appointment with it tomorrow morning.)  It still seemed like all day the forces of nature were working against me.  I ended up working 8 + hours at my real job (the work from home help desk that has variable hours, as I only work when calls actually come in).  I got the kitchen cleaned.  Not as clean as I would have liked to, but I did get the dirtiest parts of the floor mopped.  That has GOT to count for something as at every turn either the dog, the 1 year old or my super “helpful” 5 year old were right there to walk through the freshly mopped areas.

I was still able to get just about everything on my to do list done.  I even did something on my to do list for this coming Saturday! 

Lesson learned: Kick that lame guy Newton in the teeth, and just keep trying even when it seems like the world is working against you and your to do list.  Find creative ways to accomplish your tasks when the world seems to conspire against you!

July 6, 2010

On Friday I had a really great post.  It was to be a vlog.  I’m not going to tell you what the vlog is about, because I’m still hoping to do it this Friday.  Here is what DID happen though.  I had the camera all set up.  I had the props ready to go.  I had spent forever getting the angle on the camera just right.  I was about to hit “record” and the phone on my laptop rang.  Then I was on help desk calls for the next 3 hours!  This was actually very unexpected, since Friday’s are typically slower for me, and especially the Friday before a holiday!  I thought for sure the afternoon would be help desk free!

So what did I end up doing?  By the time I was able to do the vlog, the kids were up and in the way, the sun had set further, making the lighting impossible, and it was time to just scrap the whole thing.   

When do you decide to scrap the whole thing?  When it’s not going to turn out nearly as well as it would have if you could have done it right. 

Some things you can get by with doing a job that’s “good enough”.  When that is the case go with it, and try and cross that thing of your to do list ASAP. 

Lesson learned: Buy a spotlight so I can do my vlog’s at night when the kids are sleeping and the help desk is quiet. 

July 1, 2010

I have two children.  I HAD one child.  When I had one child she was in bed by 7 PM every night.  I had a nice long evening all to myself to blog, watch movies or TV, hang out with my handsome hubby.  Yes she wakes up at ungodly hours of the morning, but I could handle it.  Since I had those wonderful evenings, my early mornings weren’t hard to live with.  I’ve always been somewhat of an early bird myself anyway. 

Cut to 1 year ago when my Son was born.  I should have known something was up when he refused to go down to sleep early.  The kid is a night owl.  Every night it’s the same thing.  I put him down to sleep at 7… he may or may not be quiet for an hour.  Then he starts to scream.  And he is MAD!  So we get him out of his crib, and he’s happy as a clam playing by himself until he finally decides he’s ready for bed, and goes right down (at 11!)  Yes, I know there’s the whole “Crying it Out” thing… but I never really did it with Maddie, and she goes to sleep just fine on her own.  I just don’t have the heart to do it, and my husband REALLY doesn’t have the heart for it.  So this leaves me with a dilemma. 

I have the one kid, who is extremely cranky if she’s up past 8:30, and wakes up before the crack of dawn, and another kid who sleeps in a bit, but refuses to go to sleep in any sort of reasonable hour.  What does this leave me with?  ZERO time to myself.  It’s driving me quietly insane. 

So what am I going to do to solve this little “problem” I have.  First I have reduced Michael’s naps to once a day.  He’s 1 now, and I know that Maddie was even completely done with naps at 2, so I have very little hope that naptime will continue for a whole lot longer.  BOOOO!  When he was taking an afternoon nap, he’d wake up at around 4-5 PM, and then of course be UP forever!  Now that I’ve done that, if I am able to get him in bed by around 6 or 6:30, he will be down for the night.  The problem with this theory now is that it’s summertime.  This week alone we have had something to do every night, which doesn’t lend itself to getting the children home and in bed at what I consider a reasonable time for them to go to sleep.  So here it is 11:30 at night, I was able to get Michael in bed at 10:15 (which has been a feat of strength for this week). 

So lesson for today… when your child doesn’t seem to go by the schedule you think they should, figure out what you can change to fix it.  Obviously for me it’s eliminating the afternoon nap.  Makes for a cranky pants around 4-5, but definitely a happier mom in the long run.