Update - Sort Of

So, my world kind of exploded about 3 weeks ago. Not in a bad way, well, not entirely in a bad way at least. My husband, who has been a stay at home dad for the past 3 years, suddenly and without warning got a job. A good job. Working with the same company a good friend of ours does. This job was unlooked for and one of those instances of our friend being in the right place at the right time and passing along the good luck to us.

It's a good job, he likes it, the money is good, the hours are long. THE HOURS ARE LONG. Just in case you missed that bit. Within 3 days I went from having a husband that stayed home, looked after our household, spent 10 or more hours a day with our daughter to . . . . a husband who gets up at 4:30 in the morning and isn't home until 7 at night. OH, and a husband who also, on occassion, has to travel with work and be gone for a week or two at a time.

To say it has been a bit of an adjustment is an understatement. 

Oh and I know, I know, there are a LOT of positives associated with this news. We couldn't keep going as we were for much longer, maybe 6 months or so and he would have had to start looking so the timing was wonderful. And he likes it! He really likes it, more than any other job he's ever had according to him. Anyone that knows my husband will recognize that him enjoying his job is almost unheard of and is definitely a positive thing. Plus the money. Man can we use the money! Hopefully by the end of this month we'll be caught up on all our bills. You read that correctly - ALL of our bills! Yeeehaaa!

But . . .

I miss him. A lot. It's okay, I will deal with it and move on and it'll become routine and we'll be okay. But part of me thinks that sucks. We tried for so long to be a 'different' kind of a family, one that put our kid ahead of the pursuit of monetary goals and we were doing it god damn it! I guess that while I recognize that he had to go back to work eventually I just didn't think it would be THIS MUCH of a change. From home all the time to never home. Turns out, I actually like that guy and wish he was around!

On the happier side, the girl is loving going to the sitters! She absolutely is tickled every day to get ready and head out the door and hang out with the other kids. She doesn't even kiss me good bye most mornings, just out of the car and in the door and gone. So, that kind of makes me sad too but she is happy so that is good.

Back to the purpose of this blog . . . . I have been trying to still get some things done and I've made some headway. Not as much as I'd like to have maybe but some. Given the circumstances of the last 3 weeks, I'd say that is pretty good.  Here is what I've accomplished so far since September (which is only 7 weeks ago remember):

1	Buy a large white board calendar etc. in order to organize properly.	DONE
2	Make a viable financial plan and stick to it	DONE
3	House Clean S's room (maintain)	DONE
4	Sort S.'s clothes (maintain)	DONE
5	Clean out shelves above sink in kitchen (maintain)	DONE
6	Get clothes ready for work and laid out the night before	DONE
7	Get up without using snooze button every day	DONE
8	Houseclean the landing between our bedrooms upstairs	DONE
9	Clean the car completely and organize it (maintain)	DONE
10	Minimize the amount of TV I watch somehow	DONE

Not too shabby! The TV thing? I accomplished that by having my husband work so much that I have to do a lot more around the house than I used to (re: almost everything that needs to be done!) so I simply do not have time anymore to laze in front of the television. Add to that a spectacularly shitty fall season in terms of shows and a 3 year old who would rather watch cartoons and you'll see that one just kind of happened on it's own. #6 and #7 also happened due to the circumstances of him going back to work - if I don't have shit organized and get up when I'm supposed to things will be unmanageable for sure!

I should note that #8 is probably only about 85% done but I am counting it because interwebs, the work done in it to get it to this point was staggering and I need it counted as a win! :)

Well, there. Now the whole no one that reads this is all caught up! More to follow when I get a chance. Need to relook at all my goals and reorganize and get back to being serious about this.

Every step is the hardest?

Yeah . . . so . . ummm . .. this is not as easy as I thought it was going to be. I thought that by breaking it down into tiny pieces and just doing it that it would be a no brainer, easy peasy, take no effort at all. How could I have been so naive??

Okay, so I did do the first 3 weeks and as long as I complete something this week I'll still be on track. But holy hell, writing it down and making a plan does not guarantee me energy or time, no matter how freaking good my plan might be!

I am supposed to be sorting out the girls clothes this week. That doesn't seem un-doable when you write it down in a list on the interwebs. But in reality? Holy shit batman! It is going to take a lot of work to get done! And I haven't started it yet and it's already Wednesday and I have plans tonight and rehearsal tomorrow and then it will be the weekend! I think I need to break my steps down into steps!! Maybe tonight I could just try and get all of her stuff into one place? Sort out the giant mess of crap upstairs and just pile it all together? Next step (maybe on Friday) could be to sort it out into keep, toss, give away and maybe spend the weekend doing laundry and putting it away?

Hmmmm . . . that might be the answer.

Wish me luck!!

Graphically Uninteresting Goal Tracking

Change	Aug 28 - Sept 3	Sept 4 - Sept 10	Sept 11 - Sept 17	Sept 18 - Sept 24
Buy white board to organize/Continuously update
Make Financial Plan/Review Wednesdays
House clean S.'s room/Tidy Tuesdays
Sort S.'s clothes/Review Tuesdays

So . . . this isn't particularly pretty and I faked in this week and next week's goals to see how it would look but what do you think? I think it will do for now but will need some adjustment once a few more weeks go by. Anyone with any suggestions of a better way to show all past and current weeks (and maybe even future ones too now that I think about it) let me know!

Entering Week 3

Okay, so this is Week 3 officially (I got started a little earlier than I thought because I am such a god damn keener!). Here is what I have accomplished so far:

WEEK 1 - August 28 - September 3
Assignment: Buy a large white board calendar for keeping track of everything. DONE

WEEK 2 - Week of September 4 - September 10
Assignment: Make a viable financial plan and stick to it. DONE
Maintenance: Keep up with calendar organizing. DONE

WEEK 3 - Week of September 11 - September 17
Assignment: House clean S's room - In Progress
Maintenance: Stick to budget. DONE
Maintenance: Keep up with calendar organizing. DONE

This week's task is to house clean my daughters room. I am working on it. Rather, we are working on it. She is only 3 but she is super helpful and if you don't let her help, she is just going to 'try' and help and then all is for nought anyway.

Last night we tidied up her room, organized her books, straightened up her shelves, put away all her toys. Tonight/tomorrow we are going to clean it all. Wash down the walls and floors, wipe down the bureaus and other furniture, clean the windows - the whole deal. If this gets accomplished, we will be in good shape to start next week's task which will be to sort out all of her clothes. My lord, that will be a job and a half! But it's okay, I have 7 days to do it and it's just one wee little piece of the whole puzzle that is the chaos of our lives so I'm sure I can get through it.

I'm trying to think of a good way to display all of these tasks and how well I do at maintaining them. I'm going to go and experiment with a few visual options and see how they work out.

Updated List And A Start To The Festivities

Okay, so my list is adding up little by little and today we stand at 28. That is pretty good - it is more than half and I think that is a good place to get to before beginning. I'm sure I'll add in other things as I go along so I feel confident that I am ready to get going. Here is a look at the list in a not necessarily sequential order:

1. Buy a large white board calendar etc. in order to organize properly.

2. Sort S.'s clothes (maintain)

3. House Clean S's room (maintain)

4. Floss twice a day (I currently do not floss ever)

5. House Clean shelving and burueaus in bedroom (maintain)

6. Organize my and P's clothes. (maintain)

7. Pursue a project at home in the evenings (quilting etc)

8. Prepare at least one meal on the weekend that I can freeze and reheat through the week

9. Wash all the windows in the house, inside and out.

10. House Clean Bathroom (maintain)

11. Eat supper at the table at least 5 days a week.

12. Spend at least 15 minutes a day outside

13. Excercise for minimum of 30 minutes 3 times a week

14. Organize my photos and then take more pictures and keep up with them

15. Clean out cupboards in kitchen (maintain)

16. Clean out drawers in kitchen (maintain)

17. Clean out cabinet in kitchen (maintain)

18. Put shoes/jacket etc away as soon as I get home from work AND change my clothes

19. Get clothes ready for work and laid out the night before

20. Get up without using snooze button every day

21. Houseclean the landing between our bedrooms upstairs

22. House Clean porch (maintain)

23. Clean out closet in porch (maintain)

24. Have a 'date night' once a week with my husband, even if it's just in our own home

25. Have a night away from home with my husband, no kid allowed, at least once a month

26. Clean the car completely and organize it (maintain)

27. Minimize the amount of TV I watch somehow (this one needs more work)

28. Walk at least 2 days a week on my lunch hour (could be a problem in winter!)

So, I have already completed number 1. I bought an erasable one month calendar, 6 dry erase markers and thumb tacks. Yes thumb tacks. What the hell is the point of getting something and not being able to put it on the wall? That might not seem like a big leap for most people but it would not be out of character for me to buy said calendar and then just have it sit on some table or shoved behind a desk for 6 months before I got around to putting it up. So I made sure that wasn't going to happen this time. It's on the wall in our kitchen now. It has all appointments, bills, social commitments, etc. for September written on it and we are checking off what needs to be done every day. So far (4 whole days in!!) it is working. My husband is totally on board with the whole organizational change and hopefully that will help me to stick to it.

I guess what that means is that I've started. This week is Week 1 and I have completed (or am currently completing) my first task. The real challenge will be to keep up with everything all year!

Speaking of which, it has occurred to me that there will be some of these things that I might end up doing 2 or maybe even 3 or more in one week. Anyone that knows me knows that I am kind of an "all or nothing" person so when I throw myself into this I am apt to really just take this bull by the horns and kick its ass. I think that doing the things on my list at a more rapid pace is okay as long as I don't burn myself out AND as long as I remember that the real challenge is not so much making the changes as it is maintaining them for 52 weeks. Right?

Jesus it is hard to come with 52 things!

I think I'm going to have to ask my husband to review my current list with me and help me come up with some new stuff. Or maybe I should take some things and break them down into smaller steps? Like, for house cleaning the bedroom maybe one week it should be to do the clothes, then the shelving/storage another week? What do you think?

I've come up with 4 more anyway:
19. Clean the car completely and organize it (maintain).
20. Minimize the amount of TV I watch somehow (this one needs more thought)
21. Put shoes/jacket away and change my clothes as soon as I get home from work
22. Pursue a project at home in the evenings that is not TV (i.e. quilting)
  

I also got an email from a friend about this site the other day with some excellent advise. She is a self proclaimed "recovering perfectionist" and this lady is organized my friends! I mean, seriously, she has her shit together and I find her skills amazing. Not only is she employed fulltime in an important job but she is married, owns a home, has two small boys and runs. It's impressive. Anyway, this lovely woman pointed out that I will need to actually put some firm rules around all the places on my list where I say "Maintain". She pointed out, and correctly so, that just a vague description of 'maintaining' my work after my goals have been accomplished will simply lead me right back to where I am now because CLEARLY maintaining is not something I am good at automatically doing! I think she is bang on the money with that idea and I had intended to do it. In fact, I intend to micro-manage my maintenance (<--say that 5 times fast) once each goal is complete. As in, I will schedule a specific day AND time AND duration for each thing that I need to follow up with each week. By the end of the year I will have something to do all the time and know just what it is. And that is kind of the overall goal - to be motivated and scheduled and invested enough in my life to actually enjoy these things and to stay on top of them. Now, please, tell me what else I need to change! I can take it. Promise!

Things I've Thought of So Far

Okay so 52 changes is a lot of changes. Many of these will definitely revolve around keeping my house in order because, as anyone who knows me in real life knows, I am NOT a house keeping goddess. I just don't think to do it. Ever. So that has to change. I figure if each project starts with a week of getting it together and then a small upkeep each week that by the end of the year? Man, I could have a lot accomplished.

I've also decided that this little adventure is going to start the week of September 25.  My birthday is the week before and some how it seems appropriate to start these changes with the start of a new year for myself. I am going to start with something reasonable for that first week and then build from there. I think that, once I have my list of 52 items, I will arrange them like the cards in a deck. You know how there are 4 suits, numbered Ace through King? Sort of highest to lowest along a 13 point scale? Well that is what I'm going to do with my challenges. Arrange them in 4 sets of easiest/smallest to hardest/biggest. Then I'll start small and work up to big over 13 challenges. Then drop back down to easy and do it again. Does that makes sense?

Anyway, here are some ideas for changes that need to happen. Please, if anyone is out there, let me know your thoughts and suggestions! :)

1. Floss twice a day (I currently do not floss ever)
2. Excercise for minimum of 30 minutes 3 times a week
3. House Clean Bathroom (maintain)
4. Sort S.'s clothes (maintain)
5. House Clean S's room (maintain)
6. Spend at least 15 minutes a day outside
7. Walk at least 2 days a week on my lunch hour (could be a problem in winter!)
8. Organize my and P's clothes. (maintain)
9. House Clean Bedroom (maintain)
10. Clean out cupboarsd in kitchen (maintain)
11. Clean out drawers in kitchen (maintain)
12. Get up without using snooze button every day
13. Go to bed by 10pm at least 5 nights a week
14. Get clothes ready for work and laid out the night before
15. Clean out closet in porch (maintain)
16. Prepare at least one meal on the weekend that I can freeze and reheat through the week
17. Have a 'date night' once a week with my husband, even if it's just in our own home
18. Have a night away from home with my husband, no kid allowed, at least once a month

Aaaand . . .that is all I can think of for now.