Week #8-Lights, Camera, Action!

For many years, I have always said I would love to watch all the  movies that have won Best Picture at the Oscars. Yes, all of them.  But I never made time for it and then I had kids...enough said.  So in the same spirit, I think I will use this week and watch one Oscar winner movie each day.  I will do this starting today and watch one each day through Sunday-all leading up to this years Oscars show!  Now, deciding which ones to watch....


Here is a link to all previous winners: http://oscar.go.com/oscar-history?year=1929  I have seen 27 out of the 84 winning movies.  No worries, I will not bore you with that list.  


Here is what I am thinking of watching this week:

• The Godfather (I know, I am beyond embarrassed to admit I haven't seen this).
• Casablanca
• Gone with the Wind
• Annie Hall
• Driving Miss Daisy
• Shakespeare in Love
• The Hurt Locker

Are there any Oscar winning movies that you've been wanting to see but haven't yet got around to it?

Week #6 Review-Uh Oh!!!

So I skipped a week.  Already.  Only into the second month of the year and I have already skipped a week. Oh well, I am sure it won't be the last time.
Anyway, I did complete my picture framing goal.  I had some glitches along the way (hence the two week lapse) but I think I am finally done.  I know getting pictures framed and hung shouldn't be that big of a deal but when you are about 3 1/2 years behind, it is actually very overwhelming.  Because of that, I actually just had to walk away from this project for a few days and clear my head out.  I am glad I did that because I came back to the project with an exact idea of how I wanted to go forward.  So now every year when we get new pictures taken, I know exactly where they will go and in what frames.  Phew.  Now, I just need to get the husband to hang them all up.


The goal that I ended up bypassing was doing a week's worth of charity work-preferably with the kids.  I skipped that goal mainly because I had not yet completed the previous goal and also because I had not spent any time researching on what we could do.  I still want to do this goal-and I will push it out to later in the year.  And plan better for it!!!


What I learned, gained, wanted to pass on, etc from this week's goal:

• Do not procrastinate when it comes to framing and hanging your pictures!  Immediately do it once you receive them.
• I had SO many empty frames I had purchased over the last couple of years but to my disappointment, none of them worked for the pictures I needed to frame.  So now I know, when ordering pictures, make sure they will work with frames I already have.  It was frustrating to have to go out and buy more frames!!
• For me, it helped to create a "plan" for my pictures.  Specifically, I now have a frame for both kids yearly pictures, a frame for our yearly family picture, a frame for Rachel's yearly school picture (will add one for Cole next year), and a frame that has both of their baby pictures that will obviously stay the same. And a location for all of these frames.  I know for many this is a no brainer and is very simple, and it is.  It just took me a little longer to finally get here.  

I am so thrilled to have this project behind me.  

Week #6-Frame & Hang

I really hope I am not the only person out there who has many pictures-nice, professional pictures-that have yet to be framed, displayed, put in a photo album, etc.  It's really quite sad how many wonderful pictures I have that aren't being displayed for us to admire.  Well, this week's goal should hopefully rectify that.  My plan is to gather all of our unframed photos, frame them, and then find the perfect spots in our house to display them.


My first action item will be to visit some second hand stores and hopefully find some nice-but inexpensive frames.  Similar to my closet project, I don't want to spend a lot of money.  It seems that second hand stores typically have a ton of frames so hopefully I luck out!  Then I will need to figure out where in the house everything should be hung.  I could see this taking some time...Last, getting the husband to help me get everything hung and looking nice.


Wish me luck that I can get this done in a week!

Week #5 Goal...and Review.

I decided to present this week's goal in one blog post because quite honestly, I don't feel it's worthy of two posts.


We moved into our house in October 2006 and I have never really had my closet organized like I wanted it to be.  And once we lost our office when we turned it into Rachel's room, many of our office type stuff moved into our closet.  It has become more and more cluttered over time and I just got to the point of hardly being able to stand in there.  I thought cleaning it out and re-organizing it would make a perfect weekly goal.  And I was right!


Ideally, I would love to completely redo our closet with built in cabinetry and lots of other fancy closet stuff, but that is not currently in our budget so I had to be a little creative and look for deals.  I only ended up buying new laundry baskets and a shoe rack-total $42.  Not bad.  I had been looking at second hand stores for a small desk and / or lingerie dresser for additional storage but didn't find anything.  I ended up moving the majority of the office stuff into our computer stand in the bedroom-it's tight but it works. And then a couple of other bins are now being stored in the garage (stuff that does not need to be in a closet). Just doing that freed up a ton of space and made a huge difference.


Enough writing....I will let the pictures tell the rest of the "story"...

Before-Top Left

Before-Middle & Top Right

Before-Bottom Right

Before-Bottom Middle 

Before-Bottom Left

After-Top Left

After-Top & Bottom Middle

After-Bottom Right

After-Top Right

The pictures really don't convey how much better the closet looks-it is such an improvement!  I am very happy I decided to do this and that it's done.  Now let's cross our fingers it can stay this way.....


What I learned, gained, wanted to pass on, etc from this week's goal:

• Don't be afraid to tackle a project that seems overwhelming.  You might be surprised it's not as bad as you thought it to be.  I think that's why it took me so long to clean our closet...I was very intimidated.  But once I started, it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.
• You don't need to spend a ton of money to re-do a space or room.  I had the notion that the only way our closet would ever look neat and organized is if we invested in a complete closet make over.  And while that would be nice to have (and I hope one day to put something like that in our closet), I think our closet looks pretty darn good-especially for only $42!
• For me, having a space organized so nicely gives me a sense of calm.  I hope I can eventually get the rest of the house as organized as my closet currently is....but that may need to wait until 2013!!

Week #4 Review

Soooo.....this goal was not completed.  In fact, I didn't even last 24 hours on the detox program.  4pm rolled around on that first day and extreme lethargy paired with a pounding headache forced me to throw in the towel.  It was just too hard for me to take care of two little kids while feeling so bad...and knowing that I had to do it for two more days simply petrified me!  Yes, I am sure it would have become easier but I didn't have the gumption to make it through.


What I learned, gained, wanted to pass on, etc from this weekly goal:

• Be prepared as much as you can prior to starting the detox program.  Specifically, if you are a coffee drinker,  slowly start weaning off the caffeine a few days prior to starting (thank you to my BFF for this suggestion).  Cutting out that caffeine cold turkey was brutal!!!  Also, the program allows many salads and vegetable soups-do as much prep work for these meals before starting the program.  Making a salad is quite easy no??  Not so much when you have a raging headache and your body just wants to curl up on the couch.  Next time, I will have all my salad fixings chopped and ready to go before hand as well as a big batch of soup already made.
• Pick a time period when there isn't too much going on...maybe a long weekend?  I started on a Wednesday which is typically the busiest day of the week in our family-bad idea.  I thought it would be a good day to pick since we would be so busy I wouldn't have time to think about it....I was mistaken.  
• Don't be discouraged or beat yourself up if it doesn't happen the first time.  I was a-okay with my decision and think I made the best one for me and my family.  And I will most definitely be attempting this again.

My goal for week #5 will be posted later in the day!

Week #4-A Little House Cleaning....

For my goal this week, I have decided to do a simple body detox.  It's something I've been wanting to do for a while and I thought incorporating it as one of my weekly goals would be perfect.  


I asked around and looked online to find a program that would work for me.  I only wanted it to be a 3-4 day plan because I personally don't think I could do one longer than that.  I also wanted one that focused on food only and didn't require taking extra supplements.  I wanted this to be as natural as possible.  


After looking around for a while, I found one that I think will work and fits in with what I am looking for.   Check it out here: 


http://www.3day-detox.com/


I plan on doing this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week.  I am nervous that it's going to be really hard and that I am going to become a crazy woman.....but, I am also excited to see how I feel afterwards.  It's only three days-I can do this!!!
Wish me luck!!!

Week #3 Review

Well, my house is not overflowing with free products but I did come out of this weekly goal with some coupons....and that works for me!  Here is how I made out:

• Tillamook: Had me sign up on their website to receive free coupons and also informed me that they sometimes offer coupons on their Facebook page.  
• Applegate Farms:  They are sending me coupons.
• Daves Killer Bread:  Had no coupons or freebies but suggested I check out Costco where loaves are cheaper (which I already do) and also suggested I visit their store if I am local (which I am) as there are great deals there.  I actually have been wanting to go to their store for a while so....
• PG (Tide):  The response I received back seemed very positive and enthusiastic...I thought for sure I would be getting something free...but nope, just more coupons.  
• GlaxoSmithKline (Sensodyne): Was again directed to visit their website for coupons.

What I learned, gained, wanted to pass on, etc from this weekly goal:
Perhaps it was the companies I chose, but receiving free products was not as easy as I was led to believe.   Coupons, yes.  But free stuff-nope.   Oh well, it was worth a shot and I am glad I at least asked!


I will be posting my goal for week #4 very soon!