Well, here we are, 12 days away from Christmas and I have not bought a single present. Yes, you read that right...not ONE present! One of the things I have found since going through such long term unemployment is that I have a terrible time making decisions on what to buy when I actually get to go buy something. I think sometimes my husband wants to leave me in the store when we are shopping. It is crazy, I get really anxious and pick something up and put it down and walk away and walk back and then put it down and leave with nothing!
So...I find myself here, with only 12 days, three kids and everyone else to buy presents for. I had plans to be finished with everything by now, but I have had enough distractions to use as excuses for not shopping...but really...it is because I have no idea what to shop for. I looked at our Christmas tree today and realized it is probably a sad sight for my kiddos...no gifts to wonder over, nothing to shake and guess at...guess it is time to get busy!
Showing posts with label Organization Please. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Organization Please. Show all posts
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Cozi Menu Planning
Happy Saturday! I promised I would be back with a review of the Cozi Menu Planner, so let's just dive right in. One of the things I have been struggling with lately is menu planning and grocery shopping. I know, you are wondering how a magnificent couponer like myself could be struggling in this area, but I am! Now that my kids are all getting bigger, we are going through food very quickly and it seems like every time I start to make a meal, I am missing a key ingredient, which causes me to give up and walk out of the kitchen with no dinner! The Cozi menu planner appears very promising for me and my issues.
The Cozi Menu feature is really exciting me for a number of reasons. First, the Menu planner has a recipe box where I can enter all my favorite recipes, they are stored and listed alphabetically. I can also adjust ingredients and make any notes I want to remember about a particular recipe. As I sit down to plan my menu, I am able to click on the recipe I want and drag it to the day I choose. After I drag over all my recipes, I can choose to add those recipes to my Shopping List. Cozi populates all the ingredients in the recipe right to my grocery list! I can then go through my cupboards and see what I already have and remove those items from the list. Voila!! In a matter of minutes, I have a menu for the week or the month and a complete grocery list. The best part? I can send the list to my phone, or better yet, to Mike's phone for the grocery shopping adventure! No more missing items from my cupboards when I start to cook dinner! Check out the pictures below to see the menu and the lists. Then, go to the Cozi website and try it for yourself!
The Cozi Menu feature is really exciting me for a number of reasons. First, the Menu planner has a recipe box where I can enter all my favorite recipes, they are stored and listed alphabetically. I can also adjust ingredients and make any notes I want to remember about a particular recipe. As I sit down to plan my menu, I am able to click on the recipe I want and drag it to the day I choose. After I drag over all my recipes, I can choose to add those recipes to my Shopping List. Cozi populates all the ingredients in the recipe right to my grocery list! I can then go through my cupboards and see what I already have and remove those items from the list. Voila!! In a matter of minutes, I have a menu for the week or the month and a complete grocery list. The best part? I can send the list to my phone, or better yet, to Mike's phone for the grocery shopping adventure! No more missing items from my cupboards when I start to cook dinner! Check out the pictures below to see the menu and the lists. Then, go to the Cozi website and try it for yourself!
Here is the calendar view. On the right you can see the recipes I have added. I just have to click on one and drag it to the day of my choice.
Here is a view of the grocery list. You can add and remove items individually.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Taming the Calendar
I just love Fridays, do you? There is such a relief to know that another week is completed and we accomplished all that needed to be done. Even if we were somewhat crazy each night trying to hold it all together. I am speaking strictly from my own personal level of craziness throughout the week of course, but I am sure a few of you can relate!
Just this week, however, I reacquainted myself with an online too I hoped would help. Much to my surprise, the Cozi Family Calendar has been updated and so far seems like it will be just what we need to find a little sanity for this mom! The Cozi Family Calendar is a free online calendar, menu planner, to do and shopping list maker. I know, I know, one more thing to look at and think about, however, there are some really useful features and I feel they will truly help me to organize and simplify.
Today I will highlight the calendar feature. The calendar gives each person in your household their own color, so when individual members have something on the calendar, it is color coded, therefore easy to manage each person's schedule. Next, there is a specific color that applies to the family as a unit. So if you are scheduling an event the entire family will be attending, that also is easy to spot. the exciting part is now Cozi is now compatible with many other calendars and has apps for your cell phone and tablet, as well as an outlook toolbar and desktop gadget, so everyone in the family can have access wherever they will use it most.
Mike and I have a hard time communicating about schedule for some reason and always end up irritated or just over-scheduled, so now, he has the app on his phone and I have the gadget on my computer. Each day, we are sent reminders and are able to see what the whole family is doing. I am ready now to show our 10 year old how to enter the things she has going on! I am foreseeing weeks ahead without the chaos of miscommunication, missed deadlines, last minute projects and 42 things happening at once! Best feature? By being the wonderful cost of $0, Cozi is definitely a tool that is helping us to THRIVE in this economy. Click on any of the links above and check it out and come back tomorrow for my review of the amazing Menu Planning feature!
Just this week, however, I reacquainted myself with an online too I hoped would help. Much to my surprise, the Cozi Family Calendar has been updated and so far seems like it will be just what we need to find a little sanity for this mom! The Cozi Family Calendar is a free online calendar, menu planner, to do and shopping list maker. I know, I know, one more thing to look at and think about, however, there are some really useful features and I feel they will truly help me to organize and simplify.
Today I will highlight the calendar feature. The calendar gives each person in your household their own color, so when individual members have something on the calendar, it is color coded, therefore easy to manage each person's schedule. Next, there is a specific color that applies to the family as a unit. So if you are scheduling an event the entire family will be attending, that also is easy to spot. the exciting part is now Cozi is now compatible with many other calendars and has apps for your cell phone and tablet, as well as an outlook toolbar and desktop gadget, so everyone in the family can have access wherever they will use it most.
Here is a snapshot of my calendar. As you can see, our "All" appointments are designated with an orange circle. My appointments are designated with a red circle and the rest of the family has their own colors.
I can also click on an appointment and see the details.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Are you Flying??
Good afternoon! I hope you are all having a wonderful day. We are very lucky today in Phoenix, the weather is wonderful and the sky is blue! My thoughts and prayers are going out to my family in Washington today as they are iced in and out of power. Not a fun day for sure.
I thought today was a good time to update you on where I am with my 2012 non-resolution to get my house organized. As I told you, I had a wild 3 months leading up to Christmas and really let everything go in my house. I shared that I was excited to be home and ready to start making some serious progress...hahahaha...well, I lost that excitement really quickly. Once we started our normal routine of school and work and groceries and laundry, etc...I became overwhelmed, very quickly and did not make any progress...at all!
Now, I have come to realize that being a productive housewife is not one of my strong points. I can organize 400 volunteers, I can plan an event for 50-100 people and do it well, but when it comes to the daily maintaining of the house...well, that is not so easy for me. My best friend, R, and I sit in this boat of shame together and last week, we decided (together) we were going to row to shore and get out of that boat. As you know, or maybe you do not, when you let the house go, it takes a great deal of work to do the daily tasks and make progress on the "pile up". In one of our long phone calls, R, reminded me of The FlyLady! The FlyLady is a woman who has kindly acknowledged that not all women are good at maintaining their home and she has developed a whole system to train us to declutter and maintain our homes by creating routines and encouraging us to take small steps.
Now hear me on this, she is not teaching me anything I did not know or anything my mother did not do and I am a great "cleaner". I can work all day and make my house shine...the thing I am bad about is the daily routines that keep the house free of CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome). The Fly Lady gives me a structure of when to do things each day and I tell you...that is what I needed. She also encourages us who are so far behind not to try to do it all in one day and burn out. She has what she calls baby steps and when you start with her, you are supposed to add one step a day and on day six, I see that they are working.
So far, she has encouraged me to get up and get "dressed to my shoes" each day, make my bed, swish my toilet, swipe my bathroom sink each morning, do one load of laundry and shine my kitchen sink each night. I know, some of you are thinking, "duh, what else would you do?" But, that is not me. I will say, it is working. Now, I have three clean toilets and four clean sinks and a made bed everyday. The exciting part is, doing these small tasks has done a few other things. 1. Given me a sense of accomplishment with the house. 2. Doing the small task spurs me on to bigger tasks, like scrubbing the bathtub one day. 3. The house is really looking better. Far from perfect and organized, but definitely better. 4. It is creating good habits in me.
Today, she told me to set the timer for two minutes and declutter one of my hot spots (those areas that tend to gather clutter). I was supposed to work for two minutes and stop, no matter where I was. So, I did this and to my amazement after 2 minutes my kitchen counter was just about clear and because I was so close to done, I went ahead and worked another minute and now my kitchen cabinet is clean! Yippie!! One more step in my routine! I will get there, I just know it! If you struggle with keeping your house the way you want it, check out the Fly Lady today. I will be posting updates every week! Come Fly with me!
I thought today was a good time to update you on where I am with my 2012 non-resolution to get my house organized. As I told you, I had a wild 3 months leading up to Christmas and really let everything go in my house. I shared that I was excited to be home and ready to start making some serious progress...hahahaha...well, I lost that excitement really quickly. Once we started our normal routine of school and work and groceries and laundry, etc...I became overwhelmed, very quickly and did not make any progress...at all!
Now, I have come to realize that being a productive housewife is not one of my strong points. I can organize 400 volunteers, I can plan an event for 50-100 people and do it well, but when it comes to the daily maintaining of the house...well, that is not so easy for me. My best friend, R, and I sit in this boat of shame together and last week, we decided (together) we were going to row to shore and get out of that boat. As you know, or maybe you do not, when you let the house go, it takes a great deal of work to do the daily tasks and make progress on the "pile up". In one of our long phone calls, R, reminded me of The FlyLady! The FlyLady is a woman who has kindly acknowledged that not all women are good at maintaining their home and she has developed a whole system to train us to declutter and maintain our homes by creating routines and encouraging us to take small steps.
Now hear me on this, she is not teaching me anything I did not know or anything my mother did not do and I am a great "cleaner". I can work all day and make my house shine...the thing I am bad about is the daily routines that keep the house free of CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome). The Fly Lady gives me a structure of when to do things each day and I tell you...that is what I needed. She also encourages us who are so far behind not to try to do it all in one day and burn out. She has what she calls baby steps and when you start with her, you are supposed to add one step a day and on day six, I see that they are working.
So far, she has encouraged me to get up and get "dressed to my shoes" each day, make my bed, swish my toilet, swipe my bathroom sink each morning, do one load of laundry and shine my kitchen sink each night. I know, some of you are thinking, "duh, what else would you do?" But, that is not me. I will say, it is working. Now, I have three clean toilets and four clean sinks and a made bed everyday. The exciting part is, doing these small tasks has done a few other things. 1. Given me a sense of accomplishment with the house. 2. Doing the small task spurs me on to bigger tasks, like scrubbing the bathtub one day. 3. The house is really looking better. Far from perfect and organized, but definitely better. 4. It is creating good habits in me.
Today, she told me to set the timer for two minutes and declutter one of my hot spots (those areas that tend to gather clutter). I was supposed to work for two minutes and stop, no matter where I was. So, I did this and to my amazement after 2 minutes my kitchen counter was just about clear and because I was so close to done, I went ahead and worked another minute and now my kitchen cabinet is clean! Yippie!! One more step in my routine! I will get there, I just know it! If you struggle with keeping your house the way you want it, check out the Fly Lady today. I will be posting updates every week! Come Fly with me!
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