Absentmindedness

Today I received an email from Lydia's teacher kindly explaining to me all the assignments that she has failed to turn in. Has she been absent from school? Nope. Is she absent … minded? Yep!

And this isn't the first time I have received this message from one of her teachers. A few weeks ago I learned that she hadn't turned in several math assignments. And get this … two of them she had completed, but just "forgot" to turn in. How does that happen?

Much of the time when I lose my temper with her it's over being absentminded. {sigh} Poor thing. I just realized that she gets it honestly. I think I have forgotten what it's like to be a kid. Once, when I was in middle school I worked on a project, interviewed someone for it and everything, and then I just didn't turn it in. I don't know why. To this day my parents are baffled over that one.

I Googled absentmindedness in kids. Guess what? It's very common for gifted children to be absentminded & messy. Aha!! There is my excuse! I'm just too brilliant to be thinking about such mundane things as getting the laundry done or not throwing away Brandon's business checks (sorry honey!).

So here I sit … coming up with organizational strategies for Lydia. I know she'll be so thrilled to come home and discuss these with me. Or maybe she really will be. She thrives in structure, which is one of the reasons we are no longer homeschooling her.

Now if only Mama can keep herself organized, maybe, just maybe, Lydia's room (and life) will stop looking like this:

Yes, that's the current state of her room. And, I'm afraid, her life tends to look a lot like this … such chaos! Wow. Just thinking about it like this motivates me to want to help her organize her life (and mine). I'll let you know what we come up with!

Laundry Room Part 1

I hate doing laundry.  I know some people love it.  I'm not one of those people.  I'm really not sure why … I think it's the folding.  No, now that I think about it, it's not the folding as much as it's the putting away.  I really hate putting laundry away.  Just ask Brandon.  I am the queen of full baskets of freshly cleaned and folded laundry sitting … for days.  What?  It's been cleaned, I just haven't, um, found the time to put it away in my ridiculously busy schedule ;) !

That leads me to today's post and project … the laundry room (more like a laundry closet).  {WARNING - embarrassing pictures coming up!}  I grew weary of seeing this:

and this:

and this:

So I bought some cute (of course - would I buy anything else?) pop-up storage boxes from TJ Maxx:

I would've bought more, but that's all they had.  Bummer.

And then I proceeded to organize & clean out my laundry room:

See my cute polka-dotted brooms?  They make me happy when I sweep :) … please ignore those dirty  walls .. I'd like to paint them.  Eventually.

Ahhhh.  I actually don't mind the doors being open to it any more.  Above … that's my book that I use to make all my cleaners - Clean House, Clean Planet.  That and Borax.  I ♥ Borax.

So what is it about clean and ultra-organized space that makes me feel at peace?

Now to just replace this ugly (to me - please don't throw tomatoes at me if you like it!) 1990s country laundry sign -

with something more like this.  If I had more time in my ridiculously busy schedule today I'd have to make one.  Maybe tomorrow ...

Weekly Menu - Free Printable!

I ♥ free stuff.  And I ♥ to organize.  And I ♥ lists.  And I ♥ to have everything spelled out right in front of me.  So for me nothing is better than a weekly menu displayed in my kitchen for me and all the world to see at a glance.  And cute, it's gotta be cute ;-)

I'm currently working on personal organizer pages for myself and I thought I would share them with you as they are complete.  The other day I posted about my daily tasks page.  You can find it here (also a free printable).

I just finished working on this matching weekly menu page.  I made 2 of them in case you need the other one that I don't use.  The first one is the one I use:

I don't know about you, but there's really no point in me planning any dinners on the weekends.
If we do cook at home then we will decide what we want on the fly.  But usually it's eating out that happens because we're out and about (these days we're on the lake).  Also there's a place for lunch ideas for the week.  I jot them down and then Lydia tells me what she would like the next day.  That works well for us :)


The second one is like it, but includes Saturday and Sunday for my friends who want that instead.   There wasn't enough room for "lunches" on this one - sorry!  It would have looked all jumbled and, well, less is more, right?

So if you like them, feel free to download them by clicking on the version that you would use above.  They are .pdf files and print great on a standard 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper.  The downloaded files will not have the One Crazy Chicken Designs watermark on them :)

Here's how to use them:

I have mine framed in an IKEA frame that *says* it is 8 ¾ x 11, but it's not … it's 8 ½ x 11.  So it works perfectly.  Of course, you can print it out and cut it down to 8 x 10 for a standard frame - there's plenty of room for trimming to that size.  You could also print it out in black onto a cute piece of scrapbooking paper!

After you have printed and framed it, simply use dry erase markers to write the day's meals and lunch ideas on the glass (or plastic if it's an IKEA frame).  Mine sits on my kitchen counter.

Another option is to print it out and laminate it.  Then you could glue a magnet onto the back and use it on the fridge.  That works too.  Or you could just print one out each week and write directly on it.  However you want to use it is up to you.  I simply ask that you do not repost it and claim it as your own.   Otherwise, enjoy!

my day … free printable

I use notebooks for everything … decoration & project inspiration, favorite recipes, and to keep myself organized. I love lists. They help me stay organized. I must confess that in the summer I don't really stay organized - I tend to chuck it all out the window in favor of laziness. But the new school year will be beginning soon and so I am on a quest to find just the right daily organizer for me. I don't do daytimers or the like. I have to make my own notebooks and so I use a lot of free printables for calendars and such. But I haven't yet found just the right daily sheet for me. So I made my own. And I thought I would share it with you! If you use something like this, I hope you find it helpful Ü … here's what it looks like:

And here is how I use it:

I prioritize my most important tasks for the day and write them in the first section.  For instance, if I absolutely must buy a birthday gift today for a party tonight (hopefully I haven't really waited that long, but you know how life can be), then I write it there.

When things come to my mind that I want to research or look up or learn or just blog about, then I jot them down in the next section.  If I don't I will completely forget about them!

In the next section I write things that I might want to try and accomplish today, but they either aren't necessary to complete that day (such as laundry - ha!) or they're things that are already on my radar screen (like swimming for the girls).

In the other section at the top I want to make sure that I take care of me.  Did I have my quiet  time with the Lord today?  Check.  Do I have some inspiration for today?  Perhaps (and it usually is these days) Love never fails - 1 Corinthians 13:8, so I write it here so that I can  read it over and over and remind myself.  Have I exercised today?  I'm working on the Couch to 5K plan, so I'll write that here.  Am I drinking enough water?   Truthfully this almost never gets checked off all the way!  And lastly, what have I eaten today?

Last, any notes that I need to make or thoughts that come to my mind I jot down at the bottom, along with dinner plans for the day and what and when I need to begin the dinner prep process.

And that's that.  For me, being a list-maker and notebook-taker, this is very helpful.  And if you want to try it, feel free.  Just click here to download the pdf file (minus the watermark, of course!) Ü … enjoy!