How is it possible that it is only 5 days to Christmas? When did this happen? We only just put up our tree on Friday (and actually that is only halfway done because we can't find 1 box of decorations in the basement). I still have Andrew's stuff to make. We have not planned the Christmas Eve service yet (and I haven't even started to think about the January First Sundays service which is fast approaching). Our house is a mess (thanks to a busy November and December where everything got put the side and piled up).

Yarg. So much to do and so little time. It's times like these that I make lists. :P I haven't made a list in a long while, maybe that's been part of my problem with feeling in control and organized? I hope this helps me focus and get things done!

This week all this stuff needs doing:

• Organize First Sundays Material.
• Find that box of Christmas Decorations! (it has all my heirloom decorations, that's why I'm worried about it)
• Read "Mission Shaped Children"
• Plan Christmas Eve Service
• Make Andrew's Blanket, scarf, mitts and toque
• Put away laundry (there's about 6 baskets waiting to be put away)
• Decorate the rest of the house (aka find homes for the decorations sitting on the coffee table)
• Work on Personnel Policies for daycare
  
• Clean, Clean, Clean

Some updates for blogland...

We had our taxes done today. We went to H&R Block...and I know what everyone is thinking, "Why would you do that? They are so easy to do yourself...what a waste of money..." (I know because I got the earful from my father). But every time I have done taxes I have made mistakes and ended up owing myself or ended up making my spouse owe money. It's just not something I'm doing myself anymore.

Anyways...We got the return it's being distributed in this way:

We paid this months (and a little of next months) Hydro Bill. That was quite nice as it was large because of the dreadfully cold winter we've had. We each are getting $100 for spending money (clothes, Wii Games, lunches out, beer, that kind of thing), we threw $100 onto the LOC, and added $20 to our EF. I will also be paying for the mistake that I made last years taxes when we did them on our own (about $260 bucks). Anyways...taxes always stress me out and I'm glad that this years are done.

Adding the $20 bucks onto the EF today brings it to the grand total of.......(drum roll)....$473.05!!!! that is sweet! I am so pleased with our progress. :) We are 47% to our first goal of $1000 dollars! Our camping trip fund currently has $43 in it or 14.3% of our (liberal) $300 goal. I have plans to start saving for a general house fund too in the next few weeks. Starting small again and building slowly.

I have started participating in a Frugal Village Challenge. It's a spare change/penny challenge. So far I have $9.11 in my spare change jar. The money I save in this jar is going to go to wards Christmas Presents. I started taking part in this challenge about 2 weeks ago. Normally I used to scrounge all our change to pay for Tim Hortons...so I'm hoping this challenge helps me to curb the Timmies addiction.

Today is my 3rd week of being a smoke free human being. I am feeling very proud of myself for not smoking for 3 whole weeks. It hasn't been as hard as I imagined it would be. I've slowly eliminated the places I smoke at and the less I've smoked the more I've noticed how gross it really smells. I've stopped smoking before for months at a time...but I've always restarted. The key for this time is to recognize situations that would make me start again and find some kind of alternative to smoking.

On the weekend I did bake. I made mini-muffins & granola bars! I was quite the Martha Stewart on Saturday afternoon. The muffins are great (they are organic oatmeal with banana).
The granola bars were yummy...although they did not stick together. I don't know what I did but I ended up with granola instead of bars. That was OK though because they were heavenly! I loved them. S gobbled them all up on Sunday night. Andrew, however, would not eat them because he 'only likes granola bars with marshmallows and chocolate in them'. Spoiled little bugger. :P So, I did achieve one goal! The other goal...has not happened yet. I've got the mailer, the items, and labels all lined up...I just haven't found her address and mailed it. I'm getting there...slowly but surely. lol.

Tomorrow we are recommitting to doing the Money Jars. We are going to do CASH ONLY for 1 month and then re-evaluate. It should be interesting. I hope we don't crash and burn like we did last time.

The big thing I have to decide now is...what to spend my money on!

I have not mailed J's item (although I did bring home a used mailer that i rescued from the recycling bin from work) and I have not baked anything. I was thinking of baking tomorrow afternoon. We have lots of frozen bananas in the freezer so I could make banana bread. Or I was thinking of making granola bars after being inspired by Saver Queens post about them. The last time I made banana bread Andrew didn't really like it but S sure did! Andrew LOVES granola bars though. He loves them and could eat them 3 or 4 times a day if I'd let him. Although he often cons us into getting them multiple times in a day. He can be quite crafty when he wants to be.

Oh decisions, decisions, decisions.

We went to the lawyers this morning and signed the paperwork to refinance the mortgage this morning. We were in and out in less then half an hour. I was quite impressed. Our lawyer is this funny old man that looks stuck in 1982. He has book cases upon book case of the old fashioned seals for businesses. He's got binders on shelves that are covered in dust and have probably been there since 1982. He still has ashtrays and smokes in his office! Anyways...I am so excited to have taken this step and I can't wait for the money to be paid out and the bills. The lenders requested that our lawyer pay out the car loan, small cc debt and of course the mortgage. After those are paid out there will be a cheque for us for the remainder of the monies (about 10K). Out of that we'll pay the mortgage penalty and the lawyers fees. The remainder will go towards our Consolidation Loan and hopefully slash it in half. By snowballing our payments onto the Consolidation loan it looks like we could easily be free of this debt in 10 months! I am going to do further figuring on all this once I know exactly how much we will be able to put on the Loan, but I'm excited!

Have a great weekend everyone!

I've been thinking about how we clean again. (wait a minute, how WE clean? let's face it dear readers, I should rephrase that to read--I've been thinking about how I clean again--cause the husband just does not clean unless under severe threats). Let's start that again.

I've been thinking about how I clean again. The interval cleaning does work well for me and for him. I usually start in the kitchen and I am beginning to think that perhaps that is not the best tactic. The kitchen is always the room that needs the most work (the dishwasher needs attention, counters clean off, counters wiped, garbages, recycling, fridge is full of junk, floor is dirty, and on and on) and because it needs so much work I end up spending WAY too much time in there, thus neglecting the other rooms in our house.

I started to think, 'wouldn't it be nice if I could get most of the rooms clean in the same time that I was spending in the kitchen?' & it's true. It would be nice. Then I started to think about what rooms are the cleanest in our house. Andrew's Room, Our bedroom, The Upstairs Bathroom. These are the rooms we spend the least amount of time in. They often just need a quick pick-everything-off-the-floor and make the bed etc. 5 minutes max in each room. And I mean MAX. The computer room does not usually need that much more attention. It's the Kitchen, living room, main floor bathroom and dining room that take up the bulk of my time. Especially because in the living room and dining room as fast as I clean Andrew messes it up again by taking ALL his toys out and dumping them everywhere.

What I've started doing is cleaning the upstairs first and worrying less about the main floor. I don't know if this plan is any more efficient, but it sure is nice having a clean bedroom to sleep in at night and it sure is nice knowing that at least half my house is in a good state.

I've been taking a new approach to cleaning these days. I tend to put off cleaning because I don't want to be stuck doing it for 20 minutes or half an hour or even 1 hour. & My husband really doesn't want to get sucked in to cleaning for any amount of time. So together we procrastinate about cleaning...a lot. I talk about doing it and he ignores it.

When I was trying to follow Flylady (notice I say try--because I failed miserably at Flylady. I wouldn't wear shoes, I didn't want to smile and do it all by myself and I couldn't keep track of all the damn routines) I remember one of the things she talked about was doing 'crisis' cleaning. She suggested that if you absolutely had to get the house cleaned up because company was coming over that night then what you could do was set your timer for 15 minutes and clean one part of the house. Then when the 15 minutes were up go to another part of the house and clean for 15 minutes there. & to do the same when that 15 minutes were up. The wonderful thing about Flylady is that she told you to take a 15 minute break when that last 15 minutes were up and then when you were done the break to go right back into cleaning.

Anyways...the timer thing has always stuck with me. I love having the timer. I use it quite a bit when cleaning...just not usually in the way that Flylady wants us too. Really I can convince my husband to clean anything/anywhere for 5 minutes. It's even easier to convince him to clean for 5 minute intervals if I say that in between cleaning we will watch a movie or one of the TV shows we've downloaded or go on the computer for 15 minutes.

I also use the timer when I'm cleaning on my own. I like to set it for 6 minutes cleaning (I used to do 5 minutes but then I convinced myself that 1 more minute is not that big of a deal and I can do it) and then 10 minutes watching TV/crocheting/playing on the computer. In this house we are all about rewards. lol.

It might seem silly to relax for twice as much time as you are cleaning but it really seems to be working for us. I think the reason it's working is because we're DOING SOMETHING. Anything. There are still baskets and baskets of laundry to put away and papers stacked everywhere (yes--the stacks of paper are back, they are like tribbles!), and dishes to be done, etc, etc... but the dishes get washed and put away, the living room gets vacuumed, the clothes are at least washed and dried...things are happening.

It's all about Baby Steps. Me and Flylady can at least agree on that.