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.

I love making lists. I have them everywhere and I make them for everything. Chores, job tasks, goals, dreams, hopes, crafts to make, crafts on the go, groceries, everything and everything. i make them on the computer, on scraps of paper, in fancy notebooks, on my blog, i love using different media.

The only problem is that I don't do anything with those lists. I like to look at them. Rarely do I follow through and cross things off. Even rarer do I actually complete the tasks.
At work the same 2 things have been at the top of my to do list for months now--File and Redo Subject Files. Months. I keep re-writing them...and then I keep re-writing them. At home I always start my health habits goals with drink more water and exercise and then just look at the words. Same thing in my church job...lots of lists of potential activities and then no follow through.

Like I've said a million times. I'm the idea girl. Nothing more nothing less. I can think of eleventy ideas a day and end up following through on negative 3 of them.

So, readers, don't get annoyed or pissed off at the fact that it is a different list, a different idea, a different plan, a different goal...it's all just who i am....unfocused and random.

This week has been okay. Steadily busy but not too busy. I started to feel sick yesterday and didn't feel any better this morning so I stayed home form work today. I took Gravol and slept most of the day and had some wild dreams.

I finished making the 'item' for the Hitched Kids Secret Santa and then wanted to make a hat for friends of ours who just had a baby but I could not get the pattern to work at all. I seriously unraveled over a dozen times. Eventually when the hat was big enough to fit Andrew instead of a 7 week old I gave up and unraveled it. So I figured I would make a baby blanket instead. Baby blankets are easy enough and small, right? Hah. Nope. I must have unraveled at least 4 times and it still wasn't right but I figured maybe it would work itself out in the end? Hah. Nope. I had to rip about 12 rows in. I knew what the mistake was and I just should have listened to my gut. Now that I've fixed the problem it's going along nicely. It's a round ripple and I've done about 15 rows now I think...so only like 30 thousand more to go. lol. Thankfully it's a baby blanket as I tend to lose interest in larger projects.

Tomorrow there is lots on the schedule:

• Wrap Hitched Kids Secret Santa package (card?)
  
• Mail Hitched Kids Secret Santa package out,
• Mail a gift package out for an order I have,
• Make an appointment for Family Pictures
• Make Spaghetti Sauce & freeze
• Type out Daycare Board Meeting Minutes
• Buy more cotton yarn
• Go to used store to look for sweaters to felt

I did some crafts for someone (& actually got paid!) and with my latest deposits from my yearly increment our savings for the Mini Holiday now stand at 155.94! Ideally I want to have 800 dollars in there for our trip so we can splurge and eat wherever we want and do whatever we want and buy whatever we want...but i'll settle for 500 and it looks like we might just be able to do that!

I'm so excited!

I got my yearly increment on my paycheque today. My cheque was for 22 dollars more then normal. I've set up automatic transfers to put 20 dollars every cheque into our mini-holiday fund. We are planning to get away in The second week of February so that will add $140 dollars to the fund! Currently I am transferring $7 a week into this newly created fund and my pinecone cheques are going into that account (usually $10 a month) and any profits I make from my crafty business are going into that account. Right now the balance is $115.94!

I have never saved for a vacation or a night away before. In the past everything has gone onto a credit card or LOC and then we've never dealt with paying it off. It feels so good to anticipate the trip by saving and seeing the funds grow and picking where we want to go by seeing how much money we have and figuring out other ways to get money into the account (ie. deposting pinecone cheques as well).

After the holiday that account is going to become the general saving account for things like christmas, birthdays, house repairs, car repairs, that kind of thing. By February I hope to be putting about $40 dollars a week into that account which would equal $2,080 dollars in a year. Not bad at all I say!

In other work related news it seems that my union might have finally settled our contract. It has to be ratified by the members but I'm pleased with it. Heck it involves a raise and no strike. What more could a girl ask for? By the time it goes through we will be getting nearly 2 years worth of back pay. That is pretty sweet as well. SWEET! I'm guessing it will be the Spring before I see any of that money, but it's also nice to anticipate.

Cheers!

PS. The Spell checker tells me that paycheque is not paycheque but rather paycheck. However, I'm sticking with my Canadian Guns on this one and leaving it QUE instead of CK.

We went grocery shopping tonight and man did we save money! We spent more then we usually do, but I think in the end it was worth it.

Junk & Snack Food
Cookies - 5.27
Chocolates (husbands doing) - .97
Cookies (ahem)- .98
Cookies (darn that husband) - .98
Fruit to Go's - 4.99
Granola Bars - 5.98
Chips - 1.48
Bulk Smarties (Jeepers smarties are expensive!)- 8.13
Bulk Toffees (Jeepers toffees are expensive!) - 9.25
Pop - 3.56
Pop - 5.46
Toiletries
Bar Soap *10 - 3.79
Case of Diapers - 26.99
Hair Elastics - 4.99
Allergy Pills - 3.99
Shower Gel - 3.99
Meat
Chicken Breast (Again holy expensive batman!) - 19.11
Ground Beef - 11.85
MISC
Orange Juice - 1.70
No name Cereal - 3.39
Instant Oatmeal - 2.28
Olives - 4.49
Jalapenos - 3.69
Guacamole - 4.99
Cell Phone Minutes (we have a pay as you go) - 15.00
Crystal Light - 2.29
No Name Crystal Light - 1.79
Jello - .48
Pudding - 1.38
Ice Melter (yes, this is a neccesity where we live!) - 6.99
DVD (Andrews Christmas Gift from Santa) - 23.99
Canned Goods
Artichoke Hearts *2 (stocking up for Christmas Eve dinner) - 8.36
No Name Olives (again for Christmas) - 1.28
Canned tomatoes *3 - 2.91
Pasta Sauce - 1.08
Canned Mushrooms - 1.94
Produce
Red Onions - .99
Celery - .84
Beans *2 - 1.54
Bananas - 1.76
White Onions - .82
Green Pepper - .87
Cucumbers - 2.56
Red Pepper *4 - 2.68
Frozen Spinach (stocking up for Christmas Eve) - 3.96
Dairy
Chocolate Milk (childs doing) - 1.79
Feta Cheese - 4.06
Extra Old Cheddar - 11.48
Large Cottage Cheese - 5.28
Ricotta Cheese - 4.68
Skim Milk - 1.98

GST 6.54
PST 9.16

WOW! That is a lot of food and items!

For all this the total after taxes we paid $276.11! Eichewawa you say...but we didn't pay $276.11...we actually paid $216.82. We saved $59.29!

This is how we did it

276.11
20.95 is taken off for my husbands colleague discount because he works for Superstore's Parent Company
This equals 255.16
Then $30.00 is taken off because we met the spend 250 and get 30 off coupon!
That takes us to 225.16
Take $2.50 off for a Superbuck coupon (when you get gas at superstore you get these coupons) and another $5.84 for another Superbuck coupon
This makes $216.82 for our savings of $59.29!!

This will feed us for a good 1.5 weeks and we purchased many of our big ticket items (ie. diapers, ice melter, chicken breasts, and cell phone minutes) today. We also purchased many of the kind of mid-range products (ie. soap, kalamata olives, jalapenos)--these things last quite a while but cost a bit to initially purchase. We also purchased Granola Bars and Fruit To Go's today--something we never to together.

Looking at the list broken down into sections I've realized 2 things...we buy way too much junk food and we eat way to much cheese. lol. My husband loves his junk food and I love my cheese. We are an odd pair.

I am also pleased that we purchased Andrew's DVD. It's the animated Star Wars Movie. He loves Star Wars (and so do I *blush*). It was a total stealth operation getting it into the cart without him seeing. I actually had it hidden in my coat sleeve for a while. I am just glad that the store's security didn't catch me.

The only thing we are kicking ourselves over is that if we had gone last Saturday or Sunday we would have saved the taxes (another employee discount incentive)...so we could have saved another $15.70, but it was just impossible to do this weekend. Oh well maybe next time.

As an aside Christmas Eve dinner has so far cost us $11.98. I want to keep an approximate running total. I'm curious how much it will cost.

I'm hosting Christmas Eve dinner this year for the first time in my life. It's a big change for my family. We have always had Christmas Eve dinner at My Grandparents. Always. But things are changing. Grandpa passed away a year ago and my Grandma is in her 70's. It's hard for her (even though she won't admit it) and she also cooks SO MUCH that it is TOO MUCH.

I am breaking with tradition and only having finger foods and snacks and appys. *GASP* Don't worry--no one is missing out on Christmas Turkey Dinner....we have that Christmas Day at my Aunt and Uncles. In fact Christmas in my family is a 3 day holiday extravaganza. Dinners and lunches and presents and booze oh my. This is my attempt to make Christmas more low key and relaxed and fun for everyone involved.

But, I need a plan of attack especially because Christmas Eve is exactly 1 month away today. I need a list (mostly because I like lists...) We have several areas that need addressing. We need a menu, We need a cleaning schedule which would also involve more de-cluttering, we need the home improvements to be completed by December 24th schedule and I also need to work on my holiday crafting list (which I have been avoiding doing...but had made a spetacular to do list of gifts to make and have not even looked at it since then).

Tentative Appetizer Menu

Veggies with dip (carrots, celery, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, tomatoes)
Cheese and crackers (variety of cheeses)
Hot Artichoke Dip with Tortillas
Seven Layer Taco Dip
Cheese Fondue with bread
Cold Cuts with Buns
Perogies*
Perishky
Maybe some sausage rolls
Maybe chicken fingers
Deviled Eggs?
Garlic Sausage?
Pickles?
Fruit Tray?

Cleaning Schedule

All the obvious things (sweep, mop, clean up, dust)
All the not so obvious things (THE BASEMENT, all my craft stuff needs to be moved out of the dining room, the bathrooms need a THOROUGH cleaning, & the crap outside in the yard needs to be put away somewhere)
Kitchen Cupboards need to be de-cluttered so everything fits nicely in them
Fridge needs a good & THOROUGH cleaning because I know my family and where they will look

Home Improvements to be done

I dream of having the kitchen drywalled (at least, painted would be like winning the lottery)
Back Door needs to be fixed
Kitchen cupboard needs to be put back on
Living Room needs to be drywalled and painted
Door needs to be put back on to porch
My Fathers junky old van needs to be gone from our parking pad

Crafty things to Make**

Slippers for Andrew
Slippers for Aunty Heather
Slippers for Rylie
Many, Many, Dishcloths
Some kind of blanket or something out of all the granny squares i have crocheted for my parents
I really really want to make felted wreaths but if I do I need to start scouring for wool sweaters stat
I am thinking of make nuts n bolts or granola as well for the gift baskets.

Sigh. I love making lists. :P

I am being very low key this Christmas. I am refusing to get worked up over anything. I am not making ridiculous amounts of gifts so that they will not be appreciated. I am not fretting over what to make. I am just making whatever i feel inspired ot make. I am not exchanging with my cousins. I am not exchanging with my sister and her kids. My list to buy for this year is small. Steve and I aren't exchanging gifts and Andrew is still too little to realize what he's missing out on. I am going to be happy and relaxed and I will enjoy this Christmas. I will.

*Please note that the perogies are my grandmas idea. She has made 'mini' perogies and sent them over already. So I will humour her

**Please note that this list is subject to change at a moments notice. It always does.

I've blogged about de-cluttering twice now. Here and here. Of my original list I had 4 areas that still needed de-cluttering or were in progress. I thought I would give an update about what's happening.

As before, green is a good update and red is the not so good update...

* ANDREWS BEDROOM - HIS CLOTHES: we sort through them every couple months and still somehow they end up all crazy again days later. i hate little kid clothes. seriously. Update: We have gone through Andrews clothes and separated the winter from summer stuff (and tucked away the summer stuff). We have also taken out all the clothes he doesn't fit anymore--There was quite a bit of those! We put the clothes in bags...but haven't done anything with them...they are just sitting in the basement now.

* MASTER BEDROOM - OUR CLOTHES: need to take out old and not worn clothes. same as always. Update: We still haven't tackled this one. & we are still working on putting the clothes away after cleaning them. It's a never ending battle.

* BASEMENT - SHELVING UNIT: it's a zoo down there. i think the animals rearranged when i wasn't looking. *sigh* Update: Same as before--Even zooier. It's crazy down there.

* ANDREWS TOYS - these are strewn about the house and really we need to get rid of his infant toys and only have the ones he plays with. Updated: We continue to work on this one. I have taken 2 boxes of toys to church to donate there to the nursery. We have put more toys away so he is not overwhelmed with what to play with.

What I've started learning is de-cluttering is an on-going process. We accumulate stuff easily for some reason. It needs to stop! I want a clutter free home!

today there is nothing inspiring to talk about.

i think we are going to have some grilled cheese sandwiches, watch 3rd watch on DVD and start on the spring (in winter) cleaning.

that is all. all i can say is...when did we get so boring?

this week has been shitty work wise. tres shitty. but, such is life and there is not much i can do about it due to circumstances outside my control. hopefully next week will be better and the week after that fantastic! (a girl can dream, right?)

i'm hosting family games night tonight for the first time. part of me wants a large crowd, but part of me would also be happy if only 2 or 3 people showed up so i can get to know everyone better and have a low key evening. i also want to go see a movie tonight that starts at 9:30 that is about a 20 minute drive away.... (i'm so selfish, huh?)

we want to go see City of Ember tonight. it's playing at the cheap theater and looked to be the only movie that me and the hubster would agree on. lol. maybe we'll even go out for drinks afterwards, who knows because the kidlet is at nana's tonight! we are child free! woot for us. Tomorrow we are going to lie in and then do our grocery shopping. in the afternoon I am going to go for lunch at a friends house. i'm making the soup and she's making the sandwiches! it will be nice to visit.

i got re-assessed on my taxes and due to an error on my part i owe 207 dollars to the govt. *sigh* but hurrah for the emergency fund! so our fund is sitting at 255 dollars so that will leave us with 47 dollars in there...but at least we have it and we won't have to put the tax bill on the credit card or ignore for years like i did the last time i owed money...

other then that we are plugging along and i've got plans to a big purge/clean-up/reorganization of the house this weekend...(hubster if you're reading this consider yourself warned for cleaning duty!)

have a great weekend everyone. cheers!