Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Task it Tuesday - May 12


Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task it Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

We are back to Tuesday. Last week was a productive one; I even organized my home office. My planner is updated, I am caught up on reviews needed right now and am working on the past due reviews, most of the craft supplies are in, and Friday's closing went off without a hitch.

Here is this week's list:
  1. Bible reading
  2. Meetings 
  3. Book reviews (done)
  4. Continue closing out my father-in-law's affairs (almost done)
  5. Cooking 
  6. Re-organize The Sisterhood ( one of my works in progress) to figure out what to do with it
  7. Clean bonus room

What does your to-do list look like? What is the most pressing item on your list?

Monday, March 30, 2020

Mailbox Monday - Mar 30





Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Well, we are back to Monday again. How are you all doing? We are healthy and fine. A lot has been happening around here: some organizing, some cleaning, prepping the vegetable garden for the seeds I ordered, and the youngest is getting ready to head back to school (virtually) tomorrow. Here are a few photos from this week:


A bright orange bird visits our birdbath


How fun to wake up to this face in the morning


A colorful surprise in the mailbox garden

Speaking of mailboxes, mine held two gifts this week.



What did your mailbox hold? Did something special arrive?

Here's hoping you have a blessed week.



Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Mailbox Monday - Nov 11




Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

We are somehow at Monday again. This week we are expecting a bit of the wet and white stuff. Doubtful it will be much, but thankfully the leaves are picked up and the trampoline mostly dismantled for the season.

Since I was kind enough to myself to take a weekend off, I began the task of cleaning my office. I've done little pick ups here and there, but now that I am treasurer for two organizations and am sick and tired of boxes of books stacked in my upstairs hallway, I need to deep clean and organize.

These are magazines I saved for two decades for some crazy reason. They are getting recycled.


I've stopped most of my subscriptions because I never get around to reading them. Why waste the money?

My office closet floor is totally empty right now. That hasn't happened in I don't know how long. I'm going through the boxes of books to make sure I want to keep everything in them. If not, they are making their way out to the library. 

I won an Amazon gift card from a company event and used it to pick up three new books. Two arrived on Sunday.



I am expecting the final one tomorrow. 

On this Veteran's Day, I wish to extend my sincere thanks to all who have served our country. May God bless you and your families. I was thrilled to hear President Trump proclaimed November as National Veterans and Military Families Month. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Task it Tuesday - Dec 11


Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task It Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

What a productive week I had. The dumpster is full and will be picked up today. The big areas of our house: shed, bonus room, and basement have been cleaned up to a degree that I can stand it. The outside Christmas lights are hung and the large tree for the family room is in position waiting for me to fluff it and get the lights and ribbon on. Not bad considering I have three listings due to hit the market this month.

For this week, I know what I need to accomplish. It is going to be tough with my schedule, but I will give it a shot.


  1. Tidy up the few remaining messy spots on the second floor to get the house ready for decorating.
  2. Organize the gifts I've bought to make sure I haven't missed anyone. Then finish shopping.
  3. Get groceries for Christmas dinner.
  4. Compile and send out the annual Christmas letter--which hasn't gone out in the last three years, but I am determined to get out the door.

What is on your to-do list this week?

Monday, December 10, 2018

Mailbox Monday - Dec 10



Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Here we are back to Monday. I hope you had a fabulous weekend. I worked my tail off, which is worth every aching muscle, because the dumpster leaves today and my house is much cleaner for it. Between donating things and tossing stuff, our house is definitely more organized. I am looking forward to getting this place ready for Christmas. That was made a bit easier when I won this beautiful wreath at our work holiday luncheon.



Trying to read, but I've got a lot going on here. These are two I am trying to finish up:




My physical mailbox was empty last week, but I picked up these two books that were Kindle freebies. 




What was in your mailbox? Hope you have a blessed week.


Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Task it Tuesday - Aug 21


Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task It Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

Finally feeling like the sale is in the home stretch. Smoke certificate is done. City is coming to do the water reading. I finished going through the basement and the clean out guy started working there yesterday. The only thing from last week's to-do list that remains undone is cleaning out my office. I think it's just going to have to wait until I have everything here. Then I can move all the home files into the basement and only have active files upstairs.

So what's on this week's to-do list:


  1. Meet the water department tomorrow. 
  2. Take my mother-in-law for her haircut.
  3. Make room in the basement for items coming here from the in-laws' house.
  4. Touch base with two clients and see if we can't get their homes listed soon.
  5. Do final back to school shopping. Haven't done much. The Lil' Princess starts next Monday and the Lil' Diva goes back next Thursday. 
  6. Blogging at Christian Children's Authors.
  7. Write two book reviews.
That list is definitely enough to keep me busy. What's on your list for this week?

Monday, March 12, 2018

Mailbox Monday - March 12


Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great week. Mine stunk, but then I went to church yesterday and it reset my mood--always does. Nothing like good old fashioned worship time and fellowship to do some correcting. I also feel happy that the downstairs is clean and all the floors are vacuumed and washed. Can cross that off my list for a bit.

Sat down with my work in progress on Friday and almost finished chapter 18. My goal is to finish Amelia's Mission this year. Monday was writing group, but we didn't write this time. We critiqued each other's work. I think Tuesday is the only day this week I might squeeze some writing time in. But if we get that third Nor'easter maybe I'll be stuck at home instead of showing houses.

No new books in my mailbox last week. That's okay because I have plenty. I'm reading these right now:


In this novel authorized by the Little House Heritage Trust, Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a captivating story that illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving pioneer woman as never before—Caroline Ingalls, "Ma" in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books.

In the frigid days of February, 1870, Caroline Ingalls and her family leave the familiar comforts of the Big Woods of Wisconsin and the warm bosom of her family, for a new life in Kansas Indian Territory. Packing what they can carry in their wagon, Caroline, her husband Charles, and their little girls, Mary and Laura, head west to settle in a beautiful, unpredictable land full of promise and peril.

The pioneer life is a hard one, especially for a pregnant woman with no friends or kin to turn to for comfort or help. The burden of work must be shouldered alone, sickness tended without the aid of doctors, and babies birthed without the accustomed hands of mothers or sisters. But Caroline’s new world is also full of tender joys. In adapting to this strange new place and transforming a rough log house built by Charles’ hands into a home, Caroline must draw on untapped wells of strength she does not know she possesses.

For more than eighty years, generations of readers have been enchanted by the adventures of the American frontier’s most famous child, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the Little House books. Now, that familiar story is retold in this captivating tale of family, fidelity, hardship, love, and survival that vividly reimagines our past.




Most of us have too much stuff and not enough places to put it. Combine that with our hectic modern lives, and you’ve got a recipe for clutter catastrophe. Luckily, help is at hand. Hot Mess: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized can show you how to simplify your life—and get control of your stuff.

In this new guide to streamlining and organizing your belongings, your house, and your life, author and expert Laurie Palau gives you all the strategies you need to clear your clutter once and for all. This comprehensive book offers clever storage ideas and decorating tips, but more importantly, it shows you where your clutter comes from and how to change your approach. This makes it the definitive how-to for dropping all the dead weight that’s been keeping you stressed and anxious. Just follow the hacks, tips, and strategies Palau clearly outlines, and you’ll soon be sipping pinot noir in a beautifully tidy living room.

Whether you’re naturally neat or a total chaos magnet, this informative and amusing guide takes an approach to organizing that’s as unique as you are. Let this witty little handbook be your new secret weapon in the war on disorder!


Can a former privateer and a determined heiress find lost treasure in 1725? A brand new series for fans of all things related to history, romance, adventure, faith, and family trees.

Pasts Collide in New Orleans when a Treasure Goes Missing
The last time New Orleans attorney Jean-Luc Valmont saw Maribel Cordoba, a Spanish nobleman’s daughter, she was an eleven-year-old orphan perched in the riggings of his privateering vessel proving herself as the best lookout on his crew. Until the day his infamy caught up with them all and innocent lives were lost. Unsure why he survived but vowing to make something of the chance he was given, Jean-Luc has buried his past life so deep that no living person will ever find it—until a very much alive and very grown up Maribel Cordoba arrives on his doorstep and threatens all he now holds dear.

I'll be starting this Sheila Roberts book soon for a mid-April review.


Once happily married, Jenna Jones is about to turn forty, and this year for her birthday—lucky her—she’s getting a divorce. She’s barely able to support herself and her teenage daughter, but now her deadbeat artist ex is hitting her up for spousal support…and then spending it on his “other” woman.

Still, as her mother always says, every storm brings a rainbow. And when she gets a very unexpected gift from her great-aunt Edie, things seem to be taking a turn for the better. Aging Aunt Edie is finding it difficult to keep up her business running The Driftwood Inn, so she invites Jenna to come live with her and run the place. It looks like Jenna’s financial problems are solved!

Or not. The town is a little more run-down than Jenna remembers, but that’s nothing compared to the ramshackle state of The Driftwood Inn. Aunt Edie is confident they can return it to its former glory, though Jenna feels like she’s jumped from the proverbial frying pan into the beach fire.

But who knows? With the help of her new friends and a couple of handsome citizens, perhaps that rainbow is on the horizon after all. Because, no matter what, life is always good at the beach.

What was in your mailbox?


Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Task It Tuesday - January 30


Originally created by The Geeky Blogger, Task It Tuesday is a weekly meme to help you--and me--get things done. The challenge is to post a a task or list of tasks you want to complete before next Tuesday. These tasks can help you with your blogging life, reading life, personal or professional life.

By next week, I hope to add a Linkup list, but for today just leave your comments in the comment box. If you decide to join in, then add a link to your blog and I'll pay you a visit.

This week I have two tasks I would like to accomplish before next Tuesday:



  1. Finish cleaning out the cookbook cabinet I started on Sunday. Go through the rest of the recipes and toss what I don't want and organize the cookbooks and baking accessories. 
  2. Make more headway on the Bonus Room clean up. My goal is to have all the trash gone and toys tucked where they belong. Then we can began the challenging task of donating what we no longer want. 
How about you? What would you like to accomplish this week? 

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Project De-Clutter Begins

Most of us have it. You know what it looks like. Somewhere in the house there is a closet or a cabinet or a drawer that is filled with all the stuff you don't feel like dealing with or think you might use one day. For some us, many of the closets, cabinets and drawers in the house are filled with things like that. For us, it's even our basement.

This year Project De-Clutter is my focus. While it is not on this year's goals list, it should be. By next quarter I'll add it. We are moving my mother-in-law in with us, so things need to get donated or tossed out. I'm in the process of moving my office downstairs. Maybe I had a premonition that this was going to happen when I began packing up my books last year and labeling all the boxes by genre.

Just like any big project, Project De-Clutter will be broken down into many steps. Today, the Lil' Diva and I started throwing trash and broken toys away in the bonus room above the garage. Then later on, I figured I needed to whack back my cooking magazine collection.


In that pile on the bottom left is years worth of various cooking magazines. I can count on one hand the number of times I've opened one of them for a recipe. Tonight, I went through every one and pulled out the few recipes I might actually make, so that I can scan them onto my PC later. Then I recycled the rest of each magazine. Here's what I ended up with...


Room for actual cookbooks. Wow! How did that happen.

This cabinet is still a work in progress. I'll go through all the cookbooks to see if there are any I can donate. Most of them are in a set, so probably not. After that, I'll go through the rest of the items in the cabinet and see if I can't trim it back some more. 

Next week's goal for the bonus room is to get most of the floor picked up. Not sure if I can do it with my work schedule, but I'll give it a shot. 

Are you tackling any large home projects right now? How are they going? 

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Book Review: Organizing for Your Lifestyle by Jane Stoller

It has long been my dream to get more organized. I'm not bad at it, but over the years the family has collected more things than we can ever use and I'm at the point where I don't want to look at it anymore. I've also never liked our closet storage. So, when Jane Stoller's publicist asked me if I would like to review Organizing for Your Lifestyle: Adaptable Inspirations from Socks to Suitcases, I jumped at the chance.

An organizer from a very young age, Stoller has put together a book that will inspire you to get organized for good. Get ideas on how to design your closet, tips on how best to hang your clothes, learn how to keep the bathroom toiletries in order and keep your kitchen tidy, learn traveling tips and more.

Organizing for Your Lifestyle is just the right size for the busy mom because it provides the information you need in under 130 pages. You can slip it in your purse and read it a little at time--maybe take some notes--and put together a plan of action. The pictures are an added bonus.

There are two hard things about organization--getting organized and staying organized. Stoller helps you to do both. My plan of action is already in the works and I look forward to sharing the results with my readers in the future.

If you're tired of living the life of the eternally disorganized, pick up a copy of Organizing for Your Lifestyle by Jane Stoller. It will empower you to change your ways.


Paperback: 148 pages
Publisher: BookBaby (August 4, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1483570959
ISBN-13: 978-1483570952

I received a free copy of this book from the author. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Get Organized for 2016


It's that time of year again--time to think about getting organized and setting goals for the new year. Here are links to organizational tips to give you some ideas:

The Dating Divas offer 75 Ways to Organize Your Life: from beauty supplies to kitchens to electronics and more you'll be in tip-top shape.

BuzzFeed Life staffer Alison Caporimo shares 31 Ways You Can Reorganize Your Life with Dollar Store Stuff: organization on a budge...nothing wrong with that.

Fab n' Free shares 200 Free Home Management Binder Printables: useful and free. Score!

BuzzFeed Life staffer Jessica Probus shares 42 Storage Ideas That Will Organize Your Entire House: some of these require a tiny bit of work, but they are awesome.

And for technology lovers I'm an Organizing Junkie shares 9 Favorite Organizing Apps to Keep Your Life on Track.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Get Organized with Household Labels from Mabel's Labels


This time of year I feel the urge to get organized. From my home office, to the kitchen, to the playroom, sorting, donating, and recycling are the name of the game. But who wants to go searching through every bin in the basement to figure out what's inside once you're done? Not me, thanks. I am way to busy.

These adorable printed labels will help you keep track of everything, no matter if it's in the garage, the attic, or a closet. Make getting organized in 2014 a breeze with Bin Labels from Mabel's Labels.

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