Category Archives: Money & Organization

Double-Digits!

25weeks_picnikIt’s hard to believe that I’m just days away from the last trimester! Next Sunday will officially begin my 90-day countdown. I snapped this shot in the hotel mirror while we were on vacation. I figured since I was dressed up, I might as well take advantage! I feel enormous, but everyone keeps telling me that I look small, so who knows? At any rate, I figure now is a good time for me to start looking for good deals on things like diapers and wipes. You know me — I’m always hunting for the best sale! I’d like to have a decent stockpile before June so there won’t be a need to run out to the store because we’re out of diapers.

I’m also starting to think about stocking the freezer with meals to make those first few weeks easier. By the time the baby arrives, our CSA will be in full swing, so I know we’ll have fresh veggies, but now is a good time to start packing away some dinners, snacks, quick breads, etc. I already have the book, Don’t Panic — Dinner’s In the Freezer! and it’s great! I’ve made several of the recipes in there and they’ve all been good. I’m considering getting Don’t Panic–More Dinner’s in the Freezer: A Second Helping of Tasty Meals You Can Make Ahead since the first book is so good. Although I’ve also thought of getting Dream Dinners: Turn Dinner Time Into Family Time with 100 Assemble-And-Freeze Meals. (Dream Dinners is also a chain of prep-your-own-dinner establishments, and the book is written by the women who started the business.) Maybe I’ll just get them both since I do like having meals ready-to-go. I don’t want to waste time, though, because I know the last couple of months fly by and I don’t want to be stuck with nothing to eat, especially since I’ll really have to take it easy after my c-section! Do you have any favorite freezer meals (aside from lasagna and enchiladas)? I’d love to hear what they are!

Home Organizers

I love organizing. And reorganizing. So over the last week or so I’ve decided to update my household organizers. OK, I guess the knitting one doesn’t really count as a “home organizer” per se, but having all of my Internet patterns printed and filed sure beats my previous system of disorganized bookmarks in my Web browser. Naturally the first thing I wanted to do was pick out pretty paper for the covers. Easy! Especially since Michael’s had a sale last week. Then I bought a bunch of dividers at Walmart. I can never find what I want there, though. I thought the dividers would probably be near the pens and pencils, right? No. They were next to the shipping boxes. Of course, that makes perfect sense! [/sarcasm].

At any rate, I did find them and buy some. The only bad thing is that they are smaller than my pages which kind of defeats the purpose of dividers. Sigh. They’ll do for now, though. It was a huge task working on my recipe binder, but I think it was really worth the effort. Not only did it cut way down on a mountain of magazines, but now I might actually be able to find recipes quickly! I’m still finishing up the Household Organizer, but at least now all the take-out menus, warrantees, and things like that are stuck in it. Next week I’ll finish it up. The School Binder is pretty self-explanatory. I made it last year (though I just got around to the pretty paper :-) ). I keep a copy of the school calendar, communications with the teacher, receipts for extracurricular activities, etc. It has come in handy so many times!

I do have one more organizer, but I’m thinking of writing an entire post about soon: my coupon binder. Since I started playing the “drugstore game” in January, I developed a need for an efficient coupon system. My index card box just wasn’t working. I’ve been using the binder system for a little over a month and I’ve found it to be worth the time investment of filing everything because finding the coupons I need, and culling expired ones has become so simple!

What kinds of systems (if any) do you use for home organization or coupon organization?

Long Weekend

I hope you all had wonderful Memorial Day holiday weekends (applicable only to those in the U.S., though). Ours was really nice and I’m trying so hard to get back into the swing of things today. Yesterday we went to the parade over in Rhinebeck, like we do every year. It was a lot of fun because Rhinebeck Little League and a local karate school marched so Jake saw a few of his friends. (Little League assigns teams by zip code, not school district, so he got put in a different league with a few other kids from this side of town.) I feel like everyone was throwing even more candy than ever before. Seriously — it was like Halloween, only you didn’t have to go door-to-door! The weather was just gorgeous — an absolutely perfect day for a parade. After it was over we had lunch at Del’s (a local drive-in type of restaurant). We thought it was going to be packed, but we were one of the first people there. We then realized that the way the roads were closed off, it didn’t make it easy to get over there, so most of the weekenders probably lunched right in town. Meanwhile, we enjoyed some yummy hot dogs, cheese fries and soft-serv ice cream cones. So good!

After lunch we went to Home Depot for more pavers. Drew is making a small patio up by the kids’ swingset. We have a small bistro set up there and the patio blocks will look so pretty. We came home and set up the pool for the boys and they splashed around while we enjoyed gin & tonics. For dinner I make ribs, grilled pineapple, and cole slaw. It was just a fun, relaxing day.

Now I’m trying to tackle my to-do list. I’ve got one item crossed off (using one of my trusty personalized pens, of course). Does that count for anything? I really need to rally though and get some of this stuff done. I will probably order a pizza for dinner tonight because today is our first CSA pickup!!! The farm is just down the road from where we usually get pizza, so that will work out great. I’ll update later with a photo of the delicious veggies in our first distribution. I can’t wait!

Someone Hand Me A Box Cutter!

Seriously, we have a HUGE accumulation of shipping boxes in our garage that I need to cut up for recycling. A lot of them are from packages we’ve received in the mail, but not all. We had a lot of stuff already packed away when we were trying to sell our house, and now that we’ve unpacked most of them… well, you can just imagine. It’s just such a hassle and I am dangerous with a box cutter so I keep putting it off. But at some point, we’d like to be able to put both vehicles in the garage again!

At least I’m finally making a dent in our donations pile. Yesterday, Drew’s mom had Noah for the day so while Jake was at school I ran a bunch of errands including dropping off 5 bags of clothes, 2 boxes of old dishes, and 1 stack of brand-new dishpans (I have no idea what I had planned to use those for!) at Goodwill. We still have like 4 or 5 boxes of books, and a lot of baby stuff. The baby stuff I am hedging on (no, not because we’re thinking about it — nope, no way). Some of it I’m hesistant to donate just in case someone close to us has a baby in the near future. Sigh… what to do? At any rate, I really want to clear that side of the garage out this week because it’s making me crazy!

I feel like I’m nesting (but I’m not… I *swear!*)

I wish I could figure out a good way to use the space under our bathroom vanities. I use the space in the upstairs vanity to store the kids’ bath toys and that works out perfect. It’s the other two bathrooms where I have a problem. I do my hair and make-up in the half-bath (because it is right off the kitchen), so I need to figure out a better way to organize all my junk under there. And the cabinet in the master bath is where I used to throw random things when people were coming to view the house. There’s not much under there at this point, but storage is storage and I should utilize it in a better way. Maybe I’ll get some large plastic containers and organize all my CVS loot under there. That way toothpaste, soap, etc. is easy to get to, but out of sight and protected in the plastic container. See people? This is why I blog. Sometimes I get these ideas while I type, LOL… (And I suppose it is slightly better than talking to myself. Not much… just slightly ;-) )

Week’s Eats: 3/17

Here’s what’s cooking at Chez Carol this week. Nothing too exciting, except for the lobster dinner on Wednesday night. Oh, I love me some lobstah!!! But yeah, otherwise, kinda boring.

Monday: Turkey tacos
Tuesday: Loaded baked potatoes
Wednesday: Lobster dinner
Thursday: Tuna wrap, soup
Friday: Dinner @ my mom’s
Saturday: Frozen pizza or grilled cheese sandwiches
Sunday: Easter dinner @ my mother-in-law’s

If you celebrate Easter, what are you planning on making (or planning on eating if you’re going to someone else’s house)? My MIL is going to be making lamb. It’s not one of my favorite dishes ever, but I can think of things I like less (like corned beef!). We’ll be bringing dessert and I’ve decided to turn my Coconut Lemon Mousse Cake into a trifle. It will be easier to transport and faster to assemble. Time is of the essence, since I’ll be putting it all together Saturday after we get home from Massachusetts. And naturally we’ll be bringing wine too, though which one? Thinking of a Meritage maybe… We’ll see.

And yes, I realize that tonight’s dinner — tacos — is not Irish in the least, LOL. Well, we’re not Irish at all and I hate corned beef, as I mentioned above. The boys’ had green bagels for breakfast this morning, though, and I remembered to put a green shirt on Jake this morning. That has to count for something, right? LOL!

For more weekly menus, head over to Organizing Junkie!

Spring Cleaning: Dining Room

Well that was easy! Of course, I have a bunch of stuff I still have to put away, but the room itself is nice and clean. Here’s what I did:

* Hung up coats in coat closet, brought misc. junk in the den to sort through this afternoon
* Swept
* Microfiber mopped
* Washed the floor
* Dusted the furniture and cleaned with Orange Glo
* Switched around some decorations

And the proof, of course. (I can’t believe I’m showing these… ugh, so embarassing!) Before:

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And after:

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I also just put together a few finishing touches to spruce things up a bit. I went “shopping” in other parts of my house and moved things around. This runner was in storage with old linens. The candles were on the sofa table. And the pitcher and bowl (a bridal shower gift from my grandmother) were in our bedroom. I thought the pansies were perfect for spring! Once our forcythia blooms (probably not until late next month), I’ll snip some stems and put them in the pitcher.

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I also just switched things around on the sofa table. I found a doily yesterday, and I moved the tealights that were on the dining room table. I also moved the vase (with dried flowers from Valentine’s Day!) from the side to the middle for some height.

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And finally I grabbed a few vintage books from the basement to add a little color and lift up the wine bottle light that my sister-in-law’s mom made for me. I think it stands out more this way than just on the table.

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And there you have it! The change isn’t dramatic, but it sure feels nicer to me! Now I’m off to grab some lunch so I can start putting away all the random doo-dads that found their way into the dining room and made it such a mess!