Happy Birthday to My Other Sister!!

Happy Birthday to My Sister!!

Counting my blessings.

It's been one of those weekends. One of those when I really didn't expect much. I knew I would be busy, coming out of a loooooong week, looking forward to a 3-day weekend, missing Mr.B...did I mention I knew I'd be busy? Just focusing on one thing at a time. Getting it all crossed off the list. (This month, I've been working on "showing up" to things. Unfortunately, that's not one of my strengths. If someone needs me to move furniture or help in a crisis, I'm your girl. But if its a leisurely, optional thing, I'm 50-50.) So I came into this weekend with my "planner" eyes on. I had it all worked out. Be here at this time, there at that time. 10 minutes to rest and then get back up again. Make any necessary phone calls in transit. Check and see if friend needs ride. Run errands in between.

Then I really had a few minutes to reflect on everything I've been doing.

I got to witness my best friend's baby shower. This was not just any shower. This baby is making an appearance. A grand entrance. We've been anticipating her arrival for a very long time and the world will never be the same now that she's (almost) here. I got to give my friend a very special, sentimental gift. I got to see all her friends and her hubs's friends and both their families gather around to celebrate their gift that they are bringing into the world.

I got to listen to a friend in need. There is such power in "talking it out" and I'm honored to be the one friend that she has confided in on a particularly tender situation.

I got to be a part of my husband's family celebration - without him having to be there. To talk leisurely with the matriarch of the family and to a cousin who is finding her place in the world and in the family.

I got to work on promoting a charity event for my women's group. I'm so proud of what we've done and all we've accomplished in 2 years, and I'm so excited about all the amazing things I know we are capable of doing and will do in the future.

I got to welcome my Mr. B home. I've done a marvelous job of coping with his absence this week, and we did a marvelous job of reconnecting upon his return. I love that man.

I even got to go to the city's rinky-dink St.Patrick's Day parade. I walked there and back so it was an hour of exercise, too!

It's St. Pat's Day, so the Irish Catholic deep in me is counting her blessings and looking for more ways to be grateful.

Slow Day after a Long Week

I don't even know where to start about my crazy week. It's been amazing: fast-paced, thought-provoking, gratitude-enducing. Got a few pats-on-the-back, too! (That was a lot of hyphens!)

I got to be:
=Soup Kitchen Volunteer
=Grandma's-House-Baby-Proofer
=Super Auntie/"Working Mom"/Piano Repair/Valentine Party Planner/Dog Whisperer
=House-Hunter
=Software Hero/Advertisement Whipper-Upper/Project Manager/Training Coordinator
=Friend/Valentine Date
=Birthday Party Guest
=House-Sitter for Myself
=House-Sitter for my Parents
=Daughter-In-Law/Flower Delivery
=Long-Distance Wife

Today, I get to be me.
=Sleep In-er
=Coffee Drinker
=Blouse Shopper
=Walk-On-The-Beach-er
=Blogger
=Wife (tonight!)

What I'm Listening To: Bon Iver

I'm working on a Saturday, plugging along on a big project that is almost complete! At long last - after months/years of turmoil, stress, learning, disagreements, frustration, productivity.

Keeping me company on my "Lissie" Pandora station is Bon Iver's Blood Bank.

Bon Iver has a beautiful way of making everything feel sentimental, emotional and good. I'm calm in a time of struggle, and I know everything is going to be okay. I see the happy faces of my Mr. B, my beautiful nieces, my Momma and Pop. Forgetting I'm at work, while still getting work done.

Pure Bliss.

What I'm Listening To: Andrew Bird

I may be a little biased because my favorite (read: ONLY) big brother's name is Andrew, but my new musical obsession is Andrew Bird. I really dug his lyrics and singsongy rhythms from the get go; however, when I heard his rendition of Shel Silverstein's Twistable Turnable Man, I fell in love.

You MUST look up that song.

It is wonderful.

Resolutions! Day 14.

Almost halfway done! Wahoo!!

FlyLady Mission: get the cobwebs off the bathroom ceilings and clean the fan vent grill.
This one was more work than I expected, but it feels great to have it done! I've been looking at that nasty ceiling for quite some time.

Pretty nasty - cobwebs and dust - yuck!

Much better! (I took off the grate and cleaned inside, too!)

Gross ceiling corner, before.

Ceiling corner, after. Still gross, but MUCH better!

31-Day Challenge: Tackle the T's
Done on day 1!

My Moving List: Unused small appliances. I'm getting rid of the waffle-maker because it really was just a mess-maker, and the cake-pop maker that I never used. I don't think I even took it out of the box - The B in my blog name does NOT stand for "Baker"!!

And FlyLady's shiny sink habit:
If you look closely, you'll see evidence of the leftovers containers and bowl from making my "No-Chicken Noodle Soup"!!

My Shiny Sink! Day 14.

Good night!

Love!
Annette

B Vegan: No-Chicken Noodle Soup

This is a "clean-out-the-fridge" recipe, so bear with me on the ingredients!

Olive oil, yellow onion, TVP (with soy sauce and smoke flavor - leftover from Mr.B's breakfast creation the other day), leeks, sage...

Yellow quinoa, knorr vegetable bouillon...

Tofurkey gravy (leftover from our delicious Tofurkey meal the other night)...

Water, carrots, broken spaghetti...

Garbanzo beans, kidney beans, tomato paste.

Yumm Yum!! It truly was delicious :)

Now go empty your fridge into a soup and enjoy!

Love!
Annette

Resolutions! Day 13.

I had a good, productive day today! I didn't shine my sink, but everything else is done!

Good night!

Resolutions! Day 12.

Sorry the last two posts have been so brief. It was the only way I could stay on-track and still do what I agreed with myself that I would do, without running the risk of burn-out. I didn't put "lengthy, engaging daily blog post" on my resolution list. Maybe that will happen next year :) I'm truly proud of the work I've done and the progress I've made. And I'm really enjoying blogging, even if it's not pretty or engaging or particularly follow-worthy at this point ;) It's just a start, right? Yay!

So far, so good on today's resolution. The 31-day challenge is something I did on Day 1!!

Saturday is FlyLady's "Family Fun Day" but I'm working, so that's going to have to be postponed. My family consists of Me and Mr. B, and we have date night on Wednesdays anyway. He's getting stuff crossed off his list today, so it's fun for him :) Here's my shiny sink photo for today:

My Shiny Sink! Day 12!

So all that was left was my Moving List! I looked at my list and realized I keep avoiding the "built-in cabinet drawers" item because in the back of my mind I kept thinking it would be a "weekend project" like the Christmas boxes project was. But I stopped to think and realized I haven't actually looked into the bottom two drawers in a few months, and I organized the top drawer (wrapping paper and bags) when I organized the Christmas stuff to consolidate my wrapping. Sure enough, I took a look and didn't need to do a whole lot. What I got rid of most was scrap-booking supplies that my sister's friend can use, so I out them in an envelope ready to send out.

That was easy! Nice, neat drawers.

And a couple photos of things that made me smile today:

Tibetan Prayer-Flags from our wedding decor. They hang at the ceiling of our long hallway, welcoming us home or bidding us a good day as we leave.

Our happy flags :)

And some lovely chocolates sent to us from a friend in Germany!

Yum Yummy Yum!

Happy weekend!
Love!
Annette :)

Resolutions! Day 11.

Almost halfway.

I'm going to bed so here's the run-down, in photos.

Resolutions! Day 10.

I'm just going to get this one down on the books. Here's how it is...

31-Day Challenge: Platters, Pans, etc.
I don't have any platters or pans that I want to get rid of. I really did assess. Really.

FlyLady Mission: Counter Tops

Corner counter, before - not too bad, right?

Corner counter, before, uncovered - wrong! yuck!

Corner counter, after - lovely!

Corner counter, after - much better!

FlyLady Habit: Shine your sink

My Shiny Sink! Day 10!

My Moving List: Coats

Coats I'm getting rid of - 3 are already out of my house! The other 3 are going to my sis.

So that's it! One more day complete! Onward and upward! 

Love!
Annette

Inspiration!

Yep, I totally flaked on doing any of my resolutions yesterday. Wednesday has been date night in the past for Mr. B and me, and another one of my resolutions is to reinstate that. So of course, I made a mess of the kitchen and did absolutely nothing other than hang out with my hubs, relax, and go to bed early. It was glorious.

I'm tempted to hit rewind and try to make up for lost time, but I know that's where I've gone wrong in the past. As FlyLady says, "You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?" So that's what I'm going to do. And luckily for me, the 31-day challenge task that I'm skipping is still on my moving list.

Also, a big factor in making that task work is setting up a system. As I've been working on my New Year's Resolution, I've realized more and more where our systems are failing us. I REALLY want to aim for a good organization system for our ins and outs, preferably near the front door, which is where our mail comes in. I have an ineffective binder/catchall spot set up on the kitchen counter, with the calendar hanging on the wall there. Then I have our mail sorter/coat hooks/shoe rack/running equipment/bill paying stuff by the front door. I've been working on organizing each area, but I think what it's lacking is cohesion. It needs a complete overhaul, but how? I LOVE the system in the post in the link below, but the colors aren't really my style. Plus I don't want our guests to have to walk right into a big, overbearing mail sorting/family organizing station, but I can't have it anywhere else because we won't use it effectively.

After reading this blog post today, I'm inspired and hopeful that I'll figure out a system that works for our personalities, is aesthetically pleasing, and that is easy to keep contained. One thing I'm hearing in the back of my mind while I write this is that I feel so temporary in our apartment, especially since we're aiming to buy a house this year. So it's holding me back from making any long-term decisions about our organization. I'll have to keep that in mind and still try to come up with something that works temporarily as well as long-term. Wish me luck!

Love!
Annette 

Resolutions! Day 9.

I'm taking the night off.

Enjoy!

Resolutions! Day 8.

This isn't going to get easy, is it? Whew! I feel like I'm FORCING myself to take every step in this set of resolutions. I just have to do it for a month, right? And I'm just making the moving process easier, right? (Oh, speaking of, we see a house listed that we're interested in taking a look at. That means we need to get in touch with a new Realtor, but that's a whole different post. Wish us luck!)

FlyLady's mission: wipe down the doors of your cabinets
Thankfully I did this one right after I cleaned my kitchen ceiling yesterday, so I'm off the hook! Instead, I spent much of the evening returning Christmas gifts that we didn't give (found better ones/correct sizes before the exchange). I got home late, made a not-so-quick dinner, and got right to the lists. 

The 31-day challenge is a two-part challenge, so hopefully it will work in my favor. This one is about the mail situation. If any of you have been reading my moving list, you would have seen "dining room table (basket of stuff)" and probably wondered what that was all about. Well, the time has come to fess-up. It's our mail. And paperwork. And random, miscellaneous things that have landed on the table in the past couple months and not been picked up. As you can see, the registration is due for my car, and the notice has been in our house for about 6 weeks now. It's due on 2/26, but why wait? Because we can, I suppose.

Augh! Basket of miscellaneous paperwork is coming back to haunt me!

Anyway, the first part of the mail challenge was to make a place for the mail as it comes in. When I posted about organizing my entry table, I fibbed a bit. Well, I just left out some information - the TOP of the table. Nobody sees that, right? Right? Ugh. Wrong. If you look closely, you can see that it's a bit of a mess in the photo from day 2. So, as my momma would say, it's "time to face the music." I'm sorry, there's just no way I can handle going through that basket of stuff tonight, but I definitely found enough energy to make the table top look presentable. And don't worry, the basket remains on my moving list, so it will definitely get done by the end of this project.

The truth comes out! Entry table top mess.

Entry table top, after. Much better.

One thing I did have the energy to cross off my moving list was books. I knew this wouldn't be too difficult because I went through them about 4 months ago, when I moved the 2 bookcases in our hallway. I just pulled out a small stack of books that I'm willing to get rid of to make the move a little lighter.

Books on their way out!

And last but not least, my shiny sink. Angels are singing.

Shiny sink, day 8!

Good night!