File It!

Organization 101. I'm taking baby steps and my first step last week was to organize my paperwork. All of it! I have small piles of paper all over it seems like because I don't know what to do with it and I have other places where paper is stashed because it seemed like a good place to put it at the time or there wasn't anywhere else that it could call home. It drove me crazy!

So last week I set out to get all my paper corralled in a file box. I started with a plan. Something I had never tried before! I wanted a limited number of categories, but I wanted them to be meaningful so here's what I came up with:
Red Folders are Active Files
Yellow Folders are Personal files
Green Folders are Home and Property
Blue Folders are Financial
Purple folders are Taxes and Legal Papers

Then I decided what would go in each category. For example the active folders contain to do cards, gift cards, unopened mail, tickler files with a folder for each month - stuff like that. The Active folders should be reviewed on a weekly basis. Personal files have notes, decorating clippings I want to keep, goals and that kind of stuff. Home and Property has several folders that contain warranty and user guides, a home inventory file, bank loan papers, etc. Financial folders contain a folder that has each month and I drop all receipts for the month in it. And finally the Taxes and Legal Papers have copies of wills, estate papers and our annual taxes. Stuff like that.

I don't know that it's a perfect system, but here's what I do know. If you ask me to find a paper related to something and it's filed, I know where it is. I'm still finding a few of my paper stashes around and filing them has been really quick and not something so much dread.

That in itself feels good. and you wanna know a secret - it's one of those things that I sneak peeks at when I need some motivation.

Next up - the bathroom/hall cupboard.

So...A blog

Why a blog? I guess to hold me accountable and to share my journey maybe some fun along the way.  While I would think that I'll talk about alot of topics on here...I think I'm going to focus on some major themes for awhile...

• Weight loss - I have about 70 lbs to misplace. If I can lose my keys on a nearly daily basis, I should be able to lose a few pounds each week. 
• Home cleaning and organizations - Yikes, don't even ask. We'll start at the front door and move toward the back of the house.
• Cooking - I'm not great at this, I'm okay at this. I want to be better at this, my family wishes I was better at this. I also want to build in some variety. We'll look at meal planning, dish prep, keeping it simple..
• Family - I'll talk about Stink-eye and hubs.  We can laugh and cry together.  I probably need alot of advice. Love 'em both and they are a big part of my life, how can we not talk about them.  They can read the blog if they'd like. 
• Gardens and plants - I am growing my first garden this year.  And I planted a few flowers.  I'm more excited by the function of the garden than the beauty of the flowers. That's probably my bigger focus on growing.
• Canning, projects, trying new things - so I can alot in the summer and fall. We'll talk about it. I have a house that has no walls in it, we are working on that, but a few things have to be done first, like insulation and wiring - I hate all that, but get to help...so we'll talk about bringing it back and then making it a home. And we'll try some new things that I haven't done really well yet.
• Whatever else we think of.

BTW, I will take pictures...I'm not a photographer. I don't pretend to be one, and I don't play one anywhere.  But I think blogs are  more fun with pictures.  Maybe I'll learn some stuff about that and I'll get better, but for now, they are just pictures.

Prayers for Jace - audio file assignment

I had to record this audio for a class that I did in 2007. I did this project with/for my son and the original audio file has disappeared, so I'm keeping it here. Feel free to listen to it.

Please click here to find the audio file Prayers for Jace.