Clutter

February 21, 2010 – Day 52

Today’s decluttering “session” was this pile of stuff I took out from the hall tree. Ken went through it with me and between the two of us, three-quarters of this pile is now in a box to be given away on Friday when the folks from the Cerebral Palsy Association come by to pick up donations. The things that went back into the hall tree went back organized. Little Bear’s tennis balls are in a small plastic container, his leashes in another, and the few gloves, toques, scarves, etc. that we kept are in neatly folded piles. I love decluttering – I love organization – I love flylady! :-) www.flylady.com

A Shiny Sink

February 20, 2010 – Day 51

Since Tuesday, I’ve been practicing the flylady 15-minute/day declutter “sessions”, and also making sure my dishes were done and my sink empty, clean and dry at the end of each day. However, I delayed cleaning my sink as well as flylady suggests we start with on day one of the babysteps: http://www.flylady.com/pages/FlightPlan_Missions.asp because Ken has been painting the basement walls and cleaning up in the kitchen sink. He’s finished painting now, so I spent some time to really clean the sink today. It’s surprising how much clutter I’ve already been able to sort through in 5 days. Flylady is just awesome! And I had a call today from the Cerebral Palsy Association – they will be in our area on February 26th to pick up donations of clothing and small household items – perfect timing!

Gunky

February 19, 2010 – Day 50

Last week a coworker (Stacey) brought a lunch that looked delicious. I asked her what it was called and if she would mind sharing the recipe with me. Stacey said a member of her family called it “Gunky” one day and the name stuck so that’s what she calls it – and she shared the recipe with me. I made it last night for supper and it was as delicious as I thought it would be! I don’t know the “real” name of it, so “Gunky” it is.

If you want to try Gunky: sauté an onion, 2 (I used 4) minced cloves of garlic, 2 chopped green peppers and 1 ½ cups chopped mushrooms in a tablespoon of olive oil. After about 10 minutes, add ½ cup water, 1 large can of tomatoes, 1 can of drained and rinsed kidney beans (Stacey used black beans and so did I), ¾ cup uncooked wild rice (I used a brown/wild rice blend), 1 tablespoon chili powder, 2 teaspoons cumin, ¼ teaspoon cayenne or pepper flakes (I used both). Stacey added about 1 cup frozen corn so I did as well; I added the corn about 10 minutes before the dish was finished. When everything is cooked, sprinkle cheese over and warm in oven until melted. I cooked this in a large frying pan and just added cheese to the top a few minutes before serving. Stacey said this can be eaten with plain yogurt or sour cream. Ken and I ate it without either but we both thought it would be delicious with tacos, sour cream (or yogurt) and salsa.

Spring?

February 18, 2010 – Day 49

We’ve been experiencing spring-like weather all week. It’s been wonderful but since it’s only February 18th, I imagine there’ll be more of winter before spring is here to stay.

Another Good Book

February 17, 2010 – Day 48

My granddaughter, Ashley, bought me this book for Christmas. I finished reading it on my bus ride home after work today. It’s the first of a trilogy so I have to hurry and find the next book in the set because I LOVED this one!

Ready to Fly!

February 16, 2010 – Day 47

I normally do the majority of my housework every couple of months and when I do, I clean so thoroughly that it takes me a couple of days to complete. I don’t particularly enjoy cleaning that way – in fact, I guess if I were to be honest, I’d have to admit that I dread it – but I never really thought about doing it differently. It’s not so much that I hate doing housework because I really don’t (and I love having a clean house) but what I do dread is the feeling of being overwhelmed with housework and that’s how I feel every time I do those big cleans.

However, I think my method of doing housework is about to change. Christine introduced me to a great idea the other day: www.flylady.com – it’s basically organized housecleaning – bits and sections at a time! I think I’ll start with the baby steps here: http://www.flylady.com/pages/begin_babysteps.asp but with a few modifications of my own. The first step is to clean your sink and that’s it – but since I’m anxious to declutter my house, I’m going to follow fly lady’s idea to spend 15 minutes a day decluttering. I did my first 15 minutes today and yes, I set a timer!

Flylady is on facebook as well; as I type this tonight, there are 52,221 fans of the group!

I’m excited about this new project I’m going to take on so I went to the dollar store today and stocked up on a few new housecleaning supplies and pretty writing pads for grocery lists. I suppose finding a new home for this stuff should be part of my 15-minute declutter session tomorrow! :-)

I’m ready to FLY!

Am I a Hoarder?!

February 15, 2010 – Day 46

OMG - I watched a couple episodes of Hoarders online last night and another episode this morning. The shows shocked and terrified me, because I’m afraid that I very well may have hoarder tendencies! One of my goals this year was to declutter but now declutter has taken on a whole new meaning for me. It now means that I desperately want to get rid of every single thing I don’t need, don’t use or don’t wear! Most of my house is clean and well organized but there are areas where I stash “stuff” – my computer room being the worst. It’s going to take me some time to go through everything I have tucked away in this room but I am determined to do it! I started this morning by going through a stack of papers from 2000 – 2004 and most of those papers are now shredded or in the recycle bag.

The binders on the table are filled with tutorials I’ve printed from the internet and they piled up there because the two shelves I have on the opposite wall in this room are full! I have more binders of printed tutorials (photography, scrapbooking, Photoshop and Illustrator), books, office supplies, boxes of photos, albums of photos and stacks of DVDs with more “stuff” saved on them!

I hope I’m finished organizing and decluttering my computer room, and can take an “after” picture, before this year is over.

From my Valentine

February 14, 2010 – Day 45

This morning Ken gave me a dozen gorgeous red roses and a beautiful card.

For my Valentine

February 13, 2010 – Day 44

This morning it dawned on me that tomorrow would be Valentine’s Day! I don’t know how I lost track of the days but I thought I still had next week to get Ken a card. I wanted to have something to give him tomorrow though so I walked to Save On and bought a card and a little Valentine treat. Ken was none the wiser since he was out snowboarding all morning.

Jalapenos

February 12, 2010 – Day 43

I went out early this morning to do my weekly grocery shopping. I especially needed to buy a couple jalapeños for a new recipe (Mexican Bean and Rice Salad http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Mexican-Bean-and-Rice-Salad/Detail.aspx) that I wanted to make for supper tonight. Ken and I went to Costco last night so I didn’t need many other things. I decided to go to Sobey’s for a change. It’s one of the smaller grocery stores in our neighbourhood and I thought I’d be in and out, and back home, in no time.

Once at the store, I put a few things in my cart but when I got to the jalapeño shelf, it was empty; there was not a single jalapeño in sight. I asked a store employee if they had any in the back but they didn’t.

Since I had to go to another store for jalapeños anyway, I put back the few items I had in my cart and decided to do all my shopping at Superstore. Even though I don’t buy jalapeños often, I notice that they always seem to be well-stocked. And sure enough - they had plenty. I picked out two, put them into a small plastic veggie/fruit bag and into my cart. Even if I would have left the store with nothing besides those two jalapeños, I’d have been happy – because they were the important item of the day.

But I did take the time to go around the store to gather the other items I would need for the upcoming week and returned home. After I’d put most of the groceries away and began to set aside ingredients for the new recipe I was going to try, I realized that I hadn’t seen the jalapeños. I was sure they must be in the last bag of groceries that I didn’t put away yet. I checked – and they weren’t there.

I double checked the other grocery bags in case I overlooked them when I put the groceries away but they weren’t there either. So I scanned my receipt. No jalapeños! I know, without a doubt, that I had them in my cart – but I think I had them in that upper part (where kids sit) and they must have fallen through the cracks at some point while I shopped.

In any event – I didn’t have jalapeños for the recipe. I knew I’d have to go out again to get some, even though I had no desire whatsoever to do so. It turned out that I didn’t have to – because Ken offered to go out and buy them! Hooray Ken!

Edmonton's Art Gallery

February 11, 2010 – Day 42

On April 30, 2009, my picture of the day was of Edmonton’s Art Gallery which was under construction at that time. The work is complete and the Art Gallery opened to the public on January 31st.

Homemade Bread...to Come

February 10, 2010 – Day 41

I want to learn how to make healthier breads such as: multigrain, whole wheat, seed breads and sourdough so I ordered a couple of bread cookbooks to help teach me. I’m also hoping to take a multigrain breadmaking class or two at the Bosch Kitchen Centre with one or two of my sisters in March or April. I would even like to learn to mill my own flour. One of the lawyers at work (on another team) does all that and she’s a great inspiration to me! She has both of these cookbooks, recommended them and even loaned me “Whole Grain Breads” over the weekend. I loved it so I ordered a copy (of both) for myself.

Snow "Moval"

February 9, 2010 – Day 40

Our street was cleaned today. To be more accurate, the snow was scraped from the center of the road and pushed to the sides. I'm pretty sure this was the only time they scraped the road this winter, even through the worst snowfalls (and awful roads) in November and December.

Project 365 - 2009

February 8, 2010 – Day 39

I spent many hours, over the last few days, working on my 2009 Project 365 album and finally finished today! My next goal is to catch up on these first few weeks of my 2010 Project 365 album.

Hard at Work

February 7, 2010 – Day 38

Ken did some work on the car today.

Ready for the Oven

February 6, 2010 – Day 37

Here’s my first Hutterite chicken all prepped for the oven. I tried a new recipe I found online for rice stuffing (with pine nuts and raisins). It was perfect! I also made Honey-glazed carrots with Rosemary, a new recipe from the Wholefoods Cookbook I ordered from Amazon last week. Everything was exceptionally delicious and I’ll be adding these new recipes to my list of favourites.

We ate supper with our movie tonight so I didn’t have to worry about finding healthy snacks.

Baseboards

February 5, 2010 – Day 36

Ken bought baseboards for the basement today.

New Cookbooks

February 4, 2010 – Day 35

When I got home from work today I was excited enough to clap my hands and shout hooray a few times when I saw that my book order had arrived! I’ve been collecting cookbooks for at least 30 years – and I knowwwww that I gave away an entire shelf full of cookbooks over the last couple years but, but, but… I justified this purchase by convincing myself I needed more healthy recipes for my new healthier lifestyle! Note to self: give away two cookbooks from the full shelf of cookbooks that I still own to make room for these two.

I love ordering from amazon.ca – they are so fast (I ordered late Sunday night) and they are far less expensive than any of the bookstores in the city.

Basement Renos Update

February 3, 2010 – Day 34

Ken started priming the basement walls yesterday and finished today. It took a while for him to get to this stage but he did a perfect job of the drywall, taping, sanding and priming! It’s becoming easier to imagine that this is going to be a livable space one day.

Wonderful Step Parents

February 2, 2010 – Day 33

Once my stepdad (Ross) knew I wanted some chickens and eggs from the Hutterites, he went right to work to get me some! A couple weeks ago, Ross contacted a guy he used to buy eggs from (years ago) at the colony outside Westlock and they arranged to have some ready for him to pick up today. Ross and his wife Marg drove out to the colony, picked up the chickens and eggs and brought them to me this afternoon! While they were visiting, I took this picture of them. What a wonderful family I have!

My sister Darlene, Marg and a couple of her kids decided to buy some chickens and eggs as well when they heard Ross was going to pick some up. In total he bought 20 chickens and 15 dozen eggs. I took 5 of the chickens and 3 dozen eggs. I’m so excited to cook a chicken on my next day off!

An interesting thing Ross told me was the guy he bought the chickens from told him that he has an order from a doctor in the city for 150 chickens. Ross asked him what a doctor does with so many chickens. The guy said he sells them to his patients - says he believes the meat is that much better than store bought that he goes to this effort on a regular basis for his patients!

Spinach Salad

February 1, 2010 – Day 32

I had a spinach salad for lunch today. After I took this picture I drizzled the salad with a little of my current favorite dressing: Costco’s Oak Hill Farm’s Vidalia Onion (that my cousin Carol introduced me to through her Project 365 last year).

Healthy eating and exercise is paying off – I’ve been completely off my apo-triazide (water pill for borderline high blood pressure) for 9 days now. My blood pressure continues to be fine and I’ve lost 13 pounds (so far)!

Lush

January 31, 2010 – Day 31

When I got home from my day out yesterday, I put away the things I bought from the Farmer’s Market and left the other things I bought on the bottom step to take upstairs the next time I went up. Ken went upstairs before I did so he picked up the things to take up with him. When he picked up the bag of Lush goodies, he said, “The things in this bag smell good!” I was quite impressed that he noticed. I wanted to take this picture before I used any of these smell-good treats but I can’t wait to use at least one of them tomorrow. In retrospect, there are a couple more things I’m wishing I would have bought as well – so I’ll have to make another trip one day. My cousin Shanda manages the store so if you go in, say hi from me.

I love the mission statement of the company. It’s printed on the back of the paper bag and these are my favourite parts:

“We believe

…in making effective products from fresh organic fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.

We believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not conduct or commission tests on animals and in testing our products on humans.

We invent our own products and fragrances, we make them fresh by hand using little or no preservative or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients and tell you when they were made.

We believe in happy people making happy soap…

We believe in long candelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume and the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again…”