Category — Household

When I was in high school, my parents and younger sisters started an avocado tree from a seed. The last couple years in their house in Kenya, they enjoyed avocados whenever they wanted them. Ever since we bought our house 2 years ago I’ve wanted an avocado tree, but figured we wouldn’t be here long enough to enjoy the fruit. And I’m cheap, so I didn’t want to spend the money on trees.

Today is my father-in-law’s birthday (Happy birthday, dad!!), and next week is my mother-in-law’s. So last Saturday, Lauren and Meredith and I headed to Lowes to buy them an avocado tree for their birthday (nothing like living vicariously through others.)

Much to my delight, the avocado (and mango) trees were on sale for half off. So I was able to get a mango and avocado tree (and a bag of Black Kow) for what I had been planning on spending on one tree.

And then I splurged and got my very own 4 foot tall avocado tree. I was so excited.

Today Pam called me from Lowes – the mango and avocado trees were an additional 50% off (or the lady at the register was very confused.) So she picked up another avocado tree for me, as well as a mango tree.

I’m really enjoying working on our yard, planting flower and trees. The morning glories the girls and I planted from seeds a month or so ago are doing great – it’s really fun to see them grow and flower and remember the kids planting the seeds. How cool is that!!

I am an author on our women’s ministry church blog, Craving Grace.  The last two weeks we have had an organization theme.  So if you’re interested in some organizing tips, check it out.  This is the first article, you can find the rest under “theme weeks.”

Pam and I wrote half the articles, so you can still feel like you’re reading my blog. 

I’ve been on an organizing campaign lately. It began subtly – frustrations with my messy house, getting tired of not being able to find certain things, feeling like I couldn’t ever “get it together.”

I was reading Feminine Appeal a few months ago (an excellent book on Biblical womanhood), and the author recommends “continuing education” for being a wife and mom. So I thought, what should I learn more about. Hmm . . . let’s try organizing and de-cluttering.

I borrowed a couple books from the library, but none of them really helped. But then I heard about Confessions of an Organized Homemaker, and my life has not been the same since. I read this book like it was a novel, and took notes on things I wanted to implement along the way. Then I recommended it to Pam, and she did the same. So now we’re spurring eachother on to greater organization.

Some things I’ve done:

1. I’m using Erik’s old PDA to organize my time – all appointments, etc. go in there with all the details. So for example, instead of keeping a copy of Erik’s trip itenary, I can just put all the info in the PDA and throw the paper away. I check it at least daily to make sure I’m not missing things. I also have my grocery list in there, and am experimenting with having my dinner menu listed as well.
2. I’ve been going through rooms one by one and throwing away, giving away, and reorganizing. And while I’m doing that, I put everything that belongs elsewhere in a pile, and put it away later so I don’t get distracted going to another room (and then start doing stuff there.)
3. I put a book shelf in the garage (on our way out) with a place for stuff to return to others or the store, a place for shoes, a place for my diaper bay and our swim bag.
4. I got a bunch of bins from Target and reorganized my pantry – put like things together, etc.
5. I got some box flats from throw away boxes at BJs and put one on each freezer shelf. Now I have a pull-out “drawer.” One for beef, one for pork, one for veges, etc.
6. I tried spreading my chores out over the week, but I think I do better doing most of my cleaning in one day while I’m “on a roll.”
7. As we’ve been packing for Pam’s move, we’ve been labeling each box (on the top and all 4 sides) with the room it is to go in and it’s general contents.

So anyway, I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I’m making progress towards being more organized and less cluttered. But don’t worry, I don’t think I’ll ever become too organized.