Organized Home Challenge Healthy Meal Planning & Creating Grocery Shopping List

Welcome to my second week of the Organized Home Challenge.  I’m eager to see how this challenge will go.  I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but since Mike does the shopping, it’s a little trickier to make sure this all goes to plan, but we’ll try it out 🙂

Step 1:  How often will you make a mean plan?I’ve decided to do this on a weekly basis.  This way we only go shopping once a week.  I can look through all the flyers once, and work this into our “budget”.  Yeah, that’s our first problem – we don’t have a grocery budget 😦  Mike is in charge of the finances, but I’m sure he’d love it if I’d be proactive about contributing to cutting the fat on our expenses 🙂

Step 2:  Which meals and snacks will you plan for?I’m going to start by planning for each meal and snack.  That may change when summer vacation and homeschool begins, but for now, all meals are being planned.

Step 3:  Decide if and what kind of assistance you’ll need with meal planningI’m going to just do it on my own because I know what my family’s likes and dislikes, and how to hide what they don’t like :)I am however using the Pantry Inventory List and Freezer Inventory Form.

Depressing Diagnosis

It’s been an incredibly busy day.  In the first half of the day I joined my Kailer during his psychiatrist appointment.  It went really well for the most part.  The doctor was very approachable and kind, and didn’t make any of us uncomfortable.  The reason I pushed for this appointment was to have a professional to take a look at Kailer and his history, and see if he may have developed Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) as a result of him having ADHD.  The doctor didn’t diagnose him today, which is good, because he still doesn’t know Kailer.  He does seem to think Kailer is heading in that direction though, and has made his first pit stop at Depression.  With this diagnosis, he prescribed Fluoxetine – better known as Prozac.  Fan-freakin-tastic!  I don’t think so 😦  He wants me to put my 9 year old son on an antidepressant?! Although this drug has been around since the 1970s, I suspect it wasn’t meant for children.  Kailer is already on Concerta, and the main side effect for him is a loss of appetite.  One of the side effects of Prozac is also loss of appetite.  Um…did anyone read Kailer’s chart?  Wow.

Now, I’m no expert, and I am by no means saying that depression doesn’t exist.  Depression is real, and it’s painful to live and watch.  Now, having said that, I am pretty sure my Kailer is not suffering from depression.  He does have low self esteem, but that and clinical depression are two very different things.

The doctor told me to start Kailer on the Prozac this weekend, but I won’t be doing that.  For now I’m researching like a maniac and collecting the opinions of others.  So feel free to let me know what you think of this.  Thanks so much.

52 Week Organization Challenge – Day 2

January 6: Declutter kitchen gadgets / cooking tools

Honestly, my kitchen is probably the room in my house that I like the least.  It brings on feelings of inadequacy, because I’m not a good cook or cleaner, and the kitchen requires lots of both.  So maybe it’s time to take back the confidence that the kitchen drains from me 🙂  Today’s a really busy day for me, but I’m sure I can get this done.

52 Week Organization Challenge – Day 1

Welcome to Tackle It Tuesday!  It’s my first day doing this 52 week challenge.  This week’s challenge is to Organize Coupons.  Since I don’t collect coupons, this mission is lost on me.  I assumed there would be weeks like this, which is why I have my daily mission calendar as a backup system.  This way, I can do missions that are essential even if it’s not the day for it.  Today, I’ve chosen to do the January1st mission.

January 1:  Set up a donation and selling collection station

This is fantastic, because it’s exactly what I NEED to do regarding the amount of clothes in my home.  Well, off I go!  I’ll post before and after pics for your entertainment as I go along, so feel free to check back here throughout the day 😀

It doesn’t look all that impressive in the pictures, but I actually sorted through a whole lot of clothes – 1 bag is going to the MCC, and the 2 bins in the closet are going to be sold.  Then I hung up Kaleb and Kayden’s clothes that currently fit them.  This is taking a while today, because it’s so cold today that school was cancelled, so Kailer has a friend over, which means I have 4 kiddos at home instead of the usual 2, and Kayden’s cranky, which adds nicely to the chaos 😀

UPDATE:
The closet is almost perfected.  The bin on the right is clothes that need to be sold, and I’m going to put Kayden’s clothes in the dresser instead of cramming both boys’ clothes in the closet.

Home Storage Solutions 101

Well, I’m at it again 😀 If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a stumbler.  If you’ve watched the video in the previous post titled Adult ADHD (with video), you may have a better understanding as to why.  I have a competitive nature and I love challenges, but staying on track with a challenge that lasts longer than a week seems to be difficult for me.  Yes, I am a stumbler, but I am also tenacious, which means that I will always get back up and try again.  It’s kind of like getting fulfillment from running into a wall over and over, but until I find something that helps me break through that wall, this is how I roll 🙂

Anywho…I’ve found a site with a fantastic organization challenge.  It’s called Home Storage Solutions 101.  The author offers a 52 week step-by-step organizing to-do list.  The benefit to me is that she offers weekly email prompts.  I’ve also downloaded her calendar with daily missions.  She also offers printables & check lists, which I LOVE.  So, beginning today, I am going to take her hand, and let her lead me through this process, that I want to accomplish so much.

Adult ADHD (with video)

Yesterday I came across this lecture by Dr Russell Barkley.  I respect this man’s research into ADHD, and the wonderful way he teaches.  I’ve watched his other videos on childhood ADHD, and it opened my eyes in a big way as to what my Kailer goes through on a daily basis, and I became far more compassionate.

For years I’ve felt like a complete life failure, but putting what I feel into words was the hard part.  The only way I could explain it is that I’m at point A, trying to get to point C, but there’s just no point B, so I remain stuck.  Dr. Barkley has take everything I feel and go through, and put it into words in a way that I even understand myself more.  It’s absolutely fantastic!  Currently, I look at myself as a failure, but after watching this video, I feel hopeful.  I’m excited when I think about what my life could look like if I could follow through, and accomplish even half of the things I want to do.  Finally, thereès hope 🙂

14 Days Of Valentines – Days 1-4

Alright, so today is the 4th day of February, and more importantly, the 4th day of my 14 Days Of February project.  Yes, I am going to attempt yet another project.  I began small:

Day 1:  Encourage Mike on purpose sincerely, whenever I get a chanceThis was a lot of fun, and I felt blessed each time I said these things out loud, because it also made me extra thankful for those qualities in him.

Day 2:  Compliment Mike, and tell him why I chose to adore that qualityAlthough Mike portrays confidence, he is insacure about some things.  So this day on top of complimenting him on things he knows he’s good at, I made a point of complimenting him on his qualities as a husband and father, and also his physical atributes.  His cute little sheepish grins were awesine ti see.  It felt really great to honor my husband like that.

Day 3:  Do things for him that I KNOW  he appreciatesThis day, I chose to play with his hair while we drove home from the city.  I used to do this, and it completely relaxes and destresses him.  I used to do it when we were dating and we had a small compact car.  I stopped when we got a van, because it was awkward to reach across to him.  But now that we have a car, I find it easier to do again, and know ing he enjoys it so much is insentive enough  🙂

Day 4:  I choose to do something for him that he appreciates, even though I don’t want to.Today, I’m cleaning the house.  This is one of my weak areas as a wife, but it’s really important, and more than that, it makes Mike so happy.  So off I go to clean.  Ug  🙂

I didn’t want to commit to this project, because of my track record with these types of projects.  After my last doctor appointment, I’m going to try really hard to fight the failure.  He did a mini ADHD test, and I answered YES to each question  😦  I felt horrible.  Am I forgetful, don’t complete tasks, lose things, am unorganized, drift off in though…It was really hard having to sit there and realize something is wrong, and I myself may not have the copassity to fix it at this time.  I’m working on it though 🙂  I wasn’t going to post about this procect, but it’s only 14 days, so I should be able to complete this one.  Besides, it’s for Mike, and that’s enough to keep me on track…I hope 🙂