There are two kind of men who don’t understand women; they are bachelors and husbands. : ) : )

Jill

Over the years we have been swamped with emails about cleaning schedules, day planners and getting organized so recently we finished our e-book, Plan It, Then Do It! Reduce Stress With Better Organization, that hopefully covered everything under the sun. (It will be released next week) I don’t have the time or the energy to answer every question so we try to put these things into something like our e-books to help everyone.

As in Dining on a Dime, even though we call them e-books, they are jam packed with huge amounts of ideas and tips. In the same way that so many now use Dining as their kitchen encyclopedia, our e-books on each different subject are like encyclopedias on their individual subject.

I wish I had room to put more on the blog from Plan it and Then Do it but here are a few micro mini pieces from it to give you some ideas. Remember this is only the highlights of one small section, in the book itself I give lots of examples to explain the different steps below, I put in there personality cleaning types, practical aspects of making a schedule, and how to actually stick to one. I also put mine and Tawra’s daily schedule and lots of neat charts and outlines for you make your own, print or to follow ours.

This book is for those of you (like me) who hate schedules and can’t get them to work and for those of you who love schedules and can’t live without them. Watch next week as we are planning on having it for sell in the newsletter.

Hope you like this sneak peek and helps you get a start.

My life was such that I couldn’t even schedule an hour ahead of time, let alone a day, week, or month. Like many of you, I tried everything and nothing worked until I discovered a couple of things. The only way I can think of to explain these is to show you several examples of what did and didn’t work for me.

1. I made my own plan.

It wasn’t perfect at first, but I kept tweaking it over the years and now it works great for me. Figure out what, when, and where works best for you and then do it.

Before I go to bed each night, I look at my calendar and see if I have any appointments for the next day.

I open my little notebook and write down the 5-6 things I either need to do or really want to get done, other than my normal activities (fix breakfast, wash dishes, laundry).

3. Work the schedule.

Part of the problem isn’t so much the schedule as it is not using the schedule. The same problem exists with menus. Women say, “I need help with making a menu,” but if you think about it, how hard is it, really, to write down a list of 4-5 foods to eat? It’s not. It’s that we don’t want to do what goes along with the menu - going grocery shopping, putting the food away, cooking the food, cleaning up afterwards. This causes many of us to get a mental block about making out a menu. The same thing can happen in relation to a schedule.

Often, once we write something down, we feel guilty for not doing it. It is easier to say, “I don’t know how to do it,” or, “I did it but it didn’t work.” By doing that, we are not really giving ourselves a fair chance at making a schedule work. Have you ever told a child to do a certain job and the first thing he says is, “But I don’t know how!” even though you have shown him100 times how to do it. What he is really saying is, “I don’t want to do it.” We do the exact same thing when it comes to schedules.

It is a matter of honestly looking at what the real problem is. Making a schedule or writing out a menu isn’t hard; we just don’t want to do what we write down.

4. I don’t write everything down.

I have a problem with schedules that say, “On the third Monday of each month, wipe the fingerprints off the walls.” First, I don’t want to have to look at those dirty fingerprints for a month while waiting for it to show up on the cleaning schedule. Second, next month I may have no fingerprints at all, so what do I do with my day then?

I have found that for the amount of time I spent telling myself why I couldn’t do something, or for the time I took to write it on a schedule, I could usually get it done. This is especially true of small daily things. Time yourself. Most things take very little time. For the amount of time it takes for me to think and write down, “I need to clean off those fingerprints,” I can have it done.

5. I found I didn’t need a schedule for most things.

I don’t really need to write down on my schedule to:

Eat breakfast

Get dressed

Everyone knows they can’t walk around naked all day and since I love my food there is no way I would forget to eat breakfast. So why write it down? I do realize that when you first attempt scheduling, you may have to write down the order in which you want to do things. I’m merely warning you not to overcomplicate things. Don’t allow your schedule to become a crutch.

(I also know the “get dressed” is for those of you who would stay in your pj’s all day, but that’s a whole different book!)

6. You will have to try different things.

My poor daughter has struggled like I did trying to find a plan she could follow. Some friends suggested she vacuum the whole house on Monday, dust on Tuesday. It just wasn’t working. She finally figured out that what works best for her is to pick one room or two small rooms and clean one room really good each day of the week. Of course, she does the usual “daily things” like dishes, laundry, and making the beds, but she adds one room for each day. It isn’t as overwhelming to her.

Jill

I did a couple of small things today I thought might help you with some quick cleaning ideas. I see so many people with these plastic scrapey things always scraping away at counters and it never really dawned on me that I have never really had to use one before and didn’t know why until today.

One of the main rules of professional cleaners is to let your cleaning products do the work for you. With out realizing it my mom taught me this many years ago when I started doing dishes. I always rinse my dishes then place as many as I can in the hot soapy water in the sink. Before I start my dishes I take my dishrag that is super wet and soppy and run it quickly over all the counter tops and stove. Not really wiping it just getting water a nice film of soapy water on it.

I then wash my dishes. When done I wring out my dish rag well and re-wipe the counters. Every bit of pancake batter, syrup, honey or what every wipes right up. This works every time and I never have to scrape. Now I don’t do this every time I do dishes. If we only have sandwiches I know there is probably not much sticky on the counter so wash as normal.

Years later this worked for me even better because it forced me to put all the dishes in the sink and get my counters cleared. When I had unexpected customers or company even though the dishes weren’t done the counters all looked cleared and nice.

The other thing I had to do today was clean my trash can. I took it out side, filled it full with soapy water and a little Clorox. I stuck the lid to it into the water and a broom that needed cleaned, let them soak for a couple of hours. Went out later and all I had to do was rinse them. I didn’t even need a rag or anything. All that nasty sticky stuff that gets in the bottom of the trash can just dissolved away.

When you can let things soak.

Jill

I’m still here and so is Tawra. I will be posting things on the blog still and so will Tawra from time to time. We aren’t completely gone yet. Things will be getting a little more hectic with me running out to help Tawra but I am still trying to keep up with things.

Tawra just wanted to warn everyone in case you don’t hear from us for one or two days or even a week,  you know we just have our hands full. We may not be quite as quick in dealing with things. Three nights out of the past five, I have had only 3-4 hours of sleep and Mike is in close running with me, so if I make a few spelling mistakes please be patient. I couldn’t remember my name this morning but I was able to crawl out of bed so I was glad for that. HA!HA! : )

Besides dealing with Tawra, we have not gotten much sleep because of tornado warnings the past couple of nights. It’s a good thing I don’t panic too easily. I was on the phone talking to Tawra while they were trying to round up the cat, dog and kids and squeeze into the tornado shelter. Then an hour later I was talking to Tawra’s brother on the other side of town, telling him they just announced his family needed to head for shelter.

About 11 o’clock my son called and said their pond was almost flooding and at the same time I ran to check my basement and had a sheet of water rolling down the wall and flooding the carpet. Things aren’t too bad. Let’s say I’ve seen worse. It is more of a pain then anything. That’s why I am on the blog right now till I decide how to deal with it.

Anyway I said all of that to say we are still here and functioning (I think). : ) I am so gratefull because we could have had it much worse.

Jill

PS Just so you know Tawra is holding her own. She is laying on the couch eating bonbons and watching Mike and I run around like chickens with our heads cut off. HA!HA! Not really but she is doing good as long as she stays down.

Keep a handful of tools in a kitchen drawer or on a shelf for those small odds and ends jobs you are forever needing them for. Just save  a shoe box, maybe a foil box with the lid cut off or something like that. In it place a small hammer, screwdriver, pliers,  wrench. In the same box or a separate one keep ruler, tape measure, flashlight and scissors.

Don’t fill it to full just a handful of basics. One year for Mother’s Day I asked for a set of pink handled tools for me to keep separate in the kitchen from my husband’s tools. They said if you do this you will never loose them because the male members of the family would not be caught dead using them.  Something in that must be true because I have lost a good deal of my tools from my manufacturing business but 20 years later I still have all of my pink handle ones. : )

Another handy tip for the kitchen is to place a magnetic strip someplace handy for small paring knives, can openers, potato peelers or any small metal item that could get lost in a drawer. I also place these thing in small boxes in a drawer if I don’t use a strip. It saves so much time digging for things.

You really don’t need a fancy expensive drawer organizer to get things in order. I love using all sorts of different shaped boxes that would get thrown out anyway and I can custom fit them for my own personal needs.

Jill

I meant to share this quote with Tawra Thursday and forgot.

“There cannot be a crisis this week; my schedule is already full.”

Jill

Well, just after I announced in Thursday’s newsletter that I could go into the hospital any time, I did.

I went in to see my OB and my blood pressure was really high so they put me in the hospital for observation.

Of course, when I got there my BP was fine but there was a trace of protein in my urine. They made me stay to check my urine for 24 hours. I was feeling fine most of the time I was there and all the contractions had stopped, so I thought it was probably for nothing.

Well, it was and it wasn’t. I was/am fine at the moment but I had a higher amount of protein in my urine than I should. The doctor is pretty sure I’m right on the verge of Preeclampsia.  A normal protein level is 30, mine was 254 and, according to the doctor, 300 is Preeclampsia.

They did a sonogram and the baby still looks healthy but I’m only 31 1/2 weeks along so his lungs aren’t developed yet. If we can keep him in another 2 ½ weeks, that would be very good.

My blood sugars aren’t going down with the diet. The doctor gave me a long lasting insulin shot and that’s not working either, so I have to go in on Tuesday and will start the meal shots. So far the shots aren’t bad at all, AND I AM GLAD!!!

So far the diet has been very easy and I haven’t really had any cravings or anything which is wonderful.

I also went to the diabetic class on Thursday (before the OB) and it was interesting. It all boils down to good old calories and portion sizes.  We get so many complaints from people saying how it’s just so hard and expensive to eat “healthy”.  I have yet to figure that out!

If you just eat some veggies and fruit with your meal and don’t eat 5 Grands biscuits at the meal, you can eat perfectly healthy.  Veggies aren’t cheap but they aren’t that expensive either.  We will probably write more on this later, but it was interesting to hear what “normal” people eat on a regular basis. No wonder some grocery bills are so high!

So that is the news so far. We will see how I am on Tuesday. I’m on strict bed rest right now. I was going to try and finish up a book we were working on but, to be honest, I am getting really burned out with the business so I am not going to do it right now. And that is fine because I have several Grace Livingston Hill books I want to catch up on. That will keep me entertained for 2 days! ☺

Tawra

You have all probably heard by now to spray the inside of your measuring cup with something like Pam to make honey or molasses slide out better, instead if your recipe calls for oil measure that first and then measure your honey or molasses. It saves a step and makes your Pam last longer.

I have taken it one step further and almost never use a measuring cup to measure things like honey. I use an ice cream scoop instead. It is exactly 1/4 a cup and with the little scrapy arm thing on the inside it gets it all out very nicely.

For you new cooks if you need to use a flour sifter never wash it. Store it in a plastic bag until your next use. Flour sifters rust very easily and washing them can ruin them. If for some reason you really must wash them make sure you dry them well. Place them in a warm oven to do this.

If you are out of toothpicks and need to test a cake, use a piece of uncooked spaghetti.

When you have small amounts of jam or jelly left, set the jar in a saucepan of hot water and melt. Use it for glazes on meats like ham or pork chops or for sauces on pancakes, waffles, puddings and ice cream. They would be great poured in a smoothy or milk shake for extra flavor.

Jill

We have all had it happen to us. We have hungry hollering kids. We run to make a quick sandwich for everyone but we have no bread. Don’t panic. Make them “monkey sandwiches” Slice a banana in half length wise, spread with peanut butter and sprinkle with raisins or coconut.

I think kids will eat peanut butter on anything so you could also spread it mixed with a little white corn syrup on soda crackers or on leftover pancakes from breakfast with a little maple syrup. If you think the syrup is to much just remember it isn’t a whole lot different then putting jelly on a peanut butter sandwich.

I also love peanut butter on an apple and celery. If you do have bread, put some lettuce instead of jelly on their sandwich. As odd as that may seem it really isn’t any different then celery and peanut butter.

Here’s a recipe that puts all of our favorite things together and is to die for.

Peanut Butter Banana Brownie Pizza

1pkg brownie mix

1pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter

3 lge. bananas, peeled and sliced

1/4 cup coarsely chopped peanuts

Chocolate sauce.

Prepare brownies as directed on the box. Spread on a greased 12 in. pizza pan or cookie sheet. Bake 20 mins. and cool

Mix cream cheese, sugar and peanut butter until well blended. Spread on brownie. Arrange bananas on top of cream cheese mix and then sprinkle with peanuts. Drizzle with chocolate sauce or melted chocolate.

Jill

The winner or the Worn Out Woman book is:

AxLady.

Thanks to everyone who entered! Tawra

Now that you have everything moved out of the garage. Clean it. Sweep away the cobwebs on the wall and ceiling and sweep the floor. If you can afford it hang dry wall or do one wall this year and another wall next year. Buy or build shelving if you can and if you need it.

Decorate your garage. Yes you heard me right. Do you know how much time we spend in our garages? Some people see their garages more often then their kid’s bedrooms so decorate it. Paint the walls, hang cheery curtains at the windows and have a bright cheery rug at the door.

Put like things together when you are putting them back on the shelves. Lawn care items on one shelf, tools in another area, decorations, sports equipment etc.

Be ruthless. Do you really need 25 screwdrivers? Do you have 15 1/2 empty cans of paint? Pour a small amount of paint into a jar to save for touch ups and get rid of the rest. Unless you are a contractor you probably don’t need 5 buckets of nails.

I love saving newspapers, boxes and containers but the reality is I can only use so many each year so I have a section of shelf where I keep a stack of newspaper, when that is full I get rid of any more that come in. I do the same thing with boxes. I have a certain area I keep them in and when it is full I save no more.

Place things used least on the top shelves and hard to reach places. Label, label and label. Label all sides of the box or container.

Don’t pack the shelves or boxes to full and tightly of the things you use often so that it is easier to get them in and out.

Think up. Get hooks and other things and use all of that high up space in your garage.

Keep a trash can in your garage. One main use is that every time you get out of your car grab the trash from there and you have a handy place to toss it.

With colored tape or paint, mark off “parking” spots for your kids bikes and toys.
Well this is just the tip of the ice berg. I have so many more tips and ideas but time and room is forcing me to quit. Plus I need to really stop writing this and get out there and get busy cleaning my garage. : )

Jill