Getting Organized: Lesson 6

Okay, now to make the BWP (Basic Weekly Plan). Again you’re supposed to do this on a 3X5 card, but I haven’t gotten my supplies yet (seeing as I’m impulsive and decided to do this on a whim). But I’m going to do it here and transfer it once I have all my cards.

BWP
Monday- wedding
Tuesday- wedding
Wednesday- organizing
Thursday- shopping
Friday- cleaning at school
Saturday- cleaning at home
Sunday- Wedding

This really is for me right now very flexible on everything except for cleaning. Friday is the general cleaning day at school. All the students pitch in to get their classrooms and the school looking sparkly.

I do my shopping on Thursday because I have voice that day and inevitably I forget to get out the money to pay. So I do the shopping that I need and get out money at the same time. Of course, if I get organized and remember to withdraw all my lesson money for the month right after I get paid, I may not need to do this anymore. :-)

Tiffany

Perspective

I'm blessed to be able to tutor Tobi in Math on Mondays and Wednesdays. Tobi is very special to me. He was a part of my third grade class two years ago and brightens up every day I see him. Tobi also has Aspergers.

Yesterday we had a very interesting conversation. It went something like this:

Tobi: "Why don't animals have souls?"

Me: "Because that's the way God made them."

Tobi: "But why? I don't think that's fair."

Me: "Really?"

Tobi: "Then they can't go to God. That's sad."

Me: "That's the way God made them."

Tobi: "That's not fair."

Me: "Tobi, do you think God is good?"

Tobi: "Yes."

Me: "Do you think God is perfect?"

Tobi: "Oh, yes. He's God!"

Me: "So don't you think He made things perfectly?"

Tobi: "Well, I still don't think it's fair."

Me: "Tobi, do you think you know better than God?!"

Tobi: *horrified look* "Oh, no, ma'am."

Me: "Don't you think we can trust God to do the best thing?"

Tobi: *thinks for a minute* "I don't understand, but God is perfect, so it must be all right."


Ah, if only I would remember to answer that way: "I don't understand, but God is perfect, so it must be all right.

Praise the Lord for these little ones who so often, and sometimes unknowingly, offer so much wisdom.

Tiffany

Getting Organized: Lesson 5

Hmph, the next lesson is entitle “Press As You Sew”. How did she know I hate to do that!?

Well, she explains how she knows.

Those of us who are “blessed” with being sidetracked often have the attitude of “well, if it doesn’t show, it doesn’t matter.” I’ve discovered that isn’t true in sewing (although I still don’t like to do it) and I have a feeling I’m about to learn it in becoming organized.

Basically this lesson was “It’s going to be tough. Some of it isn’t going to be fun, but if you skip something it will negatively effect the rest of what you’re doing.” So bring on the ironing!

Tiffany

Getting Organized, Lesson 4

Well the next thing is to write down your activity list, but I sort of already did that at the top. So I’ll just use that list for whatever comes next.

*Just a note as I do this. I’m focusing mainly on my room and my classroom. That may/will change once Shannon gets married and Mom and I will again be responsible for the running of the house. So I’ll repeating this process then.*

So now I need to assign frequency to my lists and length it will take to complete it. I’m reprinting my list here for me to see it.

School
1. Trash needs to be emptied Weekly 3 minutes
2. Baseboard needs to be wiped Monthly 5 minutes
3. Math Center needs to be tidied Weekly 20 minutes
4. Surfaces dusted Weekly 10 minutes
5. Books put away Weekly 5 minutes
6. Organize projector cart Monthly 15 minutes
7. Vacuum Weekly 20 minutes
8. Clean desks Weekly 20 minutes
9. Wipe out pencil baskets Weekly 20 minutes
10. Wipe door handles Weekly 5 minutes
11. Clean white board Weekly 10 minutes
12. Clear off desk Daily 15 minutes
13. File papers Daily 10 minutes
14. Reorganize once a week Weekly 30 minutes
15. Send Home papers Fridays 3 minutes
16. Magistra Thursdays 10 minutes
17. Grade Spelling Wednesdays 20 minutes
18. Enter Grades Wednesdays 5 minutes
19. Grade Bible Tuesdays 30 minutes
20. Enter Bible Grades Tuesdays 10 minutes

Home
1. Make bed Daily 3 minutes
2. Dust Weekly 20 minutes
3. Vacuum Weekly 15 minutes
4. Pick up clothes Daily 5 minutes
5. Reorganize once a week Weekly 25 minutes
6. Clean fan blades Monthly 10 minutes
7. Baseboards Monthly 10 minutes

Personal
1. Shower Daily 20-30 minutes
2. Brush teeth Daily 5 minutes
3. Wash face Daily 3 minutes
4. Oil bath Weekly 20 minutes
5. Moisturize Daily 2 minutes
6. Laundry (if needed) Weekly 60 minutes
7. Exercise Daily 45 minutes
8. Track points Daily 20 minutes (total for day)

My mind is spinning just thinking of all those cards!

Tiffany

Getting Organized: Lesson 3

All right, the next task doesn’t look so bad. Write down 5 (no more than five) frustrations on a three by five card. Since you can't see my card, I'll write them down here.

1. I can’t seem to stay organized. I’ll get everything just the way I want it and then one little thing gets left undone and all the work I’ve done goes out the window.
2. I can’t seem to get a good way of keeping track of my points during the day. *pauses to go add lunch points into the online tracker*
3. My finances are not where I’d like them to be, ie. Budgeted and clear.
4. My writing seems to take a side road because I always feel like there’s something else that has to be done first.
5. Not getting to sew as much as I like. I’m going to cheat and put a couple of reasons down here: because when I walk into my area of the sewing room, I feel overwhelmed before I even begin things and I never get organized enough to know exactly what I need and when.

That wasn’t too painful, but I like the next one better. Write down 5 things you hope you will accomplish by becoming organized. Mostly these will just be the opposite of what I have above, but something may surprise me.

1. Keep everything exactly the way I have worked so hard to get it.
2. Be able to lose weight
3. Have a budget and know what it is ;-)
4. Be able to write and polish my ideas into screenplays that might actually look interesting to a filmmaker.
5. Being able to finish all the sewing I need/want to do.

Not too bad. Maybe this won't be too hard after all.

Tiffany

On the road to organization- Lesson 2

The next “lesson” is to get up 30 minutes before everyone else. Um, I don’t think so. I have a medical excuse. With adrenal fatigue, I need to sleep in in the morning as long as possible (I’m already getting up around 5:45, I just simply can’t get up any earlier than that.) However, the reason for getting up earlier is to be able to shower and get ready for the day. I shower at night, so perhaps right now at this stage of my life I don’t need to get up so early. I won’t feel guilty for this…I won’t….I won’t.

Okay, It's Time.....Really This Time

I can't even count all the times I've tried to get organized and stay that way. Now, I'm not a "dirty" person, just an unorganized one. I know this is an area to work on, so here I go!

I'm very interested in "The Sidetracked Sisters' Cardfile" system. But the book isn't in our local library and I'm just not ready to purchase it.

Fortunately I found a site that explains how one lady uses the system. She even has a nice 21 day plan to put it into use. So I began that journey yesterday.

I thought I'd post my progress here. It's going to take me some time, I know. I'm determined not to read everything and just do what I feel like. (That's the method I've tried before and it didn't work....any of the times.)

But I'll post a link to her lesson, a summary of what she says to do and then what I did.

So here's the first lesson.

*Stand in the center of the room and list EVERYTHING that needs to be done in that room.*

Right, I'm at school, so I'll start with my classroom. Then I'll mentally go home and go through my room.

School
1. Trash needs to be emptied
2. Baseboard needs to be wiped
3. Math Center needs to be tidied
4. Surfaces dusted
5. Books put away
6. Encyclopedia put away*
7. Move cubbies in here *
8. Organize projector cart
9. Vacuum
10. Clean desks
11. Wipe out pencil baskets
12. Wipe door handles
13. Clean white board
14. Clear off desk
15. File papers
16. Reorganize once a week
17. Magistra

Home
1. Make bed
2. Dust
3. Vacuum
4. Pick up clothes
5. Reorganize once a week
6. Clean fan blades

Personal
1. Make bed
2. Shower
3. Brush teeth
4. Wash face
5. Oil bath
6. Moisturize
7. Laundry (if needed)
8. Exercise
9. Track points

Because I’m also beginning to think ahead to next year, I’m adding a list of things I need to do before then.
1. Get boxes for the letters of the alphabet
2. Organize Math
3. Organize Letters
4. Organize Letter activities
5. Finish supply list

Now that wasn't too bad. I think I'll go right on to the next "lesson."

Tiffany

P.S. If you want to join me, I'd love to do this with someone!

Another Exciting Event!

I've been waiting to say this until all my ducks were in a row. Now they are and I am announcing that I've been accepted to the Masterworks Festival theatre program. I will be leaving June 21 and getting back July 19. Yep, it's a month long. I'll be in beautiful Winona Lake, Indiana.

During that month we'll be putting on a full production of Our Town by Thorton Wilder. Yes, in four weeks time we will completely cast, direct, find costumes for, and perform a full lenth play. Fortunately I love rehearsing.

It was actually up in the air for a while because the school where I teach is having a conference the first week of the festival. But the theatre department leader was able to arrange it so I can go to the festival for the first few days, leave, go to the conference, then go back to the festival. fortunately I love flying! :-)

So now I'm furiously trying to get everything together to go! I can't wait!

So you see the new arrival is actually needed, ahem, I mean will be well used. And with the SD reader right on the computer, hopefully I'll be able to share some pictures!

Fortunately I love taking pictures. :-)

Tiffany

A New Arrival

As of 1 hour and 30 minutes ago, I became the excited (and somewhat proud) owner of an Acer Aspire One Netbook.

That doesn't really give the right perspective. Let me see if I can find another.

This isn't the right color, I got the blue, but this does give a good idea of size.

Obviously I've only started using it, but I'm having a lot of fun. It's so cute and little. Not the best reason to like a computer, I know, but it really is a great computer. Very versatile and has exactly what I need without the extras.

Thank you for letting me squeal. Oh, wait, I haven't squealed yet. Here it is: SSSQQQUUUEEEAALLL!

Now that that's settle, I'm going to go look at some other things on here.

Tiffany

Hmph

One of the most ridiculous questions I get asked is, "Did you get sunburnt?"

I took the K4 on a field trip to the zoo on Thursday. Summer has officially arrived. It was about 86 degrees with full sun. I got red. Very, very red. But the funny thing was that all these people who knew I had been out in the sun for about 6 hours asked me if I got sunburnt.

My new answer for them....

"No, I just overdosed on vitamin D."

Cheekily,
Tiffany

Possibly, Maybe

I mentioned script Frenzy in this post. I thought it might be fun if I posted an excerpt from it on the blog. I archived it so that if you're not interested, you can just pass it by. However if you are interested in reading it, it's here.

Tiffany

Change in weather

Our family has felt some changes in the weather. If you haven't heard about it, head over here.

Tiffany

School Jokes

Michael: "Why did the plane grow a graden?"

Me: "Because he wanted to see flowers grow."

Michael: "No."

Me: "Because he was going to land and he wanted somewhere soft to land."

Michael: "No."

Me: "Because he was going to pick flowers for his mommy."

Michael: "No."

Me: "I give up. Why did the airplane grow a garden?"

Michael: (pause) "I don't remember the answer!"

Ah, I love these jokes!

Tiffany