Well...I had a nasty head-cold the first part of the week and that set the mood for the whole week: SLACKER. My daughters are having a friend spend the night tonight, so I got up knowing I would have to clean today.
Thanks to the purging and cleaning of the past, it was a BREEZE. Even after not maintaining through the week, I was able to get the kitchen, Living Room, and Bathroom looking just fine for company (I had the kids clean their own rooms last night).
It was also interesting, because I was able to pinpoint some areas that still need more work. Like, I have a set of coffee cups and then saved 3-4 of the old ones, too. I now realize we don't need that many. All we did was let them pile up in the sink.
The childrens' clothes are looking GREAT. I narrowed it down to 10 outfits per kid, so I only have to wash 2X a week, and really only once if I want. I washed all their dirty clothes this morning in ONE load!!! There are still some stragglers in my hamper, but I'm getting through those now. I don't put anything in the drawers until it is ALL clean and can be paired up in outfits before going in the dresser.
Now just as long as no one decides to open MY door, it's all good.
Remember how I said I wanted to follow through with sponsoring a student in Oaxaca? Well, it's in the works! Officially! I had a big sale on my website and sold ...are you ready... $750 in cloth diapers. So, my treat to myself is to send $150 to Oaxaca Street Children Grassroots. My husband says that's not much of a personal treat, so I also bought some rugs for the bathroom. LOL. He says I don't know *how* to buy something just for me. So I had him make reservations for Sunday to eat at the hotel we got married at :) Now I think he's pleased.
And here's the best part- I've already put $250 in savings. That might sound like pennies to you, but I've NEVER been able to save, so to see to that is great for me. I'm making it a challenge to see how much I can have left at the end of the month. I read a tip in a book to write down your goals and keep them near your money. Everytime you start to spend, look at that list and decide if it's worth it, or if you would rather save the money to get closer to your goal. I don't have the physical list, but I'm mentally thinking that EVERY time I make a purchase. I've logged on to a fabric store online about 5 times in the last 3 days and then "x" out when I think of my list :)
~~~~Healthy Eating Update~~~
We've decided to go Organic/Freerange/Humane/Whateveryouwannacallit on our meat from here on out. It's going to take a little adjustment at first- finding places to buy from, so we won't go 100% from the get-go, but within a few months, we should be. We found some farms nearby that do beef, poultry, and pork. We just have to get a freezer so we can buy large quantities to save money. We can get Grassfed Beef at Publix now, but it's $6.99/lb. OUCH. So we are also going to reduce the amount of meat we eat overall. The less but more concept. The "supersize me" mentality we have been raised on is a hard one to beat, but it's our goal. It's especially hard for my husband who is 6'4" and 300 lbs, but I know he can do it. He has a willpower that I could never comprehend. I guess it comes from hardcore Buddhist training. We also feel the Organic meat options will do our Karma some good, but I won't go into our philosophies on that here ;) (they're pretty wierd to most, a mix of Buddhist values and Evolution).
Have a great day!