Hooked On....Planning

I am all in the planning mindset with school almost over for the summer. I would call this my summer plans but I think some are going to take more developing than that. Here goes....

1. Hubby and I are going to come up with a value scale for the girls. Since the oldest is 7 she gets $7. The Middie is 5 so she gets $5 each week. The trick will be to keep all that money. For instance (we're still working on developing this) if they don't hang up their towels after bath they lose $0.25. If they don't put their dirty clothes in the basket they lose $0.50. What money remains at the end of the week they actually get and can use as they wish.


2. I am going to actually buy the Twilight series so I can reread them (that is what everyone has said I need to do before I move on to some other series). Then I think I am going to get the Sookie Stackhouse series and see if I like those books. I am shocking myself that I WANT to read - thanks to the Twilight books!


3. This summer I want to digitize as much of my teaching arsenal as possible (scanning papers and organizing them on my external drive). AND I want to set up my Blackboard (the district's web server for educational purposes - like a specifically formatted, hosted web page) for my classes next year (which I hear right now is all Chemistry).

4. Organizing a binder for my coupons and getting serious again about couponing.


5. I hope to try more new recipes to add to my cooking routine. Many great recipes here and here.

I have all sorts of other plans floating around in this graying head of mine but many depend on the house up north selling so I can find a house here and and begin 'living' in a dwelling again (I haven't hung any pictures and somethings I refuse to unpack since I consider this a temporary establishment for us even though we just signed our lease for another year). I do miss my scrapbooking very much. :(


Don't forget to drop in to Hooked On Houses to see what others are hooked on this week..

On the same page....

DH and I had a nice little chat this morning (he was folding laundry and I was cleaning the kitchen - housework make the heart grow strong, lol). We talked about how when we do get to buy a house down here (see, positive thinking again...come on St. Joesph and since I am giving shouts outs to the Patron Saints....St. Anthony, what's up???), we wanted to be selective of our our purchases for it since we have been living with WAY less down here. (Moving from a 4 bedroom house to a three bedroom apartment, will do that to ya!) So some things we mentioned and agreed upon (getting this in writing so an not to forget...):

1) The office/computer room is going to be kept "show ready". We were both guilty of keeping it junky with papers, computer parts, trinkets, and other odd items but when we got the house into "show mode" once on the market, it really felt like a nice room to be in. It was light and airy feeling. Decluttered but homey. One of the things that I think helped was to cover the the stainless steel kitchen cart thing that DH used to house several of the computers (including our server...yes, we have one for our home...I don't argue...his deal...every one needs a hobby, I guess and there are a lot of worse things he could be doing). I used a silver grey piece of fabric and for being a monsterous piece it looked quite pretty after that. So for that room we need things to be hidden.

2) In addition to that I must store more of my teacher stuff elsewhere (like at school) or get rid of it. I had the whole closet in that room (the first year into the house DH put shelves in that closest so I could store my book s 2 or 3 deep. The closet was overflowing!) So, to help alleviate that one my part I plant to scan and digitize as much as possible. Colleagues of mine both past and present have down this and I think I need to b/c they always prove to be so organized with their stuff as opposed to me saying "I have this activity somewhere.....I'll see if I can find it" and then proceed to thumb through gazillions of files and books searching for it. Those said colleagues have organized their documents by topics too so that if textbooks change (and they always do every few years) or I change subjects/levels (as I seem to do every few years) I can still use my resources instead of being locked into the text supplementals or starting back over. I guess I am growing up. lol

3) When we purchase new furniture we will purchase a room's worth instead of mix matching AND we will NOT purchase a couch or couch like item from Lazy Boy. Recliner...maybe. Our couch - this first BIG piece of brand new furniture we bought ourselves 2 years ago as a custom order - SUCKS!!!! Service was poor while purchasing and delivery too. Warranty my foot! The padding had been worn down to where on certain pieces of the sectional it feels like you are sitting directly on the frame portion. Where the recliner piece's rip cords are (hidden between pieces), it has always been painful if you sit on that joint in the wrong way. There are more complaints we have but I will stop there for now....it would actually need an entire post of its own.

4) We want to have an idea of what and how we want each room before we go purchasing items so that we don't 'settle' for things. (Remember my post about trying to decide what I want for the girls' rooms?) We have been bad about that in the past. :( I think it is because we were both brought up to make do with what we have and not want for things we our families never had a lot of spare money anyway. We settled for the house up north. We actually wanted a basement and this one did not have it. We knew it was a fixer-upper and won't make that mistake again either. We learned a lot but it is someone else turn for that - we're too old. lol This reason is why I obsessively watch the home shows and follow certain blogs so I can get a mental picture of what I want. The problem is I don't have a set style (at least I don't think I do). If I had to classify my housing taste it would be modern country. See what I mean? I like the homey feel of country charm but not all the useless clutter so it has to have a modern flair or twist that is streamlined. Yeah, not hard to please. lol

Feels like I have already done a ton work today thinking about all these things. And I still have papers left to grade. hmph...

My master plan, bwahahaha......

The wheels have been turning and so these thought begun.

Things I want to remember to execute in the near future (hopefully).....

1) I want to purchase 3 large fluffy towels in 3 different shades of pink. Then have each of the girls' names embroidered on them (one name per shade - I will assign these). That way they have one towel to use, a clean spare one and an extra for "emergencies". I will do the same with big fluffy white ones for me (i like to bleach mine) and Big Daddy is settling for a beige color (he'd prefer black or dark blue but that will not go with the mental motiffe I have for our master bathroom in our new house once we sell our old one and purchase a new one here).

2) I am going to buy a cute binder and baseball card insert holders to clip/organize coupons more effectively. My pile system does not work but I know the binder does from seveeral other Mommies like those here.

3)I am going to make a chore list for the girls for the summer and if their chores are not done, not matter how badly I want to go to the beach or pool or park or library or other super fun outing, we will not go.

4) I have discovered today the best way to avoid confrontation when nagging orders to my children is to tell them ONE thing to do at a time and then CHECK to make sure it was completely properly. I have deduced that they have the short term memory span of a goldfish. Since my mind is always multitasking I tend to give multiple directives and this has not worked in the past. Today (so far....knocking on wood) one thing at a time is working. Ahhhhhhhhh....

5)Since I already have the school supplies list for my soon-to-be Kindie girl, I am will buy a few school supplies each WM/Target visit, that way I can shop sales and not spend a fortune in the middle of August. Maybe my soon-to-be second grader will get her list and I can do this shopping once.

6) Before school starts in August I will have a budget/idea for each of the girls' fall birthdays. We have one is September and 2 in October. Again easily a small fortune could be spent on these.

That is all for now...I am having writer's block....I will continue later when the hamsters start moving again.