Organization is not my strong suit. I have tried in vain through the years to improve this skill. I have bought several books, calendars, spent hours working organizing organization systems, yet nothing seems to work longer than a few weeks. A few years ago, I bought an HP Jornada 720 PDA off of eBay in hopes that it would be the answer to my organization woes. I tried using it but still found it not to be what I was looking for. I bought a mini-laptop that still didn’t fit the bill. Now I am back to the Jornada PDA to see if it works better now for me.

The PDA hasn’t changed but now I know what I need for an organization system. I need a device that boots up fast and that I can jot down my ideas. I lose so many great blog post ideas because of when the idea strikes me. It is usually when I’m riding in the car or somewhere else that would be awkward to pull out a computer. The PDA would work well in these scenarios. It is also small enough to fit into my purse.

Even though the tech is at least ten years old, the Jornada PDA may be the perfect fit for me. I normally don’t ‘dial back’ to older technology. I keep the Sega Saturn but never play it as with the Sony PlayStation 2. I am glad that I kept the Jornada even though I thought about selling it more than a few times. It seems I have finally found a solution to a problem that has plagued me for a while.

Today is Earth Day, so I thought I’d share some pictures of the flower gardens at both my house and my mom’s house. We both like to re-purpose items in our flower garden.

This is my homage to college life where cinder blocks and 2x4s make great entertainment centers and/or bookshelves. We had milk crates – which are also pretty awesome and versatile. This also reminds me of the cheap bookshelf you can buy in “The Sims.”

I also re-purposed some salt and pepper shakers that were in storage. They are too cute and now I can enjoy them.



My Mom is way more creative with her re-purposed items.

When pots no longer hold water, then they are perfect for flower pots since they already have a draining hole.



This is my favorite – it’s a flower bed complete with iron headboard.



It’s been a lot of fun playing with the flowers this spring. I’ve done a lot more than I thought I could thanks to re-purposing.

Sunday we will have our traditional Easter Egg Hunt at my parent’s house. We usually have about six kids, and I try to have at least a dozen plastic eggs for every child. Each plastic egg is stuffed with something small like a piece of candy. This year I’m contemplating leaving out the candy but need more ideas for plastic Easter egg stuffers. Here are some ideas that I may try this year.

Money – Good ole money. A small amount of change in each egg could add up to a few dollars. It’s also something I have on hand in the change jar. The less I have to buy, the happier I will be.

Small toys – One year I used a bunch of McDonald’s Ty Teenie Beanie Babies egg prizes. Those worked well and were a huge success. It helps to have the larger plastic eggs though.

Homemade items – The one polymer clay item I can make is small mice. My daughter loves them and some may find their way into eggs this year. They are easy to make since they are made up of balls.

Stickers – It seems we have a ton of stickers. This would help thin down our collection and make a nice egg stuffer.

Treasure Hunt Clues – One idea I had is to hide a golden egg somewhere outside of the egg hiding parameter. Then put clues into the eggs to its location. This would mean the kids could work together to find the golden egg and the big surprise. Yes, I’m totally inspired by ‘Survivor’ on this one.

That’s all the ideas I have. What about you? What do you use as stuffers for plastic Easter eggs?

This week of spring cleaning has been an indoor and outdoor affair. Sadly the cleaning has been mostly outdoors, but at least you can see progress. It does have me inspired to add more curb appeal to our home. A small patio would be great for grilling and for hanging out. These small upgrades remind me that any improvements we do to our current home will help us when we sell it.

While we are not in the market to buy a new home, I can’t help but to check out house prices. It gives me an idea of what homes are currently on the market and their prices. Plus it is good research to learn what homes sell for in our community. That will be important information later when we are selling our home.

Home improvement projects add to the value of a home. Outdoor living space is very important to us and to many people. Making small improvements like adding a flower bed or a few trees can transform a plain backyard into something special. Our outside decorations are sparse and many are recycled. Old lumber and cinder blocks can make flower pot benches. Ceramics work well for lawn accents. It saves us money while also reusing items.

Now that I have been working in the yard, I am not so scared of new build homes that have very little outdoor character. In fact, working with a blank slate might be a fun, exciting project. It is an option that I never would have considered before developing an interest in gardening. There is just something very rewarding about adding your own curb appeal to your home. Not only can your family enjoy it, but it is an investment that you can bank on when it is time to sell your home.

This past weekend we went out of town, so yesterday I dragged a little and didn’t get started on my spring cleaning plan. Today I will start. I have a list and am ready to start tackling it.

Yesterday’s agenda is all about the living room. I rearranged some furniture, move some out of here, and hopefully make more usable living space. Next plan to work on some of our clutter that is in storage. My mistake when going through boxes that haven’t been touched in months is sorting out what to donate and what to keep. Now I will have two piles – throw away and donate. If I haven’t used it in 6-12 months, then I’m not going to use it. There might be a few items I keep but only if I know I will use it sooner than later.

Spring weather is still here this week – so I have to take full advantage of it. Soon enough it will be just hot with no reprieve from it. Let’s hope I can get done what I haven’t been able to do in three years. I do have to admit that I’m more motivated now than ever before to clear our clutter.

Our clutter depresses me. When I’m depressed, I do very little. It’s a vicious cycle because I feel my mood will improve if the clutter is gone. Next week I plan to tackle spring cleaning. You would think that for Lent I gave up cleaning. It is time to reclaim our living space from our stuff!

This weekend is the day when you can take all of your household garbage that you wouldn’t put in your garbage for recycling. So I’ve been gathering up old computer monitors, furniture, paint, and other clutter. I’d rather stay on point with that instead of starting spring cleaning this week, too. Besides, we are going out of town for the weekend, so it will be nice to hit spring cleaning after a lovely weekend getaway.

I have decided that I’m not a cook, so it is pointless to keep all of these cooking pots, pans, food processor, bread machine, etc. in my kitchen. These items will be put into storage since at some time in the future I may want to use them again. I just don’t see that day being any time soon.

Also, I want to clear all the clutter from our computer desk. I’m switching out the printer table with a smaller one and have already move some nearby shelves. I want a blank slate that will hopefully help me work better. I’m always distracted by the piles of stuff. It’s just a reminder of what I need to do. To hold myself accountable, I do plan to blog my progress each day and to read one of the few de-cluttering books I have floating around here. So, I develop a plan this week and execute next week. Then maybe we will have our house in order. Miracles still happen, right?

Thanks for the article from Robin Woodard

I was watching Oprah last year when I saw a piece about how Jessica Seinfeld worked fruits and vegetables into her kids’ meals. I thought this was brilliant! My kids won’t even think about eating a vegetable, so it was only natural that I decided to start pureeing them and adding them to foods they already eat. I looked up some recipes online using our home internet connection from Wirelessinternet.net and found that the best place to start was pasta sauce. I’ve been grinding up cauliflower and carrots and adding it to spaghetti sauce which my kids already ate without abandon! The neatest trick I found was adding spinach or beets to brownie! s – my kids didn’t notice the difference! I feel a lot better about their pallets getting used to the subtle hint of vegetables and this way, they won’t be so offended when I start them on whole foods. My next step is to mix vegetables in so they can see them, in stir fries or omelets, and see what kind of reaction I get. It probably won’t be pretty but I’m closer than I was!

A couple of years ago, my husband made our daughter a sandbox. She played and played in it. Then she was playing less and less in it. Finally the cats begin to take it over as a huge litter box, so a plan was formed to turn it into something else – a flower garden.

It is lovely although I may be partial since I planted a lot of the flowers. My mother loves flowers and so did my grandmother. In fact, my grandmother had a nursery. I am finally developing a love for planting flowers. I learned something today – when transplanting flowers, loosely break up the roots. Don’t completely loosen them up. Who did I learn this from? My daughter. She has probably planted more (with Mamaw) than I have my entire life – so I will follow her advice.

Printers are perhaps the most frustrating thing ever created. Their task is so simple and they function correctly 99% of the time, yet when you need them the most they invariably break down causing tears, frustration and network cable related injuries. The only way to fix this is with a new printer – or by trying out a few simple tricks.

Getting a new printer is always a good option for several reasons: they are cheap, use less ink and break down very rarely. Indeed, new machines will function well and smoothly ensuring that jams and breaks hardly ever happen: printer engineers are well aware of the angst caused by malfunctions and have done their very best to minimise them. If you get a new printer you will definitely notice a significant difference.

If you do have a break the first thing to do is look for a paper jam – these happen quite frequently in old printers as sheets bend and get caught in the mechanism. You can solve this issue by opening the compartments of the printer and fishing out the offending sheets. Be careful when you do this and be sure to pull the paper gently – if you rip it you will be left with dozens of tiny jams rather than one big one.

You may also have issues with your cartridges. This can occur with regular and colour laser printers – in this instance it is best to use your computer to do a print test which will identify how much ink you have left. If you turn out to have too little ink you will have to run out and buy a new cartridge. You can best avoid this problem by buying a high-quality printer as these use ink very efficiently.

These are two good solutions to most printer problems. If they fail you can resort to the tried and true method of turning the power off and on, or by giving the manufacturers hotline a call. Above all, think about getting a new printer as with prices where they are there is no real reason to let an old printer hold your happiness hostage.

Easter candy is by far the best candy of all the holidays. I always enjoy looking down the Easter aisle. I love the packaging of some sweet treats even if I probably wouldn’t buy or eat it.

My daughter eats very little sweets, and this year I’m on Atkins. So the sweet-treat-buying-this-Easter will be very limited. It is kind of depressing to wait all year for super sweet treats and then not fully partake in them. A cheat-on-my-diet-day may be in order.