Broken Rules

Write about 5 "rules" you break with some regularity.

1. Go to bed early. I say every night I need to go to bed at a decent hour. Yet, here I am sitting up on my computer either checking e-mails or digital scrapbooking. Problem is that by the time I get the kitchen cleaned up it's 10 pm and then that's when I have some free time to myself. So really I'd rather be creative then sleeping. Most nights I stay up till 2 pm. That's the time I actually finish what I am working on.

2. Plan Meals. I so need to start planning my meals and grocery lists weekly. I do shop on a weekly basis, however, I don't plan my meals. When it is time to make dinner I'm always struggling to get something made in what little time I have to prepare it. Meanwhile, my kids are snacking on snacks and by the time the meal is ready they won't eat it because they are full from crackers or pretzels. I have tons of magazines and cook books but they are just not organized. I started to put recipes into a 8 x 11 notebook divided into categories so if I want to make a recipe again I can go to that notebook. Most times I'm missing an ingredient and then I'm searching the internet and most meals are over an hour long to make. It just doesn't work for me. Will it ever get any easier?

3. Stay on top of the laundry. I used to have a teenager helper that came 3 times a week to help me with the children's laundry. She would fold it and put it away. But now that she is no longer with us I am always behind on the laundry. The children have 2 laundry baskets. One on the first floor and one on the 2nd floor. Since my girls always take their cloths off in the middle of the night (I know use duct tape and put the pjs on backwards) which I do but they still manage to escape their cloths and pee in their bed so I'm forever changing sheets and blankets on a daily basis. I wound up purchasing an extra sheet set so if I do get behind on laundry at least I can rely on the back up.

4. Junk Mail! The amount of mail we receive daily is really outrageous. We receive at least one or two bills a day and then about 10 pieces of junk mail and magazines. Most of junk mail is from credit cards offering us other incentives that I have to shred. In New Jersey we have to recycle all our paper which includes junk mail so I shred anything that has our names on it. This can get overwhelming at times when I have a basket that piles up with all this junk! Not to mention magazines that I can't possible read because there is not enough time in the day to read them.

5. Decluttering. I so need to declutter my house. I say it all the time. I try to follow flylady but then get sidetracked and overwhelmed by all the stuff we have. My garage we used to be able to have 2 cars in it. But now since the children are here we can only fit in one car and the other side is filled with stuff we don't really need any more like strollers, high chairs, toys etc. I know have a garage sale but who has the time! I just put out an e-mail to the MOMs club to see if they know of any consignment shops so I can get rid of this stuff and maybe one day we'll get our 2nd car back into the garage.