Fridays Fave 5

I can't believe how fast 2008 just flew by me. I know I'm posting this late but last night I had to do my work that I didn't do on Tues due to a technical problem. Here are my favorites from the past week.

1. Quite Christmas Eve. My parents took my kids for a sleep over so they'd experience the excitement of Santa coming and leaving them presents under their tree. Since we don't celebrate Christmas in our house it was a big thing for the kids to get presents from Santa (aka my parents). Anyway, it was very quite in our house and we were able to sleep late Christmas morning without being woken up by screeching little ones. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make love due to Aunt Flo visiting. Oh well, maybe next time.


2. New Thirty One Tote Bag. I got my new Cindy Tote bag for Christmas which replaces my old tote which was falling apart from Target or was it Walmart can't remember where I purchased it originally. Anyway, I got my new tote for half price for hosting a catalog party from Thirty One. I even got my initial on the bag so now you can call me Laverne just kidding. I got the insert for free. Now everything has a place. It's a bit larger and taller than my older tote so can't fit into the draw in my laundry room where the older tote went so need to make another home for it. But now when I open up my tote I can immediately find anything. This is especially important when I'm driving and need to get my phone, a piece of gum or whatever I need at the moment. I even have room for a book, a magazine and my new planner.


3. Baby Albums. The excitement of the kids looking at their baby scrapbooks were pricely during New Years Eve. The noise level was loud as they kept asking questions. Remember they were in the NICU and had lots of wires on them so there were many questions of why they looked like that. This was the first time they saw all the work I put into the pages I made for them. Each child has 2 books with photos of themselves in them. One book is their first year and the 2nd book is their 2nd year. They were done the old fashion way with paper scrapping and are 12 x 12 in size. Their 3rd and 4th year were done digitally and I moved to an 8 x 8 size instead.

4. New Filing System. I am determined to get organized to relieve some stress in 2009. There are some things that just aggravate me and filing is one of them. I hate to file. My old way was to file by account. I hated doing this so the paper would pile up until I got fed up and finally filed everything. As I was reading my many blogs that I subscribe to I came across an idea of making monthly files. So as I pay the bill for the month I just plop everything in the January folder instead of piling the stuff on top of the filing cabinet. I think this may work better for me. The yellow folders are my monthly folders. Then behind that I have Account (listing of all my accounts, phone number and balances), Classes (dance/gymnastics), Coupons, Photos, Library, School, Auto, Home, Medical, Bank, Taxes. In the very font red folder is for pending stuff. All of 2008 has been pulled out and filed away. This box is under my desk.

5. Pantry Makeover. I reorganized my pantry. I took everything out of the bottom with the help of the children and rearranged everything with like items together. Cleaning supplies to the left and Food to the right. I also sorted items with like items on the above shelves. This is the before photo. It was quite messy.


After I organized:
Thanks to Susanne for hosting, please visit her site to see more fun Friday Fave Fives!