Pinterest Projects

Pinterest Projects

Making the Most of Summer...

Well, if you are like me, your Pinterest boards cite your ideal home, IKEA furniture spiced up with cool accent pillows and easy-sewing projects, homemade cleaning products from nothing but vinegar, water, and lemon juice, and a ridiculous number of chocolate delicacies.

And if you are like me, you spend way more time on your couch, on your iPhone, on the laptop, in front of the tv, chasing after your children, cleaning up after your children, feeding your children, and...oh...work, than you do trying to organize your life like Pinterest says you can.

Simply, if you are like me, you live in a world of perfect imperfection, always dreaming about that organized closet, those cute organic perfect elementary school lunches, and those fabulous non-Pintrosity peanut butter cookies which claim to only have 36 calories each.

But why just dream? Why not make those boards a reality?

No, really. I'm not kidding! 

You know all those pins that inspire you to tackle just one chore per day, one extra chore per week, a special chore every month? Well, this is like that plan. But, here, my plan becomes a reality.

So, follow me as I make the most of my summer... One week at a time. One project at a time. One step at a time to an organized me... An organized happy home. New recipes. New school projects. Making everything just a little bit better...a little bit easier.

How will I do it?

Well, first of all... I am a teacher. I am "off" during the summer. That helps. I put "off" in quotation marks because half of my time in the summer is spent on what I'll call...professional development. I never...never get anything new done in the school year. August is a rush of paperwork followed by a year of stress, parents, children, administration, things that must be done... and then it ends in a rush of paperwork on May. So, a lot of the projects you will see on this page will be school-related. Specifically, 1st grade. I have created a to-do list for myself and set myself a goal of FIVE school projects completed each week. One week down in the summer so far, and I've already crossed off ten... of course, I left the harder, more complex, time-consuming ones for later...so we'll see how this one goes...

Second, besides my school projects, I am attempting to tackle ONE new thing a week. Because I'm off, I'm tackling each category each week. Although, if you are living in the real world, you may just want to stick to one task per week period. My categories are: school, food, cleaning, and organization. This means, each week, I will attempt to accomplish at least five new school projects, make at least one new recipe, complete one deep cleaning project, and accomplish one organizational task - say, a closet. We're not talking rip my closet out and start from fresh here...we're talking cleaning out, reorganizing, and labeling kind of things.

Third, I am setting up a to-do list for myself each week. I am one of those people. I need to-do lists. I put things on there like my daughter's mommy-and-me swim class, storytime at the library, a date at the park and The Cookie Store, making bread, cleaning the bathroom, etc. Sometimes, when I am feeling especially unproductive, things like "get out of bed," "watch Bubble Guppies," and "make and eat lunch" appear on my to-do lists. That way, I always get something crossed off for the day. :) So, on these to-do lists, I am putting all of my projects for the week as well. Sometimes an entire project may be completed in a day. Sometimes, I may break it into several small projects across the week.

So, that's the plan... 

And here is how I've already started. Try this. I swear it is motivational.

This morning, I went around to the most unorganized places in my house and took pictures. It was painful. You know when you do something fantastic in your house and then think, "I should've taken before and after pics!" Yep. Well, you should've. In my next blog, I will post my pictures. Then, they will be out there for the world to see...and that will be even more motivational. Letting you see all of the most horrible places in my house where papers are stacked up, files are overflowing, and expired prescription medications are covered in dust and cat hair. Yep, I'll say that's motivation for wanting to make things in my house look nice. The unorganized places were mostly closets and cabinets - the master closet, the guest closet, my daughter's closet, all the bathroom cabinets, the linen closets, and of course, under the sink. The pantry, also a gigantic disaster thanks to Publix's BOGOs. 

So, here we go...

And without further adieu, here are this week's projects:

School: (We'll get into this later...)

Food: (lots of them here - I'm feeling excited about these this week): 

Summer Corn Salad

Falafel "Burgers"

Greek Pasta Salad

Fresh Salsa (I just bought a mini food processor last week and am in LOVE)

Chickpea Tomato Salad with Basil

Cleaning: 

Couch, Chair, & Stool Cleaning - with alcohol - yes, this works... I'll explain later...

Organization: 

Bathroom Closet, including Organized Medicine Drawers

Fridge & Freezer Organization/ Cleaning

School Project Organization (You will see in the pictures on the next blog that currently, all of my "school stuff" is in two huge piles in my bedroom. I need to get all of that out of the way somehow this week so I can really dig into more school projects.)

Wish me luck! I will see you soon!!!