It's all Ginger's Fault and How She's Going to Fix It!

In trying to figure out why I'm lacking in housekeeping skills, I decided I needed to blame someone.  My mom was pretty good at keeping the house in lived in but clean condition (we all suffer from what we refer to as "Balliett piles," the piles we create when we pick up but don't actually put away).  I remember quite a few times where I couldn't do something until I cleaned up, so I know she was trying to teach me, so I can't blame her.  After some thought I was eventually able to pinpoint the blame on one person.

Ginger.

OK, Ginger isn't a person, she's my red laptop computer (the first time I started her, the prompt said "name your computer"....... so I did!).  But she does cause me to get very caught up in the world outside my home without having to leave the comforts of my couch, therefore ignoring the state of my home.  See, I told you it was her fault!

So, Ginger has to fix it (me)!  Here is the plan she has come up with:

• Get my house in order - www.flylady.net is helping with that.  We are also going to make up a chart of daily chores (on Excel) so that all [capable] household members can help with this without me nagging.  The kids helped me make up the list of things they can do.
• Make a rotational meal plan with shopping lists so I stop re-creating the wheel.  Now, if you aren't familiar with www.sparkpeople.com check it out!  It allows me to not only track what I eat, but the exercises I do.  There is a Meal Plan feature which would also give me a weekly grocery list, however, I need to take my family into consideration.  So, using the recipes available or entering my own, I'm making a personal online cookbook.  Since IronFish uses sparkpeople to track his calories and exercises also, he can access the cookbook online also.  I'm putting the dinner plan into Excel also, because sometimes, having it offline and simple is good also.
• Exercise.  IronFish exercises regularly.  I used to.  It is time again.  Sparkpeople is also a great tool for this, I started a 28-day "boot camp" this week.  It isn't meant to be hard core, but get you into the habit of daily exercise.
• Stay on top of the projects I want to do.  Ginger will be using excel again to help me organize my "Bucket List" and hopefully this will remind me to finish projects before I start too many more.  If gifts or etsy things are on the list, I'll make sure to include due dates.
• Not over schedule myself.  www.Cozi.com offers a great online calendar with all kinds of great features to help the whole family stay organized.  There are a lot of great tools within this, I'm still exploring them.

OK, kinda similar to my Domestic Deadline Declaration, but kind of a list of tools to help me (and Ginger) with my goals.  Ginger is going to fire up Excel now, she has a lot to do.....