Structure - with a giveaway!!!

I should have called this post All Over the Place, because that is where we (you and me, if you're reading this) are about to go. I have about a bajillion things I want to get down in writing and I'm sure they will be All Over the Place here in a short time. The thoughts in my mind are jumbled around like a wordle!!

Should I number them...no there is not rhyme or reason, just the order in which I decide to type.... I'm sure I'll get off track a few times anyways...


As some of you may know, most of you do not, but you will now, I am going to spend a month this summer in Durham, North Carolina at a place called the Structure House. In short, it is a residential weight loss treatment center. Their "brochure", which is actually an 8 1/2 X 11 glossy, 12 page book with about as many "additional information" pages tucked away in the back cover, begins with this statement:

Without structure - a plan, a design, an organized approach - we can lose
control over our eating, our lives, and our health.

I think I can say that I need structure. Structure House offers a psychology-based approach to weight loss. They not only focus on what to eat and how to work out, but the take a whole body, whole lifestyle approach to gaining structure in your life. I know for some, my husband included, you don't understand the struggle, and therefore do not understand why I feel I need to go to this place. To be honest, I don't care, that you don't get it. I do.
There is WAY more to my "unstructuredness" than not eating the right foods, and not getting to gym enough. I know I have medical issues that hinder my progress, or my speedy progress. There is progress, it is just much slower than the average Joe Joann. Any ways.....this place is not free. It actually costs A LOT of money. So, since we don't have A LOT of money we are having to find it. Now we've looked under the beds, in the bottom of the washer, the sofa cushions, and the floorboard of both cars. Truth is we didn't find enough. I was quite shocked at how much I did find the other day when I cleaned out my closet! ($25 in coins alone! - that's another part of my wordle....I'll get to it later.) So to make up for the gap in funds we've started taking a much closer look at what we spend, how we spend, and so forth. Can I say WOW!! For different reasons, about 13 months ago, we began using a free online program called mint.com.

Shannon signed up for it about a year ago when we were looking for something new to help us set up a budget. Side note: we ended up using Mvelopes again, but didn't stick with it quite like we had hoped (lack of structure?). We've tried Mvelopes several times and we've dropped the ball every time. Anyways, we recently revisited mint.com because the simplicity of it would help us keep on track and help us focus on what we were shooting for this time. We looked at it today after having been with the program for a year, and Shannon discovered that we spent A LOT of money at Starbucks last year. Now, those of you who know me, know I love me a Latte in the mornings, and sometimes afternoon, and we do take family outings to the "coffee shop" as Landon calls it, quite frequently. Actually we are on a first name basis with almost everyone who works at the one by our house. They finally learned my name, and stopped calling me Shannon's wife, a few months ago! Landon can spot a Starbucks for miles!! And he will point it out. I know people think we are crazy when our 3 year old says, "I want my coffee!" Actually when we go to Starbucks his "coffee" is a boxed organic chocolate milk!

Funny Story - not related to this post - stop me if you've heard it: On
the first Monday we went back to school after the Christmas Break I had to wake
Landon up to get ready for school. He did NOT want to get out of
bed. I woke him up slowly and put him on his changing table to change his
diaper and get him dressed. (yes, still in diapers at 3, I'm not going to
let it bother me!) With his eyes still closed, and in a sleepy voice, the
first words he spoke that day, "I need my coffee!". I about fell over
laughing, such a Daddy's boy - and a Momma's boy - hey, he comes by it
honestly....back to the story.

You know what? I'm not going to tell you how much we spent at Starbucks in the last 13 months, I'm going to let you guess. In the comments, take a guess at how much this family spent at Starbucks last year!! A free Starbucks to the person who gets the closest. (and a card to those who live far, far, away! - honestly!) You too will be amazed. I'll reveal the madness in about 1 week. Someone remind me to do that, ok?

So, I'm trying to find structure in my life. This goes WAY beyond eating. I liked Angie's post the other day, it hit home; she often does that to me. One of the things I'm trying to do, is make priorities a priority. Meaning, usually logging onto the computer is the last thing I do each night. And then when I boot up if there is any WORK that needs to be done, it is done first, then facebook and blogs, and all that other fun stuff (notice the lack of posts in the last few weeks). I have been making it a point to not turn the computer on while Landon is awake and be completely engaged with him until he goes to bed. Sometimes this means he helps me with dinner and laundry. He loves it. I know for many this seems strange, why this is not natural for me, but it's not. I wish it were. Truly wish it were - with all my being. I will share the domino video, I mentioned in the last post, later (it just doesn't fit here, and I'll get to this again later - full circle). And when Shannon is home on weekdays, I try not to log on until we've had time to chat, and just be with each other. I have a friend Laurie, she inspires me to try and be a better mom, wife, and just a better person in general. We have a running joke about laundry....I digress...
I've always (for several years now) had 3 laundry baskets in my bathroom, whites, darks, and rainbows. This was my first attempt, long ago, to keep up with my laundry. Let me just interrupt to say, I HATE DOING LAUNDRY, you'll remember this laundry pile, I still get flack about that! Well, the problem was I wasn't in a habit of doing laundry until the baskets were full, or overflowing into each other, in most cases; and onto the floor a time or two. So, I bought smaller baskets, baskets that hold one load of laundry. Now they are not as pretty, and don't match the decor, but we all have to make sacrifices! And, now I make it a point everyday to do at least one load of laundry. And the laundry NEVER goes back in the basket. When I take it out of the dryer, I fold, put on a hanger, and put away everything that was in the dryer. Doing smaller loads has helped too. Not having to cram a ton of stuff into the washer just so I can get caught up.
Part of the reason I didn't do it this way before was because my closet was a mess. I mean a REAL mess. I couldn't wear about 1/3 of what was in there anyways. So the other day, at about 9:30 at night, I began the process of cleaning out my closet. I stayed awake until about 2:00 AM and got MY SIDE of the closet cleaned out, organized, and functional. I ended up with three trash bags full of stuff to donate to Frisco Family Services, lots of it still with tags on. If I couldn't wear it right then, I tossed it (except for my maternity clothes - I still hold out hope, and a few sentimental items). It was three trash bags full, really should be about 6 bags, but I crammed them really full - I can hardly pick them up! Shannon's side (notice I didn't say HALF - it's less than half) has always been in better shape than mine. Organizing a closet is a personal thing, he can rearrange if he wants. His really isn't that bad to start off with. I SOOO wish I had taken a before picture. There is no way that you can appreciate the way it is now until you saw the way it was, but anyways....

First glance

Everything organized and in a certain order!

My morning station - I have some motivators here: A wedding picture, a picture of the night we got engaged, the photo of the way I looked in Costa Rica on those dang zip lines (not a good look for me)

That out of season rack - shorts (all but 3 pair - it can still get really warm in the winter), my maternity clothes - I still can hope!, and a few sentimental items (the dress that I wore in the before mentioned photo of the night we got engaged - that's my GOAL outfit! - I want to be the woman Shannon proposed to!), some Tri Chi shirts I can't part with, and some other random things that should probably really go, but I didn't mess with it at 1 AM.

These pictures were taken this evening, almost a week since I organized, and it is still organized!!!

But, this helps me. It helps me feel like I've got structure in my life. Well, my closet anyways.

So let's see, we're getting structure with our finances, I'm getting structured with my time at home, my closet is showing signs of structure; we are making some progress here!

--JUMP-- (just a warning, I'm completely changing the subject here)

I'm a list person. I live by a To Do list. I have several. One for home, one for work (school), and one for my photo stuff. I'm a nut about my lists. I type them up on the computer, but add things in writing a they come up and need to be added to the list. After a while they start to get messy, jumbled, disorganized, so I modify the typed list. It's the same list, I just delete the things I've done and marked off the list (usually with a big bold maker, so it stands out, it makes me feel better that way) and type in the things I've written in by hand. Now the list is clean again. I do this about once every week or two. What's worse, is I keep my old lists (the one for work anyways) just so I can look back and see what I've actually done with my time. So when my boss, Cheryl, asks me in my evaluation at the end of the year what I've done all year, I can show her!! Oh, and yes, I do add things to the list that I've already done, just so I can mark it off. I take pride in good list!!!

On the same mantra as the lists, I have this card system I started several years ago. I have a card for each cleaning task that needs to be done on any given day around my house. I think I've mentioned them before, but let's visit them again, just for the heck of it. If something needs to be done, say, twice a week, like vacuuming the carpets in high traffic areas, it gets two cards. I assign those two cards to two days of the week. If something needs to be done every day, it gets seven cards, and a card is assigned to every day. You get the idea. I organized the cards in a file box that sits on the kitchen counter. Each day, hopefully morning, but honestly not usually until the evening, I pull out the cards for the day; usually about 4-6 cards and place them on the kitchen counter. As I do a task I put the cards back in the box behind the tab for the day so that they are ready for next week (putting that card back in the box is just as satisfying to me as marking something off my list in big bold marker!). Works pretty well, when I do it. I go in spells. Since doing a load of laundry is a card for every day you would think I wouldn't have that problem, but I do....Structure? It usually only takes me about 20 - 30 minutes to get all the cards done, if I just get it done! Dishwasher day is the longest, and it happens a lot. You get the point...This has helped me wind my day down, just before I get wound up again when I log onto the computer!! After Landon is put to bed (the first time), I begin the cards, since it usually takes him about 30-60 minutes to actually stay in his bed, and go to sleep, I have that time to work on getting the cards done. I get the kitchen cleaned up from dinner, I pick up all the things that were misplaced during the evening, I finish up the load of laundry, and try to get things ready for the next day. I am terrible at not putting things up when I'm done with them. If I finish a drink, I'll leave it right where I finished it. If I use a pen, I leave it where I used it, and don't put it back in the pen tub in the drawer next to the phone where it belongs. I hate this. I want to try to put things back when I'm done, but it's hard to break 33 years of bad habits! I'm working on it....This cleaning up before I "go to my room" in the evenings has started helping me. If I put it away when I'm finished, then I don't have to take the extra step at the end of my day to put it away. I try to tell myself that during the day; I forget sometimes.

---JUMP---

That domino video....The other night Landon and I made a domino line. I can't count the number of times we knocked it down before we got it finished. Oh man. But we had fun doing it. I finally learned my lesson and every so often I would remove about 4 dominoes from the line so that if when it was knocked over by mistake it wouldn't take the whole line down with it. So, we finally got them all set up and bam.....What fun.

Yes, I know I'm a dork and I turned the camera sideways while taping. I'm sorry, I forgot that the video couldn't go poitrait mode....I get on to Shannon for doing this all the time. I just wasn't thinking at the time. But you got the idea. I think we set up the smaller sets about 10 times!!

I know this post didn't go quite like I had imagined, but, oh well. I know there was more I wanted to say, but it's really late, and I need to go to bed.