The Lazy Organizer

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Today I’m going to share with you one of the most valuable pieces of information I know. How to get invited to parties.  Of course it’s only valuable if you like to go to parties which I’m kind of on the fence about.

So here is  the secret.  Take the following cheese dip to every party you go to and you will always be invited back.  If you subtly make sure all the other guests know that you brought the cheese dip you will quickly get on their party lists and be invited to more parties than you have time to go to.    Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these people really like you for your witty conversation and bring a veggie tray one time instead of the dip because that will be your last party.  Ever.

I would post a photo but I don’t have one and you can probably picture what it looks like. It’s white and cheesy.

Lazy’s Famous Cheese Dip

8 ounces of cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup milk

What I do is put everything in a small crock pot and turn it on low when I get to the party. This gives everyone time to fill up on the other snacks so there is more dip for me. Otherwise people will be shoving you out of the way to inhale it and you won’t get any at all.

Once everything is melt-y I leave the lid off and stir with a whisk.  This is an important step to help it thicken up. Serve with 2 loaves of fresh French bread. You know how I feel about day old bread so don’t even go there. And you might want to hide the bread while you are waiting for the dip otherwise people will eat it plain for some reason and your dip will be left bread-less. I know that for a fact.

I’m sort of joking about the party thing but not really so let me know how it goes for you.

Next time I agree to give a six hour seminar with only a couple weeks to prepare would you please slap me?  I didn’t have any idea how I was going to make it happen but for some reason I knew it would be ok.  It was.  Several small miracles occurred that made it possible for me to do what I needed to do to get ready for it.  Most of them involved me getting unexpected help with my kids.

One of the small miracles was that Stranger was home last Wednesday for several hours.  You might think I used that time to work on my presentation but you would be wrong.  I did something more important.  I went shopping!  I needed something to wear for my seminar and I needed it fast.  Unfortunately being tall does not go together with fast and shopping.

I called Andie, my fashion friend,  in desperation.  She has the sense of style that I am lacking so we stayed up late the night before talking and shopping online.  I’m here to tell you that is the way to do it!  There was no traffic, no children to control and no sore feet.  She told me exactly what I needed, what would look cute and what to order.  She also developed a great deal of sympathy for me.

Please believe me when I tell you I have a hard time finding clothes.  If I find anything that fits I pretty much have to buy it no matter how much it costs.  Stranger just loves that about me.  Wouldn’t you say it’s his own fault for marrying such a tall woman?  I am 6 foot one and have very long legs.  Regular women’s pants have about a 32″ inseam.  Talls have a 34″ inseam. I have a 37″ inseam.  Get it now?  It’s difficult.  To top it off I also have long arms and big feet.  Fabulous.  Enough about my abnormalities uniqueness.

I didn’t know how long Stranger would be home so I sneaked out of the house early.  Except that Sweetness had to go with me of course and then I took Persistence to help me with Sweetness so we really didn’t sneak.  It was more like a stampede.  We shopped for five hours and then we went to Andie’s house so she could spend two hours watching me try on my entire wardrobe that I had brought with me which sadly fits into one suitcase.  Then we went back to the stores for two more hours.  I can’t believe my girls lasted that long but they did and they were amazing.  All of that shopping and I only came home with one skirt and one pair of shoes.  Feeling sorry for me yet?

I have to mention that Andie is a foot shorter than me.  I think she is the tiniest person I know.  She gives my eight year old her hand me downs.  That’s how tiny she is.  If I had wanted to humiliate myself I could have taken a  picture when she held a pair of my pants up and the waist went up to her arm pits and could have wrapped around her twice.  When you’re that tiny you can afford to look fabulous.

I think there might have been a point to this story but I’m too tired to remember what it was.

The other half of my seminar is this Saturday so I have a lot more work to do.  The first thing on my list is to get rid of this headache.  When this is all over with I will have to tell you what it is like teaching seminars.  it’s an interesting experience.

Welcome to Talk About Tuesday! If you are new, check out the Guidelines before posting.  Please don’t forget to link back here in your post.  Thanks!

I’m feeling generous so not only do you get to see my desk but you get to see my whole office!

This is my office/living room.  Not my office office but my actual office, my desk in front, my chair/couch/sick bed in the back, bookshelf on the left and sweet baby in the middle.  As soon as we stop buying frivolous things like driveways and wood stoves I will have cute new couches.

Sweetness and Lovely and I spend a lot of time hanging out here together.  You would have seen Lovely too but she was at preschool this morning.  That’s our green Boopy pillow and a blankie to snuggle up with.  You can’t see it in the photo but there is a box of toys in the corner that Sweetness plays with.  She’s not very good at putting them away when she’s finished with them though.

These are my piles of books that I’m reading and using for research for my seminars.  When the piles get so high that they topple over onto my head then I organize them.   Like I did today.  Notice the basket?  I haven’t always had a garbage basket in here but I finally got smart.

This is my desk and the lovely view from my seat.  I bet you’re not lucky enough to have plywood and crumbling sheet rock in your office.  Jealous?  That’s where our stove is going and it will be bricked some day.  Some day soon.  Some day very soon.  Just keep thinking it and it will happen.

My “desk” doesn’t have any drawers so I had to make one.  It started out being only for baby things but I got a great idea one day to use it to organize our tangle of cords.

I love these little Organizing Bags to organize the little cords for my camera, and Palm phone, etc.

I don’t even take the cords out of the bags.  I just plug one end into the device, the other into my computer and start syncing.

There you have it.  Some day when when my kids are older I will use my office office.  Or maybe I will never  move from my comfy couch.  Who knows.

Someone said scones and I had to have Navajo tacos for dinner tonight.  I called my sister for her albino scone recipe since I didn’t plan ahead to make whole wheat sour dough.  I’m telling you, the dough looked weird.  I can’t even remember the last time I cooked with white flour.  Actually I do because I made albino pancakes yesterday but BEFORE that I can’t remember.

My kids are whole wheat snobs now and I promise I didn’t even teach it to them. All I’ve done is bake exclusively with whole wheat for the last two years of their lives.  Persistence came home from a friend’s house last week and said, “I’m starving Mom!  All I got to eat was a peanut butter sandwich on WHITE bread!”  Oh the horror!!!

So you know how it works around here.  The kids are expected to help with meals whether it’s with cooking, cleaning or watching the baby.  What did my 8 and 10 year old’s want to do tonight?  Roll out the scones and cook them in boiling oil of course.  For some reason every Mothering instinct in me said, “NO!  THEY’RE JUST BABIES!  DON’T LET THEM DO IT!”

But their begging kicked my lazy “I don’t feel like spending two hours making dinner by myself” instinct into gear and I said, “Great.  Roll the dough out and fry it in that oil there.  Try not to burn yourselves because I’m not in the mood to go to the emergency room tonight.”  I proceeded to chop up the veggies and get everything else ready while they cooked.  The miracle was that no one was permanently disfigured and there wasn’t any fighting.  They calmly took turns rolling out the dough and cooking it.   I cooked a few while they ate and then Persistence finished up the rest of the scones.

MAN, I love having kids who can do things for themselves!  And especially for the entire family!!!  It’s amazing what kids can do if they are only given the chance.

The whole thing made me feel so charitable that I cleaned up dinner by myself while they rehearsed for a show to present us with tonight.  I will spare you the video footage but one small tutu wearing three year old was heard to say in the middle of her solo, “Oops!  I tooted!”  For some reason that is always funny.  Well, coming from a three year old it is.

I had so much fun last night giving a semniar hosted by Channel.  I probably have more fun that anyone else because I love talking about organizing!

One of the highlights for me was when I showed up for it LATE!  I swear I have never been late for an organizing seminar before!!!  Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, life just happens.  You know how it is.

Like when you Yahoo Map the address (which is my favorite map site btw) and you add the directions  to your Palm program along with a phone number in case you still need help finding it?

And you carefully plan your day so that you can open a new account at the bank, buy a jumper for your baby, pick up your daughter, stop for dinner and still be at the seminar exactly 15 minutes early so you can feed your hungry baby and set up?

But when you are five minutes away and you check your phone to see what road to turn on there are no directions and no phone number?  Nothing!  Did you forget to sync your phone to your computer?

No problem!  You just stop and pull out your laptop to get the info you need.  Except that the batter is dead.

That wouldn’t be any reason to panic.  You still have 15 minutes to get there.  Just go back into town and stop at a Chinese restaurant to ask if you can borrow an outlet for a minute.  Except that when you get your computer plugged in the information isn’t on your palm program either!  Start panicking!!!  You have no address, no phone number and you don’t even know what the host’s last name is!  Think fast!  What will you do?

Call your husband to see if he is anywhere near a computer with internet access.  Dang!  He is on a bus on his way home.  Hang up on him because he’s no help and you remember that there is a library somewhere around there.

Miraculously find the library.  Run in with your computer, your hungry baby and your 8 year old.  Who cares if you had to knock people over?  Can’t they see you are in a hurry???  Plug in your computer, log into the internet and your email account.  Find the email you need, type it into your phone, pack everything up and run back out of there.

Drive as fast as you can while still obeying all the traffic laws (of course!), find the right house, unload your  things, hand your baby to a complete stranger that’s headed in the same direction and make it to the seminar exactly 5 MINUTES LATE!  What are you?  Mommy MacGyver or something???  Luckily you are in a room full of women so they don’t mind that you latch on your baby while you start talking.

I’m sure almost the exact same thing has happened to you before.  Right?

The second fabulous thing that happened that was much better than the first was that Sylvia was there!  I have talked to her online but we’ve never met.  As far as I can remember I have never even seen a picture of her but as soon as the bright, shining, light from her eyes swept over me I knew that I knew her!  So cool!

Channel was a fabulous hostess and you simply must visit her brand new blog.  She is giving beauty tips, of which I am in desperate need of.  She almost didn’t get me out the door because I couldn’t stop asking hair and makeup questions.  What I was really asking for was a miracle but I will keep reading her blog and see how it goes.

I know this post is getting much too long but I have to mention another class I’m doing that starts next week.  It’s my very first 6 hour seminar where I get to cover all the subjects that are dearest to my heart, getting organized, simplifying your life, using systems and planners, teaching your kids to work, goal setting, money management for kids and more.  I would love to see some more familiar internet faces there so please come if you can and bring your friends!  Go to my Seminar Page for more information and to register.

Bob has been around long enough that he’s a regular part of the family.  Exactly two years in fact.  It’s about time he got organized don’t you think?

I used to set my Mom Bag on top like that but it’s always been a pain.  It’s top heavy, Lovely’s head bumps into it from below and when she pulls the canopy down it falls off.  For some time now I have wanted to devise a way to hang it from the back.  The straps aren’t long enough to wrap around the handle so I was going to design something with straps and some sort of clips.

I’m sure I could have bought an organizer for Bob but that wouldn’t have been as much fun.

Then stranger brought home these caribiners from a conference and I knew they would be perfect for Bob.  I would sew a strap big enough to wrap around the handle, sew loops on the sides of my purse and clip it onto the strap.  Makes perfect sense right?

But once I got the stroller, the caribiners and Bob in my sites all at once I had an even better idea and it didn’t involve any sewing.

I’m embarrassed that I actually post this stuff on the internet but I live for solving little problems like this.

This is Bob all organized for a run.

I strapped a fanny pack (waist pack) around the handle.  It’s perfect for keeping my phone/music and garage door opener within reach.

Love you Bob!

P.S.  I swear I don’t make my three year old pose for photos like this.  She just can’t seem to stay out of the way!

How I Organize My Purse

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Instead of doing our Home Tour this week we are sharing our Halloween posts and do the Home Tour Next week.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween.  We may have over done it just a touch.  We went to a pumpkin carving party with our homeschooling friends in the afternoon, we went to our old neighborhood and ate dinner and went treating with friends, then we came home and collapsed.  Eating that much sugar really wore us out.

Our little flower was a sweet as she could be.  I made this costume when Persistence was a baby so all of our girls have worn it.

The treats were frighteningly abundant.

Then we had dinner at the Great Pumpkin’s house.

It’s my friend’s pregnant belly.  How cute is that???  It’s a perfect costume for a woman giving birth in two weeks.

The princess tried to behave herself.

But it’s so hard.

She was doing flips on the trampoline when I wasn’t looking.

She didn’t want her picture taken and she wouldn’t even let me do her hair.

Serves her right.

Whew!  That was a close call but the baby is safe.

The Lovely butterfly will protect her. (I didn’t make this one btw.)

This is the costume I toiled over.  It took me hours to sew 11 strands of lights into this suit.  We failed to realize that meant 22 batteries.  It was a heavy costume!!  For those of you who are wondering, I cut open the suit lining, made little holes in the outside fabric, stuck the lights through and sewed each one down.  Muscles did all the sewing on his hat.  He said he was Broadway but when I told him he would have to sing he decided he was the Milky Way instead.

My friend Lisa did not disappoint us with her decorations.  Remember last year?

There is no reason for the rest of us to decorate when we can go to Lisa’s house and enjoy all her hard work.

Then it was time for the kids to work.  The dads might have been just a touch more excited than the kids.

For once we had warm enough weather that they didn’t all have to bundle up.  Except for the little babies.

It’s a good thing she didn’t know what was inside that stick or she might not have been so content to wave it around.

The best part was that traveling with the Milk Way meant that we didn’t have to worry about anyone in our group getting hit by a car (or a fire truck handing out candy).

Happy Halloween!  Or should I say Merry Christmas?  From the looks of the stores Muscles should have dressed up as a Christmas tree.

Next week is supposed to be a Talk About Tuesday Home Tour but I thought it would be fun to share our Halloween posts instead.  Somehow I remembered to take pictures.  How does that sound?  Yes?  No?  Maybe?

Great!  Let’s do it.

I have some seminars coming up that you might be interested in.

I am doing a free two hour seminar on Organizing Basics for our very own beauty expert, Chanelle, next Thursday in Bountiful, Utah. You are welcome to come. Just contact her for an invite.

Then I am doing a six hour seminar, Organizing Life, the Universe and Everything In It, on November 15th and 22nd from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Layton, Utah. The cost is $25 and you can sign up on my seminar page. The first 20 people to sign up will receive a free Organizing Bag.

I am doing another six hour seminar in January. I’ll let you know when the time and place has been finalized.

Visit my seminar page for more details.

If you are interested in hosting a seminar in your area please contact me.

I spent all day making Muscle’s Halloween costume.  It’s not because he didn’t know 364 days ago what he wanted his costume to look like this year.  It’s not because we didn’t buy the lights on sale after Christmas.  It’s not because we didn’t get the suit weeks ago.  And it’s not because he hasn’t been bugging me to start working on it every single day for at least three months.

It’s because it’s a tradition in our family to wait till the last minute to do these things.  It adds to the excitement and suspense and gratitude.  Muscles thanked me at least 57 times for all the time I spent and for making him such a great costume.  We’ll see if it really measures up tomorrow night.

The children got the privilege of babysitting Sweetness while I worked on it and she pooped all over herself and the jumper.  It was fun watching them try to clean it up.  Especially since she hadn’t pooped for about four days.  That is character building I tell you!!!

Lovely changes her mind about her costume every time she dresses up.  This is fine with me since I didn’t buy or make her a costume this year.  She’s welcome to put on anything she wants from the dress up box.  She was a butterfly for a Carnival last week and a snake for preschool today.  Who knows what she will be tomorrow.

Persistence is going to wear her costume from last year and she is going to be happy about it. (She really doesn’t mind at all.) I spent so much time and money on it that she will probably be wearing it till her knees stick out the bottom.

We carved pumpkins for Grandpa’s birthday party a few weeks ago and we have the slimy rotten pumpkin piles in the field to prove it.

Tomorrow there will be more pumpkin carving at our homeschool party and then trick or treating with our good friends. We’re lucky to be invited back this year since I insulted her traditional (yummy!)Halloween soup. I’m sorry Amy! Will you ever be able to forgive me???

I’ve already warned the kids that they will not be trick or treating for five hours and they will not be bringing home 30 pounds of candy.

I will try really hard not to forget to take pictures this year.

And last but not least, I voted today! Early voting is fabulous. I was in and out in three minutes. Have you voted yet?