rachelle.net

Having just read an article about being more optimistic, here’s what I think: maybe, just maybe, if I use some of the tools spoken of in this article, I can be a happier person.

So, it says list 5 life goals you are proud of and come up with 5 more.

Proud:

1. I graduated from college, then law school, at the same time as my fellow non-high school dropout friends did.

2. I own my home.

3. …I’ll have to work on the rest.

To-Do:

1. Save more for retirement.

2. Any progress toward health goals is great.

3. … Again, I’ll work on this.

Why yes, the glass is half full – see?!

Can I just say how much I love ballet? I had so much fun today trying out ballet class.  And, I only had a little bit of Guinness beer. 

Overall, a good day.

I made it to the gym today and was able to do a hand stand in the arial silk which was fun.  I’m hoping I can drag myself out of bed to go to 6 am strength class, but we will see.

As for the big kitchen project, I’m making slow progress. I was able to toss a bag full of pots and pans, a bag full of water bottles and travel mugs, move some rarely used items out of the pantry and into an otherwise useless cupboard and move the first aid stuff out of one cupboard and into another one thus freeing up more space.  Oh, and I got some sorters for the  utensil drawer which made a big difference.  Whew! Just a few more things to do in the kitchen.

With any luck I will be down some body weight and kitchen junk by the end of the week!

Thank goodness I can chalk this week up as being complete.  It was exhausting!  I’m exhausted.  I really want to clean my kitchen, but man am I beat.  I took my before pictures and they are not pretty.  Also, I see another trip to Bed Bath & Beyond in my near future.

On the upside, I only gained 1.6 pounds instead of 3 like I feared and my weight loss solutions counselor gave me a hockey puck! So cool.  I love it.  And (drum roll please!) I made it to the gym today at 6 am. 

So my kitchen post doesn’t become outrageous, I think I’ll discuss my before right now…

So, there’s some things going on here. First I should admit that currently nearly every glass and pot/pan we own is dirty right now which is the only reason those cupboards look so empty.  Of course this shot also shows the obligatory “junk” drawer.  Why is it that nearly every home has one of these? And that ridiculous cupboard with the blue pitcher? Why? Why does it even exist.  It’s like the black hole of cupboards.

Lots going on here too.  Usually the towel cupboard is overflowing, but again, since no one in this house seems to use a towel for more than a nano-second, they are all dirty.  The poor hand mixer…I keep it because my dad gave it to me and he’s dead.  I’m trying to determine if that’s a good idea.  The contact paper? Yeah, we used that in maybe four houses ago… I don’t know why I still have this. What you can’t see in the picture with the aprons is that there was a big pitcher that someone had shoved in there that fell out when I opened the door.  Finally, I think the utensil drawers are able to explain themselves well enough.

Here we have the random drawer of lids that don’t go to anything… We also have the plastic wear cupboard that only looks good because I forced my son to organize it the other day.

And, the best for last. These counters pretty much look like this every day when I get home.  They make these gigantic messes in my kitchen and then leave it.  Shortly after this was taken, the kids guilted themselves into doing the dishes.  That cupboard up there is the bane of my kitchen.  It’s such a disaster. There are items up there that have been there for 13 years untouched. I am not even kidding.

So there you have it. This is what I am up against.

I got my closet done! Woot. Well, I guess it’s not totally done because I still have to move the stuff from the black shelf that belongs elsewhere.  This will require pulling the kid’s buckets and filing their stuff away as well as finishing the photo project.  But, things are much tidier and I got rid of all those magazines (sort of) and my socks are no longer falling all over the place.