Wrestling with time management.. etc

well..

wow..

its been awhile since ive sat down and blogged.. for me it feels like its been forever.. *fingers crossed this wont stay a draft..*

Ive been busy... and looking at that sentence.. i almost feel like its a half truth, (while trying to ignore my semi-dictionary mind telling me that is soo cliche) and boring. Seriously how boring would blogs be if all they said was "ive been busy.." or something along the lines of .. ive been absent, forgive me.. read me again.. i promise i'll try to be more interesting, more pictures, more often.. only for your concious telling you.. dont commit.. you can't do it.. nows not the time for a big blog project.. x.x And then for me i feel like i'm stuck.. in between what i want to do, what i want to achieve and what i know i can do.. and what other things take priority.

Which leaves me with time management..
and..
fessing up..
toTRUTH!

What do i spend my time on? Where am i most of the time?
(*insert noise of rusty cogwheels* as tiffany tries to remember what she did last week..)
hmm...
Well i cant recall exactly what i did all last week.. i can recall the weekend.. pfft! that is easy!
Saturday james and I played fable II. Alyssa had a good day but with a annoying trend of snack feeds at 5pm, 6pm, 7pm and 8pm before finally going to sleep.
Sunday james and i played fable II co-op doing the troll (like a very fat treeant), balverines (think werewolf) mission, spire mission (think evil gothic looking cornetto building). Alyssa had her annoying feeds, had a chicken satay stir-fry and the girls had a bath together.. it was hot and yukky..

but generally.. my week days..
i've worked out equal a load of washing every day. (not including towels or sheets)
generally some house work (not always the dishes.. as i loathe it..and put it off) my spring cleans i seem to be doing thru the weekdays end up with more mess as i dont always find a 'home' for something and i get distracted.. and it doesnt go anywhere....
Some relax time which includes lunch, watching the view or playing video games
do revolve around getting tia to and from kinder on those days..
do revolve around alyssa and whether she is happy fed, dry, comfy, entertained, cuddled and close by.. anything noisy waits till she is awake!!!!!!!
my weekends.. no housework gets done, i struggle to cook most of the time, generally do stuff with hubby games, dnd.. usually doesnt feel right either until we have all gone out to the shops together at some point during the weekend (even tho im trying to stop that 'want' as it ends up with blowing the budget and going on the evil (but not as evil as some) credit card!! x.x

lately been doing major spider killing.. and dead/dying spider avoiding.. i am completely paranoid. (i did wake up one morning and looked up to see a daddy long legs quite close to my pillow on the bed head bit.. too close for comfort!!!!) there was one daddy long legs (rather huge) that i never got around to killing as it was always on the move.. never stayed in one spot.. i did a dumb thing and watched it for a bit and then lost where it went.. i feel my spider woes make for a whole blog post in itself!!!!! EEP!!!!!!

What i'd like to get done:
Blog wise- New layout, colours, pictures, update side bits, twitter, visit & read more blogs more often.

Health wise- Manicure & pedicure, Wii fit every day, keep to planned meals, go to bed before 11pm no 11am and 4pm snacking on junk.. eating more salads (with help from growing our own)

House wise- Clean and organise and keep it that way! Kill all spiders, Work on folding & putting away clean clothes and not just have baskets of clothes everywhere.. Kill fleas in the house (where on earth did they come from??!!) start packing away winter clothes, blankets and wash summer stuff

Garden wise- Keep it weed free, grow grass back on nature strip, get my seedlings to grow bigger, get some lettuce & spinach seeds, encourage james to finish his backyard project, dig up a garden patch for veggies, get a lattice thingy for jasmine to climb, kill all red back spiders..

Family wise- have some planned outings, especially since tia is old enough to appreciate a trip to a zoo, movies or aquarim etc, more time with tia working on her sounds, counting etc. Get to church every sunday! Send out thank you notes (still), Stick to budget, take more photos & remember to upload it onto pc. find tia a dance class or activity to do with other kids. exchange details with the parents of tia's friends from kinder so she can play with them over the holidays

Christmas wise- organise & finalise meals/menu, organise sheets etc for guests, think about table piece, where christmas tree will go etc, find & do christmas cards, think about presents & budget, keep buying a few christmas food stuffs each week, Does anyone know a good whisky and brandy to cook with?????

Shopping wise- Stick to budget, buy only whats on the list, get some new shorts and t-shirts for summer, buy another fan for summer

hmm... think i will have to print this out and put it on the fridge!!..

a smell in the kitchen

and before you start wondering. No its not a good smell.

I go thru the crisper in the fridge and check the fruit n vegs on the bench. my crisper is small so not everything can fit.

And im shocked. Going thru the kitchen yesterday. Checking all the fruit n veg and heres what i found.
The pumpkin ive been to lazy to bother roasting, was going to make muffins, scones or something with it instead but never got around to finding a recipe or how to do that. Its gone off a bit around the bottom. Bye bye pumpkin!

i admit to buying discounted banana's intending to make banana bread. However 2 bananas are fully black, squishy, wet and smelly. Ive saved all the good ones, peeled them, bagged them and put them in the freezer. Its something i might try to get to today. I noticed that it has gotten rather juicy (had them up on top of the fridge/freezer) which meant i was able to ignore them for a bit too long. Some dark brown dried lines indicate its run down the side.

I keep looking. The smell is still there.

inside the fridge, the watermelon i bought 2 weeks ago. It looks mostly fine, no smell. However one side looks like its frozen. I've found out previously that watermelon frozen doesnt taste great, and even in cling/film wrap watermelon either goes completely watery tasting or absorbs fridge smells and tastes like as if you ate the fridge. Not great.

now i'm checking the cupboard. And it doesnt smell great in there.

oh my. I check my discounted brown onions. None are off, soft or otherwise. Despite being old-ish.

I hesitantly check the potatoes. After all theyre 2 weeks old. I bought them full price.. they couldnt possibly be... oh. man that smells bad. Thats the smell. 2 potatoes have gone brown-ish, slightly mushy looking. stinky. I grab the ones that dont have stinky brown juice spots on them. And throw the rest, im not risking that rinsing the still good potatoes with stinky juice will take away the stink. the discounted potatoes i got just recently are fine.

Clean all those juicy-ish spots up with a dash of bleach. And Now my kitchen doesnt have that odd smell. Horray!

Small improvements..

We have a pretty crummy outdated and unloved kitchen (like the rest of the unit) but anyways i like doing minor improvements.. and perhaps the next person who lives here will appreciate it.. I have to live with it, so if its not up to a standard i like to fix it. (seeing as the best kitchen artists live in canada ;) )
And so i show you the cupboard under the kitchen sink. (which is always the worst cupboard i think in any kitchen!) I was a complete fuss pot and didnt use my cupboards til i cleaned them and some not till i put the new contact on the top! It was easier to begin with hardly any kitchen stuff, 7months later my kitchen is crying for space!

Before:After:


another shelf/cupboard:

so yes, my kitchen has 4 different contacts patterns, lol! I know, pretty daggy! but its clean, its new and its ok as long as only 1 kitchen cupboard door is open at any time. lol! I did pay only 50cents for a roll (bargain) and i think i bought 6?(so thats why i ended up with a few different types) I also did the bathroom cupboards which are chipboard and how often does chipboard get all water damaged and chipped?! so on went the contact!
Its not easy, its a fine art to get the contact on straight, around corners etc.. and i wish i'd done better, but oh well! ;)