I know. I suck. I haven’t posted anything in so long. The schedule didn’t work, so I’m back to winging it.

I’ll do a decent post by the weekend, okay?

Hugs from Chaos (aka Dreamer aka Melissa)

Hi everyone!

A huge thank you to those that played my first week. I hope you enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to next week.

Ready to see the original photo?

The winner is WaltzingDog!!! Congrats! Don’t get spending your big prize all at once, you hear? *grinning* Thank you very much for participating. I will get your gc out to you tonight.

Chaos

Hi! Thanks for coming by.

My husband is doing much better. When they did the post-op appointment and re-bandaged his leg, it helped tremendously. It must have been too tight. I’m still not able to go out and socialize yet. I’m sad because I really wanted to go to the Grape Merchant   for wine night. They were doing Champagnes… my fav  — not to mention I miss being around people. Today, both boys came home with what looks like strep throat, so it looks like a doc appointment will be part of the day tomorrow. This weekend, we are finally going to get a tree and decorate the house. The kids are tired of seeing all of the Autumn stuff still up.

I thought I would try something new here… a posting schedule of sorts. Let’s see…

• Music Monday
• Tantrum Tuesday
• Wordless Wednesday
• Tutorial Thursday
• Free For All Friday
• So Many Goals Saturday
• Spiritual Sunday

Remember who is typing here… this doesn’t mean I’m going to be posting every day of the week. It just means that if I am posting on that day, it will help me to have a topic to focus on. I’m hoping that this will encourage me to write more often. I like the idea of Wordless Wednesdays as that is just posting a photo. I think next Thursday, I will post my tutorial on making the fringe fleece blanket.

I know. I know. You can  barely sustain your excitement. Calm down and check back in tomorrow evening. We will see what kind of start I have.

Melissa (aka Chaos aka Dreamer)

P.S. Saw my wonderful shrink on Wednesday and we switched my med to Lexapro with encouragement to use my Ativan. Yep… GASP… I’m talking about personal stuff on my blog.  While I don’t want to be considered disrespectful, RUDE and/or the cause of all the ill in the world… it took me too many years and hard work to learn NOT to be ashamed of certain aspects of myself. If I had MS or Cancer, it would be different and I could talk about my health issues anywhere, right? WRONG. That’s just another form of bigotry. Normally, it is only just a part of me… it is only when I am at the bottom of the big black hole that it becomes such a big focus. When you are drowning, all you are going to think about is just how you are going to get to breathe again. Soooooo, if you don’t get that, that’s your problem. Have a nice day.

Three children out of school for four days + one stubborn husband with a broken leg (Thanksgiving fun) + one unhousewifely housewife = CHAOS

I have no words.

Hi again!

After yesterday’s heay posting, I thought I would drag out an old tutorial that I re-found over the weekend. Hope you enjoy!

CAPPUCCINO MIX GIFT CONE TUTORIAL:

by Melissa Olivero

*Please note that while this tutorial was written wholly by me, I am not the originator of this idea. These are the steps I used to create the item.

ITEMS NEEDED:

•  Wilton’s Decorator Cone Bags 12″ Clear
•  2/3 cup of Instant Coffee (jar should read “Instant”)
•  1 cup chocolate mix (homemade or purchased)
•  1 cup non-dairy creamer powder (vanilla flavored or plain)
•  3/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
•  3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
•  10 Cinnamon Sticks
•  Ribbon
•  Labels or Tags

1. Grind the instant coffee to a fine powder in a blender or food processor
2. Mix all ingredients thoroughly except cinnamon sticks in a large bowl (coffee, chocolate mix, creamer, nutmeg and cinnamon).
3. Pour just under a 1/2 cup of the mix into each cone.
4. Add in 2 cinnamon sticks.
5. Twist cone bag and tie tightly with ribbon.
6. Add a label or tag with the following instructions: “For One Serving – Add 3 Tablespoons of Mix to 6 Ounces of Hot Water”

I can start off sharing on a good note. I am working with a clean desktop. See?

It wasn't long after the holidays that papers and things piled over the bottom of the monitor!

On your left, you can see a project waiting in the wings… Family Tree Maker 2008. Don’t worry. I haven’t even opened the box yet. It will be my present for getting the office done (someday).

You can also see the glass of Coke there. In every meaning of the word addiction, I am addicted to this soda. I’ve quit twice; the first time lasted a couple of years even. But I have fallen off the wagon. It does make you feel worse than you do if you just drink water. I wished I like coffee to replace the caffeine which is replacing the nicotine (I quit smoking a long time ago, but I still get cravings). I’ll quit the soda again soon. It’s always harder in the middle of a depression crash.

Now for the right side, way in the back is a canister normally used for flour, sugar, etc. I filled it with pens, pencils and scissors. The pile in front of that is a mix of music and game cds that I have to go through and decide what to do with them.

The binder stack in front of that is actually the basics for creating that household binder. I’ll show you better pictures of that soon.

I’ve been reading the Twilight series from Stephanie Meyer. Yes, I am 40 and yes, it is based on young adults, but I am here to tell you that it is fantastic. By the time you get through Book 1, you will simply have to go on so you can find out what happens next to this girl and the vampire she falls in love with. If you are close to my age, once you are able to go back in time to the memory of first love in your teenage years and the feelings of love without limits, you’ll be able to relate with no trouble. Not to mention be a little in love with Edward yourself. How can you not be? I’ve just started the fourth and final book in the series. I happen to read very fast, but I am trying very hard to savor each word as I do not want to see it end. I will miss them.

I’ve been doing a lot of work on the Daydream Lane site lately and will begin work on daydreamlane-pixels.com soon. I’ve completely ignored my spirituality blog, but I’m not ignoring GOD. LOL It is sometimes difficult for me to get into that frame of mind when I am not doing well.

And the home-school site? Well, eventually, I will have to change to focus to pre-school homeschooling. I did place my oldest back into school. It is a charter school that is lovingly diverse with a fantastic curriculum. He is happy, so we are happy. Hopefully, we can figure out how to afford to put the twins in pre-school perhaps two half mornings a week or something like that.

Okay, I think that is enough of my mad mumblings for now.

Looking for the light –  Love from Chaos (formerly MelsAttic, sometimes Dreamer - always Melissa)

No, I really don’t want to talk about the office. I’m angry at it. It seems to implode all by itself. I mean, it still doesn’t look like the way it did before, but the piles seem scarier.

It’s probably the fact that the whole house is little overwhelming to me at the moment. Laundry to do by the ton. Laundry to put away in the twins bedroom. My older son’s room needs a real closet so things aren’t in bins and baskets on the floor. The playroom and the living room look like Toys R Us threw up in there with all the Christmas presents strewn around. We won’t discuss what new toys are already broken, okay? The kitchen needs a deep clean after days of company. And then there is the office.

I also really want to get the binder ready before next Monday and create a new and improved homeschool schedule.

Yes… I’m going to stop bitching now and get to work.

Chaos — whining and piling

Yes, some of my possessions are seeing the light of day for the first time in probably a year. I worked really hard all Sunday aftenoon and evening, plus a little bit this morning too. I’m getting closer, see?

Can you believe that there was a desk under that Believe sign there? Wow. Does the room have to be perfect before I start receiving some pats on the back?

What’s nice is that I’ve made several posts to our local Freecyle giving away bags of toys, including a Playstation 1, bags of kids clothes and more.

I still have basically the same piles, though I’ve gotten rid of a ton of garbage and even more recycling. I’m also through three little baskets of stuff that belongs in other rooms that I still have to put away. I’m on my second large tote of maybe toys that I will re-sort and organize.

The worst thing of doing all this is that I am so not done with Christmas to-dos. And don’t even bring up how far behind I am in doing laundry.

Also, we just got our tree yesterday morning after taking the children to see Santa. (Those photos are still in the car — I have to get them out.) We got down all the Christmas totes from the attic and I plan on decorating tonight with kids after dinner. Oh no… what’s for dinner?

:::SIGH::::

Merry Merry from Chaos

Okay, let’s get real here. I’m starting in the worst room of the house which is my office/craft room/library/junk room. First, let me explain how it got this way.

My fault: I procrastinate with filing until the piles get huge and then company comes over so I throw all the papers in a bag and put it at the end of the room.

DH’s fault: When toys get crazy in the living room, he sweeps them all up into a bag and puts it at the end of the office.

My fault: I go to thrift stores and garage sales too often. Then I create new piles… books to read, games to try, and things to sell. These piles also get combined and thrown into bags or totes.

My fault: My interests change sometimes more often than traffic lights. So, I get really excited about … let’s say sewing. So, I beg or thrift shop till I find a sewing machine and then run to Wal-mart or Joanne’s Fabrics and purchase everything I think I might need and more. Then I barter for sewing lessons. The first lesson comes and I still don’t understand the machine. One or two of the kids get sick, then some other aspect of life happens, I never get around to taking lesson number two and suddenly — I shove all the sewing stuff in boxes and onto shelves or GOD forbid start a new pile on the craft desk and then… boom  — on to the next hobby.

My fault: I say I’m going to eBay and never get around to doing it. Then I say that I’ll just Freecycle/Freesource it and that never happens either.

Okay… I think you may have some idea of what my office might look like now, right?

Well, you are wrong. It’s worse. See?

Yes, this is my office. From my desk, all of this is to the right of me. No other room in my home looks like this... only this one. Probably because I feel the room is truly mine and everyone else feels like it is the junk room. I am working on changing it.

But, in reality, before I started it looked worse than it does in the photo above. Picture all of that with Christmas presents for three children and my husband wrapped in blankets “hidden” within these piles. You couldn’t see any of the mirror on the back wall.

So, this past Sunday, my dh took the kids down to the park for awhile while I moved all the Christmas presents out and hid them in our closet. Then it looked closer to what the photo above shows.

He came back with them and helped to keep them busy while I started to sort. This is what it looked like after 5 hours or so of work… (you’ll see that I still have a long way to go).

It still looks horrible... just terrible, I know. But in those five hours I really did accomplish a lot. Can you tell?

So those two shelving units on the right were cleaned off and my husband put them in his truck to go to storage along with a computer monitor that was in there underneath one of the clear totes.

I sorted into several piles:

• I had one clear tote to use for all paperwork to be filed.
• I had a kitchen garbage bag for toys to be given away.
• I had a bag for garbage.
• I had a pile for paper recycling.
• I had a pile for paper to be shredded.
• I had a basket for things belonging to dh & I to be put away in other rooms.
• I had a tote for toys we were keeping.
• I had a basket for children’s non-toy items to be put away elsewhere.
• I had three gallon size zip-lock bags: one for puzzle pieces, one for Mr. Potato Head pieces and one for Lincoln Logs & Legos.
• I had one large pile of things to sell on eBay.
• I had three piles of books: those to be read, those to be shelved and those to be given away on PaperbackSwap.
• I had one tote to put all of the Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations in to be put in the attic, making sure to remember not to include any candles. I refuse to make THAT mistake again.

So this is how I left it.  I plan on picking up where I left off later today. I’ll keep posting pictures until I’m actually proud of the way it looks.

::::yes, I did hear your gasps of horror when you first saw the photos and no, I do not let the kids come in this room::::

Chaos — coming to you buried in piles and digging my way out.

Isn’t this the biggest question when you find yourself overwhelmed with anything?

For this post, I’d like to mention a couple of things I have done so far to get myself on track.  Then, I need to list all the things I have to do and the lower priority list of of the things I’d like to do just for me.

Accomplished So Far Since Dec. 7th, 2008 (I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff)

• Six loads of laundry
• General everyday tidying
• Gone over Christmas items purchased so far and when they are to be received (i.e. Christmas Eve versus Christmas morning versus Family Day on the 27th and also what is still needed to be gotten
• Joined a few housekeeping groups through Yahoo and I’ll let you know how they are (Do you have any favorites? Please let me know.)
• Dusting and Mirrors

Things I Need To Do as of Dec. 11, 2008 (not in any particular order, some every day with other items to be done within the next 7 days)

• More laundry than I can put into words including folding/putting away a few loads that I did earlier in the week
• See my Dad to give him his birthday cards (Happy Birthday –yesterday– Dad!)
• Create a household notebook (binder or control journal or whatever they are calling it these days)
• Introduce myself on those groups I joined
• Create a better homeschool schedule for my seven year old son “A” and I and hopefully including the 3 year old twins (“M-G” and “M-B”)
• General Tidying of house
• Homeschool
• Work on potty training the twins
• Deep clean kitchen
• Organize Office
• Wrap Gifts
• Call dentist for DH
• Call doc for me
• Call for sitter to come on Saturday so I can work on some of these items
• Call Aunt A about Sunday situation (but first make up mind about it)
• Send in renewal form and payment for local MOMs Club
• Send in payment for local secular homeschool group
• Sign “A” up for homeschool art class at museum that starts in January
• Decide on whether or not to put in for the lottery to get “A” into Nova Elementary
• Do 2009 calendar
• Start actually using the coupons I cut out
• Start using the envelope system again and the debt snowball thing right after Christmas
• Lots more I can’t think of

Things for Me (on-going stuff I need/like to do for myself & for mental health)

• I joined several Paint Shop Pro groups so I can relearn and get back into doing tags and stuff and I’ve only intro’d on one of them… need to do the rest
• Do the tuts assigned in those groups
• It’s important to relearn it all so I can learn about Digital Scrapbooking since I never seem to get around to doing the real ones
• Reminder: Dig out the camera and start taking photos again
• Learn how to use the camcorder
• Install Family Tree Maker 2008 and start using it
• Put my music cds into my iTunes
• Create homeschool blog to go with the hs website
• Post to my spiritual blog
• Play Everquest II on Sundays
• Would be nice to start entering sweepstakes again… I used to win some nice things when I worked at it
• Find someone willing to help me choose paint colors and do a little decorating so the house looks nice instead of the “World of Chaos” that it is now with crayons all over the walls and nothing hanging on the walls and no real style — I do need help — won’t a friend or family member with good taste take pity on me… please?
• Lots more stuff that I can’t remember at the moment

Okay… that’s it for now. Do you have a blog about your lack of housekeeping skills or that shows off your household notebook or where you post your daily/weekly goals? If so, leave a comment with the url so I can visit.

If you got this far… I really appreciate you. Thank you for being here.

With Positive Thinking  — Chaos