I am the Mama » Weekly Challenge

Motivation Monday — Clean Off Your Desk

themama — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:25:13 +0000

Let’s try this thing again, shall we? I was getting overwhelmed with coming up with 3 things to do every weeek, and then overwhelmed at trying to accomplish them in addition to everything else I do. So we’re going to take it a little bit slower this time around!

This week, I’m going to try to clean off my desk. That’s it! It probably won’t take me more than 15-20 minutes (maybe more if I get really involved in looking at everything) but having a clean desk will really give me a sense of accomplishment and make me feel better about this room. It might even get me motivated to do some more work on my office, and if it does I’ll roll with it! So there’s the new weekly challenge — clean your desk off! Simple, right?

I may even post an after picture next week when it’s done. You won’t get a before, though. I’m much too embarassed to show people just how bad it’s gotten.

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Weekly Challenge, May 11

themama — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:00:10 +0000

So I’m still behind in finishing last week’s challenge. (And maybe the one from the week before…but I’m not admitting if that’s true or not!) My life is total chaos right now and I just can’t get my stuff together. So this one will be easy!

1. Make a meal and double it. If you make lasagna, do an extra one. Double a batch of soup or chili. Or make 2 meatloaves. Throw the extra in the freezer. Then when you have a friend in need due to illness, having a baby, death in the family or other hardship you can run it over to them with a bagged salad and some frozen garlic bread and they’ve got a meal ready to go. Or if you have a particularly busy day, you know there’s something you can make quickly and easily without falling prey to the fast food drive-thru!

2. Find a way for your household to reduce it’s environmental impact. Whether that be switching to CFL bulbs, making your own environmentally safe cleaners, starting to recycle or recycling more, using cloth instead of disposable for things like napkins and kitchen towels. Or my personal favorite, switch to cloth diapers. (If you want to try it, I have a dozen infant size DSQ prefolds, a Snappi, 4 Dappi pull on covers and 2 Bummi wraps I can sell you. No joke. She has outgrown them and I need the cash to buy some larger ones. Email me for details if interested. themama at iamthemama dot com)

3. Take an hour or 2 for yourself. Take a hot bath, get a pedicure, go for a run, or book a massage. Or whatever sounds like a blissful way to spend some time alone.

Bonus: If there is something you don’t normally do around your house (like mowing or other yardwork, taking out the trash, changing lightbulbs, maintenance, or whatever) do it. Surprise the person who normally does it with one less thing to do this week. If you don’t know how to do it, ask them to teach you. Then you can surprise them another time!

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Weekly Challenge

themama — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:04:42 +0000

Um, yeah. I’m embarrassed to say what got done and what didn’t last week, but let’s just say that it involved tons of laundry and little else. So here’s this week’s list!

1. Finish what you (um, I) didn’t finish last week.

2. Catch up your laundry. That means *everything* that needs to be washed…down to that one shirt you hate and never want to wear so it lays buried at the bottom of the hamper 99% of the time. Even that.

3. Once the laundry is caught up, go through your family’s clothes and pack away/take to consignment/donate anything that is too small, outdated, you never wear, etc. With the changing of the seasons, it’s time for me to put away children’s clothing for future use or to consign, but I know my closet could use a good purge, too.

Bonus: Find a way to honor your mom this week. Sunday is Mother’s Day. Send her a card, take the time to call her, or if she’s not here any more place flowers on her grave or take a few minutes to talk to her. She’ll hear you.

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Weekly Challenge: It’s back!

themama — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:45:17 +0000

With many months of morning sickness and exhaustion, then having a new baby, I had stopped doing the weekly challenges. And my house is a wreck! So I’m going to start it back up. I would love to hear suggestions from people as to what you’d like to see included. For now, I’m going to just do things that need to be done at my house. I’m a little embarrassed to admit some of these things, but maybe that will help hold me accountable!

1. Clean your glass doors, inside and out. I have a huge sliding glass door and 2 storm doors that are looking pretty funky.

2. If you have maternity clothes in your closet and are not currently pregnant, pack them up and put them away.

3. Toss all of your uneaten leftovers that are long past being edible.

Bonus: Spend 15 minutes on a room that you would be embarrassed for other people to see.

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Weekly Challenge #3

themama — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:53:16 +0000

This is back after a 2 week hiatus while the kids had pneumonia!

1. Set a timer for 15 minutes and spend that time cleaning/straightening in a room that needs a lot of help. If you can, do it several times this week.

2. Wash all of your comforters, blankets, quilts, shams, and similar items. Pillows, too.

3. Clean your window treatments. Dust the blinds and take down curtains and sheers and wash them, etc. While the curtains are off the rods, dust the rods. Shower curtains, too!

Bonus/Alternate: Make the smallest room in your house (probably a closet, bathroom, or utility room) the cleanest. My small master bath is a disaster because nobody ever sees it, so I’m going to take some time and really clean it up!

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