Accountability Update (and what to do when you are snowed in!)

(This is Bella, the bravest of all our chickens.  She was the first one out and the only one who was happy to spend some time out in the snow!)

First, I cannot send this post out without mentioning that we have over 30 inches of snow!  This reminds us so much of the snowfall we had in 2003.  This year though, we have two older kids that have been a huge help in digging us out.  We had over 4 feet of snow on the front porch because of drifting.  Needless to say, after clearing the driveway, porch and other various areas of snow, Keith and I woke up reminded that we aren’t anywhere near our 20’s…

This morning I finally ordered the seeds for our garden.  This is the second year I have ordered from High Mowing Organic Seeds. Here is their website.  www.highmowingseeds.com   They are based in Vermont.  Last year, I had a lot of leftover seeds from the year before, so I only had to order tomato and pepper seeds.  High Mowing has free shipping on any order, so if you just want to try a few things, it will ship for free.  After spending all this time looking at the catalog and seeing employees in tank tops and shorts soaking up the sun, I am REALLY looking forward to spring!!!

Now, to accountability! Well, honestly, it was because of you, my readers, that the weekend after my Accountability post, that I cleaned out the area in basement that most needed it: my planting area(where I keep my seeds, potting soil, pots, etc.)  I really didn’t feel like it, but it was very motivating that I had told you I WOULD do it that weekend.  Wow! I was a little frustrated with myself that it took me so long to do it, because really, it took no time to get it cleaned up. I found that I had way too many plastic water bottles/juice containers that I use to water my seedlings with. I also had way too many lids. Lids? Yep. You see, I use those 16 oz lettuce/greens containers as mini-greenhouses for my seed starting and I think I had about 10 more lids than containers as the containers had been recycled last May. Our recycle bin was overflowing that Tuesday.

In the fall, I had already spent a lot of time organizing my seeds into zipper bags of like plants, so that was thankfully already finished.  Here is picture of that.

I did find about 4 pots to re-home. One was peeling paint, so that went in the trash. The other three were nice, but just too small for the plants I have, so those were added to the pile to donate. I had quite a few other items that were thrown away or added to the pile to donate.

And….. my son, Keith Jr. at age 11 got us going cleaning up toys. On his own he started putting things away and asking me what to do with some other items. You see, the kids are having a bunch of friends over soon from a group Brynn is involved with.  You wouldn’t believe how good that is for me. It helps motivate my teen and pre-teen to help out quite a lot! The kids and I went through our toy kitchen set and we pitched about 100 items!! I really should have counted. We relocated the kitchen set and some doll items up to Mary’s side of the girls’ room upstairs. Now our Rec Room looks great. There is a lot of room for teenage recreation and it feels so nice to walk in there and not feel overwhelmed!

Now, for the second part of this post title: What to do when you are snowed in!

Pick ONE area in your house and clean it out.  Maybe it is where you store plastic containers in your kitchen.  Maybe it is a child’s toy box, or even a bedroom or linen closet.  If you start small, you might find your small success will help you quickly move on to something else.  If possible, don’t just clean it up and reorganize, but don’t be afraid to get rid of things you really do not use.  I love when my shelves and closets have space, and you will too!

Thanks to all of you who have contacted me to let me know what you have been working on. It was so fun to hear what you were working on and the progress you were making on some clean-up projects.  Keep up the great job and don’t stop now!  Winter is the BEST time to work on the inside of your house before those beautiful warm days (that will be here before you know it) are temping you outdoors!