What your teen wants you to know. A Teenage Perspective- It’s not easy
Being a parent is hard and our children do not come with manuals. Being a teenager is hard and we parents do not come with manuals either.
The problem with being a teenager is that it is like a roller coaster. It is a bit exhausting being a teenager and just as exhausting for parents who have to live with one. One minute they are happy and the next minute they want to scream at the world. I recall seeing a television program that talked about teens and the program explained in-depth that the teen brain is still “under construction”. The impulsiveness, the mood swings, and all that other crazy stuff is an important process in the brains development. I am sure glad to know that there is a reason for all this madness. I have to laugh when my daughter tells me that I don’t know what it is like to be a teenager. Good lord, do you think I could forget. I remember it starting out all awkward and stressful but I also remember it getting better. That is what I want my daughter to understand. It gets better!
I asked my daughter to share some thoughts with us. Things that us “Parents” should know. If she feels this way I’m sure there are other teens that feel the same. I’m proud of my daughter for being a voice. Asking her to do the video is one more way for me to understand and to continue to stay connected with her. Parents talk to your teenagers and teenagers talk to your parents. We parents are not as lame as you think we are and we love you more than you could ever imagine.
Here what my teen has to say:
I’m under the weather but just a reminder
I’m feeling a bit under the weather today. I’m not sure what got me but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with all the hacking a sniffling my hubby did all weekend. Thanks honey! Although my nose has been stuffy all day I am going to keep trying the mind over matter thing and hope that I can convince myself that I am not catching anything. The UPS man did bring me my pan lid holder today. I did put all the lids in that but I am not sure that is exactly what I was looking for. Some of the knobs on my lids are large so they do not fit properly in the holder. It does serve its purpose I guess.
I think I will keep searching for something more efficient. I tried facing the lids the other direction also to see if that would help them to fit better. Am I being to picky?
I was a little disappointed that the lid holder was the only product I received today but at the same time since I am under the weather I probably would have skipped out on cleaning under the sink anyway. Maybe tomorrow I will have several things delivered. My kitchen items are just a few of the items I’ve ordered. I have some more exciting things on the way as well. I save that for another day.
Don’t you just love receiving goodies in the mail or by UPS. Oh, I do, I do!!!
I wanted to remind everyone about the $25 Amazon gift card giveaway I have going on. Remember to check under the current giveaways. I also hope to receive some more ideas on organizing in the comments. Don’t be shy! I know there are tons of you organizers out there and I would be so honored if you would share. It is easy to enter.
I’m off to try to get some sleep to get over this “blah” feeling.
Good Night!
Kitchen Org Project Follow- Up
It has been a busy weekend for me. I had a lot of fun working on reorganizing my kitchen. I’ve come to love having my home in order. It makes it a lot more functional for the family. When you look at my kitchen at first glance you would never know the dysfunction behind the closed drawers and cabinets. Just take a look at this mess. How in the world did we find anything?
I cannot recall what finally made me say that enough is enough. Maybe I finally got tired of all the sifting through things. Half the time I never found what I was looking for.
So how did I do it? Well, let me just first say that I wanted to organize but I also wanted to organize on a low-budget. I ordered some items from Amazon to help on this organizing crusade. Sadly, because we got several inches of snow and ice it delayed my items. That’s okay though, they will be here tomorrow and I’ll be excited to put them in the places I have in mind for them.
So I started at my local Dollar General where I found some great plastic containers for organizing. I paid a $1 for each for most of the items but a couple of items I paid $3 for. I think that is very reasonable.
As you can see I found some other bargains while I was at the dollar store. I ended up with a box of super pretzels, some gain dryer sheets, and an organizer for my daughters shower.
I started with my drawers since they were the worst. I looked through and pitched stuff that it made no sense for me to keep anymore. I organized the junk drawers so that tools, nails, screws, etc. all have their own place. I thought about the things I would go looking for and never be able to find. I thought about the things that I would use most often and I made those items easier to get access to by placing them in the front.
I used the containers that I bought as some older Tupperware to separate my junk.
I went through each drawer, my food pantry, and each of my cabinets. I do still have a couple of cabinets left. The cabinets under my kitchen sink. I did decide to wait on those because one of the items I ordered from Amazon is specifically for underneath the kitchen sink. I think I put in 8 hours on Saturday. Probably not even 8 hours because I did some shopping in the afternoon, I took my daughter and her friend to the mall, picked them up from the mall, and went out to eat for dinner. I put in 6 hours today on finishing up. It wasn’t really a full 6 hours today either because I also re-potted my hibiscus and added new soil to 3 other plants in my home during that time. I get sidetracked sometimes. I’m laughing as I type that because it never fails, I start doing one thing and I end up doing at least 3 more things.
I am extremely proud of how my pantry turned out. I even made myself a homemade spice rack out of styrofoam I had in my basement and some colored construction paper. I wrapped the foam in construction paper and secured it with hot glue. I then glued the two pieces of foam together and “wah-la”. It took me 5 minutes to make and since it would be covered with my spices I was not to concerned with the overall look. It was functional that I was aiming for.
I took the plastic containers that I bought from the dollar store to separate out certain items. My goal is to make it easy for me when looking for a spice or a particular can good but also to keep it easy for my husband and daughter. If it is not functional for the everyone it will defeat the purpose and will not stay organized. Take a look at the before and after.
See my homemade spice rack. Didn’t even cost me a penny. Just 5 minutes of my time.
I labeled the containers to make it easier to find what you are hunting for. For the labels I actually cut the name of the product off the particular product box. Yes, I am a bit proud of this, I thought it turned out pretty awesome!
Overall, I am very satisfied with the outcome of this project. I’m still very excited to finish under the kitchen sink. I have to admit that having the kitchen organized this way has really added a nice feel.
I am still looking for ideas to make this project even better. Remember to enter the $25 Amazon gift card giveaway. I am also giving away a $10 Amazon gift card to the person that shares their own organizing idea with me. If I use your idea as part of my project, you win the $10 Amazon gift card. So you have two chances to win. One by entering the drawing itself and two if you also leave me an awesome idea in the comments . Don’t forget to enter everyday!
I will do a follow-up blog on this project so that I can show everyone what I do under my sink and to also show what the items I ordered look like and how they helped. The items I am referring to were in my earlier blog post if you are curious.
I hope everyone had a great weekend.
XOXO
$10 & $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway- Enter to Win
I am giving away a $25 Amazon Gift card and a $10 Amazon Gift Card. In order to win you must enter the raffle by: 1) Tweeting about the giveaway, 2) like my Facebook page, 3) follow me on twitter, 4) comment on my Kitchen Organization blog post. The winner of the raffle chosen by rafflecopter will receive the $25 Amazon Gift Card. The winner of the $10 Amazon Gift Card will be selected based on the submitted idea and if I use that submitted idea in my Kitchen Org Project. You must have a valid email and be willing to share that email with me if you are the winner. The raffle will start on February 22, 2013 at 12 midnight CST, The raffle will end on March 15, 2013 at 12 CST. The winner will be announced on Sunday March 17, 2013 by mention in my blog and will also be contacted via email. It is possible to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card and the $10 Amazon Gift Card if your name is randomly chosen as the raffle winner and your idea is also the idea I choose to use in my Kitchen Org Project. You must have a valid email. I will be sending the Amazon Gift Card via email unless otherwise discussed and agreed upon. If you have questions about this giveaway please use the Contact Me tab at the top of this page.
I’m Aggravated
Tonight I’m aggravated. I’m overly tired and probably overly sensitive too. I’m tired of having to listen to people complain about the smallest things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty too. I get extremely aggravated for some reason when my husband is working in the office. He gets frustrated when he is working in the office too. Tonight I had to listen to him have a fit because internet explorer wanted to upgrade. It was bound to happen. We had an outdated browser forever. We liked it though but we always got pop ups to upgrade. I finally gave in a couple of weeks ago and allowed it to upgrade me to IE 9. It didn’t have any effect on anything. Go figure that when he goes to do his thing he runs into all kinds of issues. He gets frustrated when the wind blows the wrong way so you can imagine what a few technical issues can do to him. I wish technology could know what I have to listen to in this house when it doesn’t work right! Sometimes marriage is hard. Sometimes married couples blame each other. Sometimes for cause and sometimes there is no just cause. When my husband gets aggravated at me he says something negative about my blogging. When I get aggravated at him I say something about how much money that he puts into guns. I have to say I honestly do not really care how much money he spends on guns or whatever. As long as our bills get paid, I could care less. What it comes down to is that we are taking things that both of us really like and saying negative things about it. Obviously an obstacle that we need to overcome right. Us along with a million other couples in the world. So what is up with that? Why do people who love each other do that to one another? How did it start and much more important how do married couples stop? I leave you with that. It is something to ponder. Comment below and share your thoughts.