Category: Small Success Thursday

Small Success Thursday: Spiffing Up

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I’ve been working on cleaning out the dumping ground known as The Kid’s Old Room. It’s a tiny space (about 8X10) and I’d love to be able to use it for something other than a place to stuff things that don’t have a home anywhere else.

I began by sorting the books. The Kid had almost our full collection of children’s books in there, so I had to decide what we wanted to keep (because there’s sentimental value) and what we could give away. I wound up boxing up 3 good-size boxes of middle-grade books, which I’ll deliver to the fourth-grade teacher at his school. She used to teach middle school, so she has said that her classroom library could use some beefing up. There’s also a box of books appropriate for younger children, and I’ll ask if one of the first-grade teachers can use those.

On Monday I took a coupon I’d gotten at JC Penney (one of those “cash to spend for later” deals) to use before it expired. I’d wanted to get some capris for myself but didn’t find anything I liked. I did find a nice summer-weight bedspread, which I thought would be a nice change since we only have a very heavy comforter for the bed. The new bedspread was marked down to $40–originally $100. I had a coupon for $30, so it only cost me $10 to get a whole new look for the room.

Then I took my search for capris to a Goodwill store I hadn’t visited before, but which was on my way home from the mall. I tried on a lot of things and came home with 3 pairs of capris and 2 pairs of jeans. I spent only $22; 2 were Levi’s, 1 was Lee and the other 2 items were Chico’s, so I’m satisfied that I got some good-quality stuff. And one of the pairs of jeans looks like someone took off the tags but never even wore the pants.

When I came home I took the same amount of items right out of my closet to put in the donation bag. The least-flattering things were the ones to go!

So this week I have spiffed up my house in 2 ways and my wardrobe in one. Not bad for a $30 investment!

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz

Small Success: Changing the Scenery

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

Yesterday got off to a rough start, but I was able to get it turned around. Since it became apparent that the contractor wasn’t going to show up, I decided to get out of the house for a while. Fortunately I can work wherever I can find a Wi-Fi connection.

I headed over to Barnes & Noble, with an old gift card that had about $5 on it. With that, I indulged in a white-chocolate mocha and biscotti. I savored those treats while working and was able to reboot my brain.

I’d have stayed at the bookstore longer, but the smell of paint became my cue to leave. No, they weren’t renovating the store. Two women were sitting at a cafe table that was draped in a flowered plastic tablecloth–in the middle of an art lesson. As the lesson progressed, the paint smell began to permeate the store. As I’m sensitive to fragrances, I decided it was time to move on. Now I’ve seen knitting clubs that meet in the cafe, and I’ve taken my daughter to a math tutor who met her there. And I had no problem with that (yes, we always bought drinks to justify our use of a cafe table for an hour). I’d have thought nothing of the art lesson if it involved pencils or charcoal. But who brings paints into Barnes & Noble?

I’ve also been working on cleaning out The Kid’s old room, which has become quite the dumping ground since he commandeered his older brother’s room upon Big Brother’s departure last August. This morning I set out 2 lawn-and-leaf bags plus one smaller bag of clothing for the veterans’ donation truck.  Yesterday I moved 3 boxes of books and memorabilia into The Kid’s new(ish) digs and out of his old room.

2015-05-13 21.53.16And I took for myself a small bookcase that had been in the family room. I put it in the living room because my piles of books to be read, books to be reviewed, and books I received as gifts were taking over the coffee table and the living-room floor.

When your pile of homeless books nearly fills 2 bookshelves, you just might need a home library.

Hubs would say I need an intervention, not a library.

Getting those things moved around and organized and out of the way gave me a mental lift and some fresh energy.

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Small Success: Hang On

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I’m the substitute hostess for Small Success Thursday today, so you’ll have to head over there and see what I’m celebrating. Or, at the very least, what keeps me hanging on.

Share your Small Successes at CatholicMom.com by joining the linkup in the bottom of today’s post. No blog? List yours in the comments box!

© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz

Small Success: Flying Solo (Again)

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

Today ends Week 4 of a series of business trips Hubs is taking to Kansas. I try not to complain too much about it, because if he’s going on business trips, that means he has a job. But still. It wears on you.

Concentrating on the Good Things is keeping me going. Here are a few:

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I mowed the lawn on Sunday. For the very first time. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. It’s a pretty gratifying task. I wish the mower had a padded handle, though. I might repurpose a pool noodle for that next time. (And I know that Father M gave a homily a few weeks back on “no unnecessary servile work” on Sundays, but I needed to do it while Hubs was around to show me how AND it had to get done before it rained on Monday. And Tuesday. And Wednesday.)

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Little Brother’s Confirmation prep meeting was last night. Hubs wasn’t around to go, so I had to cancel choir practice. BUT I didn’t have any social-anxiety issues AND I managed to convince Little Brother that they had given him a Bible because he was required to read it twice before Confirmation.

He actually believes me.

I even made up a fake “Bible reading log” and slipped it into his folder of Confirmation papers.

He’ll probably find out at school today that I made the whole thing up, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to encourage the kids to read the Bible. Why else would they give them out at the Confirmation meeting?

(It’s a nice Bible, too. Nice and big. No 0.5-point font.)

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I managed to figure out why, when I sent documents to the printer, nothing would ever print. Turns out I have a “ghost printer” in the system someplace, and somehow that got set as the default. Everything prints very nicely now, thankyouverymuch.

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2015-04-18 19.16.56Come on over! The pool’s open! Actually, this is not MY success. It’s all Hubs, who opened the pool on Saturday when it was 80 degrees out.

Yes, kids were in it.

Yes, I am already picking up wet beach towels in the yard, and on the porch, and in the family room. In April. In New Jersey.

It beats picking up abandoned gloves and snow boots.

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz

Small Success and Cupcakes Too!

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

I’m coming to the end of the third week in a row of Hubs’ business trips to Kansas. I’ll find out later today if this is the end of it for a while. I sure hope so!

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I got the chipped windshield on Hubs’ car fixed–for free! Turns out our insurance company covers those repairs with no deductible. A friend of mine recommended a good auto glass shop, so Monday morning I headed over there and sat in the Wi-Fi-equipped waiting room, helping an elderly Filipino couple navigate the Keurig machine and getting an interesting glimpse of human nature while watching Let’s Make a Deal.

It beats The View, anyway, which is what’s usually on when I’m stuck in waiting rooms.

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I’m a little sleep-deprived this morning (3 glucose alarms last night, requiring 12 oz. of apple juice and a Double Stuf Oreo. I think the cookie did the trick) but I managed not to lose my mind and yell when The Kid missed the bus. His sleep was interrupted too–by me, yelling at him to wake up so he could drink juice. He’s really hard to wake up when his sugar goes low.

So I drove him to school, then swung by Wawa to get a roll for my lunch (I have leftover meatballs in the fridge) and a free cup of coffee, because today is Wawa Day. I’m grateful for the caffeine.

turtle cupcake 2-3-

I baked. Last night at folk group practice we celebrated two birthdays. We can celebrate in style because we practice in my living room, so it’s perfectly OK to have treats after we’re done singing. My creation for last night’s treats: Salted Caramel Turtle Cupcakes.

They’re good. Really good.

Share your Small Successes at CatholicMom.com by joining the linkup in the bottom of today’s post. No blog? List yours in the comments box!

© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz

Small Success: Flying Solo Edition

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

Hubs had a business trip this week, so it’s just been me and The Kid (formerly known as Little Brother. He’s almost as tall as me now, which he loves to remind me about, and The Kid is shorter for tweeting purposes, so he’s been renamed.)

I’m sleepless in NJ this morning (it was a bad diabetic night…4 juice runs and one desperation cookie…his sugar just would not stay up) and I’m getting a cold. There will be no NyQuil until Friday night, when Hubs will be home, however, so I just have to tough it out.

joe cool coffee cup
My favorite mug, because who doesn’t love Joe Cool? Photo copyright 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz. All rights reserved.

I gave up homemade lattes for Lent, and I won’t be having one today–time to just stick to tea in my mug. It feels good on the throat.

Here’s what DID work this week, so far:

1. We enjoyed our Easter dinner with all 3 kids on Saturday, because Hubs had to be at the airport before dinnertime Sunday (and he spent the rest of the day with the younger 2 kids, visiting his mom at the nursing home)

2. Big Brother brought his new octave mandolin and played with the folk group for Easter Mass. I miss having him here to play with us every Sunday!

3. Big Brother dropped Hubs off at the airport on his way back home.

4. I took The Kid up to the Great White North and we stayed with my parents for 2 days. We got to see my brother’s family and my great-aunt, who taught all the kids a card game that she plays with the other seniors at her apartment complex.

micke-corner-workstation-brown__0208687_PE362524_S4
Micke Desk: Ikea

5. We got home yesterday in plenty of time for folk group practice. Today will be spent at my Adoration hour and assembling some kit furniture: a new desk for The Kid. The 20+-year-old desk he was using is falling apart. He is excited to have a new desk that he chose for himself. We got it at Ikea. The back of the hutch is a magnetic whiteboard, which I think is a great feature. I can write his chore list every day on there <insert evil laughter>

Shall we take bets on how long it’ll take me to put this bad boy together?

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz

Small Success: Serenity Edition

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Small Success dark blue outline 800x800 Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes! (Don’t you love the new logo? CatholicMom.com has some amazing artists working on these behind the scenes.)

How’s the week going for you?

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Yesterday we took TheKid to his endocrinologist for his 3,000-mile checkup. Despite a wacky few weeks (hello, adolescent growth spurt that kicked off a need for extra insulin) he has a hemoglobin A1C of 5.7. That’s a FANTASTIC number in diabetes land. If he keeps it under 7, his chances of later-in-life complications is drastically reduced.

serenity now-2-

My desk has stayed clean for another week (yay!) but I did add a piece of art. I didn’t intend to keep this on the desk when I bought it, but I do like looking at this picture. The other day when I was frustrated by some computer issues (some on my end, some not) I turned it into a meme.

She looks so calm. Wish I were.

I can’t keep this lovely matted print on my desk forever (it’s standing up thanks to a binder clip) so I’ll have to find someplace else in the house for this. Maybe the kitchen. She looks like a good Kitchen Madonna.

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I learned how to make a handy-dandy FAQ page, where all the questions are on top and when you click on one, you jump to the answer, farther down on the same page. I was ridiculously excited when it worked.

god first family then notre dameI’m looking forward to tonight’s NCAA basketball game: my Fighting Irish are in the Sweet 16! I’m already dressed for the occasion and am claiming the best spot on the couch. Is this T-shirt great or what? I can even wear it to church! Priorities…

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz
Art: “The Virgin” by Joseph Stella, 1926. My copy purchased from Joslyn Art Museum. Modification mine.

Small Success: Sleep Deprived

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

The older I get, the less well I handle the lack of a good night’s sleep. Since Hubs has always been one of those people who can fall asleep at the drop of a hat and wake up refreshed no matter what, he’s always done the Night Shift when the kids were little.

That didn’t change when The Kid developed diabetes. The thing with diabetes is that you can have a low blood sugar during the night–and never know about it. This can kill you.

dexcom g4We are blessed that there’s technology in the form of a continuous glucose monitor that sets off an alarm on Hubs’ cell phone when The Kid’s blood sugar goes too low.

Tuesday night, it was alarm after alarm after alarm. And I woke up at midnight and couldn’t go back to sleep, so from midnight to 3 I took the Night Shift. He had 12 oz. of juice during that time but his blood sugar just wouldn’t stay within the safe level.

I’m really glad that I have the sort of job where I can pick and choose what task to do at what time. Normally my best time of day to do work that requires concentration is in the morning. But not yesterday. So here’s how I succeeded:

1. I didn’t try to schedule things I couldn’t handle until there had been sufficient caffeine intake.

2. I got some overdue housework done. The bathrooms are clean and the floors have been mopped. While I cleaned, I listened to the Good Things Radio podcast. Girlfriend chat, while scrubbing the tub.

3. I made a short grocery list and went to Shop Rite, where they had doo-wop music on the radio and I might or might not have had a little extra spring in my step because of that. I wasn’t the only person dancing in Shop Rite.

4. By the time I got home, I was feeling good and awake and I was able to get a good chunk of work done!

5. And in case you’re keeping track, it’s been 2 weeks and my desk is still clean!

This morning, I’m grateful for the good night’s sleep I got. Hubs was not so lucky. He made a lot of juice runs again, overnight.

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz

Small Success: Stagehand Edition

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

It’s so far, so good in the world of this stagehand. I haven’t broken CatholicMom.com yet, for one.

wizard of oz logo bcfBut I really am a stagehand this week. The Kid is in a show: the Young Performers’ Edition of The Wizard of Oz.

During the week, they perform for primary- and nursery-school field trips. But they’re short on stagehands, so I fill in (as a short stagehand.)

It’s fun to be backstage (and not in the green room where I saw way too many 10-year-old girls taking duck face selfies with their iPhones and posting them on Instagram. In front of their parents, no less. But that’s another story.)

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Only one piece of scenery fell down. It was lightweight anyway and it didn’t hit anyone. (And it wasn’t my scenery.)

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My only injury was a splinter, and I didn’t even need a needle to remove it. I could have used a nice bath in some Ben-Gay after Tuesday’s shows, though.

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I didn’t have to be the one to handle the (real) dog. They had a designated person to walk the dog between scenes.

I’ll be back there for more shows today–and I’ll get my T-shirt today too!

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz
Wizard of Oz logo via Burlington County Footlighters.

Small (Desk) Success

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Small-Success-Thursday-400pxThursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

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I went to the mall with my daughter yesterday. Not only did not one leave angry, but I actually bought two garments, both of which were Stylish-Teenage-Daughter approved! What did I get? “Skinny jeans.” (Well, one pair is really “skinny khakis.”) I didn’t think I could wear these, or would like how they look, but I was pleasantly surprised on both counts. Icing on the cake? Middle Sister told me they looked good! Worth every penny, though I’m still not ready to post a photo of myself in said skinny jeans on the Internet.

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Fitbit oneI had an excellent customer-service experience with Fitbit. Hubs had gotten me one for Christmas, but it was the kind that strapped around the wrist, and I had a skin reaction to whatever was in that strap. The awesome folks at Fitbit hooked me up with the kind of device that clips onto your pocket and has all the same features as my previous wrist-worn model.

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desk BEFORE 030415I cleaned my (small) desk. It was getting out of hand. I have an organizer, but then I pile stuff next to the organizer and stack clipboards on top of each other and, well, it wasn’t working for me at all.

I’ve been getting a lot of encouragement and food for thought via a series of blog posts on organizational styles and tools at Lisa Lawmaster Hess’s blog, The Porch Swing Chronicles. (In fact, she’s just started up a new blog just for this ongoing series! I’m definitely going to be following that.) What I’d really like to do is hang a bunch of clipboards on a wall, assigning each clipboard a category, and have a big hanging tickler file. As you can see from my photo, however, I only have a wall space that’s 24 inches wide behind the desk and 18 inches wide next to it. All the rest is open to below, which is nice when you’re supervising Street Urchins but not so nice when you need to see stuff you’re working on.

desk AFTERAt the same time, I wanted to add a computer riser so I could have a standing desk. I removed the basket of stuff from the top of the organizer (mostly cords for various electronic gadgets) and found homes for that stuff in other spots (mostly inside my desk). I’m down to just my planner and ONE clipboard on the desktop, and I can remove that riser if I decide I’ve had enough standing for one day. I’m not thrilled with the look of the riser, but it does the job.

desk organizer 030415Then I emptied out my entire organizer thingamabob and found new homes for anything I don’t use frequently. I have decided that if I don’t use something on a weekly basis (or more often) then it doesn’t deserve space on my desktop. There’s just not that much real estate to go around, so I’m going to be stingy with it.

We’ll see how this works for me going forward, but I do love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I organize something that’s staring me in the face every day!

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© 2015 Barb Szyszkiewicz. All rights reserved.