I am writing this post with a large cat on me, so I apologize for any impurrfections.  (I know.  It was just too easy.  Please furgive me.  Oops, did it again!  I just CAT help it.)

No.  Don’t leave. I’ll stop.

Anyhoo.  Today is Sunday; my favorite day of the week.  We go to church; I bake sweet stuff; we watch football.  My husband lies on the couch a lot.  I aimlessly walk around and pick up my mug and hoist it into the sink.  Voila!  House tidied.  Back to reading my books and eating sweet stuff.  Rinse, repeat.

Sundays are for REST.  Something my cat is very good at, incidentally.  I try to learn from him.  Currently he is on his back, waving his paws at me for a belly rub.  The lap cat = a daily reminder that we are to REST.  And REST with our entire selves – belly up, paws fluttering, occasionally punctuated with gigantic, fishy yawns.

But since Momsie’s brain can never fully shut off (see industrious in the dictionary), I do always tackle one other sort of “chore” on Sundays:  I plan.

I take about a good 20 minutes and I sit down (with cat and coffee, preferably not too mingled together) and plan my upcoming week.  I write down in a good, old-fashioned spiral notebook my menu for the week, appointments, tasks I gotta get done, my daily chores, any contacts and emails I need to make.  And then:

I shut my Master Plan, put it away, and go in search of more coffee.  And some Frisky Crispies.  For the CAT.  Not the hubs.  That’s a post for another day.

I am on chapter three of Organize Now!  (My lawyer is nudging me and wants to point out the obvious:   I have been reading this now for SIX weeks, but am still just on… chapter three.  I get the math.  PROGRESS, NOT PERFECTION.)

Chapter Three:  Organize Your Cleaning Schedule.

BRILLIANT CHAPTER. Know why? Because I have already done about 90% of it!!!  This book is AWESOME.  It’s like my own personal validation system – at least for this chapter – telling me I’m the Organizing Bombdiggity.  (Again, at least for this chapter.  We all know how long it took me to finish chapter 2 and the dentist appointment thing-y.*)

Some nuggets of wisdom from Jennifer Ford Berry:

• Save space by minimizing cleaners.  I do this by simply using vinegar and water spray.  I also use old cloth diapers for wipes – we have a kamillion of ’em.  Might as well put them to good use.
• Take 15 minutes each night to straighten up the house.  I find myself doing this around 4 pm every night. It seems a natural time to do it, you know, when we are all sick of each other, and I need some time alone.  As soon as I mention “clean up” they scatter like crazed minnows. Boom! Quiet time!   (I know.  The lawyer says children should be INCLUDED in clean up.  I do that.  Really.  LAY OFF.)
• Be a basket case.  Carry a basket around the house while you are cleaning.  I amended this by having a “stairs basket” that is somewhat cute and allows me to throw any odd item in there to go up or down stairs as needed. The items in there right now?  Three logos, some shoes, Spiderman underpants (clean?  One can hope), a matching Spiderman action figure missing one hand (IT’S MINE MOMMY DONT THWOW IT AWAY CUZ I NEEEEEEED IT!) and some rope.  (Rope?) Also, 5 million cat toys.  The cat is way organized.**

I LOVE THIS CHAPTER!  If only I could have skipped Chapter 2 and just doubled up on Chapter 3.

*  Dentist appointment: Root canal.  WAT.  NO.  HELP. March 13.  Prayer vigil will start at March 12 at midnight…

** And, in the delicious knowledge that one can never have too many pictures of CATS that are ORGANIZED, I leave you with this:

  Fifteen Ways to Organize Your Cats