Thursday's child has far to go....

I sat down to make up my To Do List this morning, and my head is swimming. I shouldn't read blogs about decorating before I write my list for the day! Over at Nana Diana Takes a Break, she busted out (did I just say that?) her Fall decorating binder (sigh... decorating binders... you have to love that kind of organization) and filled my head right up with decorating ideas for my front porch. Stop over there and check them out (so you can get side-tracked too!). Then I stopped by Krystal's Kitsch and saw some of her (frugal yet possible) Fall decorating ideas. I'm particularly taken with this one for my dining room table:

Although for my dining room, I think natural pumpkins would look better than the white. Maybe with some leaves sprinkled between the pumpkins and candles.

Me thinks I need to get my housework done and make a trip to the Thrift store and see if I can find any goodies to help with some Fall decorating. Stay tuned!

But first, let's get 'er done. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Thursday and Wednesday got switched this week out of necessity. I did get my menu made up, grocery shopping done, beef stew cooked (yum, I might add), and two extra beef stew meals have gone into the freezer. Done done and done.

Today I'm going to do two items from my "Master List" first - declutter two problem areas I have. I have yet to resolve my issue of having no desk (AKA paper landing zone) in my kitchen, so a pile has accumulated on top of my sewing machine. A second pile of miscellaneous weird stuff has accumulated in a laundry basket on top of my freezer. But honestly - that's not bad. Two piles of homeless stuff?

Books, magazines, flotsam and jetsam from staining, misc. junk with no home!

The dreaded laundry basket that I have to move every time I want to get in my freezer.

Both must go - TODAY! The laundry basket has the weirdest stuff in it. Area rugs that need to be thrown out or washed, miscellaneous curtains that have been replaced, pants that need to be Freecycled, and who knows what else! The paper pile on top of the sewing machine is mostly magazines, books to review, bills that need to be filed, and a workbook that Mr. B. completed and needs to be tossed. On the floor is a box of miscellaneous tools used to stain the deck that need to be put away in the basement (where we keep all our painting supplies). Now that cool weather is here, the fan needs to be stored in the basement as well. Just silly stuff that won't take a few minutes to get put where it belongs but doesn't get there for one reason or another.

So those two piles will be my Major List tasks for the day.

In addition to my Daily Chores, I need to clean all three bathrooms. Sigh. It's a gorgeous day outside and it's calling to me. Deep cleaning three bathrooms is going to take me a good three to four hours - time which I now want to be decorating for Fall.... so....

Compromise! I will do a "quick clean" of the bathrooms. Clean the toilets and sinks, replenish supplies, put in clean towels and Windex the mirrors - and that's it! No washing down the surround tiles, no washing the floors (which have already gotten vac'd this week) or windows. From an hour each down to 15 minutes each. Perfect! See? I can be flexible even on a schedule!

Also on my list for today (which is Wednesday's List, remember) is empty all trash cans upstairs and down and clean out any old food in the fridge. But (*beam*), I did that yesterday because last night was the night we take our trash cans to the curb. So that lightens up today's list significantly!

So in about two hours time (Daily Chores and quick cleaning of the bathrooms) I am outta here and off on a hunt for some Fall decorations!

By the way, I am proud of myself. I actually got my deck stained! Here's a before and after for you:

Before (duh)

After! Not perfect - but D.O.N.E.!

Now go out and enjoy YOUR day because

LIFE IS GOOD!