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Now, tackling "operation organization" is a long, arduous, and continuous process. Step one is to know what you have and give everything in your house its own space. If we know where things belong, we can find them when we need them, and clean them up easily. Sounds quite simple, yet most of us have junk drawers in our kitchens (I happen to have 2!)

I have been working on my home room by room to break the project down into manageable steps. Last weekend, I decided it was time for the garage and the play room. Yes, very ambitious of me, but it was the start of Spring and so I wanted to celebrate with a little Spring cleaning.

I gave each child an area of the playroom to sort. We would take everything out of that area, and then put the items into categories. Once we had thrown away any trash or pieces of games that no longer existed (I'm embarassed to say we filled an entire trash bag!), I was going to have them each choose some toys to give to charity. My daughter beat me to the punch. She is six, and I've been attempting to teach her about giving to those in need for quite some time. So imagine my great pride when she announced "Mom, I want to give this pile of toys away to other children!" I almost burst with pride. As I pictured myself accepting the "mother of the year" award from Parents magazine, she added "Can we put them on a table in front of the house with a sign and I can charge money for them and buy another game for my DS?" [imagine the sound of a deflating balloon here]

Well, she is SIX, so I won't beat myself up too much. As Clark would say, she's an entrepreneur. In the mean time, the playroom is neat for now, and my children rediscovered toys they hadn't played with in years. As an aside, I chose to clean the garage because my husband was out of town for the weekend, and so I know he will never miss all of the junk - I mean valuable guy things - that are magically no longer in there.

We have a new member of our family - a little dog named Snuggles. He came from a puppy mill bust in North Georgia and is about two years old. He is as sweet and happy as can be, and he's a wonderful addition to our family.

When I was a newlywed, I decided to learn how to cook. I bought some shell pasta and all of the ingredients for stuffed shells from my "Joy of Cooking" cookbook that we had received as a wedding gift. "Brand name man" loves Italian, so I thought an easy dish like that would be a great way to begin my foray into culinary excellence.

Enjoy!

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/homecleaning1.html

I find that once I get something I want (new clothes, a new piece of furniture, a vacation, etc), there is always another "want" waiting in the wings. In addition to weighing down my wallet, I feel that this has been preventing me from taking good car of the things I already have.

So for the last 30 days I have spent money only on the essentials - mortgage, car, food and utilities. We have eaten out once using money from some things I sold on craigslist. Whenever I want something, I think "what can I take better care of that I already have?"

The results - not only do I have more cash flow, I feel in control of my money rather than my money controlling me. My house is cleaner, my closet less cluttered. Quality time is spent in the kitchen and eating together rather than driving to restaurants, trying to chase down our 2-year-old as he bolts from our table. In short, I feel a lightness and happiness that I never would have guessed would come from NOT spending money. I always thought that acquiring things was a way to achieve happiness. Not so.

For those of you who have listened to the show for a long time, you might know that Clark often refers to me as "Imelda" because of my love for shoes. I have always loved buying shoes and had an appreciation for beautiful shoes. On my desk at work sits a calendar with a picture of a pair of shoes for each day. It was a gift from Clark. So I'm sure you will understand that when our puppy got into my closet and chewed up several of my favorite pairs of shoes, I was not happy.

With my ban on buying and acquiring, what could I do? I looked through my unchewed shoes, and found that most of them are open toed and for the summer months. Should I buy some inexpensive shoes at the mother ship (DSW - Designer Shoe Warehouse)? Should I wear summer shoes on a chilly day?

I decided to "take better care of what I already have." I pulled out a pair of boots that have been a staple in my wardrobe for 3 years now. They were still in tact (many of the other shoes are not wearable at ALL). I put them on, and I'm wearing them today. If someone looks closely at my heels, they will see how torn up they are, and I will tell them the story. But the funny thing is that noone has commented on them yet, because most people just aren't looking that closely. I can walk just fine in these shoes and they work for me today. So my dog ate my shoes, and I'm wearing them anyway. It feels great.

At any rate, the store is called The $99 Only Store and it's located at 1117 Alpharetta St.
Roswell, GA 30075. Their phone number is 770-998-9299 and their hours are Monday - Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 12-5.

Have fun and send me an email with what you found. I have not stepped foot in there since I put an end to my constant shopping last month!

Clark rented a car off airport to save money, so we had to get a ride to the rental place from a guy who works in their airport office, then we had to wait 1/2 hour until the ONE car they had was returned for us. What did we do during our wait? Clark wanted fast food, but he treated me to lunch at Perkins. I love places where you can eat breakfast all day - yum!!!

WTMJ has the most beautiful radio facilities I have ever seen. It is truly modern equipment that makes life so much easier! Tom Parker, the program director of WTMJ, and Brenda Vento, promotions queen, threw two great events while we were there. First, Clark was on a panel with Charlie Sykes talking politics. You may think that doesn't sound like Clark, but he was truly in his element. It was a fun panel with a fascinating and often funny discussion that TMJ replayed the next day for all to hear.

The next morning, there was a breakfast for listeners to celebrate 10 years of Clark in Milwaukee. We had a great turnout at the breakfast and unfortunately Clark didn't get to meet everyone who attended as we had to get to the studio to do the radio show.

In the afternoon, Clark did his second hour just for WTMJ listeners, and Tom and Brenda surprised him with a cake from Sam's Club! I must say, one of the highlights of the trip was hearing "The Green House" show do a parody of Clark. You can hear it in all of its glory here.