I’ve just been catching up on my blog reading and I found something cool over at one of my favourite bloggers, Sweatpantsmom.

Now this is a seriously cool blog and turn up your speakers – there’s some lovely music too.

Enjoy your weekend!

I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Suzanne, who is a professional organiser in Arizona. I first heard Pamela Slim raving about her so I went over to her site and signed up. And of course, through blogging, we’ve really become friends because I keep tagging her for memes and she’s cool enough to keep going along with me.

In every single newsletter she sent out, I learnt something new – an Outlook tip here, an internet tip there – and I don’t consider myself exactly ignorant around these parts

So when she announced that she had a new e-book out, I jumped at the chance to get it. You know how I get with books?!

This is what her website says:

In “Organizing for Success“, we will help you:

• Identify Your Organizing Style
• Put Together an Organizing Plan
• Help You Manage Your Routine
• Provide You With Suggestions on Products to Utilize
  

“Organizing for Success! Get Organized and Stay Organized” is a
step-by-step roadmap to help you on the road to organizational perfection!
It is at YOUR pace, with YOUR style, and YOUR needs in mind. Not only will
you be able to utilize the book to help you successfully identify and
outline your daily routine, you will also be able to implement the steps
into other areas of your life.

And this is the email I sent Suzanne once I’d finished the book.

I finished your book and …… I LOVE IT!

I really liked the section on your organizing style – everything else I’ve ever read has always just said, “are you paper or electronic?” I also liked how you gave examples of how you can be a mix of various styles because that has always puzzled me. I know I like a paper planner but I don’t like stuff out because I get distracted.

Thanks for clearing all that up for me!

And I love how you say that filing is finding a home for your paper. Never thought of it like that and I love it. Same like a place for everything – there must be a place for each piece of paper.

So do yourself a favour and go over there to get the book. Or at the very least, sign up to the newsletter. She also has some fun webinar workshops coming up in June so you can see if she still has a place for you.

I totally missed my 100th post on the take charge blog – think I realised when I was at number 120 so I decided to learn from that mistake and just focus on this blog.

That said, I almost can’t believe that this is my 100th post on this blog – who would have thought I’d have so much to say about organising?!

Anyway, without further ado…

1. My name is actually Marcia-Leigh. Nobody calls me that except two of my aunts.
2. When I got married, I dropped the Leigh and my preferred name is Marcia.
3. I was born in Port Elizabeth, otherwise known as the friendly city. For non-SA readers, this is a city on the Eastern Cape coast of SA.
4. I am the oldest of 3 children. Hence the bossiness.
5. My sister is 28 and my brother is 20.
6. My parents got divorced after 28 years of marriage.
7. My father’s now remarried but I don’t think my mother ever will be.
8. My mother says I was a very good baby
9. But my stubbornness emerged at around 18 months or so
10. When I learnt to say NO
11. I really don’t remember being stroppy at all
12. I started ballet at aged 4 with my cousin, Karen.
13. And discovered one of my passions
14. Because of ballet lessons after school, I never got involved in any sport or other extra-mural activities
15. This is something I mildly regret
16. I say mildly because I wonder sometimes if I’d have been any good?
17. In all my school reports, there were two consistencies.
18. The teachers always wrote, Marcia talks too much in class.
19. I love how God turned that “potential negative” into good! Now I speak regularly in front of groups of people.
20. The other thing was I always did very well, usually 1st or 2nd in the standard.
21. I don’t consider myself a very good student however; I just seemed to remember things very well.
22. I only remember actual studying when I was in standard 7 (grade 9) and I dropped those compulsory subjects like History as soon as I could.
23. My favourite subject has always been Mathematics.
24. My worst subject was PT (Physical Training). See? There’s the non-sport thing.
25. I hated PT so much that in high school I used to ASK for extra Maths work just so I could miss it!
26. When I was in standard 3 (grade 5), I remember organising a class library. I asked each child in the class to bring in a book and I did all the library cards, a cataloguing system, everything. It was huge fun.
27. I’m sure I enjoyed setting up the library more than anyone else enjoyed reading the books.
28. I used to have terrible handwriting until age 9 when it miraculously fixed itself up.
29. I went to school a year earlier than I was supposed to (age 5) because my mother felt I was “ready”.
30. This means that all my friends have always been a year older.
31. I had 2 birthdays – a real one on 6 August and a pretend one on 6 February.
32. Why a pretend birthday? Because our schools were not allowed to register kids who only turned 6 after the first half of the year.
33. Now here’s a shocker – when I was a child, I didn’t want to eat any food. My mother had to give me milkshakes to increase my appetite and I think they worked a little too well
34. I chose to go to a high school where I knew virtually nobody simply because it was a better school than the one near to where I lived.
35. There were only 2 people from my previous school in the entire standard 6 (grade class.
36. When we had to choose between doing Needlework and Home Economics, I immediately chose Home Economics.
37. The other 2 chose Needlework which was quite okay with me.
38. When they saw me all alone in the HE queue, they tried to get me to come over and do Needlework.
39. Nothing on earth would make me voluntarily do needlework ever again so of course, I refused. I don’t think you can tell just from this sentence how much I hated needlework.
40. I can sew on a button and stitch a hem though…
41. They then decided that because we had to all be together, they would do HE. Crazy.
42. I have always, always slept very, very well.
43. Because of this, I would wait until the last possible moment to get up so I ended up running up the hill to school Every. Single. Morning.
44. But I was never late
45. Clearly I was in a lot better shape than I am now
46. I am very lazy.
47. I did Geography for 3 months before deciding that I would get my A easier in Accounting.
48. So I switched and had to catch up 3 months’ work.
49. It was easy because I have a head for numbers, logic (!) and reasoning.
50. Oh, I was a prefect in primary school
51. And in high school.
52. While I’m on the topic of leadership roles, I was the SRC chairperson in my standard 9 (grade 11) year.
53. I narrowly beat the most popular guy in school.
54. I still don’t know why they chose me.
55. That year I learnt to hone my public-speaking skills by speaking on a loudhailer in front of the entire school.
56. At the time I didn’t even think of it as a big deal; I just did it.
57. Being a prefect in high school was one of the most fun things I did, not because of the prefect thing, but because of my fellow prefects.
58. My school was mostly Afrikaans (only 2 out of every 6 – 8 classes in each standard spoke English as their first language) and I learnt to become fluent in Afrikaans that year because of the rest of the prefects.
59. There were only 4 Higher Grade Mathematics students in my matric year and I was the only one in the two English classes. And the only girl.
60. So the teacher gave me lots of homework (which I didn’t mind) and challenged me a lot.
61. I still love a challenge.
62. I was the only one at my school selected to participate in a Maths HG Winter School (June) at Rhodes University during my matric year.
63. That’s when I fell in love with Rhodes and with Grahamstown. And knew that was where I wanted to go to university.
64. I met a guy there (VM) who was supposed to go to UCT but unexpectedly phoned me late that year announcing that he would be going to Rhodes too.
65. I was seeing someone else at the time but when we broke up, guy 1 (VM) and I got together for about 3 months.
66. I found university incredibly hard because I was not used to studying – see number 23.
67. I also realised that I hated working in a lab – something I thought I’d enjoy.
68. I met my husband at university when he asked me to dance for him.
69. I thought he was a pervert so of course, I refused.
70. We then became friends and started eating all our meals together, but just as friends.
71. The dinner ladies used to have to chase us out of the dining hall so they could close up after supper; we were so busy talking that we didn’t even notice everyone else leaving!
72. One day we went to a movie together (Mississippi Masala) as friends and came back as a couple and we’ve been inseparable ever since.
73. I can’t swim. One day when I was about 6 at a swimming lesson, someone pushed me into the pool. I was half scared to death and that was it for me and water.
74. I also can’t ride a bicycle. There’s no excuse for that – I just never wanted to do it.
75. I don’t like anything about bicycles; that’s why I hate spinning. I tried it once and that was quite enough for me, thank you very much.
76. I can’t do slow types of exercise like yoga and pilates. I’ve tried but I’m literally sleeping 10 minutes into the class.
77. I’m a type A exerciser, who stands right in the front row and follows the teacher perfectly. Sickening!
78. I told you earlier that I did ballet. I also did modern and Spanish dancing.
79. I stopped when I finished school and went away to university.
80. After a gap of 12 years, I started taking a dance funk class at the gym in 2003.
81. Now I do a hip-hop class on Mondays and salsa dancing on Wednesdays.
82. I think I’ve parallel parked maybe 5 times in total since I got my driver’s licence. So in this respect I’m a typical female
83. My full-time job is in insurance (!) and I am a relationship and operations manager.
84. This suits my ESTJ-ness down to the ground. (What is your Myers-Briggs profile?)
85. I don’t eat peas or brussells sprouts. I think I eat all other vegetables.
86. And as far as fruit goes, I don’t eat any melons – watermelon, sweetmelon or rock melon.
87. My absolute favourite fruit is the humble apple. Granny Smith, nothing else. You can always find me with an apple.
88. And of course, I love any desserts with apple. Yum!
89. And you know I love anything with cinnamon. Cinnabon, I love you!
90. I drink 2L water every day and have done so since 1998. That was one of my goals for the year and the easiest one to accomplish.
91. I’ve had 3 operations in my life – my wisdom teeth out in 1997, and 2 laparoscopies – one in 2002 and one in 2004.
92. I was leading praise and worship in a cell group the very next day after the wisdom teeth. That’s God for you!
93. After the second laparoscopy, I refused to get another one done because there was absolutely no difference (at least to me).
94. Both times they anticipated a 30-minute op and it ended up being 3 hours!
95. My gynae told me I’m a lot prettier on the outside than I am on the inside. Um, thanks… I think?
96. So I had to spend the night in the hospital. Horrible – because I hate having to live with other people’s rules!
97. My obsessions are handbags, wallets and watches.
98. I buy things in threes – 3 cans of tomato, 3 boxes of spaghetti, etc. I don’t know why but that’s probably why I always spend more than we budget on food.
99. The one place I want to visit more than any other place in the world is …New York City.
100. I’ve never been the person who dreamed of growing up, getting married and having children. Yet I met the right guy at 18, married him at 20, and decided at 30 that if we didn’t have children soon, we probably would live to regret it. And that’s where we’re at now. Except I’ve found that it’s not the easiest thing in the world.

Well, I hope you’re still there and awake!

Thanks for reading, everybody. Have a great day.

Okay, so I’ve told you before that I’m lazy. I know some of you don’t believe me but it’s true.

1. So when I bake, I measure out extra portions of the dry ingredients for the next two times. Like this.

This is what works for me.

I do recommend always labelling everything. Because after a few weeks of busyness, you do forget what that mixture is. You should see my pantry cupboards – you will laugh. But at least things are always put back in the correct places, right?

That said, I don’t bother to label the baking mix since I only bake these oatmeal cookies (I will blog the recipe and pictures on the weekend) and muffins. Yes, those are the only things I bake. And I can easily tell them apart.

But I do make all sorts of muffins – does that count? In fact, I saw a really nice recipe on a blog this week which I am itching to try out. And I have to try Sandra’s quick pizza.

2. Another thing that works for me is that whenever I bake, I put a cloth towel on the counter top so that all that flour doesn’t mess up the counters. Afterwards, it is easy to shake out the cloth and wipe down the counter.

Do you have any great baking tips?

This week I decided to tackle those irritating little things that I just haven’t been getting around to. In the coaching world, we call them tolerations and they typically drain your energy even though doing them wouldn’t take very long at all.

So this is what I did this weekend:

1. I glued my insoles back into my boots – 3 minutes
2. I wrote an email I’ve been procrastinating on (not to any of you bloggy friends) – 3 minutes
3. I quickly sorted out my sock and underwear drawer – 5 minutes
4. Caught up on my filing (weekly plus the stuff from the water debacle) while listening to a podcast – 10 minutes

Peace of mind = PRICELESS

What did you tackle this week?

BTW, in the June newsletter, I am going to talk about getting a handle on all the paper in your life.

To make sure you don’t miss out, sign up using the box in the top right corner of the blog ——->

I’ve decided that Andrea J Lee’s unwork is a wonderful concept and am trying to work it into my life. Basically it’s the 20/80 principle where only 20% of your efforts produce 80% of results.

So for me, Fridays are going to be easy-peasy food. Last Friday we had McCain’s beef lasagne (7 minutes in the microwave while I pack dishes or organise a cupboard) and it was delicious. This week we’re doing something similar.

Monday
Stirfried beef, veggies and sweet potato. Yes, sweet potato. It is delicious in stir-fry.

Tuesday
Mimmos! – I’ve been craving for a creamy pasta so we are going to get my chicken and spinach pasta, then home for The Amazing Race. Perfect evening!

Wednesday
Chicken & mushroom casserole with rice

Thursday
Baked potatoes with spicy tomato kidney bean sauce

Friday
Pasta & sauce – the ones where you add milk and water and it’s done!

For more Menu Plan Monday participants, go on over to Laura’s blog.

Thirteen lists in my daily planner

1. Goals for the year (of course) – when you sign up to my mailing list, you get a free goals page as part of your welcome pack. It’s the purple box on the top right —–>

2. Personal information (I have this typed on a separate page because I’m too lazy to write it out every year, so I just edit as necessary and reprint. Also much neater).

3. Important telephone numbers (like the locksmith, handyman, and so on)

4. Reference numbers (my insurance policy numbers, all my bank account numbers, Jhb connect meter numbers, etc.)

5. Ministry telephone, email and birthday list

6. Birthday list

7. Movies to see

8. Books to read/ buy

9. Favourite movies (just for Dion who badgered me until I made the list! – guess what’s on there besides those on my profile?)

10. Websites to visit

11. Ebooks to read – I have tons, so I do about 4 a month and of course, I schedule it in.

12. Personal shopping wish list

13. Website usernames and passwords (I know I’m not supposed to do this but there are 22 on the list, and I don’t put any involving any money on here)

What lists do you keep?

See more Thursday Thirteen participants

I’m always so excited to get questions from friends or subscribers so please keep them coming in. Next time when you think, “there must be a better way to do this” or “I wonder how other people do this”, send me an email straight away and I’ll answer it for you, okay?

So I received an email this week from a friend who asked me what my reminder system is for appointments.

Well, let me start by saying that I’m paranoid about forgetting anything. I once forgot something very dear to my heart and immediately put in a system to make sure it never happened again. I suppose you want to know what happened?

I do some volunteer work at the church where I help people discover their God-given gifts. Anyway, I’d made an appointment to assess someone on a public holiday and I was training somebody else too. So I’m at home, working on the computer and I get a phone call. “Ps Marcia, are you on your way?”

Imagine the terror!

Immediately I realised what happened so I apologised while pulling on jacket and gloves and racing out of there. I’m sure I broke a few speed limits getting to the church but at least it ended well.

However, I hated the embarrassment. Both ladies were totally fine, having some coffee and fellowshipping, and we had a lovely time the rest of the evening. But I vowed never to let that happen to me ever again.

So here’s what I now do: I write down everything in my daily planner. Everything! Even if I set up the meeting in Outlook, I still make a note of it on paper. (I’m a paper gal and make no apologies for it). You never know when you’ll have a power outage and you can’t access your electronic diary. Or when there’s a public holiday and you don’t look at your email

If it’s a recurring meeting, I follow the exact same steps until it’s ingrained in me that it’s a habit. Like joining a new class at gym. Or scheduling a new coaching client.

If I need to leave at a specific time to get somewhere on time, I set reminders in Outlook and in my phone. Because sometimes you do get carried away, especially when you’re working hard and in the zone.

Of course, a system will only work if you work the system.

That means checking your paper planner every day. Or reading your reminders on Outlook instead of just clicking “snooze” or even “dismiss” by accident. I check my daily planner as part of my evening routine so that I can mentally prepare for the day ahead and of course, choose appropriate clothes

Now, I’d love to hear what works for you!

As you know, it’s winter here in the Southern Hemisphere and I told you on Monday that we are in the midst of the BIG FREEZE in Jhb.

This morning (Tuesday) when I got in my car it was -1.5 degrees and went down to -3. When I got back this evening, it had only warmed up to 6,5 degrees.

Anyway, I have some tricks that prevent flu in this house.

1. The minute the weather starts cooling, we start buying oranges and both of us will have an orange a day to get that Vit C.
2. We also take a vit c tablet every day. If I feel flu symptoms coming on, I immediately have 6 vit c, 4 hours later another 6, and usually after that, the tickling throat is totally gone.
3. I cook with garlic more than I usually do. Garlic is a natural booster for your immune system.

That’s it – short, sweet but effective. I haven’t had a sick day off work for about 8 years.

For more WFMW tips, visit Shannon over at Rocks in my Dryer.

P.S. Can you believe I have an appointment with the gynae first thing tomorrow? I picked the coldest weather for that!

I just received a delightful email from Lorie who highlighted my blog in her May Blog Spotlights. Well, what an honour – I am tickled pink (as I think JennaG once said to me).

Now, I was tagged by Annie for the eating out meme because I’m South African (and proudly so) and somehow she thinks I’m organised about eating out. Oh my. Hope you’re not disappointed, Annie.

Pre-Menu Plan Monday, Dion just had to say, “let’s go out to eat” and before he was finished with that sentence, I’d be all ready, bag and water bottle in hand, ready to go.

These days, because I like to stick to my menu plan so I can complete a full week (boring of me, I know), I ask that he please remind me before I set it up. Most of the time, that is.

We do have a book where we write down new places we want to try so when we do feel like eating out, we can choose from there.

Anyway, here are the rules:

1. Link to the name of the person who tagged you.
2. Include the state and country you’re in.
3. List your top 5 favorite places to eat at your location (locally).
4. Tag 5 other people (preferably from other countries/states) and let them know they’ve been tagged.

Currently, our five favourite places are

1. Mimmos – Italian – wonderful pasta and pizza. I loooove their focaccia. If I’m feeling particularly good, I’ll have healthy chicken breasts and salad. Otherwise, I’ll have a creamy pasta, like Fettucine Alfredo or a new one (I forget the name) with chicken and spinach. Delicious! (Have a look at our prices!)

2. Chai Yo – Thai – the best Thai restaurant outside of Thailand. We go here for special occasions like Valentine’s, birthdays, and so on. I always have the Mussamen curry – it absolutely never disappoints.

3. Chef Pon’s Asian Kitchen – this one is in Cape Town. Am I cheating? But whenever we go to CT (roughly once a year), we have to go there. The place is always buzzing and the food is very, very good. Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese

4. Ocean Basket - seafood (!) – I usually have fish and rice. Fresh, tasty and always so delicious, especially with a squeeze of lemon. Yum.

5. Black Steer – steakhouse. We go here only for ribs. It is THE BEST ribs in Jhb. Portions are so big we usually get one main dish and and extra baked potato for me and share. That sauce? To die for.

My word, I’m drooling…

I’m going to tag

Ali – currently on holiday in the US. But I want you to write about places in Maputo please.
Suzanne – because she eats out a lot
Beth – just because she’s on a spending fast this month!
Tertia – since she hates cooking I’m taking a try here. Tertia doesn’t even know I exist.
Jennifer – because she is still on my mind since I’ve been drooling over her gorgeous creative stuff