Monday, March 15, 2010

The Weekend

I didn't blog over the weekend, but I don't want you to think I've given up already! I had plenty to get done this weekend, and sorry to say, none of it could be done in five minutes.

Haircare Saturday. My daughter has a long, thick mane of hair that I attempt to tame by keeping in braids. Those who know me understand this is a particularly difficult challenge because I can't do my own hair to save my life. Taking down the old braids, shampooing, blowdrying, and styling into new braids is, at minimum, 2 hours. It used to take 3, so I am improving. Thank God I only do that once a week.

After finishing Elyse's hair, I was off to have my own wig smoked. It was crowded at the salon, and nearly every one of Lisa's customers needed a relaxer, and one brought in a bag of weave. Needless to say, Saturday was shot.

Praising the Lord on Sunday. After getting all confused with Daylight Savings Time, we made it to church just in time to hear the preacher give the message. Then it was a trip to the airport to turn in my busted suitcase, which is another story altogether. It should have taken less than five minute to look up my info and offer an apology, but the computers were down. The clerk was nice to me, but I could tell her attitude was up about the system not working. She was growling at the computer and muttering about how her coworkers in the back room never did any work. Total time - 35 minutes.

A trip to Target, where Elyse and I also had lunch, two baskets of laundry, and the ironing of this week's school and work clothes rounded out the day.

So, the weekend turned out to be a five-minute bust. Oh - I did learn that I can unload and reload the dishwasher in 5 min., 15 sec. I'll take that small victory.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday, March 12, 2010

Five-Minute Friday

Starting the day. I realized that I've successfully crammed parts of my morning routine into a five-minute time span. There was a time when I could walk out of the house with a bare face and look respectable. Thos days are pretty much gone. Makeup is a requirement. I avoided it for years because I used to watch my mom take 30 minutes to apply her face, and I just don't have that much time.

I can do it in less than five. I figured out what products are necessary for me to feel like a human being, and I stick with those. All-in-one foundation, undereye concealer, blush, and gloss. With haircombing, that takes 2.5 minutes. Today, I felt jazzy and added liner and mascara. Total time, 3:13. Check it out - I may not be ready for the Oscars, but I think I look pretty good.










Night-time cleanup. My five-year-old daughter is a creative soul, and the products of her imagination pepper our family room with paper folded into unknown contraptions, Barbie shoes, and colored pencils. I make her put things away at bedtime, but the room still looks messy. While she was using the potty, I put away TV trays, tossed broken crayons and old papers, and threw a few dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Total time - 4:47. That means I may get time to do my nails before bed. If I can figure out a five-minute manicure, I'll let you know.

Oh, this blog did take more than five minutes; I wrote part of it this morning while my husband drove me to work. I'm going to work on being more timely with the writing.

A Clean Microwave

My microwave looked like one you might see at your job. You know, the one everybody uses but no one cleans. The insides were covered with grease and food particles. I keep a set of plate covers on top of the microwave, but apparently none of us use them.

I heated a bowl of water and baking soda in the microwave for four minutes. While the chamber was still hot from the steam, I sprayed in my favorite cleaner (Awesome!). It looks respectable again.

I forgot to time this, so I'm not sure how I did on time, but a minute or two extra was worth it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Changing my world, five minutes at a time

Life is becoming more complicated by the minute. More often than not, life gets in the way of living life, if that makes sense at all. I have a full-time job, a part-time job, a family, and a long-ago abandoned list of hobbies. Sometimes I feel as if I'm running in circles. There are mornings that I'm lucky to leave the house with my hair combed.

I've got a list of things that I want to do, but I can't get to them for one reason or another. Cleaning my oven, reorganizing my closet, finishing my daughter's baby book. So I've decided to tackle these things, one project at a time, five minutes at a time.

Five minutes? I know, it might sound crazy, but sometimes five minutes is all I've got. Plus, I'm a little like a crocodile (or is it an alligator?). I have short bursts of focused energy, and if I put them to good use, I think I could get a lot done.

To keep me honest, I'm going to try to revive my blog and document my progress. I hope you'll follow along.

Oh - I almost forgot - I gave myself a few rules.

1. Five minutes only. For the first few weeks, I'm going to time myself when I start a task, just to see how much I get done in the alloted time. I don't want to write about how I cleaned my refrigerator in no time when it was really an hour and a half.

2. Multiple fives are allowed. I might try to do a couple of things a day, but I'll limit each task to five minutes.

3. Five-minute blog. The writing should take five minutes too. The purpose of this is for me to get organized and feel like I have some time back - I can't spend the whole night writing a blog. To help with that, I did invest $2.99 in BlogPress for my iPhone. I won't be able to spend more than five minutes typing on that little keyboard.

So, wish me luck, and I'll stay in touch.