Orderly Organization

This summer is all about organization for my home, my classroom...my life.

I am completely redoing my classroom. Check out my Pinterest board on my new theme. I have cleaned out, decluttered, and deposited tons of "junk" into the trash. I am excited about getting organized for the upcoming year. My most important year since I will be teaching my daughter and my niece in the fall!

I am also "planning" on doing some major organizing in my home. I have a Pinterest board completely dedicated to getting organized. There are so many great ideas out there. I know that getting organizzed can make our hectic lives a little less stressful! Three kids, a full time job, a football coach for a husband, dance, gymnastics, daycare....all of these things make for a busy life. This busy life needs as much organization as possible.

What are the best things you have done to help organize your life? Do you have some "must-dos" for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Also, it would probably be a lot easier to do this if I would stop "pinning" ways to get organized and actually get started getting organized.

Excellent Eggplant Parmesan

One of the best things about living in the South is the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables. So what do you do when someone gives you a bushel of delicious eggplants? You make Excellent Eggplant Parmesan!

Ingredients:
4 Medium to large eggplants
4 eggs, stirred and in dish for dipping
2 cups of Italian bread crumbs
1 Large jar of spaghetti sauce
2 cups Shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cups Shredded Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Angel hair pasta

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350.
Step 2: Pour 2 tbsp olive oil in pan or skillet and heat.
Step 3: While olive oil is heating, peel and slice eggplant into 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch round slices
Step 4: Dip eggplant slices into eggs and then coat with bread crumbs.

Step 5: Brown breaded eggplant slices on both sides in skillet.

Step 6: Cover bottom of 9 x13 dish with a little less than half of spaghetti sauce.
 

Step 7: Lay eggplant out on top of sauce.

Step 8: Sprinkle half of mozzarella and half of Parmesan on top of eggplant.
Step 9: Pour the rest of the spaghetti sauce on top and then repeat layers ending with cheese.
Step 10: Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Step 11: Serve over cooked angel hair pasta.

I Totally Get It

For the last seventeen days, my husband has dropped off of the planet. (See my previous post on Man-i-tis) I have 3 busy girls who I am running to dance and gymnastics and every where else under the sun. On top of all of that, we are trying to sell our house. Why? Heck, if I know! We are just seeing what will happen.

Well, you know what is happening....we are about to sell it! We have a couple who is very interested. They have seen it once and have informed us that after they come for the second viewing today, they will be making an offer! Oh My Goodness! Not quite sure if we are ready for this....

But that is neither here nor there. The point is that they are coming to see the house today, and yesterday I realized that our yard looked more like a field of overgrown weeds than the well sculptured oasis that sells houses. With my husband down and out, there was only one thing to do....I had to mow the grass.

Now I realize that some of you are saying, "What's the big deal?" Well if you knew my Bella Swan Clumsy self, you would understand. I have had 11 wrecks in my life. I injure a new part of my body everyday sometimes more than once a day, and I frequently mess things up due to my lack of patience and my need to do things the quickest way possible (which is not always the most correct way).

So I grab a water bottle, a hat, sunglasses, and my iPod and head out to the shop to crank up the lawnmower. Ten minutes later and I am still sitting there. My husband has to drag his sick tail out there and help me jump the piece of @#$* lawnmower off because it won't crank for like the 20th time in a 6 month period.

Finally, we get it going and I take off on my mowing adventure. Adventure should not be the word I should use to describe this task: peaceful would be much better to describe it. First of all, I have my favorite tunes blasting and am able to sing at the top of my lungs. Secondly, I get to ride around on this cool little toy (who doesn't love this!). Finally, it is difficult for wee munchkins to bother you on the lawnmower. In fact, for 2 hours no one bothered me!

2 solid hours of nothing but time to myself? I totally get it now! I totally get why men like to mow the grass. I like it too! In fact, I love it. Watch out, Brian! You might just have lost you job!!