A Few of My Favourite Things (3)

LOVE our Time Timer. Even more than I expected to. Both of them actually. We have the small (pictured) and the medium sized one, too. That link also takes you to where I ordered ours from, as the US site, doesn't ship to Australia.

Not cheap, by any means. But worth it!


How does it work?

If you look closely at my picture, the '20' has a clear 'button' on it. This is attached to the red area. To set the timer, you put your finger on this button and slide the red area around to the desired time. It then retracts until it disappears. It can either end in silence or two short beeps, to let you know it's done. Enough noise to hear it, but not so loud or ongoing that it would annoy others working nearby.


What do we use ours for?

The small one for computer use & piano practice. It's easy to see, with less than half a glance, an approximate idea of how much time is left. Concentration does not need to be broken to check how much time is left. More piano is happening in each half hour now!

Also with the small one, I'm using it to help our 4yo learn to sit still for periods of time, as needed. He was born with 'ants in his pants' but still needs to develop self control and the skill of being able to sit and be still when needed. Time means nothing to a 4 year old, so him being able to see the block of time left, and it shrinking, works wonders. A couple of practice sessions at home and he's good to go when out and about. I don't get asked every 3 minutes during the sermon at church 'are we done yet?', anymore. I set the timer for 45 minutes and know we'll be easily done by then. Bliss for me, and for those sitting around us. He then knows to just keep waiting and DO one of the things, he's allowed to do.

The BIG one - or medium as the Time Timer company calls it... but it's BIG to us...! The BIG one is used for team work and group times. Everyone cleaning the car? Timer on for 15 minutes where we can all see it and Go! Kids needing to hang washing? Timer where they can see it and GO! Silent time, in the lounge room? Put it where they can see it, and SHH!!


What else you might like to know:

The small one has a protective see through cover - making it ideal for tossing in the handbag, for heading out. It flips around to become the 'stand', and help it balance better, when needed. The medium sized one has two click out legs at the bag to stabilise it - easy to use.

They both take a single AA battery



I have not been asked to review, nor been given anything for reviewing. 
These are my own thoughts on an item I own.

Something needs to change...

Thinking of going back to Flylady routines again... it's been about 8 years since I stopped. Anyone else doing Flylady now?

A Days Work

Fantastic weather here today, for getting things done. Low 20's and overcast. Happy me!

The Boys (hubby, Nj & Timothy) are digging in the garden to help get the last of our seedlings in. We're waaay behind as gardening plans fell apart a month or so ago. We've been harvesting tomatoes as of this week and still have silverbeet and spinach on the go from winter. Zucchini have been in a couple of weeks and an additional 6 tomato plants went in about the same time - they were about 30cm high already when they went in. Today we'll be adding lettuce, capsicum, pumpkin (take 2!), parsley (take 2 too), spring onions, basil... and... ah yes, cucumbers.

Melinda and I are busy in the kitchen (I'm having a quick cuppa break while I'm typing). She's currently pulling all the meat of a roast chicken and will then turn it into chicken and corn soup. I've done the dishes, am getting pasta whipped up for lunch and am about to create a mango satay chicken recipe to go in the crockpot for tonight's dinner.

Other kitchen plans for today include making up a couple of Tuna Bakes for the fridge, straining and freezing lamb broth, sorting the fridges to make the menu plan for the next few days. And of course, a few more loads of dishes!

Once the digging is done, I'll go help with the planting of the seedlings and then hubby and I will spend the remainder of the afternoon using the motorised trimmer on all the path edges. Kids will be cleaning out the chook house and freshening the nesting boxes with more hay.

If I've time this evening, I'm going to try and catch up on blog reading from the last month or so. If not tonight, tomorrow arvo :-)

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Works every time!

Sometime back, I posted on my personal FB page a rhetorical question about why when you are gone all day, the house looks like a bomb has hit it when you return. It turns out I'm not the only one to experience this and others were keen to know the answer if I ever found out. It was one of those questions we never expected to have an answer to.

But I have found the answer!

and it works every time :o)

and yeah, I was probably 'over thinking' to come to this point but hey, now that the problem has been solved, maybe it's not 'over thinking', any more???

I'll give you my 'over thinking' process first - much of this happens when I'm washing dishes. I do a LOT of dishes.

-This chaos when we come home from a holiday, doesn't happen. We walk into a spotless house and even when we unload the car, there's not that much craziness.
-When we're gone all day, lots of prep is done for the going out. Packing lunch boxes, nappy bags, shopping lists, things to be returned to another family, fuel in the car, pump up the tyres, wash the fruit, feed the animals... and so on.
-Because of this, much of the usual stuff doesn't get done.
-Neither does the 'when we come home we need....' stuff get done.
-Result... we come back to a house with important stuff not done and unload a car load of stuff into a house that's not ready for it and it takes a couple of days to catch up and recover.

The solution?

Make the 'Margin' bigger.
Get ready to go out for the day, earlier.

Yup, that's it.

Now, when we're to be gone for the day... we spend the day before preparing.

Here's the list of key things to get done THE DAY BEFORE
-Clean the bathroom and toilet
-Clean the kitchen and benches to spotless
-Empty all bins and replace liners
-Prepare a meal to come home to
-Prepare a breakfast for the day you're out... that won't need many dishes. I like zucchini slice. Can be served in napkin and if needed, in the car as we go.
-Have all clothes-washing, washed and drying (or dry, folded and away if you can pull that off!)
-Dining table cleared and wiped down
-As much surface stuff AWAY... as though someone else will be using your house while you're gone. I like to grab a box or basket and gather up all those little things that are in the wrong place. Sort them into the rooms they need to go to, on my now sparkling dining table. Then get the team together and get it put away!
-Floors swept / vacuumed
-Pack anything you can that needs to go with you

Bonus points if you get the next days clothes out for everyone so that there's no "I can't find...s" on the day you'll be gone!

Then on the day you're out... you only have to do the last minute things... make beds, feed animals, get dressed and GO!

Problem solved.

and yes, you CAN do it.

and the more people in your house, the more important it is that you do, do it.

Unless you want growing chaos on your return, of course :o)




(okay, in finding that link above, I've just realised I have a whole bunch of organising posts that never got 'published' so keep an eye out for those!)

... and if you want to keep up with our every day happenings, 'Like' the House of Bogwitz Facebook page.