In business, this was the year in neutral! Try as I might to move forward with initiative, the universe wouldn’t allow it. But I had great success in other areas!

“Lovie, Are You?”

You may be wondering how the PhD is going. Let me tell ya. I was warned that the second year is tough and it really was because the time I was giving to the PhD had to come from somewhere, right? I shared how I was dividing my time in previous episodes. But also, I traveled. Because I traveled, I didn’t do my normal home reset during my break from school and it was so bothersome, I did a whole episode about it. Baby Grayson got smarter this year, too. He now knows if my car is home, I, Lovie is home. He’s no longer fooled by “outta sight, outta mind.” So I moved all my stuff to the office for school, too. You may have thought in the past, “How does Lisa do it all?” I humbly explained how this year, I didn’t.

Purple Work That Didn’t Work

All of Organize 365® worked on two purple projects for a whole 10 months, that took lots of time and money, only to have neither get fully completed. So for years I’ve been told I need to go to an ERP system. This was the year. We worked with an accounting firm to get things and policies in place only to have the ERP team tell us that our bank and the system don’t play well together. So, I started thinking and came up with an idea. Once proposed, they said yes, I think we can use that solution to make Quickbooks work for you since we know Quickbooks plays nice with your bank. And we got to keep our super secure website. All was not lost because the company is better having gone through all of that.

And then there was our lease that was expiring. It got me looking at other spaces. I practiced driving to them like it was our new location. Kind of tried it on for size. I started dreaming of additional live events I’d like to host. They were ok, but then the cost of moving was setting in. Would our landlord extend the lease, just increase the price? They said yes, but to different terms of course. So here we are in the same building for the next four years, not moving. Again, all was not lost because we upgraded our current space and made it more functional for us for the season we are in. And stay tuned to attend some of the live events I dreamed up, like the Small Business Planning Mastermind on March 5th & 6th.

Milestones Hit in This Neutral Year

I am so excited with the milestones the company hit this year in quarter four, despite the purple projects failing. Such HUGE things!!! The podcast turned 10! The podcast is often about the Sunday Basket® in one way or another. And we say the Sunday Basket® saves people 260 hours annually. We also know that we have sold 12,000 Complete Sunday Basket®s, equating to saving “officially documented purchasers” 10 MILLION HOURS!! That is so amazing!! That’s what I want, to give women back their time by delaying decision making so they don’t derail themselves. And since we were going to have a party to celebrate the podcast, we decided to celebrate my award, too!

I saw Miami University was awarding Cincinnati Female Entrepreneur of the Year. With a short deadline to submit an application and three references, I didn’t know if I’d have everything in time. But my instagram followers are amazing and I actually received SIX overnight! I was so surprised to be in the top 3 being considered for the award, and even more shocked to be awarded the first ever Cincinnati Female Entrepreneur of the Year! I had all female entrepreneurs stand and I accepted the award on behalf of all of us. It wasn’t about who won, it was about all the women in that room being acknowledged for what they are doing and how they are growing Cincinnati.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• Small Business Planning Mastermind

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

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In this episode, I introduce you to April R. She is a single mom of 5 children with a cat and dog to love on, too. April was watching someone on social media talking about the habits of people with ADHD and April identified with many. Then she came across the episodes about ADHD and naturally listened to the ones that followed. She used to think organization meant cleaning. She now knows organization means productivity.

April’s proudest accomplishment as a result of learning from Organize 365® is her beloved drink station! She has a tiny kitchen and there are lots of people in the house. But April took it a step further by placing it in another room. I pointed out that also takes it away from the triangle of cooking. April repurposed a hutch she got off Facebook Marketplace. She was able to accommodate all of her children and their drink preferences. She has gotten a lot of compliments from friends, but now with her sister (who had handyman skills) she wants to take it up a notch with cabinets instead, floating shelves, and a mini fridge.

April shared a lot of lessons she’s learned. Or is it one lesson applied in multiple locations? She’s improved her flexible thinking executive function. She’s applied the drink station organization to her work and other spaces in her home. After her success with the drink station, she invested in the Sunday Basket®. And even though she didn’t use it effectively in the beginning, she was collecting in it the way she was supposed to. Then she would go through it every so often. Would you believe she found thousands of dollars just waiting in there for her? You've got to hear the episode to understand or maybe you have too!

It dawned on her how her oldest daughter had a bigger bedroom than the two that shared. So she swapped them. That also gave the older daughter, who goes to school online, a better connection to their wi-fi and more privacy. April and the girls got the benefit of sharing a bathroom space instead of just April using it, as well as the connections she’s building with her two youngest as they get ready for their day together.

April also shared about how she touches base with all her kids on Sunday to plan ahead. And how she developed an A/B meal plan (with a little help from Chat GPT) for when her kids are with her and when they are at their dads. But she knew what to ask for due to what she has learned through Organize 365®.

She’s been prepared for the unexpected. When hurricane Beryl was coming their way, she was able to plan ahead and be prepared to ride it out. I told her about the snow day box I developed when my kids were younger to make it exciting to have the kids home. She’s realized that just because she’s organized it doesn’t mean it’ll keep things from happening.

She has so much more joy and awareness now. She feels confident when one of the kids needs something from her and she can go get it from her Sunday Basket®. She has so much joy with the intentionality of how she’s spending her time with her kids and she’s so excited about the future.

April’s advice is, “If you don’t know if you should get the Sunday Basket®, do the drink station or just try one thing.” It’s true in the midst of your overwhelm of thinking you need all the systems. Just start with one thing or it seems too overwhelming to even start. All the systems are independent of each other. And as April added, then it just gets easier to add another system.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• The Productive Home Solution®

• Home Planning Day

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I love when the podcasters I follow do a year in review and so I thought I’d try my hand at it this year. This year was the year of renovations, like I have mentioned a few times. But when I look back collectively on all that was done in addition to the renovations, I realize how blessed I am. I had been warned the second year of the PhD was going to be hard and it was. And just for funzies, we threw in some travel and medical events too!

New Bathrooms…

We were all wide awake by the time Joey called, told us about a fizzy sound behind his toilet, but not to worry. He was going to go back to bed and would call us when he got back up. Oh no ya don’t! Joey is on the third floor and we don’t need a trickle down effect, pun intended. I had always had the dream to set our kids up with their first places, not knowing how but just that I’d like to. It was my dream. After considering rent, it was still the better financial decision to get Joey a condo at the height of the market. We were fortunate enough to get him one of the biggest units with a garage for his precious car. We knew there may be some renovations down the line, but they happened this year because as it turns out, there was sprinkler plumbing instead of the good stuff. It needed to be replaced.

New Living Spaces

It wasn’t too long there after that I got to noticing that Grayson, while he technically fit in his converted-from-the-crib toddler bed, he didn’t fit. And Grayson is of the large variety. He was 4 weeks early being delivered and came in at 8lbs. This is a large child. But do I just put in a twin sized bed? I mean, it could fit in the cubby we’d had him in. No, I decided in the long run we needed to get him a twin XL to continue to suit him for many years. But that bed wouldn’t fit and at the end of the day he needed his own room. Well this scenario turned into the Money Pit; you know the movie?

One thing led to another which in the end was a bedroom big enough for two twin beds, a new kitchen, gas fireplace and gas line removed, new fridge, washer, dryer, and dishwasher. More appliances meant that if we were going to already be making a mess, we might as well make the biggest mess by adding more power to our electrical box! And now it is so nice and safe for them down there with more smoke detectors and a carbon monoxide detector. Abby said “You may not like this, but this is so nice I may never leave.” That was the point. I figured after 12 months we’d be revenue neutral versus moving her to a place of her own. Money well invested.

But once Abby’s kitchen was done, Greg and I really wanted a nice beautiful fridge like Abby had bought herself. So we refaced the cabinets in the kitchen and got our new fridge, only to find this one couldn’t open just like our old one. So why not start another small renovation to adjust the wall to accommodate our new fridge?

And Life, Oh My!

But if your grandchild isn’t moving for a while, you get them a playset for the backyard. Which of course meant a new fence! Got to keep the coyotes out and Grayson in. We managed to squeeze in a trip to England and a few other travel adventures. And then little baby Grayson had a few allergic reactions. That meant a few hospital visits and red allergy stickers all over the house to avoid more trips to the hospital.

But that’s all. LOL We had a full and busy year, can’t wait to see how we will thrive in 2025!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Paper Solution®

• The Productive Home Solution

• Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!