Organization With a Side of Pineapple

So have I told you about Hawaiian pineapple yet? Yeah, the word amazing is not good enough. As my mom would say, it's like a new food. I mean, I like pineapple at home but I don't go out of my way to have it. In Hawaii obviously I didn't have to go out of my way to have it at all, but I would've if I had to.

The most amazing pineapple I had while in Hawaii was on the dolphin boat. I like it was partly the cool set up that made it taste so delicious. Or maybe it was the overall setting...

I also ate pineapple in my oatmeal every morning in Maui. The oatmeal was not the most impressive (you know, oatmeal cooked in bulk) but the pineapple and a small amount of coconut made up for it...

When I got home I wasn't quite ready to part with pineapple in my breakfast. Eric and I got pineapples for our moms and my mom shared enough that I was able to make pineapple oatmeal in my own kitchen. Yippee.

I don't have the beautiful sunlight in the second picture, but the oatmeal was better. Plus I added some chia seeds :)

Tell me, what do you think of pineapple? What is your favorite fruit? Is there any food you have had somewhere other than home that you are shocked at how good it is? This happens to me all the time when I travel (of course there are also times when I'm like, oh no...for example, never try to get a bagel in Australia, yuckkkk).

On another note, this week Eric and I have been in SERIOUS organization and productivity mode. Our house was a legit BOMB when we came back from our honeymoon (a very clean bomb, thanks to my mom, but bomb nonetheless). We had not organized anything in months and with presents filtering in, things were really piling up. Finally, we had the energy to tackle it all, starting with our first trip to IKEA (well I had been once before to get book boxes for my kids, but first married trip to IKEA for furniture haha). I kinda love the place, but I don't think Eric agrees. It was a bit of an adventure that's for sure...

Just a few boxes. We ended up getting a desk for me, a desk chair, a filing cabinet and a small table for the kitchen area that was supposed to hold our plants (but we are having some logistical issues with plants that need to be in the sun and a table/shelf that looks weird near the window haha). IKEA is fantastic but you absolutely have to assemble all of the stuff yourself and I wouldn't say they go out of their way to pack it in as few of pieces as possible.

Since I have no talent for assembly and Eric is the KING of it, he attacked all 4 of these pieces of furniture in about 24 hours. While he did that, I attempted to manage the hoarding room, oops I mean office. While I was at tutoring this morning Eric did some major filing into the the filing cabinet we bought.

I have a good filing system going in filing tubs, but I hadn't filed anything in a few months and Eric hadn't since we moved in so he had his work cut out for him while I was dealing with the kiddos this morning (one decided to sing his whole book today LOUDLY, still rather be there than organizing haha).

Also today Eric got my new desk set up. I am SO excited. I have been using the dining room table to do work since we moved in. I love it because I have a lot of space and tons of sunlight but my butt starts to hurt after awhile, especially when I find myself working on report cards all day long. I think this will work better...

Consider that the "Before" picture. The highlight of my life every September during college was getting to redecorate my desk area. I will be enjoying that in the next couple of days.

While I vacuumed up our massive assembly/cleaning mess, Eric did some picture hanging. Two of my favorite things right now are our starfish that Katie gave out at our rehearsal dinner which are now hanging in our dining room...

We also hung up a painting that one of my former student's mom painted for me. and Eric. I talked about her last year when her daughter was in my class. She is a very talented and truly great mom, and her daughter is one of the sweetest and smartest kids I've ever had. She knew not a word of English when she came into my class and she was released from English Language classes after only about 4 months (only kid I ever let them release haha).

This family is from Korea (in fact they moved back earlier this summer...sad) and in Korea the wedding ducks symbolize a long and happy marriage. Awesome, huh? Also in learning more about the ducks, I learned that there are only about 300 last name's in Korea (no wonder I have so many unrelated kids with the same last name this year!) AND that women do not change their last name when they marry in Korea. Yay for them!

So yeah... organization to the max. You know what weddings + organization equals?

Our basement right now. Haha. Don't worry, it will be back to normal again after recycle + trash day on Monday, assuming it all fits in the driveway.

My current goal is to have my house + car 100% organized by the time school starts. Do you think it's too much to ask that my classroom would be too? Hmm...better get back to the productivity then.