It’s time to show some respect.

Brookfield Parents Empowering Parents Meeting, Sunday, April 26,

Brookfield Public Library, 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

When you are not involved, you are a part of the problem! BE THERE.

One of the members of the e-course I am running right now mentioned how she had committed to keeping her car clean and had stuck to it for over a month, and this inspired me to do the same with my car.

Because my car is always a total shithole. And it was starting to drive me crazy.

I am now on week 4 of Operation Keep the Car Clean, and I can say that at this point, making sure I empty everything out of the car every time I go inside has become a habit.

This has changed my life in a number of ways.

When I tell the kids to go get in the car, no one ever comes back inside and says, “There’s no place for me to sit!”

It makes getting ready to go somewhere much easier because I’m not spending time cleaning crap out of the car.

And taking everything out of the car every time we get out of it also ensures that the kids cannot get into something I don’t want them to if they get back into the car before I do.

They can’t get a hold of Sharpies or lip gloss or nail polish or bubbles or lotion or any of the other 150 things they have vandalized the car with in the past.

So I’ve been thinking about this.

And I’ve been thinking about our money situation.

We have made some changes that have cut down on our expenses.

But there are still more things I can do to help with the finances.

And I’m starting one today.

Today, I start Operation Keep My Fucking Purse Clean.

My purse is a disaster.

And I can never find anything in it.

Sometimes, when I’m looking for things, I don’t find what I’m looking for, but I do find other things I never knew were even in there.

Like the time I found a stick of butter in my purse.

Who the fuck finds an entire stick of butter in their purse?

Anyway, I wrote the stick of butter post two years ago. And my purse is still out of control.

And I am sick of wasting time searching for shit in it.

I can never find a pen.

Ever.

And today, I had had it.

My purse looked like this:

I looked at it today, and I thought about something I heard some financial expert say on TV once.

I can’t remember who it was. It was probably Suze Orman.

And I don’t remember exactly what it was that she said, but it was something along the lines of “You need to respect your money.”

And I looked inside my black hole of a purse and thought, Wow. There is money all over the place in there. I am not taking very good care of it. And I am certainly not respecting it.

And so, today I made a vow to change that.

I emptied everything out on the counter.

And then I went through it. And here is what I found:

I have not been able to quickly or easily locate a pen in my purse in the last, well, ever.

And today, after going through it, I found fifteen pens in my purse.

Who the hell needs fifteen pens?

I found not only one set of car keys, but also the spare key.

I found the charger for my iPod that I haven’t been able to find for the last four days, a batting glove, 4 Christmas CDs, a water bottle, and two pairs of reading glasses.

I found enough ibuprofen to last me until next year, the brace for Number 4’s hurt finger that I haven’t been able to find, a necklace I forgot I needed to return to Kohls about four months ago, over $69, the glide I couldn’t find but really could have used in the marathon, the nail clippers that are always missing, and a whole bunch of garbage including three completely petrified french fries.

(But at least I didn’t find a stick of butter).

I spend a stupid amount of time every day looking for the same crap over and over again because I am completely disorganized.

And by not taking the extra ten seconds to put my money neatly into my wallet, I am instead spending minutes each day looking for things I could easily find in seconds if I just kept my shit organized.

So that’s all changing. Right now.

Time to establish a new habit.

And I bet when I start having a little more respect for my money, I’m going to find that I have more and more of it in my wallet.