Thanks for the welcome Anno.

Thanks for the welcome fellow Hoosier!

I was raised right here in Central IN and haven't ever been to Gary, but I hear there several "Nusbaums" in northern IN, but they're not related to me, that I know of!

Thanks again for the welcome! I look forward to getting to know you and everyone here!

First, welcome to the wacky and wonderful world of the boomer ladies...you'll love it here.

Ahhhh...organization...now that's a wonderful place to be and even better when you can get your kids to be organized. I had that backfire on me with my younger son John. He was awful at keeping anything clean, organized, etc. I'd go to clean his room and after digging my way through the piles of clothes, food wrappers and things I didn't want to touch I looked under his bed. There were things growing under there that I'm sure the health department would have been interested in talking to him about. After months and months and well, years of complaining I woke up one morning and knocked on his bedroom door. When I opened it I thought I was standing i the wrong house. The room was spotless, not a candy wrapper or fungus growing green blob in sight. My son was sitting there reading. He looked up at me and smiled. I looked at him and said, "Okay, where's my son and what have you done with him?" He turned literally overnight into a clean freak. It was scary. Then he started being me...letting me know when I'd left my coffee cup on the coffe table or if the room needed dusting or if I didn't hang up a blouse...it was awful. Now, years later he's still a clean freak. He hangs his pants with the waist hanging in the same direction on each hanger all at the same level. His bathroom is spotless and his kitchen pantry....well, it's the coolest place and when I go for a visit it's the first place I look. All his canned goods are with the same kind of can...you know beans with beans, corn with corn, etc., and the labels are perfectly aligned and in order...I mean perfectly. I'm not sure but I bet he's even got them alphatized. I'll have to check the next time I'm there.

Again, welcome and if you ever need someone to help you preach organization, I'll put you in touch with my son.

I am ready for all you can share...
Mountain ash

Dee, I also have one son who is a neat freak. All of his books are by author on his book shelves. His clothes are hung by category in his closet and hanging left to right by color within each category. He's a hoot. I get a kick out of it.

My daughter left for college today. Prior to yesterday, her room was a total disaster. She got all packed, asked for the vacuum, then wanted the carpet cleaner. She was so happy to see her rug, she even cleaned it. I can't believe it's the same room. And funny thing is - she keep sher dorm room very organized.

Speaker, thanks for the links. You might want to also include them in another forum. Maybe the Writer's forum?

Dotsie,
Sorry to hear your daughter's off to college. Is your nest empty now? I went through mourning when my younger son finally left home...it was rough for awhile.

Cute how your daughter reacted to see her carpet. That's so funny. It's amazing how our kids manage to find their way and grow into their own person and how much they can be like us....eventually.

Brenda -
Thanks for the welcome Brenda, and for the PR links. I use a couple of those currently, and just discovered www.submityourarticle.com, where I just submitted an article on closet organizing. You submit an article to www.submityourarticle.com and they then submit to over 100 article directories. Huge time savings vs. manual submission.

I visited your website and see that we have similar passions. You list many resources regarding adoption. Are you an adoptive parent? Well I am ... of 2 Russian princesses adopted at 10 mos. in 1997 and my youngest adopted at 3 1/2 in 2002.

I'm finishing my first parenting product and booklet that I developed for teaching skills and responsibilities to my children. It's worked great for us for the past 2 years, and for other moms where I've implemented it, so I'm developing it for moms everywhere. It's called "Frazzled Parents Take Charge - a proven system for teaching skills and responsibilities to your children from tots to teens." it includes a book for parents and a child home management instruction manual as well as forms and instructions for setting up the system.

I look forward to getting to know you!

Janet, congrats on your two little adopted Princesses. I have two children adopted from Korea. One is a fine young man who is 22 and just graduated from college and the other is a sweet young lady who just left for her second year of college yesterday. She's 19. We also have a birth child, son, who is also 19 and is away at college all the way in Florida. Have fun with them when they are home. The time goes quickly.

On, and congrats on your new adventure of writing. It sounds interesting.