3.22.2010

My head is too full.....

....of random thoughts. I flit from one idea to the next. There are So many projects I keep coming up with. I think a fence might be affordable if we do it ourselves. We need to measure the back yard. Then I keep finding tables and umbrella sets I want. I am excited there was a really nice table at Lowe's for $88, though the chairs are a bit high and we would have to slowly buy those. There is one at target for $60 with more affordable chairs...but I am not sure I love the glass top. The Lowes table is iron mesh so water flows through it. We have also debated putting up a few fence panels along the drive way patio area for privacy sake and then putting a whole fence in next year. I am not sure what the best solution is. I know we need to do something out back to define the "patio" area so we have somewhere to put a table and chairs. I bought some spray paint for the mailbox. Hopefully it is dry next Saturday. The plan is to clean the box Saturday morning then after the mail comes take it off and paint it. If the paint works it will look awesome.... it is supposed to look like hammered copper. I may try the light before I try the mail box if I get the chance. The shed needs to get cleaned out and organized at some point too, but that can wait on the rest of the houses. B plans to remove and re mulch the flower bed out front. I really want to plant a tree in the yard once the stump is removed AND azaleas on the back hill...and day lillys. Mom might have some she can thin out for me

My list from this weeked
1) Dust
2) Vacuum the rest of the house
3)Wash sheets
4)Wash clothes - THE ONLY THING THAT GOT DONE
5)Plan Menu for the week
6)Clear out junk in office
7)Organize cabinets in kitchen: food cabinet, under sink and the drawers.

So I am a little obsessed with Apartment Therapy. I have decide to participate in their 8 week home Cure. That being said I have MANY project I want to accomplish by the end of the 8 weeks to make the house a nicer, happier and more functional place to live.

Here is what I would like to accomplish by room:
LIVING ROOM: Clean under all furniture, De-clutter bookcases, reorganize closet, clean baseboards and scuffs off walls, and Hang curtains higher.

KITCHEN: clean and keep clean, organize pantry, organize cabinets and drawers. Perhaps install pull out drawers in the under sink cabinet to give easier access. I also would love to put some colorful paper in the back of a few cabinets.

LAUNDRY - Need to balance washer and dryer, organize the cabinets, sweep laundry detergent off the floor, wipe out washer, clean lint under dryer and on exhaust tube. I would like to find a cart that would fit between to washer and dryer.

X's ROOM - eventually we will swap his room with the office so baby #2 (still in the planning phase now) will have space to scare with him. I need to clean his closet, put away some old clothing and also had thought about painting/ papering his bookcase for a pop of color.

OFFICE - clean, clean, clean.

BEDROOM - We would like to add a wardrobe of some sort just trying to figure out what would look best, as well as what to do with the bookcases if we do.

BATHROOM - Re- caulk the tub, clean, wash shower curtain, more curtain rod...maybe buy new shower curtain.

OTHER: Paint mailbox, plant flowers, paint light, touch up trim paint, clean windows, clean scuffs on wall.

3.20.2010

We got some things accomplished today. Here is the run down.

1)Bought a vacuum, and vacuumed the mattress....it was gross to see what it pulled out of the bed.
2)Bought paint and other odds and ends to work on various projects around the house
3)Furnace filter changed
4)New bench for kitchen assembled, now we just need to decide where it goes.
5)We managed to eat at home so far this weekend, which IS an accomplishment for us.
6)Folded and put away laundry

To do tomorrow
1) Dust
2) Vacuum the rest of the house
3)Wash sheets
4)Wash clothes
5)Plan Menu for the week
6)Clear out junk in office
7)Organize cabinets in kitchen: food cabinet, under sink and the drawers.

So I am a little obsessed with Apartment Therapy. I have decide to participate in their 8 week home Cure. That being said I have MANY project I want to accomplish by the end of the 8 weeks to make the house a nicer, happier and more functional place to live.

Here is what I would like to accomplish by room:
LIVING ROOM: Clean under all furniture, De-clutter bookcases, reorganize closet, clean baseboards and scuffs off walls, and Hang curtains higher.

KITCHEN: clean and keep clean, organize pantry, organize cabinets and drawers. Perhaps install pull out drawers in the under sink cabinet to give easier access. I also would love to put some colorful paper in the back of a few cabinets.

LAUNDRY - Need to balance washer and dryer, organize the cabinets, sweep laundry detergent off the floor, wipe out washer, clean lint under dryer and on exhaust tube. I would like to find a cart that would fit between to washer and dryer.

X's ROOM - eventually we will swap his room with the office so baby #2 (still in the planning phase now) will have space to scare with him. I need to clean his closet, put away some old clothing and also had thought about painting/ papering his bookcase for a pop of color.

OFFICE - clean, clean, clean.

BEDROOM - We would like to add a wardrobe of some sort just trying to figure out what would look best, as well as what to do with the bookcases if we do.

BATHROOM - Re- caulk the tub, clean, wash shower curtain, more curtain rod...maybe buy new shower curtain.

OTHER: Paint mailbox, plant flowers, paint light, touch up trim paint, clean windows, clean scuffs on wall.

3.18.2010

Change is Slow.

It has only been about 36 hours since I tried to kick my rear in gear. Change is slow. I need to be okay with that. B and I ended up eating out for lunch yesterday while running an errand. But lunches were already packed and ready to go for today. B has been very stressed because he is taking the GRE today. Hopefully once that is over we can get things back on track. I know he needs to work on school work too.

We have a leaking toilet that needs to be addressed...as in leaking from the bottom, which doesn't sound good. Also I think the house smells. I can't wait to throw open the windows this evening and all weekend and just give everything a good scrub down. I think we will buy a new vacuum this weekend. The expense seems a little odd when I am trying to save money, but the last time I used our 6 year old one it started smoking....and I hate it. I have been having trouble breathing lately and I think a really deep clean will help me feel better.

Motivation is my problem. Last night for example I was SO tired and had to take my inhaler again. B went back into work for overtime so I was left alone to care for the wee one. He wore me out. Then once I put X to bed I couldn't get started. I would flit from room to room. Walk in the kitchen....the pile by the pantry is suck a heap of canned goods and things we bought at Ikea I can't even walk over there. Then walk into the bedroom. It depressed me too....giant heap of clean laundry in a basket. Walk back into the kitchen to get a drink....sink FULL of dirty dishes. We really haven't started the taking turns idea of taking care of various chores around the house yet because the dishes still have not been done from B's first "turn". So then I go to the office. It is also a giant heap. So I start picking things up, but really 25% of the stuff is desk stuff that is sitting on or under the desk, 25% is clothing that I picked up and put away. The other 50% is miscellaneous JUNK. Some I can put away, but most of it is crap that B is storing which needs to go elsewhere. Honestly if the Bag of goodwill clothing, the 2 boxes of books, and boxes of old telephones and speakers were gone it would look like a normal room. Yes the bookcase would still need organized and the giant pile of pillows and blankets need a home to live in. It is a tiny bit cleaner and I did manage to clean a box of candle holders. Most of the pillar candles that when with the holders are so covered with soot from the fireplace in the last apartment that they were not salvageable in any form that resembled a candle.

I am trying to decide when to move X's bedroom. We know that eventually the office will be his room (and hopefully baby #2's as well) and his room will become the office, as long as we can find some way to fit a bed/ futon in the office. It is a small room so arranging furniture is tough. I really thing the best thing would be to wait until we can put a wardrobe in the bedroom, that my clothing can go in. That would free up an entire closet so many of the things out in the office could be put away in the closet once we switch rooms.

3.16.2010

Fed Up

I am fed up again. Why am I continually frustrated by the fact I KNOW what I need to do, I just always fail to do it? I keep repeating the same behaviors and wanting things to be different, yet I do nothing to change it.

I need to be better at everything. Making healthy meals at home, exercising regularly, keeping a handle on spending, paying off bills aggressively, saving money for the future, keeping the house clean. I feel like if any of those pieces could fall into place....then everything else would follow. I just can't seem to get anything to stick. I have had a hard time finding the motivation as well. Now I have new motivation, the same motivation that got us on track 3 years ago. I wanted a baby. So I lost 30 lbs, paid off a few thousand in debt. I did not suddenly learn how to keep the house clean or stick with healthy eating and exercise once morning sickness hit. That is really what drove me to improve though. And now I am wanting another baby and wanting the best for the tiny man at home maybe that will be my motivation to change. To be the put-together, happy, healthy, loves to exercise, frugal, active, fun Mama I can be.

I look at pictures of people from high school and college on facebook. Pictures of people with families, with multiple kids and I think "are we really old enough for that yet" I am not old I'm 28. But I remember as I was getting ready to get married at 22 that 30 seemed really old and far away. So much closer to it, 30 really doesn't seem that old now. Even so I am celebrating 28 for the second time this year ;).

So this is it. This year I am going to be different. I am going to try and Run a 5k in August. I am going to plan on getting pregnant in the next 12 months. I am going to enjoy my life, my family, my son and I will be better for them. I will not let myself get discouraged when things don't go as planned. I am not perfect I will mess up, things will go wrong. It will be okay no mater what. If I at least TRY to be different in a year I can look back and say "well I really tried" instead of looking back and feeling frustrated because I am stuck in the same place I was before.

3.15.2010

Maybe baby?

After a pregnancy scare...scare is the wrong word because I was okay with the prospect last month, baby #2 has seriously been on my and B's minds. The plan was to either wait until August or September to try and get a may or June baby or wait until February/March to try for a December-ish baby. Somehow today we got talking about trying for a this Christmas baby?!!?!?! I don't hate the idea. Though this all started with me feeling overwhelmed with being a mom. I am just tired. I feel like I have been "on" for 18 months. And the days I wasn't I was too sick to care. So why in the world am I know contemplating a baby 6 to 12 months sooner than the original plan? I want to be able to go on vacation, hopefully to a beach. If we had a baby this year then by next June I would have enough vacation days to take and a 6 month old that still is easy to travel with. We have been waiting to go until X was easier to travel with, able to go and not eat the sand. But if we wait and have a 2011 spring baby we are at least a year from going to the beach and then we would have to take a 1 year old and a nearly 4 year old. Not sure how that would work.

3.14.2010

Weekend Update

So what did I manage to accomplish on my todo list this weekend.

1)Closet Re-Organizing - DONE, for the most part. I have to see how it all works and how functional it is, but there is space leftover, which is always a good feeling.
2)Move Bed - DONE, it feels so much more open I can't wait to sleep in there tonight.
3) Organize pantry. To Do. I did stock up on things so I hope to get to it this week so I can put my 7 boxes of cereal and 24 cans of fruit and veggies away
4) 3K It rained, and we are fat and lazy.
5)IKEA - It was a mildly disappointing trip. We decided we don't like most of the couches we were thinking about. We have a few plans for some projects (more closet storage..yay!)
6) Make Bread. Not enough time
7) Make some food to freeze. Pumpkin pancakes are my current plan. They are yummy and a bit more dense than your average pancake...and they are lower in fat that regular pancakes and contain a vegetable... how can you beat that!
8) Watch a movie with B. Yes, we saw "Whip It" It was cute
9) caulk the d*%& tub! No, I don't want to talk about it right now.
10) Convince B to crawl under the house and change the furnace filter. I resorted to bribery, but have yet to see results.

So not the most productive weekend ever. Ikea took most of yesterday. We still are up in the air about a new couch and what the biggest priority is. Is a chaise, the price, the look or a sleeper sofa the most important thing to us? I am not sure.
Tomorrow is Monday. I guess I need to get my act together and get stuff ready.

3.12.2010

Yay for Friday!

I am so glad it is Friday. I played electrician this morning and took apart a piece of equipment at work, making me feel very handy. Now if I can manage to replace the part that is broken I will know I am handy.

I did not get a chance to tackle the closet make over yet, because a tiny Mr. X was sleeping and I did not want to disturb him. Hopefully tonight I can get everything pulled out before his bedtime. In addition to that project there are SO many things I want to tackle this weekend.
1)Closet Re-Organizing
2)Move Bed - I have some super exciting plans see my inspiration here: http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/02/over-our-heads/ Plus I turned the mattress around a few weeks ago to get an idea if the bed placement would work and it is amazing how much more open the bedroom feels with the bed turned around.
3) Organize pantry. It is a mess, I know I need to stock up on some things but I need to find out what we have as well
4) 3K??? if it doesn't rain.
5)IKEA - though I wonder if I shouldn't wait until I get all of my re-arranging done first.
6) Make Bread. The bread was such a hit last weekend and it really is fast.
7) Make some food to freeze. Pumpkin pancakes are my current plan. They are yummy and a bit more dense than your average pancake...and they are lower in fat that regular pancakes and contain a vegetable... how can you beat that!
8) Watch a movie with B. We have one from netflix sitting on the counter. Maybe we will get to it tonight after I gut the bottom half of the closet
9) caulk the d*%& tub! No, I don't want to talk about it right now.
10) Convince B to crawl under the house and change the furnace filter. I am not sure what genius thought it was a brilliant idea to put the furnace in the crawl space under the house....but its not. I may have to resort to bribery.

3.11.2010

So far so good.

Well so far things are going pretty well. The kitchen is a bit of a mess while we still define the rules of our whole new division of labor plan. Menu wise we have done pretty well. Knowing we were eating out mid week has made things easier and resulted in a yummy lunch for me today since I was busy cutting up X's food to eat and in reality was full from bread and the appetizer we shared.

I think we will have to change the menu up a hair and do pizza on Friday since we are out of tortillas for fish tacos and I want to avoid shopping for more than fruit, spinach and eggs if possible this week.
Saturday is the 3K and it is supposed to rain. I am not sure what my feelings are about that. On one hand I want to see if I can do it, but on the other hand I don't want to keel over, though I don't think I will. We also have plans to go to Ikea this weekend. Not for a giant shopping trip, but more to scope things out and help us formulate a plan for the house. the trick will be getting out of there without spending too much money.

Parts of the house are really irritating me lately. The office is a mess. I may have mentioned before it looks like something from a show about Hoarders. The problem is that is used to have a futon in it that many things were stored under (suitcases, weights etc.) Without the futon if just looks like we have a room full of junk. What I would like to do is clean out the bottom of the hall closet and store them there. Currently the toolbox lives in that closet so we need to find space for that to go as well. We put an old bookshelf in the bottom of the closet for extra storage, but really with the toolbox there is it not very easy to get to. I think the best thing to do would be to move the toolbox up to the shelf. And then put the plastic drawer on that shelf on the floor, perhaps with another plastic drawer that is in X's closet. My only question is will I need to take the bookcase out or will I need to remove or turn it to get into the plastic drawers. He drawers are nice and flat and out luggage will sit nicely on them. If we keep the bookcase the shelves would be a good place to put all of the extra soap and toothpaste since they are accessed much more infrequently than the toolbox.

3.09.2010

It's March already?

It must be where February is a short month, but March's quick arrival has surprised me. Things are looking up. We have had warm weather. We have turned the house from a pit into something resembling neat again. We have cooked some really delicious meals at home (including homemade bread and cinnamon rolls!), and I even managed to go to the gym!
B and I have finally come to an agreement about the housework. I don't know why it took us so long, or seemed so hard, or unfair. What was unfair was always living in a mess, and being angry and eating out because things were too big of a mess, then feeling crummy because we never managed to do anything other than watch TV and eat crap. The new plan divides most weekly tasks up, and we will alternate. I am excited to see how it goes. I can say that already in less than a week it has had a great mental impact. Just thinking...its not my week has left me with less guilt, and thinking its not B's week has left me with much less anger/ frustration when something isn't done.

Budgetary things are not fun. I go in with grand plans about saving tons of money and then way overspend over the weekend on groceries and other things. The $190 trip to Meijer wasn't good. I was buying a lot of things that were one time purchases, and managed to save $32 in coupons! We both needed razors since keeping a battery in a razor for 5 years leads to a battery that looks like it might explode at any minute. I also bought a swiffer mop vacuum thing. Not a need at all, but I thought it would help keep the kitchen floor clean and with my $10 coupon it was only $14. My goal for the rest of the month is to see how little I can spend on groceries and still get by. I need to find better snack options for X, other than the Gerber snacks if I want to cut down on spending, trouble is they are just SO convenient. Convenience is what often ruins my best laid budget plans.

So the remainder of the week I am going to try to stick to our menu. Here is what it looks like
Tuesday - Hamburgers, french fries and green beans
Wednesday - we are being taken out by the In-laws.
Thursday - Leftovers or spaghetti made from Tuesdays hamburger
Friday- Fish Tacos
Saturday-Homemade pizza

And thinking ahead to avoid grocery shopping if possible
Sunday- Chicken stir fry
Monday - BBQ pork in the crock-pot
Tuesday Jambalaya with chicken and pork
Wednesday Pasta of some sort
Thursday BBQ sandwiches
Friday - Omelets