4 Weeks to a More Organized Home: Assignment 2 Results

This blog is all about keepin' it real...and that means all the ups and downs of life. Yesterday was only a minor success, so since that's all I have to report, here are the details.

Day 2 Assignment

::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}

To be truthfully honest, I didn't get out of my pajamas yesterday. Usually this means I won't have motivation to do anything else other than lying around the house (relativity speaking, of course) and taking things slow. However, that wasn't the case today. Even though I didn't get what I was assigned accomplished, believe me, with a nursing baby and 2 other rugrats, I had a very productive day.

::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea, refer to your list of weekly goals, and make a list of no more than 5-7 specific things you want to accomplish today.

I did complete this task! 

::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}

I did get through my morning routine at a much earlier time than 6 pm. I think I was done with it by 12:30 or so! Huzzah! At this point I tackled the *Clean off the coffee table* assignment, and got most of it done. Unfortunately, there it stopped. This is pretty good for me though, considering I'm nursing Duncan every 2-3 hours and each feeding takes anywhere from 45-60 minutes, not counting all the other baby care throughout the day. On top of that, I was keeping up with multiple loads of laundry (and it was a diaper day!), not to mention meal prep and clean up! This is why I don't feel too bad about not tackling the other jobs of the day

::Set the timer for 15 minutes and do a quick-clean of your kitchen: wash the dishes/load the dishwasher, clear off the countertops, and, if you have time, wipe down the countertops and the outside of the cupboards with wet rag or cleaning cloth.
::Clean out your refrigerator. There’s a step-by-step guide for cleaning out your refrigerator here.

::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.

I am going to attempt this day again and change my schedule around a little bit in order to (hopefully!) accomplish at least one of the assigned tasks on the list. We'll see how this goes the second time around!

4 Weeks to a More Organized Home: Assignment 1 Results

So I made it through this day finally! Here's my results from Assignment 1 of the challenge.

Day 1 Assignment

::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}

I had already gotten dressed by the time I read this as Monday-Wednesday-Friday are busy mornings trying to get out the door for preschool! I didn't get a picture of my outfit, but I'll try to tomorrow!

::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea and make a list of 5-10 goals for this week.

Here's my weekly goals for this week!

 

::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}

In all honesty, I didn't complete my MORNING routine until after 6 pm this evening. My morning routine consists of everything on this list written in blue including Dishes/Laundry. If I can get at least a load of laundry and dishes done, it keeps our house running much more smoothly. At least we'll always have clean clothes and dishes to use. In my favor, I had been trying to keep up with the laundry lately, but could never get it folded and put away in the same day. So I took all the laundry that needed folded and tackled as much as I could before something else called my attention away. I think the laundry itself took about 3-4 different sessions to fold. There were TONS of clothes!

 

::Set the timer for 15 minutes and quickly pick up the main living areas of your home.

Here's a couple of  before pictures of the living room :

And here's a couple of the living room after I picked up:

Not a major difference with the clutter and what not on the table, but I was able to vacuum, so at least I know the floor is somewhat clean!

::Clean out your purse and/or diaper bag.

Not much to do here since I had cleaned it out a couple weeks ago, just some small pieces of trash to throw out!

::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.

 Here's what I'm getting rid of:

I didn't get through as much of my daily list as I'd like to, but baby steps in the right direction is still making progress! I'm hoping this gets easier as the days go on!

4 Weeks to a More Organized Home Challenge

So after our sweet baby boy joined our family, all I've been wanting to do lately is be with him and  cuddle him all day long!

Big Sister and Brother agree!

This means I've (GLADLY!) taken time away from my housekeeping to do so! But I've been thinking it's time to get this house back into shape and do a little spring cleaning. All the clutter is starting to get to me and I don't need to be stressed out when I have these 3 little sweet kiddos to enjoy!

So I was delighted to see one of my favorite bloggers, Crystal Paine at Money Saving Mom, was going to be doing a spring cleaning series, 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home! She started at the beginning of the month, so I'm a couple weeks late getting started, but I figure better late than never! So over the next 4 weeks I'll be following along with the challenge, and hopefully blogging about my results. I'm so ready to have a house that feels calm and clean again! I'd love to have you join me so feel free to follow along! I'll update tomorrow evening on how things went with my first day!

A New Chapter

It's been almost 2 months now, and we're finally getting into a groove with our newest little one!

Duncan Jeremiah was born Feb. 22, was 7 lbs. 9.9 oz and was 19 inches long. He is such a sweet little boy and we are having such a good time getting to know him and watching his personality unfold.

Here's a few highlights of the day!

My "before" shot

Dyl headed to the OR

On the operating table...

A new family member!

sweet baby boy

All clean after first bath

Cocooned mama

Proud daddy!

Isa's first glimpse of her new brother!

Isa and Grandma

Feeling much better, but still a bit dazed

Shawn woke up in time to play Angry Birds...

and then was game for meeting Duncan

Aunt Yvonne came by to meet her newest nephew!

Here's the back story of me cocooned in blankets. My anesthesiologist had given me a bit too strong a dose of whatever drug he used so I asked for a dose of Benedryl which combats some of the side effects of the epidural. I forgot to tell him that I am fairly extremely sensitive to Benedryl, so I feel like I've been run over by a semi. Compound the strong epidural and Benedryl sensitivity with a large blood loss and my blood pressure dropped for a while. The nurses couldn't get it back up for a while so I was given a shot of adrenaline. I felt like a ton of bricks hit me! I was sleepy and freezing and couldn't really comprehend much at the time. I do have a few memories, but most of those first few hours after surgery are very vague. Even with that hiccup, the day went very well and I am so glad he is here, safe and sound.

He's now almost 2 months old and we thank God every day for this little one and are just enjoying spending time with him.  Praise the Lord for this blessing from above!

5 Days and Counting!

I'm very excited to get to Feb. 22nd. We go into the hospital by 5:30 am to be prepped for surgery by 7:30. Baby boy should be born within the hour, and I should be back in my room by 9 am. We're trying to prepare for those next few days in the hospital, trying to get schedules for the kids squared away and what not. We've got some awesome friends who are willing to watch our two older kiddos, and we really don't know what we'd do without them. Such blessings!
Other than that, I've been "nesting" as much as I possibly can these past few weeks. Honestly, it doesn't look like it much in the house since we've got to kiddos who like to undo all the progress I seem to make. My lack of energy in these last few days doesn't help either. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed with the amount of progress, or lack there of, on the projects I wanted to get to before baby came. Seriously, though, is it sad I haven't taken down the Christmas lights from around the windows?? I can't get to the boxes they go in so up they've stayed for the past two months.
We've gotten the computer room mostly ready to make the transition down to our den. We're waiting to see if we'll have easy access to internet down there, as Dylan may have to run wires, or call our provider to run them for us. Not too much is left in there once we cleaned it up a couple weeks ago. I think I took out 2 large bags of trash, filled our recycle bin to the brim and made a donation pile of stuff I knew we probably wouldn't use again. It's so nice to be able to walk in there!
Once we've moved the computer out, we'll be able to put furniture in there, including our rocker/ottoman set and the crib! Sometime after the baby is born we'll actually paint the room, since there's no way we'll have time for any of that before hand.
We've got his name mostly picked out, but are keeping a couple options on the back burner just in case he doesn't fit his name. The only other major things that need to be done is to find all our newborn clothes and pack the hospital bag. Both of those things will hopefully get done this weekend, along with any major cleaning I decide needs to get done at the last minute! Who knows, I might be up at 1 am cleaning the carpets or dusting the blinds.
Hoping to update one more time before the baby gets here, but don't hold your breath!

Counting Down...

As of today, we have 35 days left until baby #3 arrives! I'm personally very excited to meet this new little one and can't wait to see his face. We're getting the house in order and cleaning out/getting rid of lots of things that aren't necessary any more. But we're also trying to make time to focus on our two older kiddos.

This weekend will be a fun one for Isabel as we have a fun outing planned for her on Saturday. Some major milestones are coming up for her. She has her first "real" loose tooth, and will be losing it any day now. We had one loose tooth incident before but it was because she bumped her chin on something and it killed the root ( I think). That tooth never made it under her pillow because we think she swallowed it while eating dinner one night. So back to this coming weekend. We have been talking about getting her ears pierced for a while now, but Dylan and I had agreed before she was born she had to be at least 5 years old and she had to willingly ask for it herself. Well, the time has come! She asked her dad a couple nights ago if she could have permission to have her ears pierced, so we'll be doing that this Saturday. For Christmas we gave her a gift certificate to Build-a-Bear for her to use before baby #3 make his debut as a means of giving us (Dylan and I) some special one on one time with her. We'll also probably do lunch/dinner out at her favorite restaurant. In addition to that, I thought it would be fun to have a girls night out with her and her Grandma Sally to go see the new 3D Beauty and the Beast movie at the theater! But that will probably wait until another weekend.

Shawn will have a few fun outings too, as well as some much needed Dad time. He's been hanging around us girls too much! We haven't really thought of anything a 3 year old would like quite yet, but I'm sure we'll come up with something! He's into Spiderman, zombies (go figure...) and most any other boy-type things boys love. We may just start out with ice cream/fro-yo at the local shop and go from there. Wonderscope, Crayola Cafe, and Leaping lizards are all possibilities.

Dylan and I are hoping to get one last date night in sometime before the big event. I'm really hoping to go see The Vow when it comes out in theaters. Maybe even at the Fork and Screen! A girl can hope :D

A New Start

I just love the start of a new year. The feeling of having a fresh page to start over again is really motivating for me. I need to make sure I don't try to take on too much at once :D
While I typically don't make any new years resolutions, I do have a few things in mind that I'd like to improve upon for this year. One being more intentional about updating and documenting our family's journey, not just in the adoption, but in life in general. We've been so blessed in 2011 and are excited for God's guidance in 2012!
Blessings for this new year to you and your family!