Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A start .....

Hello Friends,

A strange phenomenon has started to take place at my house.... organization....its weird and great and I kinda want to take a week off of work and keep doing it...but lets not go crazy!

So, the weekend before Husband went on his week away, I dug into our pantry.  Like I pulled everything out, got rid of the expired stuff, stuff we weren't going to eat, wiped down all the shelves and put it all back in, in an orderly manner.  It was NICE!  It has managed to stay that way for 3 WEEKS!

The weekend he was gone, I hunted down all the frames I have bought over the last 2+ years, opened them all up, dusted them off, cleaned the glass and reassembled so they could dry before pics get inserted. Those sat against the wall in the living room for a week waiting.

This past weekend, my mom came over on Saturday to help me finally get some pictures on the wall.  You all know this is a stresser for me, I have written about it often. The fact that I have 6 yr old pics of J in the envelope and I just picked up his 8 yr old pics......ugh!!!!  So Husband asks if I want the boxes of pictures from when we moved brought up from the basement.  Mom and I said sure......7 boxes (yes 7 she admitted sheepishly) came up.  Leaving a rather nice gap in the basement! One was pretty vases etc that I am not ready to deal with so went back down stairs.  One was 1/2 pictures and half pretty breakables that went back down after we pulled out some pics and put some that needed saving but not going on my walls back in.  One was wedding (yes from 10 years ago) knick knacks that I went through and finally made decisions on, we actually emptied out a box!  In one of them I found my jewelry I had been halfheartedly looking for since we moved. Nothing special, but some pretty costume stuff that would add some color to my wardrobe!    The other 4 were all lovingly wrapped photos in frames.  The result, when unwrapped, looked like this:

The taller pile in the middle, those are all of J....you would think he was an only child for a long time...... :)

We spent some time picking some pictures to go into 2 collage frames (why is that so hard for me?) I will share those later.  We then decided to put up the things we KNEW where they were going.  So we started in Z's room.  The end result:

The rainbow fish pics have always been up.  We put up the "Z" and somehow that corner looks complete now.
On the wall opposite the stripes, we put up a white shelf that contains a "brothers" picture and a baptism pic with his godparents along with a personalized Noah's ark bank from my sister from the same baptism.  Under that is a newborn pic of he and I.  Next to the closet door (the decals have been there all along) We added a cross from one of his god-mommies and added a hook for his bath towel.  That's it.  Thats all we did in that room and now when I go in there it is perfect!

Next up. The bathroom.  We have the tiniest bathroom on the planet.  It is only as wide as the tub you see below and as long as a sink and a toilet on the opposite wall.  The gray frame you see on the left has always been there and hides behind the door, until you close the door and sit down to do your business, then you see a pic of an old outhouse... We added 1 wet baby pic of each boy at about the same age and again, its done.   Two nails in the wall and a sigh of contentment.
We did get a few more up but those walls are not complete.  so Im not ready to share.  The pile on the bed....got depleted a bit.  We have a plan for some.  I have to go through some...some will not be put up as it would just be the J show! 

Lastly, Husband and I tend to dump paper in our room to "deal with later."  Especially when guests come over.  So on Saturday night, he sorted through and organized his side of the bed.  Sunday night, it was my turn.  I can see my dresser top again.  (Refer to bedroom pic above) I can walk along the bed and not have to follow a path.  I have to find homes for the few small piles of stuff I kept, but I reduced the piles by A LOT.  I'm also working on not letting the paper accumulate in the first place.  Deal with it as it comes in and be done with it....Hard stuff for a busy household like ours.  

Baby steps are  feeling so good.  We have a busy weekend ahead, hopefully we can squeeze in some more picture organizing/hanging.  Husband wants to finish a shelf in the basement which will allow us to better organize down there - potentially clearing off the train table again......the holes left down there by the boxes coming up....more potential!  And my first rummage sale this spring........its almost too much to think about!  :)

Have a great day everyone!






Friday, February 15, 2013

My Valentines....

Hello Friends,

A quick peek at a photo from our birthday shoot.  Its probably the only time it will ever work or be totally appropriate.  J adores Z, Z adores J and looooves giving kisses (look at those fishey lips!).  The photographer, worked some serious magic in that session, probably deserves a raise and a vacation. But what a moment she caught!

Here you go!




I hope you all had a great day yesterday!  (sorry the quality isn't great. its a phone camera shot of an actual picure...on my kitchen counter)

Have a great day!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Single mom for a week

Hello Friends,

I did it! I was a single, full-time, working mom for a whole week! The house is still standing, the kids are healthy, well rested, clean and fed.  I am healthy, sort of rested, clean, fed and SANE.  The driveway got shoveled twice (thanks dad) we had people over for dinner twice and went to dinner once.  We had a small crisis and I figured it out.

I thought it would be harder.  I am sort of shocked....and sort of not. Husband and I do have a partnership, but lets be honest, I carry the lions share at home, especially with the boys.  Some by choice, some by stubbornness on my part, some cause no one else will do it in a timely manner.

The mornings were the hardest.  We do work well as a team there (we had a cometojesus conversation a year or so ago).  So doing the get everyone ready including lunches and milk for Z, get everyone and everything in the car, double daycare drop off, and get self to work in a timely manner was tough.  J helped as much as he could and did great.

Weekday evenings were relatively normal.  Double day care pick up and then the following:
Monday we braved the grocery store for a few necessities, had dinner, bedtime etc...
Tuesday drive-thru dinner (20% benefited J's school), my dad came over to help blow snow, we played outside for awhile, came in for baths and bedtime.
Wednesday was J's dance class night, came home made dinner, bedtime.
Thursday...well Thursday showed me that it does take a village to raise a child.  A friend of mine said, nope, it takes a FAMILY, she was right.  We had a pretty good snowstorm all day Thursday so I let my staff leave at 4:15 pm to get a jump on rush hour and get home safely.  I had to pick up J from daycare and go straight to school for his student led conference.  In the meantime,my mom picked up Z and went to our house for dinner.  Due to the snow, my dad also met them there (good thing as mom got stuck in my driveway and he had to push her out).  By the time I got home with J, dad had most of the driveway done, Mom had dinner cooking, and Z was happily playing.  J got suited up and went to "help" shovel.  They found our snow brick makers and started a fort.  (Z was super unhappy to not be included).  We all had dinner and all three "boys" went back out to play some more - they were all very happy and had a nice time.  Mom and dad left to go shovel themselves out and I bribed Z to come inside with a bath.   It was such a beautiful snowy night that if we didn't have school work etc the next day we could have stayed out for awhile!
Friday we ate dinner at my parents and came home to bed (it was a long work week and I was beat!)

On to the weekend.  Again, we did pretty well.
Saturday we were all lazy.  I snuggled with Z, then while the boys ate breakfast I cleaned out and organized my dresser drawers.  (you know you can fit more into your underwear drawer when you take out all the nursing bras..... ;) ) I folded some cloths, cleaned up the kitchen and then some friends came and took J for a fun day as his Xmas gift.  While they were gone, I fed Z and put him down for a nap.  I then hunted down all the frames I have bought over the last 2+ years, opened them all up, dusted them off, cleaned the glass and reassembled so they could dry before pics get inserted.  Then our friends came home with J and we had a lovely dinner, 2 bottles of wine, and great conversation.  J slept with me and life was good.
Sunday despite freezing rain and slippery roads, we were off to church, the congregational annual meeting, and then home for lunch and naps.  I tried to shovel some of the now icey slush off the driveway...no dice.  I started to put pics in frames....didn't get far. (but am started and feel good about that. I think mom is coming over on Sat this week to help me!)  Again braved Sa.m's  Club and the grocery store with they boys - it wasn't too bad.  Came home and was ready to chill and be done. But first, had a small crisis with the sump pump....due to some warm weather we have had, Husband had disconnected it to ensure it wasn't trying to run through a frozen hose so that it wouldn't back up into the basement.  WELLLLLL Sunday rained all day, and while it rained it got up to 40 degrees and melted the 7 inches of snow we had gotten on Thursday.    As I was unloading the car, I heard water discharge from the house and 30 seconds later I heard it again and then again.  I went and looked and it was discharging right next to the house.....down the foundation, and it was a big wet muddy mess.  I tried to reconnect the hose and (as he had thought) it was frozen so water couldn't go through it just sprayed everywhere.  I ran downstairs and looked in the sump area and there was some water trickling down the wall.  That is NOT something you want to see.  I grabbed a plastic cutter (I have it for the kids toys) and cut the hose, pushed it back in and the water immediately started running down the driveway and not down the foundation.  I called my dad to stop by to just check my handiwork so that I could sleep with out worrying about water in the basement and he did and said it was fine.  Gave the kids baths, put them to bed, tidied up the house and crashed.

Husband got home yesterday morning after taking the red eye. He said hi to some very excited boys and I (it was very nice to greet him NOT at the office), I dropped the boys at daycare, went back home to pick up a now showered but sleepy Husband and we arrived at work only 30 min late.  And the cycle of real life started again.

I slept great last night!  ;)