One Goal

This week is the first part of a turning point for me, us and our house.  Or so I have decided. :) 

I think that since day 1 of moving into our original, tiny little house (Ooooh, sometimes I wonder why and how we EVER decided to purchase such a small space! The 2.5 acres in our price-range had something to do with it, I'm sure.) there has constantly been SOMETHING going on in the re-modelling department.  We are certainly no strangers to living around or amid construction, big or small.  It seems so long ago, but up until Susannah was born we always had at least 1 room out of commission because of construction.  Only when she was born did we finally utilize every room of the house for actual living space.  We've been working around the living, or living around the working, since.

Knowing that's not likely to change anytime soon for multiple reasons, life must go on.  This past week with much detriment to the normal housework that needs to happen, I gritted my teeth and with great determination got the new living room floor painted. I can't tell you how fallen-apart the existing house is as a result of weeks of painting as the main goal!!  Not literally, but in all manner of housekeeping - and add in that people have been giving/loaning us clothes for Susannah that we NEED for this winter but I don't have a PLACE for - the house is a wreck. A royal wreck. Haha, Daniel asked me this morning to find him 1 sock, a pair of jeans and a work shirt (he'd found everything else already).  When I cut the light on in the laundry room, I just laughed.  Folding laundry is only one of many things that has been dropped off the "need to" list for the past several weeks.  The method is wash the clothes, dry the clothes in the dryer, then when I need the dryer for a new, wet load, the laundry in the dryer comes out of the dryer and goes onto the clean pile.  When clean clothes are needed, you dig through the pile (and hopefully find what you're after...)!  We haven't had to go around un-clothed so it's working ok.

There is still the downstairs school/office/play room, 1/2 bath and foyer to paint, but for yet another construction project in the works (ripping out the old front door/wall), I decided to save the paint-job for after that is finished. So, where does that leave us?  With a pretty-much otherwise ready to move into addition. :)  Yep!  Oh, no, it's not anywhere near "finished" for real.  There is still much to be done out there to get it really and truly complete.  But it (aside from the bathrooms) is fully functional.  If you don't mind not having window trim, baseboard or any doors, that is. :)  Where's the adventure in having everything perfect?!  :-P

All that to say, I am ready - no, I'm BEYOND ready - to regain a sense of normalcy in our home and in our family.  The money is gone.  We can't do any more work on the addition without saving up to do it. (Thanks to the county for requiring us to bury about 1/4 of our budget underground in an expensive septic system upgrade, we joke that our doors, trim and floors are buried out in the side-yard.)  Not only for my own sake, but for the sake of the girls, we need to get back to normal.

So, what is this One Goal that I have titled this post for?  That one goal, my friends, is to START MOVING IN this week!!!!!!!!!

Actually, my goal is a little bit smaller than that.  My goal is to get Sylvia moved into the nursery and begin housekeeping and homemaking again.  My goal is to put my "working on the addition" hat more towards the back (waaay towards the back) and put my Wife, Mama and Home-Maker hats at the very front (this may even include showering more than absolutely necessary!).

For Sylvia to move into the nursery (and out of our room! Yay!), I need to come up with coverings for 2 windows and her door.  Those things are probably going to be very makeshift for now, but I have some ideas and plan to begin working on them possibly even today.  Then I need to get the crib taken apart and moved up there, and then I get to move her clothes into a dresser.  Finally!!  No more living from boxes, tubs and piles! Woot!

My housekeeping goals for this week are to get laundry and the kitchen back under control.  It really won't take that long to do it, but it might seem to take a long time as I work around potty trips, diaper changes, feedings, meals, COOKING AND BAKING! (Oh my, I hope I haven't forgotten how!), playing, reading stories, and oh, I can't tell you how happy and excited my heart is.

This is a huge, huge blessing and also it is going to be a huge, huge transition for us.  One we have been looking forward to for about 3 years now (we broke ground Oct. 2010 after about a year of thinking, planning and more thinking and planning). 

Ok, I am off to do a really quick Happy Dance, then it's time for little people to get up and I'm don't have to think about painting today!!!!!!!!!!!

Aiming High and Hitting the Middle

 Last week I jumped headfirst into my daily lists and weekly goals.  I am a firm believer of aiming high so you will at least hit somewhere in the middle.  And about the middle is where I hit.  I didn't get everything done each day, and I certainly didn't get all of my weekly goals accomplished.  I DID get the kitchen floor washed!!!  Susannah got up from her nap right before I was getting started and it was kind-of a "now or never" moment, so I decided on "now".  She wanted to help and had fun sloshing water around on the floor with her own rag.  Even though I had to change her clothes when we finished, the clean floor was worth it!

Some of the "hitting the middle" was partially due to taking a last minute overnight trip to visit my sister for a day and a half. :-)  It was last minute because it was all fairly tentative until Wednesday morning when I had slept well and had as much "feel like" as I did "want to".

These are the cousins all together. (This isn't ALL of the cousins, just the ones we were visiting.)

Aside from going to visit so my sister and I could visit, or so Susannah could play with her cousins (and their fun toys!), I wanted to meet my newest niece who is 4 weeks old.  With both my sister and I having little babies, no great, rip-roaring projects were accomplished but we had a wonderful time visiting, feeding our babies together (their schedules were very close to each others) and watching the older kids play and have fun.

This past week my goals were:

• Write 3 thank you notes for baby gifts  {I wrote one.}
• Do 1 hour of bookwork {I got in about 40 minutes, including paying bills.}
• Clean in the Master Bedroom for 15 minutes  {didn't happen}
• Finish sewing the kitchen curtains {I really pushed for accomplishing this goal, because I didn't want to dig out my sewing machine and ironing board for nothing!  I have them all finished except for 1 final seam that I will need to sew once I get the curtain rods and know how much space to allow for the rods to fit through the curtains.}

This week my goals are:

• Write 3 thank you notes for baby gifts
• Do 1 hour of bookwork
• Clean in the Master Bedroom for 15 minutes
• Grocery Shopping trip
• Hem a skirt that I want to shorten
• Possibly shop for kitchen curtain rods and hang curtains
• Exercise x2

I'm looking forward to aiming high again... I'll see where I land!

The Ole Bandwagon

A lot has happened in the past 2-ish months!!  Nothing super-duper exciting, just much of the regular with a few extras thrown in.  I am still waiting to get to a predictable "normal" around here, and I think, hopefully! we are almost there. 

I keep thinking back to this post when I thought we had finally hit "normal" again.  Hahaha!!  April had one "normal" week, and then Susannah had a week of swimming lessons, the week after that was an attempt at potty training (Yes, attempt.  It did not work, but was not a complete fail either), the following week the house was falling down around my ears as a result of the two previous weeks... and well, you get the picture.  Life happens and goes on!!  And I do enjoy my life most of the time.  When I'm not enjoying it, I have to give myself a sermon and soon I'm realizing how enjoyable it is again.  :-)

This week, though, THIS WEEK, I'm determined to intentionally keep myself steered in the direction of a normal that fits our needs.  A normal that keeps the laundry washed, folded AND put away, good meals on the table, the floors picked up, swept and washed as needed, and of course meeting the needs of our girls.

I have a weeks worth of to-do lists already on the fridge (from the last time I made this attempt, cough-cough), and today I put together a very short list of goals I would like to aim for this week.  "Aim for" are the key words.  With a nursing babe I never know quite what my days will be like, though I usually have a general idea.

Aside from the regular housekeeping,  these are the other things I am hoping I can work on or even get completely accomplished:

• Write 3 thank-you notes (for baby gifts)
• Do 1 hour of bookwork (I kinda fell behind when Sylvia was born)
• Clean in the Master Bedroom for 15 minutes (Sylvia sleeps in there so a long cleaning stint would be tricky.)
• Finish sewing the kitchen curtains

 Having a list with actual goals written on it is more motivating to me than just thoughts in my head of "this would be nice" or "I should do this".  Like my husband says, I like to draw straight lines (crossing things off a list).  :-)

Of course my top priority (after being a wife) is being mama to these two cuties:

We'll see what the Lord has planned for us this week!  I can make all the lists and plans in the world, but sometimes He has or allows different plans.

December Goal Review {& new goals for this week}

Considering all that goes on in the month of December, I don't feel that I did too badly in trying to meet my December goals. I am really glad I made them and didn't say "December is crazy, I can't make a goal list!" Even though I didn't hit each target date right on, I was pretty close to most of them and it was helpful to have self-imposed "deadlines."

December Goals:
~Finish & mail Christmas cards by Dec. 15th (Remember that I started working on them in Nov.)
~Write Christmas letter (to go in some of the cards)
~Take Susannah's Christmas picture and get prints I do this myself and it took 2 "sittings" but I managed to get 1 good picture from each sitting.
~Finish all Christmas shopping by Dec. 15th (includes ingredients for homemade gifts, excludes perishable food gifts). I can't remember for sure, but I think I was SO close to being finished by the 15th. I ordered 1 or 2 gifts online after that.
~Wrap all non-food gifts by Dec. 20th. I think I had 3 wrapped by the 20th, and most of the others wrapped well before the different get-togethers. No crazy, last-minute wrapping here, which was my ultimate goal :)
~Put 2+ meals in the freezer I put in exactly 2
~Make donuts for neighbors We did it! Whew! It came right down to the wire because Daniel was so busy, but the evening before Christmas Eve I mixed up the dough and let it rise overnight in the refrigerator. With Daniel's help they were all fried and glazed by early afternoon of Christmas Eve. We delivered most of them Sunday after lunch :)

Donuts rising in the oven.

~Clean out the refrigerator and refrigerator freezer
~Wipe down kitchen cabinets and clean out spice drawer
~Plan Christmas Day menu & grocery list
~Re-home the dog Still didn't happen*


I don't have goals down for January yet, but I do have a few things in mind. In the mean-time, here are my goals for the rest of this week:

Goals for Jan. 2 - 7:
~Clean out refrigerator freezer
~Wipe down kitchen cabinets
~Write 1 hand-written note
~Do bookwork
~Freeze 1 meal (still trying to thing what it will be!)
~Plan gifts for the last "Christmas" for this season (2 weeks away)
~Email a former co-worker who just became a SAHM with the New Year :)
~Start a list of things to do before the baby comes
~Re-pot my violet plant

A few of the goals for this week are keeping up with my goals for this year. I have to say that I'm pretty excited about (hopefully) keeping up with my goals this year by creating weekly and monthly goal lists. The past two years I have made an annual goal list, but honestly it is a piece of paper that hangs on the side of the refrigerator that I often forget about. Breaking it down each month/week and implementing it into my daily to-do list helps me stay focused on what my goals are, and working to meet them.

*We have tried pretty much every possible avenue for finding our dog a new home, all the way from our local advertising to regional rescues for his breed (that CLAIM to take "owner surrenders" but then tell me they rescue from shelters and humane societies first and are always full...). I am taking this off the goal list but it is still something we hope will happen soon.

A New Year's Goals {2012}

I am still working on a recap of last year's goals, but this morning I have finally put together a list of goals for this new year.

Keeping in mind that we will be welcoming a new baby to our family in a few months, I have kept it fairly simple (I think!). I didn't want to keep it TOO simple, though, and not have much to aim for. After our baby is born we will see how it goes.

**************

Personal (the one I've kept the most simple)
7 - 8 hours of sleep at night regularly (I know that for a while this simply won't happen, but I do want to keep the habit going when I can!).
Be intentional about looking nice for Daniel, even if I'm staying home the entire day.
Intentionally exercise to lose baby weight (maybe another round of The Shred?).
Mail hand-written notes/letters regularly - I'm thinking weekly or monthly.
Visit my paternal grandmother more often.

Family
Swimming lessons for Susannah.
Inexpensive family vacations (might translate into "stay-cations").
Monthly date-nights, in or out.
1 or 2 weekends of getaway, just Daniel and myself.

In the Kitchen
Purchase a meat slicer (hopefully with swagbucks).
Finish sewing and hang curtains.

Financial
Do bookwork weekly (updating checkbook/budget) along with a weekly business meeting.
Make and maintain a needs/wants list of things to save for.
Restart Baby Step #4 (retirement/investing) and maybe Baby Step #5 (kids savings/college fund).
Start saving for Baby #3 (for if/when we have a #3 :) )
Put $1,000 into the Emergency Fund
Start a Cow Fund

Miscellaneous
Clean out/purge bathroom closet.
Work on photo project(s) regularly.
Keep the bedrooms clean.
Paint the kitchen trim.

**************

Looking over the list it doesn't look that simple, but I do like to have a target to aim for. Having these written down will help me remember things I need and want to work on. Towards the end of this past year when I started writing down my monthly and weekly goals, I was amazed at how much I was able to accomplish just by having a written, visual reminder of things I wanted to do.

If you're still looking for goal ideas, maybe this post will give you some. If you have a list already and are willing to share, I'd love to read it and maybe I'll get some inspiration, too :)

Welcome December and December Goals!

Isn't that a pretty picture? It's an old one, though. There hasn't been any snow here so far this winter. I'm hoping for some snow this December. Last year we had a white Christmas and I really liked that :)

I was pretty happy to get to the end of November with just one thing not crossed off my list. This past Saturday (Dec. 2nd) I put a good hurtin' on that last item, though, and only have a tiny bit left to do.

My November Goals:
~Get Christmas cards addressed and ready to mail Done!! They are not stamped yet, but they are all addressed, have return labels on them, and are ready to be finished up.
~Make a list of Christmas gifts to make or purchase and start shopping Daniel is responsible for shopping for "his guy" (the person whose name he has), but I've got a good start on the shopping for "my guy," and a good idea of what I need to make or purchase yet to be finished with all gifts.
~Pack up Susannah's too small clothes
~Pack up my clothes. The one I can't cross off :) So close I can smell it, though!
~Mend Susannah's jumper that she will wear for her Christmas picture She and I did this Thanksgiving Day evening.


~Clean out kitchen ceiling light covers
~Dust ceiling fans
~Clean return vents Whew, they were so dusty! I think this needs to be a quarterly task. It only took a minute or two per vent to take the cover off, take it outside and wipe the dust off with a cloth.

Goals for December
~Write Christmas letter (to include in the cards for people whom I'm not in contact with regularly through internet communication)
~Take Susannah's annual Christmas picture and get it printed
~Mail Christmas cards by Dec. 15th (and get my overseas sister's card in the mail ASAP!)
~Finish all non-food gift purchasing by Dec. 15th, including purchasing any needed ingredients for homemade goodies that will be gifts
~Wrap all non-food gifts by Dec. 20th
~Don't wait till the very last second to make/assemble food-gifts :)
~Put 2+ meals in the freezer for when the baby comes (I have a few frozen already)
~Make donuts to take to the neighbors
~Thoroughly clean out refrigerator and refrigerator freezer
~Wipe down kitchen cabinet fronts, and wipe out spice/measuring spoon drawer
~Plan Christmas Day menu/grocery list
~Re-home the dog (This past month one of my weekly goals was to begin this process, and we did get started. We would really like to have him re-homed by the end of this month.)

Whew, that's a lot of bullet points on my list and for a typically busy month to boot! Hopefully many of these will keep the stress and chaos at bay and let me get some other things done besides running around like a headless chicken.

Goldfish and Goals

This past week was full of various and sundry things. I stayed up late more nights than I should have and could tell a difference in my energy level and "get things done" level. I should know this by now, right?!

Susannah had some fun times this past week. One was eating goldfish crackers off the kitchen floor. Literally. She had accidentally spilled her little bowl of crackers, and when I heard her making sounds that didn't correspond with picking them up, I turned around to see this:

I had swept and washed the floor the night before so I wasn't worried that she was going to get vast amounts of dirt ingested (plus you eat a pound of dirt before you die anyway, right? :) ). She had fun doing it, and it was fun to watch her experience something "new" all on her own.

One thing that made this past week "short" for me was being gone all day Friday. In my brain I knew we were not going to be home at all on Friday, and yet I still planned the week as if I had every day to get something done. Heh-heh. It was a great day (Bible Study in the morning, then driving a couple hours to help celebrate my nephew's birthday), even if I didn't get anything "done" here at my own house, and I'm glad Susannah and I went. She had fun playing with her cousins and I enjoyed the chance to visit with my sister while we worked on the birthday supper.

Last week my goals were:

~2 hours bookwork I did this in a couple chunks of time.
~1 - 2 hours working on Susannah's Baby Book. I hoped to do this Saturday but Saturday was full of cooking for my husband and brothers who were working on the addition, so I didn't get very much done outside the kitchen! I did work on it for about 20 minutes last evening.
~Address rest of Christmas Cards Yes! I am waiting on 2 addresses, but I am considering this D.O.N.E! Now to wait a couple weeks to mail them :)
~Shop for 1 Christmas gift. I thought I had the wish list for this person, but I don't. And I never had time at a good time to call and get ideas from his mommy.
~Dust ceiling fans
~Start sorting and packing my clothes I won't need until next summer.
~Clean off desk. I made good progress but it needs a little fine-tuning.
~Check with SPCA about finding a new home for our dog. I went on their website last night - I was DETERMINED to get this crossed off! - and since we've tried all other routes for re-homing him ourselves, I was able to apply for an "admissions" appointment. I should hear from them today about when that appointment will be.
~Get serious about my bedtime and wake-up time. Like I said earlier, I was up past my 10pm bedtime more nights than I wanted to be, but I think 3 nights and 3 mornings I was up close to 10pm and 6am... just not the same nights/mornings :)

I also didn't get any exercising done like I'd wanted to last week. I'll try again this week and see if I can squeeze it in somewhere.

This weeks goals:

~1 - 2 hours on Susannah's Baby Book
~45 min. bookwork - I am all caught up with our main account, so now it will just be maintenance and catching up the much-less used savings accounts that should be pretty easy and fast to do.
~Shop for 1 Christmas gift - which means I need to call and get a list of ideas for this person :)
~Work at sorting and packing my clothes that I won't need until next summer
~Finish cleaning and organizing the desk
~Mend Susannah's jumper - This is part of my November goals list, and I want to get it finished soon so I she can wear it for her annual "red jumper and piano" Christmas picture.
~Thoroughly clean the living room. - I was digging a toy out from under the couch last evening and seeing everything under there was a good reminder that it's been a while since I've given the room a good going over.
~Learn from last week that I really do feel better and get more done when I call it a day and go to bed at 10pm instead of staying up later to "get more done." I am not a morning person, but when I do get up at 6am and get started on the day, I do enjoy the quiet morning hours before Susannah wakes up.

One thing that is making this week less-stressful for me is that aside from a reunion on Saturday, we don't have big plans for Thanksgiving. We will be having lunch with Daniel's parents on Thursday, but we decided to keep it low-key this year and stay home to allow Daniel some more free time to work on the addition (which reminds me, I need to take some pictures and post a long over-due update!).

A few things I would love to get done this week if I run out of other things to do would be to get all of the Goodwill things loaded up, taken to Goodwill and out of my house, and the other would be to get the Christmas letter written that will go in some of the Christmas cards. But, like I said, those are at the bottom of the list for this week and I am not going to stress over them.

November's 3rd Week Already!

Wow, if Thanksgiving and Christmas aren't creeping closer and closer! While I fully know and understand that they happen every year at the same, exact time, somehow the days fly past faster or something right now. Maybe it's the shorter days since it gets dark earlier that seems to make time go "faster?"

I am happy to have figured out a few things I wanted to do before the end of November this year... and I figured them out BEFORE the end of November! Haha! I am feeling like I will be more ready for this Thanksgiving and Christmas season than I have in a very long time, I think. The biggest things I want to do are: Be proactive in getting gifts, cards, etc. purchased, made or put together BEFORE it becomes a mad rush, and do some fall cleaning. This year I did my first intentional spring cleaning (mostly just the kitchen), and I think as a good steward of our home and as a good housewife, it would also be a good idea to do some fall cleaning. A few of those things are on my November Goal List that I am slowly whittling away at as the days go by.

Last week my goals were:
~2 hours bookwork
~Address 16 Christmas Cards This was depending on if I could get by a store to pick up some more cards. We stopped by WalMart on our way home from church Wed. night, and Thurs. I addressed 18, a whole pack, while in the waiting room at my Dr's office for the 1 hour sugar test. Multi-tasking at it's finest :)
~1 - 2 hours working on Susannah's baby book. Didn't happen. I did pick up the pictures I ordered last week, though.
~Finish packing up Susannah's too-small clothes Now they are just waiting for Daniel to put the boxes away :)
~Clean off hot-spots in the kitchen Whew, it is SO nice to have a little more counter space and not eye-sores :)
~Start shopping for a Christmas gift I have in mind. Shopped AND ordered!! Yay!
~Continue aiming for 10pm/6am bedtime and get up time, at least 3 times this week. *Cough*cough* I did alot better than previous weeks. Most days I was in bed before 10:30, and only a couple mornings didn't get up until 6:45 or 7. Getting more sleep is really making my days go easier!

After last week, and having MOPS this morning, I made it a point to sit down last night (Sunday) and put together my goals for this week and the to-do list for today. After doing that, I felt one step ahead, and it wasn't even Monday yet!

This week, my goals are...

~2 hours bookwork - I think this will be the last week for 2 hour stints :)
~1 - 2 hours working on Susannah's baby book
~Address remaining Christmas cards
~Shop for and purchase 1 Christmas gift
~Dust ceiling fans
~Start sorting & packing my clothes I won't be wearing until next summer. AKA, everything not maternity/nursing friendly that I won't be wearing until after we're moved into the addition.
~Clean off desk
~Check with SPCA about finding a new home for our dog - For real and for serious. I've tried other avenues in the past with no success. Time to try a little harder. He's a nice dog, but just not "us."
~Get serious with 10pm/6am bedtime and up-time! At least 3x this week.

I don't have it written down, but I would like to try to exercise in some way, shape or form twice this week. Either a workout DVD or taking a walk. Hopefully the weather will be pleasant enough, and Daniel's work schedule will work out that I can walk when he's home. Our road isn't the most stroller-friendly, especially when I'm pregnant, walking to keep the kinks out and don't really want to be shoving the stroller out of the side-ditch after every car goes past.

Hello, November! {and New Goals}

Wow! November already :) That means I only have approximately 4 more months until we meet our little baby!

Last week this was my only post. Thankfully that cold, as miserable as it was for about 24 hours, was short-lived and I am far down the road to being fully recovered. I think alot of my scratchy throat and tickle-y nose now is probably from leaf allergies and drier air.

I did not have any written goals last week, at least like the usual goals. I did have two goals. Two things with deadlines. Two things that while I had not procrastinated until the last minute, I did need to spend most of my spare time working on them to finish them up in time.

The most crucial item on the list was making a 9" cheesecake for my sister's wedding (for them to cut). I had already made and frozen just under 300 miniature cheesecake cupcakes in past weeks, but I wanted this one to be completely fresh... plus I didn't have room for it in my freezer! {I was quite occupied with Susannah on the day of their wedding and didn't get a picture of the cheesecakes.}

The second most crucial item on the list was my gift to my sister and new brother-in-law. This:


I plan to do a separate post about this in the future, but it is a cookbook of recipes from our years growing up, and then recipes I've added to my own collection so far during my married years.

With both of those out of the way, yesterday (Monday) was recover-from-the-weekend day. Susannah and I were both tuckered out so I took a nice nap during her nap-time instead of doing anything extra.

Now that today is November 1st, it seems very appropriate to start the month with a fresh list of goals. I have some goals that I want to get done this month, and others that I just want to continue working on each week.

Goals for November:

~Get Christmas cards addressed and ready to mail.
~Make a list of all Christmas gifts to make/purchase, and start.
~Each day make a list of things I'm thankful for.
~Pack up all of Susannah's too-small clothes.
~Pack up all of my clothes (again) that I won't be wearing again until next summer/winter.
~Mend Susannah's red jumper (it is brand new, and when I washed it before I was going to have her wear it, one of the seams came apart!) so she can wear it for a Christmas picture.
~Clean out light covers over kitchen ceiling lights.
~Dust ceiling fans.
~Clean off return vents.

Goals for This Week:

~2 hours of bookwork
~Address 16 Christmas Cards
~1 - 2 hours on Susannah's baby book
~Purchase tubs/bins for Susannah's too small clothes and start sorting
~Clean off return vents
~Continue aiming for 10pm bedtime and getting up at 6am. Last week that went out the window several nights as I was up later than that working on Katie's cookbook after Susannah went to bed. And if I don't sleep well I don't bust myself to get out of bed at 6am, and instead sleep/rest until I need to get up and make Daniel's breakfast and lunch (usually about 6:45 or 7am).

I am eager to see how this week goes. I'm hoping that it goes smoothly and I'm able to get many or even all of these goals met!

Can I Have A Do-Over?

Oh boy. This week started off with a clang, bang, clatter... and not much sleep (thank you, pregnancy!). Yesterday, Monday, was a non-day in every way.

Long story short, we had to get some septic up-grades for the addition we are building.
Disaster A: The guy digging accidentally snagged the main sewer line from the house, ripping it off right underneath the toilet. What a racket that was! Thankfully Susannah and I were at MOPS all morning, so bathroom-ing wasn't an issue.
Disaster B: Said sewer pipe being ripped off the toilet meant no functioning toilet all day yesterday.
Disaster C: Miss Utility failed to mark the underground phone line (for internet) and that was dug up. I know it is so very wimpy that "no internet" equals "disaster" but I needed to do some online stuff that had a deadline of today.
Disaster D: To fix the toilet/sewer line situation, the guy was working in and under the bathroom, which is right next to Susannah's room, making lots of noise. So she woke up 45 min. into her nap. Then I knew I was going to have to "go" before the toilet was fixed, so we went to my in-laws for the rest of the afternoon, where Susannah took a little bit more of a nap and I wanted to but couldn't get comfortable on the bed enough to fall asleep.

On top of all that, I have been sleeping terribly the past several nights and just wanted to be by myself, alone, no housework, no cooking, nobody to entertain or feed or keep out of trouble, and SLEEP. I was so exhausted - mentally more than physically, I think - that by suppertime last night I just wanted to sit down and bawl.

So, needless to say, even though I spent some time on Sunday jotting down some menu ideas, I didn't really get a menu plan pulled together like I wanted. And my to-do list for this week looks like this:


I actually wrote the header for it just this morning. Before we trooped off to the in-laws again so I could get my online stuff done before the deadline. Right now I am in catch-up/salvage the week mode. I know that a bad Monday does not equal a bad week, but it sure doesn't help it get off to a good start, that's for sure. Especially when I got NOTHING housework-wise accomplished.

I did ok with my goals last week. I didn't get them all completed, but I did what I could and I'm not worrying about the rest. Last week's goals were:

*Bedtime - I really need to have more self-discipline and simply get my rear in bed at a decent hour, esp. if I'm going to take forever and ten days to fall asleep, or wake up for 3 hours in the middle of the night!

*Write a note to Daniel's Aunt & Uncle - This is really so easy, simple and fun to do. And only takes a couple of minutes!

*4 - 6 batches of cheesecake cupcakes - I got all 6 batches made!! Woot!

*Susannah's Clothes - Some progress?? I got through everything that was in her room, and have enough outfits to get through a week with a few pieces to spare (I do her laundry once a week). I have a tub of clothes from a friend I need to go through, and of course get all the too-small stuff sorted and packed up (from several sizes ago as well!)

*2 hours on wedding gift project - 1 hour. And not nearly as much progress in that 1 hour as I wanted. This may end up being a Christmas gift.

*1 hour bookwork - I think I spent more than 1 hour, maybe 1 1/2, but I was able to make some good progress and rediscover the balance-the-checkbook groove I work in.

*1 hour working on Susannah's Baby Book - Didn't happen.

********

Thinking about it a bit, I do have some things I want to get done this week. I know this will be another short week as we have something on Saturday, so I am going to keep it short and sweet.

For this week, I would like to:

~Go to bed at 10pm, wake up at 6am. - I'm not stealing this from Alicia, I promise ;) I thought about it over the weekend, and I think if I crawl in bed earlier rather than later, I might be able to fall asleep better. And I really do want to get up early so I can get a good start to the day with having my quiet time in the mornings (leaving more time in the afternoon to work on other stuff). In an effort to help myself stay accountable, I have set an alarm on my phone for 9:45pm for each day this week. That will be my reminder to close up shop and go to bed.

~Get caught up with my Bible Study homework AND spend some "independent" time in the Word a little each day. - I fell behind on the homework since our last session and I need/want to get caught up before we meet again on Friday. And it's a really good study that I am benefiting from, so it would just be a good thing all around! (It is Beth Moore's Breaking Free study.)

~Iron tablecloths for Friday's Bible Study and choir robes. - We are both in the choir at church and over the summer break I brought our robes home to wash them. This Sunday is the first Sunday wearing them again and I need to get them ironed!

~Finish baking the Cheesecake Cupcakes for my sister's wedding. - I don't know off the top of my head how many batches I have left to do, but I know last week I hit the half-way point plus a batch.

~Do 1 hour of bookwork. - Hopefully since I got back into the groove last week it won't take me a whole hour to do one bank statement! (I said it had been a while, didn't I?)

~Work on Susannah's baby book for 1 hour. - This one is really aiming high because I don't think I'll get that far, but if I do, it will be nice :)

And with that, I am off to go throw some laundry in the dryer and camp out on the cough with my Bible Study for a bit. Supper stuff is thawing on the counter (Beef & Bean Burritos, though I have no idea how to make them...) and should be simple enough to put together.

By the way, about 10 minutes after we got home from using the in-laws computer this morning, the phone guy showed up and 45 minutes later had everything working again! That was a big sigh and "Praise the Lord!" because we were thinking they were going to have to come in and do some major under-ground work.

New Week, New Goals

Oh boy. My goal list from last week looks like a total flop. I should've taken much more into consideration than I did when planning them. The week started out well, but in all reality I only had Mon - Wed to really work on anything I was going to really get done above and beyond normal housework.

Thursday I had my 19 week appointment and ultrasound (another blog post later this week, hopefully :) ), which meant the visit took twice as long. Then after that I had an impromptu dentist appointment so he could remove a piece of something that had gotten jammed up beside one of my molars earlier that week and was not budging.

Friday I had Bible Study in the morning, and then the afternoon was spent getting the house straightened up and everyone packed for Daniel and I to leave Friday evening for our Sunday School's annual beach retreat (and for Susannah to spend the weekend with her Grandma and Papa).

All in all, I have ONE goal crossed off on my list:

Bedtime! I don't think I did too bad... except on the retreat, of course, where we were up past 1am both nights :0

Sort Through Susannah's Clothes I had made lots of progress in this department, seriously! I don't know that I would've gotten it ALL finished with everything else that was going on, but I had too small stuff pulled out of her drawers (and piles, a-hem), new boxes of clothes gone through and sorted into piles of sizes, outfits, etc. And I had a HUGE load of fits and doesn't fit laundry that needed washed. I washed it all Wednesday and Thursday, and piled it on the couch for my MIL to fold while Susannah napped on Thursday. What I forgot to tell Grandma was DON'T PUT IT AWAY!! When I got home from all my appointments Thursday, Grandma had folded all the laundry and put it back in Susannah's drawers. I know she was being helpful and it was my fault for leaving out that one tiny tidbit of crucial information. Now at least all the clothes are clean!

1 hour bookwork I did get 45 minutes done :)

De-clutter dining room table and china hutch Didn't happen

2 hours on wedding gift project Didn't happen

Make 3 batches of cheesecake cupcakes (sister's wedding) I did make FOUR batches! But only 2 of them turned out because I made the mistake of freezing most of the cream cheese (which I do all the time when I stockpile cream cheese)... and frozen cream cheese has a different consistency that I learned makes terrible cheesecakes. Oops.

1 handwritten note Woot! THIS is my "one straight line" for last week :) I wrote it while in the waiting room on Thursday.

1 hour on Susannah's babybook Didn't happen. I'd hoped to squeeze it in one evening, but that just never worked out.

******

So new week, new goals, right? Yup :) And hopefully this week will be more tame, normal and successful.

*Bedtime - still just a visual reminder to get my rear in the bed at a decent hour.

*Write a note to Daniel's Aunt & Uncle

*4 - 6 batches of cheesecake cupcakes - I'm meeting my sister Tuesday morning to pick up more cream cheese - that I will NOT freeze - and reimburse her for the stuff I froze. I won't need to stock up on cream cheese this winter like I usually do :)

*Susannah's Clothes

*2 hours on wedding gift project

*1 hour bookwork - last week in my working on this, I discovered the last time I balanced the checkbook was... way, way, way too long ago.

*1 hour working on Susannah's Baby Book

There is much, much more I want to put on my list, but the reality is that I don't want to make a lengthy list that is unreasonable. I hope you all have a wonderful, successful, productive week! I know I'm looking forward to one :)

Allergies and Goals

Two things I'm working on lately. One because it happens and one because I have decided to, want to or need to.

Springtime finds Daniel sneezing and blowing his nose. And every spring I'm thankful that my allergies are very mild. Then THIS time of year rolls around when ragweed is in full bloom and the leaves are starting to drop from trees. I groan and think "ugh, I DO have allergies. Now it's MY turn" to sneeze my head off and blow my brains out. Seriously, some days I come this close to stuffing a cotton-ball up each tickling, drizzling nose-hole and calling it a day. My fall allergies weren't this bad until I started living in this area of the state. I think I should buy stock in Puffs Plus tissues.

My goals for last week, well, I need to improve on some of them. This past weekend was my sister's bridal shower and I had some extra busy-ness preparing some food for that. My goals were:

*BE in bed by 10:30 - 10:45 each night. *ahem* Yeah... that didn't happen very many nights. Waiting for biscotti to finish baking is partially to blame ;) I'm taking it off the "blogged list" but it is still at the top of my list hanging on the frige for visual reminder.

*Declutter the dining room table and china hutch. I did work on the table for 1 chunk of time. One day. And made a small dent.

*Write 1 hand-written note. So easy and fun to do!

Spend 1 hour on bookwork.

Spend 1 hour on Susannah's baby book. I spent alot of my 1 hour this past week looking for bits of information I'd recorded and writing it in the book.

Order my birthday present from Daniel. And it came :) I hope to do a blog post soon :) I can now cross one more thing off my "Goals for 2011" list!


Now for my goals this week:

*Sort through Susannah's clothes. My biggest and highest priority goal for this week. Wow. Friday we were wearing shorts and short-sleeves. Saturday morning it was chilly outside and I had to dig out warm clothes for her. I need to go through the clothes, get them organized and see how we're fit for the winter season.

*1 hour of bookwork. I know this has been on my list each week now, but seeing it on the list helps me stay accountable (hmm, pun anyone? ;) ).

*De-clutter dining room table and china hutch. And hopefully be able to cross this off this week!!

*2 hours on a special project. Wedding gift for my sister, so I can't post what it is in case she reads this ;)

*Make 3 batches of cheesecake cupcakes. I'm making these for my sister's wedding and need to have 300 made by the end of the month. I'd better get started so I don't have to put life on hold for a big chunk of time to get them all made in the nick of time!

*Write 1 hand-written note.

*Spend 1 hour working on Susannah's baby book. It is coming along nicely and I think I will be able to have it filled out up-to-date by the end of the year. Hopefully much sooner than that, really. This week I'll probably pick out and order pictures to paste on the different pages I've written on.

And those are my goals for this week! Do you enjoy or benefit from reading these? I enjoy reading Alicia's posts each week about her goals and get inspiration from them. I almost didn't post this week... but after reading her post, I came back to finish and and press "publish".

New Goals For 9/26 - 9/30

Last week, inspired by Alicia, I wrote out a short list of goals that I wanted to accomplish or at least aim for over the course of the week. I even wrote them out on a pretty, new, magnetic note-pad that I'd gotten inexpensively and hung it on the frige so I could see my goals right under my nose.

Not only were they visual reminders of what I wanted to get done (above and beyond the normal housework), but it was motivation to DO them so I could cross them off and know that task was behind me. I liked it! I got some extra things accomplished that otherwise I may have just shoved off "till another day" or might have only done one or two of them.

This week I have some new goals, but I am also continuing some from last week, too, for longer projects.

*BE in bed by 10:30 - 10:45 each night. I discovered last week that "go to bed" was really "start getting ready for bed" (which if you read Davene's post about going to bed, you know that it can take a while to actually GET there!). So this week my goal is to BE IN THE BED by that time.

*De-clutter the dining room table and china hutch. 2 flat surfaces. Need I say more?

*Write 1 hand-written note. I don't know if I will do this every week, but I do have another thank-you note I need to write :)

*Spend 1 hour on bookwork. Updating the budget weekly is one of my goals for this year, and as I still need to balance the checkbook... I need to spend some time getting on top of everything.

*Spend 1 hour working on Susannah's baby book. Another project that I want to have finished by the end of this year, so I need to just work on it regularly.

*Order my birthday present from Daniel :) Back before my birthday, he asked what I wanted. I gave him a list of ideas, but he hasn't had a chance to go shopping yet. One of the things on my list is on a pretty significant sale right now, and it's also something I was going to get anyway... so when I was talking to him about getting it, he said "well, I was going to get it for you for your birthday, do you mind ordering your own birthday present?"


This week's list is not as long or time consuming as last weeks, because I do have some extra things that I have to do that will take some time. But I think this list is manageable and hopefully achievable!


A quick review of last week's goals and my progress:

*Go to bed between 10:30 and 10:45 each night. - This did not happen each night. It DID happen a couple nights, and most nights I was in bed by 11 or 11:30. It was still progress, just not all the way where I want to be right now. Surprisingly, though, I did not feel any more rested ... some nights I just didn't sleep well, and others I don't know. So, more rest is certainly something I should strive for.

*Make an appointment to get the cat fixed. - This DID happen! Yay! The cat goes next week for her fix.

*Organize freezers. - This was my BIG, BIG project for the week, and I managed to get it done! I discovered that we only have 4 beef roasts left :( But we have several packages of steaks, enough strawberry jam to feed an army, and I have decided that I will be taking cherry or blueberry baked goods to any Bible Studies or food occasions. We have a LOT of cherries and blueberries in the freezer! I am so happy that we have them, but I often forget that they are there.

*Write 1 handwritten note. - Done!

*Spend 1 hour on bookwork. - Over the course of 3 days and collectively about 1 1/2 hours I managed to get the budget on the computer up to date. Yay!

*Spend 1 hour working on Susannah's baby book. - For some reason I dreaded sitting down Saturday afternoon to do this, but once I got into it, I enjoyed it. And didn't want to stop when 1 hour was up :) I still need to go back and upload and order the prints I picked out for the pages I worked on (they were loading too slow on Saturday), but that will hopefully be quick and easy.

*Put away canned pears. - This took me a couple days, but I managed to do it. Most of them squeezed into the last empty space in the pantry, and 7 quarts ended up on top of the frige. But THEY ARE OFF MY COUNTER!! Woot!!

*Blog. - Done :)

Making Some Goals

Photo Source

I can be a list maker. I enjoy being able to draw a line through a task and see the progress I am making with what I need to do. This summer and fall lists fell by the wayside as I was busy with the garden, freezing produce and canning fruit.

Now that I think that is all behind me (finally, shew!) I need to start using lists again. They help me keep on track and overall, my days go better and I get more done when I use a list. (Staying focused and not getting distracted makes a big difference, too, huh? :P) I have my daily to-do lists pretty much memorized: laundry, kitchen, etc. I know what day of the week I do what laundry and basically what cleaning. I make those lists mostly for the enjoyment of crossing things off, and to help me stay focused and keep things prioritized if the day gets out of sorts.

Alicia recently posted about making lists of goals. I have a list of goals for this year, and I look over it from time to time and think "yikes, I need to get busy on ____!"... and then forget about it until I look at that list again (which hangs on the side of the frige). Anyway, Alicia's post made me think that I would probably benefit from making some weekly goals and writing them out... and actually try to accomplish them. I don't know that I would do this EVERY week, but since there are some things I really do need to do, and have just been putting off, it can't do any harm.

This evening marks the end of a vacation period for us. So, tomorrow starts a "new" week (on a Tuesday - that'll throw me off for several days!), one that I have some goals for. As soon as we were home and settled in a bit, I grabbed a sheet of paper and made a list. I wanted to make a long list of everything I need/want to do, but I made myself keep it reasonable. I hope. I should at least get SOMEthing done!

For fun and for accountability, here are my goals for this week:

*Go to bed between 10:30 and 10:45 each night. With the idea that I'll rest better, get more sleep and feel all energetic and bubbly and want to jump out of bed in the mornings :)
*Make an appointment to get the cat fixed. Yeah, major procrastination here. If it doesn't happen soon we'll end up with a winter litter of kittens!
*Organize freezers. Oh boy, are they ever out of sorts and full! To the point that I dread digging through the chest freezer for food that I know is in there but don't want to get out. This is my BIG goal for this week.
*Write 1 hand-written note. Because hand-written is nice, and I have some grandparents and great-aunts/uncles that would enjoy a note.
*Spend 1 hour on bookwork. Looooong overdue. Like, barely touched for... months.
*Spend 1 hour working on Susannah's baby book. I started it this spring, I fully plan to finish it (at least as much as possible since I think it goes on for a couple years) by the end of this year.
*Put away canned pears. Which really means, figure out where in the world I'm going to put them and put them there. They have been taking up a large section of counter-space ever since I canned them, and I just need to figure out where they are going to be stored.
*Blog. :) Something that I think about way more than I really do. So, once I hit "publish" I'll be able to cross this off my list! I do hope to get another post up this week, but if I don't I will still have blogged!

I Procrastinate So Well

Does anyone besides me do this? Just procrastinate away even when you know you shouldn't?

My #1 "Goal" for this year is to GET ENOUGH SLEEP AT NIGHT!!!

Do you have any idea how well-rested I'm feeling lately? Ha! Not very much. (And no, I'm not pregnant for any of you who might wonder if my being tired is because I'm pregnant.) Whose fault is it that I don't crawl in bed until 11, or 11:30... or 11:45 at night, and then have to bust out of bed before 7am to start the day. 6-ish hours of sleep just doesn't cut it for me. 7 is decent, but I function and feel 100 times better on closer to 8.

Susannah goes to bed between 8:30/45, so I should easily be able to crawl in bed by 10, right? The problem is, I have no excuse most nights. None. I don't stay up late cleaning up the kitchen, or finishing the dishes, or sweeping the floors, or folding laundry. I mean, I might piddle around here and there working on something but not really.

I do better going to bed earlier, feeling alive!! when I wake up, and then I have more spunk, self-motivation, and energy to do what I need to do. Otherwise I feel like something the cat drug in.

So, I know today is Tuesday. It's not the start of a new week, or month or year. Shoot, it's even the middle of the afternoon, so it's not even the start of a new day. But tonight I'm going to get a new grip on this goal and see if I can't master it again. All I have to do is go to bed! I love crawling in bed! I love sleeping! So what's the big deal?

Goals for 2011

Jan. 24th, edited to add: I have blocked further comments on this post because for some reason TONS of spam comments on this post alone are somehow getting through my filter and I'm tired of sorting them out. I hope you understand!

Before February gets here, I want to have my goals for 2011 figured out and fine-tuned. This is a rough draft of what I have so far. I have to say that Courtney's post made me think about each of these as I put them on the list.

As I looked back over last year's list I realized that some of the goals were too precise (is that the word I'm looking for??), and some I should've known from the beginning I wasn't going to stick to them. But I made that list pre-Susannah and had high aspirations for my life I guess! You may notice that with my 2011 goals, instead of "daily" I put "regularly" for some things. There WILL be days that I simply will not get around to or have time to do everything I want to do. Even by writing some goals as "weekly" I'm raising the bar on myself, and probably some weeks I won't get those things done, either.

Personal Goals:
7-8 hours of sleep at night regularly
Quiet time (devotions) regularly
Pay more attention to my everyday appearance (dress, hair, etc.)
Exercise regularly/lose weight
Monthly, scheduled-in-advance, date-night's with Daniel
Do more things to show my love to Daniel
More leisure and informational reading
Say "no" when I need to (don't over-commit)
Be honest when people ask my thoughts/opinion

In The Kitchen Goals:
Make my own vanilla
Make yogurt
Buy a grain mill
Grind most-all of our flour
Buy 1/4 - 1/2 of a cow

Miscellaneous Goals:
30 minutes each week (as much as possible) to work on photo-related stuff
Fill out Susannah's Baby Book
Completely, totally, 100% finish the kitchen
Throw away unwanted, unneeded and unused stuff.

Financial Goals:
Update budget and checkbook weekly
Weekly (monthly?) business meeting
Re-visit the cash-only idea for some categories
Better planning ahead (saving) for big or small things
Start Baby Step #4 and possibly #5
Start Baby #2 Fund (no, I am not pregnant)
Start a cow fund
Find ways to cut expenses (to free up more money for all those other funds!)

2010 Goals Review

Way back at the beginning of 2010 ("last year" already. Wow.), I wrote a post of my goals for that year. I wanted to follow through and see how I did with each one. I always wondered how I would do with a list of goals, and now I know. I do plan to come up with a list for this year now that I feel like I can breathe a little.

2010 List of Goals
Personal
*Go to bed, at bedtime, together - sometimes. Not as much as I wanted.
*Spend time together as a couple each day - fail. I don't count supper, and we didn't do very well at specifically spending time together with just the 2 of us.
*Spend time together as a family each day - fail again.
*Regular date nights for just the two of us (monthly or bi-monthly) - MAJOR fail.
*Daily personal quiet time with the Lord. - Improved but not 100% success.
*Read at least 1 book a month - Ho, ho, ho, major fail again.
*Exercise 3x a week or more. - fail, fail, fail.
*Lose baby weight and then some (after the baby's born, of course!) - fail. I lost about 2/3 of what I gained, though not from conscious effort.
*Choose and develop 1 or 2 new habits each month - Fail.
*Eat breakfast together more often - we did do this a little more than never, so success?
*Don't overschedule our calendar. Keep time free for "us" and know that it's ok to say "no." - as much as possible, so I'd say "success".

Financial
*Cash only for groceries, entertainment/recreation. - Success for a time.
*Stick to budget! Less impulse buying! - Partial success, but we also need to overhaul the budget.
*Put SOME money into savings each week, plus any extra that is possible. - fail.

In the kitchen
*Menu plan each week 1 week ahead. - bah, humbug. Fail.
*Serve salads with meals 2x a week - Fail at the every week part, but salads were on the menu more than before.
*Find or create the happy medium for eating healthier without going overbudget. - success, I think. Now to just fine-tune it.
*Update the freezer inventory quarterly (basically print off new sheets to correspond with my chicken scratches and changes on the existing one). - Rolling on the floor laughing. Fail.
*Try new recipes more often. - success!
*Use crockpot 1x a week. - yes/no.
*Reduce food waste - stay on top of leftovers and freezer inventory. - I won't mention that I had to throw away an entire, freezer-burnt turkey. Fail.

Household
*Donate or throw away more. DO NOT KEEP CLUTTER - success, but the house is still too full.
*Complete To-Do lists daily. - Um, having a baby changes everything. Fail.
*Stay on top of filing paperwork (aka - keep the desk clean!). - Why did I put this on my list?
*Print off, write on and put photos in albums monthly. - and why did I put THIS on my list?
*Maintain clean and welcoming bedrooms. - closing the door is easier.
*Put curtains in kitchen windows. - the material is still up in the attic.
*Continue with weekly or monthly "Monster Projects" - can I call "Parenting" my Monster Project?

Miscellaneous
*Blog more regularly. - Does considerably less blogging = "regularly"?
*Clean out coupon file quarterly. - It makes a nice place to pile stuff.

Above all else
*Do all things in a manner that glorifies God and brings honor to my husband. - I know there are areas I succeeded and plenty where I failed in this department.
*Strive to be the best wife and mama I can be. - Ditto.
*Maintain a peaceful and welcoming atmosphere in our home. - The only people I've turned away were the Jehovah's Witnesses. I hope everyone else felt welcomed!

Keeping Track of Memories & Milestones

Back in January I wrote about my new datebook for this year. I still really enjoy it, but I have to admit... the months of March and April don't have much written in them :) No To-Do lists, certainly not menu plans, and well, the datebook got put on the back burner during those months. I knew exactly what I was doing every day - feeding and changing Susannah and taking naps :)

Now that it has come back out, I am certainly enjoying using it again. And I found yet another use for it! As Susannah does things or I do things with Susannah that I want to remember for her baby book or scrapbook, I simply write it down on that day's page! For instance, today she took her first ride in the stroller. I'm going to write that down along with how she liked it. Yesterday I wrote down her stats from the Dr's appointment.

This will be really handy for when I do get around to filling in her baby book, and I know she will enjoy the memories when she's older, too.

Getting Into a Routine

It hardly seems like it was more than yesterday when I was still pregnant with Susannah. But instead it's been a whole 3 weeks, almost 4. As I told someone the other day, the days have been fast but the hours long. Thankfully the hours aren't seeming as "long" now that she is nursing faster and it doesn't take as much effort to wake her up and keep her awake to nurse - wooohooooo!!!!

I think we've settled into a pretty good routine with Susannah, and now that she's eating faster I get to sleep more :) And since I get to sleep more, I feel more human when I'm awake :) And since I feel more human it means I feel more like doing things around the house that Daniel's had to do the past month.

All that said, I hope to start working my way around the house again this week. Last week I did a couple things here and there, mostly unloading/loading the dishwasher a time or two. This week I hope to get back into the laundry routine (poor Daniel had to wear the saddest undershirt to church because it was the only clean one, and it was one that was on it's way to the trash!) and stay on top of the kitchen.

My sister made TEN loaves of bread for us, so I won't have to jump back onto the bread-making wagon as soon as I thought I was going to have to (and buying bread was starting to look good...).
The meals from our Sunday School class were great - they got us through a good 2 weeks, and yesterday we picked up several more meals from my MOPS group. They should get us through this week, but I may do a little cooking this week to ease myself back into cooking and stretch the MOPS meals out a little bit. Hmm, but that would mean I'd have to go grocery shopping, so we'll see :P

I still enjoy several naps each day, usually in the mornings and early afternoon. I hope to start going to bed earlier (a simple matter of DOING it!) so I can feel more awake in the mornings and then do my napping in the afternoons. We'll see. Right now I crash into bed about 5am (after the 4am feeding) and the alarm for Daniel goes off about 1 hour later. I'm so out of it that I haven't been getting up and making his breakfasts and lunches yet, and that's something I really want to get back to doing soon. It's a little way I can show my love for him, and it's important to me to do it, though I know he knows I still love him when I don't do it :)

Right now I need to go get dressed for the day (evening? it's 4:10pm) and figure out what we're gonna eat for supper. Then I may tackle the mish-mash of clean laundry that needs folded and put away before it consumes the laundry room.

Takin' It Easy

I've certainly realized lately how much my blogging has slowed down, sorry about that :) I really enjoy reading blogs where the blogger posts regularly, so I feel bad when I don't do the same!

The past week and a half or so my life has really moved into the slow lane. I'm glad that my emotional state is not in shambles because "I can't ____" like I want to. I know it's really hard for some people to slow down. It's probably too easy for me :P The aches related to the pregnancy have given me two options: do things at a snails pace or pay for it with it hurting to do anything. I choose Door 1. Several things have been put on the back burner, but we're still living, eating and breathing.

Menu planning has gone out the window for now, it seems, which is why there hasn't really been a Menu Plan Monday for a while. Monday I had no gumption whatsoever and we had eggs, sausage and fried taters for supper. Tuesday I felt more up-to-it so I tried two new recipes out of my latest Taste of Home Simple and Delicious magazine (Eh, they were so-so. They didn't taste as good as they smelled when they were cooking. Daniel gave both dishes a "solid B."). I also mixed up a batch of bread and am played laundry catch-up for Mon. & Tues.

All that to say, I hope you all bear with me through this slow time :) I know blogging doesn't take more than finger exercises, but when there's not much going on it seems there's not much to blog about :P In the meantime, I'll try to do better at doing something I always want to do, and that's to write the posts as I have content ideas.