Back To It!

Well, my Mom is leaving today to head back up North (sniffle, sniffle... actually I know I'll be full on crying as I'm driving away from the airport). I'm sad she's leaving. I wish we lived in the same place. I feel very fortunate that I'll be going up to visit for a whole month in July, so hopefully the time between now and then will just FLY by!

I have been super duper slack at working on my list for the past week while she's been here, with good reason! BUT... I need to get back to it today. I just got home from the gym (at least I was keeping up with that while she was here) and am just sitting down to plan out my day. I am for sure going to get the linen closet cleaned out today, and hopefully at least one other thing on the list.

I'm feeling less anxious and overwhelmed today. My Mom helped me get caught up on laundry yesterday, which was fantastic, and I think that helped a lot. It's just hard trying to form new habits. I'm trying to improve in a lot of different areas, so I know that I'm going to have days where I feel like I'm just not succeeding at anything. I also know that the important thing is that I keep on going. I need to keep working out in the mornings, try to eat healthy, try not to waste too much time on the Internet and get things done, etc.

The other thing that I will be getting back to tonight is my Metformin. I stopped taking it when I had the stomach flu and then I was out of town for a week and a half, and well, since then it's just been REALLY hard to re-start it! It just NEVER seems like a good time to feel sick for four weeks! Ugggghhh! But, I'm going to start it again today. As I'm losing more weight I'm feeling more and more ready to try and get pregnant again. I know that I want to be on the Metformin when I get pregnant so that I can stay on it through the first trimester, but really I'm hoping that I'll somehow be able to get pregnant on the Metformin alone this time and not need the Clomid. We'll see. My doctor told me to try for only three months the second time around before using the Clomid again, but we might stretch that a little if we aren't in any hurry. I do have friends who have PCOS that have gotten pregnant on just the Metformin and on nothing at all the second time around!!! So, I'm hopeful!

I'm also almost done with all these doctor's appointments I've been scheduling! So far I have been to the eye doctor (and got my glasses, much happier!), had my follow up appointment with the breast specialist (everything looks good! Don't need another mammogram for a year! Yeah! You can read my previous post about this here), went to the dentist (have to go back for 2 sealants and go to a periodontist for some recession... bleck!), and I go to the dermatologist on Monday. It has been a lot to knock out in a short period of time, but it feels so much better to be on the path to a healthier me!

Back To "Real Life"... (sigh)

For the past two days I have been relaxing in the cutest little beach cottage on Sullivan's Island (just outside of Charleston) with my Mom and Andy, and just generally taking a break from "real life." It was sooooo nice! My old boss and his wife let us use their cottage for free for a night and it was so great to just unwind! We had dinner with family, walked on the beach, read, clipped coupons (yes, this was fun for me!) and just relaxed. I didn't have a computer and it was really nice to just "unplug." So, yes, now I am a few days behind on tackling things on my list for April, but that just means I'll have to try and be a little extra productive this week. It also means that my house is now a mess (again) and I am seriously behind on laundry (again... not that I was ever caught up!) But, really, who cares, because now I have some nice memories from the weekend.

Okay, so this week I really need to focus on trying to find balance between getting things accomplished AND trying to keep my house in some sort of ordered state. I'm failing at that repetitively. It's just hard! I'm getting up really early (as in 5:00 a.m. to be exact) to go to the gym with my neighbor and get my workout in before Matt leaves for work. I always feel GREAT in the morning after doing this, but then I'm exhausted by mid-day and sometimes nap while Andy is napping and then I get nothing done and fall further behind. I'm also not doing a very good job with meal planning. I seem to do well in spurts. I will have one good week where I plan meals, shop strategically and eat healthy and then 2-3 weeks where I am totally the complete OPPOSITE of that. There is no happy medium!

Honestly, sometimes (okay, most of the time) it's easier to just tackle projects from my list than to work on the big areas that I'm trying to focus on (eating, exercising, finances and housekeeping). The problem with doing that is that I keep having the constant nagging feeling like I'm failing at everything and that was the exact reason that I started this blog... to NOT feel like that. (insert deep, cleansing breath) I'm striving to find balance. I'm not failing miserably (like I was) but still failing - at least mildly!

BUT... I am crossing something off the list! On Saturday we hung up a clothesline in the back yard! It was a family project. Andy was very helpful! I'm super excited because I've been wanting one for a little while now. I haven't actually hung anything other than a quilt and a blanket out to dry because we went to the beach the next day, but tomorrow... tomorrow I'll be hanging EVERYTHING out to dry!

Organizing The Counter Tops

Tonight I'm crossing Organize Cook Books off of my list. Just organizing my cook books has led to completely re-arranging my counter tops and making an effort to de-clutter. It's not that the few cook books that I have were in disarray so much as that whole area of the counter was just a mess... constantly! Okay, so, I previously had my cutting boards stored in the silver file holder. This worked great when I also had the trays from Andy's high chair stored there, but now that he sits in a booster seat and eats at the table, the file holder was just a little too big for three cutting boards. So, I took them out and just leaned them up against the wall and used the file holder to hold my cook books! Much better! This definitely made that counter top space a little more tidy.

The other issue I had in that area was that things like fruit, veggies, coffee disks, etc. were just kind of floating around. Nothing had a home. Since the pile of things I decided to keep out of the garage is still sitting in the entryway to our house (sigh) I went "shopping" in there for something to hold fruits and veggies that I want to keep on the counter. I found a cute sea grass basket that was holding a "Spa Kit" that was given to me for my wedding... four and a half YEARS ago. Well, it looks cute on my counter now! Then I moved the coffee maker to the other counter and found a pretty crystal bowl in my hutch (thanks Gramma!) and put it out on the counter top filled with the coffee disks. It looks SO much better not having all of those disk boxes stacked on the counter!

This has freed up a considerable amount of counter top space for food prep. I have been doing a LOT more cooking lately and it's been making me anxious to get my counter tops cleared off! It definitely looks a lot better and a lot neater. The biggest issue I am having now is the top bar part of our counters. It's constantly cluttered. It's like the landing zone for EVERYTHING that enters our house. I can NOT seem to keep it clean, no matter what I do. My husband told me last week that if there is a flat surface in our house it will immediately be covered with stuff! And he's totally right. What I need to do is figure out specific places to put mail, keys, purse, phones, wallet, etc. I don't have anything like that right now. There is no entry table in the hall, or hooks to hang anything on. Part of the reason is not being completely sure what I want to do, and the other is money. Maybe I should start hunting around on Craig's List and at yard sales for some kind of inexpensive entry table or dresser or cabinet that I could fix up and use. Maybe I should try not putting anything on the counter top for a week (or maybe even just a DAY!) and see if I can try to change that habit.

I really, really don't want to be a cluttery person, so I need to figure some kind of system out here!

The Living Room

So, my Mom is coming today (she'll be here in about an hour and a half) and staying for a week. This means that I have been cleaning, continuously for the past two hours... with no hope of actually getting EVERYTHING put away, de-cluttered, etc. This happens every single time that we have visitors. I would really love to get to the point where everything in this house has it's place, and stays there! It would be nice not to have to do a major picking up and cleaning right before people come to visit. Yes, I realize I could always start this process a few days ahead of time, but really, what is the fun in that??!! Why not create as much stress as possible? Besides, everything will just get cluttered and messy again in a few days!

So, I am sitting down to post a few pictures because I needed a little break before we head to the airport. I'm letting Andy completely empty the contents of my wallet so that I can have 5 minutes to do this post. That counts as being a good Mom, right? Plus, I think he is putting one of my credit cards in the dresser drawer, so that will help me not buy things I can't afford! ha ha

Okay, SO... back to the living room. It seriously hasn't been clean (or clutter free) enough to post "after" pictures since I got my "new" camera after finishing our built-ins (which you can read about here and here ). Well, I figured today was as good a day as any to post the "after" pictures! It might only stay clean for a day! (if that!)

I'm really happy with how everything turned out and we didn't have to spend much money decorating, because we used a lot of things that we already had. I was also really happy to finally have a place to display some of my milk glass. I have pieces handed down from both of my grandmothers, from my husband's grandmother and from my step father's mother. The clock is from 1860 (no, that is not a typo!) and was in the jail where my great grandfather was sheriff in East Machias, Maine. It was one of the many things my grandmother gave me when her and my grandfather downsized and moved into their retirement community.

Now, all I have to do is figure out what in the world to do on those two big BLANK walls and the top of the matle! Not feeling so inspired on those yet, but happy to have an almost finished living room!

Rewards Cards

One of my resolutions this month was to sign up for the movie rewards card at our local theater. If you live near a Regal Cinema, United Artist Theatre or Edwards Theatre then you can sign up here. I don't get to the movies very often, maybe once every other month... IF that! But, every time I go, it seems to be with my future sister-in-law. She has one of the rewards cards and she is always getting coupons for free popcorn, drinks, candy or even free movie tickets! Every time we go, I take one of the pamphlets as she's telling me I don't know why more people don't sign up for this! I mean, it's FREE! And then that pamphlet sits in my purse until the next time I go to the movies... and then I put another pamphlet in my purse, forgetting that I already have one in there... and the cycle continues!

So today, I finally signed up online for my rewards card! I'll be going to the movies all the time now trying to earn points! Ha ha! In general, I've been trying to sign up for more free rewards cards for things. I guess since I've started couponing I've become more aware of different rebate programs and reward clubs. I guess I had just been blissfully unaware of all these different ways I could be saving money!

Since I pretty much took Easter weekend off, today I filled out all of my April birthday cards and got the three I needed to send into the mail. I also scheduled Andy's two year pediatrician appointment for August. Now I'm off to get some cleaning done! My Mom is coming on Wednesday to visit and staying for a week! I can't wait for her to get here and I want to have the house all ready for her visit!

Volunteering

One of the resolutions that is going to stat showing up more and more over the coming months will be volunteering. I used to volunteer with different organizations a lot. Over the past several years, not so much. It is an area of my life that I would like to start becoming a lot more active in, especially volunteering for organizations that I feel strongly about.

This month's volunteering resolution was simply to ask about volunteering in the nursery at our church. I'm starting with this one because it is partly self-serving. I'm hoping that by volunteering in the nursery, that I can help my son transition to being left there during church service. We are blessed to attend a church that offers a 30 minute family service every Sunday, so that is the one we have been going to, and just bringing Andy with us. His separation anxiety is very heightened right now, and my husband and I both know we would not be able to sit comfortably through church knowing he would be so upset the whole time he was in the nursery. So, we go to the family service, but I am still keeping him occupied for 30 minutes, trying to keep him quiet, chasing after him, etc. I don't feel like I am getting what I want or need out of church every week. My hope is, that after several weeks of being in the nursery with him, we'll be able to leave him in there and attend the 9:00 a.m. worship service and then I can still volunteer during other services as needed.

I was thrilled that they seemed excited about me wanting to volunteer. Apparently the two women who work in the nursery are paid employees (which I did not realize) so it will be nice for them to have a "back up" person, or just some additional help. I need to take an online course and then I'm going to shadow during the 9:00 a.m. service this coming Sunday. I'm hoping that this will be something good for myself, and will help my son.

I have totally given up on taking him to the nursery at the gym for now. I've been going to the gym four mornings a week at 5:00 a.m. so that I can be back before my husband leaves for work in the morning. Surprisingly, I like this set up! The only issue that I had last week was that I couldn't quite get my sleep schedule right, so I kept taking naps in the afternoon because I was so tired and then didn't get anything done AND couldn't fall asleep early enough that night and the whole cycle started all over again! Hopefully I'll be more on track this week!

Ovedue Mail

I'll start this post with a great big... SIGH... I am THE WORST when it comes to keeping up with mail. I'm bad at sending it. I'm bad at sorting it. Sometimes I'm even bad at just plain remembering to go get it (although the anticipation of new Netflix movies is helping with this). But, I'm by far the worst at taking care of any mail that comes that I am supposed to fill out and mail back. I don't know why. These things never take more than two minutes a piece and the postage is always paid for, but I will honestly set things aside for MONTHS. The problem is that I don't actually forget about them. I remember that I need to do it... and then I just don't. So, this kind of stuff always stresses me out.

This month I have three mail related items on my list. I need to mail April birthday cards and mail gifts that we have had sitting at our house for a while (one has been here since August). Today I took care of filling out the census and our USAA survey and mailing them both back. One said that it was required by the Federal Government that I participate and the other said that my participation would affect our homeowners insurance renewal rates... so... today I filled them both out and mailed them. I think it took all of FIVE minutes total to fill them both out and put them in their respective envelopes and another two to three minutes to walk to the mailbox. VERY difficult. I really need to stop being so slack on this kind of stuff!

In other news, I started the month off on the right foot and got up at 5:00 a.m. and went to the gym. My neighbor came with me! I liked the extra motivation. After all, I couldn't just leave her standing in her driveway waiting on me at 5:10 in the morning! That would have been a pretty cruel April Fool's joke! She's coming with me again tomorrow though, so I'm grateful to have a friend to go workout with.

Alright, I'm off to watch a movie with the hubby and get to bed! Five a.m. comes around awfully quick!