Finishing Up

I hate that I'm consolidating a week's worth of items into two blog posts... BUT... it's already the end of the month! It's nice to be sitting down and relaxing tonight after our super busy week and after hosting the engagement party last night. It was such a fun time! The extra bonus that came along with hosting the party... my house has never been this clean! It's great! I finally feel like I'm caught up (for the most part!)

This afternoon I tackled all of the remaining items on my list. My husband and I got our automatic savings account set up, I listed three things for sale on Craig's List (a rocking chair, a pedestal sink & faucet and an iRobot Roomba that my husband won at work and we never use) and I have already had two play dates this week and the third is scheduled for Thursday.

The things on the list that took a little more time today were very gratifying to finally get completed!

1) Make a Cleaning Kit

This was really fun! I actually made two cleaning kits because I already had 2 caddies to hold my cleaning supplies in. They were previously being used to store cleaning supplies on a shelf in the laundry room and I would just grab what I needed out of them. Now, I have one designated for "Kitchen and Living" areas and one for "Bathrooms." I'm going to keep the bathroom caddy upstairs and the other one downstairs. I also made all of my own environmentally friendly cleaners today. Everything I made used one or some of the following ingredients: baking soda, vinegar, tea tree oil, olive oil, lemon juice and water. So, I now have a bottle of "All Purpose Cleaner" and a bottle of "Glass Cleaner" in each caddy and a bottle of "Mold & Mildew" remover in the bathroom caddy. I also made some furniture polish with olive oil, vinegar and fresh lemon juice, but I already used it all. I loved it! I used it on my tables and end tables. I'll definitely make that again! I also put two of my microfiber cleaning cloths in each caddy and a pair of some yellow rubber gloves I found in the garage in the bathroom caddy. It's nice to have everything where I need it now!

2) Clean and Organize Kitchen "Junk Drawer"

The before and after pictures probably speak for themselves on this one! I purchased a drawer organizer at Walmart today and boy, what a huge difference it made! I was able to fill a grocery store bag with trash out of that drawer AND I found my car charger for my cell phone which I have been missing for about eight months now! I also found a ridiculous amount of Sharpie markers. I've already used one four times today now!

3) Move Andy's Tub Toys

The bathroom that Andy "uses" is also the guest bathroom when we have company. In the past, we just picked up all his bath toys and shoved them in a drawer or put them in the sink. Over Christmas, we just moved them all to the tub in our bathroom, and that is where Andy has taken his bath every night for the past two months because I've been too lazy to move the tub toys back to the guest bath. Today I drilled holes in the bottom of a bucket for drainage and after Andy's bath tonight, put all the toys into the bucket and moved them to the other bathroom. Now the toys can go in the bucket at the end of his bath at night and if we have company we can just pick it up and move it to our bathroom (and back again!) without much effort.

4) Create a Monthly Meal Menu & Shopping List

My husband and I made a list tonight of the 13 dinners we eat the most and then I put them all on a 30 day calendar in Microsoft Publisher to print out and put in my household management binder. We picked 13 dinners because we are accounting for eating dinner out once per week and eating each meal twice. This filled 30 days on the calendar. Then I went through all of the meals and made a master grocery shopping list by category (meat, produce, canned goods, etc.) I'm going to go to the grocery store and shop for the month with my list and see if I can follow the menu for a whole month and only have to go to the grocery store for perishables after that. We'll see how that works out.

5) Create File Boxes and Filing System for Paperwork

Okay, so last month I sorted through all of our paperwork and put everything into file folders by category. At least it was all sorted, but it certainly wasn't organized! Now all of the folders are in two file boxes with hanging folders. One box is for all things house related an the other box is for everything else. It's a start. I'm sure there will be more files added, but for right now, at least it's all organized.

I can't believe it's the end of another month! I'll have to post my March list tomorrow. I'm actually starting to feel like I'm making progress for the first time since I started this mission. I know I still have a long way to go, but the more I cross off my list, the more momentum I seem to gain. I never really thought that changing the things I didn't like about myself could be so fun!

Playing Catch Up!

Whew! This has been a busy week... and it's not over yet! Today one of my best friends since 7th grade is coming into town, along with her Mom, to spend the weekend with us. Then tomorrow night we are throwing an engagement party for my brother and his soon to be bride! We are going to have about 25 people at our house! Eeek!

So, in the interest of time, here are the things I've gotten crossed off my list:

1) Make an eye doctor appointment

You would think this would be fairly simple, but I had to log in to our vision plan website to find out who was in network. My husband had previously set up log in information, but couldn't remember it, so I had to have them e-mail it to him at work, he forwarded it to me, etc. etc. and then I was able to look up and find a doctor on our plan. I called the office. All calls were being forwarded to the answering service. They told me to make an appointment online on their website. This took 20 minutes. No lie. But, it's done. Hopefully after March 15th street lights and signs won't look fuzzy when I'm driving anymore.

Just to let you know how slack I am, I made an appointment 3 years ago to go to the eye doctor. I went. I got my prescription. I never ever went to pick out glasses. So, it expired. I swear I will NOT do that same thing this time! (I hope!)

2) Clear out the Office

I really should put the word "office" in quotes, or at the very least, say "future office." Right now, it's just a room. Until last night, it was a room full of JUNK. My neighbors kids would comment on how messy it was. One of them told me that her Dad used that room for his office and she could see that we just used it for storage. Ugggh! Are we the neighbors with that house? We can't afford to build the wall unit desk we want or to purchase seating (which I'm determined to buy second hand), but at least now it's just a (mostly) empty room! Last night I cleaned everything out except for the things I need to list for sale on Craig's List (yes, that includes the random pedestal sink you see in the picture), the last box of the hardwood floors that we need to return to Lumber Liquidators (yes, my husband and I installed hardwood floors ourselves in the whole downstairs of our house the week after we closed on it. Very tedious. Very worth it!!!), the two chairs that are staying in the room, some computer stuff and some books that will eventually live on some sort of shelf.

Sigh. Deep breath of relief. It's nice not to have to look at that mess anymore when I walk in the door. And you know what? It only took me about 30 min. I should have done it a LONG time ago!

3) Touch Up Paint On Stair Walls

Okay, so our ENTIRE house was painted in beige flat paint. I can. not. stand. flat. paint. EVERYTHING shows on it, it's not washable, ugggh! I'm much more of an eggshell finish girl myself. Slowly I've been conquering one room at a time and painting it something a little more fun than beige, and DEFINITELY not flat paint! However... the hallway up our stairs... that's a different story! I could never get up that high to paint it over, so I will forever be touching up those walls. The builder left us a quart of wall paint for touch ups... thank goodness! Our hall walls were a MESS with a capital 'M'. Mostly from moving the king size mattress up the stairs. Matt and my brother did this. I was soooooo over moving by that point. It was over 100 degrees out the day we moved and we did it all ourselves. Fun times. I also hit the walls with the vacuum pretty much every time I go up and down the stairs. It looks a TON better! This activity also took me about 30 min. I can't believe I let the walls look like that for eight months!

and finally...

4) Set Up Payment Plan for MRI

Back in October I had to have a breast MRI done. (you can read about it here) After fighting with my health insurance for months, they are refusing to cover it. I'm so frustrated with them because the final letter they sent said that it's not standard medical practice to do a breast MRI for someone of moderate risk (which they are saying I am) and dense breast tissue (which makes it hard to accurately read a mammogram). If they don't consider it standard medical practice for someone of MODERATE RISK then there is something wrong. The radiologist that did my mammogram and ultrasound didn't hesitate for a second to say that I needed an MRI. The breast specialist I had to visit also whole heartedly agreed with that opinion, but I went up the chain of command at the insurance company until they finally sent it for an outside medical review. There is nothing further I can do. Thankfully the hospital gave me a 50% discount on my bill from the amount they were going to charge the insurance company, but it still leaves me to pay almost $700. I still would have had it done even if I had known ahead of time that the insurance company wasn't going to pay for it, but it still stinks. So, now I'll be paying $50 per month for over a year, but I know that I don't have breast cancer, so I can't complain too much.

Finally! A Blog Post!

Well, it's nice to finally sit down to do this blog post! Even if it is 11:44 p.m! I've finally finished painting the built-ins. Yahoo! Except for some minor touch up painting, but I've already put things on the shelves. I just need to get a couple picture frames for some photos I'd like to put out, but otherwise, I'm done. The picture above is of the right built in. The one on the left is identical. My camera broke, so I had to take the picture with my phone, and it just wasn't coming out very clear if I tried to take a photo of both at the same time.

I think my husband did a fantastic job building these! It's exactly what I wanted! It's so fun to finally be getting the living room set up. It's actually starting to feel more like a home. I'm super duper excited to throw an engagement party for my brother and his fiance on Saturday. It should be a lot of fun.

I know that this project took longer than my husband expected, but it was totally worth it! I also got some more things done on my list, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I need to go to bed!!

Resolution # 47

I know that it might seem like I've been slack lately. I haven't had any new blog posts or anything new crossed off my list, and I have been extremely slack with things around the house (laundry, cleaning and OH MY the vacuuming!), but it's all because I've been diligently working on Resolution # 47 ... Painting the Built-Ins.

When we chose the floor plan for our house and went to the design center to pick out our kitchen cabinets, fixtures and upgrades, one of the things we did not choose to pay for was the built-in cabinets on either side of the fireplace. There were two reasons for that: 1) My husband and I are big do it yourself-ers and we just couldn't justify paying over $1,200 for something that we could do ourselves for about $250 in lumber. Granted, the builder's built-ins would have been the same cabinetry as our kitchen cabinets and surely worth more than $250 in lumber, but that brings me to our number two... 2) We (when I say "we" what I really mean is "I" because I'm sure my husband would have defaulted to me on this one) wanted white cabinetry for the built-ins. I didn't want them to match the saddle finish kitchen cabinets.

So, here we are in our NINTH month of owning this home... and we are... finally... wait for it... putting in the built-ins! Now, I have to give credit where credit is due. My husband has done a FANTASTIC job building these. This is the most patient I've ever seen him with a project and the most attention to detail I've ever seen him have, and I have to say, they look awesome! So, why have I not had any new posts? Well, I've been caulking and painting these suckers for three days now. One of the things we learned about ourselves as a couple while renovating two houses is that caulking and painting, along with taping, mudding and sanding drywall is completely my department. Matt builds. I finish.

Right now he's out in the garage making the cabinet doors. I'm taking the time to type this up while waiting for the pink caulk I used to turn white and tell me it's dry so that I can finish painting. Tomorrow I will post a picture of the finished product!

The other thing I'll be doing tomorrow... picking every little easy to do resolution left on the list for February and trying to cram them all into one day to catch up. Fun!

Resolutions Are More Fun With Friends

Today I crossed a fun one off my list! I made 5 meals ahead for the week and froze four of them. My future sister-in-law and I did this together! We picked five dinners, looked through our pantries for ingredients we already had on hand, went to the grocery store for the rest and spent the afternoon cooking!

We have been talking about doing this for a few weeks. We both feel like more often than not, we will make dinners that serve 4-6 (when we are both only feeding 2 adults) and then we try to eat the left overs, but sometimes part of all of them end up getting wasted. We decided that if we got together every couple of weeks we could make some yummy meals and split them.

So, today's menu consisted of: Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken Pot Pie, Pasta Sauce (with ground beef), Broccoli & Cheese Soup and Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto. Yum! We also both had some bananas that were really ripe, so we made 2 loaves of banana bread. Now, of course I'm not eating any baked goods this month, so it just about killed me to put that loaf of banana bread in the freezer, but I sure am looking forward to breaking it out next week!

I know that Matt and I are going to get 2 meals out of our portions of the enchiladas, pot pie and pasta sauce. We had the risotto tonight and I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow. The best part about all of this... Jaime and I each only spent $26!

It will be fun in the future to get more adventurous with our recipes and try some new things, but it's certainly encouraging that we could make such yummy meals that will feed us for over a week on such a little budget. Plus, it didn't feel like a chore spending the afternoon cooking, it was just a fun afternoon with my best friend.

Everybody Needs a Lazy Day

Everyone needs a lazy day every now and again, right? I don't know if I have needed an entire week of laziness, but that is exactly what it has been! My week of self-imposed laziness finally wrapped up this morning with a massage and facial courtesy of my Husband... a gift certificate I got for Christmas... in 2008. Seriously?! I don't know a single person who would put off using a SPA gift certificate for 14 months! Well, it was wonderful! I loved every second of it!

Now, back to reality. I have been getting things done off my list this week, don't get me wrong, but I just feel like I've been super duper lazy around the house. Laundry is taking longer than usual to get done, I keep putting off vacuuming and mopping the floors and I still haven't clipped my coupons from last week. Mostly I have spent much of Andy's nap time this week re-reading old decorating and home magazines and spending entirely too much time on the computer. I don't know what my problem has been, but I've just been having a severe lack of motivation this week!

Well, that ends today. Time to get back on track. My husband has been ridiculously productive lately and I feel like I need to start matching that! I think I mentioned on here before that he gave up T.V. for the month of February and so far, I have loved the results so much I'm considering giving up cable altogether. I have watched very little T.V. this month as well, and I just don't miss it. Matt has been tackling long overdue projects around the house and he's been doing a lot more cooking (I love it when he cooks! I'm hoping someday to have the money to surprise him with a cooking class) and we've just been spending a lot more time together in general. I think that we have been inspiring each other to make changes in our lives together. We have been very blessed that we have grown and changed together and in the same direction in our 9 years together, but sometimes that can work against us as well. Sometimes I feel like we enable each other's bad habits and laziness a little too much, but lately that has all been changing. Now instead of encouraging each other to procrastinate, we are encouraging each other to get things done and feel that sense of accomplishment together. I'm not sure why it has taken us this long to get ourselves back on track, but I'm really enjoying growing even closer in our relationship and feeling like we are building a life TOGETHER and not just kind of moving through life simultaneously.

Okay, enough being mushy and sentimental! I seriously need to practice better time management skills. Starting NOW! I have my lists. I'm getting organized. But none of that matters if I can't keep myself on somewhat of a schedule. I work from home part time as well and I feel like I have been failing miserably in that department lately as far as structured work time goes. This weekend I need to get a daily schedule together for myself. I know it's not on the list, but it must be done. Okay... I'm off to get something accomplished!

Laminate Happy :-)

I love laminating things. I think that I would be really happy if I had my own laminating machine in our home office. A home office that might actually... one day... maybe... come to fruition! My intention was just to laminate my husband's monthly household chore list and my daily and weekly household chore lists... but I couldn't stop there. I also printed out the trash and recycling pick up schedule from our Department of Sanitation's website... and laminated it. Then I decided that I needed to make a little instruction sheet for doing laundry (in case, you know... there is ever a time that I'm not doing laundry... ha ha ha ha!). Seriously though, if something ever happened and I was sick for a week or needed to have surgery or God knows what, someone else should know how to wash the cloth diapers (because there is a process there!) and the couch covers, etc.

So, I'm going to hang all of these up in our laundry room. Maybe after I paint in there I'll get a cork board off of Craig's List and cover it with cute fabric and put all my laminated lists on it, except for the trash pick up and recycling schedule. That is going to go on the wall in the garage above the trash can. You would think we could remember what day is trash day, however, on weeks like this week, where Monday was a holiday it pushes trash day back by a day. The problem is that the sanitation department follows some holidays, but not all, so I never know if trash day will be on Thursday or Friday if it's a holiday week. Like this morning, my husband forgot to put the trash and recycling outside, so I hauled it out there, and while I was outside Andy found a tea light candle that he decided he would try to eat. When I came back inside he had purple wax stuck on his top teeth and he was holding the candle, shaking his head and telling me "Nooooo." That's right kiddo! Nooooo, scented wax does not taste good to eat!

So, needless to say, I sent Matt an e-mail, nicely reminding him to try and remember to take out the trash, blah blah blah... well, today wasn't even trash day. Tomorrow is. Because the Sanitation Department had the day off on Monday. Matt could have totally played that card even if he did forget and say he knew all along that trash pick up is tomorrow... IF we had a schedule up!

Okay, so the office. (Sigh) I have to get it all cleaned out before next weekend because we are hosting an engagement party for my brother & his fiance (who I might have mentioned before is also one of my best friends from college! Yay for gaining her as my sister in law!). The office is the first room you see to the left when you walk into our house. Right now it's serving as a very disorganized storage room. It's going to be a little while before we have the money to build the desk that we want along the wall in there, but in the mean time, I'm thinking I need to put some kind of table or something to keep the printer set up on. Right now I work on the laptop at the kitchen table and haul the printer out here every time I need it (which lately has been quite a lot!) so I'm thinking I need some kind of a temporary set up in there. It's hard trying to get organized without a good place to set stuff up.

Well... time to go check some things off my cleaning list... now that I only have 15 minutes left before Andy wakes up from his nap! Isn't that always the way???!