Not much

I feel like there's not much to say. I've been in a bit of a slump. Just hanging around the apartment, watching Enchanted over and over and feeling tired and sick. Not as sick as before though, so that's a blessing.

I am so tired today. I have been getting to bed WAY too late the last few weeks and having to get up early and I think it's catching up to me. This morning I had an appointment and I thought I was going to fall asleep in the car I was so exhausted. So I plan to nap a bit today. I know that once Eric starts his new job I'll be getting to bed much earlier since he and I both will have to get up early and therefore neither of us will be sleeping in. We've been getting to bed between 1 and 3 lately. Stupid.

We have been without cable for awhile now. I can't recall how long it's been but it's no fun. I don't even watch all that much TV but I feel very disconnected somehow. What's nice is that most networks allow free viewing of full episodes of their shows online so I've been able to watch those. Although, with the writer's strike there really hasn't been much to watch anyway so it's really just been keeping up with Ghost Hunters. But when The Office, Scrubs and ER come back (next week?) I'll be able to watch those as well which is nice.

Anyway, all this to say I've been bored. Eric has his online gaming and I used to have my scrapping but I have been sans creativity it seems for quite sometime so while I used to kind of enjoy having Eric play so that I could get uninterrupted scrap time, lately it hasn't been that way. I was getting tired of just sitting around bored while he played. Tired of waiting for him to finish up so that I could watch a movie with him or something. So I went to the library and got some books. I have missed reading. I wish I had a more comfortable reading chair though.

I actually did do a layout last night. It's simple but I am happy I did it. Here it is:



Okay, I'm too tired to say anymore. Love to all.

why? because.

Oh why did I stay up so late last night? I am so regretting it. I'm very sleepy and just trying to not give in and take a nap. Trying so hard.

Marah is working on toilet training today. She is in her big girl undies and has already had one accident (it's about 10 am now) and has not used the toilet yet. I just hope she doesn't pee on the furniture. On the floor I can deal with but man, on the furniture... I don't want to deal with that.

So we'll see how it goes.

UPDATE: 10:45 am- we have one potty success! Marah went all on her own and was very thrilled :)

Day of Rest

I think I overworked myself a bit last week. I was trying hard not to but it happened anyway. I just got burned out. I slept most of the day today and ended up with a nasty headache that I'm still trying to recover from. So it's been a crummy day. I haven't lifted a finger today. I would like to get some more laundry done cause I'm getting so close to being completely caught up and I don't want to fall behind again. So once this headache is gone I'll be folding the clothes in the dryer and starting a new load.

What I've been trying to do is to fold laundry first thing in the morning. This is really simple and it seems to help to get me in the right frame of mind for the day. If I don't do something right away I tend to not want to do anything all day.

So right now I'm drinking coffee and thinking about what I want to focus on this week. I managed to get the master bedroom completely done last week and did the girls room yesterday with Jenna's (and a teeny bit of Marah's) help. Got all the bedding stripped and washed yesterday so the bedrooms are officially clean. I did decide to hold off on the decluttering/organizing of the boxes in closets until the rest of the home is tidied up. Right now it's kinda hard cause there is no place for many things in those boxes so I'm gonna work on that later.

I think this week I want to focus on the kitchen. Having a clean and organized kitchen is so important. When things are not right in the kitchen it really hinders the ability to create meals with no stress. When I look at my kitchen I just get overwhelmed and stressed out and the last thing I want to think about is adding to the mess to cook something. And that bothers me cause I really like to cook.

So I'll first get everything looking decent to the untrained eye then I'll focus on going through the cabinets one at a time and throwing out/donating food and miscellaneous dishes that we never use. I'm gonna try not to let this project spill into the dining room like I know I'll want to do. That will just lead to being overwhelmed again. Dining room is a separate project.

I know all this cleaning talk is boring. But I guess it doesn't really matter cause who is reading this thing anyway *lol* Plus I know that when I read about people cleaning house it kind of motivates me to get going (which is exactly what happened this time around), so who knows who I may be motivating.

I am in desperate need of some shelving in this place. I want to just get some simple brackets and wood and mount them on the wall. We need shelving for our dvds that is up high so that Marah can't get into them. Plus our books need a home. I cannot wait for summer when people start having yard sales. I'm determined to find some good stuff this year. Oh, another thing I want is bunk beds for the girls. Their room is too small for two beds.

Did you know that Jenna LOVES broccoli? She gets it whenever it's available at restaurants (chooses it over fries) and eats it like it's candy. It's the first thing she eats when she has it on her plate. The other day I made it with supper for her and it was all she ate. She's not a fan of anything with hamburger in it anymore (except sloppy joes for some reason) which is a pain cause it's cheap and we're poor. It is so weird to me cause I did not like ANY veggies growing up. Marah loves corn. She has it for snack time sometimes. She also likes salad.

I remember growing up my parents making us eat salad and corn and green beans. They would make us take a piece of lettuce, one little piece of tomato and some shredded carrots. I would have to douse it in dressing and eat it in the same bite along with the main dish in order to literally choke it down. It was awful. And I was not being a baby about it. Especially about the tomato. I remember almost puking many times having to choke down the tomato. I also remember hiding stuff in my pockets and the cuffs of my pants to empty in the toilet later.

Luckily now I actually like salad (only dark greens though, not iceberg which is what we always had growing up) but not with tomato in it. I prefer caesar salad but will eat other salads if I have the right ranch dressing. I hate Hidden Valley ranch... maybe cause that was what we always had in the house as a kid, but I love homemade ranch or whatever they use in most restaurants. It's not as tangy and so much better in my opinion. I do love tomatoes in most foods but not in a salad, they still make me gag. On tacos, hamburgers, pizza, sandwiches I love them.

Still not a big fan of green veggies otherwise. But I can eat them without gagging now. Anyway, I'm glad my kids for the time being like at least some veggies.



I need to do a layout about Jenna's obsession with broccoli.

The other day Marah was playing her Sesame Street game and she just looked so cute.








Alright, bye :)

spring treats

Every week Jenna's classroom honors one student by holding a "Marvelous Me" celebration. It's an opportunity for the kids to have show and tell and share photos of themselves and their families as well as what their favorite things are. Everyday the child gets to do something different and on Friday the student may bring a treat for the class (which is optional).

Normally I would have passed on bringing treats. I usually end up not getting anything done in time and I'm just not a go to the store and buy a pack of cupcakes kind of mom. Not because I think it's dumb or lazy, just cause I always have to plan to make something cute, and then run out of time to do it *lol* that's just how I am.

Anyway, I actually managed to do what I had intended to do this time! That's very exciting for me! We aren't allowed to bake homemade goodies so that wasn't an option. I chose to create a treat bag topper and fill bags with candy. Created the bag topper last night and had them printed at Wal-Mart today. Here is the end result:




The photo doesn't do them justice... they're really cute.

made a dent

Yesterday I worked so hard on the master bedroom. I made a very nice dent. You wouldn't believe how much laundry was on my floor. It was terrible. I filled (over filled) 7 laundry baskets with dirty laundry. Then we got all the junk out. There was a lot of garbage... kids leaving Jello cups and straws and coloring sheets and whatnot on the floor. So, the floor is empty! That's a huge deal, seriously.

I think I washed about 8 loads of laundry yesterday. That felt good. We were really lacking in clothing in this house. It seems the same things get washed over and over cause they keep ending up on top of the laundry pile. Poor Jenna has started complaining *lol* "Mom! Not that shirt again!" So I got a lot of her stuff washed yesterday.

Today my goal is to vacuum the room and to clear off the dressers and then get one box from the closet sorted. I think there are about 5 boxes in the closet that don't really even belong in there and I know they're full of clutter. Stuff that's been sitting there since we moved here in June.

Tomorrow I'll finish the boxes in the closet and then the room will be dusted on Saturday and DONE! It will be the first time that room has been clean ever!

On Tuesday I caught these shots of Marah after she got in trouble for something (can't remember now what it was). I gave her a little swat on her hand and then put her in time out in this chair. She was very pitiful. She's got it down.

Eric calls this the Britney Spears files





In this last photo Marah looks like she has runny mascara from crying but it is actually paint after she rubbed her tears LOL

Okay I'm gonna go do something productive :)

Well so much for that

So I promised to post a video of Jenna today but um... well I just viewed it and well, she had just gotten out of the shower and she had a nightie on but no undergarments LOL. And there was a nice money shot in there so I had to toss the video :( Sorry.

I do have a new video of Marah though.



Have I mentioned my new addiction to lemonade? I can't get enough of it. It's almost all I drink right now. Helps my nausea a bit too.

I've been feeling less sick lately which of course is wonderful. I'm almost through the first trimester so hopefully I will be feeling much better very soon. I had been doing so well with getting things cleaned up and then I got really sick and everything just kinda got messed up. The house is a disaster but I am still trying. I did manage to get the master bathroom completely decluttered and cleaned and I have been working on just keeping that one small area clean for now. At least something in this place is clean.

I've been trying to decide which area to tackle next. Usually I work from the front of the home to the back because the front is where you are most often and it's the area that visitors see when they come over. However, I'm thinking maybe working from the back to the front might a better strategy. Since those areas of the home are less used they should stay cleaner I would think and that might motivate me to get everything else cleaned up.

Yes, this is an ongoing struggle compounded by the fact that no one in this house cleans up after themselves. It's frustrating. I really want to teach the girls some chores they can do but when everything is so overwhelming I feel like they can't really do it. I don't know... I really just think I need to get rid of all the junk. Without all the clutter there will be less to clean up right?

So I think I'll try getting my bedroom done. It's the worst room in the house besides the spare room which is really just a storage room at this point. I bought new bedding yesterday which usually motivates me to clean cause who wants to look at the pretty bed in the messy room? Once it gets warmer I want to paint the dressers too.

Oh anyway, I'm being boring. I should go. There's always so much to do and I'm wasting time.

so tired

Up far too late working on a project for Jenna's school and then doing this blog thing.
Hopefully the redesign will motivate me to do more posting. I feel like there's nothing fun to post about. life is a little lame at the moment but I'll try. I took a video of Jenna today. it's cute. i'll upload tomorrow cause it's so late now and I'm gonna completely regret being up so late.