Solo Survival Success

This week Matt has been on the road.  He left Sunday afternoon.  Anticipated return home is Friday night.  Meaning: I’ve been on my own this week.  That in and of itself feels like it should be a success sometimes! 

But moving onto this week’s successes…..

1.  This week was super busy with lots of appointments.  I can honestly say that to-date, we’ve been on time (or early) for every.single.one.  We’ve met friends for coffee, had meetings, an ultrasound, a doctor appointment, speech therapy sessions and three gymnastics classes.  Phew!

2.  Despite Tuesday being our busiest day of the week – I managed to cook dinner at home.  (Let’s not talk about the rest of the week.  It’s been a week of eating on the go).  But Tuesday was a success.  I made Table for Two’s crockpot Beef and Broccoli.  Quite good!  The boys enjoyed it and it was the perfect amount for the three of us.

3.  I seem to have mastered the nap time battles (at least for the moment).  I’ve been allowing both boys to lay in mommy’s bed and watch one 30 minute TV show.  Then Nathan heads off to his bed on his own accord and John sleeps in my bed.  Sometimes I nap with John, sometimes I sneak out to get things accomplished around the house.

4.  I’ve continued our quest to clean out the basement.  Another two bags of trash and a giant pile of recycling at ready to depart the house on appropriate days.  I also have a large bag of items to donate and a few items that I need to sell.  Purging feels good!

So there you have it – a week of surviving on my own.  Complete with appointments, activities, and a little bit of crock pot cooking.

Accomplished

Small Successes – I come and I go!  But I really do LOVE the concept.  I love counting up those little things each week and celebrating the (sometimes) mundane.

This week is full of success!  So let’s cut to the chase….

1.  After spending a day in the basement rearranging, purging and organizing, I’m happy to say I feel like progress is being made.  Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.  Seriously, why do we still have three old mainframes that we haven’t used since at least 2008? (And that’s the most recent one…let’s not talk about the one I have from when I was in college)

2.  I have already taken a load to be donated and dropped it off.  Yay for clutter out of the house!  And double yay for my clutter blessing someone else.  That’s what it’s all about!

3.  The previously mentioned mainframes, an old printer, and a keyboard that still has an PS/2 connector are already loaded into the back of the van (Thanks Charles!).  Tomorrow is an electronics recycling day downtown so I’ll be headed there to drop off all that too! 

Pretty excited about the progress being made!  Getting rid of clutter makes me sooooo happy.

February…and the winds of change are blowing in

Ahhh…February….that time where you start to see tiny glimpses of spring in the future.  You know, that random 65 degree day or the fact that it’s not pitch black both when you wake up and tuck the kids in bed.  It’s amazing what those little “looks ahead” do for my mental state of mind.

Last night I found myself daydreaming of the garden plans for this year.  Marigolds by the lamp post again (last year’s attempt at something different didn’t do it for me).  We’ll certainly need basil, cilantro, strawberries, and maybe some cucumbers this year.  And I’m trying to figure out if we can transplant our surprise lilies to a different location this spring (preferably one where my husband won’t view them as weeds and run them over with the lawn mower).  Hmmm….is it too early to be thinking about such things?

Also in my daydreams are playroom storage, design, and functionality.  We’ve been in cleaning/decluttering mode around here recently – which I always seem to associate with spring.  We’re in the process of moving our playroom downstairs, Matt’s office to the other side of the basement and attempting to find a way to separate the two as best as possible.  This is a process.  I’m thinking it may take all spring and a chunk of early summer.  But slow and steady will win the race….AND – I can guarantee that it will be done by August.

Why? Well, because in August we’ll be needing the current playroom to serve as a nursery.    Yay!  Garcia baby #3 should arrive in mid to late August 2013. 

So there’s the big news!  Super excited!