Nesting

It’s that time in pregnancy when I can see the end.  Which also means I feel as though there is a looming deadline for all the things I want to accomplish before Charlie arrives.  Why does the list always seem to be longer than the time left? 

We’ve got the basics finished.  The crib is set up, the dresser is in Charlie’s room, and I finally washed some baby clothes this past weekend.  There is more than enough food in this house to feed my family for a few days. 

If Charlie arrived this afternoon we could survive.  But there are still lots of things to accomplish.  Not the least of which is to pack a hospital bag.  (My OB told me to do this back at 32 weeks – I’m looking at it as if Charlie won’t arrive until I do it so there is no need to rush things along.) 

Other things include finishing laundry for Charlie, getting all those clothes into his dresser, and doing some general cleaning and organizing.  We’d also like to finish up some yard work, wash the windows inside and out, and clean out a few closets.

So, who wants to come over and help us out?

I'll Never Get It All Done

We've been super busy these past few weeks.  We were happily surprised when Matt's sister and her husband announced they were coming to visit for 4 days from New York City.  We managed to fit our small family vacation in last week.  Then this past weekend we played host to Matt and my mutual college best friend.  Over these three weeks we've had days where we ran like crazy trying to fit in all the attractions in either STL or Branson.  Other days we lounged around, chatted, drank coffee and enjoyed our company.  Either way - there has been little accomplished in the order of housework or baby prep.

We seem to have an ever growing to-do list floating around our house.  Some of the things are your standard "never done" items: laundry, mowing grass, cleaning the kitchen and mopping the floors.  However, some of the items are things that aren't normally on our list: buy a dresser before baby arrives, buy and plant our flowers, finish decorating the nursery, wrap up the playroom revamp, potty train Nathan....

I'm trying to figure out how all these things will get accomplished between now and August.  I know that the basics will get done and we'll continue to survive if the grass doesn't get cut one week.  If flowers never went in the beds this year - life would go on.  But still, it does make me wonder how we'll get it all done!  I imagine life with three kiddos is no slower or any easier - is there any chance I'll ever catch up on my to-do list?  Or will I feel constantly behind for the remainder of my life?

Please, someone, tell me there is light at the end of this tunnel!!!!

Going Strong

The process for moving the playroom downstairs is moving forward.  It’s a slow (and tedious) process, but we’re trekking along. Most of the successes of the past week seem to be based in this task, so here they are…

1.  Finally called the electrician to get power dropped on the far side of the basement.  We also need a few other little electrical things done so hopefully we can officially check those off the list soon. 

2.  Having spent so much time in the basement recently has prompted me to get way more laundry done than before.  I figure if I’m down in the basement I might as well throw a load in.  Low and behold, there was actually one day when all the laundry was done!  I’ve even gotten some of our spare pillows washed.  Yay! Maybe this will be one of those long-term perks of having the playroom in the basement.

3.  We’ve continued to purge toys.  Seriously – how many remote control trucks do two boys need?!?!?!  I’m shocked at how many toys we have acquired in just 4.5 years.  Granted, we’re not great about parting with outgrown toys (because thus far there has always been another child on the way), but I am committed to NOT having 12 of everything in this house!! 

4.  Spent one day making tons of phone calls.  I don’t know how the list of people to call grows on me – but it sure does.  Nonetheless, we now have a free family portrait session, ENT appointment, hearing test, and dermatologist appointment all scheduled. Now, we just need to actually make it to those appointments…..

5.  Bills are paid for the month.  It’s always nice when that is checked off the list.  And since I got everything paid and all the books balanced…I caught an accounting issue.  Good news – it’s in our favor!  Matt’s boss forgot to forward his January expense report to the main office for reimbursement.  So this month we’ll be getting an extra reimbursement check (for a pretty hefty chunk of money!).  We’ll be able to tuck some of that $$$ into our savings for our upcoming vacation in May! 

Bottom line – productive week!  Keep on going, keep on going, keep on going…. 

Maybe if I keep plugging away – we’ll be organized enough to have a new baby in August!

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!

Back to My Successes!

I love Small Successes!  Sometimes they are enough to keep me blogging when I feel like I have nothing to report.  Sometimes (when I have a ton to report) they hold me back.  Sometimes I skipped them for months because I just don’t blog the way I dreamed I would when this blog started. 

That having been said – I’m back to the original point – I love Small Successes! It reminds me of what I’ve accomplished each week.  There’s simply nothing like celebrating the little things because those are the things most often overlooked.  So behold…here are my successes this week:

1.  I dug the “to-do” notebook out of the pile of “to-deal-with-later.” So I now have a list (albeit long) of things that need to get done.  Blogging was on this list.  I’ve written 4 (this is 5) posts today.  Check all five of those off the list.  Look! It’s getting shorter by the minute!  Now to tackle some of the more pressing issues like faxing papers to doctors’ offices, completing some sewing projects that have been looming forever, and knocking some gift-buying out. 

2.  We took John for allergy testing.  I was originally pretty apprehensive of doing it, but it has been recommended by John’s pediatrician, his speech therapist, his teacher and most recently an ER doctor following a 4AM ambulance ride to the hospital.  The results show he’s basically allergic to the great outdoors during the spring, summer and fall.  (Oh, and cats)  So we’re trying some meds first. In 8 weeks we’ll re-evaluate to see how he is responding.  Right now we’re trying to avoid allergy shots – although they may very well be in his future.

3.  (This is really Nathan’s success!)  Nathan peed in the potty!  Just once and after leaking on the floor….but it looks like we may be on the way to potty training.  I’m cautiously optimistic.  While I love the idea of not buying diapers, I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to potty train him while driving John all over town for different appointments, preschool, and practices.  I know other families do it so I’m sure I’ll figure it out.  But with John I just committed a week at home and we did it.  I’m thinking it may be a different story this time around.

4.  (And it should be noted that this is really John’s success!)  We had John’s parent/teacher conference early this morning.  He got an absolutely glowing review from his teacher.  Apparently he’s a great listener, rule follower, super smart, has excellent fine motor skills and is generally a hard worker (at least for 2 1/2 hours, 5 days a week).  On his writing skills tests he needs a little work on drawing a person and he called a ‘crescent’ a ‘moon’ on his shapes test.    Not bad if you ask me!  Top that off with a conference with his school speech therapist who claims he has met or surpassed all but one of his speech goals for the school year (and it’s only October!).

Yay for Small Successes!    I’m excited to get back on the bandwagon with them again.  Not to mention that I now have the aforementioned “to-do” notebook back in my arsenal…I’ll be getting so much more done!

Starting to Prep

As I mentioned in a previous post – our house is clean enough to be safe and dirty enough to be lived in.  I like this philosophy.  I have two little boys and the idea of having a sterile and completely organized home seems completely impossible.  I’m not by nature a huge lover of housework, but I don’t mind an afternoon or two of cleaning and organizing when the rooms start having “round corners” from all the stuff I’ve wedged in them to clear a path through the middle of the space.

So I’m starting to prep….and by prep I mean I’m cleaning because over the next month or so our house will be inundated with visitors.  In the upcoming weeks (months?) we’ll be playing host to a soon to be 21 year old, my in-laws, and a 10 year old.  Not to mention that somewhere in the mix of all that we’ll host a 2 year old birthday party and a number of friends/family visits during a wedding (which happen to be occurring the same weekend).  Oh yeah – factor in there a road trip to Wisconsin and my husband heading to Austria for 10 days.  It’s gonna get busy really quickly!

Successes for the week then? Well, I’ve….

…organized the coat closet in the front entry way.  Nothing exciting, but it’s done.  Coats that don’t fit (or won’t fit by the next appropriate season) have been donated or stored.  The items that were piling up on the floor have been purged and organized.  We might actually be able to put some additional items in the closet now that it’s cleaned out.

…trimmed the hedges.  We have several shrubs that require periodic trimming throughout the warm months.  This is one of my few ‘official’ outdoor chores (Matt does most the lawn care, garage cleaning, planting, etc).  This task fell to me a few months after we moved to this house when Matt inadvertently trimmed the extension cord that was powering the electric hedge trimmer.  (It should probably be noted that as of typing this I’ve got 5 more hedges/bushes to punch out…but that’s down from 13 and I promise to have them done before this posts on Thursday morning)

…after a small pity party (and some tears) on Tuesday following a phone call informing me that John’s speech therapy was being denied by the insurance company, I’ve started the appeals process.  By started I mean I’m gathering the appropriate paperwork before I can officially start the appeals process.  I am mommy…hear me ROAR!

…enjoyed a family dinner out with Matt’s national sales manager.  Yes, I said enjoyed!  The boys were well-behaved, the food was good and plentiful, and the conversation actually flowed easily.  Since I much prefer speaking to large groups (I’ve never really enjoyed or excelled at 1-1 small talk) this experience certainly qualifies as a success.  And the sales manager commented on how beautiful and well-behaved our boys were!  (Proud mommy moment!)

…spent a lot more time playing with the boys despite my desire to clean the house from top to bottom.  Nathan is loving to do art projects right now and John’s imagination is taking off, so it’s been a lot of fun around here recently.  I’m trying to remember to embrace those moments. We’ll get the house cleaned before company arrives….but these little daily moments will disappear long before the first person knocks on our door.

“Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow…for babies grow up…I’ve learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs… dust go to sleep I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.” – Author unknown

…been diligently cleaning out our fridge.  Sounds silly, right?  But we’re not a huge leftovers family.  So we tend to pack up the leftovers after a meal then leave them in the fridge until I can no longer remember when we originally consumed the item and I throw it away.  This is not budget friendly!  Instead, I’ve been trying to repurpose items into other meals and working hard at eating those leftovers out of the fridge.

…utilizing our produce co-op again.  Yay!  I love our produce co-op, but often we don’t consume all the produce before it goes bad.  Again, a waste of money.  I hate that.  Since the fridge has been relatively cleaned out recently I’ve had room for all the produce.  Added bonus is that with the extra space in the fridge I can see all the produce and we’re consuming it in a more timely manner.  You just can beat the taste of fresh fruits and veggies compared to canned and/or frozen. 

Well, I’m feeling like a pretty big success this week!  Lots done, lots still to do…  Bring it on!

Make sure to swing over to Chocolate for Your Brain and encourage other moms on their journey to success!

Routine and Bucket Lists

I function best with routine.  It makes me feel in control, orderly, organized.  My little boys function best with routine.  (Their new bedtime routine is working swimmingly.) Even-my husband works best when plans are well-laid.  Basically, what I’m saying here is – we’re a bunch of Type A personalities here in the Garcia house.

However, I’m trying to teach myself to allow our routine to fall by the side occasionally.  Let’s be honest – a missed nap won’t kill anyone and if the house isn’t spotless upon falling into bed the walls won’t tell anyone that I’m a failure as a housewife.  I still crave the structure, but I also know that the unexpected brings my family such joy when it arrives on our doorstep.

Recently many of our mornings have been spent at the local YMCA.  I have been getting in a workout and the boys have been playing in the daycare room.  More importantly though, is that I’ve allowed the kiddos to enjoy time at the climbing wall and the skate rink too. Their eyes light up when they see me load toys in the car for Tot Skate or when I check them out of the daycare with climbing passes in my hand for Tot Climb. 
Yes – these things make John rush a little to eat lunch before getting on the bus for school.  And our little extras always mean that Nathan will fall asleep in the car before we get home to eat lunch, thus resulting in some funky dining consisting of lunch(?) at 2:30 and dinner at 6. But the boys are loving them and I can handle a day or two a week without lunch right at 11 and nap at 11:30. 

All this got me thinking about the upcoming spring and summer.  We always have such big dreams about the activities we’ll do as a family, the places we’ll go, the things we’ll see.  Yet, at the end of each summer I lament that we “didn’t do anything we wanted to do this summer.”  Part of this is because my Type A personality family functions with such routine that we forget to enjoy those warm months.  I mean…Saturday mornings are for running errands and Saturday afternoons are naps and yard work and Sunday morning we go to mass and by the time we have breakfast it’s too close to nap time to go do anything fun and….  Well – you get the drift! 

So we’ve worked on a bucket list for the summer.  Some of the items are simple activities we can do at home and some are day trips that we’ve always wanted to take.

I’m excited to see what this summer brings. It will be great to have a visual way of tracking what we’ve accomplished and what our summer has entailed.

Since Last Thursday

What’s been going on in your house since last Thursday?  Have you had any successes (big or small) that are brag worthy?  I’m sure everyone has – so head over to Sherry’s blog, Chocolate For Your Brain, and share them with the world!

The Garcia household successes include:

1.  Got signed up for a Lenten prayer buddy.  It’s the first year I’ve done this, but I’m really excited to participate in the program.  I believe powerful things can happen with prayer and having a someone extra praying for you can NEVER hurt.  Plus – I’ve found some time to pray for my buddy and read some part of her blog (so I know her story a little better while I pray for her).

2. Survived 24 hours with a 3 year old running 104 fever.  Turns out he has his first round of strep.  *sigh*  But the plus side to this is that our wonderful pediatrician gave me antibiotics for both boys (Nathan has had a snotty nose for over a week anyway) so I know no other kids will get strep.  Although I suppose Mom and Dad are still susceptible. However, Ash Wednesday mass was a wash – so we just took time at the dinner table to talk about the start of Lent, sacrifices, and penances. 

3.  Enjoyed President’s Day with the family doing a store/food tour of STL.  In one morning we hit up World Market (candy and soda), Trader Joes (frozen appetizers, specialty cheese, and vitamins), Whole Foods (whole grains, vitamins, and cheese), Lions choice (lunch), The Container Store (Lenten bean containers with lids so Nathan is less likely to spill them), Mexican Mercado (drinks, fajita meat and chorizo) and REI (cause it’s fun to walk around).

4.  Prepared as much as possible for Lent. Got our Lenten beans set up on the table.  Signed up for Holy Heroes Lenten Adventures – I hope this works out for us this year! Filled our Blockbuster at Home queue with some Easter/Bible stories for the upcoming month.  I also reserved some books at the library on the lives of saints.  I just finished reading My Life with the Saints by James Martin SJ and it really sparked my interest in a couple saints’ biographies….no time like Lent to dive in!

5. Have started my commitment to get the house more organized during Lent. (This is a continuation of my New Year’s Resolution.)  My goal for Lent is to organize one area of the house every.single.day.  Now keep in mind that one area might be a cabinet, drawer, or closet.  It might be a table top or an overflowing laundry basket.  So yesterday’s task was the tupperware cabinet.  I’m tired of items falling out of the cabinet, trying to wedge different size/shape containers into the small space, and not having containers of appropriate size for our needs.  On my trip to the grocery last night – I bought a new load of Gladware.  Then I emptied the shelves of the old, put them in the donate box, and restocked with new, properly sized, and organized containers.  Not all the projects will require such an investment – but the $$$ was well-worth my sanity. Hmm….what should I tackle today?

Yay!  I’m feeling particularly successful this week!

Back at Small Successes

Time to jump back on the bandwagon with Small Successes.  I really do enjoy participating in this meme as it gives me a chance to reflect on my accomplishments (even when they seem minute) each week. Begs the question of why I miss posting the meme so often???

Kicking off 2012 Small Successes….

1.  I got a sewing machine for Christmas!  Yay!  However, those family members living close by are not sewing-inclined.  So I’m learning on my own.  So far I’ve threaded my machine, wound a few bobbins, stitched more bright pink lines into one of Matt’s t-shirts than I’d like to admit, reattached a decal to Nathan’s shirt and repaired the toy stroller seat when John broke it.  I’m calling this a BIG success.

2. I’ve created a bedtime routine chart for each boy.  We’re only on day 4 of using it, but so far it’s going well.  I like that it gives the boys directions (both visually and with words) for what comes next.  And as a result – Mom and Dad have missed steps less often (meaning that we’re not stuck cleaning up after the kiddos are tucked in bed or suddenly running into the bedroom to give medicines before someone falls asleep).

3.  I’m working at purging the *stuff* from our house.  Christmas brought in plenty of new, exciting things and several “upgrades” so I’ve been diligently throwing away, putting in donate piles and recycling. 

Bonus #4.  I’ve come to terms with re-gifting and returning items.  We got a couple duplicates this Christmas that we’re returning to stores and a few items that I’ve stashed away to be used as birthday gifts for friends’ kiddos or upcoming gift-required occasions.  It’s a slow process for the returns (since from 10:30-5 everyday at least one person 3 or younger is napping) and right now I have a Tupperware container in my dining room filled with things that still need to make it back to different stores – but I’m trudging along in the process and we’re getting things we actually NEED in exchange.

Make sure to head over to Chocolate for Your Brain to check out more Small Success by wonderful women!