365 Day 262

Why did I let paper and water meet on my glass table? This is after the first few cleanings with many different things. I finally got it clean thanks to help from my facebook friends and family.

Actively Lazy

My thoughts on today:


Productivity:
Yesterday I was crazy productive. It was such an awesome feeling that I finished so many things that I've been putting off. Washing and folding the household sheets for example. Around the time I stuffed the last folded set neatly into the pillowcase I realized that on Sunday they are getting back out onto beds. I do the boys' sheets every 2 weeks (1 week of use) and I let them sit on my wash room floor for several days and then clean and in a basket on my couch for another week. Not happy with myself. No reason for such laziness.

Today, I actually did quite a bit but nothing close to what was accomplished yesterday and now I'm finding myself unmotivated to do anything else. It's almost as if because I didn't complete the same size of mountains this morning as I finished in all of yesterday I might as well throw my hands up and say I'm too lazy. I need to get over this issue for sure.

Health:
More accomplishments for the month: we've gone all month (plus a little) without meat in our diets and focusing on smaller dinners. We're trying it for health and monetary reasons but I feel like I have more energy so that's a good thing. I'm also trying to tame my overwhelming sweet tooth but pinterest just taught me how to make my own frappecchino at home. It is decidedly NOT healthy but oh so tasty (unfortunately easy too).

Cliff and I also wanted to start walking every night but after only one night it got hot. I have learned that I do not like sweating. Summer is not kind to me. Last Friday the kids and I walked to and from school (just under a mile away) only for me to turn down the wrong street and make them late for the second time this month. That was embarrassing. I've been wanting to walk several times since then but I really, really despise being hot. I finally got off my butt today and we all walked to school (without getting lost or sweating) and then the baby and I played at the park before coming home. I enjoyed the walk but I enjoyed my shower afterwards more. I think that's my problem, if I'm going to go for a walk I want the time afterwards to be able to shower as well and I'm still working on a schedule that works for me to not run out of minutes in the day.


Potty Training:
Again, looking at our budget has had heavy influence on our choices. We're out of diapers for the baby and since she already showed us in October she can use a big girl potty we decided that it it's time to make her use it regularly. Potty training is a lot like having a puppy in the house again. I'm grateful that our carpet is old because she's already peed in several location. No huge accidents, but I'm cleaning pee off a carpet all the same. She's doing really well (it's been a little over a week) but still not always telling us when she has to pee before she pees in her panties. It's still up to me to remind her to try to go potty every 20-30 minutes (which she's not so fond of).

Saving Money:
I'm avoiding driving whenever I can around town during the day which has also inspired me to cook out of my pantry more. 40 pounds of rice in my garage and so far I've only made one terrible dish with it. The last two nights worth of dinner for our family of 5 was $12 worth of food. We ate well and I feel a little better about myself for not wasting food and cooking with ingredients I already had.

Blogging and Pictures:
I fell two weeks behind and didn't even take pictures for all of those days. I went 100 days of taking pictures (pretty sure that's a habit at that point) only to 'fall off the wagon'. I'm getting back on. I still have the delusion that I'm going to catch up on the posts I started (and had pictures for) and never finished but we'll have to see. At least I'm using my camera again. Baby steps.

365 Day 111

We finally did something with the raw edges on our floor. No more having to sweep under the carpet!

*Taken 4.21.12*

Laundry Lessons

I wash all the clothes and the kids then put their own clothes away. I spend my time, money, and energy to wash the clothes properly and they are responsible to for putting them away properly. I personally hate folding so all the kids have mostly closet space. Even the 2yo can hang up a shirt. I have demonstrated how it is to be done and when I find things not done correctly (clean clothes shoved in the dirty hamper, under the bed, back of closet, etc) then I give them a warning and show them again. If after the warnings (usually 3) I am still finding things out of place on the rare occasion I venture into their rooms then I know that they need more practice putting clothes away. This is the case today.

It started this morning when Mr. Edward complained that he had no pants left in his closet. I thought this was very strange since he got 5 pairs for Christmas and it was only 4 days of dirty clothes in the hamper but it's not the first time his pants have gone AWOL and I have yet to find his hiding spot. On the same note all last week Mr. Mann kept telling me how he had no socks even though he got 20 pairs for Christmas.

Then, while doing the laundry I spotted clean socks still folded together in Mr. Mann's hamper. Into their room I traveled to dump all of Mr. Mann's socks out for him to practice putting them away correctly. In the process of that I discovered more socks behind his bed and his pants and even more socks thrown on the top shelf of his closet. I then began to remove all his clothing from the hangers for him to practice.

Once a few pieces of clothes were out of the closet I discovered three pairs of Mr. Edward's jeans shoved on the middle shelf behind his brothers shirts. 

Three!!!

 I went on to find more socks under the bed, random shirts shoved in drawers, and 4 broken hangers. There is now one closet filled with very empty hangers and two beds hidden somewhere under a mountain of clean clothes. Good time to remove the outfits that are too small. Two birds, one stone, love it!