*Kitchen Update*

It's amazing how much easier it is to keep my kitchen clean now that it's nice and clean and organized. We had 12 people over for dinner tonight and after they all left it took me just 10 min. to unload the dishwasher and getting it spick and span again. How much easier is that then scraping off plates in a few days and spending hours instead of a few simple minutes. I like living in a clean house, it makes me happy!

Kitchen: Before and After

Okay, honestly what I'm about to show you is truly embarrassing. But, like sin, it's important to confess and in this case I feel like I need to be real and show you how I've been allowing us to live. Hold onto your seats because it's bad...


<--before after-->

<--before after-->

Not to sound arrogant or proud, I must say that I'm quite pleased with the results.

Now, the goal is to keep it this way!!!

Cleaning the Kitchen

We are having people over for dinner on Wednesday, so I have no choice but to clean, clean, clean. I've decided to take it one room at a time, one day at a time. Today, I'm tackling the kitchen. It's actually been fun! I've been moving from the right of my kitchen to the left. I took a before picture and then I'll take an after picture and post them later on. I'm not only cleaning (I could clean the kitchen in probably 15 min.), I'm DEEP cleaning the kitchen as well as organizing stuff. Since I'm now making baby food, I need to have my food processor and needed supplies on hand, so I'm working on rearranging some of my cupboards in order to make making baby food easier. Woohoo!

Back By Popular Demand: Cleaning Overhaul

Now that our trips are complete, I've been focusing in on getting the house cleaned and decluttered again. I've been really trying to focus on just doing lots of little things each day so that I don't feel so overwhelmed and so far it seems to be going really well. Aug. 1 was my "start again" date. I forgot to shine my sink yesterday, so I'm doing it right now.

For those of you just tuning in, I've been using www.flylady.net as a resource to get my tush in gear and get my house cleaned. Since becoming pregnant with Monkey things slowly went down hill around the Monkey household and I've been slowly but surely reclaiming it. It's a lot of work...

I think I forgot to mention in my last post that monkey is teething. I've been suspecting it for awhile (since around the first week of June, actually), but we just saw the first bit of tooth come up as of last Tuesday. I was hoping that the worst of it was over, but it appears that maybe he's getting his second bottom tooth because he's been chomping a lot on that side and has been extremely clingy and fussy the last few days. It makes it quite difficult to get anything done. But, he is my first priority, so I'm trying to fit in cleaning when he and time allows.

On the Baby Food front, I've almost read Super Baby Food. It had a lot of good content but definitely wasn't the best organized book ever. I need to return it to the library in 5 days, so I need to make sure I made enough notes before returning it. The author (can't remember her name) is kind of a health nut and is vegetarian, so there are something things I won't be following as closely as she would recommend. But, it had some very good overall tips and recipes that I will definitely be using.

Onward and happy cleaning to all and to all a good day!

Cleaning Overhaul Days 5 & 6

I'm combining today and tomorrow because my eyes slid down on the the 31 one day list and it got me thinking about what I was going to do tomorrow.

So far I have maintained doing the basics and having been trying to be more aware of putting things away when I'm done with them and such.

Tomorrow I am learning about "Hot Spots", they are the areas in my home that things migrate to and collect. Tomorrow my goal is to spend 2 minutes each clearing off 3 "Hot Spots" in my house.

Well, I'm cutting this short...Monkey is having a rough time and needs mommy.

Cleaning Overhaul: Day 4

Well, day 4 has almost come to an end. So far I feel like I've been staying on task with the 31 day starter plan and the Riley's Daily Challenge. Today, I haven't done anything above and beyond because my back has been really bothering me. I finally went to the Dr. and from what he can tell I have a disk in my lower back on the verge of becoming herniated. We're glad we caught it now and I have lots of exercises to do to try to reposition my disk. Please pray that this resolves itself before it gets to the point of actually becoming herniated. I'm focusing on learning to bend properly and to have good posture, both of which went out the door with my pregnancy.

Cleaning Overhaul: Day 3

Today my instructions were the same as the last two days (they add a new one each day), and to read a brief overview of the system on flylady.net. I did all 3 and it's 10:30 in the morning. And, I've also done two daily challenges. I didn't have the chance to do yesterdays challenge so I did it today along with todays challenge.

Yesterdays challenge was to do a 27 item fling boogie. I went around with a garbage bag and threw away 27 items of trash. Todays challenge was to clean off my night stands which I did and it took all of 2 minutes. It was one of those things that I was seriously needing to do but just never got around to it. That's the story of my whole house.

I would consider Day 3 a success. I haven't shined my sink, but I'll definitely do that before bed because I really like waking up to clean sink, it makes my heart smile.

Cleaning Overhaul: Day 2

Here were my instructions for today:

Day 2

Today I want you get up and get dressed to lace up shoes when you first
get up in the morning. This means fix your hair and face too.

In order for us to change ourselves we need to remind ourselves of what
we are doing. I did this with yellow sticky notes throughout my home to
guide me through my day. This was the beginning of my home control
journal. I had little notes on my bathroom mirror to remind me to get
dressed to shoes. When you see the many reminders in your inbox from
Yahoo; just think of them as yellow sticky notes. You don’t have to do
them yet; they are just there as a little reminder. Read the subject line
and you will be absorbing the flow of them. Do not allow those voices in
your head to say this can’t possible work with so many emails. Then when
you hear those voices say I don’t have time. Set a timer for 2 minutes
and just read a little and then delete at will.

Shine your sink before you go to bed.

I also received this e-mail this morning:

YOUR MORNING ROUTINE; KICK OFF YOUR DAY!

1. Get up and weigh
2. Shower and get dressed to lace up shoes, fix your hair and face
3. While you are in the bathroom Swish and Swipe
4. Grab a load of laundry and start the washer
5. Check your calendar for today's activities
6. Empty dishwasher to start your day
7. Eat something good for you and take your medicine and vitamins
8. Drink your water.

Today is Tuesday. Have some fun today and take care of you!

It is 8:55am and I have done everything but wipe down the sink before bed (as it is only 8:55am). I already feel like I've accomplished SO much. And, even though only 2 small areas of my house are sparkling clean (my kitchen sink and my bathroom) I still feel better than ever.

I was going to start to "de-clutter" one room of the house today, but I've been having some terrible pain in my lower back and I have strict orders from my husband to take it easy today. A good friend of ours from our church, who is a doctor, told me to take lots of ibuprofen and to put heat on it. I don't like taking medication while breastfeeding, but I know it won't hurt Monkey and I really want the pain to be gone before leave next Monday for Florida.

Any who, there's my accomplishment for the day!

Flylady.net-Cleaning Overhaul

Thanks to the amazing suggestion of my dear Sister-in-law I checked out Flylady.net. Oh my gosh, that website is awesome! It's exactly what I've needed to overhaul my house and get my life together. There is a 31 day Beginner Baby-steps that I'm starting with to begin to put my house back in order. I plan on blogging each day what I've accomplished so that I can feel a sense of accomplishment. I will be going out of town next week, but will just take a break and start right back up where I left off before I left.

Day 1: (today)

I shined my sink, and in fact I feel REALLY good about and I hope that it will indeed shine it's smiling face at me in the morning. I WILL keep my sink clean!

Here were my instructions for today:

Go Shine your sink.

After you do this; you will keep it shiny by drying it out after each
time you use it and making sure when you go to bed that it is shining so
it will make you smile in the morning. This is how I get to hug you each
day! That shiny sink is a reflection of the love that you have for
yourself.

Our FlyLady system is all about establishing little habits that sting
together into simple routines to help your day run on automatic pilot.
You can do this!

Oh, and they also told me to go to bed, apparently, sleep is part of keeping my house clean, too. Unfortunately, sleep doesn't come as easily having a baby. I can just dream of it, that is, if I have the chance to dream...

Any way, I have successfully cleaned my sink today...

I wonder what's on the docket for tomorrow...

Getting My Act Together

It's now been over 4 months since having Monkey and yet I still feel unorganized and like we're living in a pit of sorts. Piles of papers over take every room in the house and it never seems like we have enough storage space. Really, the only storage that we have in our house is our garage and it's difficult to find anything because we don't have much shelving or anything.

I made a pact with myself and with my husband that when I had Monkey I wouldn't "let myself go". One day we went into McDonald's and it was full of moms with their kids and none of them looked put together. I swore I would never let myself do that. To this day, I have taken a shower and put make up on every single day. I probably have time to blow dry my hair 4 days out of the week. The blow dryer scares Monkey, so I can't do it when he's awake and if I don't get to it quick enough it air dries and doesn't look good. So, I've found some decent ways of doing it that don't require blow drying, just for the days when I can't quite get to it.

Now, if only I can get my house looking as god I look every day! Now, that may come across as vain, but it's not meant that way, at all. I'm trying to streamline cleaning the house. I have to make myself VERY practical "to do lists".

Unload dishwasher
fold load of laundry

etc., etc.

If I just say "do the dishes" it's far too overwhelming and I don't do it, but if I write it out step by step I'm much more likely to get half of the kitchen cleaned rather than none of it.

I'm not really sure what the "point" of this blog was, but now that I've verbalized my frustrations, maybe I'm more likely to actually stay on task each day. Some day (maybe in 10 years) if someone just "popped in" for a visit, I wouldn't be mortified by the unsightly conditions of my house.