It's Been Awhile...

In fact, it's been a long while! I think we were home a total of about 10 days this month. It's good to be home and finally and settling back into life. My house exploded with all the running around and now I'm working reclaiming it.

Exciting news...IKEA has opened near our neck of the woods! We went and checked it out last Friday, I love that store! Yes, some a lot of their stuff is cheaply made, but you can't beat their prices!

Here are some cute pictures of Monkey to share...he had such a great time on all of our trips and he did SO well. I really couldn't ask for a better baby.



We're going to dinner with some new friends tonight! Friends have been slow in coming in these parts since we moved here two years ago. But, we have dinner plans tonight at what I hear is a really neat restaurant. Any way, we're excited.

Is anybody in need of an Infantino Front Pack carrier for a baby? It's not the greatest, but it does the trick. My mom bought me a Baby Bjorn and I like it better, so I'm willing to part with this one. Just say the word and it's yours!

We started feeding Monkey cereal on Saturday and so far he is really enjoying it. I've been mixing it with formula because I'm too lazy to pump because my pump isn't working right right now. He's actually been eating more than I thought he would to start off. Monkey is still working on learning the whole swallow thing without sucking first, but he's getting the hang of it and I'm sure will be a pro in no time flat. I think next we'll start on Sweet Potatoes and start feeding him twice a day, maybe cereal in the morning and and potatoes in the evening. Right now I'm only feeding him "solids" once a day. I'm thankful he hasn't give up nursing because that was a fear I had. Seriously, we can't afford formula, so I keep praying he'll keep nursing for at least a year!

Well, I'm off to fold some laundry and Monkey is getting tired and probably needs another nap (he took a 3 hour nap this morning! That's a record!)

Up Up and Away

It's pretty amazing to me that my 4 1/2 month old son is already a well seasoned traveler. By next Monday he will have been on 8 planes and by the middle of July, 10...

Today, at 8pm my handsome family heads to the airport to meet up with 10 of our high schoolers and one more leader who are going Florida with us! Our plane departs around 11:30pm. I'm praying that there is an extra seat on the plane for Monkey so that we can bring his car seat. I think he'll sleep most of the way, whether in his car seat or not, it would just be nicer if one of us didn't have to hold him the entire time. We arrive in Florida at 11am tomorrow. With the time difference it's about 7 1/2 hours of travel time. Then, we have to pick up our rental car and meet up with the shuttle that will be taking us to the convention center and hotel where we're staying. We have a few hours to get settled in, enjoy the HOT, HUMID thunderstorms and then at 3 the conference begins. Thousands upon Thousands of high schoolers from all across the country, meeting in one place to worship the Creator of the Universe, I'm SO excited!

The conference ends at 11pm on Saturday, we switch hotels and then spend one glorious day at Disney World! Monday afternoon, we pack up and head home, exhausted beyond belief.

Now, it's 10:10am, we have last minute things to take care of, so I'm signing off, see you next week!

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.

WFMW: Baby Wise

First time parent-hood can be overwhelming, even for those who have had a lot of experience with kids and babies. I babysat from the time I was 11 up until just a few years ago when I was a nanny. Now, I understand that babysitting is easy because the parents do all the difficult work of figuring out eating and sleeping schedules! I would just show up and do as I was told.

I am a research nut. I will research anything and everything far longer than is sane (thus, the reason I usually pay too much for plane tickets because I keep hoping they'll drop and instead just keep going up and up and up). A while back when the arrival of our first child was imminent, I began to fun process of researching baby-hood. How much and how often to babies eat, how long should babies sleep, when do they start sleeping through the night, and so on and so forth.

One of my dearest friends from college had a baby before me and recommended a book called On Becoming Baby Wise. She said it was an easy scheduling system that would have my baby sleeping through the night by 8 weeks. Honestly, the first thing that popped into my head was, "yeah, right. Maybe that worked for you but I seriously doubt it will for me". But, being in the first time mommy stage and not knowing where to start, I thought it was worth picking up. I ordered a copy from half.com. I read it and it made sense to me! Quite a few ladies at my church also confirmed that this system worked for them.

Baby Wise is written by Doctors, so I trusted that what they were saying wasn't going to damage my poor child psychologically for the rest of his life.

The basic premise of the book is keeping your baby on a simple, flexible schedule of eating, wake time and sleeping. You feed your baby, play with them and then nap them after each feeding so that they aren't becoming overstimulated. The one thing that the book encourages you to avoid is letting your baby "snack feed", when you sit down to feed your baby, encourage them along without letting them fall asleep until their tummy is full. Then, your baby won't really need to eat for at least another 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Obviously, if your baby is indicating that they're hungry, feed them sooner. Between 8-12 weeks, most babies on the Baby Wise system will naturally begin sleeping through the night. I didn't believe this at all, but when Monkey hit about 9 weeks, he started sleeping through the night.

I must say that Monkey sleeping through the night gives me a totally different outlook on life. I feel rested and ready to conquer each day. Plus, Monkey is happy and wakes up in just the best mood, which adds to me being in a better mood at the start of each day.

This system Works for Me (and my husband) and I hope that it will work for you, too! Don't forget to check out Rocks in my Dryer for other great tips!

Feel free to e-mail me at any time if you want to ask me any questions regarding this book and how it worked for us.

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...

Baby Food

I am going to begin embarking on a new journey, and that being of baby food. Monkey's Doctor said that we could start him any time, but there really is not hurry. Because of the busy nature of our summer and because of some information that I've read on the internet regarding starting babies on baby food, I've decided to wait until Monkey is 6 months old. In the mean time, I have lots of research to do because I'd like to make Monkey's baby food. I want him to eat the healthiest way possible and I want to avoid the cost of pre-prepared baby food. I will keep you all posted as I begin this new adventure, I may even start a sister-blog to keep recipes and such, of course that will require the help of my dear husband, so it may not be for awhile.

I would be very grateful for any advice you have to offer.

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.