Making progress

Hey all! I didn't blog Saturday night because we had company late after our little birthday party, which went great. Like I said, I love to host, especially when it's my parents, sisters, and all the kiddos! We ate, and ate, and ate, and the kids played, and played, and played. Then Sunday we were all exhausted by bedtime and I crashed out before I cold even sit down with the laptop!

But here we are...Monday! Monday was a LAZY day for me. Ella and I stayed in my bed watching Nick Jr until about noon, then we took a nap! Today was karate, so after school we came home and just vegged out until time to go. When we got home I fixed a quick and easy dinner and then we played a while before the kiddos' bedtime. My poor hubby is STILL working on paperwork from last week. I'm just hoping the next few days are good to him so he can get caught up.

I don't want to speak too soon, or sound like I'm tootin' my own horn, but I feel like I have come a long way on two of my goals. I feel very close to my husband right now. I feel like I've learned to speak his love language and keep communication open. Felt like it had shut down there for a while...like we were just kind of here, loving each other, but a little distant. I'm doing more for him, and with him, and I feel like we are both happier right now than we've been in several years. The other thing I feel like I've mastered is maintaining my house. For what ever reason I LOVE laundry these days. I love having empty hampers and full drawers. I love the way my house smells while it's all going. And since Ella has been staying home with me she is learning to help with laundry too and she loves it! I am keeping my kitchen clean, which is usually the dirtiest part of my house. My goal every night is to not have any dirty dishes in the sink when I go to bed. This is challenging because you really have to stay on top of switching over the dishwasher, which is always my least favorite thing to do...I don't know why. We have one of those big long bars in our kitchen that is our catch all when we come in from the garage. I have made it my goal to take about 5 minutes everyday to sort through whatever has been tossed up there and put it where it belongs or throw it away. I have been wiping down the table and sweeping the floor every night after supper too. The kids' are doing great with their chore charts and keeping up with things like dirty clothes and toys. Landon, being my little genuis has memorized what is on his chart and makes sure he's done it all by bedtime. Ella is becoming quite a little mommy and she just likes helping me do whatever I'm doing. One thing we are still having to work on is, when taking toys from the living room back to the bedroom, putting them away instead of just dropping them  in the doorway. Ella is still not quite old enough to really CLEAN her room, but I'm trying hard to help her realize that all of her toys have spots and she needs to put them back in their spots. I've decided that Landon is responsible for his room unless he has friends over and then I will help him clean it up one day a week. I found some Scrubbing Bubbles flushable disinfecting wipes which are great for quick maintaince on the bathroom counters, and of course, Ella loves them, so we wipe those down and swish the toilets a couple of times a week. I find an easy way for just quickly cleaning the toilet is to keep some kind of cleaner down in the little toilet brush holder thingy, then you can just grab it, swish it and be done! I used to have a real problem keeping sheets clean...I would take them off the bed, put clean ones on and then pile the dirty ones somewhere until they were eventually all dirty. Not anymore! They are all clean, all blankets are clean and I'm changing sheets once a week.

Now, I'm sure some of you are reading this and going..."okay, lady, isn't this just what you're supposed to do," I mean, I AM a stay at home mom...but let me tell you, when you get behind, just one or two days, it's overwhelming where to start...let alone if it's been weeks or months since you;ve done some of this stuff. Now, I'm not saying I didn't clean my house for months, I'm talking about EVERYTHING being clean all at the same time...and not just when you know you're having company. Then you have to take into consideration a crazy hubby schedule, karate, dance, gymnastics, ballgames, church, Scentsy, birthday parties, shows, blah, blah, blah. I've laughed before and said that I really don't think I have time to have a job. I know, I would make a schedule and it would all work, but I love being with my kiddos and teaching them and being there when I need to be.

With all of that being said, I told you early on that February was a busy month because of all the birthdays, Valentines, etc. Well, that brings up another one of those goals that I need to work on that is starring me in the face tonight...I want to make Landon's Valentine's for his party which is Friday. I already have them picked out, and part of the supplies, but I have to go to Scraptopia (local scrapbooking store) to complete them. Today was the day I should have done that. Hubby was gone with one of his buddies this morning until about noon, then, like I said, sister and I took a nap. Then he went to work between 2 and 3. Tomorrow he will go to work at noon, they don't open until 10...I'm hoping I can get there and get done and back home in time. Maybe I should just MAKE Ella go back to school because of things like that. I also have to prepare Valentines for my little church kiddos, my kiddos, my hubby, grandparents, teachers and secret sister. I also have a Scentsy order I need to place, and a treasurer's report to get done. We also have a realtor coming to see our house on Wednesday afternoon. When am I supposed to do all of that, with Ella in tow? Ugh! Time management is what I'm talking about and I stink at it!

Well, since I'm preaching about time management and how busy I am this week I think I should go to bed since it's almost 1am!

Until tomorrow...

Terra