Not here, not now

I posted on the SOS board, but I don't think I'll add it here. I needed to share some things that would not be beneficial knowing who is reading here. :) Don't worry, I'll post again here soon, honest.

Up, Down, and All Around

Okay, so I haven't been here in a while. Sue me! Oh, that's right, you can't...you don't know who I am...HA! Okay, a few of you do, but I don't think you'll go to the hassle of tracking me down and dragging me down for missing a few weeks.

Sorry, I'm in a sarcastic mood right now. But that's a good thing as I have a sarcastic sense of humor, so when I'm in a sarcastic mood, it usually means I'm in a good mood. That is the case right now, so I thought I'd take advantage of it and write for a few minutes. And I really do only have a few minutes...I am at work.

Things have been up and down a LOT since I last wrote. I'll start with the negative so I can end with the positive...

I haven't even been on the SOS boards much lately. I don't think I've been there at all for more than a week...maybe more. I'm gonna feel so behind once I get there, but I know there will be lots of support, too, once I arrive.

We are still struggling with maintenance. Not NEARLY like before, but I do sometimes feel like we are spinning our wheels and never get to where I want to be. And of course the kids will cooperate beautifully one day and completely the opposite the next. The dry erase board is helping, but our schedules are so crazy and chaotic that even that is hard to keep up with.

I come home from work, and I am just wiped out...and I usually still have lots of running left to do for the kids' sports. I LOVE that they are in sports, but it means we are ALWAYS on the go. So many women do this with so much less effort...how do they do it?? I know I have some health issues that do not help, but they really aren't that bad, so I should be able to keep up with this better. I really wish we could afford a housekeeper just to help us keep up with the basics. Ah well...

Positive stuff is happening all the time, though, so I don't often feel overwhelmed or too discouraged. For example, I baked cookies a few days ago...in a clean kitchen! Well, at least it started off clean. And because of that, I was motivated to put things away and clean up as I went. I haven't made these kind of cookies in a long time...and oh, were they yummy!

I had a headache yesterday. A bad one. Worse than I've had in a while. If you've ever had migraines, you know what I mean. I got home from Hannah's bb game and almost crawled to the nearest chair. My kids got me an ice pack, and I didn't move for a couple hours. I then went straight to bed. Slowly, eventually, with an ice pack, medication, a dark room, and a warm bed, it began to ease. How is that a positive in my world of squalor? Well, the kitchen and family room aren't where I'd like them to be as far as cleanliness goes, BUT...they weren't so bad that I laid there worrying and thinking about it. (And trust me, migraine or not, in my previous world, I would have done that.) I could go to bed guilt-free knowing that in the next couple days we would get to them, and it wouldn't take all day to do it.

We are getting ready for my son's birthday. He'll be 13 which is a big deal for our family. It will be the first "real" get-together since I've begun this journey to clean. I'm actually looking forward to it, not stressing for it! This is a big step for me. And a new concept...welcoming people into my CLEAN home. All of this happens on Sunday...just 4 days away...! Well, I've gotta change subjects now, because I know if I think about it TOO much, I WILL end up stressing.

Hubby shampooed the carpets in two of the main rooms. They look a little better, but boy do we need new carpeting!! Not gonna happen for a while, but at least I know we've got it as clean as we can. People can sit, and kids can crawl on it w/o fear.

I am really missing my craft area. It gets out of control every now and then, and then I clean it up, sort thru a lot of it, and start all over. I've been wanting to do that for weeks now, but one road block after another pops up. My son broke his foot, but he plays bb, so we're still taking him to games to support the team. My daughter is also in bb, so most every day entails either practice or a game. I have little to no energy it seems. You know how it is...life just gets in the way. AAAAAKK!

Well, on that note, I am going to close...for now. I already have ideas for future posts, so it shouldn't be so long again.

TTFN

I actually started this on Wednesday, Nov. 10th...

I was sent to the wrong building today for work. Things went downhill from there. When I got to the right building (late, of course), they didn't even know I was supposed to be there. A secretary gave me my folder and an ID tag and promptly turned around and walked away. I was dismissed. I finally found the right room, but no instructions, no note, no prep, no clue. Oh this was going to be a glorious day....

I leave that room to arrive where I need to be next only to find out I was dressed completely inappropriately. GRRRrrr... never mind that I dressed according to how this type of assignment had worked every single time in the past. Today was different. Of course.

My coworker was quite gracious, kind, and helpful (thank you, Lord!), but it didn't take away any of my discomfort or self consciousness. As far as I was concerned, from the very beginning, this day couldn't be over soon enough.

I got home exhausted and was pleasantly surprised and grateful when DH offered to pick up our DD from play practice this afternoon. It was a good day to relax, no major projects undertaken today. With the kids' school show this weekend, we knew we wouldn't get much, if anything, done this week. Maintaining would be hard enough.

I didn't think anyone could equal or better my procrastination, but the kids are definitely in the running if not far far ahead. It's getting quite annoying having to constantly hound them after they get home. It wouldn't be so bad except that they are getting home quite late this week, so there's not much time between their arrival home and bedtime to get chores done. Now, I kept all of this in mind when creating their chores. Their lists are much smaller, and each chore considerably easier than usual. But they STILL drag their feet and then eventually forget...a lot. Often they are in bed before I discover undone or half-done chores. AARRGGG!

We did get some things done this weekend and earlier this week that are worth noting:

• DH took apart the stove door, so I was finally able to get to that gross, greasy, sticky substance under the handle. Tearing it apart and putting it back together was what I dreaded the most, so I was so grateful that my hubby did that part of it. Cleaning it all up after that actually wasn't bad in that I didn't mind, and it didn't take too long. I swear last night, I heard it say, "Thank you!" I smiled and gave it a pat as I passed by last night. A clean stove...what a concept!
  
• The microwave. DD and I both did this. I got the outside all cleaned up and left the inside for her. She informed me quite clearly that she did not appreciate how nasty the roof of that microwave had gotten...! :P
• We got three big black garbage bags of trash taken downstairs. Remember those from our son's room that were in the living room. We also took another big bag to the car to take to Goodwill. This made a big dent in the living room which was quickly getting out of control again.
• We got a big garbage bag of clothes and a box of misc stuff that was in the car actually TO Goodwill the other day.

Yay for positives in the midst of a busy, stressful week!

Ever notice that when you organize something from the inside out things often look worse before they look better?

Right now, it looks like my son's room threw up into our living room. Clothes EVERYWHERE! But...among them is a big black garbage bag almost full of clothes to give away, and two big garbage bags of trash from his room. And I can see the floor of his room. I think it's been two years since I've seen that floor. (Okay, maybe not quite two years...but I think I'm exaggerating because I don't want to know what the real time frame is!)

Lots of laundry to do...

Not now, Dear, I've got a headache...

I get migraines. I have medicine for them, but it usually takes a while for it to work...at least an hour usually. Sometimes an ice pack helps take the edge off until the medicine works. So early this morning, I trudged out to the freezer and got an ice pack and headed back to bed for a little while. It did feel good on the pounding, and eventually the headache did ease up and finally go away.

When cleaning the bedroom, I came across the ice pack and set it aside to put away. I had to smile thinking of all the ice packs I came across when cleaning up in there a couple weeks ago. The ice pack usually ends up on the floor by my side of the bed. When you have weeks worth of clothes and trash there, the ice packs would tend to disappear. So, after a while, I'd have no ice packs in the freezer and would have to make one...that is if we had ice to make one with.

Today, the floor was clear, so I picked up the ice pack and got it put away for the next time. How cool is that?

Just another of those small victories that come with a clean room.

Our Family's Mug Shots

Something I read on SOS recently reminded me of a fun scene in my kitchen.

I enjoy a cup of tea almost every day except in the hottest part of summer. I don't like a tea cup, but rather drink it in mugs, and I have a lot of mugs to testify to that. Most of my mugs have a story behind them or someone special gave it to me, so getting rid of them has almost always been a no-no. I would go through them and get rid of maybe one or two every couple years, but that's about it. My daughter has bugged me to get rid of more of them, but I would always tell her that each one held special meaning, or was a mug I really liked for its size, shape, and/or picture. She never really bought it, but she would leave me alone for a while until the next time.

Well, getting caught up and working to STAY caught up on the dishes has made me realize how many of those blasted mugs I really did have. The cupboard was overflowing, and the kids were leaving mugs and glasses out on the counter because there was no room for them in the cupboard. That was driving me crazy...it just made my newly cleaned counters look so cluttered. Plus, half the time those glasses would get washed again since they weren't put away, and no one would bother to look if they were clean or not...so into the dishwasher they would go...again.

I started to think...how many mugs does one family need? Especially when DH doesn't like coffee, only drinks tea when he's going to sing that day, and rarely drinks anything else hot. Even my kids don't use them that often. So...I got a bit ruthless and started sorting them out. I began accumulating a nice pile to give away and set aside some that were DH's and kids' mugs that they didn't use too often to ask them if it was okay to get rid of them. I forgot to ask until a couple days later, and when I did, what followed was a scene almost out of a sitcom.

It helps to know that DD and I both have a very sarcastic sense of humor. DD also has a fun, outgoing personality, so stuff like this can make me laugh as much as any comedian. She was "yelling" at me for getting rid of a couple mugs that she insisted she used. But then she would turn around and ask me why I was keeping certain mugs. One was a "mother" mug that she and her brother had given me, and when I told her that's why I was keeping it, she said, "Really? I don't remember giving it to you. So...that means you can get rid of it." She made me laugh, and since I did have another mug that they had given me that they did remember, I took her advice and got rid of that one, guilt-free.

Of course you might think that means it's my turn to harrass her about her choices to keep...but it wasn't that easy. We were "fighting" and reaching for each other's mugs (unsuccessfully usually) and going round and round about what were good reasons to keep them. We were laughing most of the time, and in the end, we did get rid of quite a few mugs.

The guys of the house didn't really care much except to keep one or two of their favorites. Otherwise, whatever we got rid of was fine with them.

Our cupboard is now full, but full of mugs and glasses we use, and the counter no longer has a bunch of clean glasses strewn about. We are able to keep up with the dishes more and waste water and soap less since we're not rewashing glasses every other day.

I love making things more functional, easy-to-use, and/or easy to put away and keep neat!

A Reason to Smile

Didn't have to work today, but SO tired. I slept in, and then by mid afternoon I was wilting fast. So I basically got nothing done today. No major backslide, but a lot of lost opportunity.

The kids are not feeling too cooperative today. The usual excuses: "I just did that yesterday!" "Can't so-and-so do it?" "That's not part of cleaning the counters (or whatever)." GRRRR. A lot of sighs and eye-rolling, too.

We are trying a schedule of sorts getting the daily and weekly chores done. I was going to try to come up with something permanent...we would do a certain chore every Monday, another one every Tuesday, etc. and most of the time the same person would do the same chores. I didn't work in that direction too long at all before I realized there is no way that would work for us. The kids are both in sports, and every week, our schedule is different. Plus no one likes to do the same chore over and over. So-o-o-o, I reworked it. Each week is going to be different, and because of sports and/or drama schedules, someone may be working more one or two days, and there will be days where none of us can get anything but maintenance done, but most of the time it will balance out. I post two or three days worth of a schedule on our dry erase board, and they are to check it as soon as they get home from school and then get them done in a reasonable amount of time. Today was the first day, and as you can guess from the attitudes I posted earlier, it wasn't the smoothest in the world. BUT...I have a sense that given some time, it could work if we all work together to MAKE it work.

There have been some positives going on around here, though:
I am so glad we made our bedroom a place of peace. It is so nice going to bed in there without having to step around, over, or on top of piles of clothes and trash. And it makes it easier to get up and get ready in the morning. And I have to laugh at myself because I LIKE having the bed made every day...! I really didn't think I would like it this much, and I certainly thought that even if I did, I'd never admit it to myself or especially to anyone else after what I posted about it. (See my post about making the bed if you're just now joining me....it was a couple weeks or so ago, I believe.) But it's true...I do like it. :P

My daughter had a couple friends over the other day to go trick-or-treating together. It was a spontaneous decision, no time to run home and clean, and it was possible because of our recent progress. The family room was pretty cluttered when we first got home, but my daughter took a few minutes to clean it up, and her friends even helped carry a couple boxes to the car so they were out of the way. We then all had a great time watching a movie until it was time for them to get dressed up.

We did manage to vacuum yesterday. Now, to get caught up on laundry. You know, that's one chore I usually don't mind doing, but I am FOREVER behind on it! Also to get rid of our dining room table. I recently downsized and got rid of the mountain of paperwork on our old table. Our new table is much smaller and much more the style I had originally wanted. I remember when we bought the old set. Hubby wasn't crazy about it and tried to talk me out of it. I dug in my heels and really wanted it. We didn't get it paid off in time, so we ended up paying a ton of interest. It was never worth it, and I while I did really like it, I can't say that I loved it. This new one, however, I really love...and I'm keeping it clean. It's got some decorations on it that I am enjoying, and every time I walk thru that room now, I smile.

Well, I've got an early morning tomorrow, so off to bed now. Here's to more rooms that make me/us smile...soon! :)