2008 July Archive at More Lucy Than June

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Archive for July, 2008

Update on My Sink

Published

annette

on 30 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 1 Comment

Since I know you’ve been eagerly awaiting.

Well, here it is…in all its shining glory.

Don’t you love it?!? Well, probably not as much as I do I’m sure. But this is Day #2 of the Shiny Sink. Makes me feel clean.

So, my friend Shari found the FlyLady too, and now has a shiny sink and clean counters to go with it. Yay! I have a fellow FlyBaby friend!

Now, one thing I have gleaned from FlyLady is that you can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes. And it always looks like you got a ton done after just 15 minutes.

Since I’m pregnant and have little ones clamoring for my attention at all times, I sometimes have to break that into 5 and 10 minute segments, but I’m making it work.

So, here’s what I’m doing…

(WARNING: The rest of this post is long and boring and you’ll probably click off this page long before you get to the end. But I am posting this as part of my therapy.)

When I get up in the morning, I shower when I hear Caia start to stir. She wakes up first….around 8:30ish most mornings. (Yes, I know I am spoiled in that she sleeps that late…Trust me, I do not take it for granted.)

As soon as I crawled my aching back out of bed, I made it. Decorative throw pillows and all. Literally…took me about one minute. If that.

I should do it more often.

After my shower, I started the laundry that I had put in the machine the night before. (I mean, I just tossed the clothes in, ready for soap and water.)

Then, I got up Caia and started our breakfast. Kenni soon joined us for frozen waffles, juice, and an egg for Caia.

Yeah, I said frozen waffles. Remember, I’m not June Cleaver.

They like it. I like it. It’s easy. ‘Nuff said.

After breakfast, the girls get one hour of cartoons and independent playtime while mommy unloads dishes, and does one SMALL (I’m talking less than 5 minutes kind-of small) chore. Today it was cleaning up the breakfast bar, which seems to attract alot of clutter throughout the day.

Then, we went for a walk and played. Rebooted my laundry.

We had lunch, and I rebooted that laundry again. Three loads a day…done. That’s my goal. (I’m waaayyyy behind on laundry.)

More play time.

Nap time for Caia. Computer time for Kenni. Mommy does one more 10 minute task…today: cleaning master bath floor.

Let me stop here and say: master bath=total wreck. But instead of doing it all at one time lest I get burned out on doing too much (per Mandy’s suggestion…thank you!), I broke it into four days. (Yesterday=toilet and trash, today=floor and pick up clutter, tomorrow=counters and mirrors, Friday=tub and shower.)

Rest for mommy while Caia naps for a couple of hours, and Kenni does computer and puzzles.

After nap/rest/computer, it’s snack time. Then Mommy does one 15-minute Zone cleaning. This week, I am working on the master bedroom. I set the timer, and just do what I can in 15 minutes. It may take me a week to get it all done, but it helps SOOOOOOO much to just do things in LITTLE bits, rather than biting off more than I can chew. And then when it doesn’t get done, because something WILL interrupt me, I feel like a failure again.

What I gather from FlyLady is that this is the approach that worked for her. Baby steps. Hey, whatever works.

After 15 minute cleaning in one room, we play again. This is independent and play with Mommy…whatever they prefer. If Caia crawls off while I’m playing shapes with her, so be it. If Kenni wants to play CandyLand, so be it.

At 5:00, we put on Sesame Street. (It’s DVRed form earlier. Love you, DVR!) Before my Muppet friends entertain the girls, we did a 5-minute Room Rescue (got that from FlyLady). I set the kitchen timer for 5-minutes, and Kenni and I raced to see who could pick up the most toys.

I thought, She’s never gonna buy that this is supposed to be FUN.

But she did! And she loved it!

And the toys were out of the floor! Bonus!

I used to use this time to prepare dinner, but thanks to my crockpot (and my inability to COOK anything due to a growing human inside making me sick), I rest with them. I might pop some rice or broccoli in the steamer as a side, but aside from that dinner PREP is a thing of the past around here. At least for awhile.

6:00 is dinner, and then baths, and bed for the girls. (Bedtime is 8:00.)

Before I go to bed, I put in a load of laundry to be washed the next morning and let Stephen run the dishwasher.

He has to run the dishwasher because opening that thing after the dishes from the day have been collecting in there for hours…well, I almost tossed up my $1.50 cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory tonight. (That’s a post for later! Mmmmm….white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake.)

It’s a full day, but really I am only doing three “tasks” a day. And they’re all under 15 minutes a piece.

The rest is daily things that I’m learning to make habits. Like keeping my sink shiny and clean.

Ahhhh. It’s a good feeling.

Housekeeping and Pregnancy

Published

annette

on 29 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 4 Comments

I googled that.

And didn’t come up with much of anything that made me feel any better.

Really I want to know about housekeeping and keeping a three year old and one year old entertained and alive while gestating all at the same time.

Is it possible? I mean, really?

Don’t get me wrong. I can keep the kids alive, and being a former kindergarten teacher, I feel like we need a certain amount of playtime and one-on-one interaction each day.

I just really don’t get how people keep a clean house and take care of small ones and still play with them.

If you can do it, can you let me know your secret?

I started making a daily list of thing that I wanted to get done. Okay, I started YESTERDAY, but hey, I started.

I did not finish my list at all.

And I suppose that I am a little more critical of myself than my husband is. Because, bless the man, he came home and said,

Wow. It looks nice in here.

And I was thinking, Well, you’re not looking under the couch or in our room or in our bathroom or….

The thing is: we don’t have that big of a house. You’d think I could keep it clean. It’s a ranch on a slab, three bedroom, two bathroom with a living, dining, kitchen, and breakfast area.

For those of you who’ve been to my house, I LOVE the layout. The living, dining, and kitchen are one big open area with lots of room for the girls to play (and destroy it).

I’ve looked up house cleaning schedules, and I see these women who have every minute of their day planned out, but on a lot of them (not ALL, mind you), I don’t see playtime with the kids. And that’s important to me. That’s REALLY why I’m staying at home. To be with THEM.

Don’t get me wrong, I know they need independent play too. And my oldest is a great independent player (Which really came in handy early on, because she stopped napping consistently at nine months. And at 18 months gave them up altogether.)

And my one year old is becoming a good independent player as well.

Maybe I should say a good independent mischief maker. Her favorite game is Throw Things In Mommy’s Toilet When She’s Not Looking And Then Try To Dive In After Them.

Stephen got really unhappy when I told him I just flushed the contact case down rather than retrieve it. Apparently there are these rules that people on a septic system must abide by. Oops.

Anyway, to continue with my long and rambling post, I will stop here and say that I, at one very brief time, had a daily schedule too. Uh huh, me, Annette. The non-planner, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, last-minute kind of girl…I had a schedule. It’s even on this blog somewhere, buried not-so-deep in the archives.

But, then I got pregnant, and my non-crawling/walking baby became a crawling/walking baby.

My day now is usually broken into 5 minute increments like this.

9:00 (yes, that says 9:00)–breakfast for girls

9:05–Pick up pancakes that baby threw in floor

9:10–Get three year old more juice

9:15–Make three year old come back to table for at least ONE bite of food

9:20–Take protesting baby out of high chair

9:25–Clean up from breakfast

9:30–Break up argument over Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

9:35–Throw in a load of laundry

9:40–Get back to breakfast dishes I somehow got side-tracked from

And on and on and on it goes.

Now, I’ve heard of this whole FlyLady website where she promises that she will get you back on track with your homekeeping.

Wanna know a secret?

I’ve decided to give it a go. I have no idea how this will go, but well, I’m giving it a valiant effort.

I scrubbed my sink this morning and the bleach water is sitting in it right now.

There’s a load of dishes finishing up, and a load of laundry in the washer.

And as soon as I hit “publish” on this post, I’m taking the girls outside for playtime.

It’s good for us all.

Community Makeover Weekend

Published

annette

on 27 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 0 Comments

Well, I don’t have pictures, but if you pop over to Stephen’s blog, he has quite a few.

We didn’t have a aparticular project that we signed up for this weekend, for a few reasons.

One, Stephen’s main job is getting ready for the service on Sunday night and taking pictures at various locations.

Two, I knew I would have to take the little ones around with me to whatever I did and being preggers on top of it added something to that equation.

I’ll tell you what I did do…and that was pray.

So, yesterday we all piled in the car with Stephen and headed out to a few of the different sites. It was really amazing to see so many people working…and I did not see one unhappy/grumpy/indifferent person.

The girls and I are holding down the fort this morning while Stephen goes out for set-up/rehearsal/sound check kind of stuff that I don’t understand in the least.

I thought that I would feel like I wasn’t a part of the weekend since we didn’t have a project that we were working on, but as usual, God surprised me.

I am excited about tonight and taking the girls with me to the service.

We had a blast explaining to McKenna what the weekend was all about. Did she fully grasp the concept? Well, no…she’s three. But, maybe the seed was planted.

Oh, and her favorite was visiting McKenna Farms. She met a pony named Trinity that she quickly befriended.

And when she talks about going to visit there, she says,

I went to MY farms and met a pony.

Mamma Mia!

Published

annette

on 25 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 0 Comments

Ladies, if you have not seen this movie yet, grab your best girlfriends and GO!

I went with some of my dearest friends last night to see this, and we ALL LOVED IT!

First, let me officially go on the record here and say, I wish my life were a musical and I could sing and dance to every situation.

The singing, the choreography…oh, I loved it all!

And we left saying, “Do you not just all want to go dance and sing with each other?!”

We all decided that the next girls night out is going to involve some sort of karaoke or something.

But seriously people, we should all have more dancing in our life.

And I, for one, am NOT a dancer. Or a singer.

But I do it anyway.

You should too.

That way, I’m not the only one who looks like a goober.

And in closing, let me say, that I will be purchasing this soundtrack and making my girls dance to it in our living room. (Okay, so…some of the songs weren’t age-appropriate, but we can always skip those.)

Thank you, Abba, for ridiculously great songs.

When You Can’t Find a Blanket….

Published

annette

on 25 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 0 Comments

…just use your sister’s underwear.

Edited to add: Those are clean. She pulled them out of the unfolded laundry.

Pool Day

Published

annette

on 23 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

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Oh, I love playdates with good friends!

Our journey group mommies plus a few others got together for some play time with the kiddos. They loved it, and we did too!

Until we had to leave.

Where McKenna proceeded to pitch another great fit.

Thanks, dear. It IS hard to say goodbye isn’t it?

Only this time, these were some of my closest friends, and I was still embarrassed.

I really let the enemy sucker punch me on that one. I left thinking, They all think I’m a horrible mom, don’t they?

Argh. The agony of being three.

The agony of being a three year old’s mom.

A PASSIONATE three year old’s mom.

You know she tells me her favorite color is red. Speaks a lot of her personality, don’t you think?

Oh, and yes…I am currently reading Dr. James Dobson’s “The Strong-Willed Child”.

It’s really a shame that her picture isn’t on the cover.

Anyway, here’s pics from our “pool day”. You can click on them to make them bigger…I think.

$Caia eating chips and wiping them on Allison\'s leg$

Embracing the Pregnancy

Published

annette

on 22 July, 2008

in Pregnancy

. 6 Comments

This is baby #3 for us.

And probably our last one. (Insert little teary-faced emoticon here followed by one that jumps up and down and screams for joy.)

So, I am…at 12 1/2 weeks now…choosing to embrace the pregnancy.

Here I am at 12 weeks and some odd days.

I’ll answer the questions I know you have rolling around in your head right now:

1. Yes. There is only one in there.

2. No. The “12″ is not a typo. I really am 12 1/2 weeks…not 22 1/2 weeks.

Don’t ask me what the deal is. All I know is I didn’t look like that at SIX MONTHS with my first.

Now, I’ll be honest here. Yeah, some of that is leftover from baby #2…who just turned a year. You do the math on that one.

But, still…

Maybe I’m just kidding myself. Stephen tells me it’s “all baby”. He’s a good man, isn’t he?

This pregnancy has been, thus far, similar to my previous two. And different from my previous two.

Similar in that the first trimester is really THE WORST time for me. I’ve told many people I would go through the last trimester TWICE to not have to do the first. It’s just rough.

Similar in that I’ve been sick. Different in that I can say…not AS sick. I’ve got some good meds this time, and I was given permission by my OB to not take the prenatals the first trimester. (No one blast me for this, alright? They make me way sick. But, if you’ve got a good story about how you didn’t take prenatals and you child turned out fine, then let me know.)

Different in that I have shown way faster. This could be coupled with the fact that I just had a baby.

Different in that my skin has broken out more, and all around, I just feel more unattractive and…”blah” with this one.

I wouldn’t say that my energy has returned with the arrival of the second trimester. I’d say it’s just as gone as it was before. I seriously could go to bed at 9 p.m. most nights.

And, fortunately, I’ve been blessed with late sleepers. Caia woke “early” this morning at 8:15.

But, I have been know to let her talk to herself for a bit while I pray for the strength to get through the day…and snooze for 20 more minutes.

I know that really to be “on top” of things, I should wake before the kids do, and get myself together. That’s the ultimate goal…one day.

I’m curious, though. For those of you with little ones, do you wake up when they do? Or do “rise with the chickens” and get showered and dressed before you have to focus every bit of your remaining energy on other beings?

So, back to the point of my post.

When I started showing ridiculously early this time, I was looking for clothes that would hide the bump. I was really embarrassed to tell people how far along I was.

Well, needless to say, I am in full-on maternity clothes at this point…and there is no “hiding” anything.

I do still get a bit sheepish when people ask me what I am having. Cause, yeah…I won’t know that for a couple more months.

Anyone wanna take bets on one or the other?

But…regardless, I’ve decided it’s time to relish the pregnancy. After all, I may not have another. (Stephen’s thinking “MAY”? What’s this “MAY”?)

I’m not saying that I need to become sort sort of invalid or give in to every little craving I have…although, I have been know to indulge in a few too many of those “the baby wants a cookie” moments.

What I mean is, I’m thinking it’s time to cherish these months. To stop thinking about how unattractive and tired I feel, and start focusing on the baby that we get to meet in January (or February).

You’ll still find me napping on the couch when I get a (rare) chance, though.

They’re So Innocent When They’re Sleeping

Published

annette

on 22 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 2 Comments

My babies in Dreamland…

They both like to snuggle with their “snugglies”.

(Judy Marshall, that’s the little blanket you gave Caia before she was born. It’s a bedtime favorite!)

Caia’s First Birthday Party…

Published

annette

on 21 July, 2008

in Uncategorized

. 0 Comments

…in pictures.

Sorry there are duplicates. I’m not that excited to see my big mouth there. But Wordpress is being weird, and won’t let me download the vertical pictures.

Oh well. These are still fun.

Stephen has a ton more on his blog…with captions. cause he’s good like that.

UnMediocre