40 Day Challenge: Day 14

Perfectionism is my problem. I can't have it the way I want it, so I'm ready to give up trying. Flylady addresses that quite alot and it is so true!
Looking at the kitchen- I could have picked it up more, but I had wasted time watching TV and Brian was in the shower, he had been hunting all day and I wanted to spend time with him, so I did what I had to do and then joined him. I was annoyed with myself for leaving things out- it wouldn't have taken long to get them put away. I don't know why I pooped out earlier- Brian and Sean were checking where to go hunting the next day and I went and pouted (after all, his hunting gear was "all" over the living room and he had been gone all day and wasn't paying attention to me...) in the livingroom, reading a book, hoping to fall asleep. I should have been cleaning up. After a while Brian joined me on the couch and we watched "The Munsters". lol
But if I had cleaned while he was busy I would have gotten it all done. So then I was so annoyed with it all and I was ready to throw in the towel. I really wanted a pretty house before bed.

While I was stewing about all that, I realized that I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Yes, I allowed my emotions to take priority over my goals. But before calling it a night, I sat out the griddle and got a pancake batter ready to mix together. I set out everything they needed for breakfast so as not to make alot of noise in the kitchen at 4:30 AM. Titus and Naomi's room is right off the kitchen, I often wake them up while fixing breakfast.
And I did get up at 4:30 AM and sent my hunters (3 of them this year!) out with a nice hot breakfast of whole wheat pancakes.

40 Day Challenge: Day 13

Right now it doesn't seem like 40 days is enough time to make cleaning a habit. I think the house will be better, but I don't know how much better!

The house is pretty by 3 PM, then the boys get home and as you can see, Stephen got 1/2 the laundry folded by the time for bed and I had to pick a friend up from the airport and then hit Walmart, Brian was at ITS (Institute of Theological Studies) and then he was going hunting the next day, so we met at walmart- him to get some hunting supplies and me to get a couple groceries. As he was leaving Walmart, a guy asked him for a ride to the other side of town, so me being the person that I am, followed him to make sure he was safe. We got home around 10:30 PM, I think, he packed and I did dishes, packed up the cookies I made Luke for the last day of Spanish class, stuck the rest of the dough in the fridge, made Brian a lunch and filled up a bunch of water bottles for him. I set out the pumpkin "pie" (without a crust) I had made for breakfast and some dishes, so Brian could just help himself when he got up at 4 AM. Yeah, I kind of slacked there as a wife, didn't I? LOL

We got into bed at 11:40 PM, laundry still unfinished and dishes not all done. Titus was up 45 minutes later, Brian's alarm went off at 4 AM, Titus went off at 5:20 AM. I got back to sleep for 30 minutes, but I think I should try to take a nap later.

40 Day Challenge: Day 12

Well, looks better than yesterday!! When the house is cleaner it is a bit easier to maintain it. I actually was gone all morning and then attempted to nap in the afternoon and the house wasn't so horrible. That's encouraging. I baked a pumpkin to puree tomorrow and we had Chicken Mac & Cheese for dinner. I'm feeling a little more on top of things. Helps most to have a clean kitchen, I think.




I didn't get all the dishes dried and put away, but at least all were washed and I crawled into bed at 9:30 PM-- yay for me!!

40 Day Challenge: Day 11

The day was good... the evening wasn't. I had the kids pull out their pumpkins to gut them and then after the little ones went to bed Brian and I had to take off to put together the Road Rally* clues with another couple. We got home at 11pm and this is exactly how I left the house when I went to bed.





*Road Rally:
You are given a clue, which when solved will give you a destination. You drive to that destination to receive your next clue. You continue in this fashion until you reach the finish line. You are competing against other teams to complete the course the fastest.

40 Day Challenge: Day 10

All morning (7 AM- 2 PM) I was getting frustrated. I had decided to clean instead of putting it off because "it's too hard with Titus following/eating stuff". But it was too hard! It was so frustrating! I would put him in the livingroom, dash into the kitchen, wash 3 dishes and then there he was... heading for the apple crate, taking a bite... so I would take off my gloves (get too dry here in the winter if I don't use gloves) grab him up and repeat the process. It was much easier when I just used that as an excuse.
Then at nap/quiet time I got alot done. In the evening all the older boys are in Brian's Boy Scout troop now, so I was alone. After sitting for about 30 minutes and really wanting to go to bed, I forced myself up and finished all the dishes, scrubbed out the sink, scrubbed the floor in the kitchen, folded and put away a load of laundry, cleaned up the livingroom, set the table to breakfast and made baked oatmeal to pop in the oven in the morning.
So I feel good about what I accomplished today and how the house will look/feel like in the morning when I wake up.





Maybe you can help me. What do I do with this rocking horse? Naomi and Titus have a room that is 5' x 8'... no room in there. The basement is torn up and I don't want to store fabric stuff down there because there is mold on the floor we're tearing up. The garage... I guess that might work. Our house is about 1000 sq. ft. It's more, if we counted the basement it would be 1800, but it's not useable space right now.
Grandma and Grandpa got it for Naomi for her 2nd birthday, she loves it- if she has an audience. Now the batteries are dead and I'm tired of looking at it when she sits on it once every 2 weeks. (Hopefully I'll remember to delete this part if Grandma ever gets internet!!)

40 Day Challenge: Day 9

Sundays are always hard for me. We leave the house at 9 AM, get home at 1 PM, leave again at 5:30 PM and get home around 8 PM. Only today we (Brian and I) went to visit some friends after 8 PM and got home around 10:30 PM. So there were dishes that didn't get washed and at 10:30 at night, I didn't feel like picking up the livingroom. Felt a little guilty because Facebook was still up on the computer before I turned it off and my friend Kristin, with 2 little ones under the age of 2 say shes "cleaning because she gets a burst of energy this time of night". I told her I get more of a burst of sleep desire.
So Monday mornings I always wake up to a really messy house. It would be nice to change that...

40 Day Challenge: Day 8

40 Day Challenge: Day 7

I can't believe it's been a week already!! The living room is fairly picked up. Would really like to get rid of any clutter still. Have an extra computer sitting by the wood stove that needs to be taken downstairs and I'm not sure what to do with Naomi's tunnel.


My friend Kristy (bless her!) took Naomi out to lunch with her and shopping all afternoon. A nap was tempting- a couple hours uninterrupted sleep... but instead I worked on the kitchen. It looks much better than yesterday. Just in time for Kristy and I to make a bunch of pizzas to freeze and mess it all up again! :-)
I enjoy having Naomi work with me, but sometimes when I have a pile up it's overwhelming to have her there "washing dishes" (putting clean ones back in the dirty water and vise versa).
I do feel much better when I have a clean kitchen to work in. I also keep it cleaner if it is cleaner.

I actually made some $$

I joined Swagbucks and have been using it as my search engine. They have amazon $5 gift cards on special for 45 swagbucks (normally 90) and I got up to 45, so I ordered my $5 gift card last night. On a typical day I get 1-2 swagbucks.

40 Day Challenge: Day 6

Today I made another batch of applesauce and made it out to Costco for some groceries. It's amazing to me how a few hours out of the house throws off things. The livingroom isn't too bad, the couch had stuff on it though. I can't angle the camera in a way to get everything in the picture...


So I still need to burn the cardboard box I stuck by the wood stove the other day. And what should I do with that flag? How should I store it? We actually only put it out a couple times a year, but it's next to the front door all the time.

This is my real problem today:

40 Day Challenge: Day 5

Not the best start to the day: Fixing breakfast Naomi dropped her green juice and when it dropped it launched the juice all over the kitchen- me, the fridge, the floor, the cupboards, the buckets. It was alot of green. As I bend down to wipe it up, I smelled something- Naomi had a poopy diaper. Naomi is potty trained, but still wears diapers at night. So she must have pooped in her sleep. Ugg. I got the juice cleaned up and stuck her in the bath. Then I went to change Titus out of his sleeper- oh, nice, he's poopy too. But it didn't stop there- yesterday I changed 5 of Titus' poopy diapers.
So I finally get to eat some breakfast and then all I hear is "Nomee wants you. Sit a 'touch. Read a book Mama. Titus eating something. Up, up, up." And Titus was eating something. It's been muddy lately- even when I vacuum he still finds stuff. Yesterday I dug mud out of his mouth at least 3 times. I'm looking forward to him walking- maybe he won't eat so much if he doesn't notice it. Titus normally naps from 7 AM-9 AM. He didn't today. I needed to go to Costco, too bad it didn't open at 8 AM. Brian forgot his lunch and was going to take only a 30 minute lunch so he could get off work early and we could go to the pumpkin patch. I said I would take it to him, thinking I would make it to Costco. Titus finally went to bed at 9:30 AM which means he would sleep till noon... not going to make it to Brian's work in time for his lunch. Thankfully, Brian said he would just come home. I turned on the dreaded TV (I dread it) I just wanted some time without someone touching me- I felt I had given enough already! I think I sat and played Bejeweled for 30 minutes. I felt better so I started to work in the kitchen- chopping more apples, made a batch of apple sauce and then got apple butter going. Naomi wandered in and started "cooking" too. At least I had gotten enough alone time I was enjoying her.
After lunch Titus was up for a couple hours and I put them both down- Naomi does a "quiet time" on my bed with books and toys (1 1/2 hours) and TItus needed a nap. After about 20 minutes I started working in the kitchen and must have woken him up- he didn't sleep anymore. At least I got dinner going and chopped up enough apples for another batch of applesauce.
I did a bunch of dishes, cleaned the living room and table. We finally made it out the door about 4:20pm to pick up Brian and head to the pumpkin patch. We got home just before 6 PM and it's a church night- Bible Study, Youth Group and AWANA. We ate and made it to church late. It was just Stephen and I that went, Jesse and Luke had homework to catch up on and Brian keeps the little ones home so they can go to bed on time (7 PM). When we got home I did more dishes and straighten up. It's been good to have more incentive to keep things picked up.

40 Day Challenge: Day 4

Not too bad today. Maintaining anyway. Stephen and Jesse did the dinner dishes, so that was nice and Luke and Stephen folded the clothes. School seems to take up so much time these days that chores get put on the back burner.
I need to start working on decluttering the entertainment center...

40 Day Challenge: Day 3

Not so great today- and then I gave up before taking the picture. Because, I could just clean up for the picture... I had done a ton of dishes- you know the big ones that just sit there while you do the normal maintaining ones? Yeah- I have too many of them and I washed them all. I gathered all the tools from putting the door in and cleaned up that part of the kitchen. I made Stephen Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies to take to school for his birthday treat. (He said "I just want to share something with Mr. N so he knows what a great cook you are." Aw Shucks!!)
I was so busy cleaning/working in the kitchen that I was rather late for dinner- ended up making French Toast- but added shredded apple to the batter. Didn't work so well and took longer to cook them, too bad- on a Boy Scout night.
Cleaned the master bedroom a little... with everything going on in the rest of the house, it tends to be a catch all.
I wrote out the clues to our annual Road Rally at church, and yes, I played some computer games. I actually forgot about my challenge and then remembered close to 10pm that I need to take a picture. And then I looked around. Oh well, I thought, and I took the picture anyway.
I'm going to try to take the picture between 9 PM and 10 PM each night. So, this is how this part of the house looked when I went to bed:

40 Day Challenge: Day 2

Today was easier... typically on Sunday we are gone from 9 AM- 1 PM and then again from 5 PM- 8 PM, so the house is normally trashed Sunday night. But Naomi and Titus have runny noses so can't be in the church nursery. I don't leave them in the nursery too often, Naomi sits really well in church. But we are in the nursery when I feed Titus or take Naomi to the potty, so I decided to stay home and not get other people sick. I vacuumed, made sure the table was cleared off and did several loads of dishes.

40 Day Challenge Day 1

I was browsing through Wordless Wednesday a couple weeks ago and came across this post by A Mountain Mama and it challenged me to look at my life. I have struggled with house keeping. It just doesn't come natural to me. It's not habit. It frustrates me. I enjoy a clean house, I feel better physically and emotionally when I have a clean house. I have used Flylady's method and it does work and I followed it for several years. But I haven't stuck with it. We moved, tore our house apart, etc and I just gave in and gave up.
So, I decided to be brutally honest and post it on the internet. I figured I could take a picture each day and post it and keep track of what I did. I would like to maintain a decent house and also improve it so it's actually decluttered.
I figure if I can do it for 40 days, then it should be habit at the end and I can move on to something else that needs attention. :-)
So, here it goes: Day 1

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Tuna Bake
Tuesday Tavern Burgers (I'm going to try them with melted provalone.)
Wednesday Pizza
Thursday Lasagna
Friday- something simple for the kids- Date for Brian and I (woot woot!)
Saturday Bierocks

For more menus visit: I'm an Organizing Junkie

2 1/2 months...

I submitted this blog to see if I could do some pay for posts soon and they changed their terms, so the blog has to be going for 90 days before I can do that. I'm dissapointed. I was really wanting to start ASAP... I do really want those couches! I could do them on my cooking blog... but really don't want to. Still thinking about it. Frustrated.