While trying to rearrange my blog layout and add a more updated picture of our family, blogger told me that I had uploaded all the pictures I could for free and would need to purchase more storage space. What???
I am so sad and not quite sure what to do. Should this just be the end of the blog?? Should I start another one?? Am I being vain in thinking that people would not know what to do without my blog and all of the fabulous, insightful things that I say?? Or at least the cute pics of my kid??
What to do, what to do...
Monday, May 28, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
BWE-1
Really?????
Not exactly sure how we got to one whole year so quickly, but here we are, sweet boy.
Along with Daddy and LP, you are the absolute light of my life. I can definitely say that you are the reason I wake up in the morning because you are the first person up in our house in the morning :). Your personality is absolutely hilarious! You make the funniest facial expressions and can communicate quite well with just your eyes. My favorite thing to do is just watch you. You are learning new things at a very rapid pace, and you have proven that you don't need me right there with you to do it. In fact, I usually just sit in the corner of the couch, and watch. Every once in a while, you glance over and jabber something to me or just give me a big ole grin, but mostly you entertain yourself if it is just us at home. When Daddy is home, you are held almost the entire time. I know Daddy goes to bed with tired arms, but he loves every minute of it.
In addition to saying LP's name, you have said Mom-mom and Da-da, although you aren't quite sure which person goes with which one. You are learning though because we get really excited when you call the right name to the right person.
Right now, you love:
-LP-you ask for her every morning as soon as you wake up.
-your 2 little racecar toys-I find them in random places throughout our house every day.
-sweet potatoes-you could eat an entire one by yourself and you take other food out of your mouth (gross!) when you see the sweet potatoes hit the table.
-snuggling with Mommy on the couch when you wake up in the morning-this can last for up to 20 minutes and it is my favorite part of the day.
-giving other people hugs-it makes me smile and it makes them feel very special.
-Fresh Beat Band-you like to rock your head from side-to-side and wave your arms to the music.
-flushing the toilet-you are pretty obsessed with the toilet in general.
-going outside-we are working on a swing set, pal, so you can be out there even more, but you love to water the garden with Daddy.
-Daddy-especially when he walks in the door in the morning. You look like you won a gold medal when he comes home.
-kids-you love being around big kids and watching them play.
-golf clubs-you have a plastic set that was a table decoration from one of the baby showers. You LOVE those clubs.
-playing tag-sometimes you are the tagger and sometimes you are the taggee and we aren't really sure which one until you make your move, but you love it.
You are officially done with bottles and formula. Sippy cups now line the counter tops and instead of trekking out to Happy Cow Creamery once every other week, we make a weekly trip because you LOVE your milk! You are also walking. You definitely still prefer crawling as your top mode of transportation, but you really enjoy getting behind some push toys and going for a stroll. You are now the proud owner of 4 pairs of shoes and this is where you are going to put us in the poorhouse. You have extra wide feet, not a size that they carry in Target. We did snag some sandals at Toys R Us for you but we had to go up to a size 5 to get the width that would fit. Thankfully you are not a girl and shoes are not quite as important for your clothing ensembles. In fact, we usually reserve shoes for church and out-of-the-house activities where you may want to take a few steps. I do love your fat little feet and I usually squoosh on them while I hold you.
Now for some pictures!
Thank you, Lord, for this most wonderful gift. Thank you for choosing me to be his mom-mom. Happy 1st Birthday, sweet baby Beck.
Not exactly sure how we got to one whole year so quickly, but here we are, sweet boy.
Along with Daddy and LP, you are the absolute light of my life. I can definitely say that you are the reason I wake up in the morning because you are the first person up in our house in the morning :). Your personality is absolutely hilarious! You make the funniest facial expressions and can communicate quite well with just your eyes. My favorite thing to do is just watch you. You are learning new things at a very rapid pace, and you have proven that you don't need me right there with you to do it. In fact, I usually just sit in the corner of the couch, and watch. Every once in a while, you glance over and jabber something to me or just give me a big ole grin, but mostly you entertain yourself if it is just us at home. When Daddy is home, you are held almost the entire time. I know Daddy goes to bed with tired arms, but he loves every minute of it.
In addition to saying LP's name, you have said Mom-mom and Da-da, although you aren't quite sure which person goes with which one. You are learning though because we get really excited when you call the right name to the right person.
Right now, you love:
-LP-you ask for her every morning as soon as you wake up.
-your 2 little racecar toys-I find them in random places throughout our house every day.
-sweet potatoes-you could eat an entire one by yourself and you take other food out of your mouth (gross!) when you see the sweet potatoes hit the table.
-snuggling with Mommy on the couch when you wake up in the morning-this can last for up to 20 minutes and it is my favorite part of the day.
-giving other people hugs-it makes me smile and it makes them feel very special.
-Fresh Beat Band-you like to rock your head from side-to-side and wave your arms to the music.
-flushing the toilet-you are pretty obsessed with the toilet in general.
-going outside-we are working on a swing set, pal, so you can be out there even more, but you love to water the garden with Daddy.
-Daddy-especially when he walks in the door in the morning. You look like you won a gold medal when he comes home.
-kids-you love being around big kids and watching them play.
-golf clubs-you have a plastic set that was a table decoration from one of the baby showers. You LOVE those clubs.
-playing tag-sometimes you are the tagger and sometimes you are the taggee and we aren't really sure which one until you make your move, but you love it.
You are officially done with bottles and formula. Sippy cups now line the counter tops and instead of trekking out to Happy Cow Creamery once every other week, we make a weekly trip because you LOVE your milk! You are also walking. You definitely still prefer crawling as your top mode of transportation, but you really enjoy getting behind some push toys and going for a stroll. You are now the proud owner of 4 pairs of shoes and this is where you are going to put us in the poorhouse. You have extra wide feet, not a size that they carry in Target. We did snag some sandals at Toys R Us for you but we had to go up to a size 5 to get the width that would fit. Thankfully you are not a girl and shoes are not quite as important for your clothing ensembles. In fact, we usually reserve shoes for church and out-of-the-house activities where you may want to take a few steps. I do love your fat little feet and I usually squoosh on them while I hold you.
Now for some pictures!
Happy Birthday, sweet boy!
Thank you, Lord, for this most wonderful gift. Thank you for choosing me to be his mom-mom. Happy 1st Birthday, sweet baby Beck.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Sink Reflections
Sink Reflections is an amazing book that I have just finished reading and it has completely changed my house-keeping life!
Let me start by saying self-helpish type books are not normally my thing, but my Mom 2 Mom group at church read it together because we were all constantly complaining about housework and dinner and why do we try and you get the point. One of the moms in the group had read the book and implemented its strategies, but she recently became a homeowner and wanted to read through it again to get a fresh start in her new home.
I credit this book with my quick (at least I think it was pretty quick) adjustment to having an almost one-year-old, and then adding 4-month old to our household. If I told you it was a book about how to organize and clean your house, I know most of you would be like "booooring" or "uh, my house is immaculate already". Well I fell somewhere in the middle of this. I am a pretty organized and clean person, but I can overwhelm myself with the task of trying to make my home look like Southern Living (although it is not and never will be). One of the things I love about this book is that when it is my turn to host the family get-together or we want to have some friends over, I take a few minutes to tidy up and that is all! So hang on tight because here comes the Cliff's Notes version of the book:
Let me start by saying self-helpish type books are not normally my thing, but my Mom 2 Mom group at church read it together because we were all constantly complaining about housework and dinner and why do we try and you get the point. One of the moms in the group had read the book and implemented its strategies, but she recently became a homeowner and wanted to read through it again to get a fresh start in her new home.
I credit this book with my quick (at least I think it was pretty quick) adjustment to having an almost one-year-old, and then adding 4-month old to our household. If I told you it was a book about how to organize and clean your house, I know most of you would be like "booooring" or "uh, my house is immaculate already". Well I fell somewhere in the middle of this. I am a pretty organized and clean person, but I can overwhelm myself with the task of trying to make my home look like Southern Living (although it is not and never will be). One of the things I love about this book is that when it is my turn to host the family get-together or we want to have some friends over, I take a few minutes to tidy up and that is all! So hang on tight because here comes the Cliff's Notes version of the book:
- Start with baby steps, fling boogies, and a timer. Start by decluttering parts of your home in baby steps. In the book, the author, Marla a.k.a. The Fly Lady, recommends setting a timer for 15 minutes and only decluttering for that amount of time. If you have more time, only work in 15 minute increments, taking breaks to do other stuff in between. The idea is that you can stay focused for 15 minutes without being overwhelmed. You can also declutter by doing a "fling boogie". Sounds weird, but choose a number (like 25) and get rid of or "fling" that many things. You can fling them in the trash or a bag to take to Goodwill. I did this under my bathroom counter one day. I was done in under 15 minutes, had a bag of trash, and a bag of stuff that was still good enough to donate.
- After you have decluttered (or you feel like you are ready to handle more), she has you make a morning and bedtime routine. You make a list of things to complete in the morning and things to complete before going to bed. This has been awesome for me. I never get to sleep in. Babies do not sleep in. They do not know that it is Saturday, traditionally a day that many sleep in. I was always cranky about this. Then I started a morning routine and now I do not go a day without doing it and I wake up eager to do it. These are things like: wake up (I love marking that one off!), shower, get dressed to shoes, check email, empty the dishwasher, thaw meat for dinner, etc. Because I stay home, my morning routine is pretty lengthy, but I also realize that it may take me until lunch time or after to get it all done because mommy duties come first! Most of my mom friends who work outside of the home keep their morning routines very short and make their bedtime routines longer. A bedtime routine that really helps me in the morning is choosing my clothes and laying out dishes for breakfast. Then if Beck decides to wake up earlier than normal, I can quickly get his breakfast (and mine) on the table.
- The author splits the house into zones. If you go to her website every week, she will tell you what to do each day in each of these zones. The zone work never takes me more than 20 minutes and usually much less than that. For instance, today I had to dust the dining area. I was done in 5 minutes. Zone work is stuff that you may only do once or twice a month and you are usually in one zone for a week.
- The author talks about a one-hour home blessing. These are the chores that need to be done every week in your home. She has her own list, but I changed it to work for me. Mine include cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen and sweeping and mopping all the floors in our house (our house is a smidge over 1200 sq. feet, not a mansion, so no worries). I decided that I did not want to spend an entire hour of one of my husband's days off to clean so I broke my home blessing chores up and I do a little each day. Monday, I clean the showers; Tuesday, the toilets; Wednesday, the kitchen and bathroom sinks and counters; Thursday, sweep and mop the bathroom and kitchen floors; and Friday, sweep and mop the rest of the house and vacuum the rugs.
I know what you are thinking..."Girl, you clean ALL DAY LONG!!!" Oh, but dear friends, I do not. The first week was rough. Lots of scrubbing and elbow grease, but now that I do things weekly and monthly on a schedule, I get things done so quickly and am able to carve out time for myself, Bible study, playdates, running errands, and lots and lots of playing. My morning and bedtime routines, zone cleaning, and home blessing take a total of 1 hour tops spread all throughout the day. I can clean both showers in 15 minutes tops because they get cleaned every week so I don't even break a sweat now!
This system will totally work for ladies who work outside the home, and you can easily get kids and husbands on board. One thing that the author encouraged was teaching your kids how to do these different tasks with you, but not working them until they do it perfectly. Housework done imperfectly is still getting done. I definitely gave Beck a baby wipe while he was in high chair and he began swiping away at it when he finished his lunch.
If you are in a housework slump or you are looking for a new book read, you should definitely check out Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley.
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