2 days left in 2010

Hard to believe there's only 2 days left in the year! At 32 weeks, I only have 6-8 weeks to go before this little one comes and it seems so much stuff left to do. Will keep me busy up til the moment I go into labor most likely.

Every year jillions of people set their New Year's Resolutions -- and follow them for a week before giving them up. I want to do it a little different this year. I don't want to set a resolution for the whole year - and then flake out a week into January. I want to try a 21 day challenge for myself. The reason I'm picking 21 days is because supposedly that's how long it takes to form a new habit -- and isn't true change really changing your habits? Einstein says that it is insanity to do the same thing over and over while expecting different results. People will say "I want to lose weight" or "I want to stop smoking" and expect it to happen without changing their habits. Just doesn't work that way. So yes, the next 21(+) days will be a lot different than normal - and probably super hard to drag myself through - but it may mean changing some of my crappy habits into good healthy ones that will make me a better me (and therefore a better wife & mom).

Sometimes I wonder why it is so hard to form new habits. We're prescribed a new medication and we take it faithfully every morning because our doctor told us it is a necessity to make us better in one way or another. But we so often opt not to choose to change our habits so that they too can improve our lives in some way. Something to ponder.

So, I've said it before -- and I'll say it again (because I didn't follow through enough before)...

SIMPLIFY. PURGE. PRUNE.

Here are some quotes I found that I think are great to think on.

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. - Vernon Howard

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary my speak. - Hans Hofmann

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction. - E.F. Schumacher

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo DaVinci

He is rich who rejoices in his portion.

We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it. -Donald Horban

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. -Edwin Way Teale

And I think this one is my favorite.. It seems to cross over to a spiritual truth, with God being the Great Sculptor.

"The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination." -Elbert Hubbard


So, 21 days to new habits - which hopefully means improvement!  Here are some things I want to accomplish - and the help I'm going to use along the way (I'm not silly enough to try it on my own!).

1. Time with God. This will mean a change in attitudes of the heart -- which is what ultimate change is truly about. Find a daily devotion. Read a chapter of Scripture daily. Study a portion of the Bible (either a person or a character trait). Keeping in the Word will help keep me in His presence - and there is no better guide in discerning true simplicity.
2. Better housecleaning habits. I'm going to use Flylady to help me with this. Also, The Husband and I have agreed that he will point out things that he feels need done in the house, helping me to have direction and motivation to complete higher priority chores. I'm hoping at the end of the challenge, I will have better habits (and even maybe a routine!) and not have to rely on his direction as much.
3. More organized. Hang cooking utensils. Purge & organize Elijah's toys. Trim fabric scraps from scrap clothes. Update household binder. Write up weekly menus. Just a few of the many little things I plan to do to simplify and organize not only my physical house, but my household and how it runs.
4. Stock the thrift store. No more going into the thrift store and buying useless crap that will just take up more space in my house. Time to GET RID of stuff - stock the thrift store and let them make some money off the stuff that's cluttering up my home. The less stuff I have, the easier it will be to clean it, as well as anyone finding it when they need to (including husband and son).
5. Simplify. Two sets of sheets per bed. Toss food storage containers without lids (and lids without containers). I don't really need all those shoes. Figure out a simple wardrobe - and pare down to the basics that are classic, multi-use pieces (and that goes for Elijah too). If servicemen/women can live out of a duffel bag, it is possible for 4 people to live comfortably in a 600 sq ft home. And, that $5 pizza cutter will last years as opposed to buying 5 of them from the $1 store over the course of a year because they keep breaking (or you lose them in the abyss of the utensil drawer).When less is more, you can invest in the little that you have (quality over quantity). 

So, it's a little obvious that I'm TERRIBLE at keeping up with my blog. But yet I can check Facebook 12 times a day. Something could be wrong with me. I'm at a point in life (I've been at plenty a time before) where I feel like I want things to change PERMANENTLY for the BETTER. I've been thinking about things that worked in the past, that for some reason (mostly laziness) I've gotten away from. One of the things that used to help A LOT was posting my "to do" list online at mommysavers.com. The forum is full of other mommies doing the same thing as me, so we could keep each other accountable to get done what we needed to do for the day. It was great, though I didn't realize HOW great until after I stopped doing it. You know, the whole "hindsight" thing. Anyway, I want to do that again. My house has gotten away from me, and at just shy of 27 weeks pregnant I'm racing against the clock to gain control over something that will be an added pressure once the baby has arrived. I have posted my daily do list on the mommy board, but I'll post it here as well:

1. switch dishwasher
2. laundry (unending pile it seems!)
3. clean clutter off table & counters
4. change lightbulbs in DS's bedroom and closet
5. change furnace filter
6. put away clean laundry
7. put out solar spotlights
8. wash down front door/doorway
9. dust
10. wash down bathtub
11. mop kitchen floor
12. mop bathroom floor
13. vacuum
14. mix sugar cookie dough
15. make spice cake & brownies (for truffles)
16. figure out what's for dinner

 Also, I have started to declutter the house. I have a BEFORE BABY PROJECT LIST already - and a lot of the things on that list involve decluttering. At times I've found myself frustrated because Hubby and Little Man don't get things on their own - they are often asking me to get things for them. I realized that by everything having a home -- and things going back to their home after use -- my boys will become more independent and get things on their own (and put them back where they belong). It won't be an immediate thing, but I'm tired of having to do everything because I'm not fostering a clean, uncluttered home. So, I'm working on it. I've bought shelving units to store Little Man's toys and also one for our bedroom (for my crafting stuff, etc) and I've found it to be so much easier to know "it's on the shelf" even if I have to search for it for a couple minutes. My most recent change was to turn the living room closet into a storage closet/pantry. They now know that the towels are in there, as well as any extra bottles of juice or napkins we have on hand. It's working, slowly but surely. We're getting there. Now, I think I'm going to start noticing the things that are continuing to give me troubles and try to find solutions for them (which I might have to keep finding until I find one that really works for me). Hooray for the internet!

Here's the first one: plastic grocery bags. How I loathe them. I really would like to go to cloth ones (or even ones made out of fused plastic bags!) but I haven't made them yet. And until I am exclusively using them, I have to find a solution for the gobs of plastic ones that make it into my house. So, here's my first CLUTTER-BUSTER SOLUTION.

FOLDING PLASTIC BAGS NEATLY

This awesome little solution takes a crumpled (or tied) grocery bag and shrinks it to about the size of a matchbook. I'm figuring the same technique can be used with cloth grocery sacks as well. I imagine an empty kleenex box would hold dozens of these folded gems!

Next up --- finding a cleaning solution that WORKS to replace the dozen-or-so bottles/cans of random cleaners under my kitchen & bathroom sinks.

62 days down, 218 to go...

It is officially the last day of Week 8. The "Little Raspberry" has kept me quite nauseas this week and seems to be all about refusing most of the foods I want to eat. Little bugger. Speaking of the little bugger, here he/she is -- in all their 8 week gestational glory! ----------------------------->

We still have 10 days to go until our first appointment with Dr. Kim. We're going nuts waiting to hear our little one's heartbeat. I'm also hoping that she gives me the green light to travel north to my sister's baby shower, which is just two days after the appointment. (And maybe even green light a trip down to Florida a couple weeks later for the MOPS convention?? One can pray/hope right?? hehe)

I spent the morning just resting in worship. It was a good way to combat the nausea and strange room's-a-spinning feeling. Seems like it has really hit me harder the past few days. With tomorrow being the start of week 9, hopefully the morning sickness will dissipate in the next few weeks. I'm crossing my fingers and saying a prayer...

So I think that to keep myself busy while I'm doing all this OH-SO-FUN WAITING, that maybe I'll make a handmade crazy quilt for the baby. I could make 1 square a week from now until the end and the blanket would be about 32-36 blocks (ish). I think it may help to have something for me to turn to and focus on when things start feeling like an emotional avalanche is about to fall on me. A good distraction. :)

Hello :)