SAHM progress report

I feel like I am finally getting a handle on this stay-at-home-mom housework thing.  For the first two months I was home, I had trouble getting everything done, and keeping it clean.  One day I looked around the house and thought to myself, our house is way too messy for me being a SAHM.  I basically give myself weekends off, so I was workng hard all week to clean, but wasn't maintaining on the weekend....and my husband and I can trash a house pretty well in just a couple days.

But I've got a good routine down now, I have to really be slacking to not be able to get all my shit done each day, and most days I have time left over for Emily snuggles or getting extra projects done.  Dishes were one of the thngs I was slacking on the most, and before I knew it the sink was full and the counters and table were cluttered.  But I've gotten into a routine where every night at 11pm I do the dishes and wash bottles, but I also do whatever dishes I can while I am cooking dinner.  Call me crazy but I like doing dishes before bed....I only have on the light above the stove, I put on some music and wash away.  It's nice waking up to a clean kitchen.

I've also switched to Fridays for grocery shopping.  I used to try doing it on Sundays, but since it's my "day off", I often wouldn't go; so I'd try to go Monday but Mondays are my busiest day and the next thing I knew it was Wednesday and I still hadn't gone and we were eating out more.  But I've successfully gone three Fridays in a row now, I'm cooking more and it's easier to shop when I consistently go every week since there is less to buy.  I'm such a good little housewife.   I find it funny that back when I was 19 I was dating this guy that always said he didn't want his future wife to work, that he was the man and it was his job to worry about money.  That's nice and all, but I was like pssshaa, I'm not going to sit home all day, be barefoot and pregnant and go to Target all the time with your sisters.  Now here I am, I couldn't wait to quit my job so I could be home with Em, and going to Target is one of the highlights of my week, haha.

But there is a difference between realizing you want to stay home, and being told you cannot work.  Besides, once Em is in school I'll go back to work, if not before, but his wife is probably home for good.  I have plenty of stuff to keep me busy now, but once kids are in school, what do you do all day?  Well, my mom did a lot of volunteer stuff, which is what I would do if I never went back to work.  But I like to shop too much to live off one income for too long :)

My MIL is coming to help me clean and organize our garage next weekend.  She LOVES to clean, and I do mean loves it.  She's a minamalist, she doesn't have clutter, she doesn't have junk.  Her motto is, when in doubt, throw it out.  I can't say I will ever be that extreme, but I am inspired by her to not be such a packrat.  I told her when I am cleaning and struggling with whether to toss something, I ask myself WWDD (what would Donna do).  I get it from my dad, he's a major packrat, as is most of his family.  It comes in handy sometimes.....in one of my apartments my stove was missing an oven knob, and my dad had a box full of oven knobs.  I didn't have curtains on my bathroom window and he just happened to have material that worked perfect for makeshift curtains.  I wanted to make a potted christmas tree from Pinterest but didn't want to spend money on a pot...he had one.  In fact, several to choose from.

But why should I be a packrat, when he has everything I could ever need and is more than happy to give away his packratted items?  When we moved in this house, Ryan and I both parked in the garage.  His Monte is still in there (but he doesn't drive it and I sooooo wish he would sell it, but whatever) but since Emily came home I haven't parked in there because it's hard to get my door open all the way with the Monte there in order to get her carseat in and out so I've been parking in the driveway.  Since he drives his new truck and it's way too big for the garage, he parks on the street so my being in the drive way doesn't interfere with him.  But, this girl doesn't like cleaning snow off her car, so we have to get the garage clean so I can start parking in there again, because "winter is coming" haha (any Game of Thrones fans?).  We've since accumulated a new bike, a jet tub, and the jogger stroller where my car used to go.  I'm so excited to have a clean, organized garage.

My next goal is to get myself on a better sleeping schedule.   I had good intentions when I first started staying home, most days I got up by 8, but since then it has become 9, and I think one day I even slept until 10:30!  Emily either plays quietly in her crib, or she sleeps off and on, but I feel terrible leaving her in her crib all that time while I'm a lazy ass.  I get up around 6 or 7 to feed and change her of course, but then I go back to bed.  Part of the problem is, I go to bed too late, so then I want to sleep later.  I also don't have to get up at a certain time, so it's really hard to not go back to bed.  The main reason I go back though is my bed is sooooo comfortable in the morning.  I crawl back in, and it's so warm and comfy and I fall right back to sleep.  It's all I ever wanted to do when I worked, I always wanted to be able to go back to bed so badly and now I can, so I do.  I think I could resist going back if going to bed at night was like that, but it's not.  Most nights I go to bed because it's so late, not because I am tired.  I swear my bed is not even half as comfortable at night as it is in the morning, and I often lay there for 20-30 minutes before I fall asleep.  That's one of the few things I miss about being pregnant, during first and second tri I slept soooo good, I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.  Third tri of course was a different story though.  My husband is like that, the minute he gets in bed, he is out and I hate him a little bit for that, I'm so jealous.

I took a Unisom last night....I took them when I first went back to work after losing Kayla since I had such a hard time getting to sleep and they didn't seem to do much, so I at least knew it wouldn't knock me out and I wouldn't be able to hear Emily.  It did seem to relax me I guess, I don't remember taking a real long time to fall asleep last night. 

I think we're going to switch Emily to her convertible carseat very soon....like maybe even tomorrow.  She's getting too heavy to carry in the bucket seat, and she can now sit in the seat in carts at the store, and today she sat in the stroller like a big girl, so I'm pretty much taking her in and out of the seat anyway, so why not switch?  I'm hoping it is easier to get her in and out of the convertible, 'cause right now it is such a pain to get her in and out of the bucket when I leave it in the car.  It will probably be good for her to not being laying down in the bucket all the time, sitting in carts and strollers and the convertible would probably help strengthen her abdominal muscles so she can sit unassisted.  

We still don't know if we'll have another kid, but it's fun to plan for one nonetheless.  Our other spare room is my office for now, and I redecorated it a couple years ago and painted it a deep blue.  I hate panting, and it literally took me about two months to finish painting that room, so all that hard work won't be wasted by repainting for a nursery.  So girl or boy, it will stay blue.  So I decided if we were to have another girl, she'll have a celestial room,  I think it will look awesome with the blue.  I was a little bit obsessed with sun and moon stuff when I was younger, my room at my parents' house looked like the solar system threw up in it.  I got rid of most of it when I moved out, but I kept a few of my favorite pieces.  So all I would really need to buy is a mobile and a diaper stacker (I know some people think they're useless but I love our diaper stacker) and then decorate with my old items. 

Since we've already had two girls, if we have another baby a boy would be really nice.  But since deciding on the sun and moon theme, I must confess, I would love another girl just for the reason of decorating her room, :)