Weekly Round-up

I just realized my last post was my 100th on this blog! Pretty cool. I'm really enjoying keeping up with it this time around. Hopefully it lasts.

This week has been a pretty tough one in our household. It started out great. The weather has been fantastic and we have been taking full advantage of it. On Tuesday Hannah had her 12 month needles. She seemed fine after them until Wednesday afternoon when she started with a fever. Thursday afternoon she started with vomiting and diarrhea and that continued basically until now. I think she's on the mend finally. She has been able to keep down some liquids and a few Arrow Root crackers this morning. My biggest concern was dehydration. I called the health line yesterday and they told me I should give her clear liquids, but not water. The problem ... Hannah only drinks milk and water. She turns her nose up at everything else! We discovered she will eat a popsicle every once in a while, so between that and the bit of food she's getting, I've decided water will have to do it for drinks. I think since she's getting sugar and calories elsewhere that the water will be ok.

Wednesday afternoon I had my monthly doctor's appointment. Everything looks good and we heard the baby's heartbeat again. Yay! I got my ultrasound date and Peter is trying to switch his work around so he can make it.

Since Hannah's been sick we've stuck pretty close to home for most of the week. Peter and Nathan went to help a neighbour build a fence yesterday (they have a 3-year-old boy for Nathan to play with).

I planted a few things in the garden this week, which was fun, and have had quite a bit more success with my seeds indoors. Less than a month until the last frost date!

Goals:
Despite Hannah being sick, I got my kitchen cleaned up every day except last night. I feel really good about this habit - it might actually stick!

I did better with reading to Hannah and doing Nathan's workbook with him. I'm not sure I reached 5 days for each of them, but it was definitely more than before. I am currently working on making up a daily schedule for our family again. I love when we are on a schedule - just working it around Peter's shifts has been tricky. I'm planning on posting a draft schedule sometime today.

And a new goal for this week ... I want to do my weekly tasks according to the calendar I've been following this week. They are:

Monday - change sheets and bath linens, laundry (super easy day)
Tuesday - vacuum & dust (upstairs); clean bathroom
Wednesday - laundry; wipe fingerprints off appliances windows, door knobs, light switches
Thursday - vacuum & dust (downstairs and bedrooms - this is where our carpet is), kitchen prep / clean out fridge
Friday - laundry; mop kitchen, bathroom, and hallway

This is slightly different than what is shown on the link above so it fits my house and our lifestyle better.

So ... that's my plan for the week. Peter works both days and nights this week, so it will truly test any schedule we put in place.

Presentable ... not perfect

At this point in my life, with two little ones and another on the way, keeping my house presentable is the concern. I gave up on perfection when ... come to think of it, I never really tried for it in the first place!

Those who know me well know I've been an avid fan of flylady forever (well, technically since just before I got married in 2001, when I wanted to impress Peter with my housekeeping skills but needed lots of help!). I still think the system is great, but now that I'm home I wanted something with more well-defined tasks for each day and one that would make sure I got my deep cleaning done.

I stumbled across JustMommies Home Organization Plan a few weeks ago and so far I love it. My favourite feature is that all my tasks (other than the daily routines) are displayed on one page. On this printable page for each month there is a monthly calendar with a task for every day (there are two catch-up days per week), a weekly plan, and a part of the house to work on for that month with appropriate deep cleaning tasks. It is so similar in theory to flylady, I just find the format is easier for me at this point in my life. Flylady is more of a whole life approach and has so much flexibility that sometimes it was overwhelming. This is just housework-related and is so concrete that I don't have to spend any mental energy figuring out what to do when.

My second favourite feature is the afternoon tidy included in the mid-day routine. Since I'm home, mid-afternoon is a perfect time to tidy up the main living areas and make sure the kitchen is clean before supper is put on the table. I usually start this while the kids nap / rest, and Nathan helps me finish when he gets up. If I make sure to do the afternoon tidy I have very little to do after the kids go to bed. Very nice!

It's been just over 2 weeks and my house has stayed relatively tidy. In fact, I think there was only one time since I've started that I would have been embarrassed if someone had dropped in. Before starting this plan my house was rarely presentable so it is making a huge difference. And, considering we plan to do major renovating this spring, having the basic housekeeping under control is a necessity...

(And yes, that is my new kitchen in the above picture ... it needs some major updating ... and it makes me sad when I think of what I left ...


... so I try not to think about it too much! Will post pictures once we refinish the cupboards and replace the countertop.)

Note: This post was written a few weeks ago ... since then I've lapsed a bit but am just about back on track. I still think the program is good ... just need that second trimester energy!

Back to "Normal"

Peter and I took a short trip to our home city this weekend. My cousin was getting married and some friend of ours had tickets to a local hockey game. We got back on Saturday night and Sunday was nuts. Last night I finally felt like life was settling back into a somewhat 'normal' routine.

As an aside - I think Baby M is trying to escape right now - I've had a little bum (or something) pushing against my right side for the past 45 minutes. It's cute, but gets a bit uncomfortable after a while!

Anyway ... (warning - boring house cleaning paragraph) ... a few weeks ago I made a list of all the cleaning tasks I'm usually scurrying around trying to get finished up when we have company coming. I then decided whether I thought each task needed to be done daily, twice a week, weekly, or monthly. For the things that were twice a week or weekly I made up two "Home Blessing" times as a beginning of a weekly schedule. So, Monday nights are my mini-Home Blessing. It takes 30 minutes and includes: sweep master bedroom / bathroom, hallway, stairs, entryways, and kitchen; swish & swipe half bath; clean out fridge. Last night when I got home I actually did this and it felt so good to sit down at 7:30 to stitch knowing that the house was presentable! Hopefully when Thursday comes I can muster up the energy for my regular Home Blessing hour. I can't remember what I have to do during that. I know it includes the same stuff from Monday as well as cleaning the master bathroom. Maybe mopping the kitchen and entryways, too? Anyway, I figure if I can at least incorporate this stuff into my week I won't have to clean like a madwoman to have people over!

On the baby front - I feel (and look) huge! I can't believe I have another almost 3 months to go. I was measuring ahead at my last doctor's appointment - we'll see what he has to say next week when I go back. On the weekend I picked up several shirts at Value Village and a couple pairs of pants at a maternity store. Now I just have to hem the pants before the baby gets here. I'm notoriously bad at procrastinating about that!

We settled on childcare for when I come back to work next year. Another thing off the list!

As you can see, life has been pretty boring as of late. I'm sure that will change as baby preparations take over.