{Project365} Day 15: Many Hands Make Light Work

Many hands make light work and that's a good thing...

 

 

...because many bodies make lots of laundry.

 

{Project365}: capturing this life - one photo (or so) every day for one year

{Project365} Day10: Neverending

Why I didn't post {Project365} Day 9 yesterday evening...

 

 

{Project365}: capturing this life - one photo (or so) every day for one year

39 Weeks

39 weeks...just waiting.  I'm living in sweatpants if we are at home. Totally not my style, but they're just about the only thing I feel comfortable wearing for any length of time. It makes me feel lazy and sloppy, but since I'm exhausted anyhow, it works for now...  I completely cropped out my face because I look awfully tired and worn out.  Not pretty.  We figure we have at least a week to go beyond our due date since we've never delivered a baby any earlier than that.  Some days I'm okay with that, some days I'm not.  I'm so ready to meet our little man.

 

 

Today is one of those days that I just want to be done!  I'm dealing with a cough right now that is stretching my stretch marks and it hurts.  A lot.  I literally cradle my belly and press in to help lessen the impact of coughing.  Don't stand near me because I'm not covering my mouth!  I don't like to complain...but, oh, baby!  I'm trying to stay upbeat knowing that each day brings me one day closer to delivery.  I'm thankful that my kids are independent enough to care for themselves and Sadie for a few hours while I rested today...completely exhausted by the afternoon.

 

With help and motivation from my dear friend, Libby, I have been doing a lot of sorting, purging, and organizing which feels so great!  We've tackled sorting four tubs of baby boy clothing - such a blessing, office/desk supplies, arts/crafts supplies, sorting pictures/frames/photo boxes to finish organizing this winter, sorting papers/cards/hospital tags for memory boxes for each child, unboxing our massive collection of CDs, ironing and hanging curtains in our living room, entry, and dining room, sorting and recycling five years worth of boxes of home school papers/worksheets/workbooks - I only saved a few special papers for each boy's memory box.  Plus, Mike has been helping me get a variety of projects finished as well. 

 

Our home is really shaping up and feeling more "finished."  From the outside, many wouldn't notice the clutter or stuff that bugs me especially in our main living areas.  I have to have my surfaces clean.  Clutter and chaos make my mind cluttered and chaotic.  If spaces are messy, I can't concentrate nor do I feel motivated to tackle daily responsibilities let alone the mess.  I think the same applies to the kids, too, and that's a bad combination for life in general and homeschooling.

 

And so, at this point, I suppose I'll just continue wearing my stretchy pants, waiting, teaching, organizing, and dreaming about meeting this little man...

 

Any prayers you are willing to pray for us would be much appreciated!



First Freezer Meals

The realization that our little man will make his appearance in just a short time is beginning to kick me into high gear in a lot of ways!  That fact, in combination with tons of fresh and free produce from our church garden, has me thinking a lot of preserving, freezing, and meal planning! 

I cringe at the thought of letting all this wonderful goodness from the garden go to waste especially knowing how much time and effort a few put into making the garden a reality for so many.  Namely my husband, but that's because he's my favorite gardener!  This season, I've grated massive amounts of zucchini for use in breads, sauces, ground meats, diced bags of green peppers for similar use, and we've consumed lots of the same as well as yellow squash, corn, beets, lettuce, green and yellow beans, raspberries, and did I mention zucchini?!  Yes, lots of zucchini!  I am hopeful to can lots of tomatoes when they are ripe, too! 

Today finds my Cuisinart Mini Chopper hard at work once again chopping onions, green peppers, one lone red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and one quart of tomatoes from last year. 

Cooking chopped veggies... 

Add cooked veggies to a batch of ground beef and sausage for assembly into lasagna freezer meals! 

Mmmm...smells good!  Can't wait to eat one meal for dinner tonight!

Sunday's Basement Challenge

Our precious children have been battling the sickies for a few days so we decided to cancel all commitments for Saturday and Sunday.  We felt it was best to stay at home trying to rest up and refrain from hacking on friends at church.  Aren't we so kind?!  I am thankful that even though I've felt on the verge of getting sick, too, I've somehow avoided it.  That is not to say that I've avoided some yucky pregnancy symptoms in the past few days, but I'm thankful that sniffles and coughing haven't added more discomfort to my puke-a-day status.

Today while the kids were having an imaginary wilderness adventure through out the house, Mike and I began the process of tackling our basement.  Part of the basement is finished and mainly functions as a playroom.  The unfinished portion of the basement is perfect for storage.  The only problem is that we've essentially done nothing with either of these spaces since we moved into our house back in August.  Over Christmas time, we did unpack and store school curriculum, games, and kid's art supplies on built in bookshelves.  But overall, talk about rooms and disorganization that make you cringe every time you see it...

Mike cleaned out the storage area and reorganized some of our storage bins...canning supplies, extra home decor items (that I certainly have a plan for...grin), sleeping bags and suitcases, etc.  I started sorting the four large moving boxes that have contained the kids' toys.  As I'm sure you can imagine, over the course of eight months, the boxes have become a huge mess.  I purged, and I mean REALLY purged those boxes.  We kept the favorites - Legos, K'nex, Nerf items, army men and a variety of Star Wars figurines, marble and rock/gem collections, and the most loved costumes.  We have many items that I'm happy to donate to our church garage sale or thrift store.

The kids were basically banned from the basement while I sorted toys though they kept "needing" us for one thing or another.  I think they were mostly curious about what long lost toy they didn't remember they had that they didn't miss that was buried on the bottom of the boxes.  I pretty much said, "Do whatever you want right now...eat another popscicle for lunch...watch another show...eat more candy...blow your nose while you're at it...just please go upstairs so you don't cry over what I'm throwing out...(bottle caps from a "collection"...eeewwww, kept touching sticky caps with my fingers, silly bands, Chinese fortunes, fast food toys, broken items, and other junk...er, I mean, collections.  Usually I give them "one save" from items leaving our house on purging days like today, but I didn't this time. 

I just didn't. 

And I'm okay with that. 

And they didn't ask for a save. 

I don't have an after picture to show you yet, but trust me, it's a lot better!!!  We still have to take care of a relatively small amount of items saved and separated for the boys, for Sadie, and for other places in the house.  But it is so doable!!!  Next stop, the boys' room!

P.S.  An update about my last post Saturday's Laundry Challenge:  Between the weekend and the following Monday, I gained control of the laundry situation.  Each of the eight or so loads I washed were folded and put away right away.  I figure that if I do one load of laundry a day and have the kids put items away as soon as I'm done folding, I should be able to stay on top of it!

P.P.S.  I also made a menu plan for the last week and this week...oh yeah, getting a handle on life again!  And feeling so much better because of it!!!

P.P.P.S.  Mike was so kind to do some painting for me on Friday and Saturday by eliminating the "accent walls" in our dining room and family room...I'll post pictures later.  Oh boy, what a difference a coat of paint makes in how a room looks and in how I feel!!!

Early nesting, anyone?!

Saturday's Laundry Challenge

In an effort to turn things around here at my house and get some of life, specifically laundry, back in control, these pictures are my challenge! I have a few load of sheets and blankets that I'm planning on taking care of today, too. I generally don't have an issue with getting the laundry gathered and washed or even folded but the putting away part is where I loose steam.

With the past few loads, I've enlisted the boys to put away their items, Sadie's clothes, and the towels/washcloths as soon as the folding is done. Plus they have carried Mike's and my clothes to our room. Oh, that feels so good!

I've really failed recently with enlisting our very capable boys' help with anything chore related. This accounts for some of the reason I've fallen so far behind...basically not requiring anything of them. There are five of us living all day, every day in our home...I wouldn't have it any other way, but it means that nothing stays clean or picked up for long. If mama isn't disciplined enough to require their help, in general, they won't volunteer. It's life skills training for all of us...discipline, cooperation, showing love by seeing needs and jumping in to help, and displaying a good attitude while helping out. It's also just a necessary part of life...a large family needs every member to do their part to help the whole function better.

Did you notice I just called us a large family which I suppose maybe we've already been as a family of six. But somehow, being a family of seven now makes me really feel like a large family. A large family...phew...one that needs to figure out how to function well in our home with this many people and laundry and messes and toys and dishes and...and...

In part, I know the answer is to keep paring down...keep going through the "stuff" and getting rid of what isn't necessary. I've said in the past that I'd rather spend my time managing my family than managing my stuff. I'd change that now to say that I'd rather spend my time loving, caring for, and spending time with my family rather than managing my stuff.

Speaking of stuff...

...these hydrangeas. I picked and dried them from our front yard this past fall. I picked and dried way. too. many. hydrangeas. These have just been sitting in this spot dropping little annoying petals all fall and winter. They are on my list to throw out. And yet, every day I walk by them and ignore them. Guess what? I'm getting rid of them today...getting rid of stuff.

AND crossing it off my to-do list...oh, that's going to feel good!!!