Where'd it go?

May, that is. I'm sitting here staring at my calendar wondering what on earth I did with May, because it's almost gone. Time to revisit my goals and scramble around a bit trying to finish it all.

The pile of baby clothes has been sorted and organized and placed in to one purple bin with newborn size on top, all the way down to 9 months size on the bottom. I feel like I should have had more emotional stress over putting those baby clothes away, like I should have cried a little or something. But no dice, not one single tear. It's done and that's that.

Karlina's room is finally looking less chaotic. I moved her bookshelves out a little bit so they're not right in the corner, and I also moved the big bed all the way over to the far wall so she can get at her books and toys more easily. Which is a blessing and a curse, really, since she doesn't quite have the motor skills to put the books back on the shelf yet. She tries, though, and that's what counts. I also moved the tree decal to the other side of the room and the framed scrapbook paper to the window wall.

My closet is finally done! (Pictures to come tomorrow) Angel choirs are singing, let me tell you. I am so thrilled to have gotten rid of so many clothes and shoes and purses (I now have two. At one point I had like 20. Big improvement), and I love going into my room now. I haven't rearranged the furniture in there yet, but hopefully my Hubby will be back at work tomorrow after a mild respiratory infection he's been battling since Sunday, so I'll be able to rearrange a bit then.

The kitchen shelves have been painted thanks to my Mother-in-law. Sadly, though, they don't fit in the cabinet anymore, so they're going to need a good sand before I can put them back in, and Heaven knows when that's going to happen. The cabinets are still in desperate need of another coat or two of paint as well, and I'm definitely going to need some help with Karlina before I can even think about that. So, the kitchen will have to wait for June, I suppose. 

The bathroom still needs a good wipe-down and a quick sort-through to put things back where they're supposed to go. That I can do this week for sure.

So, barring any major disasters (please, Lord, don't let Karlina or me get sick), I should be able to check off a while bunch of May to-do's by Friday. And .... Go!

Closet progress report 1

See that stack of hangers? Before yesterday, every single one of those had a piece of sad, lonely, unwanted clothing on it. Now, the hangers are free. There are 27 in that stack, which means almost a month's worth of clothes are now being donated to a thrift shop. The picture of the clothes hanging is literally my entire professional wardrobe. A few shirts, five pairs of slacks, seven skirts, two suits, one dress. Oh, and those sweaters, which are looking much nicer in my new sweater rack. (I still have a ridiculous amount of sweaters considering I live in Los Angeles, but my husband has this thing about being cold and thinks I need to bundle up when it's sixty degrees out. So he buys me sweaters. And I love each and every one of them because he really is a very good stylist. The man can walk in to a store and buy a pair of jeans for me and when he brings them home they fit perfectly. He once brought home a size six because he said they looked like they would fit. I was, naturally, skeptical since I am a solid 8-10. And I love those size six jeans. Very proud that I have a pair of size six jeans in my drawer and that I can wear them.)

(^Longest parenthesis ever?)

I still don't love the look of that sweater rack there, and I'd love to be all Martha Stewart and put in some fancy shelf dividers to stack my sweaters, but I'm not that good at drilling and getting my husband to do it will be challenging since he's working overtime for two more weeks. So, the rack will have to do.

I'm also down to two weeks worth of undies, which is a drastic improvement. Most of the ones I threw out were uncomfortable anyway, and I just no longer have the will to wear uncomfortable underwear. I also threw out all those evil VS bras and am now down to two nursing bras and four sports bras. I'll be ordering some that actually fit soon. I'll spare you those details, though.

Shoes ... You know, I've never considered myself a shoe person, but I had about three times as many shoes as I need creating traffic jams in my closet. So now I'm down to two pairs of dress sandals, two pairs of dress flats, one pair of Five Fingers, two pairs of hikers (one is Goretex which will only be used in the winter, so it's way back in the corner there), one pair of tennis shoes, one pair of Vans which I can't bear to part with, and my beloved Toms. From 30 pairs down to 10.

So now I've cleared space for my trumpet and music stand (they're hiding there behind the sweater rack) and my file box, which really doesn't belong there in the front but will have a new convenient location soon.

Oh my word, it feels so good to purge all of this from my life. It feels like letting go of a huge burden. I feel like I'm no longer a slave to my possessions. And it feels like I'm finally back in control of my house.

I should be finished in the next couple of days after I clean up that top shelf. I still have no earthly idea where that stuff is going to go. Most of it I'm keeping, so it must find a place to be.

So here are today's photos. A vast improvement from yesterday, I think.

Closet: Before

Welcome to The Great Closet Purge of 2013. Good gracious, these photos are embarrassing. I forgot to take a photo before I took all my clothes out, but that big stack on the bed are things I'm getting rid of. Either they don't fit (all my church dresses but one are in varying stages of too small or too big ... Thank you, yo-yo weight), are frayed or have holes (most of my work pants which I was too cheap and lazy to have tailored), are out of style (Hello, skirt collection from 2005), or I just don't feel good in them. I did keep a lot of things I don't really wear because they are pretty and maybe when I'm a hip preschool mom (aka when I'm not relegated to crappy nursing bras) I can wear them again. Optimism is power.

All that other junk in there? Most of it was in the guest room before the guest room became a nursery. So lots of books, office supplies, and junk. I'll keep you updated on progress if I can remember to take pictures as I go. I do know that my lovely collection of Victoria's Secret bras are going bye-bye since I discovered yesterday, via this blog post, that NONE of them are the correct size. Here I've been wearing 36C for years, but I'm really supposed to be a 32DDDDDD according to American sizing, 32G for UK sizing. Yeah, no, my boobs are not ginormous as the Man at VS had me thinking for years, they are just too cheap to make bras that actually fit normal women, so they add four inches to the band size. Really ridiculous. Read the link, but please excuse the completely unnecessary profanity, and you'll see what I mean.

Anywho, enough about my bra size. (Side note: I completely bored my husband talking about this last night. You'd think he'd be all ears listening to me talk about my boobs, but no dice. Men are weird.)

Alright, here are the photos, in typical Wish I Could Write style, ie completely out of order, of my closet. Progress reports to come.

Long week

<p>Okay, so I know a lot of people have it worse than me, but allow me to vent my first-world problem: My hubby works ten-hour days four days each week. We love this schedule as it allows us to enjoy the outdoors without dealing with the 17 million other Angelenos who also want to be outside on the weekends. Fridays are fantastic days to go to the beach, enjoy waterfalls in the mountains, and drive those curvy roads without anyone else around. Well, at least, not 17 million of them. But last Friday and the next two Fridays and probably Memorial Day, Robert and his team are writing a grant. It's due in two weeks, so it's crunch time. And I'm learning to deal with being home five days a week. I know, wah, wah, boo hoo, join the rest of the world ... But this throws off my whole schedule, and the Crazy does not like schedule changes. Plus my honey is tired at the end of a 50-hour work week, and then we have to start Sabbath still all fired up from the week with no time to mentally prepare for that lovely day of rest. We go to church tired and maybe still a little irritable because we haven't had our extra day to wind down. And then Sunday we have to rush around to finish taking care of things for the week to come, and then our lovely outdoor time is ruined by 17 million others who are also enjoying their outdoor time. </p>
<p>Case in point: Yesterday we planned a lovely, long drive to one of our favorite hiking spots in the Angeles National Forest. We rarely see people up that high, but the trail is gorgeous, all strewn with tall cedars and cool rock formations, and lots of squirrels for Pippin to chase. Yesterday, though, Highway 2 was closed for some as yet unknown reason, so we had to turn around and drive to the beach. It took us nearly two hours to get there, which was great for our sleeping beauty, but rather tiring for Robert. When we got to the beach, it was just full of surfers, tailgaters, sunbathers, dog walkers, stoners, tunnel-to-China diggers, sand castle builders, and of course lots of sand and water. We did have a beautiful time, though, and really, the beach at Leo Carillo seldom attracts the huge crowds you see at other beaches in Los Angeles County. Karlina loves playing chicken with the waves, Pippin loves searching for sticks in the soft sand, and we really just enjoyed hanging out. </p>
<p>However, today we still feel a little frantic since we didn't have Friday to deal with bills and mail. Poor Robert came home for lunch and had to eat in ten minutes because he spent the rest of the time on the phone trying to sort out some business. I don't quite feel rested, and I'm sure Robert is feeling a little unprepared for the week as well. </p>
<p>But here's the silver lining: I can take it a little easier this week and next knowing that I have five days instead of four to get all my work done. Which might mean a trip to the park, perhaps a library run, and some much-needed crochet time. </p>
<p>So, life looks a little different this week, but it's going to be just fine. We will survive and appreciate our three-day weekends even more from now on.

My beef with blogging

I started this blog not too long ago as a result of feeling depressed and alone and needing a place to just throw all my frustrations out there. I honestly didn't expect anyone to read it, and I'm still surprised that there are a few left who still read it even though I really suck at blogging. Half the time I forget, then my posts are rather random and scatterbrained and quite poorly written, and boring as all get out. I mean, who cares what I'm cleaning and organizing this week? Besides me? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah, I didn't think so. My photos never post in the right order because we refuse to pay for WiFi at our house and we refuse to buy a computer, so until the blogger app for android improves, the photos will continue to be out of order and always at the end of the post, unlike those awesome blogs where it's picture, words, picture of same thing at a different angle, rephrase the same words, etc. Those blogs are fun and exciting, this one ... Meh.

I've come to realize that this whole blogging thing is really a big fat popularity contest that each person fights with themselves. I know how it is, to log on to that blogger dashboard and see the line graph shooting up in to the sky. Quite exhilarating, I must admit. Then your blog gets around, somehow, and all of a sudden you have followers! Yay! Although these followers are completely random people who of course want you to return the favor even though reading their blog is like slow torture in a pot of boiling water for your eternal soul. You just aren't that interested in people's theological discourse on why it's HORRIBLE, WRONG, UN-CHRISTIAN, UN-AMERICAN!! to keep the Sabbath on Saturday. (Seriously, how do these people find my blog? This blog has almost nothing to do with my chosen religion.) So they unfollow you because you don't want to follow them. "Teacher, I'm not Jonny's friend anymore because he doesn't want to play marbles with me!"

For some bloggers, it's obvious that they really just write from their heart. Then there are those who are obviously making money from it (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with making a living from your blog ...) but who seem to have issues with sincerity and honesty. Their pages are filled with ads and sponsored posts and some of those are just really hard for me to read.

Anyway, I'm sure I offended someone or a lot of someone's with my bugaboos about blogging. But just so you know: If your blog content is boring, I'm not following you. If your blog content is full of sponsored posts and little else, I'm not following you. And no, I don't really care if you are following me or not, I'm still sticking to my convictions on this one. (By the way, as of now I have zero followers, and I'm totally okay with that.) I just am a little annoyed with the disingenuousness of the blog world right now. And now that I've gotten that off my chest, onward. As you were.

Oh, there you are, Sleep! I've been looking all over for you!

So Tuesday afternoon's "nap," if you can even call it that, lasted all of fifteen minutes. So, I made an executive decision, which I of course discussed with hubby and MIL first, that we would start the intentional transition from two naps to one. So yesterday I let Karlina play until 10:50 or so before we started her pre-nap routine. Then, after Bible story, lullabies, crib time, and a little Ergo cuddle time, she went to sleep at 11:15. She stayed asleep until 12:55. Good, solid nap. She stayed awake pretty much the whole afternoon, with a brief fifteen-minute nap while nursing. Then, last night she went down in her crib at about 8:15 and didn't wake AT ALL until 5:45! And I now have a new project looming: Black-out curtains.

This 5:30-ish wake-up time is new, but it's been three days in a row (of course, now that I typed that she'll go back to waking at 4:00 ... {sure enough, I started writing this yesterday, and today she woke at 4:50. Oh well}). One nap per day is a goal we're striving towards, but so far it hasn't happened yet. She always wants to take a little cat nap during the afternoon nursing session. I'm letting her sleep for a few minutes, but then I'll play a video on my phone or walk around, just so she doesn't mess up the night time sleep.

Anyway, I feel much more human after a few days' worth of sleeping through the night. However, now that we're working towards one nap, I am in desperate need of time to clean. I really just want to play and read with my daughter all day, but I really can't let cleaning go, especially the floors since she's still crawling. I'm managing to vacuum every day, but weekly dusting, mopping, and bathroom cleaning have not been consistent at all. I just don't get how such a small house can require this much work! I'm not complaining, really, just wondering. And so, this parenthood thing is really just an evolving animal, I'm coming to find out. I think I have everything figured out, I get into a groove, and then everything changes. Bring on those curveballs, Life. I'm ready for whatever you got. house

Sleep ... Oh, how I miss you

I haven't slept since about 2 this morning, when my daughter briefly woke up and didn't want to go right back to sleep like she usually does. I held and rocked her for about 10 minutes before I was able to put her down without her popping right back up again. After that, though, I didn't sleep well. I'd drop off, then feel uncomfortable, then start thinking about something else, then drop off again and then K would wake up squirming and crying a bit before going back to sleep again, then I'd have to pee, and on and on. At about 5:30, she woke again to eat, but I didn't want her to be up for the day yet (ha!) and there was already light filtering in the front windows, so I brought her to bed with me. Which is really stupid of me, because I know she can't eat laying down without getting all filled up with burps. So she squirmed and we switched sides, and she squirmed some more and stood up and asked to get down to play. Ugh. Okay, kid, you play, I'll sleep. This lasted for maybe twenty minutes before she was ready to go back to sleep. So I nursed her in bed again (Really? Brain, you are not doing your best work today ...) This time she napped while sucking, but I was sore from typical early-morning-nursing-baby-yoga, so I couldn't get back to sleep. Yay. And here we are, 2:20 in the afternoon, she's been trying to go down for a nap for 50 minutes now and I just can't put her down on the bed without her crying. This does not bode well for my to-do list for today. Okay, here we go, gonna try again to put her down. Wish me luck.