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.

The Plan

99 degrees. Spring? Really? This is August weather, LA, come on, now. May needs fog and cool mornings and long-sleeved shirts for pajamas.

However, I have been waiting for some hot, dry weather to finish painting the pantry shelves, so here we go. I can certainly finish that today and perhaps finish (ahem ... Start) sorting baby clothes once it's too hot to be outside. Here's hoping for some stellar naps from baby girl today.

The rest of the week I'll be moving artwork, putting finishing touches on baby closet organization, perhaps starting in on my own closet disaster, and, once it's cool enough to open the windows during the day, put a couple more coats of paint on kitchen cabinets and drawers. Oh, wouldn't it be loverly to finish putting my kitchen back together this week?

Speaking of musicals, yesterday I was inspires to sing "The Sound of Music" as a celebration of my daughter's first "bagged" peak! I have no idea what mountain it even was, and have no photo evidence since we left the camera in the car, but it was very exciting. The top of this particular mountain was pretty magical in the sparkly fairy dust sense. The rocks up at the top were full of mica which glinted and sparkled every time we moved. And we found the top of this mountain not because we intended to bag a peak, but because we couldn't for the life of us find the Pacific Crest Trail. No one else found it either, apparently, as we spotted numerous parties of hikers and backpackers wandering aimlessly among the picnic tables and along the highway in search of the elusive trail. I'm thinking maybe they could use some better signage.

Anyway, here's to another week closer to my goal of having my whole house organized. I'm already hatching plans for reorganizing the living room again, though, so this may be an ongoing and never-ending project. Blame it on the Crazy.

May Flowers

Well, it's May 9 already and I never even posted my goals for April! April was very busy around here, and included a couple of weeks of painting the kitchen, which is still ongoing since my mom came to visit before we were really finished, and it's been raining and humid since she left. I will dedicate a post to the kitchen when it's all finished.

So my goals for May are not really new or exciting, just finishing a bunch of projects that I've already started.

Painting needs to be done as soon as it gets warm and dry again, which, according to NOAA should be Sunday. Yay, painting on Mother's Day! But, as my husband so generously states, "Every day is Mother's Day." Aww, how sweet, right? Or it's a lame excuse to not buy me cake and chocolate and flowers. Yeah, I'm on to you, buddy. And just to be passive aggressive, I'm going to go ALL OUT for Father's Day this year. ALL.OUT.

Tangent over. As you were.

Next, my daughter's closet, which was so meticulously organized before she was born, is now full of unsorted piles of too-small baby clothes, which I of course am saving for friends who are expecting since we're pretty sure we're done having kids. And by We, I of course mean He. I'm not sure I'll ever be done, but I'm working on being okay with one. For now. Anyway, those clothes have two empty giant purple bins in the garage waiting for them and that's my next task. I may even get to that today ... We shall see.

I also need to move around some artwork in Karlina's room since I sort of rearranged a few things yesterday. That shouldn't take long.

Moving on to our bedroom, MY side of the closet has been in an embarrassing state since we re-wired a year ... and a half ago. Yes, my closet has been a disaster for eighteen months. There, I said it. There are books, clothes, shoes, musical instruments, toys, gifts for my nephews which I forgot to give them and are now too small, cards and letters from my old job, office supplies, and, oh yes, more clothes. So many clothes I could dress a high school marching band. An all-female high school marching band, but a high school marching band nevertheless. My husband undertook to clean his side of the closet one morning a few weeks ago. He finished in an hour. He saw me later that day looking for recipe ideas and thought I was looking for something to DO. He told me to clean my side of the closet. During Karlina's nap time. Which is an hour and a half, max. Oh, you poor, silly man. You really expect me and my Crazy to finish cleaning, purging, and organizing eighteen months worth of STUFF in an hour and a half? Oh no, darling, this will be at least a three-day job. If not a week. Maybe two. It's really bad in there ...

Then of course I'd like to rearrange our room a bit to make it flow more nicely. For instance, having our dressers next to the bed instead of facing off in opposite corners. Maybe some nice, soft curtains, or a homemade headboard. Artwork? Sure, why not! It sure is nice to dream, isn't it?

Then the bathroom. I'm not too worried about it except the walls and ceiling could use a good wipe-down. We also have a brand new (almost two years old?) lovely skylight which is giving us an amazing view of ... the attic. That needs to be connected to the lovely skylight in the roof, but that's a Honeydo for my Honey Bear and, as we ladies know but tend to ignore at times, nagging doesn't get us anywhere. All I can do is calmly ask him if he plans to do anything about it this weekend. As I have been calmly asking every weekend for nearly two years now. So yeah, I've been nagging him. I've only myself to blame for it not being done yet, I suppose.

After that, the last thing on my "Get this house in sellable condition whether we sell or not!" list is to paint the hallway cabinet. I'm thinking white, just to keep it simple. The baseboards could use a touch-up of paint too.

I honestly don't think May has enough days to get all this under my belt, but I may surprise myself and be REALLY motivated.

Maybe.

Futility

So those ten weeks of cleaning, contact-papering and organizing my entire kitchen? Completely pointless. My kitchen was stripped bare today in preparation to sand and prime the walls and cabinets on Friday and Sunday while we're out of town. So all my gorgeous organization? It all got thrown into random boxes today. Sad face. All that time I spent on the stupid kitchen I could have been cleaning and organizing the bedrooms (especially my closet ... Just ... ugh. I'll post pictures later so you can ugh with me), hallway and bathroom. Of course, had I KNOWN we were going to paint right now, I wouldn't have done all that work, but, see, this family? We have communication problems. My husband and I have been talking about painting, choosing colors, changing our minds about colors, choosing new colors, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum, for YEARS, so how was I supposed to know that this time he was SERIOUS? I'm exhausted from four days of painting and an afternoon of emptying my kitchen (which included attempting to carefully roll my brand new beautiful contact paper, which probably won't work and I'll just have to measure and cut and align and apply ALL.OVER.AGAIN.) and now I'm stressed because Karlina's birthday is on Tuesday and how am I supposed to bake a beautiful and healthy birthday cake when my KITCHEN IS EMPTY?!?

So I know that all sounds really negative, but I really am actually pretty excited to paint the kitchen after all these years of despising it and the ugly colors on the walls and cabinets. I'm looking forward to enjoying cooking in a fresh space with cabinets and walls that I don't hate. I may get really fancy and spray-paint the refrigerator, and maybe even the countertops. Yeah, this is gonna be stellar.

Week 11: The grand kitchen finale

As in, I've been working on the same room for 10 weeks and it's almost done but still.not.quite.

Last week I emptied the pantry and cleaned and reorganized everything. So now instead of several shelves full of randomness (whatever I could stuff in there and still be able to close the door) and a bunch of glass containers at baby-level, I have a bin each for snacks, camping food, pasta, grains and cereals, sweeteners, flours, baking supplies, and cooking supplies. Plus, my bottom baby-accessible cabinet is completely safe, stocked with plastic bulk bins of nuts, oats, rice, etc, and two burlap sacks full of potatoes and onions and garlic. It's now so nice and organized that I actually was inspired to bake a chocolate cake Friday night. More on that later.

I also baby-proofed the bottom large cabinet, though it's far from organized. The top large cabinet has two newly lined shelves, one of which is organized. The other one was my catch-all for the breakable things which were previously on the bottom shelves.

So, this week, I have four more shelves to finish lining, cleaning, organizing, and purging of unnecessary and unused items. And that's ambitious enough for this week, sadly, since I'm helping out at the school this week with their Spring program.

Oh yeah, I was supposed to come up with monthly goals for March. Okay, here goes a brainstorm ... {Organize women's prayer group, finish crochet project, bake something every week, walk a certain distance every day, plan K's birthday trip, menu plan for K's birthday, cook new recipe} I don't know, nothing's really inspiring me. I think I'll take the first one, organizing a women's prayer group. Since March is already almost halfway over, I'll need to work diligently on this one. Research, contacts, mission statement, vision statement, agendas, scheduling ... Maybe I should modify that goal to "START organizing women's prayer group." Yeah, that's a little less intimidating.

Okay, quarterly goals are still to finish spring cleaning and finish reading the Bible. I'm WAY behind on the first, but right on track for the second. Though I still have two days worth of readings to finish today, and since we're currently driving through the mountains with no internet (obviously), I'll have to skip Pinterest later this afternoon in order to finish. Sorry, Pinterest.

Also, I hope to post every day this week. I was a horrible slacker last week, but I just didn't feel much inspiration to write after taking such a long break. This morning, though, as I was making pakcakes, I thought of about a hundred ideas for blog posts. Of course I didn't write any of them down, but hopefully I'll remember at least a few just to get me through the week.

So, here we go again. I have to constantly remind myself that all this work is going to drastically improve my life. Optimism, happiness, flowers and rainbows.

Week 10: Swing

Returning to our regularly scheduled programming.

My Grandma Sue died two and a half weeks ago, February 15. Since then, I've been getting ready to fly home to Colorado, visiting Colorado, coming back to Los Angeles, and attempting to put my life back in order. It's been crazy.

I'm picking back up where I left off, but with new vigor and some new ideas. This week I plan to empty, clean, organize, and restock the remaining kitchen cabinets, including baby-proofing the lower cabinets. It's kind of a lot to manage with an almost-toddler, but if it doesn't get done this week, it will get done next week, barring any further disasters.

It took a few days to get caught back up on Bible readings after our whirlwind trip home, but now I'm caught up and even a few days ahead of my March 31 goal.

I haven't decided what my March goals will be, but I welcome ideas and will have some nailed down by Friday.

My weekly goal is to be happy. It's been difficult the past few weeks,to be anything but a pitiful mess, so this goal is a big leap to strive towards.

Today is house cleaning day, which is truly exciting for me since the only room that I've even tried to clean the past three weeks was the bathroom. As of posting time, I still need to vacuum the living room and mop the rest of the house, then clean the bathroom again. I love having a clean house. Just wish it would stay that way.

So, here's to March, here's to happiness, here's to life and family and teething babies. And here.we.go.

Week 7: At least the oven is done ... Or not

I SO hope I can finish the kitchen this week and move on to the back half of the house. It's getting a little ridiculous that I haven't finished yet. I'm getting frustrated and that does not help my productivity. So, here's the agenda for this week:

1. Treat the burner grates with ammonia overnight. (Sunday night.)

2. Clean the house Monday. Robert is giving me a jump start today by vacuuming. What a guy!

3. Laundry on Tuesday, and hopefully clean and organize pantry.

4. Clean and contact-paper large cabinets on Wednesday. Start rearranging so nothing breakable is on any bottom shelves.

5. Finish organizing and baby proofing Thursday. Clean both sides of the door. Hopefully get the bookcase moved back into the hallway so I can get my books out of my closet.

My other goal for this week is to get stuff ready for Valentine's Day. I want to make some cards for Robert as well as a cake or something similar.

February goals are to finish one craft project this month, and call one family member each day.

Spring cleaning and Bible reading remain my quarterly goals.

Have a great week, everyone!

Week 6 sum-up: Still?

Yeah, still not done with the kitchen. I did work my rear end off this week, though, and with a newly mobile kiddo, I am not able to dedicate as much time to my project as I have been in the past. Add to that the fact that now, when I put her in her crib, instead of playing with her toys and falling asleep, she wants to stand up. She can't, though, because she's tired and can't think straight, so she screams. I stick her in the Ergo, she goes to sleep, but by now half of her nap time is gone. In short: It's the baby's fault.

The cabinets above the stove are cleaned, contact-papered, and organized, the vent hood is sparkling clean, and the oven is almost there. I spent an hour yesterday scrubbing the burner grates and there's still burned stuff stuck on them. Last night, I thought there must be an easier way. Google led me to an ingenious solution: ammonia in a trash bag over night dissolves the grease. And, supposedly, I don't have to do much. I'm buying ammonia today. I also could have put them in the oven when I did the self-clean (I will next time!), but I'm not interested in running another cycle because man, that stunk up the house.  Also today I hope to finish cleaning behind and underneath the oven. And my wonderful husband said he would clean the toaster oven! Yay for help.

I still have the bitty pantry and the large cabinets, but after the oven, that will be easy as pie. Next year when I do my Spring Clean, I'm going to start with the fridge and oven when I still have lots of motivation. Then I'll be able to move on to the fun parts. Also, next year, God willing, I won't have to contact-paper the cabinets and drawers again. Yay.

Valentine's day planning/decorating didn't happen this week. Is it even worth it to do it next week? I mean, I'll plan and execute the menu, but decorating? I just don't think I'll have time. K isn't really old enough to appreciate it, either, so maybe next year. Sad face.

I did not succeed in calling a family member every day this week. I missed two days, but the other days I made up for it by calling multiple people. So it kind of counts, right? Maybe? Not really ... Sad face.

I haven't tried a new recipe yet, but I have ingredients for one, and I'm planning to make another for my hubby's Valentine's Day cake. Stay tuned.

Bible reading is still on track. I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll be able to accomplish at least this one goal. I'm already to May's readings in the OT and almost halfway through November in the NT. Happy face.

Okay, Spring Cleaning, you're kicking my butt. Six weeks left. Tons still to do ... But I remain cautiously optimistic. I will finish by Easter. I will, I will, I will!

Tomorrow Karlina will be 10 months old. Happy face! Special post tomorrow, which I'm going to write today so I don't have to worry about blogging on Sabbath.

Happy weekend, all!

Week 6: Or else ...

My ultimatum for this week: Finish the kitchen or else forget about organizing the closet in my room. That has been my ultimate goal, what I'm working towards, the next-to-last project on my insane 13-week to-do list. If I can't finish the kitchen this week, I won't have time to do my closet before the end, and then I'll have to put off some great Spring activity.

So here's what's in store for this week:

1. Scrub, contact-paper, and organize the remaining cabinets, including the two above the stove, the tall and narrow pantry, and the two large cabinets on the remaining wall.

2. Scrub the remaining walls, including behind the oven, and the door.

3. Deep-clean the oven inside and out.

4. Deep-clean the toaster oven.

5. Clean the glass table top and the table.

6. Finish baby proofing.

Only six items. Doable.

My other goal for the week will be to decorate a little for Valentine's Day, make some cards for mi amor, and make my V-Day menu.

Again, my monthly goals are to try one new recipe and call one person from my family each day. Yesterday, I called my mom who didn't answer her phone. So I called my Seester instead. While I was talking to said Seester, Karlina was playing with my phone, and connected a 3-way call with my mom.

Yes, she did.

Quarterly goals remain: spring cleaning and Bible reading.

Right now, the weather is gorgeous, the sky is clear, the sun is bright, and Karlina is napping in her carseat on the way to the BEACH!! Yay. I need this outing so much. A chance to reconnect with my honey, who I feel I haven't seen in the last week and a half, and a chance to get out of the house, which I also haven't done in the last week and a half. Fresh air, sand in ny toes, and hopefully a dolphin or two.

Have a great week!

Week 5 Sum-up: Whew!

Oh, man, this was supposed to be my last week in the kitchen for this cleaning project, but it looks like I may be there for another week, SOOOOO ... here's what I did.

The refrigerator is scrubbed inside and out, coils are clean, and the freezer is a little more organized. The walls behind the refrigerator are scrubbed, as well as the floor under the fridge and the ceiling in the alcove of doom. I also tackled the small appliance shelf and the inaccessible and useless sink in the corner as well as the cabinet underneath that sink, where we keep our gallon jugs of water. Today I'm hoping to clean and organize the cabinet above the inaccessible sink and contact-paper it. I also hope I can get Robert to help out a bit by cleaning the toaster oven. I still have to deep-clean the oven and clean behind and underneath it, and clean the vent hood and the cabinet above the vent hood. Ugh, why is this taking so long?

My sugar fast failed again. Yes, I ate three cookies and two Luna bars this week. No I do not feel guilty. Try again next month.

January is over! Yay for one whole month without head explosion! And boo for not cooking every day!

Goals for February:

1. Finish one craft project.

2. Cook one new recipe. Robert asked for a cake for Valentines Day. This should be fun.

3. Call one family member each day. Because I MEEEES them!

My quarterly goal of Bible reading is still on track. I started 1 Samuel this morning. Time-wise, I'm in mid-April. Also, in the New Testament, I'm almost to the end of the Gospels. Hard to read about the crucifixion, but necessary, no?

And Spring Cleaning. Hopelessly behind but I am not giving up! This house WILL be clean and organized! Seven weeks to go!

I've been having strange, vivid dreams lately. Twice in the last two weeks I've woken up and deeply regretted decisions I've made for several hours. My dreams are almost like "This is what would have happened if you had chosen differently." And it's so hard to face the consequences and guilt of those decisions, but I can't go back and change them. So I just have to move on and hope that next time I will listen to my conscience instead of justifying my rebellion. Ugh, why am I so stupid sometimes? Why didn't someone just shake me and slap me in the face? Then I remember that a lot of people did. I just didn't want to listen.

And so starts the weekend. Today is passport day for Karlina. And today I will renew mine as well. I can't believe it's been 10 years since our college band tour to the UK! I am officially old.

Week 5: To clean, or not to clean?

Ugh. This week is questionable. I'm still coughing like a smoker, Robert is starting to display symptoms, and his mom is still here, which, one would think would make it easier to clean, but for some reason I can't function normally with her here. I get nervous and feel weird indulging my desire to deep-clean when there's food to cook! Babies to play with! Dishes to wash! Why does this happen to me? Why can I not just be normal? I haven't figured it out yet, so maybe I need to dedicate a blog post to that later in the week so I can get it worked out.

This week's goals are numerous and daunting, yet again, but I'm sure I can get at least a few items checked off my mile-long list.

I still need to finish deep-cleaning the fridge, which will involve scrubbing one side, the top, and the inside, vacuuming the coils, and cleaning behind and underneath. I'd really like to spray paint it white one of these days, but that will have to wait until I'm finished with the rest of the house. I also need to scrub down the walls to the side and behind the fridge, which will involve moving the fridge out of the alcove of doom, organizing the recycling/bag station, and much step-ladder climbing.

Then, I need to deep-clean the toaster oven and scrub the unreachable, unusable sink that's underneath it. Also, there are several cabinets there and above the stove that need scrubbing, contact-papering and reorganizing. I'm dreading scrubbing the tops of the cabinets above the stove. I've only cleaned up there once since I moved in 5.5 years ago, and it seems to be a popular haunt for cockroaches. I can handle spiders, I can handle parading ants, but cockroaches are probably the most disgusting things I can think of. Except those huge Madagascar hissing cockroaches, man, those things are amazing. But I digress.

Next will be deep-cleaning the oven, which should be gross and difficult. I also need to move it out of the alcove of doom to clean underneath. Then I need to deep-clean the vent hood, including the vent cover and fan blades. Ugh, all that grease. Did I mention that my mother-in-law, bless her heart, loves to fry things? And wow, are they ever tasty, but the spattered grease is such a pain in the patookis to clean up!

And then, if I actually finish and still have energy or even the will to live, I need to scrub and organize the pantry (I call it the pantry, but it's really just a set of shelves about 18" wide that goes from floor to ceiling ... Shouldn't take more than a couple hours) and the large cabinets, finishing up with the door jamb and the door.

Oof, I can't imagine that I'm actually going to be able to finish all of that this week. If not, though, I should be able to finish the pantry and cabinets next week since the hallway shouldn't take too long.

My other goal for this week is my sugar fast which I totally blew off last week. I've already gone 48 hours without sugar, so only five days left! Haha.

My January goal of cooking everyday was apparently unrealistic. I think I had one week where I cooked every day. I'll see if I can knock out the last four days of January with a meal each day. I have the ingredients already, it will just be a question of time.

My other January goal of keeping my head on straight has gone pretty well, I'd say. I haven't lost my cool even once. Still four days left, though. Watchyoself!

As the end of January approaches, I need to set a new goal or two for February. I think I have one in mind already, but I need to figure out if it's realistic. Do any of you have ideas for new monthly goals?

My quarterly goals are Spring Cleaning and reading through the Bible. I finished the Pentateuch this morning, and that's usually where my previous attempts kind of got pushed to the back burner. So, I need to persevere. God will get me through this!

And so, the first month of 2013 is drawing to a close. I shouldn't neglect to mention that our family celebrated two birthdays this weekend: My older sister on Friday, and my younger sister on Saturday. They are precisely 21 years and 4 hours apart in age. Happy birthday, ladies! I love you both!

Week 4 Sum-up: And yet ...

This short week went as predicted. I epically failed to finish my huge to-do list. I did get some stuff done, in spite of a sicky-sick baby and a getting-sick Mommy and only two days to tackle said list. (Tuesday was spent cleaning the house and doing laundry.)

I vacuumed out the window well yesterday, but I did not scrub it for two reasons: 1) It's supposed to rain for the next three days, and 2) The paint is chipping so badly I'm afraid to make it worse by scrubbing. It needs to be painted after a good scrape and sand, but that will have to wait for another day.

The alcove of doom is so challenging since everything is crammed back in there. It was so filthy, though, from years of frying Mexican food. I cleaned two walls and the fly door, and two sides of the outside of the refrigerator. I threw away most of the magnets and junk we had stuck to the front, and now we have a very few photos of family displayed. And the sunset calendar ... Couldn't be an Adventist without the sunset calendar.

I still have the other side of the fridge and the wall beside it to finish scrubbing, and I need to organize the recycling area beside it. Then I need to tackle the INSIDE of the fridge, vacuum the coils, and clean underneath and behind it. Since it's raining and my baby still isn't up to par, I may be able to finish this much today. Then there's a whole lot more to finish next week. I should have more time next week, though, so here's hoping. It's my last allotted week in the kitchen before I need to move on to the back half of the house.

My favorite project of the week was the spice cabinet. Last week I was bummed that I couldn't afford matchy-matchy spice containers. But then ... Pinterest. There are so many cheap ideas there. My spice cabinet may not be fancy, but uniformity covers a multitude of sins.

I saw this idea for little plastic containers to house spices. I already had a bunch of those little containers sitting in the back of a cabinet. I use them to freeze lemon juice, to store baby food, and I actually already had two in my spice cabinet, but they didn't look so great because they were labelled with masking tape. The containers are cheap, I can't remember how much because it's been a few years, but at Smart n Final, you can buy 50 of them, plus lids, for under $10.

Then, I needed to have pretty labels. I didn't have any that would fit, but I did have some Martha Stewart labels that look fine cut in half. Then it was just a matter of transferring spices and recycling all those unmatched jars and boxes. I then organized them according to function (dessert spices, Mexican spices, broths and mixes, and cooking spices). I still have a few more to put in containers because I ran out of lids and didn't want to walk to Smart n Final in the rain with a feverish baby, but man, it looks so much better!

Sugar fast was more like a sugar binge this week. It all started with a birthday cake on Sunday, an Indian syrup ball on Monday, a milk shake on Tuesday, carob-coated peanuts on Wednesday, and cookies and Argentinian dulce de leche rolls yesterday. Ugh. Sugar fast next week?

Cooking was not so great this week with a crammed schedule and a sick baby. I cooked only one recipe this week. And now I have a refrigerator full of food that I need to cook by Monday. Ha!

Aside from my yard man incident on Wednesday, I didn't even get close to head explosion this week. It's becoming increasingly rare. However, I still can't let my guard down as things will be changing a bit this weekend. More on that later, maybe.

Spring cleaning is falling ever more behind and next week had better be awesome or there's no way I'll be able to finish by the end of March.

Bible reading is still going well. The ultimate goal with this Bible reading is to have a better character, and I know spending time in God's Word every day is making a huge difference already.

And now, the weekend! Sabbath becomes more and more of a delight the harder I work during the week. I likely won't be going to church on Sabbath due to sick baby and mommy, but rest and family time will be a huge blessing.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Week 4: So much to do, so little time!

Alright, I think I set myself up for epic failure this week by overscheduling a 3-day work week. As a rule, since Robert works 10-hour days and we don't get to see him that much during the week, Friday through Sunday is sacred family time. I try to get everything done during the work week so we can have uninterrupted and unencumbered fun on the weekends. So this week I will have only 3 days to get my stuff done instead of the usual 4. And this week was a hard week to begin with, so now it will be impossible to get everything done. However, keeping my 12-week goal in mind, maybe I can adjust the time frames a bit for the other rooms later. I'm still going to put everything on the list for this week regardless.

In the kitchen, I am going to clean the window well (from last week) and organize and contact-paper the spice cabinet. I have an idea for the spice cabinet that should be inexpensive if not free, and it will look fantastic. Details to come.

Our kitchen has this little alcove which, way back in 1934 when the house was built, was intended for a laundry room. It currently houses my stove and refrigerator, an inaccessible cabinet and sink, our toaster oven, a shelf for small appliances (I think that shelf was designed for a microwave ... Obviously not original to the house), and a couple of upper cabinets.There's also a door which I never use but Robert's mom likes to open it to let the flies in keep the kitchen cool when she cooks. So my plan is to wash all the walls, the door, and the ceiling, clean underneath the stove and fridge, clean the coils on the fridge, clean, organize, and re-contact-paper the cabinets, deep clean the stove and fridge, and deep clean the toaster oven. Oh, and clean and organize our plastic recycling area. And clean the trash can. And the dog's bowl. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. And I'm positive this is NOT getting done in three days. I think I can make up some next week, but I shall do my best to finish the alcove of doom this week.

The other goal for the week will be to not eat any processed sugar. I try to do a sugar-fast for one week every month, so this will be it. Fruit, of course, doesn't count.

My monthly goals of cooking and keeping my head on straight will be challenging with a short week, but by God's grace, I can so handle this!

Quarterly goals are still on track, though spring cleaning is falling dangerously behind. The Bible readings are going quite well, though. Such amazing stories!

And so begins the blessing and the curse of the short week. Today we are celebrating a birthday in Loma Linda, and tomorrow will hopefully be a lovely beach day.

As my choir professor at Union used to say: Gird your loins, folks, this is gonna be tough!

Week 2 Sum-up

ED: I wrote this last Friday but just got around to taking after pictures today. Sorry 'bout that. Well, this week was an interesting one with all the faucet drama, but by 5:00 yesterday I had my cleaning goals finished for the week. I still don't know how to imbed pictures into the text, so you'll have to look at the pictures at the bottom of the post.
First, I vacuumed and washed the walls in the kitchen that don't have cabinets on them. I also scrubbed the baseboards, which, with a dog who chases his little snack bowl all over the kitchen when we give him table food, get pretty nasty. And, sad to say, I have not been good about cleaning baseboards ... But they are sparkling now.
Then I started on the far wall where the window and sink are. I cleaned out two drawers and two cabinets, though technically Robert cleaned out the one under the sink. I haven't put anything back in there yet since we're not quite done with the faucet drama. The other cabinet houses two 5-gallon buckets for dog food and organic beans, which we buy in bulk. I also keep my canning jars, plastic food storage containers and lids, and extra foil, baggies, parchment paper, etc. And there was a lot of junk under there too, which has been there for a LOOOOONG time. I don't know if you can see the date on the baking soda box, but it expired in 1996. I don't know what the normal shelf life for baking soda is, but I'm pretty sure that box has been there for at least 20 years. It's now in the trash, and there's a lot of plastic silverware, used but clean (sort of) plastic bags, and old dirty paper plates and cups, in the recycling bin. Now the cabinet has the two (cleaned) buckets, a pared-down collection of canning jars, my plastic containers, and the extra baggies, foil, etc.
I cleaned the cabinet doors on both sides, as well as the edges, and cleaned the cabinet frames and inside the cabinet as well. I also cleaned the two drawer faces and edges, and reorganized/purged the drawers. The first drawer was easy as I had organized it in my nesting frenzy last Spring, so all I had to do was clean the utensil holders which collect crumbs like nobody's business.
The other drawer ... Oh, gracious. I obviously haven't cleaned it in the five and a half years I've lived here, and I don't think it had been cleaned out for a good long time before that either. We use the drawer for plastic wrap, foil, and wax paper, but hidden back in the way back of the drawer were about nine million twist ties, some used and some new, cracked and broken rubber bands, packets of chile flakes from some restaurant, tons of used but clean (sort of) bags and foil, and years and years worth of crumbs and general grunge. It now has a packet of birthday candles, a roll of plastic, a roll of foil, and a roll of wax paper.
Ahhhh, it feels so good to purge. I'm looking forward to cleaning the rest of the drawers and cabinets. A place for everything and everything in its place. And sometimes that place is the garbage can.
My other goals: I didn't waste any food (Hallelujah, thank You, Lord), I prayed each day though not for my designated 15 minutes (why can't I keep focused for 15 minutes? Seriously, it's not that hard!), and I read a little extra in the Bible readings this week since February is a short month. This week was a BAD sleep week for Karlina, but I managed to keep my head from exploding. And for that, I thank God for my husband, who helped me put her back down twice this week even though he had to work. Why is it that K can scream and scream for almost an hour when I try to put her back down, but Robert can get her back to sleep in fifteen to twenty minutes? Daddies are magic, that's why.
Okay, you ready for a whole slew of before and afters? Sometimes this mobile Blogger app switches the order of my pictures. Blogging from a phone because you don't own a computer is lame. Sorry.

Week 3 Sum-up: Losing steam

This week was a good week, and I'm  tired like I worked a lot, but I don't have much to show for it. I lined all the cabinets and drawers on one wall of cabinets with contact paper and each drawer is organized and purged of unnecessary or unwanted items, including our hand-me-down silverware. The picture is of the "new" hand-me-down silverware that all matches. It's lovely, slim, elegant, and simple. Just my style. Robert was complaining that the forks were too narrow for him to eat fast enough. Sigh. I also threw a bunch of old tupperware into the recycle bin, along with the lids. There are two pictures of that cabinet below, but I'm sure they're not in order, so you'll have to figure out which one is before and which is after. The contact paper looks good, but I chose a green contact paper with white designs inspired by Heather over at Golden Reflections, which looked much nicer in her lovely white cabinets. The green is pretty close to the awful minty-green we have on our cabinets, but not close enough to avoid clashing. So, I think I want white cabinets, whenever we get around to painting.

I cleaned the wall and windowsill yesterday, but the window well is still hideously dirty. Perhaps I can clean that out today, but Robert wants to go adventuring this morning, so I'm not sure it will happen today. I still need to clean and re-contact-paper the spice cabinet as well, but I feel like I need to go out and buy matchy-matchy spice containers, and that's just not in the budget right now, nor do I have time. So, it'll be clean, but it'll still look like a disorganized mess. Sad face.

My other weekly goal of not blaming others was pretty successful, I think. Writing about it helped a lot, and hopefully having it written down will help me remember this place I'm in right now next time the Crazy creeps back in.

I successfully cooked every day this week so far. And it was good food. We have a few leftovers, but all of them together will make one meal for Robert and I today. So I'll still need to cook for today and tomorrow. My one new recipe was gluten-free vegan pancakes. We saved some for K since she loved them so much and she's been lunching on them all week.

My head stayed very firmly in place this week. Again, I think writing about my anger helped so much. I feel so so happy this week, I could just bubble over. I won't, don't worry.

Bible reading is still going well. I just started Numbers this morning, and I'll be finishing up the readings for February tomorrow. I've been reading during our early-morning nursing sessions, and this week proved difficult to stay awake, especially through Leviticus, but I persevered and made it through by God's grace.

Spring cleaning is running a bit behind now, but hopefully I can he caught up before Monday. Monday starts the gross and hard part of the kitchen, so I'm expecting that to take all week.

And just like that 3 weeks are up! I'm looking forward to Sabbath rest, as I always do, and looking for another surge of motivation.

Enjoy the weekend!

Week 3: ¡Ya se armo!

You know the beer commercial that says "Here we go!" Well, on Spanish TV they say "¡Ya se armo!"

Anyway.

We are heading back from the beach where we saw a couple of sea lions, many pelicans, and a Great Dane, much to K's squealing delight. Alas, now we are returning to reality, and the giant list of to-do's waiting for us in the Money Pit.

Weekly Goals: January 14-18

1. This week I'll be finishing up the far wall in the kitchen. My goal are to clean and organize four drawers and two cabinets, clean the wall and window, and scrub the window well, which I have never done since I moved here. Yuck.

2. Stop blaming everybody else for my issues. This is a huge part of my anger problem that leads to head explosion. I think I forsee a post topic here, so I won't elaborate in this post.

Monthly goals: January

1. Cook every day. I have my menus all planned for the week. And there's another post topic! Yay, and I was afraid of writer's block. Also, one new recipe this month: Done! We had gluten-free vegan pancakes this morning! K loved them so much she overate this morning.Here's the recipe.

2. Keep my head on straight. Had some shaky near-meltdowns this weekend, but I did not let my temper get to head-explosion levels. Neither of those was because of baby sleep or lack thereof, by the way.

Quarterly Goals: January - March

1. Read the entire Bible. Still on track.

2. Spring Cleaning. On track but would like to move a bit faster in the kitchen, there's still a LOT to do, and only three weeks left.

By the way, Robert fixed the leaks under the cabinet. Apparently there's a really bad video on about.com about teflon taping. Apparently we should have done more research. And apparently you can't believe everything you see on the internet.

Week 2: Aaaaand GO!

I am already so excited to start this week, I'm posting my goals a day early.

January 7-13:
1. Clean two blank walls, clean and organize two columns of drawers/cabinets in kitchen.
2. Pray for 15 minutes each day. Seriously. Last week I failed this one miserably. Clear mind, focus on talking to God. No distractions.
3. Do not waste food. This is such a touchy subject with Robert. Since I didn't cook every day last week, I have a bunch of food ready to croak if I don't cook it this week. Must cook!!!

Monthly goals: January
1. Cook every day, try one new recipe. Got to do better with this one.
2. Keep my head on straight. Doing okay, but can't let my guard down.

Quarterly Goals:
1. Read through the Bible. Still on track to finish by March 31.
2. Finish Spring Cleaning. Ahead of schedule!

Making my Crazy do a happy dance

So the spring cleaning link I posted left a little to be desired as far as being able to check things off the list. (I'm a little OCD, and those little check marks just make my Crazy do a little happy dance.) With a tiny baby in the house, it's more practical to go room by room. So I broke it down a bit and also customized it for our house. I am starting in the front of the house and working my way back, and I will finish with the bathroom since we just painted it in the fall and everything there is pretty much organized (and babyproofed) to my heart's content.

Living Room: 2 weeks
- Vacuum walls
- Dust everything
   - Picture frames
    - Windowsills and tracks
    - Furniture, removing and cleaning all items and shelves, filligree on tables
- Donate or throw away unwanted items
- Clean baseboards
- Vacuum couches
- Vacuum underneath furniture
- Wash curtains
- Clean windows
- Have carpet and couches cleaned
- Reorganize books so surfaces are clear
- Wash pillow covers

Kitchen: 3 Weeks
- Clean all walls and baseboards
- Clean refrigerator coils
- Clean underneath and behind fridge and stove
- Organize bag station
- Clean fridge including top and freezer, refresh baking soda
- Clean toaster oven
- Clean oven
- Clean cabinet faces
- Clean hood including filter and fan blades
- Clean and organize cabinets. Discard expired food. Babyproof.
- Clean and organize drawers
- Clean window well
- Clean countertops
- Clean and polish sinks
- Clean table glass, table top
- File papers in file box

Hallway: 1 Week
- Vacuum walls
- Clean baseboards
- Clean and organize cabinet and drawers
- Set up bookshelf, anchor to wall, stock bookshelf

Nursery: 2 Weeks
- Vacuum walls
- Dust everything: shelves, crib, all closet items
- Store old baby clothes
- Clean sap spots on floor
- Clean baseboards
- Organize closet
- Organize dresser
- Flip and switch mattresses (including crib mattress)
- Clean windowsill, window well
- Anchor or move bookshelves
- Install small floating shelves
- Patch and paint windowsill
- Sanitize toys
- Wash blinds

Bedroom: 2 Weeks
- Vacuum walls
- Finish painting
- Clean window well and sill
- Clean and organize dressers
- Clean and organize closet including tracks
- Rotate, vacuum mattress
- Dry clean comforter
- Buy sheets for box springs
- Wash blinds
- Clean baseboards

Bathroom: 2 weeks
- Clean walls and ceiling
- Clean cabinets inside and out, including dusting items
- Discard old cosmetics
- Stock First Aid kit
- Clean outside door, re-frost window
- Clean screens
- Clean fan
- Deep-clean shower tiles
- Clean faucet and handles
- Clean showerhead with polident

I plan on posting before and after photos, except where it's just too embarrassing, and then I'll just post the after photos. Ha!