Happy Monday!

Since I'm almost 30 years old (yikes!!) I should be aware enough of my body and how it works to know that I should not take Unisom to help me sleep. It helps me sleep, alright...and helps me oversleep and feed groggy for the entirety of the next day. It's a good thing I don't drink; with my metabolism, I think one drink would probably put me under the table.

I did better this week, accomplishing 2 of the 5 things on my list. I consider that a success, especially since Wendy was sick for several days and we were all sleep-deprived. The most important thing is that I was able to resume daily Bible study. So far, so good.

Here are my goals for this week:

1. Make the transition from disposable to cloth diapers! We've ordered the cloth diapers, and they should arrive in the middle of the week. I'm excited and apprehensive. If we can make it work, it will really help out my monthly grocery budget!

2. Make first batch of homemade laundry detergent. I found a recipe online, and found the ingredients at Kroger. I'm going to give it a try - if it works as well as the reviews indicate, this will be another source of big savings for my grocery budget.

3. Hang dining room valance. I'm going to keep including this until it gets done!!

4. Get house completely clean. I mean the downstairs; the upstairs is a whole different problem. I've had a lot of trouble keeping to a housecleaning schedule, because I'm not starting with a clean house. I think if I can just get it clean, I can probably keep it clean as long as I stick to the schedule.

5. Organize linen cabinet. It's all a big jumble!

Another slim-pickin' week! Next week should be much better.

Monday - leftover pulled pork, potato-corn cakes, peas

Tuesday - oven-fried chicken, green beans, brown rice

Wednesday - tuna casserole

Thursday - dinner at Mom & Dad's, TBA

Friday - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas

Saturday - chicken spaghetti casserole

Sunday - leftovers

Monday

Hello, Monday. Once again, I greet you grudgingly, exhausted from tending to a sick baby, behind in housework, overbudget, and discouraged. Sigh.

Let me start over:

Hello, Monday! What a bright, sunshiny morning! I have many things to accomplish, and a fresh new week in which to begin. Though I'm tired, Wendy's ailing, and we're a bit behind, we can make it through. With prayer, God's grace, and a little gumption, we may be able to implement the new household schedule!




When I said I was behind...seriously, I'm way behind. Of my five things listed last week, only 1/2 of one got done. Yikes. I'm going to re-state a few of last week's goals, and adopt them for this week:

1. Resume daily Bible study. I'll be starting an online study called Believing God, by Beth Moore. It's offered through LifeWay Christian Resources, and I think it'll be really good!

2. Clean out microwave, refrigerator, oven. Yuck. Must be done, or the mutated life forms that emerge might take over our house.

3. Hang dining room valance.

4. Put all laundry away! I have three laundry baskets full of clean, folded clothes. Why can I never just get them put away right after I fold them?!

5. Sort Wendy's clothes. I really need to see what she's got in terms of spring/summer for this year, and for fall/winter next year. I like to shop the end-of-season clearance sales.

Our menu for the next two weeks is going to be bare-bones kind of cooking. We're trying to get our food budget to a workable level, and the last half of the month is always more difficult.

You may notice that every Thursday night we go over to my parents' house. That's because Thursday night Survivor and Lost are on. We're big fans, but our TV is dying, and it's getting pretty fuzzy. If you watch Lost, you can imagine that watching it on a fuzzy TV is less than wonderful. My parents are also fans, so we head over there for dinner and a night of stranded-on-a-deserted-island television.

Monday - Oven-fried chicken, green beans, brown rice

Tuesday - Spaghetti

Wedneday - Pork chops, peas, mashed potatoes

Thursday - dinner at Mom & Dad's - to be determined

Friday - Smoked sausage, mac & cheese, broccoli, applesauce (one of James's favorite meals)

Saturday - Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans

Sunday - leftovers

Monday

I think this week might turn out to be our first normal week in about a month. After friends coming and going, a severe cold taking hold of us, and then recovering from the aftermath, I think we're close to being back on track. Wendy has indeed given up her morning nap, so I'm trying to accomodate having my oh-so-helpful "helper" around all morning long!

Here are the things I'd like to accomplish this week:

1. Get back to my daily personal Bible study. It's been weeks. And I had only been doing it for a couple of weeks at that point, so it wasn't really a habit yet. I'm planning to take my quiet time when Wendy first goes down for her nap.

2. Hang dining room valance. We've only been in our house for a year and a half - it's about time I put up the valance. I've had it for months. All I need to do is iron it and hang the rod.

3. Clean out fridge, microwave, and oven. If I wouldn't be totally shamed at my level of housekeeping, I'd post pictures - seriously, it's icky.

4. Clean our room. We've got this gigantic old wall unit thing in our bedroom. It's huge. It used to live in our living room and hold all of our TV stuff, pictures, games, puzzles, CDs, and stereo equipment. Like I said, it's a big piece of furniture. In our current house, it works best in our bedroom, but it's definitely a clutter-catcher. I need to clean it out, sort through the stuff, and get it organized.

5. Sort Wendy's clothes. It would be good to know where she stands on 2T things, so that I can shop sales for next winter's clothes. I'm going to try to cut back on the sheer volume of her clothes, so I need to have a good idea of what she's already got.

Meals for this week:

Monday: leftover Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie, applesauce

Wednesday: Chicken & Shrimp Jambalaya

Thursday: Chicken Picatta, Garden Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Friday: Beef Stroganoff, green beans

Saturday: Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad

Sunday: Breakfast for lunch - hard-boiled eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, fruit. Yum!

Planning my week...

This coming weekend, we're hosting a reunion of college friends - my roommate Yavonda, her husband Matt, and our suitemate Tassie, her husband Kevin, and their 6 year old daughter, Jael. This doesn't sound like a lot of people, right? I mean, it's just five folks, and they're only going to be here for two nights.

While I would consider these five people to be among my few favorite people on the planet, adding five to an already full tiny house is a challenge. A challenge that means the 3 Smiths will be sleeping in Wendy's room, the 2 Chases will be sleeping in the living room, and Wendy will be in our room. I'm not even sure that Wendy's Pack & Play will fit in our room. (Have I mentioned our house is tiny?)

(And have I mentioned that the only bathroom in the house is off the master bedroom? As in, guests have to walk through our bedroom to go potty in the middle of the night.)

Anyway, as a result of having guests next weekend, I'm going to be very busy this week, so a little planning is in order!

The recipes with links come from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, a site I heartily recommend. And if you enjoy photography, horses, or country living, check out her blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. (And yes, we go over to my parents' house a lot. They like to see Wendy several times a week.)

This week's menu:

Monday: Chicken & rice

Tuesday: Dinner @ Mom & Dad's

Wednesday: Chicken pot pie

Thursday: Dinner @ Mom & Dad's

Friday: Pot Roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, steamed broccoli, mocha fudge marble cake, chocolate ice cream

Saturday: Lasagna, salad, garlic bread, Apple Pie, vanilla ice cream

Sunday: Leftovers!

My list for this week is going to be somewhat extensive, due to the impending company. Here goes:

1. Clean kitchen. I mean really clean the kitchen. I know for a fact that my kitchen hasn't been sparkling clean since before Thanksgiving - about time I get to it, eh?

2. Laundry. Clean, fold, & put away all laundry that has been lurking in various baskets and piles. Put away Wendy's outgrown clothes. Put away all give-away clothes.

3. De-fur the house. Vacuum all upholstery, spot clean upholstery, vacuum baseboards & hidden spots. Pause to be thankful that none of my guests are allergic to cats.

4. Figure out better toy storage. Wendy's toy basket was overflowing before Christmas. Now I think it might be taking over the living room. As I type, her basket is piled high, and still on the floor there are her unicorn, her push & spin toy, a baby doll, some puzzles, her princess ball, her See 'n Say, and lots of books. And that's just scratching the surface. (And I must mention - we didn't get her anything for Christmas, and Santa only brought her one toy and snacks for her stocking. The rest of the stuff is from grandparents, primarily from Grammy in FL.)

5. Get mattress pad washed. Someone - you decide who - committed a urinary indiscretion on our bed a few weeks ago. The mattress pad has since been waiting for a trip through one of those super-capacity washers at the laundromat. I just haven't been brave enough to entertain Wendy while sitting in a laundromat waiting on my laundry. But it's GOT to be done.

6. Try to cling to the shreds of my sanity.

Have a great week!

Monday

Anyone who knows my girlie knows that she is a very easy-going, sweet-tempered, silly girl. Therefore, her behavior of the past several days is distressing. I thought maybe the "Terrible Twos" were coming at 15 months. During her waking hours (of which there were WAY too many) she was demanding and loud, throwing purple-in-the-face tantrums at every obstacle to her whims. For the first time in many months, I was ready to find the "Return to Sender" stamp, mark her on the forehead, and stuff her in the mailbox.



I'm kidding. I would never really do this. Because she wouldn't fit in the mailbox.



So last night during a screaming fit I noticed something in her mouth...something that wasn't there before. So naturally I poked my finger in her mouth and found - molars! The poor sweetie cut her first two upper molars! I wasn't expecting it, and was attributing her bad behavior to, umm, brattiness. But no! Two molars have cut. And now that they're down, my baby has mostly returned to her normal sweetness. I'm so glad!!

My friend Tiffany has started a "Monday Madness" theme in which she lists 5 things to get done that week. I think I'll join in, because I'm forever making lists and not accomplishing my tasks. Maybe putting them out in the blogosphere will make me more accountable to myself. Here goes for this week:

1. Put up the Christmas tree. I know, I know, we're way behind. I intended to put it up last week, and then there was the plumbing fiasco, and here we are, just a few days from Christmas, with not a decoration in sight. Unless you count two rolls of wrapping paper sitting on top of the piano as decoration.

2. Wrap presents. This is probably my least-favorite task of the holiday season. I enjoy the planning, shopping, baking, decorating, but I do NOT like wrapping. But as soon as I can see the dining room table again, I plan to start wrapping. Which leads to #3...

3. Find dining room table. I have not been the housekeeper I should be for the past...umm...we've been married 9 years. In our current house, we have a dining room between the kitchen and living room. We have a nice dining table with nice chairs. And currently said dining table and chairs are loaded down with piles of junk. The junk mail that didn't make it to the trash. The half-finished craft project. The pet supplies that I was sifting through the other day. Coupons. Receipts. You get the idea. If I find the table, we'll move on to #4

4. Start having meals at the table instead of in the living room. Wendy needs to learn to eat at the table instead of sitting in our laps. And also, when we sit in the living room to eat, it's way to easy to turn on the TV and zone out, instead of interacting with each other.

5. Get ready for our trip to Florida next week. We're leaving the day after Christmas to go visit the Allen/Martin clan in Tallahassee. We need to leave as early in the morning as possible, since it's such a long drive. Therefore, I need to be prepared in advance!

Wish me luck in accomplishing my tasks!