Health and Organization

It's another New Year.  Another opportunity for a clean, fresh start.  A time for evaluation of your own life and a time to figure out how to make yourself a better person.  At the start of each year I have such a flood of emotions.  Most of the time I can't believe that another year has gone by so quickly.  I can't believe that a whole year went by without me accomplishing all that I set out to accomplish.  But then I have to remind myself that baby steps are key.  When I set out to change my life 180 degrees in just 12 months, it's overwhelming.  When I set obtainable goals, I can accomplish them and also feel good about myself and my accomplishments. 

As always, physical health is at the top of my list of resolutions.  For Christmas our family received a present of a Kinect and found a few games that we can all play together.  The great thing about the Kinect is that it gets you moving.  You have to actually move around to play the games and we can all do it together.  I hope that moving around together as well as the walking around we do in the city will help to jump start increased physical activity this year.  Of course part of physical health is what you eat, so we are going to continue our meal planning and continue to make healthy choices.  It's hard to say no to a bowl of ice cream, but if I can say yes to veggies more, than there doesn't have to be that guilt associated with the occasional bowl of ice cream.

Living in a small space, organization is the key to a sane life.  I am going to strive to keep our small home organized and picked up.  I started with Munchkie's room this weekend.  We learned why toy boxes aren't exactly the best option for toy organization shortly after putting her toys in the toy box.  The toys all fall to the bottom and most of them don't get played with.  When they do get played with, the toy box usually gets emptied and spills over into the living room and if we're lucky, (not) into our bedroom.  Now when she wants to play with something, she can pull the box down and play with  those toys.  Then she knows that she has to put all of those away before she can get a different toy to play with.  She saw this and was so excited, she kept saying "oh my toys!  My cars are all here!  All my baby things!"  I think that she will be happy to have all of her toys accessible and we will be happy that they will not be spilling over and out of her room.

There are other goals that I have set for myself for this year, but these (in addition to blogging more- check) I have already started.  Hopefully this year I can continue to accomplish goals and change my life for the better.  Happy New Year! 

Taking Baby Steps

Lately I've been feeling like I can hardly hold things together. I feel like I can't do anything well.  I think that a lot of it is our "fresh" start, which feels more difficult than fresh.  I had set all of these goals and guidelines for myself when we moved and I feel as thought I have let my family and myself down.  The very first blog I started reading was Simple Mom and somehow she has managed to post something at the exact time that I needed it.  It is beyond eery the timing of her posts.  I have commented on this to Munchkie's Daddy and close friends several times, and it's happened again.  Tsh (that's her name, interesting isn't it?) recently had a post on Imperfection and discussed how we cannot be perfect, then another blog I read Simple Organic posted The Truth About What I Don't Do inspired by Tsh's post..  I really appreciated reading that someone else, someone who inspires me, isn't as perfect as I picture them in my head. This may sound weird, but it took a huge weight off of my shoulders.

I have been struggling with loneliness in this move, but then I guess I added a bunch of other unneeded stresses to my life as well.  I thought that I would magically love doing dishes, so decided that we could survive without a dishwasher to be "frugal" and "eco friendly."  I thought that somehow I wouldn't mind folding and putting away clothes, which just isn't the case, and it's even more apparent in a two foot square apartment.  I also thought that I would be ok with working in a hospital setting, rotating shifts between days and nights, working weekends and holidays, which is just really difficult.  I thought that taking public transportation would be the easy way to do things, not three to four times longer than actually driving.

I should have realized that the stressors of moving, starting over and flipping my way of life around was enough to deal with.  I shouldn't have added onto myself the need to be perfect as well.  Because that isn't obtainable.  Nobody's perfect, nobody does everything right.  I certainly am the furthest thing from perfect, and I think that the last few weeks have really hit me hard in these respects.  When I don't obtain a goal I set for myself I get so discouraged that I don't think I can obtain any goal I set for myself.  Which then makes me fall further and further from the direction I was going.  I get so overwhelmed by my backtracking that I have a hard time moving forward and this is the place I am in now.  I feel that I have backtracked on my goals and can't quite figure out how to start working on them again. 

As the article on Simple Organic said today, baby steps.  You can only take baby steps.  So I think that my baby step will be to go to bed, since it's late, wake up in a little while and after taking Ana to daycare, do the dishes.  I think that I will also write out my goals so that I have a list and once there's a list, there's a responsibility to cross things off.

• Do the dishes as they get dirty- not put them by the sink for later
• Vacuum several times a week
• Do laundry on a regular basis and
• put the clothes away as they are clean.
• Loose those last 20 pounds
• Exercise (I was going to say exercise more, but then that would be a lie, so we'll just start with exercise)
• Meal plan
• Cut out TV
• Sleep more at night, so I'm not tired and unproductive during the day
• Get out and make friends
• Complete the sewing project that I have all of the supplies for.
• Hang pictures on the walls
• Keep the kitchen counter clutterfree

I think that is a good start for now.  With some baby steps I think that I can get past this funk that I am in right now.

New Home: Financial Makeover

With our recent move we've decided to do a huge overhaul on our finances.  Munchkie's Daddy is starting his doctorate program and is receiving a living stipend for the first time, small as it may be, and it's a huge help.  We have watched our friends all buy houses, and it kills me (and Munchkie's Daddy too I think) to continue throwing money away on rent.  We are currently living in this ridiculously tiny apartment so that we can save money on rent since this area is unbelievably expensive.  We both read Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and are going to begin to aggressively attacking our debt.  Hopefully at the end of Munchkie's Daddy's five year stent, we're going to be ahead a little bit and will be able to buy a roof over our heads instead of giving that money to someone else.

My good friend over at Our Tiny House recently posted about her family's plan to be frugal.  She stays at home with her super cute little girl and shares how they make it work on one income. 

Our Tiny House- My Frugal Family

I have always admired her thriftiness and creativity.  She's amazing at finding hidden treasures at garage sales and thrift stores, getting great deals everywhere she goes.  That combined with her organization and financial structure make her the epitome of frugal.  For example, her she talks about disciplined they are "First off, I keep track of every penny we spend, where it goes, what it was spent on. This way, at the end of the month, we can see where we went right, where we went wrong, and what we have."  She also gives an example of the things that she and her mother have found thrifting and garage saleing and it's incredible!  Click on that link above and read her plan, and I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover.

Yay! E-i-zing!

I have tried countless times to get into exercising.  To be honest, I just hate it.  It's something that I dread, but I know that I have to do.  I don't enjoy sweating.  I don't enjoy huffing and puffing.  I don't enjoy feeling like I'm going to die.  I don't enjoy having to take the time to get ready afterwords. I just don't like it.  Munchkie's Daddy and I say frequently that we wish we were the kind of people who craved running or weight lifting instead of craving Cheese-its or ice cream.  We're just not those kind of people.  Munchkie's Daddy sent me this article on How Exercise Makes Us Feel Good from the NY Times and I know that you are supposed to feel good when you exercise, but it's actually building up the motivation to start exercising that's the problem.  When you anticipate the sweating, shortness of breath, feeling of death, you have to really psych yourself up to exercise.  We are moving soon to an area that relies mostly on public transportation, bikes or your own two feet to get around and so I feel that we need to really work on our physical fitness.  If I'm miserable exercising and I have to run a few blocks to catch a train, I'm going to be out of breath, sweating and miserable before I even get to work.  Not something I'm looking forward to.

I subscribe to several of the Simple Living Media blogs and in their newsletter they highlighted this post on Simple Family Fitness and it caught my eye.  I have always been someone who needed someone to exercise with and keep me motivated.  Who's better to keep you motivated than your family?  So I did some blog hopping from that post and went to fitfamilytogether.com to read some more.  Munchkie's Daddy really like the idea too and so I signed up for the 7 day challenge.  We went on our first family walk together when I woke up today.  I have to go back into work tonight, but instead of wanting to lay on the couch and not do anything, I'm feeling pretty good.  We had such a fun time and hope to continue going on family walks and bike rides. In the words of Munchkie "Yay Mommy, we're e-i-zing! look at me! I running!"

I Did It!

In the words of Munchkie "Look at me!  I did it!"  I finally have grown my hair out.  I cut it on the second day of my honeymoon over 5 years ago and have not managed to grow it back out since then.

With super thick and what I call "naturally nasty" (not curly, not straight, not wavy, defiant and frizzy) hair every time I would start to get my hair long, it would get warm out.  As it gets warmer I have no desire to blow dry my hair and start sweating minutes after taking a shower.  So my solution to not having to spend time on my hair would be to chop it off.  I actually had grown it out a good amount, and then Munchkie was born and I went in when she was less than two weeks old to have several inches taken off.  This (pic below) was my hair two years ago at a friend's wedding.  I am so proud of myself for growing it out.  It may seem like a little thing, but to me it has been a struggle for five years.

You might ask why I would want to grow my hair out if it's such a struggle.  Well, first off, because Munchkie's Daddy likes long hair and secondly because it makes me feel empowered to meet a goal I set for myself.  Even if that goal was initially set to make someone else happy.  Every time I went into the salon and ask for it to be chopped off, I would feel so relieved to have an easy, quick style.  But then I would feel this little hint of regret, like I had given up on a goal and was unable to achieve it.  It feels really good to realize that after several years, my goal has been met. 

See you later short mom hair!  

Goooodbyyyyyye Diapers....... I hope!

Last week when Munchkie's Daddy and Munchkie came to pick me up from work Munchkie's Daddy was telling me about how Munchkie had pooped in her diaper that morning.  So I said to her "Munchkie why did you poop in your pants?"  to which she responded while shrugging her shoulders "diapy on."  At that moment I knew that there was no need for diapers anymore.  Munchkie was perfectly capable of using the potty, but knew that she could be lazy and go in her diaper, so she did.  At home we had been trying to use undies, but at daycare we were sending her in diapers because I was afraid she would have too many accidents.   They finally told me that I needed to stop confusing her, that they are called accidents for a reason.  So, we sent her in underwear on Thursday.  I have at least 5 pairs of underwear, 6-7 outfits and 7+ pairs of socks in her bin at daycare, just in case, as required.  But I was still quite nervous.  And GUESS WHAT!  She came home in the exact same pair of underwear and pants that we sent her in!  I was so excited and so proud of her.

Today, I had several errands to run, but knew that I couldn't confuse her with diapers again.  I decided to be prepared and go with the understanding that my plans might change very quickly.  We first had to go to Target after dropping Munchkie's Daddy off at work.  Two stops to the potty there, with no results, but we left dry, so that was ok.  At Target I purchased a "piddle pad" for her car seat.  I've learned several times what a pain taking apart that carseat is! A waterproof pad couldn't hurt right?

During our parent-teacher conferences (yes, for our 2 year old), Munchkie's teacher said that it's a good idea to keep a potty in your car for times that there isn't a bathroom available or the public bathroom option is scaaaaary.  We obviously followed the experienced teacher's suggestion and put a small potty in the back of our car.

Today I got it all ready for our day of activities.  I have a small bucket of extra undies and a bucket of extra pants.  A waterproof mat and the toilet all set up.  I also have a package of wipes specifically for the car.  The best part is, we didn't even have to use it!  Yay!  We went through our entire day without any accidents!

Munchkie even said one time when we were just approaching the frozen food aisle "potty time Mama."  So I of course raced to the customer service to leave my cart, raced to the bathroom and came out of the experience with dry pants.

Now, I am completely expecting accidents to happen.  But I think that we have an underwear wearing toddler on our hands now.  I am so proud of her and so glad to be close to ditching the diapers.  I know we haven't been as dedicated to the potty training as we should have been probably, but it seems that now Munchkie is really ready.  She can tell when she has to go, and almost every time we put her on the potty she does go.  Sometimes we hear "too working!"  which translates, "it's not working," and so we give her something to drink and try again in a little while.

We also started using the sticker chart because I have found stickers all over our house in all kinds of inappropriate places.  On walls, washed onto shirts, on pieces of furniture and in coffee cups.  I hope that soon we will have this whole chart filled.

Anyone have any additional tips for potty training?  Since we are just winging this and trying to figure it out for ourselves, any advice is MUCH appreciated!

Spring Cleaning

This weekend we took advantage of the Gap Get & Give discount and did some shopping to update our wardrobes (it's amazing the freedom you feel to have a monthly car payment off your shoulders!).  Since most of my clothes were bought off a clearance rack, therefore awkwardly fitting or just plain didn't fit at all, I needed to add some pieces to my limited clothing selection.  Munchkie's Daddy and I are looking forward to a trip we are taking in May for our anniversary (five years already!) so we also had to make sure we had appropriate clothing for the dress requirements and extreme heat of a Riveria Maya resort.

We first headed to the aquarium to let Munchkie have some fun and tire out.  Then we headed to the outlets for some serious shopping.  After several hours pouring over racks and revisiting dressing rooms we finally arrived home with our purchases.  I, of course always have to analyze the things I spend my money on and so laid out all of my clothes to make sure that they all had my approval for a second time.

Then I explained to Munchkie's Daddy the importance of cleaning out our closets, that we have clothes we haven't worn in a long time. One of my favorite blogs, and the one that introduced me into the world of blogging, SimpleMom.net, is having a several week serious of cleaning out your home.  This past week's was the closet and I realized that our closets do need some attention.  Although I have taken several garbage bags of clothes to various clothing drop boxes over the past several months, I still have clothes that I go to put on and realize that they are no where near fitting me anymore.  Time to free up the oh-so-precious-and-quite-limited closet space.  So after standing in our closets throwing clothes behind us, my pile looked something like this.

How does one even have space to hold all of these misfitted articles of clothing?  We have had our bed raised so we could fit storage containers underneath our bed and that is where most of my clothes have been stored.  This is an especially bad place to keep them because it's out of sight, out of mind.  Thankfully I had brought it down to two tubs previous to this extreme clean so there wasn't nearly as much to go through.  I had to tell myself as I pulled each article out to examine.

When did you last wear this?  How do you feel while wearing it?  Does it flatter you?  Is it even in the right size? 

If it didn't pass these questions.  Behind me it went.  It took several minutes to muster up the courage to throw some of them behind me.  It's a little piece of history that's being discarded and thrown out of your life.  There were several times when I knew something needed to go, but couldn't do it, so I would hold it up for Munchkie's Daddy and say "What do you think of this?"  Each time hoping that he would say, "Oh I love that, don't throw it away."  Those words never came out of his mouth.  I think once he did say "Well that is a nice dress" and it wasn't even something I wanted to keep.  Haha!  By the time I was finished with this closet massacre my closet looked quite bare and I wished that I would have looked a little harder while I had that coupon available.  It is actually kind of fun to shop for clothes now that I can get normal sizes.  I don't have to be embarrassed by how I look in something or what size I have to find.  I've been dreading it for so many years now that I go in, get down to business, and get out before many tears were shed.

This is now every article of clothing that I own.  Other than socks, underwear, etc.  I have the above tub of Tshirts, pj pants and hoodies that will go back under my bed.  The pair of capris will hang right there on my closet door.  Those are my next motivator.  I bought them because I can button them, but they definitely aren't comfortable or well fitting yet.  I need something to look at and to motivate me to not late night binge or unnecessarily carb load due to stress induced cravings and moments of lost self control.  I hope that these capris are just the motivation that I need.  Although, it would be better to hang them from the pantry or refrigerator, I will have to settle with my closet door.    

After our cleaning time we filled three trash bags full of clothes.  I will need to finish up all of our laundry so I can pull out the items I have been wearing that I shouldn't be.  Such as the burnt orange XXXL top that looks hideous.  Needless to say, it makes me feel very good to have a closet with some nice looking items in it.  It is cleaned out and organized just the way I like it.  I can go up into our room and sigh, because it's not an overwhelming mess or a job too big for me to tackle.  It's already taken care of.  And I can pull any item out of my closet and feel confident wearing it.  No more hours spent trying on and then discarding clothes in front of the mirror attempting to find something in my closet that is wearable.

Lenten Sacrifice

With each year that passes the season of Lent becomes more meaningful to me.  Throughout the year I find that I am making sacrifices for a variety of reasons.  Some are selfish, some out of necessity and some because I'm a wife and mother.  Each year there is a period of time in our lives that demand us to spend some serious time focusing on sacrifice and bettering yourself in a way that is different than the time of resolution making for the New Year. I realize each year how important it is to have this designated period of time to focus on how I can become a better and stronger individual, wife, mother, family member and friend. 

I recently read this article from KitchenStewardship.com and it made me start thinking even more about the importance of the preparation for Lent.  I did a quick google search which of course took me to the most reliable source, Wikipedia.  So naturally that's where I decided to get my basic Lent information from.  The time of Lent is in remembrance of the 40 days the Jesus spent in the desert alone.  For this time he fasted for the forty days and was tempted by Satan three times.  While he was tempted he was able to prevail against the devil by using scripture as his arguments.

So this means to me that I need to focus for these forty days on several things.  I need to figure out what is something I depend on that would be a difficult sacrifice for me to make.  I need to examine my life and find what consumes my idle time, keeping me from becoming a better person and christian. Then I need to focus strengthening my relationship with this man who made so many sacrifices for me (and I don't mean my husband or father).

After much examination I have determined my plan of attack for this season of Lent.

• I will be giving up sweets because this is something that I crave and feel like I "have to have."  I have given up sweets each year but I also struggle with it each year because I am tempted every time desert crosses my path during these forty days.  
• Munchkies Daddy and I have decided to give up TV.  We know that we spend a lot of time wasted in front of the television and want to find other valuable, productive ways to spend our time.  
• During this time I am also going to spend time daily in prayer and devotion.  I find time daily to waste time online, in front of the TV or doing who knows what.  I want to spend some of that wasted time studying the Bible so that I can have the strength to get through difficult times in life.

So for tomorrow, Fat Tuesday, I will spend my last day until Easter eating chocolate and watching chic flicks with a good friend.  And then my plan of attack starts Wednesday morning.

So proud I could cry (and did)

This morning I was checking my email after getting home from work and Munchkie was standing next to me, all of the sudden she looked up at me and said "Elmo potty?"  I said "do you need to go sit on the Elmo potty?" She said "yeah, ok!"

So we went to the bathroom and sat on the potty.  Then she PEED IN THE POTTY!  She said "Yay!  Pee pee in potty!  Sticker!  Yay!"  Then I said "are you all finished or do you want to keep trying?"  She said "keep trying!"  and so she sat there and POOPED IN THE POTTY!

The cheers in our bathroom were probably pretty similar to sports bars across Wisconsin last night.  As soon as she was finished she reminded me that she got two stickers, a "peepee sicker, poopoo sicker, 1, 2"

I was so proud of my little Munchkinroo!  It may have been the exhaustion from last night being my third night in a row at work, but I was so overwhelmed by how grown up my little baby is.  She's not a little baby anymore.  Not at all.  She can tell us when she has to go potty.  I'm just so stinkin proud.  What a huge accomplishment.  Now if only we could get rid of that bop (pacifier)........

Pink!

It's amazing how everything you do is a lesson when you have kids.  Cutting up an apple for Munchkie I say "this apple is red, how many pieces do you want?  1, 2, 3,4,...."  Putting on clothes is a lesson in colors, driving down the street you count the cars, etc.  After doing this for months, you just wait and hope that what you are doing actually helps.  So when a couple weeks ago when I went to get Munchkie out of her crib in the morning and she pointed to my shirt and said "Pink!"  I literally almost started crying.  I got so excited and said "Yes! Yes! That's right!  Good Job Munchkie!" and she started pointing out all the colors she could see.  Probably to get more praise, but still.
Ever since then if she focuses and doesn't goof off she knows most of her colors.  At least the basic ones.  It was like she woke up that day and decided that she wanted to know her colors.  At first she would point and say the color as a question, but now she says each one with confidence.  It's truly amazing to me and I ask her all the time what color different things are.  Now when we are riding in the car she's say "lellow!" and I'll have to look all over to see where she's pointing. 
It makes me feel like maybe I am doing something right.  Just maybe.  She hasn't hit anyone at daycare (that I know of), she mostly knows her colors, she can count to 3 (sometimes 4 if she feels like it) and she knows the alphabet to D.  I'm really proud of her and hope that I can continue do something right.