Progress is Progress

One of the great things about FLYlady is that she encourages Baby Steps. Sometimes I feel like there is no way I can make a huge difference just working for 2-5 minutes on an area at a time. But wow! It really does. Just looking around, the little areas that are now clear of the usual clutter seem to actually brighten up the room and make it seem larger! See for yourself in my progress pictures below.
It is amazing how the littlest bit of progress can bring a smile to my face and give me that warm fuzzy feeling that leads to motivation for me! For example, FLYlady starts with a shiny sink. I am happy to announce that my sink has been dishes free and shiny 24-7 for a little over 2 weeks now! Coming home and walking into my kitchen only to find it CLEAN makes me feel good. I used to come home to clutter (which was made worse by us dropping whatever we brought with us in the usual "Hot Spots"), and dishes in the sink or on the counter. Walking into "that" kitchen after being gone made me feel so "UGH." I would say "Man, I need to clean this kitchen." But then would walk out, only to not return until time to cook. And then I dreaded cooking because I knew I had to actually wash a pan to be able to use, or clean stuff up to be able to find a spot in my sink or on my counter to cook. But now, when I walk into my kitchen, my shiny sink and clean counters seem to say "Welcome Home!!"
And then my living room, I had a few spots that were cluttered - the corner where the baby stuff that was only used occasionally, Carissa's bookshelf of movies, puzzles, and coloring books, the end table where the car seat and diaper bags and everything else got dumped, Carissa's "play zone" where all her toys somehow ended up, and the mantel (just to name a few). I have slowly been making progress in this room, and it seems to brighten up the room and make it feel so much more welcoming. My Hot Spot that I finally finished today was my mantel. I actually LOVE looking at our mantel now! I keep admiring it ... where as before, it was something I wish I could hide.
One of our newest FLYing lessons is Making our Bed! I was horrible about making it! Mostly because I wasn't getting out of it until I had to jump into my "Mommy Job" and never made it back. Now when I get up, David is usually still in the bed and I lay Kathryn on my side after she nurses and goes back to sleep while I start my day. But I have started making it part of my routine to go back in and make it after breakfast - which is when the bed is finally empty. It doesn't matter how clean my room is, if the bad is bad .. the whole room looks bad. And vice versa. I still have clutter and other areas to finish in my room, but having my bed made makes my whole room look 10x better! Much like my shiny sink seems to smile at me, so does my made bed. I walk into my room periodically through the day, and am greeted with yet another warm welcome - this time from my bed. It is a wonderful feeling walking from room to room and having happy feelings throughout - not dreading looking in a room. For once, I didn't hurry to shut my bedroom door when my family was over today! This making the bed habit is also starting to work with Carissa. Every morning when I go to get her when she wakes up, we "make bed." She repeats "make bed" over and over while she helps me pull the sheets up to her pillow! And if she wakes up before I've made mine, she says "make mommy's bed" ... so she helps me make mine! One day I forgot to make hers, and no sooner had we made it to the living room and she said "make bed."
I am thrilled that I am learning good housekeeping practices that I can teach my children at such a young age - in hopes that someday they will be able to keep up their own homes for their families. :)

And our newest assignment for today was to set a bed time and stick to it!
My official bedtime is 11pm. Kathryn seems to consistently wake up between 6:30-7, so if I can get in bed by 11, I should get a good 7.5-8 hours of sleep (if she sleeps all night). Right now, because she is not on a permanent routine yet, I will abide by a bedtime between 11-12, and take baby steps to work to being in bed by 11pm! :) ...
With that being said, it is 11:30 ... so I am off to bed.



Enjoy my progress report pictures!

Room Rescue #1 - Before

Room Rescue #1 - After

Hot Spot #3 - Before

Hot Spot #3 - After

Room Rescue #2 - Before

Room Rescue #2 - After

Hot Spot #4 - Before

Hot Spot #4 - After

What a Week ....

I can't believe how quickly weeks seem to fly these days. But I think it has something to do with how much we cram so much into our days!
A little recap of our week goes a bit like this ...
Saturday, the day after going to Marbles, was just "one of those days" for Mommy. Daddy worked most of the day, we were exhausted from an already busy week, Kathryn cut her second tooth and all these teethy problems made her quite cranky, Carissa wanted Mommy all to herself and showed me the definition of a "typical 2 year old." This was a day I cherished bedtime!
Sunday, I got up early to finish getting all of our stuff together for our busy day (and thankfully this went smoothly thanks to all my FLYing lately!), went to church, grabbed lunch on the go, and traveled the two and a half hours to visit our favorite photographer, Lisa at Simply Southern Photography ( http://simplysouthernstudio.com/ ). We had a fun time taking pictures for Carissa's 2nd Birthday and Kathryn's 3rd Month! As always, it was well worth our drive and we enjoy getting to visit with friends. We had dinner together and let Carissa and Jonah (Lisa and Keith's son who is about 3 months younger than Carissa) run around outside and play together! I thoroughly enjoy seeing her get so excited about playing with friends her age! They enjoyed riding in the wagon together, shrieking, jabbering, and outright giggling! They found "shiny rocks," tried to open doors of this random building, and smelled the pretty flowers.
After a while of letting them play, we had to say our "good byes" to make the long trek back home ... which was made even longer by a teething 3 month old and a nap-less 2 year old tag team screaming and Handy Manny theme song on repeat! Woo, what a fun drive! :)
We finally made it home at 10pm that evening ... just in time for Daddy to catch the last hourish of the Redskins game. Because the girls had been wound tight from the ride, we let them stay up to relax with us. Daddy found himself a new football loving buddy! She sat with Daddy on the "couch" to "watch Game" and she cheered right along with Daddy! She learned "First Down" and "Touch Down" and of course "Oh no" and "Come on!" She has also learned to say "Go Redskins." (She also learned "Go Gators" for Mommy and seems to quite enjoy saying that one without prompting!) We are raising her right :) After the game, she went to bed. When she woke up the next morning, we asked her if she wanted to watch Disney Channel ... and she said, "Watch Game!" Daddy is thrilled!
Monday - Mommy worked on FLYing and did some grocery shopping. ... And Kathryn decided it was time to start a growth spurt! We also introduced a tiny bit of rice cereal once a day for her - which she LOVES. She already tries to grab the spoon and feed herself.
Tuesday - more growth spurt and FLYing/reorganizing of parts of my living area.
Wednesday - end growth spurt - finally some sleep! Did some shopping for Carissa's party. And my church/work day.
Which brings us to today! I knew my Nana, Grandpa, and Aunt & Uncle were planning to leave this morning to come up, well I found out they decided to leave last night to spend today with us. (For once I didn't freak out about my house! It was already clean and ready for company yay!) They called at 5:30 this morning to say they were already in Clayton. I went ahead and got up and waited for them. When they arrived, I went out to greet them. All of a sudden, my sister, Kaley, came running around the side of the van! They completely surprised me! I had no idea she was coming up. .... Even DAVID knew for a couple days that she was coming!! I visited with them a while, Kathryn woke up at 6:30, nursed, and I began my day FLYing. Carissa just LOVES playing with Auntie Kaley, and loves her Ninny. Slowly warming up to everyone else.
Everyone but Kaley, went to the hotel to rest and I was able to start and finish all of the goody bag totes for Carissa's friends for her party. It's been a fun and long day!
Tomorrow holds a mini-party for Carissa to open presents from Florida family since they brought a lot (give her shifts instead of opening everything at her party), lunch out to Golden Corral, and then I get to organize and make final prep for Carissa's party!
It is so weird. I already feel ahead of the game on getting ready for her party, but it's because I am not used to NOT procrastinating. I usually am working on stuff the day before and cramming it all in the night and morning of. After finishing a lot of stuff today, I told David that I felt like her party was tomorrow!
I am so looking forward to my sweet darling's Minnie Mouse birthday party on Saturday!! I doubt I will blog anything until after that party ... so be on the look out for fun stories and pictures from her party!

"Markles" and That Thing Called 'Sleep'

First things first .... sleep is a major topic of interest when a wee one is in the house. Our precious Kathryn had settled into a nice routine of sleeping from 11-7. While it left very little "Mommy Time" or "Mommy and Daddy Time," it was acceptable because it meant Mommy could sleep 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. As of late, our darling has decided it's time to settle into a "normal routine" ... one that includes an earlier bedtime. I am thrilled that she is finally starting to settle into a predictable nap schedule, having so much more awake time during the day, and I do love having evenings to unwind and relax (and spend time with my hubby). The "joy" that comes along with changing the norm with a 3 month old is working out the kinks! Right now, that means learning how to go to sleep (and sleep all night), without waking til morning. Yay for an earlier bedtime, but boy it's making it harder on mommy waking up twice a night again after being spoiled with uninterrupted sleep. I was doing so well with waking up at 6:30-7 with her and staying awake after she drifted back to sleep, until she decided she needs to wake up at 1am, 5am, and 6:30 again. I am just plain too pooped to get out of bed at 6:30 for the day and have been drifting back to sleep with her. Boy that really puts a damper on my nice routines I was putting into place. Our peanut went to bed at 9pm tonight (after having a semi-cluster nursing before bed). Here's to hoping for a full night of sleep!

Now onto "Markles." I am sure you are wondering what in the world I am referring to. Today we took Carissa on a field trip to Marbles Kid's Museum. When we told Carissa we were going to Marbles, she kept trying to combine "marbles" and "markers" together, and it came out as "Markles." So the whole way there, she kept asking for "markles." We had a blast.
We decided to forgo nap time today in hopes of missing the "school field trip crowds" and arrived at Marbles around 2pm.
Our first stop was the Splash exhibit! Of course Carissa LOVED it because of all the water! This child loves water! She first spotted the fountain outside, so we ventured out to see the water. There they also had a display for hydro-power. Carissa got to take the boat to the top and watch the water move the boat down to the end. After a while, she gave up on the slow moving boat and decided that it was more fun to scoop the water with the cup.




Her next favorite place was the submarine. She loved all the buttons she could push, the "lab" where she could look at a "specimen" under the black light using the tongs, and looking through the periscope. Daddy tried to take her on the pirate ship, but to his dismay she just drug him back to the submarine :) Poor Daddy :(






Next was the garden! Our little girl already loves to water plants, so we were excited to see they had a place for her to water plants. She picked up the first watering can, dipped into the bucket of water and dumped it all on the plant a couple times. Sat that can down, and moved onto the next. She did this with about 3 or 4 watering cans. I love that she has a love for nature!




We then moved on to the Around Town exhibit. Here she got to play with a train set, dress up and put on a show (well, she put on the galoshes and played on the stage), glue an art page, drive the fire truck, boat, car, and ambulance, see dinosaurs, go down a slide, and shop for some groceries. Her favorites were driving the car and the boat! :)
The whole time Carissa was playing, Kathryn was enjoying watching her every movement. It will be so neat to see the two of them run around playing together.




Once we finally convinced her to go see another exhibit, we stopped briefly in the Storybook Forest. Kathryn seemed to enjoy this exhibit more than Carissa. Carissa did not want us to stop, and sit down to read. She wanted to play! But Kathryn just LOVED it when Daddy started reading to her. At least until Carissa decided she'd had enough of that exhibit and headed off to the next. It was in this moment that David laid down my camera, almost to never be seen again. What was a great day almost ended tragically when alllllll of my pictures from the day went missing. It was at this point that I have no more pictures to upload - until I can get some from David's phone. Luckily though as we were about to leave (had to stop in the potty for Carissa), and when we came out someone was turning my camera into lost and found! What a relief!! I told David that I am going to stop letting him use my camera. I always end up needing my camera fixed or a new one because of him ;) But he lucked out this time :-D

The rest of the time was spent exploring neat things like making cars go down ramps, playing with Frigits (cool magnets that you can set up in such a way that when you drop a marble in it, the marble travels down the path from one piece to the next), a kitchen area, and sports area. Carissa had a blast in the kitchen area. She cooked, and stirred, and "ate," and made smoothies in the blender. But the cutest thing was seeing her wear a chefs hat. She had so much fun playing!
We have talked about getting the membership and taking her here often. She had a GREAT Day!
And afterward, as we were driving away both her and Kathryn fell asleep.
Although, we didn't travel home just yet. We stopped in and bought her a "pink bicycle" (aka tricycle) for her birthday. She is in love with it already! Hopefully it will escape her mind until next Saturday because we are hiding it tonight while she is sleeping so we can present it to her at her party! I am so thrilled that 6 months ago when we decided that her birthday would be a good time to get her a trike, we couldn't have been more right about the timing! She is in love with "bicycles" ... now we just have to teach her to use the pedals! :)It truly has been a wonderful family day!! I love when David and I both have the same day off! :)

The Power of the Timer

Today's assignment from The FLYlady was to set my timer for 15 minutes and get to work decluttering. Okay, so I think I cheated, because I started setting my timer for 15 minutes since Day 1. When you have a toddler in the house, the living room floor tends to go from spotless to tornado in 2.8seconds. Before I had found it so difficult to keep it cleaned. It would get sooo messy that it would take me an hour (or more) just to clean the living room floor. But not anymore! 15 minutes twice a day is all I spend on my living room and that's it.
Sometimes it is so hard to find the motivation to actually clean, but this concept of setting the timer is amazing! I can't believe how much I can accomplish in 15 minutes. Setting the timer is away of committing myself to stay on track to get the job done, and when the 15 minutes is up - that's it - pencils down. I have actually found that I am either finishing putting away the last item as the timer is going off, or I have a couple minutes to spare to work on something else.
I set my timer twice a day - once after I put the girls down for a nap to clean up the morning of play. And the second time is either as dinner is cooking, or after I put the girls in bed. The goal is to eventually make these times Family Cleaning times. For 15 minutes we all pitch in to clean up, including Carissa and eventually Kathryn.
Setting the timer for 15 minutes makes the job so much less overwhelming. A quote by FLYlady is "Anyone can anything for 15 minutes."

We are also using the timer for Hot Spot Drills (2 minutes) and for Room Rescue (5 minutes). Baby steps!
Next time you need to do something but are dragging your feet about it, set your timer for 15 minutes and Just Do It!

Progress Pics:

Day 1 Shiny Sink

(which led to a clean counter)

Hot Spot #1 Extinguished
(Sorry I don't have a before shot)

Laundry Room Floor after Room Rescue

Hot Spot #2 - Before

Hot Spot # 2 - After

3 Months and a Tooth

Our little Kathryn has decided that she must exceed all the bars that were set before her by her big sister. Our sleeping champ went to bed last night at 9:30 and woke at 12:45 to nurse. We expected her to nurse and fall right back to sleep - but no such luck. Our peanut seemed to fight sleep, and she cried and cried. Carissa has meticulously hidden the bottle of teething tablets, so I finally broke down at 2am to give our teething girly some Tylenol. We finally got some sleep. This morning after changing her diaper, I decided to rub those sore gums. Lo and behold - I felt a tiny little hard bump that was not there the night before! That's right! To celebrate her three month birthday Kathryn cut her very first tooth!
Carissa did not cut her first until she was 5 months old and had 8 teeth by 8 months old. I am so interested to see what else we have in store with our little overachiever. She seems to be hitting every milestone sooner than Carissa .... does that translate to a mobile child earlier? Hmm.... I don't know if I should be excited or worried. I do look forward to the day that Kathryn can prove to be a playmate for Carissa ... but then that just means double trouble!
Oh I just love my baby girls!

From Shiny Sinks to Hot Spots and Room Rescues

I have taken a new a challenge that I am absolutely loving.
I am learning to FLY. No, I am not getting into any type of aircraft, and my feet will not be leaving the ground at least not any higher than I can jump! But I am learning the art of "Finally Loving Yourself" - thanks to the guidance of www.FLYlady.net (check it out if you haven't already!).
FLYLady is essentially a "self-help" website for getting rid of CHAOS - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. The principle behind this is to teach people how to create good habits and routines that lead to successful and manageable housekeeping - and really a way of life.

A few of my friends and I are working our way through the Beginner Baby Steps as we learn how to FLY. I actually ended up combining Days 1 & 2 so I could be on the same page as the other girls, but I don't feel I was cheated any. The first Baby Step I took was to shine my sink! In order to shine my sink, I needed to have my dishes put away. And then we make it part of our "Before Bedtime Routine" to always make sure your sink is shiny! For an entire week now, every night my sink has been shiny and my dishwasher is either running, or not full enough to run yet. It feels so great to walk in and see a clean kitchen and a shiny sink! And because of my goal of keeping it that way, I am more careful about cleaning as a I cook instead of letting things pile up until I am too tired to deal with it!
Day 2 was to get up and dress to lace ups - well, my lace ups lasted 2 days and I switched to flip flops (although I do plan on shopping for comfortable shoes that I don't mind wearing around the house). This was a big deal for me. When I was pregnant and since Kathryn has been born, I've been horrible about getting out of my pjs if I don't have anywhere to go. And taking a shower in the morning was crazy because once the girls were up, there was no chance for me to shower until they were in bed at night. My girls like to sleep in until 8-9am. And I always slept with them. Kathryn has started sleeping from 11-7ish, so she's started sleeping in her crib. Which means I have to get out of bed when she wakes to nurse at 6:30-7. I have started staying up then, and after she goes back to sleep for those extra couple of hours, I take my shower, get dressed, do my hair, and even put on a little bit of make up. Then I have time to unload my dishwasher, take care of pet needs, etc. By the time the girls wake up, I am ready to enjoy breakfast with them and start our day together. This is been amazing for me and really helped me be productive. It definitely makes me feel better about myself.
I think David thought I'd gone crazy when I first told him about my plans, but he has commented to me (and others) that our house has been the cleanest it's been in a while and I'm actually less stressed about it. I think it's even become contagious :)
Through our baby steps, we have moved on to work on Hot Spots! These are those areas that seem to just catch everything we don't have a place for. You know the ones I'm talking about. You walk in the door, and everything in your hands just get placed there. Or as your cleaning other areas, and you come across something you aren't sure where to put it, you put it here! FLYlady calls them Hot Spots because much like a hot spot in a forest could eventually turn into a forest fire, a Hot Spot in your house could eventually over take the whole room, making it all look bad. Our baby step task has been to spend 2 minutes (set the timer!) a couple times a day, and start putting out these Hot Spots. It took me 3 days of doing 2 min Hot Spot Drills 2/3 times a day, but I finally got "that" counter in the kitchen looking fantastic! I am so proud of the counter now! Now on to the other 20million Hot Spots in my house!
Today's task was to add a 5min Room Rescue to our routine. Basically, I was supposed to start with the worst room in the house (you know, the one I make my guests avoid!) and spend 5 min a day clearing it out so it will be presentable. So I thought about which room fits the bill. And then a light bulb went off. Our driveway is on the side of our house, which has the door to our laundry room (the one we frequently use). But the laundry room is usually a mess and has the cats' litter boxes in there ... so we have a sign on the door that says "Please use front door." Hmm .... I guess if we direct all of our company to trek through the grass to get to our front door because we don't want them going through our laundry room, that's probably the room I should start in! So I did! I now have a pretty floor that is all picked up, swept, and swiffered! Tomorrow I will tackle the top of the dryer!

I absolutely love how FLYlady breaks everything up into baby steps and small routines, so as to not overwhelm. My old method of cleaning was to clean as much as I could (and I am perfectionist so it took me FOREVER!). Once I FINALLY finished the cleaning, I was burnt out! So then I wouldn't clean anything for like a week. And by the time, I started doing stuff around the house again, I was so behind that I was just trying to get by.And when I get that behind, I become overwhelmed with how much I need to do, that I simply don't feel like doing anything. And I would physically shut down. Finding FLYlady has been amazing! My days feel longer (not because they "drag on" but because I feel like I am able to accomplish so much and still spend precious time with my family - time that is spent enjoying them and not being stressed about everything that needs done!), I feel more energetic, and I truly feel better about myself as a wife, mother, and person.
I know that this process takes time, but I have faith that one day I will be truly FLYing in such a way that all these principles overflow into every aspect of my life. I think through this process I will become a better person.
And on that note, Kathryn went to bed an hour and a half earlier than normal, so who knows what tonight holds ... and morning comes early! So I am off to bed! I will continue blogging on my FLYing Lessons. I challenge you all to join me! :)

September Already?!

Where has the time gone? I feel like every time I sign in to Blogger I am writing that! I always seem to have intentions to fervently blog, but again life happens and I don't make the time. As I am restructuring my daily routines around the teachings of The FLYlady, I plan to set aside a designated time each evening to blog - even if it is a short blog. I encourage my faithful followers to hold me to this! If you haven't seen a posting from me in a while - call me out! :) Everyone needs help staying on track every now and then.

So a brief catch up!

Tomorrow marks the completion of Kathryn's THIRD month with us! Really? Has it been that long? It sure has flown. I am finding that with two children, my months fly even quicker than they did with just one. I am definitely loving my life as Mommy of two. I could not ask for any more perfect daughters than the two little girls God has blessed me with.
Kathryn has mastered rolling from belly to back like a professional. In fact, she mastered this task a whole two months earlier than Carissa did. And as of today, our little busy body has succeeded in rolling from back to belly! (FOUR months earlier than Carissa!!) This new skill of hers still needs a little work - she is practicing rolling with enough momentum to get that arm out from underneath her. She has been successful 3 times after a little bit of work. I really think she is going to hit a lot of physical milestones earlier than Carissa - which is to be expected. After all, she is watching Big Sister show her all sorts of cool tricks!
Our little peanut is a talker for sure - much like the rest of our household! She loves to carry on conversations - and sometimes it doesn't matter if anyone is reciprocating. I love listening to her to get louder and louder, as if practicing this new found talent. And boy do I love her giggles! And her smiles are priceless. She is SUCH a happy baby! I have been so blessed to have two happy, well-adjusted little girls.

Miss Carissa is a hoot and a half! Can you believe she will be TWO in less than two weeks?!?! I feel like we just celebrated her first birthday, and now it's party time again! She is definitely exerting her two year old independence. She can be a handful at times, but she learns quickly from discipline (i.e. Time Out). She has started protesting, but after being consistent she finally sits in her chair, calms down, tells me "done," and gives me a hug. Those moments reassure me that it is working.
This little girlie is super smart! I know every parent says that about their child, but I am still going to brag on mine! :) She can say almost every word you ask her to say (within reason - she hasn't mastered "antidisestablishmentarianism" yet despite Daddy's prodding). And when I say she can "say the word," I don't mean she has a cute little way of saying them. She pronounces words almost dead on with some minor exceptions. She can say words like "Alligator" "grasshopper" and they sound perfect. She copies almost every word she hears! This girl even says "Disney Channel!" But not only does she just copy random words ... she makes 3-5 word sentences - filled with verbs, nouns, pronouns, articles, participles, etc! I told her one day that I needed to clean her room today. The next few days she went around saying "clean the room today."
She also has a wonderful memory! We went to Kentucky to visit some of my side of the family in the middle of August and when we got home that's all she could talk about. While we were there, she rode the tractor with her cousin Trey (and Great-Grandpa), and she saw cows, she went to her cousin Jaxon's house, and she saw Uncle Ricky. She STILL is talking about "Ride tractor ... Trey.... Fun ... see cow" ... "Jaxon's house" ... "Uncle Ricky" ... and she will get upset with me because she wants to ride the tractor with Trey or go to Jaxon's house. I have to explain to her that they are all in Kentucky (which used to be "Cowtucky" lol ... now it's "Kentucky").
We have started preschool homeschooling with her. Mostly I am just doing an introduction of things with her, and giving her some constructive projects to work on. I have always taught her through play, so now I have just created a "plan" about what my teaching goals are ... and we just see where the day leads us. We do a theme for each month (this month is Wild Animals - which will be followed up with a Zoo trip at the end of the month!! yay!), and each day we do a different letter, color, and number (1-10), and each week we learn about a new shape! She is loving the different craft projects, and learning about the different animals. She loves to try to count with us (her favorite is "count pasta"). And she is learning her ABCs! Right now her ABC's consist of ... "ABC ... HIJ .... QRST ... WXYZ" all in one breath. But it's a start! :) Her favorite colors right now are pink, purple, orange, and blue :) She has the different colored bowls, plates, silverware, and cups (Munchkin brand), so we ask her what color she wants and it's usually one of those choices.
I could go on and on, but I guess I should find a stopping point.
Hopefully you will be seeing a lot more from me!