Pregnancy and Planning

I am officially 20 weeks pregnant now, and no longer freaked out by the little flutters and bumps going on inside. I'm comforted to know our little one is happily wriggling about.

Unfortunately, I have a LOT to do around our house to get ready. We are terrible pack rats, and although I try to get rid of things on a regular basis, it often gets put at the end of my to do list, or becomes difficult to convince the Hubby that some things just have to go.

My goals include some crazy things, I'm sure, but the ones that stick in my mind most are:

- Get our bedroom clean, organized, and ready for baby (this includes repairing our bedframe).

- Get the nursery cleaned out and ready to go, and move the office supplies to the living room in their own cabinet.

- Get a dining room table! Two chairs and a folding table won't work for us too much longer.

- Rearrange the kitchen to make it easier to store food and cook!

- Rearrange the living room to create two "spaces" rather than one large space.

- Clean out the back hallway to just supplies for crafts, exercise equipment, seed starting, and ironing.

- Clean out the basement and move the cat litter box downstairs.

- Mark boxes for garage sale or donation (Get it Out of Here!)

- Get the gardens cleaned out? (Not nearly as worried about this right now).

Right now my focus in on our bedroom. We both own so many clothes we don't wear, and poor Hubby has trouble hanging his clothes up since his closet in the bathroom is difficult to get to. We have so little space to store anything, so under the bed must remain an option for extra bedding and out-of-season clothing. The legs of our homemade bed frame are wobbling horridly now, and need to be replaced with something more substantial, and the room needs to be rearranged to make space for a bassinet. Lots to do!!

On the upside, I finally have a house-cleaning schedule made, and am keeping up with it pretty well, although I'm adjusting it on a regular basis. Sometimes mopping just isn't that important, but at least it's on my list so it gets done eventually and isn't totally neglected. I think cleaning will get easier as we start purging the extra stuff, as well.

Living the Dream, or Dreaming to Live?

After managing to work part time at my job for awhile, I am back to working full time, and struggling.

It's not a bad job, but it seems to keep me from the life I truly want; working evenings when my husband is home, working mornings when my husband gets to sleep in and wishes we could have a breakfast together, and with spring approaching, I wonder how on earth I will keep the weeds at bay this year! The primary reason I have for staying at this job is the income. My husband loves his job, but despite that his employer pays fairly well for his career, well, I'll just say it barely covers the bills. So I work so we can have at least some savings (though meager), and cover the bills not covered by his income. Now that a pay raise seems even more out of reach for DH (his employer is having money woes), I am wondering if I will ever get to leave this "temp job" for something I would really love.

It's easy to say "do what you love, and the money will follow," but it's hard to live when you see the bills coming in and the money going out, feeling like there's no getting ahead. I used to not know what I wanted to do in life, but since getting married, I've known at least part of it. I want to work part time, or work from home, or not have a "job" at all. I know that sounds lazy, but I'm far lazier working full time away from home. Why? Standing eight hours on my feet, answering interesting questions from customers, hearing them describe in detail their grandiose homes and signing away hundreds of dollars for frivolous things I can only dream of just drains me completely. I wake up dreading to go, doing my best to smile and make my job fun, and then wanting nothing more than to be off of my feet once I get home (not conducive to getting the dishes or laundry done, let alone organizing and putting things away). We're discussing having children someday, and trying soon, and I know I cannot work this job full time and pay for child care. I wish I could figure out a way to escape this life, but looking at our finances, there's very little we can save more money on, and few jobs will offer the income I am currently making.

I hope one day to live this dream that currently drives me. To be home long enough every day to transform it into a place I love to be in, to have enough money to afford to fix it up without worrying about not saving for our future, to be out in the garden in the spring, growing some of our food, sewing my own clothes and making things last as long as possible. Until then, I'm just dreaming, wishing we could make it on only one income, or I could find something to make up for what I bring in now.

I hope that you are getting to live your dream, whatever it may be, and not just dreaming.

Disorganization!

As you can see, I've been away from the blog for a long while. It's not that I never thought about it, but there just never seemed to be time, or when I had time, I was nowhere near a computer. This is a great example of poor planning! I'm at the computer a lot, so why couldn't I write a quick post? No reason other than out-of-sight-out-of-mind and lack of motivation. In order to structure my life some more, I plan to start blogging regularly as much as I can.

Today is Black Friday, and although I know why it is called that, it seems such a depressing title. Black is a good sign if you're looking at retail store ledgers (red is a sign you're not making enough to cover your costs!), but most of us consider black to be depressing. Any way you put it, you can spend today with your family, shopping for super deals, or getting some work done. No matter what you do, though, do it with gusto! And don't forget all the thanks we should give all year long!

Moving Day Approaching

My husband and I decided to move into a different apartment that allowed us to rent short-term (important at the time because we were not sure my husband would still have a job come Fall, and if he did, we want to continue to house-search). Our moving day is this Friday, and I still have a lot to do!

One important thing to remember about moving is that it is tiring! In the midst of packing and trying to get addresses changed, etc., we are both continuing to work full time. I hate to say it, but it's wearing me down. The other trick is trying to battle the stress. Moving all of your possessions is an anxious thing, especially if you're one like me who likes to "put down roots." Despite all of this, we have found some ways to make the move a bit easier.

First of all, we're moving to a nearby town. I know that's not always something one gets to choose when moving, but a lot of these tips will only help if you're moving close-by, not a state away. Although we have only been married a year, we've accumulated a lot of stuff, and most of it we either love and use now, or know we want to have when we get a house. Now, if a house has not happened for us within the next couple of years, we may decide to get rid of that stuff as well, but for now, we'd rather not have to buy it all again (especially when they were wedding gifts we didn't have to pay for to start with). There are, however, things we are willing to part with, and part with them happily we shall. Having so much to move, and moving it all ourselves, we knew was not going to be possible all at once. If we could, we would move it all in stages to our new place, until we just had to move the furniture and absolute necessities all in one day. However, we have to move out of our current place on the day that our new place comes available (and even then not until after noon). So we made the tough choice to get a storage unit for a month. I'm not an advocate of storage units generally. If you can store something far away and pay to keep it there and not see it for over a year, then you're wasting your money! (Things that don't count are boats, RVs, and such that you don't want to take out during the winter and your city won't let you leave in the yard.) This way we have moved most of our small, unneeded things (such as office supplies, unused dishes, clothes we don't need for the next couple of weeks...) to the storage unit until we can move into our new place. Then it will be loading up what's left on moving day!

Moving is a great time to assess what you use and what you don't, and also to deep-clean where you live (and someone else will soon be living). Next time you start to spring clean, think about pretending that you're going to move. How many boxes of stuff do you want to deal with? Clothes to move? Would you take it across country with you? If you have a hard time knowing to part with something or not, this is a great way to see how you really feel about it.

Clearing Out

I have to admit it, I'm a pack rat. It was something I learned early in my life. Almost like a scout's honor of "always be prepared," I hated to throw anything out. I may need it someday, or miss it horribly if it goes away. And how could I get rid of things I had spent so much money on?? It would just be a waste!

I have moved on. Living in a small apartment with someone who is what I call a "plopper," I just couldn't keep it all anymore. And how many things have I missed? Hardly any! So I bagged up a lot of old clothes this past weekend, and took them to our local Goodwill. I was so relieved to have space in my closet again, and knowing my old clothes will not go to waste, either! I am beginning to box up more items hoping to get rid of them at a garage sale someday. Yes, it means they're still taking up space in my apartment, but in a box unseen, I am not missing them, and it's clearly marked "To Get Rid Of." Now you may wonder why I refer to my husband as a "plopper." A plopper may not have too much of anything, but they can rarely find anything because they do not take time to put things away. As soon as he gets in his car after work, his lunch bag goes into the backseat of the car. As soon as he gest home, his shoes go in the middle of the living room floor, his stuff in the chair, and our kitchen table no longer has space to eat at. We're starting to work on this, but only after I asked him what on earth happened to every fork in our home (scattered throughout his car in various bags, along with some rather moldy food containers, yick!). Please, do yourself and others a favor and put things where they belong. If they don't have a place to go, find one, or get rid of the item!

Clearing out some of our space helped me see there's still hope for us in getting organized, and made me feel a little more free in what space we have. Too much clutter may not sound bad, but it can lead to fire hazards, safety issues (those piles of who-knows-what in the top of the closet), and STRESS. If you feel like a slave to housework due to your belongings and not your house, then it may be time to Clear Out some stuff!

Time

Time is precious, and we can't rewind life, but we can choose how we spend that time every day and every moment. However, just because I want to play all day, doesn't mean I can. I cannot exercise in the living room if there is no floorspace, and I cannot use my computer if I have filled up the hard drive. So, as with most things in live, we have to prioritize. I find the best way to do this is to think of all the things you want to do and have first, and then list everything that must be done in order for you to do those things. I know that sounds backwards, but why waste time doing something that does not impact your life?
This does mean that you have to do regular maintenace work, though. Clearing the clutter from the floor becomes a daily chore, as well as doing the dishes, etc. No, they are not fun to do, but imagine how much easier it will be if you only take 30 minutes to clean a day rather than having to say no to doing fun things with your family on the weekend because you have to "clean house!"

I must admit, I am terrible about this! I often come home from work exhausted, tired, and want nothing more than to sit and relax. The problem is, I then wake up to an apartment that is cluttered and not optimum for having a happy morning, and it is tough to smile much when you've tripped over stuff all morning long! So here is to starting anew on maintenance cleaning! To more smiles and more time to enjoy LIFE!

Simply Living...the beginning

This blog is meant to be a hub of information on how to live more simply, or, as I like to say "simply live."
No one wants to spend hours and hours organizing, cooking, cleaning, etc, and miss out on LIFE. We want to be able to spend time with those we love, and do the things we love most. Unfortunately, in order to do so, we need to still get organized, cook meals, clean our homes, etc. Hopefully this blog will help me organize more of my ideas and thoughts on how to live a simpler life, but also give you hope that there can be a way to simply live and enjoy life!

So, welcome to the blog!