Life With A Baby

R was born 4 weeks ago today, so he is either a month old today or will be here in three days. He is staying awake a lot more, eating constantly, following our faces, and beginning to hold his head for short periods. He is extremely needy, hating to be set down, hating to sleep anywhere that isn't on one of us, and always hungry, but we love him. He has set a bit of a schedule for himself at night. He wakes up to eat and be changed at about 11, 2, 5, and 8. By 8 he has decided that he is up for the morning. At that point we get up, get changed, eat, and then he refuses to be set down. Because of this, we are having a little bit of trouble figuring out how to get back into our old routine. I very recently discovered that R will tolerate being in my mei tai wrap as long as he is practically asleep when I put him in. From there he goes to sleep and I can do the dishes and pick up a bit before he decides he is done and wants to eat RIGHT NOW! It has been a big accomplishment! I'm hoping that with this discovery I'll be able to get back in the swing of things. I am so incredibly out of practice when it comes to cooking, cleaning, crafting, everything. I miss baking, I miss crocheting, I miss a lot of the things I was doing when I had two hands.

The Hubs goes back to work on Tuesday, and I really hate to see him go. He has been so incredibly helpful, and I'm nervous about being on my own with the baby for the first time. I'm nervous about being completely on my own during night duty. I'm nervous about my little bit of progress disappearing once I don't have him here to take the baby for a moment. I'm nervous about not having anyone here to help when I get overwhelmed. It's definitely going to be an adjustment!

So, here are the goals:
-Get back on track with Motivated Moms
-Bake something
-Go to knitting and actually crochet

So, does anyone have any suggestions for getting things done with a needy baby?

Also, in case you weren't aware, IT'S FALL! I adore summer, but fall holds a special place in my heart. I love the smells, the tastes, the pleasantly cool air, and being from Florida, I love the colours! Having a baby now, I want to start some developing some family traditions. This year I want us to go to a pumpkin patch and pick apples. In the future I want us to all bake pumpkin treats, have a bon fire, and to grow and give pumpkins to our neighbors.

I truly can't wait to get R involved in the turning of the seasons with us. I see how difficult he can be right now, with needing to be held and reassured all the time that the world is an okay place to be, and it is so incredibly worth it. I look at him and I see all the things he is learning to do and I imagine all the things we will do, and my heart just swells. These first days can be difficult, but they are becoming easier. They can be difficult, but they will be so short. One month has passed and it happened so quickly! How quickly will the rest of time pass? Every time I think of how tired I am or how I wish he would just let me lay him down for a moment, I think of how soon he will be running and not wanting to be held. It makes me reevaluate things, and I snuggle him closer. I love being a mama and I don't want these days to end.

So incredibly behind!

The last few weeks have been incredibly hectic! We've been out of town almost every weekend, I've been crocheting up a storm for Castle's Cradle, I've had several house guests, I'm preparing myself for a much unwanted visit with certain family members, working on designing menu plans built mainly around whole foods, babysitting, baby showers, and much more! On top of it all, third trimester has finally hit me! All I want to do is sleep and gorge myself on tums! Granted, my life hasn't been nearly as crazy as some of the amazing people I know, and for that I consider myself truly lucky! I am extremely blessed to be in a situation that allows me to not have to have a traditional career. (I say traditional because although I don't bring money into the home, I still consider caring for the home and finances to be my career) Alas, I shall continue to use all of this as an excuse for my absence. So, something had to be neglected, and unfortunately it was this blog.

As a side note, I finished taking the pictures for the Photo-a-Day June, I just need to upload them.

So, I've learned that it is VERY easy for me to get off track with the things that are important to me when life begins to get crazy. When there is company it is easy to neglect the meals I had planned and instead eat out. When there is company it is also easy to neglect the housework that needs done. Once these things have been neglected for a few days, the daily ritual has been broken and it becomes difficult to start again. Things have slowed down just a little, and I am still having to force myself to get back into the daily routine. I find myself putting off things that I was previously quickly getting out of the way. Laundry waits a couple days longer to be washed, and then sits in a basket for several days waiting to be put away. The daily chores might get done, but the special tasks are put off for another day. The menu is made, but a dollar menu dinner is still had. It is so easy to let laziness creep in, and I have yet to learn how to combat this. I have such big plans for our family, but ti is difficult to implement when the smallest things set us off track.

I guess the best I can do is not beat myself up about it and just try to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible. Now, I'm going to put together a menu for the week and designate the daily housework. :) Wish me luck!

Friday Already??

Alright! I'm off to a late start since I had to run some errands first thing, and refused to get up earlier. Here is day one of sharing my daily list with the world!
Daily Chores:
Make beds
Feed pets
Load/Run/Empty dishwasher
Sweep kitchen & entryway
Clean kitchen sink
Clear/Wipe kitchen counters
Plan / Cook dinner
Wipe out bathroom sinks
Empty trash
Do laundry
Exercise
Quiet time
Take vitamins/medication
Prepare tomorrow's clothing
Tasks for the Day:
Change dishcloth/towel
Change hand towels in bathrooms
Clean refrigerator drawers
Sweep porch
Do a quick tidy/put away in each room of the house
Spend time on a craft/hobby

Okay, it's 1:35, and I'm going to get to work.

~*~

The Hubs got home at about 2, and so I took a break to hang out and talk with him. I started again at 2:55 and completely finished by 3:52. All in all, that's an hour and 22 minutes. That's a bit longer than I said it normally takes me, but I have some special circumstances today. The dining room table tends to turn into a dump spot for us, and it still needed to be cleared off from yesterday's errand run. Also, our sink decided to fall apart yesterday, literally. So today I had to haul all of the dirty dishes to the bathtub in order to wash them. Between my belly and my knees it was much more difficult than I had anticipated. I've decided that we're using disposable food receptacles until the plumber comes on Monday. Additionally, there will be lots of sandwiches.

Either way, a little under an hour and a half to get the entire house looking very nice isn't bad.

I consider day one to have went very, very well.

Getting Down to Business

So, like I said, my main focus right now is getting this new house in order and getting back into the habit of keeping my home organized. Now that everything is unpacked (Yay!!) and all that is left is R's room and hanging decor, I'm getting back on track with taking care of my home.

I try doing this in little ways. I make a list of meals I plan to make this week so I can shop efficiently and cut down on last minute trips to the closest fast food place. I work on a home journal that houses all the different chores I want to do on each day. I keep a calendar with all the things going on through out the month, and then transplant them onto a mini calendar each week so I can see what is planned for that particular week. I keep a running list of things we need so that I can grab them as I run errands on a set day. I have all these little things that I try to make myself do so that my life can be easier and everything gets done.

There's a problem, though, I am truly terrible at keeping up with most of this. Life happens and everything else goes out the window. I remember doing really well with all of this for a while, then I started college again. Between a 30-60 minute commute depending on traffic, 7 classes a week, hours of homework, and infertility treatments, I was too tired to take care of anything. All of the work I had put into getting a solid system in place kind of disintegrated. Then I found out I was pregnant and the Hubs and I decided I would take a break from school to focus on preparing for R and then taking care of R. Since I wasn't going to school I figured I could really get back into the swing of things and get everything under control by simply reimplementing all the things that had worked in the past. By that point, our house was a disaster and I had underestimated how exhausted and sick I would feel in the first trimester. By the time I had energy again, we were looking to buy a house and dealing with that level of disaster felt pointless and daunting at the same time.

Well, now we've moved and I've had time to really evaluate where I've gone wrong in the past. I don't do well with paper. I don't do well with big giant jobs every day. I don't do well with opening that big binder because I know when I do I am going to get completely overwhelmed. I've learned that what works well for me is simple tasks that cover several areas instead of completely scouring one area. I work well with my phone because it reminds me to do my jobs and attend my meetings. My meal planning works pretty well as long as I'm not being lazy, which, let's be honest, I can be. So, I'm going to begin truly playing into my strengths.

On my phone I've downloaded the Google Tasks app, which incorporates both a to-do list and a calendar. I love that the tasks and appointments I put in can be repeated in different intervals. I have simply programmed in the little things I need to get done each day and set reminders for different times. I also love it for the calendar because, like the lists, I never think to look at the darn thing. With this I program appointments, dates, and events as soon as I learn about them. I enter the time, place, date, and set a reminder. So, my poor habits aren't as disastrous.

One of the big things that has helped me has been the Motivated Moms program. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically a PDF (or app if you have an Isomething, which I don't) that has a separate page for each week. On that page daily chores are listed for each day along with several tasks for each day. Based on everything I have said previously, this sounds like the last thing that would work for me. However, it works perfectly for me. The chores are so intuitive and the tasks are so simple! Literally, the daily chores include things like make the bed, feed the pets, run the dishes, wash laundry if it needs it, etc. Very simple. The tasks are even more simple. The real tasks take place Monday through Friday, with tiny tasks on the weekend. For example, every Sunday the tasks are Cut/Sort/File Coupons, Make a shopping list, and Pamper yourself. The particular Monday I am looking at says to Change dishcloth/towel, Change hand towels in bathrooms, Clean middle shelf of refrigerator, Inventory refrigerator contents and plan meals around leftovers, Vacuum main/public rooms or 1st floor, Vacuum furniture in family/living room, Clean toilets, Replenish stock of toilet paper in bathrooms. It looks like a long list, but it's all small things. I love that you aren't focusing on an entire room or area. I would be much more likely to clean a single shelf in the refrigerator than the entire thing. Also, it's not the end of the world if a task doesn't get finished, because it'll pop up again at some point. All in all, I can finish everything I need to do within about an hour. Being a stay-at-home wife and soon to be mom, I can plow through everything right after I get up. It's a solid hour of working, and then I have the rest of the day to do whatever I want. With the tasks being so small, they're easily broken up, so a working mom or wife can also easily get everything done. I can't express how much I love this program!

Once I fully have this implemented, I'll be able to really start doing a lot of the things I miss and want to do. I'll have time to crochet more, read more, focus on R when he gets here. All in all, I think it'll be really nice. What I want to start doing is posting my jobs for the day, how long it takes, and just keep myself accounted for. :) Wish me luck!

Homemaker's Challenge