And on to Another Journey

As I struggle with a family of 3, being pregnant, AND being a military spouse, I now am on the journey to FOUR children on top of it all! I have yet to find a “routine” for cleaning that has worked for more than a few hours. YEP thats right a mere few hours! I cannot seem to keep myself motivated! Let alone my children who I feel are a correct age to be doing age appropriate chores. So now that this journey absolutely HAS to begin I figured I would let you in on what it is I am going to try. I failed terribly at FlyLady which I never really was a fan of in the first place, although I know it has been a miracle worker for many many women. I also attempted the Home Management Binder which was more successful than anything.

Yet, here I find myself buried in clothes, dishes, and miscellaneous items. Hoping to figure something out that can keep me from the MASS weekend cleanups!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, since I am organizing anyways and I absolutely LOVE couponing (yes my darling husband I used it as a verb!)..I will be sharing what I find to be the best deals going on in my area and just how it is I go about saving WITHOUT spending ALL my time clipping coupons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy the new journey and the continuation of my blog.

Finally allowed to nest!

The final nesting stage has hit and Im so excited! Now that Im out of the clear with all the preterm labor crap and scares I can clean til my little heart is content. As most of you know I moved into my new apartment in April. And by the looks of it you would swear I  just moved in a week ago which must have been the same time that random hurricane hit in PHOENIX! lol Cause it seriously looks like boxes and stuff magically landed EVERYWHERE throughout the apartment. My main goal is to get ALL the trash and unnecessary crap out of my house and into the garbage dumpsters. Then I want to wash ALL my laundry and fold and put into dressers or put into a cubby for storage. After that its going through the boxes that have taken over my room and completely taken my wonderfully large closet hostage! Then I think I will tackle the easier tasks, like going through the kids’ toys, clothes, etc. This all does not exclude the scrubbing of every inch of the house and vacuuming so much my neighbors start to complain Must get everything ready for my little princess to arrive. Im hoping thats why she has only teased me into thinking she’s coming instead of actually showing up early Im kind of hoping she’ll be fashionably late so I dont have to do this all in 3 weeks lol.

Unusual cleaning tasks I am looking forward to:

Cleaning the shower curtains

Baseboards

Ceiling fan

Doors/doorknobs

Washer/Dryer

and…Im sure I’ll think of more

When is it enough?

Lately I had a conversation with hubby about my standards for myself and my days. I often try to take on too much or set to high of standards for myself, then I either abandon them because its such a mountain or I fail miserably. It’s very hard being a stay at home mom. Always trying to feel busy enough. Trying to make the house clean enough. Kids smart and busy enough. Why is it that we homemakers let ourselves get so overwhelmed. I find myself making to do lists for the house and projects but thats not the reason Im a homemaker now is it? No, I became a stay at home mother when we decided it was more expensive for me to work outside of the home than it was to stay home with D. About 15 months later I realized what it meant to be a homemaker. However, until recently that vision too was blurred. I envisioned my days starting before the sun rose, making my husband breakfast, sending him off to work, and then spending my days on cleaning and projects then ending with a successful healthy dinner followed by cleaning up the house AGAIN. Not in one place do I see wrapping myself up in the children. If our reason for being a stay at home mom is to give our children a happy healthy childhood then why is it we find ourselves wrapped up in our house?

When I moved into my new apartment it didnt feel like home until I scattered toys all in the living room. Then I stood there and breathed in deeply exclaiming, “Now it feels like home.” As stay at home mothers we should try to focus on what our TRUE reason is for being home. I have a feeling that almost none of us stayed home so that we could keep up on housework.  My to do list for today included going to the laundrymat to do a load of laundry and stopping by the store to pick up some jelly. However, Ive decided to stay at home and play with my little boy. Oh and throw some homework in the mix too. That is a necessity right now.

It sucks that we often get too wrapped up in to do lists and “life” that we forget to stop and admire our children. Im not saying that all stay at home moms feel this way but I’ve noticed from forums and friends that we just dont get ENOUGH done in our days. However if you ask a mother everything she went through in that day, it was probably rather exhausting. She most likely had to clean up a few messes, cared for animals(if she has any), cooked AT LEAST 3 meals, managed nap time, bath time, perhaps story time, avoided sibling fights, sat kids in time out, and somehwhere in there she managed somehow to take a moment to breathe. Most likely only done while locking herself in the bathroom to pee lol.

Mommies, try to be a little easier on yourselves. Try to focus on the kiddos and then throw something else into the mix when its only necessary or can logically be worked in without frustrating you, the kids, or making you horribly exhausted.

When is it enough? It will be ENOUGH when you make it ENOUGH.

Getting back on track…hopefully

After tons and tons of research my husband and I have finally found a curriculum that will meet all of D’s and I’s needs. It is a catholic curriculum called Catholic Heritage. They have curriculum guides for you to look at on their website so you can see what the lesson plans look like. I really like how the whole thing is set up and that it blends in our catholic beliefs. Im really hoping that D starting school again will help calm his attitude down. I ordered his curriculum today so hopefully it will be here by next week. Then I can sit down for a few days and look over everything and get comfortable with it and then be able to start him on it. I know I should get some arts and crafts for him too. Maybe we’ll take a trip to the zoo soon too before it gets too hot out!

R and I are getting on a better schedule. We are usually up by 9am which is a great improvement! It probably helps that Im starting to feel less and less morning sickness as the days go on. Now I just need to get D back on schedule. He has been off schedule since grandpa got really sick. With my aunt here she is sleeping in his room and he has been sleeping with me. Which is hard for any of us to get any sleep. Hopefully we’ll get the hang of it soon.

We are still waiting to get moved to Germany. It is taking forever and everything seems to be going wrong. But we’ll get there eventually I guess. J is doing good there though he says its beautiful and as of last week it was starting to warm up a little so we might just miss the snowy season this year .

Internet…Bad or Good?

Tonight im voting bad! I had planned on going to sleep early. But now its almost 1am and I find myself STILL stuck on my computer. Looking up this and that…Its wednesday and I still didnt do any homework. How is it that I can manage to spend countless hours on a dumb computer?! I do not know! But maybe this should be my new years resolution! To not spend more than an alloted time on the computer! Unless of course Im ACTUALLY completing homework! Im sure my house would be cleaner, I would get more sleep, and maybe just maybe dear D would behave better. Although most of my computer hours are spent while the boys are sleeping. I only do about an hour during the day while they are awake. BUT STILL! HOURS! I have been on this thing since 8pm almost 5 hours! Oh the Bible study and cleaning I could get done in that time! Thats it! Tomorrow Im going to sit down and decide how much time I should get a day for the computer. AND STICK WITH IT! Sure its going to be hard. However, its necessary! Anyone else care to join me? You should…Just like the TV its stealing our lives…Yes its just an object and only we can allow something to steal our time. But we ARE allowing it. Its time its stopped! How can I be a good christian wife/mom if Im not even reading my Bible every night! I need to get back on track with school, cleaning, my challenges on here, D’s homeschooling, and last but definitely not least, my Bible reading!

Tomorrow night I will give myself enough time to write an update. Good night dear readers

Having to let go

Well, my darling love heads back off to training on monday. Im so sad that I have to give him back for at least another month. We’re hoping they send him home right away after training. Hopefully they wont send him straight to Germany. That would be awful. Its going to be really hard to let him go. Although, it always is. Its very hard to go back to life as if he was never here. We continue on with life while he is gone, growing and changing. Yes, he changes as well. The kids hurt the most. R has gotten so close to him, clinging to him the whole time. Oh how I dread holding him while he cries himself to sleep asking for daddy.

But this is our life, the life we have chosen and the life God has blessed us with. Other people might take their family members for granted, we have learned not to do that. We are always counting down a return or departure. Daddy will miss things, but we enjoy every second he is here.

On a lighter note, while he is gone, I get to prepare us for our HUGE move. Not to mention doing my schoolwork, D’s homeschooling, keeping up with R, and hopefully some biblical studies and spiritual growth. And most exciting of all, I get to look forward to taking a pregnancy test! We have been praying and trying for #3 and hopefully the middle of january will bring a positive test.

Monday I will be posting my goals for the day and week Time to get back into our routine and get everything ready for the new adventures to come.

God Bless.

Homeschooling For Kindergarten

We have officially decided to homeschool D for kindergarten! Im very excited and feel very blessed!

The curriculum we have chosen is a completely online curriculum through Progress Academy. So far, after looking at all of it online, it seems really great. The only thing lacking is a variety of Foreign Languages and a Bible curriculum. She said that they dont offer a Bible course because they are a secular program. So I am looking for a Bible program for him. It’s a little hard to find one for Kindergarten age, but there are still a few options.

Now, I just have to get organized and figure out what time of the day will work best for him to be focused on school…

And just when you get it all planned…

So nothing went according to plan today. I didnt get nearly anything on my checklist done. Ray was cranky all day from teething and either was being held or crying. It was rough. I did a quick and easy crockpot meal and spent all day catering to the boys. It was an ok day but not productive with cleaning or my to do list. I did manage to get our hotel booked for the weekend josh gets home. As well as cleaning up after dinner. So I guess thats something Im exhausted tonight so I must retire. Tomorrow I will be finishing up today’s to do list. Which includes going to base. Goodnight

Back to Base

Tomorrow me and the boys are heading to the AirForce Base so that I can get my military ID and get all of us enrolled in TriCare! Yay! While we are there Im going to do the boys’ lessons with them. Or thats what I am planning anyways. D is wanting to learn about vikings so that is the lesson theme for now! He is really thrilled about it. On Monday we used his letter shaped paint sponges so that he could spell out the word “viking”. It was amazing that he picked up on how it was spelled on his first try after I spelled it the first time. It was so wonderful! If I would have had him sit down with a pen and paper he wouldnt have wanted to do it. However because it was painting and different. I think next time we will go out in the yard and use rocks to spell out a word or two! Today I found some $3 books at walmart so I got a few. Two berensteins bears books, “Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs”, and “I love you stinky face”. So the boys were excited about that. Also I got a white board that has the seven days on the left side with space to jot down a schedule, then a to do list section then a notes section! I have it propped up on a cubby next to the dresser so when I wake up I see it right away. Also on the list for tomorrow is to do bible lessons with the boys, find some good priced modest dresses online, and get some homework done. Raymond had a hard time getting to sleep tonight. Well first he went to sleep around 8 I think. We always come to bed at 8 but he fell asleep right away. Then woke up around 9ish I think. He was screaming and crying. I gave him his milk and tried to hold him. I thought it was his tummy but nope. Then he kept pointing inside his mouth. I asked him if his teeth hurt and he kept pointing and crying so I gave him tylenol and some homeopathic gum numbing stuff. After that he just wanted to play. He just now fell asleep within the last 20 minutes and its 11:38 now.

I also purchased the Home Management Binder Ebook from Keeping The Home! Im SOOO excited to read it! Ive been wanting to get it for almost 2 years now. Idk why I didnt get it before it was only $10. I finally did it!

Well I must get to sleep. Hope to be getting organized and back to blogging and writing the bible study if God still wants me to.

God bless!

Wonderful comes in a blue!

I am so ecstatic for tomorrow! Tonight I went out and bought the boys’ school stuff so we can do more lessons and fun activities! Paints, baby crayons, giant paper tablets, letter stamps, etc.

Lesson Plan for Tuesday

Compare Leaves of two plants

Have D write in his journal about the plants, their similarities and differences. Then draw a picture of the plants.

If we have time, have him start on leaf poster project.

Have music/dance time with the boys.

Story time and work on sign language.

R is learning fish this week Need to figure out some new signs for D too

Mommas School To-Do List

Read Chapter 6 in Criminal Justice

Do research for CRMJ Paper.

Read Chapter 7 in Foundations

For the FlyLady challenge we are starting back on Day 10 since I got sick and was not able to complete this day. Hopefully I will be able to complete all this stuff! I think if I stick with it I should be able to. My schoolwork really should only take about 2 hours so if I do an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, maybe when I put the boys down, then I will be good. Well I better get to sleep so I have plenty of energy to do all this in the morning