Oh it's here...somewhere....

I've mentioned on a few occasions about my love for our household schedule. Now I'm going to mention (go into great detail) about my new love for our household folder.

Apparently household notebooks are all the rage. I suppose I should know this since I've tried my hand at various attempts of this for the past year. My first household notebook contained beautiful print-outs from an organizational website. I had every document you could imagine...even ones that made no sense for our family.

My second attempt contained more items that I created myself. This still failed because I once again overdid it.

Enter attempt #3...a folder. No binder, no clipboard, no "home central" corkboard......

A folder. And right now, it's working quite well for us.

A few months again I devised a household schedule. I have since adapted this even further--but this schedule is doing wonders for our days, our home, & our sanity.

Upon opening our household folder you'll find:

our household schedule (in two pages). This was created by making a list of everything I felt needed to be done each week and how often. I plotted cleaning tasks on our "less busy" days. Each day has a list of five things that need to get done everyday (make bed, bible study, clean dishes, check trash, pick-up toys), any activities for the day, daily chores, and paper pushing tasks for the day. Please know that there has yet to be a day where EVERYTHING has gotten accomplished!!!!

a monthly/semi-monthly checklist to fill in & personalize with tasks to complete (downloaded here).

6 months worth of calendars (from here.)

A Master to-do list (you know, for all those things that need to be done...someday)

A Master to-do list before baby (this is a room by room checklist of things to clean/organize/sell & a Misc area for items like "install car seat." I had a similar checklist during my first pregnancy & it was awesome for the nesting instinct)

A "need before baby arrives" list

A list of craft project ideas

Birthdays/Anniversaries for the year

An Inventory Checklist (Freezer, Panty, Fridge, Cleaning, Paper products, diapers, and Linen closet lists---this has the top items we need to have on hand. I do a quick check through these areas with my checklist and will use that to make shopping lists---or lists for items to look for a good coupon sale)

2011 Goals (more on this later)

Freezer Cooking Plan for the month (I make notes of recipes to try, meals to cook, etc)

The pockets contain post-it's with blogging and writing ideas, information for my work at home job, & library events.

And for now, that's it!

There are potentially a few things I want to add/tweak, but right now this is working great for us! I am working on a cleaning checklist that details what cleaners to use where, along with a guide to doing laundry. Because my husband will be taking over some of this when baby arrives & because we'll potentially have family here helping--he agreed (no really, he did!) that a cleaning/laundry guide might be helpful...along with where certain cleaners are stored.

Like anything, if it's going to work for you...you have to figure out what your family needs...even if that means customizing some of your own forms!

one heck of a project....

When we moved into our new-to-us home back in May, I was certain we'd be unpacked within a month or two. For the most part we were, aside from two rooms that have boxes with who knows what in them at this point.

I knew when we moved that I wanted the process to be as efficient as possible. I labeled every box I packed with a colored number. The color represented the room it would go to, the number corresponded to a list that said what was in that particular box.

As we unpacked our belongings in our new home, a few items just didn't quite find their place & they joined the boxes in the room upstairs, what was supposed to be my office/craft room. Time went on and our spare bedroom became an impromptu office...(which really means it just got filled with paperwork & odds and ends.) Anyways, we're three months away from baby's due date & in need of that second room. Which means we are needing to transition the pseudo office/guest room upstairs.

Problem.

That room is & has been filled with boxes...nearly floor to ceiling...and the problem has grown.

See for yourself....

We started on this room a few weekends back and have already made tremendous progress. We are both getting really excited with how this room is turning out! I'll continue to post updates on our progress!

and if I can't finish the first one, what hope is there for the next?

baby books.

I have a love/hate relationship with them. I had great aspirations of documenting each pregnancy/ first year of my children's lives with great detail & photos.

I have a belly book that is almost finished (from Lucy's pregnancy, no less) & her baby book has about 1/4 of the pages written on. I couldn't tell you exactly the date she rolled over (though that's on video), sat up, started crawling, walking, got her first tooth, etc.... I have approximate time frames, but for the life of me, I'm not one of those moms.

Enter Plan B.

I cheated. I totally just assembled photos of Lucy's first year into a photo book. I'm hoping to write out little notes about each month and attach at a later date....but if that never happens, at least I have a photo book documenting her first year.

With Baby #2 we're going to try hanging a calendar in the nursery and documenting milestones there--then I can have it all ready to go when I order a photo book documenting their first year.

toddler traditions.

When my husband and I were first married we swapped stories of our favorite traditions growing up and ideas we had for future traditions for our family. As it turns out we didn't have to wait long to begin such traditions. One of the first things we started was purchasing an ornament for our tree. The next was spending Christmas morning together...in our own home.

That first Christmas was a little strange to wake-up in our apartment, away from family, for the first time on a holiday. At the same time, it was simply wonderful. We opened gifts, lounged in our pajamas and ate a healthy amount of cinnamon rolls.

Our second Christmas we were blessed to have a five-month old daughter to celebrate with. New ornaments were purchased & Christmas morning was once again spent relaxed and at home. We videotaped our daughter's reaction to seeing her presents from Santa, though a five month old doesn't really change expressions all that much.... :)

This year we've been able to add many more "traditions" now that we have a toddler who is much more interested! Thanksgiving morning we woke up and ate pumpkin pancakes from the freezer, traced turkey hands, & watched the parade. When December 1st approached, I wrapped up 25 Christmas themed books I had picked up last season/over the summer. Based on an idea from a friend, I wrapped each book individually & Lucy has been allowed to open one each night. She has had SO much fun with this, I can't wait for next year to be able to introduce even more traditions! Her excitement has made me excited for Christmas morning...I'm so looking forward to bringing her out of her room to see what gifts she has to open...

And this year, I know we'll get a great reaction :)

what will we eat?!?

In the mornings when my husband is on his way out the door I always say the same thing....

"think about what you want for dinner..."

Oh yeah...I also end with "Love you!"

(just so we're clear that my love for him does take priority over what we shall eat that night)

For a few months now we've been relying on the fruits of our labor to feed us. Our last freezer cooking frenzy was a success. We tried a few new things and they were huge hits and are on their way to making it to the master list.

Today I opened up the freezer and saw the makings of four more dinners. I pulled a taco kit from the freezer (cooked taco meat + already grated cheese) to thaw in the fridge.

Dinner's Done! (almost)

The best part, something my husband and I both agree on, is that there are no pans/cheese graters to wash afterwards. Our two plates get tossed in the dishwasher & we call it good.

We have burritos left & a handful of pancakes, but our freezer is in dire need of filling up again.

I'll be planning our next three months of freezer cooking dates soon...or at least getting them on the calendar so that we can start stocking up on ingredients as needed. I'm hoping to try a few new items again in January & February in preparation for our (hopeful) mega freezer cooking session in March...just in time for baby #2.

"Promise me you'll be here in the morning..."

Maybe it's the hormones from pregnancy. Maybe it's the reality that tragedy exists.

Or maybe it's just that I shouldn't watch Lifetime movies...or movies like "Raising Helen" when I'm nearly 7 months pregnant. Regardless, that was the phrase I tearfully said to my husband the other night before drifting off to sleep.

This was the conclusion of what started out as a harmless, almost joking, conversation with my brother-in-law a few hours prior. God forbid something ever happens to both my sister and brother-in-law, my husband and I will step up and try to fill the mighty big shoes of these incredible two people...as guardians to four additional kiddos. My brother-in-law has often joked about this responsibility, and the mortgage that comes along with it.

My husband and I have talked off and on about the reality of needing to have something in writing, God forbid something ever happens to the both of us. We have no monetary possessions that people would fight about, but with so many people that love our daughter--we want our wishes to be clear. It's in these conversations I feel like I see the desires for our child (ren) for the future, and pray that the Lord will make my husband and I a part of them.

Obviously we desire for our children to be exposed to the love of Jesus that has rescued the two of us, but the more I express what I would want to happen, the more I realize the issue goes much further for women than it does for men. (though I will say my husband and I have generally been in agreement about what we want) Practically speaking, our children could have multiple options of people to love them in our absence---but last night it became clear to me what I've been trying to express in all these conversations with my husband.

It's what Helen's sister wanted. (Seriously, I've watched this movie about four times in the past month. :) Helen wasn't necessarily the obvious choice, she was who her sister felt could represent her the best in her absence.

Simply stated: I want our "fill-in" parents to be able to be the best representation of the kind of mom I am and desire to be. I want them to be able to share stories of my husband and I; stories of growth, humor, sadness, change, love, etc. I want them to let my kids get messy, stay up late just because, crawl in bed on the weekends and watch cartoons, take impromptu trips to the park/library/wal-mart, read books to even when there "isn't time," etc.

If my kids can't have me, I want them to have what I feel would be the best representation of me.

...even if it means they have to move into a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn because that's all the new guardians can afford once they've taken them all on.

(and if you haven't seen this movie, you should watch it...)

that's what she said...

No really, that's the post title I chose. And it doesn't mean what you think it does.

Lucy. It's about things Lucy has been saying.

My daughter is quirky, fun, active, & outgoing in every sense of the word. (True story, she sat on a stranger's lap in an airport recently after running up and hugging her.)

My daughter is also apparently developing a sassy streak, at the ripe old age of 17 months I might add :)

Last night my husband was placing toys back in the buckets and trying to get her attention. As he crawled around on the floor picking up toys he kept asking her to help. She, oblivious to what was going on, continued to spin in circles while holding a pinwheel she received back in July. Finally my husband says: "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy.." each time getting ever so slightly louder.

Lucy stopped spinning, squatted down, placed her hands on her knees and while looking her father in the eyes said "Da-Da!" in quite the loud voice.

We chuckled. No, we burst out in laughter.

And then I imagined us 12 years from now and we've entered the teenage years and that same voice is looking us dead in the face and saying "what???" in the same exasperated tone as we heard "Da-Da!" last night.

This morning we all overslept. Well, technically you can't say that Lucy and I overslept as we had nowhere to be...but my husband, he did in fact oversleep. He blames the flannel sheets...

Anyways, as he was rushing around this morning to get ready, Lucy brought him one of her favorite Christmas books of the season to read. Being the good daddy that he is, he of course obliged and read it. Minutes later I also had to read the book & then apparently she wanted Daddy to read it...again.

My husband finally said "Daddy can't read the book right now, I have to go to work."

Lucy just shook her head and in the saddest voice ever said "no, no, no..."

And then I remembered, that even with a little extra sass in her step, she's still our little girl. She still longs to be read to, hold your hand, & cuddle in tightly when it's cold.