Fruits of My Labor

As mentioned in my last post, today I was going to work on the first room on my spring/deep cleaning list. Just to show that I am human, here is the before picture of our bedroom. It's kind of embarrassing, but it makes the after picture look worthwhile. Here is the before picture as you are looking into our room from the doorway: Here is the after!

Here is the before shot as you are looking from the master bathroom:And the after shot:
Before shot taken from the window area:
And, of course, the after:

So that's what I did today. I moved all the furniture (except for the bed because that sucker is heavy) and vacuumed, dusted and wiped down the while room. Tomorrow I will be working on my master bathroom and doing some deep cleaning in there.

I feel great about what I have accomplished so far and I'm motivated to keep going on these projects! It's so wonderful to have time to do this now.

Today is the first day

Of my new job as housewife! I've got a couple projects planned for me to do today and I'm so excited to get to them! I've been trying for some time now to come up with a good daily schedule and while I had some good ideas on what to do, I made it really unrealistic for me and it was hard to keep up. I tried to do everything in a certain amount of time and I would get discouraged if things didn't get done in that time frame. Awhile ago on the blog, Her Southern Charm, I saw a daily schedule that Jennifer created to help her get through her day and I loved it. There was really no time frame, but it was a good way to break down a list of things to do. I decided to make my own version and so far, it's worked wonderfully! The nice things about not having designated times for things is that I won't get frustrated if I get off of schedule. For instance, this morning I planned on getting up and having my quiet time right away. Well, my wonderful husband wanted to make pancakes for me to celebrate my first day home, so who am I to say "no"! If I had a strict schedule to keep up with, I would have been annoyed at my hubby and I would miss out on a wonderful opportunity to hang out with him. So my schedule needs a little bit of adjusting, but I can work with it!

Today on my schedule is the spring/deep cleaning of the master bedroom. Unfortunately in the past, our bedroom is the last to get any attention. I'm hoping to change that and keep up on it now that I have the time! On my master cleaning list for the bedroom is this:

~Clean out closet
~Clean out drawers
~Clean under the bed
~Vacuum
~Dust
~Wash blinds and windows
~Hot spot decluttering (We have a few surfaces that likes to attract random junk, so I want to get rid of that!)

Later I will post before and after pictures so you can see my progress!

T-Minus One Day!!!

I am so excited that tomorrow is my last day of work... Forever!!! I've had a home keeping journal/binder for awhile now, but never fully used it since my work schedule was so wonky. Now, I've been able to sit down and start planning my days and really working on implementing a schedule that can help me in my new home keeping job!

The closer the time has come for me to be at home, the better I feel about my decision. I should be a nervous wreck that things won't work out and we'll lose our home, but I'm not! Both my husband and I are at peace about this decision and we are both so excited to see what God has in store for us. My main prayer now is that if anything does happen, our faith won't waiver and we won't start doubting this decision. I am also praying that both Eric and I can grasp on to our Lord and really learn how to hear his voice so that we know what the next step is.

Thank you for those of you that are reading this and praying for us during this time. We are so blessed by having many people in our lives that support this decision, no matter how crazy it seems!

Schedules and Lists

As I have said before, I am not a list maker by nature. I usually go with the flow or fly by the seat of my pants. Needless to say, I drive my very structured husband crazy.

One of my New Year's goals was to really sit down and work on a schedule in order to create some peace in our household. It's not uncommon to see us running frantic around our house before we go somewhere, due to my lack of planning. I know my husband needs a good plan, and it's my goal to come up with a workable one!

So far, I have created a weekly list. This includes my work schedule, weekly Bible studies and Eric's sound schedule at church. I also keep spaces open for any events (birthdays, parties, potlucks) that come up. I include a space on each day of the week to write what I need to bring to an event. For instance, I have a lunch after my Bible study tomorrow and I have signed up to bring a pasta salad. I put that in there so I know in advance I need to add the ingredients to the pasta salad to my grocery list.

I also have a monthly calender where I just write a brief note on each day. Then I can look to my weekly schedule for a more detailed plan of what's going on. This way I have an overview of what's going on in the month.

At this time, I'm still working on a daily schedule. Every day is different for me, so I am trying to figure out the timing of things. So far I've got that I wake up around 5:30 every morning and I go to bed around 9:30 every evening. I'm still working on the stuff in the middle.

On top of my daily, weekly and monthly schedule, I'm also working on a cleaning schedule. I'm trying to break my cleaning into smaller jobs that I can do a little every night, instead of all day on a Saturday. I'm hoping to get this done by next week.

So there you have it. This is my first jump into an organized life. I'm hoping that this all becomes second nature.

So Much Stuff To Do, So Little Time To Do It

I've got a bunch of stuff I want to accomplish this evening after I get home from work. It's almost overwhelming, but I know if I write it down, it won't be so bad.

Before I met my husband, I would just do things when they came to mind. I never thought of writing things out on a list. If I missed something, I wouldn't panic (too much) I would just do it later, if I had the time. The more things I forgot, (and I DID forget, because I'm scatterbrained like that) the more things I would have to do later, and then I'd have absolutely no time left to do the things I missed. Once that would happen, I'd freak out, spend all night working on a bunch of projects and get no sleep what so ever (remember those last minute term papers mom?) You would think I learned my lesson and learn how to make a list, but no, I didn't. I continued in my lack of organization and more freak outs occurred.

Enter my husband. He is list maker extrodinaire! He makes lists for the most simplest of things. When we were dating and I would have one of my freak outs because I, as usual, would forget a bunch of stuff, he would constantly tell me to sit down and make a list of what needed to get done. I would, sweetly of course, roll my eyes at him and tell him not to worry, I had it all under control. At first he would be sweet and console me during my freak outs, but after awhile he would tell me "I told you so!" and then walk off while shaking his head. I think he finally got sick of my freak outs because he finally sat me down and told me to write everything I needed to do down. I did and life as I know it got easier! Why didn't I do this before! Now, I'm still not the best at remembering to make a list, but I am doing a lot better. So since I just got done talking about making a list, here is the list of things I would like to get done after work.

• Do load of "work clothes"- Done
  
• Empty Dishwasher-Done
• Load dishwasher again and wash dishes (We use more dishes than anyone else I know!)- Done
• Clean kitchen and straighten up kitchen table- Done
• Prepare dinner and stick it in the oven- Done
• Tear down dog kennel and vacuum living room floor- Done
• Dust living room furniture- Done
• Do load of sheets and blankets- I did the sheets, but I will have to do the blankets tonight
  
• Clean master bathroom- Done
  
• Vacuum master bedroom- To be done tonight
  

I know it seems like a lot, but I think I can get it done in a couple of hours or less. I was hoping to get that stuff done over the weekend, but it didn't happen. So as soon as I get home, I'm gonna put my cute little apron on and get to work!

Oh, and if any of you working wives read this, please leave some tips for me on how to organize work and home. I could sure use them!