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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Project 52 - Week 4

We just got back from a weekend out-of-state (more on that later!). Knowing that we wouldn't get back until late tonight, I did this weeks' project last weekend so I could keep on track without being home this weekend.

Although quite simple, I needed to tackle this next project. Soon after Kathryn was born while my parents were visiting, my mom had the genius idea to have a cabinet for all-things-Kathryn. So all-things-Kathryn were stored in there from then on so they were easily accessible and organized. Although lately, her cabinet has been looking a lot like this:
I think it's been looking like a baby supplies dumping ground because she has outgrown a lot of the supplies in the cabinet and we really haven't used many of them lately.
Bottles, bottles everywhere
A note to new mom's: Don't bother buying the expensive bottles before you have your child thinking that you're doing the best thing for them. Only if your child really needs the Dr. Brown bottles that consist of approximately 150 parts, then purchase them. Otherwise, I highly recommend the cheap-o bottles that were just perfect for Kathryn.

See the bottle with the green top in the middle of the picture above? 3 bottles for $6. Thanks, Gerber! Just because they're cheap doesn't mean they come laced with a layer of asbestos. Their just as good as the others and have held up tremendously.

As I was putting all the bottles away, I figured it was also time to get rid of her bottle dryer. It's been a permanent fixture on our counter top for the past 20 months and honestly, it's a little sad to see it go.
After packing away much of the cabinet, Kathryn's stuff has been condensed to just one shelf consisting of her "big girl" items: bowls, sippy cups, and some snacks. The other shelf is now home to "The Magic Bullet".
It's nice to have condensed and cleaned out this cabinet, but it was a big reminder that there's definitely not a baby living in our house anymore.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Catching up

I needed to unload some pictures from my phone, so I thought I'd share some from the past week. Kathryn is becoming a little girl right before our eyes as she grows and changes each day. Her vocabulary is increasing by the minute and her personality is bursting as she becomes her own person.
She loves her pasta,
ruby red shiny shoes,
and her handmade hat from Aunt Kim
I mentioned here that E. J. and Kathryn LOVE hiding and scaring each other. These are the lengths he'll go to in order to scare her (see below - he's hiding in the storage space in her room above her closet). She LOVES it! Whenever she enters into a room she yells "BOO!" to scare us.
Apparently Kathryn heard that I'm doing a project each week and decided to create one for me in her closet.
It only took a few minutes and then we realized that things were suspiciously quiet. The clothes she has outgrown where in pile, but she took it upon herself to rearrange them a little differently. All I could do was laugh because I couldn't get mad at that face.

E. J. got home from work early last Friday and took some videos with his phone while they were playing outside. They're a little grainy and short, but cute to share.
The Goose Chaser (yeah, she's nothing like me when it comes to stuff like this)
Giving dad a hug

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Project 52 - Week 3

Piles. Are they a rising epidemic in your house like they are in mine? Ugh. Hopefully I'm not alone. They annoy me to no end. Often, I don't end up doing anything about them because I'm so overwhelmed as to where I would even start.

But, that's what Project 52: Cluttered House to Simplified Home is all about - tackling those less than desirable projects (although so far, I'm so happy to have completed each project). This week's project, although fairly simple, makes me feel a million times better.

I mentioned in my previous post that last week was really busy at work and left me with no energy by the time I got home. In just one week, our kitchen island went from "eh, there are some piles, but I can live with it" to this:
Disaster zone
What is it about kitchen counter tops that just calls for excess mail, keys, scissors, tape, a random hammer, packets of gum, etc. to be accumulated on this area? I don't know what it is, but it needs to stop in our house.
I went through each item and separated everything into piles. See that middle pile? It's all TRASH!
I love getting rid of excess stuff and this case was no exception. Everything that needed to be kept is now in its designated spot. Coming home to a clean counter top will be so much more pleasant.
And dinner is in the crock pot, too (as seen on the counter). I'm trying out this recipe from one of my favorite Web sites (thanks, Kim!). I think I'll make my serving with some spaghetti squash - yum! Plus it makes a ton so we'll have leftovers and I'll probably freeze some for a easy future-meal.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Friday - Sweet Relief

I'm going to say it as if I was getting ready to watch Steve Urkel and Full House - TGIF! It's been one of those weeks where I'm ready for bed as soon as I arrive home from work. This week, although only a 4-days, has been trying and exhausting at work.

I'm ready to make it through the day, enjoy some homemade pizza tonight, and then even though the house is a wreck right now, I'm going to ignore it and get into my most favorite stretchy pants, over sized shirt, and watch a movie with my husband tonight. Bliss.

We've all had one of "those weeks" and this week happened to be one of "them" for me. So as soon as I drop off K at her grandma's house, I'll be counting down the minutes until I can see this face again.
So for the love of God, Friday, be easy on me! Hello, Weekend!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Project 52 - Week 2

This week's disaster clean-up was all on me. Meaning, I'm the reason for this mess:
As the main cook of the house, along with my love for baking, I spend a lot of time grabbing ingredients out of the pantry and then carelessly throwing them back in the pantry. It doesn't take long for an unorganized nightmare to build up and all of the sudden I can't even find one of the three bags of confectionery sugar. (Yeah, I discovered that one along with four jars of paprika...no one needs that much paprika).

To start, I completely unloaded the pantry.
Who knew the pantry held so much food
Emptied and scrubbed top to bottom
Then I categorized and put everything that belonged into its place. It may not look perfect, but to me, it's a world of difference. I'm all about keeping it this way and being more careful about hastily throwing food back in there carelessly.
It was great to take inventory, trash expired food, and reorganize everything, because let's face it, the cleanup had to be done.

Another project completed, another fresh start.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

20 Month Tid-Bits

After writing Kathryn's 20 month post, I realized there were a few things I left out about what Kathryn has been up to lately, so I needed to write them down before they escaped my mind .
*For the last 2 months she's been in a size 5 diaper

*She's in nothing less than a 2T and even wears some 3T. Amazing that she's growing so much despite being a pesky eater...

*She went from calling me "mama" originally, then a month ago it was "mom", now it's "mommy". It melts my heart.
Helping dad over the weekend
*Her manners are coming along! Whenever she wants something, we just say "what do you say" and she responds with "peassss" (please). We're just working on saying "thank you". If I say, "now can say 'thank you', her response is "welcome". We're getting there.

*I had my first 'mortified-mom-moment' in Target over Christmas break. While she was in the bathroom stall with me, let's just say the lady in the next stall over had some...gas. After hearing it, Kathryn looked at me with a disgusted face and screamed "EEWWWW! YUCK". So yeah, we quickly exited the bathroom.

Something tells me this isn't the first or worst moment like this that we'll have...

*This weekend, I was glued to my laptop looking for an air conditioner repair company. While I was dealing with a broken air conditioner when E. J. was at work, Kathryn was dancing around with her new guitar. She was spinning around to the music and then I heard a smack and a scream. Kathryn lost her balance fell into fireplace mantle. Immediately, this egg formed on her forehead.
Poor thing. After the initial shock, a bit of crying, a ton of Googling on my behalf to determine if she needed to go to the hospital, things ended up some smiles. K also lucked out and got to stay up super late so we could ensure that she was okay. Phew!

I can definitely tell we're in for even more changes this month as she grows more in so many ways.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Project 52 - Week 1

I'm so excited to have completed week one! I'm hoping this rewarding feeling keeps me going to complete future projects so that I stick with my resolution for 2012: Clutter House to Simplified Home.

As I stated in last week's post, this project definitely opens up some vulnerability because you get to see the current state of my house. As you will see from my first project, well, it's just plain ole' embarrassing.

But the point of this resolution is to fix and simply things around our house. While I don't think we live in an episode of the television show, "Hoarders", I like to think that everyone has hidden (or not so hidden) projects around their house that they need to work on. So here we go!

I admit, this project was a casualty of the holidays as it definitely hasn't always looked like this. I decided today was the day to tackle our office/desk area which is located in the hallway between our kitchen and laundry room (it's where I'm blogging from now and haven't been able to do in a while!)
Here's the sad "before" picture
Progress....
Ta da! Done! What a great feeling.
Everything has been filed and put away in a designated place. Now that I have a clean slate, I have some new goals for the area:

*Put up some pictures or a print above the desk area
*Add a lamp to the desk
*Do something to better disguise the cords behind the printer

Week one is complete!

A special thanks to Kathryn for taking a 2.5 hr nap so I could work on this project!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

20 Months

Well, hello 20 months! You certainly snuck up on us. Poor Kathryn has been sick for about half of the month, but she's finally on the mend and now recovering from a cough/cold thingy.
Even with being sick and not acting like herself (including not eating very well), she managed to grow a full inch from last month. 34 1/2 inches!
Our toddler is turning into a little girl - a silly and playful one. She loves to hide and surprise us with an enthusiastic "boo". She also loves to be scared! E. J. and her have fun hiding from each other and scaring the crap out of one another.
Much to my surprise, while we were running errands during my Christmas break we were at a stop light and K pointed and said "E" and "O" as she looked at the WElls "FargO" sign. Who says tv isn't good for kids?! Ha!
Since then, she continues to point out a few letters and say them correctly in "real life" scenarios or if she's watching Sesame Street/Super Why. She's also taking a shot at colors too, most things are blue or orange. Eh, whatever works.
She has also become quite the copycat. She imitates our actions and she's definitely trying to repeat words/phrases that come out of our mouths. Time to be careful with what we say out loud!
She's a total goofball. Incredibly expressive! (Everything is emotion filled) A major girl (she loves to make both mommy and daddy's hair "pretty" by brushing it". A joy. An animal lover. A sweet little lady.
Semi-posing with a tired mommy who had a long day at work functioning on 5 hrs sleep
Happy 20 months, Kathryn!