Organizing Overhaul

Hey y'all (yes apparently I talk like this now),

As I said in my last post, I'm trying to stay focused on the prize (aka husband homecoming) by keeping busy. One plan that I have is to totally organize my life in 30 days and of course, I wanted to tell y'all (again) how I'm doing it.

So, I made this list of things that I wanted to organize throughout 30 days (figuring in some catch-up/free days). I figured I would need close to 30-60 mins to work on each of these, some maybe less, and that I would plan to do it during nap time each day. Here's the list.

1. Master closet
2. Sewing area
3. Junk drawer
4. Car
5. Refrigerator
6. Isla's closet
7. Cole's closet
8. Office
9. Office closet
10. Office closet (yes, this needs two days)
11. Playroom toys
12. Kids' books
13. Master bathroom cabinet
14. Kids' bathroom cabinet
15. Emergency binder
16. Recipe binder
17. Family command center
18. Garage
19. Kitchen bar
20. Pantry
21. Kids' dishes/tupperware drawer
22. Craft stuff
23. Attic
24. Linen closets
25. Budget/Financial paperwork
26. Cole's clothes
27. Isla's clothes
28. Hubs and my clothes
29. Catch-up day
30. Catch-up day

I figured I wouldn't do them in order but instead just pick something off the list to work on each day. Today I did my sewing area since it seemed easy enough and I had a few other things to do today. I'm hoping that this will help get me re-organized and stay organized through the new year! Make yourself a list and let me know how it goes for you! :)

Has it REALLY been so long?

I am so incredibly sad that I really have not written since September. I originally started this blog over a year ago because I love to write and to see I have been too busy to do it is sad! However, I have decided that with the new year (Yay 2014!) I really want to make a point to do more writing. So here goes!

This very long year deployment is almost up. We are looking forward to Joseph's homecoming and it's getting so close I cannot even stand it. I knew the holidays would make the end of November and December fly by but now that January is here, I feel like it is going to drag on. Therefore, I've decided to keep myself as busy as possible until he gets here.

A friend and I are trying to start up a group here that collects and distributes items and food to the homeless. Our hope is that we can get private organization status and operate through the base but we shall see. We are just putting our faith in God and letting him lay the cards as he sees fit. We are very excited though and have our first feed planned for this month.

I've also decided to do an organization challenge this month. Each day I will focus on organizing one thing in my house. Should be lots of work but in the end it will all be worth it. I'll share the list, when I get around to making it :)

As for the year, I've made some "goals"
1. Get closer to God
2. Spend more time with my children and less time with my cellphone
3. Try to stay organized so that I don't have to constantly reorganize everything
4. Eat healthier, workout more
5. Look for and find a job I like.
6. Hopefully buy a house this year!
7. Become financially sound.
8. And visit here a lot more often

There it is, folks! Let's see how I do :)

Just because you don't have cable, doesn't mean you can't be a TV addict.

So since we've been in our new place, I have been on the weirdest clean schedule. It's actually quite horrible. Most nights, I sleep only a few hours if I sleep at all and other nights I'm in bed by 8 pm. I know it's partially my own fault because I get addicted to TV shows... so much so that I keep my eyes pried open to finish the whole season. Each cliffhanger makes me crazy and I NEED to see more. I'm nuts, I know. We don't have cable. We use our Blu-ray to stream from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. I am cool with that but I run out of shows and then move onto the next seasons of my addiction. In the last month I've watched all the seasons of Suits, Drop Dead Diva, Covert Affairs, and Scandal. I'm stumped now as to what to watch next.

Anyways, besides my TV issues, I've been doing some projects! I start homeschooling Isla tomorrow and I am insanely excited about it. I adapted a curriculum from Teachers Pay Teachers (A to Z Toddler Curriculum) and added activities that I wanted to teach her and it worked out really well. I like the activities she provided and that it included a bible verse, but it was easy for me to add stuff based on the theme. You could use the curriculum in full or as a basis. It's very versatile.

I also have an awesome project I started tonight that will be up before the end of the week :) Stay tuned !

It's been a while..

Ok, so I'm incredibly bad at this. 

But, I promise I was keeping busy. I've taken a short hiatus from my own blog to write on a blog called Peach State Moms Blog. It was a lot of fun and it really taught me a lot of stuff to bring back here to my lovely little quiet blog.

Anyways, we have moved... again! Thus the life of the military family. We are now in the deep south of Georgia and so far, we like it a bit. We've been here only a few weeks and have no friends, family, anybody... but we are hosting a playdate on Saturday so there's hope. 

The monkeys are big. Isla is 2 and nearly potty trained. I'm shocked that I have a child old enough to be out of diapers. It seems like the last two years have just flown by. Cole is just about 10 months old and crazy as ever. He has just begun walking and has 4, almost 5 teeth. They are beautiful and they mean everything to me. 

Their joint birthday party on 7/7

Joseph is deployed still. We are missing him but we got to see him for a few weeks about a month or so ago. We have 7 months left and are counting down. He and I got to spend some quality time together while he was home. It was amazing. 

Joseph and I at a Braves game.

I am really looking forward to his homecoming. But for now, I am working hard at getting our new place beautiful-ized. I have a lot that I want to write about over the course of the next few months. I hope to share some projects, recipes, and general household stuff. And also my ideas for toddler homeschool, as I will be, somehow, starting to homeschool Isla between work come September. I hope that my blog itself will grow and that I can help someone, anyone in some way; whether it be a tutorial for a project I complete or just in knowing that you are not alone! I hope particularly that I can be a good point person for new military spouses. 

So bare with me as I start to get this blog going again! 

Weekends are rough!

 We made it through our first weekend without Joseph and lemme just say it was rough! Thank God for my sister-in-law, who let us practically spend the whole weekend with her! I tried to keep busy and we were actually able to talk to him a lot so it wasn't horrible. It's just inevitable that I'm going to miss him.

The other very difficult part of this is having two very young children all on my own. I feel like I constantly get disapproving looks when out, like people are thinking "what the hell is wrong with this lady trying to do this herself". Then all they can think to say is "you've got your hands full". Well yes, yes I do. Please if you see someone with two young children DO NOT say this to them. We know our hands are full.... believe me. You don't need to remind us at that point when the baby is shrieking and the toddler is throwing herself to the floor during a fit.

In other news,Valentine's Day is upon us. I finished the kids' Valentines for school and they came out super cute. I got both ideas on Pinterest. The goldfish one can be found here and the fruit pouch one can be found here. They were super easy to do and perfect since Cole and Isla have a toddler class and an infant class.

We have a good amount of activities planned for the coming weeks including a visit from my parents and some play dates!  Hopefully it will keep our minds off the time and make it fly!

D-Day has come and gone...Day 1 without Daddy.

It happened.

That day we were hoping would never come, did.



Deployment day.


Yesterday, Joseph boarded a long flight overseas. I cried, he cried, and Isla gave kisses. I drove home from the airport thinking, "Man, a year is soooo long. How am I going to take care of these babies, and work, and do it all.... by myself?" The thought of it was scaring the crap out of me. Until I got home.
I spent a few hours cleaning, organizing, and getting ready for the single parent life. I let Isla skip a nap and put her down at her old normal bedtime of 7 pm thinking maybe I could get her back on schedule easily. At 2 am, she was up. Screaming. I brought her into bed with me and then she woke up Cole. So here we are, all three of us up at 2 am. I know I was missing daddy and I'm sure Miss Isla was too. Cole is partial to me at nighttime, so I know where his allegiance lied. It took about 3 hours of drum playing, crying, and feeding for the 2 of them and myself to all be asleep, semi-peacefully in the same king-sized bed. I, of course, was in the middle squished and wondering how two such tiny people could make me feel so uncomfortable in such a large bed.
But I know we will get used to it, even if every night it ends up that the 3 of us are sleeping in that bed together. And before we know it, he will be home again. I'm prepared for it to be difficult some days. I'm prepared to break down once in a while, it's inevitable. But, we will make the best of it.
This morning, we all rolled out of bed around 8am. I got the kids ready for school. Their teachers were so happy to see them and when I picked up they said they really enjoyed music class. Miraculously, when we got home, I fed them both lunch and they both went down for a nap. Then we played, watched Tangled, and had dinner with family. I almost didn't cry.


Isla and Daddy




Spending some time with Daddy before we left.




Clapping




Big Hugs :(




Right after Daddy told Cole to take care of things while he's gone!


That was until I got my camera out and looked through these pictures. I know he was so upset in them, you can see it in his face. As much as I am going through, I know he is going through it ten times more. I can not imagine being away from our sweet babies so long. He has to be so strong.

If you think of it, say a little prayer for him tonight.

I got to skype with him a few times and it was nice to check-in and know he made it safely. He's getting settled and these first few weeks will be rough for him. I know it will go quickly though and before we know it, we'll have him home again!

Southern livin'

We are officially in Georgia and all I have to say is thank goodness!! I don't know why but it has occurred to me that I am really good at setting myself up for failure. For some reason, I told myself I was going to get here and do all these fabulous things and be set-up in a day. Well.... let me just say, it certainly did not happen that way. We have been to our storage unit multiple times trying to find everything the kids and I need during our stay here. I still feel like we aren't completely organized. And our schedules? They are so out of whack that it isn't even funny. Now, we all are sick. It just adds to the fun! But really, I love it here. I love the sun and warmth despite it being winter. I love the southern hospitality. I love that no one looks at you weird when you say "No thank you, ma'am". It's just so nice!


But then there is the impending doom, the reason we are here.... because in one week, my husband, my partner, my love will be leaving, for a year. I can't even stand it. Lately, all my inadequacies have been coming to a head and I really feel like I just can't do it without him. I feel like alone, I will fail our children. Again, I'm setting myself up for failure. See a recurring theme here?

I feel like I am not the only mother that does this. I feel like there are so many of us wannabe perfectionists that think the only way to not screw our kids up is to throw together pinterest projects for every school function and make our own baby food, soap, clothes, etc. When in reality all my child really needs/wants is for me to play her the sound board on her Charlie Brown's Christmas book and give her sweets every so often. So why am I so crazy? Who knows but at least I know there are a million moms out there doing the same thing.

Anyways, we're enjoying our last week with daddy, tornado warnings, ER visits, and all....