Days 16 & 17 – ABC’s and the fridge

Kaden will be starting preschool this fall so I’ve been working with him on different things that they will be teaching him.  Most of the time he doesn’t want to sing the “ABC song” and asks me to stop if I start singing it to him, but he has been making some progress.  I bought him wooden blocks of the alphabet – he loves building things with them and he’ll “say” his abc’s on his own (it normally goes A, B, C, D, F, H, I, K for Kaden, L, MmmmN, O, T, Y and Z!!)…hey, that’s pretty good since he hardly lets me sing them to him!  He has also started recognizing a few letters.  He thinks anything with an M in it spells mommy, anything with a K spells Kaden and anything with a Z spells Zach.  He thinks zero’s are O‘s and I‘s are number ones.  At least we’re getting a small start before he goes to preschool.

He seems to be learning so much lately and growing way too fast.  He’s been using big words like “especially” and talks in full sentences all the time (& he talks allllllll the time).  I remember how proud I was when he knew 20 words by his 1st birthday, and quite a few were able to be understood by more than just me, now that he’s 3 1/2 and never stops talking I don’t remember what the days were like when he was as quiet as Irelyn! – so I’m making sure I thoroughly enjoy her lack of communication skills now, before I have two little chatterboxes. 🙂

Anyway, we’re going to keep working on his ABC’s, but next I’m going to start teaching him how to write his name and read some easy words.  I have a few signs that have his name, address and my name – he has all of that memorized so I’m hoping he’ll be able to start recognizing the actual words, too.  Since I have always worked since Kaden was born, I love being able to stay at home and spend more time watching him learn. 🙂

Here is a picture Kaden colored for Zach for Father’s Day (don’t mind the blue lips/mouth from his sucker):

He actually starts out by coloring in the lines, then he gets impatient and scribbles the rest (his favorite color is blue, so he’s convinced that he can’t use/wear any other color at the moment).

Now, on the the fridge.  I don’t have much to say about it, it was disorganized before and now it’s clean…

Yuck.

After:

…and now it looks like I’m starving my child.  We really do have food, most of it just obviously doesn’t need refrigerated.

 That’s about all I have to say for tonight.  My sewing machine should be here tomorrow (almost the highlight of my week!) so I’m sure I’ll have more exciting things to talk about then.  Highlight of the week so far:  Irelyn slept for 8 hours straight  for the first time last night!  She normally sleeps for 5 hours straight each night, so 8 hours was wonderful.  I don’t have my hopes up for it  to happen again any time in the near future, but I’m thankful since the last time I slept that long was about 4 months into my pregnancy.

Days 14 & 15 – Medicine Cabinet and Under Bathroom Sink

Yesterday’s project was the medicine cabinet.  However…after only getting about 4 hours of interrupted sleep, a 4 minute long shower with two kids whining during 3 minutes of it and not eating breakfast until 11am (we got up at 6am), I decided that the medicine cabinet basket could stay disorganized for now.  Or forever for all I care.  So, on to day 14. 🙂

After finding a leak under the kitchen sink, I was slightly nervous when I started cleaning under the bathroom sink today.  Luckily, all I found was a disorganized mess (which I’m obviously use to!).

….and here are the pictures.

I found make up I didn’t know I had and a new shower curtain liner that I forgot I bought!  I’m most excited about the fact that there won’t be an avalanche of beauty products falling onto my feet when I reach in for the hair dryer (that’s what usually wakes Irelyn up if she’s actually allowing me 20 minutes to temporarily wash the spit up out of my hair).

Kaden is spending this weekend with his dad in Indy, so Irelyn and I are going to try to brave the heat and clean out Zach’s truck in the morning.  The temperatures are supposed to be in the 90’s all week and we are now in a moderate drought.  I’d much rather deal with the hot weather and one kid that can’t move anywhere on her own, than 2 kids and have to watch for the stupid drivers that fly in our apartment complex at 30mph.

Besides cleaning the truck, our weekend plans are to relax and go to church with my parents on father’s day, then to pick Kaden up on Sunday evening.  Irelyn will be 3 months tomorrow, so I’ll be posting her 3 month picture soon! 🙂

Day 13 – Toy Organization

This project is the one I was dreading most (along with the master closet which I’m planning on starting this weekend).  It went surprisingly well and Kaden loved helping label everything.  I’m very happy with how his room looks now and he’s been putting his toys away in the right places for the past two days 🙂

Now, BEFORE you look at these pictures… let me warn you that I did forget to take the “before” picture before I started doing anything.  I had already moved toys (with Kaden’s help) and cleaned off the bed before I realized I hadn’t take a picture.  These pictures are worse than his room actually looked by the end of each day, but they just make the finished product look that much better 😉

…….and here’s after!

It turned out even better than I thought it would.  The room looks a little smaller with the bed where it is now, but there’s more room to store toys and I don’t have to climb in the toy box to put his laundry away 🙂

My other exciting news for the day is that I ordered a sewing machine!! (…I remember watching my mom sew when I was a kid – I never thought I’d be so excited about sewing) It will be here early next week and I’ve got  a list of projects that I’m going to begin working on (reusable nursing pads, cloth diaper inserts, cloth wipes and burp rags), I’m already planning a modified “28 day challenge” for sewing projects!

Well, tomorrow’s task is the medicine cabinet (which is actually just a basket) and grocery shopping.  Here’s one last picture of Kaden in his clean room!  Somehow this kid manages to sleep with every item on his bed, plus about 6 blankets you can’t see folded up at the bottom.  I always have to double check to be sure I’m kissing his head (not Mickey’s) when I check on him at night.

Days 11 & 12 – Carpet & Freezer

I am definitely improving in my ability to post regularly – every other day is much better than once or twice per month 🙂

I skipped yesterday because instead of spot cleaning every square inch of my carpet, I’m hoping my uncle will be able to use a carpet cleaner in the living room and dining room before Zach comes home.  Since we moved to our 3 bedroom apartment in the middle of our lease, they didn’t replace the carpet.  So it’s about 4 years old and way past needing replaced…which is actually a good thing once I look past the stains – between Kaden and Irelyn, I know we would have left a fair share of stains on the carpet ourselves.  Now we don’t have to worry about paying for it to be replaced 🙂

Anyway, I did clean out the freezer this morning.  I really have no excuse for the condition it was in before.  There isn’t much space for organizing, but the fact that I haven’t cleaned it since Irelyn was born is the real problem.

Kaden was very excited to find out that we had ice cream and pizza hidden in there 🙂

Well, the kitchen is almost complete!  As soon as I clean out the fridge (& oh does it need it!) my kitchen will be 100% organized.  Hopefully Zach will be home in time to enjoy it!

Since I haven’t posted one recently, I’ll add a couple pictures of Irelyn tonight (I’ll post some of Kaden with his clean bedroom tomorrow).

Days 7 & 8 – Dressers and Pantry

I decided not to take pictures of the dressers (obviously wouldn’t be very interesting), so I’m combining these two posts.  First, I hate laundry.  I hate the entire sorting, washing, drying, folding and putting away process.  I’d rather scrub a toilet than do laundry.  But, putting Zach’s clothes back in his dresser and knowing that he’ll soon be home to wear them made it worth it. 🙂  Plus our bedroom looks so much better now.

On to the pantry… my embarrassment in a couple of these pictures is a repeat of the “Under the Kitchen Sink” post. Here goes.

Before:

After:

 Yes, that thing hanging on the wall is for shoes.  I got the idea from Pinterest, so at least I’m not the only crazy person using it for food! 🙂

And this one is before & after:

I was so much more relaxed in my kitchen that I made steak and scalloped corn for dinner tonight.  I marinated mine in plenty hot sauce and cajun seasoning – I’ve got to take advantage of enjoying my food extra spicy before Zach comes home 🙂

I must have been trying to make up for my lack of effort the past few days and rearranged Kaden’s entire room today.  Of course, it looks like a tornado went through there (even worse than normal), but I’m planning on finishing it this weekend.  He now has a little more room for his toys, a reading nook and he was so excited that I moved his bed to a different spot.  Living in a small apartment drives me crazy – I’d rearrange the furniture in my house at least once a month if I actually had the room to do so.  Unfortunately, everything has to stay in the same spot it has been in for the past 4 months…

We’ve gotten some good news from Zach over the past couple of days, although I can’t share very much, we will get to see him sooner than we’d thought 🙂

Since tomorrows task is the coat closet, I shouldn’t have any trouble posting.  I did start reading another book today though, so we’ll see.

Day 6 – Under Kitchen Sink

After two days of being extremely unmotivated (and reading another book), here’s what I should have posted on Wednesday!  When we moved into this apartment in February, I was 34 weeks pregnant, on partial bedrest and couldn’t help much at all with the moving. I was so thankful for all the help from our family with the entire move and my plan was to get organized when I was putting everything away.  That mostly worked – except that I lost motivation by the time I got around to areas that no one else ever sees (under the sinks, linen closet, my closet, etc).  Since I had basically just tossed everything under the kitchen sink, I found a lovely surprise that I had no idea was there.  Mold!  Not very much of it and my dad cleaned it up for me, but apparently there is a tiny leak in one of the pipes down there.  So after getting that taken care of and bleaching everything that was down there, here are my pictures.

Totally embarrassed by the before picture:

I really don’t know why I need so many different cleaning products for a small 3 bedroom apartment.

Well, since I’m going to have to post again tonight because of my laziness (and I really don’t have much to say about the disaster that was hiding under my sink), that’s all for this one. 🙂

Day 5 – Linen Closet

I’m starting to feel like my home really is more organized!  Today has been a great day (and not because of the linen closet).  Zach had some awesome news while we were talking this morning, Heidi stopped by this afternoon and Zach’s dad brought McDonald’s over and had dinner with us.

I was also very productive this morning and had the linen closet cleaned by 9am 🙂

Before (I’m slightly embarrassed because of this mess…but my pantry is still worse):

After (SO much better!):

I’ve also been working on another project.  I’ve wanted to buy wooden letters to hang in Irelyn’s room – I’ve found some really cute painted ones on etsy, but haven’t wanted to pay $40+ for them.  I found something almost as good on sale at JoAnn’s a couple weeks ago (for much cheaper).

6 cardboard letters: $1 each (they were 50% off)
4 acrylic paints to match her bedding: $1.49 each (also 50% off)

6 paintbrushes: $3 (also on sale)

ribbon: $.50

Kaden took the before picture at the bottom:

They’re not perfect, but they were a lot cheaper and more fun to make than anything I could have bought.  Kaden helped paint them and when he saw them laying on the floor he clapped his hands and told me “Mommy! You did such a great job!” 🙂

We’ve got a pretty exciting day ahead of us tomorrow – cleaning under the kitchen sink and my parents & sister are coming to visit in the evening!  We don’t get out much these days, so any adult company is always welcome.  I’ll post again tomorrow night! 🙂

Day 4 – Kitchen Cupboards

I’ve been slacking. We have had an unusually busy weekend and instead of blogging in the evenings, I got sucked into reading “Fifty Shades of Grey”. I wasn’t a huge fan of the book, but it was addicting to read and only wasted 2 days of my life. Now, on to my cupboards.

They really were in need of some organizing, but I can’t say that my disorganization of the cupboards embarrass me. I’ll be embarrassed when I have to reveal Day 8 (the pantry).

Before(ignore the horrible quality, my iPhone camera is having some issues):

After:

I never realized how many spices I own. The funny thing is, I don’t even know what I’d use half of them for. I usually dump a little of whatever smells good into what I’m cooking.

So, my kitchen is halfway organized now. It’ll be complete after I get to the pantry, fridge & freezer. There is a benefit to missing a day here and there, by then time I complete my “28 days”, it’ll be July. And we’ll be one month closer to homecoming! 🙂

Fortunately, Fifty Shades of Grey didn’t impress me enough that I’d want to purchase the 2nd and 3rd books in the series. Now that I don’t have reading to distract me, I’ll do the linen closet tomorrow. 🙂

Day 3 – The Mail

Today’s task was pretty easy, but so necessary.  I had a stack of mail on top of the printer and an entire drawer packed full of mail – so I’ve also taken this opportunity to update as many of our bills to paperless as possible (I’m all for freeing up time that I’d waste organizing it after the tower of paper starts falling off of the printer… and it doesn’t hurt to save a few trees in the process).  

So, here are today’s pictures:

Someday… I plan to upgrade to a small file cabinet and alphabetize everything.  Someday.

I was looking at my blog stats today and was totally surprised.  I started this blog before my husband deployed last September.  My plan was to write about what is happening here at home so that he and our family that we don’t talk to everyday could stay up to date.  I never expected to have anyone I didn’t know personally to be remotely interested in the random things I’ve posted.  But to my 12 followers – thank you 🙂  I’ve reached 300+ page views since February and that is what makes me want to continue posting.  Blogging is the only time of day that I have to myself, but because I don’t blog until evening, I don’t put a lot of thought into what or how I write (this kills me because since high school I have always dreamed of becoming a published author).  I’m hoping that after Zach is home and I have more adult conversation each day my brain won’t be so fried.  Anyway, thank you to all of you who read each boring, random post.  It means a lot to me 🙂

We didn’t do much today, we got to Skype with Zach for quite a while this morning and relaxed most of the day.  Kaden has been carrying around $4 and stuffing it in random toys (somehow he hasn’t lost a single dollar in the past 2 weeks he’s had the money), so we made him a bank today.

I asked him what he is going to save his money for.  His answer?  A motorcycle….”cause motorcycles are cool, mommy!”

I found another quote this week that I love.  Zach and I got married just 6 weeks before he deployed last year, so our first year of marriage has been interesting to say the least.  We haven’t had the chance to live together for very long or to experience any of the struggles and happiness that a normal first year of marriage brings.  Through this deployment we have experienced many new struggles and a different kind of happiness than I ever expected to have.  We have grown in ways I didn’t know were possible and we’ve gotten closer in ways we never could have if we hadn’t had to spend so much time apart.  We’ve had to trust each other 100% and find a way to be “together” while we’re 8,000 miles apart, instead of letting the distance divide us.  I absolutely hate having to spend this time apart, but I’m thankful for what it has made us.  I have heard multiple times (as I know every other military wife has), people telling me they “don’t know how I do it” or that they “would never be strong enough to love someone who’d have to be away so much”.  I’m never quite sure if they want an answer, explanation or expect me to have an emotional breakdown, so I just smile and nod.  But the alternative to all the lonely nights, the long and, at times, frustrating days… is to not have him.  And that would be far more painful than any deployment.

So, for us, I don’t expect to have a perfect marriage, to never fight or to have unending bliss in between deployments – my only wish is for forever enough.

Enough patience to stay the course.
Enough passion to get angry.
Enough intrigue to hold attention.
Enough encouragement to grow together.
Enough leniency to forgive missteps and faults.
Enough humility to always count our blessings.
Enough wit to keep laughing.
Enough love to last a lifetime.

Day 2 – Computer Desk

With Zach being in Afghanistan, I obviously spend a lot of time on and off the computer.  So it’s usually pretty cluttered between my daily coffee, pacifiers, water bottles, burp rags and Kaden’s drawings.  Organizing all of it was way overdue and I’m actually excited to sort through and file the stack of mail tomorrow.

Here’s the before picture:

And this is after:

Fortunately, these first two days have been pretty easy with tasks that only take 15 minutes…I’m slightly dreading days 4 & 5 (kitchen cabinets & linen closet) which I know won’t be quite as easy.  But it’ll be worth it to have a very clean house by the time Zach is home – and I might be able to convince him I became much more organized while he’s been gone.

In other news…I am taking monthly pictures of Irelyn (I try to take the picture on the 16th of each month, but so far I’ve been a week late both months) so here are the two pictures we’ve taken so far.

I didn’t do pictures like this with Kaden, so it’s amazing to see how she’s growing and changing each month.  For her 1st birthday I’m going to make a collage of the photos and frame it for her room.  Here’s where I got the “month” printables 🙂

Even though she has lost her newborn looks, she’s still practically a clone of her daddy…their smiles and eyes are identical.

And one last one of my babies 🙂

I have now succeeded in posting for the past 3 nights straight!  I’ll try for four tomorrow – although I’m not sure how interesting I can make my mail sorting process sound, so you may just want to check back on Friday.  Because of the fact that Kaden helps put dishes away, the kitchen cabinets post is bound to be more entertaining.

And one of my newest favorite quotes:

“Throughout all of your ups and downs together, through all of the fights and moments of failure, you must remember that you are one another’s gift. God has given you the gift of your wife, God has given you the gift of your husband, and you must always honor that gift.”