Perfecting Imperfection

Things have been going really well. Much better than usual, in fact. I have some ideas as to why ~ which I will share in a minute ~ but it makes me a little nervous because, well...I'm a pessimist at heart.  I try - believe me I try - to not think that way, but if things start going really smooth or really well I tend to brace myself for some bump in the road, minor (or sometimes major) catastrophe...in other words, I wait for complications or issues or anything that will take this nice and easy pace I'm going at and throw it into a tailspin.  Yep ~ I'm a pessimist.

That all being said - here's what has been working for me the past week or so.

First of all, I've been doing FlyLady a lot more frequently...in fact ~ I would say I'm using routines and schedules everyday.  With routines and schedules come a little bit of peace ~ I know what should be happening when and I'm prepared for what is coming up next.  A big PLUS is that my house is actually kind of ... clean!  I knew having a clean house (with as little clutter visible as possible with 4 kids under 5) made Jerry a lot happier...a lot less stressed.  I didn't realize, though, that I would feel a lot less stress, too!  That I would actually feel more at peace and that having less mess and clutter just made me want to keep cleaning!  Funny how that goes, eh?

One problem with that is. . . well, it's left me a lot less time to do things I really enjoy that aren't necessarily things that are productive.  Like...ahem...blog, read blogs, get on facebook, sign on to TweetDeck - heck, I've had my laptop OFF for the last 2 days...and it's been pretty nice.  I missed it though ~ so, I'm going to have to find a way to squeeze it into my schedule without messing up my schedule.  I'm seriously contemplating waking up an hour early (which would be about 6 am) so that I can have an hour online before my day "starts"...

I also bought a new dry erase calendar ~ totally inspired by my friend Christina.


And a new set of shelves for the basement ~ it took the place of 2 VERY cluttered and overflowing cabinets...which in turn was able to free up space to organize more things!



My husband is a real trooper because all this energy and cleaning and organizing has cause projects galore for him!  Sunday involved him tackling this baby:




While I worked on my Control Journal!  I had the same routines written down that I had before the twins were born and obviously some things have changed.

So ~ there you have it.  I feel like some kind of switch has been flipped...or I finally woke up or something.  I feel like I've finally realized that this is what I should be doing.  I look at my mother and my mother-in-law and wonder if this happened to them, too.  I admire both of them so much because they get things done.  They don't complain and they don't take a break (at least not a long one) from doing things.  I'm wondering if they hit a point like I'm at right now where they realized that things go smoother and work out better if you just keep at it...just keep moving.  Don't wait or put it off...it's just easier if you take the 10 or 15 minutes to do it right now.

I guess I may still be a pessimist, but it looks like my procrastinating ways are OVER!  :)  There may be hope for me to turn to optimism after all!  I mean - look at these kiddos...they look optimistic, don't they?







 

They don't do windows...I asked.  :)

They didn't start playing with that stuff until I started having a cleaning lady come to the house twice a month.

Yes, I have a cleaning lady.

No, I do not have money to "waste" on something like that.

To be honest - it's really NOT that expensive...it's only twice a month...and it's actually and investment to my peace of mind.

I only have her do the kitchen and the bathroom.  She comes in and does the tub/toilet/sink/floor upstairs and then totally rocks out on my stove/sink/fridge/counter tops/floor in my kitchen.

That's it.  2 hours and $40 bucks later I can give my kiddos a bath in a clean tub and not cringe when they pick up some random piece of food off the kitchen floor and stick it in their mouth.

I'm NOT a neat freak.  I do spot clean in-between visits from the cleaning lady.  I often feel like I'm wasting her time when she is here - not that she makes me feel that way...just my thinking that she could probably be doing a bigger house and spending more time and making more money.

You know what the biggest bonus is?  Promise not to tell him, but I scheduled her to come on Tuesdays while I am at work so that my husband has to have stuff picked up so she can clean.  :)  Plus, that way I come home twice a month to a clean house!

So - we have been hit with the "bugs" that are going around. Somehow we me managed to get them in back to back weeks. 2 weeks ago (on Wednesday) my children started throwing up - it was around 11 pm. and it continued until about 6 am. DH and I both called off work Thursday because we were exhausted from running a child to the bathroom to puke every half hour. We spent all day Thursday sleeping and I'm not entirely convinced that any of us are back on schedule. I had the stomach thing Tuesday - I didn't really throw up because I wouldn't eat anything. Long story short, I spent most of my time curled up on my bed praying that I would puke so I could feel better - something that previously only happened after too much fun the night before.

So, the next day (Wednesday - one week from when the puking first appeared) we decided to clean. I mean really clean the house. That's when the coughing and hacking and sniffling arrived. Not for me or DH, but for both kids. Danika was the worst and she's still not 100%. She looks so pathetic - but I don't think the doctor would give her anything any way...so I'm not going to spend the $25 copay unless she shows signs of something other than a head cold.

My #1 problem right now (the one I should be dealing with instead of blogging) is that I told my husband that, "Yes, lets move the computer upstairs" the Wednesday the kids got their head colds. This wouldn't have been a problem, but we never finished because Danika was in a "mommy sit and hold me I don't feel good mood". So...now my house is a total and complete wreck. I have no space for stuff and no idea where I'm putting anything. Plus, DH is at work and I can't move anything by myself. Argh - frustrating. I'm hoping this weekend we get it all straightened out because I CAN'T live like this.

The food was yummy. Penn State won! We drank this yummy warm apple cider stuff that my friend brought over all night. She had it in her crock pot to keep it warm. It was Savannah Cinnamon Mix, Apple Cider and Merlot wine. Mmmm... The kids were pretty well behaved. I thought everything was going great.

Then I got a phone call at 1:30ish. My friends got into a fight on the way home and one thing lead to another and my friend's hubby ended up walking out of the house. He'd had too much to drink (he and DH were drinking beer) and my friend wouldn't give him the key s to drive. Smart girl! :) So, he was wondering around the streets. My DH called and he didn't answer the phone so he got in the car to go look for him...long story short - DH was pissed off at him, his wife was pissed off at him, I was pissed off at him for pissing off my DH. I'll be honest with you, every time I've heard about or seen the two of them fight I thought it was mostly my friend's fault. She can be a bit much at times...but I've NEVER seen this side of her husband. It makes me realize that I shouldn't judge people when I don't know the whole story.

All that being said, I'm tired of being surrounded by dysfunctional relationships. I seriously feel like DH and I are the only ones not teetering on the brink of divorce. We are the only ones I know who have not threatened each other with it - EVER. I don't know how others can so quickly say, "Keep that up and I'm getting a divorce." Or as my friend said to her DH last year, "All I want for Christmas is a divorce." Did she really mean it? I don't think so. So why say it? Okay...that's my rant for today. My head hurts a little and I'm not feeling 100% today. Definately feeling the affects of not going to bed before 3 am the last two nights...and the little bit of wine I drank last night. Argh.