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?







 

So ~ how ya doin’?  It’s been a few days . . . but I warned you all earlier that this was going to be a busy week for me.  I was serious.  It’s been hectic to say the very least – and I have a ton of things I can’t wait to share with you! 

First of all, though, I’d like to show you what I did today.  For some reason, I was a cooking FOOL today.  I blame it on 3 things.

1) I went to the grocery store yesterday with Danika…so there was actually food in the house to be cooked.

2) I really really wanted to bake these.

3) I started using E-mealz (there is a little banner on the left that you can click on if you are interested in checking it out – I’m holding off on my review of it because I’ve only been doing it for 2 weeks…I want to give it a fair chance before I talk about it)

So ~ for some reason only God knows, everyone was awake and downstairs by 7:30 am…everyone except DH, that is.  I decided that I was just going to start cooking.

We started with Breakfast Pizza:

First ~ we used a Boboli Thin Crust Shell

Topped it with some bacon – I fried a bunch this morning for both the things I’m gonna show you.

Next, top it with some Italian Blend Shredded Cheese

Slice some tomatoes and arrange them around the pizza.

Beat together 1/3 C. milk and 1 large egg.

Drizzled the egg/milk mixture over the pizza and bake in a preheated oven @ 425 for 20 minutes (mine was done in about 15 mins)

 

Here is the finished product.  We ate it for breakfast with some strawberries and cantaloupe.  Mmmmm….yummy.

I think that I’ll add some fresh basil once it starts to grow outside.  I like basil, especially when it’s paired with tomatoes…which reminds me – this would be a really yummy way to use up some homegrown tomatoes, too! 

Next, I made the Chocolate-Chip Bacon-Pecan Cookies.

First, I had to make sure I had my recipe…

…and my favorite helper!

I was really excited because it gave me a chance to use my hand mixer!  I never use my hand mixer – I hardly ever bake from scratch!  If you are interested in the recipe, head on over to No. 504 Main where I found it when I visited her on her SITs day!

Here’s the batter…with the chocolate chips, pecans AND bacon in it.

   

Cookies headed into the oven…

 

…can you see the bacon in there?

Finished product – yummy and not at all strange, really.  They are good.  Not amazing or incredible, but good.  To tell you the truth, it’s kind of hard to taste the bacon.  I would probably put less pecans and more bacon to really make it more noticeable.  They were good enough that I would try bacon in other desserts, though. 

For lunch – I made crescent rolls with ham and cheese in them and Caesar salad. (I didn’t take pictures, though.)  Jerry actually told me that I don’t have to make dinner!  We have enough leftovers to finish up and the kids can have something they like that is easy to fix.  Whoo Hooo! 

I am looking forward to a great week!  I have book club tomorrow (we read The Help by Kathryn Stockett) and Mommy Group on Friday!  I’m going on a field trip to the library on Tuesday with my pre-school kiddos!  I’m also going to give Marla 1 week to convince me that I should wear shoes all day long…I usually don’t wear shoes when I’m at home, but I’m willing to give it a shot.  I’ll keep you posted.

In about an hour or so my friend is bringing her daughter over for a play date. We plan on ordering pizza and letting the kids play for a while. The big deal part is - I didn't clean my house!

One of the main reasons I never want anyone to come over to my house - one of the main reasons I feel like I have no friends - is that my house is in a constant state of chaos.  I think that I've finally come to accept the fact that my house is just not going to be neat and orderly.  Now - my house is NOT dirty.  I do wipe things down, run the sweeper, pick up dirty dishes and dirty clothes.  We take the garbage out and all of that jazz.  However, there are a TON of toys and just stuff that I never get around to putting away...and what's the point, really?  I put them away and they come right back out!  I need a routine - but I have 4 small children and a routine is often just an extra added stress for me...because, let's face it - I'm not really in control of what's going on 75% of the time (the other 25% of the time the twins are sleeping - I have a little more control when they aren't awake).  Then you run into the fact that when I do get time to myself I'm usually too exhausted to do anything productive. 

So - I decided when I woke up this morning that I was not going to stress about how my house looked before my friend came over.  I'm not even going to say anything about it (or I'm at least going to try not to - it's hard for me not to make excuses).  I really doubt she will think anything bad about me - in fact, I'm pretty sure she'll probably feel bad for me and want to do my laundry!  hehehe  Of course, I'll tell her no.  I couldn't let her go down to the basement!  Holy crap - wanna talk about a catch all for all the stuff we don't know what to do with!!!  Nate calls it "the toy store downstairs"...yep, that's pretty much what it looks like. 

So - wish me luck...I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh - and no Friday Follow for me this week...I have too much anxiety about getting to the blogs in my Google Reader as it is!  :)

Well - I'm gonna try Flylady again. I'm starting over. Since I feel like I need a lot of guidance, I just thought this was the best way to go...I'm gonna give it another try - a real try this time. So - here's my shiny sink.










So, the rest of my house may look like this:

But I'm gonna work on it in baby steps.

BTW - took my vitamins last night and on my way to take them now! :)

Not me - not by a long shot. I need some help.

Don't get me wrong, I know what I have and it isn't that bad. However, I dream of a day when I can walk into my house and smile because it looks how it should look. I dream of a day when the thought of someone stopping by unannounced doesn't send me into a panic. I dream of a day where my husband says, "The house looks great, honey." I need some help.

I have a million excuses as to why my house is an unorganized mess. I've tried to develop a plan before - it didn't work. I have a Flylady folder all ready to go - but I feel behind, even though one of the cardinal rules in Flyladydom is not to feel behind. I need help.

So...I'm going to take baby steps. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, too.

My first order of business is start taking some vitamins. I need to have more energy for this trip. Second order of business - make a game plan with some goals. I need goals to make sure I'm on track and that little feeling of accomplishment I'll have when I complete something will make a world of difference. They have to be realistic goals, though...that's the key.

I must add that my plate is overflowing with things right now. I have 2 kids at home with me at all times. My son is going to be 3 in about a month and my daughter is 14 short months behind him (she'll be 2 in January). They keep me busy and don't really let me do anything for long periods of time. I am also teaching 2 days a week. 3-year-olds, they are quite a handful. I am also finishing up my Masters on-line. It's a paper a week - which I've been putting off until Friday nights and staying up until ungodly hours completing. Those are my challenges. Tomorrow I'll have some goals...first goal - have some goals. :) We'll see where that takes me.