A Challenge

I have looked over the articles at SimpleMom.Net often, and now I have decided to take on one of her challenges. I am going to try to Spring Clean my house in 10 days. The website provides a great organization tool that breaks up the work into 10 steps, and by the end you have a deep-cleaned house.

Here is the link for any of you who might be interested.

Cleaning has never been easy for me. Often I just don't know what I am not doing. My mind kind of filters out some areas as not important. I vaccum all the time. I keep up with the dishes and laundry, and wiping down counter tops. Luke's room is usually fairly neat. I don't clean the bathrooms as often as I should (the shower/bath especially) and I don't dust very often. Partly, I just don't think about doing some items. With this challenge, I hope to hit everything. Then, once the house has had a good once over, I can begin to put some unfamiliar tasks to work on a regular basis.

Well, we will see how this goes!

So, We Have a Plan

After reading the comments from my previous post and talking with a couple of friends, I realize that I really need more structure in my life. When I have too much time that is not already appropriated for this or that, I go nuts. So I developed a plan with Baby Luke this morning as we ate breakfast. I am going to call it a "plan" because if I call it a "schedule" I will freak out about trying to keep it. I tried it out so far today, and I like it.

Here goes:

6:30- 7:00am- wake up and morning snuggles, change diaper, feed baby, etc..
7:00- 8:00am- morning prayers, chores- make Nathan's lunch, tidy up, eat breakfast
8:00-9:00am- exercise- walk or a video depending on Luke's mood and the weather
9:00-10:30am- Luke naps, mommy cleans, has 10 minutes of prayer/silence**, looks up Saint of the Day to read and prints out icon for Luke
10:30-11:00am- snuggles, read, change diaper, feed baby, etc..
11:00-1:00pm- social time (usually a trip out of the house for errands or for coffee)
1:00-2:00pm- noon prayers, lunch, fruit for Luke, music and play time
2:00-3:30pm- Luke naps, mommy cleans, has 10 minutes of prayer/silence**, work on fun project or read
3:30-4:00pm- snuggles, read, change diaper, feed baby, etc..
4:00-5:00pm- Luke plays on the floor, mommy does chores if needed, or plays with Luke, reads out loud, etc..
5:00-6:00pm- dinner prep and walk around the block if Luke is fussy
6:00-6:30pm- dinner with Daddy and evening prayers
6:30-7:00pm- playtime with Daddy, bath, clean-up, into pj's, eat and sleep for Luke
7:00-9:30pm- free time- hang out with Nathan, watch a TV episode, read, projects, etc..
9:30pm- bed for Mommy

I know it looks complicated, but really, its not. The times are approximate. It is what we have been doing for a while now. my hardest part of the day is the 4-6pm time frame when I am tired, Luke is tired and we are eagerly awaiting Nathan's return home.

**I really like this time of day. I began trying to be quiet and pray for 10minutes a day during Lent. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is an exercise for me to drop everything and be still. I was inspired by Met. Anthony Bloom's book, Beginning to Pray. It changed my life. It is, as the reviewers say, a modern spiritual classic. I so heartily recommend this book that I will send a free copy to the first two people who respond, who haven't read it. Don't put your address on the response, but let me know that you want it and we will work out the shipping details.

A Big Day

Today was a big day for our little guy.

It began with a trip to KPMG (my work) to see everyone. He got the royal treatment incldung an office tour and cuddling from many of my co-workers. They commented on his size and how cute he was. :) It was really fun and I wish that we could have stayed longer. Luke loved looking at all of the lights and then fell asleep when he got tired.

Next we went to a Doctor's appointment. It was our 2 month well-baby check-up. He measured 23 and 1/2 inches and 13lbs, 8oz. That puts him in the 70% category for height, and 90% for weight. He checked out well and the doctor commented that he was looking good.

Next came the awful part. Luke got 2 vaccinations today, one being a large shot. He was not happy about this, but really did not cry for long. As the nurse was giving the injection, his face went red and his mouth widened and we all waited for him to erupt. It was so sad! Poor baby! I put him in cozy jammies and we took a nap together on the couch this afternoon. I was going to put him in his crib, but he was holding on tightly to me as I was rocking him to sleep. Such a sweetie. Tonight he is doing ok, but his leg is swollen and he has wanted a bit more cuddling.

The question of whether or not to vaccinate, or how to do it was something that Nathan and I researched before Luke was born. There are advocates on both sides of the issue that make strong arguments. In the end, we decided to give him most vaccinations on an alternative schedule to reduce the side effects. The book that we found most helpful was Dr. Sears' Vaccination Book. In general, we like the Dr. Sears suite of baby books and agree with his approach. The Vaccination book was particularly helpful because it broke down each of the vaccinations, their purpose, side effects, and information about the disease they were protecting against. This choice seemed to be a good middle-of-the-road alternative.

Mama Projects

Now that Luke is a bit more comfortable living in the outside world, I have decided to take on a couple of projects.

First of all, along with my Two Tunics project, I have been going through our massive piles of books and DVD's. I have been selling them on Amazon.com, and surprise! They are actually selling. So far, I have made enough money to cover almost all of our Christmas presents this year.

Speaking of Christmas, that is my second project. Luke and I spent yesterday afternoon writing down all the presents that we have, and planning what we still need to buy and/or make.

Sometime soon I want to take up studying for the CPA again, but I just can't quite stomach it yet. :)

Birthday Outing

My dad came down for a few days this week to see Luke and to help out as a birthday present. Today Nathan and I got to go out for lunch and a bit of shopping. We had a great lunch at our favorite Seal Beach restaurant, O'Malley's, and I got a nice pair of jeans and some fresh fruits and veggies (oh, and ice cream bars as a birthday treat). :) We were gone for 3+ hours, the most that I have been away from the little one since he was born.

It was nice to spend time just with Nathan and clear my head a bit. It is amazing how much you can see in a situation when you are not smack in the middle of it. I realized through our lunch that I have been a little too obsessive about keeping Luke on a schedule. Sometimes I fail to take his cues about when he is tired or not tired in order to keep to a schedule. This makes both of us frustrated. I can't get him to sleep and he cries when he is overtired. I have also been driving Nathan a bit mad trying to keep him to the schedule and by being more stressed than I need to by the time Nathan comes home.

So, I still believe in the schedule, but I need to relax it a bit. I waste too much energy fighting his natural schedule and need to shape it more to the times that he gets tired.

100th Post

.. and not an exciting or organized one.

We are moving tomorrow and have been taking over breakable items to our new place since Tuesday. I have been working far away in Yorba Linda ("the land of gracious living") without an internet connection, and have been tired carrying all this baby around, thus no blogging.

Update on baby:

We had the 34 week check-up and birth details class recently. Baby is still head down (hooray! He is moving so much that I can't always tell), and has a strong heart beat. The midwife also watched my stomach and said kind of abruptly that I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions. Really? They don't hurt at all, and feel much like a little painless earthquake.

Next time I blog, we will be HB residents. :)

A New Undertaking

I am undertaking a new project. I have tried to study for the CPA exam before unsuccessfully. Last summer (when I was actually not working crazy hours), I applied to sit for the exam and studied. There are four parts and I had made a plan to sit for each part throughout the course of last year. However, that was as far as I went in my CPA quest.

Before the final payment was due, I had to change plans because the audit I was working on, which was supposed to be pretty regular hours, suddenly became very intense. Taking into account that I did not get home for dinner more than one-two nights a week (Nathan would suffer), and my Church Treasury responsibilities (Church would suffer), and my own sanity (I would suffer), I decided to put a halt on the CPA exam. At this point, I had invested time and energy, but very little money. It was a hard decision, and I have been looked at as weak by other people in the firm, but it was the right choice to make. Nathan had not married me to be an absent, career obsessed wife, and I needed to make sure that I fulfilled my responsibility to Church.

That being said, I am now at a point where I am going to try again. I have three weeks of unassigned time in the office (meaning that I have no client and therefore can work on whatever education project I want) to study. I also will have 4+/- weeks before baby comes to study (if he comes on time), I will have six months of maternity leave, and we will see what comes after that.

I want to emphasize here that this does not mean that I plan to spend 8 hours a day studying, or that I will study if it takes away from quality of care for baby. This is just a plan, and real life can change plans. I gave up the CPA idea once, and I can do it again if that is what needs to happen for the good of our family. I will study when I get the time and/or energy. Here's hoping that he is a good sleeper.

Reasons for getting CPA:

1. The firm has paid for all my study materials ($2000 if I had to pay)

2. I have a friend who is going to try too, so I will have a study partner.

3. Makes me very marketable- I can get a lot more flexible jobs so that I can stay home with baby and only work 10 hours a week or so.

4. Good for Church- I think that we need someone with a CPA to ensure stablility for finances. It means something to our banks.

5. If I don't do it now, I probably won't ever. I still remember how to study and have a lot of information fresh in my mind.

Our New Home

For the next year at least, we will be living here:

The pictures are from the front, the garage (we have two of the garage doors), and looking down the street.


We are very excited. :)

How to Eat Well..... Should it Really be this Hard?

The dilemma: how to eat good, healthy, "real" food without breaking the bank. Visiting a friend's house made me again consider what kind of foods I eat. Do I eat real food, or just consumables? "Real" food is characterized by natural, local, devoid of artificial flavorings and chemicals. "Consumables" are items that have come to pass for food, but shouldn't- like overly processed packaged meats, snacks, etc..

On the other hand, it has been my experience that "real" food is usually more expensive than "consumables." $1 for Ballpark hotdogs, $4 for all beef, kosher Hebrew National, or $4 for organic milk and $2.50 for non-organic, etc... Somehow, when I was growing up, my mom fed a family of 5 for $250 a month. Now I can't seem to spend less than $80-100 a week at the grocery store (despite my vigorous couponing, sale shopping efforts). Now I know that over the last 15 years prices have gone up (especially lately with the gas hikes), but there must be an answer.

I think that it is partially about what we eat. Half of what I buy each week is fruits and vegetables and I have not to my knowledge served a hot dog french bread pizza (a favorite cheap dinner growing up). Not that I am critical of that- we had a very tight budget and my mom did an amazing job.

The difference is also about where I shop. I absolutely love Trader Joe's. I feel so satisfied walking out of there with a couple of brown bags full of healthful, natural, tasty goodness. If I could buy everything there I would, but sometimes they are just too expensive for me. In fact, today I noticed that bead went up 30-50c and my favorite cheese (celtic light sharp cheddar) had gone up in price by $1/lb.

So what to do? Well, I think that today I stumbled upon an answer. This morning, I went first to the 99 cent store around the corner. Ours is great. It has a great frozen section (bag of frozen yellow peaches for 99c, great fridge and produce sections (2lbs grapes, peaches, nectarines, romaine lettuce all for 99c), and canned section (tons of organic veggies and soups, sauces, etc...). The fruit is fresh and, by and large, California grown too- not shipped in from other countries.

Paying so little for my fruits and veggies made me feel better about buying the other items I needed from Trader Joes. I spent $60 this week without coupons or buying food that I regret. I got my cake and ate it too.