My Favorite Motivator

My all time favorite organizing blog is Wanting What You Have. 

 

I found this blog a few years ago when Ryder was about a year old and I desperately wanted to have a schedule. Don't get me started on my obsession with schedules. As someone who is a total type B personality it might sound odd that I am so strict with them.

 

 So I googled "Stay At Home Mom Schedule" and Heather's blog came up. 

 

At first when I clicked on it I thought I had found just a random post about a schedule amidst a bunch of talk about what brand of diapers is best and other useless crap.

 

Boy was I wrong. This is such a freaking gem of a site. This woman is the organizing and cleaning and list making queen! And she does it all without coming off as pretentious or having it all together. You know how some people that are naturally organized, list making people, will claim that they don't have it all together and that they are "messy too". Most of the time that is BULL CRAP. 

 

This wonderful mother actually does have days like me! And I am one of the messiest people I know. One of my favorite posts from her is A Crap Family Morning. She talks about how when her daughter opened the car door as she was dropping her off at school junk mail and sippy cups fall out onto the ground. 

 

This is my life people.

So last night while George was bathing the kids I stood in the living room and looked at my wrecked area and wanted to cry.

 

For most people, the mess alone is motivator for them to clean. It makes their skin crawl just seeing a spoon with peanut butter on the coffee table, a food covered high chair, and clothes and toys EVERYWHERE. 

 

Not me. While I do LOVE a clean house, (honestly who doesn't) I just HATE HATE HATE cleaning. I told my dad once that it's because I was never taught how to clean or organize. That's partly true I think. Growing up we had a maid. For as long as I can remember someone cleaned up after me. All I had to do was come home and put away my clothes on Thursdays. They were always neatly folded on my parent's bed ready for me to just stick in a drawer. That's it. 

 

So now that I am an adult who has kids and a husband I have to figure out how to move from standing in a living room looking around me wanting to cry to action. 

 

I always, always, always, come back to Heather's blog. Boom, there it is. A post entitled, "11 Tips to help You Get Motivated to Clean". Seriously God, THANK YOU!

 

And this is my favorite one:

 

#1 Silence isn't Golden.

Put on Upbeat Music and it will give you energy and change your mood.

 

So, without even reading the rest of her tips I got up, turned the TV onto Pandora, put it on a John Mayer station and got to work. 

 

And I kept cleaning for a solid 45 min until we had to put the kids to bed. Even after George got done bathing the kids and we dressed them we both kept cleaning while the kids played in their rooms. 

 

It was magical people. Music really did help!

 

As much as I love reading design and wedding blogs none of those can give me ideas about how to get my house in order. I'll say it again, it's one of my favorites.

Do you have trouble in the motivation area of cleaning? Or is the mess alone motivator enough to clean? I wish it was for me, but honestly, I can step around and over toys all day long and it not bother me in the slightest......until it gets WAY out of hand....like to the point of no return.

 

I mean when I was in high school(and lets be honest still to this day) my friends would joke that they were going to ride in the dumpster if they rode in my car. One obsessively organized friend of mine told me I should install a full sized kitchen trash can in my car. I'm seriously considering it.

Lately

The Budweiser Clydesdales were in town a couple days this week and my mother really wanted to take the kids to see them. 

They were HUMUNGO. And so pretty.

Lucy was loving it.

As we were about to leave, we saw my friend Amy and her boys, so we stayed to play with them and waited to watch the horses leave.

I don't know about you, but Ryder looks like he could pass as a Barry brother. They all three have the exact same hair. Its pretty awesome.

While we waited on them to leave Lucy snacked....

...and Ryder cheesed it up. Of course he doesn't look at the camera though. This kid always looks down and to the side when I take his picture.

The Clydesdales were at the amphitheater, so of course they had a band playing. Lucy decided it was a great time to bust out her new moves.

Yea....she doesn't have shoes on. She did come with shoes, BUT I felt bad because we were in a rush to get out there before the horses left so I crammed her feet in these shoes that honestly should have been stored away a month ago. I decided it would be fine for her to be barefoot for 20 min. She lived :) And on a productive note I rounded up all of her shoes that have been lingering in random rooms of the house and put them back were they belong and purged all the too little shoes from her closet. 

Yay, dinner has been eaten, baths have been taken and now its off to bed! Oh buddy, I was freaking exhausted.

We have some fun things planned for this weekend including a baby shower, birthday party, and maybe a trip to see the Blue Angels! As in a trip to the Northport Wal-Mart parking lot......we learned our lesson the first year people.

What do you have going on?

Spring is Here!

My poor Ryder has been really sick for the past couple of days. He went in for his 4 year check up and had a little bit of fever and goop coming out of his eyes. The doctor said it was pinkeye and gave us a prescription for drops. The next morning he was running a fever and has been every day since. He has been laying around, not wanting to eat much and is really pitiful. 

So, since we have been chained to the house so Ryder can get well I have been taking miss Lucy outside and letting her roam around the yard. Unlike Ryder this girl doesn't need anyone to play with. She will go sit in a pile of clovers and just pick them until I tell her to stop. 

Since Spring (or maybe Summer since it was 85 degrees yesterday!) is officially here I decided it would be fun to let Lucy play in the hose.

Oh man, get ready. There were smiles and tears. 

Her first little taste of playing with the hose this year. Look how cute and timid she's being.....

I turned the pressure up a little at this point. Still being kind of shy about it. Don't worry, she'll get into it. *Side note: She found this Alabama pacy somewhere in the laundry room. It was Ryders. You know, back when he took a pacy....when he was like a month old....

There's that smile!

 

Oh Snap. She loves it. 

  

Apparently the Advil started to kick in. Ryder peeked out the window and saw how much fun the sis was having and wanted to join in :) I'm glad he felt just a little better.

  

At this point Lucy was still being pretty sweet about letting Ryder play in the water. The key here though is that she was still the one holding the hose. Ryder doesn't like to get wet, which is good, because a sick kid + getting drenched with a hose doesn't sound like a plan. He stayed pretty much dry except for that little bit on his pants. 

And here we are. Ryder wants a turn with the hose. And I can't stress enough how sweet he is. He asks Lucy so politely for a turn......she didn't like that too much...

"Oh my God, MOM! Do you not see that he took it away from me?! DO SOMETHING!" No girl.

"Seriously, why aren't you stopping him!" 

"Alright, this is just getting ridiculous. Watch out, I'm about to go all out."

 Oh and believe me she pitched a big one. Another spank(seriously, the 12,000 of the day) and a little redirection and we are on to playing happily in a puddle.

Ryder finally gets that crazy girl off his back. He doesn't even pay her any attention when she is acting like that. Its so often and over every little thing that he has just learned to tune her out. I really can't wait til this phase is over with.

 

Shortly after, George gets home from work. Man, this face is awesome!

And he informs Luce that it's time to go inside. This is the face she makes when hearing the sad news. Um hello, do we not see how busy she is watering the driveway??

When she doesn't do what we say("put the hose down, lets go") George holds her hand herding her towards the door.

Here you are about to see the 3 stages of a her silent protest.

Stage 1: Throws her head back and arches her back

Stage 2: Goes completely limp

Stage 3: Plays dead and lays on the ground. Does she care that she is outside soaking wet and in the grass? Nope. She doesn't discriminate on where she will do the silent protest.

SWEET JESUS. She is a hot mess. For some balance, I thought I would throw this little sweet nugget in: If you are laying on the couch and there is a blanket beside you, she will cover you up. If you are crying, she will very sweetly rub your cheek and make a "shhhing" sound :) And she loves to give kisses.

See, in case you thought I wanted to send my 18month off to boarding school the fact is that she makes up for the crap moments. Most of the time...

Birthday Weekend

Saturday I turned 26! This is me showing you how excited I am to be on the down slide to 30.....

Saturday morning I woke up, came into the living room and saw this banner greeting me.

 It was the most amazing banner I have ever seen! In case you think I am crazy because this is NOT the most amazing banner then I am prepared to diagnose you as a non-Office watcher. And more specifically, not a Dwight fan.

To help you better understand where this came from watch the video below. It will explain everything.

After I saw the awesome banner George made me he brought me breakfast that he picked up from Panera and my gifts.

Let me start by saying that George rarely gets good gifts for me. Over the years for various holidays and birthdays he has gifted me the following: an hair hockey table, a 3 ft tall Nut Cracker, and a scooby doo trashcan for my car. See, the gifts just don't make sense.

But this year, he finally got it! All he did was walk  into Anthropologie after work one day and he did amazing. That's they key. He went to Anthro, you can't go wrong there. 

Here is what he picked out:

Branch & Twig Colored Pencils

He kept saying he thought they would be good for decoration. Whatevs, I am using these! 

Jewel-Sparked Bobby Pins

I seriously love these. The yellow one is really more of a chartreuse, and it is so pretty. I am wearing it this very second. 

Volcano Jar Candle.

Mine doesn't look exactly like this one, but it is the same scent. Volcano. It smells pretty amazing, and not at all like a volcano....or at least not what I think it would smell like!

George did so great, he is the best!

I had such a good birthday with lots of other gifts & dinner dates from friends and family.

Tomorrow George and I are going on a mini road trip to Atlanta. We are headed to Ikea to get new furniture for our house. I have waited for this day for a long time. We have beige suede couches. Please, imagine in your mind how terrible it is to have SUEDE light colored furniture with a toddler and preschooler. Are you imagining grape juice and peanut butter smeared everywhere??? Yes. Everywhere. And in case you didn't know, suede is so annoying to clean. So we will be purchasing dark gray furniture that has removable, WASHABLE slipcovers. Get ready. Our house (or just the furniture) is about to look like it did before we had kids. It brings a tear to my eye.

*pic from here

Here is what is swilring around in my life lately.

• I can't wait for summer to get here. Occasionally in the summer I would go sit in my backyard and read a book and let the sun dry my hair while Lucy was napping. Of course I can't do this everyday, but on the days I did I was so relaxed.
• Our washing machine broke last week. Well, it would go through all the cycles perfectly but it wouldn't agitate. Thank goodness my dad had a super old one from the 80's in storage that works. If it works that is all I care about. Plus, it washes our clothes in half the time the other washer did. Win.
•  We haven't been going to bed until almost midnight lately. I don't know how George and I got on this path, but it is not a good one to be on. Tonight we are going to bed at 10:30, if not sooner!
• Ryder has been having some sleep issues as well. About 6 months ago we let him sleep in our room because Lucy would just scream and scream when it was time to go to sleep. So we thought it was pretty cruel to make Roe stay in the room and listen to her scream. We let him stay in our room until she stopped that nonsense. Well, Lucy is now a champion sleeper.........and Ryder is still in our room. If we even mention that he is going to sleep in his room he breaks down into a panic. What have we done! He used to be so fine with sleeping in his own room. In the dark, alone, with the door closed. Now he is "scared of the dark". I am going to start preparing him today that he and Lucy are both going to sleep in their beds tonight. It will be a rough week, but I have to get my room back! I just wish I could sit in my room and read a book before bed, but I can't when a 4 year old needs to sleep. Im thinking a sleep machine will be a great help in this. I get it, silence & darkness are creepy sometimes. 
• I have recently discovered dry shampoo. IT IS AMAZING. My hair is super oily. I can shower at 10 pm, go to bed, wake up at 7:30 and it looks like I haven't washed my hair in 5 days. It would be so much easier to take shower at night and then all I have to do in the a.m. is get dressed, straighten my hair, wash my face, brush my teeth and put make up on. Dove makes some that is about $5 a can. It has only been 2 weeks and I have already went through 3 cans though. It doesnt last very long thats for sure. Bumble and Bumble makes some that I am sure is way better and lasts longer, but I haven't convinced George that it's worth it to drop $35 on dry shampoo. 
• Grocery shopping is on my list of ToDo's today.....which is always a fun chore with two kids in tow. Saracasm. 

What do you have going on in your life?

 

Beach Baby!

Um, attention people: Lets hurry up and go down to the beach. There is a lot of sand that needs to be inserted into my mouth.

I kept trying to get Ryder to bury my feet in the sand. Ya know, the lazy parent's excuse that makes the kid think they are participating in the sand fun, when in reality they are asleep in the chair.....he didnt buy it. That's ok, I really like building sand castles. My mother loaded us up with sand toys for the beach, so we had some serious construction going on.

There will little "baby pools" where the tide had come in. Lucy had the best time ever. I wasnt a fan because it was all a little too warm. Plus I saw several kids pop squats in them to pee. No thanks. Lucy was out after that....

Whoa. Im too cool for pics.

Checkin to see if the parentals are looking.....

Oh yea, I got this......

THE OCEAN! FREEDOM!!

seriously, every single time we set her down she took off like a freaking marathon runner for the ocean. 

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There was other fun besides the beach though..

Whoop! Walked right in and sat down at Sea-N-Suds. My bff Randi always makes fun of me for loving SnS. She says its "cafeteria food"...she is also crazy, and a bit senile. 

I think Lucy might think its cafeteria food too. Hey, George and I are very patriotic on this night.

 

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After Sea-N-Suds we went to "The Shark Store". Otherwise known as Souvenir City.

 Ryder got a shark head on a stick...

...tried on awesome glasses with Georgio...

...and attacked me with his shark head in an alley of hats.

 

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Now, on to the beach for a little crab searchin'.

there werent any.....so we left : /

 

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Lucy's favorite thing was stuffing her face with string cheese,

and Ryder's favorite thing was playing video games at the Track. Im not gonna lie, I am the ski ball QUEEN. I wish I had ski ball in my house.

Hope you enjoyed my beach trip! We sure did! PEACE!