***WARNING:Totally a long, long, long post. Helps me to reflect and see the blessing in my life so far this year with conscious decisions we've made.***
So as I hinted at in the last post, since having come out of the 1st trimester and living in the 2nd has helped quite a bit with being sick, but I still have had days when I didn't feel well, until I started Pepcid AC on a daily basis. That has done wonders for me. But I also had been feeling bad about how much Chad had been doing at home and working the hours he does. I felt like I was passively floating through life and not really living it as I should be as a mother and a wife.
Enter Lori and her request for help making a vinyl Laundry list. You can see some of the examples that I made for her HERE at my other blog. And it explains more about a laundry list or a chore list. But she was teaching a RS New Years organization class.
Well I am totally a list person and I thrive off of being able to cross something off the list. I love the satisfaction of it, but also it keeps my random thoughts written so I don't forget them too. Well I haven't make myself an actually vinyl laundry list yet, I'm still working on finding a great way to organize myself and household all together.
It will be coming. Just you stay tuned.....
So here are some of the goals that I knew that I really wanted to change in my home. Some of these I pick up on just because I knew I needed to improve on them, and others I chose because I knew it would make Kherrington or Chad feel loved.
I knew that I needed to be more consistent with scripture study. Chad and I have been pretty good to do couple scripture study even though every once in a while we get a little slack, but for the most part we do well. So my focus was more on my personal study. Now I love to read the Ensigns, but this last year I had totally slacked with the move and never got caught up. I have a stack of Ensigns I haven't read yet. I refuse to get rid of them until I read them all. I guess it's my frugal side. I'm not going to throw out something I payed for.
***So goal #1 was to read each Month's Ensign this year, plus catch up with last years. (this does 2 things in my house. My scripture study and also de-clutters my home) So far I've read and January and February's and then I finished June's and most of July's!!! Progress!! I guess when I run out of extra Ensign's I'll get back into the Book of Mormon since Chad and I are reading out of the New Testament hoping to get through it all this year.
The other things that I had noticed was how my house had become cluttered and grungy!! We bought an 8 year old home and it's in pretty good shape to begin with, but I hadn't been cleaning it like it should be and I don't think the previous 2 sets of owners had either, which then makes things get gross and require a more deep clean, that I HATE to do. So Chad and I sat down went room by room and made a list of what needed to be cleaned in each room and put a frequency of the chore. Then I took that list and broke it down to the daily, biweekly, weekly, bimonthly, monthly, quarterly, and bi-annual items. As I've been going I realize that somethings we put down as too frequent and some things that needed it a little more often than what we originally assigned. And I think that it depends on the household and how many live there to really pick frequencies. (Report: It has been well over a month now that our Master bathroom has been cleaned once a week. First time in our married life. AMAZING I know. I'm quite embarrassed to even admit that.)
***Goal #2, I needed to make a cleaning schedule and stick to it.
So I had totally become the slacker of cooking dinner. I would cook 3-4 times a week, but the other days would be something slapped together and not as health as I'd like, (Like boxed or frozen items). I knew I could do better, and really it was kind of strange cause I really do like to cook most of the time, but I hate coming up with ideas of what to make. That part would stress me out and then I'd shut down and not do anything until it was too late to thaw any meat, etc. Chad and I try to sit down on Sunday evening and go over the events of the week, our work schedules, plan meals that would be time appropriate and match them with the chores that needed to be that week. Try to balance things out and not be overwhelmed with the demands that we set up for ourselves. And most importantly eat better, less processed foods, and stay in food budget, which I'll get to down further in the goals on this one.
***Goal #3, Make a weekly menu. Not that I have to follow it to a T. I've been amazed that as I have ideas written down, I've started to enjoy the cooking process again. And I've been trying tons of new recipes and I get together with some ladies from my ward a few times a month and do recipe exchanges. (I've gotten so most of them are on the computer so if you guys want copies some will be on my other blog, {Like this , we've made it an additional time since then cause we like it so much} also hoping to post my menu for the past week on Monday and if you want recipes I can send you a Word doc. with what I did different or what I'd do differently now that I've made it once).
So the other thing, I've noticed is that we have the TV on all the time at our house. It's horrible!! Not only for the spirit to be in our home, but what am I teaching my child!! I'm a bad coasting mom, just getting by day by day without any thoughts of the future. I knew I needed to change how time in general would be spent through the day. I need to spend constructive time with my family, especially the time I have total control over....during the day when it's just me and Kherrington. I've decided to make a conscious effort to do more reading, coloring, playing, and going downstairs where we have inherited some play toys (while there is snow on the ground) otherwise it'll be outside play when it gets warmer. !!!Can you tell I'm getting anxious for that again!!! Kherrington loves to be outside, even if it's windy snowy, etc. But I don't love it all the time so it's a rarity around here. It'll be nice to get that morning walk back into our day.
***Goal #4, spend more constructive time playing with Kherrington. So I'm not sure how much I've mentioned this on the blog, but Kherrington has been such a Daddy's girl. It is really hard for me to get her to willingly come to me when Chad is at home. She just prefers him over me. For most mothers that would be really bothersome, but in reality I've just learned to embrace it and realize that with having another one that will be taking more of my attention, I should be glad for that. Well it's amazing what happens when Mom puts her own agenda aside for even a few minutes here and there and just play with a little girl, how much she feels LOVED!! I think I totally have a quality time girl here, for those of you that have read the 5 love languages book. (If you haven't I strongly suggest it, good read and totally applicable to any stage of life's relationships) She is more loving toward me on a regular basis, plus at times she actually will pick me over Chad. Now I know that, not just suspect, that it's because Chad will do whatever Kherrington want him to do when he gets home, that she preferred him hands down. Just so you know, He's still the favorite though!!
So if it isn't totally obvious to anyone but myself, we were getting pretty depressed around here. Not exactly what you want your family to be feeling. As Chad and I were talking about goals that we want for our family and ourselves, we realized this and that we needed to make some changes. Number 1 stressor in our lives right now is money, We are on a tight budget...not that we are lacking things, but it's hard to think about saving for a future when all your money that you make is going to student loans, house loans, and a car loan. The first 2 being the biggest contributors and budget eaters are both on a 30 year loan. How do you start saving for retirement when we'll be 5 years away from retirement before you have those things paid for. Totally depressing thought right. Well as I was talking with an older brother the other day he pointed out a few things for me that helped my depressed outlook on this subject. We are looking at our finances as if they are fixed and that we'll always be bringing in the same amount of money. It's just the beginning of Chad career, he'll make more as he progresses. (And for those of you that are under the assumption that if your a Dr. (regardless of what type of Doctor) you make lots of money, that is FALSE, we have a few members of our family that make comments that make it seem that they think that way). It just seems like we'll be paying for his education forever. It's been helpful to be able to work as a nurse on the side just to help out and take some of that stress away, but again balance is our goal. And to make it clear I think that Chad's education was/is important, if I'm going to have debt, that is where I'd prefer to have it come from...something worthwhile and unworldly! Now just to get rid of that car loan...GRRR!
So one of the ways that I've been trying to cut down our cost are through Bountiful Baskets. For those who haven't heard of them I had a post on them before, find it HERE. I only get it 1-2 times a month because it's hard for us to go through the produce all by ourselves, but it's such a money saver and I go to the store less. Also been using more coupons and got the Sunday paper to help increase my coupon stash for the great items I need. Also have a friend that said she'd save me all the diaper coupons from her 5 sets of coupons she gets every Sunday! I'm excited about this one.
***Goal #5- Make the budget tighter, make a financial plan for our future and get out of debt quicker. Most of you know that I've been using Mint.com to keep track of it. It's been the easiest way to do it for us. (Also wish we'd used this as soon as we were married). But we're tightening down and sticking to budget. Using the calculators that are on providentliving.org, and saving for retirement, NOW, and realize that if we can do this now, even a year from now we'll be better off for it.
And last but not least we decided that another reason we were feeling so down is that we haven't really made our house feel like it's ours. This is technically the first house that we've owned that hasn't been a new house. It's hard to not feel like the house is yours if it was built for you and you are the only ones that have lived in it. But there are numerous things that we don't love about our house, but we bought it cause it was in the price range we needed, and new that it was adequate. But it's so not us because of choices that were made. Well most of you know that renovating isn't cheap. And I can tell you we don't have a budget for it. So we will be fixing up our house on a strict budget, slowly over the next few years. We'll finally focus on the upstairs, (and not the outside like we did last year)and we'll be starting with the girls' rooms.
***Goals #7, Making our house our HOME. We're excited just about the thoughts of it. Chad has most of the trim work holes already filled in the baby's room and I have cleaned out most of the closet so we're getting close to painting time. POOR Chad and my parent's (They are coming to help too. Thank you!!) Makes me feel bad for being pregnant and not able to help with those things. I'm sure you'll get to see pictures in the future if you stay tuned in long enough.
So those are the things that have made our lives change so much in the last 2 months it's crazy!! Do any of you have great ideas to help us improve our improvement plan in an area????I'd love to hear them.
So as I hinted at in the last post, since having come out of the 1st trimester and living in the 2nd has helped quite a bit with being sick, but I still have had days when I didn't feel well, until I started Pepcid AC on a daily basis. That has done wonders for me. But I also had been feeling bad about how much Chad had been doing at home and working the hours he does. I felt like I was passively floating through life and not really living it as I should be as a mother and a wife.
Enter Lori and her request for help making a vinyl Laundry list. You can see some of the examples that I made for her HERE at my other blog. And it explains more about a laundry list or a chore list. But she was teaching a RS New Years organization class.
Well I am totally a list person and I thrive off of being able to cross something off the list. I love the satisfaction of it, but also it keeps my random thoughts written so I don't forget them too. Well I haven't make myself an actually vinyl laundry list yet, I'm still working on finding a great way to organize myself and household all together.
So here are some of the goals that I knew that I really wanted to change in my home. Some of these I pick up on just because I knew I needed to improve on them, and others I chose because I knew it would make Kherrington or Chad feel loved.
I knew that I needed to be more consistent with scripture study. Chad and I have been pretty good to do couple scripture study even though every once in a while we get a little slack, but for the most part we do well. So my focus was more on my personal study. Now I love to read the Ensigns, but this last year I had totally slacked with the move and never got caught up. I have a stack of Ensigns I haven't read yet. I refuse to get rid of them until I read them all. I guess it's my frugal side. I'm not going to throw out something I payed for.
***So goal #1 was to read each Month's Ensign this year, plus catch up with last years. (this does 2 things in my house. My scripture study and also de-clutters my home) So far I've read and January and February's and then I finished June's and most of July's!!! Progress!! I guess when I run out of extra Ensign's I'll get back into the Book of Mormon since Chad and I are reading out of the New Testament hoping to get through it all this year.
The other things that I had noticed was how my house had become cluttered and grungy!! We bought an 8 year old home and it's in pretty good shape to begin with, but I hadn't been cleaning it like it should be and I don't think the previous 2 sets of owners had either, which then makes things get gross and require a more deep clean, that I HATE to do. So Chad and I sat down went room by room and made a list of what needed to be cleaned in each room and put a frequency of the chore. Then I took that list and broke it down to the daily, biweekly, weekly, bimonthly, monthly, quarterly, and bi-annual items. As I've been going I realize that somethings we put down as too frequent and some things that needed it a little more often than what we originally assigned. And I think that it depends on the household and how many live there to really pick frequencies. (Report: It has been well over a month now that our Master bathroom has been cleaned once a week. First time in our married life. AMAZING I know. I'm quite embarrassed to even admit that.)
***Goal #2, I needed to make a cleaning schedule and stick to it.
So I had totally become the slacker of cooking dinner. I would cook 3-4 times a week, but the other days would be something slapped together and not as health as I'd like, (Like boxed or frozen items). I knew I could do better, and really it was kind of strange cause I really do like to cook most of the time, but I hate coming up with ideas of what to make. That part would stress me out and then I'd shut down and not do anything until it was too late to thaw any meat, etc. Chad and I try to sit down on Sunday evening and go over the events of the week, our work schedules, plan meals that would be time appropriate and match them with the chores that needed to be that week. Try to balance things out and not be overwhelmed with the demands that we set up for ourselves. And most importantly eat better, less processed foods, and stay in food budget, which I'll get to down further in the goals on this one.
***Goal #3, Make a weekly menu. Not that I have to follow it to a T. I've been amazed that as I have ideas written down, I've started to enjoy the cooking process again. And I've been trying tons of new recipes and I get together with some ladies from my ward a few times a month and do recipe exchanges. (I've gotten so most of them are on the computer so if you guys want copies some will be on my other blog, {Like this , we've made it an additional time since then cause we like it so much} also hoping to post my menu for the past week on Monday and if you want recipes I can send you a Word doc. with what I did different or what I'd do differently now that I've made it once).
So the other thing, I've noticed is that we have the TV on all the time at our house. It's horrible!! Not only for the spirit to be in our home, but what am I teaching my child!! I'm a bad coasting mom, just getting by day by day without any thoughts of the future. I knew I needed to change how time in general would be spent through the day. I need to spend constructive time with my family, especially the time I have total control over....during the day when it's just me and Kherrington. I've decided to make a conscious effort to do more reading, coloring, playing, and going downstairs where we have inherited some play toys (while there is snow on the ground) otherwise it'll be outside play when it gets warmer. !!!Can you tell I'm getting anxious for that again!!! Kherrington loves to be outside, even if it's windy snowy, etc. But I don't love it all the time so it's a rarity around here. It'll be nice to get that morning walk back into our day.
***Goal #4, spend more constructive time playing with Kherrington. So I'm not sure how much I've mentioned this on the blog, but Kherrington has been such a Daddy's girl. It is really hard for me to get her to willingly come to me when Chad is at home. She just prefers him over me. For most mothers that would be really bothersome, but in reality I've just learned to embrace it and realize that with having another one that will be taking more of my attention, I should be glad for that. Well it's amazing what happens when Mom puts her own agenda aside for even a few minutes here and there and just play with a little girl, how much she feels LOVED!! I think I totally have a quality time girl here, for those of you that have read the 5 love languages book. (If you haven't I strongly suggest it, good read and totally applicable to any stage of life's relationships) She is more loving toward me on a regular basis, plus at times she actually will pick me over Chad. Now I know that, not just suspect, that it's because Chad will do whatever Kherrington want him to do when he gets home, that she preferred him hands down. Just so you know, He's still the favorite though!!
So if it isn't totally obvious to anyone but myself, we were getting pretty depressed around here. Not exactly what you want your family to be feeling. As Chad and I were talking about goals that we want for our family and ourselves, we realized this and that we needed to make some changes. Number 1 stressor in our lives right now is money, We are on a tight budget...not that we are lacking things, but it's hard to think about saving for a future when all your money that you make is going to student loans, house loans, and a car loan. The first 2 being the biggest contributors and budget eaters are both on a 30 year loan. How do you start saving for retirement when we'll be 5 years away from retirement before you have those things paid for. Totally depressing thought right. Well as I was talking with an older brother the other day he pointed out a few things for me that helped my depressed outlook on this subject. We are looking at our finances as if they are fixed and that we'll always be bringing in the same amount of money. It's just the beginning of Chad career, he'll make more as he progresses. (And for those of you that are under the assumption that if your a Dr. (regardless of what type of Doctor) you make lots of money, that is FALSE, we have a few members of our family that make comments that make it seem that they think that way). It just seems like we'll be paying for his education forever. It's been helpful to be able to work as a nurse on the side just to help out and take some of that stress away, but again balance is our goal. And to make it clear I think that Chad's education was/is important, if I'm going to have debt, that is where I'd prefer to have it come from...something worthwhile and unworldly! Now just to get rid of that car loan...GRRR!
So one of the ways that I've been trying to cut down our cost are through Bountiful Baskets. For those who haven't heard of them I had a post on them before, find it HERE. I only get it 1-2 times a month because it's hard for us to go through the produce all by ourselves, but it's such a money saver and I go to the store less. Also been using more coupons and got the Sunday paper to help increase my coupon stash for the great items I need. Also have a friend that said she'd save me all the diaper coupons from her 5 sets of coupons she gets every Sunday! I'm excited about this one.
***Goal #5- Make the budget tighter, make a financial plan for our future and get out of debt quicker. Most of you know that I've been using Mint.com to keep track of it. It's been the easiest way to do it for us. (Also wish we'd used this as soon as we were married). But we're tightening down and sticking to budget. Using the calculators that are on providentliving.org, and saving for retirement, NOW, and realize that if we can do this now, even a year from now we'll be better off for it.
And last but not least we decided that another reason we were feeling so down is that we haven't really made our house feel like it's ours. This is technically the first house that we've owned that hasn't been a new house. It's hard to not feel like the house is yours if it was built for you and you are the only ones that have lived in it. But there are numerous things that we don't love about our house, but we bought it cause it was in the price range we needed, and new that it was adequate. But it's so not us because of choices that were made. Well most of you know that renovating isn't cheap. And I can tell you we don't have a budget for it. So we will be fixing up our house on a strict budget, slowly over the next few years. We'll finally focus on the upstairs, (and not the outside like we did last year)and we'll be starting with the girls' rooms.
***Goals #7, Making our house our HOME. We're excited just about the thoughts of it. Chad has most of the trim work holes already filled in the baby's room and I have cleaned out most of the closet so we're getting close to painting time. POOR Chad and my parent's (They are coming to help too. Thank you!!) Makes me feel bad for being pregnant and not able to help with those things. I'm sure you'll get to see pictures in the future if you stay tuned in long enough.
So those are the things that have made our lives change so much in the last 2 months it's crazy!! Do any of you have great ideas to help us improve our improvement plan in an area????I'd love to hear them.
5 comments:
I feel like winter this year has everyone in a little funk. It sounds like you have really good goals. Good luck!
i wish that we lived by each other so that we could discuss all of these things jess! I haven been feeling the same way about everything (except Rose is, for now, a mommy's girl)! I started the meal calendar a few weeks ago and haven't been to the grocery store since! 1 trip for everything and lots of money still in my pocket. Also, we bought a house! We close on the 16th and there are some things that I would like to redo but I know that they will come with time because of money. I will just have to tell myself that everyday ha. And oh man, the tv thing! I think it started when I was feeding Rose that I would watch tv and now I feel like its taken over my life. I've tried to set times when I will watch it or not have it on when Rose is awake but I haven't stuck to any of them. Let me know what helps you with that! MISS YOU!
It looks like you have a lot of great goals. I know how you feel about budgeting and being overwhelmed with student loans. We are in the same boat. Kevin and I just started a budget for the first time in our 8.5 years of marriage. Embarrassing I know. But it has been really great for us to be one the same page and to have a common goal. As for household chores, something that works really well for me is fining a day of the week when I can stay home all day and using that day for cleaning. I clean e whole house from top to bottom and while I do that I am doing all the laundry in that one day. And i will usually pick one deep cleaning task each week...like cleaning the oven, washing windows, etc. I really like this because I know that every Thursday is devoted to my house and the rest of the week I just do light cleaning and picking up. It gets easier every week.
I'm so proud of you for sitting down by yourself and with Chad to discuss and make changes! Stick to your goals even when they aren't getting done! I'm super anal retentive about a clean bathroom, so that's not a problem for me but I have some of the same other frustrations. Keep your chin up and we're all rooting for ya!
This is my life. I tell ya schedules and goals make your outlook on your home and family so much better.
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