Day 11... Hubby is home!

Ok... This is my way of keeping on task.. or at least trying to today!

• Bathroom wiped up..still need to do the floor but I think I'm gonna ask the hubby to do it.. sense I hate that floor!
• So far I have the sheets in the dryer ( should buzz any minute) and the comforter in the wash... Will make as they get done... Need to fold the girl's clothes from last night... will be doing that once I am done here... 
• Started a mini mani/pedi in the shower... I need to finish it.. AFTER I finish the dishes... Also went back to my "Husband is home" grooming ritual... I'm not sure about you other ladies... but it is really nice to take a break every once and a while from the primping... even though I do the minimals...

My cat is grumbling at me... She loves being in the bed, and sense I changed the bed and got a comforter instead of just a blanket.. I've caught her several times UNDER the blankets... when I am not even in or near the room.. I think its adorable... but shes currently sitting at the bottom of the couch, she really is quite the character.. and after all of my bad experiences trying to adopt an animal and even buy out here, it really is wonderful to have found one that fits into our family so beautifully!

Mama Kitty (aka Mama) she is roughly 5 years old... we have had her around 3 months... fairly sure she was a shelter cat at one point.. she has some battle scars as well.. but great with everything other than the other animals.. fish are her TV and the bird is a toy!

Her old favorite spot... on top of my pillow... I will soooo take in the blankets over on my pillow any day!

Things to do still...

• Finish up the kitchen
• Mop/sweep
• Coffee table
• Errands
• Pick up living room... again.. it really is a constant with the two kids!
• Make our bed
• Finish Mani/pedi!
• Tonight I need to take out the garbage... or at least the food and some of the recyclables! 

In theory... other than the errands and the mani pedi.. it should all take at max of an hour if I can bare down and do it! ... I really hate being motivationally challenged and a procrastinator at heart!

Ok.. no procrastionation involved... I was on the way home from doing my errands... and my husband was heading home!!! 3:30... wasn't expecting him until around this time ( 7.. almost 8) So.. all cleaning has gone out the window... on the good news... his uniforms were already clean! ( I have to hang them... tomorrow). Kids are done eating.. our steak is warming up... Drinking a Jack n Coke... no we normally don't drink when they are awake, but a glass of wine or a single mixed drink/beer with dinner kinda things.. you know.. to prime the engine! So.. we are enjoying our night.. everything got put on the back burner for when he works tomorrow.. say for trash which we will take care of after the kids go down...

On the other hand, he needed his hair cut... and the beauty shop is right next door so the eldest and myself went and got manis together! her first time... she seemed to enjoy it and I am rather sure that the lady didn't charge me for her... so cool... Regardless.. it is time for me to go cook some steak and get the kids in their pjs... hubby doesn't work till later than normal so were gonna make it a long night!

Oops... day 10

I keep forgetting to write these nightly.. I think about them during the day but at night is when I do a large portion of my cleaning... so I perfer to wait till before bed.. only.. I don't think about it then!

Anyways, today I managed to...

• Empty and Load dishwasher
• Took care of the animals.. yes.. It is on my checklist because I forget... I try not to feed the fish nightly because they really don't need it... but then I have a tendency to forget.. as does the hubby, so when he gets home, he will be able to see exactly when they were taken care of... the bird.. about every 3-4 days and the cat about every 2... so it helps
• folded 1 load of laundry ( its been sitting there a bit) and wash and dry 2 loads... will fold in morning... 
• Spent a few minutes decluttering my nightstand drawer and wiping off in/around it.. 

Theroetical goals for tomorrow...

• Finish scrubbing the kitchen up ( I have a few pots and pans to wash.. a counter to scrub up again.. and a table to clean off... none of which should take all that long.. just a modivation issue)
• Pick up my coffee table/surrounding areas... this is a major hotspot for me.. so it can be a challenge at times...
• Get the towel/blanket laundry bag washed/folded as well as our bedding/blanket washed so they are nice and clean and pritty for when the hubby comes home tomorrow!... nothing like coming home to a perfectly clean and made bed after being out training for weeks!)
• Finish the storage room... still haven't touched it... still getting the creepy crawlies thinking about it but I NEED to do it! 
• Empty the last white drawer in the master bedroom so the hubby has no obstical getting in and out of bed!
• Most likely I'll have to run a load of uniforms when he gets home as well... I doubt they will let me wait until Wed.. but there may be a bit of pure luck that will let him happen to have 1 clean uniform left... unlikely though...
• Go to the store/errands....
• Meet with the babysitter for Sundays "mommy and daddy free date/lunch time".. I decided why try to make a date night? By night time we are exhausted! Not to mention we don't need to throw off their sleep schedual just because we want some time out/in...

Busy busy day tomorrow! Will I get it all done? Chances are... no... but at least I will try!  Now time for me to get some sleep.. a lot later than I want to... darn it being a night owl!

Menu Plan Monday offical week 2...

Okay,  hopefully this week will go better... I made about 50% of the meals that I planned, just not per say on the day I planned them to be! It is coming to my realization that this will be harder to get used to then I thought it would be... does everyone struggle with it at first? Or is it my messy/lazy ways that are keeping me from being able to keep with the plan?

Monday -Grilled cheese ( the bread is good still...)

Tuesday- Steak, Steak fries, random veggie ( hubby gets home and probably not till late so I can make it up for the kids and I ( or feed them something else earlier.) also this will be shopping day so they will be fresh!)

Wednesday- Quiche ( from last week) hubby loves this and we haven't had it in ages!

Thursday- Chinese Chicken and Broccoli with Rice... the hubby's favorite and well all of us love it too!

Friday- Spaghetti with hamburger (I normally just use pasta and sauce because I don't want to get the meat cooked and drained... Not anymore!)

Saturday- Pantry day... Aka whatever we have running around the house.. my day to be a free
spontaneous cooker... maybe this will help me stay on goal of following the rest of the week

Sunday- Either lunch or dinner will be left over freezer stew or eating out... we will go shopping this day so whatever time of day we choose to leave is the meal we will eat out

Hopefully I will be able to stick to this! If not at least I hope I can stick to it better than I did last week...

I have no preset day I will use the crock pot.. though probably the stew will get rewarmed in it due to zip lock bags don't like hot liquids..  and pantry day may be a crock pot meal... not sure...

I am linking this to orgjunkie for Menu Plan Monday

The storage room...

Well, I finally got to doing it. It isn't completely done... yet.. I still have all the spaces with the spiders left to get to.... I have a "do I gotta" attitude going on... yes... I could wait till next weekend and get the hubby to do it.. he would laugh but do it...  Or... I could muster up the guts and finish it myself and have some bragging rights ( especially sense I had asked him to do it before.. per normal.. several times... and of course.. it always gets put off... hey, I never said I was the ONLY one in my house with problems!) On top of that, I have a bunch of things... like the girl's bikes... which they got to ride around outside for a bit today, a chair, a car seat, and Xmas presents... wrapped of course!

The TV is now gone as well.. $180 in my pocket and no more TV in the middle of the living room! Still need to do dishes today, but that is just unload and load... I think I'll pick at the store room a bit more tonight then do the dishes and call it..

MPM didn't go again tonight... I ended up spur of the moment meeting a lady outside to look over... well more sniff over... Scentsy products... Ended up ordering some Korean food for dinner... which is just as healthy as if I had made the thawed chicken breasts in the fridge...

Overall, not a bad day.. but not a great day either... I'm several days behind what I had hoped to be when I started this... but I do have to admit, at least my house looks better than what it did a few weeks ago.. even if it has slipped sense I took the pictures. Regardless, I can't wait for the hubby to get home on Tuesday!

Day 9... Getting Somewhere Again.

You know your house is getting messy again... when your 5 year old announces you need to clean! I think that was my big motivator today... My daughter picked up the floor of their clothes and the random garbage they had running around... then helped me pull the few dishes I had sitting on the coffee table.. I rinsed everything out and into the food trap of the sink... I'll need to pick that up and dump it, but that is a "when I load the dishwasher" thing after dinner... it is icky so I personally try to avoid touching it more then necessary...

Next goals on the list to do today are to get the dish washer going and get a broom through the living room and kitchen. I know it will make a huge difference... The other goal for the night is to pack up the stuff that is getting picked up by buyers on Tuesday, push the TV to the couch we don't use instead of it being in the MIDDLE of the living room, and vacuum the space saver bag full of bedding and put that away in its appropriate closet in the master bedroom... It will over all make a huge difference and just might give me the motivation I need to do the rest of the house! we shall see!

Ok.. got a load in and out of the dishwasher.. a few bulkier items I will load and wash during the day... Got a bit of the house decluttered again... have a few loads of wash I need to do... hopefully I will pick at that one during the day tomorrow sense I want to rewash the few items that have been waiting to be picked up by their buyers... Will definitely need to mop tomorrow.. Lily decided to grab the cup of oil sitting on the counter and spilled it everywhere.. got most of it up but I have noticed little oily foot prints everywhere.. just don't have the motivation to keep going tonight but hey, at least I don't have a giant stack of dishes waiting for me.. and 15 minutes of picking random crud up can make a big difference in the way a house looks! 

I've come to the conclusion that my house will not look quite as good as I wanted it to for when the hubby returns.. but hey... as long as its clean... he knows I've been cleaning, but has no clue about the blog! He knows about the one with the kids that I made up so family back home can see some of what were doing ( sense were a good 8000 miles or something like that.. away). It will be interesting when he finds out.. I don't plan to tell him, but if he figures it out ( I sorta doubt it) it will be interesting to see how he reacts to me putting messy house pics up!

Well time for a bit of quiet sense the girls have finally crashed out. Soon off to bed! (Or knowing me... I'll be up so late I won't want to get up!)

A fall back...

Ok.. this week has pretty much flopped... I have a good bit of cleaning to pick up all the rooms in my house... On the upside.. I've managed to sell a few things on the flea market page for the area... and got a few things ( card stock for making some Xmas ornaments.. our tree is bare other than some candy canes) and a space heater to lower the cost on gas... in theory if we don't use it too much it will be the cheaper alternative, especially in the next month and early spring.

MPM even flopped a bit, though not fully. Wed and today's plans flopped.. but yesterday I made up the beef stew from Wed. and there is even a bag of it in the freezer ready to be warmed up for the next time! Wed I was sick so we ended up eating cheese and crackers and popcorn.. not all that healthy but easy to do when you have a debilitating migraine! Tuesdays, as I mentioned in my last post, was caused due to the failure to notice the bread molded over night! Plan for tomorrow is to make the grilled chicken breasts!

Still need to go get my booty in the storage room. I keep putting it off... for several reasons.. even though the big screen is now out here in the living room ( had to take pictures of it to put it on the flea market page.. now its pending pick up on Monday so I didn't want to try to work around it in there... The bed is also in our room, which leaves plenty of space for the tuft boxes to go so I can just toss them in there and collect the boxes... I KNOW what has to be done, the motivation is lacking.. big time! On top of that I KNOW there are some spiders in there and after living at Fort Benning, GA for a few years... I have come to HATE spiders... luckily these look like a side version of daddy long legs, at least the 2 I've seen in there, the problem, they keep evading my swatter every time I see them!

I need to catch back up.. desperately! I have Thanksgiving less than 2 weeks away, and 2 days after that I am hosting a Temptations Party and will have a bunch of wives I have never met, in my home! (Sounds like fun huh!)

Facebook page for the flea market I created is going smoothly now... only a few adds a day and it so far seems to be moderating itself just fine.. I keep stressing how where I may have made it, it is a community site and the community should care for it, I am just here for stepping in if necessary. Everyone seems to love that idea as well.

So, now that that was accomplished, I made a page for the blog on facebook thanks to a recommendation from Cristin. Thank you, I have very much appreciated your input on all of this and I hope to see you there! (I hope the "like" on the side of the page works, if not it's "Messy Journey" on facebook pages) Hope to see some of you there! I have never made a page before so any advice is more than welcome!

Well, the kids are asleep and it is an early 8:40pm... but I think for one day this week I will go to bed early, get a good nights sleep, and hopefully get up early and give this all a running start! I'll hopefully be able to post some good news tomorrow night!

Day 5... Getting somewhere...

Well, I got the master bedroom decent... I plan to get at least 1 of the 5 objects in the room that is full of clutter, taken care of daily... by doing that it will help take care of the closet clutter as well!

Woke up and went "whoa" at all the stuff that got put out into the living room and entry to the kitchen, the sheets are all sorted out along the brown couch, the girl's bed mat is leaning against the counter... a few bags of donate and sell clothing.... I have a good handful of items I plan to sell from the store room, so the bags of clothing are not going anywhere... till I get that done... joy... I  REALLY don't want to do that store room!

I really don't WANT to do anything today... After getting my #1 goal done, the rest seems kinda... pointless... but I know that is not the case, it NEEDS to get done.. really.. it does, I have a handful of dishes in my sink, the whole house could use a good moping. The girls have managed to scatter a few random items around the house, but I have an idea to help teach them we don't just ignore it.

So... goals for today:
Pick up kitchen
Pick up living room ( these two tasks shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes)
Clean off one of the white storage shelves in master bedroom, put it into the closet and clean/organize it
Bake the gingerbread cookies that are STILL in my fridge!
Stick to my MPM dinner!
Do a few loads of laundry, most of it worn/used in recent days. I want a completely clean slate.
Scoop kitty litter
Start on the store room while trying not to kill myself... First thing to start, pull out the tuft boxes and start throwing the random TA50 back into it!


Well, time to go get at it. I'll up date later in the day... hopefully I get my full list of things done.

Ok... Today.. wasn't a complete failure, but it was nothing like I planned to do. Darn Facebook sucked me in. I ended up making a new flea market page for our area because of some issues with the current one, apparently everyone is loving it, and the basic set up was easy... but... that's a lot of adds... a lot of setting the rules and categories that were added on ( as well as putting some of my own, no longer wanted junk, up for sale!) 

What I did do... just loaded my dishwasher, rinsed out my sink and all of that fun stuff. The girls ran a load of their clothes today, it's in the basket for me to fold but I shall do that before I go to sleep. Got 2 pans of gingerbread cookies in... burnt the first one pretty bad...once again.. Facebook... I stopped, not wanting to burn more! I did thankfully get the one storage container cleared off, sorted, and wiped out with the help of my girls, got my closet section cleaned out, organized and everything is hanging or in its drawer! There is only the one basket of clothes to fold.. the girl's I mentioned. I do need to do a quick pick up in here before I crash out, so I suppose in some ways that counts as me picking up the living room... sense what is still in here is about to be taken care of, or is up for sale.

I didn't stick to the MPM today... there is only 2 things I can blame for that... Me, because I failed to look, and the bread, for molding overnight! So we ran down to the local Family Mart ( a little convince store here in Korea) for some Kim bap and some cheese bread. I was brave enough to buy some kimchi in hopes that it was mild like the one I got to eat down at the train station restaurant, and I forgot to even open it! I guess I'll make homemade Korean food for lunch some day coming up and enjoy it that way!  Either way, time to do those few things and crash, I've got a busy busy day tomorrow!