Airing My Dirty Laundry

Week one of the Apartment Therapy Cure is over. We did pretty good! I made me list of repairs, we bought fresh flowers, I vacuumed and mopped (almost) all the floors, and I took one thing out of my house.

What was that one thing? It was actually many things. I purged some old clothes out of my closet.

Our master bedroom closet is going to be one of the biggest things I want to tackle for the cure. Because it is... horrifying.

Did I really just post this on the internet?

Hopefully before my eight weeks are up, I will have some inspiring after shots to show you.

Organizing Small Things

Awhile ago we tackled this CD organization project. As you can see, we had way too many CDs, all cluttering up valuable storage space (they were in our storage room in a rubbermaid tote).

Of course, we could have gotten rid of them all together, since we have an iPod, and all our music is stored on our external hard drive. But it's hard to part with something you spent so much money on, and what if something happened and we lost all our music? It's unlikely, but it would be awful! So, we sought out storage options that would let us keep the CDs and liner notes, but ditch the jewel cases.

Here's what we came up with:

And, since this industrial style metal case with sleeves for the CDs actually didn't fit our entire collection, we got a small media storage box to fit the rest:

I found cute paper clips with tabs on them in the office section at Target, which I used to alphabetize the CDs.

The result is a clean looking storage solution that takes up very little space.

Happy Autumn!

Our wedding anniversary is in the fall.

My first nature table. Ceramic leaf plates, a candle, a wooden bowl with rocks, pine cones and leaves, anniversary cards, and fresh flowers (part of the Apartment Therapy cure)

Back to Basics

I've been kind of stressed out this week. It's mostly because I'm not feeling well. I got slammed hard with an icky cold Monday night, and I'm still straining to talk and coughing like crazy on Friday. When I feel run down, everything just seems hard. Especially when it comes to homemaking - cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, organizing, budgeting and caring for the little one are daunting tasks. But, I'm starting to feel on the mend, so that's a good thing.

 

I think this week, because I was feeling so tired and overwhelmed, I let a lot of things slide. I know Sebastian watched a lot of TV and didn't eat the healthiest. I had actually wanted to adhere to the AAP recommendation of no TV at all until 2, but it's been hard. I don't turn it on for him, but my husband does, and so does my dad, who watches him during the day. I am also struggling with the food thing - I haven't eaten the best this week at all, I've had way more sugar than I should, and I know Sebastian's eaten a lot of hot dogs for lunch, and I even caved and gave him some watered down juice at a wedding last weekend.

 

I need to start walking the walk: I have these ideals in my head of what our home life should be (time outside, homemade food, limited media, free play time), but a lot of times I succumb to TV and processed food because it's easier, and when your energy is low, easy is good. Also, I have a tough time being confident in a lot of my decisions, particularly when it comes to parenting (but also sometimes nutrition). I have a tendency to let people talk me out of things that I want to do, and I allow them to make me feel silly in my convictions. That, of course, isn't something I can solve overnight, but this weekend I'm going to challenge myself to step it up and get my family back to basics. We're going to eat simple, healthy meals and stay away from the TV. I'm excited!

Small Steps

I tend to get ahead of myself, um, a lot. It can be really easy for me to have a goal in mind, and get really frustrated when I can't accomplish it RIGHT NOW. When it comes to my desire to sell our condo and move to a single family home, I need to start with the small steps. Even if we weren't so underwater, now would not be the time for us to do this. First, we need to get some debts paid off. Then we need to save for a down payment.

 

So I am trying to step back and look at the small steps we need to take to make the big dream of having a "forever" home happen. First things first, a budget. I've looked at our budget, and we actually should be doing much better than we are. We're over spending on frivolous stuff like eating out and Target trips. Once we get our budget under control we're going to roll all those extra pennies into paying down our debt.

 

I feel motivated, and like we can do this.

First day of Autumn

Today is the first day of Autumn, and it definitely feels like it in these parts. Outside my window there's a tree beginning to turn a rich gold, and rain is pouring down the window. It's cold and snuggly. I'm not feeling the best today, but am at work. I'm about to go make some peppermint tea and watch the rain fall for a bit.

 

This is the first year that I've been planning a nature table, so I will have photos of that soon. Tonight, if I have the energy, I'm going to put out our fall wreathe on the front door, set out the fall placemats and linens, and cook something warm and hearty to celebrate the first day of my favorite season.

What's Important

With a week and a half until my brother's wedding, and extended family drama brewing, I can't help but reflect on what's important to me. My little family of three makes me so very happy. I love nothing more than spending time with the wonderful man I married and this funny and silly and sweet little boy we are raising. I want to have a close family, but I'll admit, I have basically no blue-print for such a thing. My immediate family is close: I talk to my mom every day on the phone, my dad is babysitting Sebastian at least a few times a week while we work, and while I don't see him as often as I'd like, I get along well with my brother. But our extended family is another story. They all live out of state, don't talk to us too often, and more often than not, bring the drama. Like right now, with my brother's wedding so close, all of them chose to ignore the invitations, not RSVP, and then disapoint him by not coming. It's a shame really; I know that compared to his fiancee's huge, tight-knit family, he feels let down and alone.

 

Way, way in the future I hope there's no question that Sebastian's uncles and aunties would make it to his wedding, and that he has some cousins to grow up with, and some siblings too. But, of course, you just never know. So in addition to trying to cultivate a happy, close family, we're also choosing some surrogate "family" as well, in the form of our dear, close friends and their kids. I felt so lucky to have this "family" over the weekend as we attended our lovely friends C. and M's wedding. There was lots of joy, happiness, and about 15 toddlers tearing up the dance floor.

 

We can't always choose our family, but we can choose the way we treat people and the way we want to live.