Cleaning Schedule

A few weeks ago, to my horror, I realized that our house is just gross. I'd been slacking so much on the cleaning from feeling so tired all the time. So while having a proactive sort of moment I decided to take a look online and get some cleaning ideas, and finally stumbled upon a blog that described their 'cleaning schedule'. The theory was that if I tackle one large chore a day I could keep my house in relatively good order- I thought I could handle one large chore a day, no problem. That blog, however, claimed that their cleaning took only 25 minutes a day at most and I'm here to verify that they either have a very small house or are lying. 25 minutes is definitely not enough time to do most of the chores each day. But still, having a schedule helps to keep me on track, and I don't mind that it takes longer. 

Their schedule, I realized, wouldn't work for us. With Kayla, It's not always feasible for me to run up and downstairs nonstop all day, so some of the days covered a broad topic like 'surfaces' which just didn't work for us. The first week I tried and it was impossible. 1.) Our house has an exorbitant amount of surface area. Thanks to both my and Brian's obsessions with collecting DVDs, CDs, collectibles, figurines, and books, we have shelving covering the entire house- often filled with very small, very tedious-to-clean objects. 2.) Running upstairs and downstairs all day isn't really a great idea with a 3 year old who follows underfoot half the time and wanders crazily the other half. So I had to adjust the cleaning schedule a bit, but after several weeks, I'm pretty proud to announce that I've worked out most of the kinks and it's been going well. 

Here's a quick look at our household cleaning schedule. I decided to make it so that most days there is one large chore, as well as one or two smaller chores included. I probably wouldn't need to write down the smaller chores, but I'm a visual sort of person. Having it written down makes me more likely to finish it. 

Monday- 

Laundry Day- This is our main laundry day. I do bedsheets, throw blankets, clothing, towels.

Vacuum downstairs- Downstairs is where we spend most of our time and definitely needs the most vacuuming.     

Garbage to the Curb

Tuesday-

Bathrooms- dust, disinfect, toilets, sinks, showers, walls, chrome, sweep, mop, change towels, refill TP... everything. Spray something pretty-smelling when done. We have three bathrooms so this takes a while. 

Laundry- anything left over from Monday, or diapers if needed.

Collect trash cans from curb.

Wednesday- (the dreaded day)

Surfaces- I schedule ALL the surfaces, but aim to get at downstairs done. This means counters, tables, shelving, windows, cabinets, walls, floors. It also can mean the desk, top of the fridge, picture frames, inside the cabinets, etc. You can see why it takes forever, even without seeing the hundreds of shelves in our house. 

Thursday-

One large task- pick something specific to clean or organize. It can be a closet, the fridge, a messy cabinet, toy boxes, etc. Anything at all that just needs to be straightened up and organized works. 

Surfaces- Upstairs, since that's almost always leftover from Wednesday. 

Friday-

Vacuum whole house- Upstairs and downstairs. 

Clean goldfish bowl.- Believe it or not, I will forget to do this if I don't see it written!

Laundry- At least one small load- There is always enough for another load! 

And those are the main things! I also keep a dry erase board on the fridge now and each day I write the date and everything that needs to be done. I will add everything else for the day I want to accomplish, too, that varies each day. Food shopping, appointments, a craft I'm working on, a project I want to get done with Kayla, going to the post office, etc. Since like I said, I'm a very visual person, seeing everything written out really helps keep me on track. I love lists and checking things off. Having little miniature goals each day has made me more focused and I've actually kept up with everything for the first time in a long time. 

It feels so amazing to accomplish things! 

Transferring ownership of blog to updated email

Wow, blogger. Could that have been more difficult?! All I wanted to do was to update my email address from an old gmail to a new one. I just spent an hour transferring administrative permissions to my new email address and then having to re-follow all my blogs. For cryin' out loud, blogger, do something about that.

31 weeks or so pregnant

I have some pictures I wanted to upload but I just don't feel like it anymore. Which is essentially how I've been feeling about most things. My belly has gone quickly past that "Obviously a baby bump but still cute" phase into being large and in charge and cumbersome and painful. My ribs are starting to ache and I am losing the ability to get comfortable quickly.

I passed the 3 glucose test, thankfully, after failing the 1 hour with a whopping 174. But... the next appointment showed me spilling sugar in my urine, and the doctor informed me that she was extremely surprised I passed my 3 hour, and that I should still act like I have GD. She wanted to do a blood stick thing in the office. She did, and I asked what number would be considered normal- 100 or so. I got a 54!! After not eating for only 1 hour my blood sugar was a 54. That's actually closer to being hypoglycemic than it is to being too high. Needless to say, I've only taken her suggestions for eating differently very lightly. I'll have to keep being monitored at every appointment to see how my sugar levels are.

Other than that, baby is moving around quite a lot and I've been having a ton of Braxton Hicks contractions. It can't be for lack of drinking water because I'm inhaling so much all day I want to throw up. The doctor thought she was head down last week, so I'm hoping we're not getting ready to make any appearances any time soon. I don't have time right now to go into labor. There is just way too much left to do around this place and Christmas is just a really inconvenient time for me. Nevermind the fact that I'd like to avoid a premie.

I'm always so, so, so, so, so soososososososooo tired. I could sleep all day and not feel any less tired. I don't know how I did this working and going to school over-time last pregnancy. I feel like I'm ready to collapse from fatigue and driving is even getting a little scary! Ugh.

February, come on and get here!

Some more of Albus' antics

Just some more photos of Albus' adventures here this year:

14 Things I've learned from Pinterest

1.) I am no where near as crafty as I like to think I am.
2.) Facebook is not as fun as I used to think it was.
3.) There is absolutely nothing that white vinegar, Dawn dish soap, and/or baking soda can't do.
4.) Never throw anything out. Ever. Somehow, someone, somewhere offers a tutorial on something really awesome to reuse it for.
5.) Mod Podge is a household must-have.
6.) Never buy store-bough Mod Podge. There's a tutorial on how to make your own.
7.) My sense of style is awesome on my Fashion pin board.
8.) People who see my "food" board must think I weigh 800 pounds. I really may as well rename the board to "food porn" because there's nothing on there that I don't go, "Ohhhh yeaaaah" when I see.
9.) I need to learn to crochet and knit. Asap. And my husband needs to take up woodworking.
10.) It's crack. Pinterest is crack. Before you ever use it, you don't really get it or the obsession people have with it. Then you join, get the general idea of it, and 2 hours later you reemerge having 12,000 new pins. Repeat several times daily.
11.) I'm already married, but my Pinterest wedding is coming along beautifully.
12.) People put more planning into their children's second birthday parties than I did my entire wedding.
13.) I need to visit... everywhere. I'm thinking if I start traveling today I might actually get to see half of the amazing things to see the world has to offer.
14.) Baby animals. That is all.

Pregnancy updates

I also forgot to add some pregnancy updates. I'm 28 weeks and a few days... again. They changed my due date and didn't bother telling me, and I had to find out when they sent me to Labor and Delivery to have the baby monitored for slower movements. I really, really, really can't stand my doctor. She has no idea who I even am when I walk into the room and swears she's told me things that she definitely has not.

When I asked her if she delivered at the other hospital in the area, she told me "No, we tell all our patients that the first visit, I definitely told you the first time I saw you." I had to remind her that no, she definitely did NOT, because the first time she saw me I was brought in early as an emergency for bleeding, and she insisted my pregnancy was non-developing. Why would she have told me where she delivers while she's also telling me, absolutely, that my pregnancy isn't developing?

At the last appointment she also insisted my due date has never changed from the start. I had to remind her, again, that she was wrong, and then she gets awkward. It definitely did change, though, and she definitely did recalculate it twice because at my 8 week appointment when I thought I was due Feb. 19th, she told me twice I was due the 12th. Now I'm Suddenly due the 21st. It makes me wonder if she's dyslexic or if the date was written down backwards accidentally at some point. I know what she told me that one appointment way back when- definitely that I was 9 weeks and some days instead of 8 and some days, and that I was due the 12th. If she's insisting it was never changed, then I don't know what to make of it.

Anyway, I know it's a just an estimate, but the 12th is a huge jump from the 21st.

Aside from that my pregnancy isn't as painful as Kayla's was... I'm mostly just tired. All my other symptoms are fleeting and manageable. I did have a scare with her movement earlier this week that landed me in Labor and Delivery for monitoring, but it turns out that she's perfectly fine, just slipped into a position that is making me feel less now. It's just really strange to go from violent kicking all day long to barely anything at all.

My 1 hour glucose tolerance test came back abnormal. I was so surprised (I really expected to pass it) I forgot to ask the actual number while I was there. I read a ton of posts online about people's numbers, and decided to call and see what it was- 174. They said they do the 3 hour for anything over 120... so I was WAY over. Most of the other people online have doctors that fail you after 140. Either way- still WAY over. I did the 3 hour yesterday and that was some new form of torture for me. Fasting starting at 8 PM the night before, waking up hungry, exhausted, nauseous, thirsty, getting stuck with a needle 4 times in 4 hours, having to sit still in the waiting room the entire time... AND the last lab tech to draw blood messed up the needle so my blood squirted halfway across the room- all over me, her, the floor, the chair, and my suede bag that was on my lap. I think everyone in the room was waiting for me to lose it... they suddenly were all very helpful and overly nice. They must get a lot of nasty, hungry, crazy pregnant ladies in there for that test to know that at that point I was ready to rip someone apart anyway. But I was nice and just said it was fine. I was so relieved to be able to leave I couldn't even care at the moment.

By the time I got home I barely made it upstairs before I blacked out. Like, not sleeping- my vision tunneled again and I passed out. Not feeding pregnant people for 16 hours is just stupid. I came to, ate something, and passed out for 4 hours. Thankfully, Brian was home all day so he was with Kayla and I could sleep it off.

I get the results sometime next week. The statistics all say that about 2/3 of the people who have to take the 3 hour pass with flying colors. I'm hoping I'm in that category. I will be so surprised, again, if I actually do have it- I have none of the risk factors. If I do, then I'll be the most miserable person you can imagine being around. I feel bad for everyone who has to deal with me.

I have no problem admitting that my complaints are stupid and shallow, but I can't help it. I never have had to care about my diet- I'm lucky to be able to eat whatever I want and never gain weight. I have no other health problems to make my dieting a concern. I'm spoiled by being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. I don't even know what people with diabetes can't eat. Seriously. Carbs? Sugar? I don't even know what a carb actually is. After my appointment at he doctor when she told me I failed the 1 hour, shed told me to assume I have gestational diabetes for now until I get the results for the 3 hour. I stared blankly. She said to watch my carbs. So I came home, subduing the panic attack on the verge of happening, and wanted a sandwich. I remembered I needed to actually pay attention to the label, so I was looking at the bag for the nutritional information and lost it. I just sobbed. ANd sobbed. It was suddenly overwhelming. I was sitting there reading the levels for a slice of bread- I'd have to do this for everything I ate? My brain doesn't function on that level. I have anxiety attacks trying to prepare ONE MEAL without diet restraints- just trying to cook a regular old meal makes my heart race and my head spin. It's a large part of why I hate cooking. If I do cook anything, I need hours to prepare myself to do it. I go over each step in my head over and over. I go through the ingredients I'll need. I have to have all of them lined up on the counter, in the order that I'll need them, and I have to put everything away as I'm done with it because stuff on the counter just sitting there makes me nervous. SO yes, this whole caring in great detail about the carb content of food makes me cry.

But then again, I could, and more likely than not, and worrying over nothing. Since most people don't have a positive result from this second test, I am comforting myself in assuming it was just something I ate the morning before the 1 hour that cause my number to be so high.

I hope.

Even More Adventures with Albus, and our Struggle with the letter "H"

Well, First, here's our latest Albus pictures-



He's been relatively well-behaved, and down-right sweet last night, leaving Kayla an art project to do. That's one of her favorite things! She was so happy she drew a picture for Albus right after we finished Santa's beard and showed it to him. I wrote on the picture of Santa , "To Kayla, Love Albus" and colored a small bit of the hat to look like he got it started for her. She's loving this Elf thing! So glad I bought it, and it was definitely worth every penny.

And on an unrelated note, Kayla for some reason is struggling with the H sound this week. No idea why, she just isn't grasping it. She writes her letters pretty well, and H is no exception there. She picks up on that pretty quickly and can write them all up to H so far. But when it comes to the letter sound itself we are really having a hard time with this one. Boo! I guess they all can't be easy!