motivation

Trying to get motivated to finally start working on housework today.  Last two days have been spent doing fun things with Shea, running errands, and working on the church bookkeeping (I've put in close to 6 hours working on that crazy stuff this week, and still have so much more to do!).  Just finished a cup of tea and finally warmed up (I am freezing today for some reason), Pandora station is on and toys are picked up, so maybe I'll get moving now.  

Maybe.

12:33PM:

Alright, we just finished lunch, and here is where I am at:

I've vacuumed about half of the house, but still have the living/dining room and bedrooms left to do.

I also cut my finger really badly while mopping.  Yes, while MOPPING.  I was reaching for the swiffer, which is tucked next to our oven...it was kind of stuck so I was pulling it kind of hard and some how my finger slid across the corner of the drawer beneath the oven.  Blood splattered everywhere!  I didn't take a picture of that, though, ha.  It wouldn't stop bleeding, so I put two band-aids on and then wrapped scotch tape around it too.

a bonus item!  I cleaned my teapot and shined it.  See how shiny it is?  It was really grimey before from being on the stove and getting oil and food splattered on it.

Oh, and Shea asked me to take a picture of him, so here that is as well.  I am feeling more awake now after lunch and getting things done!

The Lawn Challenge

Our move went really well and we are settling into our new house.  I just love our house and the area.  I went for a bike ride to the bank and library earlier and it just felt so peaceful to bike through the quiet streets of brick houses, flowers and trees.  I'll post pictures of the inside of our house later because right now we are getting a weak internet signal from the starbucks across the street and it took a long time to upload these photos.  Tomorrow though our internet gets hooked up, I can't wait!

I wanted to show you pictures of our backyard.  My plan is to take out all the weeds and move the gravel to form a path by the deck.  I feel like its a big challenge, but thankfully our yard isn't very big-so I think I can do it!  I also found out that the city is giving out free compost to its residents next week, so I can use that to help revive the space.  I also borrowed two books from the library about growing a healthy lawn.  So far I have just spent an hour weeding, but I'm going to do a bit more this afternoon.  Whenever I had to do weeding for my mom I hated it, but yesterday I had so much fun!  

a laid back sort of day

I had such a nice weekend!  Saturday I went to my Zumba class - it dragged on and on though!  Me and my co-worker both looked at each other after 30 minutes and were like, "WHAT another 30 minutes still!?" Made me realize that you can't miss almost 3 weeks (one week was only a half hour so it didn't really count) and not work out consistently during the week if I want to last through Zumba.  So, this week I have worked out every day since Saturday.  I found a work-out on Netflix I really like!  It's called Crunch: CardioSculpt with Violet Zaki (if you're interested) and it does both cardio and weight training, so I like it!  It's a 36ish minute workout, but I only do about 28 minutes of it, because the last 8 minutes is all ab work on the floor I simply cannot do right now (believe me, I tried)!


I also turned on the yogamama and had to turn it off.  Waaaaay too cheesy for me.


Anyway.  Saturday.  So I went and bought my calcium pills, picked up my friend Susan, and we headed to the women's retreat thingy.  We were both kind of disappointed by the event.  I mean, it was a nice event with good food, prizes, and a fun little craft (which neither of us actually did), but they never pulled everyone together to do anything that the conference was supposed to do.  My understanding was that they were supposed to show some videos and get people talking to each other.  But, it basically just turned into a women's fellowship for three hours.  Susan and I just sat on a couch and talked - and we actually had a great time catching up and not running out of things to talk about the whole time, but we no one really tried to connect with us.


I was supposed to go to work afterward, but my boss asked me if I wanted the night off!  I said sure, and instead met Jeremy and Shea on my way home.  He was headed out to go play disc golf with a few guys, so while he did that, Shea and I went shopping.  Then we picked him up, ate dinner, and headed home to roast a few marshmallows with the cousins.


Sunday I had to work all day.  This month I figure I am just not going to be at church, since I'm working weekends only now.  I really didn't mind being at work after having five days off that week!  This week I don't work until Friday from 12-5, and then I have all day shifts on Saturday and Sunday.  It's nice that I am still able to work about 25 hours just on the weekend, so we can save up some more money before baby comes!  I am planning on quitting for sure after May, or just working Saturdays at the point, but I cannot even contain how excited I am about not working!


Today, Jeremy went off to work and Shea and I went to Silverdale to meet up with my sister-in-law and another lady from our church and her daughter.  After the kids played at a park and the mall play area for about an hour and a half, we said our goodbyes and headed home.  I was tired, but had to stop at the grocery store and to pick up some shaving cream for Jeremy.  We went to Wendy's and WalMart, and when we got home we both crashed and slept for 2 hours!


I have not had a 2 hour nap in a loooong time and I really needed it.  After that, I cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned out the refrigerator, and played trains with Shea for a while.


In other news: my cilantro is growing!!  I took this picture on Saturday, and the sprouts are even bigger today!  My Basil is growing too, but you couldn't really see it in the picture.  I am excited for my herb garden, and I think I need to plant a few more before it gets too late.

Here is Shea.  We were playing outside on Saturday before I left for my women's "conference".

And Jeremy, just for fun.

I made myself a green smoothie just now too.  Had some fruit to use up and haven't been eating enough spinach lately.  It went from this (banana, pineapple, orange juice, strawberries, yogurt, and spinach):

To this!

It mostly just tasted like banana and orange juice, so I'm going to have to play around with the recipe.  Shea LOVED it though.  I might have finally found a way for him to eat some spinach!

Well, Shea is throwing markers every where now, and I need to figure out what to make for dinner tonight!  Happy Monday!

Our last morning

It is currently 7:20 am, Paul and I have been up since about 6 which is the time we got up every day on this vacation, which is awesome.  It is going to make the three hour time change seem like nothing since my ususal schedule is go to bed at midnight and wake up at 9 and I have been going to bed at 9 and waking up at 6 here. So perfect.  

This is my last outfit picture for this vacation.  I have had the grey dress for a long time, I don't even remember when I got it, but this is the most I have worn it in years. I love t-shirt material dresses, best invention ever.  I got the blue dress for 8 dollars at ross right before leaving on vacation and love it.  It shrunk in the dryer here and it was already really short, so I will just be wearing it with legging when we get home.  And my hair?  Yeah, it has gone crazy here.  It has been in a ponytail for the last week, falling out of that ponytail half the time.  and has been drenched in saltwater more times than I can count. I have loved not blow drying it or straightening it though! 

So Paul got a little burnt yesterday snorkeling and playing with the turtles in the ocean, his poor back is going to be killing him on the plane.  I managed to not get too burnt this vacation but I have a small spot on my nose (because my sunglasses reflected so much sun to one spot!) and the very top of my hairline, apparently I didn't get sunscreen quite high enough.  The hairline burn is quite painful! 

We have to be out of the condo by 10am and our fight leaves at 2:55.  We are going to leave right at 10, go to a handmade marketplace (hopefully I get some cute stuff!!), and grab some lunch.  Then around 1 we are going to drop off the rental car, take a shuttle to the airport, and sit in the hot, muggy waiting area till they board our plane.  

The next time I talk to you girls I will be back in cold, rainy, Washington.  

Moving Day!

Yay moving day is finally here!  I have been getting the worst sleep all week because I can't stop thinking about our new house.  We got the keys yesterday, but since Justin was working we couldn't move till today so in about 45 minutes we're going to do our last drive to Simcoe, load up the u-haul and drive to Oakville.  I did drive over to our new house yesterday and took a look at it again.  Its a lot nicer than I remember!  The landlord steam cleaned all the carpets and took out the stains in it-it looks brand new now!  I was with my sister-in-law when we looked at the house and then afterwards we checked out the Salvation Army thrift store a few streets over and found out that the last Friday of every month is 50% off all clothing!  Not only did we find good stuff but it was really cheap too!  I wish I could take pictures of what I bought but my camera cord is packed away somewhere.  We don't get internet till May 2nd, but hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of our new place before then!  I loved reading all your posts this morning while I drank my coffee, it is such a good way to start he day!

What I've been up to

Oh girls - it has been GLORIOUS being at home all week!  I work today at 4, and tomorrow I have almost the entire day off!  I am so looking forward to Zumba in the morning, my women's conference in the afternoon, and then I don't start work until 6 and only work for 4.5 hours!  It is amazing how energizing it is being home.  I haven't done a whole lot other than catching up on laundry and keeping the kitchen clean (oh my goodness, I was getting so lazy about that lately!  So nice to not have dirty dishes on the counter all the time), but have started a whole mental list of projects to work on in my spare time.

I'm not sure that I have ever posted a picture of our big... room.  Not sure what to call it, ha.  This is the main room of the house, basically, because we don't use our front door.  Our front door goes into our living room/dining room, but our sliding doors is what everyone really goes in and out of.  The sliding doors are to the left of the desk in the first picture.  Anyway, last night I did some rearranging.  I set up Shea's little "Desk" and framed some of his artwork.  He was SO excited about it - I have to go get some more frames (I only had two, and he his become quite the artist lately!).  I think I am going to get a binder with some page protectors too, so I can save his pictures for him without displaying them on every available surface of the house.  Excuse the cluttered desk, that is also a project for this week.

I rearranged his toys over on this wall - this is straight across from the doorway and there is a big empty space in the middle of the room.  I'd love to have a couch in here at some point, because this is where we hang out mainly.  The kitchen opens up to it and Shea plays in here, so someday maybe we will get one in here!

Now one of the major projects on my TO DO list is the guest bathroom...have I SHOWN you our lovely pink bathroom?  OH dear.  Here it goes.  It has more or less become a storage room, but that HAS to change before this baby comes!  It is piled with tools and paint on the vanity right now.  There is all the hookups for a shower, but it just has carpet over that area right now. My plan is to 1.) PAINT the walls and cabinets and possibly the counter, 2.) put in some laminate flooring instead of the carpeting, 3.) paint that awful mirror, and 4.) utilize the shower space better.  I think I'm going to hang up a shower curtain to still make it feel like a normal bathroom, but my new laundry sorting cart will go on one side (I just picked it up at walmart the other day and am a little too excited about it) and changing table will go on the other.  The changing table is in Shea's room right now, but I don't want to have to interrupt naps if one kid is up and needs a diaper change.  Plus, this way I will be right by the laundry for cloth diapers and big messes.  Okay, now I have shared it.  Maybe that will motivate me to really get something done about it!

Here is the baby blanket I have been knitting.  It is coming along and it is so fun to have something to pick up and work on.  I work on it mostly while Shea is playing outside - I love to be able to sit in the sun and keep an eye on him while doing something relaxing with my hands.  I never thought I would enjoy knitting, but this has been a good beginner project for me!

I also bought some new nail polish (it is a little more purple than it looks in the picture) and painted both my toenails and my fingernails.  I actually managed to do a decent job on my fingers, too, which just about NEVER happens which is why I never paint them.  I think it might have to do with the brand of nail polish.  It was only 2 dollars at walmart, but works better than the stuff I've had forever.  I think I'm going to try to keep the habit up.  It just makes me feel a little more polished.  (har har).

These are my new indoor plants.  I should be able to tell you what they are, but I have no idea.  I just saw them at Walmart for a couple of bucks and decided to get them!  Love how bright and green and easy to take care of they are!  This one is in the kitchen,

And this one is in our bedroom window for now.

And this is the view out our window today.  We have been working in the yard lately, so its a mess, but it is getting better!  My mother-in-law is amazing and has been digging up everything to get my vegetable garden ready.  Love that lady!

The other wonderful thing about being home lately is that I have been letting my hair dry naturally, since I don't have to rush off anywhere.  It feels so nice to have it be in its natural wavy state, but it was a little sad when I went to my prenatal appointment and my midwife thought I had "done" my hair that day.  I said, "no, this is how my hair looks when I don't do it!"  Nice compliment, but sad that I straighten my hair that much!  I haven't straightened it all week, so hopefully this will be a new trend for me.  It takes so much less time to let it do its own thing, anyway!

And OF COURSE, I've been loving spending time with this kiddo - even if at times I want to pull my hair out.  He has been into "NO" a lot lately.  Today we finger painted, colored in his giant dinosaur book together, played with pretend food, and finally it got nice out so I let him loose outside with his cousins!  That is the best break for me all day.  And nap time.  I just put holds on a bunch of preschool books at the library today, because I want to get some more ideas to keep this kid busy with activities during the day (and to help my sanity).  Plus, I don't think I'll be sending him to Preschool next year, unless I end up being the Teacher's Assistant at the church one, then he will come, of course.

And that is life this week!  Jeremy has been enjoying his job and we have already started a really nice morning family routine.  Today all I can think about is how good God is, the rest He brings to us, and the way His goodness shines all around when we take the time to look and reflect.

I love summer clothes.

I wished I lived somewhere where I could wear summer clothes for at least 3-4 months of the year.  They are about a million times more comfortable.  Your body can breathe, I love it.  You wear dresses meaning you don't have to wear pants, oh heaven! 

I let Amber borrow everything I was wearing in the picture for her trip to Hawaii, I wonder if she has pictures of herself in it. Haha.  I was super tired while taking this, probably because it was 6:30 in the morning, but no big deal. 

It has been wonderful having this week off from working out, my body is loving the break, but man let me tell you, I also need to get back into working out when I get back home.  I may even need to join Amber doing Jillian Michaels a few days.  Eating all day and laying on a beach doesn't help the figure, but it is oh so fun!