Meg vs. The Car: One long day.

We got our alignment fixed and tires replaced today. It only took:
1 walk to and from McDonalds with 4 boys 5 and under (my nephew was with us),
20 chicken nuggets and 3 yogurt parfaits,
1 face plant into the play place mat,
1 pants change,
1 unexpected trip to Costco,
2 frozen yogurts,
1 heinously large bag of veggie straws,
3 toddler meltdowns,
1 poopsplosion,
1 call to Grammy, and
1 nursing session in a corner outside Costco while the big boys fought in the cart.

I wanted to hug the tire guy when he pulled our van right up on the sidewalk for us to jump right in.

I got home and John took a study break because big brother wanted to wash the cars with him, so they are sparkly clean too.

Good thing I had this super easy taco soup planned for dinner. Took 10 minuted to make and was pretty tasty! I am currently ignoring the fact that I have hardly touched my goals from 2 weeks ago, let alone set more for this week. We'll just be happy we got through Wednesday!

Meg vs. Very Little: Weekly Goals June 11-16

As you can probably tell by the complete lack of posts, this week did not go as planned. Here are my excuses very valid reasons:

It was very hot, and the hubs decided he wanted to clean out our room instead of cleaning out the backyard. That is what I get for setting goals for both of us... Our room looks awesome though.

We had a couple of family dinners and our boys had lots of cousin time. This required a lot of prep and recovery work.

We locked ourselves out of our house, which destroyed an entire morning. Had to go pick up the key from my sister in Napa.

I am pregnant. This trumps all other excuses.

Anyhoo, here's the report:

June 7-9

Thursday: Do some serious weeding/clearing in the back yard. Make a plan for the yard with the hubs.

I realize this is nearly impossible to see, but it's my only proof. This took longer than I expected, because we had to go through each tree and plant and decide which would go and which would stay. My default position is that things should go, John's default is that they should stay. But we finally came to an agreement. Let's hope it looks better than my drawing in real life!
 
Friday: Paint one last coat on the dresser. Start stripping the old interior doors.

Saturday: More door stripping. Spray finish on the dresser.

June 11-16
Monday: Paint last coat on the dresser. Work on organizing/rotating kids' clothes.

Tuesday: Spray finish on the dresser. Clean out the fridge.

Wednesday: Take at least one box of junk from the garage to the thrift store.

Thursday: Fill the green waste bin (weeding, de-tree-ing, raking leaves, etc.)

Friday: Clean out master closet, rotate regular and maternity clothes.

Saturday: Paint at least one of the hallways.

Meg vs. The Front Yard: Weeding (of course)

Monday: Weed front planters, clear more in the back if there's room in the bin/time in the day.

I have lots of excuses for today. Mostly I got sick when I was part-way through weeding the main planter, and that is as far as I got. We spent the afternoon with me curled up on the couch while the boys played and watched Cars, and I recovered enough to pick up John and make a pre-birthday dinner (I am trying to be a good cook during birthday week at least!).

I promise I will try to post something slightly more exciting here soon; I feel like the blog is getting a little pathetic!

Meg vs. Nothing: I took the day off.

Friday: Re-fill the green waste bin! Clear as much in the side yard as possible.

We had several unexpected things come up today (doctor's appointment, birthday party, arrangements that needed making, surprising heat wave). Also, I really didn't want to be outside in the sun during nap time. Also, I just really didn't feel like it.

So now that my excuses are properly recorded, I have just doubled my work for tomorrow. And I think I'll read and go to bed happy =).

Meg vs. The Bedroom: More Paint

Saturday: Finish painting master bedroom.

This goal was ridiculous. I don't know how I managed to not factor in (1) having to paint the trim, and (2) the fact that I can't do any painting during toddler waking hours. Not to mention that I had to put a second coat of white paint on the ceiling this morning because the stubborn dirty beige was showing through. It is now 10pm, and I am about to start cleaning the baseboards and trim, then I'll paint (surely doing a terrible job) and crash for the night.

My awesome hubby put the living room blinds back up (kind of an ordeal because they had some fit issues with the new windows), and cleaned the blinds before he put them back up, and put up the new curtain rod and my curtains. It almost looks like a real living room! I also put together a little $1 arrangement for our shelf. And the boys and I started a second garden bed in the back yard and set up a makeshift trellis for our growing peas. Aaaand... I can't find the camera again. I broke down and ordered a new battery charger for our original camera so that I could keep the back-up as a back-up. It should be here by Friday. Sigh. Someday I will be able to keep track of my valuable possessions. As soon as I am able, photos will be forthcoming.

Meg vs. The Living Room: Still no shelves.

Wednesday: Attempt to finally mount shelves. Touch up paint in the living and dining rooms.

I did myself a kindness and did the second half of today's goal on Monday. And it was extra nice because I STILL didn't get the shelves done! They are a serious Achilles' heel. I am convinced that when we finally get them up they are going to cause the wall to crack open or they will fall and destroy all my frames. Am I the only one that has these kind of DIY anxiety nightmares?

Back to why our walls are still shelf-less. I got a message last night saying that our windows came in early and the installers wanted to come first thing this morning. Awesome! Of course I called back and said yes, then slapped another coat of paint on my shelves, did a few other things, and crashed into bed, telling myself I would get up early to finish up what needed to be done for the window guys. Somehow I did not notice that the whole house was a disaster.

When I woke up and realized the extent of the mess, I got to work and dragged John out of bed (on his day off!) to take down all of the blinds. We were mostly done when the installer arrived at about 8:15 a.m. We did some necessary shopping in the morning, then I went to the temple during nap time since we couldn't do much with the installers working all day and John had some free time to watch the boys. When I got back we marked the wood for the shelves and charged the drill, then the boys got anxious for dinner, the missionaries called and needed some help from my husband, and I realized I was going to have to put the blinds back up by myself before bed time. So long, goal!

But again, we had a great day and I'll call it good. New windows, some necessary rejuvenation, and 1/5 of that stinking shelf project done! I am learning not to expect too much of myself; it is just as bad as expecting too little, and ends up with the same result--I am less effective.

Meg vs. The Dining Room: more trim paint

Tuesday:  2nd coat of paint on wainscoting, dining room trim, and shelves if needed.

I realized this is a day late. But I guess it's appropriate because technically I finished this one very early this morning... I just couldn't get painting during the day with the boys running around and not enough time to dry during nap time. But I forced myself to stay up until it was done, and I'm glad!

There really isn't anything to see in this picture, except maybe why it took me so much time to do the trim; so many doors and molding! It got painstaking after a while.


I realized I needed to leave a day for the paint to dry before I start taping, so there will be some goal switching going on. And I still have only put one coat of paint on one out of three shelves, but I'll give myself until Saturday to get those painted and on the wall. Phew.

Meg vs. Myself: Weekly Goal Review & New Goals

Time to report!

Here are this week's goals:

February 20-25
Monday:  Put the bed together in Ethan's room.

Tuesday:  Paint the hall closet.

Wednesday:  Trim bushes in the front yard. Start cutting up the giant branch I hacked down on a whim.

Thursday:  Re-pot fruit trees left by the previous owners.

Friday:  Put shelves back in the hall closet, put things away inside.

Saturday:   Buy plywood for the missing panel in the garage, nail it up. Buy a ladder.

I am so excited that I did all my goals this week! Admittedly they were not really challenging things, but I succeeded in making them enough of a priority to get them done. Special thanks to my wonderful husband who did things like clean the whole kitchen and tie a sheet of plywood to the top of our car.

And now, next week's goals!


February 27-March 3
Monday:  Clean out the fridge.

Tuesday:  Clean and caulk around the master tub/shower.


Wednesday:  Put up new shelves in the garage, put work bench in place.


Thursday:  Put up molding shelves in the living room.


Friday:  Sort through boxes of randomness in the garage.


Saturday:  Sweep off the roof, clean gutters, look at potentially leaky spots.

Meg vs. Myself: time for goals!

This week I have been inspired by a couple of friends of mine who started a new blog to keep themselves accountable and sharing their creations at everythingforthelove.wordpress.com.

It has been a while since I started this blog, and I have actually been pretty consistent about doing something around the house every day, but it's time to really commit to getting done what needs to be done around here. I feel like I was good at being disciplined in school or sports or church assignments or activities, but now that I am home most of the time, I haven't been good at carrying that over. It is too easy to procrastinate when I don't have a deadline.

So I have decided that I need to threaten myself with public humiliation (well, public meaning the 5 people who read this blog, two of them being my husband and myself) by posting weekly goals for my work on the house. Theoretically, I should complete this task and keep the kitchen clean and the rest of the house decent (i.e. I wouldn't be humiliated if, say, my in-laws showed up unexpectedly. Right now I would be humiliated), and maybe even make a decent dinner. I am also hoping to post a daily picture of my progress. We shall see how I do.

On to the goals for this week:

February 20-25
Monday:  Put the bed together in the boys' room.

Tuesday:  Paint the hall closet.

Wednesday:  Trim bushes in the front yard. Start cutting up the giant branch I hacked down on a whim.

Thursday:  Re-pot fruit trees left by the previous owners.

Friday:  Put shelves back in the hall closet, put things away inside.

Saturday:   Buy plywood for the missing panel in the garage, nail it up. Buy a ladder.

I think I'll give myself permission to switch days if I feel like doing a different project on a given day. For now I'll be pleased if I at least start the project, even if I don't finish it.

Meg vs. The Walls: Painting Prep

The last few days I have been working on getting our living room prepped for painting. Our furniture is supposed to come in at the end of the week, and I thought I should at least get the ceiling done before they get here. Here is how the process has gone so far:

Monday: get all excited about painting and buy all the stuff. Put samples up on the wall. Start getting prepped. Go to bed happy.

Tuesday: start filling in holes. Caulk all around the molding. Take down the junky shelves and patch giant holes left behind. 11pm - A little excited, mostly tired.

Wednesday: Sanding. Everything in the world starts annoying me. House looks like a bomb dropped. Whiny children make me feel like my head will literally explode. I need a break. Waste time online, still nowhere near being ready to start painting. The samples on the wall are taunting me.

Tell me I'm not the only person who does this.

Oh, and also still can't find camera charger. I think I shall take a nap and hope that when I wake up, I am excited again.

Meg vs. Chrismas

I have actually been doing a lot of projects lately, but they are mostly Christmas gifts for family members and therefore not post-able. I will add them in after the holidays because there are some cute household ideas (that I stole from other people; no credit here). Sorry for the lull! This week we will start our first Christmas decorating on our first house, so you can plan on hearing about that!