Monday Plan & Play

So, I think I've mentioned this website called Flylady someone told me about that is supposed to help you get your life organized. It has you break down each day of the week with a different focus. I rearranged their days to be more efficient and work with my job schedule. So today's focus is Plan and Play. The idea is that you plan for the rest of your week then reward yourself with some play.

Things to include in your planning day:

1. menu for the week
2. activities

3. wardrobe/laundry needs

4. grocery list

5. errands to be run

Sophie took a really long nap after work which gave me plenty of time to do all my planning and also get in a Tivo'd show or 2. So after she got up and had dinner, she played in the bath. She has just started figuring out that she can splash me with the water. Oh, so much fun!

New Computers

No, that's not a typo in the title. Yes 2 new computers for the Walker family. Paul's pc finally kicked it this week. We thought it was going before Christmas but managed to make it until now. Of course, he's pretty sure he downloaded something that caused it's demise. (Darn gaming crap!) I was/am most worried because there are pictures that haven't been backed up but the computer guru at church says we can get them back. Anyway, we went to Best Buy to day to take a look. Paul decided that since he isn't really doing much gaming on the pc anymore (more on the XBox), that he could probably live with a laptop. And since those are cheaper anyway, then we might as well get 2 so we can both be on at the same time. It should actually be helpful because out computer time is much more limited now that we have Sophie, there's only a little time each night we could get online and this way we don't have to split that time. So here I am finally getting to post, sitting in bed while Paul plays XBox. I promise to get pictures uploaded tomorrow. Then I can get caught up on the other blogs too.

Show Us Your Life: A Typical Day

This week at Kelly's Korner we are telling about our typical day. Since I work part-time I'll start with a workday. I'm about by 6:30, and hopefully have time to get ready and fix lunch before Sophie gets up. I've been playing around with her feeding schedule so right now she gets breakfast at about 7ish with Daddy, then changed and out the door at 7:30am. We are at work at 8am and she hangs out in the stroller for a bit while I get everything situated. Some mornings she'll go into the One's class until about 9:15 other times she's in the pack 'n play. She has a bottle at about 9:30 after most kids have been dropped off and the parents are gone. If I'm lucky she go down for a nap by 10:30 and stay there an hour. During that time I either work in the office on the computer or try to stay out of the office doing things elsewhere. After nap, we'll move to the exersaucer then have lunch about 12noon. After lunch, I just move her from highchair to pack 'n play to exersaucer to keep her entertained. Of course, that's naptime for the kids and usually a teacher or 2 will come get her to play on the floor in their room. The last few days, I've given her a bottle just before we leave at 3pm. Some days she'll fall asleep on the ride home and if I leave her in the carrier she'll sleep 2 hours. Which is great because it gives me a chance to clean up at home and get dinner going. (okay and check email.) I shoot for dinner at 6:30 then move to bedtime routine of bath, books and bottle. Once she's asleep it's time for the TiVO to start. I used to stay up later, but now 10pm is late for me.

65 in 365 Month 2 Update

This will be a list of 65 things I want to accomplish in the next 365 days. (No, I didn't come up with this idea myself, I borrowed it from this Foster Mama, along with some of her items.) I'll update the list once a month (that's the first thing on the list). Completed items are in italics.

Update the 65 in 365 once a month (2/12)
Come up with 65 goals for the year (30/65)
Complete Sophie's baby album
Complete 2009 annual album
Attend at least 5 StrollerStrides classes a month (5/2/12)
Girls Night Out (or Mom's Night Out) at least 4 times (1/4)
Go to the movies every other month (0/6)
Finish reading 6 books (0/6)
Try 26 new recipes (0/26)
Make our wills
Come up with a system for backing up digital photos
Make bed everyday; complete after 30 days, will restart counter when I miss a day (0/30)
Have date night once a month (1/12)
Build a snowman
Join a moms group
Set up a cleaning schedule and follow it; complete after 3 months
Have lawn guys come on a regular basis
Take Wrangler to Kady the groomer 6 times
Purchase a jogging stroller for Paul to use
Put items in JBF Consignment sales, 2 sales each sales season
Make and stick to a weekly menu and grocery list; complete after 5 weeks
Decorate the tabletop tree for each holiday or season (snowflakes, hearts, green and gold beads, eggs, flowers, red and blue stars, apples, Halloween, fall leaves, Christmas)
Update a blog everyday or at least average one new post each day (59/365)
Go on a scrapbooking retreat
Attend a scrapbooking crop every other month (1/6)
Complete 150 scrapbook pages (66/150)
Sign Sophie up for swim lessons
Attend one playgroup event each month (3/12)
Take Sophie to library storytime each month (2/12)
Attend a local Chinese New Year event

Show Us Your Life: Collections

So, over at Kelly's Korner this week, we are showing our collections. Those treasures and knick-knacks that we truly love. My collection is elephants. It started when my great-grandmother passed away. My grandmother gave me about a dozen little figurines that had been great-grandmothers. These included several elephants, plus some dogs, bears and cats. When my sister came along 7 years later and got her own room, I divided the collection, keeping all the elephants for myself and giving her everything else. There was truly no reason why I did it that way, probably just being a little Type A for a 10 year-old. From there people started giving me gifts that were elephants.

At one point I tried to count how many I had (several hundred), but there came a time when I moved from one apartment to another that I decided to box most of them up and put them in storage. When we decided to have children, I decided that the nursery had to have some sort of elephant theme, then I could bring out some of those elephants from their storage boxes. Before we even decided on the adoption, I had chosen our crib bedding (and purchased it before we even completed all the paperwork). After we got pregnant, I went up in the attic and started going through each of the boxes, pulling out items that could go in the nursery.

Some of the originals

Humidifier for the nursery

More on top of the changing table unit

For the art table

Antique ashtray

Scrapbooking Meetup

I found a scrapbooking group through Meetup.com that has crops once a month near my house. I joined the group and signed up for the February crop. I organized my stuff and made sure Paul could be home with Sophie, then drove about 5 minutes to this woman's house. I got there and had a little freak-out moment. What was I doing showing up at a stranger's home? They could be an axe murderer. (I don't know why "they" are always an axe murderer, any murderer would be bad.) Anyway, called Paul to tell him I was there, that all the contact info was on the bulletin board, and that if I didn't call in hour to dial 911 and come find me.

It was all perfectly fine. I walked in with another couple of ladies (I know, I know, they could have been axe murderers, too). We had a good time, everyone was very nice, I did call Paul within the hour so the police didn't get called... and I completed a dozen pages. It was great to get out and know that Sophie was spending quality time with her Daddy. Maybe I'll host one month, then I can be the axe murderer!

Southern Snow Storm

It is unbelievable the weather we are having here in Texas. We had about 8 inches of snow fall here at our home. This is our poor tree. I didn't think it was going to make it when we first moved in. We have to replant it several times when it has toppled over, and now it's weighted down by the snow.




I had Paul take my picture when he finally made it home from work.


And one more reason why I hate snow...(the other being how it ruined my Christmas Eve plans), Paul had Valentines Day flowers to be delivered to work on Friday, but had to reschedule them since the church was closed. Blasted snow in Texas!!!!