Currently...

Seems like everyone has posted a "Currently" blog in the last few weeks, so being the always-late-to-the-party-follower that I am, I thought it'd be a funny glimpse into my mind. Also, I have a few moments to blog with nothing in my brain worth sharing.

Maybe it's because my brain is feeling more and more empty as this pregnancy goes on. Placenta brain: It's a real diagnosis.

Here's what's happening in my corner at this moment in time:

Listening... to the hummmm of the air conditioner. And nothing else. Sweet, sweet nap time silence.

Eating... a handful of candy corn. Lunch consisted of a frozen pizza. I should make sure to take my prenatal vitamin today, since my nutritional intake so far today has been sugar and cardboard.

Drinking... A big glass of water!

Wearing... The t-shirt I slept in last night, a pair of Nike shorts, and a nursing bra. My overall plan for today was to clean the house and play with my kid, and neither of these tasks require makeup, hair, or appropriate attire. At least I'm wearing shorts and a bra. You're welcome!

Feeling... Irritable. (This hits close to home.) Not sure if it's hormone-related or if everyone around me has purposefully been dancing on my last feeble nerve. Plus, I'm battling another round of congestion and a toddler who has a newfound love of the word "no". All in all, it kind of feels like survival mode. Hence the pizza and day old clothes. #RealLife

Weather... is beautiful! Sunny, breezy, and not fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk hot. Here in South Texas, we call that a "cold front."

Wanting... a pedicure! It's getting harder and harder to reach my toes, which are woefully neglected right now. Plus, it's still warm enough to wear sandals and flip flops, despite the aforementioned cold front, meaning my toes are committing the ultimate girl crime.

Needing... another glass of water. All this stuffy-nose mouth-breathing has me parched. I guess I could also use some chapstick.

Thinking... I really need to get up and clean the bathroom already. Because it certainly won't clean itself and with lots of wedding festivities this weekend and 12 hour shifts on Monday & Tuesday, it's now or never next week.

Enjoying... all the little bumps and wiggles from baby #2. (He/She likes candy corn apparently) This child squirms around 24/7, and I love it. What do you think Baby Mims #2 is? Little sister or baby brother??

From Chaos to cluttered to clean

It's been a month (well, 4 weeks to be exact) since Jordan & I started on our daily cleaning household chores list and while my excitement over actually doing each task is waning, my exuberance over the finished product is still going strong.

In other words: I still hate doing laundry, but I adore having clean clothes all the time. No more living out of laundry baskets, wearing the least wrinkled item, digging around for that one blasted cream-colored cami that will only go with my cream lace top, but where can it be, I've looked in every possible corner of 2 overflowing baskets, 2 drawers, and through the dirty pile of clothes on the floor. {deep breath}

It's been good.

As it turns out, I don't even need to straighten for an allotted 15 minutes each day. Chances are good that I put things away when I'm finished, which leaves very little to pick up, so it happens throughout the day instead of in a 15 minute block. The timer approach was great in the first week to get things rolling, but shortly, I was finding myself organizing jewelry and lining up my shoes for 15 minutes because everything was already in its place. Interestingly enough, my clean-it-up-ness might be spilling over into work as well. On Saturday, I spent 15 minutes of my morning throwing away paper, shelving charts, returning angiocaths and saline flushes to their rightful place and wiping down counters.

I'm having a harder time with the meal prep part of our weekly chores. A month into things and I am having just as much of a writer's block with nightly dinners as I am here on the blog. I'd like to see where we are financially after finishing this month of eating at home almost every meal and only buying the groceries we actually need. Well and a few bags of skittles.

In the last month, I've also gotten back out to the pavement once again and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting my running groove back. It only took 9 months, but at least I'm putting some miles on my sneakers again. I'm looking forward to cooler days on the horizon to really increase mileage and speed without feeling like I'm having a heatstroke. Increasing my mileage will be a big deal soon.... because it looks like I'm doing another half marathon.

Yeah, you read that right.

By the end of the month, I'll be scratching the surface of a training plan that will hopefully prepare me for the Dallas Half Marathon on December 8. More details to come.

Call me crazy.

Rough around the edges

It's been 10 days since Jordan and I started our daily household chores and overall, I think we're both really pleased with the way things have been going. It seems backwards, because everyday I'm cleaning something, but I feel like I have more time in the day to do things with Isaac or for myself. I can take a nap or watch TV or blog without feeling guilty for choosing to relax instead of straighten up. I've had time to re-incorporate running and exercise into my weekly routine. The house is probably the cleanest it's been in at least a year (more than likely longer than that). The chores have all repeated themselves at least once or twice and things have become easier and easier to accomplish throughout the day. Shockingly, it took me only 10 minutes to fold and put away a single basket of laundry... as opposed to the hour it typically takes me to fold and put away about 4 overflowing baskets.

That 10 minutes included folding a king-size fitted sheet.

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All in all, I'm thinking that we'll stick with this plan for a while (hopefully). In addition to finally growing up and becoming an adult in regards to housework, there are some other changes underfoot. My husband has started getting up an hour earlier each day to exercise, read, and eat breakfast before going in to work. I'd love to say that I join him when his alarm goes off at 6am, but I am still too attached to my warm bed and fluffy pillow. Secretly, it's a goal I have for myself, but the laziness in me has won out each morning. Until I can force myself up, I'll groggily cheer from the sidelines. For now, I'm just thrilled beyond words to be freed from the stress of a cluttered house.

It doesn't take long to realize that having a child makes life messy. While the literal spaghetti-in-the-hair messy certainly applies, I'm more so referencing the I-dont-have-it-all-together kinda messy.  And I'm FAR from a perfect mama. In fact, the longer I'm a parent, the more messy and imperfect things begin to look. Like when I was at my wits end a few weeks ago dealing with a sick and teething child who was too tired and cranky to nap. I may or may not have laid him down and turned on the vacuum cleaner to drown out his wailing. Or that time I was out of the house and had forgotten my nursing cover or a blanket and instead used a shopping cart cover to conceal my breastfeeding son (and my boob) while eating lunch at Chick-fil-A. Howabout when I forgot to pack something for Isaac to eat for dinner and ended up feeding him a ritz cracker and half a carton of diet yogurt. Just last week, I was too lazy to dig Isaac's toothbrush out of my overnight bag and instead wiped his teeth down with the washcloth I'd bathed him with.

I'd just like to point out that Isaac is still a healthy and happy child despite all of my recent less-than-stellar choices.

It's just kind of incredible how parenthood becomes this giant spotlight or great big magnifying glass of all of your most ugly tendencies. Selfishness. Impatience. Jealousy. Stubbornness. Anger. If I thought I had a handle on these emotions before, well now they stare me in the face day after day. When life revolves around caring for a child that has no ability to care for himself, selfishness must take a backseat. (even though most days I still just want to do what I want to do.) Patience is tested to its absolute limits on those afternoons of endless crying. Jealousy becomes ugly and comparison steals all joy. I dig my stubborn heels in and fight back against unconquerable battles. Frustrations turn to anger and before you know it, I'm throwing a book across the room and calling my husband to come home and rescue me.

Wow. I can see clearly now how wretched I truly am.

And how desperately I need a Savior. 

A great, big, powerful, love-me-harder-than-I-know God who can pick me up when I am on my knees. The One who reminds me that parenting my son is my greatest calling and is quick to extend grace to a tired mama. The One who has promised that life wouldn't be easy. The One who speaks and reveals Himself through my baby's giggles. In a moment, my heart fills with love and I can't help but smile, hug, and kiss my precious boy. My strength is renewed for a moment and the marathon continues.

Putting Things Together

Wow, I got so many sweet comments and encouraging notes from you awesome blogfollowers in the wake of my last post. It was a needed boost and I appreciate every single one of you (except the one person who decided it was a good time to jump ship... #doomonyou).

After spending a few days feeling sorry for myself, I knew something needed to change in order to make some forward progress. I'd neverevernever call myself an organized person, and if you saw my purse, car, or one of 3 junk drawers, you'd totally agree... BUT! I realized quickly that in order to save myself a little sanity in the long run, I'd need to brush off the uncoordinated and embrace some structure. As a side note: at work, I'm OCD to a fault. I think most nurses tend to be. We're superstitious creatures, always believing that the pregnant-lady-bus will only make a stop at our hospital when we're the least ready. Murphy's law is real and alive, which means preparedness is next to godliness in Labor & Delivery. As it just so happens, cleanliness is also pretty high up there too... you know... the same hand I use to eat my lunch with I also use to check a cervix.

Side note over.

Back to changes: One of the things that can really manifest unneeded stress in my life is the condition of my house. In 3 words: it's never clean. Which bugs me. And the guilt & frustration become cyclical: I feel guilty that my house isn't clean, so I work on the things that scream at me the loudest. After completing said tasks or running out of time, I don't even allow myself to feel gratified by the work that was accomplished because there's still so much to do. That's where the frustration creeps in. It feels like the work is never done and I feel guilty all over again that my house isn't clean. And around and around in circles we go, where we'll stop, nobody knows. Hint Hint: A monthly maid service would be the greatest Christmas/Birthday/anydayoftheweek present ever. Just throwing that out there.

Despite feeling a little like a 7 year old trying to earn an allowance, I made myself (and my husband... he's not exempt from this) a chore chart. It seemed like the easiest solution. For years, I've done the "clean-the-entire-house-in-one-day" thing, but it was an all day event that I just don't have the time for anymore. So I broke it down and listed out the daily, weekly, and monthly things that needed to be done around the house to keep it orderly. In the words of Professor Umbridge:

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Not only did it include cleaning, but it also allowed a day for meal planning and a day for grocery shopping. That way, hopefully we don't spend unnecessary time fretting over what to make for dinner. Also, I shouldn't find myself staring into the pantry like a deer in headlights wondering how I'm going to turn pinto beans, ramen noodles, and marinara sauce into "dinner." In the end, I wanted something that would take some weight OFF of my shoulders. I'm hoping that by the end of week #1, the house will be looking pretty close to great. Ideally, once we're really in the swing of things, it shouldn't take long at all to complete each day's task (because of course, it's only been a week or less since it was last cleaned). Not like how it took For-Ev-Er to clean my bathroom the other day because it had been entirely too long since it was last cleaned. And entirely too long = I can't even remember the last time it was properly cleaned. Also, I won't have to feel guilty about leaving something out or not getting to everything, because there's a designated day for each task. Here's what it ended up looking like:

Household Chores

• Sunday: Laundry & Meal Planning
• Monday: Grocery shopping & 1 "Monthly Chore"
• Tuesday: Vacuum & Mop
• Wednesday: Laundry & Change the sheets
• Thursday: Bathrooms & Empty all trash cans
• Friday: Vacuum & Dust
• Saturday: Rest!

Daily: Make the Bed, Put the dishes away, Pick up around the house x15 minutes

Monthly: Week 1: Dust the blinds and ceiling fans. Week 2: Pull weeds Week 3: Clean out the refrigerator. Week 4: Clean out the cars. 

Jordan and I have decided we're going to make a valiant effort to fulfill each day for a solid month and then reevaluate from there. At the end of our trial run, we may move days around, increase or decrease the amount based on how the month went. Of course, things aren't totally limited to their respective days, i.e. if Mauve tracks mud through the house on a thursday, the floor will be mopped. If Isaac spits up in our bed on a monday, the sheets will be changed then. I may come to realize that I've totally forgotten something important or that pulling weeds really is the bane of my existence and should be removed at once from the list of monthly chores. Fingers crossed for a successful and less stressful month.

What works in your house? Do you have designated cleaning days? Fly by the seat of your pants? Have a housekeeper?