Archives for January 2009

So after getting recommendations and having a few people come see the house, we’ve hired a cleaning lady. Supposedly it’s not PC to say that but that’s what we call her. We had a cleaning lady after we first got married. I loved her. I still love her. I remember fondly when she would wash our clothes and leave them folded on our bed. When our bath faucets were clean enough to eat off of. When our carpets were perfectly lined. And it stayed that way for more than 2 hours. Yes, this was before children. We moved to Columbia when Emma was 6 months old. The apartment complex there had a free cleaning lady and she came a time or two but I’ve been the one cleaning since.

In some ways I feel the whole failure of a mother and wife by hiring someone. But then I think about coming into a house that is perfectly clean and *I* didn’t do it and it makes me happy. So we’re going for it. Through the power of a Facebook status, we’ve hired an older lady that lives here in town that came highly recommended.

I cleaned the house this morning but in ten days, she’ll take over, coming biweekly. I’m sure I’ll do minimal cleaning on her off weeks and have to clean for the cleaning lady the night before she comes but I can not tell you how excited I am that today was the last day I’ll clean my shower for a while.

We had a great time last night at Ruth’s Chris in Uptown Charlotte. I loved the atmosphere and decorations. We started with bread and a salad with homemade dressing. The main course was a 6oz filet, garlic mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. Lots of good things in that meal. Loved the dressing, the filet was mouth-watering (even Scott took his time to eat it because he didn’t want it over with), mashed potatoes covered in butter and perfectly whipped, creamed spinach a favorite. Dessert looked small at first but it was a very dense and rich chocolate cake that filled us up.

Overall a great night with Dani and David with some fantastic food. Definitely one of my favorite restaurants now and we’ll be going back. Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the van so we had to take the few pictures we did with Scott’s cell phone.

I have an email in my inbox that says

What are you wearing?

In some cases, that could be an email that would raise some eyebrows.

But in my case, it’s from Dani and she wants to know what I’m wearing tonight to dinner.

Another email I got says

ok….thanks

In some cases, that could be an appreciative email from a friend.

But in my case, it’s from someone who’s trying to say I’m a close-minded jerk and to stay out of her life.

It also means I lost a friend yesterday and that su-uh-uhcks.

Last night at youth the pastor talked about priorities and challenged the students to write down what they did in a day. He had to do it for a week for a class in seminary and was surprised to look back at it.

Also, a lot of people ask me how I do what I do working from home with kids and all. I have to say it has gotten 100% easier since the girls are older. Every day is different and I also have people to help me but today is one of those days where Scott is at work and the kids don’t go anywhere but school. So here it is, good or bad. I’ll update throughout the day.

6:40 alarm goes off
6:49 alarm goes off
6:58 alarm goes off
6:59 bathroom
7:00 put on pants, shoes, jacket
7:01 go to girls’ room and pick out clothes while waking them up
7:02 drop the clothes off in the living room and go start the car
7:03 carry the kids to the living room
7:04 heat up pancakes, pour syrup, put out tray to set it on
7:08 make Emma’s lunch
7:12 Get the girls dressed while they finish eating
7:16 brush their hair
7:17 put their jackets on
7:18 take emma to school/check email on the way
7:35 turn the tv on for lexi and read the bible
7:50 take lexi to school/call scott to say good morning on the way/check email&twitter on the way home
8:18 clean up pajamas/pancake plate/tray/lunch mess
8:19 make my bed
8:20 take a shower/do makeup
8:45 check on email/do hair
8:55 check email/blog reader/log in to work
9:00 work while intermittently checking twitter/email/blogging

That should get me until 11:50.

11:46 get Lexi, checking email and listening to loud music while i wait in line
12:10 go to Staples to make a return
12:15 go to Lowe’s (next parking lot over) to get lightbulbs and smell the really good hot dogs walking in
12:20 as a first, say yes to lexi when she asks to buy a hot dog at Lowe’s
12:25 drive home
12:35 get lexi set up with her food.
12:36 turn on the tv for her.
12:37 eat hot dog. regret buying hot dog.
12:45 chat with Jaynee. check in on twitter
12:55 sign back on to work

Will be working until time for Emma’s pickup. Lexi will watch tv/play in the playroom/color/etc

2:00 pick Emma up from school. talk to mom on the way. write a few sentences of my non-novel, help Lexi watch her movie, listen to music, put on lipstick while we wait.
2:45 come home and sign back on work.

Girls are already in the playroom playing together and I’m back on at work.

4:50 finished working and cleaned the playroom in preparation for the carpet cleaning tomorrow
5:45 went to the grocery store to get salad for dinner at Mom’s
6:00 talked/ate dinner
6:45 hung out at Mom’s house
7:30 stopped at CVS on the way home. got a free razor. yay!
7:45 went back to Lowe’s since the bulbs I bought earlier were defective. of course!
8:00 turned American Idol on
8:01 made Emma egg salad and then an egg salad sandwich
Cut Lexi an apple to eat
Put the lightbulb in
Put the razor away
Vacuumed the living room and office
Finished straightening up the playroom
Got the girls jammies on
8:35 sat down on the couch with the girls and finished watching American Idol
9:00 put the girls to bed
9:15 put the vacuum up
put random stuff up that was lying around…jackets, shoes, cups, etc
9:20 cleaned the floor of my closet out for the cleaners tomorrow
9:30 get a drink of water
9:31 put a blanket up
9:32 update this post
9:40 take a shower
9:55 get in bed. write/read blogs/emails/Facebook/Twitter before going to sleep.
10:40 shutting everything off and going to sleep

Nite

Tonight we were able to go to The Palm in Charlotte with Jake and Jill as part of Charlotte Restaurant Week. Which basically means a group of really nice restaurants in Charlotte got together and decided to offer 3 courses for $30 for one week. Mom (thankfully) last minute said she would watch the girls.

The place was very nice…the kind where they have real tablecloths, multiple forks to pick from and wine glasses set out :). We had a salad (well, Jake got soup), steak and garlic potatoes and dessert. The girls had chocolate molten cake and the boys got key lime pie. It actually turned out to be a good deal because just the filet there is $38.

The girls took a few pictures of us before we left. Hence, the upward view. I thought they did pretty well though :). All in all, a very good night!

Let me just preface this post by saying I REALLY thought I was an organized person growing up.  And I think even into my early 20s I insisted I was organized.  But I’m coming to the conclusion that organization is just not my thing.  I like when things are organized.  A lot.  But I don’t like doing it or keeping up with it.  I don’t know why.

Two weekends ago I did a sort of spring cleaning.  One day that week I had jumped on one of Flylady’s calls and I think it got me revved up to do some purging.  Scott was very proud.

Last night I finally took the rest of Lexi’s clothes out of her closet and combined it with Emma’s.  I moved my ever-growing stash of CVS stuff to the top shelf of Lexi’s closet.  And now I can actually fit all of my towels in my hall closet with a little bit of room leftover.

I did actually take before and after pictures.

Before (after the clothes were moved)

Yes, there were towels stuffed everywhere!

After

And just because, here are other places I organized/cleaned that day.