Laundry Challenge

Take two. Thank you blogger for wasting that hour of my life.


Yesterday I picked one focus to help me get through the day. Often when I pick one focus I end up getting the whole house cleaned anyway. Yesterday's focus was laundry.

I will humbly show the before pictures.

Not too bad actually, but it does need to be picked up.

Folding, puzzle, Christmas decoration central.

These next three pictures I have titled "The Humblemaker"

Note: The pile at the end of the bed are clothes that were on our bed when we went to bed. I thought I would put them away the day before. Happens every night.


 

 It's hard to keep your master bedroom a haven for two spouses remotely interested in one another when it seconds as a nursery.



I was all set to go. Motivation and a plan, but then I remembered.....

I'm taking care of a dinosaur.

Oh, yes, then there is this guy.

I also forgot that I'm supposed to be Edgamacating (educating) these people. Hmmmm.....

So laundry was a little delayed. But I did learn that this dinosaur likes to color.

And Happy likes to pretend this little book is a hymnal. 

Here's Demand doing some Math. Three digit subtraction she can do...dot-to-dots send her into a downward spiral apparently.....

I thought I would try and sneek in some laundry so I built a distraction ramp for the boys while I worked on 

Mount Needstobefolded.

And that's when things got crazy. Friend came over who didn't realize a gathering had been canceled. Then Pax decided today was the day he wanted to start wearing underwear.  Then out of no where I realized it was 11am and I had a half an hour to make lunch, feed the kids, get them in their winter gear and into van. I also had to change the baby and change my clothes, pack a gym bag, pack a diaper bag and head to the gym. Thankfully Mr. Sloth had arrived to help out. 

On the way to the gym I was reminded that I was seriously low on gas and oh, forgot my wallet. Mr. Sloth had to check me into the gym and check the kids into the gym and give me his card for gas. 

My workout was great. An hour to myself with the trainer. I picked up the kids and headed to the gas station where I put 19.127 gallons of gas in my 20 gallon tank. Thankfully baby fell asleep on the way home so I was able to put him in our room and bribe the dinosaur Pax into his crib so I could take a shower. With two asleep and myself showered and dressed I was finally ready to start on that laundry.

2:30? Yikes! Only three hours until Mr Sloth gets home.

I was able to keep Happy and Demand entertained without using the magical box and in two hours I had accomplished this. 

The laundry room with the last load of clothes in the dryer.

Mt. Needstobefolded was removed from the dining room leaving space to collect more Christmas decorations to be stored for the season.

Look, even Happy is excited!

Ah, much better, no if I could only get around to donating that box of "stuff" that is in the box in the corner.

Much easier to find diapers, clothes, and baby in the middle of the night.

There, much better. This is a place to sleep. At least I'm assuming that is what one does here, I wouldn't know thanks to the fab-four. 

But wait, there's more! Not only had I met my objective but I was done early enough to clean the kitchen, have a drink waiting for Mr. Sloth and maybe watch a little television and play with the kids for the first time in two years. Feels so good! 

Next I'll finally post pictures of the new and improved pantry. (It's so exciting, you can hardly wait!) 

Modified Christmas

How do I put this.....I didn't take Christmas pictures. Erg, sorry. Mommy fail, well sort of. I'll start on December 23rd when the baby came down with a fever. Mr. Sloth and I were up all night with him. Unfortunately on Christmas Eve Mr. Sloth had some work that needed to get done so he was at the office until 1pm. Since I was up all night I slept in a bit which meant that I was seriously behind when finally did wake up. The house was a disaster and the kids were wild. It was not the Christmas Eve we had last year and it is definitely not what I had planned. Well part of the problem is that I didn't plan much this year. Advent kinda just happened, we didn't even have a wreath this year. Our fall was so busy and chaotic that I spent all of Advent just trying to survive. We never even finished decorating. The second week of Advent we bought a tree, but since we were having friends over for dinner that night we just  threw some ornaments on it and called it a day. Mr. Sloth never got around to decorating our banister but I did hang the stockings. Thank goodness Mr. Sloth is in charge of decorating the outside or that never would have happened.

We fell behind with our Jesse Tree. We started late and then started putting two, three ornaments on a day.Then finally gave up all together. Last year we did a Jesse Tree Tea for Christmas Eve brunch, but since we didn't finish the Jesse Tree and Mr. Sloth was working all day anyway, plus baby had been up with a fever two nights in a row, and don't forget I failed to plan it, so we just didn't do it all. Demand just remembered yesterday and is now making me feel guilty about it.

As we were running late for Mass (Surprise, surprise) I insisted we take pictures before we left. So I shoved the kids in front of the tree and yelled said "Smile! Quick! We gotta go!"

Here's a pic of the fab four. Poor baby had a fever from December 23rd all through Christmas and was not his usual cheerful self.

I love Pax's expression in nearly every photo of him. (He's saying cheese)

Great one of Demand. 

The Handsome Prophet Happy.

Miss Party-Over-Here

There's a better one of Pax.

Just after Santa arrived. All his gifts are in gold paper.

Pax digging into his blueberries Christmas morning. The last two years Santa has given the children each their own pint of blueberries.

New Years Eve

We had our first annual New Year's Eve Movie Night with the kids. Demand and Happy each received a movie kit for Christmas with a new movie, popcorn, sparkling juice, and candy. It was so much fun and the kids were surprisingly pleasant considering how late it was and how many sweets they had. We watched the movie we gave Demand, " The Incredibles". The kids seemed really engrossed in the movie Pax even cuddled with me for most of the time. Baby was already asleep by the way in case you are wondering where he is in the pictures.

Here are the kids getting ready for the show.

They are yelling "Happy New Year"

Here is the spread of movie snacks. Can you believe we had left overs of everything?

Happy and Demand digging in.

Pax hovering over the candy bowl.

I found this cute "milk and cookie" toast idea on Pinterest.

The kids enjoying their toast.

Happy talking about the movie.

The Freezer

You didn't think I could stop at the refrigerator did you? Having the fridge so organized has been great, and I feel like we are eating better and wasting less. Mr. Sloth took New Years Day off work so I had the rare situation of the freedom to go shopping during the day and it wasn't Sunday. We don't like to sop on Sunday so we rarely do, especially for non necessities.

I spent around two to three hours at The Container Store and Ikea. I had researched what I needed for the freezer but thought if I was going to be shopping alone anyway why not get stuff for the pantry as well. It was a glorious afternoon. Here is what I came home with. (Erg, ignore the laundry in the background.

Next I patiently waited until after dinner to break into the freezer and pantry. Thankfully dinner had been made on Sunday and all I had to do was heat it up and assemble the salad. We had pasta with sausage and spinach in a butternut squash sauce with a Greek salad on the side. It was food, healthy, and I didn't hear any complaints from the kids.

After a quick clean up Demand, baby (gosh he needs a name) and I started on the freezer. Guess what, it only took 15 minutes start to finish. We took everything out, wiped down the shelves and drawers, purged the mystery food, divided the food into groups and labeled the bins. Viola!

 We started the process all over again with the pantry. I'll save that for the next post. Demand had to go to bed before we were done and I promised she could help me label everything.Till then.... 

I took a before picture this time so you wouldn't be fooled into thinking I had my act together.

Mister-Mister helping me out.

My lovely and quirky assistant.

She is something else.

This is what came out of there. Yikes! 

Bins in and labeled.

Look how empty the door is!

A spot for any milk I may have pumped and a spot for all the kids freezer cups, 

and Mr. Sloths "Nice Cubes."

I know it seems dumb to label the ice, but a babysitter might not know there is ice behind that door.

Top shelf is a flex shelf and right now is holding two ice packs.

Vegetable and Ice Cream bin.

Meat Bin.

The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

Before I fill you in on our Christmas I will indulge you in today's project. Mr sloth started cleaning out the refrigerator after Mass. I, being in a super organizing mood, jumped on the "Lets clean the fridge train".

We took everything out, purged, and washed every shelf and drawer.

"And that's where I come in." *

I designated areas, grabbed two bins from other parts of the house, and grabbed my new loyal label maker. (Mr Sloth gave me the label maker for my birthday.) A wonderful afternoon followed. It all looks so pretty and well organized. So the top shelf is for eggs and bread or overflow. Next shelf is for condiments. For this I used a bin, this way little jars and bottles don't get lost. Below that shelf is the "sandwich drawer", here I have cold cuts, cheese, flour tortillas, etc...below that drawer is the shelf designated to leftovers/dinner prep shelf. Having a designated shelf for leftovers should help keep track of them. Below that is the snack shelf. again i used a bin here so things wouldn't get lost. It's also accessible to the kids if I don't have time o make the kids a snack. Next are the two drawers for fruits and vegetables.

Then there is the door. Butter and yeast in the top, then overflow storage, the milk, then salad dressing. The fun doesn't stop there. I then made all of our dinners for the week.

Pork chops in a white wine mushroom sauce, pasta with sausage,spinach, and butternut squash sauce, zucchini lasagna, along with some prep work (aka chopping for salads ). Mr Sloth made a huge batch of pancakes for the week. Aside from a meatless Friday meal, all the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners should be ready to go.

It may not seem like a relaxing Sabbath to you, but for me, "Ah. It feels good."

*"and that's where I come in!" Is an inside joke from our Italy trip earlier this year.