Wow

Well, it's starting to sink in that I no longer have a job. Yikes!

Today, I had to let Monster Boy go visit his dad. That's an amazingly long story, and at his father's request, I do not discuss it on public sites such as this. Suffice it to say, it was not a decision I was happy to be making, but the court system has rather tied my hands on it.

I am sure by now you are noticing the Google Ads at the top of my blog page. It's an experiment on my part, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it will be a good thing for us. NOW, if I can just get more people to READ my blog, we'd be doing much better!

Well, anyways. I decided that since A) I am not a big fan of cleaning and B) we all know that just because I am going to be AT home, doesn't necessarily mean I will have all day long to clean this house, we are spending this weekend doing major house cleaning so that I have a clean slate to start from. Today we reorganized Monster Boy's room. Got a shelving system with cloth cubes to replace the armoire that wasn't doing much more than taking up space in his room, cleaned the clothes out of his dresser that no longer fit (I have to do this when he is not here or he will refuse to let things go - he's developing some very bad pack-rat tendencies, I think), vacuumed, moved things around, in general gave it a deep clean. I cleaned the guest bathroom, which seems to constantly be dirty. Of course, the fact that it is also Monster Boy's bathroom might have something to do with that. I do not understand why 4 year old boys have such bad aim! But it's all cleaned up (for now). Toothpaste is another hazard in small children's bathrooms, and there was so much of it all over the sink you would have thought that the sink was orange instead of beige! I scraped all that off and cleaned out the sink thoroughly, and we are seriously considering ordering one of those toothpaste dispensers to see if that solves the issue. In the meantime, Monster Boy has been informed that either Mommy or Daddy has to put the toothpaste on the toothbrush for him. Now that this has been completed, I have also sat him down and given him some expectations. His bed is to be made every morning when he gets up. His room is to be cleaned - one toy at a time is allowed out, and has to be put away before another is taken out. Every night when he goes to bed that his room is cleaned properly, he will get a quarter for his piggy bank. If the room is not cleaned to the specified standards, no quarter. I have shown him how to rinse out the sink once he is done brushing his teeth as well. Hopefully this will work.

Little Miss Sunshine also got a storage shelving system for her room, although it is not in there yet. We have an extra furniture set that we intended to use once she was out of her crib, but it's very 80's. It is in great shape, it's just ugly! We are going to attempt to paint it white and replace the drawer pulls on it to see if we can make it look a little bit better, and go ahead and put it in her room now. I have a changing table and dresser which match her crib in there, but the dresser is falling apart and even with both in there, I do not have enough drawer space. The plan now is to paint the chest of drawers that belongs to the furniture set white, and move that into her room to replace both furniture items that are currently in there. The top of the dresser is large enough that I can put her changing pad on top of it to use as a changing table. We will then take the bookshelf (a cheapy one that is falling apart really) out as well, and move the storage shelf in - there is space enough on it for her books, and since she doesn't have any toys to speak of yet, the cloth cubes can hold her blankets, towels, bibs and burp rags for now.

We cleaned the kitchen and the living room up as well. Tomorrow's agenda includes cleaning our room (which is now housing said armoire for additional MUCH NEEDED clothing storage) and shampooing the carpets and mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors. If that doesn't take the whole day, we may tackle the basement as well. Since Shane is really the only one who spends considerable time down there, we typically don't really mess with it, and it stays rather neat, if not clean.

The first order of my gDiapers arrived today! I am SUPER excited. The other order along with the flushies should get here on Tuesday, and I also picked up some of the supplies I need to make my own cloth inserts as well. A member of my online birth club has the instructions for a now-sew and sewn method on her website (bordersbohobaby.blogspot.com) - along with the option to order from her as well! So I will be giving those a shot. I am very excited about doing this, and am sure hoping that they will work out well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but from what I have seen so far, it looks manageable.

Tomorrow I am going to go to the fabric store to pick up the rest of the supplies for my cloth inserts, as well as fabric to make a baby wrap. Miss Sunshine used to love the pocket sling I have, but lately she is not interested in it - she wants those little legs to be free! Since I am really enjoying baby wearing, and she is not large enough or strong enough to do some of the alternate carries in a sling yet, I am going to try out a wrap. If it goes well, I may start making them for sale. Along with some other items I have found. Little ways to bring in some income while still allowing me to be at home. We shall see - I have a feeling taking care of Monster Boy and Miss Sunshine is going to take every ounce of energy I have. Hopefully I can find some time in my day to get a quick workout in. That should definitely help with my lethargy!

And now I am going to go to bed. It is early, but it has been a long day and tomorrow is going to be longer, I am sure.