I did get further than day 2 on the 40 bags in 40 days challenge. I promise. lol I actually did and o.k. job, but I feel I could have done better. Because of that, I decided to continue filling bags. Clothes are the biggest space stealer we have right now. Followed by paper… school papers, bills, bank statements, newspapers, magazines…ugh!!!! I’ll keep wading through.
Day 2 wasn’t too shabby
For day 2 of 40 Bags 40 Days I tackled the garage and quickly filled a 30 gallon black bag. Bickering kiddos kept me from staying out there to do more. I was pleased with the progress even though pictures wouldn’t show much of anything. Most of it was clothing held onto in a box from when we moved in here 10 yrs ago. Way out of style now.
It’s a start
Well, I didn’t tackle quite as much as I had hoped to. We had some running around to do so I didn’t have the time to hit the big stuff. Instead, I worked on the cupboards in the kitchen. I cleaned out two of them and started on a third. For the first bag I managed 8.4 lbs worth of trash and a handful of dishes to donate. Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring. 🙂 I’ll leave you with a couple before & after pictures. I didn’t include the third cabinet since it’s not done yet.
Starting my Lenten journey
Wow! I didn’t realize it’s been over a year since my last blog post. I really do want to be better about it, but it just hasn’t happened. We’ll see how things go from here.
Anyway, today is the first day of Lent. I decided to go with the 40 bags in 40 days again. I did it 2 Lents ago and it worked out well. I’m hoping that by clearing out the clutter I can reclaim some peace and relaxation. I’ve got a lot of big areas to choose from and I’m hoping it won’t get overwhelming if I plan it out this time. I’m looking forward to reclaiming space. I picked 3 main areas, but it should make a big impact on others if I do it right.
One of the problem areas is the garage. This is the biggest thing. I want to clear out as much stuff as I can so we can actually have a place to store things we really want/need out of the way. We have totes in closets and the sunroom which could free up space if I had room in the garage to store them.
Another problem is paper. Ugh!! Old (really olllllllllld) bills, receipts, school work, work papers from hubby, you name it. Time to fire up the old shredder. I love to do that. Something relaxing about watching bills disappear. Too bad it doesn’t get rid of the balance too! lol Anyway, that’s going to be a huge job that will go past Lent, I’m sure.
Clothing is another area I’ll hit again. Seems that one just never ends. But, I want to get it to a manageable amount. I don’t want to do laundry all day everyday and have loads on my couch staring at me. We regularly go through clothes, but this time it will be more thorough.
So, that’s what I’ll be busy with for the next 40 days. I’m excited to see the end result! I did take before pictures. Not sure if I’ll post them or not. I’ll wait to see how things progress. 🙂
~Cathy
Spoke too soon.
Well, shortly after I published my last post saying the kids were on the mend Designergirl came out crying in pain. An earache. It hurt enough to wake her from a sound sleep around 2am. I felt so terrible for her because it was a pain I had often when I was a child. I did all I could think of to help ease her pain: Decongestant, Acetaminophen, garlic oil, cotton, heating pad and TLC from mom. The only problem was the pain was so bad it made her cry. She cried so much it made her even more congested than she was before. It broke my heart to see her in so much pain. Slowly, the pain started to ease and by 3:50am she decided she would try to go back to sleep. Seems all I did was lay my head down when she came back to my bedside complaining of pain again. Glanced at the clock and it was only 4:07am. She tried the heating pad a bit longer, had some more water and comforting from me. About an hour later she was feeling better and went back to bed. Around that time I entered a coughing fit which kept me up until about 5:30am. Bah! Lousy allergies! Thankfully, hubby slept through it all and had the day off. He briefly woke up when I finally got back to bed so filled him in on all the happenings. Since he slept while I was taking care of her he let me sleep and took care of everything. I got up at 11:15am. That was nice but threw me off for the rest of the day because Firekid had that dentist appointment at 3pm. Because we have new insurance for the year I showed up early. It still took them forever. Well, he got an x-ray and went to the room to wait. The dentist came right in and clicks on the light to look at the film. Bad news. 😦 The cavities (2 of them) were hidden between his first and second molar. The second molar wasn’t too bad, but the first was. I didn’t want another episode like we had Friday so we proceeded to fix the problem. Firekid was thrilled to be going to the dentist since he’s never had anything other than cleanings prior to this. He was totally shocked when the dentist hurt him when he gave the numbing shot. He struggled even after he was given some nitrous to calm him. The dentist had to get a bit stern, telling him I’d have to leave the room and the papoose board would have to be used if he didn’t stop moving and getting up. Amazingly, after that he didn’t move one bit…to the point I was a bit nervous. I mean, I was checking his breathing, pulse, etc. lol He wasn’t doing this without mommy. The original plan was 2 pulpotomies and 2 crowns. However, once work got started he decided the 2nd molar just needed to be cleaned up and a crown put on. Whew! Unfortunately, the first molar was just too bad and said it needed to be pulled. The crown happened very quickly and he hardly noticed. The extraction was uncomfortable for him and caused him to moan a bit which didn’t surprise me. He did great and that was done quickly as well. After waiting for the ‘wooziness’ to wear off, he was thrilled to pick a toy-a plastic harmonica. I promised to take him to the store to get a “you were such a good boy” toy. When I got into the parking lot I reminded myself to give him Ibuprofen when we got home since the numbing would be wearing off. Well, once we got home, there was so much going on I forgot. About 30 mins later he started crying because he was hurting. That was when I remembered that I forgot. I quickly gave him some and scooped him up in my arms to comfort him. Thankfully the pain didn’t last long. He was playing a video game, pretending to karate kick and eating as if nothing was wrong.
Now, all kids and hubby are snoozing. Tooth Fairy has visted the brave boy. I dozed briefly but woke up freezing and had to get up to adjust the thermostat. Now I can’t sleep. So, here I am at 1:40am getting ready to head back to bed. Hopefully I’ll get some sleep because 6am will be here soon! Goodnight and God bless. 🙂
Not a bad start.
Well, so far 2012 has been good. Asisde from allergies, the kids and I are on the mend. Hubby has been keeping the kitchen up for me during his time off from work. He also made homemade waffles for breakfast. Yum! Firekid has an unexpected trip to the dentist though. Seems a cavity snuck in and caused him some pain on Friday. I remembered seeing a home remedy for an abcess. Garlic oil. Yep…that’s it. Squished some of the juice onto my finger, rubbed it on his gums. Within an hour it looked so much better. 2 hrs it was gone. Yay! Much better than forcing antibiotics in his mouth. Hopefully the dentist will only have to do an easy filling and send him on his way.
Dinner came out good. I made black-eye-peas w/ham, steamed rice and spinach. Totally forgot my cornbread. I was looking forward to it too. I’d make some for leftovers but there are none! That shocked me. -Yes..even the spinich. 4 out of 6 kids ate it.
Well, two posts in a row? I’d say this is off to a better start too.
God bless!
Happy New Year!
It’s been longer than usual I suppose. I figured now would be a good time to jump back in. Maybe. lol I’ve said it many times. Anyway, happy New Year!! Prayers for a happy and prosperous new year that is full of love and laughter!
Just realized that this time 10 yrs ago i was sitting in the ER with my mom. We brought in the new year with her diagnosis of laryngeal cancer. What a rough year that was….it actually turned into a rough 7 yrs. Sure doesn’t seem that long ago.
Random things
New month, new start?? Maybe..we’ll see. lol It’s been a bit busy, like usual. The older five joined 4-H this past year and have been busy with projects. Just last month the girls showed rabbits at our local County Youth Fair. Being “newbies” we prepped them so they wouldn’t be disappointed if they didn’t place well and reminded them this was a learning time so we know what to expect. They didn’t place high but they are looking forward to our next show…which happens to be this Friday. Today we went in for set up. Even though it was hard work they enjoyed it. The biggest stress this time is the fact that they have to bring their rabbits in tomorrow and they stay there until after the show.
We had the flu run though our house a couple weeks ago. Thankfully we all seem to be on the mend from that. Now it’s those darn allergies bugging us all. FireKid had the worst of it. 103+ fevers that only got down to 100.5 at best for 4 days. Made for a very exhausted momma. Once he started clearing up that Sunday hubby and I planned on tag-teaming for church. However, while he was gone I began having a migraine. With ever step I took it felt as if someone banged on my head. I ended up sleeping for several hours and still woke up with it. Thankfully it was gone by bedtime.
We thought we had our first broken bone. DesignerGirl and BabyDoc when skating for the first time with a friend. I insisted they be careful not to break anything! I was pretty clear about that. DesignerGirl was holding her arm and moving her hand around. I asked her what happened and she explained how she fell on it. *sigh* I was very sore..enough to make her cry at one point. However, after some Ibuprofen she felt better. There was no swelling, bruising, deformity etc so it was hard to tell. We splinted it for the night and in the morning we checked it out. She thought it was fine but an hour later it was hurting again despite trying not to use it much. Thankfully, a Dr friend of ours was home and allowed us to bring her by to check it and give us an opinion on whether we should go to the hospital or not. Thankfully, he didn’t feel it was broken and with a little rest, it should be good as new fairly soon. We got a support wrap for it at a local pharmacy for her to wear. This evening she took it off and said it still feels sore, but it’s a lot better.
Lent is quickly approaching and I still have yet to figure out what I’m doing. :S One of my kids mentioned “I sure hope mom doesn’t do that “40 bags in 40 days” thing again. Hey…I think that’s a GREAT idea!!! Thanks for reminding me. 😀 For those not familiar: http://www.faithandfamilylive.com/blog/40_bags_in_40_days/ It worked well for me when I did it 2 years ago. I’m certain I can fill 40 bags again. Not sure what the kids are so worried about. I have yet to hear them ask for anything that went “missing” since then. muahahahah!
God bless!!
Together time
For the first time in a loooong time, hubby and I got to get away together for dinner. Friday, I had the kids fed and settled in to a movie and left with hubby. We were only gone for just under 2 hrs, but we truly enjoyed the time. We hope to be able to do it again every 1-2 mos.
The weather has been beautiful out lately so I’ve been getting the kids outside more often. Yesterday I had FireKid helping me weed the flower garden while the others rode bikes down the little slope we have in our back yard. I love chit chatting with FireKid. He’s got so much running through his mind. lol He’s so fun.
Tonight the kids helped me make homemade pizza. I never realized just how easy it was! The kids loved every minute of it…eating it, most of all. lol They ate 1 1/2 pizzas before hubby and I got any. We’ll definitely be doing it again very soon. My next endeavor will likely be pasta. 🙂 We’ll see.
My girls have been enjoying eachothers company the last few days. Didn’t think I’d ever see that. lol Ok, it’s not that surprising, but still.
This coming week marks the 8th anniversary of my dad’s passing. Still miss him very much but I have many happy memories of him so that helps.
Got lots of cleaning to do. I’m purging the garage. It’s a big undertaking that will go on for some time but I’m ready to get stuff gone. I did pretty well last week. This week I hope to do better. 🙂
Hope everyone has a wonderful week! God bless!!
Anyone see where I lost my marbles? 