Crummy

Going to bed feeling a little crummy.
Felt good about making it to story time which entailed getting up an hour+ before we usually do, nursing and pumping milk, feeding E, getting her and I dressed, packing a snack, remembering change for the meter and arrived only a couple minutes late.
I have had a goal to engage more with Ellie so I focused on enjoying a few books with her and let her take plenty of time in the playroom after.
Didn't actually check out books because my sister met us and she needed to feed the meter so we did that then had a picnic snack. By the time that was done E didn't want to go look for books (which bugged me, I want her to obsess over books!)
Anyway I am proud of the positives today but I'm going to bed feeling crummy because of some negatives and I just can't shake them.
I don't tend to let negative things affect me- unless they're about me. Which they are.
I've been struggling with metrics at work the last few weeks since maternity leave and will likely be written up. I'm not too worried, I have confidence that I can pull it around , it just weighs on me.
Hubby and I argued today and I found out either I'm not doing as good as I thought I was at keeping up with the house lately or he's not noticing it. I probably should talk to him more about this but I'm just drained and want to bottle up my feelings, it's easier than fighting.

In effort to redeem myself I did work on dishes and music pick ups before bed and got up after nursing P to sleep and take care of our lizard, put away 2.5 loads of laundry, tidy the bathroom, sort dirty laundry, do an s&s.

The actions taken did help the situation. Slightly. Writing an honest unedited blog post is another goal of mine that I can think of to take the crummies away.

Flying lately.

I have been really flying lately. Keeping up on dishes, the bathroom and picking up the house regularly. It feels great! I've done a few small decluttering jobs also.
The mantra that has been working has been : "just do it. You like when it's done and it's easier to maintain than recover."
A few nights I've not felt like doing anything after long days, I've done something anyway. I haven't been to bed with more than my one dish tub of dishes dirty, have pupa'd and swept and changed laundry before bed. I've been putting away the clean dishes each morning and washing more than once a day.

Participating in the flying groups on fb really helps because as every-day as housework is, and it really doesn't warrant praise, it's nice to have a group of ladies who understand that housework is a challenge for me and I feel good and feel good when I do it. I think non-flyers would think "who would care that you cleared your counter? Why is that post-worthy? Don't millions of moms do that everyday without recognition?"
I don't feel I need recognition, it's the common goals, the common struggles, and the understanding that feels good. I also hope to inspire others, as I've felt inspired.

It also helps me get over my #fakebook tendencies.

What I really like is the lack of judgement and feeling like a normal, not bad person. Lots of wives, moms, homemakers, have to make a conscious effort to keep house and I'm not less of a person because I struggle. I don't have to put up a mask of perfection in the flying groups.

Rear facing to the max

This is Ellie, 37 months, rear facing. Insisted that her baby be buckled up also.

If you're wondering why she's rear facing 2 years longer than the minimum law requirement, and 1 year longer than the aap minimum recommendation, it's because the NHTSA recommends rear facing as long as the child is within size limits of the seat, ideally until 4.
She's in a Britax Boulevard70 and is almost at the height limit, soon she will move to a Chicco Nextfit, which has a higher height limit so she can rear face to the max. I'm estimating til 4.

This blog post should not be your only source of car seat information. I'm not an expert (although I'd love to be) and this post is not all inclusive.

Check out Car Seats For The Littles or The Car Seat Lady for much more inclusive articles.

(That's 2 month old Penny in the Chicco Nextfit next to her btw)

Quit with all the acquiring already.

I struggle with this.

It's only a dollar. It can go in the shop. We don't have one like it. It can add to the collection of similar ones. It's got good educational value. I just purged so much I have room.

I really don't have much sentimental attachment to things, so I'm ok tossing/donating things. But we have plenty of storage space so I really don't have to.

Went to the swap meet and decided not to look for things to buy. Look at things, with some cash in my pocket just in case, yes, but not look for things to acquire like I have before. It is ok to leave a store with one item or none. It's ok.

Not very far along the way in the swap meet I see a "free for kids" box of random toys and suggest Ellie look inside. The only one she's interested in was baby-ish and took batteries so I talked her out of it. She wasn't interested in any other.

But! Behold! A $1 pile! With a trike in it!

She's learning the peddling but finds it easier to just walk it with her feet instead.

Then I show her the storage under the seat and find some unidentifiable food item aka a block of mold. Ugk!

Got to our swap meet space to find that grandpa had found a $1 sit and use your feet "bike" and a $1 metal trike (with broken seat).

That taught me a lesson in swap meet shopping.

We have too much stuff.

Perfectionist procrastinator.

I haven't been blogging because I tell myself to do a perfect job, make sure it's edited and includes pictures and blah blah blah. The result: little to no blogging.

So I'm going to challenge myself to blog, imperfectly, more often.

So here come the unedited likely rambly jambly blog posts about whatever pops into my head. I'll consider keeping things on topic.

You've been warned.

SIlverware Drawer mini challenge

Toni at ABFOL has challenged her followers to Mini Challenges, this is one of them!

Yet another Medicine Cabinet Improvement

It is a small space and was working very well for us, except the yucky little jar our toothbrushes stood up in. An impulse buy along with our new toothbrushes sparked this little update.

Before

 Bought a pack of these for $1.87 at Walmart

 I knew they would not suction to the inside of the medicine cabinet where I wanted them, so I pulled out my trusty Command Strips and cut one to fit the back.

 I pulled the suction cup off and attached the Command Strip

I did a test fitting of the toothbrush holders and sadly they were not big enough. I knew that I wouldnt bother returning them for a $2 refund so I decided to see if I could make them work. Cue kitchen shears. 

After

 A little recap!

You may notice that the magnet strip that hung in the top left of the bottom section of the cabinet is missing, yeah I love the command strips but there was a sticker on the back of the magnet strip that did not hold and it fell off. I need to hot glue half of the Velcro-type Command strips to the magnet strip so that I can rehang my metal bathroom tools. It is the project drawer for someday.

I actually did this quite a while ago (I'm a slow blogger) and I can say that the command strips have held on well and we are loving hanging our brushes up!