Such Great News

I have already mentioned it briefly <a href="http://catalina-at-home-at-work-at-play.blogspot.com/2011/11/thirty-thankful-days-days-11-15.html">here</a> but recently Hubby has been offered more hours at work. This is great for us! My hours were pretty much set in stone, but I was on call all the time and often would bring (unpaid) work home with me. Recently, I have had some time off from work and during this time, Hubby had been working more hours and has had the time and opportunity to really put his best foot forward at work.

His boss pulled him aside and told him that he had asked around about Hubby and the feedback he had received was very good. Boss said that the only negative feedback that he received about Hubby was that he didn't work often enough (wasn't scheduled enough). So Boss asked him if he would be interested in more hours at work and even asked him what hours he would want to have if given a choice. Hubby said he would prefer to work Monday - Friday closing shifts. That way he would still have his Saturday evenings to spend with his friends and his Sunday evenings for time with our friends as a couple. I can always get out with my friends on Sunday evenings after we spend time with our other friends, if I want to.

Some other really nice things about this would be the increased money that Hubby would earn (he makes 50 cents more per hour when he closes) and the possibility of having a predictable schedule in an industry where predictable schedules are not always the norm. And I would be able to possibly stay home with the kids full-time or just work a few hours each week/on call hours.

I just really hope that the whole thing works out the way that I'm wanting it to. It would, of course, mean that I would be on my own from dinnertime to bedtime with the kids and that I would need to figure out how to coordinate our activity schedules to make that work out. But even still, it would be a small price to pay for the ability to do stay home. During the morning, Hubby would be sleeping and that would allow Jeriah and I time to spend together just the two of us. Then in the afternoon, while Jeriah is at school, that would give me time to spend alone with Hubby or to go in and volunteer during those hours. I would just have a lot of time to get things accomplished around the house if this came about.

Then, in the evenings, we would just follow our normal schedule (although it would be a little more routine simply because I would always be the one doing it - two people never have the same exact routine when left in charge) and I think that would benefit everyone greatly! I have a very Type A personality and am all about scheduling and planning and organizing and my kids also thrive best on a fairly structured schedule.

Well, I'm off. I just had to share this with all of you! Wish us luck!

Thirty Thankful Days - Days 11-15

Click to go to Day 11

Day 11: Today I am thankful for good friends. My best friend of 18 years came into town tonight and we had time to spend together. We were going to just go out the two of us, but at the last minute, we decided to bring our hubbies along as well. And I am so glad that we did! Shea and I had a great time hanging out, chatting and catching up and the guys had a good time as well. It ended up being a pretty late night by the time Hubby and I got home (around 3 am) because we ended up going shopping for a couple of things afterwards and then visiting with another friend at her work (she works 3rd shift) and then coming home. Hubby had to take my mom home along with my two oldest boys (who she allowed to stay up til 3am!) and I promptly fell asleep on the couch. That is why this post is so late in coming.

Click to go to Day 12

Day 12: On this day, we went over to my in-law's house to watch the college football game and even though my mother-in-law and I had a bit of a falling out earlier in the week, we had a nice visit and talked about house remodeling stuff and various things. In the afternoon, she and father-in-law went to watch a movie and allowed us to have a couple of friends come over to visit and play cards, so we did. When they got back from their movie, we all sat around and played a card came called Pitch. It was so much fun and I was thankful once again for friends and also for the kindness from my in-laws.

Click to go to Day 13

Day 13: I was tired. But tired doesn't even begin to cover it. I was exhausted. On Day 11, I had been up way too late (3am) and then ended up waking up around 4 and not being able to fall back to sleep until almost 6, then got up with kids around 7. So about two hours of sleep that night. Then I was awake ALL day on Day 12 - I even laid down with Jeriah to get him to nap and didn't fall asleep! So by the time we got home on Day 12, I was exhausted! The kids went to bed without too much fuss and I crashed hard. I woke up off and on about every two hours but was actually able to fall back to sleep. I woke up for the day around 7 on this day, but thanks to my Hubby was able to take a 2 hour nap. (I let him sleep in til noon.) That nap was so refreshing and necessary! It was fabulous!

Click to go to Day 14

Day 14: That was yesterday. I was thankful for my mother-in-law and her willingness to help me out with time crunches and kids' activities. You see, we live on the north end of town. The older boys, Cephas and Koren, have music lessons on the south side of town at 6:00pm. That's around 10 miles from where we live - or a 30 minute drive. But Oralee also had a Daisy meeting to go to at 6:30pm - the same time the boys get out of music lessons - close to our home. It is not even remotely possible to do both things unless Hubby is home and he wasn't. Because he had to work a closing shift. So my mother-in-law came to my house and picked up all three boys so that I could be with Oralee at her meeting without having to try to chase Jeriah down. She picked them up at 5:00 and then dropped them back off at 8:00. It was really nice that I had her to be able to do that for me. Otherwise, at least one child would have had to miss something and I didn't want for that to happen.

Click to go to Day 15

Day 15: That is today but I already know what I'm thankful for today. This morning when Hubby got home, he told me that his boss wants him to pick up more hours at work. Ideally, the boss would like Hubby to close 5 nights a week, which is good money for us because Hubby makes an additional 50 cents per hour on closing shifts. So today I am thankful for that - and the fact that if this happens, I can stay home full-time with the kids or at the very least, work part-time or even just PRN shifts. It is something that I am totally hopeful for but we will have to wait and see if that is something that will come to fruition.

Thirty Thankful Days - Day 10

Today, I am thankful for time to myself. I had a very rare opportunity this morning to have the house all to myself. There was NO ONE home except for me and the dogs from almost 8 am until nearly 3pm then from 3pm til around 4pm.

In that time, I was able to get a number of things done. I did some laundry, gathered dishes, gathered trash, unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded and ran the dishwasher, cleared off and wiped down all the counters, cleaned the inside of the microwave, cleaned the stove, straightened up everything in the dining room, cleared off and wiped down the bar area, cleared off a bookshelf and moved it, cleared off an endtable, wiped it down, cleared off the couch, dusted the entire living room, top to bottom, washed the living room windows inside and out (double-hung windows that both lean inwards!), cleaned the window sills and frames, dusted and wiped down the bookshelf and put new items back onto it, cleared out the kennels, cleared off the entertainment center, wiped it down, reorganized the shelves, vacuumed, hung window treatments in the living room and front room, changed out a light bulb in Oralee's bedroom. Okay, changing a light bulb may not seem worthy of sharing in a list like this but I think any light bulb change that requires a pair of slip-joint pliers gets to count for SOMETHING, thus, it gets included. And if I ever find out who designed the lighting system in this home....grrr.

So anyhow, I got all that accomplished before noon. So I treated myself to a relaxing rest. I didn't sleep though. I laid on the sofa and texted with a friend. I felt like I had worked hard for a break. But then I kind of didn't get back to it much for the rest of the day. But I feel like I have an amazing starting point for tomorrow!

I am thankful for the solitary time that I had today, for the work that it allowed me to accomplish, the relaxed time it allowed me to spend this afternoon. Sometimes things like that just have the power to rejuvenate me. I feel fired up and ready to tackle more tomorrow!

Organizing My Life - Intro

I have decided to start a new plan for myself for the year 2012. I want to start implementing a number of different things. I want to give myself a new task to incorporate each week. It will be something minor each week but little things that will help me to get and stay on track as I progress through the year.

What do you think? Does this look like something that would help you as well? I'd love to hear your feedback so that I know if this is something that I should maybe stock in an etsy shop. Also, I would love to have 3 people try it out and let me know what they think of it. I want to know if it helps you.

No matter what I do online, I have to have a physical paper version of it to really get me to stick to it. My problem with online things is simply that. They are online. Which involves me sitting at my desk (if I am using the desktop computer) or on the sofa (if I am on my laptop) where I am not exactly motivated to get whatever it is done that needs to be done.

This way, I can put it on a clipboard or inside a page protector and hang it somewhere that I am sure to see everyday. Like the wall next to my desk or in the kitchen. Shoot, even in the bathroom would work but I'm not sold on hanging it there. Unless I had multiple copies of the same sheet and hung them up in the room where each job would end up occurring so that I would be sure to see it while I was in that room. I don't know, I guess it could work. We'll see though. I'm going to start out with just one copy put up in a central location.

Who knows? If this works for me, it might even work for the kids to develop personal responsibility habits? It just might work to help them out as well.

Thirty Thankful Days - Day 9

I have been hit hard by whatever this is that has been plaguing me this past week. Today I am thankful for the ability to stay in bed all day long. I went back to bed around 10:00, I think it was. I would have to check my text history to see which was the last message I sent before falling asleep, because I can fall asleep just that fast sometimes (but never when I want or need it to happen!) and then I slept for the rest of the day, waking up sometime around 9:00pm. But I needed it. I truly did. Of course, that means that I'm up at 2:00 in the morning writing blog posts and planning and cleaning and watching TV instead of sleeping. I hope to be able to lay back down and get some sleep so that I can get myself readjusted before the kids come home from school tomorrow afternoon. It's a start...

And in the meantime, I'll just keep trying to get over whatever this thing is. The good news is that I can now eat without feeling like I am going to die. I always call that a good thing.

Thirty Thankful Days - Day 8

Today is Day 8 and it is really easy to choose what I am thankful for today. If you read my post from 11:30 last night, you can probably guess. Today I am thankful for forgiveness. I am thankful that I have the ability to mess up, to be sorry and to be forgiven. I don't try to mess up. I'd love to never mess up. But the fact is, that I do mess up. But I am forgiven. And I'm grateful!

Organized Home Challenge - Week 45 prep

Kids' Bedroom Organizing Challenge

Wow. Can my kids (and I) ever use this challenge right now! I also like the idea of doing this challenge at this point, where it is far enough before Christmas that we can weed out space for the incoming new items, yet it won't leave them feeling deprived of their purged belongings because Christmas will be coming up soon enough.

In the older boys' bedroom, they have two twin beds. We hope to change this out to twin beds or even really to this one bed I found that has a set of twin beds with an attached loft bed, creating an L-shape. I love that bed design! Three beds taking up the floor space of one! Perfect for a small room!

Anyhow, for right now, only the two older boys are sharing a room and that is the one that I am going to share with you. Their room is done up in a sort of sports theme. I wish it was more complete but it's a work in progress.

We start out with their beds. Two twin beds. We have had these beds in nearly every single configuration that is possible in this room. The way it is right now is the configuration that they have chosen. They also have their dresser and Koren's keyboard (for his music practice) and Cephas' violin and music stand (for his music practice). They also have some toys in their room as well as some storage drawers that they have inherited from my mother-in-law's garage sale pile. Well, actually, I inherited them, but then didn't need them afterall and so I offered them to the boys.

Cephas also uses an older wooden tv tray as a night stand next to his bed. I actually like this idea because it takes up less room than his old one did and it matches the wood tone of their beds. The dresser is another story as it does not match but that's something that I have just come to deal with. We bought that dresser back in the day when Cephas was an only child. And a teeny tiny child at that. Like two years old. It's been around awhile now. It definitely shows too!

But we're not here to talk about his dresser. We're here to make sure that their room is organized and functional for them. The first step to do that is to determine what this space is used for.

The first, primary use of their bedroom is for sleeping. For sleeping, they need beds. Check.

The second use of this space is for clothing storage. They have a dresser. Check.

The third use of this space is for music practice. They have their music area set up. Check.

The fourth use of this space is for playing with toys. This is one of the areas that needs some fine-tuning. They have storage and they have toys, but I think it could use some tweaking to be honest. Koren tends to be a very orderly child. He likes to have his toys separated into different bins or compartments or whatever based on what the item is. So all of his Hot Wheels are together, all of his dinosaurs are together, all of his sea animals are together, all of his stuffed animals are together, so on and so forth. Which I love! That is a child who takes after my CDO (a family joke - CDO is like OCD but in alphabetical order the way it should be).

Cephas also likes storage bins and having things organized. However, there's something missing somewhere between having the containers and keeping things organized. He also tends to be a bit on the hoarder side of things. Or so it seems. The fact that he has an old end table that we tried to get rid of and an old computer that barely functions in his closet is an indication of that.

So, that is the primary thing that I am going to be working on this week with them. Organizing their space for their toy/playing/entertainment functions. Check back at the beginning of next week to see how it turns out.