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It's Wednesday and to answer the question from your comment on my previous post, Kayly, no I have not been keeping up with the dishes :). I'm terrible. However, I have had a noticeable mood and energy burst that came over me this weekend and has not yet abated, so I fully intend to milk it for all it's worth.
Also, I have come to the realization that nothing makes me clean like the impending arrival of company, so we're having folks over for brunch Saturday. This means I have today, tomorrow and Friday to get the place looking at least halfway decent so I can concentrate on cooking/baking/mixing a giant pitcher of bloody marys Saturday morning.
Thank you for checking in and kicking my butt, though. I'm off to do dishes shortly. I plan on us actually brunching at the kitchen table with a table cloth and place mats and maybe even some flowers, fer cryin' out loud.
It's just a matter of sucking it up and powering through the next few days. The nicest bit is that the apartment will be clean for the weekend so we can relax and just do fun stuff--especially since Sunday is Father's Day.
Which brings me to another reason I love my husband. All he wants for Father's Day is for me to grill him a delicious, juicy steak and some corn on the cob, an hour or two of peace and quiet to read his book, and then for the 3 of us to toddle downtown for some ice cream at the ice cream parlour. Sounds like a perfect, glorious, low-maintenance day. My very favorite kind.
I am bangin' shit OUT today! Kid is fed, changed and playing happily. Coffee is consumed. Paused from tidying the living room to make some calls and have accomplished the following:
- Conned our dear friend Mary into watching Fred and Lulu while we're in Florida, bless her heart!!!!
- Scheduled grooming appointments for Fred & Lulu so they won't be all funky while Mary is watching them
- Scheduled Zelda's vet appointment to have blood drawn for her ongoing thyroid and liver problems
This somewhat makes up for the utter lack of housecleaning I did all weekend long. Back to tidying the living room. Ethan's coming home for lunch. Very nice surprise!
Once I've finished in the living room, I'm going to tidy in the bedroom. The bed is crying out for clean, fresh sheets and there's laundry to be put away.
Just remembered that this Sunday is Father's Day. Will have to plan a smashing dinner to cook for Ethan and sniff around for hints re: a gift. He is a fantastic father as I knew he would be, and deserves to be celebrated as such.
Anyhoo, this week is off to a productive start. Let's see if I can keep up the momentum.
Okay, so I did nada yesterday. Couldn't help it. The weather was ick, as it is again today. However, I fully intend to clean the bathroom today just so I can say I accomplished something. It's chilly and damp and I just want to don my Snuggie™ and read my book, but The Boy will not allow this. He is playing and singing and refusing to nap AGAIN.
I took him to the YMCA yesterday to play in the indoor playground again. He adores it. Afterward, we came home, had some lunch, and took naps. HEAVEN.
Last night we were all in the living room eating dinner and watching Jeopardy! as is our custom. One of the answers was "This Chairman's Little Red Book..." When the contestant responded "Who is Mao?" Tobin yelled "MAO!!!" excitedly and pointed to his mouth. Hilarity ensued.
Later on he was playing with his toy train. I asked him if he could say train. Blank stare. I tried a different approach--"Can you say choochoo??" He looked at me with a cocked eyebrow as if to say, "Say that one more time for me," and studied my mouth while I said "choochoo" again. He very carefully pursed his lips to mimic mine and said, "Jew Jew." Naturally we cracked up at that, so he puckered up and said "JEW JEW!!!" about 20 more times.
Ethan has taken over the bath time ritual, which is awesome. They have far too much fun together. Last night between all the laughing and splashing, I overheard Ethan teaching Tobin how to scat. Skills to pay the bills, y'all.
So I'm not beating myself up for not having accomplished as much as I set out to this week. I always bite off more than I can chew. This time I'm choosing to spit out the excess rather than choke on it. My aim is to strike a healthy balance between household drudgery and goofing around. The scales are still tipped toward the latter at this point, but hopefully not for long.
Second day of my seize-the-world-by-the-balls-and-get-my-shit-straight campaign. I claimed on my Facebook status this morning that I was going to "make Tuesday my bitch and ride it so hard it'll wonder why Wednesday's called Hump Day." At least I had the right attitude.
I can't say I made Tuesday my bitch, but I did smack him around a little. Washed a buttload of dishes. Still some to go. I know--it sounds like my kitchen must be floor-to-ceiling pots and pans. Not entirely the case, I just had a very sassy toddler who refused to take a nap until somewhere around 3:30 pm today. By the time he finally capitulated, I was so exhausted myself that I had to take a nap as well. Daddy now has him at the playground to give Mommy some peace and quiet. I love my husband.
The good news is that I washed all the dishes that had been littering the cook top of my stove, so I can actually make dinner tonight! We had been dining out quite a bit the last few days because I just couldn't deal. Now I can. Woot woot!
Sorry this report is late. We wound up going to dinner and then meeting friends for ice cream. Was too tired to post after that.
I am tentatively calling Day One a success. I didn't get as much accomplished as I thought I might, but I also didn't sleep well the night before and was dragging ass all day long. This morning is another story--I woke up feeling semi-rested and mostly human for a change.
What I got done yesterday:
- Collected three 13 gallon garbage bags of trash and non-recyclable clutter from the kitchen (That sounds grosser than it is. This includes crap in the pantry I will never use, old stuff from the fridge, stale cereal boxes, etc).
- Put recyclable items in appropriate receptacles
- Cleared out and plunged kitchen sinks (Our sink backs up CONSTANTLY. Super fucking annoying), then bleached and scrubbed them.
- Did two loads of dishes
- Read book and napped until Ethan got home :)
What can I say? I started out the day exhausted. The plan for today is to finish up the kitchen (at least finish the dishes and washing the surfaces--Ethan usually does the floors). Wednesday will be the bathroom and nursery, Thursday the living room, Friday the bedroom.
I think it will take at least 2 weeks for the place to really be where I'd like to keep and maintain it. Keep in mind, I do have an active toddler who requires my attention and outings to the playground on sunny days (like today...sigh).
All in all, not a bad start. Certainly more than I normally accomplish on a given day. Today will hopefully be more of the same. I'll report back later!
I think I've finally reached the point in my life (and therapy) where I'm finally ready to face all the bs I've been conveniently ignoring for years and JUST FUCKING DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Although I am sure I will live to regret this, I have decided to set about the task of ridding my mind and my life of my emotional clutter by banishing the real, tangible clutter clogging every available surface of my house. Granted, my apartment is not worthy of a "Hoarders" episode--yet--but I am determined to get things (and therefore ME) under control before a team of psychiatrists, professional organizers, and refuse removal men are required to dig me out from under hundreds of pounds of soiled adult diapers and mummified cats.
That is not the part I fear I will live to regret. This is: I am going to blog about it. I will openly and honestly report my progress on a daily basis--even if it's just 1 or 2 paragraphs about what I threw out or scrubbed or freecycled that day. After I've been at it a few days, I may even include pictures of my progress. I'm hoping that my commitment to blogging this experiment will force me to stick to my guns, so I'm counting on my beloved reader(s) to hold me accountable and kick my ass as necessary. Words of encouragement are also welcome, but as the saying goes, "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, but a dead squirrel works best." Please feel free to not just flame me, but to RAKE ME OVER THE FUCKING COALS if I slack. I'm 36 goddamned years old. Enough is enough.
As my regular reader(s) know(s), I have been suffering from depression off and on for the last 6 years due to 3 pregnancy losses and the prolonged illness and recent death of my father. I'm done. It's enough now. I know I can't just decide to be done being depressed, but I can decide to stop letting it keep me from doing what needs to be done--for my sake, my husband's, and--most importantly--my son's. And once my emotional/spiritual house and physical apartment are in order, I'll shift focus to my emotional eating hobgoblin, though I'm hoping he'll get kicked to the curb as I'm cleaning house.
Tomorrow is Day One. Report to follow tomorrow evening after therapy, dinner, and Jeopardy! Interested to see what the shrink thinks of this plan. I'm sure he'll support it.
Full disclosure: I am currently having a mild anxiety attack that is keeping me from hitting "publish" on this. Deep breaths...OK. Here we go.
