Day 15 – Night stand junk gone.

So…If you don’t know this by now then you obviously don’t read my blog. I went to “Birmingham” for Thanksgiving. We were there for 5 days! It’s extremely hard for us to travel these days for a many number of reasons (i.e. Emerson!). So I know it’s an excuse but its a pretty good one…I didn’t get anything done while I was away…(that is, to eliminate stress). So I am picking up where I left off…Day 15.

Yes – I finally cleaned out my night stand. This is essentially my personal junk drawer. I threw almost everything away. I kept a few things and put them other places (pens, books, rubber bands, etc.). The only thing that made it back in my night stand was a handful of birthday/anniversary/etc. cards from various people that I want to keep.

Day 14: Nothing. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow?

I have to admit.  I haven’t done anything today beyond normal.  Today was a crazy day!  For all of you that don’t know (which is probably nobody), I run payroll each Monday.  It has to be done by 2pm to have the checks shipped to us and the bank deposits ready before Thursday, aka pay day.  Well, its a short week with the Thanksgiving holiday so that means I have to do it even faster.  Of course, ADP had to go and experience technical difficulties all day today and I was unable to submit payroll until 4:30 (and then add a minimum of 30 minutes to that for processing and final approval).  Seriously.  So as I worked my booty off to get payroll done and out by lunch (it was actually done at 10am!), it didn’t matter in the end because it went out later than normal. 

I guess there will just be days like this.  I had a long list of things to do before we go out of town tomorrow and then the first one ends up taking all day!  So after work, I ate dinner with the fam at Jerusalem Cafe.  That only leaves a handful minutes left in the day…Oh, what will I accomplish before bed?  I think some days, I need to count my blessings and remember that just surviving might be enough.

Day 13: Cleaned the fridge.

Yuck. My fridge is rather clean. I don’t really cook so we don’t have a lot going in and coming out. But I can honestly say that I don’t remember the last time that I removed everything (including the shelves and drawers) and cleaned it all. I looked at every single “use by” date and chunked an entire garbage bag full. (Not that we keep spoiled food around, but I never really look at the condiments because I don’t use them.) But it was a lot easier to organize it with less stuff to put back in. I think this will be nothing but helpful during the holidays!

Day 12: Saturday = Work Day

I have to admit…I fell behind on my tasks this week. I had a ton going on and it just didn’t happen everyday. So as it is Saturday (aka – The day to get stuff done), I did several things that have been on my mind.

1) I washed and sterilized every single baby bottle we have. Of course, I had to do this in between a feeding as getting out the pots, boiling the water, and making space is easier to do it once rather than twice. My fear is if I don’t do them all each week, there will be this one random floater bottle that absolutely never gets sterilized. And that would be gross. (Don’t misunderstand, we wash by hand or in the dishwasher every single time the bottle is used. And we sterilize in a bottle steamer 90% of the time. But I just feel like they look really super clean after swimming in boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes. I was trying to do this every weekend, but its been about 3 weeks, so it was due.)

2) Laundry. Again. And again. This is the never ending task. But its nice to have a day where I get several loads done and put away so I can put it off another few days. LOL. (I usually try to do one load a day if at all possible. And its usually the biggest sorted pile unless there is something specific I need clean.) But today, I made sure every other load was “house stuff” (i.e. sheets, towels, etc.) so that I got a good assortment of laundry cleaned before we leave town for Thanksgiving.

3) Phillip helped out today…Hooray! He cleaned up the garage, the pool, and the patio PLUS washed both dogs (see yesterday’s post to know that half of this was completely unnecessary). So I know he did it, but I am going to put it on my list of accomplishments anyway. I don’t care who did it…I am just glad it got done!

Day 11: Wash the dog.

This usually happens on a weekend (notice that I didn’t say every weekend). So Tank got to be the lucky one for today. Poor Tank. He’s always the first. Mainly because Tinkerbell will run under the bed and I don’t want to exert the energy to catch her. But Tank is a different story…I can say, “Come.” And he comes. I can say, “Come. In the shower.” And he gets in the shower. What a good dog. So Tank got a bath.

The unfortunate part of this story is that I finished bathing Tank, and then Emerson got fussy. So I ran to change her, feed her, and play with her a bit. When I went back to grab something from the bathroom, I realized Tank was still hanging out in the tub. I totally ran out on him and left him sitting there soaking wet. Like a good dog, he was waiting on me to return (only an hour later…oops.).

A pic of my very first baby, Tank!

Day 10: Cleaned out my car.

My SUV is my third home it seems (after my actual home and then my office). So everything that didn’t belong got booted and put where it really goes. For the most part, that meant the trash and baby stuff. I don’t know why I have a problem with throwing away things. For some reason, receipts, random paper, and drive-thru napkins just seem to accumulate in mass quantities in my car. Also in the mix, 3 pairs of sunglasses, dog leash, baby blanket, box of band aids, and my forever missing flip video camera. Strange. I didn’t even know all that stuff was in there.

I was filling up after work (Emerson asleep in her car seat) and it was the perfect time for me to clear out the clutter and throw it in their trash can. Plus, I didn’t really have anything else to do while pumping gas. My SUV is due for service and with that, the dealership washes, dusts, and vacuums. But, I went ahead and ran through the car wash for a whole $3. Hopefully, I can get the service scheduled before we drive to Sumiton next week, but in the meantime, my car got a “rinse”.

Stress Diet

I haven’t stopped with my “destressing”.  I just haven’t had time to blog about it!  I will be updating my days starting tonight…I promise.  So check back soon and read all about my progress.

Day 3 – Clean out purse and make-up bag.

This really shouldn’t be that hard. Seriously. But as I say this…I lost my phone this past weekend for over 24 hours. Then I found it. It was in my purse.

Dumped my entire purse, organized and purged my wallet, personal items were simplified and put in a small clear make-up bag, and then I wiped down the purse down inside and out (think about all the places it has been…yuck.). I took the immediate opportunity and switched out my purse. (I’m terrible about carrying the same one for months at a time.)

My make-up bag was looking pretty dirty too. So in addition to my purse, I took everything out and chunked: powder and mascara. I cleaned my eyeshadow brush and blush brush with my face wash and warm water. Now on to the make-up bag itself – cleaned inside and out.

How simple was that? But you would never guess how many times I have severe anxiety over not being to find something (usually my debit card among the sea of paper). The goal is to destress my life one step at a time. And although this is such a small thing its a BIG step to my end goal. Now I just have to maintain it…

Day 2 – Getting Ahead…

So, today, I can’t say that I accomplished one entire thing. But I actually accomplished a ton. Phillip brought all the Christmas decorations down from the attic yesterday (I think we are still missing some). I was able to sort through the boxes and figure out what we have. Beyond the stockings, nothing really has a normal place in our house. So I really like finding new places to mingle it with our regular stuff. I emptied 3 of the several boxes. So my house is officially preparing for Santa!

I wanted to give all my readers a little laugh. Check out my nativity scene below. Oh so cute! Right? Well, if you haven’t noticed that Mary is actually an angel and Joseph is a wise man, then I need a better picture and you might need to be more observant. This was a gift to us from my stepmother-in-law. All I have to say is at least…She got baby Jesus right.

(Since our nativity was missing a few of the main characters last year, we had a pooping snowman, an Alabama fan Santa, and a Star Wars character stand-in. We haven’t pulled those out of the Christmas boxes yet.)

Speaking of stuff, I took everything off of our shelves in the family room and dusted. And as I was putting it back, I decided that I didn’t really like some of it. I think I bought it as “filler” for the shelves and for whatever reason, I just left it there out of convenience. So guess where the filler stuff went??? In the box! My box is officially full.

I also rearranged our furniture a bit. (Try it…It makes your house more interesting to move things around every few months. It’s not like it has to stay there forever if you don’t like it.)

Day 1 – Pantry Dump!

Today was Day 1 of my stress diet.  Our pantry was first on the hit list.  Two huge bags of stuff went to the trash can today.  I can’t believe we have hung on to some of that stuff for so long.  I mean…We moved from Atlanta 2 1/2 years ago…And some of that stuff came with us (not perishable items).  And since they weren’t twinkies, then they probably aren’t going to be as good as they were originally supposed to be.  We don’t have that notorious kitchen junk drawer…Of course not!  We have an entire pantry devoted to random kitchen junk.  I also put “stuff” in the box – a small coffee maker, a silverware tray, Phillip’s “I gotta have this” magic bullet, an ice cream scoop, and 2 random water bottles (among a few other things).  I think I am going to need a bigger box.

Do you notice how I inadvertently refer to most everything as “stuff”?  I apparently have no attachment to it.  The proof is in the pudding, right?  (Who came up with that saying???)  Although I can honestly say that there is no pudding in this pantry.