Well It’s Christmas Eve today, I highly doubt I’ll have time tomorrow to come and post, so MERRY CHRISTMAS! I pray you have a blessed holiday!

I haven’t been online as of late due to me taking on some major sewing projects… I don’t know why 2 weeks before Christmas I decided to sew 3 projects, but I did. And then I was sick for one week! ugh… anyway, I’m almost done! I’ll post pictures of all the projects once they are handed out! Two of the projects are the exact same thing (one for Olivia and one for Lilly). They are a HUGE project….. I broke down last night crying when something didn’t work. I am at a point of exhaustion! I asked Orlund why we didn’t just buy Lilly a gift and me sew this for her birthday? Oh, I know why… I like to take on to much with short amounts of time!!! oh well. Two projects are completed. And Olivia’s is the only one left…. most of it is hand stitching.. so whatever I don’t get completed today I’ll do after Christmas.

Tonight My Dad and brother come over to play games and eat goodies. We will have Christmas (gift exchange) whenever my mom is home next. Then Christmas morning will be just us here at home. After naps we go up to Orlund’s parents to have dinner and exchange gifts with them all. The next morning we head back up there for breaky and to play. Come home for naps then our good friends who live in Kelowna are coming over for a visit. It’s a busy weekend and I work Monday and Tuesday 9:30-5:30! Some time this week we have to fit another visit in with my Brother. Take my dad to the movies (Birthday gift). going to see the remake of ‘True Grit’ ~ my dad and I used to watch the original together, so it’s special. Go to Wildlights, and have some people over I hope….

Well I should run, this house doesn’t clean itself!

God Bless you all! Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Sorry Honey, 10 more sleeps before Santa comes….

Isn’t she cute?

Well, it’s done good enough. My house is/was in shape enough to have someone just stop in and want to look through it. I say it WAS because, well it’s in need of some loving right now (mainly vacuum and kitchen).
Saturday night was spent with Joy vomiting. fun. poor girl. I think it’s awful watching your kids in such pain and you can’t do much of anything to help. So Saturday night was a bust, no work accomplished. I did get the house finished from what I’d listed last time (during the day). Except my dining room table.

Taken Saturday morning... just 'cause we're so cute!

Well Sunday we decided to stay home from Church and just take it easy. Joy watched lots of tv and kept asking to go to Church. Poor girl. She would have had so much fun watching the kids put on the Christmas production. Sunday night Joy got sick once more (oops gave her milk!). Monday I had the boys. I tried and tried to call their home to inform them that Joy was still a bit sick…but I couldn’t get through. They arrived I informed them she was sick, and then after 5 minutes they came back and picked the boys up to go play at a friends house. It was a good thing they did. Orlund came home sick. And I started to feel sick as well. Monday night, I was vomiting. Not cool. Orlund was trying to put the kids to bed, and I was nursing Olivia between my visits to the bathroom. So he took his mom up on her offer to come and help out for the night.
I have to say, due to me doing this ‘operation party’ my house was in a good state (especially since I was sick). I was almost tempted to tell Hazel to look in my linen closets. LOL. They are so clean! But at least I wasn’t worrying, on top of being sick, about what my house looked like. She spent the night, and it was awesome that she did. Olivia got up at 4:30am to play…. So Grandma played with her in the living room while I finally got some much needed rest!  up until that point I’d spent the night in the bathroom getting sick, or trying not to, nursing Olivia, or sitting in bed trying not to get sick… it wasn’t a fun night, however once Olivia was with Grandma I finally zonked out and slept good.
Tuesday was spent napping, bathing and relaxing for me. Orlund and his mom did up some dishes and kept the girls busy. Joy was still recovering and Orlund was doing much much better.
I took today off work so I could just ensure I’m rested up enough before taking the boys on again. I don’t want to exert to much energy before I’m completely better or it’ll just set me back some. I have tomorrow off then the boys on Friday.

Today I plan to catch up on the  sewing I’ve fallen behind on. What was I thinking sewing Christmas gifts? lol. I have A LOT to do and I’m running out of time!  I will also decorate our tree. tomorrow I’ll spend time cleaning up etc. For today it’s catch up on the other stuff

(on a side note; This sewing, I’m sewing 3 projects. two are the same just for different kids, and the other project is an ‘easy’ weekend job. So to sew the kids projects I figured I’d need to sew 2-3 ‘sections of directions’ every day. that would take me 5 days to do each. and spend the last weekend before Christmas sewing the other project. Due to being sick I’ve missed out on 2 days already.. and then I found out next week I work EVERY day except Christmas Eve! Guess I know what I’ll be doing in the evenings!)

Good morning. Well technically it’s almost 1pm. This day has gone by quickly and yet I haven’t accomplished anything much. We got up late (due to late night out Friday) so 10am was our get up eat breakfast time. Then we got the girls all dressed up and took our Christmas card photo (a bit late?), and a few fun family shots. Now I’m typing while feeding Olivia her lunch. then it’ll be nap time.

I did not get everything done I had hoped to do. I finished writing all our Christmas cards (just need the pic). I finished our bedroom (closet too!) And that’s about it…. so yeah…. I’ve completely fallen off the plan…

HOWEVER ~ Monday I am ACTUALLY  having some people over, and will want to show them my house. So today I tackle the green room…. also I need to clear a spot to put our tv from upstairs to make room for the tree, which Orlund is picking up today! I am also going to tackle and finish the kitchen (there is a hot spot of diaper bags).
I’ve come to the realization that the dining room is 1/2 my stuff 1/2 Orlund’s stuff (in regards to who needs to clean it up). So I will get my stuff out and cleared off. Then bug him to do the same.

My list should be good today, and hopefully I get it all done. Then I can spend this evening decoration the Christmas tree and the remainder of the house.
Sunday morning Orlund ushers so we have to be at Church bright and early. But I plan to spend the rest of Sunday doing any last minute touch ups and cooking/baking for the party. Monday I have the boys so wont have much time for cooking/baking, and after they go home I will have just enough time to clean up from the day before dinner which is followed by the party.
Orlund just informed me that he’s going to invite his folks in for a coffee when they drop off our tree (Orlund will pick it out, buy it and then they cart it around for us in their van). It makes sense, and makes me REALLY stick to my plan of having this place ready. Luckily Olivia doesn’t nap as long as Joy so I can vacuum before they come too. (Joy sleeps through the vacuuming, Olivia does not).

Well I guess I should get at it then eh? I’ll post pictures perhaps on Tuesday of the house all done and pretty for the party

So curious how Operation Party ended? well…it hasn’t yet.. lol. I’ve extended it until Friday. I knew I was cramming a lot into a short time. I would have been able to accomplish it to, however our weekend ended up being crazy! We had a conference Friday night 6:30-10:30 was tied up. Saturday Morning Orlund and I got the girls babysat and went Christmas shopping and out for a sushi lunch. Got home put the girls for their naps (I crashed with them). They got up, we ate and headed back to Church. 6:30-10:30pm again. Sunday morning 10am-12:30pm Church, Rushed over to my girlfriends house to have her son’s second birthday party. 2pm headed home. Nap time (for girls not me). I worked some on Operation Party and some on just catching up regular house work. Orlund’s mom came over and babysat the girls while we went back to the Church for the last night of the conference 6:30-11pm. So no work done over the weekend other than the usual work.

I haven’t taken any before photos, however At the end I will post photos of my finished house I can’t remember what I’ve told you already that I’ve done… so here it is~
Hallway (closets too), Girls bedroom, All 3 Bathrooms, Toy room, TV room, entry way, under my bed, and at the foot of it. (I was surprised to find only two things under my bed!) I’ve taken apart one of our glass end tables and taken it into storage.

Left I have ~
Our bedroom, and bedroom closet, Green room downstairs (office, craft room), Kitchen (daily + some extra), Dining room (Christmas cards scattered about), Living room (couch cushions and all). that’s all! The Kitchen, Dining and Living rooms are daily jobs however I need to do a more detailed cleaning.

Today I have the boys, however I hope to get all the chores done (maybe with the exception of the Green room) ~ once they leave that is. Tomorrow I have the day off, nothing planned. I would prefer not to have any chores to do, so I can just relax and play with the girls.

I am excited that I will have the house completed by Friday (which I have a busy day of errands and a dinner). I have lots of sewing to do for Christmas presents and really need to concentrate on that. I have a list of 13 things to do on that list and all of them will take a long time to complete (wish me luck!).

How is your house doing?

Okay, so I crashed and burned today…. But there is always tomorrow! I did do some work today, but the day just took it’s toll on me. I also have a very sore rib (or rib muscle?) that I pulled when I had a cold. I coughed it into pain…. And apparently I did something today to tick it off again.. So the thought of bending over to clean the toilets didn’t really appeal to me (not that it ever really does, but being in pain at the same time = not fun). I did clean out the Main bathroom cupboard area ~ amazing how much room there is when it’s organized! I wiped down the counters, toilet, walls and baseboards in the ensuite. and that’s where I stopped. Guess I’ll have some catching up to do. I also didn’t get my house into the ‘shape’ I wanted it to be in after the boys left. But I’ll do that in the morning. Tomorrow we are dropping the girls at Grandma’s and going shopping (New Vacuum here I come!). But for now, I need to go to bed, it’s 11pm WAY past my bedtime! Good night!

We all have it. Something we do after a hard days work to relax. To let go of the work day and move into the at home, family mode. For most it is the drive home from work. You shrug off the days frustrations, sort through the troubles, highs and lows of the day and prepare for the evening. Orlund uses the drive home and the time he spends making dinner to do this. It’s our deal. He likes to relax when he gets home as the drive just doesn’t cut it. Cooking relaxes him, provided no little monkeys pester him (to much) ~ I keep the monkeys at bay.

I work from home. There is no car ride home. There is no escaping from the monkeys. I was frustrated, exhausted and over all worn down. Until I started vacuuming. Huh? I can hear you thinking it. Didn’t she vacuum before? Yes I did. However I vacuumed once a week, or before company arrived. Fly lady has taught me to let go of my perfectionism. I don’t have to vacuum under the couches every time I vacuum. My mom also mentioned to me she used to vacuum every day…. it thought that seemed a bit ‘out there’.

I started to vacuum every day. EVERY. DAY. After the boys would get picked up, I would pull out the vacuum and quickly run it through the hall, living room and dining room. Not moving furniture (except once a week). That became my ‘car ride’ home (on days I worked. Other wise I vacuumed every second day). It released all that happened in the day, it caused me to clean the house every day. You can’t vacuum if there are toys tossed across the living room floor. Before vacuuming I’d toss all the toys into the toy bin, throw out any trash and just straighten up. Then vacuum. While vacuuming I can’t hear anything else. It takes me to another land. I relax and can move on with the rest of my day. It cleans up everything, not just the floors but my day and my mood. Since starting to vacuum everyday I’m less moody and less frustrated. I like me a whole lot better, and I think the kids do too.

Well my vacuum broke 3 weeks ago…. I called the manufacturer and they told me it was the filter. I sent Orlund to Walmart that very day. He called me to inform me they didn’t have our filter. I started to cry. I hadn’t vacuumed in a week (talk about procrastination on calling the manufacturer). I NEEDED TO VACUUM! Not just because my floors needed it, but because my SOUL needed it! I could feel the tension.

My wonderful Mother-in-law has lent me her vacuum. She has less traffic. I’ve had it for two weeks and plan to return it on Saturday. We ordered new filters off ebay for our vacuum. Well, I tried a new one, started vacuuming… it still doesn’t work. After I shut if off (after a 3 minute run) smoke crept up the side of the machine…. it’s dead. dead. dead. Guess this Saturday we will be shopping for a new vacuum!

What do you use to relax after work? the ride home? or some other secret?

Today is day #1.
Yesterday I wrote out the lists, today I start executing them.
Today I tackle my hallway. It should be a ‘small’ job you’d think, if you saw the skiff of a hallway we have. However my hallway has taken a beating lately. It has a nifty little nook, in front of the cleaning supply closet, where things can lay without interruption for weeks (if I so decide not to move them). Today I will be removing the hot spot which lays there. In that pile are socks. The girls socks. Clean socks. That nook is where I pile clean and dirty clothes (separately) that need to be taken to the girls room but they are napping or sleeping so I can’t actually go in their room. These socks are the ‘missing my partner’ socks, which in turn really means I need to tackle the girls sock drawer too (but that will have to wait). Also in the pile are some stuffed animals to be returned to their rooms and some extra receiving blankets.
I have two diaper boxes to move from the hall into the girls room. A big box of out grown/seasoned shoes and jackets (also the girls) that I need to properly box up and some how fit into the girls room as well (or perhaps the crawl space).
I will also be going through the linen closet and the cleaning supply closet, they are both in the hallway.

The other room I’m going to do? good question. I’m not sure yet. I am working today so need it to be a room I can do while working (the hallway will have the closets cleaned during nap/preschool time). I think I’ll do the entrance way… I just cleaned this area, however I need to go through the closets shelf and the bench. Mostly they consist of snow stuff etc. Well the boys are here. Off I go!

I love Christmas. I love the snow, the joy, the family and friends.
Last year I found myself missing out. I didn’t have a work Christmas party, Orlund’s work had theirs during work hours. We weren’t invited to any Christmas parties other than our church banquet (which we had to purchase tickets to).  I know why we weren’t invited out, we didn’t have anyone over to our house. And if you don’t invite people over, they don’t invite you either. It’s plain and simple. I came to the realization that we are to self involved. The day’s pass quickly, we are constantly tired, however we need to put in the effort to have friends. I’m not just talking about at Christmas time, I’m talking all year round. Why not have people over for parties? I’m always concerned my house wont be ‘good’ enough, clean enough etc to have guests over. I’m now part of a program called “Flylady.net” she teaches you how to FLY (Finally loving yourself). Sure my house isn’t spotless and I have a long way to go, but she instructs us to let go of our perfectionism and just start enjoying life.

So this year. Today. December 1st. I sat on the cold tile hearth in our living room. The vacuum cleaner which had just been smoking sat next to me. My vacuum is officially dead. I mumbled under my breath “guess I get a Vacuum for Christmas this year”. I started to think of the friends we’ve made this year. How I’d wish to have them over. Orlund has told me that we can’t host a huge party as our house just can’t hold more than a couple couples at a time. I asked Orlund “Do you know if there will be a Christmas party at your work this year?Do you think it’ll be in the evening or at lunch again?”
“I don’t know, why?” he ask
“well I’m hoping it’ll be at night so I get to go to at least one Christmas party this year” I paused “to be completely honest”.
The thought about the fact that this holiday season will be spent at home alone again crept into my mind.I hung my head down, resting on my hands. A cold draft from the fireplace chilled my back, the tears started to well up in my eyes. The negative gloomy thoughts all started to sneak in. What about having a few people over at a time? Who said that? the thought came in, with it a negative response. Orlund said no. Wait, he said no to LARGE parties, what about a few people at a time? I don’t know if I was talking with God or just my inner voice (perhaps one in the same) but I decided to listen.
“what about if we have a few people at a time?” I asked Orlund
He looked up from his computer “sounds good to me! I would love to have people over, I just don’t want to plan it all”

There we go. My Christmas season does not need to be a gloomy one, but one filled with love. And if my house isn’t perfect, my friends wont have a problem with it, if they do… what kind of friends are they? Time to pick myself up and get out of the self pity and do something about it!

So onto “operation party”. First, I clean. I clean, I clean I clean. I have written a list of 13 areas of my home that need to be cleaned (I mean re-vamped cleaning). If I do twoish a day I can have them all done by the time our Church’s Christmas banquet arrives (Dec 7th).  I’ll start figuring out who I want to have over, and invite them! Orlund’s given me the Okay, so I can do this. No one is responsible for me being happy except me. So here I go… Ready to follow along on my path? I’ll try to blog a little at the end of each day to keep myself on track and let you know how I’m doing… Need to do some re-vamping too? Jump on in and do it with me. Write out a list of what you need to do and how many tasks a day to complete it by Dec 7th and LETS DO THIS!