I didn't get up in time

Bah! For three days in a row I wake up feeling as if someone has been chasing me all night. I wake up around 5.30 am, and then can't get back to sleep immediately. This morning I gave in. My husband skipped his work out and I skipped getting up early. It's just one day, but I must make sure that it remains only that. Joseph had stayed up later than usual yesterday so he is still asleep. Hurray!
And the house is incredibly clean. (see yesterdays post) hurray!
I promise here and now, that if I have the money, I will offer this same service to my daughter or daughter in law at the time. It was the most thoughtful christmas gift I could imagine. It really is the gift of time. Because since my house is now all caught up, maintenance should not be such a problem.
For the last two years I have loved my little swiffer vac, for day to day to day crumbs. I am finding out that as a mother of a todler you are always chasing crumbs. Last sunday we added a cute little shark steamcleaner to the family of 'small and easy' cleaning appliances. I have a nice, big, floorscrubber which works very well, but which I just do not get out on a day to day basis to remove the dropped spinach underneath the highchair. A quick clean with a damp cloth doesn't seem to do the trick, or I forget to react immediately because I want to eat dinner. Then I forget after dinner and by the time Joseph is in bed, it has hardened into a cement like substance. And then I am not even mentioning oatmeal.
The shark is ready to use in 30 seconds, lightweight and requires no chemicals or anything.
So, after dinner, my husband will keep our little boy buys for about ten-fifteen minutes while I clear off the table and do a quick steaming of the floor. It's a new part of the routine to keep the house clean. Furthermore, I will spend half an hour working during naptime, before taking my 'private time' for email, reading, knitting or anything else, so that we can try and keep up with the work.

The cleaning ladies

I've praised my husband quite a few times on this blog. My in laws however have not been mentioned that often. I have GREAT in laws. No room for mother in law jokes here. They have welcomed me in the family, helped me adapt to the new country, enveloped me in their love and been generally a wonderful support.
This christmas, my mother in law, gave me a wonderful gift. She said that when she had had a baby, her mother in law arranged for a cleaning crew to come once a month for a few months. Not for day to day maintenance, but for those things that you never get to with a sweet little one running around your ankles. She said she wanted to do the same thing for me!

I was thrilled! Especially when I met the man who came to check the house before the first cleaning and he told me that the very first time they came, they would do a deep spring cleaning. He talked about the ladies cleaning things that frankly, I had not cleaned since I moved in here half a year ago.
Besides, since november we have alternated between travelling or being sick. Needless to say, the house needs a bit of attention. Okay, make that a lot of attention. And while I feel pretty guilty at the idea of other people coming in and cleaning my house for me, I am extremely grateful for my mother in laws thoughtfulness.

In addition to that gratitude, the fact that professional cleaning ladies will come into my house today has another positive effect. With the suitcases and bags of three trips, one of them intercontinental, two of them with baby spread around the house, half unpacked and no time for much maintenance tidying when you just run in and out of the house for a few days before hitting the road again, the place had become cluttered. I detest clutter. I HATE clutter. I have almost religious objections against clutter. Unfortunately, like many temptations, clutter likes to keep a close eye on me and if I forgo the fight for a few weeks, it takes control over my house and over me. I become scatterbrained, distracted and don't get any work done.

Still, while I started to do some tidying here and there since last thursday when we we ended the string of holidays, it didn't really have a direction to it. But now, there will be professional cleaning ladies coming in my house. I do not want them to lose their time moving Josephs toys around, or dealing with sixteen little jars and tubes on my vanity table.
In the last three days, I threw out four or five bags of 'stuff', I emptied nearly every single surface, emptied all the suitcases and bags, put all the clothes that were clean back in the closets and those that weren't in the apropriete laundry baskets, and went through Josephs toy and book basket to weed out what wasn't played with anymore to put it away in a bin in the storage closet. The cleaning ladies have not even been here, and my house looks ten times better! Good work!

The new routine

Well, in a way this is the first day of the new year. At least, the first day of the new 'working' year. No, I have not taken on an outside job, but with staying with my in laws until yesterday,we didn't really get into the regular grind of things. Now though, the holidays are over and the new year really needs to start. It started well with me getting up in time, tidying a bit, taking care of computer stuff, and getting cleaned up and dressed before Joseph is awake. It's strange to have the week begin on a thurdsay and it was VERY tempting to just decide to 'let things go' for a few more days and 'start for real' on monday.
But that's the way that those good intentions fell by the wayside. So, that is why my husband did go running on the tredmill this morning and why I did get up to get some work in. I feel great, and I know that if my big boy wakes up now, I can greet him with a happy smile, not a grumpy face!

Plans for today:

- Tidy the house
- Put away the christmas decorations
- Contact two people
- Empty out the suitcase and put everything in the closet where it belongs
- Empty out the bags and put everything in the cupboards where things belong
- If the weather is nice enough, spend an hour or so in the backyard to let Joseph run like a wild man.

Sounds like a happy day, does it not?

After the holidays

With Epiphany behind us, the holiday season is now completely over. Time to get back to the regular routine of day to day life. To tell the truth I am looking forward to it, even as we steal a few more extra days of holiday by spending some time with my parents in law. They are wonderful people that have welcomed me into the family from the very beginning, and of course they are happy to spend time with their overly adorable grandson.

But this wednesday it IS back to normal life. And what has been happening to my good intentions so far?
Well, considering the fact that I arrived home late the second of january, then left again the afternoon of the fourth, I would say we have been doing well. We have gotten up at a decent hour, spend the morning either tending to things that needed tending to, or (here at my in laws where there is not much to tend to) reading and doing some knitting. That allows me to start the day in peace. We are getting close to setting some kind of routine up and have been talking with my parents in law about plans for the entire year. That will give us more room to think in advance about preparations so our routines don't get tossed out so easily.

I am also looking for very EASY and quick recipe's of healthy food with simple ingredients. Many of the crockpot dishes that I've seen seem to ask for cream soups and have too few veggies, while my main objective is to get more veggies in our diet. Unfortunately the time I make dinner when it is not crockpot related is the time when Joseph starts to get fussy and wanting lots of mommy attention: the time right before daddy comes home. So it becomes pretty difficult to make something that requires a lot of chop and prep work. I am going to make this work though.
One day a week will be soup. One day stir fry perhaps. One day either chili or spaghetti with lots of veggies. That way I have four days for variations.

I am starting to feel better, hoping the new year will be a comfortable one, with peave of mind and less of the harried feeling that marked most of last year.

just don't bring it in...

I have a fourteen month old todler. He is the most active, curious little boy I have ever met. My house is not spotless. In fact, my house is so far from spotless I am slightly embarassed. My biggest challenge is the floor. Joseph manages to get things on there that do not wipe off easily if they are not removed immediatly. And of course there are toys scattered here and there, and my desk, despite me tidying it once a week dares to collect papers and crackers and even a bottle of apple cider that belongs in the kitchen cabinet.
There. That is a disclaimer out of the way.

My house may be untidy it is, however, not cluttered. Maybe it is because I grew up in Europe where there simply IS less house to clutter. Maybe it is because I lived in a one room efficiency for two and a half year, where I only had a few kitchencupboards, two under the bed boxes and an armoir. But I do not have a cluttered house.

Just like there are only two secrets to losing weight (diet and exercise) there are only two secrets to having an uncluttered house: not bringing it in, and getting it out. The famous flylady program is right about that. You can not organise clutter. You can only eliminate it. The way to do that is simple. If you do not absolutely love it AND need it, do not buy it. Do not accept it if it is given. Do not let it cross the treshhold of your house. If it is already IN your house, and you do not love it and need it, get it out.

Old papers need to be tossed. Old clothes need to be tossed or given away. My husband and I share one (admittedly big) closet, and even with both of our clothes in it, it is not full. I own about six pairs of shoes in total. One pair of boots, one pair of black work out shoes. Two pairs of heeled shoes, and one pair of heeled sandals, and one pair of flats. I do not need any more, so I do not store anymore.
We were blessed with a lot of clothes after my son was born. At 14 months, of course he has outgrown many of them. I tossed a very limited amount of clothing that was just not usable anymore, selected some outfits that I had really, really loved, and donated the rest. Yes, we do plan more children but we trust that we will be able to provide new (or second hand) clothes for our new baby then. And in the mean time an other mom will be blessed with these.

My biggest problem in tossing is keeping things out of a guilty conscience. Remember that lipstick that you bought, that you have worn two times and simply do not like? You can not throw away a brand new lipstick can you? You spend money on it! Maybe you will change your mind? Maybe you will grow to like it. Maybe you will grow a tail? Keeping this lipstick will not make you like it more. So the only consequence of keeping it, will be that it takes up room in your house while it still will not be used and you will still not get your money's worth out of it. If you are not using it, and you can not see something changing that will make you use it, toss it NOW.

Living in an uncluttered house makes it easier to clean when you DO have the time. If I manage to spend three hours cleaning, I can have my entire house done, plus toss in a few loads of laundry at the same time. While I rarely have this time, it IS wonderful to know that while my house isn't tidy, it never is more than three hours away from tidy.

back on track?

The last few weeks my new found schedule went to pieces. After a visit of friends and a stuborn cold that terrorized our household, it was back to sleeping whenever I could and things here fell by the wayside. I am not good at getting up at the same time with baby because I miss my quiet time in which I get a lot of things done. This blogpost for example. But also some prayertime and knitting time which helps me start the day on the right feet.
So today, I went back to getting up at 6.45. It wasn't easy since I probably only managed to fall asleep after midnight. I know it will be worth it during the rest of the day though. At least that is what I am telling myself now, and what I remember from a few weeks ago.
My plans for the day are simple: I will tend to Joseph first and foremost. I will work on a website, tidy the kitchen and make a simple schedule for the rest of the week: I need two days for website work. One desk day. One ironing day. And one writing day. That is the basic of it, aside from of course cleaning and cooking! And aside from the fact that tuesday is library day and thursday is museum day. Am I making sense?