finding some Zen

1-28-13

It is amazing how much more calm I feel when my house is in order.

Friday was fantastic. I was able to walk the boys to school in the crisp and rainy morning. I then got home and set to work on the housework that needed to be tended to. I spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, mostly because it was where I could still listen to Kevin and Bean. It allowed me to not only clean the crap out of it, it also gave me a chance to organize the pantry! I was rockin it!

Once K&B was over, I migrated to the living room/entry way. That is truly the source of my stress since it has been in a bit of chaos due to the TV acquisition. I was unable to do as much as I would have liked, but mostly that was because I was waiting on Ken’s help with cutting one of the shelving units and I needed to know his plans for the Lego there. Despite these road blocks, I accomplished quite a bit and was all kinds of happy with me.

I also did a crap ton of laundry. I still don’t understand how so much laundry is created in our house. That being said, I actually don’t mind laundry. It is one of those tasks that is crazy easy and instant gratification in my book.  You get to take care of large piles of stuff in a snap!

The rest of the weekend was spent in a whirlwind of errands and cleaning. We got the shelf set up and in addition to that, managed to organize the new “entertainment unit” pretty well. Laundry was completed and playrooms were straightened. It was all kinds of happy making for me. I love being able to walk through the house without fear of smacking into some pile or stepping on some random cord that is out.

Yesterday afternoon I also made a pledge to myself that I would not yell the rest of the day. The boys have been in full testing mode lately. Nothing horrible when you really get right down to it, but I think tension and chores have started wearing on all of us. So I opted to no longer yell at them for the day. Sure, I would still possibly be upset with them, but yelling would not occur. Instead, I would calmly tell them what punishment was or tell them to not do something. Honestly, it was pretty damn cool. In fact, as cheesy as this sounds, I found my mood improved greatly when I made this pact. Sure, Dax had a crazy freak out right before bedtime when I needed to trim his toe nails, but even that didn’t go as badly in the idea of stress on me. I was pretty calm over all. He wasn’t, but I didn’t tell him he couldn’t yell. LOL!

This week is actually a basic week for us, which is thankful. Of course, this doesn’t factor in Saturday. Sigh. Ken and I have an epic AYSO meeting on Saturday which is from 8 to 2. Yeah, you read that right. The only plus is that I am going to drop of the kids Friday night at my mom’s and that will give us a night out. I think the current plan is to so see Hansel and Gretel-Witch Hunters. WOO! The meeting is a little of everything, including budget planning, setting the calendar for the year, and meeting with some vendors. It will be dull. It will be annoying. It will be 6 fucking hours. That being said, I will undoubtedly get the budget done the way I want it done, which will be helpful overall. I am enjoying my part in the idea of making changes that have to be adhered to.

I decided to introduce the kittens to catnip yesterday. Seriously, I clearly screwed up when they were feeling so lousy after surgery. This would have totally curbed any issues. Lucy in particular took to it like a full blown heroin addict. She went nuts over the stuff! It was actually quite cute and funny. All of the cats enjoyed some herbal refreshment and I was angry with myself for not busting out the nip more often.

We also fixed our bed. Holy crap that was a sore spot for us for a bit. We have one of those memory foam mattresses which has been awesome. The mattress had been losing some of its oompf so we got a memory foam mattress topper that we put on top of our existing one. It seemed like a good plan, except for the fact that the cover for these mattresses (which is just a giant bag) and the sliding top coat created this mountain in the bed. I was sleeping in a canyon on one side of the bed, which was incredibly uncomfortable and my back was paying for it. Ken came up with the idea of adding some felt fabric to make the top stick better, and we also flipped the mattress. Bed is all kinds of happy making again! YAY!

Now I have to begin prep for reports that take place tomorrow which leave me in an excel stupor for Tuesday.