Well, I have some good news for once – I actually feel like I accomplished as much as I set out to last week! I had a big list of custom orders that needed to be done and I finished them all. I didn’t have many (or any?) other sales, but it also occurred to me just how low my inventory is right now. I think it’s just impossible to catch up to where I want to be with my workload. But I’ll keep working on it. Maybe next school year I’ll finally hit my groove with the work at home/life at home balance!
I also implemented a Self Care Wednesday this week! There’s been all this random shopping I’ve really been wanting to do. No regular errands, just fun things for myself. I actually ended up going Wednesday and Friday because Friday required a few necessary errands. I wandered around Ulta and looked at so much makeup. I even found a new lipstick brand and style to brighten my week. I tried on clothes at Kohls and found a pair of $10 jeans that actually fit and I liked. I went to Barnes and Noble – TWICE – to find more books to add to my list. I meandered JoAnn’s and found some fabrics and supplies for future projects. It was all very leisurely, mostly browsing, but really just a lot of fun.
I feel like I had a good amount of family time this week too. The boys were off of school Monday, so we ran a few errands and then went to lunch with my mom for her birthday. We worked on Valentines together and went to a rec department button craft night. Greg and I had our usual tv nights and a quiet at home date night. And we all spent the day together in Chicago yesterday. We also spent all of today working together to rearrange the house. Lots of family time this week.
And as an awesome bonus for the week – Greg finished our taxes AND he bought and installed our new toilet. No more fighting over the one toilet every morning!
So looking ahead to this next week – it’s a big one! Valentine’s Day and Shepard’s birthday and two birthday parties. Lots to get done in the next few days!
First Priority: Finish Straightening Up the House!
I’ve really wanted to get a Lego area set up in the house again. I can’t even remember why Greg moved them to the basement in the first place a couple months ago. At one point he was thinking about setting up a play area down there, but then we had all of our water emergencies. Between the constant thawing water trickling through and the pretty low temps down there, it just couldn’t happen. But I had already rearranged the family room to give him a desk/office area, so the Legos didn’t have anywhere else to go. We finally tackled that puzzle today, which led to basically rearranging every room on the main floor of the house.
We ended up moving one of my big bookshelves from the living room into my sewing room. And redistributed everything I had in that space into new spaces. Which in turn meant I had to reorganize everything in my sewing room. But now the Legos are set up in the living room. I think I’m going to take some real time to readjust to this. The living room was the one room I could always count on to be clean, peaceful, and pretty. Nobody had any reason to be in here except me and I loved it. I gave that up today for a mess that’s guaranteed to NEVER be cleaned up again. I figured it was for the greater good and a sacrifice I could make. I’m not the only one that lives here, after all. But when Greg said he plans on using the window seat as the spot to display all the finished sets….yeah, I couldn’t really swallow that one. 🙁 Goodbye picture perfect peaceful room. I guess my concession is that we were able to move the family room back to the way we had it, so it doesn’t feel too cramped and overwhelming. And without any Legos in that room, it’s hopefully easier to keep clean. Then all our rooms can be half clean, half messy…
Anyway! I need to find a rug for our new Lego area. Hopefully a rug that can strictly be enforced as the only portion of floor Legos are allowed on! I also need to do some major kitchen cleaning and bedroom cleaning before the weekend and Shepard’s parties hit.
Second Priority – Valentine’s Day
So Valentine’s Day isn’t a HUGE holiday, but we do like to celebrate. It’s fun to always find reasons to celebrate! I’m hoping we can have a nice family night on Tuesday. I’m going to make heart shaped ravioli and pasta for dinner, with a flourless chocolate cake for dessert. I also have small gifts for each of my boys. My goal for the week is to feel prepared, calm, and open to just enjoying the night together. I’m also hoping if the boys go to Grandma’s this week sometime, Greg and I can get a real date in.
Third Priority – Shepard’s 6th Birthday!
I’m a little nervous about birthday festivities this year. I feel like every single year I go so out of the way to make Caden’s parties awesome. And Shepard’s always feel like an afterthought. I finally planned out some food, but I have nothing that fits his Mario theme. He wants sundaes for dessert, so I won’t even have a cake to decorate. This is also the first year that he’s having a friend birthday party. AND the first year we’re having a party on his actual birthday. I definitely wouldn’t have ever done that if I could have found a way out of it. But with it falling on a Saturday, this is just the only way it could be done. Before party mode is always super hectic and stressful around here, but I want to try soooo hard to avoid that this time since it is his actual birthday. My perfectionism mode needs to go away on Saturday and just let things go. The house will probably be a bit messy. But the party is only two hours and we’re only eating one food. We’ll survive. And then his family party is on Sunday. He’s pretty easy to please, so I’m sure it will all go smoothly.
And if in between all of that I can have time to sew and build up my inventory – that would be AWESOME. But I can’t depend on it. Today was supposed to be my big work day this week. And then I spent the entire day rearranging and reorganizing. 🙁 So we’ll see what happens.
Finally, no meal plans yet this week. I’m so sick of making dinner, you guys. I’ve been sick of it for months. There doesn’t seem to be any meal anymore that everybody likes. And making a meal knowing one person is going to complain through all of it – it takes all the fun out of cooking. So we’ll just see what comes to me at 4:30 every afternoon!
Have a good week!
