Let it snow!

The snow is absolutely beautiful today! I normally dislike snow on a day I have to drive in it, but today I find it gorgeous. 

My plan was to be out of the house and to the store by 7:30 AM. Jack woke up and puked on the carpet around 4:30, just 15 minutes before Arthur's alarm was set to go off. Ugh! Cleaning dog puke while half asleep is not something we enjoy doing. He got his shots yesterday, so I figured he would throw up in the 24 hours following; he just does that. 

Arthur decided to go ahead and stay up and go for his run. I went back to sleep, sort of, for the next 45 minutes or so. Then Iris woke up, asking for Daddy...who was still out running. I got her back to bed, only to have Arthur noisily come through the door about 20 minutes later. Iris was back up. She came out of her room naked, to our surprise. I told Iris and Lily, before bed the night prior, to get dressed before coming out of their room this morning. Iris only got undressed before needing to use the bathroom, hence the nakedness. Lily woke up soon after and they got dressed together. I jumped in the shower while I could, and we were all dressed and downstairs to eat by 6:25! I was pretty excited that there hadn't been a meltdown by anyone and that we even got ready that early. 

We were bundled up and had schoolbags and snowpants loaded in the car by 7:15 and left the driveway at 7:19! I was so excited. Then, I realized that the snow was a bit worse on the roads than I had thought. Nothing was plowed, or even in the process of being plowed. I didn't see a single plow truck for the 25 minute drive to Meijer. I got pretty frustrated. I don't understand the logic of the street cleaning process, but I guess I'm not meant to. 

There was no one at the store, which was so great! Iris was able to sing throughout the store; I usually tell her to quiet down because there's so many people and no one really wants to hear her that loud! We were in and out and off to preschool; we ended up getting there a little early. I decided to run to Dominick's with just Addy, after dropping off the older two, before we went to our play date. So glad I did; the snow has not stopped yet, and the roads were getting yuckier. 

I saved a good amount of money with the deals/coupons I had lined up, so that added to my overall satisfaction of the morning. The play date went well, we all got home and ate lunch. The girls are now sleeping, and my feet are ready to rest!

I might consider the before school shopping excursion to become a more regular thing. No crowds to fight. The girls are alert and, for the most part, happy. No one's tired or hungry yet, so I'm in a much better mood as well. :) 

Tomorrow we find out the sex of the baby!! I'm so excited; I probably will have a hard time sleeping tonight. I still get so amped up, like when I was little, that I just can't fall asleep. It's like that still for me on Christmas Eve, the night before we leave on a vacation, and (when I was working) the night before I had a meeting or presentation. 

The last load of laundry is FINALLY drying. I've noticed laundry is spilling into a second day lately, which I'm not overly thrilled about. Who is wearing all these clothes?! :) I still dedicated Mondays to laundry; we stay in, almost always, on Mondays just to do laundry. I've been having a load or two left to throw in on Tuesdays the past few weeks. Hmmm. I guess I still prefer that to doing a load a day....I hate that feeling of doing a little a day. To me, I always feel behind or worry that I'm washing the "wrong" load that day and will need something the next day that's not washed yet! Too much stress for me! 

This post really became a hodge-podge of everything, not just about the snow. (Although, I am still enjoying sitting here by the window looking at it in between typing sentences.)

I get asked how I am so organized, with 3 little kids. Sometimes, I don't really feel that organized, but I guess I am pretty good at getting routines in place. So, for anyone that's wondering (and I apologize to those who aren't), here's my breakdown by day of what we have scheduled every week to do. I fill in appointments, play dates, and whatever else in the times we don't have a set, weekly activity to do.

Monday - laundry, take inventory of food, make grocery lists, pull sales from blogs/websites and clip the related coupons


Tuesday - (lately)finish up laundry, preschool for iris and lily, grocery shopping while they're at preschool, collect all garbage and recycling together for Wednesday's collection


Wednesday - garbage day, change all bedsheets, preschool for iris, scan items from Tuesday's purchases for NCP 


Thursday - preschool for Iris and Lily, make calls to the shut-ins from church (i have 3 folks) while they're in school


Friday - menu plan for following week


My everyday "chores" are (in this order, but spread out throughout the day):
-Empty dishwasher
(-Arthur makes all the beds and pushes in Lily's trundle for me. xoxo)
-Clean toilets, sinks, mirrors in bathrooms
-Spray shower with cleaner after all showers have been taken (no rinsing needed, so it's really quick)
-Pull out meat to defrost if not done night before
-After each meal, we always load the dishwasher (no dishes sit in the sink)
-Run dishwasher after supper
-Girls' baths (every other day; we have eczema issues over here)
-Make markerboard list of following day's things to do, check calendar for appts, pull out next day's meat...if I remember. :)


Of course, there's all the other things we do at different times of the day: read together, find fun things to bake, check emails, check facebook :), blog, devotions(I REALLY need to make this an everyday at a set time kind of thing...I get behind often on it), the other housework (dusting, vacuuming, windows, thorough bathroom cleaning, etc). Those I am more lenient with; the housework, though, I spread out throughout the week and am not as strict about set times for it like I was when I strictly followed the FlyLady schedule. 


I really enjoy having a good routine for everything. That helps the girls know what to expect; they know Wednesday is clean sheets day! It also helps me from making a million mental lists, that I will not remember. We do a lot of reading together during the day now that we're on to chapter books, so that takes up a lot of time in between the chores and meals. I am loving it, though...so if something gets pushed to the following day, I think I'm ok with that. When Baby gets here, I am praying that my routines will help me get back on my feet quicker, so I won't feel too overwhelmed with the house stuff and can just enjoy all the kids! 


God really works in crazy ways; He knew how I love organization, and I think that is why He lead me to the idea of homeschooling for next year. I don't think I could do it, if I didn't enjoy the strict scheduling of day to day things. I'm not saying every day is perfect and everything gets done every week, but having a plan for each day (ahead of time!) really reduces the stress. Of course, I stress over other ridiculous things that I shouldn't....so maybe now I can work on those! :)


I actually did NOT plan out this week's dinner menu, so I've been winging it. Tonight, I'm making something with round steak. Guess I'll google some recipes and find something new and tasty!