Little Things

Today was a long day. A twelve hour work day, to be exact. Ah, parent/teacher conferences.

Truthfully, I enjoy conferences. It's a great time to talk with parents without the little buddies around. And seriously? Kindergarteners are amazing!

Okay, let's switch gears for a second. My husband and I recently returned home from a super fabulous trip to Arizona. Ah, the sun! The warmth! We got home on President's Day. We didn't do a great job of cleaning before we left, so we came home to a mess (I'm starting to hate that).

Then, hubby's grandpa died the next day. We had a week of family time. Although it was under sad circumstances, it was wonderful to have some family time.

But, it didn't leave us much time for cleaning up the house.

And then? And then I came home after a 12 hour work day with conferences.

And it was beautiful.

Laundry? Done.
Kitchen? Cleaned.
Dining room? Cleaned.
Living room? Cleaned.

Seriously, made my day. Made my week, truth be told.

27 Weeks!!

I am unbelievably shocked that I am already 27 weeks along. It has been such a wonderful pregnancy; I truly cannot complain. The only "ailment" I've had? Heartburn. On a daily basis. Not so horrible, right?

This pregnancy (I write that like I've been pregnant before) has taught my how laid back I can be. Who knew? There are things that I thought I would do as soon as I could after reading the (three) home pregnancy tests.

Like research day care.

Working on that one still... We won't need daycare until mid-August, though.

And register for classes.

I did that yesterday!

And complete the baby room.

Painting has been complete!

Now I just wonder what I'll be like when he's here (honestly, I cannot wait!).

I Love to Cook

An old high school acquaintance of mine has a blog that she uses to keep her extended family up-to-date on the life of her beautiful family. One thing she includes on her blog from time to time is a meal plan for the week. I've decided to do the same for a couple of reasons.

My Amazing Reasons:

1. Organization. Having a plan keeps me organized. It also keeps the fridge organized and the food from going bad.
2. The Big Ol' B Word: Budget. Planning out meals (and shopping lists) has really helped me to stay on budget, which is a really good thing. Especially since we've got baby #1 on his way!
3. Cheap Produce - Delivered. My mom is an amazing woman. And she picks up my produce for me on Thursdays. I drop my list and cash off with her on Wednesdays, then pick up fresh fruits and veggies on Thursdays. And the real kicker? I spend WAY less money this way. It's a life saver (and a budget saver!).

So. Here's my meal plan for the week:

Monday: Chicken Enchilada Stew (turned tacos)
Tuesday: Girls' Night @ a friend's house (leftover tacos for the hubby)
Wednesday: Salmon & Zucchini
Thursday: Homemade Mushroom & Broccoli Pizza
Friday - Saturday - Sunday: ARIZONA (so so so thankful for a family vacation!)

The enchilada stew turned tacos turned out amazingly. I stuck everything in the crockpot on Sunday night and started it up on Monday. The chicken was perfectly shred-able and delicious by 5:30. Oh, it was a beautiful dinner!

Before cooking - we were too hungry to take a picture when all was done!

Office Turned Baby Room

I decided that my weekend project would be painting the baby room. For as long as we've lived here, the second upstairs bedroom has been used as an office slash dog room slash closet. All at once. Since our boy will be here in just about 13 weeks, we figured it time to relocate the office / dog room / closet to another area in the house and really get crackin' on this kid's room.

Oh, the work we cut out for ourselves! While the husband and I have only been married for a year and a half, we have accumulated quite a lot of crap stuff. Very important stuff (can you sense the sarcasm in my typing?).

See all the crap?

We started the adventure by emptying a filing cabinet that weights nearly 1 million pounds, empty. One of the drawers was perfectly organized, with labeled files and everything. The other? The other had become a junk drawer of sorts. The catch-all for everything that didn't have a home somewhere else. Going through that was a killer, but now it is so nicely organized in our new office nook.

Once we got that complete, we realized we couldn't really empty baby's room until the green couches were gone. All of our office stuff was to be moved into a little nook that had been taken up by a big couch and a cozy chair. Two items that we rarely used. When we moved in, we had no furniture. Within a week, we had a sectional and two couch / chair sets. One couch and chair set had to go. We decided to donate the couch and chair, since they were in perfect condition. With help from our brother-in-law, they were gone from our house and the office nook was put together (stay tuned for a post on that soon).

Finally, we got around to painting the baby room. We went with non-traditional colors for a couple of reasons: blue is rather over done and I love the color orange. The stripes will only be on one wall. I hope to have the crib right there, but we will have to see how everything fits. Apparently babies have a lot of stuff, and this is a small room.

Next on the docket for baby projects? Furniture painting (changing table and book shelf).

Stay tuned!