Nesting or clean freak?

Lately, I seem to be either in super nesting mode or I'm becoming a clean freak. Between washing and using cloth diapers again, doing the rest of the baby laundry, and keeping up with our normal laundry, I've been doing 2-3 loads per DAY! I used to do one load every two days or so. And then there's the rest of the house cleaning. I've been doing a pretty good job at maintaining the rest of the house, considering how far along I am (which is almost 38 weeks now). Then, I've been finding and creating extra jobs for myself. Like cleaning the windows in the car, or since we need to wash the baby's carseat, I might as well wash M's carseat as well. Or why not rearrange my whole linen closet?

Since I know how much I (don't) love to clean, I'm going to go with nesting at this point. We've only been in this house for around 3 months, I can't have changed my habits already, could I have?

In any event, does it really matter if I'm keeping up with everything I need to do and then some? K definitely isn't complaining!

Making the worst jobs easier

My least favorite job is by far folding and putting away laundry. Even though I can do it in front of the tv, I still hate doing it. So I found a way to make it not as time consuming or daunting. I bring an empty laundry basket downstairs to the dryer and I fold the laundry as I put it into the basket. It makes taking it out of the dryer take a bit longer but when I come upstairs, it's in the basket folded and just needs to be put away. Then I can watch tv and NOT have to fold laundry at the same time.

Another secret I use is NOT fast forwarding through commercials on my recorded shows. I know, that's the point of having them recorded, but this way, I can enjoy my show AND get housework done. Most of the time it's dishes that I do, or simple tidying up the house. But the job doesn't seem as much like a job since really, I'm just watching tv.

Permission to fall behind: GRANTED!

I think one of the most important things to remember when trying so hard to keep your house clean is that it's ok to give yourself permission to take some time off and let things fall behind.

I've learned that keeping your house clean is like a big cycle. I love having a clean house. So when the house is mostly clean and I see little messes, I have no problem tidying them up right away. Which keeps the house cleaner. Which motivates me to keep the house cleaner. And this also affects my mood. I know that when the house is clean, I can take some time to myself, like watch some TV during nap time instead of cleaning floors. AND, another big bonus is when I'm not feeling very well, and I ask K to help me vacuum or do something, he doesn't hesitate to help out since he sees how hard I've been working to keep things under control.

I've been wondering lately if I would have been able to get to this point if we hadn't moved. I had a plan somewhat drafted up before we moved. We purged the townhouse of all our clutter, we got a storage locker and cleaned the place up. I got into some sort of routine at the old house and when we moved, I knew exactly what I needed to do to keep the new house clean. So I started off on the right foot. And the motivation just kept snowballing so I've been able to keep up with everything. Even over the last three weeks, when I've been sick. Which takes me back to the title of this post. I haven't been following my schedule over the last few weeks. I've given myself permission to fall behind. But I was able to prioritize my tasks, and keep up with laundry and dishes, and keeping the house tidy. When I've noticed something, I've been able to assess whether or not it really needed to be done right away.

And now, three weeks later (being sick while pregnant SUCKS) I'm finally able to take the chance at saying that I feel better and can bulldoze my way through my house to get it back to where it needs to be. I have no laundry in the hampers again. I only did laundry today because my pants were dirty so I added some bath towels in there as well. I have no dishes waiting to be washed and my kitchen is mostly tidy. After a morning of semi fighting with DD and a few time outs, most of her toys are picked up. And now it's naptime and I'm going to do the rest to get me back on schedule.

So to all the mamas out there that need a break sometimes, don't feel bad about giving yourself permission to fall a little behind. We all need a breather sometimes, just do what you have to so that when you feel better, it isn't too hard to catch back up!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's only a day late, no biggie, right?

First of all I hope all the fantastic Mother's reading this had a great day. And if they didn't, there's a reason why Mother's Day comes before Father's Day. HAHA.

My day was fantastic! Started out with kisses from my adorable daughter and a gift card for a manicure from my favourite spa. My mom and I have pedicures scheduled there next week so I'm going to add manicures to the appointment. Then I made breakfast. K made us bacon and eggs on Saturday morning so I treated us to crepes with strawberries for Mother's day. M ate three whole crepes. Then I made a point of doing nothing all day to get ready for our barbeque dinner. K vacuumed and tidied up the house before the family all showed up. And dinner went fabulously. My parents, both brothers and their girlfriends all came, along with Grandma who ventured upstairs to join us for burgers. I even made my dad cut the tomatoes, and he had apparently never done so before. I also made my youngest brother help K clean up afterwards.

And, this 8 month pregnant mama finished her day by going to bed early. Early meaning 9pm. And I slept...well, alright for being 8 months pregnant.

Thank you to everyone who wished me a great day, I hope you all got to enjoy the same!

First product review: Vileda Promist Mop

Whenever there is a move, there is inevitably going to be lost items. Over the last few months, I had slowly found items on my mental 'Lost' list but one item was still MIA. And a random one at that, our mop bucket. On top of that, I found out that K and I both hate our mop. It's an old string style mop that is always dirty and the process of filling the mop bucket, bringing it upstairs and carrying it around the house ends up making more of a mess than it cleans up. So I bought a new mop a few weeks ago and decided that today would be the perfect day to take it for a test run. And, it turns out, I like it. Hopefully this review is helpful for all of you reading!

Why I choose the Vileda Promist Mop
At the time, it was cheaper than the Swiffer WetJet. It also offers three environmentally friendly/cost effective features. The first is that the removable velcro mop pad is machine washable up to 100 washes. This appealed to me more than the disposable mop pads offered by the Swiffer. The second feature is that you use your own cleaning solution in the refillable container, instead of buying pre-packaged refill packs. Now I'm not super concerned about my carbon footprint, considering I do most of my cleaning with disposable lysol wipes, or paper towels, but I like to do what I can when I can. And, since I live with cats and kids, the option to use whichever cleaning solution I want is a huge benefit. Today, I simply used vinegar with hot water. The third is that you don't need batteries. As a mother who is constantly changing batteries in kids toys, the last thing I need to worry about is powering my mop.

Why I like the Vileda Promist Mop
On top of the above features, the Vileda Promist Mop is very easy to use. The mop head swivels easily and is easy to move around the room. And, as someone who's 6 feet tall, I don't have to bend over or hunch my back to get the job done. The mist feature is very easy to use and the spray covers a good area in front of you. I remembered that we had some dried cat puke downstairs on the entry way tile and my simple solution of vinegar and hot water along with a few good 'swipes' got it clean.

Other than the actual functioning of the mop, I love how light and mobile it is. It's almost awkward when you have to carry a mop bucket of dirty, soapy mop water around the house and this is super easy. I love that there's no mop bucket to fill up and you can use as much or as little solution as you want or need depending on what you're cleaning up.

For anyone considering a new mop, I definitely recommend this one. Feel free to post a comment or question. Have you used this mop before? Are you thinking about it? Hopefully I can help you out and make cleaning up those mommy messes a little bit easier.

Time to help other people clean up

As some of you might have heard there was recently a bunch of violent tornadoes in the South East US. Areas of Alabama and Tennessee were hit pretty hard. I have a very close friend who lives near some of the devastation. Thankfully she was not affected but she knows some people who lost everything. To help her spread the word on how we can help those who were affected, I'm posting some links. Feel free to repost this so that we can get the most help down there as possible. Thanks for reading.

Work Volunteer Abroad
Road to Recovery


For a more comprehensive list, visit my friend's blog.
Cooking for Colonel Itchypants