changes 'round here

big new my friends! We are moving back to Titusville! After much thought and consideration, we've made the decision. On top of that, we're moving in with my folks. I know, most people would think that is a disaster but we're THAT family who is always together. We're basically combining incomes into 1 household. When the economy sucks, you can get creative so that life isn't as hard.

Financially, it has been rough for the whole family. My brother moved to Arkansas for a job and my aunt/uncle moved to Georgia for the same reason. At one point, my brother, mom, and dad were laid off at the same time. None of us have ever been fired or asked to leave, it is merely the sucky economy.

Condensing households makes sense and its been a growing trend across the country. In previous times, this was the norm. What we're doing isn't new, it is just different from the thought of having independent houses.

I definitely don't think this could work for everyone and the personalities have to be able to compromise. Hmm sounds like marriage?!

still my baby

As I hold my sleeping boy, I see both baby and toddler. It is such an overwhelming feeling to think about how small he used to be. I still feel lucky to be his mommy!

ps- he calls nursing mam-man! Lol!

much less facebook makes me happier

I can't handle reading everyone's thoughts on facebook. Unlike blogs, it is a hodgepodge of people I've met throughout my life. I'm not ditching facebook, but I'm not going to keep constantly checking my newsfeed.

I'm not sure if I stuck to 30min of internet usage but I logged off when Neal got home last night and focused on my family. It was good. We walked 2 miles, hung out with the neighbor, made dinner, and watched tv together. Turning off technology created more time instead of complaining that time ran way from me. I also realized that i'm never truly bored! Every time I feel like I have a minute, I'm on my smartphone checking facebook. Ugh.

signing off.....

harmless fun?

I think I have an internet problem- in fact, I think most of us do! I remember when AIM, the LiveJournal, the MySpace, facebook, blogger all became popular. I look around me and our constantly plugged in society. While it can be a great way to share, inspire, relate, whatever... It also accounts for countless hours of my time. I've spent more time on facebook and blog hopping than I should have. I keep up with strangers' lives and know their family intimately. I feel creepy but mostly guilty.

I have many neighbors and nearby friends that I should see in the flesh. The interesting thing is that even when we try not to, we end up appearing different virtually than in reality. Whether its the spotless house or the angled camera, we aren't as perfect as we try to seem. We also aren't as interesting.

I contemplated being crazy and deleted all online accounts to focus on real-life relationships but that seems drastic. Events are planned online, births/deaths are announced online. I don't want to limit my ability to connect, I just don't want it consuming or over-powering my day. I'm going to start by limiting my time online to 30 minutes/day.

PIcture of the hoardings!

Here is a picture of all the clothes that I donated! I doesn't look like much in the picture, but that is 3 trash bags full (I wanted to keep my rubber maid boxes!), 1 huge box, and 1/2 a laundry basket of shoes.

The day before, I got rid of 3 boxes of books. All in all, we estimated that we shed the house of 7 moving boxes :-) That feels great! I was going to take pictures of the closet and the bedroom but I didn't do before pictures.. so that after won't seem so great. One day I will learn to use my camera before I start a project. It's just that I usually start a project without realizing it.

I also vacuum sealed all of Silas' baby clothes. I went from 2 rubbermaid containers to one! While I was at it, I figured that I should do the same with some of our bedding. In true southern form, I have bedspreads for each season. Better Homes and Gardens makes seasonal quilts/bedspreads sold at walmart for around $20-25. Being in Florida, we don't actually need more than a sheet at night for most of the year. I absolutely love changing the bedspread for each season. It puts me in a great mood! We also have a thick, down-alternative comforter that was a wedding present. As you can assume, this creates a lot of storage need. To help, I used the huge 3XL ziplock bags and vacuum sealed all of our bedspreads to transform our linen closet. How on earth did I forget about vacuum-sealing our stuff?!

Again, I feel so much more freedom with this crap cleared out! Between the purging and the better storage, I can clean much more easily. It's very hard to clean around clutter and space that is maxed out with stuff. It's like countertops, if they are cleared off, it's no big deal to wipe them down- it takes 30 seconds.

Out with the old!

You know those jeans from college that never really fit? Or the club shirts that are in the back of the closet? How about the shoes that you bought to wear for dinner but walking from the bedroom to the car was too painful so they've never been worn?

My closet was crammed full of clothes I haven't worn for 2 years. Even then, they were all 2-4 years old. Even if/when I return to work, I'll need new stuff and can get by on the dresses I currently wear. I threw out all of my old button up dress shirts. Yes, it's bittersweet and I remember the blue and white vertical striped one that I wore on the first day of my job, but I definitely wore the heck out of it. What am I holding on to? It just needs to go so that I can have an easier, more organized life!

In the end, I had 3 boxes full of this stuff. And I mean big boxes. I purged at least 20 tops, countless tshirts, 6 bottoms, and at least a dozen pairs of shoes.

In the spirit of purging, I also got rid of several books that I don't need on my shelves. Personal finance textbooks from 2003 are not even helpful in our current economy! The result of book cleaning? 2 whole shelves cleared off!

I started all of this cleaning because my aunt and uncle just moved and I was over at their house watching them pack. I couldn't help but think about how many useless things we will have to pack when we move. While I still have a TON of books, I knew that there were several that I simply didn't ever use. Same thing with the clothes. While these items sat at my house not hurting a thing, I just reduced our need of 5 boxes (along with the space in the moving truck).

It feels very good to box up crap and give it to goodwill. I am starting with the obvious stuff first just to clear out the space. If you haven't moved or purged in awhile, I recommend filling a box :)

Two years of being a mom

One year ago, I had a 4 month old. A year before that, I just found out I was pregnant. That's baffling. I have never had life changes like I have in the past 2 years. Any mom knows that no matter how much you prepare, you can never imagine how much a little one will absolutely consume your every minute of every day to the point that you have to force yourself to do something else (and even then, you think about that kid lol!).

This mommy transformation is not easy in the slightest way (and for some it seems super hard), but it is quite the adventure. I feel like I went from being on cloud nine for the entire pregnancy and first 6 months to being a little unsure. The sleep deprivation was catching up to me, I was questioning my instincts, and I had a teething baby who was in pain all the time. Every time someone offered a teething solution, my blood boiled because "YES I HAVE TRIED IT ALL!" Unless it is some little known thing and a mom is asking for advice, you should probably just say "I'll bring you dinner and paper plates" if you really want to help her out.

Now that I'm a slightly more seasoned mom, I've grown to feel very comfortable and secure with the first year. It's the older years that I'll still have to figure out as we go. Now, I can see why people have more kids and it doesn't seem quite as hard the second time around. I know more kids is more work, but you're already used to not watching an entire tv show or pooping alone or toys in the living room.