Life In The Fast Lane

If you have read this blog for any amount of time (like a week), you would know that we are busy people. I am a do-er, a go-go-go person. I am the kind of woman that if you were to ask me to sit still, it pains me to know that something is going undone. I multitask to the max; I have been known to do three things on the computer, carry on two text messages, and watch tv while using commercials to clean. Seriously. It's bad.

So, life has been busy. And sometimes, I look at things and wonder, where did time go? Was I really so busy working/cleaning/doing a project/etc. that I missed out on all that time?

Which was part of our reason for simplifying our lives by cleaning through everything, getting rid of tons of stuff, reducing the control of possessions in our life. And, as we come into the last week of Easter, I think we've done fairly well. The bottom two levels of our house have been reduced drastically. The things we have are used and used quite often. It's been realized that to clean up now takes less than an hour, instead of two or three as it did before.

I have also tried to use Sunday as a day of rest, often unsuccesfully, but it's an attempt, which is a great start. Sunday is the day to re-coop from the past week and to recharge for the next week. It's a time for family and friends. A time of worship. And it's a time to do things so that I don't wonder where life went.

However, for the Lenten time, at church, we have discussed gluttony and fasting. And, truth be told, I never grew up with any discussion of it. The only thing I knew is that Catholics fasted and, our church was not Catholic. Period. End of conversation. But today, in church, we were challenged to use fasting as a spiritual discipline. And, I am still not Catholic. It really tugged on some strings for me. So, when leaving church, I asked Jose if he would ever consider it. His response was very much a discussion stopper and I didn't know what to say, so I just stopped, but I kept thinking about it.

In short, he stated, "Why do I need to starve myself to pray? Can't God listen if I'm not hungry?" and I didn't feel like arguing. My best answer was, "But it doesn't hurt to try." Which is a crappy answer, I know, but I'm not sure why else I feel compelled to do it. Our life is full of chaos and hurts and drama, and really, I just want a break from that. But it bothers me a lot more to have that life than it bothers Jose. In some sense, I think he believes that it is normal. I see the lives, though, of people around me and I feel as if they are not so complicated. And, I want to have God work that into us, to have a life that is a little less crazy and eventful. Which is why we are making changes to reach that point, through purging our possessions and enjoying the Sabbath. So, in my mind, fasting may just make sense. To show God that I need him more than food. That I choose Him over food (which means a lot because we are an "eat eat eat family").

What do you do to minimize the control possessions have in your life?
Do you have any traditions or things that you do to enjoy the Sabbath?
Have you ever fasted and what was your experience?

I am getting tired of this life in the fast (busy) lane and would like to have life in the fast (focused on God) lane instead....I think I'm ready to switch lanes.

Our Weekend To Done (Or Almost Done) List.

So, on Friday, I posted my weekend to do list. I didn't do it all, but I did do a lot more than I thought I would in other projects, so here's the final tally, with photos!

• Order photos from Snapfish. YUP.
• Organize my craft room. YUP. Jose even cut, painted, and hung a shelf for me. And one of my besties helped me put my things on it.

I love them! Sometimes, my husband freakin' rocks! Okay, he freaking rocks all the time...I guess. ;)

• Finish mural. Not done.
• Pay bills. YUP, DONE.
• Ask my husband to please go through his tote of tools and project stuff and put them somewhere where they will belong. Basically done.
• Do five hours or so of website work for the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition. Not done.
• Ask my husband to hang all the things that I keep begging asking him to hang up, including photo frames, wall decor, etc. Half done. He also did a side project of building shelves for our pantry.

One of the many things Jose hung up this weekend. :) When I have time, I'm so excited

because I'm going to sew a handful of aprons (see the hang up spot on the left?) and do some

lettering on the wall. Stay tuned!

The coolest pantry shelves in the world...heck of a lot better than before...remember this?

Oh, and while we were renovating our pantry, I found a light fixture...hey there, lil' guy! ;)

Seriously, I never knew it was there. Oh, and see that dimmer switch on the side, yea...that's for

lights that are in the living room in an inset shelf thing. Don't ask...

• Finish putting the play room in the basement together (where it will remain clean and organized - HAHA! until we paint it). Not done.
• Go grocery shopping. YUP. We went grocery shopping, wii game shopping, decor shopping, and more.
• Finish up my wedding scrapbook. (This one is just wishful thinking, but it would be nice!) Yea...nope. I will be doing 12 hours of scrapbooking next Saturday, so it's okay...I'm okay with that.
• Plant seeds for our garden in containers until they grow a few inches. YUP, DONE.

Watermelons, khlorobi, peppers, cucumbers, onions, pumpkins, and more! Yum! Can't wait for them to grow...and to eat them!

• Trim the tree by the entrance. Remove mulch and plant grass. Half done. Did the trimming, decided against planting today since it was so windy. I don't really want a driveway full of grass seed.
• Make curtains for the living room, dining room, the landing, our bedroom closet, and the craft room. Also make pillow covers for the living room and the craft room. Half done. Did all the curtains except the craft room. And I only made one pillow cover, but have everything to do the rest. Hopefully soon...

This is the photo on the package. We got four packs.

Then Jamie and I tore them apart. And we made curtains for six window

with enough left over to cover four pillows.

• Purge. We gathered up quite a pile (again) for the garage sale. It's just waiting to go to the garage until we're done. This is a never done task.

• Make a coffee cake. I even got a little more domestic. Granted, it's from a box, but ya know. Not too shabby....for me...

I have already written my to do list for this week....let's see how it goes. I have 11 more rooms/spaces to clean through and purge before Easter. There's only 14 days until then. Hmm....feel the crunch? I do.

My Weekend To Do List:

Okay. I'm going to post my weekend to do list. Right. Here. And instead of writing new posts throughout the weekend, I'm going to update this one. So stay tuned...
Update #1: End of Friday Night...Blue Font
Update #2: Midday Saturday...Purple Font
Update #3: End of Saturday Night...Now, my favorite color...Red.

1. Order photos from Snapfish for 11% off and free shipping using the code "11FREESHIP" (Offer ends Sunday). This will also be done. Tonight. After I pay bills. Ha! So, after uploading a ton of pics last night and still not being around the price range that I "allowed" myself, I resumed uploading more this morning. Then the internet failed and I had to do some crappy computer crap and upload the rest. However, about $30 later and with over 300 photos on their way in the next week or two, we're all set. DONE.
2. Organize my craft room. I brought every piece of crap that was in the room and not where it needed to be into the dining room. Now, to give the crap a home. My craft room is Jose's dump crap room, so it is a big project. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon going through the pile mound ginormous mountain of stuff that came from the craft room and was sitting on the dining room table. I believe there are about five boxes/bags for the yard sale and I filled up a garbage bag. There is still stuff on the table, but it's basically my paint supplies and my scrapbook stuff, and I just need to put it in the craft room. There's also one box that is a ton of misc. stuff that I just kept tossing in there as I went along. I need to go through it still too. Yea. Still tackling this. The kids "helping" me isn't helping. And Jose's going to put a shelf in above the window for some more space to put things, which should help. The shelf is up and my awesome friend, Jamie, helped me put books and some baskets and this and that up. We also went through my stash of photo frames that I can't bear to part with and put in some pics and put them on the shelf. It's pretty awesome. DONE.
3. Finish mural. Seriously. It's for my neighbor and I have worked on it here and there for over a month. Still haven't touched this, but it's a project for after the kids go to bed.
4. Pay bills. Again. I hate bills, but I know that if I don't do it soon, people are going to knock on my door. Done. And I would have balanced my checkbook too, except my husband refuses to turn the light on because he's watching a movie. I balanced my checkbooks this morning and now this is DONE. Officially DONE.
5. Threaten Jose with bodily harm Ask my husband to please go through his tote of tools and project stuff and put them somewhere where they will belong. There is a growing pile that was shoved in my craft room that has got to go. I can't wait for him to have the garage all to himself (after the garage sale) for his tools and stuff. Jose went through his entire tote of stuff. Actually, it began as a tote. We bought it so that there was one place for all his things, tool and project related, to go in the house and out of the way, out of the hands of little people, out of sight, etc. The tote turned into a mountain and today, when he got home, he went through it. I was so proud, because he even grabbed his sorter box thing that Isa bought him for Christmas and I watched him sort out washers, nuts, bolts, a million different screws, etc. Still need to find a home for Jose's tote, but once we do, it'll be done.
6. Do five hours or so of website work for the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition. Because then, my hours will officially be all equaled out how they should be. Still haven't touched this one either.
7. Beg and plead Ask my husband to hang all the things that I keep begging asking him to hang up, including photo frames, wall decor, etc. There is a pile of "hang up" things that will be done tomorrow. Or else. ;) Jose began this project this morning, but we've gotten into a rather large fight today, so he quit in anger. The pile has shrunk though. There are still a couple things in the pile, but he spend the afternoon making wood shelves for our pantry (and we took out the metal ones) and he put my shelf in the craftroom.
8. Finish putting the play room in the basement together (where it will remain clean and organized - HAHA! until we paint it). Maybe after lunch...Not even close...
9. Go grocery shopping. A large chunk of our evening was dedicated to this. Well, kinda. It ended up being a nice dinner, followed by a trip to McVans (a video game place) where we have a credit of over $100 because we traded in all our old game systems. We didn't see any games we wanted, so we asked about DJ Hero for the wii. Turns out one of the other stores had a turntable, so we trekked across town and ended up getting the turntable, DJ Hero, and DJ Hero 2. We also got Mario Party 8. And we still have money on the credit. We then went to Target to buy diapers. Two boxes of Huggies for $30 (saved $11 in coupons). And I love that Target has a Starbucks. We then went to Meijer, where we sipped on our drinks as we shopped. Ended up spending $98 on a full cart of groceries (saved $69), which isn't bad considering that we haven't bought coupons since February and are steering away from doing hardcore couponing. Granted, we still used coupons that we had and printables, but still. I felt like it was success and it really reinforced my choice to shop sales and continue to stock up while minimizing the insanity of coupons in my life. DONE.
10. Finish up my wedding scrapbook. (This one is just wishful thinking, but it would be nice!) Yea...nope. I have looked at the scrapbook stuff though (as I put them away).
11. Plant seeds for veggies in dixie cups so that in a few weeks, I can plant a real life garden. Maybe. This afternoon, the neighbor girl was hanging around, begging to help me do something...so once Isa and Teo woke from their naps, we went outside to plant. We didn't use dixie cups because we found an inexpensive planter box thingie for starting plants. Three of 'em, actually. Which worked well. And now, I have to remember to not kill them. DONE.
12. Trim the tree by the entrance. Remove mulch and plant grass. This project stemmed from one of the things in the hang up pile for Jose. My mom bought us these two lil' tree hugger things to hang on a tree, so we hung them. Then I felt the need to trim the tree. Then, when Jose went to Lowe's, we just decided it would make sense to buy grass since we've been talking about removing the mulch and planting grass there for the past two years or so. Tomorrow, the mulch is going to go and the grass will be planted...
13. Make curtains for the living room, dining room, the landing, our bedroom closet, and the craft room. Also make pillow covers for the living room and the craft room. As we continued to work on things, Jose kept bugging me about curtains, so Jamie and I went to Walmart before dinner. (Have I mentioned that I love that girl?!) The fabric there sucked, so we ended up finding cheap curtains, which we have cut and changed for what we wanted. They only had three packs, so tomorrow, we need to buy one more at a different Walmart. The living room is done and the dining room is waiting for its extra pack. The scraps from the packs and our alterations will be used for the curtains on the landing and the pillow covers for the living room. Tonight at Walmart, we also ended up buying two twin size sheets for $2 each (SCORE!), which are now our new closet "door". Just a couple of trimming things and they are ready to go!

Think it can be done? Hmmm....we'll find out, eh? Stay tuned for updates...

Six Chapters - Friday through Monday

Chapter 1: Land of the Living
Yes, yes, I am still alive! And, in all honesty, I'm doing well. We have seemingly gotten over the last bout of illness [knock on wood] with the exception of a couple coughs here and there. My head is much clearer, my throat is no longer on fire, my nose is no longer raw. The worst part, at this moment, may be my chapped lips. And I can deal with that just fine.

Chapter 2: April Fools
Did anyone have any fun pranks on Friday? I didn't really try hard, but I did "borrow" a photo from a preggo friend of her postitive tests and I (1) posted it on Facebook and (2) sent it to the hubs. Within moments, my facebook notifications exploded, as did my phone with texts from friends. I got chewed out by a couple for posting on facebook without telling them, and my husband's reaction was quite calm. Haha. He did call me a jerk once I shared the Aprils Fool part! However, I am officially not pregnant. At all. Praise God! As much as I love little ones, I am fairly certain that I would end up in a padded room. My sister even called me on Friday to ask if I was preggo, and when I said no, she said "Thank God"...lol.

Chapter 3: Mural Finally

While having April Fools fun, I also hung out with a good friend and her kiddos. We spend the day at her mom's house where I was hired to paint a mural on a cabinet that she had gotten. The cabinet was handmade by someone she knew, so what better than to have a painting added on, right? It was a paying job, which felt good. And she loved it, which made it even better. She sent me some photos of landscapes that she liked, so I combined some of the elements to create this:

Chapter 4: Weekend Madness

After finishing the mural, we took the kids to my mom who offered to watch them both from Friday night until Sunday afternoon! Whooo hoo! And, boy, did we have plans for the weekend. Friday night, we continued with our Lent project of "giving up" material possessions. We went into the playroom in the basement and piece by piece, decided if we were going to (1) keep, (2) garage sale, or (3) trash each item. I believe that by the time we were done, we had over 15 plastic grocery bags of stuff for the garage sale and three trash cans full of trash. Don't worry, there is still more than enough stuff in there for the kids to be entertained for a long long time. When we had the room entirely empty, we called it quits for the night and watched a movie.

On Saturday, we woke up fairly early, had a quick breakfast (I love that the hubs cooks) and got to work. Jose headed to Lowe's and bought a ton of lumber while I began to do some deep deep cleaning. He came home and built a shelf in the pantry for the canned food (the plastic shelves we had were sagging) while I kept cleaning.

Then, we removed the chairs from our living room (one went to our bedroom, one went to the garage sale) and threw the rug to the basement before going out for a relaxing lunch. We felt that we deserved a little treat, so Flat Top it was. Then, we went to buy a rug. Our goal was a cheap one from Big Lots. Instead, we spent about twice what I hoped for (my goal was less than $75), but still got a great bargain. We ended up getting a rug at Menards, that was on sale. They only had the display left and when the employee took it off display, the corner got snagged and became unraveled about a half inch. We ended up getting it for $120 instead of the price listed of$150, so I decided to just do it. And I'm glad we did. I love love love it! After adding the two chairs that we had in our basement (that we got a year or so ago from a yard sale for $10 each!), our living room has become new again! Jose has big plans soon to strip the trim, stain it to match the stain in the dining room, and we will be painting...probably a robin egg blue...but for now, here it is...

Jose worked on building a large shelf in our toy room to block the kids from this huge concrete and metal thing that's sticking up in back corner (we think it was once where the water heater was) and I had to "phone a friend" to help get a couple pieces of plywood for the project. We had a ton of giggles because the boards had to go on top of her car/SUV/station wagon vehicle and it was quite the exciting drive. Thank goodness we live less than a half mile from Lowes! Then, she was awesome and made pizza for us at our house while Jose finished the project and began the next. As the night continued, we got the shelf in place, a frame around the sump pump (which will soon have boards across it to protect the kids from the pump and the pump from the kids), and re-assembled the room.

Then, we finished a movie and went to bed.

Chapter 5: Hop on over to Sunday

Welp, we overslept and didn't go to church. Instead, we went straight to my mom's for lunch. Then, we drove about 20 minutes to the next town east and went to see Hop with the kids. Cute movie, but Teo was quite ornery during a good portion of it. He did end up falling asleep, just in time to wake up for the entire drive home. Then, dinner and I went to church for our Lenten series. I was special enough to even have the mic for about five minutes or so and explain my role with the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition and Anchor Community Church.

Chapter 6: Hello Monday

Back to life. Real world. Work. Hoping to get this week pretty much done by Wednesday night so that I get to clean Thursday and Friday..we'll see. Oh, and I'm going to try to keep blogging through this insanity...