Daily schedules

I've been working on being more productive with my time. I'm not overhauling everything at once, just making small changes that I can handle.

First I started setting my alarm clock early enough so I can pray and read my scriptures before starting the rest of the day.

Next I started exercising again: walking/running and cycling.

Then I added a cleaning schedule. I hate cleaning and avoid it as much as possible, so I decided to schedule a task for each day: bathrooms one day, downstairs floors another day, etc.

When we get back from our visit to family and I've got all my craft and sewing stuff organized in the cabinet I'm almost finished painting, I'll add in some "school time" for LMS.

I'm also working on spending less time on the computer- I tend to waste a lot of time if I'm not careful.

Another goal to add to my list

I've been letting my hair grow for the last couple years and it's longer than it's been in, well, I don't know how many years. In fact, I'm only an inch or so away from a 10 inch ponytail. When I have a 10 inch ponytail I'm going to chop it all off and donate it to Locks of Love.

I've thought about donating to them before, but I always get frustrated with my hair and chop it off long before I get close to the 10 inch mark. I recently realized that I'm actually pretty close now, so I'm going to stick it out and let my hair grow a bit longer.

My goal: Not give in to the frustration of having long hair that I always end up pulling back in a braid because I hate having it in my face. I will let it grow till I have my 10 inch ponytail. Then I'll get a cute short hair cut :)

Painting progress

While it was definitely a pain to have to make sure everything looked nice for the showing Friday, it did give me the push I needed to make some progress on my painting projects, despite the heat and humidity. There's nothing quite like having sweat dripping off you onto the floor while you're painting a piece of furniture.

I finished painting the cubby bases Friday morning and Saturday I drilled holes for the knobs and adjusted the drawer slides a bit for maximum smooth movement. Now I'm just waiting for the paint to cure before we fill them with LMS's toys.

Friday morning I also painted another layer of primer on my craft cabinet. Saturday I did a light sanding, cleaning up stray drips and dried shmootz. It's now ready for the first of two coats of paint.

Saturday I also started sanding the coffee table I found on craigslist for $15. A couple of the feet had been used as a chew toy, so I also had to use some wood filler. I need to sand some more and use a bit more wood filler before finishing up the sanding.

I forgot to take the pics till after I'd already started sanding, so the chewed up areas aren't as noticeable as they were before. Once they're sanded and painted, you won't even be able to tell.

Sunday Funny

Any ideas what LMS is doing here?

She came out to the back porch where I was sanding and painting, and this is what she looked like.

She's plugging her nose and covering her ears (kind of).

I've seen her cover her ears like this before- I'm not quite sure how one shoulder and one hand  blocks the sound, but what do I know?  :)

Looking at photos

Our landlord wants to sell our house. We knew this, because it's in our lease agreement that we'll be ready to show the house at any time during the last month of our contract, which is March.  However, he seems to be getting antsy, since he's already posted the house on some for sale by owner sites and even located a possible investor. The potential investor wanted to do a walk through, so I had to make sure the house looked good for the showing Friday morning.

This meant I needed to finish unpacking the last few random boxes and I needed to haul some stuff that had been sitting in our bedroom up to the attic.

One of the boxes that hadn't been unpacked was the one full of framed pictures- family photos as well as some prints and such.

These pictures have been in storage for more than two and a half years- I packed them up when LMS was 18 months old.

(LMS at about 4 months old, quality isn't the greatest because it's a thumbnail from the photo studio)

Looking at LMS's baby portraits was fun- she's changed so much. Wow, she had some chubby cheeks! I don't remember them being that chubby, but they must have been....  She's still got a big head, though. She got stuck coming out because her head was so big, poor kid (poor me, too).

Our anniversary is coming up on Wednesday (9 years!) and it was fun to look at our wedding pictures- we looked so young :)

I scanned in some of our photos, but our scanner isn't the greatest, so the quality isn't the best. I need to dig out the negatives (*gasp* yes, our wedding photos have negatives!) and get some reprints and enlargements done. All our pics of LMS are digital, but none of our wedding photos are- in the 5 years between those two events, a lot changed.

I've discovered a great new diet!

The secret?

Become allergic to almost everything you eat!

I've been having reactions to things I used to be able to eat. At first I thought it was contamination issues, but now I just think it's my body being even more stupid than usual.

These days I can't eat (among other things) ice cream, chocolate, canned refried beans, or corn chips. Even the chocolate chip cookies I made and the Betty Crocker gluten free brownies caused a bad reaction: extreme nausea followed by massive burning stomach pain and less than pleasant bowel movemnents. Oh yeah, and insomnia. Love that one. I haven't had problems with insomnia since the first couple years that I was sick, and I have not enjoyed it's reappearance.

Because of all the bad reactions, I've pretty much lost my appetite- I'm almost afraid to eat anything packaged for fear I'll have a bad reaction. While annoying on one level, it has been beneficial on another. I've stopped snacking on junk food completely and am truly eating healthier, and in less than two weeks I've already lost 5 pounds!

Last week I eliminated eggs from our diet to see if they were causing the problem. I've had problems with eggs in the past, so I decided to eliminate them first. I had hoped they wouldn't be the culprit because it's hard to do gluten free baking without eggs- egg substitutes are usually a starch, which throws off the delicate balance of gf flours and starches and liquids. Unfortunately, I ate some gluten free eggless muffins last week, and they still gave me problems.

The muffins had milk in them, so this week we've eliminated all dairy products, and I've been doing great! No reactions at all. However, this is a problem because we really like cheese and yogurt and ice cream. Maybe eventually we'll be able to add them back in. Not sure I can do the cheese substitute thing- soy cheese just sounds too disgusting and completely unappetizing.

LMS has been having some poop issues as well (they improved a bit when she went gf, but there's still something not right). I didn't notice an improvement last week, but I've seen a little this week. Hopefully I'll start seeing a lot of improvement in her soon.

More pics of LMS's room

I posted a lot more pics of LMS's room here.

That's goal #28 finished!

Good hard run

Today I did 4.5 miles, and I ran a little more than 3 of those miles. It kicked my bum! It was a bit cooler (70's) than it has been (90's+), but still hot and humid, and I can tell that I still have a ways to go to get in shape.

Admittedly, I am running up and down lots of hills while pushing a 4 year old in a jogger, but I'm still not in shape. I think I need to start using my inhalers again, too :(  I hate being dependent on medication, but I could tell I wasn't getting enough oxygen, so I'll have to use them.

I've got 3 weeks till the 4 mile race, and I'd like to run the whole thing, so I need to start ramping up my training. I'd also like to start increasing my weekly mileage so I can run a half marathon in November.

I finally finished it!

Little Miss Sunshine's room, that is.

I've taken a bunch of pictures, but I need to lighten them up (I have a crappy camera and her bedroom has crappy lighting), and I need to go dig out our camping gear for our ward campout tonight.

So, here's a sneak peak of her room, and I'll get the rest of the photos posted as soon as I can (hopefully tomorrow).

Sunday Funny

Last night Mr M told LMS "no hanging from the chandeliers."

LMS laughed and said "I don't have sandal ears!"

Painting progress

Today it finally cooled down a little: mid-80's instead of high 90s-100s, and wasn't too humid, so I took advantage of the good weather.

This afternoon, our back porch looked like this:

Several hours later, it looked like this:

I finally primered everything!

I still have to do the backs of the doors and the shelves, but everything else is done.

Next up: painting the bookcase and the cubbies, and then the cabinet.

If the weather stays good this week, I can finally get these finished.

Woohoo!

Swimming lessons

Last week we finished the second round of swim lessons.

We went with the other teacher this time, and between the repetition of taking the class again, the different teaching style (the second teacher is much more suited to teaching 3, 4, and 5 year olds), and the different class dynamics (4 kids instead of 6, and all 4 kids were fairly close in age, unlike in the first class), she did sooo much better.

She feels much more confident in the water and isn't afraid to put her face in the water any more- she'll even duck her whole head under the water.

Since we go to the pool on a regular basis, I felt that it was important that she feel comfortable in the water, and she is well on her way. It was definitely a good decision to send her back for another round of classes. Good thing they're not that expensive.

Help with goals

So, I might need to be more careful about some of the goals I set. Goal #58 is to read the Relief Society lesson each week before church.

Guess I needed some help with that because my new calling is Relief Society teacher.

If I don't watch out, I'll get called as a Sunday School teacher next (goal #59).

Sunday Funny

LMS has always called me 'Mommy', till lately,  when she started calling me 'Mama'.

I asked her why she was calling me Mama instead of Mommy.

Her answer: That's what the little white cat on "Cats" (Aristocats) calls her mama.

Makes perfect sense.