Reclaiming My Space

As some of you may . know from previous posts made many moons ago the Great basement Flood of 2012 took place in my basement. Darn sump went out and the rest is history. There was no major damage structurally, no molding or any of the real pain in the butt problems that can come with a basement taking on massive amounts of water. Though we did lose hundreds of books 😦 and Pat lost a ton of paperwork. the rest of the stuff that was ruined needed to be purged anyhow. The real issue was the wet basement odor that took months to get rid of. During clean up a ton of stuff was moved to my workout area that I was not using at the time and it never made it back to where it belongs. then the treadmill was moved down there and became a shelf and the Christmas stuff only made it to the bottom of the steps where my workout space is conveniently located. Soooo, I will not be walking the next few days, all of my down time will be devoted to reclaiming what was once mine. Workouts won’t happen unless I have somewhere to do them so it must be done. Plus, with all of the lifting, moving, purging, and putting in new carpet I will get enough exercise to make up for not walking.. right? If not oh well, there are not a ton of moments to do what I want with Ian, Emma, the house, meals, pets and all that fun stuff. Sometimes choices have to be made and I choose to do this for myself so I have an area to get things back to as they were and get back in shape.

Today I have been working on teaching Ian to nap in his crib. He is so used to me always being with him. He naps in whatever room of the house I am in. So the bassinet, swing and bouncer are what he is used to. If he can happily nap in his room in his crib maybe he will nap for a little longer with it being dim, quieter and he can get used to me not being present. even in a dead sleep he knows when I leave the room. That wakes him up more so than light and noise, the little bugger will sleep through the vacuum  tv and the dog barking. I have had to go comfort him quite a bit but the time in between is getting longer. It may sound gross but I placed one of my breast pads in his crib this time so he has my scent there. Maybe that will make a difference and I can gradually move it out of his room later. We will see. I am hoping for more consistent napping so I will have a consistent and fairly set amount of time to squeeze my workouts in.

Workout area before…

 

Workout area after… UGH! What a mess!!!

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Hoarders = me?

It takes 6 years to fill up 2000 sq feet of house (not including the basement and garage), ONLY 6 YEARS!

Have you ever seen the show Hoarders Buried Alive? You know the lady with so much crap that her house is hazardous and they need shovels, dump trucks a cleaning crew and a therapist to get it cleaned out. Well, lately I have been wondering why no one has ever turned me in to be on that show. How did I end up with so much stuff? Where did it all come from? will you help me clean it all out? Okay, okay, maybe I am being a wee bit over-dramatic, but I feel like a hoarder lately.

Over the past few weeks so much stuff has left the house via trips to the Salvation Army and annoyed sanitation workers. I am not talking a bad or two, I am talking a full SUV and multiple bags at the curb weekly. The worst room in the house was my “office” AKA the room where I shoved everything I don’t know what to do with. It is now a nice, clean and decorated nursery but the process to get there took weeks and a ton of black trash bags. I have been going through the rest of the house and getting rid of anything that I have not used in over a year minus some holiday stuff and some kitchen gadgets I can not let go of. Holy crap! so much work and so much stuff! As of today the entire downstairs will finally be finished and only 2 bedrooms, a closet and a bathroom will be left. My bedroom scares me. I don’t want to go through my clothes. last year after the pounds started to fall off I went through my clothes and donated an entire SUV full to the Underground Railroad. I am talking a full SUV you could not see out a window or sit in the seats and they had a “crew” unload the car. I get attached to clothing so it is the hardest thing to get rid of. Well, when I got rid of Emma’s baby clothes that was harder, every little outfit had a memory. I cried when I packed up that stuff. I had pretty much every piece of clothing she ever owned boxed up in my basement to the tune of over 10 big bins, plus bags and boxes. Those also went to the shelter. I only saved her holiday outfits. Those now hang int he spare room closet. It may sound sad but I still go look at them and touch them. A promise has been made to myself not to hoard all the baby stuff with the new baby and to only save special things. I learned my lesson!

The plus side of getting rid of all the clutter is the fact that the house is looking much neater, and that helps with the current nesting panic I am in. Ahhh nesting. oh what fun. NOT! I got to the point where I have a calendar made up with housework to do in order to get rid of all the clutter and have all of the spring cleaning done in a 30 day period. sticking to it has not been hard. Tomorrow the carpets are being cleaned that would officially make it so everything has been scrubbed floor to ceiling downstairs. Pat has to go out-of-town though so I am going to be stuck here with the carpet guys by myself. I usually never care about that stuff but for some reason I have no desire to be alone in the house with a crew of strange men. Maybe pregnancy has made me paranoid? but that is an entirely different blog post. The second plus is that I am getting some physical activity in. Not as much as I would like but something is better than nothing. Damn I miss being active. I can’t wait to get back on the horse. My legs are packing on the poundage!

Salad A Day Challenge Day 2

Yesterday was day 2 of the Salad A Day Challenge. Let’s just say I was very successful at stinking it up. I made a salad, I put dressing on it and then the smell of the dressing was a huge turn off so I threw it out. No picture, no eating, no nothing, just into the trash can it went. I instead ate a tuna sandwich (with onion, celery and tons of lettuce)  and a bunch of grapes and cheese on the side. So yeah, didn’t even make it through day two. Ha! I did manage to at least get some fruits and veggies involved in what I did eat for lunch. Later I had Mu Shu Pork and wonton soup that was pretty much all cabbage for dinner. None of the rice or all that jazz with it though. Maybe today will be better and I get back to the challenge.

Let’s see what else is going on. I still have that damn cramping from my accident with the dog, Spending the day in the hospital was not fun, but at least we know that the pain is just from bruising and nothing major. So I am peace of mind at least. I have been trying to go through Emma’s room and get it cleaned out and downsize how much stuff she has. It has become quite the chore to take on. Especially after some one else’s kid comes over and trashes it. I love when other kid’s parents refuse to have their kids pick up here like I am some sort of damn maid. This is what condition her room was left in..

 

Let’s see what else there is… School shopping. We have most of it done but it is not finished. It is actually starting to irritate me a little I freak out when things are last-minute. There is not much else to buy. A few trivial things and black and brown dress shoes. More when there are more fall weather items in the stores (that does not freak me out though) I struggle with things that are not planned or at least at the minimal organized chaos. I like things planned out and done early on.