Race against time

So last nights post was short and sweet. I was racing to post before my laptop died as well as the hubby was beckoning me to come watch "Its a Wonderful Life" with him before it got to late. So I shared a few of the projects we worked on over the weekend. I woke up today looking around feeling really good at what we got done around the house. When I moved us into this house a year ago (a week before Christmas) while Shawn was deployed, I was determined to get us settled in before the end of the year. I pretty much did getting everything unpacked. But, after a year of day in and day out I have re evaluated some areas and have moved things around trying to make our day to day as efficient as possible. We have a room that is our in home gym and over time sorta became a storage unit and you could hardly see the carpet. Saturday night we cleaned up and cleared out and got the gym in working order... just in time! Shawn has been on a work out break since coming home 3 months ago from over seas and I have obviously been on one for 9 months now. We really want to jump into working out once Baby Adams gets here! I have a couple pictures to hang in there and a small pile of misc things that need to be put away then I will post a picture!

Today I started small, I actually try to every day if I get at least 1 thing done off my to do list then I accomplished something. Today I managed to vacuum all the furniture which is a huge chore since we have a hairy Jack Russell. It took one hour to finish thank goodness D takes a power nap every morning.  I managed to get 2 more organizing things done as well. I have been spending a quality amount of time on Pinterest and cant get enough of it and all the ideas it has to offer. I thinks its why we have been on a bigger than usual project drive. I am really loving the organizational ideas. I expanded on two I already had in place today.

I have a great bank that offers a money tracker online but is not as down to the penny as I would like. So, today I labeled a small accordion file of areas we spend money on and plan on really charting it every 30 days, to then at the end of the year compose the best budget for us. Before I was just keeping a box of all our receipts if we needed to find one for a return or something. I am really stoked to really see where all our money is going.

The other was a binder that I had been storing menus of restaurants in it and some business cards. Well I revamped it based of a few pins I had seen on Pinterest plus some ideas of my own. We now have a binder with tabs of: Sitter, City, Services, Menus with room for more later. Under Sitter I have a fire escape plan, instructions for the kiddos, dog and house as well as contact info for Shawn & I and Dr. hospital info. Under City I have our trash/recycle schedule, and local amenities such as the baseball stadium schedule. Under Services is all the business cards for auto or home repair type places that we have used or have been recommended to. Menus is pretty self explanatory but I did include a piece of paper with our address, phone number, housing development and cross roads. Things I know I could never remember when I was baby sitting so its there for a sitter or even family thats over watching the kids/house. The binder has been a great resource and now that its been expanded on I know it will be greatly appreciated and used often!

On a whim I decided to organize D's hair things. Santa and my Sister in Law helped to make that collection larger & brighter! So thanks to Ikea (bin) they were already just tossed in and 2 up cycled items I have a super easy accessible hair bin for her. A 6 egg holder carton and 2 microwavable dinner trays.

I am always stoked after something goes from useable to super efficient. I am always tell hubby that if things are easy to put away/find then we will be more inclined to put things away and not let stuff pile up. We are both amazed at how right I am at this. It also makes it easy for kids to jump in on this as well as anyone who comes into our home can find what they need with out digging.

Only 11 more days or 18 max before Baby Adams gets here and I am hoping that this week I can finish most of my projects to feel more than ready for Baby and can just enjoy her, D and family time! Hope you all had a great Monday! I sure have.