Superwoman! Or maybe just nesting.

My house is looking GOOD these days. Still a little cluttered; still less cute and decorated than I'd like. But clean? Definitely a drastic improvement from how it's been the last few months.

I've made myself a daily to-do list to try and help keep me motivated to keep it up, because honestly, it's hard. I am not someone who enjoys cleaning by nature, so even though I like the results, it's SO much easier to just sit in the recliner and do nothing. But, knowing myself, if I slack off too much, I'll fall right back into my old habits of letting my house look like crap all the time. It feels good, though, ticking off the chores on my list.

I have to admit, I feel a little bit like Superwoman when I think about all the stuff I've gotten done today (and on previous days). It's coming up on 4:00 pm as I write this, and so far I have:
-Made the bed
-Swept the hall and kitchen
-Done the dishes
-Cleaned old food out of the fridge
-Taken out the trash
-Vacuumed the bedroom
-Painted a layer of topcoat on two long dresser drawers

Someone suggested that I'm nesting. I kind of hope they're wrong. I want to believe that I've turned over a new leaf, and if it's nesting, then what happens when Little Boy gets here? Am I going to go back to being a cruddy housewife? I'm afraid I'm setting my expectations for myself a little high right now, and that I'm going to be really disappointed in myself when the dishes aren't done every night before bed, and the kitchen needs mopping, and the laundry piles up, and the bed doesn't get made the entire day.

Also, can I just say to the women of Sept. 2012: STOP HAVING BABIES ALREADY. Do you guys know how impatient I'm getting when you keep posting pics of your beautiful new children and I'm still sitting here, massively pregnant and uncomfortable and WEEKS away from my due date? Ugh. Stop that. Maybe I should go put my shoes on and walk around my neighborhood to try and encourage this baby to engage a little. I'll be 37 weeks on Sunday, "to term", and he can come any time after Monday without me being the least bit upset.

Five Happy Things

A lot of times in my life, I tend to dwell on the unpleasant parts. We found out today that DH got passed over for another job promotion (again), which means we'll be unable to move out of our little town and into a better home. It had put me in a terrible mood all day...until I cleaned my kitchen. Ahhh. It feels SO GOOD when my kitchen is clean. I even washed out the microwave (ew) and rearranged some things on the counter so that there's a little more space and it looks nicer. It kind of made me realize that for all my quirks and idiosyncrasies, I'm a pretty simple girl and it doesn't take a lot to make me happy. So here's my list of 5 small things that make me instantly feel better. Feel free to share yours!

♥ My home being clean cheers me up. When everything is in its place and I can find things quickly, it makes me happy.

♥ Cooking and baking. Since DH has had a bad day, I might make some peanut butter cookies. I don't have as much of a sweet tooth as DH, but I like cookies pretty much any time.

♥ Leaving little notes for my husband to find. I love his reaction when he comes across love notes from me, telling him how much I love him and appreciate how hard he works. I don't want him to ever not know how much I appreciate him.

♥ Feeling my little boy rolling around in my belly. It's absolutely incredible every single time I feel it. I think I'll really miss that part of pregnancy but it'll be worth it to have my gorgeous little boy on the outside.

♥ Talking to my mom. My gosh, I love my mom. There is no one who understands me like she does. I can't imagine my life without her! I would love to talk her into a mommy/daughter tattoo with me. I texted her today and asked her what she would picture as a symbol of our relationship. She said she'd have to think about that one. I think it'd be hardcore for my mom to get some ink. ;)

I'm in a cleaning frenzy!

And you know why I'm in that cleaning frenzy? Because one of my friends is coming over to help me clean.

Yep. I'm that kinda girl.

My housekeeping skills have been lacking for a long, long time. I've never been one of those women who naturally enjoys keeping things in order. Don't get me wrong; I like for things to be clean, I just hate being the one who has to get them there. So my house has been on a downward spiral since I started working again. I basically wait until things are starting to look rough, and then I'm like, "Hm. I should probably clean that." Laundry? I'll just ignore it until I have no clean underwear left and then I'll throw in a load. Oh, and when it's done, I'll leave it in the dryer.

But this is where it's all gonna change. I put in my two weeks notice at work on Monday, so I'm going to be a housewife again as of March 6th. And I do not want to be the same kind of housewife I've been this entire time. My husband deserves so much more effort out of me. He works so many hours each week at a job he doesn't like that much, because he wants so badly to provide for our family as well as he can. All I have to do is clean, and I haven't been holding up my end of the bargain. So I'm going to clean this dang house. I'm going to KEEP the house clean once I get it there. I'm going to organize things (thanks, Pinterest!) and I'm going to keep a cookie jar stocked with freshly baked goodies. (Ok...maybe not.) I need to get into this habit before the baby gets here, or else I'm going to have a whole lot of adjusting to do at once. Also, I need to keep up with laundry better because we're planning to cloth diaper and that is going to be a WHOLE lot of work on its own, without having a ton of other laundry to catch up on, as well.

Wish me luck. It's hard to stay motivated.