Cleaning!

I feel like I may have posted about this before but after the holidays we've just gotten worse and worse about keeping up with the cleaning. And now that we have a bigger place it's even harder. So a few weeks ago we started discussing making ourselves a cleaning schedule.

Now, it's not like our whole place is a pigsty or anything but the garbages get full much too fast, the table fills up with items we've brought home, dishes and laundry get backed up and sometimes Andrew's toys don't get put away at night so then they are in every nook and cranny. It happens so fast. One minute I'll be thinking "It's fine if we just go to bed tonight, it's not that bad in here. I'll catch up tomorrow." And then boom, there's crap everywhere haha!

SO, the other day I finally typed up a schedule:

I tried to zone things out a bit, and keep it to a minimum each day since often Jesse isn't able to help.

And just to clear it up a bit - often on weekends we have date nights or are gone a lot or just want to relax so sometimes we don't stay on top of chores as we should so that's why I have a "catch-up" day. Cleaning the front door means wiping away dead bugs, cleaning away cobwebs and spraying.

And the spider spray is a homemade recipe: 5 drops dish soap, 5 drops lemon juice or lavender oil and warm water. We spray this once a week because generally the only bugs we see here are spiders. And some of them are quite large and menacing looking :-S

Lastly, our car gets quite messy so we figured having a day to wash, vacuum, take out the garbage bag, organize, wash the car seat cover, etc would be great.

And I am sooooooo excited to get some new furniture for the patio. We're planning on getting a swinging bench (it's really cheap at Winn Dixie), 2 Bed, Bath and Beyond chairs and a smaller version of those chairs for Andrew. I also want a coffee table like thing but I haven't found one yet. But anyways, once that happens, I am going to deep clean the patio. Definitely have to sweep out there at LEAST once a week due to the dirt that gets blown in.

We also are caulking up some cracks on the patio because we have little lizards sneaking in and it freaks me out haha!

Well, that's all for now! TTFN <3

Happy August!!

First of all HAPPY AUGUST! I cannot believe this month is already here, fairly evident as I keep saying 'next month' when referring to August...

This is the month we travel back to our home state, Minnesota, the month of Andrew's baptism, my Golden Birthday AND our two-year wedding anniversary!! 

Yes, it is a very full and exciting month!

I was very excited to happen upon this blog post I found on Facebook: sunshineandsippycups It has 10 ways to make money from home! I am working through Net Transcripts to make a little extra money, but every little bit helps-- and a lot of these look fairly easy so yay! Gotta try some of those out.

...On that subject, I previously applied for Income-Congruent Repayment Plan for my student loans and they are still charging me $227 a month! I love how they think we have that much left a month.... we would be living much nicer if that were the case, lol!

If only this actually helped...

I was really excited previously about going back to school to finish my degree (I am about 3/4 of the way through my degree) and have recently found two online universities offering European History programs. BUT with this new development who knows if we'd be able to afford it? They make it SO easy. Unless you have a degree, you can hardly afford your bills but you have to qualify for financial aid to get your degree OR make enough to pay your loans AND tuition... sigh.

One last rant. There is a very small pool of rental homes available in Jesse's work area. It kind of sucks. I found one PERFECT one that is affordable for the most part, looks fabulous and seems like it would work out. It's even in Wesley Chapel. But I have a good feeling we won't end up there haha, I'll try to be optimistic about it all though :)

Now in Andrew news: He is as cute as ever. Seriously I am pretty sure every minute he sleeps increases his cute factor. That's a lot of cuteness. 

He is heavily experimenting with sitting up by himself, he will lean on his hands, then push off and balance for awhile and most of the time when he starts falling over again he catches himself. 

He is a very good eater, but impatient for each bite. He makes a whiny sort of sound after each bite-- I'm not sure if that's his version of "mmmm" or if it's hunger and the spoonfuls just aren't getting to his mouth fast enough. I think I will try giving him his sippy cup first for awhile and see if he likes that better. 

The little guy tried broccoli today!! The grossed out face arrived on the third bite haha... the second feeding he just started crying and I guess not fully swallowing the bites so as I'm making dinner (Jesse is feeding him) I start to hear choking. BAD choking, like I've never heard before. He eventually swallowed/ spit out but that was an awful few moments. Thank God Jesse is great with emergencies AND knows basic first aid for infants. Then my brilliant hubby suggested mixing the two foods together and, of course, it worked great. I love that man.

We picked up a prescription for hypoallergenic formula today, hopefully that makes baby's face rash go away! We will pick some up at the end of the month for him so we should know by early September.

Lastly, is there anything better than baby giggles??? I think not. :)

A picture of Andrew in the fort we made yesterday because it was too overcast for the pool :)

TTFN! <3