Let's Dish

As many as you know, my mom LOVES doing laundry, and she is determined that Adah will share in her love of laundry. Which is secretly my hope because I'm the one doing most of laundry, and it would be really great for a little help in that area. ;)

There is not one house hold chore that I would say that I LOVE doing. I enjoy a clean house, and wish I had the motivation to say that every room is clean and tidy. But I will be honest in saying, I would much rather have a fun day than spending a day cleaning the house.

Everyone has their "place" that they like to stay clean. For me, there is one area of the house that I really take pride in, and put a lot of time into, and that is my kitchen. I LOVE the feeling of dishes being put away, clean counters, clutter put away, and floors clean. I did this yesterday, and even as tired as it made me feel I felt very accomplished. I have it set up that Adahs little table is in there and she can eat or color, or play in her play room that is right off the kitchen, and I can check on her as much as I want without loosing much time.

I have a "routine" as to how to maintain the kitchen, as well as daily, and weekly chores that I like to do. I start with the dishes. Now, you know how I said my mom loves laundry? Well this is as close to love as I will get to any chore. I have a system to doing dishes. I start with always having an empty dishwasher, or if there are dishes in there they are waiting for a full dishwasher for me to run the cycle. I have gotten really good (and fast) at putting away clean dishes. That way, I really don't ever have dirty dishes waiting in the sink for a place in the dishwasher thus creating clutter. I use to HATE putting away clean dishes, but now, it's not a big deal.

The routine I am going to touch on is dishes. I know so many women have such a hard time keeping up with dishes, as did I, so I hope this can help... First of all, when I "do" dishes I am really just cleaning them to go into the dishwasher to be sanitized. When I lived at home, us kids did dishes after dinner often, and I would always sneak barely rinsed dishes in the dishwasher to "save time." I can only imagine what my mom would find the next morning. When Jon and I got married, I became more efficient in my dish washing because our first place didn't have a dishwasher. I would spend so much time hand washing dishes, that it was a good habit that followed me even when we moved to a place that had a dishwasher.

Breakfast, and lunch don't really produce enough of a load to wash before dinner, but if I know what I am making is going to need a lot of space in the dishwasher, I run it in the afternoon, and empty it before I start cooking. That way I can load as I go. That is so helpful to me so that after dinner, I'm not looking at an endless amount of dish washing. Which ultimately means more family time which is always a plus!

In my kitchen, I have sections of counter space, and I like to use this to my advantage. I start with the smallest section and get all the clutter and dishes put away, and then I sanitize and wipe that area down. Then I go for the next section and do the same. Before I get to the last section, I clean the sink (by this time most of the dishes are put away) and the faucet. Then the last section which also has my coffee pot that I wipe down in the process.

So when I go through my routine, I pretty much have a clean kitchen, aside from the floor. I like to leave the floor for nap time for obvious reasons.

What is your place in your home you like to keep clean?

Be Anxious for Nothing...

For those of you who have followed for a while, or who know me, know that the last month of my pregnancy with Adah was pretty traumatic. I developed Pre-eclampsia at 34 weeks and was utterly miserable until almost 38 weeks when I had her. And it got worse after I had her.

Now with this pregnancy, I have made some pretty drastic lifestyle changes, with my diet, exorcise and my fluid intake. I drink nearly 3 litters of water everyday, watch my salt intake like a hawk, and get exorcise whenever I can. But let's be honest, how much more exorcise could I need chasing a toddler constantly :)

After the holidays, when I hit 20 weeks, I started getting really bad anxiety about my health. I am being painfully honest when I say that it is really starting to interfere with my life. If I start thinking about it I feel this tremendous weight on my chest and my heart starts pounding and I have a hard time catching my breath.

Even going to the doctor has been quite the ordeal as I have developed quite the "white coat syndrome." At my last appointment, the nurse said when taking my BP that my heart was beating like I ran up the stairs. That day it was 145/72. That Top number has everything to do with my anxiety and not my actual BP.

I am really going to talk to my doctor about this on Tuesday, because this is getting out of control. And you might think, well just don't think about it. I really wish it were that easy, but there are so many factors. My biggest fear is that I will be hospitalized, and what that will do for Adah. We have an amazing family that will step right in if need be, but it pains me to even think about that.

Right now, I have been getting the most comfort by my devotional times in the morning and mine and Jon's devotional time at night. And really all I can do when I am having issues is pray. So I have been praying a lot. My prayer is that Satin would not have any form of my body, and that really goes along with my anxiety. It creeps in and it literally messes with my body, it starts to spike my BP, and I start feeling sick. I feel although Satin is really using it as a tool to get to me.

So if you think about it pray for me! I am feeling like it is really robbing me of a good pregnancy. .

Kids Room Ideas

Where we are going to put 2 kids has been on my mind since before we got pregnant. Our house has 3 bedrooms, but is on a funny layout. The 2nd bedroom is right down the hall from ours, and is Adah's room. The 3rd bedroom is much smaller and is off the kitchen on the other side of the house. I was having a huge problem putting the baby in there because of frequent night waking and it being so far, but I was also having a hard time seeing Adah in their also because its far, and close to the back door. So our solution is to put both kids in Adah's room and make the 3rd bedroom into a play room!

My mind has been turning as to how we were going to make it work. Over Christmas, Jon cleaned the room and put Adah's toys in there. She already knows that is her play room, and she loves it. Another aspect that is working well about this set up, is because its right off the kitchen, I can do things like dishes and cleaning and she is just an earshot away.

About a month ago I was trying to find a gender neutral fabric print that would be fun for the kids room. I really like owls, so I though I would incorporate owls into the theme. Then I found this! It the It's a Hoot fabric collection by Momo. I LOVE it! I love how fun and bright the colors are and it goes right along with my Owl theme.

This is the fabric that they both will have.

Adah will have the red and white as her dust ruffle, (I think, we'll see) and our boy will have the dark brown and white. So they are coordinating

I would really like to work one (or more) of these into the window coverings. The only unfortunate aspect about this fabric is it's pretty popular. It came out in September of last year, and it is already really hard to find all the fabric from one vendor to save on shipping. So my fingers are crossed!

We found this in white at Costco, but all of the furniture in the room is black already. So I did some digging and found this online in black for $ 100 less than at Costco!!! My sister spends the night often so this will be nice to have an extra bed. If the bunk bed with a toddler doesn't work out, (which it should because the ladder is removable) we can take one bed off and make is a single bed.

Even though our house is feeling smaller with the second baby on the way, I am really thankful God has blessed us with our own home, Jon and I really want to be diligent with what he has given us!

In My Dreams

Today my Mom, Adah and I went to go spend some time with my grandma. We have been getting in the habit of doing that lately since my grandpa passes away. She lives in Montclair, so when we go we make a day of it, or at least a half day. I go out in the morning by myself, and help her with things around the house, then my Mom and Adah follow just before lunch. We have been going to lunch at this Mexican restaurant (Espio's) in the Claremont village. Every time we go there I always think to myself I want to go and spend an afternoon shopping, there is so much to keep busy. It's been a fun thing we have been doing bi-weekly.

After we finish eating, we will check out at least one store. It's really hard to boutique shop with a toddler, and my grandma. Adah wants to grab at everything, and my grandma gets tired very easily. Last time we went to a cute store with TONS of Christmas stuff. This time we went to an antique boutique and it didn't disappoint it had great stuff, but again, we had to be out in 10 minutes or less due to Adah.

After leaving the antique shop, my Mom suggested we check out a children's store she saw a few stores down. We walked in and I was already impressed because there was a play area for Adah while we shopped. The store was tiny so it really wasn't a big deal her playing on her own.

The shop (No Sugar Added) is absolutely delightful! I have never had so much fun going through a baby store. We were in there for more than 30 minutes, and Adah was so content playing with the toys. What I would assume as the store owner came out from the back with her adorable 18 month old Mackenzie. She and Adah played so well together as we shopped. The shop was a mixture of manufactured baby gear, and handmade items with a huge cloth diapering section. Everything in the store is echo chic.

After being in that store, I really started thinking about what I would do if time and money would allow. I would LOVE to open a boutique! Maybe with another friend with kids, but a store that mainly had children's stuff with a mixture of other common boutique stuff too. This place was SOOOO kid friendly. And I guess this women, has other kids too that are in school during the day, but her toddler spends the day with her at the shop.

The whole idea of having a place that you work doing what you love that you can incorporate your kids into is so great.

Like I said, if money and time were not an issue, that would be my dream.

The website is a little disappointing considering how great the store is, but they are also on FaceBook.

Oh, and I picked out my diaper bag in the store for our little boy. It's not very masculine, but I'm the one carrying it. Right?!

How to Date Your Spouse

I follow a great blog called Tip Junky. It's a blog from a creative (girly girl) mother of 3 boys. She has all kinds of great tip, and advice for Mom's most of which is decorating and crafts. I have found it really helpful and fun.

She has started a new Monday project that is really interesting; Dating your spouse. I was very intrigued. She explains that early on in parenthood, she and her husband started a book and used it as their dating guide. It's more fun than anything, it has no spiritual connotation, but I thought it's great to revisit the beginnings of your relationship. Check it out. I am really interested in seeing how this goes!

New Look... Same Focus.

You may have noticed a change on my blog. That's not entirely unusual for me to change templates, but I am going in a bit of a different direction. I've done a lot of thinking about what my my goal is with this blog; talk about family, whats going on in our lives, helpful tip, recipe's and a great outlet to express myself. I feel like in most all aspects I accomplish those goals.

I really want to make this as uncomplicated as possible. So the fact that this blog's title is Jon and Alyssa already makes it complicated being that I am the only one that posts. Jon really appreciates my blog and is extremely supportive! I also understand that being a youth pastor and working an average of 50 to 60 hours a week makes it nearly impossible for me to expect him to write a blog entry. Jon has a WONDERFUL blog (Getting Through) that he posts on often, and that is his baby, as this is mine. His focuses on getting through, and reaching the youth of our culture. He gives practical application on how to accomplish that goal. It is manly a geared towards those in youth ministry. I LOVE it, and think he is extremely good at what he does, and love that he is putting effort into this. Check it out if you can!

In the last few months, I have also started an ETSY store, and am still in the process of getting it up and running. I have made a sale, which was cool. It's always great when your mom takes interest in what your doing! Thanks for the sale mom! ;) The main thing will be baby stuff, but I plan to have a broad range of boutique type items. If you can, check out my store, I am planning on having more items up in the following weeks. Lyssa Love Lee.

All in all, I want to keep my blog the way it is, but more personal, so I am going to make an effort to blog about whats going on in our lives. I haven't even gotten to really post about this pregnancy, and I am already half way through. The place I am at right now makes it really difficult to do things like blogging often. But I will make a true effort.

Now to show you how busy Adah keeps me, here is a video of her craziness. I love how crazy she is, but sitting here watching it while she is asleep in her bed makes me tired!

And for some reason, this clip is sped up a bit. So you don't have to feel that bad for me. ;)