Learning to Become More Domestic

I am a big advocate for having "roles" in the house. My husband has certain duties and I have certain duties. Of course, they are interchangeable at any time, but it just keeps things flowing nicely. In order to get into a routine and for us to really feel settled I am working on a couple of things to make things run smoothly.

Laundry.

We used to do all of our laundry at his parent's house. Now that we are married (and he no longer lives there) we get to do our laundry on our own. I attempted to use the facilities that our apartment complex provides here, but that was a big, fat hassle! Not only do I have to find one of the two laundry rooms that have the special machine to load up our laundry card, but I then have to hope that one of the three machines are available. 

My solution: to find a laundromat in the area that is decently priced.

Grocery Shopping

I have to admit that I am terrible at making a running list. I will literally make a list the day we go to the store and will likely forget things and have to run out again a couple of days later. I am also notorious for buying too much of a couple of things thinking we ran out when we already have so much of it. Shredded cheese is my biggest culprit. 

My solution: Making a list of EVERY food item in the house. This includes how many of each specific item we have. The goal is to make a spreadsheet and update it weekly before we go to the grocery store. It will tell me what we already have, what we need, and how much of it we need. I will probably progress into how much we spend on the items over time, but for now...we'll stick to the basics.

These are my "big projects" for this week. Does anyone have any more suggestions?

Being Productive

Let's just put it out there...I work part-time.

I feel so blessed that we are able to have me work part-time and that I get the opportunity to have more free time. It has been especially great with planning the wedding. I have great availability to be able to meet with vendors, go to dress fittings, and get all of our DIY wedding projects done.

There seems to be only one major problem....

I am exhausted at the end of my workday.

In fact, I am exhausted right now and I have been since 8 o'clock this morning! This leaves me wanting to go home, take a nap, and lounge around all afternoon and evening because I'm tired.

I get off of work every day at 12:30 pm. I go home, eat lunch, and run any errands that I can muster to do in the freezing cold (which usually isn't much).

We had a great sermon this past Sunday on being the best you can be to set a great example for everyone. This got me thinking that the best me is one that is productive and doesn't sit on the couch all.the.time.

Yesterday was the first day that I put this into practice. After work, I had my final dress fitting to go to. When I came home I allowed myself to go on the internet for a little while to catch-up on things, but made myself get up and get stuff done for a while.

I managed to get the gifts from the bridal shower out of the bags, threw away the mass amount of tissue paper that was there, folded up the gift bags, organized the gifts, spot cleaned the couch, vacuumed a bit, and worked on my centerpieces.

By seven o'clock, I was exhausted! It felt good to get things out of the way and not just wait until Phil comes over to help. I mean, he works over 40 hours a week and has a 2 hour commute each way to work!

I am hoping to be able to keep this up and organize my apartment and have it all ready for him to move in after the wedding.

Does anyone have any tips on staying productive and awake when you don't like coffee?

Superwoman? Nope, just me!

Days like today make me feel a little bit like Superwoman. It feels like I've accomplished so much today and it's not even 7pm! To help you understand, let me give you a little breakdown of my day:

6:22am- woke up and got ready for work
7:35am- arrived at work and started my day (including finishing my lesson plans for next week)
8:55am-12:30pm- work

After work I went to the local "teacher's store" to try to find a lesson guide for the novel Tom Sawyer that the 7th graders are starting next week. Then, I drove over to Chick-fil-a for a milkshake since I haven't had one in forever. After the drive-thru, I went to Phil's house and printed some response cards for the out-of-state wedding invitations. I've seriously been meaning to do this so that I can get them out in the mail this week. Then...

I subbed for 1st grade from 2:15-3:15pm. The kids were great and they were all so affectionate. Teaching Middle/High School, you don't see that, so it was a nice change of pace. Now, here's where it got a little crazy...

I went to the Reese's, made brownies for tonight/my 10th grade class tomorrow, finished my homework for pre-marital counseling, thawed the chicken for dinner, made dinner (chicken bruschetta, anyone?), watched tv, vacuumed the kitchen, living room, hallway, spare bedroom, guest bathroom, and Phil's room, oh, and I did all of the dishes that I used to make the brownies and dinner.

Now, I'm here, writing a blog. Dinner was really good...I had enough to make two batches and have decided that we're going to freeze the second one so that when Phil's mom comes home from vacation, she can have a quick meal to thaw and re-heat! Phil and I have to meet with the pastor tonight for pre-marital counseling, so we "multi-tasked" during dinner and discussed our answers with one another.

I only wish that I could feel this accomplished and driven every day.