A Bit Better Blog

Blogging to Stay Awake (Again)

I know, I know, get more sleep, girl. -sigh-

This is how last night went, just to demonstrate why I get no sleep:

I picked the kids up and went to grocery store. We are determined to stop eating out so much, and that includes buying food at work. So I needed lots of lunch food, dinner food, and breakfast food. It was an expensive trip, but I think I accomplished the goal...we'll see if it actually pays off, so to speak.

Anyway, I didn't get home with the kids until 7:30 or so. I got the baby in bed by 8:00. Then I had to unload the car and put the groceries away (including the obligatory throwing away the stuff that was forgotten in the back of the fridge), while hubby gave our older son a bath (forgive me, I'm thinking I need to come up with false names for the kids, but I want them to be good, so for now I'm referring to them by description). By the time all that was done, we had to make dinner for ourselves, get the kids' lunches ready, eat...I fell asleep watching TV and then had to force myself off the couch, which took a while. I had a few more things to do, like walking the dog, and it was, again, after midnight by the time I got in bed. I'm quite amazed that I can get out of bed, and the only explanation I've got is...well...I have become used to this. I never thought it would happen. Of course it is a struggle, but it is easier getting through the day than it used to be. BUT, I'm aware that this is slowly killing me. They say that sleep deprivation has a cumulative effect and can increase your risk of cancer and other nasty things.

And, here's a new wrinkle that will only make me busier and less likely to get to bed earlier. We have to fire the cleaning lady. She was coming every other week, so we did not have to clean toilets or vacuum. At this point we are in a bad financial state and need to eliminate any expense we possibly can. This is one of the few things I can really cut out. I'm dreading calling her because I feel really bad. But we will have to do our own cleaning and if we don't our house will be gross.

I'm also on a quest to de-clutter our house. Believe me, this is a huge quest. We have filled up all of our storage spaces. I hate living like this, knowing that there is stuff in storage that we could a) throw away, b) give away, c) sell, or d) actually use if it was accessible, but not having time to actually DO those things. Lately we have been talking about buying a single family home ( I know, how could we do that if we have no money and have to fire our cleaning lady? We can't, but we have been talking about it anyway because my husband is in grave denial) and so now I'm thinking this: if I suddenly had a deadline by which I had to have my house looking tidy and de-cluttered so we could show it (not to mention the purge that would have to happen in order to move anyway), that would really stress me out. So I should start now, so that I don't get into that situation, right? Easier said than done. I have to do 15 minutes a day of this. I HAVE to. But I already go to bed after midnight. And get up at 5:30 a.m. See the problem??

The good news is: I'm optimistic. I'm not depressed about this (yet). I know it can be done. Any suggestions are welcome, of course.

Babysteps

4:22 PM, Mar. 6, 2007 .. Posted by redsmom94

With the 15 minutes at a time comment, it sounds like you might already know about FlyLady. If you don't, then go to her website and check it out. www.flylady.net

Owning

5:54 AM, Mar. 7, 2007 .. Posted by oddkids

a home is not impossible, look around, I was making 27thousand a year when I bought my fixer upper for 40 grand. Its now worth 100 grand. My motto if you can pay rent you can pay a mortgage. Tidying up is easy find a HUGE garbage bag put all the stuff in even if its only one thing at a time. Who needs all that stuff anyway