Whew

It has been a very busy week here in our house. I've finally buckled down and begun unpacking more seriously. Why does it always seem worse once you finally "start?" My son is still super helpful, unpacking many boxes for me.

There are still boxes everywhere one month after our move. However, it's getting better. I've been working on menu planning and unpacking lately and it seems like it may be coming together. Slowly. I so want to be a better homemaker. I think I get super excited about one area, and work on it, and then I move on to another. The problem is, often I don't keep doing what I've already mastered... er, begun to learn. Anyway, I'm sorely lacking in storage in this current house, but beyond that I think it's a great place. It's so nice being so close to Andrew's work. Give me another, three years or so I think, and I will have this place livable! Well, Andrew's parents are coming to visit in about five weeks, so that's a nice motivator. We're SO looking forward to their visit. It will be nice to just catch up. We haven't seen them since August. It's amazing how much a baby changes in a month, let alone six! We're quite excited.

I'm now off to enjoy a quiet--can it be quiet when there is a baby literally screaming his head off because he doesn't want to go to sleep?-- evening with my husband. Yay for that.

Housing Update

I think this month in a new house has been enlightening for me. We've had a lot going on and I'm nowhere near where I thought I'd be with unpacking my house by now. There are still boxes in every room but the kitchen and bathroom. We've all been sick, Luke's been teething, Andrew's been working overtime, and I've been being lazy. This morning we've been working on unpacking some more. I can't wait until there are not boxes everywhere I look. I'm really feeling the lack of storage in this house. I'm having quite a hard time finding places for everything. I'm hoping to take some more time this afternoon to get more unpacked an in order. It's hard to believe we've already been here almost a month. I haven't gotten nearly enough done in that time frame. But I've also been encouraged by several blogs lately. I'm going to be following this series and hopefully it will help! Crystal Paine over at Money Saving Mom has given me lots of ideas on saving money and organizing. Hers is a blog I check daily. And now I'm off to decide whether to take a nap with Luke or unpack/clean some more...

Lists... morphing into CVS spending.

Let me just say, I have become a firm believer in lists. Grocery lists, To Do lists, Menus, etc. (Maybe I should work on my "honey-do" list skills.) I have always been enthralled by the idea of people who make lists and then actually do the things on them. It is nice to be slowly joining their ranks. :) I have found that making a list before I go out or start a new day is so very helpful to me. Although, if I spend too much time making the list, I guess it kind of defeats the purpose. But hey, I'm learning. I made a grocery run last week without taking the time to make a list and it was a disaster! We have made a grocery budget (it's crazy how easy it can be to stay within your budget if you just pay attention to what you are doing) and have been doing pretty well with that. But, on that shopping trip, I came home with things that we didn't need and spent more than I had intended. Live and learn, I suppose.

I also love my CVS lists. Well, I guess I love CVS period. :) Yesterday my sweet husband let me stop on the way home from church and he kept the baby in the car... I got:

4 12 packs of Pepsi
2 Christphe Shampoos
3 Packs of Rolaids
2 Tubes of Colgate toothpaste
1 Travel pack of sanitizing wipes
1 Bayer Contour glucose meter (my mom said she wanted one)
2 Packs of Rolos for my hubby (I went negative and needed something to bring me up to actually owing the store money)
2 Sunday newspapers

I think that's everything. I'm going from memory. But, for all that stuff I only paid 36 cents. And I didn't "lose" any extra care bucks, meaning I came away with more than I started with. I had quite a few really good coupons to match with their sales, so I was excited. And, I was super excited about the Pepsi! Yay for that. Anyway, I guess I got a little off topic there, but I am pretty happy with that trip. I did have a list, but for CVS, having a list means also having plenty of substitutes for when they are out of things. Cause you can bet they will be out of things. It's quite rare that they actually have everything on my list.

Anyway, this was all brought on by me trying to make "Moving" lists and failing pretty miserably. It's been quite hard for us to decide what can be packed now and what needs to wait. I do need to go work on finishing up the bookshelf. I packed up all my breakables over the weekend and now need to finish up the books. I am looking forward starting fresh in a new to us home. I'm off to work on restoring order to the kitchen and doing some laundry before diving in to the packing.

A New Beginning

This blog will be my attempt to share what I am learning in my current place in life. Right now I am focusing on learning new ways to stretch the money in our grocery budget and also ways to keep up with general tidiness in my home. It is probable that many of my posts will focus on these areas. God has been good to us and I want to make the best use of what He has given us. We are set to move at the end of December so I feel like I have been given a (partially!) clean slate with regard to clutter in my home. Hopefully I will be able to get rid of a lot of unnecessary stuff before this move. Three weeks doesn't seem like enough time to give proper attention to this, so I'm sure some of it will move with us, but hopefully I will take the time to decide whether I really need items as I unpack on the other side. We'll see how it goes.