Sunday Best and Goals Revisited

Linking up with Fine Linen and Purple(What I Wore Sunday) and Plane Pretty.

Dress:  Francesca's Collection- $44  Shoes:  Target-$25
Finding out I am coordinating with my niece:  Priceless

*Update: and here we are!

Time to revisit my goals.

Goal #1:  My closet.  It is still in pretty good shape, I have kept up on the ironing and washing, but I have a couple baskets to fold and put away today.  I also need to put my shoes back in neatly.  

Goal #2:  Be on time.  Ummmmm, no.  But I have been on time to work and Sol has been on time to school and we all have been on time to church for almost every Sunday.  I did lapse last week and came in football holding Wilson with diaper bag dangling and 2 sons dragging right behind.  I disdain Sundays without the husband- still, no excuse.  

Goal #3:  Organize the boys' desk.  After a little time shopping around, I decided I wanted something custom.  My brother-in-law dropped off this little beauty.  It needs finished or painted.  I think I will do 

chevron in dark teal and maybe highlight in light gray?  Masculine without being ugly?  

Goal #4:  Less time online.  Yes, then no, but now yes!  

This week, I set concrete limits and am sticking to them.  

They are:  

Check email 5 times a day, no more.  (It beats my 19 times a day from before!)

No Facebook, articles, or blogs until after the boys are in bed- my surfing past bedtime cannot exceed 1 hour.  

I can get online with a specific purpose (eg: find a recipe, look up directions, send an email. . .) but not to surf.  

I can get online to watch a show on Hulu, IF it does not inhibit my productivity- so, I have to save it for laundry time.  

I also allowed myself a little dispensation to post today (with no real reason, I just really wanted to).  

I will go back to my regular schedule once posted.  So, yes, because I have really stuck with this this week and I have done several things around here that needed done thanks to purpose-driven internet only.  Most nights, I didn't even use my hour at the end of the day- I just did other things or went to bed earlier.

NEW GOAL TIME!

Goal #5:  Run 5 times a week or more.  I'm not designating an amount of time or distance, I'm just making myself get out and get active.  I ran yesterday and determined 2 things:  I am out of shape.  I need to stretch more to keep my ankle from cramping.  

I am NOT a runner but need to do something along the lines of fitness.  I want to run in a 5K at my church next month, which is pretty ambitious considering I get a little winded jogging about 200 meters down the street.  I hope to go today after the sun sets.  It is blazing hot out there now!

Back to Business - which is in no way business

Vacation wrap up:
It was pretty exciting, but I made the mistake of writing about the magic of Disney theme parks BEFORE our second day at a Disney theme park, which happened to also be grad day.  That means that high school graduates fill the park making hiccups throughout to ruin the 'magic'.  So, I say now:  Do not go to a Disney Park until you have called to find out if there are any sponsored days at the same time.  If so, I would strongly recommend NOT going on grad day.  Unless you're a grad, or you love lines and crowds packed tight.
Still, it was a great vacation, highlights below.

Conveyor belt sushi in Little Tokyo.

Pool time

Star Wars Ride

Right before Space Mountain.

The REALS and IDEALS 

Goal #2 was an epic failure.  I give myself an F.  I was late a lot last week and only sort of had a handle on the clutter.  

Last night, I came back to a surprise.  My brother-in-law Austin took this old desk that was worn and old and unfinished and re-did the wood on it with new varnish.  For no reason because he is awesome. So I was pleased and so were the boys.  They took about ten seconds to make it look like this:

Why would anyone post that chaos?   

Because, my friends, that is Goal #3.  My REAL for this week, is that the desk looks like this ALL THE TIME!  I pick it up, I make the kids pick it up, I weed out the clutter, and this ends up looking like that mess.  SO, I want a better, more Montessori-like kid-friendly set up.  So, my goal is to make this an easier place to keep organized for my little artists.

IDEAL

(found here:  http://pinterest.com/pin/157203843213065528/ not sure of the original source.)

Feel free to post any great ideas for this, or make and share your own goal, - or don't.

Happy Father's Day to my husband and the 0 other dads reading my blog.  Shawn's a good guy, so I'm gonna keep him.

Shawn smoked us a Father's Day Dinner of pulled pork, we ate this squash dish with garden squash, and salad with greens from the garden.  I love summer.  

Stuff and Goal #2

This week has been beautiful.  So I have been trying to be that mom that I loathe being - you know, the one who spends quality time outdoors with the kids.  I am a results based person, so I sorta just like to do stuff that has an end goal.  Most of the time I spend really working with my kids is educational based or cleaning based- as in, I make them and show them how to clean things- you're welcome, future daughters-in-law.

So to prove I did good mom stuff:

boys on their bikes, with bells - because we hate the neighbors it would seem  (we don't) 

No matter what cool activity we engage in, he is stuck doing this.

Dominic's helicopter - act impressed.

 This week I'm teaching a new somewhat prep intensive reading/art summer school course in the mornings, my sister and I are trading childcare, and we are going to DISNEYLAND! next week, so much packing awaits us.  I had Gretchen's girls this afternoon and the lunch fixings were slim.  I dared not drag the 4 munchkins (Sol's at Totus Tuus) to ALDI for an embarrassment-fest, so I broke down and (if you're a healthy person insert "whipped up a salad" and skip this paragraph) bought McDonalds.  I don't do that much.  For one, it costs more than I typically shell out and it isn't my ideal healthy meal either.  But I did.

Coletti asked me 3 times "What is this drink?"  What she really meant was:  
"What is this God-nectar of delight?"   I call it "Koolaid".  

More outdoorsy-ness.  

Shawn's garden, one corner away from weeded.  

My entire back patio and driveway look like a plot for war.  Enemies beware.  

Goal #2 has a little less ambition than the already less than dazzling Goal #1.

I'm going easy on myself during this already busy week:

Arrive on-time to everything and keep the house in order.

IDEAL
I bet June never drags into the cub scout ceremony with untied shoes on the Beav.
And those cabinets....

REAL

I would show my real with a photo, but there is not a picture chaotic enough to represent it.  I googled "flustered mom" and was shocked not to find my photo in the search.  I'm constantly heading out the door with kids in tow for this and that, leaving a mess, forgetting a baseball glove, and breaking laws written for bad drivers like me to get somewhere before 15 minutes late.  I really don't want to nag my boys this week to get in the car and race off.  And I want to maintain some order.  And I don't want to rely on my super husband to finish the cleaning and dress the baby in the process.  He's been working tons and cashed in lots of PTO just to pay Wilson's hospital bills.  So he deserves a break.

Now to keep a pepper-print promise to Dom and Francesca.  Then to pick up Sol - on time.

Goal Revisited

First off- I was having a rough night on my last post, but of course, all is well.

Solomon in deep, monotone foghorn voice:
"Awww Wilson Ignatius, I love you because you are so cute.  Did you know you are so cute?"
(I'm certain he does know.)  

So, initially, I thought I would complete goal #1 in one week and come up with some other need for improvement in my home and quickly move to perfection.  (I'm a realist-no.  Optimist?-no.  Living in a fantasy?  BINGO.)  So perfect laundry and closets in a week?  Not so.  So, let's pretend that I'm grading not on timeliness, but on completion.

Goal:  Get ALL the laundry clean, ironed, and put away.
And make my closet a bit more Martha Stewart . . . the organized part, she's not really my fashion icon.

IDEAL

BEFORE

REAL AFTER.
OCD clothing sort included.

Season 4 of AD made this much more fun.   Welcome back, old friend.  

Moses?  No.  Wilson.  Wrong basket.

And I get an A- (I'm a generous self-grader). I did wash, iron, and hang it *all*.
*Turns out, your family cannot remain naked while you do all the laundry.*
  

I still need to go through my son's closets for outgrown and out of season wear.

I also got rid of a heap of not-so-lovely and not-so-fitty clothes - Shawn too!

To donate to . . . somewhere.  Although, I might still want that red sequined scarf-belt.  

This blog start and goal was also a blogs-periment of sorts to see if this would be a help or hindrance to me as a mother, wife, and person in general.  I have been far more productive since I started it- and so it will go on.  Like my heart.

Peace out.

This post was brought to you by:  Dirty garage and obsession with my youngest child.  And Celine Dion.