Reality Check:

1) I can write whatever I want on my daily routine or my to do list. I can make as many lists as I want, but unless I actually do it, it won't get done.

2) It's never fun in the beginning, but it gets easier.

FLY My Darlings

If you have not heard of FLYlady you need to get on this boat. My mom got me into it and now I will recruit you.
Even though I do not go by her strictly, her routines and advice are normally the bones to my housework and routines.

www.flylady.net

I'll Hammar Your Toma

I just realized I never posted an update about my tumor!

I am pleased to announce that the surgery is done and over with. Back in June (or was it July) they did an out-patient surgery. I even got to see it afterward (not as gross as you think), it was huge, i mean...bigger than a golf ball. Also it turned out not to be a hamartoma. In essence it's basically a third breast growing inside my one. I can't remember the name but I'll look it up and get back to you.
As they had initially told me, it was benign.

I am SO thankful that it wasn't anything serious (there is history of breast cancer in my family).
I let this slide first noticing it in junior high and forgetting about it until just a couple years ago. It started out the size of a pea and grew to a blob monster.
Ladies PLEASE please please, check yourselves regularly and get anything abnormal checked out ASAP. Can you imagine if my tumor was cancerous?  Not good.

Please take care of yourselves.

Update: the name for it is fibroadenoma.

Ready Set Go

Important lesson from today: if you don't start your day right when you wake up, the rest of your day will suck.
When you wake up in the morning, don't just go sit your tukus on the couch and stay there.

By starting your day I mean showering/working out, getting chores done, basically start active.

This morning when I woke up, I thought, "well, I did so good yesterday and the day before that I can probably just do a relaxing day."
Well... my "relaxing day" turned into a "sitting on the couch with my eyes glued to pinterest day". Yeah, it sucked.
My mom and I had a great talk aboit a week ago about how we don't feel disciplined and need to be present in our decisions.  I think that applies here. I wasn't disciplined enough to do anything else with my day or even give myself a time limit on the tablet.
I could have worked on my writing, read a book, taken a bubble bath, drawn in my design on my apron, made a clay mask, done cross-stitching, drawn with my oil crayons, made something decorative for the house, baked something....the list goes on.
How dissappointing to look at the clock and realize it's 8pm and I haven't even spent proper time with Matt.

Lesson number three: Start your day actively.

Something that helps me is writing out a list of specific things I like to do for fun, then I can choose from it. Give yourself time limits too so you're not doing one thing the whole day.

P.S. I made a homemade laundry detergent. Still in the process of trying it out. Review to come.

The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down...

I don't know about you all, but my least favorite days to do housework are when it's raining. I just want to curl up with my cats and a book, watch a movie, or take a nap.
It definitely doesn't put me in a lively mood.

So, today I tried to think of what I do that helps me get in the cleaning mood. For sunny days I like the windows open and filling the house with spritely music. And this in turn made me realize I need to go with the mood I am in.

For dreary days I think of lighting candles, playing jazz or even classical music. I also realized I like doing more organization type cleaning, as it's more about the mind and keeping calm, instead of scrubbing and laundry and vacuuming and picking up the floor.

Like I said in my last post: doing SOMEthing everyday is the key.
Now I have a second piece of advice: do work that goes with the flow.

Not to mention still getting some things done on a rainy day will make that nap or book worth it.

Thoughts from today...

I'm realizing slowly no matter what my routine is or how much I get done during the day, that the important thing is getting SOMEthing done everyday. I'm letting go of my perfectionism and not beating myself up for not having everything perfect by the end of the day.

And someone needs to invent a tool to put lotion on your back for you.

Mesh

In attempts to combine my blogs, I have decided that it would just be easier to post a link here to the other one.
Most of the posts on this other blog are recipes we've made, so check them out. Maybe it'll give you some ideas for meal plans.

www.mama-c-emporium.blogspot.com

Binx and Kat

...And So We Have a Brat

Meet the third addition to our little family: Katerina "Kat Rajah Johnson.

Back in March '12, Matt's mom had a pregnant stray that had her babies in the yard of the house next to them. She fed her and the kittens but needed to find a home for our little Miss Priss and her brother and sister, Kathy knew we had just gotten Binx and wondered if we wanted to take on another cat. So on our next visit in September, we brought Binx and went over to take a look. Kat, called "Yellow" at the time, stood out immediately, being the most playful and curious about humans. Binx suprisingly got a long with all of them, but we didn't have another boy and Georgia was already attached to Kathy's husband, so we settled on Yellow.

Choosing her name on the way home was more of a challenge. I wanted to keep with the "cats from movies" idea and kept coming back to Cat from Breakfast at Tiffany's. That led to her full name Katerina (special because of a book from my childhood as wellas Matt's mom's name).
We were all preparedfor the long-haul of getting her used to the house and to Binx, but it only took about an hour before she and Binx were best friends and she was sniffing around the house.

She's really skittish (although she's gotten a lot better), really picky with her food (she won't eat treats and doesnt pay any attention to catnip). She LOVES (and I mean LOOOOOVES) being petted and scratched, but hates being held and actually doesn't like being outside (she heads straight for the door as soon as I put her on the ground).

She also like antagonizing Binx, which I'll post pictures of in the next post.