It’s been a while, and Casey and Ben have been keeping us very busy. They’re fabulous, and exhausting! I did draft a post late March, but I just found it today, so I thought I’d start over and give the whole big update.
– finish the guest room
I think it’s gotten more junk in it recently, but we’ll get there. The new throw pillows for the couch are on the bed, waiting on the seam of one to be fixed, the mirror for the new dresser in our room is waiting to be installed, and then there’s a pile of boxes that are empty and a pile waiting to go into the attic. Sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll change Ben’s clothes out and the pile to go to the attic will move out. Maybe I’ll get sewing stuff out at some point and fix the pillow, hem the couple of pair of pants, and such that needs. As for the lamps and the picture… no progress. I’m still hopeful for having this back as a functional guest room by the end of the year. The pile of boxes of hand-me-down items are also in need of going through and finding homes. I don’t want to talk about that though.
– learn to coupon
I don’t regularly get the paper, but I do pay attention online to grocery sale ads and when the coupons in the paper are extra good, so I can pick them up. I have learned several things though, such as, we’re a couple of brand specific people, the things we buy most, we like in our brand of choice, so couponing is a challenge. Also, buying brands just because they have coupons and not because that brand is your favorite is dumb, i.e. diapers. I did some math a couple of months ago, tried some different store brands (after determining that my preference between huggies and pampers depended on where Ben was in growth related to the size of the diaper) and decided that I like target brand diapers just as well as any, and when not on sale, they’re the cheapest. Unlike many store brands, they do go on sale, and I get 5% back when I buy them online with my debit card (which I now do, unless, like last week, I can get 10% back on a store gift card). So, I have definitely learned about couponing and shopping sale ads, including when to forget it and buy the store brand instead. Also, when I buy formula, wipes, and diapers online, I do get about $10 back a month, so I consider this a success!
-find a church
This is a hard one for us. It’s hard because we like to hang around in our pjs on the weekend and because it’s hard to get a puppy out, exercised, fed, and back in her crate, while trying to get two adults and an infant presentable, fed, and ready to leave the house. Also, this is just a hard thing to find a good fit on. All of that, combined with our goal of listing our house in March to transplant across town (closer to Adam’s work), means that this is even harder. We did actually talk about it some this weekend and since we were able to, without hurry or stress, leave the house by 9am on Sunday, we’re planning to start looking for churches near our hopefully new side of town (so we don’t have to do it twice, and because we’ve had no luck on our attempts on our current side of town).
-lose the baby weight
Done. By the grace of God alone, I managed to fit back into most of my pants when Ben was about a month old, and about the time he was 10 weeks old, I finally lost those last few pesky pounds. My new goal is to hit and maintain my end of first trimester weight (which, yes, is lower than my pre-pregnancy weight – thank you lots of puking, not). I’ve hit it a few times, but maintaining it is a different story. It would be helpful if I’d jump on the treadmill more than once a week. My current goal is twice, then I’ll work back up to three times a week. August wasn’t a nice month to my schedule, but September is looking up.
So, only a few months left, combined with several holidays, birthdays, and too much else I’m sure. We’ll make more progress, and hopefully I’ll finish the guest room at least. It’ll be one less thing to do before the March listing date.