More house stuff

I have been obsessing about our house since I got home for Hawaii.  Something about having toddler makes me neurotic about my house.  My son likes to play, and he likes toys.  We try not to spoil him, but he does have a lot of toys.  He has toys in his bedroom, in his play area in our basement, and in the living room on the main floor.  Basically, he has toys on all three floors of our house.  I get very upset when there's so much clutter.  Not only do I pick up after a toddler, I also pick up after an adult:  a male adult.  It's very exhausting.

So today I spent 2.5 hours at Ikea, gawking at what living spaces and bedrooms and living rooms should look like.  I could've died with envy right there and then, but I kept encouraging myself that someday I will have that.  So after my trip to Ikea, I got the inspiration to clean up when I got home and de-clutter my toy infested living room.  So here's what I came up with:

The lamp was my $20 find at Ikea.  I just needed something to accentuate my bookcase which is not much a bookcase as much as it is a toy storage.  I am happy though that at least for 30 minutes, my living room stayed looking like this.  My son is about to come home from playing outside to change that.  But at least for a little while, this made my day.

Renovation progress

About six months ago, Josh started renovating our kitchen. It has been a long and arduous process.  To be honest, I didn't like the house when Josh decided to buy it.  Not only because I wasn't there to see the house for myself, but I disliked the fact that it was this horrible yellow inside the entire house and that there's only 1 bathroom to share among 3 bedrooms upstairs.  But Josh wanted the house, and he liked the location, and that we had a small budget to work with, the fact that I can't be included in the purchase because I lived in Hawaii then...well, I didn't have much of a say.  So as a good wife, I supported his decision to purchase the house.

The first time I stepped into the house, I was thoroughly dismayed.  It was not at all what I expected.  I don't claim to be the cleanest person in the world.  But I could swear that the previous owners were the filthiest people I haven't and never wish to meet.  Suffice it to say, I spend several months going from room to room cleaning the entire house to a point where I can say I am comfortable to live in it.

One of the major areas that I pressed and prodded Josh to renovate is the kitchen.  I'm not going to go into details, but the kitchen was pretty nasty.  We agreed to renovate when we get our tax return.  We didn't get much in refund but thank goodness for Home Depot.  So here is the kitchen before (these are pictures Josh took before he purchased the house:

 And these are the pictures after our renovation:

It's still a work in progress.  It's hard for Josh to find time to finish it between work, school, and Sam.  But it's more than what i could wish for.  I'm still working on organizing it, especially the pantry but in time, everything will be where I want them to be.

Birthday

I meant to blog about my birthday.  Except there was really to say other than I am a year older.  No big celebration, no flowers or balloons.  Just the usual family day.  Nothing really exciting.  Every year, as my birthday approaches, I keep thinking that when I was young (before 18) all I wanted was to become 18.  At 18 you become an adult, at least legally.  When I turned 18, I wanted to be 21.  Everyone knows why being 21 is significant...not that everyone abide by it.  After I turned 21, I wanted to become 25.  Car insurance gets cheaper and I can rent a car on my own.  After I turned 25....I wanted to go back and be 18 again.

I don't know if everyone feel the way that I do, but sometimes I feel like I just want to run in circles around that age.  I don't fear aging...I'm not afraid to get all wrinkly and gray.  I enjoy being a wife and a mommy (although the latter has been increasingly challenging for me as of late).  But somehow, before my birthday approaches every year, I try to remember the days when I was younger and carefree.  Maybe because then, I didn't have to stress so much.  I feel like as you get older, the stress mounts because there's just much more to stress about.  You stop thinking beyond yourself that at some point, you forget about yourself.

This year, as I turned another year older, I have decided to go back every once and a while and think about myself.  So the first thing I did on my birthday is to go to the container store and bought items to organize my pantry.  That's for me, for my sanity.  So I thought of myself.  And every once in a while (on days where Sam just drives me and slams me on the wall), I will think of myself.

Nap, nap, nap

Today was a rough day.  And it's not even done yet.  It was a late start prompted by a very late bedtime last night.  I do realize and understand that it must be tough for Sam to adjust and establish a new routine.  I wish I could make it easier for him, because that means my life would be easier.  Our struggle today involved nap time.  I've heard people having issues with naps, but today, I went through it myself.  Routinely after lunch, Sam and I cuddle, watch a little TV until he falls asleep.  Today, he refuses.  No sir, he wanted to eat, play, throw things, but not nap.  So after a lot of pushing, pulling, jumping and head butting mommy, he finally gave up, cuddled with the sofa, and passed out.

4 hours later

So here we are 4 hours later, he is softly snoring and I am decompressing from all the frustration of the day.  And it's not even over.