Week Three: Year of Less

Last week's goals:

• Put clean clothes away with 24 36 hours of washing (must. be. realistic.). 
• Make a donate box and put something in it every day.
• Gather up things that belong to our friends and return them.
• Put the pot lid organizer we bought 2 months ago to use.

I am awful at putting laundry away. I don't know why. I hate it. I hate it even more than I hate putting the dishes away. It's boring and stupid, and maybe I just need to recognize this and institute a no-dresser policy so that I can just live out of a laundry basket.

Right.

Really, what I need to do is reduce the sheer amount of clothing I have. Especially since I only wear about 2/3 of it. Because MAYBE if I had SPACE for the clothes, putting them away wouldn't be such a chore. 

I kept up really well with the goals from week 1. I think it's safe to call those habits now. 

This week, I'm going to:

• Weed out too-small Charlotte clothes and put them in a bin.
• Empty out my car. 
• Go through my socks and get rid of/rag the threadbare ones.
• Make breakfast cookies on Sunday and experiment with freezing for the week.

Wish me luck!

Mini me

Me.

Her.

Dear Charlotte,

You are something else. You are such a happy kid! I can't get over how much you do. I wish, though, that you'd go back to routinely sleeping through the night.

You're starting to freak out a little when I'm around but not paying attention to you. In order for you to be happy with dada, I have to leave the room. That's how this photo happened:

Yes, he was singing Red Solo Cup. It's not entirely appropriate for your wee little ears, but he changed the lyrics around a little. Red Solo Cup, I build you up, Baby knocks you down. I really should have recorded it!

Love you to the moon!
-mama

It's been one week (since you looked at me)

Because a little Barenaked Ladies never hurt!

It's been one week since I posted about my problem with Stuff and Things. I wanted to accomplish the following:

• I'm going to leave my office desk tidy every night. 
• I'm going to pick out clothes for me and C, and pack lunches and diaper bags the night before.
• I'm going to continue to strive to have a clean sink before bed.
• I'm going to cook one weekday meal on the weekend.

I have succeeded! Wahoo! I'm creating a new night-time routine that has worked for the last seven nights, and I'm so pleased about it. I'm a little bit surprised by how free I feel, given that I am working with 'more' restrictions. It means that I don't go to bed quite as early, and I may even be a few minutes late leaving the office, but it's less to worry about in the morning. That is always a good thing.

In the next seven days, in addition to continuing to make a habit out of the earlier goals, I'm going to:

• Put clean clothes away with 24 36 hours of washing (must. be. realistic.). 
• Make a donate box and put something in it every day.
• Gather up things that belong to our friends and return them.
• Put the pot lid organizer we bought 2 months ago to use.

This is going so well that I feel inspired to make this Year of Less thing a weekly feature. So, join me as I try to simplify a little!

PS. This whole thing started because two weeks ago, I cleared the books out of the stereo stand that we use for an entertainment unit. Someone was beginning to pull them out and eat them... So, I boxed up the ones I want to keep:

And in their place is a diaper box that makes a mighty fine toy box (and toy, itself!).

The further adventures...

of Charlotte!

We took a night off from family to go visit my friend. Mom volunteered to drive us over there, but I knew that Charlotte's first Metro ride would be worthy of documentation, so I turned her down.

Here she is, waiting for the train. We missed one by maybe 20 seconds because I couldn't get the #$*&*! stroller through the fare card gates. Rookie mistake. I felt like such a tourist!

Note her death grip on Oscar the dog, a gift from our cousins. He is her traveling companion.

 And here, on the way home. Just outside the frame were two tourists. She was such a flirt, laughing and grinning at them, and I swear to you, they took photos of her. She has papparazzi.

Verdict: she enjoyed the Metro trains themselves, but did not particularly enjoy the waiting for them.

Whelmed.

I'll say it straight - life with Charlotte is awesome, but the rest of life is, well, a little (over)whelming at times. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm actually overwhelmed, though, more like I feel cluttered in my soul. I feel distracted, frazzled, a little lost.

I think a large part of this cluttered feeling is caused by the clutter that surrounds me at home (and, frankly, at the office. Ok, and in the car, too.). Because, let's face it, I have a stuff problem. Some people have drinking problems, I have stuff problems. I have too much of it. I can't let go of it. I have struggled with my stuff for years and years. I really need to come to grips with it.

I started reading this blog, The Year of Less, and I started looking at organizing stuff on Pinterest, and just the thought of having fewer amounts of more organized stuff makes my soul feel a little lighter. But it's not enough. I need to break down and DO something about it, instead of just thinking about the stuff. Post-maternity leave, I set a goal of going to bed with a clean sink - that helps me feel better, especially when I actually accomplish that goal.

And so, I bring to you: Joie's Year of Less. A loose plan of attack to make my soul feel lighter, my house look cleaner, and myself happier. I'm trying to use SMART goals, so hopefully this won't become yet another CLEAN ALL THE THINGS dream.

To start, I'm just going to make a few small changes:

• I'm going to leave my office desk tidy every night. 
• I'm going to pick out clothes for me and C, and pack lunches and diaper bags the night before.
• I'm going to continue to strive to have a clean sink before bed.
• I'm going to cook one weekday meal on the weekend.

Four goals for the remainder of September, two of which I already do half-heartedly.

I can do this.

Lord, I was born a ramblin' man

Last weekend, Charlotte and I traveled to DC to celebrate my grandmothers. Here's thematic installment no. 1 of our trip. I call it: how to travel with a mobile 6 month old and not lose your mind.

We got to the airport three hours early because I figured there'd be a long line at security, it being the Friday before Labor Day and all. Not only was there virtually no line, the TSA agent actually opened another lane for us. Then I had to fill three hours with a mobile baby.

So, we played with the suitcase for a while. I also instagrammed a lot (follow me: joie_12). The awesome gate agent re-arranged things so that Charlotte and I had a row to ourselves, so she flew in the car seat.

Sleeping on the plane. This didn't actually last very long, and I was forced to resort to SkyMall to keep her entertained.

I learned an important lesson: just because you CAN carry the diaper bag, carseat/kid combo, and a carry-on duffle, doesn't mean you SHOULD. It wasn't so bad in Albany, but National Airport is a lot bigger. I earned some calluses on my hands this trip!

On the way back, killing time with Mimi before the flight. I had already checked the duffle bag at this point.

Despite the relative emptiness of our return flight, we were forced to gate check the car seat. This ended up not being an issue, because Charlotte (and I!) slept for the first 45 minutes of the 65 minute flight. I really enjoyed our snuggly little nap. 

The last twenty minutes were spent playing and making googly eyes at the baby two rows up.