Proud of Me

I am not the most organized person in the world, but I like to think I am getting better. I am horrible at having dinner ready for my husband when he arrives home from work. Man o man I struggle with making dinner. But in the past couple of months I have been really trying to improve in a couple areas and today, well today is a good day. So forgive me while I just explain why today is a good day.

Housekeeping I posted a little while back about a book I got for a bridal shower, Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Guide to Homekeeping. Yes, it was written in the 1800's and yes, I use it. It has helped me create a housekeeping routine that has worked. Granted, I think one of the reasons it has worked so well is that I have been off work for the past two month :-) But each morning I get up, get Luke out of bed, put on his braces and clothes and start a little routine. I go from room to room with my big basket, making beds, opening windows, putting clothes or little things away and putting things in my basket to take to a different room. Within a half hour the house is 75% clean in every room. With the exception of whatever Luke was playing with while I am doing this, but I can get that put away as we go. Then we get breakfast and while he is still eating I put the clean dishes away. So dishwasher is empty, beds are made, clutter is put away and my day begins. I like that the majority of the housework is done and I can focus on playing with Luke and cleaning up the tornado that follows in his wake. Then if I can get a load of laundry in and clean up after myself in the kitchen I am good to go. So basically my goal is to keep the house in order rather than really cleaning it. I mean I know I still need to CLEAN it (i.e the toilet, shower, dusting, mopping), but I don't worry about it so much. My goal is to keep the house tidy and get to the CLEANING when I can. It is amazing how clean my house feels when the beds are made, floors are bare, dishes are done and most things are in their place. I don't walk in and notice the dust or the un-mopped kitchen floor, I see the space, a place things are in order. I am proud to say I have only fallen off the bandwagon and just completely ignored my housekeeping probably only six days in the last 2 months. But it is so much easier to keep it up if I did it the day before.
One of my favorite parts of the book really encouraged me. It said "Strive for excellence and not perfection... Perfection does not exist... The first is attainable, gratifying and healthy. The second is impossible, frustrating and neurotic. It is also a terrible waste of time."
Perfection is a waste of time. I like that. So its ok that my laundry isn't always done. But I can been proud if it is sorted and in laundry baskets and not on the floor. So I am happy. Happy to find a system that works for me. And hopefully, I will be able to add to it. To include cooking dinner and real cleaning. But as of right now I am just so happy it looks pretty.

and on to the other part of my good day...

Bills and Paper work. Insurance and finance. We get a lot of bills and I am not talking about monthly electric, rent or phone bills, Andrew takes care of those. But I am in charge of all of the insurance and medical bills. I did it after Luke was born and in the first year of his life. I still have an entire file box containing all those bills and insurance statements. But now that Luke is having more bills and more Dr's visits, and now that we are on Medicaid D and SSI, and since there is a new little baby joining our family oh, next week... Well lets just say its been more important than ever for me to keep things in order.
So first I will tell you how we usually handle it. Luke starts going to the Dr. I get stressed about his health and can't even deal with the bills until he is doing better. So as the bills and the insurance statements come I place them in a basket in the kitchen. Then when we get our first notice saying. "If this bill is not paid in the next 12 buisness days your account will be sent to collections." That is the point when I usually start to get things in order. Which was- last week. And I am happy to say- i did it. I rocked it. I kicked those bills butts ;-) not that they are all paid hahahahaha. But every bill is stapled to its insurance statement and stapled to other bills from that corresponding facility. The deductible is highlighted on each bill and written clearly at the top and underlined in highlighter. A pink sticky note on each bill gives the further action that needs to be taken. (i.e check back and make sure claim was resubmitted, call and set up payment plan)
I have a bills paid folder and an Un-paid bills folder. But I keep them all handy. Any bill that need further action stays in the Un-paid bills folder. Then once a week I go through and follow the instructions on the sticky notes. I use the huge industrial style accordion folder- It looks like a large briefcase. It has all of our pay stubs, bank statements and all of Luke's current medical records so I can access them quickly. It has taken me almost 4 years of marriage and hundreds of bills to feel like I have created a system that works for me. Once again Yay! :-)
Its nice to feel like I have these parts of my life in order. Especially because nothing is going to be in order come next week and the addition of a newborn. :-) But I like to think that even though I won't be able to be on top of things like I am now. I will be worlds ahead of where I would have been if I hadn't gotten things in order before.
Bring on the infant poop and sleep deprivation. I am ready. Bring on the bills. I will take um down. Bring on my mom. Who will be the only reason my house will not fall to shambles in the next couple of weeks. And bring on the challenge of trying to get back into my routine again. I can do it. I think the biggest thing I have to remember is simply to get up and do. I really prefer to be lazy. But starting it all again will make me happy. My life is happy, I have Andrew and I have Luke! And soon I will have one more.

Sometimes I let myself get overwhelmed. But today, I am proud of me.

This is at breakfast this morning. Andrew brought me flowers this week and I thought they were so pretty I had to take a picture and share. I love him!


Oh- I referenced that more stuff is going on with Luke- But basically he is awesome and doing so well. But we found a few things from the MRI we have to look into further and we can't meet with the specialist until Aug 23. So when I understand it I will do a big post and explain it all in detail. But in the meantime. Know he is doing well. And I will explain things when we have a little more information.