Cleaning

School let out on Friday, May 20^th.  I took the weekend off, but on Monday I began deep cleaning my house – purging of all the stuff we had, but just didn’t need.  In light of the disastrous storm in Joplin, I felt guilty and overwhelmed by the stuff we had and all they didn’t have.  

 It’s now Wednesday and this project is about to kick my butt.  As my mom says, I’m an extreme cleaner.  I can’t just surface clean.  When I clean, I go all out!  So, because I need a break, and because I can’t sit without doing something, I’m going to blog about my cleaning experience. 

Monday, Day 1 – I started with the closets in my house.  I emptied them…yes, emptied them of EVERYTHING.  Then I organized everything into keep, store, throw away, and donate piles.  I finished almost all the closets in my house on Monday.  I was particularly proud of my master bedroom closet.  It looks fantastic!!  I purged a TON of clothes that I hadn’t worn in either months or years.  Again, I’m embarrassed by our glutinous tendencies with “stuff.”  

Notice, if you will that William’s closet is virtually emptied.  This project was also partially spurred on by the reality that within the next 6 months William will be moving out of his nursery and into his big boy room.  So, I began cleaning closets so we’ll be ready to move his stuff when the time comes. 

I haven’t yet begun to attempt to clean out the closet in the office/Will’s future room.  It intimidates me.  It’s time is coming, though…

Tuesday, Day 2 – I didn’t do much today.  I was achy from yesterday.  I worked on my office/scrapbooking corner in the basement and pretty much just made another mess.  Remember, I empty everything out and start over.  I also combined the 2 address books I found into just one – eliminating unnecessary junk there!!  

I also opened and admired my master bedroom closet several times.  It inspires me.  Look at it again…it will inspire you too!

Wednesday, Day 3 – I had big plans for this day.  The weather, unfortunately, had other plans.  I spent over an hour in my basement.  Not cleaning, like I had planned, but waiting out a potentially tornadic storm.  In this period of time, my son managed to get into just about everything I had gone through the day before.  What can you do…

During Will’s afternoon nap, I went back to tackling the basement.  I loaded up my car with donations for the salvation army, finished straightening up my office area (for now), and cleaned up the laundry area too.

 

Now, I’m reloading all my cd’s onto itunes (when I got my new computer, my itunes didn’t transfer over my personal collection, just the music I bought from them).  I’m also getting ready to go through a bunch of computer cd’s to see if there’s anything I need to keep.  I’m ready to admit that I am attempting these tasks tonight because I can do them in my comfy chair while watching a movie.  I’m tired…

Oh, I should also note: while I'm doing all these awesome, amazing cleaning projects; my son is normally right behind me...doing this:

Extreme Couponing

Recently I have been introduced to the world of Extreme Couponing.  My dad, strangely enough, really likes the show and gets as excited as my dad can get, that you can buy hundreds of dollars of groceries for practically nothing.  He records the shows and, since I don't have cable, lets me see them when we come over for lunch on Sunday afternoons. 

While the show is pretty interesting, I have simply decided that I will never be an extreme couponer.  For instance: I will not spend tens of dollars a week investing in the paper to get the coupons.  I take the free coupons that land on my driveway every Saturday evening and then my mom and other friends know some of the coupons I use (i.e.: pampers) and will clip & save them for me.

I will also not buy things I absolutely do not need just because I can get them for next to nothing...or for nothing.  The episode where the lady buys like a hundred bags of croutons???  Really???  Or the episode where the twin girls are stocking up on diapers and neither are married or have children.  Scary....  As a friend of mine said the other night, there's a reason that Hoarders comes on right after this show!!

However, I had a couponing moment yesterday.  Probably not good enough to be on the show, but I was proud.  And, as I sit at home, unable to sleep for the second night in a row, I've done the math and I think I'm even more proud of my accomplishment.

I was making my grocery list for the week (since I've gone back to work , we go grocery shopping on the weekends for the next week) and I was writing down my needs, looking in sale ads to price match, and flipping through my coupons; I noticed that Walgreen's had a sale on Pamper's diapers.  We are very loyal Pamper's users, so I did some math and at 2 packages for $18 with $3 in rewards, it made the diapers about $15 or $7.50 a package.  That's a pretty good deal.  It's not great, but good.  I added 2 manufacturer's coupons (one at $1 and one at $1.50) to my total and I spent about $16 on the two packages of diapers. I figured I'd do it so I could earn the points on my Walgreen's card.  Well, when I purchased the diapers, a $5 Pampers coupon printed with my $3 rewards.  So, that afternoon, I sent my mom back to Walgreens with my $3 rewards, the $5 coupon, and 2 more manufacturer's coupons totaling $3.  While for some reason, still unbeknown to me, the store wouldn't take one of my manufacturer's coupon, I still came away with 2 more packs of diapers for about $8.  Now that is a good deal.

So, all in all, I spent about $24 and got 116 diapers (and another $5 off coupon to use at a later date).  That's about 21 cents a diaper.  Walmart sells packages of 110 for $25.  That's roughly 23 cents a diaper.  Target sells a box of 80 for $20.  That's 25 cents a diaper.  It may sound like pennies, but when you do the math...116 diapers at Walmart would cost $27 and at Target: $29.  I saved my family $3-5.  So, I think I did pretty good.  I'm sure it could have been better, but I was pretty pleased that I watched my ads, my coupons, and competitors prices and came away with the better deal.

So, while I'm no extreme couponer, I can still be wise with the money God has given my family and stretch every penny.  Plus, now I can scratch diapers off my grocery list for awhile!!

The Little Things...

Last night was a big night for the Coopers.  Will took some steps holding on to a push toy in the church nursery!!  Sounds normal for a 16 month old, right??  Nope, not mine.  My son is stubborn and intends to complete all childhood milestones in his own time.  Who cares what Gerber, Babycenter.com, and the pediatrician says.  Will does what he wants when he wants to do it.  I know no one like this.  Especially not me....

I don't know if you can post a video to a blog, but I will sure try.  It was incredibly amazing to watch Will do this.  I haven't been so proud in a long time.  It's been hard for me to watch Will and to hear comments from others "Oh, he's not walking yet?"  "Have you had him tested?"  "Have his hips been looked at?"  I've just been overwhelmed with emotions: worry, annoyance, protective instincts, defensiveness etc. 

When I was about 22 weeks pregnant, we had a special sonogram with some sort of specialist with a fancy name to look at some spots on Will's brain.  Our sonogram tech & doctor said they were pretty normal and not to worry about it.  The sonogram specialist guy was not of the same mind.  He did several tests on Will (EKG, etc) and gave us all sorts of paperwork on all of the different diseases and life-threatening conditions the spots could indicate.  He wanted to do further testing, but Daniel and I wouldn't let him.  On the way out of the hospital, we threw the paperwork in the trash.  We decided to trust God.  God promised us that He would never give us more than we could handle.  As it turns out; I'm glad we decided not to worry - Will is perfect in every way!!

I have decided to try to take the same approach with the crawling and walking thing.  He didn't crawl until a week after his first birthday (and it really can't even be called a crawl.  More like a scoot).  And now, he's 16 months and is just starting to cruise on furniture and use push toys to get around.  The thing I've noticed about this is it's much more noticeable than spots on the brain in utero.  We get more comments, well meaning people who feel the need to tell us what we should do and what we should be worried about.

It's tough being a parent.  I don't like worrying about my kid.  I don't like feeling the need to defend him.  I don't like who I become when he's left out of something or when people make unnecessary comments.  But, I guess that's part of becoming a mother.  Or, more appropriately, a mother bear.  Don't mess with my kid - or you get ME!

So, needless to say, I'm pretty pleased with those steps Will took last night.  Even if they weren't on his own and even if they're several months "late."  My baby took some steps last night and I'm thrilled.  I may even have some cake to celebrate!!  We'll be writing this down in the baby book!!