Neatness, etc.

Hubby & I HAVE to have a neat house. That's just the way we are, we can't function without that. People who knew that about us kept joking that that would change once that little J was here. I remember in the beginning they would joke & ask how the house was & I would tell them it was still neat & they'd tell me to just wait 'til he's mobile. Well he's fully mobile now & has been since January & we're still very neat & tidy. I'm not trying to brag or put down anyone who doesn't do the same, but it bothers me that people attack us for being this way & they want so badly to see us fail. It just doesn't seem very nice to me.

Due to financial reasons (economy, yada yada yada) little J didn't have many toys, up until last weekend when we had his first bday party & received tons of toys as presents.

We had also received a gift card & check for little J & the day after the party I asked hubby if we could go & use them to get a toy chest. Hubby was thrilled with that idea & it's working really great for us.

I let him have 2-3 toys out of the toy chest at a time & he always goes over to the toy chest & looks in when he's bored with what he has & wants something different. He always has access to his books & small toys, they are not in the toy chest. And his 3 big toys (ride & stride lion, the toy that stands on legs--I don't know what it's called, & a big ball) are also always available, it's just the in between stuff that we are limiting. I think it's also good because it teaches him to put things away when he's tired of them in order to get something else.

And as soon as he goes down for a nap or at bedtime or if we're leaving the house everything is picked up & put back in it's place, & it doesn't even take 5 minutes to do it.

I do house cleaning about once a week (usually on Fridays), dusting, mopping, vacuuming, bathrooms, kitchen, etc. I don't always do all of them every week usually, but I'll do at least half of them each week & trade off & then it all gets done at least every other week. Although sometimes I am able to do all of them every week, usually the bathrooms & sometimes all of it. But that's just the actual cleaning part of it. Tidying things up we just do as we go, never put it off 'til later to let it build up. That's just the way we are.

I'll admit that at times it's hard to get in the kitchen & make food, but I do always manage to have food made when the kids & hubby are home, even though it may be a challenge. I have yet to fail completely at this, even on Thursdays when I make really big & often complicated meals for our family night.

In addition to neatness, I also see & hear a lot of moms who let themselves go physically after having a baby. This has yet to happen as well for me. I still workout at least several times each week (just like I did before I had a baby), I have never yet missed a daily shower & still wear makeup every single day. Occasionally I skip blow drying my hair for a day, but I used to do that before I had a baby as well & it isn't very often.

So basically I'm still waiting for that time to come when I just absolutely can't maintain things as they are/have been. And those people who are wanting to see that day come are just gonna keep on saying that it is still coming, but hubby insists that it never will knowing me & how I am.