the cleaning epiphany

If you know my mom, you will know she's pretty much the cleanest, most organized lady around. I always admired that about her (while also resenting her neatness because I apparently missed out on the gene that compels a person to keep the house so incredibly clean).

After four years of marriage, a consistently messy house, and feeling lame because I just wasn't as good at cleaning as my mom, I decided to put in practice something she had taught me through example: the only way to make cleaning easy is to do it every day. If you leave off all your cleaning until the weekend (or the end of the month or the year), you'll end up feeling overwhelmed and you'll probably leave it off even longer.

I realize that this is a pretty basic concept, but I've been too lazy to put it into practice in the past. Instead of continuing the cycle of laziness, I decided to create a schedule and get to work.

There are a few chores that need to be done every day, like making the bed, emptying/loading the dishwasher, and straightening up messes. The bigger tasks, like cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming the whole house, are now divided up fairly evenly among the days of the week.

Emerson loves it when the living room is clean. Oh wait, he just loves listening to the vacuum.

I am still not a pro at the whole keeping-a-clean-house thing, but doing a little bit of cleaning every day has helped so much. It's become much less of a chore for me mentally, and it frees up the weekend so we can take advantage of Andrew's sparse free time. Thanks for the cleaning lesson, Mom!

the pinterest blues

I ignored the Pinterest craze for a long time because I just didn't understand it. People "pin" pictures and quotes on virtual boards for the fun of it? It didn't make sense to me. I can't remember what convinced me to finally take a look; maybe it was a cool decoration idea or cute baby clothes when I was pregnant. But I signed up, and I consequently spent the next two days scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of pins: makeup tutorials, fitness tips, cool recipes, funny quotes, new workouts, budgeting ideas, and oh so much more.

And then came the burnout. I got overwhelmed by Pinterest--by all of the inspirational ideas, the super-creativeness, the overflow of everything--and I stopped looking at it for quite a long time. I don't know if anyone else has felt this way, but Pinterest made me a little depressed. Like everyone else had these amazingly awesome ideas and outfits and recipes and abs, and I was a boring schmuck who wasn't crafty or stylish.

I am proud to say that I got over that phase (mostly) and am now a healthy, more limited Pinterest user. Browsing pins aimlessly is usually what gets me in trouble, while using the site for more specific purposes is normally great. I am probably a bit crazy and most likely too sensitive about Pinterest in general, but oh well. For now, I'll blame post-baby hormones. :)

When we moved into our new place in Salem, I found I had several glass vases that I wasn't using very frequently. I poked around on Pinterest for decorating ideas, and found this pin and blog post:

Source: ohsolovelyblog.blogspot.com via Camille on Pinterest

I decided to try my hand at being a little (read: hardly) crafty and poured some paint in my lonely vases. Then I got some flowers from the dollar store, and they actually turned out pretty cute! I'll admit that I was mainly just proud of myself for doing something I'd seen on Pinterest.

I think I've learned my lesson(s) with Pinterest: don't waste time by browsing aimlessly, don't feel bad about what other people are doing, and remember that it can be really helpful when looking for a little inspiration.

couponing

It's official: I have become a couponer. Or at least I am trying to become one. We are now (once again) poor students, so we're on a very tight budget, and nothing is quite so motivating as desperation!

If you're not familiar with the idea of couponing, here is the gist: you subscribe to newspapers and online couponing sites to get access to as many manufacturers' coupons as possible. Then, you wait for sales and/or coupons at local stores, combine all the offers, and get really good deals. I haven't gone extreme yet--I still get only one copy of the newspaper--but I have certainly been able to save us some money on groceries and toiletries.

Today, I went to Walgreen's and got this stuff for $6.14 (plus $3 off my next purchase):

There were originally four Dove bars, but I already ate one...

Overall, I saved 78%! (Granted, Walgreen's is a bit more expensive than other stores to begin with, but any way you slice it, it was a great deal.)

Emerson likes to help me out by keeping track of my coupon holder.

And by having a nice blanket lollipop, of course.

I'm hoping that couponing will help us save even more money throughout our law school years, and maybe I'll love it so much that I'll do it forever....yeah. Probably not. It's way too much work. :)

the many faces of hunger

When Emerson wakes up from a nap, it's usually because he's hungry. And when he's hungry, the boy likes to munch on things. Observe.

Adorable.

Oh, there's a hand here!

Nom nom nom.

Oh man, this stuff is good.

I wish I could keep those fingers in my mouth.

the next three years

My, how our life has changed in the past few months! We moved to Oregon from Utah--our first big move as a family. After years of anticipation and preparation, Andrew has finally started law school at Willamette University. And most importantly, we welcomed our sweet little Emerson into the world!

Apparently I am now what's known as a law school widow: since Andrew will be gone studying so much, it will be as if he died. It's a pleasant idea, I know. But instead of wallowing in self-pity and being angry at homework, law school, or the world in general, I have decided to focus on becoming a better wife and mom. That might seem like an obvious thing to do (I mean, what else do you have going on, Camille?), but as I have found recently, it's all in how you look at it. For example, nothing I can do will change the fact that I am currently sacrificing a lot of sleep to take care of my two-month-old baby. The only thing I do have control over is my attitude about the situation. I can be bitter, resentful, and grumpy about it (which I did for a while), or I can try my very best to enjoy what life brings me. Just so we're clear, I am nowhere near perfect at actually putting this idea into practice, but hey. Life is a work in progress.

With that, here is to the beginning of a new and very different chapter in our life. Here's to the next three years. May they be filled with long nights of studying, first steps and first words, lots of couponing, and many precious moments with our family.

And just for fun, here are some pictures of Emerson. Because we all know that's why people have blogs.

Look at those lips!

Waking up from a nap.