Orange Beach, Alabama

30 Spaces in 30 Days - Week 2. Done.

Today was catch up from a busy week.

Master Closet.  Done.

Master Bedroom.  Done.

Emerson's Room.  Done.

Emerson's Closet.  Done.

Robert's Room.  Done.

Robert's Closet.  Done.

Kid's Bathroom.  Done.

Boom.

Pictures tomorrow.  Sleep eminent.

30 Spaces in 30 Days - Day 1 Update

Day 1...Today has been rough.  I have been excited (yes, excited!) to finally tackle my house.  I have had new ideas running through my mind for over a year now and it seemed like I was finally taking the first steps to get there.  First step, organize home.  Second step, turn it into greatness.  Easy, right?

But almost as soon as today started, I hit speed bump Robert.  Today has not been a good day for him.  Robert is still getting over a nasty sinus infection.  He starting vomiting and spiked a fever Thursday night while Emerson was at gymnastics.  Then spiked another fever late last night.  And today nothing seems to make him happy!

But in between naps and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I did finish moving all the contents of the playroom upstairs.  Yes - Beyond cleaning and organizing, there is also moving.  The upstairs is empty (mostly anyway).  It is big.  And it is out of public sight.  Perfect for a playroom.  

So the playroom that served me well for being right off the family room for (almost) the past 2 years, is now going back to a guest room and an added surprise just for me :).  

A picture of the before playroom on a very, very, very bad day (or depending how you want to look at it - a really good day for Emerson)...

After pics of the freshly cleaned room...

Plus, I had some extra time and cleaned out the closet.  Yea me!  Two spaces in one day!  There will definitely be days ahead that I will be too busy for anything or need more than one day for one space.

Before...Scary!

After...Ahhhhhhhh...Just lovely.

It became apparent as I was cleaning out the closet (which for the most part has always been a catch-all since I moved in) that I need a transitional space.  I had a small pile of things I do plan on utilizing elsewhere and a small pile of things that I may donate in the end, but just not sure at the moment.  So that is what this closet has become until the 30 days are over.  

Ahhhh...I can breathe a sigh of relief.  This empty space makes me happy.  It has lots of potential and I will finally have a space to do some new things :).

Three more bags!  One of trash/recycling and two for donation.  

30 Spaces in 30 Days

In my last post, I talked about my idea for 30 Spaces in 30 Days.  I am so excited about even the idea of this.  I have a lot of things to worry about, stress about, and just think about...All.the.time.  Moving a stack of paper from one flat surface to another or finding a simple item of clothing should not be one of them. So I sat down and made a list of all the spaces in my home.  Spaces - Not rooms.

Ta-da!  I made the list then I counted it.  It is exactly 30 spaces.

You will notice that probably one of the biggest, dirtiest, messiest, unorganized places in the whole house is not listed.  The garage.  I am no dumbie!  As I clean, sort, donate, throw away, I have no doubt that as it leaves the "house", it will sit in the garage until it makes it to the car, the next owner, the recycling center, or the dump.  So the garage will probably be my next project.  And a big project.  Ugh.  

Back to the current topic...I made a few rules for me to follow:

1.  The space needs to be emptied, cleaned, and reorganized according to how I currently use (or need to use) the space.  (Simple, right?)

2.  The items put back in the space need to be fulfill some sort of purpose and leave a positive feeling (to be discussed later when I have a good example).

3.  If the to be kept items are in need of major cleaning and/or missing/broken pieces need to be found/replaced then it is taken care of within a reasonable amount of time.

4.  I will keep a running list of future projects as I find them.  I hope that this whole 30 Spaces in 30 Days initiative will help me jumpstart a more active approach to taking care of things in the present instead of being stressed out by them in the future.  I can't solve all of my problems in a month so one thing at a time.  

On Friday morning, I took 2 & 1/2 car loads of kid's clothing, toys, and baby items to Kidz Klozet for their semi-annual consignment sale.  (I totally meant to snap a phone pic of the packed cars, but forgot in the excitement of seeing my items dropped off.)  Consignment is hard work.  Finding it, cleaning it, organizing it, hanging it, tagging it is time consuming and hard work!  But again, it is now out of my house and somewhere that someone else can choose to take home and enjoy it too!  I only hope I priced it correctly so it does not come back home with me!  :)  

Do you remember how I was going to keep up with how many "bags" of stuff (from the inspirational blog post of 40 Bags in 40 Days on Clover Lane)?  Well, I would say that a conservative estimate on the amount of items that went to consignment would be 10 bags.  A quarter of the way there already before Day 1!

Day 1 is tomorrow!  Please don't expect an update each day, but I will get to it.  Check back for updates!

Stuff, stuff, and stuff.

If you are local and have kids, then I am sure you have heard about Kidz Klozet.  It is the big semi-annual kid's consignment sale.  I don't care if your kids wear brand new everything and only play with gold plated toys, everyone I know consigns the outgrown and no longer needed clothing and toys.  So I have been busy, busy, busy (did I say busy?) pulling, cleaning, hanging, and tagging everything kid related for the consignment sale coming up in a few weeks - March 5th - 9th to be exact.  But drop-off is tomorrow!  So my resolution to blog more immediately fell to the side as I am on a deadline!

In my efforts to consign, I have realized just how unorganized and overwhelmed my life is.  I have stuffed and essentially "hoarded" baby/kid stuff in almost every closet.  I was not fully prepared when these two little munchkins came into this house.  I should have cleaned out all of my stuff then and had many an empty closet(s) waiting for them and all they own.

So here is the plan, the consignment "stuff" will leave the house tomorrow.  Yea!  And I will start a new mission...30 Spaces in 30 Days.  I recently read a blog post called 40 Bags in 40 Days on Clover Lane.  This idea is centered around Lent.  If I had not read it after Ash Wednesday while out of town, then I may have tried to do this exact challenge.  My immediate thought was..."There is no way that I even have 40 bags of stuff that I don't need!"  But after really looking and sorting for child-related consignment "stuff", I think I can do it...and very easily.  But instead of focusing on bags, I want to focus on spaces.  Some of my spaces might not have things to dispose of, but rather need organizing and some spring cleaning.  And just for fun, I am going to keep count of the bags and boxes too.

And not to mention, the Junior League of Mobile's very own Project Rummage!  Project Rummage is March 15th - 16th.  If I can get started now, all my closet clutter that is in great condition can go to a good cause that will help my local community!  Win-win.  :)

The 30 Spaces in 30 Days challenge starts this weekend.  Emerson will be out of the house so I think its a great time to keep the momentum going after all of this consignment work this week.  I hope to keep you updated with before and after pictures as I go.

Blog Changes

If you have ever visited my blog previously, you will see the layout has changed!  I am changing lots of things right now and the blog is no different.

I took a look at my actual blog today and not just the posting page and saw this...

"Welcome to our blog!  We created this blog to share our journey through words and pictures with our family and friends (and for anyone else that found us along the way). We had our little baby boy, Robert James, on June 20th, 2011! Our little girl, Emerson Grace, is now a big sister! Our little boy was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (a congenital heart defect) in utero. Please read our previous posts that document what we have been through and where we will be going in the future."

Yes - I wrote this.  Yes - It was a long time ago.  No - There is no "we/us/our" anymore.  Yes - This blog description has been erased forever.  

When I originally began this blog, it was to document the family's journey of life complicated by a child with a congenital heart defect.  I faithfully posted doctor's appointments and updates.  Two people had posting permissions to the blog.  I was the only one posting.  The other was too busy.  

I did not foresee that our family structure would so drastically change within 3 months of Robert's birth.  I basically abandoned the blog in an effort to keep my life more private.  No matter how hard I tried, I posted even less as everything written seemed to offer a true peek into my daily struggles as a new single mother.  When reread it was all so negative...disorganized...messy...complicated and not at all what I want to portray to the outside world.  And then I realized, that is my life at times.  That is what I am feeling.  That is who I am for better or worse.  So here I go taking another attempt at blogging consistently.  It will not serve as glimpse into someone's home that has it all figured out (because I don't!).  But it will be true. 

DISNEY WORLD!

We took a family trip to Disney World last week!  I will be posting our trip as mostly pictures and in a series of daily posts just like the trip progressed.  I need a little more time to sort through the 1500 photos we took in a matter of 5 days (you read that right...1500 photos!).  Check back next week as the pictures will start on Tuesday!

M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E...Mickey Mouse!  Mickey Mouse!

Emerson's Big Girl Room Makeover (Part 1)

This weekend, Emerson was "away".  So in the hopes of being productive, more organized, and genuinely less stressed out, I have decided that I need to accomplish one project every other weekend.  I no longer have another person of the male variety to assist in making my life easier or lending a hand when two just aren't enough.  So when I have one less person to worry about, feed, bathe, and generally take care of every other weekend, I need to be accomplishing something...anything...!  

Cue Big Girl Room Makeover...

No - Emerson's room isn't receiving a new ceiling to floor redo.  I loved her nursery three and half years ago and I still love it!  I wish I didn't need to redecorate, but the crib bedding has long been tucked away.  The iron bed in a beautiful antique white finish even found a new home in Robert's room 19 months ago.  Emerson has a much cheaper white Jenny Lind style crib with only the toddler railing attached for the past year plus.  Originally, she wasn't supposed to have it for too long and it was just until she was ready to convert to a normal bed.  Well, that time came and went.  It has been long overdue to move to a normal bed.

Early last summer, I found a full sized bed with lots of spindles on an online resale site.  With the help of my Dad and a truck, the bed found a new home in my garage...for at least six months...while it patiently waited for me to find just the right bedding (sigh).  Time came and went.  At first, Emerson asked every single day for at least a month about her new bed that leaned up against the wall right where she got in and out of the car every day.  And I kept promising her that we would paint it very soon.  She eventually stopped asking and every once in a while would say something like she was just re-noticing it leaning in the same exact spot.  I promised her that once my life was in some sort of order (i.e. divorce finalized) that her bed would become priority.  And then just about the time I could breathe again...Robert's next major open heart surgery was scheduled.  Time flew by with no fresh paint on that bed.  Thanksgiving and Christmas were busy as usual until 3pm on Christmas Day when Emerson went "away" again.

The day after Christmas, I decided it was time.  I pulled up Pottery Barn Kids online and just made a decision.  Samantha Collection it is.  Love it in blue.  I mean LOVE it.  Just gorgeous.  But she has blue curtains.  And these blues will never match.  And those expensive blue curtains aren't going anywhere.  So pink it is.  One duvet cover and two shams.  I throw it all in the imaginary cart.  And it's on sale!  :)

I receive it a week later in 2013.  Yea!  I immediately open the box, admire my purchase, think about how Emerson will just love it, and then throw it all in the laundry room - box included.  Two weeks go by.  It's all still in the laundry room.  AHHH!  Why can't I get it together?!?!???  I have been waiting on the bedding to finalize the to paint or not to paint the bed situation.  It's obvious I need to paint the bed...So here's the conversation with Emerson...

Me: "Emerson, what color do you want to paint your bed?"

Emerson: "Pink."

Me: "What if we have pink sheets, pink pillows, and pink blankets AND we paint the bed BLUE?" [I am Oooooo'ing and Ahhhhh'ing like blue is the most amazing color ever.]

Emerson: "No.  Pink."

Me: "Emerson, everything else will be pink.  Wouldn't it be the best thing ever if we painted the bed BLUE?" [Oooooooo.  Ahhhhhhh.]

Emerson: "No blue.  Pink."

Me: "Emerson, do you want me to have BLUE sheets, pillows, and blankets so we can paint the bed pink?" [Gagging to show how gross that would be.]

Emerson: "No blue.  Pink everything."

That conversation went really far.  Girls and the color pink!  

Did I ever tell you that my favorite color is pink?  True story.

After school on Friday, Emerson and I took her fabric to pick out a paint color at The Heron House.  I have been hearing and reading about chalk paint.  I decided that was what I was using - nothing else but chalk paint.  And The Heron House sells it - plus has someone there to tell me how to use it.  I get to the store, check the samples, find the one I like, and its milk paint.  Not chalk paint.  So I am using milk paint with a top coat of polyurethane (not the normal stain or wax).  (Miss Mustard Seed does a great job showing you in pictures the difference between the two if you are interested.)

At checkout, the woman offers me a paint brush (for $3 - nothing is ever free!) that they recommend with their paints.  I agree.  Emerson immediately speaks up and says that we need two - not one - as she forcefully says, "My mommy needs a brush too.  She's helping me paint."  Gotta love a girl that will take charge!  We leave with paint in hand and go get ice cream!  

Emerson goes "away" that same Friday evening.  And the next Saturday morning, I am cleaning the bed for a fresh coat of General Finishes Baby Blue Milk Paint!  I hoped to finish the bed before she returns on Monday afternoon (long weekend for MLK).  

Before...

One coat...

Two coats...

After Polyurethane...

So what do you think???  I love how it turned out.  I will definitely be using milk paint again.  It was an easy application and delivered exactly how I suspected.  Yea!  Big girl bed frame complete!  Now stay tuned for the rest of the project!  :)

Emerson came home to find her new bed in the garage...And asked to jump on it.  Sure???  I snapped a picture of her "jumping" on her big girl bed.

Blog Upkeep

When you start a blog, you have grand plans of daily posts and lots of pictures.  Reality is that at the end of the day, you think you will just do it in the morning.  Then your pictures never leave your camera.  And if they do get downloaded to your computer, they never get printed.  It's just sad.  A blog just ends up being one of those things on your list of to-do's.  

So please be patient.  I am trying to keep up with it all, but it seems overwhelming at times.  Here comes a few new posts since we arrived in Birmingham...

SURGERY has been scheduled!

Robert's next open heart surgery is Wednesday, October 17th!  UAB called yesterday and said that it is on the books!

We will be in Birmingham on the 17th and then stay as long as it takes before discharge.  Surprisingly, if all goes well, Robert will not be in the hospital for very long.  It is amazing how fast these babies recover!

At this time, I think the surgery plan includes a partial repair and a conduit around the valve.  If you remember, the repair includes closing the VSD (hole between the bottom two chambers), removing the excess heart muscle on the bottom of the heart, and slightly moving the aorta.  Because of his coronary anomaly, they have discussed a conduit around the pulmonary valve instead of opening the valve to increase the size.  Of course, he went through this at 4 weeks old in July 2011 when we all thought he would have a complete repair...Instead, he came out with a BT Shunt and no repair.  So plans are just that...Plans!  We will see on the 17th...