Clean Car!

I cleaned the car on Monday. I mean, CLEAN. Vacuumed. Seats cleaned. Mats washed. Now only the outside is dirty. =D

NORWEX!!

I just received my Norwex order today and I'm so excited! Wanna see what I got???

Cleaning paste - This is an all natural Soft Scrub alternative. I might be most excited about this. It should last about 2 years, according to the consultant and everything I've read.

Liquid Dish Detergent - I thought I'd give this a try, and we'll see how I like it, but about 2 days after I ordered this Leif found an environmentally friendly liquid dish soap at Costco. So I'll do a comparison of the two and see what I think.
Laundry Soap - I've used a sample of this and it works really well. Plus, I only need a teaspoon (yes, a TEASPOON) to wash an entire load of clothes in our high efficiency washer.
Spirisponge - This is a scrubbing sponge.

Spirinets - These are abrasive scrubbers for use on glass or other hard surfaces.
Dry Mop Pad - This is part of the mop system which I wanted SO BADLY! =D And now I have it! This is the dry mop pad that's basically used for sweeping. I've tried it out already and I think it works pretty well! It's machine washable and velcros onto the mop base.

Mini Mop Base - Also part of the mop system. This is the velcro base the pads get attached to.
Wet Mop Pads - These are the wet mop pads that are part of the mop system. Also machine washable and velcro onto the mop base. They are naturally antibacterial and all you need to use with them is water. Clean floors with no chemicals!
Telescoping Mop Handle - The last part of the mop system. This is the telescoping handle that makes it easy enough for a short person like me to mop the floor and dust the ceiling all in the same cleaning session. =D
Silver Care Dental Floss

Microfiber Face Cloths

Polishing Cloth - I got 3 of these! These microfiber cloths really polish windows nicely! Thanks to these cloths I will never use Windex on my windows again.

Microfiber Cloth - I got 3 of these, too! They clean better than any cloth I've ever used. They get dried on toddler food crud off my dining room table. They get hand print smudge marks off the doors and light switches. These are what first sold me on Norwex. Because they have silver in them, they are naturally antibacterial, too.

Travel Microfiber Cloths - A set of 4 travel sized microfiber cloths.

Kitchen Cloths - lightweight microfiber cloths perfect for washing or drying dishes.

The best part about getting my Norwex order is that because I hostessed a party I got ALL of the above for less than it would have cost me to buy the mop package alone. Isn't that awesome?!

I'll individually review items as I have a chance to try them out in a few different scenarios. I'm excited about the products and I can't wait to see how they work!

It's just not sticking...

For some reason, I just cannot seem to keep this 5am thing up! I really would like to! But again yesterday and today I did NOT get up anywhere close to early! I'm not sure why, except that I'm not making it (or anything else, actually) a priority. I'm not scheduling my time well at all, and it is frustrating.

I think I need to work on using my time well this afternoon before I start worrying about getting up at 5 am.

5 am again

I got up at 5 am again today. It is now 5: 30 and I am very tired! I need to pack things up for my MK appointments today, though, so maybe I will do that (get everything packed up and ready to go) and then head back to bed. I could use another hour or so of sleep.

5am Club...

I just set my alarm for tomorrow morning. I'm going to make an effort to join the 5am club again. Of course, it would probably be easier to join the 5am club if I set my alarm for 5 am instead of 6, like I did. I'll be right back....

Okay... there we go. Now it's set for 5am for tomorrow morning. And I'd better wake up to it, too, or Leif is going to put a stop to the 5am alarm, I'm pretty sure of it.

I don't have any specific plans for what I'm going to do when I get up early tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure there will be breakfast and Bible reading involved. Those two make a good start to any day. I hope there will be some yoga or exercise involved, too, but I don't want to pile too much on my early morning plate prematurely... ;)

So for now I'll just plan to wake up early and actually roll myself out of bed. I'm going to bed with a clean house, so that will be a good way to start the week. And if I get to bed in the next 15 minutes, I'll actually get 6 hours of sleep in, too.

Goodnight! See you early in the morning...

My Priorities....

Sometimes I feel like my world is crumbling down around me. Today was one of those days. I sort of feel like I can't succeed at anything, and that makes me feel spread too thin. So I'm taking a bit of a time out and thinking about what my real priorities are, because those are where I need to spend my efforts. In no particular order, here are my priorities right now...

Mother
Homemaker/Wife
Mary Kay
Scrapbooking

Yup, that pretty much sums it up. My spiritual life has not been much of a priority lately, and I think that takes a pretty heavy toll on all of the other areas of my life. Exercise/healthy living has also not been a priority, and I think that contributes negatively to the other areas of my life as well. I've been eating whatever I want to eat, and that makes controlling my blood sugar difficult, which makes making good choices difficult. It's a vicious cycle. I get lazy and fat and lethargic and I don't do anything well. Then I feel like a failure, and I start to shut down like I did today. So... I need to re-prioritize.

I know in my head and from experience that my first priority should be getting into the Word daily. It NEEDS to happen, yet that's probably the first place I fail. So that becomes priority number one. After that, I am a wife and a mother first, and a SAHM for the majority of the day, so that makes Mother priority number two. The best way I can show my husband how I love him is through the way I maintain our home, which makes Homemaker number three. It's amazing how easy it was to put those in order very quickly. Exercise/healthy living runs closely behind and is somewhat intertwined with numbers two and three, since what I do with my own body is often indicative of how I am taking care of my family's health needs, too. So that becomes priority number four. Mary Kay is an investment that we have made and something for which others depend on me, so that is number five, and scrapbooking falls to priority number six.

That means that I cannot ignore the laundry, my family, or my MK phone calls because I want to scrapbook. They must all fall into line or it doesn't work.

So tomorrow I'm going to try to get up early (5 am! Eek! Kate's doing it, too) and read my Bible, then run on the treadmill. That's how I'm going to start my day. From there I need to be a good mother to Eliana, including making sure she is fed well and disciplined calmly and consistently. I need to maintain a clean house for Leif and make sure that I follow through on a project if I start it. ONE PROJECT AT A TIME! (That's a hard one for me since I'm constantly getting distracted!) IF the house is clean and dinner is planned and Eliana is being taken care of (sitting in front of the TV so that she is out of my way doesn't count as being taken care of...) and I have made my MK phone calls and done anything that needs to be done there, THEN I am free to craft. I need to remember that.

Crafting is good, when it is done in place.
MK is beneficial, when it doesn't come before my daughter.
Playing with Eliana is good, but not an excuse for a messy house. I can interact with her just as well by teaching her to clean and help me pick up the toys she pulls out. There is more than one lesson to be learned there.

So... tomorrow? Tomorrow I'm going to start with my priorities in order. One day at a time and we'll see how it goes.

We've got Bible Study here at the house tomorrow morning and I've got a MK party at Kristin's house in the evening. That means I have a few hours in between to keep my priorities in line by myself. I think having a busy day will make it a little easier. Perhaps I can keep a few hours under control and gradually build up to more. I hope.

Just need to maintain...

Leif and I cleaned up the house last night, so theoretically, all I have to do is maintain it. I think that means I need to put away the stuff from lunch today, then. Ellie and I made a bento. =D

On the plus side, last night we went to bed with the house clean and I washed my face and did my skin care routine. It's amazing how much better my skin feels in the morning! I slept in a bit this morning, but once I did get up I made the bed, so it is all nice and ready for the day. It's amazing how that lifts my spirits to look into the bedroom and see a neat and tidy bed. It's crazy!

We're having chicken tonight of some variety. I asked Ellie what she thought we should have for dinner and she looked at me, cocked her head to one side, and said, "Ummm... how 'bout chicken?" It was too cute! So I have chicken thawing and we'll see what it turns into. I've got some tomatoes I have to use soon, too, so maybe we'll have something with those. We'll see.

It's a beautiful day out... and 40 degrees after snowing this morning. Maybe Ellie and I will head out for a walk, though I have a feeling she is asleep on the couch downstairs. If she is perhaps I'll take the free moments to work on the craft room so Erika can come and actually have a place to scrapbook on Thursday!

I also need to work on my MK flip chart for tomorrow's party! Can't forget about that...