Sunday, October 16, 2011

It's all fun and games until someone's bleaching grout in the bathroom...


I've been completely out of control lately. Life has just been throwin' me Nolan-Ryan-Style fastballs and I'm standing in the batters box with the bat on my shoulder. It's tough to complain when my weekends have been spent in New York, in Dallas and soon to be spending my weekend in Nashville. It's just crazy because my weeknights fly by in a flash too. I have a women's Bible study one night, community group (group Bible study) one night, Dave has class one night, and then add in any other social obligations and before we know it our week nights and weekends are spent running 90 to nothin'.

It's lots of great stuff, don't get me wrong. But at some point (and that point, for me, was last Tuesday night...) it all becomes too much and I reached boiling point. Last Monday I finally had a night at home. My suitcase was still unpacked after my trip to NYC, the kitchen was a mess, the floor needed to be vacuumed and I was sitting on the couch, after making dinner, watching DWTS. I looked up and in the right corner of the living room I saw a cobweb. I literally had not.one.single.ounce. of energy to go clean it. So, I sat there and I finished watching the very sub-par talent on this season and then went to bed.

On Tuesday, I got a call from our fertility nurse that put me over the edge and I just started crying on the phone with her. That's when I realized I was out of control in more areas than just my messy house. It seemed like every aspect of my life was overwhelming & in complete chaos. I cried to my friends about it on Tuesday night at Bible study and like the wonderful friends that they are, they just listened. I so appreciate them listening and letting me cry without thinking I'm (tooooo) crazy. I know they have to think I'm a little whack-a-do let's be honest. That night, I decided I needed to get a grip.

I have absolutely no control over our fertility situation and I know that. I realized that me asking God to take this burden and deal with it means trusting Him with it daily. That entire situation is His problem to handle and I trust Him more than anyone else with the future of our family.


It felt so good to put Him in control of every aspect of my life. An enormous burden was lifted and it actually gave me the desire and the energy to "move" and start dealing with other out of control areas, so I decided to get a move on it.


It's amazing how when you just get started and make one change everything else follows. After mentally getting my act together I decided to physically start with our house. We were finally in town for the weekend so I rallied the troops (Dave) and I spoke his love language (an excel spreadsheet) and we got down to business.

The spreadsheet listed every room in our house. I outlined what needed to be done in each room and assigned the duty to either myself or to Dave. I knew that it was going to be tough and I didn't want us to get side tracked. I also wanted it to be very clear what my expectations were and the things I wanted Dave to help me with.


And let me stop right there and say, my husband is a rock star! He totally got on board and agreed that we needed to get these things done and he helped me from 5:30pm on Friday until 3:30 pm yesterday! I am SO grateful for a help mate as wonderful as David!


Ok, back to the spreadsheet...we decided that the easiest way to skin the cat was to start with the closets. We figured we could knock out our master closet and the 2 upstairs closets and get all of our items for Goodwill. If we could Goodwill run on Saturday morning and get the items out of the house then we could start the deep clean.


I love a plan!


The problem was that 2 hours into the plan my bedroom looked like this...I felt like blowing up my entire house and starting over!

The good news is, around midnight, the feeling passed and our closet was completely cleaned out and organized.

Saturday, we woke up, took our loot to Goodwill and hit the showers (literally) around 9am. Dave tackled the bathroom while I tackled the pantry and the kitchen. At one point I walked in to check Dave's progress and he was on his hands and knees with a grout brush and bleach and he was cleaning the grout on the bathroom floor!! It was at that point when I realized he was going for the gold star in cleaning and I'm pretty sure I fell even more in love with him. :)


I didn't really take any pictures because we were cleaning our butts off and I was already pressing my luck with Dave, but we moved all of the furniture out of our formal living room to clean the carpets, dust and vacuum. I took a couple of pictures that I sent to a few friends who were questioning our dedication. ;)


After church on Sunday morning, I ran to the grocery store and got a few pumpkins because I was feeling inspired and ready to move on to fall. (It's been hard since it's still 95 degrees here...but there is buzz of a cold front coming in tonight!) I also got ingredients to make chicken and dumplings (It was delicious! Recipe here) from this pinterest recipe! I started the chi9cken and dumlings and figured it could cook while we finished cleaning. Y'all, it was SO stinkin' easy and delicious! And that brings me to my final project of the weekend....


I made this "menu planner" and I love it!! Find all of the printables here (once again, love you, Pinterest!!)


I feel like such a nerd saying this, but I actually had FUN making my grocery list on my snazzy new shopping sheets.

In all, it was a nutso weekend! We worked our tails off...and the end result is a truly refreshing and amazing home and overall refreshing feeling in my soul. That may sound silly but it's how I feel. Last night, we went for a walk and I told Dave I just felt SO productive. We got rid of things we don't need, we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, our pantry is organized, our refrigerator and freezer are cleaned out...we are completely organized and I was able to go for a walk and know dinner was going to be ready in the crock pot when we got home. PHEW!


Why in the world don't we do things like that more often??


How was your weekend?

26 comments:

Lauren said...

You worked so hard...and I'm glad you were able to have such a productive weekend! I just hate those moments when we've been going 90 to nothing and I feel out of control!

Looks like our teams will meet in the World Series...;o)

Sara McCarty said...

My goodness, I'm SO impressed! You guys ROCK! There's no way I could ever convince Ryan to spend an entire day, yet alone a whole weekend helping me clean. If he's not shooting or killing something, it's like his world will end. Kudos to Dave for being husband of the year!

Jeanie said...

Oh Tiffany, I totally know how it is. Infertility makes you crazy and out of control! Glad you are using it for something productive! :) I am praying for you guys!!

Liz said...

First... saying we are a "women's Bible Study" makes me feel like 98 years old.

B... I do NOT think you're wack-a-doo.

Thrice... I do believe you should have pointed out that your "job assignments" were your names Combo Loco and Loco. We may have needed an update on that backstory.

IV... I can't wait for lasagna bliss tomorrow night. Or whatever your binder calls it.

WHOOT!

Liz said...

p.s. I died at the title of this blog. HAHAHAH.

Mel said...

Wow, that's ambitious. I always feel like when I clean the closet I make more of a mess and just want it to go away rather than finish it. Good job!

The Good Life said...

Wow - super impressed and inspired! Being productive is such a great feeling. Oh, and I'm printing the menu planner right now. Excited!

melissa said...

Way to go lady! And a gold star to Dave for getting on the cleaning bandwagon! I bet it feels awesome to have your house in order and clean. I need to follow your lead. This place could use a good scrub!

Ashley said...

LOVE the notebook! So organized! ..you've inspired me to get my act together- it looks like my closets exploded!

AllThingsYummy said...

I love menu planning, making list and all the stuff. I always feel so productive. Love your folder.

Lenzi @ Homemade Happiness said...

I absolutely feel 100% more in control of my life when things are organized! It's like everything just flows better when everything is as it should be. Keeping you both in my prayers :)

... said...

Oh my gosh, you are so organized! :) Excel...ha ha...sounds like my boyfriend lol

Savannah said...

I COMPLETELY know how you feel! We had one of these weekends earlier this month and I felt so much more in control after. I love living life, but sometimes it become too overwhelming.

Your excel spreadsheet is amazing - I'm so inspired!

Congrats on accomplishing so much. Hope you are able to enjoy a clean and organized house one night this week. :)

Hannah {Culture Connoisseur} said...

Isn't a clean house just like a fresh start in life. I love how it has a way of getting my butt in gear.

Praying for you, and yes, God is in control and he has a plan for you.

P.S. LOVE your menu planning. I'm a menu planning nerd too. :)

Kara said...

you are a girl after my own heart...this read like a page of my life not so many years ago :) Except I don't think I could ever get Cory quite on board with cleaning like Dave! Although close :)

Anya Rudn said...

Love the spread sheet, great way to get organized.. So using that next time!! hehe

~Anya

Ashley said...

That menu planner looks like the perfect organization tool! Great DIY project to tackle sometime soon

Laura @ My Thoughts-Uninterrupted said...

Oh goodness...I have these moments all too often. In fact I just had one of these last week. I love your spreadsheet. Soooo something I would do haha. Glad you are feeling more on track!

Megan said...

Everybody should use spreadsheets as a love language. Clearly it's quite helpful!

Kat said...

So WOWed by your new organization! I need to do the same thing. By the way, I'm just like you - when things around me are in disarray, I become overwhelmed with pretty much everything else in my life. It's like a dirty house is stressful to me! I need one of these weekends myself - and this weekend just might be it!

Amanda said...

Omg what a weekend lol!! I will need to try the chicken and dumplings recipe and print out the menu planner. I have a calendar on the fridge that i use haha!

Hilliary Meisner said...

This is so impressive! Congrats on getting everything done! I bet it feels good to just sit and relax in a clean house! I am loving the menu planner! Pinterest is the best! Hope you are having a fabulous Wednesday!

Ps thanks for stopping by my blog earlier! I cannot wait to read more of yours!

Lilly said...

this is such a great way to get started, especially for a husband who speaks excel! thank you so much for sharing. and you have a gorgeous home that I'm sure is even more of a treasure now that it's sparkling clean!

Lilly
pancakesandbeetjuice.blogspot.com

Adkins Fam said...

SUPER impressed and getting motivated :-) Serious??--at what point did you decide to see a fertility doc (email me, if you can-- cmcaggie04@hotmail.com)

P.S. I LOVE your front door :-)

Lindsey said...

I can not tell you how much this sounds like me right now. It's like you just grabbed the thoughts right out of my head!! Soul sisters. :) I literally just made the same exact list of things we need to do to our house that we just haven't had time for. I'm really needing a weekend like your and hopefully I will be feeling just a refreshed.

Kate said...

You are my hero. That is amazing! I am feeling the same way- very overwhelmed, and just wanting to ignore it all. As soon as we get a free weekend, I am so doing this! Thank you for posting! You have totally inspired :)