Goodbye 2009

I took this week off to stay home with the girls. This is a very rare treat for me and I am loving every minute of it. Last Wednesday was the last day that I went to work and I don't return until Monday. Wow! I don't think I've been home this long since maternity leave--and during that time I was certainly too busy and tired to actually get anything accomplished around the house! :)

I hated to let it all go to waste so we have been gearing up for 2010 by getting ourselves in order. I have sorted every toy down to the last Barbie shoe in Livi's room; rearranged Jocelyn's room so she could have a 'canopy' over her bed instead of that "annoying metal thingy" (otherwise known as a headboard). Her table has also been moved so she can work on her Netbook on one side and have her 'girl stuff' table on the other side. I've gone through all the bins and papers in our computer cabinet; organized and filed two notebooks worth of Livi's paperwork for evaluations and IEPs; sorted all the pictures in the photo dresser; cleaned the coat closet; and took down the Christmas decorations. The dog got a bath, the sheets got washed, and we are current on our mail. The floor is probably in shock by the frequent vacuuming over the past two days and the girls are actually picking up after themselves.

Typically, by the time we get settled, it is bedtime and a lot of picking up takes place after that. We don't currently have a good system of having the girls pick up their stuff right away and so it piles up. Of course, this does not teach them good habits, but you do what you can sometimes. Plus, Livi usually needs a lot of coaching and then ignores the request for her to put things away because her room has been so messy and there was never a 'place' for everything. That poor girl is in trouble now, because there is a place for EVERYTHING!

We've also started a $5/month subscription to e-mealz.com. This online service lets you choose the meal plan you want for the store you use (low fat family meals, Walmart is what we chose). Once a week, you can login and print off the upcoming week's menu of 7 meals with cooking instructions for the meals and a shopping list. They have already prepared the meals with this week's specials at that store in mind. We've eaten 2 of the meals so far and they both were prepared with 30 minutes or less actual work time and the girls ate it all with only mild complaining because they didn't recognize either meal. I'm very excited about this because so far it has trimmed my whole menu planning and shopping list plan significantly--LOVE that :)

Finally, we've made appointments to get the girls overdue dentist appointments done tomorrow (wish me luck that we get more done for Livi than just counting her teeth--third time is a charm, right?) and next week we will meet with a financial planner who also uses the Dave Ramsey plan and is experienced with planning for children with special needs.

During the rest of my time off, we will run errands tomorrow; I will actually get this house CLEANED from end to end (this is my vow); we will travel to Cole Camp for my extended family's Christmas; and I hope to finish up my 2009 blog book and get it sent to the printer. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

I am just grateful for the opportunity to hang out with my girlies for several days. They have enjoyed playing together and just hanging out. I've enjoyed being able to take a few play breaks and still get some things knocked off my to do list.

We did get a bit of a shock yesterday when I was transferring everything over to the new calendar. I was so excited to pencil in our trip in March and then I flipped over to the end of the trip....and discovered that we will get back one day AFTER Easter. Meaning, we will MISS EASTER :( I was just heartbroken about this. I was ready to cancel the trip. Jason talked me out of it. I guess the calendar I used did not have holidays that are not related to our work schedule on it. The girls Spring Break has never before been connected to Easter so it didn't dawn on me to double check. Ah well, I guess we'll have a new experience for the holiday. I will miss my girls terribly though.