Thinking more about the holidays

I have been diligently working on getting my house ready for the upcoming holiday season. Things have already become a bit stressful in regards to where we are spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It has recently become a "situtation" with the in-laws. MIL wants all of us at her house on Christmas Day and BIL is having his in-laws at his house on Christmas Day. Which leaves me and my husband in the middle and no one cares what we want to do.

I read an article here. And I think that this article will settle if for us. I sent the article to my husband and asked if he thought we should pass on to his family. I really want to be home on Christmas Day. I really want to start our own traditions and values. I have been working on small things the last few years but I want to incorporate a few more things and that has been hard to do with the traveling over the holidays.

We are hosting my family on December 15th. This takes care of us having to incorporate a 2-1/2 hour trip on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to see my family. I spend Thanksgiving with them every year and then that has left Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to the in-laws as in the past it was predicated that we spend both days with them.

Last year, I did not enjoy the holidays, a lot of stress. This year is going to be better, the house is looking great (shaping up quite nicely with some simple routines and a little bit of time each day decluttering), the Christmas gifts and shopping are coming along nicely, and I'll get the decorations out slowly and really ask myself, do I like this, why am I using it and if it's not loved or is being kept for no reason it is going this year.

I plan on having everything done, so that in the month of December, the boys and I can bake each day, play games and do some holiday fun stuff with the season of advent. Here's to a happy and joyous season for the right reasons and not the wrong.

Tackle it Tuesday...

Wow, here I was going to start a new thing for me called "Tackle it Tuesday" and thought I woudl do a search of Google and make sure I wasn't stealing anyones idea. Well, sure enough someone has started a Tackle it Tuesday and I decided to join in on it.

I did not take a picture of the before nor the after as I was not aware that I had to do this until I read the instructions. But I did want to share what I "tackled" today....

LAUNDRY - 7 loads to be exact (I did 2 loads yesterday). I hate laundry, I cannot stand doing laundry. I live in a house with 4 boys (3 small and 1 big) and the middle child changes clothes several times a day. The big boy (dad that is) has workout clothes, work clothes and evening clothes (which he normally wears at least 2 evenings). But the amount of laundry created in this house is sometimes overwhelming. So I decided to TACKLE the laundry, it all came downstairs and I have washed a load, put it in the dryer and washed another load. I had 3 loads that I was able to drape outside over my deck (sheets and blankets) and the others are being dried in the dryer.

Now, you may ask, how do you let it pile up? If I dont' keep up and do a load of laundry a day, I get backed up by 2 days and once it starts backing up, I put it off and then complain because I have so much laundry to do. Here is hoping that I can keep up with the laundry again. I'm babystepping my way into a better routine. I can check off of my TO DO list that the Laundry is done. I have even been putting it away as I do it!

I should give myself a star as well, my husband is leaving to go out of town tomorrow and I kindly packed his suitcase for hime. Why? you ask. That was that many less clothes that I had to put away.

I also started working in the boys' rooms and getting their stuff reorganized. This is going to be a multi day/week project. But babysteps will get me there.

If you would like to see more Tackle it Tuesday posts visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Have a great day!!