CLEANING BABY ZOO

1. CLEANING -- I'm doing an overhaul and re-organizing the way I clean my house. Previously I've tried a) waiting until something is disgusting and then scrubbing and toiling away until it's clean again (aka. the toilets, aka. the bane of my existence)...b) Alternating floors one weekend and bathrooms the next, which pretty much leaves all the detail stuff like clutter, dust, etc. to pot or c) trying to clean the entire house once a week.

All of these cleaning methods have failed me in one way or another. Either something gets to the point where it's gross, which is...gross, or I feel like I'm a slave in my own house, or I clean but still walk away feeling like I've done a whole lot of nothing because the rest of my house is still in ridiculous need of attention.

BUT!! I think I've finally found the solution (for me, anyway) and I'm really excited about it! I have sectioned off my house into eight parts, including everything from the bathrooms to the laundry room, to the kids' rooms, to the front and back porches...we're talking everything. And each week, I hit one of those sections like a Mad-Mama Tornado. This means I detail finish and clean this ONE room/section that week, and don't worry about the rest of the house (other than your basic upkeep like dishes and laundry). For example, this week's section is the living room. So I cleaned our flat screen and entertainment center, dusted the blinds, de-cluttered, spot cleaned the carpet for stains, vacuumed and swept, cleaned under the couches for Bennett's toys, and washed/sanitized Bennett's toys. Also, if any re-decorating or reorganizing needs to be done in that section, that's when I do it. It takes me a little here and there for 2-3 days to really get the room spic and span, but then...THEN...it looks amazingly glorious. Michael has even noticed, and that's saying something :)

The only thing I'm wondering about with this new system working out is the long break (8 weeks) before I come around to do that section again, but I figure since that's frankly about how often I cleaned the bathrooms before anyway, and since I never did a bunch of other stuff, the trade off will probably work out.

What I really love about this is that the little things (like the baseboards and blinds) get done on a regular basis now, rather than becoming my hidden nemesis that I always prayed no one would notice :) YAY!! So now I pause to pat myself on the back......................and say that I hope this inspires someone else, because it's taken me a while to develop this system. I'll keep you posted about whether or not it truly works, but this is my third week doing it, and so far so good!



2. BABY -- We're stuck between two first names and two middle names for this little munchkin. I feel kinda silly because I already e-mailed a bunch of family and friends to tell them our new guy's name, but Michael and I are really struggling between two names now. I feel fortunate that there's only two to work with, because last time with Bennett it just took FOREVER to decide on a name. We like these names for this baby for different reasons, and all of the reasons are pretty great. So here they are:

First name options: Bowen or Gibson (we both like both of these - I lean toward Bowen,
Michael leans toward Gibson)
Middle name options: John or Michael (both of these are family names)

So our baby's name is:

Bowen John....OR....Bowen Michael....OR....Gibson John....OR....Gibson Michael

But it'll be one of these :).....unless we change our minds again - HA!



3. ZOO -- We went to the zoo with Mimi this week and it was SOOO much fun this time. We've been several times now, but Bennett is really at an enjoyable age to go - he doesn't drive Mommy crazy, and Mommy doesn't drive him crazy. He walked (strutted, really) most of the time and LOVED it. You could tell he felt like such a big boy exploring and choosing which way to go and what animals to see. And I love it that he actually stays with me and doesn't run around like a wild man anymore :) His favorite was the penguins. He kept saying "Again! Again!" At the end of the trail, we took the train back, and he loved that, too. Here are some pictures of our morning.