Once a week I intend to write a few words in either this blog or my children’s journals, but with the introduction of our second child I cannot seem to find the time to focus on either.
My older son gave up napping a few weeks ago, so I have absolutely no quiet time between the time I wake in the morning and the minute I go to sleep at night.
The oldest will return to preschool in the fall and that should give me just a few minutes a day for myself. I say should because some days the baby falls asleep in his crib with a minor tap, tap on the back and other days he struggles to either fall asleep or stay asleep without intervention. I sure hope this settles he gives me at least an hour of quiet time once the school year begins.
I know some families can add another child with very few ripples, but I have found it quite draining to have two children in the house at the same time.
On the money front:
- I finally received a $50 check that should have been mailed on May 19th. It took two months and nine emails to get things straightened out. I had just about given up hope when the check arrived in the mail.
- I am in the process of gathering baby clothes and equipment to sell at consignment. I know I’ll make less selling them at a consignment shop, but I’m not sure I want to go through all the effort of tagging and hanging them for a consignment sale. Can anyone offer advice on this topic? It seems so much easier to take them to a store.
- I desperately want to sell my old dining room furniture. With the addition of my second child we simply don’t have the room to eat in our kitchen anymore and the dining room is now a place for eating, playing and chasing. I’m tired of maneuvering around the furniture. We paid a lot of money for the china cabinet, (probably $2000 or more), so with any luck we can sell that piece for a few hundred dollars. I don’t think anyone would be willing to buy the rest of it.
- In order to get rid of the china cabinet and other furniture we need to move and purge quite a few things. The china, which we used once in ten years, was boxed up and moved to the attic. A few bags were donated and other things were moved. It is amazing how much stuff we owned but never used. I initially felt guilty about the way money was wasted, but as I get rid of it, I feel surprisingly free! Why hold on to things we have no intention of using? I’d rather make more space for the life we truly want to lead then the one we are pretending we might live some day.
- I suggested moving the kitchen table to the dining room, but my husband was pretty hesitant about the idea. Honestly it makes perfect sense to me. We aren’t using the kitchen table in its current location and it’s just another piece of furniture that seems in the way. My husband doesn’t like the look of that table, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to be overruled on this one.
- I want to spend a ridiculous amount of money to renovate our sun-room. We’ve already spent $164,000 on maintenance and renovations, so I know spending another $20,000 sound crazy. Unfortunately, without these changes the room cannot really be used year round and right now it is a great place for the kids to play. My husband thinks we should definitely proceed. It will make us more comfortable in the short term and may ultimately help us sell the house one day.
The children are calling so it seems those are all my updates for now!
We are planning on moving our dining table to the living room, and using the current dining room/family room combo as one giant family room so we have more space for the baby.
I would love to do that, but our living room is huge compared to our dining room so it doesn’t make sense. If we had a different configuration I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.