Project 18, Get More Sleep, just seems like a cruel joke to this mama who would like nothing more than to do exactly that.

So, if someone could please convince my daughter to sleep through the night that would be great. Thanks.

My son doesn’t nap anymore, so getting a nap during the day isn’t an option either. I already go to bed after the kids do, and sleep as late as I can, so at this stage I’m not sure that there is much more I can do.

Someday…

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Project 17, Create an Essential Papers File, is one I should have started ages ago.

Both because I should have it, and because it’s going to take more than a week to get it done, so I’m not yet finished with it.

I will be *so* happy to have it done however, because it’s one of those nagging things in my brain that I know I need to do, but just needed a final push.

I’ve started with the simpler stuff – I already had a file which included things like passports and birth certificates, so I’ve used that as a starting point.

I’m working my way through compiling all the financial info into an easily-usable form for Mr. SJ. I do all the bill-paying and taxes and everything else dealing with financial paperwork, so if something were to happen to me he’d have a awful headache trying to figure out what we’ve got where.

And, I’m embarrassed to admit this, considering that we have two small children, but we don’t have wills. It’s one of my goals for the year, to get that done and a guardian officially named. We did do-you-own wills several years ago, but neither of us are entirely sure that they’d be valid, so they’d probably be nothing more than a hint as to our wishes, and wouldn’t be binding.

Being a responsible adult is so not fun sometimes.

Part of our deal with not taking care of it sooner is the whole how do we find an attorney issue. So, if you’re in the central Indiana area and have an attorney recommendation for putting together a will, can you leave a comment or send me an email? We don’t have any sort of complicated situation or anything, but we do want to make sure our kiddos are taken care of if anything were to happen to us.
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Project 16, Schedule Regular Date Nights is one I’m struggling with.

It’s not that I disagree with it, or don’t think it’s worthwhile. It’s 100% because of childcare issues.

And currently two possible solutions aren’t: everyone I know who has children has grandparents nearby to watch them, so there isn’t much motivation to swap child-care when you’ve already got it free and readily available.

Putting the kids to bed early and having a stay-at-home date also is less-than appealing, because it would just mean that the boy would wake up that much earlier in the morning. Ugh.

Honestly? I don’t generally worry about it that much. Mr. SJ’s family visits semi-regularly (2 or 3 times a year) and they always encourage us to leave the boy (and eventually the baby) with them and go off for an evening. I also know that this really is just a season, and doesn’t mean that foreverandever we will never again have a night to ourselves.

If you’ve got kids, do you make a special effort to have date nights? Especially when your kids are very young?

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When I first was considering buying the One Bite at a Time ebook, this week is one that jumped out at me as a “no way am I doing that” project.

I thought “Make Your Kitchen Paperless” was going to ask me to give up paper recipes and cookbooks, and instead use the computer for everything.

So I was relieved that the project is simply talking about paper towels and napkins. Whew!

I’m not entirely sure how to call this one however. My husband is a confirmed paper towel user, though I’ve gotten him to use them less at least. He’s never going to give them up completely. I almost never use them – my mom didn’t, and I think that’s why I never got in the habit of reaching for them. I’ve got plenty of dish cloths and other cleaning rags that work great.

(We are just talking about paper towels in the kitchen, to be clear. I use paper towels sometimes when cleaning the bathroom/wiping down outside and around the toilet. Boys = gross.)

We do still use paper napkins, because we’re using up the never-ending stash of napkins from some family get-together. I do love using cloth napkins however – I’m already doing laundry, so they’re easy to handle.

Honestly, our biggest issue of using paper in the kitchen is when we do have lots of family over. Paper plates and plastic cups and it’s all I can do to keep fishing recyclables out of the trash. None of his family recycles, so they never remember to not toss stuff in the regular trash. I don’t even own enough plates/cups/silverware to get through a meal when everyone is over, and it’s infrequent enough that it doesn’t seem worth it to buy a lot of extras for the rare occasions.

How do you handle large get-togethers if you don’t have a lot of dishware / glassware / silverware? Concede and buy disposable? Own more than you’ll generally use so that you don’t have to resort to disposable? If that’s your method, what do you do with the “extras” normally? Stash them somewhere out of the way? Or maybe you’ve got plenty of cabinet space and can store enough items to host large gatherings easily?

(For reference, our large family get-togethers can include close to 30 people, if not even more, so those are the numbers I’m trying to accommodate).

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Ok, after the review break last week, it’s back to working through the projects, and project 14 is to Eat Whole Foods.

This is another project that makes me happy because it’s something I’ve been working on already!

What are we doing right?

• We eat a ton of beans and legumes.
• I try and avoid all HFCS (I know there is something that we eat that I can’t find a HFCS-free version yet, but we do the best we can).
• I try and avoid all trans-fat (I think this one we’ve got out of our house 100% but I wouldn’t want to swear to it).
• I buy hormone-free dairy as much as possible (Milk is easy to find hormone-free. It’s all the other dairy products that don’t specify that gives me trouble.)
• We’ve cut back on our meat consumption, and I buy better quality.
• We’ve cut back or eliminated convenience foods that we used to eat all. the. time. (I am embarrassed to say how much of that famous boxed meal helper we ate when first married).

Where I still need to improve?

• I would like to cut back on our chip consumption – Mr. SJ LOVES them and eats them whenever he has sandwiches. It’s almost impossible for me to not eat some when he’s eating them.
• I’d like to make my own granola. It’d be so much cheaper, and it’s supposedly easy. I tried once and it was awful, so I have never tried again, but I want to give it another shot.
• I want to be more careful about buying organic produce for the dirty dozen.
• I’m really really thinking about doing some gardening this year.
• I’d like to start regularly baking my own English muffins. I’ve done it once, and they were good, but they weren’t exactly like what I’m used to. It’d still be much cheaper if I made them all the time, and maybe my taste buds would adjust.
• I’d also like to try making my own bagels and cinnamon raisin bread.
• I also want to start using a produce wash to remove pestacides on any non-organic produce I buy.
• Someday (maybe not this year) I’d like to try canning.

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As astonishing as it is to me, I am one quarter of the way through the book One Bite at a Time, so I’m taking this as an opportunity to review the last 13 weeks of projects.

What have I accomplished?

1. I’ve eaten my frog (but I still need to keep eating it!
2. I’ve celebrated that we already had a debt free plan
3. I’ve adapted my morning routine
4. I’ve revamped my evening routine
5. I’ve (continued) menu planning
6. I’ve (drumroll) created a family purpose statement (woo-hoo! This was a big one!)
7. I’ve (not) downsized my book and magazine collection
8. I’ve streamlined my mail
9. I’ve continued on with my already streamlined receipt system
10. I’ve (not yet) taken an annual vacation
11. I’ve cleaned as I go
12. I’ve cleaned the kitchen as I cooked.
13. I’ve had a weekly planning meeting with my husband (sort of).

My favorite projects have definitely been the ones that really are a check-off complete sort of project Creating a family purpose statement? It’s done. Yes, it might need to be reevaluated as our life changes, but for now it’s done. Menu planning? Has to be done again and again and again. Cleaning as I go and as I cook? Also endless.

I think what I’ve most appreciated about these projects is that it is keeping me moving forward and making some progress. Life with two small children is filled with the same things day in and day out and sometimes it’s hard to see that I’m accomplishing anything.

I’m really happy that I bought the book and have been working through it – it’s giving me some focus and projects that are very doable, even in this stage.

And now I’m looking forward to the next 13 weeks and what I’ll accomplish during them!

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