To Do Lists...

I LOVE making lists. It makes me feel so organized and helps me to remember all the things I need to do; I will honestly forget half of the stuff I want to get done if I don't write it down. I like to think it will help me get stuff done quicker, but that is hardly ever the case (I'm easily distracted and take too many "lazy days" :0) ) I've made a long list of things to do while I'm on maternity leave and I only have a month to finish it. My goal is to get it all done, but I'll be happy with 90%:

*Deep clean and re-organize the kitchen (cleaning part is done)
*Clean window ledges and windows
*Find an area rug to put in the entryway that Gary and I both like
*Re-organize craft closet
*Clean out filing cabinet
*Paint hallway and floor heaters (I'm going to see if my sister will help me with this during her spring break next week)
*Polish silver my mom gave me and re-organize the china cabinets
*Paint the family room and fireplace (not likely going to happen during maternity leave, but hopefully by the end of the year?)
*Organize the garage
*Go through all of our clothes and see what we can get rid of and re-organize our dressers and closet
*Dig up the planters in our front yard and make them look nicer because they don't look nice now

I haven't failed to notice that the majority of my things to do involve re-organizing. I tend to re-organize things every few months or so until I am happy with where things are in my house. Also, I'm very much so ready to declutter and simplify things in my life so hopefully re-organizing things can help with that.

Stay tuned for updates on my progress!!!

Cuddle Time makes me a Happy Mama!

I know, I know... babies should learn how to sleep on their own. I don't know if I'm creating bad habits and I don't care; once a day is Mom and JJ Cuddle Time and I can't get enough! Don't get me wrong, I hold him more than once a day but what I'm talking about is not feeding time or play time, its serious cuddle time. It is so hard to put him down! He's too cute! He's almost 6 weeks old and I still cannot get over how much I love this little guy!

Sometimes I fall asleep too! (Gary thought this picture was funny...)

Grown-up Decisions...

There is an episode of Friends when Rachel comes back from Ross' honeymoon in Greece and declares that she always makes bad decisions. Monica then volunteers to be her official decision maker.

The point of this Friends reference (get used to those!) is not that I make bad decisions (not anymore anyway; there was a time...) but that sometimes I think it would be nice to have an official decision maker on hand. Like when we were kids, our parents would just make all our major decisions for us. Now, if we need to decide on something major, we are on our own! I have to decide what is best for ME and MY FAMILY. No one else can do it for me. Sure, I can get opinions from other people, but ultimately I have to make the call.

I know everything always works out in the end just how it is supposed to, but getting there is always the tough part. I really don't like the phrase "Let Go and Let God" because it is absurdly cliche, but there is a great truth to it and it is an excellent way to look at making decisions. God has a plan and will show us the way, often within our decisions, allowing us for just a moment to think it was our idea in the first place.

Decisions become easier when your will to please God outweighs your will to please the world. ~Anso Coetzer

Living is a constant process of deciding what we are going to do. ~ Jose Ortega

Life is the sum of all your choices. ~ Albert Camus

The difficulty of life is in the choice. ~George Moore

I am officially a blogger!!

When I was in my last semester of college, I had to maintain a blog for one of my journalism classes. This was back when they were first starting to be a big deal in the media. After the semester ended, my blog sort of got abandoned. It was all about oil and gas prices so I really had no desire to continue blogging.

Fast forward four years and here I am, blogging again! This time I think it will be fun because I can do whatever I want with it and I don't have to worry about whether or not I will get an "A" (I did, by the way...). I have a lot of stuff going in my crazy, busy, wonderful life and I have a lot to say, so this blog should be more interesting than oil and gas prices!

My husband, Gary, and I spent more time than I ever thought we would coming up with a name for this blog. We decided on "A Work In Progress" because isn't life always "In Progress"? It started out as simple as our house is a work in progress, our family is just starting, so that is a work in progress. But it can go much deeper than that. I mean, we are never done with ourselves or what we are doing in life. Aren't we always trying to be better and do more? God has a plan for all of us and there is no way His plan is done for me at 25 years old!

So, I say, Bring It On! We've got a lot of living left to do and with great things like Facebook and Blogging, we can all join each other as we handle all the things life throws at us!