Life on Planet Caddick

I was supposed to help my friend Laurie cut wood today. She's being SUPER brave and taking on a bed making project. As in - she's making a bed for her son. I don't know if I'd have the guts to do it but it's looking really good! Anyway, I was going to be there at 10:30 to help her. First, I overslept by about 45 minutes! Of course, for almost two weeks I've been up by 9 until the day I was going to be someplace. I knew I was going to be late - I hadn't even had my coffee yet!! But I could not make myself leave without emptying the dishwasher and making the bed first!! THAT is a very unique first for me! By the way - I had a lot of fun cutting wood!

I'm pretty proud of myself. I actually did get at least one load of laundry done every day last week (except for Sunday!). That's a huge accomplishment for me! I also started unloading the dishwasher every morning and I made our bed every day. Whew! Good habits starting!! Sadly, I didn't get the classroom/Zach's new bedroom painted this weekend. I really wanted to, but I walk in there and look at all the stuff and think "ugh"! Come on, I'm a curriculum hoarder - there is so much in there that I will never use but I can't bring myself to get rid of 'just in case'! I'm going to have to do it though and quit procrastinating. I have the paint, I have the stuff to paint, I need to get it done. Plus that will be one room down that will done and organized - then I just need to keep up with it. Funny story - we went to Charleston for my nephew's birthday party and their bathroom is painted about the same color as our new paint in the

Today I'm painting the classroom and turning it into Zach's bedroom. Zach's current bedroom will be the classroom/playroom. I'm one of the lucky homeschoolers - I actually have the extra room to make a classroom - but Zach doesn't like doing his work in there. It's in the back of the house and doesn't get much light (even with the blinds open). I figured that's the perfect place for his bedroom. It is the smallest bedroom in the house but all that's going to be in there is bedroom stuff ~ bed, dresser, etc. The TV and stuff will be staying in the playroom/classroom. So, off I go to prep and paint. I will post pictures later!!

Since I've been feeling so good about sticking to our budget, this week I decided I was going to try and start a new habit. Do one load of laundry every day. Now I know what you're thinking "you're home all day - what's the big deal?". Let's face it, if you know me, you know that I'm no Martha Stewart. Heck I'm not even Little Suzie Homemaker. Clutter finds me - it loves me - it's like mold ~ or a bad penny or something. Anyway, I don't like doing laundry. Actually I don't like folding laundry and putting it away. When I worked, my weekends were devoted to doing laundry and it's a habit I haven't been able (or felt the desire) to break. When Zach says "Mom, I need socks!" I will do laundry. After I've debated going out and grabbing a pack of new ones (those need to be washed too, so I usually talk myself out of that!)! Actually, truth be told, I didn't even decide to do a load of laundry a day because

In January, for the first time in our married life, we started following a budget. Something we should have done years ago. I'm not saying it's been easy but we seem to be doing ok. Erik is having a little trouble with the whole 'allowance' thing - but he'll get the hang of it sooner or later! So, this week I started packing Erik a lunch. With some simple math skills I figured it's a savings of about $30 a week. Over $100 a month - are you kidding me? He gets less than that for his allowance so this is a good thing. Of course, I haven't given him his allowance yet - I need to do that! I think my point here is that it's not so bad living on a budget. I guess actually it's less of a budget and more of a "within our means" kind of thing. I love seeing the extra money at the end of the month to put on a bill. I love knowing that we will be able to pay cash for Christmas, Birthdays, and vacations. Erik needed a weed eater and we had

I finished painting my first room. Usually, I pick the color and Erik does all the work - but this time I did the work! I wish the pictures had come out better but I narrowed it down to these two colors. I always thought that wall was contractor white, but I guess it's contractor off-white! As you can (maybe) tell it came down to two shades of yellow. One was bright and the other brighter! It is an extremely small space so I figured 'why not'? So, Sunday off I go to Lowe's with my paint card to grab a gallon and start removing some of these paint samples from the house! Here it is finished ~ Yes, instead of yellow it is a beautiful shade of apple green! Just goes to show, you never know what I'm going to end up doing! I'm editing this - the paint color is actually the color on the wall without the light switch - and no, there are not two different shades!!

Tuesday, as we were finishing math, Zach says, "Can I have harder math?" Whoa! Where did that come from? Well, I'm not exactly sure and a couple thoughts rolled through my mind - first 'yay!' and second "really, this late into the year?" I know, the second thought was just pure selfishness on my part - but it's really what I thought! Needless to say, we will be working to harder math - we are running through the rest of our current curriculum to see where it becomes hard. So proud moment #1 goes to Zach. Today the boy and I were charged with picking up pine cones and sticks from the yard so hubby could mow. We pay the boy to pick up the various yard debris, on a sliding scale, and not very much - but he always feels like he's earning his own money so it works for us. I decided to use the yard pickup for our math today. First he had to figure out how much he made, then he had to count his own change to get his payment. Yes, I actually de

Yippee for my long time friends! They are officially home owners! I know they are super excited and can't wait to do all the 'home ownerish' things! Congrats guys!