with coffee, nights to myself, organization and sheer determination!!

Today is Day 1 of the next 14 days that hubby is going to be away working. This is our first full rotation of him being away for this long and its going to have its challenges I’m sure, but I’m not dreading it as much as I thought I was going to. I’m so thankful that hubby was actually home for two weeks of the school holidays, I know I would have gone mad if he was away during that time!

With only a few days left before Dominic goes back to school, I’m looking forward to enjoying the next few days just chilling around home and getting some things off my to-do list while hubby is away! Tomorrow the kids and I along with one of Dominic’s friends from school are heading up to playgroup at our church, its one of the biggest on the Sunshine Coast and Dominic is always sad to miss going to it, cause he’s at school! Lucky this week he can go as he’s school doesn’t go back to school until next week! I’m hoping that on the 25 minute drive back home tomorrow, the kids will all be so tired that they will fall asleep in the car on the way home!! A girl can dream!

I’m sharing my to-do list here in the aim to keep myself accountable and that its going to be in a safe spot so I wont lose it in the clean up! Joting down to-do lists is something I’m good at, I’m even better at putting them in a safe place and losing them!

TO-DO LIST FOR WHILE HUBBY IS AWAY!

1. Spring Winter clean our bedroom and donate any clothes I no longer want/need
2. Move all the Christmas boxes out of our wardrobe and into the garage — No idea why they ended up in our wardrobe at the end of last year, but its taking up precious space!
3. Go through our bathroom drawers and throw out any makeup/body creams that are out of date or more than two years old!
4. Pack away unused containers/appliances that are under the cupboards — Harry seems to have a great time pulling them all out and banging around in there!
5. Re-organise the kids bathroom cupboards and drawers
6. Go through all the clothes that no longer fit the kids and donate them to friends and family — I’ve never gotten rid of any of the kids clothes until last weekend and I gave away two big garbage bags, 4-5 BIG moving boxes to go!
7. Reorganise the garage — This is my BIGGEST TASK, we lent our boxes to some friends of ours when they moved and when we got the boxes back, I stacked them all up on the deep freezer and well they ended up all on the floor! Time to repack and reorganise! I want need to get back on my treadmill and to start using my new rower!
8. Archive and reorganize the files on the MAC, its starting to get a little sluggish and drives me nuts!
9. Aim to do a load of washing, drying and folding each day to keep on top of it all! Its frustrating with all this wet weather, how quickly the washing can bank up on you! I’m using oa combination of airers and our dryer to get them all dry!
10. Aim to be in bed by 11pm each night — I could say 10pm, but even I know I’m lying to myself then!

Here are some that I’m hoping to do, but I’m not holding myself against them, just in case!!

1. Make my bed every day and put all my nice pillows on there too! Normally its such a rush in the morning I forget to do it, or a certain child is still sleeping in there!
2. Encourage the kids to make their beds each morning, Dominic is always good, I’m still working on the others!
3. Exercise at least 3-4 times a week — this is something I really need to push myself to do again, I really would like to build up my running to be running 5-10klms at a time! (a bucket list goal!)
4. Make sure the playroom is spotless each night before bed!
5. Blog every day to show hubby what we have been up to at home, and share it will all you as well!

Today I started number 1 on my list! Our room had become the ceremonial dumping ground for all the clean clothes, we have the wire baskets from ikea and it was started to look like Mount Everest up on top of those wire baskets! Plus hubby and I are supposed to have two each of them, and it had kind of become 3 to 1, I had 3 he had 1! And no wonder he complained of never having any clothes! I wasn’t game to take a before photo, certainly not my proudest organisation moment! I sent the after photo of the drawers to my husband and he was shocked at how much I had done today!

My aim is to shock him every day of all the things I’ve gotten done! He’s not going to recognise the house when I’m finished with it!

The one thing I’m looking forward to the most while hubby is away is that I’m heading to Melbourne for a night next week for a Bloggers Brunch hosted by Kids Business! I’m so excited to be able to catch up with some of my blogging buddies and also I’m staying with a friend who I haven’t seen in what seems like ages!

I’m so thankful that my Mum is coming to stay with the kids, it seems like forever since we have seen her and the kids are dying to have Nanna over for a sleepover!

Although even being away for one night, I’m so going to miss this little face! and his brothers and sisters! Great way for me to recharge my mummy batteries!

What do you do to recharge your batteries after a long day?