Cleanliness is next to Godliness

One of the many perks of our new simplified life is all the organization we’ve done.  After 10 years of living in an older home, there were times when I was cleaning that I felt like I was bashing my head against a wall.  There were times when it seemed that no matter how much I cleaned, things didn’t look any better.  It also seemed like the projects around the house were never ending and so time consuming.  There was something so therapeutic about cleaning out and getting rid of anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary for the entire house and only moving the very necessities with us.

I have to be completely honest and say that being able to purchase every single furnishing for our 2 bedroom apartment was really fun and exciting.  (Thankfully after 13 years of marriage, James and I have finally agreed how we should furnish a house, so this was much easier than it would have been if we would have been done this any earlier).  In having the luxury of getting to choose and completely furnish an entire apartment I wanted to make sure that everything was organized and I mean EVERYTHING!

In a previous post I mentioned that we purchased everything from IKEA which was the perfect route for us since they specialize in organization and have literally everything you need for your home. So even when it came to purchasing our beds, we purchased the kind that has drawers underneath then we purchased drawer dividers so that everything fits nice and neat into the drawer.  We also purchased a headboard that has built-in bookshelves.  We purchased these same kind of beds and headboards for both Lauren and Katelyn.  Our entertainment center has drawers and cubbies perfect for storage, as well as our coffee table (however, the matching end table didn’t have any kind of storage so I used a cute burlap lined wicker basket underneath for extra storage.)

But my very favorite item would have to be a hanging closet organizer. I purchased one for both Lauren and Katelyn.  It comes with 6 dividers.  I put a shirt, bottom, and underwear in the top 5 shelves. The bottom shelf is divided in half. I think it should be for shoes, but I have found it works wonderfully for their pj’s. They have one warmer pj and one cooler pj as my kids are always changing out and constantly leaving their pjs on the floor. This makes it easier for them to return their jammies back to the organizer. This organizer has made my life SO MUCH SIMPLER!!!  (If any of you know Lauren, you may know that uniforms were the best thing for her, because she cannot pick an outfit to save her life. She is constantly whining she doesn’t know what to wear. She even goes so far as to say if she wears one shirt, she’ll feel bad she didn’t wear the other shirt).  Now she simply takes the outfit and underwear out of the top shelf and puts it on. The next day, the same. She never has to think about what to wear again, she simply chooses her outfits from the next shelf down each morning.  With 5 shelfs, she is good for an entire school week.  I LOVE it!!!

Now that everything is organized, it just comes down to having a great cleaning schedule and good habits of putting things in their proper place.  I also started out with all the right cleaning supplies. I made sure to have the cleaning supplies right where they are needed and that I have the right product for the job. I even have special rags just for special jobs. I am trying my best to have the girls help and keep everything nice and tidy.  Yesterday was the real test. We were having company and from start to finish in cleaning the entire apartment (all straightening, picking up, washing dishes, scrubbing toilets, countertops and sinks, sweeping, and vacuuming) only took 1 hour.  It was so awesome!  Before, if I was expecting company it was at least an entire day job, if not a couple of days.

Our new life is really so much more simple on so many different levels. I have to admit that a huge part of this simpleness is in cleaning. At least for me, I feel like such a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders when it comes to keeping a clean house.

PS.  Our last apartment had maid service, but it was just too weird for me. We didn’t own a vacuum so I would crawl around picking up scraps from the floor, I didn’t have a mop or broom so I would get down on my hands and knees with a paper towel to “sweep” the floor, then use wet paper towels to “mop” the floor trying to keep things clean.  James would make fun of me because Tuesday mornings he would hear me telling the girls “We have to clean really good today because the maids are coming”. He thought that was just too hilarious.  Later, I admitted to him that one Tuesday I was there while the maids were cleaning and noticed that one of the maids was picking up some of the girls stuff off their desk so she could dust it and I rushed over to pick everything up saying,  “oh you don’t have to do that, it’s not your job to clean up after my kids”.    I laughed later realizing that telling a maid its not her job to clean is probably not true, but in my defense, I want my kids to learn how to clean and take care of their belongings.

Summer Lovin’

This summer has been a little different from previous summers.  Truthfully it’s been a little hard for the kids not being able to run around the neighborhood with their friends. There isn’t the usual roaming from house to house all day deciding which house is the most fun.  There is however, some fabulous parks, a free movie theater, a swimming pool and hot tub, and the lake.

The girls are getting older and are enjoying movies and video games more than normal. It has been a push to get them out of the house some days but we’ve had some great times and are making some great memories.

Here are a few fun pictures of what we’ve been up to the past two weeks:

Enjoying the creek at our newest favorite playground

Lauren conquers the jungle gym

Enjoying the free community movie-theater

Katelyn nestles in to enjoy her movie pick–Emperors New Groove

Lauren wants her popcorn to herself–no Mom snitching

Katelyn and I enjoying kayaking out on the lake. (This was a rare moment for her to help paddle)

Lauren and Katelyn in the hot tub. We go almost every single night. It’s such a great way to relax.

Summers wouldn’t be complete without a lot of cookies.  Tried out a new kind–Brookies.  Brownies and chocolate chip cookie.

yum! Sugar Cookies

We of course, still love making fabulous dinners like chicken parmigan

homemade falafel and pitas

and a classic standby, lemon chicken. (Eat your heart out Nicole)

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end”

Wow, what a week it has been!! Last Monday we had a bbq and pool party with our great friends the Coyne’s up in Park City, Tuesday we spent a few hours at IKEA getting all of our furnishings ordered and set-up to be delivered and assembled on Friday, Wednesday was Katelyn’s birthday and we had a fun fabulous friend party for her at Classic Fun Center (roller skating, arcades, pizza, ice-cream and cake, games and waterslides), Thursday I packed up our entire apartment and had it ready to move, Friday morning we rented the U-haul and spent 2 1/2 hours loading it, drove over to our new apartment and unloaded in 30 minutes and returned the U-haul within our 4 hour time slot. Within 20 minutes of being at the apartment IKEA called to say they were on their way to deliver our furniture.  I unpacked the stuff while they assembled our furniture and James shopped at IKEA for all of our dishes and kitchen needs.  We spent most of the day unpacking and by that evening the apartment was looking pretty good. We had a sectional couch to sit on, a kitchen table and chairs to eat at, and beds to sleep in.

BBQ with S’mores and pool party with friends

Happy 8th Birthday Katelyn!

PIZZA PARTY!!!

Some roller skating and scooter fun

Katelyn catching money in the air tube

“Selfie” time

Saturday morning we slept in then continued unpacking.  We had to make a trip or two to IKEA to return, exchange, or purchase a few more things. We had a few groceries to purchase as well.  Some more unpacking and then it was time to clean up and head over to our Annual Family BBQ and fireworks extravaganza.  We had a great time relaxing and visiting with family.  (A big shout out to the Gillis family for hosting this year! It was really nice after 10 years of hosting to be guests this year) 🙂

Our apartment “Before” and then 48 hours later to “After”:

Here are a few more pictures of our cute new apartment:

Lauren and Katelyn’s bedroom and bathroom

The entry way into the master bedroom

Master Bedroom

Beautiful NYC canvas at foot of bed

Master bathroom

I think it’s coming along pretty great for just a weekend.  We are really excited to explore our new surroundings and get settled in. It is nice to know that we are going be here for a little while.  We are really excited for this new adventure and hope it will bring us many great times and memories.

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change” John Rohn

Just in case any of you were starting to think that our life has gotten boring I am here to tell you now that it has not.  In fact, the lack of writing has been due to all of the choices and changes we have been working on.  So let me begin by starting off where we left off last time.

Life is good in our apartment, it feels like we are on vacation and we are enjoying the simpler easier life. We are happy in the choice we have made and don’t have any regrets.  Most of you know that James works at Dental Select and that Dental Select had hired a new guy named Mark who also lived in the same apartment building.  Mark moved from Kansas City two months ago while his family finished school and sold their Kansas City house.  He has two daughters and a son.  His daughters are the same age as Lauren and Katelyn and we are so excited they will be here in the same apartment building so we have friends close by to play with.

The time finally comes and Mark’s family moves into the apartment building and the fun really begins.  We had dinners, playdates, and pool parties.  We had so much fun hanging out and playing for two wonderful weeks and then Mark’s family moved to Park City. We were happy for them but kinda sad for us.

On top of that my sister-in-law and her family had decided to move to San Antonio the next week. So another round of getting in a bunch of fun times like family dinners and hikes before having to say another set of goodbyes.   At this point, its beginning to feel a little lonely and James and I really realized just how much our kids enjoy being able to play with friends or just have the ability to wander around.  We realized that while James and I would especially love moving downtown there wouldn’t be the same opportunities for Lauren and Katelyn.  While there were some common grounds where other kids may play it just wouldn’t be the same as having the same friends close by where you can continually play together and run back and forth from house to house or apartment to apartment. So James and I decided we might need to look at some other housing options.

We wanted a place that would have a nice community feel, a place where the kids could wander and roam, and a place where there were lots of things we could do together as a family.  So we thought maybe we should check out Daybreak.  It is a well-planned community not far from us, it has lots of shopping, restaurants, and a movie theater nearby.  It also has a lake with boats you can use, 30+ miles of trails, numerous parks, two swimming pools, 3 schools, and 2 trax-stations as well.

We thought about buying a house. It would be exciting to be able to build it from scratch and choose everything.  However, we still just aren’t really ready to commit to something so long term.  So we like Daybreak but aren’t quite ready to go back to home ownership, so what about apartments? Daybreak has one–The Crossing at Daybreak to be exact.  So we went and checked it out. We liked it and they had one on the ground floor which had a bigger wrap around balcony so we snatched it up by signing a thousand papers and putting down a deposit.  We move in this Friday!!

We are excited about this new solution. We think it will hopefully be everything we are looking for: businesses and restaurants close by, lots of fun family actives with lots of parks, and kids. Our apartment comes with a pool, game room, movie theater room, and all the amenities that regular residents get to enjoy like the lake and the boats, nature trails, and parks.

Now the funnest (yes, that’s a real word) part is that this is an unfurnished apartment.   We sold or gave away all of our furnishings to start over and we are currently living in a furnished apartment so we’re going to have to get some furnishings.  We personally like IKEA and thankfully our apartment is an IKEA kind of place. So we trolled the website and put everything we needed onto our shopping list.  I went into IKEA the next day and gave them our shopping list and asked them to pick, deliver, and assemble it all for us on Friday July 3, when we move in. VOILA   A new place with all new furnishings just like that.  Or at least that’s the plan.  Stay tuned to see if it all works out.  Our fingers are crossed so please cross yours for us as well.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

It’s been one month now since we started this life-changing experiment to simplify our life.  In reflecting over this past month, there have been quite a few changes some of them good and some of them. . . well different.

One of the differences, neither good or bad is getting used to the hotel-type key card.  I am constantly worried I am going to get locked out of the apartment. Thankfully not to the point of having nightmares in my sleep about it though.  I definitely have had to pay a lot more attention to where I am driving, no more getting lost in thought and realizing that I just made my way home on auto-pilot.   I must admit though, that I have not changed up the stores I frequent, at least not yet.  Because the girls were still attending the same school (and me still training for a triathlon with my friend after dropping the girls off at school) I continued to still run errands and shop at stores I was familiar with.  Grocery shopping is definitely not the same, no more just pulling into the garage a few feet away from the door to unload my car, now to unload groceries usually requires a cart of some sort that I take up the elevator, unload, then take the elevator back down to return the cart to come back up to the apartment, all the while making sure I do indeed have my hotel-type keycards so I do not get locked out of the apartment.

Another huge difference is having air-conditioning.  Coming from a west-facing home with just a swamp-cooler that kept our Riverton home usually about  80 degrees downstairs and in the middle of summer in our bedroom 100 degrees,  the apartment having a/c is such a welcome treat.  (I must admit however, that I do often get too cold, especially if I am sitting near the vents which is either in my bed or on the couch. So I often find myself turning off the a/c until mid-afternoon.)  Funnily enough, I think James is more affected by it than I am.  He has enjoyed it so much and gotten so used to it that on our trip to Palm Springs this past weekend, where it was a balmy 106 degrees, James was uncomfortably hot.  To have James more affected by the heat than me was nothing short of bewildering.

One of my favorite things has been not having to clean so much and so often.  I know that probably sounds shallow, but seriously having so much less to clean and having everything organized and in it’s spot so it’s easier to keep clean has been like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I can completely and fully relax now.

The biggest and most welcome change however has come in the form of Lauren and Katelyn having to share a room and a bed.  Yes, some nights it has been disastrous and has tested our patience to the max; but after going on this recent trip to Palm Springs, we were able to see a huge difference in the way Lauren and Katelyn treated each other.  They were so much kinder to each other, they were able to work things out by themselves, and they seemed to be much better friends. It made my heart so happy to see them getting along so well.

So, was selling our home and uprooting our family, a good choice. . . my resounding answer, a most definite yes!

(The only thing we have not quite experienced that we were hoping to gain from this move, was being able to experience a downtown lifestyle, which for the summer is totatally ok. We have nature trails, bikes, and a pool to keep us entertained.)

“It’s the Little Things”

It’s true that the little things can make the biggest difference.  Some of the little things that we have been loving about our new simplified life are: being able to go swimming and soak in the hot tub every night, having time to put together puzzles, or play board games, having fewer toys so we have less mess, no laundry baskets so laundry has to be put right away, two bathrooms so James and I have more privacy and more space for ourselves, less square footage so fewer rooms to play in and cleanup, and one kids’ bedroom with only one bed so we can read stories together every night.

Each on its own is just a little thing, but all of these things have really simplified our life.  It really does seem like we are on vacation. We are able to enjoy our time together and not have the worry or distractions that seemed so prevalent before. Its been amazing to me the power we really do have over our own lives.  We can choose all these little choices everyday on how we decide to spend our time.  There is no set pattern or way that we are supposed to live, we can truly decide what makes us happy and how we want to live our own lives, even if that means making scary choices or radically changing our current lifestyle.  Sometimes it means giving up the things we think are important for the chance to find out what is truly most important.

“Home Sweet Home”

Friday was the first day I stayed in the apartment all day.  I was still cleaning, unpacking, and organizing.  I was able to clear out 7 totes.  I think we are now as down-sized as we are going to get.

Can I just say how nice it was to have a weekend?  I LOVED being able to sleep in on Saturday and have the day to relax and enjoy.  Katelyn and I went down to the Jordan River Trail and explored our new surroundings. She biked and I ran.  We ended up covering 4 miles and enjoyed being out in the wide open spaces.

Katelyn has the trail to herself

Lots of fun bridges to cross

and a tunnel that goes under the road

Katelyn loved weaving around the yellow lines

Such a beautiful view. Loved seeing “our” temple

another fun bridge

The river was so peaceful

But most fun of all, Katelyn enjoyed taking her bike up and down the elevator (She found a feather along the trail and just had to keep it)

We spent the rest of the day watching movies and playing games. It was so nice. We even made our own strawberry banana frozen yogurt.  YUMMY!!

Just frozen strawberries, bananas, yogurt, honey and lemon juice. Fresh and delicious!!

Monday was Memorial Day and we spent it the same way; watching movies and relaxing.  It was a much needed break.  Later that evening the whole family went down to the trail. Lauren and Katelyn rode their bikes and James and I walked.  It was fun for me, but poor James was being eaten by gnats and strengthened his dislike for the great outdoors. I don’t think he’ll be coming with me anymore unfortunately.

On Tuesday, it was my first day being in the apartment by myself while the girls were at school.  It was a rainy, cloudy day and I couldn’t even go enjoy my trail. So I had to do the next, best thing; cook.   So I made homemade creamy chicken and mushroom soup with french bread.   I found the recipes on Pinterest and I think they are both keepers.

homemade creamy chicken and mushroom soup with french bread courtesy of Pinterest

I think both recipes are keepers.

We are enjoying our new simple life. We are spending more quality time together and it has been relaxing to slow down and are enjoying just  being together. Oh and did I mention just how much I absolutely LOVE having maid service?!?!? It is SO nice!!!

“It aint over till the fat lady sings”

And I think she just sang.  We are officially all moved and cleared out of our Riverton Home.  I have to be very honest and say this past week has been full of varying emotions. Going through every one of our belongings and sorting them as treasures to keep, stuff to donate, or trash to throw-away is quite the experience. It has taught me quite a bit about myself. I feel like I did pretty good considering  that we haven’t moved in 10 years so I haven’t sorted through some of it, and yet some of the stuff I had sorted, still needed sorting. It has taught me that I really can live without a lot of “stuff” and that my family is my true treasure and the only thing I really have to have.  Although I did keep all my scrapbooks, journals, pictures (no frames), and some mementos.  I do have to admit to having 19 full totes hidden around our apartment.  (Okay so they are visible but slightly out of the way).  I will be doing another sort tomorrow now that I have everything I wanted out of the house.

And how do we like our new apartment you ask? We are really enjoying it!  James is feeling so much more relaxed.  I am sure it was the clutter of the house that drove him crazy, each day I’ve brought a few more totes over to the apartment he has felt a little less relaxed. James does have a friend from work who is currently living in these apartments and it has been nice for him to have some “guy-time”.

How many totes can you spot? Or how many can you guess are there? (Winners will be applauded) 🙂

Lauren and Katelyn have done a really great jotb with this move. I am very proud of how well they have handled i.  They went from having their own rooms and their own beds to having to share a room and a bed and they are getting along pretty well.  I have loved reading a book to them each night at bed-time.  We are reading Indian in the Cupboard and the girls are excited each night to find out what happens next.  They will fall asleep on their respective sides of the bed but by morning they are right next to each other and sometimes they are draped around each other.  I have found that having a tv in their room has kept them occupied very nicely.

A fun karaoke jamming session

As for me, I have loved having such a nice clean place to live where my husband and children are and having them happy, that makes me happy. I have been so busy this past week I haven’t had a chance to really even think. I am sure homesickness could set in very quickly.

Chocolate chip cookies make anywhere feel like home

Stay tuned for the next chapter in our exciting adventure.

“Patience is a virtue”

A virtue that James and I are apparently lacking.  We got a little impatient, or maybe just smart, and decided first thing Saturday morning that we were going to move right NOW.  We decided that since we had already sold all of our furniture that we didn’t want to live out of boxes in a mostly empty house for a week.  So we packed up our closets and grabbed everything we would need for the night, packed them in our cars and began moving into our new apartment.  It took us two trips with both our cars and just a couple of hours before we had everything moved in and unpacked.   It was SO nice not having to move any furniture, and even better that we didn’t have to set up any beds or dressers, they were already here just waiting for us to fill.

So last night, Saturday, we spent our very first night in our new apartment.  The girls were SO excited for the tv in their room.  It was fun to hear them giggling in their new shared room while watching AFV.  They were so excited to have their very own bathroom (and so were we.)  We are starting to feel like grown-ups having our own separate bathroom.

It has been exciting and we are all enjoying the fun and newness of this adventure. It has been a fantastic weekend and it has felt like we have been on vacation. I am hoping this feeling of being on a vacation will continue.

Here are a few pictures of our cute little apartment:

This is our front room/dining room

Our cute little table. The door on the left is the stackable washer/dryer and the closet on the right is for storage.

This is our bedroom with closet and bathroom behind

A close-up of our closet

The girls bedroom

The girls’ walk-in closet and it also has a bathroom next to it

This is our kitchen. James decides we might need some food.

The girls even helped and took turns pushing the carts; had to fill up that empty kitchen

Sometimes they just liked to play on the trolley instead of helping

Tonight, Sunday, we were able to host our weekly family dinner.  James made his yummy pork stew as our very first homemade meal.  It was so fun to be able to share our meal, our evening, and our cute new apartment with our family.  We are looking forward to many more Sunday dinners, family gatherings, and fun times on this new adventure.

“Timing is Everything”

If timing is everything, then why are we choosing to move right now? What’s the rush? To be honest, two simple and small words, “Spring Cleaning”.  It’s that time of year where we look around our home and yard and see what kind of projects we can’t put off any longer.  And this year, it’s the deck.  Our deck should be condemned.  We need to put out a sign that says “Use at your own risk”.  Someone could fall through at any moment.  Not only that, but since we’ve been in our home 10 years, the projects we really have to do this year range from new paint and carpet, to projects we need to do soon like replacing our swamp cooler with a/c, trimming trees, buying the kids new beds and dressers and pretty soon I’m sure we’ll need to get a new roof.  The list of projects seem endless.   So our thoughts were these, we can spend a lot of money and completely fix up the house (which means we’ll be staying here for at least another 10 years and Katelyn has graduated from high school) or we can simply sell the house.  Because being handy isn’t our best quality and adventure is always calling our name, we chose to sale the house.

The other reason for moving right now is that it just fits into our schedule better.  James will be in the middle of a big project at work in the middle of July and we don’t want to move then.  However, we want to be settled before the kids start back to school.  There is a small catch in that there are currently no apartments move-in ready at City Creek right now.  So we have a temporary and intermediary solution.  We are going to the River Oaks Apartments (about 90th South and near the golf course). These are fully-furnished apartments,  which also include in-room washer and dryer, have maid service, and a pool, hot-tub, and exercise room.  We’ll probably spend a couple months here before our final move to City Creek.   I think it will be a fun Summer Vacation.

Lauren and Katelyn will actually be sharing a bedroom as well as a bed.  I am intrigued to see how this play out.  I am hoping it will bring them much closer.  It was really cute when we were looking at the apartment and when Lauren saw the TV in front of their shared bed she said, “Katelyn we can have sleep overs and stay up late watching tv every night!”  I am hoping it will be just that much fun for them. I am proud of them and how well they are handling the move.  I think it is going to be a fun adventure. . .one where we will be spending hopefully lots of quality time together that will continue to bring us closer together and gives us plenty of stories to share around the kitchen table years from now.