Spring Cleaning ... and New Year's Resolution Check -In

Okay, since the year is already pushing into month #3, I thought I'd give a check-in on my progress on the New Year's Resolutions I made at the beginning of the year.  So far, I'm doing really well on these resolutions:
1. Playing more games with Katie Anne.  We play a lot Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, and Spill the Beans.  She's getting really good at Chutes and Ladders and Candyland, but the balancing of Spill the Beans still eludes her a little.
4. Brushing the dog's teeth.  I haven't done it every week, but I've done it a lot.  Abby does really well with it and takes it like a champ... Ginger tries to clamp her little mouth together and not let me open it, but I crack it open anyway.  They both like getting the breath spray in their mouth!
5. Planning meals ahead of time.  I have been doing better planning ahead and buying all the supplies for our meals ahead of schedule.
6. Read more books for pleasure.  So far, I've read about 5 books for fun this year!
7. Sewing. I've made Katie Anne a little outfit out of kite fabric... all I've got left is the ruffles on the pants.
8. Taking my prenatal vitamins every night.  Now everyone knows why this resolution was an important one, right?!?  :)
9. Wrinkle prevention.  I've kept up with my little scrub, exfoliate, moisturize routine every morning and night.


Today, Saunders and I got a big jump on my number 10 goal of cleaning out the deep, dark recesses of the house.  Today, we tackled what was actually the February project- reorganizing the kitchen cabinets and laundry room storage.  I didn't get it done in February because the first trimester of this pregnancy actually kicked my butt, but we got motivated and did it today!  (*Actually, we were kind of forcibly motivated.  Last night, we heard a big crashing noise in the kitchen.  We couldn't find out what it was, and we thought Ginger must've jumped into the window.  However, this morning when we opened a cabinet, we realized that the shelf bracket had broken under that shelf that was storing all the glass baking dishes, and we were lucky that they hadn't broken!)

It took about four hours - yuck - but we got it done, and it looks SO much better.  We are both very happy that this big chore is done!   Even Katie Anne got in on the cleaning action and cleaned in her little kitchen:

(No pictures of us cleaning because we were also still in our pajamas, and we're not as cute as her.)

We got rid of a lot of stuff - mostly our big mismatched collection of Gladware containers - and have a big stack of stuff to donate.  We've got room to grow, which is always good when reorganizing.  I'm going to buy a new set of storage containers, so we've got lots of room for that.  We've got lots of room for the bottles and stuff that we'll need for the new baby, too.

You can see some before pictures on the New Year's Resolution post, and here are some after pictures!

 What was formerly known as the nightmare cabinet - all clean and empty!

Bowls, plates, and seldom-used bakeware on the high shelf

Cups and glasses

Katie Anne's dishes and mixing bowls

Coffee mugs and supplies

Shiny pots and pans... this is the hardest cabinet to keep organized

A bit of a catch-all ... baking things, mixing bowls, and the colander

The laundry room got a reorganized look, too.  Now, the counter is cleared off so it can serve its purpose - folding clothes!

The shelf above the counter holds some seldom-used kitchen stuff... big casserole pans, mugs that match our dishes, little ramekins, etc.

The shelves over the washer and dryer are my favorites... laundry supplies near where they're needed, dog stuff nice and neat in the red bins, and boxed kitchen stuff on the top shelf.

Hooray for a big job being FINISHED!