Rearranging...

Yes, I am rearranging our living room again that is.  When you have a little one who is learning to walk and pull himself up while holding on to the furniture it makes you access which pieces of furniture really are safe for children.  Like we have this gorgeous hand carved wood table that could be used as an end table or a table between two living room chairs, well, Noah is so strong that when he holds on it it to help him up he pulls it over even with heavy objects on top.

So we acquire other furniture to meet our needs and switch it out.  Usually I sell the other but I've been falling in love with these pieces but again I can't keep everything because we have such a small house!

I also had to come to the conclusion this morning that our furniture isn't the only thing that needs rearranging.  Since having our little one almost a year ago we have had some financial challenges at various times within the last 11 months and not having a paying job since January, I need to rearrange our budget, our spending, and how I can contribute to my family in the form of earning some form of income to help pay the expenses.  

We have switched to as many reusable products as possible that I made to cut down on toilet paper, baby wipes, paper towels, napkins, dryer sheets, laundry detergent, cleaning products, period pads, using the clothes line poles to dry all laundry in the summer months.  But its not enough.  My husband's paycheck this morning had over time hours on it and left us with only $100 for the next two weeks and I only paid 3 routine bills.  Three bills I don't usually pay all at once but with paychecks falling on certain days it was inevitable.

Do I give up being at home with my son all day to re-enter the workforce only hoping to find a job that works around my husband and my mother's schedule or do I creatively find a job I can do from home that is legitimate?   I vote for the second option however I know this won't be easy because I've been trying to find a work from home job since 2008 with no success, only lots of scams.  I don't want to throw parties and sell stuff nor do I want to sell something I don't believe in.

I have the house to myself tonight as my son and my husband are at my parents for dinner and playing games.  I have to share.  Which is good because I can hopefully finish un-upholstering a chair I got in February and re-upholster as I found some awesome medium weight curtains at Goodwill yesterday that I'm going to use to re-upholster.  I need to clean up the house and be serious about how it is I'm going to rearrange our lives to get out from under so much yuck.  When I figure this out I'll be sure to share!

Baby proofing and preparing for Spring

There is a lot going on in my house right now.  My little boy is very mobile, crawling on hands and knees, climbing up furniture and putting fingers every where they shouldn't be.  He's exploring yes I know and he's in the cause and effect stage so he sees what happens if he pulls on a table to see if it will topple over or not and what will happen.

Thinking end of the week project will be to finally make radiator covers for our livingroom.  Granted spring is on its way but its something I've wanted to do before we had our little one.  And while we are at it we mine as well make one for the bathroom, the bonus room, and our room.

Then there is the notion that spring has arrived and our snow is melting that we need to finish cutting trees down in our backyard before they begin to bud.  We had a ton of "weed" trees that sprung up on one side of our property that we are removing due to them getting tangled in with the power lines and the garbage truck driver complaining he can't see where he is going.  (Trust me it wasn't that drastic!) So we are cutting them down to place planter boxes along the property line to put in vertical gardens.  Veggies on our side and flowers on the other.

Hoping that growing our own food will help cut grocery costs during the summer and winter.