I'll give it a shot...

Saw this on two blogs I read this week. The things they wrote were really interesting to me. I figure it might be fun to give it a shot myself. I finally broke down after seeing it on Laura's blog who saw it on Lindsey’s blog who got it from this blog.

1. Do you cook every night?
Not so much. I try to, but it rarely works out that way. Usually there are several nights a week that we aren't home and then we usually eat at someone else's house. I try very hard not to eat out though - it just seems like a huge waste of money considering how cheaply I could make the same meal (or sometimes a good enough meal) at home.

2. What kind of laundry detergent do you use & why?
Right now we are using a big tub of powder that I was given...don't know the name, incidentally its the same one Lindsey mentioned earlier this week. I thought it bothered my skin, but seems it wasn't the culprit after all. I'm not really picky, I use what it cheapest for our clothes. We are currently using Woolite for HE washers for Ariel's diapers. It seems to be working well and can be bought at any store which is convenient. I would like to try Charlie's Soap eventually though after a few recommendations.

3. Do you do laundry every day or loads at a time?
I do diapers every other day and usually finish off the rest of the laundry at the same time. Lately, I keep up with it, but sometimes I'll do it ALL in one (or two) days. The hardest part for me is getting it all put away.

4. How often do you eat out per week?
Maybe once a week if that. As I mentioned above, the cost just isn't worth it.

5. Where do you usually eat out?
Usually fast food or somewhere I have a coupon for. I really like Montero's here in Elizabeth City though if we want a real treat. However, McDonald's is probably where we go if we have to eat and have no coupons. I really like their fruit and walnut salad...mmmm.

6. What is your favorite retail store?
I have to say probably Target - I just love their stuff. I spend much more at Wal-mart though since we don't have a Target in EC and I've never even been in a Super Target.

7. What’s your favorite thing to drink?
Definitely Pepsi. I love Pepsi. I miss Pepsi. I have been avoiding caffeinated drinks since I was pregnant and now nursing. Then I found I am prone to dehydration and UTIs so I try to drink water only which seems to really help. I'll throw in something else once a day sometimes, but I really try to stick with as much water as possible (which I am learning to like more, sometimes I even enjoy it).

8. Do you take vitamins? What kind?
I take two children's chewable multivitamins a day - right now I'm taking the One Source ones from Walmart. When I was pregnant, I couldn't handle the prenatals they made me so sick, so I turned to flintstones for a while and then they made me sick too so I took the flintstones gummies (they don't have calcium or iron) and they didn't make me sick. Later in my pregnancy, I needed the iron though so I went back to regular flintstones and have continued to take them since I am nursing. I don't think I'll ever stop now that I have the habit in place. It just seems like I feel better when I take them; I have more energy.

9. What percentage of the household chores to you do?
Hmmm a percentage, maybe 85%? I'm a stay at homer so I have more time and motivation to do most of it. Ariel isn't quite ready to help yet - maybe soon we'll start seeing if she can put a toy into something rather than just pulling them out??:) Jason usually does the trash stuff, puts away his own clothes after I do laundry, feeds the dogs dinner, and does the evening dishes. I like to do things very thoroughly (aka my way) and I tend to want them done when I think about them (aka now), so I do it myself when some situations arise to avoid conflict. I don't mind. Our system works. I really appreciate Jason's help with dishes at night though and feeding the dogs.

10. Do your children do chores? {Or will they, did they, etc}
My plan is to teach Ariel to help, but she's not ready yet. :)

11. Do you go to church?
Yep. Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights

12. Do you have a housework schedule?
Nope. I thought about one once and even posted it on here I think, but it doesn't work for me. As I said before, I want things done when I think about them and get as much done when I am motivated as possible. I also prefer to do basic daily up keep rather than more scheduled deep cleaning. I do the more intense stuff when people are coming over (tends to be every couple of weeks) to make sure things don't get too gross.

13. Do you keep a working budget?
Yes. I love it too. Jason gave the bills and budget over to me when I started staying home with Ariel and I've kept a consistent budget ever since. I keep it in an excel spreadsheet in a format that was inspired here , but have personalized it a ton over the last year to fit out needs. I also keep a running log of all of our spending - this may be extra and slightly unnecessary with our bank statements online, but I like to see where our money is going. I put everything we spend into one of our budget categories every month to see where we are going over and still have room for spending.

14. What do you do at night as a family? We go for walks, we eat together, we play with the dogs, we watch TV (gasp!), we watch movies, we play on the floor.

15. How do you prepare yourself for a new week?
Jason and I try to talk through the things we have planned or in mind. I make a weekly calendar on our fridge and try to plan meals in there too. I make a big to do list early in the week too and try to mark it off through out the week. I'm starting to use google calendar to keep up with the more long range stuff since we have synced Jason's work calendar to it (he travels a lot for work). Once I have a better (more reliable) computer, I'll do a lot more using good calendar.

16. What do your mornings look like? I've returned to the alarm clock just over the last couple of weeks. I'm getting up...well, its going off at 8 am. I'm pretty much out of bed in the next few minutes. I get a bowl of cereal, feed the dogs, check email, facebook, & google reader, think about the days activities, shower, get Ariel up around 9, feed her and get her ready for the day, finish getting ready myself, do somethings (cleaning, organizing, laundry, dinner prep) around the house, feed Ariel some fruit and cheerios around 10:30, play & read with Ariel, put Ariel down for morning nap, do more computer stuff (like this or lesson prep for my class - which I'm doing next today), and eat lunch.

17. What time do you get up in the mornings?
Ahh...8ish

18. What time do you go to bed at night?
Been trying to get to sleep by 10:30 or 11 so I can wake earlier, but I always read before sleep so I'm not always asleep when I should be.

19. How do you manage all of the paperwork that floods into your household? {bills, school work, magazines, ads, etc}
Bills: I have a to be paid pile by my laptop and every couple of days I go online to our bank and schedule the payment of the bills. Then they move to Jason's bedside table to be sorted and filed on our bill shelf. There they are organized by category and date. As they come out of our checking account, I add them to our monthly spending track/budget so I can see what things are left (in case a bill is lost or doesn't arrive).

School Work: we don't have any at the moment

Magazines: This one I'm not very good at yet. Right now I have a pile of current magazines that I'm not ready to throw out. I'd like to cut out interesting articles and file them by topic, but I haven't set up that notebook yet (I have bought it though). I'm wondering how I'll do at this though because I'm always afraid I won't save the one article I'll want later so I'll likely save too many, plus I don't read magazines as much as I use the internet for information/ideas so this may be a total waste of my time anyhow...like I said this area needs some work.

Coupons/Ads: I go through my ads as they arrive and I save ads in which we have interest in a little notebook that I carry in my diaper bag/purse and I throw everything else away immediately. I cut out my coupons pretty quickly to and keep them in a tiny expandable folder in my diaperbag/purse organized as restaurants, food >$1 off, food <$1 off, toiletries/cleaning/paper >$1 off, toiletries/cleaning/paper <$1 off, baby products, and store coupons.

20. How do you keep your household organized? {calendars, charts, etc}
I have to do lists that are on the fridge and in my little purse notebook, I keep a price book on google docs for grocery stuff, I have a weekly calendar on the fridge with immediate activities and meals, I'm starting to use google calendar for long range planning, there's a running grocery list on the fridge, I keep our budget in google docs, and basically I try not to procrastinate - if it needs to be done, do it now.