aj and jen: the real deal (update!)

I went out with my friend Laura Therrian tonight and was tellling her how I felt like I couldn't keep up to what I did pre-baby and it was frustrating (you're probably thinking that I'm a moron... of course I can't do everything but I'm a little hard on myself) ... and she said that she always feels like she can't keep up with AJ and I because of what I post on the blog. She said "I feel like you always have it together and your house is always clean and blah blah blah...". I decided to prove Laura wrong, we don't always have it together and here's some photos to prove it.

First of all, let's just get the first photo when we enter the house. It's a lot easier when I can move piles around or quickly put dishes away before posting pictures but I decided not to put anything away from the minute I walked in the door from dinner to when I took this picture. Immediately after we put Drew to bed AJ and I spent 15 minutes and did a whirlwind cleaning tour and put things away for a moderately more clean house... but these photos don't represent that. Sorry for the really blurry photo.

We haven't had time, or money, to fix this wrongly angled stairway yet... our house is FAR from perfect.

But here we go... the worst picture... AJ and I haven't even touched our bedroom in days. We are switching over from our winter to spring clothes and just did a boat load of laundry, hence the insane amount of clothes that are making a completely stressful bedroom. I think the bedroom will be our project this weekend.

I was trying to be realistic with Laura and tell her that for the most part our house is fairly clean, I think cleaning is theraputic and honestly, I'm so much less stressed out when the house is clean. The easiest way to do it: fifteen minute cleaning sprees while Drew is sleeping. This next picture shows our bedroom after AJ and I each spent 15 minutes straightening it and putting clothes where they need to be... or on the chair or in bins if they need to be in the "spring clothes" or "winter clothes" pile. We still have a pile of randomness on top of the mantle... we just need to get our file cabinet and start filing papers and get a bookshelf and we'll be golden.

We have one tiny closet in our bedroom and the other one is still under construction. It makes it really hard to put things where they go when so much of our space is still covered in drywall dust and virtually unusable.

I told Laura a couple of tricks for how we get a lot done...

Drew is a very easy going baby... usually he's happy if he's laying down in the room I'm working in... I'll talk to him and give him loads of kisses while I work but I still try to work around him. I think part of the reason he lets me do this is because we started doing that with him when he was first born, I didn't want him to be scared of the vacuum cleaner or blow dryer or anything that makes noise. AJ and I wanted him to be part of our daily life and be able to be part of our daily tasks.

Also, AJ and I do have a lot going on but we also have priorities and we try to keep it simple and stick with these things:

1. Family and Friends

2. House (for now the flip in Gloucester, not much time to work on our own house)

3. Work

4. Church / Church leadership committees

I might be sitting in front of Minute to Win It right now but for the most part we aren't sitting in front of the TV or diddling around... we are trying to make the most of our time... but when we need to sink into the couch and zone out in front of a movie we aren't afraid to do that. We try to work as a team as best as we can. I've taken over Drew care after work hours so AJ can be cranking out work on the Flip and before we got the baby jogger he would make sure he watched Drew while I ran... we are finding that the secret to success is communication, sacrifice and teamwork. Speaking of teamwork, AJ is up working on the mountains of clean laundry in our bedroom right now... I better move it and groove it. :)