Small Success Thursday, No. 14

It seems all my blogging these days is the weekly Small Success posts. Better than nothing, though, right? And if I'm only going to have time to do one post a week, it might as well be something positive. So let's get to it: my small successes on the week of my 40th birthday:

#1
We had pictures done on Saturday. I had to schedule an afternoon time slot and was very nervous about doing afternoons with three young kids, I usually prefer morning pictures with the kids. So I picked a time and prayed for the best. I managed to get the baby down for a nap at just the right time, Hubby fed the boys lunch a bit early and then gave them each baths. During their baths I woke up the baby, fed him lunch, and then got his clothes changed. By that time Hubby had changed closed and we had 20 minutes before I wanted us all in the car. Just enough time for me to get ready. Mom is always last, right? But we got in the car just a little late and got to the location right on time. It was perfect. I could not have possibly planned it better. And for the most part the kids were good. Silas didn't want to be anywhere but in my arms, but we still managed to get some good pictures. Can't wait to share them.

#2
I've mentioned in the past that nursing has not been super fun for me. I keep doing it because I know it's good for Silas. But I don't enjoy it. Pumping at work each day is also a chore. Lately my daily yield has gone down considerably. Finally, this week, I decided that it was no longer worth it. There was such freedom in making that decision!

We started him on some whole milk on Tuesday evening and he took to it right away. Wednesday I didn't even bother taking the pump to work with me. He had the last two ounces of pumped milk on Wednesday (he had had the last bag of frozen breast milk on Tuesday) and we haven't looked back. I'm still nursing him in the morning and at night, but I plan on dropping the morning session when he hits his first birthday (1 more month!!). I'll keep the night time session for now; if we don't lose it before the end of February, we'll probably drop it then since I'll be out of town for a work conference at that time. But until then, we're now down to two nursing sessions a day and, after 8+ months, I'm no longer pumping! Woohoo!!

#3
Speaking of no longer pumping, I put the pump and all the supplies away today. I had two plastic containers that I had used in the freezer to keep all the frozen milk together. I used those to organize all the various pumping supplies (bottles, bags for freezing milk, and a bunch of other stuff) and nursing stuff I had (all the syringes for supplementing, lanolin, etc.). I also put away the nebulizer machine that's been sitting out for a while and organized all the various parts and extra equipment into one of the plastic containers as well. I put all of these things above the cabinets in my laundry room and used my nifty label maker to label everything. Wow! It looks so much better! There used to be plastic bags of stuff up there, no labels, falling on top of each other. It's so neat and tidy now. I really can be organized when I want to!

Those are my successes this week. How about you? Come join in the fun at CatholicMom.com.

Small Success Thursday, No. 13

If this could be a post about failures, I think it would be much longer than three items. Maybe that's why we only do three? No, I'm sure that's not it! ::winkwink:: It's hard sometimes to see the little successes we all really do have in our lives, because the things we don't do often stick in our minds longer. Regardless, there are plenty of things we can count as successes. So here's my attempt this week:

#1
I spent some time on Saturday doing some vacuuming. Sadly, this is very much a neglected task in my house. My biggest concern was corners, cobwebs, and ceilings. Our main floor looks infinitely better now.

#2

The Vocations Crucifix on our mantle

We have been wanting to start a Vocations Crucifix program at my parish for some time. We used to have one a couple years ago but it didn't get a lot of volunteers and eventually fizzled out. So, I'm on the committee now and we are working on getting this going again. The time when we wanted to get it started suddenly sneaked up on us and I've spent the last couple of weeks putting together a pamphlet, getting the volunteers on the schedule, and working out the logistics. We're still working out some logistics, but this week is the first official week of the program! Of course, the crucifix is at my house, so it was a very soft start to the program, i.e., no one else besides myself and the rest of the committee is even aware of it. Ha! But that's okay, the good news is we started. And, my family has actually been praying each night with the diocesan Vocations Prayer. Definitely a success.

#3
We started composting this week and on Wednesday morning I actually remembered to throw Hubby's coffee grounds in the bowl we keep inside. Sort of insignificant, but I was proud of myself for remembering without him having to remind me.

What are your small successes this week? Come visit Small Success Thursday at CatholicMom.com to share in everyone's weekly successes and to share your own.

Small Success Thursday, No. 12

#1
I cleaned out my email inbox! I had been neglecting it for way too long. I logged in one night recently and saw the number of messages sitting in my inbox and was aghast at how big it had gotten. I proceeded to spend the rest of the evening whittling it down from 1100+ messages to around 200+. I'm on Gmail which now also divides your email into three default tabs. The other two tabs had gotten a little too large as well, so I worked on them, too. It's amazing how light I feel after getting rid of a bunch of virtual junk.

#2
At work I completed the final piece of a project that's been hanging over my head since August. Actually, it was longer ago than that, but August was when I recruited a bunch of people to help me sort through the mess. They did a great job and I just needed to finish the job. I finally did it. I'm such a procrastinator!

#3
Tuesdays are really hard days. Hubby has Adoration at 6 AM those mornings and usually goes right to work after. Which means I am on my own to get myself and the three kids ready and out the door, drop them at daycare, and get myself to work on time. Not an easy task! This time change in the fall helps so much. I always feel so much better at this time of year. Then there was Election Day this week. So, Hubby decided to come home after his Adoration Hour, have breakfast with us, and then we'd all go to our polling place to vote (a fire station!! My boys wanted so bad to climb into the fire trucks parked right next to where we were voting). I'm counting it as a small success that I actually managed to get up at 6:15 AM, feed the baby, get the boys dressed, and set them up in front of the TV while I showered all in a timely manner. When Hubby got home at 7:15, I was in the shower, all three boys were dressed, and the baby was back down for a nap. That is pretty impressive!

What are your small successes this week? Come join in the fun at Small Success Thursday on CatholicMom.com.