As part of the End 08 Great Challenge at www.happytobeathome.net I wanted to share our decluttered spare bedroom.  I wish now that we’d taken before pictures.  It took approx 8-10 hrs of cleaning over 4 weeks to get this space in shape.  When we first started the challenge we couldn’t walk into the room without crushing something.  Now the room has a space to work on the computer, exercise on the elliptical or total gym, pick books off the shelfs, store excess costco wares, and find gifts and cards from the gift drawers.  The closets aren’t perfect (too many clothes- we really need to sort through those) but the room is super clean and liveable compared to how it started.

I want to thank the girls at happy to be home for giving us all such an inspirational challenge this month and for providing lots of support and feedback each week!!

**As a side note for those looking to reduce debt, we filled up four large boxes of stuff we no longer need in the process of decluttering and we are going to yard sale it to make some extra cash next month!!!  Goodbye student loans.

• I went to work at 9. I got up around 730. Well, no thats not true. I woke up at 730 and got up around 8. I blogged until 830, took a quick shower and was off to work.
• Came home at 330. Blogged some more. I think I may be addicted. I ate around 4, and blogged.
• Watched a little Harry Potter. It was on tonight on HBO, I think.
• I cut my dogs hair. I have a Havanese dog. She is a little fru-fru dog. She refuses to potty train, so we keep her outside. She likes being outside, as there is alot of dirt for her to roll in. Did I mention she is white? She gets knots in her hair soooo bad. She wont let me shave it, cuz shes a spaz and doesnt like the noise the clippers make. So I had to do the whole thing with scissors. She did pretty well. I took her in the front yard and cut it there on the lawn.  She only tried to crawl away a few times.
• Ate dinner. While I was cutting her hair, my husband cooked dinner. We had frito salad. Delicious!
• I watched a movie. License to Wed staring Robin Williams and Mandy Moore. Pretty cute movie. Total chick flick.
• Cleaned up. Mostly I told my kids to pick up thier stuff. I paid little M 20 cents to pick up. He got excited, even tho it was paid in pennies. (Im not always cheap. Thats just all I had on me. He got $1.01 earlier for finding daddies watch.)
• I’m now blogging again. I think I may have to go to BA meetings.

The washing machine broke today.. not pumping out the water wich resulted in a major flood in our laundry room and kitchen… I had to open it- to get the clothes out. And then I had to continue washing them by hand.. and also some other stuff that I couldn’t wait to wash. So.. that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to today. At least it was a good day for the baby to decide to sleep for almost four hours.

The washing machine fixing guy is coming tomorrow evening and that’s gonna cost us a fortune that we don’t have. Anyway. Could be worse.
God is good

I ended up having a nice afternoon/evening with Efraim and Talitha in the garden after Emunah went to sleep.. Everything just calms down when she’s going to sleep. It’s both that Efraim doesn’t have anybody to fight with.. and also that Emunah herself is in a very tough age right now.. almost three years old. Oh well.

Hubby is home.. doing dishes.. I can’t since I have a really bad eczema on my hands. I have had that for more than four years now and nothing but the strongest steroids helps. Usually I’m struggling with something less efficient since it’s very hard to convince the doctors that I need the strong stuff.
Poor hubby.. I wish we could have a dish washer. That would give him more time to fight Amber.. sorry - I mean more time to study and to be with the family.

Anyway.. he’s the best husband one can ever have.. always thinking of me first.. giving all his time(which is still very little) to his family.. doing dishes and going out with the trash.. never complaining, I never have to ask him about it.. He is both working and studying - in order to as soon as possible get us out of this bad economic situation.. to give us a better life. Always working hard -never complaining. He is respecting and supporting me.. and most amazing he still loves me even though I spent 3 years - out of the 5,5 we’ve been married - being a hormone monster

He is the best father a kid could ever have. He is spending time with them.. reading books with them, playing with them, changing diapers, going up for them in the night.. He’s that kind of father that all kids should have - but only a few do.  

I could say more good stuff about him.. but I’m just gonna keep that for myself. And btw. He is not for sale!