Cleaning Schedule and Dip

I feel like after nearly 8 months of being a stay at home mom, I'm finally getting in a groove and figuring some things out.  I know some new moms barely miss a step and they're back at work, cooking, cleaning, crafting, exercising or doing whatever they were doing before they had a baby.  Or maybe it just appears that way.  For me, I have honestly had a very hard time adjusting.  Before Silas was born I worked in Chicago and had a long commute but I still managed to cook for us, pack our lunches, and make a hot breakfast, as well as keep the house reasonably clean and have a social life.  After Silas was born I could barely eat and shower.  For months.  I know that things are getting easier because Silas is getting older, but I also think taking some time for myself has made a huge difference too.  Getting to the gym has been a lifesaver.  It gives me some "me" time and it's helping me reach my goals.  When we're done at the gym, I'm refreshed, have some great endorphins going and I can enjoy my son SO much more.  Going to the gym is just one of the healthy, new habits I'm adopting for myself, but I'll share the rest of those in another post. 

Along with resuming my exercise regimen, I'm making a goal to keep the house in better order.  I downloaded this cleaning schedule from French Press Mornings blog:

What are the rules for posting these kind of things?  I've given her credit here...  I hope she doesn't mind.  Ha, who am I kidding?  She'll never see this.  (Dear French Press Mornings, I can take it down or do something different if you like.)  Anyway, I like how the days are broken up, laundry, kitchen, bathrooms, etc.  It's much less daunting than when I sit back and think to myself "I need to clean the house!  The whole house is a mess!"  Inevitably, I get overwhelmed and nothing gets done.  This helps.  Today is kitchen day and boy, did it need it!  I started to clean out the fridge, but that stuff is sticky and I'll work on that shelf by shelf.  I dragged out the vacuum, which I hate to do and did the floors and moved all the junk and gave it all a pretty decent cleaning.  I didn't mop yet though.  I may have time to do that later.  Silas gets scared of the vacuum.  I think that tells you how often he's been exposed to it.  Does that mean I should vacuum more or less often, to avoid traumatizing him?  Haha.  I may have to revise this to include a day for the living/dining room and their floors.  Also, I don't meal plan or do much yard work but I end up doing a little laundry every day. However, this is a great start and her design is so lovely.  I will have some yard work this summer but right now it's winter in Illinois and I'm not going out there!!

Speaking of going out there!!  There were 4 deer in our back yard this morning!  I was SO excited I ran out to the front where the hubs was snow blowing to tell him.  He really did not care.  He's says "Great.  Put a coat on."  Fine.  Here's two pictures my neighbor took:

       

How awesome is that?  I know they eat up our hostas and our gardens, but I think they're so cool and make me happy. 

Speaking of neighbors, the lovely wife of the fellow who took these pictures makes a dip I am obsessed with.  It's a simple dill dip made with sour cream.  It is so good.  Whenever we eat together she makes it and I eat an embarrassing amount.  She has this big tray she fills with veggies and the dip is in the middle and it's one of my favorite things about good weather.  We get together and eat this dip.  I know that a little sour cream isn't that bad for you, especially when it encourages you to eat 6 pounds of raw carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and their friends, but the way I eat this stuff, it behooves me to try and clean it up a little bit.  I've tried non fat Greek yogurt, which was decent, but not as tasty as sour cream and I've tried non fat sour cream, close, but not as luxuriant.  Today though I spotted a tub of cottage cheese and figured "why not?"  Conclusion?  It's good!  It'll never be the original, but it's a good substitute.  Cottage cheese is a good source of protein and you can purchase it in a range of fat contents.  I happened to have 2% milk fat.  Since I was just experimenting I used a small amount of cottage cheese first.  This could easily be adapted to more:

Cottage Cheese Dill Dip
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried dill

Combine all ingredients in a container and bust out your immersion blender and blend until smooth.  You could also do this in a blender, scraping down the sides until smooth.  Since we're out of veggies (I need to go shopping) I put a little on toast to test it out. 

Not bad at all! 


I gave Silas a little plain cottage cheese this morning.  I don't think he disliked it, but maybe the lumps were weird for him.  He eventually spit them everywhere.  We went back to his regularly scheduled butternut squash.  He liked that much better.  Since we were in the experimenting mood, I gave him a taste of this dip.  He did NOT like it.  Perhaps a little too much garlic for such a little baby. 

So anyway, how do you keep up with your cleaning?  Do you use a schedule?  How about wildlife?  Anything in your neck of the woods?  What about your babies?  Ever give them something you know will make their chubby little cheeks pucker up in disgust on purpose?  No?  Just me?