Thursday Thirteen

For some reason, there are a lot of people out there who think SAHMs have a ton of time on their hands, why exactly I have no clue because I personally feel I need about five extra hours in every single day to accomplish the barest of necessities for my family!  Yes, I had a lot of just-hanging-around-the-house time when she was a Newborn and slept around the clock and again as a young toddler when she napped twice a day, up to 4 hours; however, those times were filled with tasks I couldn't do when she was awake, as I could never take my eyes off her, including cleaning the entire bathroom, filling & paying bills, scrubbing the baseboards, and dusting the tops of my cabinets.  Now, at 3 1/2 years old, she can destroy a room, get into the fridge and help herself to all sorts of goodies, and even drag out paint from our art supplies cabinet all by herself so, again, I find myself having to always keep at least one eye on her when she's awake and not in school thus, restricting the time I have to get things done around here. 

I'm sure there are SAHMs out there with nannies and housekeepers, Gardner,s and private Chef's but I am not one of them and because of this, I carry a lot of our household responsibility on myself and thus, feel I am busy literally every hour of every every day!  I have also recently realized that I have been saving up certain errands, appointments, and chores around the house for when Emily started Preschool just so I could have that 3-hour block of time to get those things done!

So, this week's Thursday Thirteen is a list of things I have accomplished in just 12 hours over the past 2 weeks since Emily has been enrolled in Preschool:

1. A month's-worth of pantry/freezer/fridge stock-piling shopping at Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Safeway.
2. Finally uploaded the last 4 months of photos to Emily's blog and Facebook.
3. Returned a bag full of clothes to Old Navy that didn't fit Emily.
4. Filed about 6 months worth of statements and correspondance that had my "to be filed" pile nearly a foot high!
5. Found an Optometrist and made an appointment to have my eyes examined and so I can finally get a new pair of glasses and a box of contacts.
6. Began to organize the floor-to-ceiling stack of boxes in my garage that are going in my garage sale some time this Spring... I hope!
7. Shopped for, purchased, and altered my gown for the Movie Premier and lined up a babysitter!
8. Pulled everything out from under our bed upstairs and cleaned the floors!
9. Finally figured out how to operate Emily's new DVD player for my car.
10. Copied everything in my Pictures folder on my laptop to our external hard drive, something we strive to do once per month!
11. Bought a Mother's Day gift and birthday gifts for my sister AND shipped them!
12. Pulled everything out of my freezer, defrosted the ice cube tray and cleaned it and then, cleaned the entire freezer and put all the food back in.
13. Began making a gift I'm giving my dad for Father's Day.  Yep, a hand-made gift!