Comment Love.

Dear People of the Blog World,
I need some comments. I've thought about quitting blogging several times but then each time a friend or family member tells me how much they love my blog. But they never comment. Or they try to comment and it gets rejected. I went into my settings and it says comments are open to anyone, so anyone ever have a problem with this before or know how to fix it?
I feel like every time I post I'm just sending it out to the void but apparantly there are quite a few readers. Like, 2,400 last month. And my followers are growing. Thank you!!! I'd like to know I'm doing this for some reason. I'd like to connect with people. SO, I want to know why no one ever leaves comments?
Sincerely,
Rebecca
p.s. If the comments don't work, please email me at rawtruegrit@hotmail.com.

Happy New Year! {What I've Been Up To} January 2013

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope you enjoyed your holidays. I have been BUSY, busy getting things done around here. If you don't already know, I am expecting a bundle of joy this May and I think the "nesting" first wind kicked in. Thus the lack of posts. I have been determined to get alot done, basically going through the entire house, and promised myself I could only look at blogs and do blogging at the end of the day after the kids were in bed if I got all my work done. So far it has worked beautifully!

1. I have been doing a TON of cleaning and organizing. I switched rooms for kiddos #1 and #3, built a twin bed from Ikea, decorated #1's new room, went through both the closets, rearranged furniture, and got rid of a good size bag of stuff. I'll show pics of their rooms later.

The upstairs spare room/office (soon to be nursery) was a complete disaster area after holiday wrapping and crafting. Besides that, has pretty much gone untouched for months. Embarrased to say got rid of TWO large bags of GARBAGE! Went through bookcases, desks, craft stuff and it's like a completely different space. Will have to go through it again and rearrange furniture before babe comes, set up a crib, etc.

Spruced up the master closet, bath, and bedroom, and hall closet. Got rid of more stuff. Cleaned everything. Made a goal to keep it clean!

Something that has really simplified my life is finally creating a "command center" in the kitchen (see picture below). I have a desk upstairs that I never used because I'm always downstairs. I've had a whiteboard on the side of the fridge for a couple years that we've used. And this desktop organizer that wasn't getting used to its full potential. We finally got wi-fi so I could bring the computer downstairs, brought down the organizer, got a barstool (Thanks, Jeanette!), and went back to the good old fashioned paper calendar. I also made a new spreadsheet for bill paying and put it in a folder with envelopes, stamps, etc. (yes, I am old-fashioned and don't pay bills online. That just works for us right now.) I use a different color pen for different things on the calendar to keep it easy to understand at a glance. It may not look like much in the picture but it has made SUCH a difference and I LOVE it. Also helps keep stuff off the counters- big plus! Does everyone pay bills online, is it just me who does it the old way?

2. Been dealing with the cold and snow. This is the coldest it's ever been for me and now that I've experienced it, I'll be honest: I don't love the cold. I actually hate it. I dream about happy places in the sun! But it is what it is, and we just deal with it. (-20 this morning. That's right, you read that correctly. NEGATIVE TWENTY.) Our garage is not insulated and we had our food storage out there . Two big shelving units. No bueno, as my husband would say. So I spent an entire afternoon last week emptying the closet downstairs, and moving all the food and shelves inside. It's alot nicer not having to freeze while we run out and grab a can off the shelves, however now I need to find a new home for the stuff that was in the closet before. And we're pretty much out of storage space......

3. Started reading my book club's book. I'm about 3/4 through and I like it so far. Want to know how it ends. Anyone read this? So far I recommend it.

4. Monthly living room redecorating, of course! I spent the entire New Year day taking down Christmas decor and putting up some simple, white January decor. It's a nice breath of fresh air after all the fun red and green stuff. Maybe I'll show that to you in a later post as well. Did you get all your stuff down and put away yet?

5. After two months of holiday business and morning sickness, I finally hit the ol' treadmill again with a new goal to excercise everyday! So far, so good. I alternate between this and a post-natal yoga dvd. I am determined to stay in shape and lose that baby weight once and for all after this one! One of my New Year resolutions is to have a natural childbirth. I already try to stay out of the hospital as much as possible, and follow the Bradley method for all my pregnancies, except I caved and got an epidural with my first and subsequently, the next two as well. However, one way or another, I've actually felt E V E R Y THING with all three and KNOW I can do this! I have been studying it online and phsycing myself out about it. It helps that this time the hospital is only 5 minutes away and we never have traffic. SO..... anyone have any tips or words of encouragement for me? :) Please leave a comment or email me making sure you're email address is shown!

Well that's it for now, hope you enjoyed the update, sorry It's more words than pictures this time! I'm off to the treadmill, laundry, and more cleaning and organizing today!

Happy New Year!