Nighttime rambles

I'm sitting in bed at 1am, wondering why I can't fall asleep. It might be the cough that refuses to go away, it might be the cold medicine I'm currently taking (despite their advertising it as "nighttime" medicine), or it might be the thoughts rumbling through my head. Tossing and turning isn't helping, each new position seems to create more problems than it solves. My throat continues to feel like I stuffed a bunch of cotton balls down it and the cough keeps resounding through the air.

My husband is sleeping soundly next to me (how he stays asleep through my walrus-like coughs, I have no idea), slowly "borrowing" more and more of my bed space and covers. Being in the tiny, one-bedroom studio apartment, I don't have many options for occupying my sleepless mind.

So I powered my iPhone on, turned down the brightness (so I don't disturb the aforementioned sleeping husband) and started surfing for good reading material. What I settled upon was not really uplifting nor sleep inspiring. Now I'm even more restless as I think of past failings (mine as well as others), lost friendships and things in life that I still don't understand.

I'm choosing to turn to God for comfort tonight. Thankful for His forgiveness, praying for wisdom on how to move forward from here. Thankful for the rain which just started falling and will certainly aide in my falling sleep.

Here's hoping a few hours of rest are possible tonight! Now if this cat would just settle down....

The Power of a Clean Kitchen

I accomplished something major today. I am finally 100% completely caught up on dishes!

CLEAN and SHINY!!

Normally this wouldn't seem like such a big deal, but since we got married, people bought us presents. A lot of the stuff bought for us came from our registry and about 90% of our registry was kitchen utensils. In our tiny space, we really didn't have many needs outside of our kitchen.

So we unwrapped all the presents and had them sitting on a card table in our "living room" area for a while. This worked great, until we (er...I) decided it was time for us to get in the Christmas spirit and put up a Christmas tree! All the dishes got piled up in the sink, so we could properly wash them, before hopefully finding a home for them in our tiny little place.

Problem is.....I got sick the next day. My hubby was amazingly sweet and tried to do dishes while he made me rest. He would have done a phenomenal job, if he hadn't started out 3 years behind. He loaded dishwasher load, after dishwasher load (all while still keeping up on the laundry....this guy is amazing!), but between all the wedding dishes and all the everyday dishes from our amazing meals of Beef Stew, Chili and Meatloaf, he just couldn't keep up.

So yesterday, since I was finally feeling 80% human, I declared war on my kitchen. I filled up the dishwasher and started running it. Then I began hand washing. I washed everything I had space to let drip dry, then I let everything soak. Today on lunch I unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it again and then hand washed some more. And finally, amazingly, I accomplished my goal of having a clean sink once again. I even went crazy and washed the stove top. I feel much better about the status of my house, especially since we are going away for part of the weekend. It will be nice to come home to a clean kitchen! And I'm convinced my clean kitchen is going to help me recover completely from this nasty bug I caught.

Yes, my counter is really that small. Yes, stove really is that close to the sink.

I think the next room to get this level of attention will be the living room....we just gotta get this place under control and looking more like a home. Watch out Mark, our house just turned into a war zone. ;)