Meet my Sister!

Today I am excited to introduce my sister, Jen, to you! She has the sweetest little family & I'm very thankful for her! 

Hi there friends of The Happy Times, my name is Jen and I ramble to a handful of friends and family over at honestly every so often. I have been married to my sweet husband for 5 and half years. We have a 2.5 year old little girl named Abbey and an almost 8 month old baby boy named Tucker. I spend my days taking care of the little people and learning of my need for Jesus more and more. 

I'm also Brittany’s older sister so it’s extra fun that she’s asked me to be a guest blogger while on their mission trip to Haiti. Plus, “guest blogger” feels pretty fancy for someone that doesn’t necessarily consider themselves a “blogger”. 

I’ll be honest; I never really gave much thought to how I’d be at domestic things as a wife. I think I just assumed I’d be pretty decent at it. Over the past five years of marriage I have learned many, many things about myself and one of them is that I’m probably not as concerned about things being neat and tidy as I always thought I was. A few months ago I was visiting my parents for a few days when I began to realize just how many things I do differently than my mother around the house. Maybe it's a personality thing, maybe it's generational or maybe I'm just lazy :)

• I do not separate laundry. This came up when my mom was folding laundry and made sure to reassure me that she did in fact wash the underwear and the towels she was folding in 2 separate loads. You know, so I wouldn't freak out over the thought of the two mixing in the wash. Um, I don't separate underwear and bath towels. In fact, the only sorting of laundry I do at all is to ensure that clothing and underwear are not mixed with any kitchen towels. Occasionally if I am washing a bright colored item for the first time I will be careful with what I throw in along with it.
• I stack towels on the floor while I fold them. Evidently this is quite controversial. I don't have a laundry room or any other place to stack clothes while folding. Plus, I like to use it as down time to watch t.v....so the floor works. 
• I use sponges and not dishrags to clean dishes. I know, sponges trap germs but dishrags get gross so fast and I can't be washing 4 loads a week! I microwave the sponges and switch them out often. Nonetheless, I know this fact makes my mother cringe. 
• 99% of the time I vacuum my hard surface floors instead of sweeping them.  It's just easier.
• There is no such thing as non-dishwasher safe kitchenware. Now, if we are to ever obtain kitchenware of any real value I am sure I will change this. Right now, everything we have is super cheap and I can't say I'm too worried about the damage my dishwasher may be doing to it.
• I put almost all my "dry clean/hand wash" only clothes in the washing machine. Does this really need an explanation? 
• I make my bed about 3x a week not every day.  This has definitely been one of things that has come as a result of having children. I used to make my bed every morning. It only takes a couple of minutes after all. Now, I typically don't wake up until I absolutely have to and have just enough time to visit the bathroom and brush my teeth before going to rescue my kids from their rooms. 

So there it is. My confession of laziness. Feel free to bring your disinfectant and clean towels when you come to visit if it makes you feel better :)

But, just so you don’t you get the idea that I'm all carefree and laid back about everyday things, I will confess to a few things that I kind of obsess over.

• Dirty dishes in the sink. This makes me CRAZY. The dishwasher in our house has been broken since we moved in a few months ago and we have no plans of getting it fixed any time soon. SO, I wash dishes all.day.long. I absolutely cannot stand to wake up to dirty dishes in the sink. It stresses me out. I wish I could let this go.
• The shower curtain should be closed at all times. Really, it doesn’t need to be open so the shower can dry or to hang a towel over the rod to dry. Just close the shower curtain. I do not want to look at the inside of the tub. 
• On that note, I have to rinse the shower out before I can get in it. This really just means I run the water a little before hand and move the nozzle around so I can make sure the tub is cleaned out before I get in.
• Toys. Oh toys, how I wish we could make it through life without you but you do serve a purpose unfortunately. It really bothers me when the toys are all mixed up with parts that don’t go together. We have bins for the toys that live in our living room. I can’t handle seeing puzzle pieces mixed in with baby doll accessories. It just isn’t right.

So there you go. 

Anyone else feel like sharing their non-mom approved habits? Or the little things that you just can’t stop obsessing over?

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