Getting Stuff Done

I know I'm not alone when I say this, but here's a confession: when I started fertility treatments, I became incredibly lazy. I stopped cooking, I stopped cleaning, I stopped getting stuff done around the house. More often than I like to admit, I would look around our house and see chores that normally wouldn't be a big deal, but that suddenly seemed monumental. And then I did almost nothing about them. S picked up some of the slack, but he was still recovering from knee surgery, so we took a "triage" approach and together, we did the bare minimum that we had to in order to keep the house sanitary enough to live in.

Things did not improve much once I was pregnant. I was exhausted, I became dizzy if on my feet for too long, and I was easily nauseated by smells and appearances. Normally we have people over fairly regularly, but we all but stopped entertaining because wow, that seemed like a lot of work.

I've been feeling better lately, and more able to face those mundane tasks that used to be no problem. I also have a forcing function, because we have many out-of-town visitors arriving later this week. So, this past week, I've gotten off my butt and Accomplished Stuff. Some were small, some were big, but I'm claiming credit and success on all of it.

• I cooked dinner twice this week, for the first time in more than 6 months. Admittedly, one night was fish sticks and the other was frozen lasagna, but neither involved calling a restaurant and both involved turning on the oven.
• I called, got estimates, and hired an arborist, culminating in someone finally coming out to prune our trees. This was beginning to be a safety hazard, because one of our totally out-of-control trees also sports 3-inch long thorns. It is now safe to be in our yard again.
• Our city does extra garbage pick-up twice a year, where they'll take everything you drag to the curb, no matter how big or how much. We normally forget to plan for it and so don't get to take advantage. This year, we had a mountain of trash waiting.
• Similarly, I drove a completely packed car to Goodwill and donated a shocking amount of clothes, electronics, and household goods. We have another load, of books and movies, ready to donate to the library, and another pile of (broken) electronics for e-waste recycling. So happy to be making progress on the Make Room For Baby front!
• I posted several large items for sale on craigslist. We've wanted to sell this stuff for a long time, but I finally made the effort to take photos, decide on pricing, and write up descriptions. Hopefully everything will be gone soon.
  
• We cleaned the house, top to bottom. All piles of stuff have been put in their proper place, layers of dust removed, counters scrubbed, floors washed, windows cleaned, surfaces polished, cobwebs removed. It rocks.

Some of this stuff (eg, cleaning, pruning) is basic maintenance. Some of it (eg, donations, extra trash) is for the goal of getting the nursery into shape. All of it, though, is part of the process of preparing for this Thursday, when my parents, my uncle, my grandfather, S's parents, and S's sister all arrive from out of state. My family hasn't visited in a little over a year. S's family, almost three years. Both sides at the same time: never. We have a lot more work to do between now and Thursday, but it feels great to be making progress.