Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals (The REAAAALLLYYY Late Edition)

Yup, I'm posting up "weekly goals" on Thursday.  I'm that behind this week.  But, I have good reasons.

I had three appointments on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with an emergency walk in visit to the vet on top of it with Belkar.  She had been sneezing on and off for weeks, which I assumed was a reaction to the extreme dust coming off of the Arm and Hammer cat litter I made the mistake of getting (never doing that again).  Then she got her vaccinations and REALLY started sneezing to the point that she kept me up Monday night with sneezing and coughing fits.  That was enough for me to realize that she was getting pretty sick, so I ran her into the vet.  Diagnosis was an upper respiratory infection that decided to settle in completely after all of the stress in the house between Ginger dying, Prince moving in and getting shots and so forth (at least that was a good theory as she was fine in the congestion and lung department when I got her shots done).  I still feel guilty about that.  Poor cat.

On the flip side of that I feel like I've gotten a vein cut and am bleeding money.  With the name of "cats" attached.  The cats are making up for the fact that Ginger cost us a yearly visit for vaccination boosters at the vet and that was IT the entire time we owned her.  Blah!

Prince had his follow up on Monday.  Friday his good eye started watering and then a few hours later the infection was in both eyes.  I immediately put him back on what antibiotic ointment I had left for his eyes, which luckily lasted RIGHT up till his follow up on Monday.  The doctor did say the infection looked a lot better, but wasn't gone yet, so he gave Prince a antibiotic shot to last him a couple of weeks and more ointment.  If this doesn't clear up the infection we need to bring him in and get him tested for the cat herpes virus (like cold sore type herpes in humans) and potentially have to put him on an antiviral drug.  So, let us pray that the antibiotics work so I don't have to spend yet MORE money on cats.  Please?

Tuesday we went in and got my son's physical done for Special Olympics which went well overall.  I'm impressed more and more everyday how much better he is acting during doctor's visits and things.

And then yesterday we went to my son's eye doctor's appointment that my husband and I were dreading thinking that he would need glasses.   Nope!!!  Tee hee!  Actually the appointment went well and the doctor said that my son's near sightedness is actually getting better, so he might be able to self-regulate his eyes for quite a while if he keeps it up without needing glasses.  Woohoo!!!  That was a major upper to the week I'll tell you what!

And I actually did get something done this week as well, although I waited to post this and take pictures until I could actually get close to done (you'll notice the unwashed floor, which is on today's agenda).  I got the laundry room all reorganized.

So, let's take a tour!

First thing I did was gut the laundry room and get rid of things that I wasn't going to use.  Different laundry soaps that irritate my son's skin that I kept thinking I'd MAYBE use to wash mine and my husband's bedding, but never had the guts to try it for fear my son would roll up in our blankets are going to get donated to our local thrift store as they are nice enough to wash laundry before putting it out for people to buy.  I gave away the mixed dry cat food I had in a bucket and a big bag of Kit and Kaboodle because it didn't agree with Belkar and I didn't really want to feed it to Prince.  I went through and just weeded out anything that wasn't going to be used or had been thrown into the laundry room because I didn't know what to do with it.  Then I stacked the food storage/emergency food that I usually stuck in the corner of the laundry room and stacked it over behind the trashcan in an awkward area by my hot water heater (don't worry it's not NEAR the hot water heater as I know what a safe distance is...trust me my husband measured it to make sure I was within safety *laugh*).

I needed a place to store cat food for ages, but always just kind of stacked it wherever I could find room.  I knew that wasn't going to work with the food I was getting in and I have to feed the cats in separate dishes as Belkar hates the taste of Prince's probiotics that are added to his food (honestly it seems so does he as he keeps going and eating Belkar's food after eating a bit of his...grumble).  I decided to move the small shelf I'd placed by the china cabinet upstairs down into the laundry room to keep cat stuff organized.  The shelf by the china cabinet worked to help make my cooking life a bit easier, but my son was constantly stealing jars off of it to spin them (not cool with home canned goods!) and the shelf was just in the way enough that my son would run into here and there.  So, I decided I could part with it upstairs and move it into the laundry room. 

I placed it up against the standing freezer on the side where the door to the laundry room is.  Our laundry room has an accordion style door on it with a cat door cut into it, so you have to make sure you have room for the cats to get in and out for things you place against the freezer.  This worked fabulously!  I've now got all of their wet food in one place where I can easily see what I have (I found buying bulk cans on Amazon is a LOT cheaper than getting them from the store, so I got a lot with my mom's gift card :), I got Prince's toothbrush and toothpaste in a cup where it's easily accessible, have their bowls out and ready for the morning once I wash them after breakfast and everything.  It's wonderful having things in one place.  I'm OCD about organization when I can be as it makes life SO much easier in the long run, so this was a huge upper to my week :).

Next up is out into the main room, which is about the size of a coat closet (so it feels anyway).

The hamper is a bit crowded in front of the washing machine, but it's there.  The five gallon buckets house cat supplies too.  The bottom one currently is holding what little bit of the 40 lb bag of scoopable cat litter I got from Amazon after I filled up the new cat box (more on that in a minute).  The top two buckets have the 22 lb bag of Purina One dry cat food that I bought on Amazon, which Prince likes and is helping to reduce his gingivitis a bit (teeth brushing will take care of the rest).  I did buy a small bag of Friskies to mix in with the Purina One cat food for Belkar as she's used to the Friskies and was rebelling on eating dry food because she didn't want the Purina One replacing her normal brand.  Mixing the two together seems to be working and her teeth are getting the plague off of them, so yay for a plan working!

Here is a closer shot of the cat box.  My love for this thing can not be understated!  It's only a couple of inches wider then a normal lidded cat box (I checked before I got rid of my old one), but this thing is just pure awesome!  It's got a HUGE interior to it, which is actually where the majority of the 40 lb bag of scoopable cat litter went was just to fill it up originally.  The inside doesn't have any funky corners or angles to it, so it's easy to scoop and the door on the front folds UP with the filter section so you can scoop the cat box without having to take the entire lid off the cat box!  And it's super well constructed.  This is one of the best investments I think I've made when it comes to the cats.  It keeps the litter pretty much contained, has a high back so the male cat doesn't have accidents and I'm just overly thrilled with a cat box.  Sad, but true *laugh*.

I got this box by the way (no associate link or anything, I'm just sharing here.  If you want to be nice and order through an associate link hit the link on the side of the blog to support us.  Thank you :).  I passed on the litter genie after thinking it over and am just making sure to keep the lidded trash can I have in the laundry room cleaned better and things.  I already HAD the lidded trash can in there and really the litter genie is just that, so I figured it wasn't worth wasting money on it (I used the money on the gift card for some Friskies canned food instead for Belkar as she likes to eat the gravy out of the food).

The other awesome thing I am glad I ordered was THESE.  My hatred for the litter mats they sell at the store can not be under stated.  I'd always get one to save the floors from tracked litter only to have a cat somehow get water on the mat, adhere cat litter to the water and you'd be sitting there trying to hose off the consistency of well set concrete from the mat, which would never work, so you'd end up with a mat that just generally looked crappy and that was IF the cats didn't try to jump over the mat all the time to avoid stepping on it and they'd get litter everywhere on TOP of the concrete problem.  And you wouldn't want to accidentally walk on it because the spikes coming out of those things is deadly to the bottom of the feet.

The new mats, though, are great.  They feel like a plastic-y carpet material more than spikes of doom and they catch the litter that does manage to come out of the cat box well.  I just pick them up at the end of the day and shake the litter back into the cat box and voila!  Clean!  And for 10.00 for two mats...that was not only a good price, but it worked out really well for the layout of the laundry room as I have to skirt the drain in the floor (I like to keep it open just in case).

And here's a shot of the other side of the cat box, or the "Prince feeding side" as I'm liking to call it.  The only way to keep Prince out of Belkar's food when I feed them in the morning is to feed them on opposite sides of the cat box, so I put a little feeding station with dry food for him and a little water dish (Belkar insists on drinking water out of a bowl in the bath tub...she learned from Ginger who was half feral when we originally got her and would never trust stagnant water, so I just end up dealing with it).  I am in love with non-slip bottoms on pet dishes by the way.  Best invention EVER!

And look!  I got the old scratching post in the laundry room too!  I need to rip off the rope on parts of it and redo it, but overall...the cat is still using it, so win win :).

I do still need to move the emergency water into the pantry, though, but overall...I'm making progress.

Now onto the rest of the goals for this week!

General Goals:

1.  Take a nap!  (Both kids are in school today and I have no vet appointments.  It's definitely time for a nap as the kids are off tomorrow and all next week)

2.  Clear off recliner in bedroom and continue to weed and organize the master bedroom.

3.  Work on getting the den cleaned out (it's become a catch all mess the last few weeks).

4.  Deep clean the cat carrier and put away for the time being (got a week before I have to worry about pulling it down again for follow up appointments and things).

5.  Mop the floors.

6.  Organize the kitchen better (I have the need for Spring cleaning and organization right now and I got an idea last night on how to maybe reclaim more counter space...want to see if it works).

And there you go folks.  My short, but lofty, goals for the rest of the week.  How about you?  Working on anything this week?