Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Moral of the Story

An old man, a boy & a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the donkey & the old man walked. As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking & the boy was riding.
The man & boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people that remarked, "What a shame, he makes that little boy walk."
They then decided they both would walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey.
Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey.

The boy & man said they were probably right, so they decide to carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal & he fell into the river and drowned.


The moral of the story?


If you try to please everyone, you might as well...
Kiss your ass goodbye!
Have A Nice Day &
Be Careful With Your Donkey

Parent Teacher Conferences

We had our first parent teacher conferences last night. Here is the short hand version:

Grant: Doing good! Has a very laid back manner but he needs to slow down during tests.
Testing at or above national average.
Loves to draw little ant men.
Made the Honor Roll for last quarter.
He is a joy to have in class.
Billie: Doing good most of the time.
Teacher doesn't take any crap from her.
Very social.
Hurries too fast.
Great Speller.
Very Artistic.
Teacher totally enjoys her in class.
James: Doing awesome!
Best report card of all.
Made honor roll.
Talking is under control.
He has a string problem: He finds them every where and then plays with them all day.
We are not suprised! He asked for a ball of string for his birthday!
Teacher loves that he is happy and excited every day for learning.
He is LOVING school this year!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Laundry Room Day

Okay. I am a total loser! At least I will get my downstairs organized by Halloween! And my blogger friends-half the battle is continuing the battle!

When was the last time you cleaned under the lid of your washing machine? Mine was a LONG time ago. So start with that.
~GO CLEAN UNDER YOUR LID! (Tip of the day #1: Do you have some towels to wash? Turn the water on hot, add the soap and then with your rag clean away while the drum is filling. Use a tooth brush to get around any annoying objects (the bleach dispenser, who uses that thing anyway), and don’t forget the underside of the lid part.
You know the part with all the writing on it.
~Take you vacuum now and suck off all the lint that gathers on the top.
I also enjoy vacuuming off the lint trap itself, gives my dryer a new lease on life.
~Take you cleaning rag and quickly wipe off the dryer. It will thank you!
~Do you have a shelf? Cabinets? Cupboards? Drawers? WHAT DO YOU HAVE?
I have a shelf and two utility cabinets.
(I’ll call them cabinets because no one knows the difference!)
~On my shelf I have baskets, 4 to be exact. 2 big ones and 2 little ones.
In one big one I have all my cleaning rags, dust rags and
my little velvet brush for when the kids are naughty and need to brush the couch.
In the second big one I have (well not me really) Bill has his battery charging units. For his Dewalts! You know the black and yellow power tools that grow like weeds in your garage? Okay maybe just my garage. Anyway, down here, five miles from hell, dewalt chargers don’t do well in the heat, so ours live in the laundry room.
(Here is a side note of caution: Make sure the batteries have some room to breath.
Don’t cover them up!)
In the first little one I house my box/boxes of dryer sheets. I usually buy a big box from the big C store and the basket conceals it perfectly.
In the second little box I have a big box of baby wipes. Sorry Steph! We still use them occasionally. Sometimes big kids make messes too. Mine are no exception! And that concludes the tour of my shelf.
I set all the baskets on the washer and dryer and then dusted off the shelf, tidied up my rag basket a bit. And put everything back. Neat and tidy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~On ward and upward!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have two of those cabinet/cupboard things hanging off the wall. Cleaning supplies, paper towels, wood glue, and gorilla glue is what lives here. Guess what I did? I bought some plastic tubs down the house wares aisle at the W store. These are about 3 inches deep and like 12”x16”. I tried to find a picture for you but at no avail. They are like old fashioned little plastic wash basins. I didn’t want anything with holes because my cleaning supplies might tip over and if there were to spill I want it contained. Sense?
~I organized out my bins in this way. Weekly/Daily cleaning products in one bin. (toilet bowel cleaner, dusting spray, laundry spot remover, etc) Not so often cleaning products in another. (Oven cleaner, Leather cleaner, carpet cleaner, etc) Then when I need something I pull it out and set it on the dryer, use the product, come back and put it away. All the way away!
~On my next shelf I house paper towels. That is it. I love it when the whole thing is full. That means I have enough paper towels to be able to buy them on sale! Oh and my favorite ones are soft and absorbent. And kind of pricey!
~Then I have a shelf of antibacterial wipes. Some are homemade: I have a great recipe! And some are store bought with coupons on sale.
~The last shelf houses all the Garage things that should really live in a garage anywhere other than 5 miles from H-E-, well you know, hockey sticks.

Now here is my unpainted laundry portrait. Notice I didn’t mention my laundry soap? Not really! I found these great big glass canisters at the Big T. I want to dump all my soap into one of those, wrap a cute ribbon around it and find a metal vintage scoop. I am sure someone I know had one in their flour. Then I would like a smaller glass canister for all of my “half” used dryer sheets. I hate throwing those things away. Really really hate it! Then I would place both these canisters on a cute little place mat on the dryer so it was so pretty that I wouldn’t want to mess it up. What do you think?

Then I want to put a cute little quote about laundry around the room so you have to spin circles to read it. Help me out here please:
Drop Yer Drawers here!
A mother’s love is like laundry, never ending!
I think I can, I think I can. I think I can…

Those just don’t seem perfect. Give me your ideas! Maybe if I like it, I’ll buy you one for your wall! (Anyone, Anyone?)

Snap snap, get to it! Your laundry room thanks you!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Fall in AZ

Isn't it wonderful. You drive to work/school in the morning with the heater blasting and drive home in the afternoon with the air conditioner blasting. Ahhhh! :-)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Family Room Fun

The way my home is set up we have a “formal living room”/piano room/entryway that leads right into my kitchen/family room. I love it! I can cook and hang out with the family. It doesn’t even bug me when Bill is hanging out on the couch with the kids and I am working in the kitchen. We are working as we speak on a “major” home renovation in my kitchen. Let’s just say we ordered 2 twelve foot lengths of butcher block counter top. J Before and after pictures are in the works.

~Here is what my family room looks like: BIG sectional couch and a TV Cabinet. In the TV cabinet we have VHS tapes in VHS tape boxes. Those definitely need purging but I refuse to purge my Man From Snowy River, The Cutting Edge, and Jazzercise tapes. Well maybe the jazzercise but most certainly not Billy Blanks Tae-boe. That guy got me through 3 pregnancies. Ahem. Yes I still have “baby” weight. Just say fluffy three times fast! And I won’t hold it against you.

~First thing when I get home tonight I am going to dust my pictures and my lamp bases. Then I will hand one of my slaves, err kids a clean paint brush to “dust” off the lamp shade. “Softly child, brush softly”, I will say over and over again because I picked the deaf child to work. (Disclaimer: none of my children are really deaf, UNLESS I am speaking to them. Then they can’t hear me! Go figure.)

~Then I will vacuum off my couch. Vacuum the back of it, down the cracks, under the cushions. Your couch will love you forever! And so will your children when they realize that they are missing that teeny tiny Lego piece and have to stick their sticky hands down there. I used to have a one piece slip cover and that thing was great. You could take that whole sucker off and shake it out and then just vacuum the floor. I think I sold it on EBay. Oh EBay! I love you.

~Dust of the TV. Don’t forget the back. I try to vacuum off the back of the TV at least twice a year. More when I didn’t have a job. Don’t even get me started on TV’s and house fires. Just trust me and dust it.

~Now vacuum your floor. That’s it. Clean and Tidy.

Any questions? Great! Next we move on to the laundry room. My room is small. A washer and a dryer that’s it. I have some cupboards (can someone PLEASE tell me the difference between and cupboard and a cabinet?) above them and a shelf. I have had some decorating/organizing thoughts about my laundry room. Maybe I will actually tackle them this week. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Example of shelf

This is what the long shelf at the back of my pantry looks like (mine doesn't adjust though): Shelf

At Long Last: The PANTRY

I apologize that our “fun Friday night activity” didn’t take place. We ended up spending a Fun night in the hospital. But we are going to get back on track this week.

THE DREADED PANTRY

Does your pantry look like an overstuffed nightmare, just waiting to spill out? Or is it disorganized at every juncture? Mine is my nightmare. I am constantly shifting boxes and moving canisters and digging for cans. BUT with the limited space that I have available I am doing what works for now.

~Lets Unload. To make your life a little easier unload into categories: Cereal, Baking Mixes, Cans, Oils, jar goods, recipe books, etc. This will help in your replacing and sorting later.
~Clean your shelves (I almost said selves again…hee! Hee!) Get it all, sides, top and bottom. You will feel better about yourself and your pantry.
~Sorting and replacing. Since everyone has a different pantry layout you have unlimited options. I have a door with shelves. It is deep and not so wide. Things get lost in the back very easily. So here is my solutions to that. I went to the W store and I picked up some narrow white wire stacking shelves. They are about 4 inches wide, perfect for a couple of cans. So I have the “rest” of my canned goods stacked at the very back. I have to “dig” for them a bit, but it is easier to move a couple of boxes of cereal when I feel like Hormel Chili than moving a bunch of cans when I want a box of cereal. Get my drift?
I basically bought enough shelves to outfit the whole back wall of my pantry. I keep cookie mix, cake mixes, canned milk, evaporated milk, weird vegetables, canned fruit along the back of my pantry.
In front of all that I house all the big stuff. If I have more cereal than 4 boxes it goes into the storage under our stairs. The kids love going on an adventure when we need more cereal out. Plus if there is more than 4 boxes little brains can’t decide what to eat at 5 o’clock in the morning, less choices, less drama. Flour in big container, sugar in big container, oil, spaghetti ect are all in containers.
We have a large plastic ware container that is the snack bin. If the kids ask for a snack I usually tell them a piece of fruit or pick something out of the snack bin. The snack bin houses granola bars, raisins. Fruit leather this is our fav right now, fruit snacks, cracker snacks, etc. This is my buying gage. When the snack big is half full I know to put it on my grocery list. Again no fights because the kids have choices. Clever!
Here are some other ideas that might fit in with your particular pantry. *(If I ever have a real pantry I will definitely be implementing some of these idea.)
Set up food zones: Breakfast items, lunch items, Dinner items.
Grab some baskets and make meal baskets. For instance if your family LOVES spaghetti and you eat it once or more a week have a basket that is set up with noodles, sauce, mushrooms, garlic bread spread etc so on that meal night you know you have everything you need to make said item. Or have 5-7 baskets set up with the items you will need to cook your weeks worth of meals. Then each night as you go to prepare your dinner you just grab that basket and go. Beats walking back and forth 85 times to get items.
Use a cloth shoe organizer on the back of your pantry for packet items, kool aid, fruit snacks, and other light items. If you get the clear kind you can see exactly what it in it.
If you have a lot of space between the shelves use a bin that hangs from the shelf above it. (The big W store carries them) Use that bin for chips, breads, crackers. Anything that might get lost and smooshed in the shuffle of a busy family
Add some plastic drawers. These are fairly inexpensive and add to a clean look. These are perfect for those odd shaped items that don’t stack well. Chocolate Chips, coconut, bags of pasta and rice, side dish mixes, soup mixes. Even spices (label the top of the jar if you stand them up, so you can see all the names as soon as you open the drawer.)
Add some hooks to the side, hang up your apron, bbq tools, dish towels, plastic bag holder

If your pantry is really bugging you and you need a fresh set of eyes, email me a picture and I will try to help out!
That’s just the kind of gal I am! Have a happy day!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Crap. I was tagged

Senior Photo...taken a few (ahem) years ago.

I was catching up on some of my blog reading and i realized that i was tagged twice. Crap! I am so not good at these things. but here goes: I am combining the 2 so I only have to do it once.
7 Weird/Random Thought about me:
1.I suffer from OCD badly. Even the silverware in the drawer has a certain order. Until I started drinking Zrii I took a Super B complex pill, I called it my "anti-crazy" pill.
2. I love color. I have 6 different colors on the walls of my house right now. (All different rooms though.)
3.We have lived in 5 different states in our 13 years of marriage. 4 of those in Montana in college and now almost 5 years living here in AZ.
4.I come across to many as very confident and self assured, maybe even bitchy, but I am really an introvert. I hold everything in and let it eat away at me.
Until this last year when I went through some emotionally challenging issues and my husband was able to help me open up and release my feelings. Now I have been pretty good about trying to work my feelings out right away instead of supressing them.
5. I had 2 of my 3 children at home with a midwife. It was an amazing experience for our family. I love to talk about it so if you even have questions shoot away.
6.I have to sleep on the inside of the room farthest away from the door. It doesn't matter which side that ends up. Even when Bill is gone and one of the kids is sleeping with me, I make them sleep on the outside. Mean I know!
7.I love to bake, craft, scrapbook, sew home decorating things, crochet. I am totally into vintage crafts right now. Reusing things is also lumped into that catagory. I have been "stripping" old t-shirts to repurpose them as a rug or something!

7 TV SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH: Big Bang Theory (my fav right now) Monk, Survivor, Privileged, Hero's, According to Jim, NCIS

7 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO: Cooler AZ winter weather, finishing my kitchen island, the elections being over, the holiday season, someday loosing all that baby weight, getting my bedroom and bathroom organized, repainting the house (hey we have lived here 3 years..a girl needs some change)

Thanks Steph and Jill for Tagging me. Sorry I suck at it. I am cheating and going to tag anyone that wants to play along.



Anyone?

Is anyone ready to keep cleaning and organizing? Sorry for the delay and I promise we will finish before Thanksgiving now. Stay tuned on Monday for our next installment. I will give you some great tips for organizing your pantry!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

We breed 'em gooder here!

I asked Billie to get dressed today.
This is the ensemble that she put together.
I am SURE I explained the rule about mixing plaids.
Whoops maybe not!

She told me that it looks like she is wearing a dress.
Well kind of honey!
Except the plaids don't really match.

I think she meant "bye" as in good bye...
she's not really that good of a "buy" per say.
She is a 8 year old going on 20 and she can be pretty smart,
intelligent too.

Gosh you just can't pay geneticists for dna like this one has!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

For the Record

(This is long and so I don't forgot, so I won't be offended if you dont read it!)
It all started on Thursday afternoon. I got a call from the school saying that Grant had a terrible stomach ache. The nurse said that he didn't have a fever and he had not thrown up, but he was nauseous. I told her that I would leave work to come get him but it would be at least 30 minutes. So I get there a bit later and check all the kids out of school. Bill was in Denver for some training for work and with the drive home it just wasn't worth the back and forth. We drive home with a short stop at sonic happy hour and I get the kids slushes (Grant's was a sprite slush). At home he lays on the couch and rests. At 4 oclock I take his temp because he is looking quite flushed. His temp is 101. He is breathing hard and having a hard time getting up and down to use the rest room. When I ask him where it hurts he pointed to his belly button every time. Fast forward to 8 oclock and I take his temp again. It has dropped but only to 100. So I call a couple of people for their opinions. I finally am convinced to call my doctor and see what he says. So I call the doctor and wait for his call back. When he calls back I describe the day to him and because Grant's stomach was so tight and it was very warm to the touch, he tells me it would be best to take Grant to the ER. Of COURSE he would. Bill is out of town this week.
So my dear neighbor has already been asked to take the younger kids for me for the night. I call her and tell her they will be over in a little bit. And off Grant and I go to the ER. This was my first trip to the ER with any of my kids. I can't tell you how lucky I feel about that!

So we get to Banner Estrella about 9 pm and the waiting begins. I think it was about 10:30 before we actually saw the pediatrician on call. Dr West. He was great. He examined Grant and ruled out a hernia. So he decided to get him on an IV and get some fluids in his body. (By the time we got to the ER his fever was gone but his stomache was still very tender)
He wasnt' very thrilled with the IV at all. I had my pink Ipod in my purse and so he was listening to it to forgot about that thing in his arm. About 11 the doctor came back in and said that he wanted to do a CT scan before he sent us over to Phoenix Children's hospital to have the surgeons look at him. The whole time I am back and forth on the phone with Bill trying to decided whether he should come home or not. (Ok I was trying to decided, I think Bill had already made up his mind. He felt bad enough I was at the ER alone.)
"elephanty" was a great source of comfort to him during his whole ordeal! At midnight the CT Techician brought in a quart of liquid that they wanted Grant to drink in the next 2 hours so his insides would glow! At this point we already had a full bag of fluids in his body and he was peeing every 10 minutes.
At 2 am he went in for his CT Scan. I took a picture of the door because it was at this moment that I felt so lonely and scared! My baby was behind those doors in a big huge machine all alone. I had held it together the whole night and I about lost it right here in the hall way. I had a flood of emotions running through me. I was so greatful that my kids have been healthy kids. I felt so much empathy for all my friends and family that have spent time and energy at a hospital. It is an amazingly scary place to be. While he was in there I decided that this was going to be the plan. (I know crazy huh! But I was going to think positive!) He was going to come out, the CT scan would read normal, the doctor would give us some crazy laxative or something and send us home. Then Bill wouldn't have to come home and everything would be fine. We would be home and in bed by 4am. I just knew that would be the plan.
So the doctor came in and told us his readings. Grant's appendix was on the large side of normal. But because the way they can tell if your appendix is swollen and unhealthy is by the fat around it swelling, and because Grant has like 3 fat cells in his whole body it was hard to give a definate answer. He checked his stomach again and Grant was still feeling pain. He didn't want to take any chances and ordered the transport to Phoenix Children's. I called Bill and told him what he said. Then I decided to go out and talk to the doctor about what our choices were. He told me there was a 70% chance he would have the surgery done. Bill and I decided that Bill should get on the first flight home so he could be at the hospital with us.
So off we went in an ambulance to Phoenix Children's hospital. (Grant wouldn't let me take any pictures in the ambulance.) The funniest part of the ride was the paramedics terribly dry sense of humor that Grant was not getting at all! He kept cracking these terrible jokes and Grant just looked at him. I kept laughing just because the lack of sleep was catching up to me.

Once we got to PC the nurse checked his vitals again, a Physicians assistant came in to check his stomach. Then we waited for the surgeon to see us. Grant was so tired he had slept a little at BE but not much. he slept and I was able to put my feet up and catch a short nap while we waited. The surgeon finally came in around 5:30. He checked Grant out, said he was going to check on Grant's chart, check on the OR schedule and come back and let us know what he found. About an hour later he came back basically saying the same thing that Dr West told us. The CT Scan was hard to read because Grant has no fat, but his stomach was still very sore so they could go in and take it out if we wanted or we could just wait. There was a 20% chance that nothing was wrong. He consulted with the radiologist and he couldn't RULE out that it was or was not his appendix. But it was our choice if we didn't want surgery. I was like WHAT? I just spent how many hours in the ER, spend HOW much money getting transported by the Ambulance and you are giving me a choice. I told him that as much pain as Grant has been in the night before it was worth it to us to take care of this now.

So we started on the 3 antibiotics that were required because your guts are so full of bacteria these 3 have been found to be most effective. The first one went off with out a hitch. The second one they put in his IV ,vancomycin, caused a "side effect." It made Grants body red and itchy, called Red Man's Syndrome. I had grilled the nurse about the risks and side effects and she said they were so rare it wasn't worth mentioning and then he reacted. She felt bad, but after a dose of Benadryl he was very sleepy and not itchy anymore. The doctors think it administered to quickly, but I have been advised that if he ever needs vancomycin again to ask for the benadryl first. The 3rd antibiotic went in without a hitch.

So we scheduled the OR. Dad was able to get the first flight home on Friday morning to be with us. Hallalulah! It was so comforting just knowing he was on Arizona soil!

Grant was so excited when his Dad walked in. We were all so exhausted while we waited for the Surgeon to come in and consult. Dr Eason our first surgeon wasn't doing the surgury but Dr McGill was going to perform it. This is us with about an hour of sleep each since early Thursday morning.


And here is Grant giving me one last smile before the happy medicine went into his body to relax him for surgury.
Here is my babe after the surgery in the recovery room. He was in the operating room for about 45 minutes. Dr McGill came out and told us that it was successful and Grant did great. His appendix was swollen and had started leaking mucus so we caught it in the early stages of deterioation. I was so happy that we listened to our hearts and went with our guts on what to do here.

We for sure would have been back to the Hospital in no time at all. They did the surgury lapiscopicaly so he has an incision site at his belly button and two little holes on his right side. He spent Friday night in the Hospital for observation and we had him home by noon on Saturday.

It was quite the ordeal. It made me appreciate Bill and his willingness to sacrifice for our family at all costs. I am greatful to his family and their understanding of the situation for us and allowed him to miss his Grandfathers funeral services. It was a trying decision for both of us. Billie and James have been HUGE helpers, playing quietly this weekend so we can rest, helping wih meals. Thanks for the phone calls and texts of concern and wanting to help. It means more to me then you will ever know.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Equation for fun!

~6 1/2 hours in one ER
~Blood draw
~Pee Test
~CT Scan
~82 trips to the bathroon
~30 minute ride in Ambulance to other ER
~More IV
~more stomach poking
~82 more trips to the bathroom
~6 more hours in children's ER
~1 not short enough flight home from Denver
~2 kids graciously cared for and shuttled to school by the neighbor
~one trip through lots of doors and hall ways
~4 consultations with 2 surgeons
~18 nurses
~5842 beeping noises
~45 minutes in OR
~1 happier kid WITHOUT an Appendix

Oh and who knew that there are more case of Appendicitis during the months of October - March? Pictures to follow. The camera is still at Phoenix Children's with dad.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Day Nine: Kitchen-lower cabinets and dishwasher

Day Nine:
Kitchen-lower cabinets and dishwasher

Today is going to be much like the upper cabinets. I have a couple of tips and tricks that might help you out. As always though, if you have any tips for me I would love to hear them. I love incorporating ideas into my cleaning and organizing.

~First step is clear out all the shelves. (you can break this up and do it by shelf if you want)
~Take you cleaning products and rag and clean all the sides and surfaces of the shelves. Doesn’t it feel good to start with a clean slate.
~Now let’s turn our attention to the sorting table. This is the contents of my lower cabinets: *Pots and Pans (these take up two whole lower cabinets, but I have them on a very cool slide out system so this cupboard isn’t messy, just needed a little dusting and wiping.)
*Plastic ware (I have one whole cabinet set up for all my plastic crap) This Is my motto here, “If it don’t fit, I don’t need it” Usually this is the cupboard that I open up a squinch (is that even a word?) and throw in there what I am trying to put away and shut the door as fast as I can. This is also high on my list of “you-are-TOTALLY-annoying-me-right-now-so-you-must-need-a-chore” list. I can’t ever get my husband to do it though. JK babe! So if you have anything plastic ware now is a good time to go through, make sure we have lids, they fit, nothing is cracked or melted. Here is a great recycling opportunity! And can I say just as a side note that I am really starting to dig vintage Tupperware. Someone stop me from searching ebay for it!
*Some of my stoneware-mini loaf pans, muffins tins, pie plates
*Misc kitchen gadgets: graters, chopper, immersion blender
*Can goods and pantry items: I keep most of my limited can goods here on the very bottom shelf of my cupboards. I found some great little plastic baskets at the big W store down the house wares aisle, for right around a dollar I think. I bought enough to fit length wise across the back of my cupboard and then like 3 to go across the front part. This is not a whole lot of “extra” can goods, but until we add on the island part of my kitchen this is where I am at. Anyway back to the baskets. The lower cabinets are much deeper also so this helps to get to things that are trapped clear at the back. I have each basket labels for different items: fruits, tomatoes, soup, side dishes, pasta, peanut butter, mustard (yes I have one labeled for mustard, with coupons I get it free all summer), and condiments. I have found that by having these items in baskets, I can’t fit as much in, but I can get to things easier without making a mess or causing frustration. Worth the dollar-ish in my mind.
~That is the extent of my lower cabinets. So we can put everything back. And if you get the little plastic baskets it will be a snap.


~Dishwasher-Give it some loves: you can buy a cleaner at the store. All you do is run it through an empty dishwasher and it makes the inside clean and sparkly. Or you can try this great homemade remedy. Your dishwasher thanks you!


Stay tuned for our Fun Friday night Activity: The pantry!!! My Pantry is a tiny closet so I have had to get pretty creative here.

Hair spray and Ink...

Thanks for letting me be lazy and kind of take the night off. I had my darling son shoot aerosol hairspray at all the spots on the clothing and on the inside of the dryer. I rewashed the clothing and we wiped the inside of the dryer with a wet rag and almost all of the ink spots came clean. He felt really bad about leaving the pen in his pocket and when he saw the hairspray taking it off he was so happy!

I even had a little fun and made some pumpkin chip cookies. I didn’t have nuts and I didn’t want to dig in my big freezer for choco chips, so I made them with a mixture of white chip, chocolate and butterscotch chips. I iced them and they turned out so yummy!
I love fall and pumpkins and cool weather. Supposedly we are done with 100 degree days here. So here's to hairspray getting ink off and some yummy cookies.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Day 8-Lazy Day

I am going to be short and sweet tonight cause, quite honestly, I don't feel like blogging. I have a date with some hair spray and a batch of uniforms as someone decided to put a blue ink pen in his pocket.

~So go clean your counters off. Move things and wipe, rearrange and put back.
~Wash the dished in your sink. If that means running the dish washer more power to ya!

Your kitchen will love you for it. And you will feel great in the morning.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Day 7...Almost a whole week!

Good Morning, after we finish today it will have been a whole week. Yippee! Slowly cleaning and organizing makes my home happy.
It makes it feel like if I care and it will do well caring for me back.
Keeping my family warm (or cool) and safe.
~Today we are going to conquer the rest of our upper cabinets.
~Stack everything onto your sorting area.
~Clean all four sides of your shelf. Surface, sides, and top.
~Decluttering questions: Have you used this in a while? Is is broken or cracked. What was the expiration date?
~Not so hard right? :-)
~If all you have is dishes or pots and pans then you should be done.
Off On a tangent now:
My MIL had what I call a moderate kitchen when I first met her son. She had a very good organizational stragegy for her upper cabinets. (I will try to describe it to you, but I have a bad memory and I might miss some things.) Her upper cabinets that were to the left of the sink housed her cups, glasses and mugs. (I can't remember what was in the one to the right of the sink right now. See bad memory) But as you faced her stove in the cabinets to the left she housed her baking center. It contained all the things that she needed to bake:flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, chocolate chips, coconut, etc. So when she was baking everything was right in that spot. To the right of the stove was her cooking center. These cabinets housed everything she needed to cook. Spices, oil, cooking spray, vinegar, etc. So when she went to cook a meal it was all right there. I always thought that was a great way to organize and I have adapted it to fit my needs. I hope she doesn't mind my sharing her ways. I hope it can be helpful to you as well.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Day 6: Journey of Dishes and Top shelf Treasures

~Today’s chore is upper cabinets. You know, the ones that hang over your head while you cook, clean, or reheat and throw away, whatever your MO is. :- )
NOW, if your cookbooks live in one of these uppers, you are in luck cause we already did that. If you have no upper cabinets then you are again in luck. Go make yourself a straw-nana-go smoothies and sit by the pool. (The high today according to smart people is supposed to be 98 degrees here 5 miles from hell.)

~ I am going to start from the tippy top. Unload ONLY the top shelf onto your sorting space.
~Take your cleaning product and rag and clean the top, sides and surface of your self, er shelf unless you haven’t had a shower yet today. Then go ahead and clean yourself!
~Let’s take a look at the things on our sorting surface. Ask yourself our decluttering questions: Have you used this in 6 months? Have you ever used this? Did you borrow this and need to return it? Is it broken? Is it missing a part? Are you REALLY ever going to replace it or fix it? NOTE: Don’t donate things that need repair. It costs more money for those places then just recycling it or donating it!
~Now that we have at least organized our items from the top shelf we can start putting things back. BUT WAIT…before you put things back let’s think for a minute. Do you like where it is? Would you prefer to have it on a lower shelf? (If that is the case, take out a sticky note or masking tape and mark it to move later)
~You can now reload your top shelves. That’s it for today. Don’t worry we will get through it all. But I work a full time job and I need something that is fast and easy.

IF YOU HAPPEN to be an over achiever then go ahead and do all your upper cabinet shelves. Then you can take a couple of days off.

A Blonde Confession

We went to dinner on Saturday night
We stuffed ourselves full of delicious bites
We brought home what was left, like we always do.
To heat up on Sunday for a meal on its own.

These glorious leftovers were sent home in style.
No white Styrofoam here they were shiny and bright
With a pretty lid to top it off, Silver on the back and white on the top.
So I proudly stuck them in the toaster oven with glee

There was our lunch, warming away
I could smell the aroma mouth watering at best
On a thought I looked over and there was my dinner
Flaming away inside the warm box of metal
Holy $*&# I scream, I started the house on fire

I did what I do best when panicked like that,
I ran around looking busy while pop fixed the mess
No need to fear, there was just a lot of smoke
But I am sure I will receive my fair share of some poke
(Editors note: When you have a kitchen fire it is vitally important to unplug or turn off your appliance before you try to fight the fire. Before I went chicken crazy I was calm enough to take this step. Aren't cha proud of me?)
Stay tuned for Day 6 of our cleaning adventure!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Day 5-Light and airy

Today is my favorite day. I LOVE cookbooks! I love looking at them, I love reading recipes and envisioning the wonderful fragrant smells that come from cooking them. I buy them, I am gifted them, I have inherited a couple, I drool over them, I might even lick one that I liked so much. I'm just saying!
~Today's "chore" (although I wouldn't really call it a chore) is to go through and organize your cookbooks.
~Brew some tea, coffee or hot cocoa. What ever your heart desires. Have a cookie too if your husband was nice enough to make some. :-)
~Take all of the cookbooks out of your space and transfer them to your sorting area. My cookbooks live in my small pantry space so I will be cleaning off a shelf as I go today.
~Now lets take a hard look at what you have in front of you. NO not in your mug.
~Make some piles. Have you noticed that I LOVE piles? Pile them into catagories: main dishes, desserts, all purpose, family cookbooks, side dishes, healthy recipes, and on and on.
~Here is your de-clutter question: Have you used this cookbook in 6 months? Have you ever used that cookbook? Did you borrow this and need to return it? (NO COMMENT MOM :-)!!!)
~Now that you have looked at all the cookbooks that you have, let get ready to return them. How do you like to have them organized? By size, type, color, frequency of use, etc. Put them in stacks accordingly.
~Before we return them, clean the shelf they lived on. In my case I am taking a damp rag and wiping out the bottom of the shelf above, the back and the sides and of course the bottom.
~Put them back in their home.
~What do you think? Were you able to down size? Did you find a recipe that you love and couldn't find?
~I have to admit that although sometimes I find cooking a chore, I also enjoy it. But I enjoy it more when I have a clean and tidy shelf full of my favorite cookbooks. (They really are ALL my favorite cookbooks.)

Did this help you with your cookbooks shelf? Do you have your cookbooks stored another way that this didn't help? I am more than willing to help you figure out your space. I love helping others organize their spaces so that life is calm and enjoyable.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more kitchen fun!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Day 4, short and sweet

Okay so here it is 7pm on day 4. We had a long busy day at our house today. Here is the good news. The chore list is short today. Today er tonight we are going to tackle the tip tops of your kitchen.
~Take you long dust wand and swipe around the top of your walls. Dust bunnies and cob webs you know.
~If your cupboards drop down then dust the top of cupboards off.
~If you have decorative items up there now is the time to dust them off. Here is my advise about that: do a good cleaning once in a while and then touch up frequently. And here is where I will keep it real with you, I don’t have anything on top of my cupboards because I don’t want to keep it up.

So that is the list. Keeping it real friends, so go get your dusting on.

Stayed tuned for today's installment, but...

Isn't it funny that we just got cleaning our ceilings from cobwebs and now maybe some of us are going to put up fake ones in honor of Halloween! Anyone else find this ironic? Oops.

Friday, October 3, 2008

DAY 3-Finish front room

Day Three:
Still in the Front Room (in my case it is our Formal Living Room/Entryway)

Here we are at day 3. Today we finish up in the front area. This is clean up day. You have previously dusted all the surfaces and inside your furniture. This is an easy day. We are going to start at the top. Literally at the top.

For this little exercise you will need a long reach duster. WHAT? You don’t have one? No big deal. Find a long stick, star wars sword, handle of your broom or mop. Take a wash cloth and ball it up, then take your soft cloth and lay it over the top. You will then take a rubber band and it goes in this order. Stick (or whatever) then wash cloth on the top and lay the cloth over the wash cloth and rubber band it to the stick (or whatever).
Make sense?
Hurry though, your princess might see it and think it is her fairy wand
or your son will see you with his star wars sword and cry.
~With a long duster, reach up into the corners of your room and wipe. I like to trace the shape of the ceiling. Make a box shape. Make a circle. What ever the shape may be. That was kind of fun.
~Do you have a light fixture or ceiling fan hanging from the ceiling? Take your long duster and dust it off. NOTE OF CAUTION: If you live where I live, and you have a ceiling fan that hasn’t been dusted in a while I would use the long hose on the vacuum to vacuum it off. Otherwise you and your furniture will look like Mount St. Helen erupted and the ash made it all the way south to your house. Not that I would know from experience or anything.
~ Don’t you feel good that your ceiling is now cob web dust bunny free?
~Next I have some lamps that I need to dust off. Did you know the best way to dust lamp shades is with a clean never been painted with bristle paint brush (the foam doesn’t work as good…I don’t know why..)? Yep so grab your brush and paint your shade from the top down. Take you dust rag and wipe off the rest of your lamp. Dust settles there too you know.
~In my front room I have both curtains and wood blinds, so I am going to give them both a nice gentle wipe down. Make sure you life the blinds up and wipe out the corners of the window as well. (Make a game for your kids to see how many dead flies laid to rest there. JUST kidding. I would never have dead flies in the corner of my windows, next year!)
~SO let’s recap: Ceiling-check
Light Fixture/Fan- check
Windows-check
~Great, let’s move on to the furniture. What ever it may be. I have some leather couches so I am going to dust off the back of them, fluff the pillows and maybe spray some smell good spray on the throw. (Or you could be wild and crazy and just wash it quick. PARTY!)
~ At this point all of my other surfaces were done in the previous two days, so I am going to wipe my cloth to make sure no other dust deposited in case mount saint Helens did erupt accidentally!
~Floor. Now. Here is the thing; I have a tile floor with a small area rug. So my steps are this: Vacuum on bare floor setting, change setting to carpet and vacuum rug. Then I take either hot water with a tad bid of bleach (seriously like a capful) and mop the tile, OR I take a new swiffer wet pad and swiffer the front room. Depends on my mood. Today I was feeling a little lazy and went the swiffer route.

WHAT ARE YOUR Favorite FLOOR TRICKS?
Share them with us.


Did you play along? How do you feel? I LOVE walking into the front room to a nice clean, organized space. At night it makes me want to light candles, turn the air conditioning down (WHAT? It is still in the 100’s man), snuggle under a warm clean throw and read my favorite book. Reminds me to forget where I live and pretend I am in the midst of a stormy snow storm in the Antarctic I tell you!

Get Ready! The kitchen is my next room to tackle! We may be here for a couple of days, but this is the perfect weekend room. Put on a pot of soup and enjoy your space.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

De-Clutter Clean and Organize Day 2

Day Two:

Still in the Front Room (in my case it is our Formal Living Room/Entryway)

~In my front room I have a “Larry.” (What? Not everyone names their furniture? Okay, so it a beautiful buffet hutch that I fell in love with one day while we were looking for a sofa. Who needs a dining room table to go with it?) The “Larry” is really our catch all.

    Top Drawer: Keys, sunglasses, receipts, gum wrappers, cell phones, pens, and other assorted weird things end up scattered in here. (Where did the vampire teeth come from.)

    Second Drawer: I keep table cloths (I do have a kitchen table at the moment, but I am not fond of it, so I keep it covered with a cloth), placemats and cloth napkins.

    Left Side Door: Candle Holders, large candles and a bunch of glade plug in’s that my cute hubby won’t let me plug in anymore. Safety hazard.

    Right Side Door: Table cloth tilted on it’s side so you can close the door, and then votive candles and tea light candles.

~Next, I am going to follow the same sorting procedure as I did for the top surfaces. Empty everything out onto the sorting surface. Place like items together: sunglasses, receipts, gum wrappers, pens, candle holders, table cloths, you get the idea right? Now DO NOT put the gum wrappers back! Throw them away. Unless you have a gum wrapper collection and then put it in the appropriate display container. Get your container out for returning items and take 2 minutes to put things away.

~Now that we have an empty drawers and cupboards lets use our favorite handy dandy cleaner and wipe out the whole inside of the drawers and cupboard spaces. Don’t forget to wipe the sides down also, especially where I live, it needs it!

~Go back to your sort pile and start putting things back with like items. Tablecloths with table cloths, candles with candles, etc. This is a great chance to see what you have and get rid of things that you don’t use anymore.

~Don’t you feel good! We have tackled the top surface of your front room and now we have talked the inside surface.

~Conquer any more drawers, cabinets or shelves that you might have left in this particular room. We have a piano bench, so that is the last thing on my list today!

So, it has been two days now? I know I feel great. How about you? Remember we do have 30 days so relax and enjoy your home. I love my home. It is my sanctuary. Taking the time to keep it clean and tidy only leaves you with more time to enjoy your family and friends.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

De-Clutter Clean and Organize Day 1

How to de-clutter, clean and organize your entire home in 30 days

ESPECIALLY if you work a full time job.

The way I have broken this down, you can either start at the back/top of the home or go from the front/bottom of your home.(0nce it is all posted) Each room is broken down step by step so you can spend as much or as little time on each process (Marked with a bullet).

*Always try to start with a clean surface to sort on (even if it is an area on the floor).*

Day One:

Front Room (in my case it is our Formal Living Room/Entryway)

~Remove all items off of surfaces. Place on your sort surface. If you have kids this is a great way for them to help you, but be careful if those items are breakable.

~Take your favorite dusting product and dust all of these newly cleaned off surfaces.

~Now go to your sorting area. Combine like items into piles or stacks. The purpose of sorting is to go through your things and see what you have. If you are done with something it is time to pass it on, recycle or reuse it. I love donating to the good will, and passing used items onto my friends and neighbors who might need them. Or put it in a box labeled garage sale and actually have one.

    • Magazines: Donate any magazines that are 6 months or older. Local library, woman’s shelter or even elementary schools are a great place to do this with.
    • Books: Stack into piles divided by subject, author, color . If any are library books-separate them out for return
    • Paperwork: I sort my paperwork into 4 piles: Bills to Pay, Things to file (including paid bills), Shred Pile (all that pesky junk mail with our names and addresses all over it) and To Look at/Read over pile-this pile eventually goes into one of the previous piles.
    • Keys: Combine into a pile, taking care to make sure they are labeled first.
    • Misc Odds and Ends: Make sure they belong here. If they are misplaces put them in a carrying vessel. This can be a big Tupperware bowl from your kitchen or a basket or a box, what ever you have will work. Take 2 minutes and go put these away. Do not stop and get distracted. You are only putting these items back where they belong. Again if you have kids and they are home make them your little runners. Teaching your children that everything in it’s place is a great thing. And they are never to young to learn and I believe that they are never too old to learn (ie spouses but it may take a bit of prodding).
~This should take care of your surfaces. Now is the time to put your items back. Keep in mind this #1 rule never put something back that doesn’t belong there. I love rearranging, making new vignettes, freshening up my old items. I might just even get out my fall/Halloween decorations. J That is it for day one. Stay tuned for day two where I will still be working my way through my front room.