Do WHAT While the Baby Sleeps???

Sleep, you say? HA!

Not me. I call collection agencies and insurance companies and pay bills.

I would really like to have a blood pressure cuff on my arm right now.

Do you work in a billing office? HOW HARD IS IT????

(cleansing breaths)

OK. In good news, I got the vacuum cleaner back from the repair shop. We're $80 poorer, but its a good vacuum and now Baby Bee won't be eating so much off the floor. we won't have to constantly be grabbing things out of her hands.

Babies have excellent fine motor skills when it comes to fuzz and strings and stuff.

School did not get completed today because of my hobby taking too much time.

In other news, I am never, not ever going to W*lm*rt again. There I said it. I KNOW you can save money but it is not worth it. I've been grocery shopping elsewhere and loving it. You just have to be careful because elsewhere has many more choices and you can spend too much if you get carried away. But elsewhere is do-able on our budget if I'm careful.

But today both girls needed new pants. Pants without holes. So we went. And we needed other things like diapers and printer ink, etc. Then the check-out lady proceeded to catch up with her good friends in front of us in line. Like seriously, it was a family reunion or something. They were all having a FINE time talking while I wrestled a crying baby. I finally got all my stuff off the conveyor belt and moved over a lane.

And yes, I was walking out while they were still talking. I have never seen people at a job who are in less of a hurry than checkers at W*lm*rt.

I bet they don't need a blood pressure cuff.

And I bet when they leave there, they start working in a billing office.

I think I need to go play with a puppy or something.

It's Official

I am over the pregnancy hormones.

I need my rational, sane, level-headed self back. Soon!

This crazy woman who lives here right now is not good.

Just Call Me Jack

You know, Jack of all trades but master of none?

Well, I'm "Starter of all rooms but finisher of none."

I went to bed early with a headache last night and later S joined us. (ha ha!) When I woke up at 1 something to go um, visit the ladies' room, I felt better and suddenly very determined to finish things today. At one in the morning it all seemed possible. I was going to finish the homeschool room, the laundry room, and do most of the organizing in the sewing room ALL TODAY.

I'm sorry to say that by 6:15 this morning that did not seem so possible or even appealing. But I really do need to just finish something around here! I've got stuff to sell/give away stacked on the fireplace and I just need to get rid of it already. I have little things left here and there to go through in the homeschool room and I'll feel so much better when they are DONE. I'm almost though with the laundry and if I could just finish and clean off that one little cabinet I would be so happy. Why is everything half done?

Also, we do not have milk and that means no cereal, no blueberry muffins, no pancakes. I was at Kroger yesterday. ARGH.

I think I just need someone to visit with while I work. That always makes it go better. Why is everyone so busy with their own families and their own homes and their own lives? I mean, don't they know I work better when I have someone to chat with??? So selfish!

And speaking of that, do any of you ever go several days without talking to another adult? I mean, husband comes home at the end of the day but he works late a lot and we're tired and we don't exactly wax eloquent about our day together, you know? I mean during the day. S will ask, "Did you talk to anybody today?" (Just trying to get the news about what's been going on while he was at work) and a lot of times I pause and say, "No. Well, I did chat with the lady who checked us out at Wal-Mart." I mean seriously! I can go several days and not have talked with anyone but my kiddos.

It's no wonder I don't finish anything. Maybe I'm losing my mind REALLY slowly?

Anyone else ever feel that way?

Hello?

Hello?

Well, if you need me I'll be wandering from one room to the next.

Worrying in the Middle of the Night

Does anyone else do this? I know the Bible says not to worry, and I try really hard to not. But sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and absolutely every single thing I've been concerned about comes to the front of my brain and they all seem like completely insurmountable problems at 2:00am.

For example, last night I woke up and worried about money. We blew through some cash this weekend on various things (almost all of it necessary) and for some reason I started tallying up the amount we had spent and freaking out. FOR SURE we were out of money and would have NO MONEY to pay our bills in the morning. I very nearly got up to balance the checkbook just to assure myself but that seemed silly. I really did want to sleep.

This morning, of course, it wasn't nearly as bad as it had seemed in the night. The bills are paid.

I worried about other things in the night. The Tourette's around here is bad right now (the worst its ever been) and it is stressful. I thought about getting up to research more but again, I wanted sleep. Little Bit was sleeping on a mattress in our room last night and every time she moved she banged into our world's loudest drawer pulls. That wasn't really helping the sleep.

I can't even remember all the things I was keyed up about last night but none of it seemed important this morning at 7:00. Why? Why do I do this? I feel totally wide awake but I must not be in my right mind because otherwise things wouldn't seem like such big problems. I almost need someone to shake me and say, "What are you doing? Go to sleep!"

I bet I ground my teeth down several centimeters last night. Hate that.

All that wasted worrying when today I have actually accomplished a lot! I don't have to cook supper tonight as we are celebrating  my husband's and dad's birthdays tonight. That gives me like, an extra hour and a half to my day!

So, does anyone else wake up freaking out sometimes? And yes, I prayed. A lot. And I did fall back asleep. Several times. Sigh. I decided after S left for work the best move I could possibly make was to go back to bed.

It's like that Robert Frost poem:

Two choices stood before me in the morning
And I---I chose the one less vertical.
And that has made all the difference.

Schedule FAIL

It's kind of like "If you give a mouse a cookie..."

If you hear a sermon about spending time with God each day...

Your husband might start thinking AGAIN about that comment he made a few weeks ago about getting up early to read his Bible

And you might start twitching a bit because didn't you JUST learn to get up with him and make his lunch and you might also think about how happy you've been that he's been sleeping in just a little bit later because you still have plenty of time to make his lunch and breakfast

But now he's talking about getting up crazy early

So he might dig out an old alarm clock so he can get up at 5:00AM and you can set the other alarm for 6:15 or so

Then your 7 year old might come in to your room at 2AM complaining of pain

And she might squish in between you and might not fit so good anymore

And so your husband might go sleep on the couch with his little alarm clock (which is battery operated)

And it might not go off

Which is plenty fine with you as you only fell back asleep at 4:24AM and 5:00AM was going to come REALLY soon

36 minutes too soon, to be exact

So all the plans you had about dadgumit we are GOING to start school at 8:30 this morning and not be so late like we were last week

might go down the drain

Along with husband's plans to read the Bible

But you might not notice because you will be busy dreaming that your dad told you to go pick up Annette's M's mail. (Annette M lived around the corner when we were in 2nd grade)

And when you wake up you will not know if it was a dream or if you are really supposed to go get her parent's mail

Until you remember that Annette M's parents haven't lived there in about 25 years

And that Tinkerbell flew out of your car when you got to her house in the dream

Then you might be pretty sure you aren't supposed to go get that mail

And that school was not going to start on time either.

What I Accomplished and the Importance of Good Buttonholes

First of all, over the holiday weekend, I turned this:

into this:

It might as well be a mile high.

Now I just have to work my magic and turn that (see above) into 2 quilts.

Concerning Christmas parties. I always go straight to Dress Barn for my outfits. They have never let me down. One year when Little Bit was really little, I had a great pair of black pants that made me look and feel thin. My entire goal that year was to find a shirt beautiful enough to go to a Christmas party in that matched those pants.

Here is what I found. Isn't it lovely?

The bad news about that shirt is that I was seated next to Mike D. all evening. He works with S. He was sitting on the unfortunate (depending on how you look at it I suppose) side of me all evening. It would have been better if S had been on that side because not once, not twice, not even 3 times, but AT LEAST 5 times that evening I would look down and 3-5 of my buttons would be popped open.

I am sorry to say I was not wearing a fancy bra either.

And also, it's difficult to discreetly AND QUICKLY button that many buttons at a dinner table.

Dear me.

You have never seen a shirt be disposed of so quickly upon my arrival home.

Needless to say I am not looking to get that intimate again with my husband's co-workers. Dress Barn, don't fail me this year!!!

Checking In

Hello my lovely readers! Don't you look nice today?

Hmm. Trying to compliment you guys. Doesn't sound very authentic when I can't see you. By the way, the comments on my last post made me think about complimenting people more (Megan's + Carrie's comment = this thought in my brain). I think especially we moms who don't go out and about 'mongst the work folks need to compliment each other.

"Look at you! You put your shirt on right side out today!"

Think that's a good start?

And then the other mom can respond with "TA DAH!" and throw her hands up in the air. What do you think?

We have to start somewhere.

On other notes:

There is sorted laundry in my bathroom floor. It is not carrying itself to the washer. Nor has the laundry fairy come for a visit. I think you have to have a baby to get that kind of help. At least that's the last time anyone helped me with my laundry.

There is a laundry basket of clothing to be given away in my living room floor. It is dangerously close to becoming permanent and us decorating it for Christmas. I suppose I should sort that out and get rid of it.

There are 5, 221 pieces of crap lying around here and there around the house. ON THIS COMPUTER DESK ALONE there is a library card, a pin cushion, a notebook, a red ribbon, a purple crayon, a digital camera, a tape measure, a ruler, a package of Goldfish crackers, a pencil, and a receipt.

It's like an I Spy book over here. Can you find the computer???

What I really need is a Mary Poppins clean-up, a magic wand, or a really strong wind. Any of those ought to help.

If anyone stops by today I think I'll just have to pull out the old "someone broke in and we are just now getting it cleaned up" excuse.

I'M KIDDING!

Going to finish educating my children now....

The Lack of Compliments

Yesterday I was out shopping with my older daughter, 11 year old Sweetheart. She cherishes some alone time and we were having a good time just going to pick up some new school books for her sister. Later that evening, we cooked supper together. We were a good team.

This morning I was smiling thinking of the time we spent together when I remembered a comment Sweetheart had made in the course of the afternoon.

"Mommy, I like it when your hair is just down. It looks cute."

Now you should know I nearly NEVER have my hair just down. I always have at least some of it in a clip or all of it in a french twist in a clip or all of it in a ponytail. It gets in the way. When she said it, I immediately took out my big clip and tossed my hair like on those shampoo commercials.

So this morning while I was brushing my hair I was trying to remember the last time the word "cute" had been used in description of me. I think it's safe to say it was many years ago. I used to get compliments all the time though. When you work outside the home, there is more opportunity for compliments.

Specifically when you have to be at work before 7:30 in the morning and you work with a bunch of women and they see you every day. People notice if you look better than average.

"That's a nice outfit you have on!"
"You look really skinny! Have you lost weight?"
"Don't you look nice today? What are you so dressed up for?"

Of course, there is always the unwanted comment. Like the time I tried a new eyeshadow and my neighbor teacher Mr. A said, "You look tired. Do you feel alright?"

My favorite was Mrs. L. Mrs. L was a riot and I have more stories to share about her later but one day another teacher told her that her face looked swollen. She quickly answered, "I think it must be my sinuses." Actually, she said, she guessed she had just gained weight as she felt just fine. At least before that comment she did.

After that, whenever we couldn't fit into our pants or what have you, we always said, "I couldn't even zip my pants this morning! It must be my sinuses!" Mrs. L got such a kick out of using that excuse.

The point is, when you stay home every day, there isn't as much opportunity for compliments. My girls see me first thing in the morning, mid-day, and just before bed. They are used to me. I wear pretty much the same stuff all the time. I am so unaware of how I look to others that I have caught myself gasping in horror as we are on our way somewhere and I look down at myself. But do I turn around and go home and change? No I do not. Maybe I need more compliments and I would raise the bar a bit?

That's why Connie's post I read this morning was PERFECT. I think I'll incorporate this into my daily routine. What do you think?

Overcompensating Humility

Because we don't want to appear perfect in the blogging world, we have tended toward overcompensating humility. Let me explain.

It would be easy to paint a perfect picture for you, my readers. Only post pictures of a clean house. Only highlight my finest homeschool moments. Only post about our achievements...

It's like a Christmas newsletter all year long!

Only, we don't want to do that. So we, Christian blogging moms, show you the other side. Sometimes, we make whole series out of it! It's encouraging to other moms to know that no one really keeps up with the laundry. That we are not alone. That everyone has THOSE days.

I'm all for that.

But I'm afraid that sometimes we get to the point where we feel we must depreciate ourselves in this manner. That to show you, "Hey, I did really good on this today." or "Look! This is really working!" or "I think I've got this under control." would be like becoming a traitor.

I think we should be honest and real when it's appropriate (I'm not showing you my checkbook OK?) but I don't think we have to do so to the point where we begin to think of ourselves as disorganized messes all the time.

We aren't.

We all have talents and abilities and areas where we shine. We all have homemaking and homeschool successes. But bragging on those looks like pride.....so we overcompensate the humility part.

If our strength comes from Christ, then telling about our sucesses is like bragging on what the Lord has done in our lives, right?

Look at God! Isn't He awesome? Look what He helped me do!

I'd like to think of it that way. I'll still share about my bad times and my struggle against disorganization because that IS real life. But I'd like to also show you what the Lord has done and is doing to this wife/mama/homemaker.

'Cause it's pretty cool.

Does that make sense?

Propaganda At It's Finest

I was so stuck this year. I just did not have any great ideas for our first day of school. None. Last year all our first day activities centered around listening. I just had no ideas this year.

Finally, FINALLY on Sunday afternoon I had an idea. I ran across a Clean Home Unit study and an idea was born.  We read "The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room" on the first day of school. My girls know this book by heart so they colored pictures of Brother Bear and Sister Bear while I read. Then we watched a hilarious home-made video of the book Pigsty. They got a kick out of it.

We started making a lapbook on clean houses and I'll share that with you when we are done. It's one of my professional lapbooks. Don't you just love my propaganda....lesson idea?

Today we covered three of the reasons why we keep a clean house (or why we should, ahem). One reason was "so we can find things when we need them." It was nicely illustrated as I had to call an impromptu recess to tear the house up and find the new credit cards for S as our old one had expired.

Homeschooling keeps you humble.

Tasks We Dread

Every day when I wake up, I have a certain number of things before me. Since I don't exactly have a boss or manager watching me, it's up to me in what order to attend to things and even WHAT I'd like to attend to that day.

That was a big adjustment when I came home.

When I worked, the clock determined when I did what things. There was no question---I needed to be ready at X time because otherwise I was going to be staring down 22 little sets of eyes looking at me wondering what we would be doing next. When I worked part-time in an office, I loved the freedom of sitting down at my desk and determining what order I wanted to accomplish things in. That was new to me. I knew what had to be done, but the best part was no one was really waiting on me....no 22 sets of little eyes.

I know each day that we have chores, meals, and school to accomplish. That eats up the majority of my day. I know that if we don't get on those things quickly, they don't happen. Forget afternoon school around here--no one is up for it in the afternoon. Unfortunately that leaves errands for the afternoons. I say unfortunately because I'd rather do them in the morning when the stores are emptier and the streets are not busy and all the kids are in school. I really gotta work on my schedule so I can do that next year.

I dread errands sometimes. But the thing I really dread is paying bills. I'm not sure why. There is a lot of emotion in it for me. The first year I quit work, I lived in a constant state of fear about our finances. I'm not talking concern or apprehension....I'm talking FEAR. No, that wasn't right and I'm not exactly fearful anymore, but my mind still thinks of bill paying as a really bad thing I have to do.

Let's examine why, shall we?

1. I have no very little organization in my bill paying supplies. That's something I need to work on with my HTCI system. I'm just not there yet.

2. I usually pray as I sit down to pay bills. It helps to calm my fears and remember Who is in charge of our money and is responsible for every bit of providence and blessing we have been given.

3. I need a DAY where I do desk work every single week. I'm ashamed to say how often I really sit down and look through mail and get all caught up on the checkbook, etc. When I worked in the office, Thursday was bill paying day. Period. Of course it would be helpful to sit down in a nice, quiet, clean office and do that task without interruption. S said this weekend that he thinks my name is HeyMama. I'm just saying I need 20 minutes a week with NO HeyMamas. Is that possible?

Another thing I dread is making the meal plan/grocery list. I think I dread this most because:

1. It's HARD.

2. There are a lot of HeyMamas and that task takes me a long time. How can I make it easier?

I'm ready to hear your ideas. Some of you have been home a LOT longer than me and have perfected your routines. I need to hear from you.

Also, tell us what tasks you dread. Maybe we can help in the comments section.

Spring Break Day #1

Today I am attacking clothes. Here are some things I need to do:

1. Clean out drawers. I KNOW mine have stuff in them that doesn't fit or never gets worn. Bye bye.

2. Fold and put away. The laundry stacks around here are endless. PEOPLE THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE PART OF THE DECOR. You'd never know around here.

3. Get a system going in the laundry room. Besides the current one of "throw your dirty clothes here on the floor and eventually I'll get to them." That one is not so lovely.

4. Figure out what to do with clothes that need ironing. Stacking them on the end of the ironing board is not working so well. I'd like to actually, you know, put the ironing board AWAY sometimes.

5. Fill many, many bags with giveaway clothes.

This is not my next thing to do on The House That Cleans Itself, but I decided it's important because we can't even get around in some rooms of our house (laundry room, my side of the bedroom where clean laundry goes to die) due to the clothing.

That will change today.

I'll let you know how it goes.

I Don't Know....So Far I've Done All the Work

Carrie started a book club for our children a few years ago. There are 2 other moms involved (11 kids total) and we were all e-mailing back and forth trying to decide what book to have our kids read next. It started off as sort of a joke, but eventually we came to the decision to let the kids have some time off and the MOMS were going to have book club.

Excellent decision, may I add.

Here's the book Carrie wanted to read. We were all on board.

OK. Let me start right off with this: I've tried Fly Lady. She's wonderful. I've tried several other things, (the author had too) but mostly I've just tried to get my act together. So how is this book different, you ask?

Well, at first it doesn't seem too different, but if you keep reading it is. I've only read part 1 (first 10 chapters) and peeked at part 2, but from what I can tell, the main theme is, you don't need to work harder, you need to work smarter.

The author says many times, instead of changing your behavior, change your house.

I'll give you an example. Here is my front entryway before. She suggests you start there. Actually there's a lot you have to do before you ever start cleaning a thing. And THEN, you will have a house that cleans itself. Anyway, the entryway...

I walked around with my camera, as the book says, taking photographic evidence of each area of my home. And I wrote notes, as instructed. Here are the problems I found with this area.

1. We are slobs.

No seriously, this is the best picture. I would NOT post some of them. The real problems are:

1. We don't really have a designated place for mail. It stacks up here on this cabinet, or on the kitchen cabinet. When I go to pay bills, I look in about 3 or 4 places until I find them all. Why? I have no idea. It honestly never occurred to me to fix that.

2. Things that need to go out the door get stacked here as well.

3. I hang my purse on the coat closet door knob (that is just to the right on the carpeted area) and set my keys on the mantle right by the closet. Fine. EXCEPT, what about that bag I carry to church? Yep. It gets dropped right there on the floor by my purse. Husband's golf shoes, sacks of giveaway items....the mess strings all the way from the entryway to the fireplace.

That's our almost empty library box.

Here is my entryway after. With the new solution implemented.

I already had this rack (from my failed workboxes attempt--don't hate me but I hated them) so I stuck it right there with my purse, bag, golf shoes, outgoing stuff, and a clear bin for the mail. It might get full before I can get to it sometimes, but at least nothing will be lost. There is nothing on the floor. It is beauty.

The best part is....problems solved. Now, will I ever have to clean this area? Sure! I'll probably have to straighten it up, but everything has a place and purpose.

One more example. The other morning I woke up and the library books Sweetheart had been reading before bed were all over the couch. So I documented:

1. Child is lazy.

No. I mean maybe. But then it occurred to me that the box we keep our library books in is no where near a seat. Now it resides right next to the couch, where the books can be easily dropped in. Will I still need to remind them? Sure! But it's much less likely to happen.

Are you starting to see it? It's more solving problems than giving you a weekly cleaning schedule. You are setting up your house to do more of the work so you don't have to.

Here is one of my favorite passages from the book:

"Nowadays, even in those occasional periods of prolonged neglect...., I'm amazed to see that when I return my attention to the house, it may need a good vacuuming or mopping, but the disaster isn't there anymore. The floors are clear; the kitchen is fine. At those times, I feel like the successful designer of a fireproof safe after a fire or a levee builder after the storm. The safe is intact! The levee held strong! The system works."

And the author has written this book from a Christian point of view. She encourages much prayer before you begin, as well as setting up a devotional area for yourself. Good priorities.

Good book.

Good living room. I'm hoping it's contagious.

The Best Laid Plans

Nearly a year ago, I began to talk about re-doing the girls' rooms. Back then, they were in different rooms but we had plans to put them in one room and build loft beds.

Yeah.

Then I picked out fabric for bedspreads and chose a paint color. And I actually painted their room.

Oh wait. FIRST, we changed the room we were going to re-do. I BEGAN re-doing one room and now they are in a different room. It's painted a lovely shade of green and I haven't done another blessed thing to that room since.

So we've got one wildly hot striped comforter and one Dora comforter. And nothing hanging on the walls. And a sheet on the window. I'd share pictures but I'm not sure you could handle the loveliness.

So here is where I need your help. The fabric I bought for their bedspreads? I don't like it anymore. I don't want it. It was only $20something for all of it so I don't care about the price. I'll use that fabric for other things. That's not it.

Can I have permission to change my mind? Can I please pick out totally new fabric and do something totally different in there? The green walls stay.......I want to go pink and green. I can't quit seeing beautiful girls' rooms in pink and green. The girls even walked down the aisle at Target last week and said, "Oh Mama, this stuff is PERFECT for our room!!!!"

And don't think for one minute that if I could find affordable bedding I wouldn't buy it rather than sew it because I would. What I would REALLY like to have are quilts.

Only I don't really.....quilt. So that's an issue.

Ug. I HAVE to do something to that ugly room. And fast. And we are going to get those loft beds done soon too. S is starting his lawn care business back up this spring so as soon as we get a few more customers, maybe we can get started buying wood. Which he will then not really have time to build anything out of because he'll be busy mowing. :)

It's a vicious cycle. Any ideas for what I can do to these beds in the meantime? Any bedding ideas for me? Because this room needs HELP.

Starting Off With a Bang!****

Well, I'm 39 today and this morning I fell in the shower.

Soon they'll be finding someone to sit with me during the day.

It was a slow motion, train wreck happening right in front of you kind of fall. There wasn't shaving cream so I was using shampoo to shave with (anyone been there?). This particular shampoo was more slippery than expected and my foot slipped off the edge of the tub and right into the mini-crate of bathtub toys. And after what seemed like 5 minutes of grappling and dancing around......I landed.

I was stunned but I did appreciate the humor of it.

Then a few minutes later my toe began to sting. You don't wanna know.

And of course we have no band-aids in the house except those teeny tiny ones you can use for infant's fingers. We have more band-aids in the first aid kit in the back of the car but S drove that to work today.

So I am sporting a non-stick gauze pad held on with masking tape. And house shoes.

I am positive the bruises will start showing up tomorrow.

I have a date with my husband tonight and I will not be going in house shoes. I'll figure something out.

****This is NOT the recommended way to start your birthday off!

December is Different

Are you so over me re-posting old posts that I already posted? Me too. But we are back in town now so I can really write new posts again. Glory be!

Yesterday we put up our inside Christmas decorations. And the top 3rd of our pre-lit tree is already in darkness. Lovely. We had school in the "Christmas room" as Sweetheart called it yesterday (formerly known as the living room). We did that for 2 reasons. #1-we can't even set foot in our messy homeschool room and #2--we want to be in the Christmas room.

This happens every year. December rolls around and we just homeschool differently for a month. For one thing, we are halfway through several parts of our curriculum and can afford to take the month off from them. *Patting myself on the back for sticking with it from August-November.* That means a shorter school day, which Mommy needs because of the other thing that happens every year.

I try to hand-make most Christmas presents. That means a lot of crafting and sewing. Which means I need to be at the dining room table instead of off in the separated-from-the-rest-of-the-house homeschool room. We did this last year too, so I could sew and also because of the other thing that happens every year.

Our homeschool room is TRASHED people! The Berenstain Bears call it "messy build-up" and that is exactly what it is! This happened last year too. Three months of not putting things exactly back where they go, stacking instead of dealing with, dropping and not picking up, hanging work all over the walls, playing in there after school hours (which has been banned), art supplies being mixed in with school stuff....and we have ourselves an unusable room.

Don't worry, I'll tackle it. I used to get this in my classroom in public school too. By December, you just need a big 'ol teacher's workday to get re-organized. And that usually meant rearranging furniture too. Don't think I'm not itching to do that in our homeschool room because rearranging is in my blood.

But for now we'll be homeschooling by the Christmas tree, and in the dining room, and anywhere we can find. December is different and I love it!

Oh! Check out the December issue of Heart of the Matter Online magazine. I hear there is a really great article on...say, page 10.

Brenda The Overachiever

See this closet?

It sits in our living room beside the fireplace. We call it "the coat closet." It measures 25" deep by 30" wide.

Kinda small, huh?

So tell me, please, how THIS MUCH stuff

was crammed into that closet? I'm not even including the 7 or 8 coats hanging up on the fireplace in this picture.

You can see my "Put away", "Give away", and "Throw away" designated spots were not quite big enough. (That would be the laundry baskets buried in the background)

So how did it all fit, you ask?

Hard work and determination baby.

The Truth

I have a blob of stuff in my kitchen floor because I swept but can't find the dust pan. So I just set the broom up beside it. It's kind of like art.

We haven't eaten many meals at the table in the last few weeks because I've had my sewing machine set up there making stuff for the booth. I KNOW I have a "sewing room" but it's too crowded and junked up to work in very well. It's a really small space. Sigh.

The homeschool room is not exactly looking "picked up" at the end of every day. I sent the girls in there to straighten it up this afternoon and they totally did except somehow they didn't notice the 15 or 20 items and pieces of paper on the floor.

There is an extra chair sitting in the kitchen right now. We got it out to have extra seats at Sweetheart's birthday party and for the life of me, I can't remember where it was sitting before that. So we just sort of keep pushing it around from place to place when it is in our way. I know. Not many of you could live like that. I have what we call "special abilities."

It's sort of amazing what I can step over, around, and ignore.

Fess up, my unorganized friends. Tell me the truth about your house.

Removing Cheese From the Bathtub

I can't wait to see what Google searches direct people to this post!

Never let it be said that you cannot find a wealth of homemaking tips here at The Family Revised. Today: How to Remove Cheese from the Bathtub.

So, first of all, your 5 year old child will need to announce that she is no longer sitting in a booster seat at the dinner table. Even though when NOT seated in a booster seat, the table hits her in the neck. I guess it makes shoveling food easier.

Then you will need to attempt to clean the booster seat before storing it, decide it is too gross for a mere wiping off, and take the booster seat to the bathroom.

After running some hot, soapy water, set the booster seat in the water to soak. And, this next step is imperative: leave the booster seat there all day while the water slowly drains out the tub and forget that you ever put it there.

Then you will go to run bathwater for your children and notice that grated cheese (and numerous crumbs) has apparently floated from the cracks and crevices of the booster seat and settled on the tub and dried.

Call for your 9 year old to bring you the Pampered Chef scraper from the kitchen. Begin scraping cheese from the bottom of the bathtub. Act like this happens every day.

If your sister happens to walk in and ask what you are doing---just tell them you learned a really great homemaking tip on my blog.

And maybe they won't crack up laughing at you like my sister did.

What? Like she never scraped cheese out of the bathtub?

Whatever the Opposite of Zen Is....This Is Your Daily Dose

Seriously? This was our living room at 2:30 today.

What can I say? We live here. I mean we REALLY live here!!!

But about 30 minutes later......with the promise of swimming (or the threat of NOT swimming):

Ah. Much better.

Tomorrow, we'll lather. Rinse. Repeat.