Our church hosted a parents night out last Friday.  For the cool price of 10 bucks for 1 kid, or 20 bucks for as many as you could find bring have, you were assured the children's safety and comfort, in a familiar environment, with familiar people, and where they even fed them pizza for supper.  I am a bargain hunter at heart, and I know one when I see it, so we marked the date, dropped a registration form and a twenty at the preschool desk, and I got out my heels and make up.

As that Friday drew nearer (I am a procrastinator and waited until the.last.day. to pay, which was the Sunday before) it occured to me that I needed to find a place for my brother, whom I take care of, to go.  Well, YAY, mom moved back to the area.  A quick phone call to her containing my plea and a promise of gas money, and voila! A brother-sitter was found.  :-D

Friday night arrived and at 5:30 I was finally able to get in the shower.  I wanted to leave at 5:30, so I was already behind.  I showered up, blew dry my hair, put on a sassy animal print dress, had some deep conversation with myself about whether or not I should wear the girdle (I didn't), and put on my makeup. 

Putting on make up with four kids, three of whom are girls, is not a quick task.  In between applying lipgloss to my 6 year old and 2 year old, answering the forty million questions asked by my 10 year old, and explaining to my 5 year old son, that no, Daddy and Mommy would appreciate it if he DID NOT wear makeup, putting make up on - foundation, lipgloss, eye shadow, blush, and mascara - took 10 minutes!  I was exhausted and we had not even left the house.

We finally left at ten til six.  We dropped the kids off and proceeded to the restaurant of our choosing.  It was the new Mexican joint's grand opening; they had a live mariachi band and 30% off your order, so we went there.  After a brief wait in the foyer, we were called to take our seats. That is when the trouble started. 

The wonderful heels I picked out?  They did not agree with the tile floor at the restaurant.  As soon as I stepped on to the tile, I knew there was going to be a problem and the thirty second walk to our table was going to make my walk down the aisle to matrimony seem as easy as giving candy to a baby.  I was literally in fear for the wholeness of my bones, my pride, and my very life.  I kept trying to get my dh's attention who was several feet in front of me, so I could hang on to him, but he evidently could not hear my desperate pleas.  If I only suspected it before, I now am certain his hearing abilities do not include any sentence starting with, "Hey, Honey?"  When I finally slid in got to slid over to the table, I grabbed on to it and was grateful for something solid.  I was hoping that no one witnessed what looked like a drunken stagger. 

My dh observed my wild eyed look and slightly shallow breathing, and said nothing.  So, I volunteered the information that he should have been asking about he had to be wondering about.  "I almost died getting here."  I explained the dilemma of my shoes and made him put his foot on one to show him what I meant.  "Oh, wow," was all he said.  We ate our mediocre pseudo mexican food that was incredibly, wonderfully cheap, paid our bill, and with me holding his arm and us walking verrryyyyy slowly, we left.  The food may have been better had I not been so distracted with thinking about how I was going to have to walk out of the restaurant barefooted. 

When we got to the van, it was 7:30 or so, and we were now faced with the issue of what to do next.  What do parents do with out the kids?  I texted my facebook and got several suggestions, my favorites were shower, go to the bathroom, and the store.  We opted for the latter and went to the bookstore.  It was great.  Who knew that you could actually look at books in there?  I pretty much read the book, "Inconcieveable" which convinced me that I could carry a child for someone else, and then went to the children's department.  Surely there was some gem of a book that would make my homeschooling efforts seem effortless over there, right?  Well, if there was, I couldn't find it and after looking for a few minutes, I decided to find my husband.  At the end of the aisle, I ran into a friend and her husband from church. 

They were on "parents night out" too!  My husband must have heard me laughing (my voice carries - I wasn't loud) and we all talked together.  I think it may have been the most fun I have had, standing around in the bookstore with other lost parents, who can not remember what prekid dates looked like.  I got to tell the story of how I risked my life to eat a supper that cost us all of $13.65, and got the reassurance that, though life threatening, my shoes were too cute NOT to wear.  Then we talked about homeschool curriculum, the local tutorial, and the kids.  It was great!

I love my boring, simple life and after being parted from the children for three whole hours I was thrilled to get them back.  :-)

I got this done the other day and have been procrastinating about posting the after pics LOL. It didn't take near as long as I expected - about 40 minutes?- I think. I know that nothing can be put away like a puzzle would go together. That is a recipe for disaster. But I have all these pots and pans that I need to figure out what to do with. So, I took the least used ones, and put them in a box. I have these on a shelf in the garage, because I am convinced I use them. If after a bit, I find that I don't, I will give them away.


Here are the after pics, I was going to try to line them up this morning in two rows of 3, but after trying and and trying and growing so annoyed that I told my 6 year old (who was peppering me with questions) that she could not bathe today, I gave up LOL....

BigIdea.com is offering VeggieTales DVD's for $5 each!  Woot!  My kids love VeggieTales and have managed to wear out most of the DVD's that we have.  My two year now says, "Just skip it!" whenever a movie has any kind of pause.  :)

You can get free shipping if you order $40 worth of product by using the coupon code SHIP2011 at checkout. 

If you go through Shop At Home (totally free) for this purchase, you will get an additional $5 (if you are new to Shop at home) and a 4% rebate.  Continue to use Shop at Home for online shopping (you really have NOTHING to lose) and when you reach $20, they will mail you a check.  I use it all the time and it is really great! 

Thinking about organizing the kitchen strikes a bit of fear into my heart.  I need to figure out something different.  I have too many several small kitchen appliances that I had to have need, I don't have room for them.  But, I do use them.  Some about once or twice a month, some about twice a week, and some not for a long time.  I know I am going to get rid of the ones that I have not used yet.  I will probably store the ones that are used during Thanksgiving and other big meal times, in the attic.  I would have liked some shelves in the garage but as soon as I clear one off, my dh's stuff magically appears on it.  LOL 
I have been avoiding this room because it seems like it will be a GINORMOUS task.  I kept thinking of it in its entiretly, and then I realized, this is one room I need to "break down."  My dh tells me all the time that you eat an elephant one bite at a time, I guess I just thought he was referring to the way I can eat LIKE an elephant haha....  So, without further ado, here are my before pictures of section 1 of the kitchen.

I am back to it this week.  My pantry promised to be a quick, simple job and it did not disappoint.  It was just what I needed to give myself that much needed shot of encouragement!  I am just going to post the befores and afters all at once!  The strangest thing I found in here was a can of Enfamil Formula.  I have no idea why, but Enfamil sent it to me.  I did not even have any babies when they did!  I also never gave my youngest formula.  I breastfed her until she was a little over two years old! 

Shannon - You win!  I have contacted you by email.  Please respond by Sunday, February 27th to claim your prize!

I love Taste of Home Magazine!  It is one of the few magazine subscriptions I actually renew and give as gifts to people.  I am giving a way a new Taste of Home Dinner on a Dime cookbook.  Enter by leaving a comment!  Earn a second entry by following this blog and leaving a comment letting me know that you are a follower!
Winner will be chosen at random on Sunday, February 20th.

I finally got the rest of the house back together yesterday. The closet cleaning was very difficult on it. I had piles of stuff everywhere! All during the day, the children will bring stuff to me and ask where to put it. I inevitably tell them to go put "it" in my room. WHY???? Why do I do that? It is certainly easier in the short term, but am I so caught up in what I am doing that I no longer have long term vision? My room could be spotless when I wake up and enjoy my first cup of coffee, but somewhere around the afternoon cup, a simple glance into my room says that I have made several short term thinking errors and that I now have a long term mess! So, I tend to throw that stuff in a box and put it where? THE CLOSET! So, the past bout of organizing brought all of this stuff, junk really, back to the light of day and mostly to the garbage bag.


Flylady says that we will feel better, lighter even, as we release clutter (from clutter jail?). I don't feel that way at all. I feel stupid for creating the mess to begin with. I find myself asking enlightening questions like, "Why do I keep this stuff? What was I thinking? What kind of clutter, knick-knack free example am I setting for the kids?"

I have a reputation for being unsentimental, even a little bit cold toward things that normally promote feelings of giddiness and warmth. Maybe it was the selling of my wedding cake toppers for a buck in a yard sale that started this, maybe it was my flat refusal to hang on to anything for the "just in case." I don't know. I think it had a lot to do with me and DH living in a 700 sq ft trailer and I was smart enough to know that took up a most of that space with things necessary for survival. Things like a toilet and a big bathtub rank higher than a Ziploc baggie of plastic cake toppers. :-D

Then I moved to a new house. It smelled like fresh 2 x 4's, carpet, and paint. It boasted 834 sq ft MORE than my previous abode. We moved our meager furnishings into the house and had completely empty cabinets and wall space. We even had an almost completely empty room. Something in me snapped. I must fill those cabinets in the kitchen with every type of gizmo known to make cooking easy, enjoyable, and possibly would put dinner together on its own after I left the room! I must fill the bedrooms with guest room stuff. I now had closets in which to keep things I would have previously given away. My dh, I think, was worse than me. But after a few months, the rooms were soon filled with children and then my brother. And all of their stuff, combined with my and DH's stuff, is A LOT of stuff. Suddenly 1534 sq ft, seems cramped and cluttered. Finding anything became an all day event and a way for the children to make money. "Mommy will give whoever brings me the baby's shoes a quarter!"

Frustration over the loss of any kind of savings and not being able to find stuff "my own darn self", has led to several bouts of purging, but no real changes in behavior. Maybe this time it will. Maybe I can, once again, look at knick knacks given to me by others with disdain in my heart and a faux grateful smile on my face. (I can't hurt their feelings by telling someone that I don't want the resin bird sitting on a tree branch, now can I?) I can be thankful that someone thought of me and then quietly re-gift or donate the product of their gesture.

Now that I have probably scared anyone from ever getting me a present of any kind for any reason, I will go, and be comforted in the knowledge that I could have just saved my friends and family some money, even if it is Dollar Tree money, and I can still lay claim to having mantle space.

I can't believe I am finally done. After hours of work, and the rest of the house falling into MAJOR disarray, the closet is clean. I got rid of 2 full bags of garbage, and 2 tall laundry hampers full of yard sale stuff to give to my mother. Now, my everything is sore and exhausted, and I am going to have to have a closet cleaning recovery day for the rest of the house tomorrow, but it is DONE! I found the massager, a couple of earrings, and an outlet. Yep, I did not know I had an outlet in the closet! LOL....  Here are the after pics :-D

Ok, so far I have pretty much zipped through all the projects I have taken on, making me wonder why I have waited so long to start this!  But, as I am getting the "easy" stuff out of the way, I have come to realize that the monster projects are looming on my household horizons. This, I think will be one of them.  My closet.  I try to keep it fairly organized and picked up, but I am thinking some of this stuff simply needs to be gotten rid of or placed in the attic.  I am, again, going to approach this like I am going to be moving; asking myself, "Is this worth packing up only to have unpack it later?"  Here are my before pics!

There is a couple more pictures, but I got tired of uploading them from my phone :)  Anyway, I am sure you will get the point LOL...  Off I go!

OK... You have seen the "befores." Now, here are the results of about an hour's worth of work and one trashbag full of stuff taken away!

King Julian is my dh's favorite cartoon character, so he lives on the vanity.  Next to him are dh's wallet, belt, and flashlight.  He always sets these on the vanity in the evening.

Cabinet, on the right

Cabinet, on the left, I added the pink basket (it was on my closet shelf) I put miscellaneous stuff that seems to escape from all other type of constraints. Same story for the pink metal bucket in the back.  Dh's stuff that he uses everyday is in the front.

My hair stuff.  The baby wipe container is holding all of my 2 year olds hair bows.

The middle drawer now holds wash cloths and hand towels! Woot!

Top drawer with stuff that we use every day. Oh and the measuring tape.  :)  Doesn't everyone keep a measuring tape in their bathroom drawer?  This is the only place I have found for it that the kids leave it alone.  I like to measure my diet/workout progress by measurements.

Shower clutter - gone!

I even cleaned up the toilet closet.  :-D  There wasn't much in there to begin with, but I did straighten up the rug!

That is what I did tonight.  I am afraid my future projects are going to enter into the "massive undertaking" stage.  My master bedroom closet is next.  I have already taken the pictures of it.  I seriously do not know what I am going to do with that space.  I may have to break down and buy some things to help me organize it. 

My little boy has had a headache off and on all day, so I have been busy taking care of him. So, I had my oldest take these before pics of the master bath.  She was thrilled with the chance to play with my phone LOL :)  Anyway, onto the before pics!

Our Double Vanity - I really do love my bathroom - Oh and you can kinda see my daughter taking the pic!  HAHA!

Inside the separate shower - How does that get cluttered?!

Under the sink - left side

Under the sink - right side

Top drawer

Middle drawer

Bottom drawer

Under the sink on the right

Under the sink on the left

Ok, I am off to get this all decluttered!!  Wish me luck!

The laundry room is done! Yay! I have sorted all the things in the room and put all the like items together. I have a box of things to give to my mother to sell in her yard sale. Then I got rid of a TON of trash and old bottles of cleaner. Here are the after shots!

 

I am really, really blessed to have a nice laundry room with cabinets and a nice washer and dryer on pedestals that have a drawer for storage.  It is not overly cluttered, but it needs some help.  I cleaned the heck out of it not too long ago - we are talking windexing the tops of the washer and dryer and everything!  So, I pick this room for my next project.  I am going to take everything out of the cabinets and the drawers and put it all back up.  I am going to try to get it done tonight!  Here are my "before" pics :)

The front of my washer is white, I don't know why it looks all streaked and icky...

The bottom part of the cabinet

The pedestal drawers and my foot! HA!

The top cabinet, looking much better than it really is..... You should see what is lurking behind things... Muahahaha...