Category Archives: projects

Mar 20 2020

Good Day!

Posted on by

Yesterday was a really good day! After getting up and moving I spring cleaned the oven/stove, microwave, and fridge. It’s amazing how much grease and grim builds up over time. I do keep things pretty clean but things really do need a deep clean every once in a while. What’s the difference between a routine clean and a deep clean? I look at it as taking a few steps farther into your cleaning routine. For the microwave not only do you wipe the inside clean but also the outside especially the underneath side. That’s where the grease from the stove likes to hide. I didn’t need to clean the vent this time but normally I would clean the vent too when I spring clean.

The oven wasn’t too hard because I had already cleaned the inside a couple of weeks ago. My husband, however, baked an apple pie in there this week and didn’t get it sealed all the way so there was a mess on the bottom. I just made sure to turn the self clean on the night before and was able to wipe it out the next morning. I did take the extra time to scrub the glass top and back where the dials are. Grease likes to settle onto that.

The last thing I did was clean the fridge. This is my absolute dreaded chore! I hate cleaning the fridge. I definitely don’t do it as often as I should. Last year when my husband and I went to Japan my mother-in-law watched our kids for us. To my surprise, and a little embarrassment, when we got back she had cleaned my fridge for me. I was super grateful but also pretty embarrassed that she had to see the yuckiness that was my fridge. So while I was cleaning it yesterday I was thinking of her and how it would be nice for her to do it again. I took out all the shelves and wiped both the inside and outside down. I also pulled the fridge away from the wall and cleaned the back(yuck!). So glad it’s all done. It took me about 3 hours to clean the fridge, oven/stove, and microwave.

It was such a nice day that I finally convinced my kids to turn off the screens and go outside. My daughter rode her bike around and my son and I played some basketball horse. It was really nice to get outside! To my dismay this morning when I opened the blinds it was snowing. So probably not going to get to go outside today. I think I may take a day off of cleaning today and maybe settle down to read a book. Who am I kidding the new game of animal crossing is coming out I’ll be the first to play it!

Mar 18 2020

Extended Spring Break!

Posted on by

With the craziness that is happening lately I thought it would be good to keep track of what we are doing to keep busy. My kids school got cancelled yesterday for the COVID-19 pandemic. So far the plans for reopening are March 30th but who knows if we will actually send kids back by then. My mom who lives in Oregon told me their schools have planned to stay closed until April 28th! I choose to believe it’s an extended spring break for us in hopes that school will start up again by the end of the month.

This is what I’ve started to keep us busy. My kid’s first day without school was yesterday. I had them clean their bathroom and pick up their rooms. I spent the day scrubbing and oiling cabinets. That’s right we started spring cleaning a little early this year! I figured each day they are home we could do a little spring clean up and hopefully our home will be sparkling in time for them to get back to school. My kids aren’t excited about this little endeavor of mine but I figured it would be good for them to spend a couple hours cleaning instead of playing video games. Plus this will teach them to appreciate their home and maybe take better care of it. Who am I kidding they probably view it as slave labor.

Yesterday while doing the cabinets my back and wrist started hurting. I find that when I start a project I often overdue it and end up hurting myself because I don’t stop until it’s done. So today I enlisted the help from two of my three kids. We did something a little less intense. We cleaned all the doors in the house. It doesn’t seem like a lot but when you have 29 doors in the house it can be when you have to do it by yourself. Having my two helpers really made a difference.

The worse doors to clean were the doors to the outside. Go figure I mean that is where our homes meet the world right!? The interior doors were better and took less time to clean. To clean the doors all I used was a wash rag, bucket with hot water and some dish soap, and a magic eraser. The wash rag and soapy water help to get the dirt and grime off and the magic eraser is for the finger smudges and black marks. It takes a little elbow grease but we were able to accomplish the task in a little over an hour. It would have taken me twice as long by myself. Once we were done all the doors look amazing!

  • Finger print smudges Yuck!
  • All clean using a magic eraser!
  • Black marks on the doors
  • Black mark gone using magic eraser and elbow grease
  • cleaning supplies used for the doors
Dec 10 2016

Merry and Bright

Posted on by

I don’t know if you have noticed but I’ve been really into making signs lately. It’s a new hobby of mine that I started doing in September and have found that I actually really enjoy it. We have a place called the “hatch pit”. The city provides a place to dump any tree clippings, wood, construction stuff, and sod. Well sometimes people dump pallets that are in pretty good shape. You can scavenge the wood area where the pallets are and so it’s free to take. Corey and I got quite a bit of wood from there to supply my new hobby. Corey has also enjoyed working on some wood projects of his own. I usually tell him I need a sign what size and he’ll put it together for me. He also made a wood box for a table center piece. It turned out pretty cool. Maybe I’ll post a picture of it some time. I saw this post on pintrest here. I decided I wanted one too and created an image that I wanted on my computer. Then I printed and transferred the image onto the sign and hand painted it. I’m so happy with the results. What do you think?

Finished sign

Finished sign

Rudolf even has a red nose

Rudolf even has a red nose

I love that the tree has red stars to tie into the red lettering on Merry and Bright.

I love that the tree has red stars to tie into the red lettering on Merry and Bright.

Nov 2 2016

Christmas Cards

Posted on by

merrymail I know it’s early to be thinking about Christmas but this is the time I always start thinking about cards. I love getting Christmas cards and was thinking I would make a sign like the one on the left to hold the cards I receive this year. Although Each year the number of cards we receive reduces. I think only one of my siblings sends a card to us each year(hint hint to all you others). Is it really that hard to put something in the mail? I know the season gets super busy. Last year was the first and only year that we didn’t send any cards. It was silly really we just didn’t think ahead in time to get one together. I used to make handmade cards and my husband would write a family letter. That was really time consuming. Now we take a family photo upload them to our big box store and print out a bunch of cards. They even come with envelopes. It usually only cost around $11 dollars to print 30 cards. It really isn’t too hard. So no excuses this year. If you want a card from us this year send me a message with your address but know that if I send you one I expect one in return. It doesn’t have to be fancy it can be a note that just says Hi. The virtual cards or emailed cards don’t count. I can’t hang that on the wall and look at it everyday. Let’s see if I can fill my sign this year. I’ll post in December the finished product.

Aug 27 2016

The Week Before School Goal 10

Posted on by

The week before school goal 10: Since today is the last day of summer vacation our goal is to have some fun. We usually go to a drive in theatre but the movies playing tonight aren’t really kid friendly. So we will try a matinee at the local theatre. Our goal is to spend time with the kids and enjoy freedom for a day.

Aug 26 2016

The Week Before School Goals 8 & 9

Posted on by

The week before school Goal 8: As I’ve said before I’m not a morning person so making a big nutritious breakfast for my kids before school is not on my mind in the morning. Usually it’s cold cereal. I like to make some things to go into the freezer to give a kids a better option for breakfast. Yesterday I made some french toast sticks. I get the big texas toast and make french toast than cut them into strips. I’ll freeze them so then my kids in the morning can just grab a few and stick them in the microwave and wallah yummy breakfast. Today I’m making breakfast burritos. These freeze really well. It takes about a dozen scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, & cheese. I’ll scramble the eggs until they are just a little runny and then layer in a tortilla egg, hashbrown, bacon, and cheese. Roll them up and wrap them in saran wrap put them in a ziplock freezer bag and put them in the freezer. To heat them up we just unwrap them stick them on a plate and microwave for 2 mins turning half way through. I also made chocolate chip cookie dough this week and portion it out and froze that for the after school snacks.

french toast sticks for breakfast

french toast sticks for breakfast

Cookies for snack

Cookies for snack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The week before School Goal 9: Haircuts! I usually cut my kids hair at the beginning of summer and then let it grow all summer. By the time school starts they all really need a good haircut. I’ll probably take Sophia to a salon to get hers done because I’m not that familiar with cutting girls hair. The trick for this goal to be accomplished is convincing my boys that they need a haircut. My 14 year old is going to be especially tricky. Did I mention that I hate cutting hair and getting it all over and having to clean it up? Another reason this is going to be a difficult one to accomplish.

Aug 25 2016

The Week Before School Goal 6 & 7

Posted on by

Goal number 1 is still as tough as ever. It’s probably the toughest thing for me during the school year. I just can’t wake myself up! Anyway still have the same problems as before. Yesterday’s shopping was as horrific as I thought it would be. By the end of the day we were all tired and cranky. Next year the oldest is going to go with his dad. He’s the one I had the most trouble with. Can you believe that? My 14 1/2 year old was the worst. It doesn’t help that he hates shopping and didn’t want to be there in the first place. I’ve tried shopping for him before and just bringing something home but that doesn’t work either. He’ll usually complain about how it fits and then never wear it. He has to be there as painful as it is for the both of us. Anyway, that goal is done and I shouldn’t have to do that again until next year.

The first week of school goal #6: Today we have a big goal to obtain. It’s something that I usually do at the end of the school year but I just kept putting it off and here we are it has to be done now. It’s cleaning up all the old papers and clutter from the last year of school. My kids have some baskets that I let them put their school papers in. Throughout the year we’ll sift through them and throw away anything not worth saving. I can’t tell you how many times this has saved us with Levi and missing assignments. Before school starts the next year we clear out the baskets and make room for the new year. I swear my kids alone bring home enough papers each year to kill a forest. Here is a picture of what we have to deal with today.

Sophia's dresser

Sophia’s dresser

Sophia's basket

Sophia’s basket

Levi's dresser and basket

Levi’s dresser and basket

Levi's shelf

Levi’s shelf

As you can see we have our work cut out for us. I’ll try and take pictures when we are all done so you can see the results. It’s crazy how it only takes a short amount of time before it’s out of control. I know the kids are going to hate doing this but they’ll appreciate it when it’s nice and tidy (at least I hope they do) One way a child learns best is in a clean and uncluttered environment. I’m just prepping them for homework later right?

 

 

The first week of school goal #7: Tonight we have Back to School Night for the elementary kids. So we are going to tackle all those school supplies. We went school supply shopping back in July before our trip to Oregon. I had to stop by the store yesterday because I needed a few last minute items. Don’t you love it when they change the school supply list the week before school starts?! We’ll get them all organized and ready to take to the school tonight so we can drop them all off. The kids will also get to meet their teachers tonight. As much as I don’t like back to school night I think it’s great for my kids. It helps them get familiar with the environment and ease some of their night before school starts jitters.

Aug 24 2016

The Week before school Goal 5

Posted on by

Goal number 1 is going to be the death of me this week. I actually woke up before my alarm because of the smell of smoke from the fire burning in the hills. Getting out of bed though was a joke this morning. Even my normally chirpy 3rd grader had a difficult time. She eventually climbed into bed with me which made it even harder to wake up. We eventually got out of bed at 7:00. We would never make it to the bus stop on time if we kept doing that. My oldest, however, had an easier time getting up. I woke him up around 7:05 and he was up eating breakfast less than five minutes later. I’m not sure I’ll ever win this battle but hopefully it’ll get easier.

The week before school Goal 5: Today I have activity days at my house so we can’t really get going until after lunch. Remember Goal number two? We made room for new clothes. Today is the day to go and get those new clothes. One thing I like to do is go to any websites of places I plan to go to and download any coupons that we could use. It’s expensive to buy new clothes for the kids and any kind of break I can get I’ll take. Shopping is not my favorite thing to do especially with three children in tow. As my kids have gotten older it becomes easier in some ways and harder in others. Easier because they are more well behaved harder because they have become more picky on what they want to wear. I may need a long nap by the time the day is over. Wish me luck!

Aug 23 2016

The week before school Goal 3 & 4

Posted on by

This morning was rough. My oldest still didn’t get up until 20 minutes after I woke him. I was very sluggish. After I woke the elementary children I tried to sneak back to bed. I’m really not a morning person. I really appreciate my youngest brightness when she wakes up. When I told her wake up she said “hold on I’m still sharpening my dream pencil”. She makes me smile and helps me be better.

envy-clipart-school_lunch_box_clip_artGoal 3 for the week before school: I have to go lunch shopping. My kids usually take a cold lunch to school so I have to stock up on things like chips, juice boxes, fruit cups, and granola bars. This means a big box store run. Which I really hate because I always spend way more than I planned. While I’m there I also need to stock up on tissues. We all know that when school starts so does the spread of germs. It doesn’t take long before my kids come home with a cough and runny nose. My sister’s kids started school where they live a couple of weeks ago and only 3 days after the first day of school two of her three kids were home puking. Not fun! I hope our first week goes better than that.

Goal 4 for the week before school: Since my kids take a cold lunch I try and have something besides a sandwich that they can choose from. I make muffins. I usually have a couple of varieties in the freezer that they can take instead of the sandwich. My kids favorite is chocolate zucchini muffins and huckleberry muffins. I’ve also done raspberry, banana, lemon poppy seed, blueberry, and bran muffins. The bran ones didn’t go well I think each kid took one and the rest I got to eat. That was okay with me. My kids love having this option. Sandwiches all the time get old really quickly. So today I’m going to make some muffins. Might as well start with their favorites. I’ll cook a couple batches and stick them in the freezer where they will last about a month before they have disappeared. Then I restock. The kids stick a frozen muffin in their lunch box in the morning and by lunch time it is thawed and ready to eat.