A Twist of Things to Come

Not the kind that come in a tube that goes "pop," either. Cinnamon rolls with real cinnamon and sugar and all that. The dough was of the pre-made, frozen variety, but... well, I am a tad under the weather.

I was going to take a picture, but they got snarfed up too fast. Wee boy unrolled his and pronounced it "weird," but it was a hit with everyone else. Personally, there are few things I will do differently next time, but this was a great first attempt.

It also reminded me what an amazing job I did organizing my kitchen back in September, because it has stuck. It's still organized and easily cleanable with 15 minutes of sorting the effluvia that seem to collect in various places. (Junk mail and school work on either the table or the island, along with coupons and things. I should probably clean out the hold-over junk drawers I didn't get to in the great purge, and make one of them for coupons or school reminders. I will think on it.)

The Boys are on break from school this week. We had plans to go roller skating tomorrow, but that looks like a non-starter since Wee Boy had a high fever today.

I knew something was seriously wrong when he only ate two bites of a cinnamon roll for breakfast. I kept checking his temp with the ear thermometer, and it kept showing up just slightly high, but he felt really hot. His face was red, even. Now, Big Boy gets pink cheeks from a walk outside, but Wee Boy does not get pink cheeks unless he's sunburned or has been running hard for as long as he can.

So, I knew something was up. We hunted around the house for another thermometer, and finally found a good ol' mercury one. That one said 102.5*F EEP!

I've always hated that freaking ear thermometer. Now I have proof it's crap. Ugh. We treated his fever (he has no other symptoms besides some aches) and he perked right up. Still, I bet we should hit the doc's office tomorrow.

All our plans for the break will be on hold until we kknow what's up with him, poor tyke.

***

Today I made a checklist document that lists the cleaning tasks that need to be done regularly, room by room. I snagged the idea from the very wise and efficient amy34. Wrote it up while sitting in the dentist's waiting room, and made the actual checklist document today. I think it will go a long way toward teaching the boys just what is expected of a clean room.

I made other checklists for longer term house-related projects, too.

I gave up on the organizational project for a few days after the big sale. It annoyed me that I knew there were things in the "to keep" bins that went with the "to get rid of" stuff, but I didn't have the time to sort through both piles of stuff. So now I keep finding things that go with other things that are gone now, and it irks me. If the sale had been when they told us it would be, I'd have had it all sorted to my satisfaction.

I suppose this is the universe suggesting that maybe I should chill. *giggle* The hubby has promised to help me arrange the toy situation properly, so that will help.

At least my kitchen is still gorgeous.

***

What day is today? The Big Boy has had so many tests and projects and things going on that just keeping him current seems to be taking a lot of my brain power in the evenings. There is a project due tomorrow and big test, too. At least he will only have half of his stuff to study over the weekend.

***

I can't seem to open any of my .avi files in Moviemaker. Do any of you vidders know what I'm doing wrong?

Today I woke refreshed and calm, and found it really easy to find my balance. Just a little meditation and I found myself in that unflappable place where every setback feels like a grand opportunity for improvement and life feels like an adventure.

Go figger.

Anyway, I walked to the school for Science Fun Day training. It was a cool, shady walk and I was there on time. I listened to music on my phone. I saw a bunny up close. It hopped right up to the edge of the sidewalk, saw me and then scampered away again. So cute. Had a chat with another mom, and we really hit it off. Just one of those serendipitous things. Anyway, very positive.

Such a nice morning that I think I will probably make a habit of walking to the school when I volunteer, and maybe walking to the grocery store and the library, too. Both are close. Heck, I could walk to the dentist and the nail salon and the dry cleaners, too. Though perhaps walking to the dry cleaners with a down comforter and a shower curtain over my shoulder would be a tad awkward. Heh.

***

My Beloved took the load of stuff to charity, so yay! Another step taken on the road to leaner living. Still need to organize the toys we kept in a more efficient fashion. Right now every toy in the HOUSE is in te family room in three boxes. Eek.

Oh, and a good friend of ours who brought some stuff to sell at our yard sale saw me admiring something he had for sale, and made gift of it to me.

( Picture of my GORGEOUS red-gold Obi behind the cut )
It's a painted silk brocade, and cost him around a hundred dollars in Japan. Perhaps I shall keep it for the day we have a formal dining room again and use it as a table runner. I don't know.

All I know is that it was too beautiful to refuse.

Everything is pretty much sorted. I can hardly believe it. I just need to sort the box of happy meal/birthday party favors junk into zip lock bags by interest, and also sort out some vehicle type things.

My honey had a closing on te other side of town and left his wallet here. He finally found a gas station with gas and had to spend his last six dollars for a gallon, because they were only taking cash. Actually, we're lucky he had cash on him.

He made it home. That is teh important thing. *squishes him*

The hubby has gotten so into this yard sale idea, it's cute. We've taken so much stuff out of our storage unit that we could easily change to a smaller one. When the old technology recycling day comes around in a few weeks, we could go even smaller.

Then there is the book situation. I'm sure we could get a few pennies for our loads of paperbacks at local used book stores, and the same goes for old DVDs and CDs. Not sure where we could offload a laserdisc player and a bunch of laser discs. *giggle*

The point is, it will be a much more usable space when all this is gone. GONE, do you hear!

LOL! I don't even have stuff out there (we're putting it all out tomorrow) and I just sold three things. Hee!

***

Big Boy's video has gotten more hits than I acn reasonably account for, which is pretty cool. sarah_prineas told me that the Director of teh Decatur Book Festival sent her a link to it. :)

Wee Boy's grandparents gave him a Shonen Jump subscription for an early birthday present, and he was so thrilled! They brought us by some tables and had dinner with us last night.

I realized that most of my reaction was just because of the drastic changes in our short term plans. The toy sort (at least of the toys we're getting rid of) needs to be done in order to sell the toys properly, without bits and pieces everywhere.

I've sorted the linen, and will finish the first phase of toy sorting today (keep/sell). Maybe more if we can manage it. Then I'll get rid of old board games that we either have several of or the boys have outgrown (Blue's Clues? OMG Were they ever that young?).

Old Halloween candy buckets and excess Easter baskets will get out there, too. Plus a bunch of stuff from storage.

It's doable. Exhausting to contemplate, but doable.

Pictures of my gorgeous, clean kitchen behind the cut.
( Read more... )

It's not a masterpiece if interior design, but it is clean and I know where everything is. Doing this to the rest of the house is my real goal. The YArd Sale is just a means to that end.

***

Big Boy turned in his video yesterday -- I hope the teacher likes it as much as I do.

Here's a link to the post I made over the weekend with the video embedded:

http://asatomuraki.livejournal.com/333633.html

That posr is friendslocked just because I'm crazy protective my chilluns. ;)

Remember two weeks ago, when my Beloved called the homeowner's association and asked when the yard sale was, because the sign said '9 3' which made no sense, because it was a Tuesday, and we were told it was actually October 3rd they meant?

Well, the HOA was wrong. It is THIS weekend. So all that, YAY I'M SO AHEAD OF THE CURVE I was doing? *snicker* It's now turned into EEP!! IT STARTS FRIDAY????

So we had to call and arrange to get the tables sooner, and change plans for this weekend (Wee Boy's Birthday is Sunday *headsmack*). My Beloved crawled up in the attic, and I've excavated a few other closets. We're not bothering with clothes, just old linens. We have several sheet/comforter sets with matching curtains and things that the previous owners left and we never managed to get rid of, plus all my things from my first apartment.

With extra board games and kitchen stuff, plus kiddie toys and computer games, it already seems like a lot.Now we need to move up our trip to the storage unit, too. We had hoped to put out some books, but YOWZA.

Think kindly of me, my friends. *shudder* I'm off to slave for a bit, harder thatn I had hoped, but at least it will be over sooner than I thought. Ye gods.

The road to a clean, organized and fully functional home, that is. I'm keeping it simple and only doing a few small tasks at a time, for the most part. Went a bit overboard this week, but I don't write much when the kids are home, and it was fall break. We didn't go anywhere, so cleaning was something I could do and still be involved with them.

So, once again it is the day before trash day. Last week I cleaned out the fridge, so today I cleaned out the freezer. Then the other freezer. Then the back up refrigerator, which is hidden away in the storage room. I was surprised by how much I found that was in need of going out, because there wasn't that much in there to begin with.

I also made cookies. And brownies. I cleaned up after myself and took the trash out.

Why are you looking at me like that? We're having people over. I wanted to show off how neat my kitchen is. It's such a pleasure to cook in it, now that it is clean and organized. If only I could say the same for any other common space in the house. (Though I did do a number on the boys' bathroom yesterday -- the outer shower curtain needs dry cleaning. Why do they make shower curtains dry clean only?)

***

Big Boy's video is almost completed. We are tweaking the audio mix in places. It's so cute! Right now it's about 750mb so we'll have to figure out how to get that down to size (hopefully without sacrificing too much quality) before we can put it up on YouTube.

If anyone has suggestions on how to do that, I'm all ears! *grin*

Take a picture of yourself right now.
don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.
post that picture with NO editing.
post these instructions with your picture.



****

I think I may finish teh kitchen today. I've gotten rid of so much junk that I can actually put stuff I like in my cabinets and still see what I have. I'm very pleased with myself. My honey came in to see me on my computer yesterday morning, and later told me that he was grumpy about it -- not terribly uncommon for him when I'm spending a lot of time on my computer. But then he said he caught himself and realized that I had done more work than he had every day for a couple of weeks (his work doesn't require constant attention) and so he was really being silly. I could spend all day surfing and doing nothing and he'd have nothing to say about it.

Last night when my BIL came in from work, I was standing on the sink/counter top scrubbing the corners of the muntin bars with a toothbrush. It was after ten. He said, "Cleaning jag" an laughed at me. But it needed doing. The sill was full of dirt and bugs between the window and the screen, and dust had collected on the sashes and muntins. Every window in the house needs that treatment. Most of them need re-painting and some need new screens, too. I'm going to look into getting vinyl windows before I repaint and replace screens, though. We have so many single pane windows downstairs that I'm sure we lose a lot of heat there in the winter, even with the insulated blinds.

***

I know this constant reporting of housecleaning is absolutely riveting. *giggle* De-cluttering is a huge step for me, though. I think it is an outgrowth of an inner change. Until recently, I seemed unable to distinguish between what fit into our lives and what was excess.

I'd kept ugly old platters and cheap silver-plate serving dishes that were gifts from the bridal shower mom threw for me at church. We were registered, but most folks didn't bother to go to the registry. I mean, I'd gotten rid of the Legend of the Sand Dollar wall clock and incredibly tacky stuff earlier, but there was a nice crystal platter I'd kept, even though its Christmas bells design was so very not our style. It's Mikasa and all, but not my thang. I don't think we've used it once in 16 years. Buh-bye!

***

I've started taking pictures. I don't have before pictures of most of it, but I figured I should start documenting. We've got a play date for Wee Boy this afternoon and dinner plans tonight, so I suppose I won't be at it hammer and tongs today.