Hoarders

So... I was all exhausted from cleaning up puke, decorating the house for Christmas and doing endless puke laundry so I decided to take a break and catch some TV. Not a whole lot is on Sunday night, but I came across a show called Hoarders on A&E. I'd heard a bit about it a few months ago but never saw it at the time. Watching this show is the strangest thing because the filth that these people live in is unbearable to watch, yet I couldn't look away. Except when they found TWO cat skeletons in one woman's house. I had to look away because I was eating. Yes... I learned my lesson to not eat during that show. Maybe I should save some weekly calories for my Biggest Loser pig out anyway.

Back to the show- these people who obviously have mental health disorders just add garbage on top of garbage and literally walk over all their possessions to get where they need to be. It was odd to watch the show because although my house isn't a single percent as messy and cluttered as there's were it still struck a chord with me. On one hand it inspired me to clean off my cluttered countertops, but then the laziness kicked in and I decided that mine are practically shining compared to the hoarders' houses. And then the show ended and I could finish my Doritos. Damn Hoarders diet.

The Week That Wouldn't End

I've been quiet this week due to my laziness, a bunch of stuff out of my control, plus sheer exhaustion. Over last weekend I cut out a billion turkey hats for Sweetie Pie's class and ran errands all day Monday. Tuesday was Mr. Wright's and his grandpa's birthday. We had a party and came home to put the kids to bed. I got an urgent call saying my grandma had called 911 and something was wrong so I threw on my shoes and headed to her house. She's 82 and lives alone and had suffered her second stroke. I was at the hospital until the wee hours of the morning, and then had trouble falling asleep once I got home. I've been in a fog so of course I forgot to bring Sweetie Pie to school early on Wedesday. I visited Grandma on Wednesday and Thursday, and had a great Thanksgiving meal.

Friday my mom and I were up at 3am to do some traditional black friday shopping, and it was a great distraction. Later our friends came over for some MUCH needed grown up time. It was great, but 2 hours after I finally hit the hay The Great Puke-athon '09 began. I slept on the couch in 12 minute increments all night Friday. Mr. Wright was sick too and took yesterday off work. I haven't been able to visit Grandma or head up to my parent's house for the weekend like I had planned. This afternoon my other two started puking alternately. I'm running back and forth between them like a game of Puke Mania that I can't escape. The worst part is that I feel like it's just a matter of time before I fall to the Great Puke-athon.

My house is in such a horrific state that I didn't have an empty sink to rinse puke bowls in. I had to run back and forth between sick kids making a stop every few minutes to throw a couple things in the dishwasher before the next round began. Eventually I had a clean sink... I've been keeping up with the laundry because I have no choice, but some hasn't gotten folded yet, and a lot hasn't been put away. This week I'm hoping for survival more than progress... and maybe a little mercy from the puke gods!

Dirty Little Secrets

The good news is that I've been super sidetracked this week so I have confessions from being such an idiot, but the bad news is that I've been so sidetracked that I forgot half of them. Here's what I remember of mine, and leave your own dirty little secrets in the comments!

I still have a few Halloween decorations up, and I'm not planning to take them down until I put the Christmas stuff up next week.

I totally forgot to bring Sweetie Pie to school early on Wednesday for her 'challenge' day. Then I tried to make up for it by bringing her to extra computer lab yesterday, but we were so late that we missed half of it.

I washed a load of dishes, but apparently didn't put any forks in there, so now we don't have any clean ones.

I did a little too much online shopping this week.

I've used up all my last minute dinners on my meal plan from just being lazy and now I have 10 days of meals left that need tons of preparation.

We have SO many toys that I'm embarrassed to even say. AND Christmas is coming, AND Sweetie Pie's birthday is right after Christmas. You can't even walk in my kids' rooms.

I have 2% of my Christmas gifts made/purchased. And I get sick every time I think about it.

My dog hasn't had a bath in 3 years. I leave her out in the rain a lot though. (That was a joke animal activists! Kinda... the porch is covered!)

What's your dirty little secret?

Handmade Holidays, Week Five (Decorations)

This week I'm out of energy to pretend that I'm going to accomplish some kind of masterpiece craft for every single person I know, but since I'm cheap and like to go all out for Christmas I wanted to share some links to some seriously fantastic holiday decorating ideas.

If you need to catch up here are the links to the previous editions of Handmade Holidays:

Week One, Kids

Week Two, Women and Teachers

Week Three, Teenagers

Week Four, Men

And away we go...

I'm a sucker for felt, but you would not believe this felt Christmas tree and gifts! Start now for next decade year!

If you can't pull off the whole tree then just make some felt ornaments!

And I have the perfect fabric to procrastinate on this table runner with!

I almost don't want to share this cookie cutter wreath so that everyone will think I'm genius once they see mine (right after I finish the table runner...)

I probably have a better chance of getting this ornament wreath done though, since I have a bagillion unbreakable colored balls from my toddler proofed trees of Christmas pasts.

or I could whip up some cute little scrappy stockings!

And I definitely need to check out this post with a million different advent calendar tutorials!

Whew! Now that I've fake decorated my house for the holidays I think I need a nap! This really Works For Me and check out all the other Works For Me Wednesday submissions HERE!

Back To Basics

Some of my original readers may have noticed that I've been avoiding one subject for.ev.er... The state of my house. At some point it just got old to post every single day that I still did nothing toward my larger goal of seeing my floor, eh, I mean, getting my house under control. It's been a long time since one of my 'bursts of productivity' where I pretend to be a real person for a few days just to hit a bump in the road and land right back in square one.

The bad news is that I have a LOT of mess backed up from months of doing nothing. I mean, it's not worth a call to child services or anything... I halfway did the dishes and kept the laundry going, but usually only once we were totally out of forks or socks or towels.

The good news is that I feel different now. I don't feel like I'm going to scrub every inch of my house and then neglect it for 3 more months like my usually cleaning pattern. I feel like I'm going to slowly clean it, little by little, so hopefully I won't burn out and crash with the slightest little bump in my schedule.

I've been doing my best to pick up after myself and take a few minutes to teach and reinforce to the kids where the laundry/toy/coat actually belongs. It's been a slow process over the last week but I'm hoping that it's a slow and steady climb to my ultimate goal- not panicing when people drop by, and not spending all day cleaning my house to never make any progress.

Way back in the day when I was an 18 year old newlywed I had joined Flylady after reading an article in the paper. I moved straight into the wife role from living with my parents so though my mom had taught me all about laundry, cooking, and all the other wifely crap I was still relaxing from not having a 'boss' telling me what to do when. Flylady was great before I had kids and even when I had a newborn that wouldn't go along behind me and mess up all my progress, but once my life changed I clipped Flylady's wings.

After 6 long years I recently stopped by her site on a whim to see if I could possibly work it into my super busy schedule of stressing about my life while sitting on the couch. I signed myself back up for the e-mails and have been taking it painfully slow. Today I spent 15 minutes cleaning my shower that Mr. Wright has been asking me to do forever, 15 minutes clearing off my sewing table so I have some hope of ever sewing there again, and 15 minutes decluttering my SCARY laundry room. Did it get done and now I have awesome after pictures?? Of course not... but I did start something that I haven't done in a while, and 15 minutes tomorrow sounds a lot more do-able than finishing a whole huge organizational project in one day.

Dirty Little Secrets

Another week has come and gone- here's my dirty little secrets... Remember, you can make me feel not so horrible and add your own dirty little secrets in the comments. Or you can just leave me out here in the cold... alone... bearing my soul. How's that for a guilt trip!?

I ate a whole box of 6 90 calorie Special K bars. It was like a Biggest Loser temptation.

My kids were horrible in town today and I wanted to pretend to be the babysitter.

I gave Boo my car keys inside Sports Authority to shut her up and she promptly lost them. Luckily once I realized they were gone (in the 10 degree parking lot of course) I went back to the first place she had them and they were there.

I rented Up! for the kids to watch, and then stole it out of their room so I could watch it alone at night without them bugging me.

I went to the grocery store to return the movies and get 4 things, and I ended up renting 3 more movies and spending $70. Shhh!

I got home from running errands and found dried kid boogers on my forehead. Awesome.

I still haven't started making my billion Christmas presents, and I haven't sewn in weeks.

Yesterday my whole kitchen smelled like nasty tuna since I never washed the tuna press from Wednesday's dinner. It was all I could do to not gag.

I have a ton of things to do and I'm going to take a nap instead.

Handmade Holidays, Week Four (Men)

This is the week of my crafty linkin' series Handmade Holidays that I've been dreading... hand making something for a man that they'd halfway enjoy is about as easy as getting that smell out of my washing machine. I don't have a ton of ideas this week, so please leave comments if you have an idea for men, or just buy them a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader calendar and move on to hand making something for someone easier!

If you need to catch up:

Week One (Kids)

Week Two (Women and Teachers)

Week Three (Teenagers)

For Men:

Sew a laptop sleeve!

Personalize a tie with his initials!

Make golf club head covers from old sweaters!

What guy doesn't need a t-shirt with a fake tie on it!?

Uhhhhh, that's all I have. Guys are hard. That's why I usually just get Mr. Wright electronic gadgets. Happy Wednesday!!

Hand making instead of buying really works for me!

Dirty Little Secrets

Friday loves to sneak up on me, so of course I'm late posting again. Maybe I'll aim to post on Thursdays so it will actually get posted by Friday! Here we go!

I ate bacon that had been sitting out all day. I love bacon... I know that doesn't make it better, but it makes me feel better.

I was so pissed that I busted my butt to get my Halloween decorations up last Friday to only get one trick-or-treater that I left them up all week. I hoping to get them down today.

I'm avoiding making my menu plan and doing the grocery shopping. I have to run to 4 different stores (I already went to the 5th) to get the best prices and I'm not looking forward to doing that.

I'm so behind with my laundry that Boo had to borrow some panties from her sister yesterday. Even worse, I still didn't wash laundry yesterday and now she's wearing the extra pair I keep in my purse.

I've eaten my weight in carbs and Halloween candy this week. My garbage can is overflowing with candy wrappers.

I cried when President Obama was speaking this morning. I'm not sure why... I was still in bed so maybe I'm more emotional in the morning. What a dork, lol!

I'm making the same thing for dinner that Sweetie Pie will have at school for lunch. I know she'll probably throw her lunch away anyway and just eat the tater tots. Because they're all carbs. And she's my daughter.

What's your dirty little secret?

Handmade Holidays, Week Three (Teenagers)

Welcome to Week Three of my series! Today we're focusing on a tough group- teenagers. I'm always so intimidated and scared that I'll become that person that gives teenagers lame handmade Christmas gifts that they'll always remember for all the wrong reasons. I've always shied away from making things for teens and instead stocked up on iTunes gift cards for anyone from 10-18. This year I'm promising myself not to do that. Maybe.

Here is Week One (Kids) and Week Two (Women and Teachers) if you need to catch up!

An iPod pouch that can be customized with favorite colors or character fabric for girls or boys!

This fleece blanket with sports balls, team logos, or initials on it!

Sew a handmade gift card holder if you do go the iTunes card route!

A handbag from a placemat!

Make a fabric keychain for a driving teen!

A purse notebook for the tween set!

I don't have a specific link, but I'm sure older teens of both genders would appreciate a laptop sleeve!

Once again, I'm hoping I can make the Handmade Holiday Work For Me!

Halloween on Wright Time

Even though all the other bloggers are already churning out adorable Fall decorative ideas and pre-planning their Christmas tablescapes, I, of course, am just getting around to posting my Halloween pictures. And only because I have TWO people harassing me for them. If not I would have posted them sometime before Christmas... maybe.

Sweetie Pie, who at the last minute changed from Taylor Swift to "a weddin' girl with Taylor Swift makeup"



Little Man, who lost his inflatable Buzz Lightyear wings due to a tiny hole from last year and Mommy's limited lung capacity



Boo, who went as everyone's favorite breakfast meat (and her IRL nickname) Bacon. This whole costume cost about $.75 in felt!



A group shot right before the angry candy seeking monsters came out of my sweet, adorable children



Happy Hallowe, er, Happy Harvest Fall Time Almost Thanksgiving Time!