Dear Mrs. Wright

I have a great tip today that I can't believe I haven't shared before! Since it's Works For Me Wednesday I thought I would let everyone know (one of) my secrets.

I e-mail myself. A lot. Probably more than anyone else.

I have free e-mail through Hotmail, but Google, Yahoo, etc. all would work. I e-mail myself reminders of things to do, addresses for me to remember later, and the most important thing- documents and photos!

It won't work for thousands of pictures obviously, but if you have a very special photo of your dog wearing a Halloween costume or the once in a lifetime photo of your kids ALL smiling and looking at the camera then you should e-mail it to yourself and you'll have it FOREVER... without paying a monthly fee for online storage.

I have a special file in my e-mail for important stuff like photos, resumes and other documents. If, God forbid, there was ever a disaster I would have some basics online that I'd be able to eventually access. I've been meaning to scan our social security cards, identifications and that kind of thing and save them in my e-mail too, but you have to personally decide if the security risk is worth the peace of mind. So... that's why e-mailing myself works for me!

Friend Making Monday!

This week's Friend Making Monday topic is....

List 5 things {besides the obvious!} that you LOVE!

1. Sewing

I love making something fun out of a pile of fabric! I'm still learning so nothing is ever perfect, but I like that I can save money on things we would normally buy by making them!

2. Pajamas

Nice to meet you... I like jammies. I know that Mr. Wright would NEVER, EVER, EVER wear jammies like that, but I thought the picture was cute. Jammies straight from the dryer on a cold Alaskan evening is as close to heaven as it gets to me!

3. Reality TV

Currently it's Tori & Dean, The Biggest Loser, The Amazing Race, Celebrity Apprentice, Kendra, The Ultimate Fighter, Deadliest Catch, among others... I just can't get enough!

4. Photography

I have a long way to go before my photography will be where I want it to be, but I'm having fun trying and using my basic skills to capture moments in time!

5. Snacks

Hi, nice to meet you again. I also like snacks. If the packaging of the snacks in this photo wasn't so old I would have been craving these things right now. Which I'm not... well, maybe... no, I'm not. Except the Oreos. But who can resist Oreos!?

Too Busy To Blog

Sorry for the lame blog week but I've been SUPER busy.

I've been cleaning.
I've been sewing.
I've been purging.
I've been cooking meat for the freezer.
I've been planning a birthday party, a mini vacation and a garage sale.
I've been prepping our homeschool lessons for the summer.
I've been doing laundry and folding and folding and folding.
And I've been snuggling my babies, so all is not lost... :)

Bread Gone Wrong

As lazy as I am, for some reason, I've always wanted to make my own bread. I think it's because my awesome friend makes her own bread... from scratch... every single day... with home ground wheat. Yeah. And she thinks I'M awesome. I don't know what's up with that either. Moving on...

I've always wanted to make my own bread, but I suck at baking. When my Grandma's bread machine was up for grabs I thought it would be the perfect way for me to "make" my own bread without being too responsible. Too bad the cloud of suckiness (not sure if that's a word or incorrectly spelled) that hangs over me decided that it wasn't my day to bake perfect bread.

First off, the breadmaker was clunking and grinding SO loudly that Mr. Wright asked that I move it into the bathroom. I didn't, but it was THAT loud. Apparently there were still some baked chunks from the last time where there shouldn't have been, and it results in a noise similar to those that I would imagine a dying cat would make.



After 4 long hours of waiting (actually, I forgot about it after the clunking phase was over... shhh!) I had my first EVER loaf of freshly baked bread. Kinda. It didn't rise very much, and was a *cough, cough* bit crispy, but I love her anyway. Her appearance may scare some, but everyone remembers their first loaf of bread... or not. Actually I'll keep trying until I get a perfect loaf, then remember THAT one as my first loaf of bread.

Earth Day Gone Wrong

It's Earth Day! Celebrate the Mrs. Wright way by not making extra packaging from mop refills, cleaner bottles, or paper towels. I also watch my vacuum emissions and conserve water by skipping dishes and laundry... maybe for the whole week! I just love the planet- what can I say!?

Happy Earth Day!

Lazy Daze

My kitchen is still trashed, but I was hardly lazy yesterday. My sister came to help me move all my new bedroom furniture, then I spent the afternoon moving two queen mattresses and box springs by myself through my house. My back is PISSED today! I haven't even started putting all the clothes and stuff back in the drawers, or moving on to another room, but I doubt I'll do ANYTHING today that doesn't involve laying on the couch whining and eating snacks. I came home with boxes of things from my Grandma's house to integrate into my life since we spent the weekend cleaning out her house in preparation to sell. It is SO weird having my Grandma's possessions while she is still here on Earth, but I know that she wants us to all share her 'stuff' and not have it go unused in her empty house. I really want to share a picture of my new bedroom, but since I can't see it from my new home on the couch, I'll just have to wait a little longer! Mr. Wright is off work today, so maybe he'll get the kitchen all spiffed up for me!! Excuse me while I go DIE laughing at that thought! :P

Slipping Away

On Saturday I made sure to get my kitchen all clean again, but then I forgot to run the dishwasher. To make it worse I was gone most of the day yesterday so my house is starting to spiral out of control. My entryway is littered with snowpants, gloves, boots, dirt and other random stuff since we're still battling the Winter monster here. And apparently my kids don't know how to hang stuff up... in their defense they HAVE been raised in a barn :P

I haven't done laundry in a few days, and I only cleaned my room to make space for my grandmother's bedroom set that I'm inheriting. The worst part is that I don't have much motivation today. I just want to get back in bed and sleep the day away. In my jammies. With cookies. And wake up when I feel better.

Maybe I can compromise and bust my butt this morning to get something done and snooze all afternoon. Maybe. Or maybe I should just find the cookies!

State Of My Kitchen Saturday

It was just last Saturday that my kitchen was in pretty sad shape and I spent ALL DAY cleaning it. I've struggled every day this week to keep the dishes caught up and the counters clear, but when 5 people are constantly producing new dishes and putting crap down on the counters it is a lot to keep up with, but I did it. In fact, the kitchen was still spotless even yesterday, but I ran out of steam last night and never loaded the dishwasher or cleaned up the dinner dishes.



It's funny that last Friday even that photo would have been a super clean version of my kitchen, but by now I just get disappointed when I see it. I can FEEL my new clean kitchen slipping through my fingers, and it makes me panic since I've worked so hard to keep it clean(er). I'm going to get it back in shape RIGHT NOW, before I get distracted with Easter candy something super important.

Dirty Little Secrets

It's Friday again... time for some dirty little secrets! If you have dirty little secrets of your own PLEASE share them in the comments. I'm sure you're not even the only one who feels that way!

Sometimes I think about flipping my kids's doorknob inside out so that I can lock them in. I'm not a huge fan of jail time though, so I never do it.

I ate 2 full size kit kats for breakfast on Wednesday, and 4 peppermint patties for breakfast yesterday.

I take hundreds of pictures of other people's kids, but NONE of my own.

I haven't printed pictures, even snapshots, in over a year.

I LOVE my house clean and decluttered, but I hate putting in the constant work.

When Mr. Wright forces me to watch 25 hours of The Pacific it makes me fantasize about forcing him to watch 25 hours of Tori and Dean.

I've forgotten to let my kids pick out their prizes from the "Mommy Shop" two weeks in a row.

I know that if I exercised I could lose my muffin top, but I'm just way too lazy to even try.

My kids haven't had a bath in almost a week.

I wore a shirt one day this week, then slept in it, then wore it again the next day.

What's your dirty little secret!? I promise I won't tell!

Things I've Done Thursday!

There are a million things that I wanted to get done and didn't. There are a million things that I should have done and didn't. But today I want to share what I DID get done:

I spent 2 hours working on the playroom and I'm starting to see a glimpse of light in there.

The kids and I sorted their dress up, baby clothes and puzzles and made a big pile to give away.

I've been fighting the good fight against a cluttered, messy kitchen. It isn't as perfect as it was on Saturday but it's WAY better than it normally is six days after I clean it!

I've gotten multiple paperwork things done this week that I've been putting off for MONTHS and it feels SO great to not have them hanging over my head!

What have you gotten done!? Leave a comment so we can all be impressed!

Lunches Gone Lazy

Since it's no secret that I am not a huge fan of getting stuff done I thought I'd share a little lazy tip for Works For Me Wednesday. I HATE making cold lunches for Sweetie Pie, especially the sandwiches since you have to wait until the last minute to make them or else the jelly gets all gross on the bread. UNLESS you're a lazy mom, then you could make it the night before with a tiny modification. You ready!?

Put the peanut butter on BOTH sides of the bread, then some jelly in the middle. That way the jelly can't soak into the bread and get all nasty. The BEST tip ever is this... you make a bunch of sandwiches like this, wrap them individually in plastic wrap, put them back in the bread bag and toss them in the freezer. Now you have ready to go single serving sandwiches that you can literally throw in the lunchbox as you're yelling at the kids to get in the car because you're late- and they can thaw before lunch time! Not that I ever need that type of thing... but this possibly works for me!

Played Out

Today is officially day eleventy billion of the playroom clean up 2010 and I'm super thrilled to report no new progress... unless you count moving stuff out of the new playroom back into the old playroom so it looks cleaner progress. Yeah... I don't either.

My new plan:
anything that isn't put away yet probably doesn't have a home
if I don't have a home for it can go downstairs
if the kids and I don't notice it's downstairs then we don't need it
it will be easier to donate when it's downstairs anyway

So technically there is a method to my madness, but right now it just looks like I'm stashing all the crap I don't want to sort through in a room that I can lock. Which may or may not be true.

These photos are from Saturday, but it doesn't look a whole lot different now.




Scary, isn't it? I can't wait for it to be d.o.n.e so my kids will play in there and leave me the heck alone for 2 whole seconds. A girl can dream, can't she??

Chocolate Sunday

I'm still really tired and worn out from yesterday's cleaning spree. I tried to continue the energy burst in the playroom but got tired and the Easter candy started taunting me. Why must you be SO tasty marshmallow eggs? I did maintain my spotless kitchen, and my dining room made it through 3 meals and playdoh without a speck on the floor.

I unfortunately made hardly any progress in the playroom and I'm growing increasingly frustrated with the mess with each passing day. There is too much stuff and we could give half away, but the kids won't part with it and I don't want to cause a screaming fight over McDonald's toys. Little Man also recently stopped napping which makes it really hard to sneak crap out of there without being caught. I guess I'll just have to avoid that room for a few more days until Mr. Wright will be home to distract the little ones. Until then I'll just have to hold the couch down some more and hope my back feels better. Now where did I put those marshmallow eggs?

My Favorite Things

Mousepads and bathrooms, beanbags and placemats, these are a few of my favorite things! Be thankful you can't hear me sing that...

I am SO going to alter a mousepad like this for the kids' computer like Kimbo from A Girl and a Glue Gun!

Ashley from Make It and Love It whipped up this bathroom makeover with some extra fabric... I wish I could pull that off!

Someday I'll get around to making a few of these adorable beanbags for my monkies to jump on!

I thought these set-the-table placemats were so smart, so I'm going to print out a few and get my little ones to help me set the table before meals.

Sweetie pie would ADORE this kindergarten level sewing activity I saw on Flipflops and Applesauce.

I HATE hemming because I have to measure every inch or so with my tiny hem gauge. I think this pressing guide may just change my life!

I'm also planning on using this fantastic PVC pipe as a curtain rod tutorial in a few places around my house! How cool is that!?

I hope you enjoyed my favorite things!

Pain In My Back

Now I'm REALLY cranky, and tired, and wishing that I could afford a maid, but my kitchen is clean!

Here's the before and after:




And my dining room got a cleaning too!



I also bleached the bathtub and all the kids tub toys, vacuumed and steam mopped the bathroom, dining room, and kitchen, did 2 loads of dishes, cleaned off the counters, washed, folded and put away 4 loads of laundry and made dinner. Now my back freaking hurts and I'm going to need to medicate it with Easter Bunny Kit Kats... and York Peppermint Patties... and maybe some Resse's Pieces. What? I had a hard day!

Saturday Update

This week sucked... hate to admit it. I'm still really excited to try my new system, but it didn't quite work for me this week. I think it would work better for me if my house was already clean, and I used the system for maintenance. Since my house is currently a nasty pit doing one or two things in a room really didn't make any difference. The rooms that were clean (the bathroom and kids' room) did stay clean with a daily pickup, so at least I made some progress this week!

Every morning I wake up telling myself that "today is the day" that I going to bust my butt and make huge progress. Mr. Wright will be so happy when he gets home, and we can spend the evening singing Kumbaya (too lazy to google the spelling) and cleaning up after ourselves. Buuuuuut, that never happens. I do one or two chores, get distracted or tired and vow to do better tomorrow.

I REALLY need today to be somewhat productive. We don't have any clean dishes, I've had to match Mr. Wright some socks out of the sock orphanage two mornings in a row, and Little Man STILL doesn't have any pajamas. To fully motivate myself I'm going to post this super scary kitchen photo so I can force myself to post a super shiny Marta kitchen later today. Or I can look like an ass and post a less dirty photo. Or I can forget and not post any at all. But I'll try for the first one!



Yikes... maybe I should just move instead!

Dirty Little Secrets

This has been quite the slacktastic week, so I'll have no shortage of secrets to spill!

I made a double batch of pasta bake last night for dinner so that we could have leftovers today, but then I decided to get caught up on Private Practice and left it out all night.

I may have also left a batch of cookies burnt to the pan out all night. Oops!

I haven't watered the kids' plants in a week and they're starting to fade.

I still have easter stuff EVERYWHERE with no plans to put it away anytime soon.

I've been giving my kids Capri Suns because we're out of juice because the sink is full of dishes so I can't make more.

I found a basket of crap in the kids' closet full of toys that they haven't missed in 3 months, but I can't bring myself to just dump the whole thing.

I rewashed a mildewing load of laundry with a tiny beat of bleach so no one would know it ever smelled. Shh!

My laundry folding table is COVERED in stuff to fold, and Little Man hasn't had jammies in 4 days.

I need to take Sweetie Pie to school in 10 minutes and I still haven't made her lunch, brushed her hair or stopped blogging.

I spent $20 on new water bottles that I've used exactly once.

I ate 10 20 starbursts for dinner last night, after telling my doctor that I eat a balance diet.

I freaking HATE American Idol.

I can't wait for summer when I can wear jammies all day again.

What's your dirty little secret? Please share in the comments so I can show my husband that I'm not the only one who doesn't have it all together. Don't worry, I'll probably forget to show him anyway!

Ultimate Blog Party 2010!

I love making new friends, so I jumped at the chance to participate in the Ultimate Blog Party 2010! If you're coming from the UBP'10 then welcome! I'm Mrs. Wright... I hate cleaning, and I suck at it. I love my kids, but I suck at doing fun stuff with them. My husband doesn't appreciate never having clean clothes/forks/floors, but is patient (most of the time :P) Join me on my journey to get my 'chores' done, be a better mom to my kids, spill my secrets, and occasionally do something crafty. If you enjoy my site then I invite you to subscribe (right above my hot photo ;)!) or follow me through Google Friend Connect and/or through Facebook or Twitter. I'm everywhere baby!

Did I link to enough crap in that paragraph? I hope all the links work since I typed this while watching 16 and Pregnant since I have Task ADD... It's like multitasking without all the responsibility. Thanks for stopping by!

Decisions

I'm tired. And cranky. And I just want to take a nap and sleep the whole day away. Unfortunately I STILL haven't gotten off my butt and organized the play room, or done anything in the living room (my Thursday room!). I did work on the play room for a little bit yesterday, but nothing too productive. Now I'm faced with a hard choice... admit defeat again and take a nap, or get up, clean something, and move on. I'm still undecided... maybe pajama pants would help!?

WFMW: Tomorrow Bags!

Back in January I found this post from Give It A Go about an ingenious idea to make a drawstring bag for 'tomorrow's' clothes and was instantly inspired. I made a bag for each of my kids (a GREAT fabric stash-busting project!) and even hung hooks in the bathroom for the kids' bathrobes and tomorrow bags. If I could do it again I would use silky ribbon since it can be a chore to cinch up the flannel fabric on grosgrain ribbon, but I'm pleased that I didn't have buy anything for this project.



If you notice in the photo I don't have the bags on the hook in the bathroom since the little munchkins have been getting up at the buttcrack of dawn and are banished to their room until 7:30. You can also get a first glimpse at the orphanage style bedroom setup! This is the darkest room in the house (useful for kids in Alaska in the summer!) and all they have in here is their beds, clothes and a tv. Don't mind that "curtain"... I bought a real one today but haven't gotten it up yet obviously. I'm still working on the (new) playroom, but I did get the master bathroom bleach-ified today.



Every night, when I pull out their jammies, I grab an outfit for the next day and shove gently place their stuff in the tomorrow bag. I throw it over their bedpost and my kids won't look AS homeless and mismatched the next day! That's why Tomorrow Bags work for me!

Bleached

Day one of my 'new plan' went off without a hitch! I got a ton of laundry done that came from the bathroom, cleaned the toilet, counter and sink, and left the whole room tidy and smelling like bleach. I try to be environmentally friendly, but nothing makes me feel productive like the sweet scent of bleach. Maybe I should invent a bleach scented candle and sell it to all the other tired 'homemakers'. I could make millions!

Today I'm supposed to be working on my bedroom and master bathroom and as of almost 3pm I haven't done a thing. I actually need to focus my energy on finishing the bedroom swapping that I did over the weekend since I dropped the ball and now my monsters don't have anywhere to play. I'm hoping to get my bedroom a little picked up, give the bathroom a bleach makeover, and get most of the new playroom organized today. That's a lot to take on, but I'm feeling extra motivated today... must be my new bleach candle!

A New Plan

You know when you've never heard of something before, then all of a sudden you hear about it again and again within a few days? That's what happened with The Food Nanny and me. My friend Mrs. Awesome had mentioned this great show that she had seen on BYU tv and told me all about The Food Nanny. Then I saw this post from Jen @ Tatertots & Jello and got all excited again. My meal planning 'strategy' (plan when I feel like it and scrounge for the crap in the bottom of the freezer when I don't) needs some serious TLC, and this seemed SO easy. It gave me the permission I needed to make the same type of this every Monday. And it also got my brain thinking...

This system made meal planning seem like a no brainer. I already have recipes printed out and sorted by the main meat in my recipe binder, and it would be easy to move them to theme dividers instead. My OCD wants to sort them by theme and then by main meat, but my OCD also wants to alphabetize the cheeses in my deli drawer, so I don't listen to her very often... she's a little nuts. Anyway, I'm getting off track- if this system made dinner seem like a no-brainer why couldn't it work for other things? I'm not sure if you've caught on yet, but I have some trouble keeping my house clean. Would this magical Food Nanny brainstorm help me keep my house from looking like a bomb went off and then a tornado came through the wreckage? Stay tuned for the answer to that one.

I present my new housekeeping schedule:

*Monday*
Bathrooms
*Tuesday*
Master bedroom/ bathroom
*Wednesday*
Kids’ rooms
*Thursday*
Living Room
*Friday*
Kitchen
*Saturday*
Extra room
*Sunday*
Something crafty, fun or for yourself

I need a schedule that's pretty flexible, at least in the beginning so I can figure out what's going to work for me. Tomorrow I'm going to start on my bathrooms, and just commit to doing ANYTHING to make them better than they are now. I made sure that Tuesdays and Thursdays were the least important areas since I work those days and am less likely to do something super productive those days. Saturdays are for the laundry room, garage, entryway, etc that don't really need weekly upkeep but need time. I really hope it works out and actually have tried this years ago with fairly good results!

I'm linking this post to Messy Monday at Moms In Need of Mercy, since I know all about Messy Mondays... and Tuesdays... and, well, you get the point!

Happy Easter!

We actually did our Easter morning yesterday since Mr. Wright had to be at work at 6:30am today, so today we're laying around watching Barbie in a Mermaid Tale and doing laundry. I hope everyone is enjoying time with their family!

Dirty Little Secrets

Welcome to another rousing edition of Dirty Little Secrets.

Sweetie Pie's wet swimming stuff from Wednesday is still sitting on my laundry room floor.

I can never remember to charge my cell phone at night, so we're paying $100 a month for me to basically carry a dead phone in my purse.

I love magazines and books, so I buy and subscribe to tons, but then never get a chance to read them.

Yesterday I made cookies that I know the family doesn't like so that I could eat them all by myself.

I keep my netflix movie for a whole month without watching it and then force myself to watch it just so I can send it back and get a new movie I won't watch.

If I could hire a maid or a cook, I'd hire a cook. I HATE making dinner... and lunch... and breakfast.

I haven't done anything crafty in at least 3 weeks.

We're moving our Easter to tomorrow since Mr. Wright has to work on Sunday and I'm SOOO unprepared.

Sweetie Pie is supposed to wear jammies to school today, and in the past I've had the decency to at least put her in clean jammies. Today she's going in the ones she wore to bed.

My entryway is SO gross with mud and dirt everywhere, and I haven't even wiped the mud Little Man got all over the door, much less the floor!

Mr. Wright has been asking me to file our tax amendment for months, and I still haven't done it. Maybe tomorrow!

What's your dirty little secret?