My Own Medicine

I can't count how many times I've cleaned our playroom in the last month. At least 4- and not just 'quick pick ups'. We're talking HOURS long cleaning sessions with all three kids that include crying, frustration and throwing fits. The kids don't like them much either!

EVERY TIME I make the kids help so that they know how much work it is to clean up. EVERY TIME they promise me that this time they'll put their toys and games away before choosing another. EVERY TIME I believe them, and they don't come through.

This week I got fed up with it, stuck the three fighting, outdoor-starved kids in the playroom and shut the the door. When it was clean (cleaner) they could come out. They argued for the first three hours, then banded together to defeat me in the easiest way possible, without actually cleaning of course. What can I say... they are MY kids after all.

They sent Boo out since she's the baby. At just barely 3 she expressed the message (from her brother and sister) that they shouldn't have to clean their mess if I don't clean my mess. Damn, I knew that was going to catch up to me somehow! Fortunately she cited my messy bedroom instead of any other dreaded area. I calmly told her that I made that mess, so I will clean it. I won't clean HER mess in the playroom any longer.

Today I made good. I went down to the dungeon my bedroom and paced around confused about where to even start. I eventually decided to collect all the laundry since it's the biggest problem in there. I collected garbage, brought up dishes, kept the wash going, sorted clothes to donate, FINALLY put extra less used clothes in our new dressers, made the bed and vacuumed. It took me ALL morning, but I am SO glad that I did it. I never realized how much I avoided hanging out in there until it was clean again.

My bed was calling me to lie down with a good book and enjoy my work. Unfortunately I still had the three (arguing) amigos and a thrashed playroom to deal with. Every part of me wants to go in the playroom and just clean it myself. It would take an hour- tops. Then I won't have to stress about it anymore. But then they win. And I lose. And that sucks.

Do you think Maury Povich has a boot camp for unruly preschoolers who aren't smoking and drinking but could use a kick in the booty? Like a Bootcamp Lite? I'm SO checking into it...

A Thick Blue Line

File this under CRAP THAT COULD ONLY POSSIBLY HAPPEN TO ME.

It's been super rainy here for a while and the rainy weather causes my kids to fight and causes me to be extra lazy. Yesterday I got a whoosh of motivation and decided to rearrange the furniture in my living room. Who knows, maybe it will send me on a wild cleaning spree around my whole house! I even got the vacuum out which is impressive since we broke up two weeks ago...

Ok, step one. Move the recliner across the room to put the couch in its spot. Easy enough. Here we go... PULL!!! I drag the recliner ten feet across the room to it's new home. I stand up and see THIS... (make sure you click to blow up the photo so you can see it in all its glory!)



WTF!? The line was so perfect that at first I thought a marker must have been uncapped, upside-down, in the perfect position to draw a freaking line on my floor. Then I saw it. A blue crayon.

I dare you to go right now and draw a line that thick on your carpet with a crayon. Try it, go ahead. I'll wait.

*taps foot*

Are you back? It's next to impossible, right?! Unless you're really strong, and in that case I'm not responsible for damages. Sorry!

Apparently there was a crayon in the perfect spot under the foot of the chair, and as I dragged it across the living room it was caught in a perfect storm of crappy. A whole lot of scientific stuff went down with molecules and friction and equations and dog hair and the crayon MELTED into that nice blue line on my living room floor.

I freaked out and started running around like a crazy lady (not so unusual I suppose) trying to find ANYTHING that will erase this from my life. When all else fails pour water on it... or something like that. I sucked up the water with my carpet cleaner (it doesn't work well enough to use it like it's intended) and panicked. The blue color had just spread a few inches on either side and now I had a wider (but less blue) line on the floor. SHIZNIT!!

Ok, take 2... I came up with a cocktail of really hot water mixed with vinegar and doused the blue beast. I let it sit for a few minutes, and sucked up the water. Success!! Kinda...

I'm still not sure if there is blue residue left over on the teal carpet, or if the rest of the teal carpet is so dirty that the clean spot looks really bright, but I'm choosing to ignore either situation. I never thought I'd want to thank my 19 year old self for picking TEAL carpet, but I guess this is the one situation where teal seems like a good idea. Maybe I'll just put a couch over the spot and forget about it. Everyone loves a couch 2 feet from the tv, right!?

Another One Ignores The Dust

I woke up this morning, got the laundry going, and made my bed. I came upstairs, made breakfast, rinsed the dishes, started cleaning the counters, and cuddled my babies. I got out my chore box, made a new list of the stuff that needs to get done and washed the table.

I'm not sure what happened after that since I must have blacked out, but 5 hours later I'm sitting on my couch with an empty Pringles can watching TV in my jammies.

Shiznit. Better luck tomorrow I guess!

Do's and Don'ts of Dishes

I just read this article that was on the Yahoo home page about how 'pre-rinsing' dishes before running them through the dishwasher was a waste of water and time.

You have NO idea how much I wish that to be true, but I just don't buy it. I've tried all the time occasionally to stick yucky dishes in the dishwasher in the hope that my life would be changed by my magically clean dishes, and I could shout from the rooftops "Kenmore CHANGED MY LIFE!!". It hasn't happened yet. Instead I open the dishwasher to newly cemented crusties where last night's dinner was before. Then I get the extra special chore of jackhammering the crap off with a butter knife just to pre-rinse, then wash again. How much water does THAT waste "experts"??

The whole thing makes me want to take some nasty dishes to Lowes and make them run me a sample load before I buy a new dishwasher. Or maybe I want an excuse to make someone else wash my dishes... you decide! Why should I need a new dishwasher anyway!? Our dishwasher is a mere 6 years old, and again, according to the "experts" it shouldn't matter if my dishwasher is run by a hand crank- I still shouldn't have to pre-rinse.

I'm still VERY grateful to even have a dishwasher since it decided to take a vacation a few months ago, but for Yahoo to get me all excited with a "Dishes Habit To Avoid" headline is just mean... or maybe my head read it as "Dishes IS A Habit To Avoid". In that case I would have printed it out for Mr. Wright when he wondered why the house smelled like dinner from Tuesday!

What's your dishes policy? Pre-rinse? No pre-rinse? Come to my house and pre-rinse?

Let me know!

Dirty Little Secrets

My first dirty little secret is that I JUST realized it's Friday- whoops! Mr. Wright has his days off during the week so I never know what day it is during the summer.

I've gained 3 pounds this week from eating mass amounts of broccoli and rice... smothered in cheese... prepackaged... and swimming in sodium. What? They're REALLY good!

I filled up half of my new DVR with movies from Starz that I recorded just to watch over and over.

There are 10 loads of unfolded laundry on Mr. Wright's poker table. I should probably be folding them right now... hmmm, maybe later.

Our 50 inch plasma TV exploded this morning and I'm PRAYING that it wasn't all the dust all over it that did it in. And I'm scared that Mr. Wright is never going to be complete again without his baby.

I still don't have any desire to dust anything else as a precautionary measure.

We're spending the night at my parent's house in 2 hours and I haven't packed anything. And I can't pack because I haven't folded the laundry. And I haven't folded the laundry because I'm watching the movies on my DVR. See how I just spiral myself into laziness!?

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

Procrastination

I should be doing dishes, calling Dish Network, folding laundry, washing more laundry, clearing off the table, bringing in the trash can, putting my kids down for a nap, de-cluttering, blogging about something useful, cleaning off the counters, brushing the dog, mowing the lawn and a few other things.

Instead I'm sitting on the couch, in my jammies, watching the US Open. (Also known as Annual Bor-Fest 2010) I did get 250 pieces of a 300 piece Hannah Montana puzzle done with Sweetie Pie this morning, so that's something. That thing was harder than it looked!

Before & After!

I'm so lame today that I'm posting an OLD before and after... maybe it will inspire me to clean something. Doubt it, but it could happen! I was really inspired to clean today when it was sunny- I even made my bed today! Now the clouds have rolled in and my motivation has packed up its crap with the sun.

These photos are from the end of May right after this post. Sorry, no exciting photos of the garbage collection or phone calls!

Here's my entryway a few weeks ago before cleaning:
(It's like an I spy! I spy a clorox mop, backpack, 239843 shoes...)


And here's my entryway a few weeks ago after cleaning:
(Ahhh! The same amount of light is coming in, but it just looks lighter and brighter!)


The entryway currently is in between the two, but thankfully closer to the second than the first.

Wait... maybe I'm starting to feel a little inspired. Maybe? Yes!...uh...maybe?...nope. It's gone now- Whew! That was close!

Paint Party

Ok, so I have another Dirty Little Secret... I hate paint. My poor kids rarely get to paint, and when they do we stick to watercolors. Even that takes DAYS to totally clean off every single surface that they touched. Sooooo.... I don't allow paint in the house. You know, because it's always spotless anyway! Uh, yeah. Moving on!

I saw this great idea at Little Hands, Big Work to put some paint in a sealed ziplock bag and 'draw' letters in it. I really wanted to try it, but due to my selective OCD I don't own any paint.

Luckily my mom and I has some free time to hit some yard sales on Saturday and while they were super disappointing in general I did come across this ONE thing- 6 big bottles of paint for a whole dollar.



They were so excited to see the paint, and even more excited when I started filling gallon bags with their favorite colors. I'm still me so I skipped the colored paper beneath it that she had on the blog, but they still thought it was really fun!

Little Man loves green, so he practiced his letters with the green bag.



Boo wanted blue and yellow and was more into feeling the paint squish between her hands than drawing letters.



And Sweetie Pie wanted to make purple, but took her time marbling the colors together slowly.



They played with them for 20-ish minutes this morning when we made them, but have picked them up and played for a few minutes at least 10 times already today. And the best part? NO clean up!!

Dirty Little Secrets

Welcome to this week's edition of my Dirty Little Secrets! Don't tell anyone... mmmkay!?

I've been letting my kids stay up WAY too late just because I haven't had the energy to do the bedtime routine.

I bought those crappy cheesy peanut butter sandwich crackers for my kids and ate most of them.

I'm addicted to entertainment headlines. I check People.com at least twice a day like a stalker.

We've eaten macaroni and cheese from a box two nights this week.

I haven't cleaned the kids' bathtub in months.

I watched Hannah Montana: The Movie this morning and cried at one part. I'm such a freaking baby!

I had 200 photos printed in the hopes that I would feel like scrapbooking, but I still don't.

Uhhh, I think that's it. I don't have as many when I keep up with the dishes & laundry! :D

What's your dirty little secret? Share in the comments!

A Whole Lot Of Random

I've been SOOOOO busy and I have so much going on at once that I just haven't had time to even play Facebook games! I'm not sure if it's related or not but I did see this when I logged onto Yahoo today:



Coincidence!?

It's good to know that Farm Town, Social City and Restaurant City are missing me as much as I miss them! I have gotten a few things done off my never ending to do list though. I finally got the play room TOTALLY clean, and have checked it every hour since then to make sure it stays clean. I got 8 2-liter soda bottles cleaned out and filled with emergency water. I almost kept up with the laundry and I have been relatively keeping up with the dishes. Oh, and I threw a tiny party for Boo's 3rd birthday.

Now that I type it out it seems pretty pathetic for a whole week's worth of stuff, but I felt like I've been trying hard. I'm going to link this post up to a whole bunch of stuff to hopefully get some new readers and re-inspire me to get off my butt and get blogging again. I have easily 15 posts in my head that I need to get written but just haven't had the motivation. Soooo, welcome if you haven't been here before, and look forward to some new posts if you're a regular reader!

I'm going for a record of participating in the most blog carnivals in one day EVER, lol!









Thanks for stopping by!

Seeing Red

Yesterday I was busy cooking dinner with Mr. Wright while the kids played outside. They play outside ALL THE TIME with no incident, but this time the 10 year old neighbor girl was playing with them.

I would normally assume that having a 10 year old with them was a good thing, but this time it turned out to be not so good. I don't want to blame anything on her since my kids were also covered in red spray paint, but some of the "art" was a bit too accurate for my 6 year old to have created. I checked on them periodically while I was making dinner and they were happily playing in the water table.

Little did I know that they were so enthused with the water table because they were trying to get the fire engine red paint off their hands. They had gotten the spray paint from our paint shelf in the garage (that's been there since they were babies and they have NEVER even given it a second look) and decided to decorate my house, their playhouse, their water table and a folding chair that was outside. WITH RED FREAKING SPRAY PAINT!

Luckily there was only one small spot on my green house, and I faded it a lot with a Magic Eraser, but they still used spray paint at 5 & 6 years old. I flew outside like the house was on fire and immediately sent them to their rooms. I glared at the neighbor girl for not mentioning this little activity to me and stormed into my house.

The kids ate dinner and had to sit on their beds until bedtime, which of course is the worst thing that I could possibly EVER do to them. I lectured them on making good choices, knowing right from wrong, yada, yada, yada. Then today happened...

I'll skip the details so this isn't a 12 page novel, but I found out that they stole 3 Hershey's bars from my in-laws motor home and hid them in Sweetie Pie's sweatshirt until they could get home and eat them in secrecy. It's SO stupid because if they had asked they would have gotten 12 candy bars, I'm sure, but since they had to take them they got in tons of trouble.

I'm SICK of punishing, and I'm sick of my kids being the hellions that I dreaded having before I had kids.

They don't make enough Butterfingers to get me through this week...

What I Did Today

I cleaned out the fridge. It was gross... like, really, really, really gross.

I recorded 10 HOURS of The Pacific for my dad.

I did 2 loads of dishes.

I ignored the laundry... again.

I put the premiers of 5 summer shows on my Google calendar. Seriously.

I screamed at my kids. They just aren't listening today, and I'm counting down until bedtime. Hopefully we'll have a better day tomorrow.

I watched Precious and regretted it. It was good but stressful- why don't I just stick with RomComs!?

I FINALLY made a two week meal plan with themed nights a la The Food Nanny.

I froze a BRAND NEW Magic Shell bottle with the ice cream I bought at the same time.

I took a shower- whoo hoo!

I bared my white ass legs to the newfound Alaskan sunshine... but then I forgot to go outside.

What did YOU do today!?

Dirty Little Secrets

Yesterday I did a huge wash of the kids' clothes. As I put it in the dryer I realized that I forgot to put soap in the wash. I dried them anyway.

As much as I love my new cup solution I still have to hand wash the cups every night which blows since I get hand washing. I stuck them in the dishwasher hoping they wouldn't melt and break my dishwasher again and it worked!! I may have done a happy dance at this point.

I left my cell phone at my parents' house and didn't even miss it. I've been drooling over an iPhone and how much I NEED one, and it turns out I don't really use my phone that much at all.

My sister made me do day one of Couch to 5K and I considered running away from home. I would have if I wasn't so tired of running at that point.

While we ran around my neighborhood I fantasized about having the money, time, and drive to have a nice yard like my neighbors. My yard looks like an abandoned yarbage (yard garbage) sale... or the remnants of a cheap plastic toy factory after a tornado.

I keep forgetting to set the parental controls on the kids' computer in the play room. Sweetie Pie is no longer allowed to Google thanks to the "HORS GAMES" search a few months ago and I trust her to go only go to her bookmarked sites, but even Disney leads to Disney XD which leads to God knows what when you click on the ads.

I canceled our Netflix subscription but they sent me my new movie anyway. I have 30 days to return it before they charge my credit card for it, and I plan on holding onto it for a good 3 weeks just because I can. I'm a rebel like that... Anyone want to borrow Precious!?

I'm pretty sure a bomb went off in my playroom. It's so bad that I couldn't even attempt to clean it for Little Man's birthday party. I just shut the door.

What's your dirty little secret?

Do you have a mountain of laundry piled up to be washed or folded?
Give your kids baby wipe baths?
Lock yourself in the bathroom with a magazine to get two seconds of "me" time?

Yeah... I don't do any of those things either... I just heard of someone else doing them. Yup. It surely wasn't me.

Share your own confessions in the comments!

Three Things

My house is a disaster, plain and simple. I walk from room to room and make a million mental notes about what needs to be picked up, vacuumed, wiped off and sanitized. The problem is that even when I am in the mood to clean house I have two hours at the most and it's just a drop in the bucket when it comes to this place. I'd need two DAYS at least, preferably with two willing helpers to keep me from sitting down and getting on Facebook.

I get so overwhelmed with the thought of cleaning up the house that I just block it out and do nothing. Actually, I've been keeping up on the dishes, and a few days ago I had ALL the laundry done, but all the other rooms of the house could use some TLC.

Last night I made a list of the three things that were bothering me the most: the entryway mess, the garbage cans around the house, and the two calls that I'm still putting off from 2 weeks ago. That's going to be my focus today! I'm really glad that I didn't make the list of the million things that need to be done since I woke up feeling like I got punched in the head repeatedly last night thanks to a sinus headache. It's only three things, so it's not overwhelming, and they're the three that are bugging me, so I'll notice my progress right away. I have a million other things to check off my mental list, but a million divided by three is still less than a million.

Once my three things are done I'll feel like I've accomplished something and can spend the whole afternoon on Facebook if I wanted to. Well, I'd probably do that anyway, I would just feel guilty about it. Feeling guilty about eating an entire package of cookies sounds way more fun anyway!

A Cup A Day Keeps The Dishes Away!

I've learned a few things these last few weeks without a dishwasher. I never quite realized how many cups my kids went through until I had to painstakingly wash every.single.one. Even now that my dishwasher is fixed I feel like I need to reign in the cup situation since it's just out of control. I have 3 kids that eat 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks, all with drinks. Mr. Wright and I usually use 2-3 cups each a day also, adding up to a mind boggling 20ish cups PER DAY. I'm not a huge fan of doing dishes obviously, so if I let them stack up for 2 days then that's almost 40 FREAKING CUPS. And yes, we have that many cups. Sad, isn't it!?

A few weeks ago (in the middle of the dishwasher crisis) I was inspired my my friend who decided that every day each kid would get ONE cup. I had no choice but to apply it to our family too. I let the kids know that after each meal it was their responsibility to put it in the sink so I could rinse it out to reuse it later. We use plastic disposable 'party' cups so that I could clearly write their names so no one would be confused or passing blame. Every(ish) night I wash the cups just like real cups and put them back in the stack to get used again. I have about 3 cups for each kid since I suck at doing dishes (and sometimes enforcing the "put it in the sink" policy) but even then it cuts down on total cups.

Yes, I wish that we could be a normal family and reuse real cups, or I could keep up with that crazy amount of cups. Yes, I know that disposable cups are bad for the environment, but if I reuse them as long as they hold up I figure that it's better than running a full 'all cups' load of dishes every night. But for now this, and my sanity, Works For Me.

One Of Those Days

I thought I was prepared for Summer... that is until I went to get dressed this morning. My pants (fresh from the dryer) were a little tight and I literally pulled a muscle in my back when I securely fastened them. I'm fairly sure that I'm the only person on the planet to injure themselves getting dressed. Seriously, it's hard to even admit that on the internet.

My mom called right about then to let me know that I had left my cell phone in her car. 90 minutes away. And she's not coming in for 3 more days. And it was ringing. FANTASTIC.

My muffin top and I then proceeded to get my three homeless looking munchkins halfway presentable and put them in the car. But the carseats were missing. I tracked down the carseats, dragged them through the driveway and installed them. I HATE putting carseats in. I'd rather change three poopy diapers than put a carseat in. Maybe even four.

I got all the kids buckled up, backed over at least 2 plastic shovels out of the garage and fight to get my garage door opener to shut the door for 20 minutes. It would have been a lot easier if I hadn't have pulled that muscle getting my pants on.

I guess I'm just planning on ignoring my chores this afternoon, reading my new library book, resting my sore muscle and waiting for the Biggest Loser finale tonight. Hopefully tomorrow will start out a little better... or I'm going to have to buy some bigger pants!

My Favorite Things

I'm in super homeschool mode right now, so I'm really excited to try this rainbow measuring activity from Mama Jenn!

I will never in a million years get around to making this fabric magnetic meal planner for my fridge, but I think it's adorable!

We're also committing to "unplug it" one day a week this summer. There is no way Mr. Wright will be able to go without Sportscenter for a WHOLE DAY, so ours will only apply to the daytime, but if I tie it into our library day I'm sure we can make it!

I thought this baby doll washing activity looked like fun! Little Man can surely find a plastic toy of some sort to wash if he objects to soaping up a baby...

I think all my kids will enjoy sewing up the sides of some punched foam sheets like this activity from Skip To My Lou!

I really need to clear off my craft table so I can start sewing again, then my favorite things will be more crafty!

What I've Been Up To

Whew! The last few weeks have just been a whirlwind and I'm finally catching my breath! My friend's husband Mr. Awesome came over and fixed my dishwasher on Wednesday so I am finally out of the deserted land of hand-washing dishes. I'll NEVER take my dishwasher for granted again! I'm so thankful to have her back in tip-top shape that I've even been keeping up with the dishes!

Sweetie Pie had her last day of school on Thursday and is enjoying playing with her brother and sister in our Alaskan heatwave of 60 degrees. I still haven't gotten to stay home all day in my jammies, but I believe in always striving for a hefty goal, so I'll try my hardest to get my jammie day!

Today I spent a good chunk of time planning the kids' "summer homeschool" to keep them from getting bored and me from going crazy. They beg to do homeschool and love challenging themselves so I'm excited to get started on Monday. I started planning by making a list of all the things that each kid needed to work or keep up on (handwriting, subtraction, etc.) and then I'll print games, activities and worksheets that work on those skills.

Boo will be three in a few weeks so her activities are mostly to expose her to things she will learn in the future, but I think it's important to let her be part of the fun! We're also going to do weekly library trips, art projects and cooking/baking that she can be involved in.

Little Man just turned five last week and his activities will be heavy with kindergarten preparation since he needs to learn something a few times before it really sinks in.

Sweetie Pie is six and just finished kindergarten. Her activities will be a review of kindergarten level and an introduction of some first grade topics.

All three kids will do age appropriate computer games to keep them busy while I'm helping someone else and if I can get my crap together in time I'd love to even include some small, informal field trips.

I'm excited to watch my little monkeys learn and grow over the summer and am looking forward to spending more time with Sweetie Pie every day!

Avoidance

Today I'm avoiding the mess left over from Little Man's birthday.
I'm avoiding the dishes since I'm still hand washing.
I'm avoiding the laundry that's probably starting to mildew in the washer.
I'm avoiding making two phone calls that I don't want to make.
I'm avoiding cleaning up my yard that is so filled with kids' toys it looks like a garage sale.
I'm avoiding cleaning off my craft table despite my yearning to do something crafty this week.
I'm avoiding making big choices.
I'm avoiding cleaning the playroom. Again.
I'm avoiding washing the MOUNTAIN of clothes in the kids' room that Boo kindly pulled out of all the drawers.
I'm avoiding cleaning out my freezer.
And I'm avoiding making a to do list of more things to avoid.

What are you avoiding!?
I'd love to hear your answers while I wait for our invisible maid to show up!

Love & Hate

I love my blog. It makes me feel good when lots of people read what I wrote. I'm addicted to my stat tracker. But I also hate my blog. Sometimes it feels like one more thing I have to do, and that's no fun. Add that to swimming lessons, volunteering, HAND WASHING the dishes that I couldn't even keep up with when I had a dishwasher (it bit the big one this week), laundry, picking up after 3 kids who were born in a barn, field trips, birthday planning, crafting AND watching ALL 60 hours of stuff on my DVR before we switch providers and I'm surprised I still have time to eat cookies.

Every mom struggles with balance, and lately my blog (and Facebook games! :O ) just haven't made the cut. Sweetie Pie is done with school for the year next week, so hopefully then I'll have a spot open for blogging!

Until then!

Stress Math

In the next 18 hours I need to:

pack 3 kids under 6 for a 4 day, 3 night road trip
take 2 kids to swimming lessons
cook up and freeze 5 lbs of ground beef
wash, dry, and fold 4 loads of laundry
clear off 3 counters
do 1 load of dishes
get 7 hours of sleep
make 4 beds
load 1 car
strap in 3 carseats
celebrate that for the first time I'm bringing 0 diapers on this annual trip
take 2 Tylenol...

And then the REAL fun begins!

Exhausted.

So. Freaking. Tired.

After almost a week my Grandma's 5000 square foot house is almost completely empty. I think everyone in my family is ready for a 3 month vacation (at least!). My own house looks like a tornado went right through since I've been bringing stuff home from my Grandma's house and from the garage sale at midnight and throwing everything everywhere. I tried to put some work in on my own house today, but after 90 minutes of unwrapping and sorting Grandma's dishes I got sidetracked and sat down. And then sat some more. Wishing I had some cookies. Or a chocolate malt.

I get to relax for a whole two seconds before I start to prepare for our out of town trip starting on Thursday. I LOVE car trips with small kids...

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?

Blogiversary

Today I:

got ALL my counters cleared off
got my dishes washed and put away
washed and folded 2 loads of laundry
rearranged the living room furniture and vacuumed
practiced counting with Boo
organized the Easter Bunny's goodies
fed my kids leftover pizza and cheetos for lunch
ate some pudding before 11am
got dressed
planned ahead for Little Man's birthday gift
spent too much time on the computer
wished for a miracle
talked on the phone...

and today I celebrated my very first blogiversary.

As I said in my whiny post, I'm not happy with my progress in the last year, but tomorrow is a new day. With the help of my friends, other bloggers and even strangers across the world that stumble upon my little site I've felt not so alone in my quest to get it all together. I've read every single comment, and appreciated each one... except those few about prescription meds. Those comments suck.

Anyway, today also wraps up March, the month with the most visitors to my site ever. Thousands of people in 20+ countries come to read the random crap I have to say every month and that just blows my mind. I'm just a little lady from Alaska blogging in my jammies who hates dishes... and laundry... and prescription med spam.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

40 Bags in 40 Days Check In Week 5

Another week gone- how did you do? I've completely stalled out on the 40 bags projects since I can barely find a place to put down my cereal (for dinner) bowl, much less sort and purge. I did find some bonus uncounted trash bags in the garage that were left behind from the game room projects, but I'm still going to have to bust my butt tomorrow to get my bags done although it is technically past the 40 days. I'm no theology major, but I'm pretty sure that God gave us more than 40 days between Lent and Easter because he knew I would need a few days off.

*That was a joke, please don't send me e-mails with big words in it!*

I have no pictures, again, because my camera card hasn't left my laptop in 2 weeks, much less taken a photo. I need a day off of life to catch up, but I'd probably just collapse and take a nap instead.

Here's my totals:

Week 1- 5 bags
Week 2- 11 bags
Week 3- 0 bags
Week 4- 19 bags
Week 5- 3 bags
Total on Day 42- 38 bags

How are you doing in the home stretch? Leave your progress in the comments so I don't feel so alone!

Whine & Dine (A Whiny Post)

I'm down with a case of can't get my life together syndrome. Obviously I was never good at getting it together, but the last few weeks have been pretty interesting. I can clearly see what needs to be done, and I can even take the first step to get things picked up and put away, but then I just stall out.

Earlier this week I cleaned the living room. I tipped up the couches, vacuumed everything, organized what stays in the living room and put everything that doesn't belong in a laundry basket to be sorted and put away. Those 2 laundry baskets are still sitting in my dining room. If I just sorted them it would take maybe 10 minutes, but my brain can't focus on that since I feel like I could do 10 minute jobs for the rest of my life and still not get it all done.

As a "good mom" I'm supposed to remember that my kids won't remember whether there were laundry baskets in my dining room for 2 weeks and do something fun with them instead. As a good time manager I'm supposed to schedule a time when I do my cleaning and organizing that still allows for family time. Unfortunately I tried that (remember the living room cleaning!) and didn't even get one room done. As a good housekeeper I'm supposed to be Spring Cleaning using one of those never ending lists that include taking pillows outside to air out and wiping heating registers. I'll get right one that...

With my 1 year blogiversary coming up on Wednesday it's become more clear than ever that not only am I no better at life than I was a year ago, but looking at my dining room it's almost worse. I don't want to be super mom, and I'm fine with never airing my pillows or wiping the heat registers, but keeping up on the dishes and laundry still seems like a fantasy.

I wanted to do a giveaway for my blogiversary, but fittingly I didn't get my crap together in time... there's always next year!

Sheet Folding 101

Yesterday after baring my soul on my dirty little secrets I finally got around to folding all some of that pesky laundry. I had been avoiding it since it was the last of the laundry room stuff so it was basically a giant load of fitted sheets. Anyone who enjoys folding fitted sheets needs therapy, but this video from Life As Mom made folding a billion fitted sheets suck a tiny bit less, so I had to share!

How To Fold A Fitted Sheet- Life As Mom

Check it out!

Dirty Little Secrets

It's Friday again, and that means it time to tell you that I've made NO progress on any of my dirty little secrets from last week.

I've had laundry baskets filled with sheets and towels for almost 10 days now sitting unfolded in my living room. When I pick up I just stack them on top of each other.

I have a million things to do, but I can't help but sit around and watch tv or movies after the kids go to bed. I should be folding, editing, cleaning or purging, but I'm just mush these days.

The previous confession makes me feel really old.

I got my glasses this week but I can't decide if they make me look cute or like a librarian.

I was scared that the garbage truck wasn't going to pick up my trash because I can't remember when I last payed the bill. I made a point to get home so I could bring it in before a lot of people saw in case it was still full.

I hate making lunches so I try to talk Sweetie Pie into eating hot lunch everyday since I don't have to do anything.

I can't wait for real Alaska spring so I don't have to keep track of hats, gloves, snowpants, and boots.

I ate an entire box of red beans and rice by myself yesterday. And just typing that makes me want another one!

What's your dirty little secret!? You know you want to share...

40 Bags in 40 Days Check In Week 5

I've had a week that just wouldn't stop 'giving' so I totally forgot to post my 40 bags in 40 days update!

I'm really regretting upping my personal challenge to 60 bags last week like a dummy. I'm sure I could do it crap-level wise, but I didn't really account for all these disasters taking up all my free time and energy. I did manage to get a few cabinets in my kitchen decluttered, but other than that the progress has been slow. With the challenge wrapping up next week I'm starting to panic a bit about making the original 40 bag finish line, much less the cocky 60 bag challenge I gave myself.

Here's my updated totals:
Week 1- 5 bags
Week 2- 11 bags
Week 3- 0 bags
Week 4- 19 bags
Week 5- 3 bags

Total so far: 38 bags

I still have a coat closet, 2 bathrooms, my bedroom and some stragglers from the big game room cleaning to go through, so my goal is still attainable if I put in the work, but that's a scary place to be when I'm kinda known for not putting work into anything. The good news is that I seem to have a pattern in my decluttering style that allows for one slacking week, then one panicking week. Hopefully the panicking will really kick in on a day when I actually have the time to devote to finishing up!

How is everyone else doing in their quest for less crap?

A REAL Dry Spell!

We got to stay up really late Sunday night and wonder what was going on when all our faucets started spraying sandy water. After a midnight visit from my father in law (who tried to look down the well with those darn moose who are wearing out their welcome just a few feet away!) we were instructed not to use any water until he could come back and check it out in the daylight. Not an easy task with 3 kids, and inevitable cooking and cleaning to do. My awesome sister came to the rescue and brought me a few gallons of water in the morning, but it really showed me how unprepared we are for a real emergency! I do have storage water in the garage, but I never put bleach in it so I'd only be able to use it for toilet water and washing anyway. So if there was a catastrophe today, I'd have NO water!

I've always kept a MAJOR disaster plan that we'd use the 800 gallon water bladder under my house that my well feeds to, but unfortunately my father in law discovered the bladder was the culprit of our sandy issues. Apparently my well is pretty dry this time of year so the bladder was completely full of AIR, instead of water. That would have really sucked in an emergency!

I'm just glad that for now, hopefully, we'll have water as long as we try to conserve and not leave the well pump on all the time. And I also want to point out that I've never wanted to shower more than right after I haven't been able to...

So, my mission for this week is to fill up my empty 5 gallon water bags with bleached water so I'll be more prepared for next time. My life has always followed the "if you have it then you'll never need it" philosophy, so I like to look at my future water supply as insurance against 2012 and zombies. My friend linked me to this awesome emergency preparedness blog that lists the amount of bleach per gallon for storing drinking water. I immediately subscribed because the whole blog was filled with great ideas!

I'm thanking my lucky stars that my supplies were tested without the consequences of a real emergency and now I'll be able to get my act together! Being prepared with even basics like water Works For Me!