40 spaces in 40 days--Day7/8

Well, I completely forgot to post my project pics yesterday, so I have them below.  Can I just say how excited I was on Sunday that I didn't have ANY cleaning to do?!?  After this past week, which has been a like tackling a beast, I needed a break.  I have finished more cleaning in the past week than I have done in the past 6 months combined...well, maybe.  I can now say that this week, so far, has been much easier.  I haven't had to scrub so much, just a quick wipe down is all it takes.  YAY!!!  I also have been working on smaller spaces that are completed quickly.  The next few days of tasks will take a little longer, but at least my weekly chore schedule items take about 30 minutes tops (including the daily stuff).  My girls also made their beds as soon as they got up this morning.  YAHOO!!!  My life is slowly starting to feel more manageable again...and I LOVE it!

Day 7--My Top of Dresser

 Before

 After

Really, most of the stuff on top of my dresser was garbage.  It didn't take long to clean off.  Yay!  Now I need to find my jewelry box to put up there. :)

After all of my chores, I made some Amish Friendship Bread, and wheat bread (not pictured).  It was all SO yummy!

I started a HUGE project that I will complete in my spare time (ya right, who has that?).  I'm not divulging what it is at this time or posting pics yet because it's very frustrating and is taking some time to figure out.  I hate it when I'm not good at something.  It just about had me in tears, but I made a second attempt today and it was a little better...emphasis on little.  Hopefully it all turns out. :)

Day 8--Nightstands



Before (My top of nightstand)

 Before (My inside of nightstand)

 Before (Mike's top of nightstand)

 Before (Mike's inside of nightstand)

After (My top of nightstand)

I had SO much stuff crammed in this thing that really shouldn't have been there.  I tried to find a home for everything that came out...even if it was the garbage.  I'm glad that it is more functional now...other than to hold my phone and water bottle.

After (My inside of nightstand) 

It is now much easier to find what I need.  Oh yeah!

After (Mike's top of nightstand)

I forgot to take a picture inside, but I can assure you that it is well organized. Mike doesn't really use his nightstand much so there wasn't much to clean out.  That was a huge relief after going through mine.  I should have taken a picture of everything I pulled out of it.  You'd be surprised at how much was stuffed in there. 

I'm officially 20% finished with my challenge.  It's pretty exciting to see the transformation of my home and how nice it is to kick back and enjoy the spaces that are completed.  It makes me so happy!

Cooper's 2nd Birthday

I just want to give a little shout out to Cooper since it's his 2nd birthday. I can't believe how time flies.  I just love my little man.  He has the BEST personality, loves to be loved on, and wants me all the time.  Gotta love him!

 His Choo Choo

 Lego blocks and book that teach you how to build farm animals

 More building animals out of legos

The scooter 

Blow out the candles...oh wait, the slight breeze blew them out already.  :)  It was so nice to be able to celebrate this special day with so many friends and family.  Thanks for coming mom and dad, Britt, Richard, and Payton, Bryan, Katelin, Easton, Sylvie, Jason, Erin, Bryant, Chloe, Kade, Cathy, and Jonathan.  It was fun!

40 spaces in 40 days--Day 5 & 6

I had a few things pop up yesterday and wasn't able to complete my task, but I finished it this morning and kept on moving all day.
 
Day 5--The Linen Closet

I have been wanting to redo the linen closet for a long time.  I'm tired of not being able to find everything I need, stuff falling out at me, and having a hard time closing the door because stuff has fallen out at me. 

Before I got started on the linen closet, I needed a really good breakfast.  Since I had left over strawberries from making jam the night before, I decided to try making strawberry syrup.  Can I just tell you that I don't ever have fruit on my pancakes, but this was TO DIE FOR!!!  MMMmmm!!!  It was so good, I had it again for breakfast this morning.  :)

 Before (bottom)

 Before (top)--Now I forgot to take a picture before I got started, so I took a picture of what I hadn't taken out yet.  I should have taken a picture of what I took out to give you a perspective as to how much I actually fit onto these 2 shelves.  It was CRAZY!

 After (bottom)

 After (top)

 I also reorganized the bow hanger. I am pretty proud of this little accomplishment.  I threw away so much stuff.  empty boxes, expired medicines, etc.  It makes me so happy, yet my garbage can is more than full and it's not garbage day until Tuesday. 

Day 6--Mike's top of dresser

My excitement in cleaning this off is that it has looked like this for almost 2 years now.  I hate it.  I have this awesome mirror that attaches to the dresser that has never been attached.  In fact, it's still in the original package.  Mike is going to attach the mirror for me tomorrow.  Yippee!!!

 Before

I decided to pull the dresser forward to get a "few" things that had fallen behind. There was more than a few things, but now it's nice and clean.

After



40 spaces in 40 days--Day 4

Day 4--The laundry room

Today was our bathroom cleaning day, and what better day to also clean the laundry room since it shares a space with my downstairs bathroom.  There are clothes that have fallen behind the washer and dryer by the window that I haven't seen in months.  It's a bit crazy down here.  There are also random socks all over the floor in front of the dryer that have dropped and lost their place.  I couldn't wait to get this space in tip top shape!

Before

 After

Wow!  It looks great!  I love that I can actually walk in here now :)

 When I pulled up the rugs to sweep and mop, this is what I found...or should I say what is left of it.  I decided to take a picture because, what rug actually sticks to the floor?  That's right, the whole back of the rug came off and stuck to my floor.  YUCK! It took 20 minutes or more just to scrape it all off.  UGH!  Time for new rugs! 

 Most of it came up easy enough, but there was still a little bumpy residue that I had to scrub off with an SOS pad.   

Now it is all clean!!! and ready for a new rug.  Kohls, here I come!

 Kazia really wanted her picture taken.  She is such a big helper.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  She helps keep me motivated...and also sits back to enjoy what we've just accomplished with me. I just love her SO much!

After dinner tonight, I made a quick batch of strawberry jam...and OH is it YUMMY!!! I thought I used a lot more strawberries last year, so I have a bunch left over. I decided I'm going to make strawberry jam tomorrow along with the best pancakes ever. Breakfast is going to be delicious tomorrow. I can't wait!

I laid down with Kazia this evening for a little bit (at 7:30) and fell asleep until Mike came to bed at 10:40pm.  I thought I'd better come down and blog about my day so I don't forget, and now I'm heading back to bed.  I think I'm going to be loving those extra 3 hours of sleep tomorrow!

40 spaces in 40 days--Day 3

Day 3--the OTHER living room corner

I'll make this short and sweet.  Today my space was the last thing I needed to make my living room spotless (since we deep cleaned it yesterday).  It was so hard not to just clean it yesterday since everything else was getting cleaned, but I waited, and oh is it SWEET!

 Before (the end table is in there somewhere, can you see it?)

 Before (left side of the couch)

After

There's the end table.  See I told you I had one hiding in my pile of mess. :)  I really like the end table and am glad I can now enjoy it!

After (left side of couch)

I'm super stoked that now my living room is more functionable and not embarassing anymore!

Sorry this is so dark (I forgot the flash was off) and I can't figure out why the picture keeps turning sideways, no matter what I do.  Oh Well.  This is a shot of both spaces that were cleaned today.



On top of all the other wonderful things I did today (which consisted of almost dying of heat at Lagoon), I made apricot/pineapple jam.  Becky took me to her neighbors' orchard to pick apricots.  She told me it would be enough for 1-1 1/2 batches of jam.  Needless to say....2 batches later, I still have enough for ANOTHER batch, but the 3rd batch will never come to be.  Those apricots are going straight to our tummies; just the way they are. :)  

Can you smell it?  MMMMmmmm!!!!  It smells delicious! 

There you have it!  16 jars of reduced sugar jam.  I tried the no sugar added stuff last year on my strawberries and it turned brown and icky looking, so I'm sticking to the reduced sugar recipe.  Now I just need some fresh bread to put this on...if only my oven wasn't on the fritz.

What will tomorrow hold?  Not sure.  I know I'm making 1 batch of strawberry jam and letting the girls pick the next space to de-clutter. 

40 spaces in 40 days (Day 1 &2)

Well, here goes nothing.  I'm sick and tired of my house being cluttered.  I clean it, look around, and it still looks terrible.  I've found a few ideas on Pinterest to help me get started on de-cluttering my house so it can be sparkly clean, if such a thing actually exists. 
As with anyone else, I do much better if I am held accountable for something.  Lately, I have been losing weight by exercising and changing my diet so that I can fit into my pre-Cooper clothes. Which I can (well, all but 2 capris), YAY!  To stay on track, I have attached myself to myfitnesspal and LOVE it!  It always makes me think twice before I eat anything. 

This is my attempt and being held accountable for the mess I call home.  It really wasn't this bad before I started working again, but my work schedule this past school year was not condusive to home life at all.  Little by little, my little mess became a colony of little messes. 

I found a PIN that is called 40 bags in 40 days.  I won't say I actually collect 40 bags because I purge as I clean, but I can attest that I'm purging, or at least finding permanent homes for things that cannot be thrown out.  I think my challenge will be more like 40 areas in 40 days. 

I started out by writing down 40 spaces that need to be worked on.  At first I thought, really, 40, no way.  But as I'm cleaning, I find other areas I missed on the list.  So I may have to ammend my list.  Keeping the list to 1 small area at a time makes the challenge feel more manageable and attainable. 

Each day I will focus on 1 space.  That one area may be big or small depending on the day.  The beauty of it is, I can choose which area I do every day.  I don't have to go in order.  I am starting with the couple of spaces that bug me the most and that I will get the most satisfaction out of completing.  Please don't judge.  I'm just posting pictures to keep track of my accomplishments, that way I can look back at how far I've come.  This is very similar to looking back and where I was physically before I started my weight loss journey.

Below is my list of spaces to attack:

DAY 1--Kitchen Counter
I have 2 spaces that really need to be cleaned (as you can see over on the left side of my sink by my Kitchen Aid mixer), but the bar that sticks out is the biggest problem.  I can only use about 1/2 of it at a time.  Why have such a large  countertop and neglect half of it?   

 Before

 After

Now the lighting isn't great but, you get the idea.  I felt so great after purging and wiping this counter down, it made me want to do another area...

that's where the 2nd part of this journey comes in.  The second idea I found was to have a set schedule as to what needs to be cleaned and when.  About a year ago, my hubby asked me why I hadn't cleaned the baseboards, dusted the ceiling fans, cleaned the air returns, etc.  I responded with: I am not a deep cleaner.  I never have been and never will be. Get over it.  Well, the time has come to eat crow.  I always go into these super cute houses and with mine could be that way.  I think the first step is to have a clean (non cluttered) house that I can start to decorate and feel really proud of. 

I used a couple different schedules on Pinterest and then merged, added, twisted, and came up with this:

I know it's hard to read, but if you want a copy, I can email it to you, or maybe I'll post mine to Pinterest as well.  There are a few things I do daily like dishes, garbages, 10 minute tidy 2x per day, laundry and vacuum (as needed), make bed.  Then every day I have one focus for the day. 

Monday--Kitchen

Tuesday--Living Room

Wednesday--Bedrooms & Hallway

Thursday--Bathrooms & Laundry room (shares with a bathroom)

Friday--Family Room

Saturday--Work Outdoors

Sunday--Enjoy free time with the family

One each of these days, I'm doing a deep clean.  The paragraph you see below each day is the items that need to be cleaned.  Now this seems crazy...and this week it will be, seeing as I have never done this.  It's going to take a little more elbow grease to get things cleaned, but next week, it will be a quick swipe of a cloth and I'll be done.  Ideally, it shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes (not including the daily tasks).

What better way to start off the deep clean that to get the girls to help out.  Many hands make a heavy load light (or something like that, I know I butchered it).  The girls each completed tasks withing their capabilites.  Jade spent the entire time deep cleaning each chair and the table. 

Kazia spent her time scrubbing baseboards, walls, the microwave, stove top, and oven door, while I cleaned the front of the fridge and microwaved, wiped down all of the cabinets and countertops, front of dishwasher, doors, windows, window ledge, sink, and took out the garbage.  When we were finished, I felt very proud of our efforts, and so did the girls.  I noticed that they tried to clean up their spills and dishes more since they spent the time to help clean. 

DAY 2--Living room corner by piano, and top of piano

Now I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but see the huge tupperware box?  Well, there's 2 stacked on top of each other that I received my tupperware in back in JANUARY!  They are completely empty and are a waste of space.  Lovely. 

 Before

 Before

 After

Lets just say that because of a stack of empty tubs and 2 huge boxes, there really wasn't that much to clean up.  It really only took about 15-20 minutes tops.  I can't believe I left it all there for so long.  It kept piling up and looked like a large monster to tackle, but in reality, it ended up being a tiny mouse.

Now I just have to share one of our deep cleaning moments.  Below is a picture of our cold air return that Kazia and Jade had started scrubbing.  I couldn't believe how dirty it really was.  YUCK!  It makes me feel so much better knowing that I'm getting all of this filth out of our home.  :)





Today's Events

Well, since I'm not much of a journaler I thought I'd share what's been going on lately here so it is documented.

My life is CRAZY to say the least. My days consist of:

• Get Kazia and Mike out the door (lunches and all) by 7:45 am (Monday's we rip the kids out of bed by 6:30am to drop Mike off at the Front Runner train stop)
• Take Mike to work then Kazia to school
• Home by 8:30 to get myself, Jade, and Cooper ready for the day
• Out the door by 9:15-9:20 to take Cooper to Reagan's in Kaysville, drop Jade off at the sitter's, then to school.
• 10:30 start teaching
• 3:00 end teaching, pick up Jade from preschool (she gets out at 3pm too),
• 3:15 pick up Kazia from school then head to Kaysville to pick up Cooper (Monday's I drop the girls off at tumbling right after school, get Cooper, then back to get the girls).
• Pick up Mike from HAFB T/W/F, Train stop M/TH.
• Head home and make dinner
• Do homework with kids
• Read to kids
• Showers
• Bedtime for kids
• Correct papers, do laundry, dishes, etc.
• Pass out!

Pretty crazy huh?!?

Well, this week is Parent Teacher Conferences and my students are doing planet reports/presentations (all 100-6th graders) which comes with grading of multiple papers per student which equals hundreds of papers to grade all at the same time and that doesn't include all of my math papers. AAAHHH!!!! I also have not yet canned the tomatoes I have into salsa because my husband talked me into going to church instead and said I'd have time to bottle salsa on Monday.

HA! We ended up going to look at a car, in West Jordan, which we decided to buy except for it was COLUMBUS DAY and the banks were CLOSED!!! How dare them! So by the time we did all of that, stopped by Mike's work to grab some pieces to a computer desk he wanted to build at home we got home at 9pm. Our kids were tired, ornery, and we were POOPED!

So what did today have in store? After I dropped Mike off at work I was feeling so overwhelmed. My laundry hasn't been done and the kids have no clean pants for tomorrow, dishes, correcting school papers, getting ready for Parent Teacher Conferences, and cleaning my house. I'm sure I forgot a few things. Oh and did I mention I still need to make card swaps for my Stampin' Up! meeting this weekend? How on EARTH am I supposed to get all of these things completed? I would only have enough time in my day if I cut out sleep but I'm too tired to lose out on any. :(

So back to when I dropped Mike off...I was so overwhelmed that I just cried. I let it all out. Then I thought "What is my deal? I can handle everything. I always do. Whether it seems possible or not I just hunker down and get things done." But that overwhelming feeling didn't leave. I was feeling so down.

When I got home I had to get Jade, Cooper, and myself showered/bathed because we were out too late the night before. It usually takes me the entire 45 minutes to get myself showered, the kids dressed, lunches made, bags packed. How on earth was I supposed to shower Jade and bathe Cooper in this amount of time when I rarely have enough time without those tasks? I needed a little help...like for time to stand still for a little bit.

I got Jade in and out of the shower in record time (meanwhile I got all of the bags packed), showered and got myself and still had 5 minutes. WHAT? How did that happen? I glad I could get Cooper in the bath so I put him in and ran to grab his towel and lay out his clothes. As went to stick a pair of pants in the laundry basket I saw something shiny...it was my WEDDING RING that had disappeared aobut 3 months ago in Cooper's room. I had searched EVERYWHERE except for under/behind the changing table for that ring. I KNEW it was in there. I had just washed Cooper's clothing on Saturday so how did it get there you ask? I feel like it was divine intervention. That's right! The Lord knew what a rough time I am having right now and that I needed a little something to get me through it all and it worked! I was so stoked I went straight back to bawling again...only this time tears of joy and gratitude.

I made it everywhere I needed to be today just in the nick of time...so time had to have stood still just for a bit today. :)

Then after picking everyone up we went to purchase our 2000 White Honda Accord. We were finished with paper work and out of the bank by 6pm. YAY!!! No more ripping kids out of bed BEFORE the butt crack of dawn. YIPPEE!!! I'm so stoked. This will take a lot of stress/pressure off of me. Mike can even pick up Cooper in Kaysville some days.

We decided that since we were finished early we'd go look at an intellibed since our bed is like sleeping on plywood. Thanks Brandon and Suzie! :) When we hit about 33rd south in SLC on I-15 I got a call from my alarm company stating that our alarm had gone off and they asked if anyone was authorized to be in our home. I quickly told them no and we weren't home and no one was to be there. Immediately my heart sank to the pit of my stomach. A little girl at my school just had her entire house cleaned out of electronics last week. I was SICK to my stomach. I tried to stay calm so I didn't upset the kids. Kazia asked me what was going on so I told her and she was super worried about her special blanket at home (bless her heart). I told her it was safe. Then she worried about her toys.

I called Mike (now in the new to us car) and told him we should go straight home. My neighbor Jen called 2 minutes later and she was with the officers at my house. Apparently everything was safe but a brown/tan 4 door truck had been seen at my house. I knew who it was and figured it out. It was one of my stamp club ladies bringing by money for her order. The side door hadn't been locked (although it should have been) so she thought nothing of it and was going to slip the money inside on the floor. She completely forgot about our alarm and she forgot her cell phone at home so she sped home (about 20 minutes away) to call me. Luckily all was well and my sick feeling went aways. PHEW!!! What a scare! Mike decided we could still go look at an intellibed so we went to Riverdale, ate at Chick-Fil-A and checked the intellibed store and they had closed early...as in they were supposed to be open until 8pm but no one was there at 7pm so we let the kids play at Chick-Fil-A for a bit then home and to bed. We are all so worn out I don't think my eyes can stay open much longer.

I did stay up for a little bit so I could wash the girls clothing so they have pants tomorrow. They're now in the dryer. YAY! I took tomorrow off to take Kazia into the doctor's because we think she has an ear infection but our schedule today would not allow a trip to the doctor's today.

Now that we have the new car, we have to fix a couple of things to get it to pass inspection so guess what tomorrow holds? Maybe some salsa if I wake up early enough, a crazy schedule, and trying to get the car fixed in between. At least I don't have to taxi Mike (he'll take the van) and I don't have to teach, but I do have to go later for conferences. YIPEE!!! And maybe a new bed if there's time so that we can finally get a much needed good night's rest.