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.

Turtle Open House

My dad told me about this open house (7/30). It is a guy that he works with that lives here and his wife is the "turtle lady". She has probably at least 50+ turtles of all different kinds. She said most of them are rescued turtles.
The girls got to hold these baby ones. It was neat!

This was a large tortoise. He couldn't see well and if you got to close, he might mistake your toes for worms so WATCH OUT!

This was a soft shelled turtle. It's shell is much softer than most. It has a long skinny piece that is attached to its nose so that it can hide in the water stick out its nose and wiggle it. The fish think it's a worm and then the fish becomes dinner. :)

Even Cooper liked seeing all of the turtles. He really wanted to touch them but they can carry diseases, and you can give them diseases. Cooper puts his hands in his mouth regularly so he didn't get to touch.

This picture is a little blurry but she has 13 turtles roaming this little pond and a bench to sit on and watch from above (it's blue). They also have a bunch of ducks. What a fun and educational field trip!

Handcart Days Parade

Handcart Days (in Bountiful) is one of my favorite times of year. They have yummy food at the park for a decent price. We ate hot dogs (huge!), BBQ Beef sandwich's, nachos, snow cones, corn on the cob, cotton candy, and Brigham Fry Bread (scones with cinnamon and sugar). MMMMMM!!!!!

Nana and Grampy gave the girls some extra money to spend while at the park so they got to go "fishing" and they got the batons you can see in their hands and got their face painted. So cute!

Cooper was having a great time crawling around getting into everything while at the parade. I don't think he even watched it. This was his 2nd Handcart Days Parade. He went last year when he was only 2 days old. WOW! Time flies!

Mike and Cooper hanging out.

After the parade we went to my mom and dad's house to wait for the fireworks. They have the BEST view from their back porch. We watched a movie and the girls hopped into the chair and shared their parade treats. I love it when they're best friends. I wish it was that way all of the time. :)

Cooper

Can I just start off my saying how much I LOVE this little guy!?! He is such a blessing to our family!

I brought Cooper home from church yesterday because he was so onery and he only likes to sleep in his crib. I did not feel up to battling it out for another hour and 45 minutes. As soon as he was put in his crib, he was out.

I had to go pick up the family from church...and we had to talk to someone in the Bishopric right after so I had to wake him up. He was sound asleep. I took a few pictures...flash and all...and he didn't even stir. I felt bad waking him up and he was not happy I did it, but he was SO cute all snuggled up on his monkey pillowpet.
ADORABLE!!!

Cooper has been teething all day...it has been rough. He finally went to bed around 8pm only to wake up around 9pm. Mike brought him to me and we snuggled while finishing up The Bachelorette. He NEVER snuggles like this. It was great! He played with his hair the whole time and hardly moved for about 10-15 minutes. I enjoyed every minute of it. :)

Raddish's

The first veggies harvested from our garden last Sunday (7/17). We planted everything from seeds this year and raddish's grow quickly enough to get a few crops planted/harvested.

Here is the bowl we picked.

Mike cut all of the tops and bottoms off and we ended up with very little compared to what they look like growing. I'll have to post more pics of our garden later. We have a ton of little tomatoes, a few zuccini's, cucumbers, and peppers. The beans and peas are quite slow and the carrots seem to be doing well. We also have raspberries and strawberries....which we haven't harvested yet.

Kazia loves the garden but hates to weed...just like her momma! :)

Super Juggernot!

I'm back...and hopefully for good! :)

Well, I made the girls super hero capes and Mike insisted they have real super hero names. He came up with Super Juggernot for Jade. She loves her cape.
I was doing some basic cleaning around the house when Jade came across these cool glasses that Nana and Gramp got from a U of U gymnastic meet. They light up and blink too. Accessories are a girls best friend...as you see she is also sporting a Snow White slap bracelet. Go Jade!