"Since when did you like to sit there?" and other discoveries

Last night while blogging Husband came into the bedroom and remarked, almost shocked, "Since when did you like to sit there?" 

"Since I cleared it off," I responded. This seemed to have made perfect sense to him. He probably thought about it and recognized that this indeed was probably the first time since we've moved into this home that our window seat has been empty for more than 2 days. No laundry, no books, no pillows. Just me and my laptop. In fact, since I cleared it off, my son has taken to reading his books here. Every time he comes in he remarks, "Isn't this a great place to sit and read, Mom?"  The funny thing is he has a window seat in his own room. And it's usually cleared off. There must be something about sitting in this room that makes ours more of a novelty experience. 

And so I sit in my window seat again this evening. It's lovely. And it got me thinking....what other places do I have in my home that keep getting covered and cluttered and aren't getting the use out of them that was intended?  I'm going to let that one simmer... {laundry room, shed, garage...those are the big ones that come to mind...but I am sure there are smaller areas that could use a clearing out}.

On another note, here's your proof that I was not kidding about my reason for  moving out of the home office:

Would you want to work in an office with this thing staring at you from behind all the time?

I don't think so.

ugh.

Anyway, let's end on a happy note, shall we? Remember my secret desire to have home grown food on my table? Well, I have made another wonderful discovery... If you don't have your own garden, you should live by people who do! This is just a fraction of the love that continues to be dropped off on our doorstep by wonderful neighbors:

Clearly I need to make some tomato soup or bruschetta or something soon! Husband mentioned to me he might be ready this spring to plan a garden after all. This is huge. He even said the reason he killed the section of bushes along our fence was to prep it for planting. He had actually picked out our spot for gardening! He sheepishly confided that as much gardening as he did growing up, he doesn't remember a whole lot. So, I guess he and I will get to take the blind plunge into gardening together. I'm excited. I mean, spring's kind of a ways off, but still. There's a chance I will get to grow something besides basil and parsley after all!

Now here's your motivational cheer: Go and clear off that proverbial window seat of yours so you can enjoy it! :)

Moved Out

No, not out of my house. If I had to move out of my house I'd not be blogging, but likely at a therapist's office or a hospital receiving medical attention for my mental state. I've moved 12 times in my 8 years of marriage (in fact by the time we had been married 6.5 years, we had moved 12 times). I am not saying that with a "pity me" voice because I chose this life and I knew our lives would be nomadic until school was finished and the career was well underway. I'm saying "I've moved 12 times" in a matter-of-fact voice, giving you some background into my life and why I am who I am. While everyone else was discovering and perfecting new hobbies like quilting, sewing, designing, scrapbooking, running, painting, knitting, hairstyling, cell-splitting, book-writing, I spent the majority of my married life honing my packing and unpacking skills. Which I suppose in a very direct way gave birth to this blog. I haven't given much effort in exploring other hobbies, at least until this point because I was busy figuring out again where I should unpack my dishes.  And now that I am somewhat settled (knock on wood) I'm really enjoying myself in unpacking  FOREVER!  I really like the idea of being buried in the back yard, in fact.  Having moved so much, I'd really rather not move for a very long time.   So no, not talking about moving out of my home. I'm kicking myself out of my home office and designating the area as Husband's. The walls are dark brown and there is a big, ugly elk mounted on the wall that according to Husband, is an eternal fixture to that room. It just stares at me. I  can't work in there. So, I've been trying to figure out how I can "move out" without taking up much space somewhere else in my house.  So this is me dreaming....


The container store has offered this darling solution:





I love the color scheme of sea breeze blue, red, and of course silver, to tie in the Mac.   It takes up relatively little space and seems quite functional. 


Sigh.


A girl can dream, right?


PS I'm still trying to come up with a name for aforementioned Elk. Suggestions welcome.

entryway solutions

Something that has been on the back burner for a while is a little wall of mine at the entryway.  I don't want art work there, because the front door could (in theory) slam into it. I'd rather not have something sitting on the floor, and whatever I do decide to have there I want it to serve a purpose. A mirror with coat hooks sounds like the best option at the moment. I could always benefit from one more quick check in the mirror before leaving the house, and guests could hang their coat and purse upon arrival.  I'd really like a mirror with little drawers in it, too.  Would that be a bit much to ask?


Pottery barn (of course) has their version of my solution:

 I found this adorable piece on etsy. I thought the jars with flowers in it was a darling little touch.

Martha Stewart showed this idea of using shutters to organize the entryway. I picked up a red shutter at my favorite place last week-- Campus Craft and Floral-- and now I'm wondering if I should have purchased another one. hmmm.





This is one of those times when I really wish I was amazing with saws and drills and wood. I guess I should have paid more attention in my woodworking class I took a few years ago at the local community college. I was expecting number two and had been out of college for enough time that taking a class actually sounded fun.  I signed up for a painting class but it ended up getting canceled so I signed up for woodworking on a whim. I learned a few things, but never got very proficient with the table saws. Bummer.

Back To School Shopping Tips

Want my greatest tip of all time for back to school shopping that will save you time AND money? You know, especially since a good portion of your kids have already started school, or you've already done your shopping?

Just don't go.

Face it, summer temps are going to be around for another month (unless you live in...oh...alaska?), so they can happily school it just fine with their summer wardrobe.  The soonest you should go is in 3 or 4 weeks when there are better prices and plenty of elbow room in the store.

Don't like that idea? Just shop online. {I know, it doesn't usually work with teenagers. It's worth a shot though!} No lines, no stoplights, no thumbing through racks and stepping over clothes.

Still not satisfied? You can do what my girlfriend, an incredible mother of 6 does. The week before school, each day she takes a child out alone on a "back to school shopping date." Mom and child have a chance to shop one-on-one, have lunch, and do some more shopping together.  She looks forward to it every year and so do her children. I thought it was the sweetest thing I couldn't miss passing this on.

To Plunge or to Dip?

This past winter we finally set up a gift my husband was given by his father that was moved with us about 4 times before it was finally taken out of the box.  It was an Aerogarden.

I've always wanted to garden but have yet to cross that off the bucket list or make it a part of our routine. For a handfull of years we never lived anywhere long enough to have been able to reap the benefits of what we sowed in a prior planting season. Then when we landed in Chicago, sadly in our entire acre plus plot of land, there was not one square foot that received enough sunlight to produce a decent garden. Now our home has plenty of good spots (in my limited understanding....) for a garden and there is no excuse. However, my husband grew up gardening and hopes to never do it as long as he lives....something about weeding for endless hours. He can't deny that gardening helped him discover his knack for sales and entrepreneurship. Selling all those bell peppers door-to-door was no doubt an essential precursor to his future career --which now is our bread at butter.  So, with me with no experience, and Husband with the thought of gardening making him throw up in his mouth, the aerogarden was a good start. It was simple to set up and when we went out of town, no one needed to water or weed. It was as low maintenance as a pet rock.

Unfortunately, I did make the mistake of not planning my meals around what we grew. In hind sight, I would have ordered some seedlings (or whatever the little seed packets are called) in more common herbs that I cook with (cilantro or basil for example). It was a great start in allowing myself to see how SIMPLE an herb garden is, and it was great fun for the kids to watch how FAST they grew.

I'm all about baby steps when encountering unfamiliar ground, and this was a good one to help me dip my feet in the pond of becoming more self-sufficient with my food. But seeing as how that Aerogarden took place 6+ months ago and nothing else has come to fruition in the way of growing something edible, I'm wondering if plunging in is the better option?

So that is the question. To plunge or to dip?

With many things in life I can be a go-getter, but that is often with things that are familiar or low-stressors. Give me a disastrous garage (okay, actually, I do have one of those) and I can  whip it into shape without a panic attack.  Give me a pantry full of food and no rhyme or reason to the placement of it all, and I will happily tame it. Give me 5 kids to entertain, feed, and keep happy on my own, YES, I can conquer! But gardening?  I need someone to hold my hand. The ENTIRE way. I swear. It just seems so....hard!

Mom's Best Friend

I recently purchased this calendar in effort to simplify and mainstream our weekly and monthly planning.

Can be found at Target. Made by Mead. Part of the Organizher collection.

Why do I like it?

It's cute

It's large

Has a row for "mine" -- to put my calendar items

Has 4 rows for "Theirs" -- to put the rest of my families items

Has a row for Meals -- so my meals can go on the same spot, too

 I loved the calendar so much I even purchased a table for it to go on in my kitchen. I've learned it's important to not only have a calendar, but to house it in a central location in the home so that other family members can update it as well as be aware of what is going on in everyone else's world..

When disaster strikes

Wednesday. I hate to label it with the cliche'ed line that "it was one of those days" ...because...well, in so many ways, it was a normal day with normal stuff that normal people deal with. It was just the wrong day for it all to happen. Which, I guess makes it all even more normal, because bad things are good at happening at the worst time.

Wednesday was supposed to be my big day to get everything ready for my nephews to come visit.  They were coming to stay with us for several days and adding two more kids to the bunch called for some preparation.  I wanted to clean the house, catch up on laundry and run all those miscellaneous errands I didn't want to have to worry about while they were here. You know, normal stuff you do in preparation for house guests.  I had also just finished painting Daughter's bedroom this past weekend and finally Son and I took the opportunity when both the girls were down for naps to put her room back together again. Mid-way through the restoration I peeked into my craft room to put some stuff away and found the most horrific sight.

Blood covered the floor everywhere.

It looked like a crime scene in that little room. The crime? The storage freezer had been left open. Hundreds (no exaggeration here) of pounds of food were ruined.  Game meat had defrosted and was oozing all over the floor. My husband is a hunter. His dad also recently had their hogs slaughtered. And I think they had a cow slaughtered, too, and then took all those animals to a butcher to be packaged all nice and lovely and housed in our freezer. I had also recently made a Costco run and stocked up on all those freezer basics, which was exactly the reason the freezer had been left open. Son was helping me and took the food down to the freezer. And forgot to close it I guess. 

The room was just swimming in salmonella.... it was G-R-O- double-S GROSS!

The girls woke up soon after. I put Son in charge of Baby. Told Daughter to be good, and sent them all upstairs to play, after having Son fetch the rag-towels of course. While I was attempting the mass clean-up, Daughter came wailing downstairs in incomprehensible sobs about a toy, running, head, brother....and hurt. Covered in filth I couldn't exactly comfort her and told son to check in on Sister and make sure She was okay. Daughter stopped crying and went back to playing. I cleaned up the mess some more until Son said Baby was poopy. Tiptoed out of the disgusting room and washed hands to tend to Baby, who not only needed a diaper change but some food. While feeding Baby, Daughter comes and says her head feels funny. I examined. Okay. Time to switch the gears again. Told the chilluns to load up in the car. I lugged all the disgusting melted goods up the stairs to our van {which was quite the work out} and we drove to the Urgent Care Clinic.

Yep, the Urgent Care.  For sister to get her head stapled shut.

We made an evening of it and finished the excitement off with chicken nuggets, apple dippers, and Smurf-toys, courtesy of our local McDonalds. Miraculously, I had previously lined up a sitter for later  that night so I could attend the temple and I still made it. I really didn't think I would. I kept thinking I was going to have to call and cancel, but somehow the chaos died down about 3 minutes before she arrived. I needed some peace in my soul that evening more than ever. It worked out perfectly and I finally made it to an unsuspecting dumpster down the street from the temple to dispose of our freezer goods. That was relief!

I will say that Son was especially good at pointing out to me as I was cleaning up the freezer mess that at least we were finally getting the freezer super clean.  Oh, and there was one survivor amidst all the freezer casualties: Girl Scout Cookies. Good thing, too. Because I buy those by the case. {If you send your Girl Scout to my house, my purchase alone will probably send her to horse-riding camp....or wherever she's trying to earn money to go to).  And, the craft room got a new name! The craft room has actually needed a new name for a while, seeing as how I'm not the crafty type and it's more just a storage room for general supplies.  The new name: The Salmonella Room. Totally fitting. 

At the end of the night I breathed a huge sigh and I began thinking....how can we be more prepared when disasters such as these strike?  

For messes/spills/those sorts of unpleasant disasters:

* Rag-towels. Rag-towels are SO wonderful. If a basement floods, a child pukes, dishwasher explodes, or a freezer defrosts all over the floor, you will be prepared to handle it if you have a good stash of towels you care nothing for.  I recommend having at least 6 full-sized towels for you to have on hand solely for the purpose of cleaning up such messes.  I would die if I had to either a. use towels I loved on filthy messes or b. wrap myself or my children in a towel that had once cleaned up filth. It's nice to keep those separate.

* Bleach. Enough said

* Rags-- in many locations throughout the house. It's good to have a plentiful stash of them in bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, and closets. 

* All-purpose cleaner with bleach. Has the same disinfecting affect as the straight-up bleach, but less hazardous.

* Carpet cleaners and deodorizers (Club Soda, Baking Soda, Vinegar)

   -- having something you can physically put on the carpet to attack a stain or mess as soon as it happens (or as soon as you discover it) can make a huge difference. Club soda is a great carpet stain attacker. The foam stuff from a can works fine, but I don't think it's as good. However, if you're dealing with puke, it's always good to have something that smells better than puke to cover it up, which is why you should have lots of the can foaming carpet spray stuff anyway.  One must have the big huge Costco sized bags of Baking Soda. You never know when you're going to need to dump an entire bagful on your floor 

* Water-proof mattress covers should be on every mattress. Really. Spills and messes seem to happen where you are least prepared.
* Steam cleaners. Have one, or become friends with someone who does.

Children and Accidents:

* Regularly replenish your stash of gauze, peroxide, bandaids, ointment, etc. 

* Know before you need to know which urgent care clinic your insurance provider works with.

* Bring a special stuffed animal for extra snuggles and comfort to the Drs/Urgent Care/ER

* Load up on snacks - you have no idea how long you'll be waiting in either the waiting room, or the actual procedure room.

* Camera. (most phones these days come equipped.)  You do realize this is one of those events you both will always remember. Why not take some photos to truly capture it?! And it will distract the one in distress.

* Take those buy a meal, get a kids meal free coupons you've been hanging on to. When everything is over, it's always a great chance to celebrate a new set of stitches or scars.

Happy Disaster Dealing!

My Mantle Mantra

I'm at long last ready to design/decorate/finish my fireplace mantle. I've been eyeing this idea for quite some time now:

via interior decor 2010 blog

I love how timeless this idea is.  The color scheme is simple - silver, white, and clear - and the candle holders and accessories are versatile for many rooms and uses in the house should I want to mix things up on the mantle in future years. Even though the above photo was in an article about decorating for the holidays, once I saw it I was in love. This type of decor could sit on my mantle year-round and I'd be completely thrilled; Christmas need not be a requirement for me to have twinkling sparkling reflections of light in my family room. I happened to make a stop into Tai Pan Trading for a quick purchase a few days ago and saw that they were stocked with some candle holders that were quite lovely that went in line with the above idea.  They were well-priced, too. After my PTA meeting yesterday afternoon, I returned to Tai Pan and went to town placing candle-holders in my cart. (glass candlesticks and 3 children would promise pending disaster. FYI I had no children in tow on this particular shopping trip.) Upon checkout, the manager asked "So whatcha got going on? A wedding?"  

Nope, just my mantle.  He smiled and spent the next 10 minutes wrapping each and every single one of those babies in stacks of tissue paper. I felt bad. It was a lot of candle holders.

I'm bummed while he was wrapping that I forgot to hit him up for a donation for my son's school's silent auction fundraiser next month, especially on this particular trip when I was "over-purchasing" on candles and the final price tag was more than I hope to really spend there ever again for a while. I'd rather buy too many than not enough, you know?  I'd hate to need more candles and have to make another trip to find them gone. So, I really missed the boat on asking him for a donation. It's a lot easier to ask for something when you've spent some serious cash at their venue.


I'm a firm believer that knick knacks should have a purpose. I don't want more stuff. But, purchasing 14 candle holders may be in complete disregard of that and definitely could be put into the category of knick-knacking clutterish junk. Hold that thought. They are indeed candle holders. Should the power go out, we will be well-prepared.  

Late last night I went to the car and pulled out my purchases and hunted down my other candle holders. Honestly what took the most time was not figuring out their arrangement on my mantle, but unwrapping all the candleholders from the tissue paper. Once the unwrapping was done, it was really fun and quite fool proof arranging them. I don't consider myself to be a designer or decorator. I'm just a great copier. It would have taken more energy to mess up the mantle with all the candlesticks than it did to make it pretty.  Some of the candlesticks I already owned and have meaning and it was nice to finally raise them from the dead and put them on display. One pair is from Nauvoo, IL. Another couple are from an antique store in Virginia, where I grew up. A vintage glass milk bottle (trying to mix things up a bit and add a bit of quirky-ness) is a recent gift from my husband that he got while in working Virginia. 

I plan on placing on the wall over the mantle this framed piece of art of the Sacred Grove:

This is the place where Joseph Smith, at a mere 14 years of age saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. This began the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Light on the earth was again restored because of what took place in that grove of trees in Rochester, New York in 1820. I thought it fitting to surround this painting with candlelight of my own to remind myself of that very thought.

My Mantel Mantra: 

Fit for a wedding? Check.

Adds to our emergency preparedness? Check.

Symbolic of something dear to me and my family? Check.


So... that may be a stretch to justify a mantle holding up 21 sticks of metal, glass, and wax. But it sure looks pretty.

Tuesday Letters

Dear RealSimple,

Every time I see your magazine, I want to order it. I know you have fabulous ideas. You have great style, taste, and ingenious contraptions that simplify and improve daily life. Perhaps one day I'll purchase a subscription. I think I would quite enjoy it.

I was at Bed Bath and Beyond, excited about finally getting my shoe situation under control.  If you care to know, I like shoes. I have limited space in my closet for them to be stored properly beautifully. My shoes were making themselves at home in random areas around my bedroom. They were becoming a health hazard.  While perusing my different shoe organizing options, I discovered that you have created these darling, cream colored with blue trim canvas shoe organizers that got my heart pumping. I couldn't believe I had found a shoe organizer that matched my bedroom decor!  I couldn't wait to get home and try them out. I purchased two. As with a lot of projects though around here, it takes me some time. Finally one evening after tucking the little ones in bed, I unwrapped your under-the-bed shoe organizers and began assembling them and sorting my shoes. 

It was a disaster. Why would anyone want to buy a shoe organizer that every time they pull it out, this results:

Really, this could be a simple fix. Just go to the home improvement store and have the nice guys there cut out some particle board that covers the entire floor of the shoe organizer. That way it wouldn't fall apart every time I tried to pull it out from under my bed. 

But who wants to FIX something that's supposed to already be FIXING a problem? Not me.

Fortunately Ikea has a better, cheaper solution. Not nearly as darling, but ooberly more functional. Here's my proof:

Shoe organizer under the bed:

What happens to the shoes when you pull them out from under the bed?

nothing.

Get your think-tank crew together and fix this problem. Make your sides more firm or go the extra mile and include a floor for your organizer. Just my opinion anyway.

Sincerely,

Dissatisfied Customer Michelle.

Not just a pretty flower

Need a home for your rings while you're washing your hands? Painting the living room? Sleeping? {i think I read somewhere once upon a time that to protect your wedding ring(s) you should never go to bed with them...??} Don't want an eye sore to add to your daily sink clutter?

PROBLEM SOLVED!

Purchased at Campus Craft and Floral at BYU. 

I love it when beauty meets function so harmoniously....