31 Days-Days 30 & 31

Last day already!  This month has gone by way too quickly.

After a full month of using my control journal, my house is not perfect, but it's better.  So much better.  

"Before" picture of computer desk aka home office

"After" picture of computer desk aka home office.  Still needs work, but it's getting there!

"Before" picture of the end of the hallway between the two bedrooms

"After" picture of the end of the hallway.  The vacuum is no longer just a decoration as I use it every Monday when I do my daily checklist.  Do you see the little hand in the bottom right hand corner of the picture?  Little Man was following me around when I took the pictures.

"Before" picture of the kids' room.  *Shudder*

"After" picture of the kids' room.  *Blissful sigh*

"Before" picture of the kitchen counter

"After" picture of the kitchen counter.  All the kids' craft and activity stuff is stored in the corner next to the fridge. 

The bathroom.  I need to learn photoshop so I can add some "sparkles" to show how clean and shiny it is.

The master bedroom (haha).  Little Man ran past me just as I took the picture.  You can tell what side of the bed is mine...I'm always cold and Hubby is always hot.  So I have exactly 6 layers on my side while Hubby has only 3.  And he's usually still too hot while I'm shivering.

The great expanse of living room floor.  Is that Little Man again?  Sneaky little boy... 

My "Hot Spot", the coffee table.  I plan on buying a basket to put the newpapers, mail, etc. in to make it look a little neater.  I didn't get a before picture of this, but imagine the whole table covered in papers, toys, books, junk, etc. 

You wouldn't think that having a clean house would change your life, but it's most definitely changed mine.

Thanks to the Flylady system, I can walk across the living room floor without feeling like I'm running an obstacle course.  I can get up in the middle of the night to comfort a crying child without worrying about stepping on anything or turning on lights to make sure the floor is clear.  I can get my house looking pretty much spotless in less than 20 minutes.  I can have visitors over at little to no notice and be completely relaxed and comfortable rather than embarrassed.  I can spend more time playing with my kids because A: there's room to spread out and actually play now and B: I'm not spending so much time stressing over the mess and trying futilely to clean it.  I can look forward to Hubby coming home from work so much more now because I don't feel guilty that he's coming home to a mess.  I can sit down and read a book without feeling like I should be cleaning something because it's already done.  I don't freak out over messes that the kids make because, instead of just making a disaster even worse, now it's just one mess that can be quickly cleaned up.  My stress level has gone way down and I don't yell at the kids over little things like I used to do.  I don't start arguments with Hubby like before because I'm so much happier now.

How has cleaning your house changed your life?

31 Days-Day 29

I had a craft show today from 9-3.  My younger sister, came with me to help me carry (read: carry everything for me while I sit around and look pretty) all the boxes in and out of the venue so I wouldn't hurt my back worse than it is already. 

Little Sis came home with me to spend the night and help out since I've got so much to do tonight.  When we walked in, I apologized for the mess.  She gave me a funny look and said, "What mess?"  Hehe.  That's why I apologized.  To make her notice how clean it was.  It worked.

I made Kiddie Trail Mix yesterday.  It was really complicated and took me hours to perfect.  Actually, it took me, like, 30 seconds to dump everything in a container and shake it up.
First I threw some cheerios in an air tight container.  I didn't measure because, well, I just don't do that unless it's absolutely necessary.  Then I added dried pineapple, colored marshmallows, and chocolate chips.  I plan to add raisins and sunflower seeds when I get around to buying them.  Because Princess can't have regular chocolate chips (allergies to gluten, dairy, eggs, and nuts, remember?) I made her a separate batch in a different container with her special dairy-free, gluten-free chocolate chips.
The kids love the stuff especially since it's got pretty colors and chocolate in it. 

Are you looking forward to your day off from cleaning tomorrow?  A day off from cleaning doesn't mean that you just drop stuff on the floor and walk away.  Picking up after yourself should become a habit that you automatically do.   A day off means that you skip the daily routines and take it easy. 
Have fun!

31 Days-Days 27 & 28

I finished my weekly zone, the bathroom, yesterday (Thursday, whoop, whoop!).  So nice to have that done.  

Today, I worked on laundry.  I didn't get it all done though so I'll have to finish it tomorrow evening when I get done with my craft show.  I've noticed that doing laundry really makes my back start hurting again.  I'm guessing it has something to do with carrying heavy baskets up and down a flight of stairs, making a second trip upstairs to drag a screaming child back down to our half of the house (they really like going upstairs to see our landlady and her dog.  She gives them skittles) and leaning repeatedly into the washer and dryer to remove clothing.  Not sure what to do about this though.  It's not like anyone is volunteering to do my laundry for me...are they?  *Hint, hint*

My mom posted this cartoon on my dad's facebook wall today.  My dad is a banjo player and proud of it and we like to pick on him.  Lovingly, of course.  Okay, we actually get kind of mean sometimes.     

This made me laugh.

Little Man loves playing with my pins when I'm pinning my sewing projects.  Today, he dumped them all out on the floor and oh-so-carefully picked them up and put them back in the little plastic box.  Then he dumped them back out.  He spent a good half hour playing with my pins.  And he never once poked himself.  He did, however, poke his sister a few times.  Let's just say that that didn't go over well.

A month ago, I could never have posted a picture like this because this floor would've been strewn with toys.  I see the kids' toy broom laying in front of the fireplace, but that's it.  Makes me so warm and fuzzy to see the carpet.

I made stuffed crust pizza and pizza breadsticks for supper on Thursday.  Yummmmmm.  My secret?  String cheese.

For the pizza, make your pizza crust like normal and then cut string cheese sticks into thirds.  Arrange the string cheese around the outer edge of the crust. 

You can put your string cheese closer together than this.  I was running out so I had to stretch mine out so it would go all the way around the pizza.

Next, fold the crust over the string cheese and pinch closed. 

All tucked in and ready for toppings!

Make the pizza the way you normally do and enjoy!

I forgot to get a picture of the cheesy breadsticks, but you basically use the same technique as you did with the pizza.  Use refrigerated crescent roll dough and pinch two triangles together to form a rectangle.  Put a whole piece of string cheese in the center and roll the dough around the cheese.  Pinch the edges closed.  Brush with butter and sprinkle with garlic salt before baking.  So easy and completely calorie and fat free!  Or so I keep telling myself.

31 Days-Day 26

Guess what?!?!  I finally checked every single thing off my Morning Routine list!

I erased all my neat little checkmarks and then realized that I hadn't taken a picture.  As uploading a new picture takes 2 cameras, a photo-editing software, and 11 minutes to complete, I decided to skip it and just use the picture I took at the beginning of the month.  Lazy...or smart?

At the beginning of the month, I told you that I wasn't checking "Do sit-ups/10 min. of exercise" off the list because I had just hurt my back.  After procrastinating for a while even though my back was feeling much better, I finally decided to just bite the bullet and exercise.  And it wasn't as bad as I thought it was.  Plus, I got to see a completely checked off list with no gaps this morning.  What a great feeling.  I'm hoping to give myself a flatter stomach by my birthday next May.  Ha!  We'll see how that goes.

My list for Wednesday includes cleaning out the refrigerator.  I gotta be honest with you...I almost didn't do it.  I saw it on my list and thought to myself, "Self, you don't really want to clean out the fridge.  Just skip it til next week."
But then I slapped myself in the face a few times, got in my face like a drill sergeant, and chewed myself out, "Self, just do it!  Get in there and clean that fridge out!"

Never one to disobey a direct order from the higher-ups, I cleaned out the fridge.  It took me less than 4 minutes.  I had to throw out three things that, if left in there another week, would've been much more...unpleasant to dispose of.
What I'm saying here is that if you find yourself thinking about procrastinating or trying to talk yourself out of doing something, just do it anyways.  You will feel so much better afterwards and it probably won't be half as bad as you thought it would be.  

31 Days-Day 25

Today has been a pretty good day.  On Tuesdays, I spend 30 minutes in the weekly zone (the bathroom) and in that 30 minutes, I got everything done on my list for the bathroom except for going through the cabinets.  It makes me feel so happy to see all those little check marks next to my list.  *blissful sigh*

The house was pretty clean, but then while Princess was playing with her "rice pan" she spilled rice all over the kitchen floor.  I have yet to sweep it up, but I have plans to do that during the kids' supper. 

In case you were wondering, a rice pan is a pan filled with rice to play in.  I use a cake pan about half full of rice and some measuring cups, funnels, and miscellaneous toys to play with in it.  When I was growing up, we had a "beach pan" filled with white sand that my mom brought back to Minnesota from when our family lived in Florida for a few years.  We had such a blast playing with that when we were little.  My mother-in-law has something similar for the grandkids to play with at her house.  She filled an under-the-bed plastic container with feed corn (farmers, remember?) and little tractors and shovels.  The kids absolutely love playing in it and since it's a bigger container, several of them can play at once. 

This is an example of a rice play box.  I put mine on top of a cookie sheet when Princess plays with it to make clean up easy. 

Right now, our rice box is plain and boring.  As soon as I remember to buy some more food coloring, I'm going to be dying our rice!  Here's some easy instructions for dying your own.

  I ordered this closet organizer from the Lakeside Collection catalogue to set up next to my sewing machine.  I really need a place to hang clothes when I get done making them plus this rack has lots of shelf space for my overflowing fabric collection.  It came in the mail today so my trusty screwdriver and I assembled it ourselves.  Yay for extra storage space!

31 Days-Days 23 & 24

I thought about blogging yesterday and then I made a deliberate decision not to.  Sundays are a family day for us so I usually don't even turn on the computer.  And I feel that I deserve just one lazy day a week. 

After being gone all day Thursday, getting ready for the craft show on Friday, and then being gone most of Saturday and Sunday, my house was a mess.  It never ceases to amaze me how the house mysteriously makes a mess of itself while you're not home.

I flew through my morning routine today and then started the Monday routine which for me is spending an hour "blessing" my home.  Even with my house messier than usual, it still only took me the allotted hour.  And that was with two adorable munchkins following behind me to undo things as I did them. 

Little Man sneaked into the bathroom while I was cleaning the tub and stuck his hand in the steaming hot water coming from the faucet.  I didn't realize he was in there next to me until I heard him whimper.  I turned to find him shaking his wet hand in the air and staring at it in shock.  Thankfully, he didn't get burned or scalded, it was just hotter than he was used to. 

Another thing on my list today was to make the weekly menu plan and do the grocery shopping.  The grocery shopping was interesting, thanks to Princess's big mouth.  There were several Amish ladies shopping with their young children and Princess had lots of questions.  Lots of awkward questions asked loudly, within earshot of the Amish.  Not quite sure why she was so curious today as she's seen lots of Amish around town, and when we set up a booth at the local farmer's market, she made friends with the Amish at the booths across from us.  I tried to field her questions as best I could while being respectful of the Amish culture.

Just when I thought we were done with questions, a large man passed us.  Just as he was next to our cart, sweet Princess, ever observant, loudly asked, "Mommy, why does that man have such a big tummy?"

I almost crawled beneath our cart at that point.

You know what's really cute?  She asked me that same question this morning as I was emptying the dishwasher.  Thank you, my dear child, for pointing out that the baby tummy hasn't been disappearing as quickly as I would've liked.  At least this time, she asked me this at home.  Last time, that question came up, it was at the dinner table at my in-laws when there was a sudden lull in the conversation.   

Tomorrow's task is to spend 30 minutes in the weekly zone which is the bathroom.  What's your zone this week?

31 Days-Day 22

So according to my control journal (that nifty 3 ring binder book with all the lists that we put together at the beginning of the month), Saturday is the day to clean out the van and my purse.  I did clean out my purse, but the van...not so much.  I had a craft show today (and one last Saturday, and another one next Saturday) so the back of my van is full of my boutique stuff.  But I did pick up the garbage and toys that had accumulated in the van over the last week.  So I guess it is clean, just not empty.  I didn't get a chance to finish my list of chores for my weekly zone, but I got most of it done and, although tomorrow starts another week, I do plan on doing a few more things on the list for the living room.

Technically, starting tomorrow, my weekly zone is the bathroom.  This one will be pretty easy which is good because I have about 8 tutus, 14 pairs of ruffle pants, 10 ruffle skirts, a skort, 6 applique shirts, 2 dresses, and 2 pairs of bloomers to make next week.  And, crazy as I am, I'm looking forward to all that sewing because I seriously love doing it.  I just wish I had more time in the day.  I know other work-at-home moms stay up late every night to work after the kids go to bed, but that's really not my thing.  First of all, I kinda like spending time with Hubby.  Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone, but I, like, have a major crush on him.  Secondly, I need sleep.  And lots of it.  If I don't get at least 7 hours a night, I crash and burn.  And it's not pretty.        

The reason the bathroom will be an easy room to deep clean is because I deep cleaned it last month when I actually started using my control journal.  Yes, I know.  I cheated.  I should've started the same time everyone else did, but I had no idea I was going to be doing the 31 Day blog challenge until...34 minutes before I published my first post.  So no Before and After pictures of the bathroom (like you'd want to see them anyways, right?), but I will post some pictures of my clean shiny bathroom next week anyways so you can see what yours will look like when you're done.     

31 Days-Day 21

Can you believe how close we are to the end of the 31 days already?  Only 10 days left!

Today, I'm going to share some cleaning and organization tips I use.

The cardinal rule of a clean house: Pick up after yourself.  And if you have to, pick up after family members too.  I do expect Princess to clean up after herself most of the time, but Little Man is still figuring this stuff out and Hubby, well...I've pretty much given up on that idea, so I do clean up after "the boys"

If you have little girls, put a shoe bag over their bedroom door and use it to store and organize their hair accessories.

On that same thought, just go ahead and buy an over-the-door shoe bag for each door in your house.  Keep shampoo, soap, etc. in the one in the bathroom.  Organize belts, scarves, and accessories in the bedroom shoe bag.  Hang one up in the pantry to store snacks, spices, etc.  Put an extra door in your craft room just so you can hang several in there as they're the perfect way to organize ribbons and other crafting supplies.
Go here to see other uses for over-the-door shoe bags.

Keep a dry erase/corkboard on your refrigerator to write down what you're out of while you're still thinking of it.  Or, if you don't want to have to transfer the list over to a piece of paper that you can take with you to the store, type up a list of what you usually keep in the pantry with some blank spaces for other things.  Then just print it off and keep a fresh list on your refrigerator so you can check things on the list as you see the need.  Below is an example.  

That's it for today!  Keep up the good work :)

31 Days-Days 19 & 20

My Brain
Definition: Something that weighs my head down so it doesn't float away like a helium balloon.  Not to be mistaken for a useful tool for thinking and remembering things. 
Synonyms: Useless, counterproductive, ineffective.
Antonyms: Helpful, cogitating device, useful in any situation.

Ever feel like you're a broken record?  I forgot to blog yesterday.  Yup.  Realized it while I was falling asleep in my nice warm bed last night.  I thought about getting up and blogging quick before midnight.  But I didn't.  Moving on...

I dutifully did my morning routine and the Wednesday routine yesterday.  I also did some work on my zone which is the living room.  One of my friends was over visiting, and I put her to work helping me swap out the kids' toys and books for the ones I had put away.  It was like Christmas at my house when the kids got up from their naps.  The little dears dumped everything out on the floor.  And here's the fun part.  It's all still there.  I did not clean today.  At all.  I had a doctor's appointment this morning in a town an hour and a half away from here, and if I'm going to be in The Big City with all them fancy stores and such, I'm going to get my monthly stockpile shopping done.  We live in a very small town (pop: 1426) that is 45 minutes away from the closest superstore so about once a month, I spend all day in The City stocking up on junk...I mean stuff we need and can't buy where we live.

My mom and Princess came with me today.  Little Man, in true boy fashion, hates shopping with a passion so I generally leave him behind with one of my sisters.  We found some good stuff today.

Dairy Free-Gluten Free chocolate chips for Princess!  My little chocolate lover about died when she saw these.  We found them at a Food Coop. 

Guitar shaped cake pan for Little Man's birthday.  I didn't buy it today, but am so thrilled that I know where to get one now!  Guess what the theme for his second birthday is going to be?  I have almost all the details planned out and his birthday isn't until May.  Have I mentioned I tend to be a little OCDish at times?

Zebra print sugar sheets for decorating cakes!  How cool is this?!?!  I had no idea how I was going to make Princess's birthday cake (Not until January.  I know, I know...) for her zebra themed birthday party.  This will make it so easy.

Eric Carle shirt for $9 at Target!  I'm a sucker for anything Eric Carle so I had to get this shirt for Little Man!

Also at Target, a hot pink Cat in the Hat shirt with zebra accents!!  Princess's favorite color, her favorite print (zebra), and one of her favorite books, all rolled into one adorable shirt.

White chocolate candy corn M&Ms.  Have you tried these?  I mean, really.  Have you?!?!  They are yummy!  And very sweet, so don't eat too many at once.  Totally wish I'd have gotten more than one bag since the next time I get to Walmart, they won't have these anymore.  FYI, if you want to be my favoritest reader of all time, you can email me for my address so you can send me a few dozen bags.  Just sayin'

31 Days-Days 17 & 18

Hmmm, I seem to have missed another day.  This blogging for 31 days straight thing is harder than I thought it would be.  But I'm still truckin' along and I'm going to make it to October 31st, even if I miss a day here or there.

I feel a little guilty because my house was a little messy today and yesterday.  I'm supposed to be helping everyone else conquer their messes and get their houses clean this month, and here I am setting a bad example. 

Let's spin this a little though.  *Climbs up onto a soapbox and gets all inspirational-ish*  I'm here to say that even if you slip off the wagon a little or fall off completely and get run over by said wagon, you can get back on!  Don't lose heart and don't beat yourself up.  Lasso that wagon and reel it back so you can climb back on. 

Okay, enough with the western cliches.

But seriously, though.  If you slip up, it's fine.  I slipped up quite a bit, but this evening, after about 30 minutes of catch-up cleaning, things are looking pretty good around here too.  Actually, what prompted me to do a quick clean of the house was the loss of a spool of white thread which I kinda need to finish my sewing projects.  I got things cleaned up, but I still didn't find it so I'm thinking that an angel faced cherub may have misappropriated it to some random place where I'll find it in several months while doing some deep cleaning.

My plan for tomorrow is to change out the kids' toys and books with the ones in storage in their bedroom closet and clean the sliding glass door in the living room (my zone this week!).  To be honest, I haven't cleaned the sliding glass door since...well...ever.  There are fingerprints and smudges on there from when Princess first crawled over to bang on the glass with her drooly little fingers.  She's now almost four.  Up until now, I've put it off by telling myself that it's a "memory door" with all of its little fingerprints and nose smudges.  Pathetic, I know.    

What's your plan for tomorrow?

31 Days-Day 16

See this cute little innocent face?

That cute little innocent face is a master of torture.

This dear child didn't sleep well last night.  To really make things interesting, he didn't keep me up all night either though.  Oh no.  From midnight to 4 am, he woke up crying every half hour or so...right after I'd fallen back into a good sleep.  It's one thing to just stay up for several hours at night to comfort a crying child.  It's another thing completely when said child is considerate enough to wait until you've fallen, exhausted, into bed and just started dreaming again before kicking off another round of nighttime unhappiness.  We were not happy campers last night.  No matter what I did, he would not stay asleep.  You'd think I would've gotten smart after the first 5 or so times and would've just stayed awake.  But I was pathetically optimistic that this would be the time he'd stay asleep until morning.  I checked everything possible and the kid did not appear to be sick or injured which kinda irritated me because if you're gonna keep Mama up all night, you better have a good reason to do so.  Because Mama likes her sleep. 

I need to pause here to give Hubby props.  He got up almost half the time with Little Man and was awake as much as I was last night.  And he wasn't half as cranky as I was this morning.

Around 4 am, Little Man finally passed out for the rest of the night and I was able to get a few hours of sleep before getting up for church in the morning. 

Here comes the kicker.  During church, I noticed that Little Man's right ear was crusty and draining fluid.  That's right.  I got served a heaping plate of Mommy Guilt.  The poor baby had had an ear infection during the night.  He's done this about six other times and each time, the only indication that anything was wrong was that he cried a lot during the night.  The next day, I'd arrive at the overdue diagnosis that he had had an ear infection the night before when I realized that his ear was draining.  I'm thinking I need to bring this up at his next well-baby check up.  Bad mommy that I am, I don't see the need to spend $35 to bring him in to the doctor after his ear infection is better.

Changing gears...

What is your zone this week?  Mine is the living room/hallway.  I didn't quite get everything crossed off my list for my zone last week, which was the kitchen, but that doesn't bother me.  I'll just start with that stuff next time. 

31 Days-Days 14 & 15

Whoops, I missed another day!  I promise not to make this a habit.

Yesterday (Day 14) I was super busy getting ready for my first craft show/expo for the season.  I've changed my display and inventory enough that I had to revamp the whole thing.  I didn't get as much inventory ready for the show as I was hoping, but I had enough especially since I knew this one would be a slow one.  It was.  I had one sale today for less than the cost of the table.  But I kinda had to be there, my sister-in-law and I were the ones putting on the event.  Woulda looked bad if I hadn't shown up.  But even though it was pretty slow, it was good warmup for the next 5 shows since now I know what does and doesn't work with my new display. 

Wasn't I supposed to be talking about cleaning my house?  Oh yeah.  Sorry, I got sidetracked.  This is the first time that's ever happened, by the way.  I think.

So yeah.  Not much cleaning happening at my house the last few days.  I've done the morning routine and a few other things and that's been enough to keep my house acceptable.  Next week isn't looking so hot either as I have about 8 orders that need to ship by Tuesday.  On Wednesday, a very good friend of mine who I don't get to see very much is coming over (and I'm not freaking out about the state of my house because it's not that bad!), Thursday, I'll be at a dr appointment and then doing the monthly stockpile shopping.   Friday, I'll be getting ready for another craft show.

By the way, I am totally addicted to Pinterest.  Just a little over a week, and I have close to 400 pins.   *hangs head in shame*

What have you accomplished in the last few days?  What was your weekly zone this past week?  If you've fallen behind in anything, don't worry!  Just keep trying to accomplish your morning and bedtime routines, daily work, and weekly zone work every day.  If you don't get it today, there's always tomorrow.  As the great Flylady says," Don't try to catch up, just jump in where you are."

31 Days-Day 13

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Another good side effect of keeping my house clean...last night, I offered to babysit for a friend.  I didn't even think twice, even though she would be dropping off her little girl the next morning.  There were a few miscellaneous things that needed to be done to get the living room and kitchen before she came, but it was no big deal because I knew it would take me literally 5 minutes to get it up to par during my morning routine.  So this morning, when she dropped her daughter off, I was relaxed and ready for company.

I feel I should either wax eloquent or humorous, but to be honest, I'm just not feeling it tonight.  It's been a good day with a lot of sewing accomplished and Little Man being exceedingly adorable.  I found my Swedish wedding crown last night.  It was crammed into a corner of my closet beneath some clothes that Princess had pulled off the hangers.  Despite being somewhat crumpled and torn in a few places where Princess had ripped it off the display pillow, it was still in good shape.  It was such a relief to find it. 

31 Days-Days 11 & 12

I feel bad that I missed a day, but my computer needed a overhaul so I could use the MyMemories scrapbooking software on it.  Remember, I'm doing a review on the software and will be doing a giveaway for a free download of the software for one of my lucky readers!  I also just got an email about more freebies from MyMemories (I'm so in love with this company!!) for my readers!!  I can't wait to show everything to you guys!


Yesterday was an off day (didn't I just have one of those?).  My dear old dad was at my house all day trying to figure out how to make my picky Ubuntu computer work with the scrapbooking software and finally ended up installing Windows.  Which means I'll be able to do SO much more on my computer.  Ubuntu is fine, but seriously I'm not a computer geeknerd and basic is better for me.  Besides most stuff you want to download doesn't work on Ubuntu.  So I'm happy about getting to use Windows.

So, I didn't get a whole lot done yesterday besides my morning routine.  I did work on sewing quite a bit so it's not like I sat around and ate bon-bons all day.  Although that was a really tempting idea.  I always want to eat chocolate when my darling children do something that's...not so darling.  Sweet little Princess cracked open the display box and ripped my Swedish wedding crown off the display pillow.  And, then she "misplaced" it.  I have looked everywhere and can't find it.  Which is highly concerning as it is very delicate and was hand tatted by my very special aunt for my wedding.  I shudder to think of what will happen to it if it falls into the hands of, say, Little Man.

You can't see the crown very well in this picture, but it's what's holding my veil up.

Today has been quite a bit more productive.  My darling little sister came over to help me out today as she so often does.  The kids adore her, she helps clean my house, and she works for free.  Actually, she does eat a lot of my food, especially if chocolate is in the ingredients, but it's still cheaper than hiring someone.  She helped me cross quite a few things off the list for the weekly zone, which is the kitchen.  My kitchen's looking pretty hot!  I even cleaned out the fridge today. 

Me (cheerfully): It's too bad these drawers in the fridge don't come out so I could clean underneath them.  I mean, that area could really use a good cleaning.

Little Sis (doubtfully): Are you sure they don't come out?

Me: (still cheerfully): Nope! They don't come out!  See?

The drawer falls out of the fridge onto the floor.

Me: (downfallen): I need another rag.

Check it out!  Nothing's moving or growing anything!

31 Days-Day 10

Wasn't it just Monday a week ago?  That came around again pretty quickly, if you ask me. 

This morning, I planned out my menu for the week.

Monday: honey barbecued polish sausage with au gratin potatoes (from a box,
     of course!)
Tuesday: tacos
Wednesday: Sloppy joe casserole
     I don't have an actual recipe for this, but here's how I make it:  Grease a
     baking dish and cover bottom with a few inches of frozen shredded hash
     brown potatoes.  Cover hash browns with a layer of sloppy joe
     meat (hamburger or shredded meat with sloppy joe sauce), diced
     pickles and then another layer of hash browns.  Bake until...done.  If
     it's blackened, you probably overcooked it.  If the potatoes are still frozen,
     leave it in a bit longer.  Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top and
     bake for a few more minutes until cheese is melted.
Thursday: Stuffed coated chicken with honey mustard potato slices
Friday: Eat supper at The Farm with in-laws
Saturday: I have a craft show that afternoon so I haven't planned anything
     out yet.  We'll probably order from the local bowling alley or eat pizza.
Sunday: Eat at The Farm with in-laws

What's your menu for this week?

31 Days-Day 9

It's Sunday which means it's a day to relax and spend time with your family.  I don't even open my control journal on Sundays, and I do the absolute bare minimum of cleaning or straightening up.  Hey, pretty much every job gives you days off, right?

Fun Fact: If you leave a bottle of lotion in front of the bathroom space heater, the bottle will melt.  And the lotion will be burning hot.  Don't ask me how I know this.

Here's some pictures of outfits I made for my kids this week.  Both outfits can be purchased in my Etsy shop.

Reading a book together

My handsome little dude

Hamming it up for the camera

And...someone's done with pictures.

31 Days-Day 8

I'm done with the kids' room!! 
Here's the "before" picture:

And here's the "after" pictures!

Just look at all that carpet!!

Princess's dresses on the top rung (we both have a slight addiction to dresses as you can tell by the 20 or so dresses hanging in her closet) and Little Man's dress shirts, suit jackets, and vests hanging beneath on a closet rung extender.

Isn't it great?!?!

Let's see some before and/or after pictures from some of you!!  You can post them on my blog's Facebook page or email them to annaliesbabyboutique@yahoo.com

I'm not looking forward to next week...the weekly zone is the kitchen.  Not one of my favorite places to deep clean as I generally run across something that's growing something else.  But, *deep breath* if I stick to what I've been doing, it will never get like that again. 

31 Days-Day 7

I'm running a little late today.  In my time zone, it's 10:43 pm as I write this.  I'm aware that some of you may be in October 8th already.  However, I think that as long as it's October 7th somewhere in the world, this still counts as Day 7.

We've had a horrible, terrible, no-good, really bad day.  As in, not a good day. 

Morning was great.  I did my morning routine before we left for town at 8:45 for Little Man's weight check at the doctor.  (He's gained over a pound in the last month, yay!)  As soon as that was done, we headed to the school for our ECFE class which was fun.  Then we came home.  I should've known better than to do that. 

I laid the kidlets down for naps and sat down to finish cutting and pinning fabric for orders.  Everything was quiet, and I was quite pleased with how easily the kids went to sleep today.  Then, I smelled something overly sweet.  And heard a tiny sound coming from down the hallway.  I dropped the box of pins on the table and ran, sensing that something was amiss.  Popping my head into the kids' room to check on Princess, I was met with a terrible sight.  Everything from my nightstand was open and spread around the carpeted floor.  Having severe excema, I have a lot of prescription lotions and creams for my poor dry hands plus regular lotion, vaseline, etc. that I keep on my nightstand.  And it was all over the place.  About $50 worth of product spread on the plush baby blue carpet.  Princess was nowhere to be seen, so I left the scene of the crime and headed across the hallway to my room where Little Man was supposed to be sleeping peacefully in the pack n' play.  He wasn't.  He was happily playing with 4 open bottles of perfume which were of course, empty by now.  Princess was emptying the rest of the drawers in my nightstand of books, papers, and keepsakes.  Many of them were also covered in lotion of some sort. 

I couldn't breathe.  The mess was unbelievable.  My perfume bottles that were a keepsake of my Great Grandmother were emptied.  Both children smelled sickeningly good. 

Have I mentioned that I have a severe allergy to chemicals of any sort, including perfume?

I cleaned the mess and both children up, opened all the windows to air the house out, and made it very clear to Princess that this was not okay and that Daddy would have to deal with her when he got home from work as I was too angry with her to do it myself. 

As of right now, my lungs and throat don't feel quite right.  I'm freaking out about going to bed as I know all too well from experience that that is when most of my life-threatening severe asthma attacks occur. 

My house isn't terribly clean right now.  But thanks to the steady work I've been putting into it, it isn't terribly messy either.  Today was an off day, and tomorrow is a brand new one with another chance to get things right. 

By the way, I signed up for Pinterest.  I don't know why I did it as I've heard it's addicting.  And it is.  You can follow me at HannahWingert to see what I'm wasting...I mean spending my time doing. 

31 Days-Day 6

When I do the "quick clean" of the living room every morning as part of my morning routine, Princess is required to help.  Yesterday, I hit on a way to make it fun for her though.  She loves pushing her shopping cart around the house and filling it up with junk...I mean precious things.  Everytime I found something that had a home in a different part of the house while cleaning the living room, I gave it to her to put in her cart and sent her off to "deliver" it.  She loved it! 

It was right after breakfast when we did this, thus the pajamas.  However, there are days when she's still wearing pjs after lunch.  And sometimes before supper.  But seriously, you should be focusing on the floor.  I mean, I have a floor!!  Just two weeks ago, I still thought my living room was carpeted with an unique "toy carpet".

Today, I put on my climbing gear, packed some beef jerky and tackled Mount Everest in the kids' room.  It took me over an hour, but every piece of clothing that was on their floor is put away, whether it be in a closet, drawer, or storage box. 

This is what I have left to do in their room this week:
"Vacuum"
"Wash window and mirrors"
"Change sheets"  I did Princess's sheets on Tuesday when I discovered the instant powdered pudding mix under and on her bed so I just have Little Man's crib sheet to do.
"Dust baseboards and door frame"
"Clean cobwebs"

If your house is a mess and you have a hard time keeping it clean, did you know that you just might be a perfectionist?  It sounds crazy, I know.  Doesn't a perfectionist have a, well, perfect house?  Nope.  My dear mother is a perfectionist, and she lovingly passed the gene on to me.  And we both have the same problems with housekeeping.

For example, when my kitchen was a mess, as it was 98% of the time before I started Flylady, I would look at it and give up.  I didn't have enough time to dedicate to getting it spotless so I wouldn't do anything at all.  Basically, if I couldn't clean it perfectly, I wouldn't do it.  Using the Flylady system has taught me a motto that I mutter under my breath while cleaning every day.  Somedays when I'm tackling an especially big mess, I growl more than mutter. 

"It doesn't have to be perfect, 

it just has to be better."

I'd love to hear if you have any mottoes or mantras when it comes to housekeeping.  Also, I haven't figured out how to customize my comments forms so I can actually reply to each comment, but I wanted to let you all know that I have been reading and loving each and every one of your comments.  Thank you all for your encouragement and keep up the good work!

31 Days-Day 5

Princess went to the farm with Hubby last night to spend some time with her daddy.  Things took longer than he anticipated though, and so he asked his mom to bring Princess home for bed.  He called to tell me to expect them in a few minutes.  A few weeks ago, I would've gone into a frenzied panic, shoving dirty dishes helter skelter in the dishwasher, throwing the stuff covering the living room floor, couch, and coffee table into laundry baskets to hide in my bedroom, and hyperventilating.  Not this time.  I continued to calmly make supper (I told you we eat late!), and when Princess came waltzing into the house with Grandma, I was all smiles and hugs.  No, my house wasn't perfectly clean, but it was pretty doggone good, if I do say so myself.  Rather than wanting to disappear in embarrassment at the mess and trying to rush my mother-in-law out the door, I enjoyed a conversation with her, inside my house.

This is why I'm using the Flylady system to get my house clean.

I didn't get a chance to do much extra cleaning yesterday afternoon like I'd planned because of some extra work that came up with the boutique.  After perusing my calendar, I don't think I'll be doing a lot of extra cleaning for another week at least.  I have a ton of orders to finish and ship out, and then my fall craft show schedule starts a week from Saturday.  I have 3 craft shows in a row, 1 week off, 2 more, 1 week off, and 1 more.  Which means I'm going to need to get my inventory back up.  Anyone want to come help sew taggie blankets and glue flowers?  :)

I decided to change Wednesday and Thursday's lists around.  I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to pay bills on Wednesdays when pay day is on Thursdays.  For some reason, people get a little touchy when you send a bill stub back with no money.  So on Wednesdays, I'll do my 27 (or 5-10) Fling Boogie, sweep the kitchen floor, and clean out the fridge.  On Thursdays, I'll work on laundry and pay bills. 

I have some really exciting news for all my readers!!!  I was contacted by MyMemories which is a digital scrapbooking software company about doing a review and giveaway for the software on my blog!  I'm so psyched to be trying out the software!  I love the look of scrapbooking, but I never get around to dragging all of my scrapbooking supplies out of the closet to actually work on it.  I'll be setting a date for the review and giveaway tomorrow so watch for it :)

31 Days-Day 4

I'd love to see your before and after pictures during this 31 day process of cleaning your home!  Come on over to my facebook page and share them :) 

The task for today was to spend 30 minutes in the weekly zone.  I know I spent more than 1/2 hour in the kidlets' room, but it looks so much better.  I sat down in the doorway with a garbage bag on one side of me and an empty box on the other and just bulldozed my way quickly through the whole room.  Every time I came to something that went in a different room of the house, I tossed it in the empty box.  I even emptied the box when I was done and put everything away in its proper place.  I know how I "work" and if I hadn't done it right away, it would probably be sitting there two months from now still waiting to be done.

The kids' floor is cleaned up except for the veritable mountain of clothes waiting to be either put away in drawers or packed up to be passed on to the next child who needs it.  My sister insists (the nerve!) on sending the clothes that her little boy outgrows straight home with me, and I've been throwing the random boxes and bags into the kids' room without organizing any of it.  Oops.  My youngest nephew is only 11 days older than Little Man, but he's in 2T while Little Man is in that awkward, nothing fits stage between 12 and 18 months.

Yes, I know.  It's bad.  But you should see how great the rest of the room looks!  I'll post "after" pictures when we move onto the next weekly zone.

While cleaning the toys and books out from underneath Princess's bed, I found an open package of chocolate flavored instant pudding.  Let me tell you, that stuff is NOT fun to clean up.  When I went into the kitchen to get a wet washcloth for the sticky stuff, I found Princess and Little Man sitting on the kitchen floor with nothing on but their skivvies.  Princess was in the process of removing her brother's poopy diaper.  I shudder to think what would have happened had I waited a few more minutes to go into the kitchen.  Disaster averted, I impressed upon Princess the importance of how ONLY mommies and daddies can change dirty diapers (and in our house, it's ONLY mommies who do that). 

I'm sure this has something to do with living in a basement and the kids' room having only one small window with a view of under the upstairs deck, but mold tends to flourish in the kids' room.  We've cleaned mold off the wall beneath the window several times and as of right now, it hasn't grown back.  Yet their room stills smells musty and moldy.  I've checked every nook and cranny and I can't find anything in there that's moldy.  This is especially concerning as Princess has an allergy to mold that makes her asthma and overall health significantly worse.  She spent her first year and a half constantly sick with colds until we found the mold growing on the wall and cleaned it off.  She's not sick now, but her asthma has been really bad the last few months.  I'm also worried about Little Man being exposed to mold as it can make even a healthy person sick.  Anyone have any tips or had to deal with something like this before?

31 Days-Day 3

It's Monday today!!  In case you didn't know that already.

How many of you did your morning and Monday routines today?

I finished my morning routine by 8:30 am.  I have to confess that I don't do everything on the list though.  Two of the tasks near the bottom of the list ("Do sit-ups/10 min. exercise" and "Quick clean of kids' room") go unchecked every day.  About 2 weeks ago, I pinched a disc in my back, and lifting kids and doing housework has slowed the healing process considerably.  I figured that vigorous exercise probably wouldn't help things move in the right direction so I've been holding off on that until next week.  That, and I have a tendency to be lazy.  So please don't tell me how exercise will make my back feel so much better because I'm obliviously happy in my ignorance.

I'm also skipping the quick clean of the kids' room until next week.  With the condition their room is in right now, a quick clean is a preposterous idea.  After this week though, I'll have deep cleaned it, and it'll be ready to go.

I forgot to tell you yesterday...I don't do any zone cleaning on Mondays because I spend an hour "blessing" my home.  I'd hate to overdo it on the cleaning because of all the dangers involved (dishpan hands, housewife's knees, etc).  If you already did some zone cleaning in Zone 1, give yourself a pat on the back because you're ahead of the game.

By 9:30 this morning, all my cleaning was done for the day except for my bedtime routine.  Pretty cool, huh?

I added another page to my control journal today.  I write out a list of miscellaneous things I need to do every day because if I don't, then I forget to do them.  Except that I usually lose the piece of paper the list is written on.  So I put a blank piece of paper in a page protector and added it to my journal between the morning and bedtime routines.  Then I can just write my to-do list in dry erase marker on the page and erase each thing as I do it.  If I don't get to something today, it'll be on the list for tomorrow. 

Look at that!  I can cross "Blog" off my list in a few minutes!  Just to clarify a few things...I buy packages of bacon when it's on sale and then cook a bunch at one time and freeze it so I have ready-to-go bacon bits anytime I want to add them to something.  And "Tuna" is the name of my cat.  I did not take a can of tuna fish to the vet's office. 

 Today was also the day to plan out my menu for the rest of the week.  I take our schedule into consideration when I plan this.  For instance, on Wednesday evenings, we go to a Bible study and prayer meeting at church so I pick something easy to make that day.  On Fridays, we eat supper with Hubby's parents, and his brother and his family.  Sundays, we eat dinner after church at Hubby's parents' place again and have leftovers for supper.  Yes, I know.  My mother-in-law cooks meals for us twice a week...minimum.  I have it "made in the shade".

Here's my meal plan for the week:
Monday-grilled cabbage, potatoes, and lemon chicken with lemon cheesecake for dessert
Tuesday-stuffing coated chicken with honey mustard potatoes
Wednesday-Homemade stuffed crust pizza with cheesy breadsticks
Thursday-O' Brien kielbasa skillet
Friday-Eating at in-laws
Saturday-Bacon chicken alfredo
Sunday-Eating at in-laws

I might switch a few meals around to different days, but it helps tremendously to have a plan.  I can hit the grocery store up once on Monday, and we don't have to eat frozen pizza four times a week because I didn't start thinking of what to make for supper until everyone's tummies were rumbling.

This is the cookbook I'm picking recipes out of this month.  I went through the cookbook and marked all the recipes I want to try.  I choose a few each week to try, and then I decide whether to keep the recipe or nix it.  When I've gotten through the whole cookbook, I'll save the recipes I like in a three-ring binder and get rid of the cookbook.  I have a cupboard full of cookbooks so by doing this, I'm also decluttering.

What are you planning for meals this week?  Let me know in the comments and if you have a blog post about it, post a link to it as well.  I'd love to see what you've got planned!

31 Days-Day 2

Normally, Sunday would be my day off from any cleaning other than what is absolutely necessary.  But today, we're going to get a "control journal" set up so we can jump right into cleaning effectively on Monday.  Actually, I've had mine set up for about 2 weeks now so I still get the day off while the rest of you have to work.  Muhahahahahahaha!!!

Sorry.  The evil laugh just takes over sometimes.

This is where I went wrong when I started doing Flylady the first time 3 years ago.  I tried to wing it and didn't have any lists going.  Obviously, I should have known better as I am a very list-oriented person.  I write things on lists that I've already accomplished just so I can cross them off.  I write lists of what lists I need to make.  I briefly considered "List" as a name for my firstborn. 

The following pictures are pages from my control journal.  To make your own journal, you'll need a 3 ring binder, a dry erase marker (to check things off as you do them), and the "shiny" (not matte finish) page protectors.  If you don't have those things on hand, you can improvise with a computer document, hand written lists, dry erase board, etc. until you can get them.  If you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you'll get a better look at what the pages say.

Before you get started, I have 2 disclaimers for you.
Disclaimer #1:  This is my journal.  It works for me, my family, and my schedule.  If you copy it word for word, it probably won't work for you.  Play around with it (as you can see I've done by the crossed off lines here and there) and come up with a plan that will work for you.  I do most of my cleaning in the morning so I can work on my boutique stuff in the afternoon, but go with whatever works best for you.
Disclaimer #2:  I don't own a printer right now and, as I have a love-hate relationship with all printers, I'm okay with that.  However, that means that you have to put up with my messy handwriting and pages.  Let me know if you need anything translated.

The first page in my book is my version of the Flylady commandments.  And yes, I only have 6 on my list. #2 (Don't allow yourself to be sidetracked by the computer) is kind of a biggie for me.  (Ironic, I know)  #6 (Stop being a martyr and start being a servant) means that you need to stop whining about how your family never helps out and makes a bigger mess and just do it yourself.  Before you know it, they'll be pitching in as they follow your example.  And yes, I know from experience that this does work.  The word "servant" is not meant to have a bad connotation.  Think of it as having a servant's heart that joyfully cares for others.  After taking this picture, I added commandment #7 to the list: "Be flexible!" 

I use page dividers between each section of my control journal.

This is my morning routine.  The first thing on the list is the hardest to check off somedays.  Because of Hubby's work and farm schedule, we don't eat supper until 9:30-10:00 most nights so late nights are the norm.  We both get up at 6:30 in the morning so he can get to work.  Six lines up from the bottom, it says "Pick up Hot Spots".  Hot Spots are areas in your home that collect daily clutter.  Mine is my living room coffee table and kitchen table.  Before I started this, you usually couldn't see either table top, but now they're usually pretty empty.  This may look like a long list, but it takes me less than half an hour to finish the whole thing most days.  The first week will take the longest with the daily routines because you're not just maintaining, you're cleaning and decluttering. 

Note that I crossed off several things on the bedtime routine.  Evenings are busy at my house.  At 6 pm, I feed the kidlets, then I play with them and have them in bed by 8:30 at the latest.  As soon as they're in bed, I get supper going for Hubby and me.  Hubby gets home around 9 pm and showers while supper is finishing, or if supper is ready, we eat first (which is always a fun meal when he's just done hog chores).  We spend some time together on the couch discussing our day, watching tv, and just unwinding.  Then it's off to bed.  So the bedtime routine had to be pared down a bit.

I have a different checklist for each day of the week.  Don't be scared...this is the longest one by far.  This is the day, I do a surface cleaning of the whole house in one hour.  Or, in Flylady, terms, a "home blessing hour".  Don't think of it as cleaning your home, think of it as blessing your home and its inhabitants.  When you do this list tomorrow, don't worry about getting things perfect, just make them better.  Set the timer for 10 minutes for each task and stop when the timer goes off.  No pressure!!!  For example, when you vacuum, don't worry about picking things up off the floor first and getting every corner.  Just push that vacuum through each room, hitting the high traffic areas and pushing toys out of the way with it.  This really works for me because Princess is terrified I'll actually vacuum her toys up and rushes to put them away when she sees me with the vacuum cleaner.  With the help of our weekly zones (more about those later), each of the daily lists will soon be a piece of cake.  Don't forget, you can tailor each of these lists to fit your schedule and family the best.

On Tuesday, you'll set the timer for 30 minutes and spend that time working on the weekly zone.  Yes, I know you're still wondering what a "zone" is.  Keep your britches on, we're getting to that.

On Wednesday, toss anything in the fridge that looks questionable (or during this first week, waves at you when you open the door).  If you're feeling ambitious, go ahead and wipe down the shelves and drawers too, but if you're not, that's fine.  You'll get to that later this month. 

Flylady suggests doing a load of laundry (wash, dry, fold, and put away) each day to keep it under control.  I share a washing machine with our landlady, and it's upstairs in her part of the house so a load a day just doesn't work for me.  If you would rather do a load a day than focus on laundry for 1-2 days a week, go for it.  Then, you can either pick another task for this day or just take it easy!  The 27 Fling Boogie is a decluttering technique.  Grab two bags, one for trash and one for donations, and set the timer for 10 minutes.  Than run through the house grabbing 27 items to either throw away or donate.  The time limit prevents you from sitting there rethinking your decision over every item.  Just toss and go for the next one.  If you have a lot of clutter, I'd suggest starting out with the 27 Fling Boogie 2-4 times a week to clear things out faster.  Because I'm a relentless tosser, I can never find 27 things to get rid of so I do my own version of this called "5-10 Fling Boogie"  Doesn't sound as cool, but whatever. 

With a husband who gets very dirty at work and the farm and two kids who not only get their own clothes filthy, but like to include my outfit in the snot-saliva-messy fingers and faces fun, we have about 8-12 loads of laundry a week.  It takes me a full two days to accomplish it.  Like I said though, if you decide to do one load a day versus two days of laundry drudgery, go for it.

If we had a yard that we had to take care of ourselves, I'd work on that on Saturdays.  But our wonderful landlady does all the yard work so I just take a few minutes to clean out the van, my purse and the diaper bag. 

 

Here're those "zones" I was talking about earlier.  These will really help your home sparkle and shine by the end of this month.  Next month, even if things still look clean, do the stuff on the lists anyways.  Remember, our goal is to prevent dirt, not clean it.  Okay, so write down all the rooms/areas of your house.  Include a porch or entryway if you have one.  My list was easy because I only have 5 rooms plus a small hallway.  One of the benefits of having a small house, I guess.  Now group the rooms of your house into five categories, no more, no less.  You'll see why in a minute.

This is a sample of a monthly calendar (and a lovely sample of my computer writing skills which are apparently right up there with my pen and paper handwriting skills).  You'll notice that although there are 4 weeks in a month, there are 5 rows of weeks in a month.  Every month is like this.  Now decide which of your zones will take the most work and time to clean (kitchen and living room usually take more time than other rooms in your house) and put those zones in the middle of the month to ensure that you can spend an entire week on them. 

Next, make a list of each zone.  Zone 1 for me is the kids room and where I'll be working this coming week.  You saw the picture of their room I posted yesterday....if it's Friday and you haven't heard from me all week, please call the authorities to look for me in there.  List the different tasks that it will take to make the room sparkle.  As you can see, I got a little carried away with numbering.  This month will be the hardest because you're starting from scratch, but next month, you'll breeze through everything.  I wrote "change sheets" on the bedroom zones, but I do wash the bedsheets more than once a month.  In case you were wondering.  Every day during this week, you can pick a few things to do off this list and check them off with your dry-erase marker.  When you break it down to small tasks, deep cleaning a room really isn't that big of a deal.  Since I started doing this 1 1/2 weeks ago, most days, I spend less than an hour total cleaning my house.

Zone 2 is the kitchen.  This is where you would wipe down the refrigerator shelves and drawers if you didn't do it on Wednesday.

Zone 3 is the living room and hallway for me.  The living room is decent sized although not terribly' big and it functions as the play "room", computer "room", sewing "room", and tv "room so it's pretty packed.  I finally bit the bullet, fought off the mommy guilt that I was depriving my children of toys and packed half their toys away in a closet in their room.  When I'm working on Zone 3, I rotate the toys so they have "new" toys to play with each month. 

You'll noticed that I crossed a few things off this list.  I already sweep and mop the bathroom floor every Monday when I'm doing my "home blessing hour" so I didn't think I really needed to hit that again.  I also crossed off "sort through cabinets and drawers" because I have a habit of having a mini organizing spree every time I open a drawer or cabinet.  Last week, when I did this list for the first time, I spent all day cleaning my shower curtain.  I washed it in the washing machine twice, trying to get the soap scum off and ended up hand washing every inch of the....*count to 10, breathe deeply*... lovely thing.  If your shower curtain is covered in soap scum as mine was, please save yourself the trouble and throw it away.  Seriously, Walmart sells (brand-new, sparkling clean) shower curtains for under $10.  And if you start off this month with a clean shower curtain, it will never get that bad again.   

Zone 5 for me is the master bedroom.  That makes it sound so...nice and grown-up.  It's not.  It's decorated with bright blue carpet (perfect for showing every speck of lint), bright blue sponged baseball bat shapes? all over the wall, and a brightly colored sports themed border encircling the room on the center of the walls.  Don't forget, we rent, not own.  But I can fool myself into believing it's a serene haven at the end of the day by calling it The Master Bedroom. 

 This is the longest blog post with the most pictures, I've ever written.  I'm feeling a bit faint.  I think I'll go lie down for a bit.  See you tomorrow.

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