Category Archives: house management

home projects, house management

Garden Planted!!!

8 Comments

I haven’t had a real garden since I was a kid but I always loved it! Yes, crazy allergic me loved real gardening. Not weeding but growing vegetables. My great granddad use to farm. It was 1 of the things my stepdad and I used to do right after he and my mom got married. So gardening holds a special spot in my heart. But I haven’t done more than a few pots in a long time! I have horrible soil (who am I kidding, you can’t call it soil). I realized just how bad when I attempted to dig into it last year and I failed to plant anything;). So after my horrible failure last year I picked up Square Foot Gardening. I love the idea of growing a year round garden in a 4 by 4 space! So this weekend I planted my garden!!! Yes, I know it is a little late in the season but we went out of town for a few days and I didn’t a brand new garden to die;).

NerdDad built a 4×4 boc for me. Then NerdPie and I went to OSH and got vermiculite, peat moss and blended compost to fill the box. Then I got corn, tomatoes, green beans, squash, peppers, basil and a few flowers to fill it up. It may not seem like a big accomplishment to all of you but… For this fat girl who never has a block of time, this is a huge accomplishment.

Hopefully I don’t kill everything and we actually get food from it;).

home projects, house management, life

I Have Slayed the Linen Closet!!

Leave a comment

I know that doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment does it? But look at how horribly messy it is!! It was in just a fright that it took me hours spread over a few weeks. Hey, with 4 kids when do I have a few hours to dedicate to clean out 1 closet;)?

I had to sort through all the back stock of bath and beauty products. A lot hit the garbage. You know girls, the lipstick you wore twice decided you didn’t like it but thought you might like it some day? And what stayed just got organized! 1 bin for hair products, 1 bath product, so on and so forth.
Then I went through all the linen! Having had 4 babies, currently have 3 twin beds, a spare queen aero mattress and a king bed well that makes for a lot of linen. Since we are done with babies I got rid of all the baby blankets that are too small for the toddler bed, some of the many crib sheets (had something like 10) and a similar number of crib mattress pads.

I brought in some big plastic bing. One is for twin sheet sets, one is for extra twin mattress pads and blankets. Then I brought in a very big one that is in the very top of the closet. In that I put the extra king size mattress pad (that thing is huge!), blanket and flannel sheets.

Not only am I now much more organized, I can actually see what we do and don’t need! I found we need more blankets and more hand towels but we definitely don’t need more twin sheets!

Ahh, now my head is a bit clearer. So have you gotten any projects done this week?

home projects, house management

Medicine Cabinet Tackle

Leave a comment

So I of my resolutions, both personal and bloggy, was to participate in at least half of the Tackle it Tuesdays. My house needs it desperately, but don’t judge me to harshly;). I am making myself vulnerable so don’t attack!

So I am starting with the after picture;). My Tackle this week is my medicine cabinet. I haven’t done it in quite a while. As was evidenced by the amount of stuff that was shoved in there that I am throwing away! There isn’t a before picture. That is because my husband is a saint! I had it on my todo list and so he started it without me. So instead of a before picture here is my garbage back.

That is the bag of garbage that was just sitting in the cabinet. Not only was there expired medicine but other odds and ends too! Including the pacifiers that used to be my 7 year old daughter’s. Yes, they were tucked all the way in the back of the top self. We hid them when she gave them up because we were afraid we might need them but at the same time didn’t want her to accidentally see them;).

And the bin next to the bag are things that didn’t belong in the cabinet to begin with.

So that is this week’s Tackle!

Homeschoooling, house management

A Day in the Life

Leave a comment

This week is the last week in Heart of the Matter’s Not Back to School Blog Hop. The subject is A Day in the Life. I fully take advantage of the flexibility of homeschooling so no 2 days really look a like;). But my week’s do have some familiarity. The only things we do for school every day is a math exercise and a 5 problem grammar exercise, but that is only for the 4th grader and the 2nd grader. So here are the basics!

Monday and Wednesday are big school days. I try not to have any errands those days. We do breakfast and then after clean up we jump right in. I try to get a little of my work done when they are doing their independent work;). Then we do a little group work, like reading our history. Then on Mondays we head off to dance! Then we have afternoon reading time. After that you just do stuff you haven’t gotten too!

Tuesday and Thursday are crazy days. We have choir and science on Tuesdays and I have Bible Study on Thursdays. In the off times from their activities they are in the homeschool room doing independent homework.

Friday is a day I try to keep light. Every few weeks we have a play date and we finish up any left over work.

Saturday is activity day! This is the day we do art project or experiments, so on and so forth! Then NerdDad is home to help with the chaos and have some fun!

Sunday does have a little homework. The older 2 have to read the section in the Bible that Christian Studies will focus on!

So that is our life, what does yours look like?

home projects, house management

Lightening Our Chaos

Leave a comment

So my Tackle this week will probably not seem note worthy at all to anyone but me but…

We have 4 kids and we all know how quickly they out grow their clothes. But since we have 2 boys and 2 girls, with the youngest being a girl, that means careful sorting to get rid of clothes. Could boy #2’s shorts be worn by girl #2? Then there is the processing. Can boy #1’s clothes go straight to boy #2 or should the pants stop by girl #1 first or go into holding for boy #2? And so on!

So as you can imagine, we have piles of clothes that stack up at the change of seasons. So this weekend I finished going through those piles! I moved things around and then had 2 boxes to move completely out of the house! They have been moved onto our church exchange program!

I think it is a small move to lighten out chaos! Now I have the rest of the house to clear out;). But it goes back to how you eat an elephant, one bite at a time!

house management, life

Ovens, Ugh!

Leave a comment

One of the few things I really disliked about this house was the fact that the oven was a manual clean. We could have upgraded but it wasn’t worth mortgaging it. But I have dreaded cleaning it. Dreaded it to the point I have waited 3 1/2 years! But I figured when you smell something burning on the bottom of your stove, the time for procrastination is over.

It was sad. That oven was so dirty that I went through the process twice. You know, warm up the oven and spray it down. Then let is sit a bit and wipe it down. Even after I went through the process twice it was still dirty.

But it was better than what it was. What a sad tackle it was, but at least it is better;).

house management, organization

Shoe Clutter: Shoe Guilt

Leave a comment

Ok, no matter what my husband says… I do not have a shoe problem. But between my 4 kids in the last 9 years, I have lots of shoes that have quit fitting right. But rather than getting rid of them as soon as they started hurting me I have kept them all. I kept hoping that if I lost a few pounds here or there they might be all better. Well, none of them have gotten any better. Add to those that I had shoes that I actually was wearing holes in. None the less I needed to get rid of shoes.

These are all the shoes I am getting rid of! I am donating 15 pairs of shoes and throwing away 4 pairs. I feel so guilty! Part of me thinks maybe I should hold onto these shoes. But lets get real, they hurt or are wearing through;). It might get better but how long am I going to wait? And what are the chances that they would ever actually get better?

I need to get rid of all the clutter that is holding me down! So out they all go! 2 boxes of clutter out of my house! That is my Tackle for this week!

home projects, house management, organization

And We Have Crafts! Lots and Lots!

Leave a comment

I like every mom in the world, and especially homeschool moms, have tons of craft stuff for my kids. My kids are now of the age where I want them to have free access to the supplies. So I took my old craft drawers that had some stuff in it that I hadn’t touched in at least a couple of years and put in the kids’ stuff!  
I started with these drawers full of odds and ends. Now I must confess. Almost all the supplies that were in these drawers are now in a box. They await the final judgement on their fate. Some will hit the garbage, some will be used by me (eventually) and some will be donated. Which ones are which? We will see.

And this was my final result! Normally I would have the drawers labelled but I think I need to live with it for a while. I organized the drawers in a logical way but I need to make sure that it works for the kids. I organized the general supplies by basic type: crayons and colored pencils in 1 drawer, coloring books in another, and scissor, rulers and glue in yet another. Then I have some specific drawers for each kid. It has their specific art projects they have been given. In the bottom drawers are their bulk supplies. We never need to buy another foamie shape again! I have some that don’t even fit into my drawers (there may be a giveaway in my future)! Now mind you, this is just the kids’ everyday access craft supplies. There are much more hiding in the shadows;).

So that was my Tackle. What do you think? Have you gotten any big tackles done lately?

house management, WFMW

WFMW: Taming the Treasures

Leave a comment

Life creates little treasures. You know what I mean: that lost tooth, the Valentine’s Day picture, the ticket stub from that memorable concert. But I am not a big scrapbooker. So that means that things go into the boxes. But the problem with the boxes is that you end up with piles all over the house that at some point will get put into the boxes. But you need to find a place to put them, make sure that they don’t get mixed in with the other kids (I have 4 kids and all their pictures drawn at 2 look the same;), and so on. So my tip of the day is to use a filing cabinet.

If you are like me, you have a file cabinet. But your family filing probably only takes a drawer or 2. So what I do is take one of those hanging folders for each person in the family. Then you can put in sub-folders if you want. For instance I have a section in NerdPie’s folder that is just for notes and cards from her friends. Then put all of that person’s memories in it. I have teeth in a ziploc bag, cards, photo magnets from VBS, etc. Then when ever you want to do something with it all (scrapbook or just put them into a box) you know where it is and whose it is!
It is the simple things that make life easier;).

house management, life

Tackle It Tuesday: Pantry Clear Out!

Leave a comment

You know those things you never get around to? You know, the ones that drive you crazy but you just don’t seem to make time for? My pantry is one of those things. Well, Sunday while I was running a couple of errands NerdDad started clearing it out. I finally finished it Monday afternoon;). It is amazing the amount of junk I have in that pantry. The blue bins hold baking. decorating and freezer packaging for food. Then there is all the food, oy! I was amazed how much I actually had to throw out. I have been very convicted to cook out of my pantry and freezer for the next few weeks/months (my freezer is just as bad;).

But at least for today I will feel good that the pantry is finally done. I will feel guilty about the rest tomorrow!
Go check out some more projects at Tackle It Tuesday!