FAQ

Every time I see ladies from church, the first question they ask me (without fail) is,

“So what are you doing with all your free time now that you aren’t Relief Society President?”

It’s a valid question.  For years, I fantasized about this day and wondered what my answer would be. 

The Short answer is this:  I’m playing “catch up” from the last 2 years.

The Long answer is, well…. LONG.   (I won’t have my feelings hurt if you stop reading now.)

For example, I was stunned this morning to realize it’s been nine days since I last posted on my blog.  Nine days!  When did that happen?  And I have my blog set as my home page so I see it often.  (I keep it as my home page so that I will remember to keep it up to date more… a reminder multiple times a day to not forget blogging.)  It’s not like I’m sitting on the couch all day watching Oprah and eating Bon-Bons.  (For the record, I lost all respect for Oprah a few years ago when she and Gail when on a Road-Trip where they had to drive themselves, check into regular hotels and eat average food, like the rest of us… what spoiled brats they were!)  I haven’t even had time to sit and watch TV yet this week!

This is what I have been working on for the last week.  It’s almost been six years since we bought this house… it’s about time I had a living room worthy of company.  It’s still not done yet, but progress is being made, finally!  It’s amazing what window treatments will do.  (A super shout out to my cousin-in-law, Tiffany, who inspired me finally with an idea that would look great in this room!)

I have this long list of projects and deep cleaning/dejunking chores that I want to whittle away at for the next several months.   Things like:

*finish I-spy quilt

*paper scrapbook the remainder of 2006

*digital scrap Jan-Aug 2009

*make a plan to scrap 2007-2008 (digital, paper, or both?)

*learn how to shoot in manual (on my camera)

*learn about clipping masks in PSE

*decorate laundry room

*window treatments for Taylor’s room and Game room

*take a magic eraser to my entire house (baseboards, doors, doorjambs, trim, stair rail, etc.)  I probably need 5-6 magic erasers to do this job

*clean windows, inside and out (I will have to hire someone eventually to clean my outside upper level windows)

*clean out dead plants from yard

*plant new plants where plants have died (most of my yard falls into this category)

*pull weeds from backyard

*exercise more regularly

*read scriptures daily, study Sunday lessons and read Ensign monthly

*write the life history of my Grandpa and continue to research his family tree

*de-junk closet under the stairs and guest room

And amidst all that, I am going to Science Camp with Ian in March,  we are planning for a Disneyland/San Diego trip over spring break, Girls Camp, EFY and Cub Scout Day Camp all in June and a visit home in late June, early July. 

Some of these chores will take less than an hour of time, some will take days and some are on-going daily things that will never go away.  I expect to feel like I am in a constant state of “catch-up” for the next six months… when summer break is ended and the kids start school again in late July, I think that might be the time that I actually start to get restless and bored… but with this list to work on, I will have plenty to keep me busy for a very, Very, VERY long time!

Deep Cleaning...

My presence in the blog world will be sparse for the next couple weeks... I've been tackling projects like this today.....

Can you believe this is my kids' bathroom... and check out that toothpaste... so much for the "Less Mess! Neat Squeeze Dispenser"!!!

And how many toothbrushes and empty tubes of toothpaste do my kids need, anyhow?????

After an hour of scrubbing... I won't even begin to describe the toilet (mostly due to recently potty trained 3 year old boy who has discovered the art of standing while he pees....) this is what it looked like:

Maybe I should ban them from using this bathroom just so it can stay clean for a couple days in a row, but then they'd all be using my bathroom.... ugh... never mind!

All this is in preparation of the visit from both sets of Grandparents... the first set arrives Wednesday night and the second set on Friday... we'll be quite busy playing, swimming, eating homemade Chinese food (the sesame allergy is hereditary) and teaching them how to play Rock Band. Oh, yeah... the most important reason they are coming... Ian (my favorite 8 year old) is getting baptized on Saturday! We can't wait!

Why, Why, Why...

... is coming home from a trip so hard? We came home from Grand Canyon 10 days ago and I still feel behind. I'm behind on Laundry... I'm behind on Dishes... I'm behind on Decluttering... I just can't seem to get it together!

I was going to post a picture of my messy kitchen, but two dire consequences could result... my local friends might call CPS (kidding...) but more likely, my husband would have to crawl in a hole and die from shame. He hates a messy kitchen, but sadly, it's messy more than it's clean. I've gotten to the breaking point today because yesterday I had the itch to make homemade bread... I think the rain had something to do with it. But, I didn't make bread because my kitchen was so messy I would have to clean for an hour, just to make room to make bread. How pathetic is that? Plus, I'm really craving some self satisfaction in a job well done. I LOVE how I feel when my kitchen is clean and even more when I can keep it clean for a couple days in a row!

So, now I'm going to plug in my ipod, start a new audio book (Deception Point by Dan Brown) and get to work in the kitchen. I'm committed to keep cleaning until it's 100% done.

We only have 14 days until school starts and I'm getting excited. It's been so nice to not have any commitments or a crazy schedule. It's been wonderful to stay in our pj's late and still be able to make pancakes at 9:00 a.m. We've even done some really fun local activities that my kids beg to do and we never seem to have time for. But, with only 14 more days until I can have my "life" back, it's definately something to look forward to!

When my "chores" are done, I'll post some video I took yesterday of the rain. It was a welcome treat! It looks like we could get more tonight... Bring it ON!

Therapy

I'm going to make a confession - I'm addicted to Audio Books. It all started 5-6 years ago for a book club. We were reading The Christmas Train by David Baldacci (an excellent read, by the way) and the only copy my library had left was the audio book version. So, I checked it out and by the end of the book, I was absolutely hooked.

In the beginning, I couldn't really multi-task while listening to a book. If I got even slightly distracted, I'd have to skip back and start the track over. My favorite place to listen was in the car - I spent lots of time in the car back then. Over time it slowly evolved and I got better. At first I could fold laundry and sweep floors, while I hung Taylor's CD player with case over my shoulder. I think I got more milage out of that portable CD player than he did. (This was pre-ipod days of course!) Then I figured out that I could scrapbook, as long as I was doing something mindless - no "planning" and no "journaling". I could also paint rooms and clean kitchens while listening. Now that we have a gym membership, I don't enjoy a trip to the gym if I don't have an audio book qued up. I have lots of music on my ipod, but the audio books are my favorite!

These are the audiobooks that got me through my two bathroom remodels... I listened to Twilight (Stephenie Meyer) while I chipped old tile out of my bathroom and I listened to Empire (Orson Scott Card) while I grouted and painted it. I listened to The Thirteenth Tale (Diane Setterfield) during all of the kids bathroom remodel (much less hours were invested in getting the second bathroom done than the master!)

I especially love audio books when they have sound effects, multiple readers (Ender's Game is a great example of this) or if there is background music at all the appropriate moments (like tense scenes...) And I love being able to put them on my ipod, so I don't have to lug around a CD player anymore! I check them out at the library, rip the CD's to my computer and then sync them to my ipod. Once I've listened to it, I delete the whole thing (since it's the library's copy and not mine.)

Another confession - I HATE cleaning my house. I really HATE it. I'm much better at organizational projects, than just plain scrubbing something. But with my kids home all day, the house is in constant need of "something". So, I've made a goal to spend one hour each day cleaning something that isn't an everday chore (laundry, dishes, etc.) So far it's working... yesterday, I even worked through two CD's worth of New Moon (my current read) which is actually more than 2 hours! So, as long as I have a good audiobook to escape to, I should be able to accomplish my goal!

Do you have a favorite Audio Book?

Clean Floors and Burnt Popcorn

(This is not me.... )

I have a confession to make - I'm a slob! I hate to clean and I'm not very good at picking up after myself. I discovered this about myself almost 10 years ago, but it's still a hard habit to break! Three years ago we upgraded homes from 1350 sq feet to 3800 sq feet. I LOVE my house (the layout), but sometimes I wish I could get rid of a few rooms that we just don't use that often. I love having a guest room when we have company, but when we don't have company, it's our stash and dash room. We dump all the mess in there and shut the door. We have a formal living room and dining room that I only use when the Visiting Teachers come in the evening. When they come during the day, we go in the Family Room. We only use the formal dining room when we have friends over to eat (and the junkier table is in there right now, so that's where the kids sit, not the adults.) Sometimes I wish I could close up those rooms (like they do in old English classics) and only use them when we have guests over. The problem with having such a large house, is that it just encourages people to spread their mess over an even bigger area. If I make a junk mail pile in one part of my kitchen, I don't have to clean it up right away because I still have lots of space left... so after a few days of neglect, I will have piles of junk everywhere and then it takes me an hour to sort through it all and get rid of it.

Yesterday, I worked long and hard cleaning. I dusted off my ipod and listened to an audiobook while I worked. Since we got back from CA at least 10 days ago, I've only been doing the bare minimums. Before we left to go to CA, I'd only been doing the bare minimums. I just couldn't take it anymore, so I designated yesterday as a "clean the house until I drop" day. And I did... clean and clean and clean...and then I cleaned some more... and sadly, after 4 hours, there wasn't much visual improvement! Isn't that pathetic? That's how behind in my cleaning I was. The one "obvious" hint that I'd spent all day cleaning was the aroma from my mop (I have a Hoover Floor Mate... I highly recommend it for anyone with lots of flooring and not so much carpet). The cleaner I used left a very pleasant "just been cleaned" scent in the air! When Megan and Ian walked in the door at 3:30, I heard from Megan, "wow, Mom, it smells clean in here!" Sigh... grin... satisfaction!

Then, not ten minutes later it was all over. Ian asked if he could make popcorn for a snack. "Only if you keep it on the kitchen table," I said, "I just mopped all the floors!" Three minutes later, I'm in the dining room, putting furniture back after moving it for my mop job and I hear from Megan, "mom, what's all that smoke coming from the microwave?" What??? Are you kidding me!?! I ran into the kitchen to find smoke pouring out of the microwave... Ian had pushed the wrong button for popcorn and it was burning -- badly! (This is not my popcorn, nor is it my microwave! ----> )

We opened up every window and door, but it took a long time to clear the smoke out. And now, it's the next morning and it still smells like burnt popcorn in my kitchen! ARGHH! And my eyes are swollen and feel like they have sand in them from having every window open and letting in so much pollen! I guess I just can't win!