Dear Self,

Remember several weeks ago how you managed to gather the dvr remote control up along with the sheets and wash it and not realize you had done so until you were putting the sheets in the dryer? And remember how it didn’t work at first and you were totally devastated because you only had one remote control that would work the dvr? But then somehow it dried out and Mike managed to get it to work again? And remember how you promised yourself you’d never do that again? Ahem.

Well, at least this time you realized it not too long after you’d started the washing machine and it only got a little wet. I can’t say the same for the laundry room floor, though.

One of the goals Mike and I set for the new year was to work on getting the house reorganized and decluttered. Well, today we took on the first room - LG’s room. Her toys had taken over the room, mostly because she didn’t really have a good storage system in her room. (Read on …)

I am preparing to make this yummy butternut squash puree with my phallic butternut squash (that’s another story I’ll save for after Christmas), and I was trying to scrape the seeds/pulp/etc. out with a spoon, when I thought - there’s gotta be an easier way. *Light bulb* I grabbed a grapefruit spoon (which has the serrated edges) and used that to scoop it out. Bingo! Much much easier. You can thank me later. Unless of course you figured that out a long time ago. But either way, make the butternut squash puree - it’s divine!

So, it’s Friday, November 30. Which means two things. First, it means it’s the last day of NaBloPoMo! And so I’m putting up this post just in case I don’t manage to get a better one up. I want to make sure I have posted today. It would stink to screw up on the last day wouldn’t it? Second, it means LG’s birthday party is tomorrow and we’re doing the last crazy cleaning and getting ready we can do.

Normally, we’d have a little time in the morning, but instead we’re having a rehearsal for Generations. Traditionally, we have not had a rehearsal for Generations on the day of LG’s party, but because the musician who is doing the Advent Mission next week is doing Generations with us this month, we were going to have a rehearsal with him. Of course, it ends up that he’s not going to be here in time for the rehearsal due to unforeseen circumstances, so we could have not scheduled it for the morning. But that’s life right?

My cool thing I was telling you about yesterday is an iRobot Scooba we got for a scream on Woot.com a couple of weeks ago. (I’d give you a link, but I just don’t have time to look for one, so google it if you’re so inclined.) We had it going and going and it didn’t seem to be doing anything, so Mike stopped it and figured out what was wrong, then started it up again and it finally worked. But the battery had worn down, so it’s charging again. Oh well. Hopefully it will mop the floors and we won’t have to kill ourselves trying to do it.

Anyway, our weekend is jam-packed, but I’ll be posting about LG’s birthday party and birthday at some point. Might not be until next week, but it will happen!

If this is it for me today, well have a great weekend. :)

Two more days of NaBloPoMo. I can totally do this. Yes I can!

So today I went to the grocery store to get all the food and stuff for the party on Saturday. Then I stopped at Hallmark because I realized that I had forgotten to get my child a birthday card. I suck. And also because I had forgotten to get her a Christmas ornament (a traditional birthday gift in our house). And also I needed to get my father a birthday card since he’ll be here on Saturday and his birthday is the 7th. And that saves me a stamp.

And then I came home, dumped off the groceries and headed to Michael’s to get some frosting coloring for the Mickey Mouse cake. Marlene, bless her, had black and dropped it off while I was gone. I just had to get the skin tone. Why does Mickey Mouse have skin tone??? No idea. But he does. Go ahead and look if you don’t believe me.

Now we are cleaning. And cleaning. And cleaning. I. hate. cleaning. Which is why we have so much work to do. Did I mention Mike is home today? He is totally home today and is not going. anywhere. I forbid it! ;)

And throughout all of that, I’m tracking Rochelle’s boyfriend’s flight from Japan to Phoenix because she is at school with no computer and it makes her feel better when I text her updates. What is scary is that I know his itinerary better than she does. I’m not at all sure I’m okay with that…lol!

And, also I’m waiting for my package to arrive from FedEx. More on that later. Or tomorrow. Whenever I get the chance to use it. Because it’s so! cool! Or at least I hope it is.

Anyway, nothing exciting going on in these here parts, but I have to post, so you get this. Lucky you.

Today was definitely a productive day. Mike and I did a lot of cleaning in preparation for a little girl’s birthday party next Saturday and Mike also did a lot of organizing in the kitchen, and installed some drawer locks to keep little hands out of places they shouldn’t be.

After I finished my list of things to do, I worked on a quilt for the rest of the afternoon and got all the quilting done on quilt number three. I’ll (hopefully) be able to finish the edges tomorrow and then the last quilt starts on Monday. And that makes me right on schedule with a couple of weeks to spare just in case.

We have just begun discussing Christmas and all of that around here, because we don’t really start working on that until after LG’s birthday so that her birthday doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But I did get an early Christmas present today! (Sorry Marlene!)

So why am I blogging at 10 pm on a Friday night? Why am I not in bed relaxing? Where do I begin?

First, there were the ants. The ants that started stinging me as I was standing next to the bed getting things situated so I could crawl in. Instead of crawling in, I got stung by an army of black ants. And by army, I mean, ARMY. Big army of black frigging ants. Crawling all over the floor around my side of the bed. Not Mike’s side. MY side.

So I go and I find the ant and roach spray and I spray and I spray and I spray and I spray. And I think I’ve killed most of the suckers, so I go get the Swiffer to swiffer their rotten little carcasses up so I can crawl into bed. But guess what? I get back with the Swiffer and I swiffer my little heart out and I turn around and MORE FRIGGING ANTS. No idea where they are coming from but they are making me really pissed off because I JUST WANT TO GO TO BED. So I spray and I spray and I spray and I decide Mike can clean up the rest when he gets home.

And then I decide to take a shower because after you’ve been stung by ants, you really need to take a shower to get the creepy crawly feeling off of your skin. I turn on the water and I go check on Melody who I had locked out of the bedroom during the extermination. She is standing with two feet in LG’s bedroom, which she rarely does because she knows she is not allowed in there. LG was probably talking to her, so I’m not going to get too bent out of shape over that.

Warning: The next part of the post is not for the faint of stomach. Proceed with caution. (Read on …)

We’ve had our cookware since we got married. It was a wedding gift and it has been very well used - which is easy to see when you look at it. Therefore, it’s time to replace it. Fifteen years is a pretty good life I think. Way back then, T-Fal was the thing and that’s what we got. And it’s worked very well. But, I’m sure there are better! Newer! More exciting! brands of cookware on the market now. So, give me your recommendation. We’re not gourmet cooks by any stretch of the imagination, but we do cook a lot and sometimes we do leave things on the stove a wee bit too long because someone has distracted us. So non-stick is probably a good option around here. What say you? Do you have a favorite cookware? Give me some ideas to check out!

Our old dogs killed birds, gophers, mice and even a stray kitten once (yes I know it’s gross, but what could I do about it when the neighbor’s supposedly neutered tomcat constantly brought home pregnant stray cats who decided to give birth in our yard?). They often drug their prey into the house with them, but most of the time, Mike was home or they left them in a place (in the old house) where I could cover them with a paper towel and ignore them until Mike got home. (The gopher they brought all the way into our bedroom and onto our bed. Luckily I was at work at the time and Mike had to deal with it.)

Today, Melody either killed a bird or found a dead bird in the back yard and brought it into the house where she promptly deposited it in the hall. The hall that I HAVE to go down to get from the great room to anywhere else in the house. Including the bathroom and the nursery where Little Girl was napping. Yeah. Thanks Melody.

After my initial shock, in which any normal person would have screamed a little and woken their daughter up from her nap, but of course I didn’t do anything like that *cough cough*, I called Mike on the phone. Because since the dead bird was in the hall and I couldn’t really just throw a paper towel over it and ignore it until Mike got home, I had to actually do something about it. And since maybe I was slightly freaking out (okay I was a LOT freaking out), I needed a little help figuring out what to do. And also maybe I needed him to calm me down. Maybe. I’m not admitting that, though.

So basically, I threw a plastic garbage bag on top of it from as far away as I could possibly stand and still make the bag reach the intended target. Then Mike told me to go get the snow shovel out of the garage and scoop it up. (Do not ask me why we have a snow shovel when we live in the desert where it NEVER snows, but we do, and today I was thankful for that fact.) Then I tried to scoop it up with the shovel, but all that did was scoot it. So then, Mike told me to go get the part of the pooper scooper set that scoots the poop into the scoop and use that to help scoot the carcass into the gigantic shovel. And lo and behold that worked.

Mike wanted me to dump the carcass into the garbage, but really, how much can one freaked out person deal with in one day? So, I just took the shovel out to the garage and left it in a safe place so he could dispose of it when he got home.

Of course, the 21 year old, the 19 year old and the 16 year old that are working with Mike today were getting the play by play and also could hear me shrieking over the phone whenever I set it down while doing my best to scoop up the carcass.

But you know what really stinks? Not 10 minutes after I went through all that trauma, my mother-in-law called to see if my father-in-law could come and use our fax machine. Had I waited TEN MINUTES, people, someone else could have had the joy of disposing of the dead bird.

Oh well, I look at it this way…that which does not make us puke our guts all over our clothes, only makes us stronger. Or something.

And also, when you think to yourself that you’ve not had anything exciting enough happen to post in the “Adventures in Housekeeping” category in quite awhile, something is bound to happen. And it won’t be pretty.

*High five to anyone who can tell me what song the title of this post came from

Updated! I remembered! So scroll down if you need the update!

We were supposed to go to the zoo today, but…well the forecast high was anywhere from 98 - 101 and after having been out in the heat warmth yesterday, we just decided we didn’t want to deal with it again today. Which was fine. The important thing was to spend time together. The zoo will be there when it cools off again in October.

So instead, Mike took off this morning to go check on something that may turn into something really good for us. Not saying more than that at the moment because it’s far from even close to happening. Don’t worry, though, I’ll tell you if it ever happens. ;)

He came home and we went to lunch at Souper Salad. Little Girl seemed to like it there. And considering she’s free right now, we like it there, too…lol! Then we ran an errand for Mike (Harbor Freight…whee!). And then we came home and started cleaning our bedroom because well…let me be honest here…are you sitting down?

We haven’t realllllly cleaned our bedroom since before Little Girl was born. I mean, it’s not anywhere near filthy. It was just dusty and cluttered. Very very cluttered. And there might have been some shredded paper on the floor (courtesy of Melody) that I’ve been asking Mike to pick up for weeks and weeks and I was too stubborn to do it myself since I asked him to do it…lol!

Anyway, it’s not totally clean yet, but it is well on its way, and it feels so much better in there. And also, it’s a little better for letting Little Girl wander around without having to keep the eagle eye on her. Oh who am I kidding? You have to keep an eagle eye on her no matter what nowadays. She was having a good time going in and out of Melody’s crate which kept her busy enough so that we could get some things done.

In other news, I did another “redesign”. Purple is my favorite color and I’ve been wanting to do a purple template for awhile now. If you are using Internet Explorer, the design is probably not working exactly right for you. And all I can say to that is…get Firefox. I’m pretty positive you will not regret it. I actually usually use Safari on my Mac, but my second choice is always Firefox. And I only keep IE on my computer to see how things are working on designs I do for my friends on Blogger. Seriously, get Firefox.

And finally, hmmm…there totally was an “and finally”, but I can’t remember it now. I’ll update if/when I remember. *sigh*

Ah yes, I remembered finally. My email has been really screwed up. It has something to do with my ISP and they say they are working on it, but there is no telling when or if I’ll ever receive the mail that I haven’t received. So if I haven’t replied to an email or a comment, that’s why. If you would like me to reply and I haven’t replied, please feel free to resend your email and hopefully it will get here. Mostly, I just wanted you to know I’m not ignoring you, I’m not trying to be rude, and although it’s true I’ve been really busy the last two weeks (but things should be slowing down a bit now), I really do try to answer emails and comments in a semi-timely fashion if they require an answer!

Today I cleaned Little Girl’s room - as in swept, picked up toys, cleaned out her drawers and put away her laundry. She was in there with me “helping”. I had a plastic storage tub in which I was putting some of her 18 month winter clothes that I knew she wouldn’t be wearing again. She was pulling them out of the tub as fast as I could put them in and carrying them around the room and leaving them other places. Or she was putting them in the drawers I was emptying out. Or trying to pull the clothes out of the drawers I was trying to close without smashing tiny fingers. I finally got that done and went to get the swiffer vac. As I was preparing the floor to sweep, she was carrying the swiffer around the room. Then after I was done, she grabbed it and pushed it around just like I had been doing a few minutes earlier. It’s really quite amusing to see an under three foot toddler pushing around a four(ish) foot swiffer. And while her “help” may not actually be “helpful”, it is definitely entertaining and it’s a lot more fun cleaning up in there than it used to be. I really love being a mom. :)

The book says that to shine your stainless steel sinks, use mineral oil. But we don’t have any mineral oil. Mike checks his stash of stuff in the garage - nope, no mineral oil. Then he suggests baby oil. Okay, we have some of that leftover from the cradle cap days, so I get it and look at the ingredients on the back: Mineral oil, fragrance. Who knew?

So now my stainless steel sinks are beautiful and shiny again. They smell like baby oil, but hey it could be worse!

On my new schedule, Thursday is the day that I clean Little Girl’s room each week. So, yesterday I spent the morning in her room working working working. I decided that it was high time that it went from being a “baby’s room” to a “toddler’s room” and became not only toddler-friendly, but toddler-proof. We had never fully baby-proofed her room before because to be honest, she just didn’t spend time in there unless she was sleeping. But at some point in a child’s life, it’s only fair that they are able to use their room for more than sleeping, so that was my goal yesterday. I cleaned and swept and rearranged and now she has a play area and a reading area and a whole lot of space in the rest of the room to crawl around to her little heart’s content (and walk too when she gets that notion). All the clothes tubs are put away up in her closet. She has a new trash can that she (hopefully) won’t be able to get into so easily (although she’s already figured out how to lift the lid up on the diaper pail *sigh*). All the plugs are covered and Mike has promised that he will install a plug high up on the wall for the air filter and the nightlight - in the meantime we’ll just have to live without them. Mike bolted her dressers and book/toyshelf to the wall today. We’ve spent time in there playing with her and she just loves it and I feel safe enough to leave her alone in there for a few minutes here and there. Melody is learning that she is not allowed over the threshold (yet - I know that won’t last forever…lol) and so when we’re in there with Little Girl she will lay in the hall and look at us with those sad puppydog eyes of hers. So at least ONE room in my house is organized and clean. One down, and way too many more to go. But it’s a start.

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Now the question of the week (well actually there are two).

First of all, does anyone know where you can get stickers for the bottom of the bathtub? You know the kind that keep you from slipping? I checked at Target yesterday and all they had were the kind that attach with suction cups. We are looking for the adhesive kind. Any thoughts are appreciated.

And also, since I was sorting through some hand-me-down toddler clothes today, could someone please tell me the difference between 24 mths and 2T? Both Marlene and Theresa think that it might have to do with diaper room (as in the 24 mth clothes have more diaper room) and that certainly makes sense, but does anyone know any other differences? I’m thinking they just do it to make us think we have to buy twice as many clothes…hehehe.

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And finally, thanks so much to all of you for playing Flashback Friday today! I’m still looking for some more topics to try and I’m tossing around the idea of making a Flashback Friday blogroll. Your thoughts on these two things will also be greatly appreciated. :)

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Have a great weekend everybody!!!

P.S. If anyone read this before I proofed it, I apologize for my typos. I hit publish before I proofed. Bad Karin!

I have to tell you this internet. I have to get it off my chest. Here’s the deal - I am not a happy homemaker. I am not good at housekeeping. In fact, I suck at it. Now that is not to say that our house is a disaster of epic proportions because it isn’t. It’s um…just…very lived in! Yeah, that’s the ticket. It’s not like I am horrible at all things Martha Stewart. Not at all. When it comes to entertaining, I can throw a pretty mean party. I can come up with adorable decorations and cute ideas and make everything look lovely. In fact, for Easter one year I made 18 personalized mini-pots filled with little easter treats to use as place markers. And that was when I was still working full-time. I still do crafty things when I’m able - like quilting and cross-stitch and scrapbooking and all of that. Those things I love. But the whole housekeeping thing? Not so much.

One of my resolutions was to get on a daily schedule and stick with it - included in that was a cleaning schedule. But where to start? Where do you start to make a schedule that actually works, that actually gets things done, and that is easy to live with and keep up with when you have a toddler and a puppy in the house? Well, you buy books on cleaning of course! So, I bought two books on cleaning that are actually easy reads and don’t make me feel like a complete and total idiot and promise to get cleaning done FAST and QUICKLIER (I know that’s not a word, but I made it up and I like it so hush) and cut my cleaning time in HALF!

So, today I’m making a list and a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly schedule of cleaning tasks for me and for Mike. And then I’m going to plug all of those tasks into my daily/weekly overall schedule that I will also be making today and we are going to whip this place and ME into shape posthaste!

Honestly, I meant to start all of this right after the new year, but I decided losing our last precious doggy and getting a new puppy allowed me to cut myself some slack. Now, I’m getting SERIOUS! ORGANIZATION!

Oh, and another thing we are going to do around here is make a list of every detail that needs to be done in every room, so that when we have a hour or two here and there we can actually accomplish at least a small project.

So, anyway, that’s my goal for the day. Anything exciting on YOUR plates today?

Since I got an up close and personal meeting with my garbage disposal today, I decided it was time to name it. So, the garbage disposal will heretofore be known as “Oscar”. And if you have never watched Sesame Street, I’m sure you will not get that reference, but anyway… (Read on …)