Bringing Good Home

Okay, TWITTER does NOT count as housework. Or anything even remotely close to it, I KNOW.

Nonetheless, my task for today was to sign up for Twitter.

Yes. I KNOW. It’s Twitter.

I had said I wasn’t going to sign up for Twitter. It was goofy, silly, trivial. I mean, do y’all really need to know I’m mopping the kitchen floor? (Besides, I’m not.. not right now, though it seriously needs to be done. Perhaps I should do that instead.)

However… while chatting with some new bloggy peoples at Robin’s party, it was pointed out how beneficial Twitter can be for networking with other bloggy peoples.

I hadn’t thought of it that way.

They have a point. I suppose.

So Now I Am On Twitter. There’s a big collective bloggy rolling of the eyes, I’m sure. I mean, I’M trying not to roll my eyes. I’m sure after a while I’ll get into it and enjoy it. I’m sure. Yeah.

So if you already Twitter you can follow me in my novice attempt at Twittering and networking. I promise not to post anything about me clipping my toenails or bathing my cats. Deal?

If you don’t have a clue what in the world Twitter even is.. the Twitter FAQ page can help explain that a little bit better.

SO.

Do YOU Twitter? Why? Or Why Not?

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom! (Who by the way, is ALSO on Twitter.)

Okay, so I’m on vacation and I don’t have a whole lot to tackle, right? (Though I seriously thought about tackling my mom’s pantry - but that’s a project for next time.)

However, we did tackle some hair cuts a couple days ago. My eight year old now has bangs for the first time ever.

Oh-my-gosh-it-makes-her-look-older!

Back to the point, though, I did have several things to tackle while getting ready for this vacation. One of them was making sure Big Daddy was taken care of while I was gone. You know, stuff like making sure his socks were washed, making sure I didn’t leave dirty dishes in the sink to start stinking, and making sure he had stuff to eat:

Yes, that’s right. Big Daddy’s not “big” on cooking. I figure he’ll probably eat out for lunches and some suppers, and when he gets hungry at home he’ll have noodle cups, canned chili, chicken noodle soup, sandwich stuff and chips, tortilla chips and cheese dip, pop tarts, granola bars, triscuits and spray cheese and vienna sausages.

The food of champions.

I also made several gallons of sweet tea.

The lifeblood of the south.

Big Daddy wasn’t the only one I needed to provide snacks for. I prepared a “snack box” for the road trip, with plans to save some for the return trip (and so far we have!)

What you see here is granola bars, peanut butter and cheese crackers, fruit snacks and pop tarts.

Brain food, of course.

I’m a good mom, really.

The snack box did come in handy several times on the way down and I’m sure it will on the way, back, too, so that right there justifies the junk food, right?

Anyhow, now I gotta go and tackle something else: sleep. Tomorrow we go to Sea World - yay!!

Tackle it Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

This week is all about getting ready for our vacation. Friday morning I am leaving at the crack of dawn - or maybe a little before! - and heading to my mom’s for a whole week! The kids are very excited. We’ll be seeing some fireworks Friday night (yay!), taking some family pictures, making a day trip to Sea World, and various other fun activities. My grandmother is traveling with us so I’m hoping to arrange a few game nights while we’re there, too.

BUT..

Before we can get to the fun, we gotta get through the work.

That’s just how it goes, right?

SO this week the kids and I are cleaning, catching up on laundry, packing, and so on. Specifically, today we are tackling the kids’ rooms. Before lunch we put in an hour or so on the girls’ room and now it’s basically picked up. We just need to vacuum, change the sheets and make the beds. But the BOY’S room - OY! We’ll have to tackle that after his nap. While he sleeps? LAUNDRY. Lots and lots of laundry.

Hopefully after we get the kids’ rooms done I can take some pictures of how their toys are organized and link up to Laura’s Org Roundup like I intended to do. Better late than never, right?

The plan for tomorrow is the rest of the laundry and deeper cleaning like mopping and the bathtub, that kind of thing. Thursday I just have to keep the kids from undoing all the work we’ve done (ha!) so that we can pack and load the car. Friday morning we are hitting the road with no looking back - I won’t mind keeping up our stuff and helping out at my mom’s but I look forward to not having to clean my house for a whole week!!

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

The tall bookshelf in the school room has been through a lot of transformations over the last year and a half. It has pretty much been some variation of having school books on the top two shelves and small toys and books for Little Prince on the bottom two shelves. All of the girls reading books have been on the small bookcase in the corner. It looked something like this:

Little Prince is bigger now, though, and can easily dig things out of his toybox. Also, he was developing a bad habit of dumping all the baskets on the bookshelf out at once. Because of that I recently I took all the toys off and put them into the toybox instead. So earlier today the bottom was empty, and the top looked like this:

I pulled off a bunch of completed worksheets and workbooks that can be stored, moved the reading books over, and then it looked like this:

And then I employed an organizing trick to make it more visually less cluttered (grouping books by size or color or a combination of both) and now it looks like this:

Here’s my purge pile. Most of it went into a box to be stored away as proof that my children do actually do school work here. It should be more organized, but for now it’s all together in a box. Other than a stack of folders and a few blank worksheets that need to go back into the surplus, the rest of it went in the garbage.

Now the little bookcase is empty (or it will be once I find a home for the coloring books) and I can move it out of the school area entirely. You can read about the last time we tackled the school area and see more pictures by clicking here.

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

Today I went over to my MIL’s house and finished an apron for Drama Queen. She helped me pick out the fabrics and colors. She really likes it and its really cute on her.

However, on the way home one of the ties got stuck under the booster seat and broke!!! Here’s a picture of the front (these images can be enlarged by clicking):

I’m still a fairly novice seamstress, and this is the first time I’ve messed with rick-rack, so it’s not that great but overall I’m happy. It’s also reversible:

The back side is pretty plain though, so I’m thinking that maybe it needs some sort of appliqué heart or something. Since I now have to replace the waist ties, might as well take care of that, too, while I’m at it. Don’t you think?

So I guess I’m not really finished yet, huh?

Tackle It Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

I would like to know what evidence supports the claim: “boys are easier to toilet train than girls.” Really? Where’s the proof, I’d like to know. We are still tackling toilet training. 7 days, 1 lucky coincidence and I-forgot-how-many messes on my floor. Well, to be fair, a couple of them were in the yard.

Seriously.

Toilet tackles aside, I’ve been purging the remaining winter clothing and packing it away. I really liked the idea Laura posted about a purge box. Some of these things need to be passed on; some need to be held for the fall; some need to be taken to the thrift store. Rather than trying to make separate stacks, I’m putting it all in one pile to be gone through and divided at the end of the month. That helps me get on with the rest of the organizing and cleaning at that moment, and prevents me from wasting time by saving the dividing process and trip to thrift store for all on one day. Yee-haw!

There are also a couple of other tackles I’m working on this week, but I’ll take pictures and share those next week.

Tackle It Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom.

Today I’m attempting to toilet train my 2 1/2 year old. (Am I crazy?)

So all day today he has been running around in his little boy undies, cold turkey. (Have I completely lost my mind?)

Even in the midst of getting school done, giving Princess a practice math test, and doing all our chores. (Yup, I’ve lost my marbles.)

So far we’ve had zero successes and two three accidents. (Not a single marble left.)

Because apparently I love cleaning up accidents. (Bonkers.)

Can’t get enough of them. (Cuckoo.)

So all day today I’m hoping for a success AND trying to keep my house clean. (Completely. Off. The. Deep. End.)

Tackle it Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

Some poor little baby plants got pummeled in last week’s storm before I could replant them. I had to run out and swoop them (and most of their dirt) up during a break in the storm and return them to their plastic containers. I have no idea if they’ll survive or not, but today the kids and I planted them in pots, as well as some seeds I had.

There’s the beginnings of my “garden.” Soon I’ll be adding a few more veggies and some flowers, too.

Far left: Jalapeno pepper plant; Above that: Marigold plant that “came back” from last year; Middle: Oregano and Mint, I believe, and I’ll be adding Cilantro; Above Right: Tomato plants; Bottom Right: Onion seeds. Not Shown: 2 More with onion seeds and one with cucumber seeds.

If they survive, I’ll have to separate the tomato plants and replant them in deeper soil. Right now they’re a cluster of baby plants.

If the mint and oregano perk back up with a little sunshine and water, I may need to move those inside, I don’t know. (I’ll have to look into that.)

I also want to soon plant some lettuce, the cilantro, and a few flowers for, you know, pretty-ness. I haven’t decided which ones I want to plant, yet.

Last year I started with just my marigolds and tomato plants. If all goes well this season I’ll have enough things to make salsa, fixings for burgers, and fixings for salads. Yum

Tackle It Tuesday is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom.

Today has been a really good day! Aside from the fact that my little Princess is now 8, we got a lot of things accomplished today.

We finished cleaning up after our crazy bday weekend; the only room in the house that’s not clean is the kitchen.

We tackled school like crazy; got a TON completed. Drama Queen continued learning how to add and, among other things, Princess practiced money math (a weak spot) and did very well. For a science experiment, we also set some white flowers in water and food coloring. For art we drew pictures of the flowers as a still life.

We also made a birthday cherry cheesecake (complete with candles) for dessert this evening. 8 years ago today God blessed us with our beautiful, sweet little girl. I’ll always be thankul for her.

So it’s been a good day. A really good day.

Not only that, but we tackled a whole slew of things in preparation for Saturday’s party. And later this week I’ll be tackling a few interesting things, such as making homemade yogurt and organizing a few spots in my master bedroom.

Tackle It Tuesday hosted by 5 Minutes For Mom.

Aahhh!! What a crazy, crazy busy week this is. My to do list is about as long as the Nile - and growing. Everything is leading up to a joint birthday party for the girls on Saturday. It’s crazy - but it’s exciting, too!!

So here’s a speed round low down of all my weekly posts. Ready, Set, Go!!

Monday Meanderings and MPM - Um, yeah. Cleaning plan: Clean like crazy! Menu Plan: Eat food!! I confess, I bought ingredients for specific dinners, we’ll probably have sandwiches for lunch most days,…but which day we eat what is really not at the top of my list!

Tackle It Tuesday: LOTS of tackles, like you would not believe. I have a lot of clean laundry to fold, some regular housework to do, and several outside tasks to accomplish before Saturday. I have some things that need to go to the dump, some things that need to go to the burn pile, some things that need to go to the thrift store, and also my uncle is going to come over at some point to help me put up a 100 ft. fenceline to keep the kids out of the poison ivy. Because you know how I feel about poison ivy.

Works For Me Wednesday: Making lists. MAKING LISTS, BABY. It’s the only way I make it through crazy weeks like this in any kind of orderly fashion. Otherwise my scatterbrained self would, well, it wouldn’t be pretty…

Come Shoot The Breeze With Me Thursday: Woo-hoo! Thursday I’ll be taking the girls to my mom (meeting her half way) so they can stay the weekend with her. She’ll bring them back on Saturday just a couple hours before the party. They’re REALLY looking forward to it! On the other hand, I’ll be driving half the day. In the meantime, enjoy these links that I would have shared on Thursday:

• Make a Farm
• Home Made Cleaners
• Catechism for Young Children
• Live Science

I don’t have regular posts on Friday’s but if I had the time I’d probably tell y’all about my fabulous sister-in-law coming over to help me make the best birthday cake ever. Because y’all know what my cakes look like. Friday’s also the day we’re putting together “the gift” - yeah, a bit of secrecy… I’ll let you in on that one later.

And then Saturday is the big day! Drama Queen turned 5 a few weeks ago, Princess turns 8 in about a week, and we’re having one big bash for the both of them that afternoon. Guaranteed to be bucket loads of fun.

So that’s it, y’all have a great week. I’ll catch back up with you in a few days or five. God’ll get me through it all!! I’ll try to come back with all my hair and no additional gray!