Skip to main content

Cleaning up - before and after

Don't you love before-and-after shots?  I do.  Doesn't seem to matter much what the subject is...home decor, personal make-overs, building demolition, whatever.  I like seeing the  transformation.  So today I took before and after shots as I was cleaning the kids' room.



When I was in the hospital getting my gallbladder out, my in-laws stayed here with the kids.  The house was spotless when I came home.  You know how some things are a blessing in disguise?  Well, (sadly) this turned out to be a curse in disguise.  Everything was put away out of sight, but nothing was where it belongs.  (Which is very sad because my in-laws lived with us for 9 months and it's not like I keep stuff in different places from when they lived here.)  I got the kitchen in order pretty quickly out of necessity.  Where on earth did she stash that colander?  Aw man! I can't put the pitcher away until I put the pan where it belongs...oh, the bowls are where the pan goes!  But the toys have just been shoved in any ol' where and still needed to be sorted and put into their proper places.  It's not so hard to keep things basically neat when everything has a place (and not everything is allowed to be gotten out at the same time)!



Yes, I stashed the baby in a box while I worked.  He was quite content to just "read" a book and wriggle as long as he could still see me.  That and gnaw on his fingers -- his new favorite pastime.  When hubby came home I made him let me vacuum while I could still see the floor!  I really need to finish the wall hanging I have cut out and get it up over Miss M's bed.  If only the weather would warm up (and stay dry!), I'd paint her peg shelf and get it up too.



Tada!  It's the best room in the house!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MFW ECC: What's different this time around?

I am so excited to go through Exploring Countries and Cultures again. The last time my kids were so little -- 3rd grade and Kindergarten. And now they are in 5th and 8th grades! They have grown so much over the past five years. As I began to think about our plan for this year, I realized two things: 1) my gifted eldest child remembers just about everything we covered in ECC the first time, and 2) my younger one hasn't had many of the basics that ECC covers. So I was faced with a dilemma -- how do I adjust ECC to suit the very different needs of both children? How do I shift the focus for my 8th grader to aspects of ECC that she hadn't spent time on before (such as types of governments, imports and exports, etc.) while also taking my younger child through the more foundational information that he missed when he was just a kindergartener?  ECC is designed to be parent-led, family learning, with a supplement for 7th and 8th grade. But I came to the conclusion that I need to deco...

Review: Seed Starting by Gary Emmett (an ebook)

As I've already confessed, I am a plant murderer .  I have, however, had marginal success with container gardening.  The past year or two I started seedlings with my dad, which means the kids and I dropped a few seeds in pots and my dad cared for them.  Once they were established outside, I was able to keep them alive long enough to harvest a few peppers and tomatoes and have a pretty pot of flowers on my doorstep. (At least until a horrid heat-wave and drought came along and killed them all; it's hard to keep containers well-watered when it's that hot!) In spite of the 10+ inches of snow on the ground right now, it's time to think about starting seeds again and I figure if I'm ever going to develop a green thumb, I better start educating myself!  That is why I jumped at the opportunity to read Gary Emmett's book Seed Starting: The First Step to Gardening . (affiliate link) Available for your Kindle or Kindle app from Amazon. Currently priced at $2...

Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Hubby and the kids are huge fans of King's Hawaiian rolls.  I was spoiled by homemade bread growing up, so I don't care for the processed taste/texture, but more than that, my pocketbook just can't take the hit on a regular basis! In order to make everyone happy, I embarked on a quest to find the perfect roll recipe.  It had to be sweet (very sweet, actually!) to please Hubby and soft to please the kids.  After quite a few tweaks and trial runs, I've settled on this as the perfect Hawaiian sweet roll recipe. Ingredients 1 cup milk 1 cup pineapple juice (can substitute pear or apple juice, or water for a less sweet roll) 3 large eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter, slightly cooled 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 4 tablespoons wheat gluten 1/2 cup sugar (white or brown, we liked it both ways!) 3 teaspoons yeast (3 1/2 if planning to freeze the rolls before baking) I made mine in the bread machine (as usual), but you ...