Home Again

Those of you who periodically check my blog to see if I have written anything recently can tell that I all of the sudden quit my writing project and didn't return for almost a month. There really aren't any great reasons other than I felt like I didn't have anything truly meaningful to contribute anymore. Work got insanely busy and so everything else got pushed aside. Which is why I have been trying to play catch up this last week with getting caught up on laundry and dishes. It got really really bad! Like there were mountains of clothes to wash (and now fold) and dishes that needed to washed and put away. I am guilty of thinking that Oh! I will have more time/ energy to do it later... and then later comes and I don't have anymore/extra time than I did before and in fact the situation has progressed to being in even worse shape than had I done it originally. I like to read other people's blogs because I like the glimpses into their lives, but sometimes in reading them I feel guilty because my house isn't that organized/ clean/ shiny or whatever other adjective you want to put in there... but I came to a realization the other day, what I really like are the ideas. There are a lot of people out there who are definitely much smarter than me and have tons more brilliant ideas than what I could ever come up with... I just need to keep in perspective what works for our family and house... though, small as it is. So, for my house I am going to try something new... washing the dishes every night before I go to bed, so that the only dishes I have to do the next day are from that day... Will this work out everyday, probably not- but I need to make a concentrated effort, because we have very limited counter space and it makes cooking/baking difficult because there is absolutely NO workspace. I would rather take 10ish minutes and wash a couple of plates, silverware, glasses, and cookware opposed to washing everything and it taking more time. Time in which I could be spending time with my husband, crafting or doing pretty much anything else... In terms of laundry, that is a battle that is fought everyday, because there are some people who do one load a day, and others who don't sort their clothes or myriad of other systems... and for me it really just doesn't work out! I would much rather just do laundry on one day. Wash, dry, and fold everybody's clothes on one day. That way it doesn't get overwhelming! It is only going to take an hour to fold the laundry and the washing and drying can be done while I am working on other household projects. I am no, nor do I claim to be a homemaker of Martha Stewart proportions, but putting in a little effort will most definitely go a long way. So, today will be spent doing mountains of laundry so that The Doc and I don't have to become nudists (it is November in the upper Midwest... meaning it is COLD) and keep in mind next time when I don't have time or desire to do laundry or the dishes... that doing a few is way easier than doing a mountain load.

Day 15: Putting Things Away

Putting things away after I am done using an item tends to be the hardest thing for me to do. Not because it is a difficult task, but because it is one of those things that just gets put on the backburner because I have something more important to do at that exact moment. I am not sure it is always a matter of having time. Sometimes I think it is a matter of not wanting to do it. Sometimes it is difficult to decide where something should go. As I work on the living room (yes, I am still working on that project), my focus has switched to ensuring that everything has a very specific location and that it is very clearly labeled. I figure if it is clearly labeled the likelihood of it actually getting put back in the right spot will increase dramatically... which will make everyone's life here in our home more pleasant, because we won't be searching for that one thing that was put in that one spot. Once we get through the house room by room, we will be able to start purging ruthlessly. My reasoning for that is currently there isn't a lot of storage in our home, and not everything has a spot yet, so it is hard to know whether or not we would use it, since a lot of our belongings are stored away in tubs in one of our two closets. It is a project that will continue to take time, but for today, I am going to focus on labeling what we do have. I am borrowing my mom's label maker for this project. If I don't get a lot of it done today, I will be continuing on with it tomorrow. :)

Day 14: A disasterous Kitchen trial

I was going to blog last night, and then I was annoyed with the fact that I burned two pans of cookies. So, I was kind of bummed to be writing about that... so I decided to come back to it today. Burning one pan of cookies, totally makes sense. I get distracted and start working on other things... so, sometimes things get burned at our house. The one pan that didn't get burned did turn out delicious! I made Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies, it is super easy! 1 can of pumpkin puree, 1 spice cake mix, and 1 cup chocolate chips. Mix all the ingredients together (I used a hand mixer). Spray/ grease the pan, and use two tablespoons to make "drop cookies" Bake at 350 degrees. The time says 20 minutes, and the first two pans got burned at 15 minutes and the pan that didn't get burned baked for 22 minutes. So, watch them carefully. They should look like raisin hermits when they are done. You can tell that they are done, if you touch one in the center and it springs back. I will add a link to the site where I found the recipe later today.

Day 13: Growing Pains

I am having trouble writing everyday, because of how life gets in the way. I am still here and I am still chugging along, though I will probably will end up writing a little into November just because I want to complete the task of writing about my house for 31 days. It is a good exercise for me in consistency, and not only practicing my writing but continually improving it. I am not going to stress out about writing everyday because honestly it stresses me out, and I don't want writing or my house projects to cause me so much anxiety. I am just going to keep writing for 31 days, which might just take me into November, but I am okay with that. The weekend was spent on Saturday with a huge push to get projects completed. I did write about that this weekend, and Sunday was spent returning items that we were not going to use and purchase baskets for a variety of items that we do want to use. Corralling our stuff is so important and I have been purging off and on this past year. To me going through and sorting all of our stuff has helped to make our house a little bit more home-like. We live in a smaller house (I have no idea what the square footage is) which has both good and bad points. Slowly our house has been turning into our home. Our house most definitely has some quirkiness, but that is alright with me. Slowly the personality of our house and us are being brought to life on the walls and in the rooms. It is something that cannot be rushed into, because that is when silly mistakes about what you like and what your family needs are made. Turning a house into a home is like the adolescent years. There is a lot of growing and evolving that happens, whether it is personal style or the needs of your family. You just have to be confident that eventually you will get there. It isn't always fun, but there are things about home ownership that are not fun (like frozen water pipes, boxelder bug invasions etc.) But in the end it will be worth it. Much like my current project this evening... laundry. It is a dismal chore, but it is so rewarding when it is done and you have choices again about what to wear. You just need to keep chipping away at it. Laundry is the choice tonight because it was starting to create chaos in the laundry area of our bathroom. Tootles!

Day 12: Another shopping day

Today wasn't a day that was planned, it was more or less a day that just happened. My mom and I and a friend of ours ended up going to Ikea again today. We needed the drawer bases to complete our shelving project in the living room, and we had things to take back that just weren't going to work in our living room. I find that you never truly know how things are going to work/ look until you get them home. So, my day was spent looking at baskets, and kitchen drawer shelving etc. I love looking at all of the ideas that they have, but what I really like is the fact that I am starting to imagine things in our home and can see a little bit more of what our style is. I am off to bed, because I am working tomorrow. Tootles!

Day 11: "Making a List, Checking it Twice"

It is not Christmas around here, nor am I starting to plan for Christmas. Though, I am excited to start decorating for Christmas in about a month and a half... anyways moving on today towards the real purpose of today's post. I was able to cross things off of my project list. My mom and dad came out once again today to help me with the living room project. My dad put up the doors for my shelving, we put up the upmost shelves, I carried down the majority of my books from downstairs, I put away my books on the shelves, I put away board games on the new shelves, and the little bookcase was moved to the porch for now, and my mom and I rearranged the furniture, a curtain rod was hung up along with the curtains that belong on it, my dad hung up our living room mirror with my mom's help. I was in charge of telling them whether or not it was centered over the couch. There were also some kitchen projects that were completed today, but I will give you more on that later. It is great to start seeing progress. I felt like we were continually taking steps backwards in our effort to make any sort of progress. I can finally see the living room in our home, it is starting to show some of our personality, beyond the fact that we picked out all of the colors. There are some more decorating projects that I would like to do in here, but I want to continue the process of bringing down things from my office upstairs. When I have all of my boxes downstairs here, I will work on organizing them a little bit more, but today's goal was to get the boxes downstairs and put away on the shelf. I would like to also make labels for the boxes, but that is something that will be happening a little farther down the line. Tomorrow's goals in the afternoon after church are: 1) Finish bringing down the rest of the boxes from my office. 2)Organizing my boxes in a way that makes sense (I don't really know what that means yet.) 3. Figuring out what art I want to put up where in the living room. Our wall space is getting filled up with a lot of fun and meaningful pieces that we have (and bookshelves). I just don't want it to feel overwhelming. I am going to have to see what can be put above our heater (we have propane heaters in our house) and how far above the heater anything hung up on the wall needs to be. I have a couple of ideas of what could be put up in that spot. I love the looks of eclectic gallery walls, and think that would be the perfect space for one. It is after midnight here, so my post will be posted as of the 13th of October, but all of these tasks were completed with the help of my parents on the twelfth. Tootles!

Day 10: Putting it Together

I am not always a very patient person. I like to see results as soon as I start working on something, but the problem is that with house projects that rarely if ever happens. You would actually think that I would learn that by now... especially with house projects. Twice when I have picked out paint colors I have wondered what in the world I was thinking. The first time was with my kitchen, as I was prepping to paint I had opened up my paint container and instantly though OMG! What am I going to do with this? I had been shooting for a coral color, but had pepto pink in front of me. I decided to just go with. In the end I loved the color! Sometimes, turning a house into a home is about patience and taking small steps. Like today I put in the shelves for one unit and was able to move the books that I use for work to their new home! I am excited to have more time to work on it this weekend! I am hoping to get my "fun" books moved downstairs and placed into their new home. But, for tonight I am going to bask in the sunshine of getting one aspect of a very large project completed!