Progress!

Yesterday was a stay home day from church for the girls and I.  We are fighting off some germs and wanted to spare our friends of them.  (You are welcome)


To continue on in the minimalist journey, we cleaned out our mudroom/sunroom/entry whatever you want to call it room.  Each child has a bin with hats and mittens in it (along with snow pants and boots).  My girls...ahhh love them.  They are hat collectors.  How many hats does each child *really* need?  In my minimalist mind I say 1.  One hat.  Living in reality in this house I think 3 might be a better number because there will be hats lost, or left somewhere.  So each girl had to pick their 3 favorite hats (they each had 6!)

Some they didn't even know they had.

They have been packed away for future use.  I'm kind of doubting that we will have 3 hats for each girl in the spring.

We discovered multiple pairs of shoes that belonged to one little princess.  No wonder she can't ever find any in her room.

The screens came out of the windows (we have crank out windows on one side) to wash them, and the room brightened.  I didn't realize exactly how much sun was being kept out!

Husband cleaned out (on his own) his 'area' of 'stuff'.  I'm liking this room!  I'm anxious to PAINT it now.
            *It was at this point where I told my husband I wanted paint for Christmas.  Gallons and gallons of paint*


We were able to put away the entire clothes basket full of 'keep' items and in the process I cleaned out part of our basement 'storage' area.  I now have a giant tote of 'get rid of' items.  In order to use that tote though I unpacked a big stack of towels I had purchased for when we re-do the bathroom.  Over a year ago.  It hasn't been re-done.  But I'm not storing them any longer.  *I'd also like some paint for the bathroom!*

I woke up to happier calmer place this morning.

Today will be a break from purging and I'll just enjoy our home.  I have a goal to start mixing our Christmas cookies up and freezing the batter for later.  This will allow me to see how this works with only having limited items in our home.  This afternoon we may make a run in the kids rooms *yipes*

Or I could just be the *sneaky* mom and do it while they are at school tomorrow.  *grin* 

The words came flying out of my mouth

....before I could stop them. "Honey bring the snowblower in the sun room to work on it. The ice will thaw and it will be easier to do"

After I said it I thought WHAT have I done?

So in it came. Unfortunately in order to do so, it required taking the door off.

*Please note we are not packrats with all that stuff in our garage...instead we're storing a family-members house contents while they buy a house!

I am now however, happy to report that the snowblower is fixed, it is out of the house and back in the garage, ready for the next storm.

Before & After ~ Dining Room

Dining Room Before

you can sort of see the LOVELY green border and green light




Dining Room After!!!

The Desk

I have a cute desk in our kitchen. It's where I blog, hunt for recipes and some days just mindlessly click around the internet. The desk is a little worn. It was D's when he was a kid. He even carved his name on the front of the long drawer. AND he placed two garbage pail kid stickers on the side (Lovergirl has told him many times now that stickers are for paper only). Someone also carved love in cursive on the side. I've wanted to paint it for a while, but painting while preggers was not on my list. Yesterday was a beautiful day and so I set to work on it!

Three cans of black spray paint later:

Now the drawer pulls that were on it I did not put back on. I didn't really care for them so I'd like to get some new ones. That's where I need some help. *They are in order of favorites*

The above is my favorite one

Same style just in a different finish

No Line is safe to touch....EVAH

That's what the commercial says right? Monday afternoon when the wind was REALLY kicking up D noticed that a line was swaying in the breeze near our power line that runs from the house to the pole (or the pole to the house). Knowing that no line is safe to touch...EVAH we called the power company and explained the situation. Broken line hanging down. They'll send someone right out.

When they arrived with their big ol bucket trucket the nice man evaluated the situation.

You see right next to the line there is a dead tree standing. A tree that sways in the breeze and was definately swaying this afternoon. It has been suggested NUMEROUS times we cut the tree down. Yeah we know, but it's TOUCHING the power line. Not exactly making us feel safe doing it ourselves. Apparently this nice guy from CMP agrees ~ he doesn't want to come back out here and recconnect the power to the ENTIRE road so...

He asks to drive on our lawn (if you can call it that) and decides he's cutting the tree down himself. He also checks the pole to discover that our line isn't EXACTLY bolted in securely. AND the line really needs to be moved onto the other side of the OTHER tree.

This little boy is mesmerized by the ENTIRE thing

He gets the power reconnected and tells us that line we saw? Yeah that was an old that wasn't connected to anything, and it had grown into the tree. *BLUSH* BUT he said we've clearly paid attention to the commercials. As no line is safe to touch.....EVAH.

In the process of ALL of this we have a maple tree in the backyard that provides a TON of shade for the back side of the house. However the top has a dead spot on it. So while we're all standing on our front lawn watching the above we hear a loud CRACK. D runs out back to see that the top of the tree is starting to break. LOVELY. Five minutes later. CRACK. He makes everyone stay in the front yard. JUST when we sat down for dinner (had to wait for the power to come back on in order to cook) we hear a "WOOSH" and then "THUD" And there on the back lawn is the top of our tree. What our woodpecker will do now I'm not sure.

D & I just laughed and wondered why we wanted to be homeowners.

Before and After

As mentioned in yesterday's post, D, his dad (& buddy) built me a new pantry with no cost to us! Here are the before pictures

There were 3 shelves in the closet to begin with. Two could not be salvaged so out they came. Which meant there was nothing for me to use at all. I improvised with what I had, but it obviously was not working. I requested some nice pantry shelves. It was low on the priority list seeing that we needed to purchase some materials. Or so we thought! God provided on the side of the road in a big 'ol free pile sheets of 7/8" MDF (or so they tell me that's what it is) and so they cut, drilled & hammered! The results:

Notice the nice HIGH half shelf for any cleaning products that I don't want 'help' with

Nice strong shelves for small appliances that don't get used every day!

Isn't it great????

Frugal Monday?

Ok I know - normally it's Frugal Friday, but frankly I was a tad busy last friday ;)

I must share this and there is a 'time-limit' on it, so it must be Frugal Monday! Last week we were in Lowes picking up a few necessary items for the house. I spun thru the paint department to check out the 'oops' pile. To my surprise there is a gallon of ultra white paint in there for $5! Sweet! This house has LOTS of white that needs to be freshened up! So I grabbed it. When we went to pay the nice cashier rang up my purchase (incorrectly the first time - always watch those scanners!), and then after I paid handed me a rebate slip. For $5 back on any Valspar Gallon of paint. That's right my $5 thing of paint has a $5 rebate on it! So I have it filled out and will be mailing it which will equal FREE PAINT for the house! So if you have some walls that need some freshening - head to Lowes and check that oops pile. You never know what you'll find!