Getting Caught Up

This week has been a "ketchup" week. Finally a week that didn't have anything extra going on until this morning when I had my Tapestry Bible Study at church (we're doing Angela Thomas' A Beautiful Offering).

I made a to-do list either the night before or the morning of each day, and worked on it. I didn't go gung-ho as much as I could have, and didn't get everything done each day, but enough that this evening I feel good about what I've gotten done. The main parts of the house look a lot better!!

One battle this week was ANTS. For some reason they decided on Monday, right after I'd swept and washed the kitchen floor, that they needed to move in. Like usual I put out Terro stations (using scraps of paper), which in turn does attract more ants, but they're supposed to eat it, carry it back to the nest, feed it to the rest of the family and they all die. Or that's how it's SUPPOSED to work. I think this is the 2nd time this year I've had ants in the kitchen. Usually it's not a huge deal (yes, annoying and aggravating) and by day 2 they're pretty much gone. Well, not this time! They drank probably a good 2/3 of my little bottle of Terro over 3 days. They would sleep at night, so I'd get up in the morning and think "Yes! They're gone!" only to look later to find them trekking back in the door for more Terro.

The afternoon of day 3 I'd finally had enough. As much as I did NOT want to have to re-wash the kitchen floor again so soon (I'm realizing that it's not as easy when you're pregnant!), I pulled out the can of Raid and went to town on them. It worked. And I got back down on my hands and knees and washed only THAT part of the kitchen floor. I've only seen 1 or 2 ants since then but I think they are ones that are a bit lost, wondering where everyone is. Otherwise, there has been no new sign of the ants coming back! When I sprayed the Raid, I went outside and sprayed as much of their "path" to the house and back door as I could see, so I should've "got 'em good!" I don't mind ants, I know they have a purpose (eating dead things, aerating the ground, etc) and in general are a "good" insects, but I do have a problem when they start to invade my human bubble.

Also this week I'm happy to say that I provided a thought-out, cooked meal for us each night (as opposed to a last minute scramble to make something)! I used my crockpot twice and loved it. I think I use it more in the winter than in the summer, I don't know why. This morning I put together this recipe in the crockpot before I left for Bible Study, and when I got home shortly after noon I realized I could've waited until I got home. The chicken was already done so I left it on Warm until supper time. It was very good!!

I'm also tickled pink that the house is clean enough that when my MIL called to say she wanted to drop something off after work this evening, I felt comfortable asking "can you come for supper?" Not to make my house sound like a pig-pen (it was getting close to it) but her "dirty house" is always cleaner then my "dirty house." Haha. I even scrubbed the whole bathroom today! It was tricky scrubbing the bathtub, but I managed and it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be.

I still have a lot of catching up I need to do, but hopefully next week the overall house will be easier to maintain and I can spend more time catching up on the extra things. Like the checkbook, cleaning out the freezers, etc.

Oh, tonight I also hemmed a pair of jeans! It was the pair that I bought online a couple weeks ago. They were too long but so comfortable. I put them on again this afternoon to make sure I REALLY wanted to keep them before I pulled off the tags and cut the legs shorter. Daniel says one leg is about 1/4" shorter than the other one, but he wouldn't notice it if he didn't know it. That's a little strange since I cut 2 3/4" off each leg, but I'm happy it's that small of an amount and they didn't wind up as high-water pants or terribly crooked lengths :) (And, if I simply hike up the long side then it should be even, right? :P )

Tonight is the first COLD night for our area, it's supposed to get down below freezing. Nights like tonight make me very thankful for a warm house, warm clothes and a warm bed to sleep in :)