Being Random

This is in no order at all, just things I've thought or thought about recently.

I am a member of an online local "for sale" group. I frequently see people selling name-brand - like BIG name-brand - shoes, clothes, decorations that are brand new and never use. Things like "cleaning out my closet and found..." or "bought this and never use it..." often accompany. Sometimes it's multiples of the same thing, like "6 pair of shoes, new in boxes, never worn."  Seriously?? It blows my mind to consider buying something expensive and then never using it.

Over vacation I asked Daniel to get our 2nd toilet brush out of the attic. We only had one bathroom for so long that our second toilet brush was packed away. While he was up there I asked him to get down three boxes. Just any boxes he chose, so that I could sort through and purge the contents. I have yet to open the boxes but know they are all full of glass dishes that were wedding gifts. I hope it's an easy purge; not for sentimental reasons because I honestly won't remember who gave us what anymore, but because I am being picky with how much I fill up space with stuff.

An empty box, a small handful of nails, a toy hammer and some pre-poked nail-holes has provided lots of entertainment for the girls lately. So much so that today I had to make a second box so they could both hammer nails at the same time.

We got new flannel sheets several weeks ago. Our old set had worn completely through. The new set is so lovely to snuggle into each night!

I never liked grapefruit as a kid. For a long time we only got yellow grapefruit (when the neighbor boys sold it for the FFA), then pink became an option and Mom started ordering that. Mom and the other grapefruit likers in my family exclaimed how much sweeter the pink kind was; I still never liked it. Then I was pregnant with Sylvia and one day decided I needed to taste pink grapefruit. I have loved it ever since. This summer I wondered if I would still like it this winter (since I typically only buy it in-season) and I sure do!  Susannah and Sylvia like it, too, though not quite as much as I do. Sylvia will eat a bite and make the most horrible sour-face and then ask for more.

I am still loving having my sewing machines set up and operating. I have so much sewing and creating that I want to do. Early this fall I finished sewing the kitchen valences that I started several years ago. I love seeing them hanging in the kitchen and they look perfect there. Then Susannah was in desperate need of bigger clothes to wear for church this winter. The fabric stash did not yield enough of the right kind of fabric so we went fabric shopping. By burning the midnight-and-beyond oil for a week, I made her dress. From purchasing the pattern on Sunday to her wearing her new dress to church the following Sunday. Her excitement made the early mornings so worth it.

I hope to become more efficient and familiar with sewing (again) so I can continue to turn out clothes for our children to wear. Each day when gets dressed and I see that her pants are getting shorter and wearing thinner, I toy with the thought - for just a moment - of re-purposing Daniel's jeans into new jeans for her. I think that's a bit beyond my ambition at the moment plus the demin from his jeans would be very heavy for her.

On that note, I am off to start the dryer for two of four sweaters we bought at Goodwill so I can get them turned into Christmas stockings. :)  Then I will head upstairs and very carefully try to sew the second sleeve onto a doll dress (that I've already ripped off once).

Vacation in December

It has been way too long since we've vacationed as just us (we had 3 weeks of vacation this year: 1 was a work-on-the-house addition week, 1 was at the beach with my sister's family, and one left), so with Daniel having vacation time available we decided to take this past week of vacation and just stay home. It was a welcome break after a whirlwind of Thanksgiving related trips and events.  Daniel had a list of projects he wanted to work on and got quite a few things accomplished!

On Monday he and the girls spent the morning outside getting things ready for him to gather leaves. They took a trip or two around the yard on the lawn-mower just for kicks. I spent a lot of that morning catching up on the mountain of dishes that had piled up over the preceding very busy days. I enjoyed being able to work without interruptions. :)  At one point I looked out the window and saw this:

He was giving his girls AND their dollies a ride on the lawn-mower (not mowing, just riding). During naptime he borrowed his dad's fancy riding mower with a leaf gathering attachment and got up a lot of our leaves, putting them on the garden for compost.

Tuesday day he spent the day helping a friend with an urgent project they needed his help and expertise with. That was a long day for me, but we're all glad he was able to fix their problem (which was a safety hazard). Because we needed to do it and since Daniel was going to be gone all day the girls and I did a major grocery shopping trip to Costco and Kroger. It was a morning and most of the afternoon ordeal and I was about done-in till we got home, but we made it and the coffers are restocked for a while!

On Wednesday Daniel spent a few hours in the morning and all afternoon getting wood from a friends' property to boost our firewood supply. There is still a lot left that he wants to get, but he was glad to be able to get what he did get in one day. (It is just cut, not split yet.) That morning I just did not feel like being home doing home-things so the girls and I went and did a little Christmas shopping. I didn't find what I was looking for at that store but did find a great gift for Susannah. She spied it first in the store and doesn't know I bought it. :) That night we watched the original Winnie The Pooh movie that I picked up for $1 a while back. Susannah has been asking to watch it and it was perfect for winding down the day together as a family.

That evening while waiting to eat supper Sylvia gave me the perfect opportunity to get a picture of how she sucks her fingers and holds her blankie.  She likes to make a "hole" in her blankie, wrapping the satin trim around the pointer finger of her left hand. This is how she snuggles, cuddles and sleeps. Sometimes she will wrap the little finger of her right hand (the one she sucks) AND the pointer finger of her left hand and snuggle that way. Aaaand... of course sometimes she sticks her finger up her nose to be silly. :)  

Thursday the girls and I spent much of the morning outside playing while Daniel worked on getting his load of recycling ready to take to the scrap metal place. It was an unseasonably warm day and it was good to get a bunch of fresh air and exercise before the cold front started coming in. That evening we watched The Sound of Music Live!, starting out with all of us watching and then we tucked the girls in about half-way through. Susannah loved it and has been asking to watch "the lady with the children" again. It was great to just sit and relax together.

Friday morning Daniel puttered around here doing different things outside and then in the afternoon tore the car apart to fix a leak in the heater core and trying to find a possible leak in the radiator. Thankfully the radiator did not have a leak!  I purposely made sure we would eat supper a little bit early so we could go on a family date afterwards. As soon as supper was over we got into our coats and drove to a small but very good Gelati (Italian ice cream) place. None of us had ever had gelati before but I've always had high recommendations from friends. It was a really fun and special treat. Daniel had Cookies & Cream, I had a scoop of Dark Chocolate (so, so, so good!) and a scoop of Mango (also good, but the Dark Chocolate was the best), Susannah chose Pomegranate since she wanted pink ice cream and that was the pink one she chose, and Sylvia had Strawberry. We all had tastes of each others' flavors and they were all yummy. The flavors were very true and fresh tasting.

Saturday morning was another exciting time! We went and got our Christmas tree. We had been planning to go to a tree farm, but spied a pre-cut lot while we were out Friday. We decided to look there first and found a very pretty tree to bring home. This is the first time we've had a fir tree and it is considerably heavier than the pines we've had previous years. Getting it to stay in the upright position was a little more of a challenge since it is heavier, but we finally got it up!

Saturday afternoon it started a wintery mix of weather and our church services were cancelled Sunday. We had a very relaxed breakfast (Daniel made us all eggs and toast), stayed in our pajamas for a while, I took a much-needed unhurried shower, and then had a time of reading Scripture and the Jesus Storybook Bible.

After that Daniel started stringing the lights on the tree. I caught this picture of Sylvia and Daniel. :)  The lights are on the tree now and I will work at decorating it this week. It is really pretty just as it is, too!

Since Daniel did not officially work on any projects Sunday we had a nice relaxing afternoon. Since he was home and everything was going smoothly, I mixed up a batch of gingerbread cookie dough towards the end of naptime (it had to chill in the refrigerator for a while). After supper we cleaned off the table and we all worked at making cookies. It was quite an adventure and I think Daniel got a little dose of what my daily life can be like sometimes. ;)  He helped Sylvia with her ball of dough and I helped Susannah.

Sylvia was all about poking the dough with her fingers and was finished before the dough ran out.

Cheesing at the ceiling instead of the camera!

Susannah wanted to try all different cookie cutters so it took a little longer for us to get through our dough and fill our cookie sheet, but we got there!

Then the fun part of adding the sprinkles!! That may well have been Susannah's favorite part. I got out all the sprinkles and sugars that she could use and let her go to town with them on "her" tray of cookies.

Some of her cookies were very well sprinkled!!

Sylvia was too busy doing other things to sprinkle her cookies so the first tray went unsprinkled. Daniel had fun doing the few cookies that ended up on a 3rd tray. I think he was secretly having fun. ;)

Susannah's cookie tray... and she wasn't finished yet! The large train cookie got lots and lots more sprinkles till she finished!

Susannah made sure that Daniel's cookies had enough of all the right colors of sprinkles on them.

While the cookies baked we got the girls into their pajamas. Before brushing their teeth they each got to eat a smaller cookie, fresh from the oven.

Today Daniel is back to work and both girls asked where he was when they woke up. The snow and ice are melting and pretty much gone (but a good possibility of snow in the forecast tomorrow! Yippee!). It is back to the reality of single-parenting for me and delving back into real housekeeping and homemaking. I think it was Tuesday afternoon that I decided we were going to use paper plates for ALL of the remaining vacation meals. Even though there were still dishes from cooking, utensils and cups to wash or run through the dishwasher, it was nice to be able to just open the trash can and have the dirty plates gone! Somehow we still generated enough dishes to run a dishwasher full every day. :)

Having this break between the busy of Thanksgiving and the upcoming busy of Christmas was so nice. It was great to not have to pack suitcases and haul our stuff anywhere. We got to sleep in our own beds, have all of our cupboard, freezer and pantry things at our fingertips, we didn't have to worry about the girls touching or breaking things that don't belong to us, and best of all we didn't have to pay anything to stay here or buy gas to travel anywhere!

I might just be thinking about suggesting that have staycation this week every year!

Simple Womans Daybook ~ Nov. 11 & 12

Susannah (still in her "lifesaver pajamas") and Sylvia 

doing "school".

I am thinking... about my mom-friends. One friend going through chemo at the age of 30. One friend with a few-week-old and a 2 year old who is just tired. One friend who's baby will only drink from a bottle so she faithfully pumps day in and day out so he can get the "good stuff"; pumping is exhausting in itself. I'm not currently in any of those stages or shoes, but I am familiar with just. being. tired. So I am thinking of them and praying for them today. Thinking of how I might be able to lend a helping hand. If you know a mother of young(-er) children, why not find a way to be an encouragement today? Just something simple. It makes a difference to know somebody cares.

I am thankful for... our MOPS group. Where we can "let our hair down" and share, laugh, cry, encourage, learn and lean on each other.
     I'm also thankful for our woodpile. This week is forecast to turn chilly and it is so nice to be able to heat our house for "free".

From my kitchen... I made Rosemary Peasant Bread on Saturday. I have a bowl of picked turkey in the fridge from a turkey that had been buried in the depths of the freezer. At least some of it will be something pot-pie-like for dinner tonight. I am enjoying my {almost completely} purged kitchen. I rearranged a few things so there is less on my countertops and I am LOVING the cleared spaces!

I am reading... Tender Mercy for a Mother's Soul by Angela Thomas. Lots of children's books. :) Looking through Daniel's "This Old House" magazines over and over, looking for inspiration and ideas.

I am hoping... for a really great week this week. It has started of well and I am praying that it keeps going that way. Daniel is on call this week on top of it turning cold so there is potential for many single-parent days ahead of me. Grace, strength and wisdom.
     I would also like to FINISH the kitchen-purging project. I don't think the remainder will take long to do and I'm ready to be done so I can move on to another area AND so I can enjoy my purged kitchen to the fullest. :)

I am creating... Saturday (or Friday?) the sewing bug bit me and I made two diapers for Susannah's baby doll. They will be for Christmas gifts. I want to make some more out of different patterned fabric. I don't have any velcro so I need to get some of that to completely finish any diapers I make. I was very happy with how the two I did get made turned out since I was just eye-balling and made the pattern on the spur of the moment.

I am hearing... silence. The girls are napping and my own eyelids are heavy.  I may need to get a power-nap next.

Around the house... I am way behind on folding the clean laundry. I ended up pushing pause on this post yesterday and took a nap. Now to finish it!! Daniel replaced the broken toilet seats I mentioned in the last post. The girls and I took our almost-daily jaunt outside after lunch and I brought in a wheelbarrow load of wood. The low tonight is supposed to be 25° so I'm sure we will use it. I have been enjoying burning a candle most days. Anyone have a good suggestion for where I could find nice-smelling candles affordably?

A few plans for the week... Stay warm. ;) Get caught up with all the laundry. Finish the kitchen project like I mentioned earlier. Maybe get to a store to buy some velcro so I can continue on with sewing the diapers for Susannah's doll. Stay sane if Daniel is gone all day, every day. 

Watching the berries in the wheat grinder.

Organizing and Purging

Several weeks ago I stumbled across a new blog, Organizing Homelife. I don't even remember now how I found it, but find it I did and wow! I didn't turn back. When I started reading the blog she was in the middle of her October series, 31 Days to Organize Your Kitchen Frugally. Since I was in the midst of a major bug-bite from the Purge The Kitchen bug, this was a fantastic find.

What I thought was going to be a week-long project of purging and organizing the kitchen has turned into a several-week-long project. Being pregnant (and feeling more pregnant every day it seems) and having 2 little girls to keep occupied or have as "helpers" means I don't have the energy or time to get things done as fast as I think I will sometimes. I have purged and purged. My yard-sale pile has grown. I threw out several plastic containers and a bazillion plastic lids that I no longer had containers for. Things that I didn't really want to store in my kitchen anyway went into a box until I figure out a new home for it. Just get it OUT of the kitchen so I can have less stuff and more space either for better storage of things I actually use or just to not have cupboards quite so crowded. Less is definitely more.

One of the cupboards that has been irking me has been my cookbook and stereo cupboard (the stereo in my kitchen was a Mother's Day gift 2 years ago). I gave my cookbooks a serious purging quite a while ago, but my CD storage has been a growing source of annoyance. On Monday I decided it was time to tackle this space.

Before. Wait, the cat's flea medicine doesn't need to be in here!

Another area of the cupboard I really wanted to improve was my magazine holder for a few loose recipes and a few Taste of Home magazines that I haven't clipped from yet. I have been using a cut-down box but it was gaping and just overall something I wanted to change.

Before, again.

Hello "I want to play the  CD in the middle" night-mare!

(The make-shift cereal box "magazine" holder is hiding on the left.) 

I have been thinking for a while about how to store my CDs more efficiently both space- and accessibility-wise. After rolling the idea of "something smaller" around in my head I realized that something like a CD wallet would be the perfect solution.  Yesterday morning we ran some errands and found what I hope is a great solution. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind (I was looking for something more like this), but I wanted it "now" and didn't want to go to several stores searching. What we did get were these 3-ring binder inserts. Since I don't keep a lot of CDs in that cabinet anyway, a slim 1" ring binder will work great and take up even less space than a CD wallet like I thought I originally wanted. I didn't even have to buy a ring binder because I already had one here at home waiting to be put to good use. Win-win! Over nap-time I worked on the change-over and I am really excited to have easier - and less hazardous - access to my CDs. Even more than that, I'm excited to have a less crowded cabinet! Less is more. :)

After. I removed the cat medicine and decided that appliance

manuals would be better stored in the file cabinet.

 

 To improve the make-shift magazine holder situation, I remembered that we had a real magazine holder that wasn't in current use. It helps the cupboard have a much neater look and I don't have to worry about the sides sagging open any more. When making this change-over I did purge some recipes that I realistically wasn't going to try and generally neatened up the space.

After, zoomed in.

On the left of the CD notebook are our church 

and Sunday School Directories,

my Thankful Journal, and my notebook for 

writing down ideas, lists, projects, and so on. 

 

 *****

The other great purchase we made yesterday that I hope will make my life easier and more clutter-free was a 13 pocket expanding file folder. I have come to realize that our file cabinet just doesn't work for me. Rather, I don't make it work for me because I don't want to. Obviously if I prefer to put the receipts and paid bills in a pile somewhere instead of filing them, the file cabinet is not the answer to my, er, problem. "Hi, my name is Miriam and I have a problem..."

My new "piling" system. :-)

Inspired by this post on Organizing Homelife I think I have a simple, easy-to-use, HANDY way to take care of bills, receipts, stubs and all that other "stuff" that usually goes into my pile-file. I am going to try sorting simply by month. All paperwork from each month will go into that month's pocket. At the end of the year I will empty it, probably into a manilla folder, and stick it in the attic with the other paperwork we keep. Rarely do I have to go back and find a bill or receipt so it think this will work fine. If I feel the file-by-month method is a little too unorganized I still think the expanding file will work well as a simplified categorical miniature filing system.

No "before" pictures but already I am finding this SO easy to use!

It has been fun sharing these ideas and improvements with you.  I hope you've enjoyed reading this post and perhaps even been inspired to create some organized space in your home. Have you had any great organizational or purging light-bulb moments lately? Did you actually do something about it? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.

~Miriam