January 12

January 12, 2013
Finally un-decorated our home
The latest it has been done

The Fairies Did It

The Fairies refilled my cup and left me a little message...

Really grainy cell phone photos of Pickle's rearranged room...with an actual bed frame! We were so blessed by the man from the far east valley who met us half-way to deliver our $30 Craigslist bed frame.

I have been told . . .

that if you can make it through a remodeling project with your spouse that your marriage is strong enough to make it through anything.

I think that's a lie.

I think if you can make it through a remodeling project with a toddler under foot, then your marriage is strong enough to make it through anything.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Remodeling with Kids from One Mamma on Vimeo.

Notice she's barefoot and running around in her underwear.

Christmas Is Coming!

And here's our decor to prove it!

Warnings:
1. My camera was not sitting level on the
tripod, so please tilt your head slightly to the left. Thank you.
2. Our home has small rooms. Really small rooms. My family
room is the size of some closets. No kidding. It is also incredibly difficult to
photograph due to lighting issues. I apologize in advance for any eye
disturbance this may cause.

I've never done a home tour either virtually or in person, but since my Auntie Em had inquired about our decorations this year and BooMama has her tour up, I figured I'd give it a shot.

We don't have a fireplace, but we do have this entertainment center.


I was inspired by all the great garlands popping up all over blog land (you can find a ton here if you haven't already) so I decided to add a garland this year. Complete with fake greenery, berries and even fake ornaments-plastic ones left over from our child & puppy friendly tree.

On the left are J's and my stockings hanging from a LOVE stocking holder; on the right is Pickle's stocking hanging from a snowflake. I made these from felt for Pickle's first Christmas. Her stocking is as long as she was that Christmas!

The manger scene pieces are actually bisque candle holders from Party Lite about 10 years ago. I love them, but don't burn candles in them anymore, so that's what the twinkle lights are for! I got that idea here.

Everything else on the top shelves are things that normally grace those areas--I've just added a bow here and there along with more fake poinsettias. The photo of Pickle in the center was taken when she was about nine months old in my Great Grandad Zern's christening gown. I love that photo.

The JOY nativity in front of the TV is from my friend Jessica a few years back. It is one of my favorite decorations of all time! Jesus = JOY! How perfect!


J made this table for me when we were in high school. What a romantic! The book holds Pickle's Christmas photos with Santa and the little sled has some picks I bought 10-15 years ago that Pickle decided to destroy the little packages on last week, sweet child that she is.

The frame was a gift from my Aunt Max five or six years ago and has our Christmas photo from that year to prove it! The snowmen music player was a gift from my Secret Santa about six years ago when I was still teaching--she did a whole week-long snowman theme for me. She is the best Secret Santa ever!


This little table was part of the first bedroom set my Great Grandparents ever bought themselves. I also have the slipper bench. I love it! The little tree on top is our Advent Jesse Tree. We use this book along with handmade ornaments. Pickle doesn't get it yet, but really loves putting the ornament on every night after we do our 'Bible Study' and pray.


This table is one I bought at an antique store in my hometown of Chickenburg when I was in high school. It is one of my two favorite pieces of antique furniture. It is handmade with pegged joints. The shelf below is held in place with hand carved horse head pegs. I call it the horse table.

The photo above the table was from last Christmas's family photos. Pickle's Daddy is a sucker for big photos. The rose bowl has some simple fake poinsettias and the metal bucket is filled with picks I bought along with those other oldies years ago. Pickle tore apart the packages on these ones too (I don't think she'll have any trouble opening gifts this year!). The little nativity set came from my mom and the candle/stand is from Party Lite.


Finally, here is our tall, skinny tree. I love it so much more than our first tree which was just as tall and at least three times as wide at the bottom. It literally took up 1/3 of our tiny family room.

J and I have bought an ornament together every year since we've been married (11) and we've bought Pickle one every year since the Christmas I was carrying her (4). These are at the top of the tree and the bottom only has the plastic balls to keep things child and puppy friendly.

Speaking of Lucy, her first night in once the tree was up, she kept taking the balls off the tree and dropping them (all slobbery, I might add) around the family room. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm so thankful we went with the plastic!

There are bits and pieces sprinkled throughout the kitchen and in the hall bath, but I'd had it with the bad lighting and didn't take any more photos!

Have fun touring all the homes on the list!

Edit:

I forgot all about the recipe! Here is one that is super easy and SO GOOD! You make these six-layer cookie bars in the micro.

Six Layer Bars

1/2 c. butter, melted
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. (6 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips (about one cup)
1 c. flaked coconut
1 c. finely chopped nuts (any work, but I love walnuts for this)

1. In each of 2 (8 inch) square baking dishes, pour 1/2 butter. Sprinkle each with 1/2 crumbs, pour 1/2 can of milk equally over each dish.

2. Top each dish with 1/2 of chocolate, coconut & nuts; press down slightly.

3. Heat one dish at a time, 5-6 minutes on 70% power. Let stand, covered, 5 minutes; chill. Cut into squares to serve.

Makes 32 bars.

I don't have a photo of these because I just got the recipe from my Auntie Em--we made these at her house on vacation all the time when I was a kid--and I haven't made them yet!

Enjoy!

BooMama's Before & After: The After

All updates are in RED! I like red, don't you? Although I've never been brave enough to paint a room, or even a wall for that matter, red. Maybe a piece of furniture . . . it's a thought. Now, on to the list:

Here it is, folks! The things I want to do before BooMama's July 25th September 26th deadline. Realistically, I doubt I'll get them all done, but at least it's something to shoot for . . .

1. Touch-up the paint in my hall and bathroom.

1. The hall. In an interesting twist of fate, I had no extra wall color for this room. I didn't realize that until after I'd already done all the trim touch up. (Grr)

On my way to Home Depot for a quart of 'Weathered Sandstone', I reminisced over how I never really cared for the color to begin with. I was almost nine months pregnant when I chose it off a 'sample room' card in the paint department. I wanted a warm, creamed coffee color with white trim, but I couldn't decide on the coffee color, so I went completely opposite with light wall color and darker trim. Again, nine months pregnant.

All this to say, that I've found the color I want and I do believe I may be painting come October when I can get a little help with the Pickle.

The Before:

The After (of the trim, at least):



The bathroom wall: it is painted. I love it. I hadn't realized how it set my mornings up for a bit of frustration when I leaned down to spit toothpaste and saw a poorly done patch job (for some reason My Man didn't want me to mix Sheetrock mud by myself, so I had to use Red Devil hole patch) that had never been painted. I am now at ease every time I spit.

The Before:

The After:


2. Finish painting the Family Room Hallway and all doors.

2. I am done with the hallway and all the Family Room touch-ups that seem to have sprouted since December '07. The doors, well, I'm waiting on those. I've tried taking them down on my own,and well, it's not something I'd recommend. I want to spray the doors for a more even finish and that must be done outdoors. Maybe between Elk season & Deer season, my Honey will get to his Honey Do list . . .

The Before:

The After:
Note: the paint color is actually the same--the Before was photographed at night with CF bulbs in the family room lamps . . . the After is a more true representation of the color.


3. Refinish Pickle's bathtub. (50+ year old porcelain is GROSS!!!)

3. NOT DONE!!!!! As much as I want to tackle this, I really need a good solid chunk of child-free time and that just doesn't happen around here all that often. I'm thinking I may be able to steal my niece over her fall break next month for a couple of days--one to attend to the repainting of my bedroom and another to attend to this mess:

4. Lay new flooring in the Family room, hallway and kitchen. (Seeing as how I can't do this one without My Man's manly help, this has the most likelihood of not being finished by the deadline. But if it is, oh! those other three won't even matter!!!!!)

4. The flooring. It makes me weepy just thinking about it. Our new flooring is currently riding along the asphalt (and dirt roads) up North under My Man's Chevy. Yep, that's right. Our flooring $$ went to new tires. I am bummed beyond measure that the crack in the tire was irreparable. Is that even a word? Anyway, we didn't feel like we could justify spending $900 of our emergency fund on tires when there was $1300 sitting in the bank waiting on me to decide on flooring. My proposed solution: rip up the carpet (EEEEEEEW!), seal the concrete and buy an area rug. It's not great, but it's definitely better than living with a health hazard!

This deserves NO photo--just think 11 year old contractor grade carpet with
cheap padding in a light beige color . . .

Head over to BooMama's to check out some other fancy fixer-uppers!

Homemade Soap

I made soap last weekend! I am very excited about this new found skill. As I become more proficient, I may even add some to my (hopefully) soon to be up and running Etsy shop.

The larger bars are made from olive, coconut and palm oil and the smaller bars are Castille soap, also known as olive oil soap.

The bars need to cure another few weeks before use, so I'm getting very anxious to try real soap without any chemicals added and without the glycerin removed!

My Man is building me soap molds (hopefully) this week/weekend so I can get another batch made soon. I think I'll try something with oatmeal . . .

I can honestly tell you the most difficult part of making your own soap is waiting at least three to four weeks for it to cure! If you're interested, there is a TON of information on the web but the only photo tutorial I found was done by Rachel at Small Notebook.org Encouragement for a Simple Home.

Even if you're not interested in making your own soap, I'd love for you to stop by her blog. She's got lots of great tips for simplifying your home including a great tutorial on how to make a homemade worm compost bin. She keeps it inside a small cupboard in her family's apartment. And, no, it doesn't smell . . .

One of my goals is to be less dependent on commercially made products and all the chemicals those products contain. Soapmaking is one of my first big steps down a path to a simpler life.

BooMama's Before and After: My 'To Do' List

Here it is, folks! The things I want to do before BooMama's July 25th deadline. Realistically, I doubt I'll get them all done, but at least it's something to shoot for . . .

1. Touch-up the paint in my hall and bathroom.

2. Finish painting the Family Room Hallway and all doors.

3. Refinish Pickle's bathtub. (50+ year old porcelain is GROSS!!!)

4. Lay new flooring in the Family room, hallway and kitchen. (Seeing as how I can't do this one without My Man's manly help, this has the most likelihood of not being finished by the deadline. But if it is, oh! those other three won't even matter!!!!!)

This deserves NO photo--just think 11 year old contractor grade carpet with
cheap padding in a light beige color . . .

Apple Cider Vinegar

Deb commented that a friend of hers suggested vinegar to kill the weeds--I hadn't heard this, but thought it was interesting.

Auntie Em then emailed me to say that she'd read Apple Cider Vinegar was particularly good for weeds. So, I'm going to give it a try on the dandelions and see what the result is. I'll keep you posted.

On another vinegar note:

My poor sunburned back hurts just as bad today as it did on Wednesday when I fried it. Aloe with pain reliever and Lanacane spray are just not cutting it! Auntie Em mentioned that the Cider Vinegar was also good for sun burns. Now, as kids, we always put white vinegar on sun burns. Ouch! Oh, would it sting before finally bringing relief!

Well, today, I was so desperate to eliminate the burning, that when Em mentioned the Cider Vinegar for the sun burn, I decided to try. It was amazing. Almost no burn! The relief was immediate. It felt so much better, I nearly cried from sheer happiness!

I use white vinegar for lots of cleaning applications around the house, but hadn't given the Cider Vinegar much thought. What, if anything, do you use vinegar for? Do you find one kind is better than another for your particular application?

Blog #2 and Clutter

So I started another blog today. Yikes, I'm not sure what I'll do trying to keep up two. The new one, A Branch on the Tree, is strictly for family updates.

My random thoughts will stay here.

My random thought for today: Clutter.

I really dislike clutter. It plagues me. My forgetfulness, combined with My Man's apparent inability to return things to their appropriate homes, makes clutter follow me wherever I go. Actually, it doesn't really follow me. It usually just congregates here:

This poor little piece of counter is off by itself next to the fridge. Since it gets so little kitchen action, it sold it's soul to the clutter devil not long after we moved in 11 years ago. I've tried all kinds of little containers and such to collect things to be sent to their rightful homes, but the containers just fill up, overflow and I'm left with this mess. Ugh. I think it's time to break up the party and send this clutter home!

Does your clutter congregate or is it antisocial and like to scatter itself about your home? What do you do to keep clutter in check?

Electricity. It's a good thing.

Have you ever been without power for any length of time? In a total electric house, it's a real pain.

Saturday: I'm out shopping, BY MYSELF!!! Aah, the glory of walking through a store without the constant stream of, "Don't touch that." "Put your feet down." "Pickle don't tear the tags off." etc. pouring out of my mouth. Priceless.

Pickle and My Man are at home hanging out. My Man decides to start boiling down his javelina skull. (At least now it's out of my fridge!) Then he remembers a vent he needs to fix on the roof. While on the roof figuring out what he needs to fix the vent, My Man notices a little gap where the electrical conduit has shrank and is not actually inside the junction box that leads to our panel box of circuit breakers anymore. "Aha! He thinks, this may be why we've had some trouble with a couple breakers tripping since the rain. I'll just fix this too."

Off to the hardware store they go. In the meantime, some friends have called him to see if we want to go out to dinner. He, thankfully, accepted. By the time I got home, all the wires were dangling out of the pipe at the roof line like Medusa's hair. Since I really don't like electrical stuff, you can imagine my despair. My Man assures me it's no problem. He just needs to glue in the new piece of conduit, re-run the wires and attach them to their appropriate breakers. Sure, no problem. I'll just get my toenail polish and sit outside in the dusk to paint my toes since it's dark inside!!!

Insert live action: Pickle, "Eat, eat. Hungawee. Eat, eat." Translation, if I don't go feed her now, she'll start eating the dog food she's been playing in. The two-day drama continues . . .

. . . full bellies and a sleeping baby sure do make this mamma happy! Now, where were we?

Oh, yes. The toes. Absolutely the worst french pedicure I've ever been responsible for. Oh, well. better than chipped red polish, I guess.

By 7:00 when we needed to leave, he had reconnected the outside freezer, the fridge, Pickle's room and the living room. (Hey, the man needs his TV and I need Pickle's monitor!)

After dinner and ice cream, we headed straight to bed. He figured he'd just reconnect the hot water heater early, we'd go to church and finish the rest in the afternoon.

The best laid plans, right? At 3:30 the monitor woke me up with incessant beeping. I thought the battery was low (we had no power in our room) so I switched it with the other, fully charged monitor and just got more beeping. So I stumbled through the dark house to find out what was happening on Pickle's end. Nothing. That's what was happening. Absolutely no power. I checked the other two rooms that should have had power. Nope. Woke My Man to tell him the glorious news. He just rolled over and said he'd fix it in the morning.

I laid back down to visions of a slow smoldering fire in the panel box and a horrible pit in my stomach. After about thirty minutes of self torture, I got up went outside and saw absolutely no fire, smoke or smoldering embers. I went back to sleep.

Sunday: The hot water heater wires were sparking, which caused the main house breaker to trip. This was really bad news because I wanted a shower!!! Lowe's was calling our names again. Church was forgone to try to prevent the utter destruction of our cute little house by electrical fire. After two trips to the hardware store and a quick lunch at our favorite bagel shop (actually, it's the only bagel shop within 40 miles) we finally got down to the business of reconnecting all those pesky wires.

I use the term we here VERY loosely. I actually planted a new tomato plant in my straw bale garden, planted giant sunflower seeds along the fence line, lugged ten bags of compost, a new drop spreader, large bag of grass seed, the most adorable little rake for Pickle and a bunch of bamboo plant stakes in from the truck. Lowe's garden center likes it when we have to buy home repair stuff because I can't resist at least a cart load of stuff for the yard. Since I'm already there and all.

By the time I'd done all that and toted Pickle around the yard in her wagon for hours and hours My Man had the panel box all reconnected and organized and he even got the vent fixed!

All I can say is that our dinner of beef patties, hominy and fried taters and gravy cooked on my electric stove was the best meal I've had in a long time.

Lists, Lists and More Lists

I often have people question the number of lists I make on a daily basis, but I find that if I don’t write things down, I forget them. Momentarily. It’s sad.

So, today’s post is a list of all the lists I have on my Pocket PC right now. Actually, I have so many lists, that I had to organize them in folders. Today I’ll share one. This is my Shopping Folder. It contains lists of things I need to by now, things to buy later, things to keep on hand, things we’re running low on. This is probably my most used list folder. We live about 20 miles from most of the places we shop, so Pickle and I usually only drive in once a week. If I forget something, then it’s a week before I’ll go back. I designed the lists so I wouldn’t forget things when I’m out shopping. I think it would work if only I could remember to write items on the lists as I think of them throughout the week. Aah well, you can’t win them all, right?

Best Prices List
Bread Ingredients List
Costco Shopping List
Dollar Store Shopping List
Dry Pantry List
Frozen Pantry List
Fry’s Shopping List
IKEA Shopping List
Joanns Shopping List
Sportsman’s Warehouse Shopping List
Sprouts Shopping List
Staples we are low on . . .
Wal-Mart Shopping List

What kind of lists do you make? Where do you keep them? Are you a day planner, a notebooker or an electronic list keeper like me?