In Which I eat crow cake

So my friend Val was eating cake.
Which she made in a cup.
A mug.
In the microwave.

What? Microwave cake in a cup? No way. I was skeptical.

She posted the recipe.

No leavening. 3 minutes.

How could it not be a gluey gooey glop that, at best, doesn't boil over and make a mess?

Val suggested maybe I did not trust her enough.

But ... would you? Microwave cake? Yeah, whatEVAH.

I decided I had to try it.

I could have used a huge mug, but she claimed it would work in a regular mug, so I used my very own personal every morning coffee mug.

Here we are, ready to go:

Ingredients mixed. A big old cup o' batter.

I was not the only one interested in the experiment:

Well, I'll be. It's rising up out of the mug, straight and tall, not pouring over into a goopy mess down the side:

It fell a bit upon removal. I wonder if it needed to cook a little longer?

It did not turn out easily. I used a knife to loosen along the sides. At this point I was still pretty skeptical. Maybe it was the holes where the chocolate chips melted, but it looked kind of goopy and unevenly cooked. I thought my skepticism had been justified.

I cut it lengthwise in half, then each half into thirds, to give everyone a taste test. I ate the clump that remained stuck to the side of the mug.

Much to my surprise, it was pretty good. Even for me, a not-really-a-cake-fan person. In fact, I kind of preferred the less crumbly texture. And melted chocolate chips are good in anything. The kids were the real test.

They proclaimed it a success.

So ... go figure.

I guess Val is trustworthy after all! :)

Here's the recipe:

Val's Mug Cake

1 coffee mug
1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar
2 tbls. cocoa
1 egg
3 tbls. milk
3 tbls. oil
3 tbls. chocolate chips (optional)
small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the choc. chips and vanilla and mix again. (Actually, I mixed the vanilla in with the (rice) milk and oil and egg, all the liquids at once.)

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 min. at 1000 watts (Val does 2:30 in a high wattage oven--don't remember the wattage--1800 maybe?) The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed. (actually, Val uses a large mug, so she has never had this issue - but you see I did and it turned out okay!)

Allow to cool a little and tip out onto a plate if desired.

This can serve 2. Or seven skeptics.

75% Chance of Clean

Side note: The results are in, those of you who are still reading would like me to write more. Those of you who voted "more photos!" missed the point! But that's okay. I hear that you like pix and I'll try to get them when I can get to them, but will also try NOT to let the "waiting for pix" keep me from writing.

So anyway.

I pulled out an old overwhelming homemaking list I was working on a year or two ago. It still needs revamping. I'm good at working on lists forever, then being daunted, overwhelmed, and rebellious and rebelling against my own list, and never following it.

But today I thought I could use it as a guideline for "doing the next thing" to keep me moving through the day. Because, really, how often do I sit around thinking I should do something but can't decide what I should do, so I end up doing nothing? I know you don't do that. But I do.

(Um, no, blogging isn't on the list at all. Shhh. We'll call it a well earned break. No? Okay, just a break, then)

What was I saying? Oh, right. The next thing. So the next thing was cleaning the back bathroom. And so I did it. I was hurrying so the baby didn't get too cranky while I was back there. So I did, oh, maybe a 75% job. Trusting the FlyLady's mantra that "housework, even done badly, still blesses your family" - a rule I really need to live by more often.

Because as I was scrubbing the soap scum in the tub I realized that I can get about 75% off it off with the Scrubby Bubbles and a scrubber and 10-15 minutes of effort. But the other 25% wouldn't take me another 10-15 minutes, it would probably take me an hour, and a LOT more scrubbing. And then, when I was all done, I'd realize it was still only 95% done, and I'd see some spots that were stains that will NEVER be done, and so on ... So I decided 75% was about the point where outcome still surpassed effort. And the baby agreed, she was very happy to see me after I was, apparently, long long lost to her.

So that's my new plan. Not all the time, sometimes I'll shoot for 90% or more ... but when I'm feeling stuck and unable to attain the perfection I think I should, I'll remember that some is better than doing none until i "have time" to "do it right" ... becuase, really, when is that gonna happen?

So... I'm going to go work on making my kitchen 75% shiny clean.

Well, when the baby decides to let me.

...

(In my best Mr. Nezzar voice) One more thing ...

we had our bathroom floor replaced after a wobbly toilet did years of damage to the under-floor (who knew!)... the new floor is that nifty Allure flooring which is, supposedly, so easy to install that WE could do it. Not that we did. We let the guy who would do it all - rip out the old floor, redo the joists, replace the toilet properly, install a new sink & vanity and install the flooring - do it. And we're glad we did.

Here, at Justin's patient request, is the old bathroom, the ripped up floor bathroom, and the new bathroom ....

Before: (this was taken some other time, not specifically to show the floor, or my towel folding abilities, sorry)

During: (yikes, you can see right into the less-creepy crawl space)

After: (see how my towel folding is at least somewhat improved?)

We like the new floor very much, it's easy to clean, a much better color than that ... salmon? ... tile with the icky old grout ... and it feels nicer on our bare feetsies, too.

Shhhh let's keep it quiet for the moment

I think today might be baby day.

Wouldn't you think that after 6 other deliveries I'd really *know* ??

Two of my concerns are arriving at the hospital too soon and having to hang out while they "start the clock" because they don't like for one to labor on their time too long ... and also that them starting the clock will lead to the push for interventions.

I actually ran through a few scenarios with my midwife and was told they'd be okay with the fact that I'm not calling and rushing in right away ... so I'm not. I'm going to hang out here and keep an eye on things and wait for labor to progress a bit.

But if you happen to see this and would like to pray that things would move along in a timely no-intervention-needed sort of way, and that I wouldn't (ahem) wait TOO long to decide it's "real" and go in (who would do that?!?) I would appreciate it.

Don't worry, I'll keep you posted. At the very least, check the tweets over there in the little twitter box on the left. You can even go to twitter and sign up for the RSS feed. There's even away, if you're signed up there, to have any posts go to your cell phone. No, really.

Thanks!

hm. I suppose I should use this time productively, if I'm not going to lay down and try to sleep more?

~~~~

8:30 am update

well, I've been up for more than 4 hours.
I'm feeling a little - or a lot - frustrated and discouraged right now.
My water broke this morning, for sure, but labor hasn't really kicked in in earnest. I'm certainly having some contractions - some strong, even - but not all that regular or strong or getting closer together. I suspect baby is posterior and not really settling down in or turning, yet. There's some techniques I could try, but many of them suggest doing something for 3 contractions, or 5, or 10, and that in itself seems kind of discouraging to try when the contractions aren't regular and close together.

So anyway. I don't know. Prayers that things would start moving, or that baby would turn, or whatever, would be appreciated. I really don't want to end up being sent in, do nothing, and be labeled "failure to progress" - done that once before.

Two Entries Will Spoil You

We got some nice snow today, and a little more coming, possibly 3-6" total, if you believe the weather advisories.

I had some go out and shovel, and a few more who "helped" by shoveling the cement pad under the basketball hoop in the back yard.

Pretty, isn't it? Well, the trees. Not so much the forgotten and now half-buried toy collection.

Here's the boys, hard at work.

I napped a little at Quiet Time and heard the older kids coming down a bit before I got up.
When I did get up, I found these pillow guys. If you know my children, you can probably guess which child thought these up. Hint, it's not the one who wanted to be photographed with them, although he did enjoy walking past and hugging them. I think it's the best use those bolsters have ever had!

I'm often amazed at what this particular child thinks up, although never surprised that the child has thought *something* interesting up.

Brown to Black

In case you're not following my every Tweet over there on the left sidebar or at Twitter, we had a brown out, then a full power outage today. Power went out briefly this morning, for a few seconds, then we had two brief "dims" for less than a second in early afternoon or so. But then a little after 3 we thought the whole power went out -- then realized the lights had gone very dim. Kinda freaky. We turned off most things, and called to report the partial outage. The lady said there were over a thousand calls from our area, although I don't know how big an area that means. The Grand Lunar came home awhile later, power was out downtown, too, and they'd actually evacuated his building. Apparently many things don't like brown outs, because they've got things to modulate their amperage and end up burning out their motors or something. I don't know.

Anyway, we ended up seeing most of our neighbors at the mall for dinner, and we hung out at the mall play area and Target until 8:30. Got home to find the power had been on for 24 minutes, so I guess we timed it well.

Grand Lunar went promptly back to work to restart all the things that had been shut down.

So ... and I ask out of concern for my finicky comments and curiosity, not trying to nag or pester for comments ... are my comments not working again? Or did no one read my last post? Or maybe I've become so sporadic in my blogging that no one reads here anymore. In which case you won't really need to know about the brown out. Although you might be interested in the baby swaddle sock. I will try to post about that someday. In the meantime I need to learn an *easy* and stretchy method of binding off 2x2 ribbing.

And So It Begins ...

The school year, that is. You know I was in denial all summer. Yet here it is, upon us. Apparently denial does not change reality. Who would've thought?

I'd like to pretend I'm busy and therefore not posting. And I am busier than I was. Really. With school and extracurricular activities, and church choir, and still all the usual household things to oversee. But mostly I haven't been posting 'cause I've been tired.

Turns out that getting up early, staying up and working most of the day, and going to bed late make you tired. Yeah. I know. I should get some sort of prize for figuring that out. Who knows, maybe walking more and being almost 40 and pregnant factor in, too. You never know.

But I'm still alive, in case you were starting to doubt that. I've even taken some pix for the blog. Imagine them: The third day of school (yeah, I know, most people take pictures of the FIRST day, but we were just trying to make sure we HAD a first day, way back then) ... the nice family walk to the local nature center ... stuff like that. But I didn't get any of them posted.

Since you have to imagine them, imagine a picture of us all sitting around the living room, cozy, reading together. The young ladies are knitting while listening. The boys are playing with blocks, but oh, so quietly, while they listen attentively. It is clean and comfortable, cozy, and everyone is learning so very much, and asking insightful and appropriate questions. Oh, and it smells like fresh baked bread.

Oh, I'm not saying that's the way school really goes, here. I'd like it if it did, but it doesn't. But since I haven't posted pictures of reality, that's the way I'd like you to imagine it. You may as well imagine me thin, too. While you're at it.

Down to the Finish Line but not yet across...

Our house is nearly done.

Nearly.

It has been nearly done for a few days now, so that, in itself, is getting frustrating. I guess when the colleges start back up, College Pro Painters are short staffed, and the staff they have are tired of working ...

but we trust it will, eventually, get done. After all, we have the rest of their money. :)

But it's "done enough" that I can show you. I like it. My neighbor just stopped by and said he liked it. As did the neighbors across the street. The others haven't said, but that's okay, it's my house and I like it blue. It's very, very blue. A deep but bold denim. I'm glad we didn't go with the more gray. I'm sure it would've been nice. But this makes me happy. Or will when it's all done.

* oh, I was going to show these as before-and-after but forgot. Oh well. The before are back here somewhere, maybe back in April or May when we were first thinking of painting and before the windows were replaced? But just imagine it yuck camel snot brown, then ooh and ahh over the improvement.

Is it worth the time, is it worth the price ...

Whew, I got the 2nd coat of paint done in the bedroom. It makes for a long day, when painting more or less takes all day.I did take a little nap during the "paint drying" phase.

Deep thought: Starting a 2nd coat is like knitting the 2nd sock. It needs to be done, but it's much less exciting, starting over for the 2nd round.

Painting is kind of a mixed bag for me. I don't mind painting, but it is a lot of effort. I find myself trapped between really wanting it done WELL and not having the time and patience to be as careful as I guess I should be. Especially when working in an almost 70 year old room that's been badly done before. It's hard to be meticulous about not having drips when you're painting over 68 years of other people's drips, blurbs, and bad plaster patches.

I do like the thrill of the change, as well as the money saving and proud feeling of having done it myself.

But sometimes when I look at the places I blorped an uneven edge along the ceiling, after trying hard to be careful, much less when I'm nursing an aching back and have worked hard all day with furniture still to haul back in, I can certainly see the appeal of hiring the job out.

So I'm glad I'm doing the bedroom, I think it will be a very nice change. Will it inspire me to ditch the ugly pink hallway with yellow feathered glaze? Or tackle scraping down the obnoxious wall borders and wall paper in other parts of the house? You'll have to wait and see.

Coming up tomorrow (or Friday) ... finishing the room by painting the trim.

THEN you can see pix.

sun spots through the screen on blue

I'm painting our bedroom

This morning the sun was coming through the window and screen and making funky dappled screen-patterned spots on the can of paint. It was very difficult to get a good picture of, but this one gives you the impression, without the amazingly-cool factor.

you might be trying to guess what color the bedroom will be, based on this picture. Good luck. You really can't tell. I mean, it's blue, sure, but not really a good picture of the shade of blue.

Turns out I'm pretty much a L00zR at painting neat tidy edges. Tape is tedious and usually disappointing, where it leaked under here or pulls something off there. But boy did I not do a stellar job with the "good brush, pay attention, be careful" approach. I'm guessing it's the "pay attention" part I failed.

Mmmmmm Hoda

My youngest, Buzz, was near my desk and noticed my cup was empty. I disuaded him from poking his fingers or toys in my cup. A few minutes later he came running in from the kitchen in his cowboy boots, yelling, "Mom! A Hoda for you!" -- he'd brought me a can of Sprite Zero (formerly Diet Sprite) from the fridge. (Hoda means soda, if you didn't catch that) ... I thanked him but asked if he could get me one of the cans that were gold and red instead.

He said sure, and cheerfully ran off with the Sprite Zero, and returned a few minutes later with a can that was gold, red ... and blue. Caffeine free diet Pepsi. Yuck. I should've just stuck with the Hprite. I showed him the blue and said, "this is great with the gold and the red, but can you find one that's gold and red with no blue??"

"Oh! Yes!" he said, running off with the hoda again. A little later he came running back again, tripped over the toe of the cowboy boot, and a third hoda flung out of his little hand, rolled across the room, and smashed into the wall. He picked it up and brought it to me, and I kissed his knee. This well-shook hoda was silver, red, and green. Code Red Diet Mt. Dew.

So I told him we couldn't open the one that rolled, or it would blow up. Eminoodle cheerfully suggested exploding it outside, but we decided not to waste it, and put it in the fridge to cool off and settle down. While at the fridge I showed him the Caffeine Free Diet Coke next to the Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi, and how it had no blue on it.

He very carefully carried it to my desk and said, "Now you can put it in your cup!" and watched the bubbles.

He's a sweet boy.

Who Watches The Watchers?

In my home today:

Windows going in ... little boys watching ... (sorry Kerri, no suit today)

Zucchini bread and muffins, thanks to my friend Sarah's gift of a giant zucchini

And ~most exciting of all~ Sputnik found a cicada just molted from it's shell -- click the images to see the bigger size at Flickr:

Houses

Oh, in case you're wondering, yes, I'm still pooped from last week. Or maybe it was the not going to bed early. Or the getting up early to try to get my time in my Bible and prayer and exercise done early. Either way. Still pooped. It's the new me. Oh, wait. I've always been pooped.

Moving on.

Houses. Finally this week the Window-Replacing-Guy is here. No new windows yet, since they started with the roof repair and other such things. But the windows are in the garage, quietly waiting, and I have a little incentive to make sure our bedroom and the little boys room stays clean each day.

I'm most excited about the new windows because it means soon thereafter we can move on to new paint. New paint is more exciting than new windows because it's a real change. Our house will look different. The windows are nice, too, because they will open and shut, things our current windows either don't do, or only with much effort. And nice because they will keep more cool in (in the summer) and more warm in (in the winter), theoretically. The only sad thing about the new windows is we wanted the kinds with the little grilles in top half, but we COMPLETELY FORGOT to tell the Window Guy that. Until the windows were here. Totally our error. Now, if we decide we want grilles, we will need to get that clippy-on-the-insidey kind. I guess we'll see how it looks without. Our current windows didn't have them, either, so we aren't losing grilles, just not gaining them.

We're only doing some of the windows, because windows are expensive. And, for the most part, you end up with the same thing you had before, only slightly more energy efficient and functional. Likewise, roof repair is important, but you don't really get a big "wow, we've improved things!" boost out of them. You just get a roof that works like it was supposed to.

And yesterday when it poured sheets and buckets of rain, I remembered that, at some point, we'll need to do something about our dampy leaky basement. Which, again, will probably cost a lot of money and result in a basement that isn't nice and improved and decorated, just not leaky. Don't misunderstand, not leaky is good. But wouldn't it be nice if all our home costs could go towards improving, rather than just keeping things working the way they should in the first place?

Some things like painting I figure I should just eventually learn to do myself. Well, I do know how to paint, I just don't make time for it. But littler things, like replacing doors. Maybe I could learn to do that. Then I could make some improvements but maybe they would cost less. Unless you factor in the cost of effort and the stress of learning to do something new. I'm not so good at those things.

I did take a before picture of my house, so that when it has new windows and new paint you can tell me how improved it looks. I'll remind you to do so at that time. :-)

Darkness Descends

Well, it's not really dark ... yet.

Our power went out! I don't know why. I called the automated line and reported it. No restoration updates. At least one neighbor said his was out, too. I did what I always do, stand in the driveway and look perplexed. I'm pretty good at it, really. Too few neighbors do that, these days.

I'm thankful for my Uninterruptible Power Supply, which beeps insanely but allows me a few moments to get the word out to the blogosphere. 'Cause for some reason you surely need to know we're out of power.

I guess I used it up.

Homeschool Taboo

In which I say what no good home-schooler would ever say...

I hate the library.

Well, actually, I like the library itself. The building. Cool air conditioning, quiet places, lots of lovely resources and books.

What I hate is how we check out books and misplace them. Everyone is excited to go to the library, but no one is excited to go get their books to return them. In the excitement to get the Library Summer Reading Challenge prizes, we made the mistake of returning "a few" each visit, and checking out many more.

Now you might be thinking, "You should have a limit on how many each child can check out!" -- we do. But 5x6 = 30 books. Not too unmanageable.

But 30 books minus "a few" plus another 30, minus "a few more" plus another 30 equals way too many. Especially when very few are returned in the "a few" ...

Now you might also be thinking, "you should have one place in the house where library books live!" -- we do. Except those "in process" of being read. Which, astoundingly, in the excitement of the Library Summer Reading Program, didn't make it back to their home, but lived in their new home, under a child's bed, or behind a dresser.

And now you might be thinking, "Well, it's really their responsibility to find them on the days you go back." -- yes, yes it is. But there comes a time when there are 38 books on your overdue list, and fines of 10 cents a day per book looming, when the kids claim that they have "looked everywhere" when a mom has no choice but to step in and crawl under beds herself.

Crawling out with dust bunnies in her hair, bits of yarn on her pants, and a growing resentment of the library. And a handful of "unfindable" books.

I think from here on out I'm going to make the kids write their own books.

My least favorite season ...

Not Summer itself, I like parts of Summer.

What I like least about summer, though, is School Planning Season.

Most home-schoolers I know are deep into School Planning right now. Some are blogging out loud their thoughts and curriculum purchases, likes and dislikes. Some are taking days alone to plan and schedule.

I have to admit, the whole thing gives me a deep sinking feeling every year.

Not only am I not a planner, by nature, but the whole task we've taken on - to school our children at home - is a daunting, overwhelming one. Oh, sure, some things are easier. Like not having to get everyone up, fed, dressed, and presentable at a specific early time. If that was the only reason to home-school, I would trade it all. But it's not. Each time we've reconsidered, we've come back to believing this is where we're supposed to be, as a family.

But that doesn't make thinking about next year -- even if I already know what we're doing and have purchased it -- any easier. Well, maybe a little. I still don't want to think about it. We're still wrapping up last year. Still trying to figure out what we're doing this Summer. Still trying to learn new chores and make them routine, and get the rest and fun we need and expect in the hot and sunny days of Summer. Next School Year seems like it shouldn't be looming on the horizon just yet.

Maybe it's because, growing up, Summer seemed to be a wondrous dream-land of a lack of responsibilities and schedules, at least from a child's perspective. Maybe there were some chores, and certainly the swim team I was on took some scheduling, but I didn't do the scheduling, I just hopped on a bike or into a car and went when I was told. And the rest, so far as I remember, was just play. And oh, how we looked forward to Summer. That residual dreamy promise of Summer still crops up at the end of the school year.

But now, as a parent, even the wonders of fun take scheduling, planning, discipline, and work. Finding swim clothes and enough towels, or the right park bag, or remembering to pack the lunch and have the right groceries for that packable lunch. And in the midst of all that different-every-day-fumbling, the regular chores march on, relentlessly.

I think I need a Summer break from our Summer before I even think about school.

You Can't Waste Good Sauce

After the waffles yesterday, I had about a cup of sweet cream cheese sauce left over.

It would be a shame for it to end up like so many leftovers gone before it, shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten until it molded.

Besides, who says you can't put sweet cream sauce on fresh, hot, chocolate-chip banana muffins? Not me, that's for sure.

Now that's breakfast.

Beauty In The Little Things -- An Entry In Two Parts

The First Part:

I have to confess, I have another blog - a new blog - with a very narrow focus. I haven't shared it with you because it's very new, in part, but also because ... hm. It's kind of hard to explain. I didn't really want it "out there" where people were surfing to it and stuff. Why not? Mostly because I don't want people to get the wrong impression. You see, the point of the new blog is sort of like a journal and idea place for myself. Trying to choose to put little bits of beauty into my home.

I spend a lot of time trying (badly) to clean and tidy. Hopefully you all know me well enough to know that. And of course you know my decorating skills leave much to be desired. The end result is that my house is far from "House Beautiful" and always will be. But I wanted to focus not on the BIG things like picking up toys and scrubbing spots on the carpet (not that I do that) and decluttering, but on the little extras. "Curlicues" that add a little whimsy or something special to the every day stuff.

BUT the result of blogging just those things, as a little inspirational and putting-into-practice journal for myself, is that it's a blog where you won't see as much of the REST of me. You'll see my nicest picture of by flowers on the table, or plant cuttings in water. I will have carefully cropped out the pile of blocks on the floor beneath, or wiped away the standard cheerio coating from the table. Because I want to focus on and remind myself of the little extras, not just get bogged down in the daily stuff which sometimes consumes me. But if you were to just stumble across my blog, you might think I had it all together, and my house was all picture-perfect artsy-farsty. I don't want to deceive anyone or inadvertently discourage anyone by only showing my well-cropped good side. I've read too many well cropped good side blogs, myself, and know I am often discouraged by them. And I'm not putting them out there to show off that tiny part of myself, but more for myself, as journal and inspiration. Working on the little things also reminds me to do the daily things -- flowers on the table don't make a lovely home if lunch is still abandoned on the table, you know?

But then I don't want to hide those things from my family and friends who do know me and might enjoy the 'curlicue' journey with me, by keeping the blog a total secret. I'm too much an extrovert for that.

So. If you're interested, pop me a comment that includes your email address, and I'll let you in on the Top! Secret! Blog! -- just don't go thinking I'm all artsy and decoraty and got it all together.

And on to Part Two:

Beauty in the littlest things of all:

The Newest Addition to the AndFam collection, shown here at almost 13 weeks on May 29th, due to arrive in early December. You can't tell here, and I can't tell yet, but it proves to be a very wiggly addition.

Sorta Chocolatey Chip Muffins

MMmmmmmm nothing like sorta chocolatey muffins for breakfast!

Step one: Pick a recipe
Step two: assume you have all the ingredients
Step three: find out too late that you're pretty much out of cocoa, a necessary ingredient for chocolatey muffins.
Step four: press on! The kids didn't know what kind you were making anyway!

All in all, they turned out quite well, if not the prettiest muffins. They're not brown enough to be clearly chocolate, so they look suspicious, like maybe they're bran and whole wheat. But fortunately, the kids don't know any better on that, either, they're used to whole wheat and flax instead of eggs and flat topped unrounded muffins that don't look picture perfect.

Sorta Chocolatey Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups while whole wheat flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa* -- sadly, I had a scant quarter cup, which was somewhat spilled by a helper. So that's what I used. But I'd recommend the whole cup. You might want to check first, see if you've got it
3 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon
baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup water + 2 Tbsp. flax seed, ground (substituted for two eggs)
1 banana
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups milk (I used rice milk)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. - I used silicone muffin cups
2. In medium bowl, Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips. In large bowl, blend banana with sugar. Then stir in milk, flax and water, and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients to large bowl; beat well.
3. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

For me, this recipe actually made not ONLY 24 muffins, but also an 8" heart shaped pan. When I first saw the original recipe (which has been quite kimodified to this one) I thought I should only multiply it by 1.5 but then threw caution to the wind and doubled it anyway. Whoops. Oh well, now we have plenty more for lunch and snacks.

These are quite sweet, and not too chocolatey as made. I can't vouch for them as written yet, but I suspect they'd be very good made correctly, too. Maybe I'll have another.

A Little Bit Creepy

Got this in the mail today. Of all the little packages, this one seemed just a little ... wrong.

But ... they seem happy enough.

Imaginary Decorating - Take Two

Alright internet peeps, I need your help.

I'm sure you'll recall I have no decorating sense.

Here's the long wall of my living room. Pardon the barrel-and-stitching distortion, my floor and ceiling aren't really curved. Here's what I've got to work with: A very long wall, two couches along it, the lamp in the middle is the one controlled by the lightswitch to the room. If you wanted, we could move it to the end of the left (flowered) couch and put another one at the far end of the right (blue futon) couch. You can imagine the left couch without the *stuff* on it - I was taking down and moving around the pix FOR these pictures and left it on the couch when I took the pic. Silly me.

Anyway. The wall is actually WHITE. The room is pretty bright and airy, but only gets indirect light from outside, the windows (far right) face North. The North wall has big windows on the left (see small pix at end) and the TV armoire in the middle. The East wall (opposite this one) has bookcases at each end, and a long fireplace/mantle wall in between with family pix on it (see small pic at end) - the south end of this room has the navy loveseat recliner and then a space to walk through between the front hall and family room, and behind that is the piano alcove and kitchen.

Still with me?

So here's a picture of that wall with no pix on it:

I had some pictures in other places, and then I bought these cute 6 little shadow boxes in a rainbow of colors. I don't know what I'll put in them. (Ideas welcome!) So I was going to move around some pictures and try to place the shadow boxes.

here's my first attempt at driving the pictures around and arranging them.

But I'm pretty sure you could do better. So ... where would you put stuff?

if you are really into this and have something that will open Photoshop files, you can grab the layered file here and drive the layers around, which is always fun. Each piece of wall art is in it's own layer. Or you can write out instructions and I'll try to do what you said. :)

http://www.andfam.net/kimblog/blogpix/lr_upload/r_whole_layers_ps.psd

Other random rambles related to trying to decorate this room ...

the other couch in here is a navy blue loveseat recliner, coming out at a right angle from the left end of the left flowery couch. The floor is wood. The room is all painted white, other than the brick fireplace across from this wall.

I tried to find a recent picture of the LR but I can't find one. I can take a few if you need to see the whole room. I don't know how this decorating works.

Anyway, can you drive around - verbally or with photoshop - those things on the wall and tell me where you would place them, if you were decorating my living room?

What else would you do to the room (here's where the seeing the whole room might help, eh?) I guess there's these pics from before we started the OrgoWork:

but we've moved furniture around since then to be more useful. The white wicker is gone. The two black chairs are still in there, they move around depending on whether we're watching videos or playing the wii. The navy loveseat recliner is in the same place as in these pictures. Some of the excess clutter is gone. :) Does that help any?

Oh, but anyway. Short of buying new furniture, what else would you do for the room? I like light, bright colors and am leaning towards a little "rainbow" focus (like the 6 shadow boxes) to try to tie in some of the warm hues in the room without *decorating* in warm browns and golds and oranges. Does that make sense? I have no real sense of how to decorate, though, so if I'm just going in the wrong direction, tell me. The worst i can do is continue to blunder and reject your advice, right? :-)

I'll quit rambling and let you get to work.

Violet Jelly

Eminoodle and Moogie saw great potential in our yard-of-not-grass. Each spring our yard turns into a violet field. Moogie mentioned to Eminoodle that they should make violet jelly with all those violets, and Noodle was off to surf up a recipe and pick a heap of violets.

Here are the results of our first small batch.

We don't know how it tastes yet, but it sure looks pretty!

There's a few more artsy fartsy jelly pix at my Flickr photostream if you want to see more.

Use your imagination

okay, I need your help. Remember that skunk cabbage picture? Well we're going to use it, and that one by the famous dude with the tree thing. And those six new shelves/shadow boxes I bought in the bright colors. Help me arrange them on this wall in the living room.

What, you can't see them?

Yeah, that's because instead of taking pictures of the wall with one lamp in the middle, the wall with two lamps, one on each end, and all the individual pieces of my decorating puzzle, I ate baked cheesy potato chips and then napped.

So ... I still need some closure on the decorating problem, but I didn't yet take the time to put all the pictures in one of my many layer-based-image-editing applications and drive them around until I liked the layout or had several to ask your opinion on.

Sure, I could just hold stuff up, but it's too many pictures ... I'd need a whole herd of children each holding up one item. And then you'd need to mentally delete the children from the scene, for the sake of the arranging.

Maybe someday soon I'll have digital decor for you to help me arrange.

For now, just use your imagination.

When Did They Discontinue Camel Snot Brown?!?!

So today a painting job estimator dude came by. A very nice young man. Doing the College Pro Painters thing. He's a writing major at my alma mater. Which is not really my point here.

So ... I looked in vain for the match to our current house color:

Since when did they discontinue "Camel Snot Brown" ???

Well, if I can't have my camel snot, I may as well go for something strikingly different.

I must admit to being tempted by the Electric Lime - who knew exterior paint came in so many lovely colors? And it would certainly make for a unique house.

Some of the colors had exceedingly stupid names. Some were a bit too "clever" for my tastes. Do you think this color would never change, despite how much sin and evil went on inside the house?

So, in the end, here's my top for contenders. White trim, blue-gray paint. Yeah, I know, you were hoping *I* would do the lime green, so you could say you know a crazy lady who painted her house lime green. But ... I like the deep colonial blue-gray. You'll have to be your own crazy lady. Or gentleman. Depending on your gender.

Clockwise from upper left:

Sporty Blue, Bracing Blue, Distance, and Denim.

Stay tuned, sometime in June, for the final verdict.

---
oh, wait, a little blast from the past -- I found these old pix from a few years ago, before whacking out all the bushes, when I was dreaming of a slate gray house. It doesn't quite look like this now, but oh well. Close enough.

the house, then:

the house, then, photoshopped to a slate gray:

What do you think??

OrgoDay 15 And some Orghonesty

I counted up the days we've worked, and we've had 15 OrgoDays so far! Of course, we didn't work all day on many of those, but still. Wow!

So Day 15 was The Finishing Of The Garage. And boy howdy was it COLD! So cold I had to trick Hollie and her son into enjoying some hot tea and hot cocoa, respectively. I knew if I asked first they'd say "no, no, I'm fine" so I made it first, then told them they'd be wasting it not to accept. Manipulative of me, eh?

Anyway, I'm sure you really just want to get past the rambling and on to the garage, so here it is! And just in time!

Here's one teaser pic, but follow the link below to see the rest of the garage pics.

OrgoDay 15 - The Finishing of the Garage

One thing (of many) that amused me ... while we were working Hollie took all the rakes and shovels and arranged them. And then stared at them - she stood before them, motionless, like the pictures you see of people staring at fine art in fancy museums. Then rearranged them. Then re-re-arranged them. Several times. So I was teasing her about spending so much time trying to get the rakes and shovels just right when the whole north side of the garage was yet-to-be-done. We laughed and got to work on the north side. Until *I* turned to look at the shovels and rakes. They were all hanging crooked. Turns out the pre-existing hangy-thingies on the wall (which had previously been turned into an awkward angled shelf) were deliberately uneven, one side set about 1" lower. We speculated as to why, but agreed it was annoying, and that we couldn't leave them all crooked. So then I spent the next half hour adding side supports to where the handles hung until, at last, all the shovels and rakes hung neatly upright. So I guess there's potential for me to become a perfectionist organizer, eh?

In related news, alert reader Shari asked:

"Since you are answering some readers questions... ;-) I was wondering how it has been keeping up with it. Some of the rooms have been done for a while so is it easier to keep them up, or has it been stressful to try to keep it organized? Do you think that once Hollie is gone that you'll be able to handle it? Is it "you", or is it like living in someone else's home and trying to keep it their liking? I would love to know how the upkeep is going for you. "

In the interest of honesty, I offer you a few pictures, taken this afternoon: OrgHonesty

To specifically answer the questions:

Has it been stressful to try to keep them organized? A little, but mostly no. I mean, it hasn't really been any more stressful than simply trying to clean up was before. And it's paid off in being easier to get things cleaned up, between the less stuff and clearly knowing where almost everything should live.

Will I be able to keep it up? Ahhh, there's the big question in all our minds. What I'm finding is that, while the organization is nice, the long-term is going to come down to how diligent I am at doing my daily tasks, and doing them to 100%. One bonus is that I see more easily where I've been only working until the job is 50% or 75% done, or "better than it was" -- but now that it has been TOTALLY done and clean, one bright and shiny day, it is more obvious to me when I stop short that I am stopping short. So a big part of the "will I keep it up?" comes down to the family and I retraining ourselves to pick up, put away properly, right away, and to really persevere until a job is done. We've still been often operating in "catch up" mode where we don't pick up when we should, but scramble to do it before some deadline (like Hollie's visit, LOL). So that's better than not doing it at all, but still not quite the standard we'd like to live by. Can we do it? Yes. Will we do it? That remains to be seen.

Is it like living in someone else's house?
No, not really. There are a few cupboards where I consistently reach for the wrong one, out of habit, but for the most part things still feel like mine, only more organized, LOL. Hollie has been very gracious at asking for and listening to our input, and operating under the idea that it needs to work for us, not for her. She's encouraged us to try some new things - like hanging shirts - but the pay off (of having nice neat shirts and easily finding the ones we want) is worth it. And, most of all, it's still our stuff, just easier to find and use. So rather than like being in someone else's house, it's like living in our house, only better! LOL!

One last thought ~ a few of you have said how all this has encouraged and inspired you, and I'm so glad! And amazed at those of you who can do it on your own! Woo! Someday I hope to be able to do so (and just have Hollie over socially!) I just want to encourage you to take pictures! Not only is it fun to see the change, and remember, later, how bad things were (and aren't anymore!) but also, having before pictures helps me be more honest (remember my superhero power to overlook reality? pictures don't do that!) ... and if you're feeling brave, post them where we can see them and be encouraged and inspired by them, as well as oohing and ahhing over your good work!

MoreOrgo Pix For You

I have totally lost track of number of days for the OrgoFun

And these aren't all my pictures.

And I forgot to go through and label them when I dumped them to a little web page.

But here's some more pix. I'll put just a few here, and you can go look at the rest if you want more, more, more.

Maybe later today I'll take more pix and put them up.

Hollie and I are almost done with the main floor.

But what we've got left is the "doozy" stuff to me -- all the boxes of "Kim's Stuff" I just have been shoving back in the house and in my mind. Ugh. I hate boxes of my stuff, LOL. And the BASEMENT. Ooooh, scary. Although really, I'm looking forward to the day when the garage and basement are tidy and useable, even if there's still issues with the cat and the basement. To be able to go down and find something quick would be nice.

So anyway. Enough rambling. On with the Catch Up.

Here's the link to all (well, many of) the pix: MoreOrgo! (don't be fooled, it's the same link!)

here's the upstairs (kids') bathroom, after:

I can't find a before picture of that bathroom, but trust me, you don't want to see it anyway. SCARY!

Part of the big boys' room, after:

they've been doing a great job of keeping it clean! And they got bunk beds out of the deal, so they're thrilled. You can see a little of their before room here and here.

Little Boys' room:

They each got bigger beds out of the deal, and we left room in the cupboards for them to still climb in and play, which you might remember from this before pic...

And then there's the guest room, as it was just before Linda arrived:

here's a pic from before, when I was using the room to store extra unfolded bedding, mending, and all the OrgoBoxes ...

the funny thing, to me, is that that guest room, bad as it was before, is the one room I thought as we did it that I could've done myself -- because on Guest Room OrgoDay we didn't actually sort and declutter, we just *relocated* all the sorting and decluttering to the basement. While I'm terrible at Organizing and Decluttering on my own, I am not too bad at relocating everything quickly. LOL. But Hollie did help me get some of the clutter out of there and we moved a dresser into the guest room closet, with some space for guests to use and also to hold my yarn stash.

Maybe I'll take some more pix to link to, I see as I look over my pictures that I don't have any after of the back room and my desk, both of which are impressive changes even if Hollie let me hide (for now) all my stuff I wasn't prepared to thoughtfully sort. Okay, she wouldn't call it hiding. But she was gracious enough to let me make a box of "I'll think about it later" for my desk and for much of the back room.

The back room is a story in itself, I'll save that for later.

Anyway, don't forget that there's a few more after pix of the boys' rooms here, if you want more, and those you can click to see bigger. But again, it's the same link as above! Ha ha! I just didn't want you to miss it.

Phew, I'll call this half-caught-up on blogging. I feel better already.

The Sixth Day

Phew, are you keeping up with the pace of this?!?!

Today, OrgoDay6, we started upstairs with the girls' room.

http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay6/OrgoDay6.html

I took some 'before' pictures the day Hollie came for the initial consultation, when we'd tried our best to tidy up. But this morning she came before the girls' had cleaned their rooms, so here's a 'worse' before. Having a place FOR things I think will really help them keep it clean.

In the pictures you might see that the hallway and boys' room are also in process. Hollie was busy organizing the girls decluttered and sorted things, and didn't really need me hanging around trying to help. So I took the big boys and we started the initial sorting into categories. I'm not sure how much we helped - but we did have a trashbag full and some things to give away, so at least it was a start. Of course, the 'magic' comes when she puts everything away, since that's when I feel most helpless.

While Hollie was busy and there wasn't much room for anyone else in the girls' room with all their stuff *out* Hollie's son took to the upstairs hallway. Not only did he sort and pile and organize the not-yet-gone through stuff, but he vacuumed AND scrubbed the railing clean. And he said he was having fun. I think he actually meant it. Learning to work cheerfully is a discipline I need, but to be honest, I can't really imagine scrubbing things being fun. Maybe I have a gene missing?

Anyway, stay tuned tomorrow for Boys' Room Part 2 - the Real Work

The Real Day 5 and an Easter Egg

I'm back! Did you miss me when my email and blog server were dead?

OrgoDay 5

Today was the 5th day of 'real work' -- we had a little less time, but still made good progress!

http://andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay5/OrgoDay5.html

Today we attacked the storage in the front hall ~ there's some built in shelves with a cupboard underneath, that I've 'curtained off' as storage because I just don't have (or want?) that much cutesy display stuff. If you were to come in my front door and down the front hall past some bedrooms, you'd pass this area.

Also, the coat closet doesn't have a door because long ago the carpenter ants ate the bathroom door, and the door isn't a standard size, so we replaced the bathroom door by stealing the coat closet door, which just has a curtain now. Is that weird?

So I don't know if getting those two areas cleared out doesn't look like a lot, but really, a lot of it was "nightmare" stuff to me -- things I'd stashed up there long ago and just made me weary to think of going through. But with Hollie to chat with and keep me moving (and guilt me into working with her ceaseless work, and me standing around realizing I ought to be working too) it wasn't too bad at all.

I think tomorrow we'll start on children's bedrooms!

And an Easter Egg ... of Yarn

In other news, I spent my non-organizing time on a craft project.

Yes, that's right, I didn't work on any decluttering and organizing without Hollie.

Aint no Orgo when she's gone ...
Aint to work when she's away ...
Aint no Orgo when she's gone,
and she's always gone too long,
and I find new ways to play ...

So yeah. I bought some undyed superwash wool sock yarn from http://www.knitpicks.com/ ... and read up on Kool Aid dyeing at knitty.com ... and finally decided Sunday evening to get to it.

So I knit a row of stockinette and a row of the funky zig zag in the sock pattern I want to use. I marked the start and end of the rows, then frogged it and measured and got about 40" per row. I decided I wanted 3 rows, more or less, of each color band, and that I wanted it to go blue, green, blue, pink-variegated, and then repeat.

So ... 3 rows x 40" = 120" per color band, which equals 10' per band. (right?)

4 colors before repeating = 40' circumference of the pattern.

So I made a 40' circle of some old burnt orange yarn, and placed it around two chairs around 20' apart, and then walked with the hank of yarn around, and around, and around.

You would think that would be one of those peaceful, mindless tasks, right? But it wasn't. It was really stressful! I had to keep carefully flipping the hank so that it didn't tangle as I went. And as careful as I was, I couldn't keep the tension of the big loops even, so some were saggy. At the end the last few rounds got tangled and I had to sit and carefully untangle before wrapping and I was just really stressed out by it. Plus it took a lot longer than I'd naively imagined.

After wrapping, I measured off a 5' (doubled) loop at one end, then two 10' sections next to each other in the middle, and let the last ~5' (a little more, I don't know where I measured wrong) doubled end be for the red. I carefully did a criss-cross banding to mark the separations and to hold the loops so they would tangle less ... for the pink I zig-zagged the loop back and forth and tied it loosely so I could just dip half of it in the pink, giving myself a few stitches pink, a few white, repeating pattern for those rows. I hoped.

Then I dyed the sections in Kool-Aid on the stove.

green = lemon lime kool aid, 2 packages
red = strawberry, 2 packages
blue = ice blue raspberry lemonade and berry blue, mixed, 5 packages total

A few things I'd do differently -- 2 packets strawberry was a much deeper and redder "pink" than I wanted. Plus I should've wrapped the zig-zag much tighter, effectively tie-dying the white section off, because it started to come undone and I got less white banding than I wanted. I pulled the red out early, before all the dye was absorbed, and so it bled onto the 'white' and made it pink. Oh well.

There's more pix at Flickr by the way, if you want to see the rinsing step and the hanging in the basement to dry part.

If I thought wrapping around the chairs was tedious, I hadn't even dreamed of laying out the 20' long band and then UNwrapping the dyed loops, trying carefully to pass the half-rolled ball over and under the places where it had twisted. It took me over 3 hours to roll it into a center-pull ball.

I'm really hoping there's some sort of yarn dyeing initiation that I just went through, and someone will say, "ha ha, now that you did it the hard way, here's the easy way!" because the Kool Aid part was fun, but the wrapping and unwrapping, not so much!

But in the end I got this pretty little easter egg, with which to make socks from. Do you think I'll get them finished by Easter?

Fifth Day Thursday Soup Day Friday

I didn't blog the Fifth Day, I'm sorry. All that nap skipping is catching up with me.

Thursday was the Fifth day, and I completely forgot to take pictures.

I worked on finishing up some toys and puzzles, sorting and making sure all the pieces were there and helping the children choose which to keep. Hollie and her son worked on the books in the Living Room, and all the little things that were NOT books that were crammed into the shelves. How does that happen? Hollie started by - you guessed it - taking down ALL the books.

I tried to tell her that The FlyLady had told me (well, not ME specifically, but people like me) NOT to take down all the books because it's too overwhelming. But Hollie is not overwhelmed and daunted by that, so she took them all down. She piled them up for me to go through, and I plucked a few to get rid of. We brought stray books down from upstairs, sorted out schooly books from fun books from Christian books from parenting books. We set schooly books aside for their own zone elsewhere. Hollie's son organized all the little kid books at their eye level, and bigger kid books nearby. Hollie "preorganized" all the other books back in. I like that term she used, "preorganized" ~ she left spaces and options so that, as we finish going through the house, we can work in things that were left out, or re-reorganize if what we did before doesn't make sense.

I forgot to take a picture at the end, but, since they're books lined up, they don't look a LOT different. I'll take a picture maybe on Monday when we wrap up the living room.

So what about Friday? We didn't work today. It was planned that we'd work 9-5, and we were both excited about what we could get done. But Hollie was sick and in pain all night, and had to unwillingly call it off. I did my best to encourage her to stay home and rest; I was disappointed not to keep working but would've been more upset to have her trying to work through pain! Sometimes you just have to listen to your body's signals. And I know her well enough already to know she's not a "drop everything at the first sign of not feeling well" slacker like me. :-)

So what did I do today?

I tried to catch the 'done' rooms back up to 100% -- I've found that, in keeping with my bad habits, I work until things are maybe 75% done. Like dishes washed, counters washed, but stopping short of drying dishes and putting them away. Or putting MOST things away but leaving the last few out. So I started at the door and worked my way around the kitchen and living room trying to make sure I'd at least caught up to how we'd left things.

And then, because my husband was also feeling not well (although with an unrelated ailment!) I made chicken noodle soup for dinner.

... and because the counters were clean enough to do it ...with homemade noodles!! Or dumplings, as Dale's family called them. But you can't fool me. They're noodles.

Then we watched the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and ate popcorn.
Then we sent the children to bed, and The Grand Lunar sent himself to bed.

I'll be sending myself, soon. It's been a long week.

Hopefully we'll be back on track with the Organizing on Monday, if Hollie is available. I'll keep you posted!

The Fourth Day ~ And Meanwhile ...

Today was OrgoDay4 ...

but lest you think all I've done is work hard (well, I think you all know me better than that anyway!) I threw in some more of what's been going on.

Yesterday it was leaf-heaping:

Tobi-Wan floofing leaves on himself:

Low in the leaves he lay, Garkie the Jedi, waiting the coming Sith, Garkie my son...
Up from the leaves he arose! With a mighty triumph o'er his foes:

Three Monkeys in a leafy nest:

and tonight was Tent Night:

A tent in the living room? How can that be?

They even get to sleep there:

Um ... except they're not sleeping. Yet.

But you're still wondering about OrgoDay4, aren't you?

Today we moved on to the family room and living room. I decluttered quite a few videos (after beginning the morning explaining why I didn't need to get rid of any, ha ha) but I didn't get pix of that. I was supposed to do a filing cabinet, but we moved on to toys and that took longer than we imagined.

The toys. Oh, the toys, toys, toys, TOYS!!

Too bad I didn't have a picture of the cabinets before.

Hollie began by ... *gulp* having the children DUMP all the toys into a huge heap.

A huge freaky heap of all kinds of toys, mixed together. This is just a small piece of the heap.

We even brought up some of the toys in the basement, and the toys from the kids rooms, and put them in the heap so nearly all the house's toys - and all the upstairs games and puzzles, were out on the floor at once.

Here's the cupboards, emptied, with their contents barfed out in front of them:

It brings to mind the near-end of Cat in the Hat, where the children say, "This mess is so big, and so deep, and so tall, we can not clean it up. There is no way at all."

So little Buzz took a SpiderMan break, and I took a PhotoOp break. Since he was leaping the whole time, none of the pix are great. Here, he leaped right out of the photo frame.

So anyway, the toys. She wanted us to take that giant heap and to sort it into bins, and then declutter.

The worst part was that the decluttering was slow, and Hollie had to revive me twice, plus give me several pep talks on the value of decluttering and a sparsely-toyed home. Which was fine, but then we ran out of time. And she had to leave. Before the mess was done. Leaving me to do some on my own.

::blink blink:: did you catch that? On. My. Own.

It was too much for me.

Okay, I'm half kidding. We got through the toys, and she really didn't want to leave without it being done, I could tell. But she needed to and I boldly reassured her that not only would I not die, but I would sort through the puzzles and games returning odd pieces to their games and making sure puzzles have all their pieces and stuff like that. I decluttered some, and then neatly put away all the things that weren't quite done that we could finish tomorrow.

So, even though it's not Hollierginized, and it's not done, it looks pretty good, don't you think?

Maybe there's hope for me after all.

Thus Endeth the Third Day

Today was, I think, the most stressful day so far, even though we only worked 9-2 (well, it took us until 2:30 to wrap things up); artsy craftsy stuff have always been sort of overwhelming, in part because I want to keep it all, in part because there's so many in-progress stuff and crafty-gifts to deal with.

So when it was all spread out on the table and I didn't know what to do with it, I was freaked out and felt like we weren't making any progress on it. Again I felt like I was just staring helplessly at all the unsorted piles, but Hollie gave me tasks, papers to go through, and I sorted them while she thought and organized and tried on different containers. Hollie brought one of her daughters today, and the girls sorted crayons and tested pens and peeled the paper off broken crayons for future-melting purposes.

And in the end we DID get it done:

http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay3/OrgoDay3.html

more or less. In reality, much of what was in there was 'schooly' (because it was our art/school cupboard last time I officially organized it, and now most of the schooly stuff will NOT live there. So all that schooly stuff is sorted into different boxes awaiting the day we do the schooly stuff. So it's not like EVERYTHING we took out is back in it's home.

But on the other hand, at the end of the work time all those flux boxes were stacked back in the guest room and not visible. So the task at hand - finishing off the crafty cupboards in the dining room, is complete.

Tomorrow we move on to Family room and/or living room.

For now ... I need a nap.

Thus Endeth the First Day

Stop.

If you didn't already read my previous post about "The Organizer Lady" coming (Let's call her Hollie. That's her name.) go read that first.

Okay, you're back? Ready to hear how day 1 went? Good, good. Fasten your seatbelts.

Day 1

Okay, here's the Day 1 summary:

pix of day 1:
http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay1/OrgoDay1.html

So Hollie and her son came with boxes and trash bags and rags and cleaners. And she explained that she likes to start at the front door and work around.

I was appalled that the first thing inside the front door is the JUNK DRAWERS and did NOT want to start there. But start we did. She jumped right in.

We labeled boxes as we came to things: office-y stuff, toys, kitchen gadgets, tools, misc. (not much went in there!) Goodwill, health & beauty, kids' rooms, etc (I think there were more boxes ...) and we just started tossing things into those boxes. We got the drawers emptied out and wiped out and she took out all the organizity holders inside and washed them all off well, and she started moving stuff around. Most of the office-y stuff, tools, and JUNK did not go back in. All that stuff stayed in its respective boxes for later, we'll keep adding TO those boxes as we work our way around the house to where that box should live. So only the kitchen gadget one got emptied, really.

This was slightly different from other methods I've used where I had a "put away" box for things that just went elsewhere ... that box has always ended up big and full and scary to me. Today we ended with a big pile of small boxes of different categories. So if I wanted to put things away (although I'll wait until we work around/through the house so that those other places have some logic and space) I would just have one box at a time, not a giant mixed and overwhelming pile.

By the end of the time (we worked 10 - 3) we had a box and a trash bag full of stuff for goodwill, which she took with her.

We filled about a bag and a half of trash.

And we did a lot of cupboards and all the drawers.

Hollie just worked steadily. She enjoyed arranging and re-arranging the things to see how they would fit and what made sense.

Those are the two biggest differences between how she worked and how *I* work (or, um, don't work, as the case may be) ...

1.) she (and her son) just kept working. She didn't take breaks to check email or sit and blog ;-) ...

2.) she didn't seem to feel the need to figure it all out FIRST and THEN put stuff in it's place. She said once or twice that we might move those things again. I gasped, realizing her method was breaking the "only touch stuff once, decide now" rule of decluttering. But it allowed her to keep moving, being willing to change things later if need be. She hasn't had to RE-move things much (yet) but it was interesting to think that option was open. LOL. I often get daunted by the whole "where SHOULD it BEST live" part and never come up with the BEST plan, so I falter.

I did notice her general undauntedness compared to mine. She had me take things out of the cupboard above the microwave, which has been quite crammed full in an awkward way. Take it all out and wipe out the cupboard. So when it was ALL out I was a little freaked that all the stuff was piled up and some of it I wasn't sure what to do with, and so it FELT like ALL of it was a giant "ack, what do I do now" but she just worked with me to put things away one at a time -- things I rarely use in the top, back of the cupboard, things I use frequently down close where I can reach ... she put all my glass bowls up high and cheerfully moved them down when I said, "wait, I use them and can't reach them ..."

So in the end, we did all the lower *kitchen* cupboards and one of the upper ones, and under the sink. She started on the upper pantry ones and got those 1/3 or more done before it was time for them to leave.

Meanwhile, her son just worked steadily and quietly. He helped sort through the junk at first, them moved on to cleaning things. While we had a drawer empty he wiped it out thoroughly. When that was done, he scrubbed the counter, wiped out under the sink, washed all around the sink, scrubbed the hard water scale guck off the dish drainer and made space for the dish drainer to live under the sink. When ALL that was done, he washed the stove thoroughly, removing all the burners and scrubbing them and even removing the screen on the vent and washing it

When THAT was done he kept working, cleaning the screens on the kitchen window and washing both sides of the windows and the front door glass, too!

I was amazed. He didn't ask what to do next, although she suggested a few things once or twice. He just kept working.

I was a little nervous that while they did this they were thinking "Ew, has this oven ever been cleaned?" or "how could anyone let their windows get so cobwebby and gross?" but if they were thinking those things they didn't let it show.

The only part I felt a little bad about was sometimes I wasn't sure how to help. I really am not good at putting stuff back IN drawers logically, and don't naturally think "oh I'll scrub this while I wait" like her son apparently does, so I sort of stood dumbly by, watching, and tried to ask "what should I do next" which kept making Hollie laugh. I couldn't tell if it was the "what, is she serious?" type of laugh ... I worried that she thought I was just one odd duck of a woman. But if she did think so, she was very gracious and didn't let on.

SOoooo we're going to keep going next week, date and time to be determined. I MIGHT even keep working on my own.

She did leave me with an assignment:
1.) return all those pop cans/bottles that are in the way
2.) go through the recipe notebooks and get rid of what we don't want
3.) if I want, go through the plate/cup cupboard

but she also said, other than the pop bottles, if I didn't feel up to doing it alone, I didn't have to, that we could wait and do it as a team.

HEYYYYyyyyyy, I'm on the cleaning team with Hollie! I didn't get cut! LOL!

Woooo! I made the team!

Although, I must admit, if she were paying me to be a helper, I'm not sure I would still have a job, LOL.

Almost Like Being on Television

Have you ever watched those shows on TV where someone swoops in and helps a poor pathetic clutter-bug family get organized?

And you watch it thinking, "Wow, I would love to have someone do that with me. If they were nice. And didn't pit me against my husband in a big yard sale. And didn't mock my stuff."

Well I have.

And I even went so far, a year ago or so, to surf and see if there was anyone in my area who did that. There were some down near Detroit, but as far as I could tell their rates were more than I'd pay and their radius of employment did not extend to my location. And I figured I'd never really do it anyway.

But then I saw a post on my local homeschooling group's classified ads.

For someone local. And not just that, but a fellow Christian homeschooler. Who even offered a free email and in-home consultation.

And so.

It begins.

Today is Day 1.

Well, Day 2, technically, since the in-home walk through sort of counts as day one.

But today is the day we actually START decluttering and organizing.

Meet Hollie and her son:

Hollie is an organizer, who, having come from a distant past of clutter now helps organize for friends and family and is expanding into a business of helping poor schmucks like Kim.

Meet Kim:

See Kim's new glasses? Do you like them?

Wait, that's not the point here. I was going to take a picture of me sitting and chewing my nails looking nervous yet hopeful about starting today. But in reality, I have to do some panic-cleaning before Hollie comes, even if my mess is why she's coming. So I'll use yesterday's not-yet-posted (well, NOW it's posted) new glasses picture. Kill two blogs with one stone.

Anyway, Meet Kim. Kim is a disorganized doofus of a slob. Actually Kim has made reasonable progress over the years in coming from near-total chaos, but has decided to call in help for a big push to get over the hump, making her life organized and smooth running.

Today it begins.

Meet Kim's Kitchen:

As the first room one enters after Kim's small entryway, as well as the heart of the home, the organizing attack begins here.

Now, in true TV style, having met the participants, we'll cut away to a commercial and when we return some things will, miraculously, be done. Especially since I don't REALLY have time to sit and blog about this right now. ;-)

Oh, and a note to my local innately-organized friends ~ please do not be offended that I've gone this route to hire someone rather than have you over. I do not doubt your abilities, having seen your lovely homes. I just felt better about inviting a stranger to work with me and my foot dragging clutter loving lazy whiny self than expose you to all that. Truth be told, I was a little afraid that you, my good friends, wouldn't like me after working with me. Yeah, yeah, I know that probably sounds dumb, but still. It's because I love you that I didn't take you up on your offers to help me. Of course, now I've met Hollie and she's very sweet and encouraging and so I'm sure we'll become friends and then I'll have to fire her and find another stranger, ha ha. Just kidding, Hollie. Sort of. ;-)

My Sweet Woot Reprise

I meant to post this last week, but am easily sidetracked. (oh, really?)

We are the proud recipients of another woot! deal ... specifically one of the oft-wooted refurb iRobot Roombas! Yeah, baby, we're moving into the 1980's with the Robot Vacuum! Remember how, in the 80's, we dreamed about all the futuristic devices we'd all soon have?

Now I have one! WOOT!

My sweet woot Hm, my woot Hm, my woot

I really want to see you
Really want to watch you, woot
Really want to vac with you
But you charge so long, my woot

My sweet woot
Hm, my woot
Hm, my woot

I really want to Roomba, woot
Really want iRobot woot
Really want to charge you, woot
And it won't take long, my woot
(hallelujah)

And I must admit ... it's pretty cool. It was even brave enough to go under our bed! ::shudder::

It isn't perfect, but like the FlyLady says, "housework, even done poorly, still blesses your family" ... or something like that. it does a better job than, um, not doing it.

Perhaps you're thinking what I was thinking, and still think in my guilty mind ... why buy a robot to do what the children should be trained to do?

Well ... all I can say is ... um ... the robot is way cool. WAY COOL!

Double-click the irobot picture to play video:

And look at what enthusiasm the iRobot evokes! How often do you get a whole herd of children lined up to, um, watch housework?

Besides, I'm sure by the time my children are grown manual vacuuming will be a thing of the past. The future is here, baby!

Oh, you force my hand ... or "Would you like some psychobabble with that?"

Too many of you suggested the "cleanie friend" option for me to continue to ignore it.

Yes, yes, I was trying hard to ignore it.

Oddly enough, most (but not all!) of my IRL friends are Cleanies. Born Organized (or at least picked it up effectively somewhere along the line). Not Messies.

So it's not like I don't have that card to play. I mean *I* don't have a cleanie card, in fact I think I'm on the Cleanie "banned" list as a lifetime offender. But I do have Cleanie Friends that I could call in. As evidenced by Karen's kind offer.

But ... here's where the whole thing gets squirmy. Well, I get squirmy.

See, I know that Karen would be a wonderful help. When we were moving and I really needed my main areas looking showable, Karen was a wonder. She kept me moving, and she had the perfect balance of not wandering off with *each* object to find a home, but also not piling up a big heap of "find a home later" which would, in the end, defeat me. She cheerfully kept us working when I was sure, on the inside, that we needed a break. And, since then, many times I have entertained the notion of calling again on her expertise.

Except ...

the awful truth is ...

I don't know if I really want to.

Maybe it's because I know she'd be effective, and at some gut level I don't want to have that much closure?

Maybe it's because I know she's a hard worker, and it tires me out to think of working so hard?

Maybe it's because I'm embarrassed of the horrible junk and mess I'm dealing with, and would rather not share the depths of my messiness with anyone?

Possibly a combination of the three.

Truth be told, I'm not good at accepting help with housework and things. I'm not even good at having people nearby when I'm doing housework or cooking. I'm afraid people will be watching me in shock and dismay, thinking, "no wonder she never gets anything done, her method is all wrong ..." ... or something like that. Maybe, worse than that, they'd be thinking "Ew, I'll never eat here again." or something. I don't know.

When I was in college I lived one year in a dorm that had no included food plan, but instead had kitchenettes on each floor. You kept your food and dishes in your room and tromped down the hall to fix it, then back to your room to eat it. I hated the public-cooking aspect of it, and tried hard to cook "real" meals (all of twice, I think?) at odd hours when no one else was around, or live on ramen noodles and microwave popcorn the rest of the time. Once I was cooking something and some other resident wandered down and asked me questions about what I was cooking.

In retrospect it was probably some recipe-follower who was mesmerized by my off-the-cuff approach to cooking, flinging in this and that without measuring or timing anything. But it kind of freaked me out, having someone watch and question me. I'm actually a pretty good cook, I think, but I like to do it in secret. I don't know.

So aaaaanyway, I think that's part of it. Not that I don't WANT to learn the "right" and efficient ways to declutter and clean. I do. I would love to be able to clean things up speedily so they don't take all day. I'd like to be able to declutter without it being a gut wrenching, ineffective ordeal.

But ...
that would take someone coming in to my embarrassingly ineffective little world and seeing me in inaction.

I'm not sure my pride can take that.

Maybe that's all that it comes down to? I'm too proud (of what?) to accept the help I admit I need? Because I'll be embarrassed? And because I know I'll whine and complain - at least on the inside - at having to *press on* in the efforts. I won't be able to bail out if someone's keeping me on task. I won't be able to run away.

And if my cleanie friends really knew that, despite the positive outcomes, I spent every moment in my head whining and complaining and groaning and moaning and wishing I could run away, wouldn't they get irked and wonder how I came to be such a baby about it?

I'm such a doofus.