Matt did some research, and we did some shopping, and we settled on a small canister vac that would serve our needs. All the while I dreamed and drooled over the Dyson vacuum that I would love to have but just wasn’t in the budget.

Then…a week after we purchased our vacuum I was notified by 5 Minutes for Mom that I was randomly selected as the winner of their Dyson DC25 giveaway. I was so excited! Matt, being the resident skeptic, was, well, a bit skeptical in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” sort of way.

The following Tuesday our new vacuum arrived. We excitedly opened the box expecting to put together the new toy vacuum and try it. We were unpleasantly surprised to find that the box did not contain the vacuum attachments or, more importantly, the front part of the vacuum (you know, the part that touches the floor and picks up the dirt).

On Wednesday morning I set out to find a way to remedy the situation. I e-mailed the prize coordinator at 5M4M and she got in touch with the PR rep for Dyson. I expected to receive an e-mail saying that they would ship me the missing parts and we would live happily with our new, fully assembled vacuum. When the PR rep contacted me, he was extremely apologetic for the problem and offered, not to get me the missing parts, but to upgrade us to a DC28, Dyson’s most powerful vacuum!

Our new vacuum arrived on Tuesday, and Tuesday night we put it together and tried it. From our first run, I think this is a great vacuum!

God is so good! A super-dooper vacuum was not something we had to have, but is definitely something for which we are thankful. God knows all of our wants and needs, the big and the small, and provides for us in ways that we couldn’t even imagine.

I confess, I hate cleaning our shower.  I don’t just dislike it, I hate it.  But, you say, hate is a very strong word.  Yes, and I hate it.

Let’s just say that it had been a while since any serious cleaning had taken place in the shower in our master bathroom.  Don’t misunderstand, the bathroom itself is cleaned very regularly, just not the shower.

When I saw at 5 Minutes for Mom that CLR was offering the opportunity to try their kitchen and bathroom cleaner as part of Tackle it Tuesday I jumped at the chance and hoped that this would provide the motivation I needed to get the job done.  And it did.

I had high hopes for the CLR cleaner.  I tried not to expect too much, because, really, anything short of a product that would redo grout – or better yet, redo tile – wouldn’t live up to my expectations.  I did, however, expect the product to cut the soap scum, clean off the mineral deposits, and, hopefully, make a dent in the mildew that I’d let build up on the grout and around the bottles (shampoo, face cleaner, etc) on the shower floor.

I wasn’t disappointed.  I followed the directions – spray on, leave to work for a few minutes, wipe down, let sit for 2-3 minutes, rinse with clear water – and the soap scum and mineral deposits wiped off and washed away with very little effort.  The mildew on the tile itself cleaned off fairly easily with the scrubber side of the sponge.  The mildew in the grout was a tougher kill (as I expected), but this cleaner cleared away some of the mildew stains completely and lightened or partially cleared most of the others.  I also might have been able to get more of the mildew stains taken care of if I had put more elbow grease into it; I will probably work on them some more sometime in the coming weeks.

Overall I was pleased with the results.  I would recommend using the product in a well ventilated area (as directed) due to the fumes; I opened the bathroom window and this seemed to provide reasonable ventilation.  (I generally use non-toxic cleaners (with the exception of bleach cleaners on toilets and in the tub), so I found the chemical smell to be quite strong and offensive.)  I don’t think I would use the CLR Bathroom & Kitchen Cleaner as an all-purpose cleaner for these spaces, but I will definitely use it again in the shower.

Most importantly, my shower is clean and I feel a sense of accomplishment because I finally made myself tackle it.  If you find a product that will do my tile and grout work for me, please let me know.

Happy Tackling!

I’ve been out of the Tackle It Tuesday loop the last several weeks as we welcomed Boo and have been adjusting to a new routine.  We are also out of the house a lot these days enjoying summer fun with friends.  However, looking at my to-do list for the week, I think it’s time to jump back in and start tackling.

My big tackle for the past week was getting Cha-ching, my financial software, updated.  I was only a month behind.  Not only does this help me fulfill my need to play with numbers, but it allows me to see a little better where our money is going and how we might make budget adjustments for the future.

So, not very exciting for my first week back, but something that definitely needed to be done.  

For the upcoming week – create a schedule, write thank you notes, do some cleaning

Happy tackling!

…in addition to all the spit-up there is new-baby poop on your shorts

…you are happy to have time to clean the bathrooms

…four hours of consecutive sleep is a great night’s sleep

…you never know where on your person you might have various unidentifiable substances

…you have more joy in watching two little people grow and develop than you ever thought possible 

I’ve often thought about getting an apron or asking for one for birthday or Christmas, but I always seem to find a reason not to – find something else I want, decide I don’t really have the money to spend, forget.  However, each time I have a grease stain that won’t come out or a new bleach spot on my shirt I find myself wishing I had been wearing an apron.

It would be really great to have a nice, pretty apron that made housekeeping a bit more fun (or at least tolerable).  And now, I (and you, too) have a chance to win a great apron from Flirty Aprons; just visit Simple reviews (this post) to get the details.  I think I would have to choose the Blue Chocolate apron if I won.  

And even if I don’t win the giveaway, I should probably look into getting an apron.  My clothing budget would thank me.

Well, the tackles for this week didn’t go down exactly as planned; I forgot that Matt would have a nice long weekend (he was off a 1/2 day Thursday and all day Friday) due to my birthday and Good Friday.  I also didn’t think about Thursday being my birthday which meant I took the day off from household chores.  But we enjoyed Matt’s extra “stay-home” days and even managed to get a few things accomplished.

First tackle – a written birth plan.  I was storing a lot of information in my head regarding what I want and don’t want for Boo’s birth.  On Thursday I put those thoughts on paper and will take a draft copy to my doctor’s appointment to discuss.  There isn’t anything wild or crazy, but it is nice to know that my goals are written down so that others will be aware of them.

Around the house – On Friday, Matt washed both of our cars, vacuumed the interiors, and cleaned the windows.  This was a tackle that really needed to be done; our cars were pretty yucky as we emerge from winter.  It’s been wonderful to get into a clean car the last few days.

And on the baby Boo front – We bought some of the wall decor we will use in the nursery, a set of 3-D letters in brown paperboard that spell his name and a ledge shelf to display them.  Hopefully, we will get some work done in his room this week/weekend and I’ll have some pictures to post next week.

I also began a sewing project for the boy, a set of cute burp cloths from this tutorial.  Not really a difficult project, but quite time intensive for a novice, teaching-myself seamstress.  I am down to stitching everything together, so it shouldn’t take me too long to finish.

Up next – 36 week doctor’s appointment (today), dust house, do regular cleaning (bathrooms, kitchen, vacuum, etc) before company this weekend, finish Boo’s burp cloths, bake bread, get baby things from attic (Matt’s job), write Thank You notes, get to work putting Boo’s room together.  Sounds like a pretty busy week for me.

Happy tackling!

And as an aside – I’m hosting a book giveaway this week.  If you’re interested, check it out here.

This week it was back to Spring cleaning.  I finished up a couple of things that still needed to be done in the living room and moved on to the hallway. I wiped the fingerprints off the walls, cleaned the baseboards and door frames, cleared out the cobwebs, and scrubbed the air intake for our central heating/cooling system. And I got in trouble for standing on the step stool to reach the areas above my head (Matt doesn’t like me to stand on things while I’m this pregnant).Spring is in the air and Little is outgrowing her 12-18 month size clothes.  So, I tackled her closet on Friday.  I removed all of the outgrown (there were smaller sizes piled in the bottom of the closet and some of her winter stuff that is too little) and too wintery clothes, bagged them (I store all of her clothes in zipper baggies to help prevent storage yuckies), labeled the bags, and boxed them up.  Now they are ready to go in the attic when Matt goes up there to get the baby stuff.  I also pulled all of her Spring/Summer clothes out of her “to-grow-into” bag, washed them, and found homes for them in the closet.  It’s nice to have this taken care of since the temps are warming up and Boo’s arrival will make projects like this difficult for a while.Up next on the tackling agenda – a couple of projects for Boo and his room, some deep cleaning in the master bedroom, and writing up a birth plan.Happy Tuesday and happy tackling! 

At the moment I should be tackling sleep, but, alas, pregnancy insomnia strikes again and here I sit typing a blog post instead. It seems there is no rest for the pregnant and weary.

My big tackle for this week has been cleaning the inside of my refrigerator. It is truly amazing (and pretty gross) the amount of gunk and funk that can accumulate on fridge shelves and walls over a period of time. So Thursday I set to work washing shelves and those little door compartment thingies, wiping down the walls and door, and scrubbing underneath the bottom drawers. Not a fun job, but definitely one that needed to be done. And now my fridge is nice and clean; we’ll see how long it stays that way.

I also dusted (there’s that word again) the inside of our TV cabinet. Because we have a low-sitting cabinet the doors have child-safety locks on them and I just don’t think about cleaning in there. Needless to say, it had become quite dusty over the last several months.

And, I’m still at work on the magazine pile; it is slowly dwindling. I think I’m down to 5 or 6 issues, but I’ve focused most of my reading time this week on The Birth Book in preparation for Boo’s arrival.

What is to come this week? I’m not sure. Matt has been on me the last few weeks about doing too much, so I’ll probably try to take it a little easier on the “extra” housework. We have company (my SIL and her family) coming this weekend, so I will definitely get the cleaning basics done. Other than that, there are a few projects that I’d like to (or need to) get done before baby comes. And today, I must finish my Bible Study before I go to class tomorrow morning.

Good luck with your tackles!

The other day I was thinking about this time of pregnancy with Little. At first I thought, “I don’t remember nesting like this. I wonder why this time is different?” And then I really thought about it and realized that we closed on our house about eleven weeks before she was born and moved into it about six weeks before she was born. The time in between was spent packing, painting, cleaning the apartment, and getting the house ready for move in. Those final weeks were spent painting, unpacking, settling in, and getting Little’s things ready for her arrival. No wonder I don’t remember nesting!

Anyway, I am trying to get things marked off my to-do list as I have the energy. And I’m trying not to worry about the things that won’t get done. These last weeks are better spent preparing for birth, preparing for Jack’s arrival, and spending those last “only child” times with my little bit of girl (btw – this phrase is the source of her nickname; I called her that a lot when she was a tiny girl). We’ll see how the “not worrying about things that won’t get done” part goes.

And finally…It’s been awhile since I posted a Boo-belly picture. Here is one I took on Monday before my doctor appointment; we’re 32 weeks along.

To those of you who stopped by and commented last week on Tackle it Tuesday: Welcome and thanks for visiting; I hope to see you again! I apologize for not making the rounds last week, life got in the way and I didn’t get to visit the other participants; I’ll try to do better this week.

And now on to our tackles…

The biggest thing accomplished in our house this week was that Matt finished painting the trim in Boo’s room. Yay! Now we can begin the decorating/furniture placement phase of this operation. Before and after pictures will be posted at some point.

For my part, I’ve made a dent in the tackles I set out to accomplish and conquered a couple of other things. First, the magazines…

This is what my stack looked like when I started. I’m not caught up yet, but I’ve reduced the stack size by approximately half. The remaining half will go on my tackle list for next week.

From my housekeeping/nesting list I dusted the bookshelves and wiped down the baseboards and walls in the living room. Because I’m not a very thorough duster, the shelves were probably a bigger job than they should have been. It does feel good to have these two things accomplished, though.

The plan for next week includes cleaning the fridge (I’ve been procrastinating a bit on this one), the living room wipe down/dusting (still lack upper moldings and tops of doors as well as the inside of the television cabinet), and completing the magazine job.

Good luck with your tackling!

I’ve been out of the bloggy loop for a few days due to a change in our web-hosting service. If you notice anything wonky with the site please let me know. (Don’t you just love it when you have reason to use made-up words like “wonky”?)

I’m having a bit of trouble with WordPress and comment e-mails. If you are a first time commenter it may take a while before your comment is posted due to the fact that I’m not receiving e-mail telling me there is a comment in moderation. Also, if you leave a question in the comments I may or may not realize it is there and reply. I am trying to look at WordPress regularly to check comments, so I will get to it eventually (probably). Please bear with me as my web-guru and I attempt to solve the problem.

In other, and less technical, news…

Spring cleaning/nesting has officially begun. Today I’ve cleaned the laundry room from top to bottom (de-cobwebbed, decluttered, wiped down walls & appliances) and cleaned the exterior of all the lower kitchen cabinets and the fronts of the appliances. This is one of those things I’ve been putting off for quite some time, so it feels good to have made a start. We’ll see whether my energy holds up the next few weeks to get the entire house done.

And finally, in regards to my Fifteen on Friday list…

Crib bedding was purchased and a paint colors were decided upon. The big painting project should begin this weekend.

Little has her new mattress and box springs and is sleeping in her “big girl” bed (more on that in another post). The crib has been moved to Boo’s room, but the other furniture is still in Little’s so that she isn’t in an empty room with a mattress on the floor. And so that there is less furniture to maneuver around in the nursery while painting.

So, we’re making progress. It seems slow, but it is coming along. We’re down to approximately 10 weeks, but as I always say…we seem to work best under pressure.

1. Find and purchase boy crib bedding that I actually like and can afford
2. Choose a paint color for Boo’s walls
3. Find new homes for various items remaining in Boo’s room
4. Prep and paint trim and walls
5. Hang closet doors
6. Buy mattress and box springs for Little’s big-girl bed
7. Move nursery furniture to Boo’s room
8. Find chair that I would like in Boo’s room (and hope it is in the budget)
9. Buy burp cloths that aren’t pink
10. Go through Little’s clothes to see what can be used for a boy
11. Create registries
12. Find a double stroller that I’m willing to push (and can maneuver)
13. Purchase sling(s), nursing pillow, and possibly some other “wants” for myself
14. Wash clothes, bedding, blankets, fabric parts of equipment, etc.
15. Set up tour of maternity floor at hospital since it is a different hospital than where Little was born

And there you have it. Now if I can just quit procrastinating and get some of these things crossed off…eleven weeks to go!

Today started with getting up a bit early to get a shower, dressed, etc before Little woke up. This is something that I’m finding makes the day flow a bit more smoothly; especially if we have somewhere to be (which we usually do). After eating breakfast and getting Little ready for the day we had about 20 minutes before we needed to leave for Bible Study Fellowship. But, because we’re not procrastinating today, we left early and stopped by Kroger to pick up the items that I didn’t get at the store on Monday. BSF ends around 11:15 and we headed straight to Target to pick up a few things, like laundry detergent, that weren’t urgent but would be soon. While Little ate lunch I mixed and kneaded this week’s batch of bread (we also sang and talked about the birds in the backyard while she ate her applesauce).

And then during the first rise on the bread I conquered the task that gets marked off the to-do list: cleaned and organized the pantry. I still have some work to do in there, such as getting spice racks to go on the back of the door (so that I can actually find my spices when I need them instead of digging through the entire shelf only to find that I’m out of something), but the biggest part of the work is completed.

Now the bread is finishing it’s second rise, I’m finishing up this blog post, Little is still napping, and I think I’ll rest a bit. It feels good to have one thing off my list. Happy anti-procrastination day!

I have a friend coming over in about an hour.

My house is a wreck.

Hopefully I’ll be back later with more!

~ Little’s face is looking much better after 2 doses of antibiotic; I think we’re on the mend.
~I’ve walked 9 of the last 10 days.

Every year in late Spring or early Summer I go into purge mode. When I’m purging there is very little that is truly safe; pretty much anything that isn’t nailed down is fair game. Matt can sense purge mode coming and begins to nail things down. Things like the dishes, clothes, furniture. You know, the stuff that every sensible person cleans out once a year. I mean, do you really need to eat off of a plate? Are you really going to wear that shirt again (no matter that you wear it once a week)?

The last several weeks I’ve been cleaning out. It all started when my neighbor, Lindsey, and I decided to have a yard sale. I went through the house ruthlessly searching for anything that we no longer used or needed, then I enlisted Matt’s help in the hunt. We ended up with boxes of things that we toted to Lindsey’s driveway in hopes that our trash would be someone else’s treasure. What didn’t sell went immediately to Goodwill. A couple of hundred dollars and more space in cabinets and closets were ample reward.

This weekend I attacked our paperwork. “Important” papers had grown to take up a two-drawer filing cabinet and a couple of other file boxes; I could take no more. It took a good portion of two days to sort through and shred all of the papers we were holding onto that we didn’t really need. I filled four kitchen size trash bag with paper and got down to one file box containing the papers that really are important. I feel a hundred pounds lighter.

So, today I am thankful for a husband who puts up with (even encourages to an extent) this quirk of mine and I am thankful for our cross-cut shredder. I’m sure the shredder is thankful for a day of rest.

The 30 Day Organizational Challenge has come to an end, and I’m happy to report that I completed my work on Little’s closet with time to spare. I moved things, removed things, container-ized things, and better contained things. I’m quite pleased with the finished product, and there is plenty of room to grow.

Laura has asked that each participant answer a few questions about the process and experience:

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it? The hardest part for me was getting started. I overcame my hesitancy by taking everything from her closet and dumping it in the living room floor.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order? I’m trying to be very conscientious of putting things back where they belong and putting her clothes into the baskets neatly.

3. What did you do with the “stuff” you were able to purge out of your newly organized space? Most of what I purged was clothing or baby items that Little has outgrown. Because we hope to have more children, these items are now residing in the attic or her “outgrown clothing” storage box.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience? It really didn’t take long once I began the process; it’s all about getting started.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life? It will definitely make it easier to find and get to her clean clothes. The new storage for her “to grow into” clothing will also help me keep an eye on how much clothing I have for the next season.

And now the fun part; before and after photos:

I added containers to the shelves to hold onesies/tees, pants/skirts, fancy pants (what we call diaper covers), sleepers/pajamas, socks, etc. The clear bag container on the top shelf contains clothing of sizes she has yet to grow into (mostly 12-18 months for the fall and winter); the boxes on the bottom right contain clothing she has outgrown that we need to return to other people. The wicker basket on the floor will hold items she outgrows until I have a chance to sort them and get them into longer term storage.

The overall results: her closet is neater and more functional; thus, so is the rest of her room.

Have you ever had one of those weeks where it seemed like you bit off more than you could chew? I’m in the midst of one of those weeks. It isn’t that I’ve over-committed myself, it’s all stuff going on around home.

I have my usual chores (grocery shopping, cleaning house, cooking dinner), childcare, two different sets of company coming, and a brunch today for the last day of Bible study. I also decided that it was a good time to finally get started on Little’s closet makeover, I would like to make her some new hair clips (before her 9-month pictures on Friday), I made banana bread for her nursery workers last night, and I’m baking our bread today. Anyway, the last two evenings Matt has returned home to a tired wife!

Okay, so an update on Little’s closet…

The end of last week and over the weekend I searched out the storage containers that I wanted to use. We found some really cute pink and purple plastic bins and some vinyl storage bags at Target and some small pink and green bins at The Dollar Tree.

My plan was to work on purging and sorting while Little took her afternoon nap on Monday. I pulled everything out of the closet and into the living room so it would be ready when she went to sleep. She went down for her nap like usual and I set to work. I had no more than made a big mess in the living room floor when she woke up 30 minutes later and refused to go back down. I continued to work a bit but was limited in what I could do since she was “helping.”

When Matt came home it looked like all of our closets had exploded in the living room. There was clean laundry on the couch and the contents of Little’s closet spread about. By the end of the evening I had also added to the mess the load of Little’s laundry that had been in the wash.

By late yesterday afternoon I had all of her 6-9 month winter clothes cleared out of the closet and put aside for storage and all of her 6-9 month and 9-12 month summer clothes folded (or hung), organized, in baskets, and back in the closet. Overall it has been a pretty successful makeover so far. I still have some work to do on items that will be on the upper shelves and the floor of the closet, but it is coming along nicely. I will post pictures at the end of the 30 Day Organizational Challenge.

So, that is what we’ve been up to this week, and now I’m taking a short break.

It is fun to watch her learning new things and discovering the world around her. It also means that we will be spending time this weekend putting locks on cabinets and drawers.

In an effort to be motivated and inspired toward getting this area under control, I’m going to join up with the 30 Day Organizational Challenge at I’m an Organizing Junkie. Thanks, Laura, for getting me up and going for a good Spring cleaning.

I will be focusing on the closet, but the organization will, by necessity, include other areas of her room. You can tell by the pictures below that clothes have kind of taken over the place and now must be contained.

There are a few issues in dealing with her space: her room is quite small (meaning no room for an additional piece of furniture), her closet is quite small, there is an existing “closet system” in place that I need to work around, I would like for the system I choose to grow with her to some extent.

There are also many things that must be organized into her closet and room. This includes: storage for dirty clothes, outgrown clothes, and not-yet-grown-into clothes; neat and accessible storage for the clothes, shoes, socks, etc that she is currently wearing; a place to contain clothes that will go to charity, consignment, or on eBay; items we are storing until we can give them back to the rightful owners (on loan hand-me-downs); a place for sheets, burpies, bibs, blankets, etc.; a place for bath stuff, safety stuff, medicine, and other items that need to be accessible but out of Little’s reach.

So, without further ado I present pictures of Little’s space (and no, her walls are not the gross color they appear to be in most of the pictures; they are actually a very pretty green):

If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below. I would love to hear some other ideas for the space. For more information on the challenge and to see what others are setting out to conquer in 30 days, click on the picture below.

Anyway, Janice and Susan at 5 Minutes for Mom are giving all of us a chance to win the new Dyson Slim model. If you are interested, head on over to their place and check out the contest rules.