no pictures... yet!

well, i cant post pictures yet because i don't have anything really done yet to take pictures of!

i have been spray painting the frame of the cork board allllll day. it is almost dry!! hopefully i will be able to do the ribbon tonight. and i made the laundry detergent today! the house smells sooo good! i got the inspiration and the recipe (loosely) from pinterest. i changed it a little bit to fit our needs, but i think it will work just fine. i'm going to put the recipe here so i don't forget.

laundry detergent:

• 1 box arm and hammer washing soda
• 1 box 20 mule team borax
• 1 box arm and hammer baking soda
• one medium tub of generic brand oxyclean
• 3 bars fels naptha soap

the hardest part of the recipe was the fels naptha. literally. it was a hard brick of soap that you are supposed to grate. the edges of the soap were so sharp that they hurt my hand when i tried to grate it. and the soap was so hard that it took forever to grate! so after the first bar i got out a hammer, broke the bar into quarters, put each quarter into a ziploc bag and hammered away. it made the soap into a finer powder than grating it did so i was actually more pleased with how that came out. once that was done all i had to do was put a trash bag into an old powdered laundry detergent box and pour all the ingredients into it. i rolled the trash bag around on the floor for a few minutes to mix everything well and then i was done!

this detergent is supposedly good for sensitive skin, it is eco friendly, and it can be used in high efficiency washers. and the best part is that all the ingredients together cost me about $15.00 and only one tablespoon of the mixture is needed per load. i should be set for awhile.

limbo

well, i never did post those pictures. that is because dan hid the camera from me! that isn't true, i just don't know where he put it. i will get to those pictures eventually!

i started on my little list of to-do's. we bought a cork board and some things to decorate it with, but forgot the stuff to hang it up with. we can't put holes in the walls here so we have to use those things that are easily removable. i suppose i will get some tomorrow. and some black spray paint to paint the frame.

dan wouldn't commit to any of the organization ideas i came up with, even though i dragged him to lowe's to look at some storage solutions. he has so much work to do that he doesn't even have time to build anything, let alone organize the mess, and i think that thinking about it just depresses him. but i am tired of looking at it so something needs to be done soon. especially if we are going to move!

i also want to add making homemade laundry detergent to my to-do list. we are about out and i have seen so many posts on pinterest about it, and it looks so easy and inexpensive! dan is skeptical but i have high hopes. i plan on becoming the queen of laundry, second only to daina, who is the all knowing laundry master.

i promise pictures tomorrow!

starting to get there..

It has been a few weeks, which i don't want to make a habit. i want consistency. unfortunately my schedule at work got jumbled around so i truly did not have the time to update.

well, in the last few weeks a lot has happened and nothing has happened. the most important thing to happen was when we had to show the house to a couple that is interested in purchasing it. for me that meant a couple of things: oh my goodness i have to clean! and oh my goodness what if they buy the house and we have to move?!

so i got around to the cleaning pretty quickly. by the time they came, the house looked a billion times better; a billion times better but still with a long long way to go. i will post pictures tomorrow. i took down the christmas decorations in the front room, i went through all the junk mail and left a big pile of stuff for dan to go through. we shall see how long that takes. though i did get him to clean the floor area of the office, now the shelves remain and that is his project, not mine. the bedroom has never looked better and the living room and bathrooms are all clutter free, cleaned and dusted. i didnt get to the laundry until today and that has been about an 8 hour project so far with a few hours left to go. but cleaning was just the first hurdle; now i have to figure out an organization plan and put that to use. i need to get into a daily routine and make sure that i stick to it. i know that will solve many of my problems but just getting to that point is very daunting.

now about potentially moving. i have so many mixed feelings about this. on the one hand, we would be saving money living somewhere else; it would also be nice to start fresh in a new place with both of our things there, instead of having to squeeze my things in alongside his. but on the other having to find a new place, pack, and move both of our houses at the same time is a lot more than i may be able to handle. and we are comfortable here. nelson has a great yard to play in and we have so much space. we will never be able to live in a house like this again so it would be nice to enjoy it for as long as possible. what a dilemma.

well that is my little rambling update. tomorrow i will post pictures of the tidy house. there are a few projects i want to complete in the next few weeks:

• make a message center for dan, nelson, and i
• find some sort of organization system for the lego hoard
• go through the hall closet by the garage
• finish going through and throwing away all the mail in the front room