Organized Cleaning, Current WIPs

Hello again friends.

Today is a nasty, nasty, nasty day here in Ordinary Land.

It is cold, wet, grey, yucky!

It has been raining, sleeting, and spitting snow all day long.

 Looking out of my kitchen window.

YUCK!

I was so far behind in my cleaning this morning. You see I was down with a cold for the past few days.

You know what kind of cold? The kind that keeps your nose stuffy but running (how is that even possible?), your nose burns like something is on fire which makes you sneeze a billion and three times. The sneezing causes pressure in your head, your throat, ribs, and nose hurt. Yeah it was that kind of cold.

However, I am happy to report that I am pretty much caught up with everything. Honestly, I did try to maintain my house a little while I was down. I did manage to get all my laundry done (well until everyone took showers). I also made sure the kiddos kept their messes cleaned up. So today wasn't so bad with catching up.

Wanna know how I keep up with everything? Appointments, chores, to-do's, events, just everything?

 Here is my secret. A good old fashioned agenda book. I have everything I'd like to get done on that particular day wrote down. The post-it notes have my daily, monthly, and bi-yearly chores written on them. You know those mundane things...Well here let me show you in a simpler form.

 There! Now it is all laid out. The yellow post it note has all those daily chores that I like to do on it..just so I don't forget something. Then, in my agenda I have my weekly chores written on the days I want to do them. The rest of the post-its contain the rest of the monthly, bi-yearly, and yearly stuff. I also write all the kiddo's events, and dates for Karen's Kids and things around town. So I don't forget anything.

I know this may not be everyone's cup of tea but I have to do it this way or I get completely overwhelmed with it all and just don't do anything. I have found out that I need to be organized to function! It is a must. I have also found out I can be quiet lazy and this gives me a visual of those things I want to do so I will just do them.

So now that I am finally able to keep up with my household chores, I have time for things I enjoy to do like nap, read, and crochet. I have been working on several things. I tend to get bored with just one thing really easily so I keep a few things on the go.

First, I am making some nice and bright dishcloths. Here in the picture it looks like a melon color but the color is much brighter than this. I absolutely HATE doing dishes but I may just enjoy these dishrags enough to not hate dishes so much.

I also started on a lap blanket for another wonderful lady who attends my church and our Wednesday Women's Bible Study.  It is going to be a diagonal stripe blanket. I don't know if you can see in the lighter blue in the middle but there are darker blue and brownish flecks in the yarn. It is GORGEOUS.

My next project is made from yarn from a finished then frogged  project. I dunno if you all remember my post about the hooded scarf I crocheted up but I made it, debuted it, wore it, and hated it. So I ripped it out and am now using that gorgeous yarn to make myself a simple scarf and hat. The hooded scarf was just way too long and bulky. It was warm but it didn't fit with my winter coat well. So I'm fixing it.

Last but not least, I am continuing on with my big color block blanket. This blanket is made from the Stylecraft yarn I ordered a couple years ago. I am basically just crocheting with a color until it runs out then connecting the next color. I actually love it. I can't wait until I finish it so I can use it.

Before I quit, wanna see a rare site for my house?

Yes, this is my clean laundry room. Usually there are lots of clothes in there but today it looks neat and tidy so I thought I would share. I love this room but I really don't like the broken up old linoleum in it. ICK.

That's all for today. I hope you all are staying warm and enjoying your day.

Until we meet again.

Be Blessed,

Erin

Family shopping, Fall Festival of Leaves

Hello again my wonderful bloggy friends. 

Guess what...Hubby is graciously allowing me to use his laptop to blog (until I can get one of my own) so I can upload pictures. I still haven't resolved the issues with our old desktop. It's so frustrating to want to share snapshots of moments in one's life and cannot.

We had a wonderful family weekend in Ordinary land. My kiddos didn't have school AND hubby didn't have to work on Friday so went out and about. We decided to go to Chillicothe to Party City because the kiddos wanted to see all the great Halloween stuff and possibly get their costumes. Boy those kids were in hog heaven in that store. Two of our 4 found ready made costumes they wanted to wear. Eddie has decided to be Harry Potter and Sj has decided to be a ninja. It was the closest thing to the Assassins Creed guy he could get.

My daughters on the other hand are way different. My oldest, Hope, loves to scare people. She likes to be really creepy and make all the little kids run from her. Last year she made several cry!! This year she chose a weapon and some fangs. Faith isn't like Hope at all. She is very girly and very picky. She looked and pouted and she found something she wanted to be BUT it was twice the price of everyone else's stuff. That is a big no no here. We make sure to spend the same amount on all kids. So I told her that we could get the same look at walmart buying real clothes for half the price. SHE HATED THE IDEA but ultimately we are the parents and she agreed.

After we left Party City we went to Ollie's. Now if you have never been to Ollie's you are really missing out.

Do any of you remember when Big Lots first started? Their stores were really kind of, whats the word, messy?, I dunno but Ollie's reminds me of that. They have a large selection of books. Loads of Bibles and loads of just all kinds of books.  They have loads of all kinds of everything from mattresses to rugs to tools to food. The only thing they lack selection on is clothes. Most of their stuff is priced really cheap. Well, I was able to find loads of spices and extracts and Hope found her a black hoodie to complete her Halloween outfit. 

We left Ollie's and went to Walmart. We found items to mimic the costume Faith wanted. I also picked up a couple pairs of pants for myself (I was down to 2 pairs!!) After leaving Walmart we went to Golden Corral to eat. Then we went to Petland to play with the dogs and then came home.

On Saturday we had made plans to go to the Fall Festival of Leaves. As usual, when we plan to go the weather STINKS!! It was cold and rainy BUT we went anyway. We had a blast walking around looking at all the booths. I even saw a few crochet booths (hmmm...that's what I would love to do).

The highlight of the festival was meeting an online friend and fellow blogger Nikki from The Only Nikki. I really enjoyed meeting her and her parents. She is such a sweet person. I am really hoping we can get together again soon! Oh and don't forget to click on the link to check out her blog!!!

We also met Abraham Lincoln at the Festival and heard him speak. After that we grabbed our funnel cake and elephant ear and some hot chocolate and left. We then went to my mom's house to see my niece who just happened to be up from Georgia this weekend. We then came home and dried off and warmed up!

Sunday we went to church and then came home and ate and started doing the cleaning and doing the laundry we neglected over the weekend. I hated doing it on Sunday, the day of rest, but the kids desperately needed jeans washed for school. Hubby and I also moved everything out of our bedroom so I could really deep clean it. Now I have to re-clean the house from the mess hubby and I made so I really do need to stop typing and get to work!!

Well that is all for now. I will get some pictures together and get some on this blog for you all very soon.

Until then, 

Be Blessed.

Erin

I'm Sorry; Brother-in-law; Karen's Kids; Annoying Computer...an update

Firstly, I want to take time to tell you guys how sorry I am for not posting sooner. 

I have no excuses . I just haven't done it.

Secondly, an update on my brother-in-law.

My hubby did make it to Florida to be with his family during this scary time.

His sister was able to use her frequent flier miles and hubby was able to hop on a plane the very next day (Sept 27). This was the first time hubby and I had been apart more than one night the whole time we have been married! 

His brother was in really bad shape. He had an infection of his heart that blew out one of his valves (that they knew of). They had him sedated and on dialysis. The meds were shutting down his kidneys.

Well on Monday, Sept 30th, my brother in law went into surgery. He had a 50/50 shot.

The doctors were afraid the infection had spread throughout his heart.

But

It had not. The surgery was an easy one. The infection was clustered on just the one heart valve. They replaced the valve and he was good to go.

Hubby flew home that afternoon.

It has been nearly 3 weeks now and I'm happy to say that my brother in law is no longer in ICU.

He is in a regular room and they are looking forward to him going home!

Praise Be to God.

Thirdly, I have some really exciting news.

Way back in December I did a blog post about a wonderful community program my church heads up, Karen's Kids. Basically, Santa delivers wrapped Christmas gifts to needy kids in the community.

Well, the head of Karen's Kids has asked me to Co-head the program!!! This is absolutely awesomely amazing to me!! I now get to help organize events, shop for the kids, I have my hands in EVERYTHING!

Right now the group is taking applications for the gifts (so we know what the kids want). Then we will start shopping in November!! I can't wait.

Fourthly, I know I said I have no excuses but one of the reasons I haven't blogged is because I cannot get my pictures to come up on our new computer. I have no idea why but it is a problem I am working on. I have tons of pictures to share but this crazy computer has a mind of its own. I may have to purchase another laptop.

So, I think that is it for right now. I have so much more to tell all of you. I really haven't been getting a lot of feedback here in bloggy land BUT I will continue to post HOPEFULLY more regularly. I really like getting stuff out of my head and out there. Maybe I can help someone else realize the toils and troubles of their lives aren't so unique. 

Ok guys. I send my love to whoever reads this post.

Until we meet again,

Be Blessed

Erin