Entering the Land of DIY(yet again)

Went to a friend's yard sale this afternoon, and got all these for a grand total of $1.50. Saw this tutorial(via a friend's Pinterest board) and my wheels started turning.

First order of business was the baskets. Removed the handles to get rid of the picnic basket vibe. Next order of business, do something about the red & green stripes. Stayed tuned.

New cleaning schedule

Found a cleaning schedule online, and giving it a test run this week. After this week, I think it will be less work to do each day. I have to admit though, this first week I am having to do a deeper cleaning on things than I think is intended. For example, the toilets were a lot of work since they really needed it. I'm talking sitting overnight in an acid based cleaner bad. I'm thinking next week won't be so much to clean them. The sinks & counters too, but after the first day I haven't had to clean them much--just spot clean.

The schedule can be found here: http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-cleaning-process-and-500-give-away.html?m=1

I'm modifying to add laundry to more than once a week, since there are 6 of us contributing to the laundry in our home. Also, had to add sinks(bathroom & kitchen) to daily since it wasn't spelled out. I also noticed this month has 5 Fridays, so have to decide what I'll be doing that day.

Medicine cabinet done

More organizing--medicine cabinet

I amazed Tom today, with this idea I saw on Pinterest or maybe it was on some organizing blog I follow. I can't remember. Forgot to take a before, just know that it was so really bad & packed like a catch-all. Our medicine cabinet was projectile, avalanche-like, and hard to find anything. Look at the bottom shelf on the right, where I still have to get some more containers. It was like that across the whole shelf, every shelf. $3 each for the 6 containers at Target. The top shelf has a deeper container, for some prescriptions, which I think was $4. I may go back, and find 2 more of the narrower containers, to turn sideways  and put 1 on the side of the 3 stacked we have on the middle & bottom shelves.

I stuck labels on the sides & lids. Bottom shelf is: 1)Medicine spoons/thermometer, 2)Children & infant pain meds, 3) Children cough meds, and 4)a sideways square container for Teething tablets & teething gel. Middle shelf is: 1)Tom's cough drops, 2)My cough drops(I have menthol free), 3)Adult cough meds & pain meds. And top shelf, is my prescriptions

Me:"Drew, do you want to know where I'm going?" Drew: "Yeah." Me: "I'm going to go buy a toilet scrubber. Isn't that exciting?(sarcastically)" Drew: "Yeah! You should find a pink one."

Collin's Baseball

Collin & the two boys on the left are from his classes at school

Collin just started up baseball on Saturday, the 3rd. I think he likes it so far. There are 3 other kids on his team from school. It was a rather long morning. We had to get to the baseball field by 8:15 for pictures at 8:30. Back up to 7:30. The alarm goes off & all of a sudden I remember he needs a glove. I've known about it for 2 weeks, but obviously wasn't high on my to-do list. Get Collin fed & rush over to Target as soon as they open and rush across town, getting there 5-10 minutes after we were told to be there. Only to find out at the field, we got the wrong handed glove at Target. Apparently if you're right handed you need a glove to go on the left hand.

Pictures didn't end up happening till 9 am--the time the game was supposed to start. Never mind the fact the we had meltdown city since the basketball court we were taking pictures by happened to be right next to other playground equipment. I had, in hindsight, made a mistake asking him to wait till after baseball was over (a little after 10) to play. Luckily, I had our handy dandy iPod(charged! thank goodness), and a new free app called "Where's my Water?" kept him occupied till the group photo. Individuals were done first & Collin's will be an action shot since he couldn't hold the bat still & hold still at the same time, so the bat was swinging. Luckily, the camera-man worked with it and got a usable shot. Let me say, for the record, thank goodness he was one of the shorter kids & was able to sit down for the group pictures.

I did a LOT of carrying him since we were at the furthest away field from pictures. Seriously, this is why I hardly do a dedicated arm workout. Along the same lines, probably why my lower back gets thrown out a lot.

Collin liked the dugout, though it was extremely difficult to stay sitting on the bench. He did a good job with one of the assistant coaches helping him on the field. So I walked over to the bleachers to sit with a few of the other parents. After about 5 minutes of warm-up while we waited for the other team, he decided he was done. So I helped him play the field & helped him know where to run, since it was his first time playing. He did have issues with the padding in the helmet where he was trying to rip it out. I hope it's not as big of a deal to him next time. They give all 14 players(per team) a chance to hit once, no matter how long it takes, and everyone gets to catch the ball once. We only played 1 time of being on the field and 1 time hitting, and then it was all done since we got a late start. It's nice that it's free. One of the perks of being a special ed team. And that nobody's keeping score. I'm sure we'd break a lot of the traditional rules, but the kids seem to have a mostly good time.

Inspired

Had an awesome day at church today. One lesson was on worldly distractions and not to make those our #1 priority in life. The other lesson was on kindness--how it affects us when someone is kind to us, how we feel when we're kind, and why we aren't like that all the time. In my mind, I was taken back to when Tom was in Kuwait and somebody from church took the kids out one night, for what I thought was just a couple hours of a  "me-time" break. They, along with some of the teenage girls at church and another friend (who moved away a few years ago) ended up buying the kids(just Ivy, Collin & Drew since Brent wasn't in our family) Christmas outfits, took pictures & framed those pictures and gave them to me as a Christmas gift. So grateful & thankful for those who were inspired to check up on me & give me such a beautiful gift. The pictures still stay in my bedroom to this day, years later.

Along the lines of inspiration, I was inspired before church was out to send out a "thinking of you" note to someone I haven't seen much in the past couple months.

Not quite the same kind of inspiration, but I had another piece of inspiration come to me in the past hour or so. I LOVE the show Clean House. I love to see what the designer comes up with, and love a good "before and after" transformation. I have some episodes on the iPod, so I was able to grab a screenshot of this. I thought the colors were similar to what we have in the living room(blue carpet, not blue walls), but I totally think this could work painting the bookshelves & toy shelf black since we have a tan-ish color rug under the couch--which has not been replaced yet, car needs some fixing up soon.