epic fail

So remember back in January when I was super excited to start a new cleaning regime....

You remember - the 15 minutes of cleaning a day...

It sounded so simple, so easy, so effortless.....

HA!

I think I did it for 3 days and then totally fell off that wagon.

If anything, my house is MORE cluttered and dirty now than when I tried to start...

Trust me, it's not pretty.

Every other day I try to at least pick up Danger's toys in the living room.

(The living room is where we spend most of our days {chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool...} so that room is the disaster area...) Sorry to anyone who comes over or peeks in my windows.....

When I first saw the 15 minutes of cleaning plan, it sounded so awesome. And I was so excited to start.

But you know, I buy things and in order to fend off the little destroyer I put them on the table. And there they sit.

It really is awful. (I'm airing out the dirty laundry for you!) When we eat dinner at the table, which isn't very often, we just keep moving everything over. Keep stacking it up. Keep shoving it over. Yeah. How terrible is that?

Ugh. Seriously. Ugh.

I keep trying to declutter and clean everything, but every time I start, I can't look narrow enough to focus on ONE single task at hand. And I get overwhelmed.

I few friends of mine have done the 40 bags in 40 days.

source

And I think I could do that one... Maybe not in 40 days consecutively, but maybe 1 bag a Saturday or something. We'll just have to see.

Here's hoping I can work on #35 - Continue de-cluttering house....

Half a cow richer!

We got our tax return back, and we bought half a cow. Well, in processed meat. We got 300 lbs or steaks, roasts, and ground beef! My upright freezer is full!! I'm so exctied! Before we got the truck load of meat, I had to clean out our freezer.

Shark has apparently always worked for businesses that give out turkeys for Christmas bonus, which I don't mind in the least. The past few bonuses {not sure I'm spelling that right.} we've given away the turkeys, cuz I don't know how to cook a turkey, and I did NOT want to screw it up for my turkey-loving husband.

Well, last year, we got a turkey, and it was so happily just sitting in my freezer, until who knows when. Well, then we put in our order for half a cow, and I figured I needed to make room in my awesome upright freezer for those 300 lbs of cow coming my way. So I decided to try cooking a turkey. I had my paper bag and I started cooking my turkey. By the time Shark woke up that day, the turkey was done and then we were heading over to Shark's folks' house to have a nice turkey dinner. It turned out beautiful.

Anyways, I put all the other food from the freezer into 2 coolers while the freezer defrosted. Eventually, Shark went out there and hosed it down, and then dried it off. I bought some laundry baskets that fit my freezer, and thank goodness they were big enough to fit all the meat!

Yup. I measured my freezer, then went on down to Wal-Mart, and found some baskets that fit perfectly! Freaking awesome! Plus, now I didn't have to fit a turkey into one of those laundry baskets, cuz it really would NOT have fit with the cow!!

So yeah. Look at those awesome laundry baskets! I love these baskets, they have handles on all 4 sides, so they are made to be pulled and pushed on the long sides! Well, at least they are reinforced on the long sides. {And I checked them to make sure they don't get brittle when frozen, I know those clear shoebox totes get brittle and break when put in the freezer, that's why I went with laundry baskets.}

We're also in the process of growing our food storage. I just bought 25lbs of flour. Yup. I did that. And I put it in 1 of my orange buckets under my Christmas shelves. It fit, but my bucket is now shaped like an egg... I might need to open the bag and make it fit in the ROUND bucket. But I need to open the bag anyways, my 2qt canister of flour is empty. {I emptied it trying to find the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie. I haven't found it yet, but when I do, I'll tell everyone!}

Anyways. That's what's been going on this week, us buying our cow. I really am so excited to go shopping in my own freezer. Shark grilled up some steaks and they sure are tasty!

memory lane

So Shark and I were going thru boxes today.ok so we were really cleaning out 'The Den' for this weekend. (We're planning on having all the kids go upstairs to 'The Den' and watch Tv, after Danger's blessing.)

So we cleared out the whole Den, boxes and guns and bullets and papers were in there. We threw out lots of stuff, so when we were going thru some papers, I came across a journal from high school. Ugh. I flipped open to a page, and was flooded with memories and thoughts, and regrets. {I wasn't a nice person in high school.} So, Shark and I were talking about it, and I told him, I wanted to burn the journal. It's not something I want my kids reading, my husband reading, or even me reading again. I had pushed those memories away, and they came back so vividly and suddenly - I wasn't expecting it at all. I found myself embarrassed about who I was.

I have changed so much since high school. I am not the same person, I don't have the same priorities, same dreams, same plans. I have turned a complete 180. My life has changed so much, and I have so much to be grateful for. I have been so blessed.

I understand the trials and choices I've gone thru and made have brought me to where I am right now. I have learned from the mistakes I've made. I realized where my life was going and I changed it. I found someone to love me for who I was and am. I am so grateful for him. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple, of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We have a son, one who is THE cutest little guy ever! I never thought any of this was possible, not with who I was. I am so very blessed, and I am grateful to see it.

So, I had a short walk down memory lane, and I hated it. I am grateful for the expirences I've had, but more grateful for how things turned out. :)

At least out house is clean! Yayayayayay!

Challenge accepted

So this past week for my 52 week challenge, it was Clean out your cupboards!

I rocked it. Well, really, I started on Saturday, and kinda finished today, but I still rocked it.

Shark built me a pot rack! Which I have pretty much always wanted in this house. {I found some random shelves at IKEA, in their AS-IS section, for $2, and bought them. I decided I wanted to make a pot-rack out of them when I saw pot-racks cost like $70.}

I organized my tupperware cupboard. And got rid of bottoms without tops and all the lids that didn't have a bottom.{I even re-used some of the bottoms to organize my other cupboards!}

I have a "mix" cupboard that drink mixes, pudding mixes and taco mix goes in. I re-used some tupperware to organize it.

I have LOTS of bakeware, and muffin tins and pie tins and stuff like that. I moved the tupperware to it's cupboard and put the cookie cutters on top of my shelves in my pantry.

We got tons of formula for Christmas, so I have been shoving it in the cupboard above the stove with my Bosch. I moved my Bosch to the shelves in my pantry, and dubbed the cupboard above the sink, Baby Cupboard.

I feel like I got loads accomplished this week, and it feels really good to open my drawers and cupboards and find what I'm looking for rather than digging around.

Here's a video of the little man smiling and talking to me at 7 this morning. {He slept for 7 hours last night! Which is freaking awesome!!} Sorry the picture is kind of terrible, my camera has been dropped a few times, and again, it was 7am...

Love!