A perfect party

Henry's birthday party is Saturday and I am still without a present for him and I have yet to figure out what I am going to serve our guests for dinner. At Henry's 1st birthday Matt smoked a pork butt (sounds weird, right?!) last year at his 2nd birthday I served pick up type things instead of a meal. I am thinking of doing Hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill but haven't decided yet.



Last year we got Henry a fishtank which needs some serious attention, it looks more like a breeding ground for algae than a fishtank.

Busy Week

Now that August is behind us and I have a plan for keeping my house clean, I have a birthday party to plan / get ready for. At least my house is clean, last year at this time I was scrambling to do in 5 days what I just did in 30. I am scrambling this year trying to finish Henry's video / picture montage that I traditonally do every year. I had my heart set on using the Dixie Chicks' song Godspeed (Sweet dreams) but I just could not get it to work. I think it was not meant to be. That song makes me break down in tears every time I hear it and I'm not talking getting misty eyed, I'm talking full on sobbing so it probably would be embarrassing for that to happen while everyone is gathered around the tv on Saturday.

So anyway I found a substitute song, which I won't reveal at this time. I think it will be cute. I can't wait to share it with you all on Saturday.

Of course I'm a perfectionist and need the timing of the photos to go perfectly with the music so I foresee late nights this week. I should be a zombie by Friday for sure.

30 days to clean - A success!

Well, my house is clean and it only took 30 days to do it. Now the challenge will be keeping it that way. Winston Churchill once said: "Success is not final, Failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts."

My maintenance plan is simple. Each day of the week I have assigned a room or area of the house.

Monday - bathrooms

Tuesday - dining room / Living room

Wednesday- mop the floors

Thursday- Kitchen (obviously dishes will be done daily. This day is for clearing clutter off of the counters, cleaning out the fridge etc.)

Friday- Toyroom

Saturday - bedrooms / laundry day

Sunday - Rest, family fun day



Now I will be flexible on this to a point. For example if I come home from work on Tuesday and I just am tired and don't feel like doing anything I can double up on Wednesday or if we want to go to the Zoo on Saturday I can do the bedrooms on Friday and Sunday etc..



September is going to be my 30 days to organization so I will be doing a little mini project each day on top of the cleaning.

Ya know how most people have a "junk drawer" in their house? Yeah, well I have hmmm, roughly....five or six.

This month I want to give my "junk drawers" a purpose and a meaning in life.

I would like to organize my garage too but I might save that for another month when it's not so hot. Maybe October would be a better month for this.

30 days to clean - Pictures of my bedroom!

I thought this day would never arrive! It seemed as though my bedroom was a never ending black hole of clutter. It seemed like cleaning my bedroom was some torture that Al Qa'ida had thought up. "hahahaha, she'll just clean forever and ever and it will never be clean, there will always be boxes full of clothes and other random items that she wants to keep but doesn't know what to do with" (I guess they speak in run-on sentences too.)

Can you see the overflowing boxes, the hastily hung curtain on the window, and the tables covered with clutter? By the way, don't you just love how I made the bed before taking my "before" pictures? I think it really accentuates the clutter.

Now for what you've all been waiting for.....

I give you my new bedroom!

Look I can close my closet doors!

Look at that smile!
She is so glad to be done!

Not only is it clean but Matt hung some new curtains for me. (thanks Matt!) Well, that doesn't sound too impressive, let me explain...there was no way to hang curtains so he had to get out power tools and install curtain rods on the windows before he could hang the curtains.

So on day 26 I finished my bedroom. I've got 4 days to go and my house is clean. The toyroom could still use some tweaking. It's not quite worthy of before and after pictures yet. But, when is a toyroom ever clean when you've got a three year old and a one year old there to help you keep it messy?! I'll still post before and afters of the toyroom in the next couple days.

Say Hey!

I am totally loving this song right now! Such a happy song...get up and dance and enjoy!

If you can't see the video here is the link

Wordless Wednesday - flashback

I love this picture of me and Henry. He is barely 3 months old in this picture. He will be 3 years old next Saturday(9/5). Monday was the day he was supposed to be born (8/24). He was a little late....

30 days to clean - Before and After Pics of the Living room

The living room has been clean for a while but I realized last night that I hadn't put pics up yet. This first picture is of all the laundry I had to fold the first night of cleaning the living room. Luckily Matt helped with that. I don't even know how many loads this is.

The messy living room!

This is a place where things seem to congregate. They are things that had no home, well, they do now!


Tada!! my clean living room!



Now, if I could get some new furniture.....