Just call me Ma Dean!

I undertook something this weekend that I have been planning to do for a while. Weeks ago my mom asked me to look up how to make butter. She use to do it way back in the day but apparently those brain cells have evaporated. So I relied on my old friend Google to give me/her the details. It was as simple as I thought it was going to be. Seriously... simple... with tasty results.

Let the world hear me now... I made Butter! And that butter will land right on my hips after it passes my lips!

To make butter:

1. Add heavy whipping cream to a blender. Let it sit out to room temperature first. Now most recipes call for a pint, I just used the cup that I had leftover from a different recipe.
2. Blend on the lowest/slowest setting you have. Do NOT go to a higher setting or else you will end up with whipped cream. For a while your mixture will look very much like whipped cream, but stay patient. Mine took 10 minutes start to finish. Some websites say half an hour.
3. Scrap down the sides of the pitcher every once in a while. My mixture would thicken up and the blades would make a "bubble" which meant there was a thick outer layer that was not being blended. Enter spatula.
4. At about 10 minutes in my mixture separated into defatted liquid (called buttermilk, not at all like commerically available buttermilk) and THE BUTTER ( which had all the fat, thank goodness!)
5. Drain off the liquid and then I blended a bit more to make sure I was getting out as much liquid as possible.
6. Now at this point you can drain your butter into cheese cloth, squeezing out any excess buttermilk. And then you can rinse the dense butter ball under cold water... but I didn't do either and my butter was still mighty fine butter.
7. Put your new butter in a bowl/crock/container. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze till you need it.

Seriously, it was easy. Hardest part was ignoring the blender sounds for 10 minutes. I felt a little like Ma Ingle's channeling Paula Dean. I will happily wear that combo hat again!

Our neighbors might hate us...

The weather has been great.

Improvements have been made to the house.

Cleaning is going on full force.

The windows were open all weekend long.

Spring Cleaning Fever has officially hit our house.

Casey decided to tackle the twice yearly Driveway power wash.

So we tag teamed it for 3+ hours.

We even kept going and did the sidewalks in front of our property and the curbs.

Now we have the greenest lawn and whitest driveway in the neighborhood.

I think we might be "those" people.

I like being those people.

*grin*

A mid February List

• It's been unTexas like cold for the past couple of weeks. We had Snow! And more hard freezes then I can remember.
• Gloves and scarves and hats have become part of our daily wear.
• Flowers have popped up in places. Casey's early Valentine Tulips make me smile in each room.
• Comfort foods like stews and potatoes and rich meats are all that we consume in this cold.
• I had a fire in the fireplace for 3 days straight, loved it!
• I picked up Alex and lifted him into the balloons and ribbons at the grocery store the other day. It was a perfect moment for Lucy in the sky with Diamonds to be playing. Our store has good music. :)
• Alex had a birthday sleepover, three boys means lots of fart jokes and burping. Good times.
• I broke my pinky toe on the birthday party night, Good Lord it hurt!
• Tried Bikram Yoga for the first time. Even with the 104+ temps, the slave drive of an instructor, and the lack of fitness on my part, it was amazing. Totally going back, would have today, but I am so sore.
• Casey is home with a string of local jobs, love it!
• Garden planning, prepping, and seed starts are in full swing!

Pantry Purged!

 The pantry, our land of plenty, closet for beloved kitchen appliances, and the quickest spot in the house to become an absolute MESS! I spent about two hours in here tonight, purging, cleaning, stopping a sugar ant invasion, and organizing what had fallen into chaos.

Ummm, I don't know what to say.

But look at this, FLOOR!!!

 Now before ya'll get all crazy on us about the amount of food we stock, just know that we do eat it and we do rotate it each time we purchase. In fact I only found 4 items that had passed their expiration date. Woo Hoo! My mom always had a FULLY stocked pantry, fridge and freezer when I was growing up ( she still does), so this seems "normal" to me. We could eat out of here for probably 4-6 months. So if a Zombie invasion happens, we at least know we won't be eating the dogs. *grin*

Slightly Sleeping with the Enemy-ish, but we can see what we have without searching.

And yeah, my kitchen appliance and tools stock is pretty well full. In fact I actually told me mom tonight that I didn't want the newest must have from William Sonoma. I could do without it. I think she thinks I lost my mind. :)

Finally, the kid plates are up on a shelf and I only have a small corner of floorspace occupied.

 The only thing I can say about this massive pile of kitchen purge is, well, it seems so so so wasteful. It IS wasteful. And I am sorry about it. We have had many of these items for years and years, some are duplicates, some are literally hand me downs that date to the 70's ( hello yellow salad spinnner), but none of them get used .

Insane Kitchen Overload.

So into the car these will go tomorrow morning to be dropped off at Good Will with the rest of my donation collection. I know I have purged well over the 111 item goal for the challenge. I know I could purge MORE if I look in certain places in our house. I also know that this month long project has really made me think about what we have, what we use, and what we really need. Thanks Jenny for such a great growing experience!

Dust Bunnies Attack!

Casey casually mentioned a couple days ago that our curtains in the bedroom could use a turn through the washing machine and then he noticed the dust on the blinds and before he could actually LOOK at more dusty places I distracted him with talk of Fried Egg Sandwiches. ( which are my new favorite obsession right now, ever since I woke up in the middle of my sickness and wanted a fried egg that was runny. I never eat runny eggs, but that egg was heaven. Bliss!)

So today while he tackled the lawn ( we seed with winter rye which means the lawn is brilliant green all winter long and needs to be mowed), I tackled the mentioned curtains and blinds. Which led to the windows, to the baseboards, to the bedding, to the mattress, to the area behind the bed, to the ceiling fan and its dirty glass globes, to the bookcase, to the dresser top, to the vanity, to my makeup brushes, and finally the carpet. Whew!

Hey, where did the chair go?

I found more dust then I ever imagined I would. The hordes of dust bunnies breeding behind our bed was the stuff made of nightmares. The sheet of dust that came off the top of the ceiling fan blades was shocking. Let's not even talk about the dust that was behind the books in the bookcase. So now the new air purifier is cranked, the light is twinkling through clean glass and the bed is ready to be remade.

Mid cleaning, but most of the dust is gone at this point! Hooray!

I took a turn through our master closet since it is on my radar for the 111 item purge and all I came up with was a pair of pants and one shirt.  Casey sides is off limits, unless I can talk him into purging all the shirts he never wears and the overflowing sock bins could use some work. I think I need to get in there and really contemplate the items of clothing hanging from the bars. And of course start digging through the giant green tub hiding in the back corner... but a couple weeks ago I did purge our toiletry tower and trashed a huge bag of old cosmetics and body care items. Progress!

111 in 1/2011 Catch up

Finally after close to two weeks sick I am able to post an update to the 111 items in January 2011 challenge. I immediately dove into my office closet, which is probably the worst offender on my goal list. I pulled everything out and took down the folding table that was really just giving me more space to junk up. I still want to sort through this closet, but the bulk of the purge is done. Now I just need to organize and shift through the small piles for more donation items.

Estimation of items Donated : 40

Estimation of items trashed: 100

The bookcase is looking a bit better, there is actually space on it now. I removed all my yarn except for two bins of in progress projects. The more I look at my books the more I want to purge, so I know this bookcase will get another sort through in the final week!

This week I will tackle the pantry and finish up the Master Closet!

Noticing the Home.

Perfect Autumn light.

I feel like I am saturated in the elements of my home. I have been noticing all the small details that make this place ours, the objects and views that are so familiar they are all most like loved ones. The daylight hours have shortened and it seems like Mother Nature has decided to make each light filled moment that much more special. Everything is golden, crisp, clear, and vibrant in these moments of seasonal death. Celebrating their lives instead of their demise.


Keeping Archie occupied with bird watching.

I am in the midst of cleaning for family visits, my mother in law arrives early next week. I am pushing towards that moment of clean when I can start "homing", making cozy niches and pleasing scenes. Piling quilts and towels, placing candles and glittering objects. Homing our house, creating comfort and cozy.

A glance into the kitchen that spoke to me of home.

Moving from room to room I keep noticing snippets that speak of us, the people who make the family within these walls. Coats and socks left out look loved and warm. Books and papers look inviting and interesting. The corner of the couch looks just left with lingering warmth. Puppies, like living hot water bottles, are at the ready for snuggling and mindless touches. Between all these bouts of cleaning and purging I see our life in the scenes of living within these walls.

I am so very Thankful for this life and those who share it with me.

Hello November

 I am loving this month, yes we are only 3 days in, but there are so many great things to look forward to in November for our family. Lots of work, new contracts finalizing, my mother in law coming for Thanksgiving week, the end of fall semester for me, a week off for Alex, and the last of our Christmas shopping completed! Not to mentioned cooking loads of fabulous food!

 I took down all the Halloween stuff this afternoon. I had said that we would leave it up for another week, but I was just OVER it. I love Halloween and all the excitement it brings to Casey and Alex, but it just felt wrong to leave it all up ( even though we had only finished decorating inside on the 30th). so I put it all away and discovered in the process a bag of Autumn goodness that I had bought last year on clearance. I had completely forgotten all about until I spied some of the glittery goodness peaking out of a bin that I thought just held random holidays. talk about Autumn bliss!

So I put it up and added our pumpkins of all sorts, the flame less candles and our little squirrel candle holder. Happy Happy Autumn!!

* Ignore the touch up painting I need to do around the fireplace, I can barely contain the groans when I think about more painting.

The weekend in hindsight

This past weekend was a complete whirlwind. Looking back over the 72 hours that it made up I can see why all three of us are exhausted today. Feel free to skip this next part if you take my word for the weekend craziness.

Alex had a Halloween party, I hung out with my parents for a couple hours and then made a late run to the airport to get Casey, we picked up Alex around midnight on the way back form the airport and then made a stop at Walmart to see if they had any fog machines left. Came home and passed out around 2am, was woken up by the doorbell, it was my friend who I said I would go to the farmer's market with, delayed 15 minutes to take a fast shower and dress, strolled said Farmer's Market. Came home, did some more decorating inside and tried to manage the mega piles of laundry that sprouted out of our carpet. Dropped Alex off at my parents house so Casey and I could have dinner out for our anniversary. Discovered that we had been at the restaurant 3+ hours (so fun!), made a late night run to grocery for beer, came home and decorated the front yard for Halloween at 11pm. Passed out at midnight, up early to get Alex from parents house, home to finish decorating with Alex, more laundry, some cleaning, a term paper, an accounting project, ordered pizza, trick or treating, home to hand out candy with Casey. Broke down decorations at midnight, in bed shortly after, and up around 4am because Casey had to leave on a business trip. Whew! 

But between all the madness I happily loved on our new wall color. Ignore the catastrophe around it. That would be the leftovers from Halloween, late night trip packing and weekend living.

 I also present to you the mess that was me after painting the popcorn ceilings in the living room and hallway. This was the light amount of spatter, my chest and arms were all most completely white. Loads of work, but so worth it! Yes that is paint on my lips and near my eye. I get into my work. :)



Hell Froze Over Today

I did something HUGE today...

I finished painting the ceiling and finished painted the living room!!! I am covered in scattered popcorn and ceiling paint and am super sore, but so happy with the results.

I want to do a little bit of touch up tomorrow and need to paint the trim and fire place walls (white), so one more day to the big reveal!

Can you believe I finally finished painting?!?!?!?! This is a red letter day! I should go buy a lottery ticket!

The Decor...

I emptied out our decoration closet, otherwise known as the space under the stairs today. It was clear that we had a surplus of one type of decoration, Halloween decorations.

 The entire stack is just Halloween, not even a smidgen of Thanksgiving mixed in there. We love this Holiday, especially Casey. At least once during the Spooky season we go out as a family and search through all the stores for Halloween decorations. We did that annual trip on Saturday and found a small handful of items we might pick up. Even though we love this holiday, we still wait for discounts on the decorations because they can be astronomically priced! For instance, all our Spooky towns houses on the left of the picture were either gifts or deeply discounted simply because one decent house can run you $75+ without a coupon. We have not picked many of them up over the last couple years because the workmanship has definitely been lowered, which is a shame, they are super cool.

Here is evidence that we are biased towards Halloween. This pile is for all the other holidays the rest of the year, including Christmas and wrapping papers. The brown boxes on the right are not even part of this stash, so this pile is even smaller.

Next week I will show you our outdoor decorations, because today was all about indoor decor!

1 hour is all it took

I spent a single hour this afternoon cleaning house with Alex. One hour to put away all the random bits that get left out, to clean the kitchen, sweep the floors, put away some leftovers from Casey's weekend packing, piles of random papers that were downstairs, sort laundry, start towel laundry, clear the deck.

One hour, done before I made dinner for Alex and my mom. With leftovers for me after class.

One hour, done after I finished all my homework that was due tonight.

One hour, so when I returned home from class our house was clean and the dishwasher was ready to be emptied and the dryer was done with the towels and I could start on the clothes.

One hour made my night blissful.

How did that happen?

My desk is an absolute mess, it is covered in papers and misplaced items. There are stacks of books to be read, that have been read, and those needed for school. There are trees worth of handouts that Alex's teacher sent home and piles of junk mail that looked slightly interesting. *Read coupons for places we never go* So today, which is traditional a clean up day anyways, I am going to blow through this mess in the space of two songs. Only two songs or else I will justify keeping that coupons to the Mongolian Grill that I really didn't like.

Looking at the paper slide that is my desk I just kept asking myself, "How did that happen?". Usually my desk has at least one big open space to do school work on. The answer is simple, I had so much else to do! Casey was out of town this week on a business trip so I had the whole week to play solo parent. My week included:

• Two nights of school, where my mom stayed with Alex.
• Two days of teaching at home.
• Hours of studying for the two tests, 3 papers, and 2 labs I had to complete by Wednesday.
• Three nights of a sick Betty Dog, let me just say that I have used our carpet cleaner more in this week than I have in the last month.
• 11 Loads of laundry, with more in the washer today.
• Two nights of Alex ending up in our bed, just because.
• And of course one really good book that I was dying to finish.

So that is how that Paper slide happened.

Clean Sweeping, seriously where did it all come from????

Today I have the biggest urge to purge and clean and organize nooks and crannies in our home. I tackled my craft closet (again) simply because I couldn't get in there any more, and I had three laundry baskets hidden in there holding crap. It still needs a massive amount of work, but it is much more organized then it was. I am continually amazed at how much stuff I can easily let go of or throw away each time I clean it.

I then got picky about my bookcases, so I reorganized them, purged crap, cleared out the drawers and consolidated a mini bookcase and part of my yarn stash into the newly found space. Which left me with one empty bookcase and the yarn rack now filled with works in progress (they had previously been piled in a corner). The Hedgie cage is now out of the way and I can finally access my drawers and shelves without moving him around.

Two bags of trash are out in the can and three bags of donations are heading for the trunk. Yay!

I think I am in full on nesting mode, simply because I know life is about to get more complicated and I won't have time like this to organize when back in school and full time work. Plus I just keep thinking about how much STUFF we have. We trip over it for God's sake! So it's time to purge it all.

Next up:

• Finish the craft/storage closet.
• Organize/purge/clean the holiday closet
• Organize/purge/clean the hall closet
• Tackle Alex's playroom. Lord help us!
• Organize/purge/clean the Pantry and Kitchen. Too many things!!

Something to make Daily Living Easier...

At the beginning of Summer, all of three weeks ago, Alex and I sat down and made a Chore Chart. We listed EVERYTHING that he is expected to do each day and broke those tasks down into Morning, Afternoon, and Evening categories. I added in a Daily Chore Focus and some encouragement on the Allowance Reminder. We got it Color Copied LARGE and laminated and it has been a GOD Send.

Seriously, how great is it to ask your kiddo to go check their chart for their morning chores, OR have them check it on their own, and see that things are just getting "magically" done on their own. Love it!

I do think the guy at Office Depot thinks we are slave drivers though. :)

We have set up some rules for his allowance, that at least half of it needs to be put into savings each month, but the other half is his to spend as he wishes. So far he has decided to save up for either a new Lego set (surprise!) or a Nerf dart gun. He also gets Bonus cash for extra projects that he can choose to take on. Like $5 for helping with my moms dog for the week when he stays over. Or tackling organization of his clothing.

Regardless, this chart thing is working great!

Little Birdie

Casey found this little guy today as he was weed whacking along the fence line. Lucky he didn't hit him at all. Poor little guy is so tiny, he looks to be a type of sparrow.

Looking around we found a nest that we had not spotted before.

So Casey scooped up the little guy, after having to chase him across the yard and keep Penny away from him.

We put the little guy back up in his nest to give him time to recoup before he tries to fly away again. He was feisty!

One Mega May Goal completed

This weekend was supposed to be all about painting the ceiling and remaining walls but that isn't happening yet. :)

Instead I tackled our linen closet and ended bagging up a TON of pillows, old down comforters and a massive feather bed all for the trash. Now before you get all over me about donating them, seriously, NO ONE would want these. I don't even know why I was holding on to them.

At one point the upstairs hallway was stacked with the pile of pillows I pulled out of our tiny closet, 9 of them!! Why? I just keep asking myself that. So I tossed the gross ones, the ripped ones, the uncomfortable ones, and had the guys each pick one pillow for me to store in the closet for future use. I then promptly shoved those "to keep" pillows into a vacuum seal bag with a dryer sheet and stored them away. Yay!

I also took the time to go through all our towels and set aside all the ripped, frayed or stained towels to donate to the Animal Shelter. I would like to slowly switch all our towels over to All White. We are hard on towels and stains are inevitable, so being able to bleach them would be awesome. I figure as we wear out a towel I can just replace it with a new white one from Costco.

I have one non-white weakness though, Pool Towels! These I love to have in the brightest craziest patterns. I saw one at Target a couple months ago that was of goldfish, I still wish I had snagged it up. :)

So one measly mega May Goal down, tons more to go!

Beware MEGA Organization Forthcoming

This entire post is going to give you a panic attack if you don't like clutter, mess, piles, or LOTS of stuff. You have been fore warned. :)

One of the things that I wanted to tackle in my April goals was organizing my office closet. When Alex and I swapped rooms around the holidays I was more focused on making his room presentable not to mention live-able so everything that moved to my office pretty much was just piled and stacked up. The closet was a wasteland that I only entered if it was absolutely necessary.

This lovely little corner use to be five times worse. This table held all my scrap booking stuff that I sold a couple weekends ago. I filled my entire car with stuff so you can imagine how much more was stacked there. Steve the hedgie has been hanging out on this table, just because I have no room on the floor. You can also see proof that I have commandeered all laundry baskets to act as storage baskets.

Turning to you right you would see this messy pile of stuff all most completely blocking my bookcases, there are a couple blankets for the dogs to lay on and Alex's old TV waiting for a listing on Craig's list.

Here is where all the magic happens, my desk! It is messy and full because I don't spend much time here organizing because I am busy plowing through the final four weeks of school. I have big plans for this area.

And now I bless with you a floor shot of the closet pit, ummm that pile is about 2-3 feet tall. No Joke, I have a lot of stuff.

Which brings me to my mental conversation I had with myself as I purged and organized and tried to place like with like... I have come to the conclusion that I am not a Hoarder, I can get rid of things, I don't have to mull each item over to decide if I want to part with it. BUT after I do let it go, I think about those items, specifically, and wish that I had some of it back. That longing alone was enough to scare me into ruthlessness when it came to purging and throwing stuff away. I need to get to the point where minimal is perfect, not empty.

I want each item in my home to have a purpose, a need, be functioning, be beautiful, and kept because it meets a need. Not because we just happen to have it. Ruthlessness I say!

An hour and a half later I have a clean floor in front my bookcases...

The table is gone and I have brought out my yarns and project bags and moved my work bookcase over to the empty wall. yes, there is still major organizing to do, but everything is at least not blocked and stored with it's partners, so I can chunk it all out in small bites over the rest of the month, instead of in one nightmare day.

My desk is a wee bit better, at least the garbage bag underneath it is gone, it had been sitting there since the room swap, MONTHS!

And now for your semi viewing pleasure, the closet. I muscled in the banquet table where things are grouped together and will easily be able to be sorted through one basket/box at a time. I also rearranged the shelves and will pare it all down to a simple system of neat storage instead of the hodgepodge of random storage solutions.

Beware, more organizing is to come through the rest of the month, but in small batches that will hopefully garner huge results.

I am pleased!

Our Quilt Stacks

This is our massive pile of quilts, all made by my mom except one made by myself many moons ago. We are a household that uses our quilts, they don't stay nicely folded on a shelf. Instead they are piled on the couch, draped over dogs, used as sick blankets, fort roofs, and dog beds, much to the slight horror of my mom. But I know she is truly happy that her handy work is used and loved and is a major part of our family.

On to the quilts!

Stack #1

Top: A flannel faced quilt backed in fleece, given to us an Christmas gift 8 years ago.

Middle: A Cotton face and back quilt, that was my Christmas 2009 gift.

Bottom: A King sized cotton quilt that was Casey's 2009 Christmas gift.

Stack #2

Top: My single contribution to the quilt pile, consequently the oldest and most abused.

Middle 1: A flannel lap quilt gifted to us in 2006

Middle 2: A cotton crazy quilt backed in flannel. The first quilt made just for Casey, 2003

Bottom: A cotton cat quilt backed in star flannel, a gift to us in 2000

Stack #3

Top: A space explorer lap quilt for Alex, gifted in 2008

Middle: Alex's Santa quilt that is covered in the most amazing embroidery, gifted in 2007

Bottom: Alex's baby blanket quilt backed in minky. This one had a wee bit of trauma attached to it since we cut up all his "blankies" to make it. He was pissed about that for a couple years, but now loves to snuggle in this one.

Spice Cabinet

Spices seriously make my kitchen witch happy! We have entire cabinet full of spices and baking supplies. With so much packed in these three shelves it can sometimes be hard to find what we need or even know what we have.

Enter the shelf by shelf spice list. I took about 30 minutes to work through the shelves, toss what was old, wiped down bottles and canisters, reorganize them AND most importantly documented what was on each shelf. I then made a simple list in Excel by shelf, printed it up, cut it into strips and taped to the inside of our cabinet door.Easy peasy makes our kitchen life easy!