Stuff...

The good news is that I didn’t get sick, at least not yet and hoping it doesn’t happen. Hubster is much better and so are the girls. So, all that said, what the heck have I been SOOO busy doing for almost a week that I couldn’t bother to post. Well, the answer is … stuff. Almost literally.

Hubster was home all last week because he was so sick. He tried to go to work and they sent him home. Yeah, pretty bad.

I had 3 school meetings, took the girls to the zoo, piano lesson and gymnastics and then in between all that I’ve been bustin’ on my house.

I cleaned out both girls rooms, big time. Then my neighbor offered me her toddler bed and bedding, so I took down Baboo’s crib (she cried, even though she loves her big girl bed) and rearranged her room. I found a cute valance that works really well.

Then I took on the playroom. Oh my. THAT was an adventure. Nasty.

Then I finished cleaning up my desk space. Again. Oh my.

Friday, I broke down and went to get some clothes for fall so I don’t freeze in December in the 2 pairs of capris that fit me right now (see rant about that here). I cleaned up at Goodwill then hit Kohls with Kohls cash, a gift card and power hour sales. Yay me.

Saturday, Hubster and I cleaned out the garage. That meant taking EVERYTHING out, spreading it all over the lawn and driveway, turning away 100 people who wanted to buy everything we owned, insulating a wall at the last minute (of course, AFTER I ran to Lowes to buy insulation we found several rolls of it in our garage attic left by the previous owners. Gah! And thanks!), sorting everything out and then, well, putting it all back in. We’re having a garage sale with our neighbours in 3 weeks, so all the junk we decided to get rid of … is back in the garage. So, we spent an entire day sweating away and it looks like we did nothing at all.
So, I’m making some progress on the house, which is good. It needed a good clean out and to have a garage sale soon, is also a relief. I’ve got a few little details to finish up and 2 rooms to do and I will have tackled every room in the house. Yay me. Whew.

And yesterday, just for kicks, we decided to have a kind of impromptu barbeque with some friends and neighbours. We actually had a really nice time and though the weather was crummy allll day, by the BBQ, it was sunny and warm. The kids played nicely together and once again, Hubster and I marveled and how fortunate and grateful we are to have made such good friends less than a year after moving into our house.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for both of my girls. I’m excited and nervous for them, as they are for themselves. We are definitely ready. It’ll be a while before the girls being in school will actually be a BREAK for me, but that’s ok. Right now, it’s more about getting them settled and I’m ok with that.

So yeah, that’s what I’ve crammed into this past week. It’s been a busy but productive one.

Critters

We’ve got critters up the whazoo here, of all sorts and they’re making a royal mess.

We’re inundated with spiders. We’ve got’em everywhere and they’re making mess all over the siding. I’ve got a tangle of webs all over the outdoor lights, pergola, decking and just about anyother web-worthy surface and bug gut stains all over my yellow siding. Gross.

I’ve got something that’s digging in my garden box. I noticed that my beautiful parsley was dying and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I noticed that it seemed loose, so I stuffed it back into the soil. The other day it was loose again, so I pulled up a bit and found that there were no roots left and a big tunnel underneath it. ARGH!!! All my soil is BEHIND the garden box and between the back of the box and the side of the house. Real convenient. I think I saw a vole last week, but it could have been a mouse. I don’t know.

We had a mouse in the house in the spring. Hubster was the only one to see it. Now that we don’t have cats, I guess this is inevitable. Anyway, he tried to catch it humanely. I bought the “nicest” traps we could find and tempted it with premium peanut butter. That little bugger ate the peanut butter and did not disturb the trap at all.

So, I bought the old fashioned snap traps. Somewhat reluctantly. We don’t relish killing other beings, but the thought of a mouse scampering all over my house was icking me out. Hubster set the “old snappy” trap one night, as well a humane trap and then he went to bed. My Mum was visiting and we were watching tv. Less than 5 minutes later, we heard the trap go off. Old snappy, of course. Hubster had had a problem getting the bar to stay set when he was getting the trap ready, so we thought that maybe it had just “gone off”. From across the room, my Mum peered around the kitchen island and said “that looks like more than peanut butter. Ewww”.
Hubster came down and cleaned it up. He looked at the little mouse and said “Dude! You had a choice! You could have been set free…. Sigh”. He felt really bad.

Anyway, apparently while the girls and I were away he caught another mouse in the garage. In about 5 minutes again.

Today, when I got the stroller out to go for a walk, I noticed droppings on the seat of the stroller. (gross, gross, ick, barf). I took the cover off and washed it. Then later on, I noticed a lot of droppings in one corner of the garage and a dead mouse in the other corner. Ew.

Needless to say, we’ve set some more traps in the garage.

I have no idea what to do about the one in the garden.

What a mess.

Cleaning Observations

With school around the corner, I’m feeling the need to get organized. I’m trying really hard to keep things cleaned up, to get a pattern to my day going, and prodding the rest of the gang to participate along with me. Sometimes this involves cattle prods, shocks and steel toed boots.

I SWEAR that shoes breed around here. Or at least can walk out of the closet on their own. EVERY SINGLE TIME I turn around, especially RIGHT after picking up shoes, there is ANOTHER PAIR just around the corner.

And, I’ve come to the conclusion that my house is like one of those long skinny balloons you twist to make animals out of. I squeeze one end of the house and make it all nice and tidy, but you can be guaranteed that at the other end of the house, there’s a bubble of mess that’s close to becoming an explosion.

A Herd? A Heard?

There is a herd (heard ... ahaha) of tap dancing elephants on the roof right now, who are threatening to fall through the cathedral ceiling of our bedroom at any minute.

Ok, so not really.

The bad news about the hail we had a few months ago, is that it destroyed some of my plants, which likely will not recover until next year. The good news is that it destroyed our roof. Good news you ask? Well, kind of. We needed a new roof in the next few years and were saving towards it, but the thing with having a big-ass house, is that it comes with a big-ass roof, which costs a butt-load of money to replace.

The hail and wind we've had lately has done enough damage for our insurance to cover replacing the roof. I'm warily relieved, as I know that this will likely bite us in the ass down the road but am glad we dont' have to scrimp over the next year or 2 to save up a boat load of money. How about, I'm humbly happy that it's being replaced. (insert proper sacrifices to house/insurance gods here).

So right now, my roof is crawling with roofers who are tromping around, ripping off shingles and banging away. The girls squeal every time a pile of shingles fall to the ground and I try not to cringe as I imagine what's left of my plants being flattened by the same falling shingles.

I've scheduled a playdate this morning with a new school family we are mentoring. A playdate here. At our house. I thought the roof would be done by today, but apparently it's not. I hope I can HEAR her when she's here. Though I may be deaf by the end of the day. A "pounding" headache is likely in my future.

Ha.Ha.

Spring Fling

Wow, I just looked at the date and I can’t believe that April is almost over. Didn’t this month just start? It’s been a very busy month, with the last 10 days of this month being just as busy. And well, most of May is already spoken for also.

They always say that time passes faster as we age and well, I can certainly attest to that being true. Or so it seems. I must be 100 because time is flying by so fast.

Anyway, yesterday was our typical fallout day after guests leave. A day of short tempers, tantrums and just general laziness. Hubster’s aunt (and a middle name sake for Baboo) and her husband came to visit us for a few days this week and they left yesterday. We had a wonderful, fun visit, but Baboo was sick and we had a few rough nights so we were tired. Hubster is on a course all weekend so it’s just the girls and I. Yesterday, after sending off Hubster’s aunt the girls and I took our time getting the day started. We stayed in our jammies for a long time.

I was trying to get breakfast for the girls and realized the fridge was a mess, so I cleaned it out. And then I moved onto the freezer, and then the pantry…. And then I got the cleaning bug in me. When we went upstairs to get dressed, I decided it was time to check the girls clothes for summer and move some things around. And so began the “Spring Fling”, that time of the year when I start “flinging” things out. Mouse loves to try on clothes, so she was more than happy to try on anything I threw at her from the closet. She’s FINALLY starting to grow, so a few things I’d held over are not going to fit, but that’s ok. Baboo on the other hand isn’t so thrilled with trying things on and her not feeling well on top of everything else, made for a bit of a frustrating time of sorting. I had to hold a few things up as she ran by and kind of “eyeball” if it would fit or not. I definitely think she’s either bigger or built differently because Mouse stayed in 18 month clothes until she was, well, almost 3, but Baboo is solidly in a 2T. I was holding onto a few cute things, but they definitely will not fit Baboo this summer. Sigh.

However, I have a huge pile of clothes and some baby gear in my hallway that’s on its’ way out the door.

Then, I hit my very pathetic kitchen linens. I got rid of some placemats and table clothes that I haven’t use in years because well, I don’t like them. So I’ve freed up most of a cabinet.
It was a big thing for me to admit and actually say “I don’t LIKE this”. It made me realize something about myself this weekend. I’m a bit jealous of people who KNOW what they like; especially when it comes to house décor. I’m referring to people who have a defined “style” – country, modern, Tuscan, traditional, Victorian, etc. It’s gotta be easier! Me…. I don’t discount anything. I feel like I have to consider ALL possibilities and there’s very little I definitely “don’t” like. There are also very few colours that I don’t like. I know that not all colours work in my house, but it always seems like a long process to FIND the right combination. In almost any “style” I like elements of them. I’m never really sure what “feel” I want things to have, especially in my house.

I said the other day that I feel like I need to have a city house and a country house. A city house that I can have kind of contemporary with an urban feel – clean lines, stainless steel, bright splashes of colour, almost like a loft kind of thing. And then a country house, with some land around me that I can have as a soft, gardeny, English cottage kind of feel. Old, worn, traditional shaped furniture, old antiques, crockery dishes, soft colours.

Hubster’s aunt said she really liked the way I’ve “decorated”. Hmmm… I haven’t done much “decorating”. Our bedroom is really the only room that is “done”, and it just sort of “happened”. I had some framed prints that didn’t work in family room, which is where they were in our old house, and so they ended up in our bedroom… where the colours really worked. After some searching around with my Mum, we found bedding, towels etc and it all just came together. It’s kind of contemporary with a bit of a traditional feel as there are cornice boards over the windows and we have a bit of wooden traditional style furniture. We worked as much with what we already had, because well, we have to; we’re on a limited budget. I really like the way it turned out, but I’m not sure what “feel” I want for the rest of the house.

The girls rooms were also pretty easy. Girly, pink/green/purple – flowers and butterflies. They’re little. I didn’t really go all out. It’s cute and pretty and fun.

The main floor colours are basically what were here. I feel like we’re kind of living with them. I like them – I think. They’re pretty neutral – but so is our furniture. A bit bland, really. I’m trying to find the colour and feel I want for down here, but it’s hard; especially when you have very little money to spend on it.

Our furniture is very, very small scale for this house. We will eventually replace it, when we figure out what “style” we want. And colour. There are a few upgrades that I want to make in the kitchen, which has a bit of a Tuscan feel with the yellow walls and dark bronze light fixtures. And while I don’t think I hate that, I don’t’ think I really “like” it either. This house doesn’t really give the feel of a “country cottage”, so I guess it’s more traditional/contemporary. Does that even make sense?

Actually, just sitting here, I think I just saw in my head how I’d do the kitchen, eating area. Now if only I can convince my friend to pass on her dining room light fixture to me and oh, and find a bit of money to replace my countertops. Hmmm…. It might take me a while to get it all together, but I think it’s going to work. Eventually.

So what I also think I’ve just realized is that it’s ok to say I don’t like something and its’ ok for me to want to change what’s “here” because it’s not my “style”. Usually I feel like I can’t really replace things unless there is something ‘wrong’ with it; as in, physically broken or needing repair. So, maybe I’m getting a bit closer to knowing what I like.

And now I’m rambling, so I’ll shut up.

So, today I’m going to tackle the linen closet and maybe the baking drawer. Watch out for flying stuff!