Sprained ankles-Bug bites-Good times

Last Monday I was with Claire at auditions for her choir's summer musical.  My cell rang (whoops) I jumped up to answer it outside not realizing my left foot had fallen asleep.  I rolled my ankle and heard a pop.  It hurt.  By the next day I could walk on it but each night it swelled and turned pretty colors.  I got back in the pool today and could actually use fins so I think the healing process is complete.  

The family discovered geocaching last week.  We took the kids out Sunday afternoon.  We found all the caches we set out for but came home with major bug bites.  Mosquitoes and we are thinking chiggers.  There is a lot of panty line scratching going on over here.  I have been using the burts bees bug bite stick on the itchiest ones for the kids and it seems  to help.  

Other than that we are having a great time.  School is wrapping up and life is good.  Can't complain (well other than the fact that I am behind on laundry again)

Wrapping up the school year.

We are trying to wrap up the last five weeks of school in a little over three weeks.  Everything is ending.  Hannah earned her bronze award in Girl Scouts, Claire, Neil and Avery are done with choir, Ian wraps up baseball this weekend and finished scouts graduating to Weblos Scout.  Been busy, the house has suffered.

What ever happened to spring cleaning

I realize I left spring cleaning in the dust.  The problem....I got a sewing machine and have been slowly playing with it ever since!  Besides Cindy in GA was so scared I was going to hit the floors next I didn't have the heart to tell her she was right.  so if you are up for it go tackle your floors.

Spring cleaning #5 kitchen

Today we are going to wipe down the cabinets.  Just a simple rag dampened will do most of it.  If you have wood consider oiling it too.  Our cabinets look glorious after being wiped and oiled.  Of course check your manufacturers recommendations before doing anything :)

Spring Cleaning #4 The fridge

I hope you enjoyed your break yesterday :) 

Today we are going to clean out the fridge and wipe it all down.  Toss all that expired or UFO's in there.  Make a list of staples you need to replenish and add it to next weeks shopping list. Your fridge will thank you for the little TLC you show it today.

Don't forget to work just a bit maintaining the work you did in the laundry room and on those counters.  Fold and put away the load in the dryer and start a new load.  Put the junk mail and other odd's and ends where they belong and give a quick wipe to those lovely counters.

Spring Cleaning #3 Kitchen

We are going to stay in the kitchen today.  I hope you enjoyed your Sunday break :)  In all actuality I never got to that troublesome countertop yesterday.  I did finish it up this morning but still need to wipe down all the counters and polish them.  Which brings me to a little PSA (public service announcement) If you have a carbon monoxide detector plugged in your kitchen you will want to unplug it and remove it from the area if you are going to be spraying any aerosol cleaners.  If you don't it will go off and loudly :0

Today being Monday we are going to talk about Menu Planning.  It pertains to spring cleaning.  I feel we often get in a dinner rut and start making excuses for eating out or convenience meals that are not the least bit healthy.  I totally cheat in the menu planning arena and let someone else do it for me.  Menus4moms.com provides a weekly dinner menu for 5 nights with included shopping list!  What can be easier than that?  She also goes by the premise of preparing ahead.  For example you will often see 5lbs of ground beef on the list.  Out of this she will have planned hamburgers and then the rest made up into meatballs, divided and frozen for a later meal.  Another site is SavingDinner.com  this one is a paid service.  We did it for awhile but the menus4moms site was more our tastebud.  So today your challenge is to make up a at least a dinner menu for the rest of the work week. Lauren is ahead of the game on this one as she got so inspired by her clean laundry area attached to her kitchen that she posted a weekly menu on her whiteboard.     Post your menus in comments for all to get ideas.  Our weekly menu is on the menus4moms site.  Beef Burgandy simplified is whats for dinner tonight. 

Spring Cleaning #2 The kitchen

Let's spend a few days in the kitchen.  The old adage The Kitchen is the heart of the home holds true in our house.  My hubby likes to go to bed with a clean kitchen.  Usually he is the one who makes it happen.  But as of late I am trying to bless him by making sure it is cleaned up before I go to bed.  Today in the kitchen we are just going to clean off the counters.  We have a junk counter in ours which just gets piled with JUNK.  I would take a picture but I'm too embarrassed.  So my goal for today is to put all that is on that counter into an empty laundry basket, wipe down the counters, get hubby to granite polish them, and then put those items that belong on the counters back up.  Then I will take my basket of junk and sort, purge, and put away.  

Join me in the kitchen and give those counters a treat.  I will take pics once I am done and post the results.

Mrs W linked me to her laundry yesterday in comments feel free to link me to a photo of your accomplished counters. :)