Week 1: Kitchen

I promised to try and keep this updated with my progress on the 14 Week Home Organization Challenge. 

Well the first week is the kitchen and while some people can get it done in one week, but since Dear Husband (DH) and I both work full time, I planned on taking 2 weeks. Since this is my second year, I have less to sort through so it should take us less than the 4 week it did last year.

This first week it mostly looks like this: a disaster








From all angles...

We have 40 cabinet drawers or doors. 40! It is amazing, until you have to clean them. Since we didn't have enough room to take everything out at the same time, we started with kitchen tool and gadgets.
After pulling all the things out, we wiped down the cabinets with Murphy's Oil Soap, then waxed them with Feed-N-Wax like last year. We then culled any items we don't really need, and put everything else back.
Then we repeated the process for the tableware (plates, glasses, silverware, etc.), then for pots and pans, and eventually spices and food staples (flour, sugar, etc.)

Thankfully we were able to take a small break this weekend when we had SisX and her husband, BroD, over.
DH needed to bottle his latest batch of beer, so BroD helped with that while SisX and I worked on other projects.



And what's the best treat after a successful day of projects?
A stout float using home brewed beer!

Oh, and Eva was not to be outdone... her project was destroying a felted wool ball she got for Christmas.

2016 Christmas

We had a great, relaxing Christmas season:
We visited with friends and family, watch movies, read, nap, ate WAY too much good food. There were a couple of short illnesses to deal with but plenty of sleep, homemade soup/stew, and fluids got us back on our feet in short order. 

Among all this excitement, I didn't take any pictures. Not a single one. I can't believe it. 

It was just such a nice, chill vacation that we spent our time enjoying it rather than trying to document everything. 

Here was the Christmas card we sent out: 

The only time I had was during a Packer game, so I decided to embrace the theme and convinced Dear Husband (DH) to step out into the snow during time-outs and commercial breaks until we got a good picture. 

I did a bit better with my diet over Christmas (+1 lb) than over Thanksgiving (+3 lb), but it still leaves me three pounds over my "stable" weight that I want to maintain. I think what helped is keeping up with calorie counting over the holiday, so now I just need to keep making smart choices and not binge on leftover candy!

We did have a little Christmas cocktail party, and the Christmas Mocha Rum Punch was amazing. SisX and I dug the recipe out of Mom's 1970's TriDelta sorority cookbook. Those ladies sure know how to party.

The big decoration we added this year was a fake Christmas tree. We still had our normal (4 ft) real tree with sentimental ornaments on it, but we wanted something bolder for the front window since we don't have outside lights yet. 

DH has very strong opinions about needing a live Christmas tree in the house for the holiday, and I couldn't agree more. There is just something about the smell and look that makes the mess completely worth it.

I found a pre-lit one on sale, and it came in just 4 easy pieces and needed to be "fluffed" out to look more real. I picked up some ribbon and silver+blue ornaments (some plastic and some glass), but I couldn't find a topper I liked, so I just made a giant bow out of the ribbon and stuck it on top. 

I like how some of the ends are "feathered" or frayed so there are more color tones and looks fuller. 

The other complicated decoration I do every year is the Santas on the mantle. Every year my Nana would send an an ornament from a Hallmark Keepsake series.

When she passed, I was in the middle of the "Father Christmas" ornament series, so I have continued to buy the new one each year. I feared last year was the end because there were 12 of them, but the 13th did come out this year.

Yes, the stocking on the right is Eva's with her latest Rally-O and Agility ribbons she earned in December. 

Here is the latest addition to the collection from this year.

The first week of January is usually time for me to set up my "system" for the year. I am trying out this new "Commit 30" planner this year, where you write goals and objectives and make shorter, actionable steps to those goals each month, week, or day. 

One of my goals is to continue getting the house in order. You may remember that I tried the 14 Week Organizational Challenge last year. Not only do you clean, but you cull everything you can, room by room. Well I made it through week 8-10 last year but couldn't quite finish. Since I work full-time and only have the evenings available, this year I am giving myself more time for each task (so it is really the 23 week challenge for me.) 
I have also recruited Mom to be my accountability partner! She will be trying the challenge for the first time ever (so proud of her!), and we are going to encourage each other to keep up and finish the challenge. Oh, and I'm ignoring the basement because that cull and clean will take the rest of the year!

Wish me luck! I will try to log a little bit about each room. Besides, keeping busy will be good for me right now; I am like a sulky preschooler because my best friend is moving away. Why is it so hard making close friends as an adult?

Camping and Running!

Dear Husband (DH) and I are pretty new when it comes to camping. Both of us camped a little bit with our families when we were young, but nothing since our ages have had two digits.

Thankfully, SisX and BroD have more recent experience and indulged us in a two-night camping trip last weekend to help show us the ropes.

We had such a nice little campsite-home for a couple days, but I wasn't able to get too many photos due to all the rain and drizzle during our stay.

I caught a few of us soaking in the sunshine while it was out and about. The boys were tossing around a football, while Eva lounged in the warming sand.




It was cold enough at night that Eva crawled into my sleeping bag and slept by my legs all night, but thanks to her we both stayed nice and cozy. It was quite a challenge getting Eva in the tent while trying to keep the sand out, but we managed well enough.

 We did get the chance to take a long hike over the dunes but due to the rain, the majority of our day time was spent huddling under our tarps, playing cards, and cooking amazing camping food.

How is it that all food tastes better when you have been camping? Not only did we have the traditional S'mores, SisX materialized breakfast "banana boats" which are bananas with peanut butter and chocolate chips, roasted in tin foil over the fire. It was a great, filling breakfast for a day of adventuring.

Of course one of the first things I did when we got back was bathe Eva right after unpacking the car. Naturally the very next day she found something nasty to roll in and earned herself a second bath in as many days... she didn't seem too remorseful. She was more interested in getting out so she could try to rub in the foul stench again.


We had those big adventures last weekend, but this weekend was also exciting; DH ran in his first 5K ever and rocked it!

There were over 500 people registered, and he had a lot of factors that could have messed with his time. He had never run with so many people before, he's not used to "trail running" compared to road running, he doesn't usually run outside when it is cool, and he had sprained a leg muscle a few weeks ago and hadn't run that distance in a while.


All that being said, he did AMAZING, beat his time goal, and finished in the top 10 for his age group!

I am so proud of him for going after it and completing this goal he has had for almost a year.
Way to go!

Let There be Light... and Paint

Let there be light... entryway light!

Now that we have gotten some of the "required" house improvements complete (new roof, new furnace, landscape re-graded, and popcorn ceiling removal) we are now getting around to some more cosmetic fixes.

One of the big improvements is the entryway light. The existing one was a brass, 90's, builder grade fixture. None of those adjectives are a good thing. I was so excited to get it out of the house that I forgot to take a picture, so here is one from two years ago when we had the ceilings de-popcorned.

When looking for a new fixture there were a couple things I was looking for.
- We need a tall fixture, as the entryway is somewhere around 25-30 feet tall, but not very wide.
- We are slowly changing all the metals to a brushed nickle finish instead of a shiny brass.
- The house is more of a transitional style (between traditional and modern,) so something a little contemporary but not too modern.
- I'm not a fan of exposed light bulbs, so some sort of glass shade is preferred.

Here are the options I had narrowed it down to, and I included the height of each fixture as comparison. (Honestly anything would be an improvement!)

Option A: 29.25 inches

Option B: 28 inches

Option C: 26 inches

Option D: 28 inches

After much debating, going back and forth, we finally picked one. Both Dear Husband (DH) and I preferred the same one, and it just so happened to be the least expensive by a lot. Either we have cheap taste or we got a really good deal (I'm hoping it's the latter.) We chose... Option D.

Only after we chose it and as I was ordering it, I realized that the fixture is part of the same "design collection" as the lights we picked for our bathrooms!

Along with upgraded lighting we are also refreshing the paint, both inside and out. Talk about a game changer. Of all the improvements we have made, I really think this will make the biggest visual difference.

The existing color is a light beige/tan sandy color with dark brown trim. I wanted to change it to a warm charcoal gray with white trim. Here is a sneak peek of the colors we were picking from.

There are three different grays, and three different whites (which are impossible to distinguish in the photo.)

I will leave you in suspense as to which one we picked for the outside, but here is the color palette for the inside:








I know it probably looks pretty boring to most people, but I am afraid of color, so this is a big step for me. The bright blue and yellow in the upper right are for the front door and the craft room.

I have to keep reminding myself to be bold, color will not hurt me!

Refreshing the Deck

Our deck needed some help. Serious help.

We had sealed it three years ago, but with the harsh winters and facing full South our deck sure gets a beating.

The biggest problem was that whoever installed it, put the boards too close together. When they get wet, the wood swelled, sealing tighter together, This caused a large six-foot puddle to form on the deck anytime it rained! Then of course in the winter it freezes into an ice rink. 

I could have just drilled some holes along the boards, but I would have had to put a hole every 6". I could have removed the boards and re-set them, but most of the screws were rusted and would strip as soon as torque was applied.

So what I decided to try was to rip cut (parallel to the wood grain) down each of the seams with a circular saw. I set the cut depth so it would cut all the way through the decking, but as little into the joists below as possible. It took a bit to get the hang of it and I veered off in a couple spots but for the most part they were in inconspicuous areas.

You can really see the difference in the picture to the left where the middle space has been sawed through.


It hadn't rained for quite a few days and the temperature was in the 80's, but as I was cutting some of the sawdust coming out was damp. Turns out the boards were so tight together that the center core of the wood would never dry out. This made the deck even more difficult to cut.

All of a sudden the deck looks a lot bigger when you are fighting for every inch. I had to take a break after every 4 or 5 boards because of the heat and my hands were starting to cramp up.

A few days later I got a couple blisters on the web of my hand from pushing the saw for so long.

That many long cuts really created quite a bit of sawdust. 

Dear Husband (DH) had the BRILLIANT idea to use the leaf blower and it worked like a charm! And here I was just going to use a broom like a caveman. 

Of course I was anxiously awaiting the next rain to see if my hard work made a difference.

Thankfully, it made a huge difference!
The individual boards still hold water since they are still warped, but no water is held between the boards.

This means everything dries up sooo much quicker!

We made sure to seal the deck once it was fully dry so it stays a bit protected for the next couple years.

A few weeks later, I noticed something funny... the gaps between the boards were larger than the width of the saw I used.

What happened is that as soon as the boards were able to FULLY dry out, all the way down to the core, there was no more water making them swell, so they shrunk down and the gaps widened. This just allows for even better airflow and quicker drying. Thankfully the gap isn't too big... just don't wear stilettos out there!