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Monday, November 28, 2011

MPM

Ok, So I forgot to post this up last night, you know, my Sunday night... so... here I go!

Monday- Crock pot chicken that is going to make tacos... other than salsa and a bit of cheese I don't know if we will have anything else in them

Tuesday- Left over beef stew, yes... I never used it the other time I had it on my menu!

Wednesday- Chicken and rice casserole... basically chedar cheese soup, cream of something soup, rice, chicken and probably broccoli with a bit of cheddar over top!

Thrusday -Turkey carcus soup... I plan to actually make a rather big batch and freeze individual portions in the tupperware set i got on black friday... Basically going to trim the fat off the bird then boil it all for a few hours.... get a good stock going and then pick off the bones and let it cool to skim the fat, add mixed veggies and cook some noodles and rice and make about half each noodle and half rice should be good

Friday- Random, whatever I feel like cooking...

Saturday- left overs

Sunday- eat out/shopping

So there you have it... Our week of dinners...Things many move around, obviously Monday is being followed because it is already in the slow cooker!

Menu Plan Monday is brought to us by orgjunkie! Thank you for giving us such a great way to connect!

Over 400 pageviews.... wow...

That is all I have to say... wow... the MPM bit has helped a lot on the traffic, but still!... As for cleaning goals... I am no where where I wanted to be as of when I started this, but I will say this...the house looks a heck of a lot better than it did before I started this blog! I have a few baskets of laundry I need to fold from last night.. and a few pots and pans to wash up and a bit of decluttering... but otherwise... the living room are presentable... and that alone is a big step for our family/house!

As for the bigger goals... our room back tracked a tad, I really need to get on it this week! It is mainly due to the "grab and stash" from Thanksgiving... Same with the storage room.. a lot of it will be pulling it out and finish grabbing the stuff that needs to get out of there! The third big thing.. is my kitchen... not cleanliness... but organization! I need to pull everything and I mean EVERYTHING out of my cabinets and put it back in a different order.. I have a game plan of where everything will go... I just need to do it.... but there always seems to be more pressing items on the agenda!

Our Christmas tree got decorated on Friday... now we just need to make and add the homemade ornaments with the kids! I have a couple plans for that but am always up for suggestions! We do have all the family presents for Xmas and for my youngest's birthday... including stockings stuffed for the kids... a solid chocolate Santa, a M&M candy cane thingy, some mini candy canes... a barrel of monkeys, and 4 small play dough containers... mind you that's for one kid...I am impressed, they have left the wrapped Xmas presents alone sense I started the store room ( they were sitting out here because I didn't want them ruined in the process of everything getting moved around!) and so we left them under the tree when we put it back into place!  I do still need to pull out the snowmen grandma sent me last year... after I told her we weren't doing Xmas( we had just moved here and just weren't up for it due to everything that had happened... we still did a few presents just no tree or anything like we are doing this year). Where I just rolled my eyes last year, this year I am very glad she sent them sense she passed away this summer. I miss her but she was suffering so I am glad she is finally able to be at rest, she is part of my motivation to doing this, I know she always kept me in check... and now that she is gone, I needed to do something other than sulk around! I do miss calling her, I even miss her giving me hell as she did so very often!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving

Ok.. I'm panicing! Hubby is at work... I've got roughly an hour... little over... till the guys show... my living room and table are still a mess! Granted, not as BIG of a mess.. but a mess! On the other hand the stuffing liquid is ready to go... the potatoes are trying to boil...  gravy will be last minute.. I wanna get the table cleaned off so I can make a pretty spread... yea you get the point... So... I am taking a smoke break.. I need to chill ( or else I wouldn't be typing this!) Luckily the girls are helping... well my eldest is helping the youngest is unhelping! I don't think that is a word... but it is today darn it! Well.. only a few puffs left so I am gonna go take a few seconds to woosah and then get back at it.



Well.. I had to play the "stash" game in the end, but the house is decent... the feast was good... turkey wasn't worth $70 but it was one less thing I had to worry about! Forgot to take a pic of it though... sorry.  Well.. going to try to drown out the guys and their odd sense of humor.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The day before Thanksgiving...

Well... not a whole lot of cleaning has gotten accomplished today. I wiped down the bathroom surfaces and tasked out the hubby with doing the floor during his shower... which has yet to happen... I have on the other hand, managed to keep up with my dishes from today's pre-feast cooking spree... 3 pumpkin pies ( one given to neighbor), 2 dozen homemade white rolls ( 1 dozen to neighbor), corn casserole mixed ( need to dump in dish and bake tomorrow), green bean casserole ( same as corn+top with the onions), sweet potato pie/casserole... it is literally the casserole recipe ( with the pecan topping) tossed into a pie shell with some cinimon... we shall see how it turns out!, bout to go chop up apple and some herbs and throw some craisons into a bag so all I have to do is toss it in with the stove top ( yes... semi homemade!). I was gonna do the mashed potatoes tonight, but decided I will cover them in the morning and put them in the slow cooker on the warm setting to keep them hot till lunch. Gravy I cannot make until time to eat.. Cranberry sauce from a can.. gonna mix it up... gonna cream/whip some butter and put them in my side by side serving dishes... so...

Where is the turkey?! Oh yes... I decided to spend the money and save the headache and buy a precooked turkey offered by one of the Army resturants here... I just hope it will be worth the $70.. yes... expensive... but we also received a $50 voucher for Thanksgiving from the chaplins... was not intended but much welcomed! Hubby gets to pick up the turkey and the guests at 11... planning for a noon lunch....


Now the scary bit... I need to clean... Where my Temptations party is getting cancled due to lack of guest number, thusly I am only entertaining a handful of guys....My house still needs some major work... more decluttering and a bit of scrubbing. Maybe I will get modivated and clean off the table tonight while I continue to wait for the pie to finish cooking... maybe. I should, it will leave me just the living room pick up, and to take care of the floors quick.... I really should do it lol...


On a side note.. Scentsy products came in today.. I LOVE them... the smell fab and look good... problem is... I cant smell my oven cooking! I am a "nose" baker so it is hard to tell when things are done if I forgot to time... like i normally do! Speaking of that, I just pulled out the pie.. just in time.. looks great, I will find out tomorrow if its taste matches its looks!

Well it is late here... hubby still hasn't done his stuff and work problems are making him go in to work in the morning... he will get to come home for the lunch so it is not THAT big of a deal... but hes been home working the issue for the last 2 hours.. though there isn't a whole lot he can do... oh well... I'll do what I can.. if the soldiers don't like what my house looks like... they can just not eat the home cooked food! Aka.. they won't care what my house looks like!


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

I fell behind..

Ok.. I will sadly admit to it, I fell behind... big time... apparently, when the husband is home, any resemblence of cleaning goes out the window! He was on a 4 day weekend and we did next to nothing! So I am sure you all can imagine what my house looks like at the moment...

On a positive note.... we did do some laundry! Some folded and put away! There is some still in the washer and dryer ( need to empty the dryer... its towels and blankets so it SHOULD be quick and easy to get that taken care of... might even give me the modivation boost I so badly need... My husband has been home 2 weeks now... and my house is in utter chaos! What is worse... I have guests coming over in 2 days and again in 4 days!!!!!  In all technicalities..I shouldn't probably be typing this!  On the upside, he isn't coming home for lunch today so I can't use that as an excuse for an interuption.. I don't plan to clean to the point of exhaustion.. my goal today is to get my kitchen and laundry cought back up... a lot of it is garbage.. more recycling... the system I had in place is only so good and I've been at a loss for the extra alternitives I needed once the tiny cans were full... I think I have it.. now just to get cought up and implement it! Well, I shall update as time goes on!

Well.. its not done yet... its 5pm not quite done with the kitchen but it should be better by bed time... kicking the hubby back into the store room to finish removal in there once were done eating dinner...  at least I won't be able to say that today was a complete loss!

Well dishes are caught up, hubby is about to run out the trash, tomorrow is scrub, organize, pick up... won't be fun... but it has to get done!  It is late here, almost forgot to update so I need to crash out if I have any hopes of getting anything done tomorrow!

Monday, November 21, 2011

MPM week 3...

Last week went rather well... not all the menu stayed on the same days... but hey... everything but the chicken and broccoli was made and eaten at one meal or another.. and that was replaced by todays menu item lol, suppose I should make up the chicken and broccoli for dinner tonight.... but regardless... a rather... unplanned menu this week say for Thursday, which of course, is Thanksgiving!

Monday- Either pork chops or steaks ( depending on what the chops look like at the store on sunday) veggie and either noodles or potato

Tuesday- cream of mushroom 'gravy' with hamburger... cooked in crock pot... over rice

Wed- Chicken noodle soup in crock pot

Thursday- Thanksgiving.... turkey needs to be picked up ( cost me $70.. but my oven doesnt fit a normal sized turkey... stovetop with crasions and apples... mashed taters, cream corn casesrole  and green bean caseerole... bread made the day b4... dessert.. TBA

Left overs doctored up for the rest of the week... turkey, potatoes, cheese make a wonderful kfc bowl style dinner or lunch.. add some corn or beans on the side... sandwiches... the likes...

Rather easy menu plan, hope to be able to stick to it... by the way, the chicken noodle soup will be just chicken broth, cubed chicken, some frozen mixed veggies, and some egg noodles added towards the end ( of course with your standard plethra of spices and herbs to season it!)


Menu Plan Monday brought to you by orgjunkie!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Day 12.... not a whole lot accomplished...

Wow.. almost 2 weeks at this already! Kind of hard to believe... MPM hasn't been going quite as I planned... but over all well... Monday instead of grilled cheese we had fried egg with a slice of cheese for breakfast... Last night I so stuck to the plan.. the steaks per normal turned out amazing! ( as did the potatoes and the corn I pulled from the freezer) ... and we did the quiche for breakfast today.. the hubby didn't have to go in to work till later than normal meaning I had his help prepping it so it was more than easy to accomplish. We had it in the oven before the kids woke up! So now I am in a pickle of what we are going to do for dinner... I have a few options... I can throw something together, I could do my Pantry day up to today... found out the guys had discussed that we wanted to do a cook out ( our neighbors) and we settled on Saturday... or we could go out... I've been itching to go back to the Diaso store at the AK Plaza ( it basically is a giant mall on top of the train station.. 8 stories!) and my husband wants to try the bimbimbap place I raved about because of the awesome kimchi ( and that's saying something sense I am NOT a fan of normal kimchi!) Problem is.. I am so not in the mood for bimbimbap! don't get me wrong I will gladly eat it.. it's rather healthy and delicious... most Korean food is...

Diaso.. or whatever its called... is one of my new favorite stores.. I don't know if there is others not in the station stores.. but its basically a Korean dollar store! More like a Family Dollar than a Dollar Tree... sense most things do cost more than $1... but most of its stuff costs under the equivalent of $5. They have an organizers dream paradise there... If we go I will try to sneak some pictures... try is the key word! The last time we tried to take pictures in a Korean store... we got yelled at.. but.. I still have the picture!


This is what the picture was... it was at our near by Lotte Mart... basically a 3 floor super Walmart... This creature.. is a Kangaroo Mouse! So odd we couldn't resist taking pictures of it (the guy in the back ground was my husband's old NCO whom was shopping with us).


Ok.. Back to the cleaning, though if I go to Diaso.. expect lots of pictures... ( note... Diaso is where I got the pac man garbage can!) Other wise... I finally made our bed... Mama was sleeping so cozily when we got up I just couldn't bare to disturb her.. but it is made now, so I don't feel bad :) I have dishes to empty and load.. probably have a full load already sense the dishwasher is TINY compared to American standards...  I am about to go hang up the clothes from my hubby's bag of Army lol, yes, I know I should have done it last night... but darn it... I was just happy to have him home and get to spend some time as a family and as a couple. Hubby was rather impressed with the house.. I meant to say that yesterday... maybe I did... don't remember what all I typed other than " he got home early!". The house still had a lot of stuff to do that I never did but planned to... still does.. on the good note.. the hubby laughed at my spider fear and told me he will handle the boxes in the store room! Compared to when he left.. the house really is a LOT better.. I mean.. we do have the ability to walk around in our room! And the store room for a large part! The living room and kitchen where messy, are both less messy than when he left... and we have a lot less junk.. and a lot more to still go... all in time, a bit at a time! He was also impressed with the girl's room.. he knew that they had purged toys.. even sent pics.. but for some reason.. seeing it in person makes a major difference!  Well... back to it I suppose.. I've got a few hours before he gets home from work.



Well.. we went there after all.. didn't get crud done but oh well.. hubby came home and made my day with a bit of what he said... things were starting to look up for us before but I finally feel like he is putting in some effort now.. makes me want to keep working on us! ( only took 5 years rofl) Got a handful of cute things from Daiso... as well as some baskets for organizing the shelves...Regardless.. were gonna watch a movie then head to bed... luckily he starts work late again so yey!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Day 11... Hubby is home!

Ok... This is my way of keeping on task.. or at least trying to today!

  • Bathroom wiped up..still need to do the floor but I think I'm gonna ask the hubby to do it.. sense I hate that floor!
  • So far I have the sheets in the dryer ( should buzz any minute) and the comforter in the wash... Will make as they get done... Need to fold the girl's clothes from last night... will be doing that once I am done here... 
  • Started a mini mani/pedi in the shower... I need to finish it.. AFTER I finish the dishes... Also went back to my "Husband is home" grooming ritual... I'm not sure about you other ladies... but it is really nice to take a break every once and a while from the primping... even though I do the minimals...

My cat is grumbling at me... She loves being in the bed, and sense I changed the bed and got a comforter instead of just a blanket.. I've caught her several times UNDER the blankets... when I am not even in or near the room.. I think its adorable... but shes currently sitting at the bottom of the couch, she really is quite the character.. and after all of my bad experiences trying to adopt an animal and even buy out here, it really is wonderful to have found one that fits into our family so beautifully!

Mama Kitty (aka Mama) she is roughly 5 years old... we have had her around 3 months... fairly sure she was a shelter cat at one point.. she has some battle scars as well.. but great with everything other than the other animals.. fish are her TV and the bird is a toy!

Her old favorite spot... on top of my pillow... I will soooo take in the blankets over on my pillow any day!

Things to do still...

  • Finish up the kitchen
  • Mop/sweep
  • Coffee table
  • Errands
  • Pick up living room... again.. it really is a constant with the two kids!
  • Make our bed
  • Finish Mani/pedi!
  • Tonight I need to take out the garbage... or at least the food and some of the recyclables! 
In theory... other than the errands and the mani pedi.. it should all take at max of an hour if I can bare down and do it! ... I really hate being motivationally challenged and a procrastinator at heart!

Ok.. no procrastionation involved... I was on the way home from doing my errands... and my husband was heading home!!! 3:30... wasn't expecting him until around this time ( 7.. almost 8) So.. all cleaning has gone out the window... on the good news... his uniforms were already clean! ( I have to hang them... tomorrow). Kids are done eating.. our steak is warming up... Drinking a Jack n Coke... no we normally don't drink when they are awake, but a glass of wine or a single mixed drink/beer with dinner kinda things.. you know.. to prime the engine! So.. we are enjoying our night.. everything got put on the back burner for when he works tomorrow.. say for trash which we will take care of after the kids go down...

On the other hand, he needed his hair cut... and the beauty shop is right next door so the eldest and myself went and got manis together! her first time... she seemed to enjoy it and I am rather sure that the lady didn't charge me for her... so cool... Regardless.. it is time for me to go cook some steak and get the kids in their pjs... hubby doesn't work till later than normal so were gonna make it a long night!

Oops... day 10

I keep forgetting to write these nightly.. I think about them during the day but at night is when I do a large portion of my cleaning... so I perfer to wait till before bed.. only.. I don't think about it then!

Anyways, today I managed to...

  • Empty and Load dishwasher
  • Took care of the animals.. yes.. It is on my checklist because I forget... I try not to feed the fish nightly because they really don't need it... but then I have a tendency to forget.. as does the hubby, so when he gets home, he will be able to see exactly when they were taken care of... the bird.. about every 3-4 days and the cat about every 2... so it helps
  • folded 1 load of laundry ( its been sitting there a bit) and wash and dry 2 loads... will fold in morning... 
  • Spent a few minutes decluttering my nightstand drawer and wiping off in/around it.. 
Theroetical goals for tomorrow...

  • Finish scrubbing the kitchen up ( I have a few pots and pans to wash.. a counter to scrub up again.. and a table to clean off... none of which should take all that long.. just a modivation issue)
  • Pick up my coffee table/surrounding areas... this is a major hotspot for me.. so it can be a challenge at times...
  • Get the towel/blanket laundry bag washed/folded as well as our bedding/blanket washed so they are nice and clean and pritty for when the hubby comes home tomorrow!... nothing like coming home to a perfectly clean and made bed after being out training for weeks!)
  • Finish the storage room... still haven't touched it... still getting the creepy crawlies thinking about it but I NEED to do it! 
  • Empty the last white drawer in the master bedroom so the hubby has no obstical getting in and out of bed!
  • Most likely I'll have to run a load of uniforms when he gets home as well... I doubt they will let me wait until Wed.. but there may be a bit of pure luck that will let him happen to have 1 clean uniform left... unlikely though...
  • Go to the store/errands....
  • Meet with the babysitter for Sundays "mommy and daddy free date/lunch time".. I decided why try to make a date night? By night time we are exhausted! Not to mention we don't need to throw off their sleep schedual just because we want some time out/in...
Busy busy day tomorrow! Will I get it all done? Chances are... no... but at least I will try!  Now time for me to get some sleep.. a lot later than I want to... darn it being a night owl!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Menu Plan Monday offical week 2...

Okay,  hopefully this week will go better... I made about 50% of the meals that I planned, just not per say on the day I planned them to be! It is coming to my realization that this will be harder to get used to then I thought it would be... does everyone struggle with it at first? Or is it my messy/lazy ways that are keeping me from being able to keep with the plan?

Monday -Grilled cheese ( the bread is good still...)

Tuesday- Steak, Steak fries, random veggie ( hubby gets home and probably not till late so I can make it up for the kids and I ( or feed them something else earlier.) also this will be shopping day so they will be fresh!)

Wednesday- Quiche ( from last week) hubby loves this and we haven't had it in ages!

Thursday- Chinese Chicken and Broccoli with Rice... the hubby's favorite and well all of us love it too!

Friday- Spaghetti with hamburger (I normally just use pasta and sauce because I don't want to get the meat cooked and drained... Not anymore!)

Saturday- Pantry day... Aka whatever we have running around the house.. my day to be a free
spontaneous cooker... maybe this will help me stay on goal of following the rest of the week

Sunday- Either lunch or dinner will be left over freezer stew or eating out... we will go shopping this day so whatever time of day we choose to leave is the meal we will eat out

Hopefully I will be able to stick to this! If not at least I hope I can stick to it better than I did last week...

I have no preset day I will use the crock pot.. though probably the stew will get rewarmed in it due to zip lock bags don't like hot liquids..  and pantry day may be a crock pot meal... not sure...

I am linking this to orgjunkie for Menu Plan Monday

Sunday, November 13, 2011

The storage room...

Well, I finally got to doing it. It isn't completely done... yet.. I still have all the spaces with the spiders left to get to.... I have a "do I gotta" attitude going on... yes... I could wait till next weekend and get the hubby to do it.. he would laugh but do it...  Or... I could muster up the guts and finish it myself and have some bragging rights ( especially sense I had asked him to do it before.. per normal.. several times... and of course.. it always gets put off... hey, I never said I was the ONLY one in my house with problems!) On top of that, I have a bunch of things... like the girl's bikes... which they got to ride around outside for a bit today, a chair, a car seat, and Xmas presents... wrapped of course!

The TV is now gone as well.. $180 in my pocket and no more TV in the middle of the living room! Still need to do dishes today, but that is just unload and load... I think I'll pick at the store room a bit more tonight then do the dishes and call it..

MPM didn't go again tonight... I ended up spur of the moment meeting a lady outside to look over... well more sniff over... Scentsy products... Ended up ordering some Korean food for dinner... which is just as healthy as if I had made the thawed chicken breasts in the fridge...

Overall, not a bad day.. but not a great day either... I'm several days behind what I had hoped to be when I started this... but I do have to admit, at least my house looks better than what it did a few weeks ago.. even if it has slipped sense I took the pictures. Regardless, I can't wait for the hubby to get home on Tuesday!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Day 9... Getting Somewhere Again.

You know your house is getting messy again... when your 5 year old announces you need to clean! I think that was my big motivator today... My daughter picked up the floor of their clothes and the random garbage they had running around... then helped me pull the few dishes I had sitting on the coffee table.. I rinsed everything out and into the food trap of the sink... I'll need to pick that up and dump it, but that is a "when I load the dishwasher" thing after dinner... it is icky so I personally try to avoid touching it more then necessary...

Next goals on the list to do today are to get the dish washer going and get a broom through the living room and kitchen. I know it will make a huge difference... The other goal for the night is to pack up the stuff that is getting picked up by buyers on Tuesday, push the TV to the couch we don't use instead of it being in the MIDDLE of the living room, and vacuum the space saver bag full of bedding and put that away in its appropriate closet in the master bedroom... It will over all make a huge difference and just might give me the motivation I need to do the rest of the house! we shall see!

Ok.. got a load in and out of the dishwasher.. a few bulkier items I will load and wash during the day... Got a bit of the house decluttered again... have a few loads of wash I need to do... hopefully I will pick at that one during the day tomorrow sense I want to rewash the few items that have been waiting to be picked up by their buyers... Will definitely need to mop tomorrow.. Lily decided to grab the cup of oil sitting on the counter and spilled it everywhere.. got most of it up but I have noticed little oily foot prints everywhere.. just don't have the motivation to keep going tonight but hey, at least I don't have a giant stack of dishes waiting for me.. and 15 minutes of picking random crud up can make a big difference in the way a house looks! 

I've come to the conclusion that my house will not look quite as good as I wanted it to for when the hubby returns.. but hey... as long as its clean... he knows I've been cleaning, but has no clue about the blog! He knows about the one with the kids that I made up so family back home can see some of what were doing ( sense were a good 8000 miles or something like that.. away). It will be interesting when he finds out.. I don't plan to tell him, but if he figures it out ( I sorta doubt it) it will be interesting to see how he reacts to me putting messy house pics up!

Well time for a bit of quiet sense the girls have finally crashed out. Soon off to bed! (Or knowing me... I'll be up so late I won't want to get up!)

Friday, November 11, 2011

A fall back...

Ok.. this week has pretty much flopped... I have a good bit of cleaning to pick up all the rooms in my house... On the upside.. I've managed to sell a few things on the flea market page for the area... and got a few things ( card stock for making some Xmas ornaments.. our tree is bare other than some candy canes) and a space heater to lower the cost on gas... in theory if we don't use it too much it will be the cheaper alternative, especially in the next month and early spring.

MPM even flopped a bit, though not fully. Wed and today's plans flopped.. but yesterday I made up the beef stew from Wed. and there is even a bag of it in the freezer ready to be warmed up for the next time! Wed I was sick so we ended up eating cheese and crackers and popcorn.. not all that healthy but easy to do when you have a debilitating migraine! Tuesdays, as I mentioned in my last post, was caused due to the failure to notice the bread molded over night! Plan for tomorrow is to make the grilled chicken breasts!

Still need to go get my booty in the storage room. I keep putting it off... for several reasons.. even though the big screen is now out here in the living room ( had to take pictures of it to put it on the flea market page.. now its pending pick up on Monday so I didn't want to try to work around it in there... The bed is also in our room, which leaves plenty of space for the tuft boxes to go so I can just toss them in there and collect the boxes... I KNOW what has to be done, the motivation is lacking.. big time! On top of that I KNOW there are some spiders in there and after living at Fort Benning, GA for a few years... I have come to HATE spiders... luckily these look like a side version of daddy long legs, at least the 2 I've seen in there, the problem, they keep evading my swatter every time I see them!

I need to catch back up.. desperately! I have Thanksgiving less than 2 weeks away, and 2 days after that I am hosting a Temptations Party and will have a bunch of wives I have never met, in my home! (Sounds like fun huh!)

Facebook page for the flea market I created is going smoothly now... only a few adds a day and it so far seems to be moderating itself just fine.. I keep stressing how where I may have made it, it is a community site and the community should care for it, I am just here for stepping in if necessary. Everyone seems to love that idea as well.

So, now that that was accomplished, I made a page for the blog on facebook thanks to a recommendation from Cristin. Thank you, I have very much appreciated your input on all of this and I hope to see you there! (I hope the "like" on the side of the page works, if not it's "Messy Journey" on facebook pages) Hope to see some of you there! I have never made a page before so any advice is more than welcome!

Well, the kids are asleep and it is an early 8:40pm... but I think for one day this week I will go to bed early, get a good nights sleep, and hopefully get up early and give this all a running start! I'll hopefully be able to post some good news tomorrow night!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Day 5... Getting somewhere...

Well, I got the master bedroom decent... I plan to get at least 1 of the 5 objects in the room that is full of clutter, taken care of daily... by doing that it will help take care of the closet clutter as well!

Woke up and went "whoa" at all the stuff that got put out into the living room and entry to the kitchen, the sheets are all sorted out along the brown couch, the girl's bed mat is leaning against the counter... a few bags of donate and sell clothing.... I have a good handful of items I plan to sell from the store room, so the bags of clothing are not going anywhere... till I get that done... joy... I  REALLY don't want to do that store room!

I really don't WANT to do anything today... After getting my #1 goal done, the rest seems kinda... pointless... but I know that is not the case, it NEEDS to get done.. really.. it does, I have a handful of dishes in my sink, the whole house could use a good moping. The girls have managed to scatter a few random items around the house, but I have an idea to help teach them we don't just ignore it.

So... goals for today:
Pick up kitchen
Pick up living room ( these two tasks shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes)
Clean off one of the white storage shelves in master bedroom, put it into the closet and clean/organize it
Bake the gingerbread cookies that are STILL in my fridge!
Stick to my MPM dinner!
Do a few loads of laundry, most of it worn/used in recent days. I want a completely clean slate.
Scoop kitty litter
Start on the store room while trying not to kill myself... First thing to start, pull out the tuft boxes and start throwing the random TA50 back into it!


Well, time to go get at it. I'll up date later in the day... hopefully I get my full list of things done.

Ok... Today.. wasn't a complete failure, but it was nothing like I planned to do. Darn Facebook sucked me in. I ended up making a new flea market page for our area because of some issues with the current one, apparently everyone is loving it, and the basic set up was easy... but... that's a lot of adds... a lot of setting the rules and categories that were added on ( as well as putting some of my own, no longer wanted junk, up for sale!) 

What I did do... just loaded my dishwasher, rinsed out my sink and all of that fun stuff. The girls ran a load of their clothes today, it's in the basket for me to fold but I shall do that before I go to sleep. Got 2 pans of gingerbread cookies in... burnt the first one pretty bad...once again.. Facebook... I stopped, not wanting to burn more! I did thankfully get the one storage container cleared off, sorted, and wiped out with the help of my girls, got my closet section cleaned out, organized and everything is hanging or in its drawer! There is only the one basket of clothes to fold.. the girl's I mentioned. I do need to do a quick pick up in here before I crash out, so I suppose in some ways that counts as me picking up the living room... sense what is still in here is about to be taken care of, or is up for sale.

I didn't stick to the MPM today... there is only 2 things I can blame for that... Me, because I failed to look, and the bread, for molding overnight! So we ran down to the local Family Mart ( a little convince store here in Korea) for some Kim bap and some cheese bread. I was brave enough to buy some kimchi in hopes that it was mild like the one I got to eat down at the train station restaurant, and I forgot to even open it! I guess I'll make homemade Korean food for lunch some day coming up and enjoy it that way!  Either way, time to do those few things and crash, I've got a busy busy day tomorrow!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Menu Plan Mondays... Lets give this a try...


I've heard great things about MPM... It really is a great system... my problem, I am a very, very random person! I tried to give this a small go last week.. but things... as you can see, have been rather busy around my home.. I did make a handful of the meals but I didn't stick to my plan.. BUT I did save a lot on groceries! So this week I am going to give it a shot in earnest... Sense my time is ahead of most of yours by quite a bit... it is Monday night here... so lets start with Tuesday... I will plan till Monday of next week, but I just might over right it come Sunday... Hope you followed all that!

Tuesday- Grilled cheese, whole wheat bread and dipping it in the spaghetti sauce I opened tonight, unless I manage to find some Tomato soup while cleaning the store room.

Wednesday- Crock Pot Beef Stew... basically, throwing in some cooked, ground beef from my freezer ( Thanks Nony!) Toss in a bag of mixed veggies and some beef stock/broth or water with some bullion... let it cook... I have errands this day so I will already be tired and wont want a whole list of things to do when I get home.

Thursday-  Quiche... I want to practice making the crust myself for when my hubby gets home, it's one of his ambrosia foods... tuna, spinach, cheddar cheese and your basic quiche egg mix.

Friday- Grilled Chicken, Corn, Brown rice... this is not one of my kids favorites... but I like it, and I'm trying to shed a few lbs!

Saturday- Pan fried fish ( not sure what kind it is in my freezer.. but it has been in there for quite some time) with some colored-buttered egg noodles ( or at least attempt to color...)

Sunday- Pasta spirals with tomato sauce and pre-made( store bought) meat balls... this has been a sort of a homemade version of a chef boyrdee kind of thing, the kids, husband and I all like it.

Monday- TBD or Fridge clean out... Pay day is on Tuesday so its a nice time to clean up left overs and random bits of ingredients.  Perhaps take out if I need to catch up on things, hopefully not.


Lunches will primarily be left overs or throw together bits... breakfast is typically cereal here..


I am linking this to Menu Plan Mondays from "I'm an Organizing Junkie". Thank you Laura for such a great place to start the idea of getting my meals organized as I work on getting the rest of my house organized. Everyone... Her site has some GREAT tips.. on not only MPM but a LOT of things! Please take a look!

Transformation of the Master Bedroom...

Ok... first... this is what it looked like.

A disaster, I know... Embarassing... I'm still a bit shocked that I took a picture, let alone posted it... not to mention..kinda glad all of you are getting to see it! Maybe I really am loosing my mind! Now... this room really was a disaster.. in fact.. I kinda just.. didn't want to do it... My girls helped me... I couldn't get them to play in their room.. they WANTED to help me... okay fine. The beds were moved to the living room, then their room earlier in the day... and trust me, what was under those platform frames... was worse than whats visible in the picture... scary, I know.

How did I do it? I swept it into a giant pile! Because Korean law makes us literally sort and recycle... everything... I sat down, and the girls helped me put everything into seperate bags.. i swept up the crumbs and all the little tiny things and put them into a regular garbage bag!... This is what it looks like now...

Big difference huh? I've done a few things sense I took the picture.. and I am hoping to get the bed from the store room in their tonight, or else I will be sleeping on the couch tonight! I came to acceptance with that before I started the whole project though... sense hubby is out of the house.. it's just me to worry about ( and I could always just go crawl into bed with the girls, after all they do that with me).


Woot.... I got the bed in there tonight! No.. the storage room is NOT clean yet... but well... I really didn't want to sleep on the couch... not sure why sense the bed is a brick... but well.. it didn't feel like a bedroom without a bed!

What do you think? I think it looks really darn good... lots of clutter to take care of... lots of it... but that will be tomorrow or the next day.. I am taking the last hour or so before I call it a night, off... I am exhausted... Sadly I didn't do my normal daily chores! I am going to skip them tonight though.. yes, that means I'll be doing some of them twice tomorrow... but I shall live, but if i get a boost of modivation before I crash, I'll load the dishwasher, I did at least empty it this morning.

The girl's room is done!

Isn't it beautiful!?! It does have quite a bit less space than before... but less stuff... odd how that works... We may do rid of the table and the toy box. Their X-mas presents are 2 sets of dolly furniture so that will take up quite a bit of space! As for storage if we get rid of the toy box, probably under bed storage... or a small shelf with bins... not sure which... we shall see.

My girls impress me!

Last night, we did what most kids would dread doing.. and they did it happily... I'm such a proud mama! We had 2 tubs full of toys ( think laundry basket volume), now we have 1... we threw away a whole bag ( 13 gallon one) of broken, stained, and just cruddy toys.. as well as toys they just don't really play with! I also got them to give up the annoying hula hoops ( they were annoying all the way down to the trash!) and a tunnel they haphazardly play with...

And here Is all the toys we threw out! ( not counting the blue bucket... but its no longer in their room!)

My Messy House... as of today...

Ok.. I have done some cleaning already... but then I realized something... none of you have any clue of what my house looks like... and that I really do mean that its messy! (And I promised a pic of the bathroom) Some of this is clean and disorganized... some of it is clean and mostly organized... and then theres dirty to the core and the clutter nightmare... So.. here goes the embarassing pictures... hopefully during the next week I will be able to post more pictures of better rooms....

Now, this is my entry way... of course.. as the name applies.. it is the first thing people see.. including, people at the door that aren't actually coming in... it... normally looks like a garbage holding spot... well.. I'm trying to change that.. it's still a work in progress... but I am rather proud of it at the time being...

The next thing people see is my kitchen.. which currently is clean, garbage free.. okay, loose garbage free... the garbage cans are in this room though out of sight. The dishes are all clean.. just need to go through my cabinets and clean and organize them... my goal date for that accomplishment is the 14th.. so a week from now... There is a lot of things that need to find a place.. most likely the storage room.. aka 3rd bedroom... but later down you will see why they aren't in there.
Next, pan left in my house, and you come to my living room.. my current pride and joy...  my desk needs to be cleaned off.. and it could use a good dusting on some things... but other wise... it is doing rather well.


Next in line is the hallway between my children's bedroom and the master bedroom... this space is small.. not really a hallway but yea.. its got 2 items... my laundry sorter and a poster from "Magic School Bus"

Pan right, my girl's room.. a room that is normally decent... my girls are rather good at picking up after themselves... thankfully... after this post, were going to go put their beds in there instead of the mat.

Then.. the SCARY room... It is dirty.. disorganized.. and just plain... wrong.. goal of tonight to have it clean.. crossing my fingers... this picture.. is purely to keep myself from letting it look like this again... a bit of a ... self scare tactic if you please...
The other scary room... which isn't as bad as it is big items disorganized... everywhere... is our storage room... it shouldn't be hard to get cleaned up but well... it will be exhausting... most of the stuff in there is NOT light... and the hubby is gone...

 yes... that is the box spring and mattress that will be going into my room... now you see why this is a have to get done room!

Now finally... the last room... the main/public bathroom... not the cleanest.. but at least it doesn't have junk.. just a potty chair and the mop/bucket that I need to dump...  as you can see... no tub... no divider... my master bathroom ( no pictures at this time) is the same way.... I think it ROCKS!

There you have it... please... try not to judge... I have come a long way... and I still have a long way to go... but now you have a basis of from which I'm starting my journey... even if these pictures were taken today ( sorry... didn't think to take pictures day 1!).

Shoe oranization... and a cute little Korean trash can...

Ok.. typical to most Korean homes... We have a lowered entry area...I want to say the walk-able space is about a 5foot by 7foot space... this is where we store our shoes... but the only built in storage other than the 3 of them that are in our master bedroom.... keep in mind... yes... that means I have NO closets... at least not standard closets as Americans think of them as... ( and oh how I miss them!) Anyways, I finally got fed up with the row... more of a scattering, of shoes all over this space... it makes it look messy when we open the front door and a pain to walk thru with well.. anything, in hands... so... I did this...
I will take a better picture of this space tomorrow after I take out the odds and ends items i need to take down to the curb!..Oh.. and no the water bottles are no longer on it, see that bit of a dip in the middle... the morning after I woke up and it was worse! So, I moved them to next to it.. I need to take down a few shelves in one of the closets next to it and store them there.. on the upside... the shelf wasn't ruined and sprung back to shape.


Now... to my cute little find... Korea laws state that just about everything needs to be separated and recycled... including food scraps sense garbage disposals apparently aren't thought of out here... which is okay, it goes to a city wide compost, so it's useful! Needless to say... the little 5 litter bags that are for food.. are a pain to use... they never fill before they stink, and the idea of having a bag of possibly leaking food scraps in my fridge or freezer turned my stomach... and then... I found this! My little "PAC MAN garbage can"!


He sits in my fridge and eats up all the scraps happily! Did I mention its adorable to boot! Korea is filled with so many adorable storage/organizational tools.. I can't wait to be able to use them and actually USE them!

Apparently some traffic... unexpected but not unwelcome...

As I stated the first post.. I did not make this with the intentions of others.. I made this with the intention of working to keep myself accountable and having a place to "ramble" at... That being said... welcome any of you that do happen to stumble upon this blog! Please feel free to comment... criticism allowed, just keep in mind I may not do anything about it lol. If you are in the same boat as I am.. feel free to post along with me if you wish! I probably would have done that with Nony but I didn't want to take away from her traffic/spotlight... that wasn't my place...So.. I made this place to do it... and it's welcome to everyone to do the same... share your frustrations of family and home life.. and just let out a vent if you need to! Welcome and I hope you find some motivation in this blog.. even if its.. thank goodness I'm not THIS bad! Also... Please do ignore my writing errors.. I am not used to writing and having all the "proper" ways be important, so it may take me some time... that and I almost always forget to spell check!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Day 2.... Laundry...And progress.... kind of...

I hate folding laundry! I hate putting it away!.... It's this never ending cycle, especially with kids, even more with young kids! I've spent a lot of time looking up for some of the "best systems".... Some I am even taking into account... but when it comes down to it, I just HAVE to do it... no ifs, ands, or buts! On the upside... I have done a ton of washing, drying and yes... even folding! ( I need to go tackle the sheet folding when I'm done typing away... just trying to find some sort of internal motivation.

On another subject... My girls have earned their dresser back.. well.. not really, I just really am sick of having their clothes in my room! So... with just little ole me I managed to take the 51 inch plasma T.V. off of the dresser... move the dresser to their room.. and slide the T.V. back into the store room... note... don't ever lift a 51inch T.V on your own... it can be painful... luckily only painful for me and not the T.V... I am thinking about selling it though... We brought it out here to Korea because we didn't think there would be a T.V in our place... needless to say, it has been in our storage room sense the packers brought it into our house... never plugged in! ( heck it could be broken for all I know!)

Last night I made 2 things for making tree decorations... I made a TON of play dough... colored and put into the 6oz plastic baby food tubs... that is a ton of kneading and I don't recommend it for anyone! The other was some egg-less gingerbread cookies... I haven't cut and baked them... maybe tonight if I get my sheets done fast enough... but they are rolled and chilled between wax paper sitting in the fridge waiting for me.

I decluttered a bit of the living room today... gotta finish that tonight/tomorrow... I know that I'm being sporadic and it probably isn't a good thing, but at the same time it keeps me from feeling as overwhelmed to some degree... but I have to admit I am making progress... I didn't mop the bathroom floor, but i scrubbed down all the surfaces in the bathroom this morning when I took a shower... and luckily the girls didn't mess it up really when they followed suit after I was done..

Well off to all those tasks I really don't want to do but I NEED to do them... aka finishing putting the dishes in the washer ( almost forgot to run it last night!) the laundry, and hopefully get some floor care in!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Day 1... The first step...

Ok, there is some major overhaul needing to be done... ive been picking at it the last few weeks only to end up falling on my butt with it when things got busy...

As of today my kitchen is clean... is it spotless... god no... it  never will be ( have you ever had shiny black cabinets... well i do... and a 3 and 5 year old... not to mention i bake... im sure you can imagine how bad it looks and out fast it gets that way!) I just finished sweeping and moping in there... other than a quick pick up sense the kids finished lunch, Ive got a pritty good control of it.

Daily tasks for kitchen... Empty dishwasher first thing in the AM... Load it last thing at night... quick wipe down of counters after lunch and after dinner when the kids go to bed. So far I've been doing that for the entire week and rather happy with myself for it... I now plan to every night run a wet swiffer pad over my kitchen to wipe up any light ickys and "sweep" it all at once... simplicity/multitasking are my best friends.

I need to do some baking today so not only will i have that mess to clean. i have the time taking to do it! I also need to get my living room cleaned up. Its not horrid... in fact its mostly clutter and a quick sweep an mop... I have a major problem here in South Korea... Storage space is a pain in the behind to find as its sooo limited... and not really ment for the sized things we have here! I am hoping tho in a few weeks to ask my Korean neighbor ( correction.. Korean-American ) to help me get one or two of the cute korean organizational things for the girl's room... that way their clothes and diapers and the likes can be in THEIR room instead of the limited household storage space! On an upside.. things here are cheap and adorable!

Daily tasks for living room are. spend at least 3- 5minute times taking care of any clutter in here ( and the rest of the house if this room is clear of it!) and to continue the swiffer straight into here from the kitchen!

Big goals for this week  is to get my bedroom and the store room clean/organized/decluttered.. they are horrid! And we are switching around beds again... When we got here our kids wanted nothing to do with their framed beds... sense korean beds are MUCH firmer than we like... we took the 2 twins and pushed them together for a king... 6 month later... it really is more annoying to me than comfortable.. so I spent some money at amazon and got a feather bed/memory foam combo topper and it should be here begining/mid next week.. sense I already must go on post wed. I am hoping it will be there.....  Tomorrow I have my wed baby sitter coming over to meet her.... so Im focusing on the viewable space of the house first!... The goal is to on tomorrow and sunday do my room.. its mostly clothes and organizers that are half empty...  then on monday and tuesday to tackle the store room... which will be rather interesting sense its just me here and some things are HEAVY!

On the upside, the public aka living room bathroom is clutter free for the most part. toilet needs a wipe down and floors need to be mopped tonight tomorrow... Korean bathrooms are weirdly cool so I will post a picture of that when i get done moping it up!

A start to hopefully a big change...

I got this idea from Nony of  "A Slob Comes Clean". I quickly realized how much her and I have in common and so here I am trying to give her idea a go for myself. Do I expect to get traffic? Nope... Do I expect to get anything out of this for anyone else? Nope.... The whole point of this is for me to keep myself accountable, I've never been a journal kinda girl and sense I started my family blog and liked it, I figure this is a good way to document my progress! If you come here and find this grats... hope it helps, if it doesn't I'm sorry.