The Tuesday Tackle #6

Maybe one of these weeks I will get more posted then The Tuesday Tackle. Maybe... 

 The deep clean of the bathroom was finished when I scrubbed the floor.

Our great-grandmothers and grandmothers knew what they were doing when they hand scrubbed their floors. Mops and swiffers can't compare to the elbow grease of hand scrubbing. 

Dresser drawers and bedroom closets were cleaned out. There was a donate pile, throw out pile and mending pile. 

List were made of what Chuck and I need for the upcoming season. I won't know about Megan until the clothes from last year are pulled and out and tried on. 

The overall theme for the week was clean it out, move it out. 

Once finished everything to donate was loaded up and taken to the thrift store. It feels good to get stuff that no longer meets are needs out of here. As Laura says I am making a real estate investment by  removing excess from my home. 

What projects have you tackled in the last week? Tune in next Tuesday to see what homemaking debt I tackle. 

May your day be filled with joy in the journey! 

The Tuesday Tackle #5

Several years ago Chuck build this recycle center. The only thing I disliked about it was the boxes were cardboard and well they are just not pretty. After using them for a bit it was inevitable that yuck ended up in the bottoms. Since they were cardboard there was no way to clean them out. 

This had been on my need to do list for a long time. I changed out the cardboard boxes for plastic tubs. I labeled them so there will no mistake about what goes where. 

The great thing is that I can wash them out as needed. This is one of those projects that didn't take much time and made me wonder why I put it off for so long. 

Another project I have been working on is deep cleaning the bath. 

I removed all of the decor and washed it. While it was drying the walls were washed down and everything cleaned. I still need to tackle the floor. Once I was finished with the other task I gave it a good sweep and called it good. I plan to give it a good hand scrub. I also need to do a little painting. Washing didn't whiten the baseboard enough so I will add a fresh coat of paint. I hope to have it finished by the weekend. 

What projects have you tackled in the last week? Tune in next Tuesday to see what homemaking debt I tackle. 

May your day be filled with joy in the journey! 

A Wonderful Weedend

It's hard to believe the great temperatures we had this weekend. Temperatures in the 60's and 70's are a treat for February that we took full advantage of. I started laundry Saturday morning and it was wonderful to sleep on sun kissed sheets. 

I couldn't wait to play in the dirt.  Two of the raised beds were cleaned out and planted. 

Those early spring crops of peas, lettuce, spinach and carrots are now tucked away until spring is here to stay. 

Besides work there was time to play. 

While I puttered in the garden Chuck cleaned up this fallen branch and cut other branches off a tree that has died. 

After dinner and showers it was still 60* at 7pm. A trip to DQ was a nice treat. 

Sadly that didn't end our evening. When we cleaned up for dinner Chuck keep saying it felt like something was in his eye. I put drops in his eye and we flushed it out several times. No matter what we did it still hurt. He finally said he thought he should be seen. A trip to the ER determined there was nothing in his eye but he did have a cornea abrasion.  He was given meds and should be fine in a couple of days. He wore safety glasses while cutting on the tree and thinks he might have gotten some sawdust in his eye when he brushed it out of his hair before coming inside. That made for a late night. 

Sunday afternoon we did a little hiking.

Everywhere I looked this weekend I found signs of spring. From the birds we heard migrating north to the flowers popping up. 

We capped this wonderful weekend off with a fire. 

I know winter isn't over but I certainly enjoyed this taste of spring.

May your day be filled with joy in the journey!  

Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day in our normal fashion... simple. I set the table the night before.

The day began with heart shaped pancakes. Courtesy of Chuck who went into work a little bit late. 

I usually make sugar cookie cut outs. I was feeling a little lazy and didn't want to take the time to roll out the cookie dough. Instead I made heart shaped brownies. 

I made our traditional dinner of lasagna. I always think about our dear neighbor, Celia when I am making this. After her husband passed away I always made her a small dish of lasagna and sent over cookies. We certainly miss her!

Before bed we played a game of Conversation Heart bingo. 

We show love in our home every day, but it is nice to pause and think about it and put a little effort into showing our love. 

May your day be filled with joy in the journey!  

Heartfelt Chat

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." 

I have never watched Days of Our Lives but I have heard the beginning of it many times. It begins after our noon news and when I am watching I will catch the opening jingle. I have always pondered this line from the opening as it speaks the truth. Our lives are always moving forward. The season we are in will make that time seem faster or slower but just as the sand slowly drifts to the bottom, our lives are always steadily moving also. 

Anyone that had read my little space on the web for sometime knows that I like simple, steady and routine. As we know life can be anything but that. Change and sometimes turmoil has been all around us lately.

My in-laws (Chuck's mom and step-dad) were basically forced out the church we use to attend alongside them. I have been encouraging her to see this as a blessing in disguise as they weren't happy, but wanted to fight for the good of their church home. The situation was impacting her health and although Chuck and I are sad it had to end this way we are grateful that they are out of this situation. 

That situation led to the end of a friendship. I contacted her yesterday just to chat. It was a text conversation and I could tell by her response that she was cold toward me. She then said she thought she would never hear from me again after what happened with my mother-in-law. What? The thing that happened was between my mother-in-Iaw and the leaders of that church. Not my friend, or myself.  I said that no matter what or where we might be we were all part of God's family. That ended that. I guess I am suppose to be upset with anyone at that church and it must be them against all who have left. It was awkward, sad and hurtful. Our relationship had been strained since we left that church. I can see that God put us together for a season and that season is over. Honestly, I am fine with it.  

I have been open about how tight our finances have been since I had heart surgery. Our run in with the septic left me extremely stressed out. I broke down with Chuck and told him I didn't know what we were going to do as we couldn't rob Peter to pay Paul since Peter was broke too! He laughed at me. He took control of the situation and did some fancy figuring and found a way for us to be able to pay off almost all of our debt.  Things will still be tight. Just not strangling tight. 

That leads me to our decision about Megan and school. We had been weighing options. Praying about things. We asked Megan to take a week and pray about what she wanted. (Although the ultimate decision would be ours.) She talked to her friends, one of her teachers and came back at the end of week and said she was indecisive.  Chuck and I took an afternoon and went out for lunch. We had one of those conversation that really flow and you pour out your heart. We both agreed that financially we couldn't pay for private school any longer. Ultimately Chuck made the final decision and we are going to homeschool. 

I couldn't make the decision because I was so torn. As much I wanted to say yes I was held back by my fear. The fear that I will fail Megan. That fear is starting to subside. As my mom said if it doesn't work out then we can make a change the following school year. I am now feeling peace and excitement about our new journey.

There will always be changes and struggles as the sand of life shifts. I am in a good place and feeling at peace with the decisions we have made and even with the turn of events that have been out of our control.  Through all moments God is faithful and I am extremely grateful. 

Now that I have probably shared more then you need to know I am off to start the day. I will have The Tuesday Tackle back next week. I couldn't seem to get my act together to tackle much of anything last week. ;) 

May your day be filled with joy in the journey!

  

Touches of Love

We've had the best weekend! Saturday we had lunch out with the family I previously babysit for and then went back to their house so the kids could play. It was wonderful catching up with them. Can you believe that I didn't take one picture of the kids? Yeah, me either. I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time. 

Sunday afternoon Megan finished up her class Valentine's. I made something simple since she didn't like the store bought versions. There is something about being in 5th grade that makes it an issue to give out cards that say something corny like "I choo choo chose you." 

I finally put out a few touches for Valentine's day last week. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. ;)

I used things that I already had. Not only did I not want to spend any additional money on decor, but I have to store any additional items. Storage is always an issue around here.  

For Megan I have been adding a heart to her door each day from the 1st until the 14th listing something I love about her. This has been a big hit. She rushed to see each new heart. To make this easier I wrote them all out before the month began. That way I wouldn't fail to follow through if when life got hectic. 

Just a few touches here and there to make my home feel festive. 

May your day be filled with joy in the journey!

Joy in the Ordinary

Look around, really look around and you will find joy... joy in the everyday... joy in the ordinary things.

An afternoon snack.

Pizza for dinner.  Make your own is always a hit. 

Celebrating with a little show of love. 

Helping Daddy build a charging station in the garage. 

Some evening fun. 

Nourishment for the body and heart. 

Snow! Just enough to make it feel like winter. 

Making dip for a school project. 

Presentation for her big report on Egypt. We spent an afternoon at school seeing displays from different countries and enjoy a taste of their country. Megan tried crocodile at the Australian display. I wasn't brave enough. 

A lazy evening with a good movie. 

A sunrise that caused me to pause. 

I hope you have all been well this week. We have a busy weekend ahead of us. We'll have a visitor this afternoon, we have lunch with friends Saturday and church on Sunday. Busy, but good. See you next week!

May your day be filled with joy in the journey! 

The Tuesday Tackle #4

Last week found me in the kitchen. I tackled the cabinets. I took everything out, wiped them out and made sure everything was in its place.

I started with the cabinet that holds our daily dishes. Once everything was out and the cabinet was wiped out I started putting things back in. The area on the left on the middle shelf holds the most used medicines for Megan. It had become cluttered with the family being sick. I put things that didn't fit into the plastic container away in the bath closet.

Once the medicines were sorted it was just a matter of putting this cabinet back together. Then I moved on to the upper cabinets on the other side of the kitchen.

Once again I took everything out and wiped off the shelves. There were some more meds that needed to be put back into their proper home. The middle, corner cabinet holds the toaster. Knocking the crumbs out before it is put back isn't enough. I will have to bring in the dust buster and clean that bottom shelf off weekly or more. We all know having crumbs could led to unwanted guest. I think I'll pass on that!

Next I tackled the area I was dreading... under the sink and the cabinet that holds the trash can.

All I can say about the cabinet that holds the trash can is yuck, yuck, yuck. I will certainly tackle that area more often. I only needed to wipe out the cabinet under the sink and straighten it out. I need to be diligent at making sure everyone is putting things back where they go under there. All of us are in there almost daily to take care of a cleaning task.

After each cabinet was wiped out I also washed down the outside of the cabinets. Even though this is an area behind closed doors it made me feel so much better to have it taken care of. I ran out of time to take tackle the pantry so that will have to wait for another day.

 

What projects have you tackled in the last week? Tune in next Tuesday to see what homemaking debt I tackle. It is one of those items I have put off for far too long.

 

May your day be filled with joy in the journey!