Our home
Big uses for small spaces
“A small house can hold as much happiness as a large one.” That was on a fortune cookie I got shortly after downsizing our house (even while upsizing our family) to move to the Twin Cities. Our small house certainly does hold a lot of happiness. And a lot of chaos. It’s not as small as the minuscule places featured at LittleDiggs but it seems that the smaller the people are, the more space they take. And we have three very little people. We I purged a lot of items when we moved here. But four years and two...
My anti-procrastination progress
Since renewing my fight against procrastination, I have: Applied for three jobs in the marketing field. Reorganized the closet that serves as our pantry, game storage and broom closet. Kept half the kitchen clean. Cleared all the paperwork, mail, magazines, etc. off the hutch. Started a bathroom reorganization. (Expect a full post on this when it’s done.) Got half my grocery price database done. Walked home from preschool with all three kids. Three miles in 80 minutes. It was exhausting but felt good. And Connor got a good nap in. And Grace was excited that she got to “go...
How laundry gets done in my house
I’m grateful laundry is so much easier now than at the turn of the century. At my house, it might go something like this: Grace loves to paint. And wear fancy dresses. And if I’m busy helping Connor in the bathroom, she’ll do both at once. So I decide this dress should go in the wash immediately, even though it’s washable paint. Open washing machine. It’s full. And a bit musty. One of us threw in a load and then forgot about it. So throw in some vinegar and run a short cycle. Check e-mail while that’s running —...
Putting our house on the market
We had a realtor out to look at our place the other day. Karen came highly recommended and we found her to be fabulous. She has a professional photographer take her listing photos, has a stager work with clients to get the place ready for listing, markets aggressively on the internet and really knows her stuff as far as legalities are concerned, which it seems could make all the difference. We want to move to a 4-bedroom single family home now that we have a third on the way. And there are many for sale for not much more...
I can now brush my teeth without gagging
I won’t tell you how long it’s been since I cleaned this because some of you still don’t know how disgusting I am. Grace cried when she found out I cleaned it without letting her help. I really don’t know where she came from.
A new bathroom — with a little surprise
We completely redid our “powder room” recently. (What do you call it when it’s more than redecorating but less than remodeling?) I don’t have before pictures but it was very similar in look to our big bathroom. We ripped everything out. And by we, I mean Mark, with help from his dad on removing the vinyl. We repainted. And by we, I mean Mark. He even picked the color and I think it’s quite nice. We put down new tile. And by we, I mean Mark, with help from his dad on cutting the tiles. I did pick the...
To do: Clean out garage. Step 1
I WILL get our garage under control before winter. Step 1 was a garage sale. I had started leaving things at my parents’ house this spring for their church garage sale but soon realized I had plenty of things for a decent sale of my own. When my sister got engaged, she and her fiance started weeding out things in preparation for combining households so they soon had enough for a sale. Lauren and my mom threw a few bags of things into the mix as well. The crowd today was much more sparse than yesterday. It was a...
Garage sale and catch up day
Tuesday we went to Sandi‘s well and I priced and organized garage sale items while she did laundry and Grace played with her boys. (Mark stayed home with a napping Connor.) It was nice to get things done without the kids being on top of me. Oh! Speaking of the well, my sister, a coworker of hers and I got together and cooked four meals last week. It was a lot of fun and my family has had good, healthful meals this week. I haven’t had to eat a single TV dinner! We made chicken enchiladas, chicken noodle soup,...
To do: Find some bargains
After striking out at many garage sales (PEOPLE, take DOWN your signs if the sale is OVER) this year, I/we hit the bargain jackpot this weekend. On Friday, the four of us hit the Cottage Grove Home Depot, which is closing next week. It was really picked over but, for about half the normal retail, we got a lot of things we had picked out when the closing was first announced: An adorable Tinkerbell lamp for Grace’s bedside table, $25 (She had a major meltdown when she discovered all the Princess ones were gone but after much prodding, we...
