Girliness Finds a Way

In view of my utter lack of experience in all things hairdo, make-up, and fashion, the Babe has found other role models. This morning, she talked me through the creation of this exact hairdo. It's inspired, I believe, by Spencer's mom, but certainly enhanced by Alice's love for hyperbole. Alice wanted it poofy, but over to the side, and the bow couldn't be to close to the front, it had to be further back. Then she ran off and put on her frilly shirt, promptly had a screaming fit that there are currently NO skirts in her wardrobe, and finally settled on shorts. "Mom, can we go to "All Things Kids" (our local consignment shop) this morning? Right now?"

Then she threw on her coat and snow boots to go rescue some balls from out of the bushes.

Hot Spot #3 Wrap up and Introducing #4

My work on last week's hot spot, kids' clothes and toys, didn't progress as I had hoped. Attacking the pile of outgrown clothes was easy enough. I've got another trunk load for Goodwill. I did eliminate the "mend" pile easily, too, because the kids had already outgrown many of the items. Oops.

In my decluttering, I discovered a stash of clothes that Robert has just started fitting. Width-wise, anyway. I simply moved them from the "will wear soon" pile to the "alteration sewing" pile. He still can't really wear them until I conquer the blind hem stitch on my sewing machine. I did begin an attempt to blind-hem some stretchy velvet knit, which is a pain to work with anyway. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I decided to learn on an easier fabric type, then realized that I will need to adjust the needle, the stitch, the thread, the bobbin, and the tension for EACH piece of clothing to be altered. Is a pair of 18-month PJ pants really worth the hassle? Really?! I'll have to get back to you on that.

And now for Hot Spot #4.

This week's hot spot from the Project: Simplify challenge is to declutter and clean the pantry, the fridge, and as much of your kitchen as you can handle in a week *groan* Anything but my fridge! Nooooooo! I signed up to declutter. Not. To. Clean.

(grumble grumble grumble)

This is something I REALLY need to work on. It doesn't help that I'm a food-storage-lovin' Mormon with not only a kitchen full of food, but two full size bedroom closets and a couple shelves in the garage to boot (side note: our Realtor thought we were a bit crazy until he figured out the LDS thing). Does the gigantic freezer in the garage count, too? Cuz' it could sure use a defrost right about now.

So, that's my challenge this week. A real challenge. Ugh.

Here's the attack plan, I guess, if you're gonna make me do it.

1. Organize and update the pantry in Robert's closet. Throw away expired food. Throw away or donate food and food types we haven't eaten in 6 months. Yeah, even the perfectly good pickle relish I received as a gift. You too, brown rice from 2004, I'm talking to you.
2. Sort through the chest freezer. Throw away foods from more than 2 years ago (i.e. garden produce I thought I would incorporate into our diet later...nuh uh). Defrost. Decide on a way to organize it better and keep track of what's in there.
3. Clean. The. Stupid. Fridge. Wipe out the drawers, shelves, and interior/exterior surfaces. Stupid fridge. 
4. I guess I'll clean out the microwave too. It's been, um, several years.

Alice Sharing

Alice brought this picture home from Primary today and described it as follows:

 

"This is a picture of me sharing a toy with Robert. Baby Robert. Baby Robert a long time ago when his hair was so long for ponytails."

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been a long week. My birthday was this week, but because we have had so much going on each day, we have celebrated it some what piecemeal. We went out to dinner on the day itself, because Susan had so much going on that day she didn't have time to make the requested birthday dinner. Later I made my birthday pie.

And finally we made my birthday dinner. We had everything for it, just not a lot of time for dinner.

Yesterday was a very busy day. We are getting our house ready to put it on the market, and would like to put it out in about a week. So we spent Saturday getting some things ready. We panted Robert's room. It hasn't been painted since we moved in, and it wasn't in the best shape when we did move in. I also installed two new light fixtures in the halls. Wow it makes a big difference with the light level in there. And then just a bunch of general things around the house. The whole house is starting to look ready. We still have a lot of clutter to remove, and a few more minor things to finish up, but it is very close.

Heard as a sobbing scream from Alice's room 45 min after bedtime:

"Daddy! There's a bug on my bed! A bug on my blanket and it looks like an ant! A poisonous one!"