I've been busy

As my weekend alone comes quickly to an end, I'm taking a lunch break and thought I'd share some of what I've been up to! Let's see......I've been spending a lot of time enjoying this:

It has been really cold the last couple of days (highs in the mid to upper 30s) and my feet seem to be in a constant state of frozen or slightly thawed. The fireplace is beautiful and has been keeping me nice and toasty.

My house seems to be in really good shape right now. Bathrooms sparkling, floors vacuumed and swept, (floors not mopped because it's raining and useless to mop floors when you have dogs....and wet/muddy paw prints) every single dish in my house is clean.....very nice, but it makes my cupboards VERY full. See, it's a good thing to have dirty dishes!! Laundry is still laundering. I have been doing laundry pretty much non stop since Dan and the girls left on Friday morning.......and a load is still washing as I type. Urgh. I folded a bit last night but mostly all of the clean laundry is piling up and waiting.............I WILL have all of it folded before I go to bed tonight, or I'll die trying. I'd say that all in all I have done a good 15 loads of laundry! FIFTEEN LOADS OF LAUNDRY. But.....before you go judging me and thinking that I procrastinate (I do!) and that I am a slacker (I am!) I must tell you that I stripped all the bedding in the house, (bunk beds, crib, pull out couch, guest room, master) every single throw blanket, spare bedding/comforters, dog beds, towels, and all of my rugs and washed it all!! That's a lot of laundry.

These babies have been getting a work out!

My pile

I've taken the opportunity while my children are gone to wash their bath toys. I try and do this fairly often, but I can't actually remember the last time, so I figured it was about time! I find the easiest way to get this task done is to load it all up in the dishwasher and run it on the sanitize cycle. Fast, easy and I can use soap to get them clean instead of harsh chemicals. My least favorite bath toys are the ones that suck in water, and you squeeze them and water shoots out. Actually, I like them, and dislike them at the same time. They are fun for sure.....hilarious bath time fun can be had with them, but on the flip side, the water that gets trapped inside turns into funky mold that eventually gets squeezed into the bath full of clean water and makes me throw up a little in my mouth. I could honestly be okay with throwing them all away and never buying another squirty bath tub toy, except for the fact that my kids love them......so, this is how I clean them! Fill sink with HOT water to where the toys are floating. Add vinegar......I don't really know how much, but I generally use a lot, like a cup. Squeeze the squirty toy and hold it under water so it will fill up with vinegary goodness. Let all toys marinate for a while. Eventually (an hour?) go back and squeeze all the water out into the other side of the sink....gunky stuff should come out. Then repeat the process until the water squeezed out of the toy stops having gunky stuff. At this point you can either wash these toys in the dishwasher on sanitize or let them dry completely (at least overnight) and then throw them back into bath toy rotation.


My plants have been neglected a little bit recently. We've just been so busy, it's hard to remember to consistently water and sun them. They seem to be doing okay despite my negligence, but I took some time to water all of them, fertilize a couple that looked like they needed a little boost before winter fully kicks in. I also tried to sun them:

but it has looked like this all weekend:

Dark, wet, cold. Not much sun for my green friends, but I'm sure they will be just fine. They are used to being neglected.......I've probably given them too much attention this weekend! :)

My dogs have been super helpful this weekend. Coming in with muddy paws, waiting around in the kitchen hoping to get a snack....some scrambled eggs, a slice of turkey.....they have picked up some bad habits since Henry's accident, but I've felt so sorry for them that I've been giving little treats out of hand, in the kitchen. They have both been getting hot meals made for them, (and every time I have to deal with wet dog food, I feel like I might hurl) and they have been sleeping in our room at night. We need to get back on the ball with some of our rules for the dogs, begging for food is just not acceptable and not something I want to deal with especially since they were trained not to do it before. *sigh* Mostly though, Tyson and Henry have been doing a lot of this:




Well, this lunch break turned out to be an extended one. I better get back to my work.....only about two and a half hours left until my family arrives back home! I still want to re organize the kids toys and move my crafting stuff into my new space upstairs. Oh, and I have a huge pile of laundry to fold. Nice.

P.S. I did get some sewing done this weekend but I'm saving that for another post!