OH: Week Nineteen

Organize Your Home: Week 19

Mudroom & Entryway Organization

This week the challenge was to work on the entrance into the home. If you have multiple ways to enter the home - work on all of those! We have a main entrance and an emergency exit door. We don't use the side emergency door so we focused on the main entrance. Ben and I attacked this challenge together since many of the items in the foyer were his. 

Before

The entry was was filled with bikes, gardening materials, BBQ gear, construction equipment and dirt!

We got busy and ended up making a mess down here. It was awful!

Gardening supplies from our work over Memorial Weekend. 

The walls were filled with scuff marks. I have scrubbed most of the walls with a magic eraser but still have some more areas to work on. 

A pile of Ben's shoes usually collects outside the door. 

YIKES! This is the leftovers from Ben's woodworking projects and "cleaning" out his truck. 

After

Now the only items downstairs is our bikes, housemate's chairs, and a tote for BBQ items and car items. 

Ben used the tote to house the random things that didn't have a home before. 

Much cleaner looking!

I scrubbed these walls! Now all we need is our landlord to repaint our foyer and it looks brand new!

Trying to limit Ben's shoes to 1 or 2. 

The nice coat hanging area Ben made using a piece of an old pallet. The painted drift wood was a Christmas gift from a friend. 

Steps for this challenge:

1. Clear out EVERYTHING!

2. Clean the floors and get all reachable cob webs. 

3. Put everything back where it belongs. Gardening supplies in milk crates in the basement. Car cleaning supplies in a tote upstairs. All other random items in a tote by the door. 

4. Do a quick clean up in the front yard - sweep deck and pick weeds growing next to the front steps. 

Items to still consider:

1. A place for items that need to go somewhere else: library books, etc. Maybe get a small basket to place by the door. 

2. What to do with wet shoes in the winter. Maybe buy a small rug to go next to the welcome mat. 

OH: Week Eighteen

Organize Your Home: Week 18

First Aid and Medicine Organizer Challenge

In the article for week 18 the author mentions this challenge won't take long for most people. It didn't for me. In fact I did it along with the previous challenge of organizing/cleaning our bathroom. 

Before

 After

Our medicine cabinet was overflowing a bit but after throwing away the items we no longer used we had plenty of space. Like usual - I prefer to have some extra space for us to grow into. 

Making: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Every three weeks Ben and I attend a bible study with a couple people from our church. At every gathering someone makes a dessert. I love this tradition. I get something super tasty every few weeks and I occasionally get to try a new recipe! 


In May I made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. They were very sweet (even for my sweet tooth) so I'm not sure how often I will be making them but I was happy to at least try the recipe!


I got the recipe from Recipe Girl here. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

COOKIE DOUGH (EGG FREE!):
3/4 cup salted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3 Tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup semisweet chips (for topping)

Directions:

1. Prepare the brownies: I just used a box of brownies but Recipe Girl makes her own. 

2. Prepare the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to combine butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Mix in milk and vanilla. Mix in flour just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Spread cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is quite firm. It's okay to speed up the process and place it in the freezer too. The firmer the dough, the easier it will be to cut into neat squares. Use a sharp knife to cut the brownies. You may need to wipe the knife off with a paper towel in between cuts since the fudgy brownies and cookie dough will tend to stick to the knife a bit. These brownies are best to serve placed inside cupcake papers and served with a fork.

4. If you'd like to add chocolate drizzle on top, melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Scoop the melted chocolate into a zip baggie and snip off the corner. Squeeze the bag to drizzle the chocolate on top of each brownie. 

Enjoy!

OH: Week Seventeen

I am very far behind on posting on Organize Your Home but I'm working on catching up!

Organize Your Home: Week 17

Bathroom Organization

1. Declutter your Bathroom: get rid of trash, multiple bottles of the same product, expired products, items you haven't used in a year.
2. Separate Your Bathroom Into Zones:  each zone should have what you need within reach.
3. Organize Your Bathrooms By Zones: keep like items together
4. Consider Bathroom Storage Options

Before

I didn't make any changes here but wanted to show you how my towels are organized. The little basket at the bottom is filled with hand towels and wash clothes. 

My steps:
1. Go through all items in the bathroom. Throw away expired items and products we no longer use. 
2. Take out everything and clean shelf/drawer.
3. Put everything back - making sure everything is organized and appealing. 

After

I scrubbed the bathroom tub and reorganized our shower products. 

I use Burt's Bees and Lemongrass. Ben uses Dr. Bonners.

I got rid of all our medicine except for Ibprofun, Pepto, Allergy capsules and Nightquil. We avoid taking these but keep them in case of desperate times. 

These drawers pretty much stayed the same but now they are clean!

Same with under the sink... 

Got rid of a few things here. 

Not a big difference but everything did get cleaned so I was happy!

2nd Anniversary

Yesterday was our 2nd Anniversary! Our anniversary came up quickly and with our busy schedules we had a late start to thinking about what to do for our special day. We decided on buying a joint gift, something special for our home that we would pick out together! We found it! A fun foot stool/extra seating for our living room. 

Check it out! 

We know this little foot stool will be a hit with guests of any age. And so far it has been! (Noticed a change in our living room? I'll update about the changes soon!)

As for our actual anniversary Ben had to work until 4pm and then he was taking me out to dinner for a special night out. 

At least that was the plan....

I got a phone call from our friend Lauren at 6:30am saying that she was heading into the hospital because she was in labor! I quickly showered, packed a bag and headed over to watch her two youngest children. I stayed at their house until about 12:30pm. I brought the girls to their Papa and Nona's house and then headed to the hospital . For the next 12 hours I waited patiently in the hospital room for Baby J to make an appearance. Finally at 1:24am Baby James Michael was born at 7 lb 12 oz and 19 in. long. I was honored to be there to see baby J come into the world and take his first breaths. Here is a glimpse at the little cutie!

James Michael

Proud Daddy with his new piece of {temporary} body art.

Mommy holding baby after his vitals were checked. 

Mama and Daddy and their new addition. 

Baby makes 5!

Love those kissable lips, dimple chin and curly hair!

Daddy holding his long awaited son!

So blessed to hold this new baby boy!

Sucking on his fingers. So precious!

So instead of spending my anniversary with my husband it was spent waiting for this little man. He was worth it! We will be taking time to celebrate our anniversary soon! 

Welcome Baby James!

We love you so much! 

Love, Ca and Ben

BUSY!

Sorry for the lack of posts. We've been busy busy! 


From this past Friday from 6am - Sunday 11:30pm Ben worked 54ish hours! When he is not working this week he is completing the dining room table he is making, running errands and cleaning up the house.


I am equally busy. Today I am working, while doing laundry, cleaning the house, packing for our weekend away and then later today I am volunteering, working the after school program, helping out Lauren, and going to Raena's Art Show. 


I will get back to blogging when I can! I'll have some fun posts after this upcoming weekend! Stay tuned!

Perfection

Life is crazy and as the end of the year/beginning of summer creeps closer, life has gotten even busier. Some days I take life for granted but tonight was not one of those nights....


as my eyelids grew heavier I took in my surroundings, the last bit of daylight was still shinning through the curtains, birds sat singing oblivious to the knowledge that the day was over and my hand was wrapped around the hand of the love of my life. It is moments like this when I realized my life is truly blessed. 

Will you...

...Be My Bridesmaid?

I received this beautiful card in the mail last week.

Inside was a beautiful poem.

Will you be my bridesmaid?

Will you also be my wedding planner, cake tester, interior decorator, envelope sealer, and guest list creator for the next year? Will you listen to me obsessively talk about wedding things until it's all over? Will you help me pick out the perfect dress, even if it means wasting several hours of your Saturday? Will you stay with me the night before the wedding and reassure me that everything will be perfect? Will you get in all those uncomfortable positions to make sure my dress fits exactly the way it should? Will you stay by my side and hold my dress when I have to pee? Will you check my hair 300 times to make sure every single piece is curled? Will you stand at the front of the church, smiling back at me, as I walk down the aisle to my best friend? Will you spend the entire day of 08.17.2013 getting ready with me; then spending the entire evening toasting, eating, drinking, and on the dance floor with me probably dancing to nontraditional music? Lastly, will you be my friend through all of this and after? 

With tears in my eyes I called my future-sister-in-law, Tia, and said "I DO!!" I am excited to stand next to Tia as she marries my brother! 

Scrapbooking Keepsakes

Embarrassing secret time... 

See the plastic drawer organizer on the far right. It is huge and heavy and filled with keepsakes (mostly paper keepsakes). 

As part of my attempt clean and organize the office I want to work on clearing out this closet. 

I decided to use the scrapbooks located in another closet to scrapbook all the keepsakes. I had hoped to print all the pictures I have and scrapbook them super nice along with the paper keepsakes (ticket stubs, cards, letters, etc.) But we all know that life isn't that simple so I decided to just move forward and scrapbook the keepsakes and then hopefully later do something with the pictures. 

 I started off with my college years. Every semester I had a separate folder for my keepsakes. I started off by separating and organizing all the keepsakes from the beginning of the school year through the summer. For example; Freshman year includes August 2006-August 2007

Then I got to work! I did things simply and didn't spend a lot of time on each page. 

My goal was to get as much done as possible.

These pages are from my Freshman Year. 

This was my work station! How I Met Your Mother Marathon, cucumbers, ranch, chocolate,  and tea could usually be found on my work table! I am currently in the middle of my Junior year and hoping to get the college years done before summer starts. Then I have keepsakes from birth through high school to scrapbook. But there is less materials from those years then my college years. 

Teacher Appreciation Week

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week!

I appreciate the teachers who spend 8 hours with our kids and I appreciate the teachers on my staff who spend the next three hours with our kids. I wanted to let these teacher's know I do appreciate their hard work and patience.

The Milky Way, M&Ms and 100 Grand were put into two bowls for the two schools I oversee. I put a sign next to it explaining why I picked those 3 chocolate bars and the staff signed the Thank You Sign. 


1. M&Ms because you are "marvelous and magnificent."
2. Milky Ways because you are "out of this world."
3. 100 Grand because no amount of "money" could replace all you do!

All the goodies!

For my staffs I put goodies into a bag and labeled them. Each day they get to open one and receive their treat. 

Monday: Thanks for sticking to the PRIDE pledge!

Tuesday: You are o-FISH-ally awesome!

Wednesday: Thanks for helping Champions to shine!

Thursday: You deserve an extra PAYDAY!

Friday: You are one in a million. Each staff member got a lottery ticket. (not pictured)

All ready to surprise my staff!

OH: Week Sixteen

Organize Your Home: Week 16

Create a House Cleaning Schedule & Organize Cleaning Supplies

When I told Ben about the challenge for this week he said, "You don't need to do this one." I agreed. Making a cleaning schedule sounds wonderful and totally up my alley (being a lover of To-Do lists and all..) but with our our crazy schedules it would be too difficult to keep-up. We do a decent job right now and if the time comes when I want to start a cleaning schedule I have this post to look back to! :)


Step 1: Consider What Chores and Cleaning Tasks Need To Be Performed Daily and Weekly In Your Home.
Step 2: Create Two House Cleaning Schedules: A Daily and a Weekly Schedule
Step 3: Get In The Habit Of Working Your House Cleaning Schedule Daily and Weekly
Step 4: Organize Cleaning Supplies In Your Home


To get a free ebook that provides checklists for your daily, weekly, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom cleaning schedules (and more!) please click here. Then click "free ebook" tab to claim your copy of this book. 


I did complete Step 4 of this challenge and here are the steps I completed.
1. Clear out cabinet under the sink.
2. Clean the cabinet and wipe down the pipes. 
3. Go through everything, donate unused items, and wipe down what is left. 
4. Hang cheap curtain rod under sink.
5. Put everything back - organized! 


Before: 

After:

I also have cleaning supplies under the bathroom sink but that is already organized. Under that sink is a 7th generation toilet bowl cleaner, sponge and spray bottle with a bleach/water combination (for the pesky mold that I can't get rid of in the shower).