Monday

A few reflections today:

• Brett can "pump" on the swing now! He can even get himself going. He's been trying to do it for a long time now but finally got it figured out.
• What a gorgeous day!! So warm & sunny with a little breeze.
• I sure like my clean house. I keep finding more that needs to be done though. Long overdue, some of these things.
• Tonight J is taking inside pictures at 8pm. He did the outside pictures this morning.
• He says "it's going to happen"(moving). I'm not so sure. I think I need to see the house again.
• I do really well on coffee. That's how I got so much done in the basement & this morning after 6 hrs of sleep. That's also why I was scrap booking still at midnight last night!
• Today is Damon's first day at his new job. I dreaded it for him. He didn't say much. I hope it goes well.
• Last Friday he was really busy at work but got a nice surprise from the supervisors. They called him to the office & gave him a card, balloons, cake, hat/shirt. The balloon said "You're the best". I thought that was so nice. Some of his coworkers said they were really sorry he was leaving.
• Tonight the realtor will be here, Tues night is FREE, Wed night is meeting here and Thurs night we leave to going camping until Saturday! When am I going to pack for that?
• We've been enjoying the leftovers from Friday night-pasta salad, burgers/brats/hot dogs, two kinds of cake, fruit pizza. Way too much food here yet!

Early 4th of July Potluck

Friday night we had 27 (10 kids) of us for a potluck. A large church near us had a festival ending with fireworks that we can see from our front yard so we got to see them. All day it was forecasted & threatening rain but it cleared up and we had a *perfect* evening! I couldn't have asked for a better night. All day I wondered if we should actually have it but it worked out. It was great to have everyone & we enjoyed it very much. Thanks for coming everyone!

Basement!

It's clean. As clean as it's going to get at this point anyway. I know it probably doesn't look like much but this is a huge accomplishment that took about 5 hours! Anyone who has been in our basement recently would understand. We also did day two of our garage sale on Saturday. it was worth doing it another day! I was planning to mark things down but never did & I'm glad now that I didn't. I still have *9 bins* of baby/kid clothes that I couldn't just give away. I'll either have another sale some day or work on selling it on eBay. In all fairness, I did find some more things after the sale that I hadn't even put out! Damon took a very full load to Goodwill and made a trip to the dump and recycle so we really cleaned out!

Grow & Play Forever

I wanted to do something with these pictures & scrapbook set. These are the thoughts that came to mind.

Here goes....

and I'm freaking out! I didn't know the sign was coming today, we're not ready to show and it's not even listed yet. We were planning to do it on Monday. Life has been moving at a very fast pace around here lately. I expect we'll have people looking. I'm not sure that if we get an offer, it will be the amount we're looking for. We'll see what/if anything happens. At least I know that I love this house so if if we stay/don't get the other house it won't matter. At least we're getting a lot of work done! The driveway is resealed, deck stained, basement is getting cleaned out, laundry room looks great but the list goes on.....

Hanging Plant

I had to replace my fushia hanging plant now that it got hot, so I found this at Home Depot. It's called confetti calibrachoa, or million bells/mini petunias. There was another pink & red one with a tropical name that I liked as well.

Deck Staining 101

First of all, don't ask me for advice. You'll soon realize it's for the best!

1. You probably should power wash it. (I swept, scrubbed off play dough & sunscreen over spray and sprayed it with a hose.)
2. You should plan to do it when it's not going to rain. I took my chances & it didn't rain in the night! Rain looks imminent now however.
3. You shouldn't plan to do it just before you have 30 people over for a cookout.
4. You should make sure you have enough stain. I had 1 gallon, *barely* enough.
5. You should make sure the stain you have is the right color. Whoops, the extra can in the garage must have been the original color the previous owners used, not the color we did 2 years ago. Oh well, it blends. Close enough!
6. You probably should plan to stain the whole deck, not just part of it. I decided the floor was all that needed to be done. Then I started doing the posts so the posts got stained too.
7. You probably should allow several hours for this job. I took about 1 1/2 hrs to slap it on last night after dinner & before going to the grocery store.
8. You probably shouldn't walk on it for 72 hrs. Or set items on the newly stained deck. This morning I had the kids walk across it quick to get to the grass but then they stayed off while I put some of the stuff back on the deck.
9. You should stain your deck if necessary before you put your house up for sale. That's what I was thinking. You should make it look nice before you have a group of people over. That's what I wanted. You should be cost conscious & environmentally aware by using what you already have. Which is why I used the stain we already had in the garage. You should just bite the bullet and get the job done. Which is what I did.

And you know, it looks pretty good!!

This is what I like

Cold macaroni tuna salad. Macaroni, tuna, cheese chunks, cold peas, onion & celery with Miracle Whip. Yum!

Tonight's Bouquet

These are the last of my peonies (along with salvia & day lilies). They should be light pink but the last ones that opened look white. Still pretty!

Laundry Detergent

Powdered Laundry Detergent
1 cup grated Fels-Naptha laundry bar soap (I grate the bars of soap with my KitchenAid shredder attachment and run it through my food processor to make it finer.)
1/2 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (not baking soda, please!)
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax

Mix and store in airtight container or bag. For light loads, use 2 tablespoons. For heavy loads, use 3 tablespoons.

Big Batch: To make a large batch, grate 6 bars of Fels-Naptha Soap and then add 3 cups of Super Washing Soda and 3 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax. Mix well and store in covered container.

TIP: Homemade detergent will not make suds in your washer, so don’t be alarmed.

I made the laundry soap last night. Woodman's had all the supplies. I made three batches and my container will hold a lot more. I used it for all my laundry today and I'm very happy. Everything is clean & fresh looking so that's all I need! Plus it's cheap.

Seems like a winner to me. RE: the new HE washers, according to Mary Hunt at The Everyday Cheapskate:

Fels-Naptha Soap is a pure soap and typically makes little or no suds in the water. This makes it perfect for use in the new HE washers as well as traditional washers.

Printable Label Here 

Whose idea was this anyway?!

Today the kids played with shaving cream. It's messy but fun! Shaving cream is a great for sensory play-it feels really neat. Besides, when is a kid allowed to get this messy?? Everyone got hosed off afterwards so clean up wasn't a big deal. They're already asking when we'll do it again! (One sat out but is anxious to try it next time.)

What's stressing me out today

• We've been approved for that house we looked at. Which is great! Except we need to sell our house first. OK, so we give it a try. If it doesn't sell, fine. (The other house has been on the market for a while now.) Before that though, there's lots of work to do around here! I'm not talking anything major but straightening, organizing & getting rid of junk! Stuff that we need to do anyway. We need to list our house sooner rather than later so that means yet this week?! I'll talk to J about it tonight.
• A lot of the dc kids have different schedules this week. Doesn't matter but keeps me busier, or maybe just more confused.
• A dcb is moving next month. It's a part time spot but it needs to be filled. I need to follow up with people & interview. I don't wanna.
• I need to do my daycare newsletter/activity calendar for July.
• Brett needs immunizations this week before our insurance ends.
• That's right, we need temporary medical while Damon is between jobs. He doesn't get medical coverage for 30 days. Then we'll need new Drs.
• Things are in upheaval in the basement. We're cleaning, sorting, and things are torn apart for the garage sale.
• I need to run an ad for the garage sale next Saturday. Because of the sale, our tables are all in there, the cars are not, things are out of place. I don't do well with that.
• We need to go to Goodwill, compost, dump, cardboard recycle.
• The weekend is going to be busy: Friday night: we're having a potluck. It sounds like we'll have 25-30 people. Saturday: opening the garage sale again. Saturday night we have a babysitter coming! Damon and I should make some plans but we'll be so tired we should probably just stay home.
• Damon starts his new job on Monday. I'm nervous about him driving farther & out of town. I don't like that he doesn't get any vacation right away.
• I need to determine when to take my last two vacations days. I'd like them now, this week but that's not going to happen. I guess I should take them just before Brett starts school and spend some time with just him.

Maybe I shouldn't be stressed out over all this but it helps to write it down!

Berry Boy

He's always in the fridge!

Water Play

This week we're playing in the water. Yesterday we had a car wash & washed baby dolls and clothes to hang on the clothesline. I love to see how excited & involved the kids get in this kind of play! Today we "painted" with water and after lunch they got their own bottles of bubbles. This is rare because we usually use the bubble machine. I find we have less mess, less waste, kids are not sticking bubble wands in their mouths and they get more exercise chasing bubbles rather than blowing them. I found some scented "pop bottle" bubbles at the Dollar Tree last night. Now we've got the sprinkler out. Water play usually ends with popsicles before naps. Tomorrow we're playing with shaving cream, Thursday in the sprinkler with umbrellas and Friday is pool day! I love summer.

The Three of Us

Maggie took these pictures of us on Sunday.

Sunday at Mom & Dad's

We went up to Mom & Dad's Sunday with my side of the family. We had a nice time! Here's some pictures of our day, mostly outside just before it started to rain.