Tackle It Tuesday

Hello hello from snowland! That's right, it started snowing at some point and isn't supposed to let up until tonight. Gee, just when I was starting to enjoy temperatures reaching 31. Well, that's what I get for living where I do. Lots of snow and not a good Chinese or Mexican restaurant for miles and miles... Does anyone feel sorry for me yet? Want to ship me some good beef and broccoli? *grins* No, I didn't figure.

Well, since it's snowing and the van is being well...old, I won't be going out anywhere today. So, I've decided it's the perfect day to tackle my stove top. Right now, it's half covered with canned goods that I need to throw out and some food I need to put into a bag and list on freecycle. Clearly I didn't totally complete my mission yesterday when I cleaned out those cupboards. I'll do that first thing and then I'm going to give the stove a good scrubbing. It's one of those flat top glass ones so I need to really scrub. The owners of the house didn't leave it for me in pristine condition so I think I'm still scrubbing off some of what they left. Then, once that's done, it will be back to "The Wall." I'm going to start tackling the drawers in there so that I can start putting things away where they belong. Sounds fun, right? Y'all wanna rush right over and help, right? No? Well, that's ok...I'll just give you a challenge of your own to make up for it. *winks*

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it is to go back into your kitchen. Yes, the kitchen. I want you to open up your cupboards under your sink and see what insanity lurks within. *grins* Ok, that was getting a bit dramatic, even for me. Open up those doors and see what's hiding in there. Do you have cleaners that you never use? Boxes of trashbags that have gotten shoved to the back so you forgot you had them and went and bought more? I know that under mine, I have about a dozen vases. Trust me, it's on my declutter list. So, I want all of you to clear all of that stuff out and put back only what you love or what you'll use.

Good luck!

28 Day Challenge - Small Space Before & After (Part I)

I think that I mentioned before that I wanted to do both small spaces and a whole room for this challenge. Well, I had two small spaces in mind and today I tackled the first one. I have 4 cupboards in my kitchen that are dedicated to food storage. Sadly, when I moved in, I unpacked the kitchen in a hurry and ever since then, I've had a tough time finding things when I wanted them. Well, no more! Ok, no more for these two cupboards anyway..hehe..

Meet my cupboard before I touched it. Things were just tossed in there anywhere I could get them to fit.

And this is my lovely cupboards after I pulled everything (yes, everything) out of them and figured out just what was in there and umm..just wasn't any good anymore. I think the most wow thing that I found up there was a box of Hamburger Helper. Now, I know that there's nothing particularly special about Hamburger Helper. It's in millions of cupboards across this country..but how many of you can say you have a box of it that expired in 2003. Yes, 2003. That's not an 8 folks, it's a 3. This means that I actually bought this box before we bought the house in 2003. We moved it with us to that house. Then, I moved it to Buffalo and back with me. I cannot imagine what I was thinking, other than I never thought to check the date on it. *shudders*

Now, I bet you thought I'd totally forgotten to give you a challenge for today. Nope! I remembered..mwahahaha (that's my evil laugh..pretend to be intimidated, ok?). For today, I want you to go open up your kitchen cupboard where you store things like glasses and coffee mugs. Do you have enough that you could invite your entire neighborhood and not run out? Take some time today to slim down the herd and make room for more things that you love!

28 Day Challenge - Day 8 (Photo Update)

Well, I promised you a photo update and here you go! These really should say day 7 because other than to take these photos, I haven't had the chance to step foot into "The Wall" today. I expect that tomorrow I'll have far more time and will actually begin to dig into what's left in there, which is a lot.

This is the wall unit that I managed to get hung after about 4 tries. A laser level might have come in handy there.


This is a shot from just inside the door. The cardboard box tucked partially under the card table is actually full of items to be listed on freecycle. All of the other boxes you might see have all been gone through once and all of the obvious trash and get rid of items have been taken out of them.

This is standing in the doorway and taking a photo straight in. You'll notice that I discovered I had tables under all of those boxes. Those tables are now covered with other things that are no longer in boxes, which is good because I can see what's there now.
And these are my storage drawers that I also managed to find hiding in all of those boxes. As you can see, I did get in there yesterday and put all of those labels onto the drawer fronts. Sadly, I still have to go through all of those drawers and organize them because what's in them doesn't match the lovely new labels.

So, there we go. At the end of week 1, I have managed to go through all of the boxes and bags and this is what I'm left with. Only 20 more days to go and I'm sure hoping I can finish up this challenge!

Menu Plan Monday

Doesn't that guy/gal over there look happy? I'm not sure I'm quite that happy today but I'm happy enough. What does that mean exactly? Well, I don't know precisely other than any day that I'm willing to hop out of bed with a smile on my face is happy enough for me. Now, I know I promised all of you a picture post update today and I do promise that it will be coming, but not until later today. You see, I need to get this happy post done so I can write up a quick shopping list and head out to the IGA. Now, y'all ought to know that something desperate has happened if I'm willing to shop at the IGA.

The IGA well....how do I put this politely? They suck. I'm sorry to say it, but it's the truth. I think they have all of two employees and their produce looks like stuff that was pulled off other store shelves when it was too bad to sell at that store. I think their products in general have a once a year turn over. So why am I shopping there this week? Well, because my poor van is in need of a new tie rod. Now, while this isn't a horribly expensive fix, it's expensive enough that it's going to have to wait. So, Peter has very nicely agreed to bring the boys over here on Thursday and I'm making due with a run to the IGA. Thank goodness for ex-husband's and crappy stores, eh? I bet not many people say that very often.

Now, since I'm going to have the boys from Thursday night until Monday night, my menu has to be slightly more thought out. Luckily, I've raised the boys (with their Dad's help, of course) to not be picky eaters and they're often willing to try new things. I think though, since it's Valentine's weekend, we'll go with some favorites instead..favorites that don't require produce...

Monday- Taco Chicken
Tuesday- Steak w/ Tatos and veggies
Wednesday- Pesto Chicken
Thursday- Homemade Pizza
Friday- Lasagna
Saturday- Mac n Cheese w/ hamburger
Sunday- Cheeseburgers

There we go. One weekend of favorites. Now, since I'm starving, I'm going to grab a bowl of cereal and make my shopping list before popping down to the store.

28 Day Challenge - Day 6 (The Labels)

It's been a few days since I gave an official challenge update and Jim had noticed. So, just for him (and all of you curious souls), here's an update. I've spent the past few days working hard in there. So far, I've collected 6 boxes of things for freecycle and 2 trash bags full of recycling. All but two boxes of freecycling is gone and I'll be listing the rest of it tomorrow. I don't want to give away everything I've been doing, so I'm just going to show you one picture. This is a sneak peek of the labels that I made today for my plastic storage drawers.

How are all of you doing with your challenge? I think I'm going to have to take Day 7 off because I'm working kgb tomorrow, but I'll be diving right back in on Monday!

Save the Planet Saturday

Hey, everyone. I don't know where to start writing this post. I found out tonight that Anita passed away today. For those of you who don't know who Anita is, I encourage you to click on the link and read about this amazing woman. Anita was only 36 and she leaves behind a husband and three beautiful children. This has hit me really hard and honestly, I think I've been sitting here in shock since I found out.

I do, however, want to leave you with a post for today. I think, if anything, knowing Anita has taught me that I can't waste a single minute that I have on this planet and that I need to grab hold of what's important to me. This blog is important to me. It's my outlet, my connection and so many other things.

Now, on to my tip for today:

I know that a lot of you have kids, grandkids or maybe even just know some kids. I have kids and one thing I've realized is that having kids seems to mean you go through a lot of plastic sandwich bags. It seems like everything you send to school gets put into a ziplock bag. Of course, then those sandwich bags get lost or thrown away which just means filling up landfills. So, I have a little tip for you. Instead of sending in those soup labels, boxtops, lunch money, book order forms, etc in ziptop bags, save the envelopes that your bills and junk mail come in and send them in those. That way, you're not spending money on so many bags and you're reusing something that you would probably just toss into the recycle bin anyway! Plus, once the teacher is done with them, a lot of schools have recycling programs so the envelopes get recycled. Double bonus!

And, that's my tip for this Saturday. Now, what's your challenge? I think we're going to go up to the bedrooms today. I want you to take just a few minutes and look at your nightstand. Just yours, don't worry about the hubby's, wife's or anyone else's. Just yours. Is it filled with things you love? Or is it like mine gets sometimes with a stack of books that's waiting to fall over any minute, dirty cups and sometimes..ewww...dirty tissues? If it's in the second category, I want you to take care of anything that doesn't belong there. Then, run a quick dust cloth over it and put it back together with only the things you love or need on it.

And that's it! Easy-peasy and I will see you back here on Monday with updated pictures of "The Wall" and my menu plan for next week!

Finish It Friday

I'm late getting this posted, but I do hope that y'all will forgive me. I was talking to Jim and discovered that he has memory that will work in my baby. My poor laptop (my main one) has been down and out since June. I ran a memory test on it last weekend (thanks Justin for sending that to me!) and it failed test after test. Poor thing. I'm hoping that putting new memory in it will take care of the problem. So, that's why I'm late. I was busy jumping around and doing a dance that Jim rocks and is going to send me some new memory for poor lappy.

Now that that's all covered, let me fill you in on what I'm going to be doing today. Step one is that I need to take the van into the shop to have the spark plugs replaced. It's step one of the van makeover. That makeover is going to take more than 28 days but it's an important thing to be doing.

Once I'm back, I need to haul all of the recycling out to the curb. Ok, not all of it. My poor recycling guys would freak. I am putting out 4 trash bags full as well as my green tub. Then, in two weeks when they pick up again, I'll put out at least that same amount.

Then, I'll be heading back into "The Wall" for Day 5 of the Challenge. I'm thrilled with how it's coming along and I can't wait until Monday to show you what I got done in week 1 of the Challenge.

I bet you're wondering what it is I'm actually going to finish today, huh? Well, I'm finishing up some Freecycling. In the past week, I've posted 4 different lots of items and 3 of the 4 lots are going to be picked up tomorrow. I have them all boxed up, but before I head to the shop, I have to put them all out on my front porch to be picked up. I also want to bring Roger's red desk chair in off of the porch.

Do you have a plan on what you're going to finish up tomorrow? If not, here's your challenge: This weekend is the Super Bowl. Are you ready? My challenge for you is to go into your kitchen and open up your cupboards. Are they a disaster? If I asked you for something, could you put your hand right on it? Do you have any expired food in there? I want you to take one cupboard, just one and go through it, getting rid of anything you won't eat (freecycle or food pantry is good here) and anything that isn't safe to eat (trash can, please).

Well, I need to scoot or I won't make it to the shop on time. Have a great day all and make sure you stop back in tomorrow!

Some notes from today...

Taking care of me is like...

What I want to write about today isn't any sort of earth shattering, mind blowing concept but it certainly was a light bulb moment for me. The other morning, I was standing in the shower, grumbling to myself about shaving my legs. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the final product, it's just the process that I'm not so keen on.

I do a lot of thinking while in the shower. I think it's because it's quiet and peaceful and there aren't any interruptions so I can actually think something all the way through. I was thinking about my poor van. Now, if you haven't heard, we're about to have to dump maybe up to another $400 to get it running properly. The first $300 of that is for a tune up. Now, I'm not a car person but even I know that vehicles require maintenance and I'm lucky to not have had to do this before now. The van is 11 years old and this is the first tune up it's ever had. Realistically, it probably should have had one ages ago but not being a car person, I knew/know very little about what is routine maintenance with vehicles. Shame on me for always relying on a man to know these things. Seriously, it's my vehicle, why did I not find out? Sheesh.

Anyway, from there I went to thinking about house maintenance. You see, I love this house and I'm seriously hoping that everything works out so that we can make an arrangement to buy it from the owners when the lease is up in June. However, there are some issues with it and one of them is the dryer. It works fine, but it vents down and out through the basement and then back up and out one of the walls. I don't know if it's because it's never been cleaned or just because of the turns it must be taking, but lint has built up in it. Now, lint in a dryer vent is actually dangerous and can lead to fires, not to mention your clothes take forever to dry. When I was outside the other day, I finally figured out where it was venting from and the outside portion of the vent was clogged up with dryer lint! I cleaned it out from there and intend to get a dryer vent kit (Flylady has this wonderful one!) as soon as I can.

Now, what does all of this have to do with light bulb moments or even taking care of myself? Well, after thinking about how vehicles and houses need routine maintenance to function well, I realized that so do I. Just like my kitchen only requires routine maintenance after I do a deep clean in there, I realized that if I shaved my legs before they looked like gorilla legs, the process would be a lot faster and easier. The same goes with dry elbows and feet. If I routinely apply lotion and take care of them, I won't have to battle to get them back to smooth and lovely.

After making this "remarkable" discovery, I've decided that the Time For Me Thursdays are even more important than maybe I realized before. If we routinely take time to take care of ourselves, maybe we can ward off some of those expensive fixes down the road. It's much easier to take time to relax now then to need heart surgery later because the stress put stress on my heart.

So, I'm going to keep on posting those Thursday posts and hope that more people jump on my bandwagon. Taking time to help you take care of you is a good thing.

Charter High Speed

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

Are all of you anything like me? I expect that you are or you wouldn't read here, right? So, if you're like me, you do a ton of stuff online. I do my banking, a bit of shopping, tons of blogging, e-mail as well as research and of course, chatting with friends and playing on Twitter. If I stopped to think about it, I'd be lost without my computer and a reliable internet connection.

Like I said, I do a ton of stuff online and it saves me time. My closest bank branch is 30-40 minutes away. The closest Walmart, Target or any other decent shopping store? You got it..30-40 minutes away. I praise the Gods of Technology for inventing the internet and high speed connections. I shudder to think what it would be like to try to play a game on Facebook on dial up.

Speaking of Facebook, have you guys seen how many companies are now on there? You can even go check out Charter’s Facebook page. Now, I don't personally use Charter because well, they're not available out here in the boonies, but if you want to stop waiting and get going with a high speed internet connection, I'm giving you all of the links you need to check them out. They've even provided this pretty ad below for me to show you guys. So, check them out and decide for yourself. Is Charter high speed the service for you?