Up to $10 in Amazon Gift Cards

Woo hoo! I got some more! Today I turned in 45 more swagbucks for another $5 gift card to Amazon.com

40 Day Challenge: Day 23

I didn't get everything done that I wanted, but it certainly is better than if I hadn't done anything. I have noticed my priorities are shifting and cleaning is at the forefront of my mind these day. I think that's a good thing.




Remember I said I had the boys limit their clothing? Here are the 3 garbage bags I need to go through:
(That's my goal for Monday.)



I'm determined to get alot done on Monday. I feel confident and ready to attack some things. Here I come house!!

40 Day Challenge: Day 22

No pictures today. I had another migraine. I think it's lack of sleep, trying to do too much (stress) and my cycle. Brian says I need to time that better. :-P

I am up at 4 AM... I was up at 2:30 AM with Titus and couldn't go back to sleep. This has never really happened to me before, but since my head was feeling better and I kept tossing a turning I decided to get up and do what was going through my mind. Blogging.
I was on a roll getting the house back in order after the Road Rally. I cleaned the fridge out in the morning, actually scrubbed it clean. I had the boys clean out their room. Way too much stuff again. This time the problem was clothes. So now they have 3 pairs of pants, 3 long sleeve shirts, 2 t-shirts, 2 church shirts, 1 pair of slacks, 2 pairs of shoes (except Luke, who is down to 1, but I was unwilling to keep the others because they looked so bad), 1 coat and 1 sweater.

Right now, there are 3 full garbage bags of clothes that was in their room. Why? I don't know how it happens.

So, now that their clothes are limited, I need to stay on top of laundry. I think on Monday I will go through the bags to get rid of and keep the jeans that don't have holes and maybe a couple shirts for each of the boys. I'll stick them in the basement until I see how we do.

Next job is to limit their toys. They have alot of sets of stuff- bionicles, legos, k'nex. I have the bionicles and k'nex put up right now and they play with legos most of the time. But it's so much stuff.

I need to go through my stuff again, in my bedroom. I took down all the decorations to paint and then, thought I kind of like it without them back up. But they are sitting on the floor. They are not things I'm ready to part with permanently, so I need to box them and put them high in the closet.

I know that if I purge and purge some more, keeping a clean house will be easier.

I was able to get a bunch of dishes done, but not all of them before the migraine hit. I really do look forward to heaven, where I won't get migraines anymore. Won't it be a wonderful place?!

40 Day Challenge: Day 21

I have 2 busy days in a year- days when I am crazy busy. Road Rally in the fall and then our Valentine Banquet (here is last year's). This time, a couple gals from church did most of the work. They made an awesome potato soup, meat balls and cheese bread. I made 3 batches of "cinnabon" cinnamon rolls. The first batch I made I forgot the salt. I hate bread when the salt is left out/forgotten. So I sprinkled in some salt before I put the sugar mixture on, haven't tasted them yet to see if they're ok, but then made 2 other batches for the Road Rally.
I started dinner and left the house about 4 PM, set the clues out with my friend Kristin, came home just before 6 PM, threw dinner together, made frosting for the rolls, stuck them in the van, nursed Titus, babysitter got here and we took off. Everyone had a great time and we made it home at 11 PM. I didn't bother washing the dishes that covered every surface of the kitchen and table. Nor did I pick up in the living room. I took a shower and went to bed.

40 Day Challenge: Day 20

Half way! Not looking so great. After the concert I went home and now on it's "my time of the month", so I feel crumby, emotional, tired, not much energy and have been busier than a 1 legged man in a butt-kickin' contest. (As my friend Jenni would say!) So my camera batteries were going dead and I couldn't flip the view finder out like normal or it would shut off, so I held the camera up and got this lousy picture. TA-DAH!



My lovely husband decided to play Vanna- so his hand is gracefully displaying the dishes that could have been put away and the pumpkin that is still sitting on the counter, cooked.
No, I'm not happy with how the house looks right now or what I have to wake up to in the morning and all the things that need to be done that day. Like make cinnabon cinnamon rolls for our Road Rally... after the kitchen is cleaned because in the state it is I have no desire to attempt making anything in it.



Good grief! No one would suspect my emotional state now, would they?!

40 Day Challenge: Day 19

So I'm late in getting this posted because I was so busy getting ready for the following day (where the little ones had a Dr. appt. at 8 AM) that I actually forgot to take pictures. And then, I didn't get up before the sun, so I didn't get it posted before we left the house and I just got home. Now I will be running more errands, take food to the host of our Road Rally, attended 3 parent/teacher conferences, take photos of a friend, then go to a band concert for Luke tonight. Oh yeah, and I have to make dinner.
So I took pictures- it did look better last night when I went to bed, but not by much.


On the counter I have meat soaking for dinner and a pumpkin that is baked and ready to puree.

40 Day Challenge: Day 18

We had a meeting in the evening and got home later... I wasn't feeling like cleaning at all. Laundry was left out all over the living room (any ideas on how to teach diligence?? what could have taken 10-15 minutes didn't even get done in 2 hours...) and the kitchen was still a mess from dinner. Some of the dishes had been done, but there was still about 1/2 of them left to do.
I dinked around on the computer for a while until I decided that I really wanted to go to bed. I love going to bed early. 10:30 PM would be nice... so I started working. Somewhere along the way I decided I wanted it beautiful tonight. I worked and worked and finally got done about midnight. So much for going to bed early. But the dishes were all done, dried and put away, all the counters got cleaned, the table was clear and set for breakfast, the living room was clean- laundry folded and put away.
I was satisfied.




I set out a bowl and whisk for scrambled eggs in the morning, along with oil and a frying pan on the stove. It does make the morning go smoother.