April 30, 2017

Home maintenance...feeling overwhelmed and then making a little progress

There are several "projects" that need to be addressed.  The term "projects" needs to be clarified as these are things that NEED to be done versus the "wish list" projects that I'd like to be done.

I woke up bright and early yesterday with the intention of being productive.

I had asked The Husband Friday night, if he would fix the paint on the porch floor yesterday.  He informed me that the front porch WAS his priority.  When I laughed and said, "Yeah, right." He responded with, "I've been married to you long enough to know - you bought furniture for the front porch, which is still sitting in the garage - I know what my priority is tomorrow."

Smart man.

Unfortunately, when I went out to get the paper, I knew immediately that painting the front porch floor was out of the cards - it was too humid.  I'm sure he was relieved.

Mainly, because of the heat and humidity, not much was accomplished yesterday.  Which meant that the list of all that needed doing kept spinning around in my mind - making me stressed.

Finally, I sat down and did what I should have from the very beginning - I wrote a list.  A VERY detailed list that included ALL the projects that need to be done along with ALL the steps needed to complete each project.

When will I remember that I am a person that NEEDS handwritten lists to soothe my nerves?

This morning dawned much less humid and fairly cooler.  So, The Husband and I went our separate ways to run our various errands and then met back home for lunch.  After eating, he went to clean the front porch but unfortunately it was too late and still a little too humid to actually paint.  He plans to do that next weekend, if the weather permits (please Mother Nature cooperate - otherwise I'm afraid we will have to wait for the fall).

While he was dealing with that, I headed out to the backyard to get dirty.  Despite my moaning about not being productive, I have been making headway on my backyard project, small bites at a time.

Easter weekend found me digging up daffodils and day lilies to hand over to a co-worker as her son and daughter-in-law just bought a house and were doing their own backyard dreaming.  Unfortunately, I had WAY more than they could use.  So the majority of the day lilies will have to be disposed of but I did find a taker for the daffodils - particularly since she doesn't need to plant them until the fall.

This afternoon found me digging up and relocating irises.  Again, I had WAY more than I needed - but the same beneficiary of the daffodils also wanted irises - again because she doesn't need to plant them until the fall - truly, I shouldn't complain about all I have to do as she has a newborn AND just moved AND has two older children with MANY activities.

All I have left to do to return the yard to the way it should be is relocate the hostas, seed the two areas with grass and have The Husband remove the godawful bird house...


Just a reminder as to how ugly it is.

then I can move on to the fun part....adding some of my favorites to the yard.  And prodding The Husband to put in a path from the front to the back.  I think once I mark this project Done then I will feel more motivated to move on to the other projects.

  • Like painting the Master Bath
  • Painting the exterior door to the garage
  • Painting the back door
  • Re-building and painting the back steps
  • Having someone come in and sand the guest bath (apparently, someone removed wallpaper from that room and didn't do it properly which means that the glue keeps bleeding through the paint which is fairly horrifying when you walk in there)
  • Painting the front porch floor and eventually placing the furniture out there
  • The endless weeding...
  • ...and the list goes on and on and on...

I have suggested to The Husband that we should both take a couple of days off to get some these things knocked off the list as weekends are usually filled with weekly errands and duties (laundry!) and he agreed.  So hopefully soon, we will give ourselves a long weekend and get some more things done...which will go a long way to easing my mind about everything that needs to be done.

April 26, 2017

Apparently, they DON'T work like socks...

So, Man-Child asked me yesterday if I had a pair of earbuds he could borrow as his had mysteriously died - side note, I can keep a pair of earbuds forever, I don't know WHAT this child of mine is doing to his as he is always having to get new ones.

At any rate, I handed over my magenta colored earbuds, so he could watch whatever movie he was watching on his computer.  Once he had them in hand, he began inspecting them.

I asked him what he was doing and he said he was looking to see which was the left and which was the right.  To which I replied, that earbuds are like socks - they work in either ear.

He found this to be uproariously funny and told me that ALL earbuds have a left and a right.  And then pointed out the very, teeny, tiny, absolute minuscule L and R imprinted on each earbud.

Huh...who knew?

But, in my defense, the type of earbuds I use actually DO kind of work like socks...

April 23, 2017

At Home....aka Garden Ridge

Seriously, Garden Ridge?  What could have possibly been the reason to change your name?  Particularly to something so colossally ridiculous?

Surely, someone involved in this decision had to have had the same conclusions that I have as to why this was not a good move.  Instead of pooh-poohing that person's protestations, y'all should have given them a raise and a promotion; because they knew what they were talking about.

Yes, I've known about the change for some time now but considering today found me at your store TWICE - which, in and of itself, isn't a big deal except for the fact that the drive from here to there is approximately an hour long round trip.  So, in doing the math, I spent about two hours pondering your name change.

Make no mistake, I love your store.  The only reason I don't haunt our local store more often is because of the location - the most congested part of town.  So, if I don't get over there early, early (and I do appreciate that you are open early, early on Sundays), I usually don't go.

But we got up and out fairly early this morning (yes, I was able to drag The Husband along) with the intent of purchasing some outdoor furniture for the front porch.  Unfortunately, we were unable to fit both chairs into the car at once.  Thus, necessitating the second trip back, which I made solo.

And that's where I really began pondering on the ridiculousness of the new name.  As I was thinking if this whole adventure was blog-worthy, it occurred to me that if I had to type the line, "I purchased these chairs at At Home." for a post I would hate myself for the remainder of my life - even doing so as, I did here for an example, I feel dirty.  Of course, I could leave the first "at" out altogether but then it would sound like the name of the store was just Home.  Ludicrous.

Then, of course, my mind kept going - as it does.  And I imagined a scenario where someone called me while I was at your store - most likely, this would be The Husband wanting to know where I was and if I wanted to have lunch and I would have to say, "I'm At Home."  And he would say, "Well, I'm here and can't find you!" because he would be at our home and I would be at the store and then confusion would abound.

All in all, it's ridiculous.  And that's why you will always be Garden Ridge to me.

April 15, 2017

I guess they get brownie points for trying...

Today was shaping up to be an extra busy day - as most of my chores for the Easter holiday need to be done prior to the big day.  Particularly any of those that need to be done in the kitchen as The Husband will take over the kitchen bright and early tomorrow to create his culinary delights.

So I was up and at 'em bright and early.

Unfortunately, no one else was.  Finally, in a fit of frustration to start the day, I tiptoed back into the master bedroom, past The sleeping Husband, into the bathroom to get ready to leave the house.

While I was getting ready, Man-Child apparently woke up and was lounging on the couch when I tiptoed out of the master bedroom.  I informed him that I had a lot to do today and was headed out.  As I was heading out the door, I mentioned that it would be helpful if someone would mop the kitchen and bathroom floors while I was out.

I never expected that it would actually get done...kind of.

While I was browsing the grocery store for the necessities I would need for my baking spree, I received a phone call asking where the mop might be located.

Here's where you should be aware that we have a complicated mop.  A mop I fully intended to blog about - and never did, which I totally should have because now I can't remember which mop to tell you to stay far, far away from and which one I totally love*. *sigh* Yes, I am a terrible blogger.

At any rate, we have a mop that can wring itself out AND has a detachable mop head that can be washed.  This works for me on SO many levels - because honestly, who wants to touch nasty mop water?  And having the detachable head that can be thrown in the washing machine is an added bonus.

The problem with this?  I am the only person who knows how to re-assemble the mop.

So I explained, as best as I could, how to locate the various pieces and re-assemble the mop, hung up the phone and figured I'd be doing the mopping later today.

You can imagine my surprise when I came home and discovered that the kitchen floor was mopped.

When I expressed my delight, Man-Child proudly admitted he had done the floor.  When I asked if they were able to figure out the mop he said no and that dad (The Husband) had gone out and bought a Swiffer.  I asked why - since we have a Swiffer and he said....wait for it....

"We couldn't find it."

It was sitting in his bathroom.  The bathroom he uses EVERY SINGLE day.  Multiple times.

Now we own TWO Swiffers and a mop that only I can assemble.  And?  The bathrooms weren't touched.

But on the plus side, I was able to get two desserts made and deviled eggs.  I guess the bathrooms just get added to tomorrow's outside the kitchen list.



*I found it!  Sort of.  The mop I hated was the Clorox Twist Mop (sorry, Clorox, it was impossible to figure out).  The mop I have, I think, is the Libman White Tornado Twist Mop...all I know is that I bought it at Target and it wasn't the Clorox Mop.

April 9, 2017

That damn blackberry bush has risen from the dead...dammit!

I knew it would.  In fact I predicted that I would be fighting that bush for the rest of my life.  Also, according to that link I was supposed to have relocated several plants by now...and I did move a few irises a while back - but I have not relocated and/or disposed of the rest of them.  So much for that feeling of accomplishment I was enjoying for a short moment.

I declared that this weekend would be a productive one.  Immediately after uttering that statement, The Husband muttered, "God, I hate when she says that..." and then hid from me for the remainder of the weekend.  I kid...or do I?

My thought was that this would be the perfect weekend to weed the beds - in hopes that would be the incentive I needed to finish relocating/discarding those other plants.

As you may recall, that back bed which housed the god-awful blackberry bush, is HUGE.  So yesterday, I attacked the top half - which was relatively easy.  And I am happy to report, I didn't see any trace of those morning glories, which I feared would make a reappearance this year.  Mainly. all I had to deal with was milkweed and other random weeds.

Today, I spent about two hours tackling the bottom half - and to be honest, I'm STILL not done - but I had to give up and call Uncle.  The blackberry bush had sent out many offshoots - all of which are connected to HUGE roots, which I was attempting to pull up of much of it as I could possibly manage.  It is back-breaking work.  I had hoped to attack all those offshoots today - but it just wasn't meant to be.  Now, I'm going to have to talk myself into finishing the job next weekend somehow.  Hopefully, Man-Child will be home next weekend (actually, he'd BETTER be home, I just realized that's Easter weekend!) and can convince him to use his muscles to pull on those roots.  I should reap the benefits of his weight lifting, right?!

I would love to know whose bird-brained idea it was to plant that bush right smack in the middle of a garden bed?  Anyone with an ounce of sense would have placed it at the wood line if they truly felt they had to have a blackberry bush.

In fact, if I could figure out whose bright idea it was, I would have half a mind to go find them and force them via a shovel to get out there and dig and dig and dig until all the roots are gone.

But even though I wasn't able to finish weeding that bed this weekend, I feel pretty good about this being a productive weekend.  Although tomorrow, I won't be able to move.

Which is another reason to curse both that bush and the person who thought it would be a good idea to plant it.

April 3, 2017

Amazon Prime Pantry - it's becoming a game really

I simply cannot tell you how much time I have spent adding items to the Prime Pantry box, only to delete and add something else.  All in the quest to fill this box - and ONLY this box - to the perfect limit in order to qualify for free shipping.

It's an art.  One that I have not yet honed.

Currently, my box is 98.2% full.  According to the helpful note under this statistic, I need THREE more qualifying items for the free shipping (is this that Common Core Math they keep talking about - it seems to me that only one item would do the trick?).

Here's the deal - I have added and subtracted fifteen thousand different ways and have yet to hit upon that magic number.  At this rate, I'll either have to get in the car and drive to the store to get what I need OR I'll have to attempt to fill the second box to perfection; which between you and me?  I don't like my odds on filling that second box considering how difficult that first box has been to fill.

Yes, I realize this could be considered the epitome of lazy BUT I figure I have been VERY busy this weekend helping our dear friends move to the house two doors down, VERY tired from said weekend AND I'm paying for the membership to Prime, so why shouldn't I take full advantage of my membership?

Besides, I'm thinking this will surely help me work on my math skills; which are sorely lacking...obviously.



Do you Prime Pantry?  If so, what is the trick to filling that ONE box?  C'mon, be a pal, help me out.